How paranoid is to waste 5 potentialy productive work hours just to have your health booklet stamped in order to be valid for the new year? How irrational is to stand in a queue for 5 hours out in the cold from 9am to 2pm while you could be working? How good does it feel to have a priority ticket with No 644 and 223 people in front of you? I don’t know what you would have done in a similar situation, I just had my camera with me and took some pictures.
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Kingston? No, Athens
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Smurf
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Haute coiffure
4 different alphabets, 2 different ladies and a 5 euro haircut
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Bored Vespa girl
For Mary
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Chairman
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Morning cigarette
One of too many to follow
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Stan and Ollie
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Waiting ciggy
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Forgotten
“We make and repair all kinds of chairs”
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Valentine’s Day
Romanians in Athens
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Aesthetics
This building could be an ornament in this grey area. Instead, an ugly sign (Funerals) and an air-conditioner kill it. No one cares.
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Another one
Hoping that his turn comes before he dies
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A puma and a dog
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And another one
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Public sector employee
My turn had come to get inside the building and get my booklet stamped.
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Fighting with the beast
…of bureaucracy. These papers need to be filled. Yeah, but how?
Well now I know what I would do: I’d give you my ticket and a camera and send YOU to the post office
The idea of a booklet for prescriptions that has to be renewed every year is crazy. In Italy there is a health insurance card that works also as fiscal code card http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_health_insurance_card
But the queues for stamp duties are crazy here too, not to mention the COST of stamp duty!
You did a great reportage though, interesting and effective!
Our society is full of crazy. antiproductive ideas which have survived only to torture us.
Sometimes it feels like living in the medieval age.
wonderful shots there, loved all the shots. In the Kingston? No Athens shot, I almost felt it was India with the Indian film actors’ pics in the background.
Great stuff, love your work
Never been there before, your great shots give me a good reason to visit!
Thank you!
Great pictures. Were any of these taken on Athinas Street?
http://apetcher.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/greece-2011-athens-and-the-varvakios-agora-central-market/
Thanks a lot for the visit! The particular set was all shot in Aharnon street.
The last image of this set http://stamatisgr.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/a-walk-downtown-on-purpose/ was shot in Athinas str.
Great set, Stamatis… yeah, good we have our camera to keep us sane!
thank you so much dear!
thank you also for taking the time to read about the situation in my country!
good set,
Love the Chairman and Dog & Puma…
Great set! And don’t you think it’s only Greece that has ridiculous ideas to keep it’s citizens busy with wasting time – I could tell you a few Austrian stories as well!
Austrian similar stories?? so hard to believe!
My uni life alone made me experience some of the finest cases of bureaucrazy (it should be spelt that way)…
Great set, Stam!
And no waisted time!
Thanks a lot mate! I was lucky to have my EX1 with me.
I just found your blog – these photos are wonderful. I can appreciate your health booklet struggle. I was living on a small island when we had to get mine and it involved trips to 2 other islands plus multiple hotel stays and ferry tickets – it ended up costing over €300 just to get it issued. Luckily we moved to Komotini so now we just stand in line with everyone else.
Only someone who has gone through this madness can really appreciate my pictures
I’ve spent 2 summer vacations in Maronia, 30 kms south of Komotini. Lovely place!
Πολύ καλή δουλειά Σταμάτη!
another great set of shots Stam!
thank a lot Dave!
I think morning cigarette is the best of the series Stam!
Μετά μιλάνε για χαμηλή αποδοτικότητα… Ναι πώς να αποδώσεις όταν έχεις φάει τόσες ώρες για μια απλή βλακεία και όταν έχεις συχτυρίσει τόσες φορές στη πορεία;;
5 ώρες για 3 σφραγίδες…παράνοια!
τουλάχιστον είχα την κάμερα μαζί, αλλιώς θα είχα σαλτάρει
σ’ ευχαριστώ για την επίσκεψη και το σχόλιο Αντρέα!
That would drive me nuts and I don’t even know what a health booklet is! You would think you could just do it online, but that’s too easy for the bureaucratic mind
Not a wasted day though – you got some good shots!!
A health booklet is the thing a doctor writes you prescriptions on.
Yes, it could be done on-line. Yes, our health system sucks! big time!
I love smurf and bored vespa girl! Class A pics in my book. I have seen morning cigarette in one of my street picks! Obviously a lookalike situation…
yeah, smurf was a real joy to shoot
Thanks a lot for the visit buddy!