MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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A Tale of Greek Enterprise and Olive Oil, Smothered in Red Tape
By artappraiser on Mon, 03/19/2012 - 8:27pm |By Suzanne Daley, New York Times, March 18/19, 2012
ATHENS — It was about a year ago that Fotis I. Antonopoulos, a successful Web program designer here, decided he wanted to open an e-business selling olive products.
Luckily, he already had a day job.
It took him 10 months — crisscrossing the city to collect dozens of forms and stamps of approval, including proof that he was up to date on his pension contributions — before he could get started. But even that was not enough. In perhaps the strangest twist of all, his board members were required by the Health Department to submit lung X-rays — and stool samples — since this was a food company.
“I laugh about it now,” he said. “But it wouldn’t be so funny if I didn’t have a very good job with very good pay. It would have been an absolute nightmare.” [....]
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/world/europe/in-greece-business-rules-can-puzzle-entrepreneurs.html
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