It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a €100 note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one. The hotel proprietor takes the e100 note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the e100 note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

The pig grower takes the e100 note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the e100 note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute that in these hard times, gave her “services” on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the e100 note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the e100 note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything. At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his e100 note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly how the world is doing business and barely surviving today.

Chev Vincent A Galea

Ghaxaq