€urozóna

As of 1 January 2009, Slovakia will be part of the €urozone. Back in September, there was a big sign on the big bulletin board in the zborovňa asking us to propagandize the €uro, coinciding (oooh, there's a pun in there somewhere, coinciding ... money ... ahhhhh!) with the 100 Days until the New Year and Therefore Euro Invasion Day.

The whole thing has caused a lot of anxiety and cynicism amongst the general population, and excessive propagandizing by the Slovak Ministry of Finance and National Bank. They're spending huge amounts of money for this transition, arguably casting pearls before swine. This week on the news, they were talking about the envelope they distributed to every house -- and in fact, here it is:The envelope communicates the IMPORTANCE! of the contents:

Two brochures, and a special €urokalkulačka, which is so small that it is both 1) conventiently pocket-sized and 2) impossible for anyone farsighted to use.



(click through to the website to see the video if you're reading this via e-mail)

If I may be a gadfly and call out the elephant in the room, I predict rampant inflation as prices start to be rounded up so that people aren't messing around with not-convenient centimes.