The demonstrations in Greece

I found a great post about the demonstrations in Greece and I'm posting it, as I found it here:

Greece is burning! Should I stay away?

Let’s think things through for a minute

First of all, Greece is not burning. Granted, lately demonstrations have become more frequent and they tend to turn nasty, but this happens in just one place: the square in front of the parliament. Would you cancel your trip to the States or even New York just because of “Occupy Wall Street”?

Second, the riots are true, they are happening and they are a fact of daily life here in Athens. Yet here I am, an Athenian born and bred, who works downtown every day, showing people around the historic centre, and yet not once have I had any demonstration or riot trouble.

The truth

I understand that anyone who watches the news on TV, the Internet or the papers, may get the impression that the entire country (or perhaps just the entire Athens) is on fire, but it’s not like that at all.

After all, one must not forget that news agencies are in the entertainment business: the more viewers/readers they get, the more money they get from advertising. So it is only natural that they seek sensational news (and spectacular images to go along with them), even if that may mean that in the few seconds (or little space) available for a piece of news, the rest of the story gets cropped away.

What is a Greek riot like?

Most people hear riots and think of Los Angeles, when an entire area of the city was into chaos with property destroyed and lots of casualties. Things in Greece are quite different.

All riots here evolve pretty much the same way (it’s almost a ritual by now):

First a whole lot of people gather in Syntagma square, right in front of the parliament, to protest peacefully. They hold pickets and banners and may shout slogans, in the vain hope that their elected representatives will hear the voice of their electorate…

From here.

Of course, the said representatives want nothing of the sort. Instead, they give the police the order to surround the building and prevent the loud plebeians from disturbing their wise leaders.

The police cordon off the parliament but the crowd stays and may become a tad too loud or impolite. Angered by this show of disrespect, the parliamentarians order the police to shoo the crowd who are preventing them from concentrating on voting their country-saving austerity measures.

The police eagerly obey, by throwing tear gas canisters at the crowd…

From here.

Who quickly run away.

From here.

Only the most determined remain, but they soon will be gone too, because another factor shows up: it’s a group of angry young men, who seem to be in every demonstration waiting for this very moment: they quickly put on full-face gas masks and produce empty beer bottles, petrol and rags from their backpacks. Once the Molotov cocktails are ready, they are hurled at the police.

From here.

The police see this as ample provocation to charge at the few stubborn demonstrators who have not yet disappeared, using even more teargas. Once the “civilians” are well away, the “combatants” (ie the police and rioters) may continue throwing their ammo at each other undisturbed. Since the police’s supply of teargas is inexhaustible, while the youths can always find new projectiles by breaking chunks off the pavement or adjacent buildings, the battle may well continue until the wee hours of the morning. This is the time when reporters get their most spectacular shots, of flames against the night sky.

From here. Demonstrators often use trashcans to make huge bonfires, because heat makes teargas dissipate faster.

When does it all end?

By six o’ clock the next morning, the city crews may start cleaning the square from the debris and people can go about their business as usual. There may be a lingering acrid smell if the police have been too enthusiastic in their use of tear gas (they usually are), but this usually evaporates as soon as the sun is up.

As for the youth? None of them has ever been apprehended, which raises some very interesting questions about who they may be, or about the competence of Greek police, but these are not for me to answer. I’ll simply move on to describe what happens in the rest of the city, during the night when the police and rioters are busy with each other.

A few blocks away from the riots

For the rest of the Greeks, riot night is a night of anger or entertainment, depending on who they are.

Those who are political, are always angry at how the demonstration has again been hijacked by the same mask-wearing youths and how it will be discredited by all news media the next day.

Those who are not, will sit back in their sofas and get ready for a steady stream of entertainment with spectacular videos and breathless reporting that will last until well after midnight.

Those who shun the “box”, go out as usual, taking walks, chatting at cafés or sitting down at taverns in the historic district, just a few squares from the riots. The only inconvenience is that one must take a detour to avoid Syntagma square and that bus routes that cross the centre do not – of course – work.

What about the tourists?

Greece may not be a huge country, but it is certainly larger than a city square. As a prospective visitor you are faced with three options:

1. Avoid Greece entirely
2. Avoid Athens
3. Avoid Syntagma square for that night.

It is not my job to tell you which one you should choose – pick the one you feel most comfortable with. After all, it’s your vacation.

If you have already paid in advance, then think twice before wasting all that hard-earned money. If you feel the capital is too hot for you, you may want to stay in the provinces – there’s plenty to see and do in Greece besides the Acropolis.

If however you feel that the Acropolis is a must you simply can’t miss or you can’t change your plans without losing a considerable sum, then rest assured that, even in downtown Athens, the most important sites are and have always been away from centres of power and therefore have not been disturbed by riots nor clouded by teargas.

If you happen to be so unlucky as to be in Athens on a day of riots, then steer clear of Syntagma square and the nearby blocks (see a map here). The rioters will not target you, nor will the police, but you will get a nasty lungful of smoke or teargas – or both. So play it safe and keep away from that area. You’ll miss nothing more than the changing of the Guard, which you can easily watch here. Go to the Acropolis, see the Museums and take your meals in Plaka instead of Syntagma. If in doubt, ask a local – your receptionist, a friend, your guide. They should be able to show you where to have a good time while keeping your lungs full of nothing worse than a little smog or barbecue smoke.

Now, if you worry that taking a wrong turn may accidentally put you into the path of a petrol bomb, rest assured that such a mistake is impossible, even for the most uninformed. The acrid smell of tear gas wafting from the scene is ample warning to anyone that the area should be given a wide berth.

Whatever you do, enjoy your holiday.

A personal experience

Once, a few years ago, on a cold winter night, I was out with a friend. We had just sat down at a nice tavern and were getting ready to order, when my wife called. “Are you all right?” she said. “Of course I’m all right,” I answered, a bit testily, wondering if recent motherhood had changed my wife into another version of my mom. “Where are you?” she asked again. “I’m in Plaka with Giorgos,” I answered, worrying whether it might be jealousy after all. “There’s rioting downtown, it’s all over the news, don’t you know it?” she asked. I didn’t. Neither of us had heard nor smelt anything out of the ordinary, as if the rioting were miles away, not a mere five minutes’ walk from where we were sitting. Yet the rioting was bad, they said, and it was all over the newspapers the next day.

"The sorrow of Athens" photo exhibition

News photographer Maro Kouri presented at the 24th International Festival of Photojournalism, "Visa Pour l' Image" at Perpignan,  France, images from her exhibition "The sorrow of Athens".

The photographer says: "In February 2012, a new social class appeared - the nouveau-homeless. Their median age is around 47, 11% of whom hold a university degree, while 23,5% are high school graduates and only 9,3% are illiterate. They are usually the victims of unemployment that has resulted in about 20,000 Greeks sleeping on park benches."

Source: metrogreece

Greece: a cow

They tell us that Greece has to pay off her debts. Fine. They tell us the Government needs to have more money to pay those debts. So far so good.
Then they order us to cut down on pensions and salaries, fire of public servants and the like.
But, with 1 in four Greeks without a job and the other three making less money than before, the taxes paid to the state grow less, right?
Not only that, but those people have less to spend, so they buy less, and the state misses on VAT too (Greeks pay a VAt of 23% on everything they buy).
As people buy less, lots of shops and other businesses go out of business. That's even less taxes for the state, isn't it?
Now, with the state getting less revenue and the economy going down instead of up, how on earth are we going to pay our debt?
Do these smart economists even want their money back?
If they do, then how can they impose such counter-productive measures?

It seems to me that Greece is like a milk cow: the people who bought it (i.e. own our debt) want it to make milk so they can make money from their investment.
But their recipe for making the cow produce more milk is to cut its food by half and its water by one third.
Tell me, is this a recipe for getting one's money back or for a disaster?

And how can they not see it?

Should I stay or should I go? The question many Greeks ask these days

We've all asked ourselves that question. We all weighed the pros and cons, we all talk about it with friends, we all trade stories of people who left, stayed or came back.
This article captures the way Greeks feel these days:

Dilemma for Greek youth: Fight or flee

Maria Papanagiotaki and Aristotle Skalizos, part of Greece’s young professional class. They have been dating for more than two years but have different views on whether to stay in Greece or leave for opportunities elsewhere.

Wandering through central Athens’ Syntagma Square, Maria Papanagiotaki and Aristotle Skalizos stop to perch on a sun-soaked bench as they consider their future. The couple, who have been dating for two-and-a-half years, belong to Greece’s post-junta generation, growing up as the country emerged into its modern democracy.

As Greece’s turbulent history faded into its past, the country’s political landscape remained fraught with nepotism and mismanagement. But the boom times had begun. Greece entered the euro in 2001, and ex-pat money flooded back into the country. It hosted the Olympic Games in 2004, swelling the country with pride.

“It was time to feed my heart, not my mind”

- Christina Psarra

But by 2009 — when the country admitted its deficit was out of control — the financial mirage evaporated. Maria, 34, and 25-year old Aristotle’s generation was caught in the fallout. The couple belong to a young professional class that will help shape their country’s future. Together, they must decide if they are willing to live through — and help alleviate — Greece’s pain.

Their views differ dramatically, and it weighs on their relationship.

A few meters away from where Maria, an electronic mobile technician, and Aristotle, an electronics tester, chat, a man stumbles to his knees, dropping a begging cup. Grasping for it as it rolls away, he ends up splayed on the ground.

It’s a disturbing sight, but one which has become increasingly common in Athens since austerity measures began to bite. Greece’s poverty, suicide and crime rates have increased alongside unemployment and emigration. It is this environment Maria wants to leave. She dreams of life outside of Greece, in the UK or the U.S., where she has relatives. “I have to go,” she says. “I have to leave from here.” Aristotle wants to remain. “I want to stay and fight,” he says. “I don’t want to abandon my country.”

His reasoning is clear: “I love my country.”

Maria and Aristotle

Maria and Aristotle began dating after meeting at their workplace, a Germany-based telecommunications company. The relationship blossomed after, in Maria’s words, “he saw me there, we became friends, he was trying to approach me in any [way]… and finally after eight months we were together.”

“The game is not lost but we are two goals behind”

- George Stathopoulos

They moved in together, but say their financial situation has become increasingly difficult as the crisis has unfolded. Each has taken a significant cut in pay since April, in part because both have seen their work week reduced to four days a week.

They now earn €1,160 ($1,415) a month between them, down from €1,480 ($1,805) two years ago. They pay €300 ($366) in rent and around €65 ($79) a week in groceries, but face extra costs because of the crisis. Since Aristotle’s father’s sculpture business went bankrupt in the recession, the young couple must also help his parents get by, he says.

Neither voted in the June 17 elections, because they could not spare the cash to return to their home villages — €15 ($18) for Maria, and €40 ($48) for Aristotle — to vote.

Pro-austerity package party New Democracy won the election, despite soaring support for the radical left Syriza party.

“I have to go, I have to leave from here.”

- Maria Papanagiotaki

Alexis Tsipras, who heads Syriza, is, like Maria, is in his 30s. Tsipras’s vociferous rejection of Europe’s austerity-driven demands for Greece appealed to discontented youth, with the party capturing 33% of 18 to 34-year-olds, compared to 20% for New Democracy. The surge is all the more dramatic given that Greeks, born in a country where family loyalty is embedded deep in the national psyche, usually vote the way of their forebears.

Maria, for one, would have fallen behind her parents and voted New Democracy. The party now leads a fragile coalition, but that provides no comfort for Maria.

A country fights for its future

Greece’s new government is now renegotiating its bailout package, but there is no guarantee the country will emerge from years of recession. And the country could lose people like Maria and Aristotle overseas, while those with less hope could give in to despair.

“I don’t want to abandon the situation…. because I love my country”

- Aristotle Skalizos

More than 50% of working age Greeks under 26 are without a job. Those just entering the workforce are particularly hard-hit, with 2011 figures from Eurostat showing 56% unemployment among those aged 15 to 19. Around one in four workers under 39 years old are unemployed. Eurostat figures show the extent of the exodus of young workers fleeing Greece’s crisis. In 2010, almost 2.5% of those in their mid-to-late 20s left the country, while around 2% of those aged 30 to 34 emigrated.

Dreams of going abroad

Those choosing to leave must struggle against the desire to stay and help their family, and overcome a deep loyalty to a country which has suffered under civil war, dictatorship, and foreign rule under Germany, now its main paymaster.

Those entering the workforce carry a cultural weight of responsibility to family. Aristotle’s 19-year-old brother, Nick, a student, wants to move to the Netherlands to study fine arts. Holland attracts him because of its place in art history, and the “country and the color of the sky are beautiful,” he says. But any money he earns — after he’s made enough to get by — will be sent back to Greece, to help his family.

Marios-Aristotle Koulouris, a 23-year-old soldier, also wants to go abroad, and study political science. But he wants to return, to break his generation’s “consciousness of dependency.”

Greece, he believes, needs to “rise up and develop its own power, to protect our people’s benefits. Economically and politically, we need to rise up.”

The country’s next generation needs to be taught the value of productivity, he believes. The crisis represents a chance “to change people’s minds…. to abolish the mentality of dependency.”

Coming back home

Some of those who have left Greece have already returned in an effort to help the country they love.

“The country [Netherlands] and the color of the sky are beautiful”

- Nick Skalizos

Christina Psarra, a 27-year-old who works in policy at humanitarian organization Doctors of the World studied at the London School of Economics, while George Stathopoulos, a 33-year-old investment banker studied at Middlesex University. Although their educations opened a world of possibility, both opted to forgo careers abroad to return to Athens.

Christina says when her studies in London were coming to an end last year, she knew it was time to “feed my heart not my mind.”

Christina and George describe Greece as a country where one always cooks extra food in preparation for a guest, where a feisty debate over sport will end with friendly drink, and where parents maintain close contact with children after they leave home. But this often idyllic country today finds itself immersed in anger and fear. And Christina, who is passionate about helping the vulnerable and now works with drug addicts, says she doesn’t know which is more dangerous.

“I’m afraid for other people and myself,” she says.

“Economically and politically, we need to rise up”

- Marios- Aristotle Koulouris

With the option to work overseas, she believes she may be forced to leave, due to Greece’s lack of opportunities. “I have the chance, I have the choice to decide to live abroad. If I am forced to do it, I can do it,” she says.

George believes the country can — should it follow the example of others, such as Turkey — restructure itself into a viable European economy. The revelations of its financial irresponsibility, which led the spiral into bailout, were akin to the country being caught “skinny-dipping” when the tide went out, he says.

George wants to see the country’s red-tape unraveled to allow investment into its promising industries such as tourism and shipping. The problems for Greece are structural, he says, and that can be a “glass half full …you can see that as an opportunity. [If] you realize you have a problem, you can transform how you do business.”

The way he sees it: “The game is not lost but we are two goals behind.”

Marios-Aristotle also sees opportunity in Greece’s future, and he is not afraid of the pain that may still come. “My country [during] its history has passed many greater disasters. So I am not afraid.”

For Aristotle, there is one answer to a difficult question. It goes against his wishes but he will put his relationship with Maria ahead of his country. “I love [Maria], and I will follow her. I will sacrifice,” he says.

(Source: CNN)

One picture, 1000 words

Yesterday, I found a picture that says it all about the situation in Greece:

Need I explain? While the media present Greeks as unreasonable rioting vandals, and the police treat us like dangerous terrorists, the rest of Europe thinks we're nothing but lazy bums, who have spent too much and are now refusing to pay.
Meanwhile, when we're optimistic, we ordinary folk think that we can change the system, but in the end we bow to the status quo because we're too busy looking for any job to make ends meet (or working like slaves to keep the one we've got).
Rather a bleak way to look at things, isn't it? It's all true...

Ετικέτες

Things are getting worse by the day. Every day, one hears desperate stories. Young people who abandon studies because they can't afford the cost of living in another city (university education is still free). Old people who cannot have a cataract operation for lack of money. Children fainting at schools for lack of food. And now this.

Hospital Refuses to Give Baby to Mom Until She Pays for C-Section

I have joked a time or two with new mom friends that it would be glorious if we could leave the hospital for a few days after delivering a baby just to recover while the nurses in the maternity ward take care of the child. Never again. For one mom in Greece, the joke has become a reality!

According to reports out of the country that's quickly becoming infamous for financial instability, one new mom didn't have enough money to pay for her C-section. So the hospital decided to hold her newborn baby hostage until she came up with the cash!

Fortunately someone with some common sense has since intervened and helped the woman being identified only as Anna set up a payment plan for the approximately $1,500 bill so she could leave the hospital with her baby  in her arms. But the fact that the threat was made at all makes it hard to imagine ever trusting that hospital, doesn't it? 

These people are in the business of helping women bring human life into the world? Really? They certainly don't seem to have a handle on what "life" means.

Babies are not products. Going into the hospital to deliver your child is not like walking into the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk. A cashier has every right to tell you that you can't walk out with that plastic jug until you hand over the cash to pay for it. That's how business works.

But babies aren't milk jugs. They're human beings. That's why hospitals can't work like traditional businesses. They deal with lives, not "stuff." And yet, this hospital was claiming a baby's life is equal to the cost of a C-section. And here I thought people were priceless.

What should hospitals be doing when new mothers can't pay their bills?

Greece is being destroyed by 'respectable' fanatics

The EU, which boasts that solidarity is its founding principle, is forcing Greece into destitution and chaos

By Nick Cohen from The Observer, Sunday 19 February 2012.

.

 Homeless men in Athens. 'Europe is now offering to revive Greece by impoverishing it; to heal it by harming it.' Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

 

Greek democracy is being destroyed. Not by soldiers marching with insane slogans on their lips about the inevitable triumph of the German master race, international proletariat or global jihad, but by moderate men and women who think themselves immune to ideological frenzy. Greece's enemies are novel, but no less frightening for that: extremists from the centre ground; the respectable running riot.
Which ever way you cut it, Greece can't win. The EU "bailout" cannot perform the first function of a rescue and save the sufferer from suffering. The Germans, with Dutch and Finnish assistance, are pushing Greece into a death spiral. The EU demands that Greece cuts 150,000 public jobs over three years – the equivalent in terms of population of our government taking 800,000 jobs from the UK public sector. Greek politicians must also accept without a quibble a 22% cut in the minimum wage and further reductions in the welfare state.
Greece is in permanent recession. The economy shrank by 7% in the three months to December 2011. Tens of thousands of family businesses have gone bust. Europe is now offering to revive Greece by impoverishing it; to heal it by harming it. As Tacitus said of the Roman legions' earlier attempt to impose a European union: "They make a desert and call it peace."
Whether Greek society can stand the pressure remains an open question. The parties of the far left and right are flourishing in the polls as the public comes to see its centrist politicians as traitors for trying to appease a hostile EU. Once the Grecian fringe was reserved for the unhinged. The last time I asked Liana Kanelli, spokeswoman for the Greek Communist party, about her country's crisis, she flew off into a rage about how the 1999 Nato intervention to stop Serb nationalists slaughtering Kosovo Muslims was an imperialist plot to extend capitalism into the Balkans. Nothing I could say could wake her from her land of make-believe and return her to the subject at hand.
Her fellow citizens no longer see Kanelli and her kind as dangerous fools, however. Because they oppose the EU, cranks from the left and racists from the right now make more sense to Greeks than their mainstream politicians. The parallels with the 1930s are too obvious to labour.
Whatever the political consequences, every sensible financial commentator understands that the Greek economy can take no more. The "bailout" will merely push it deeper into the mire. The EU's terms do not begin to match the altruism the United States showed to the defeated Germans after 1945. America did not pauperise West Germans as many in France and indeed Washington wanted. America guaranteed their security, then gave them loans from the Marshall Plan that allowed the West German economic miracle to begin. Greece has invaded no one and committed no crimes against humanity. Yet the EU, which boasts that solidarity is its founding principle, is forcing it into destitution and chaos.
The alternative to bowing to the demands of their German overlords is not noticeably better. If Greece were to leave the euro, there would be hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of law suits, as parties argued whether contracts should be honoured in the old or new currency. Hyper-inflation might set in. The European banking system might collapse. As William Hague says, the euro is a burning building with no exits.
The EU cannot take responsibility for what it has done and be magnanimous for reasons British readers may not grasp. Raised in a Eurosceptic country, we do not understand how an absolute commitment to the European project was a mark of respectability on the continent. Like going to church and saying your prayers for previous generations, a public demonstration of commitment to the EU ensured that the world saw you as a worthy citizen. If you wanted to advance in Europe's governing parties, judiciaries, bureaucracies and culture industries, you had to subscribe to the belief that ever-greater union was self-evidently worthwhile.
Currency union is – self-evidently – a disaster. Admitting that would bring a loss of face too great for the European elites to bear. To take the most discreditable example, Germany and Holland have benefited enormously from the single currency holding down the exchange rate for their goods, while imposing effective tariff barriers on southern Europe.
Instead of saying: "We are rich because they are poor", Angela Merkel and her boorish colleagues imitate the smug, parochial, selfish Bild reader, who thinks that foreigners' problems would be solved if only they could turn themselves into him. Germany insists that the Greek crisis is the result of the corruption of Greek public life. Greek politics is undoubtedly corrupt, although I should add that the first victims of corruption are poor Greeks who cannot afford to bribe officials or hide their savings from the taxman.
But Greek corruption cannot explain why Portugal is in crisis, any more than Italian corruption can explain why Ireland and Spain are in crisis. All five countries are suffering – and France may soon be suffering – because the euro is a monumental mistake. Rather than rectify it, European leaders attack the welfare states, employment protections and public services that the best of the European centre-left fought for after 1945. In the name of saving the euro, everything must go.
As the poverty deepens and the protests swell, the EU's image will change – and not for the better. It was once seen as a haven, which offered Europeans an escape from the terrors of the past. The EU, wrote the perceptive British diplomat Robert Cooper in 2002, is at the forefront of the "postmodern world". Instead of invading each other, Europeans allowed negotiators at Brussels to settle conflicts and regulate everything "right down to beer and sausages".
The EU may have been petty and irritating. It may not have been very democratic. But its avoidance of conflict produced a pleasant, prosperous and peaceful continent.
Europe does not seem pleasant, prosperous or peaceful today. When historians write about the end of its postmodern utopia, they will note that it was not destroyed by invading armies anxious to plunder Europe's wealth or totalitarian ideologues determined to install a dictatorship, but by politicians and bureaucrats, who appeared to be pillars of respectability, but turned out to be fanatics after all.

Once again at Syntagma Square

Another phase of the IMF Memorandum was about to be approved by the Greek parliament. The majority was slim. The people against it.
We gathered around the parliament in droves, to protest against it, to urge our "elected representatives" to vote against it.
We had tried this before, in the summer. Our voice was not heard.
Yet there we were again.
We went early. Starting from the parliament, the crowd grew to fill Amalias Avenue all the way to Hadrian's Arch, about a mile down the road. Other friends called to say that they were in Omonoia or Monastiraki but we couldn't meet - so thick were the crowds.
Thick was the smoke of teargas too. Riot police kept throwing canister after canister to keep us at bay.

This time the crowd was not like in the summer. Back then we felt euphoric, optimistic, believing that we were starting a revolution,that we could change things. There was singing and dancing and shouting of slogans.
This time the crowd was silent. People had dark faces and clenced teeth. We were angry but not euphoric, nor optimistic.

We had learned from past experience that our voice would not be heard. We knew that we'd be pushed back by the riot police. We knew that we'd insist and push back, again and again. We knew this phase of the Memorandum, together with its austerity measures, would be approved.

What we didn't expect was how few MPs would say nay. How many would bow their heads to unknown pressures or interests and vote yes.

And we didn't expect the media to betray us so blatantly.

All channels showed the upper part of the square, empty of people, surrounded by the police and a cloud of teargas. No camera turned just a few degrees right or left to show the throngs of people still there, despite the chemical warfare. No reporters described our sheer numbers, nor our persistence.

Instead, they all breathlessly reported about the fires started and the damages done by a handful of young, angry men (who, many people think, were just undercover police agents). No screen showed the thousands surrounding the parliament, no radio commentor talked about them, as if their disregard could erase our presence, mute our voice.

Perhaps they can. History will show. What they couldn't erase was the anger. The silent rage which every single one of us carried back home. A rage that clung to one's soul, like the smell of teargas clung to our hair and clothes.
I wonder - what will this rage evolve into?

PS. I am not the only one feeling this way. Several people wrote the same on the web. Here is a handful of posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc, etc.

Our latest action, on February 4

This is a video of our latest action, in the pedestrianized Aiolou street:

Reports, photos and comments of those who participated can be found at the Cyclists' site, at the blog of SOS-Road Crimes (here and here) as well as in the blog of Moms in the Street (here, here and here).
The number of Greeks worried about quality of life and mobility issues is increasing. On the same day, students of the German School of Athens organised a similar event in the suburb of Maroussi. For more information, see here.
Unfortunately, all posts are in Greek, but the photos give a good idea of what happened and are not subject to the abuse of automatic translators.

Thank The Crisis for less garbage

In the Greek capital, the volume of garbage has fallen by about 30%, due to the country's financial crisis.

This is not because people have begun to embrace a more frugal lifestyle, but simply because households cannot afford basic needs.
In Athens, the largest municipality of Greece, the volume of garbage has fallen by 29% in 2011. Deputy mayor A. Varelas says that in 2010 this drop was around 5 to 6%, but by October 2011 it had reached 27%. “The data for the last two months of 2011 are distorted due to the prolonged garbage strike, but it seems that the reduction in household garbage exceeded 30%.”

The quality of garbage has also changed. Gone are the large cartons of appliances such as fridges and televisions. This is not due to the new phenomenon of immigrants searching cans for recyclables, but to the drastic cut of expenses on the part of households.
It is striking that lately trash cans contain virtually no leftovers. A typical example is the lack of pizza cartons, while two years ago it was not unusual to find ten per can, often with a lot of uneaten pizza still inside. The deputy mayor adds: “These are all but gone now. The cans no longer contain large garbage bags, either. 95% of trash is found in small bags, because households produce less garbage.”

In the open air markets (held once a week in every neighbourhood of the capital) a new category of people has appeared, the leftover collectors. Mr. Varelas says that when the producers pack up after noon, these people ask the cleaning crews to delay cleaning the street until they have time to pick up any eatables among the discarded fruit and vegetables. These new collectors are not the typical homeless in rags, but neatly dressed people of every age who patiently wait to get whatever they can from the unsalable produce thrown away.

Source: Avgi newspaper (in Greek)

Famous director run over by motorcycle

Theo Angelopoulos, film director, winner of the Palme d' Or at the Cannes film festival, died yesterday, after being hit by a motorcycle, while crossing a busy street.
His crew was nearby, preparing the shooting of a scene for what was to be his last film. They were all wearing reflective jackets, except for him.
It was a mistake he paid with his life.

Since when is wearing a reflective jacket a prerequisite for crossing a street safely?
Why were there so few street lights at the spot?
Why was there an open shaft nearby, into which the director fell after the crash, compounding his initial injuries?
Why did the ambulance take 45 minutes to arrive?

If a celebrity cannot cross the street safely and be taken to hospital within time to be treated properly, what are the chances for the rest of us?

Theo Angelopoulos was - is - one of my favorite directors.
But even if he were not, the world is a much poorer place without him.
It is much poorer without the ordinary men and women who lose their lives everyday in Greece, a country with the worst traffic accident record in Europe.

Sources: Athens News, The New York Times, Huffington post.
Also: the director's biography, from his official website

Pedestrian streets - an invitation for action

Pedestrian streets are for pedestrians, right?
Well, not in Greece. They are for scooter riders who want to bypass the clogged streets, for car drivers who know that no policeman or traffic warden is going to materialize with a ticket in hand.

And what about pedestrians?

Well, they'd better learn to get out of the way fast. If not - well, it's their life.

The above scene is from Aiolou, one of the busiest shopping streets in Athens. The next one is from Themistokleous, a smaller street, but no less busy. In fourty seconds I counted 4 vehicles. How many does that make per hour? Per day?

Amazingly, there are some people who are not happy with the status quo. They get angry with passing vehicles instead of meekly moving aside. They have decided to do something to protest the situation. I'm one of those people.

Our meeting is at noon, on Saturday, February 4th, at the corner of Stadiou and Aiolou streets, in Athens (near Omonoia Metro station). There will be canvas, colors and brushes for the children to paint a better city, as well as jugglers and clowns to entertain us. There will also be a gaggle of like-minded people who are going to stop scooters and cars from entering the street. Everyone's invited. We'd be delighted if you would join us.

Pedestrian crossing? You must be joking

This is a typical pedestrian crossing in Greece.
Typically, it is blocked by parked cars and other obstacles at both ends.
People often ask me why Greeks are always jaywalking.
Well, how else can they cross the street?

An accident that didn't happen and the mentality of Greek leaders

Greek ex-minister runs four red lights in a row in a central Athens avenue. Stopped by the police, he believes he'll be let go as soon as he is recognised. When this does not happen, he derides the policemen, refuses to hand over his papers and attempts to drive away, lightly injuring the policeman who tried to stop him.

The Greek public is neither shocked or surprised by the news, but rather regards it as typical.

I will not comment on why the ex minister was finally released without any charges or even a fine. I will not even ask myself what would have happened (in the hands of our not-so-gentle Greek policemen) if any other citizen had attempted even the least of the audacities perpetrated by the ex minister.
I will only ask these questions:

What is it that makes Greek politicians behave in such a manner, as if beyond law and morals?
What gives them the audacity to break the law certain that they will not suffer any consequences?
Why are they always so surprised when they come accross its enforcers?
What makes them think that they can always bargain, barter, threaten or cajole their way out of any fix?

Besides those crucial questions, let us ask a few more:

When the people who run this country are so prone to breaking the law and so certain that they will not be punished for that, what does that tell us about how they run the country?
What are the consequences for a country so governed?

And, finally, what conclusions will their constituents draw from such behaviour?

(Most information from here. The night photo from here. The photo of the last traffic light violated, in Leoforos Vouliagmenis, from here.)

Happy New Year

What a year 2011 was! On one hand, the "developed" world is still reeling from a financial crisis the end of which we have yet to see. Arab countries are in turmoil, with people protesting against oppressive regimes and being brutalized for it. In the third world, violence, war, famine and diseases continue to claim their terrible toll.

Yet, amid this despair, a few glimmers of hope: "occupy" movements and self-help networks spring up across the western world. The arab world has seen two regimes toppled by their own citizens (and a third by foreign intervention) even if  the result is not yet the democracy the people hoped for. Only the problems of the poorest parts of the world seem as intractable as ever.

Oh, I so wish that 2012 would bring nothing but good news from every corner of the globe. I wish the crisis would end, that the economy would pick up and that no one would have to worry about their next meal or how to survive in their old age. I wish no gifted youngster would have to forsake their education just to make a living. I wish there were no prisons full of dissenters or protestors, no torture, no oppression. I wish there were no wars, warlords, conflicts or refugees. I wish every child born would live to old age. I wish every person had enough to eat and a roof over their heads. I wish no one cared about anyone else's color or religion. I wish education and health care were available to all. I wish the rights of every man and woman were respected and none had to live in oppression, submission and fear.

I wish the powerful had less power, the greedy less opportunity and the masses more say.

All in all, I wish for a year better than the previous one.

Happy new year, everyone.
May it be better than our wildest dreams!