Divided Greek Voters Avoid Instant Doom, but Assaulted Immigrants Do Not: Business as Usual Means Some Hope, and More Fear

Divided Greek Voters Avoid Instant Doom

"Mommy!  Nothing is happening!" called my daughter.  She wasn't talking about the situation in Greece.  But last week's election results didn't differ drastically from those of the May 6 elections.  This will probably mean the usual political squabbling with few systemic improvements, the usual worsening economic situation (layoffs, salary cuts, tax increases, no growth), and the usual lack of hope--unless the European Powers That Be allow some of the changes to Chancellor Merkel's favored austerity package which the new coalition government will request from the Troika (the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund).  There doesn't seem to be clear agreement about what will happen with all of that just yet.  

The large hand-made white banner at a nearby traffic circle still reads "MEMORANDUM = CATASTROPHE" (referring to the memorandum of understanding, the bailout package for Greece).  This appears to be a common opinion in Greece, in spite of the slightly larger number of votes received by the old-guard conservative centrist party in favor of the bailout, New Democracy, vs. the newer Coalition of the Radical Left that's against it, SYRIZA.  At least we don't seem likely to lose the euro or descend into all-out chaos at the moment, given the bonus in parliamentary seats awarded to the party with the most votes (according to Greek law), plus the conservatives' possibly fragile coalition with the socialists in PASOK and another small, more recently established leftist group, the Democratic Left.  Unlike last month, Antonis Samaras of New Democracy did manage to "form a government" last week with the coalition and a substantial majority in parliament, lending some degree of stability to the country for the moment.  However, Alexis Tsipras (also called "Chipras" in the U. S.) of SYRIZA promises to remain in an oppositional position.  I expect this to mean fierce protests--including numerous strikes--against any proposed layoffs, salary or benefit cuts, or tax increases required by the Troika as a condition of economic aid for Greece.  The future of the euro and of Greece remain unclear, with everyone here (and many elsewhere!) looking to Chancellor Merkel and her European and IMF colleagues for some relief from excessive, anti-growth austerity measures. 

Political parties continue their efforts to avoid blame for what may happen here:  SYRIZA refused to join the governing coalition, and PASOK and the Democratic Left decided not to recommend their most prominent politicians for cabinet positions.  Even the first proposed finance minister, Vassilis Rapanos, seemed to be hesitating, to his very core, about whether to accept such an undesirable job, as he entered the hospital due to an unidentified illness last weekend.  He ended up turning down the job before he had even started it, but the subsequent confusion subsided fairly quickly, as another respected economist accepted the position.  I sympathize with Mr. Rapanos; I would not want the job, either, even if I were qualified, and it must be difficult to regain one's health in the midst of such pressure and worry.  The situation has a similarly negative effect on many of us who are not asked to fix the problems of a country, a continent, or a world economy.  No, that's not all the Greek finance minister's job, and yes, many others' decisions are involved (especially those related to Spain, these days), but what happens here obviously affects the rest of it.  In his Economix blog for The New York Times, Floyd Norris contrasted the Socialists who won a parliamentary majority recently in France with the new Greek government: "One difference is that the victors in France will be able to govern."  On the other hand, even before the Greek coalition government had been formed, Mr. Norris suggested that "we know the policies it will pursue. They have been set in Brussels and Berlin" (Get the Speculators).  Well, we'll see if any of them can be revised. 

In an amusing little article in the online English language edition of one of Greece's leading dailies, Pantelis Boukalas suggested, "If a public opinion poll of every Greek were possible just minutes after the announcement that both the new prime minister and the finance minister were facing health problems, the most likely result would be: 30 percent would say it’s a bluff, 30 percent would say it was a conspiracy, 20 percent would say it was all for show, 18 percent would believe it to be a setup and 2 percent wouldn’t respond" (A smorgasbord of theories).  In other words, Greeks are cynical, and they have little faith in their new government.  On the other hand, the American Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has repeatedly provided useful correctives to blame-the-lazy-corrupt-Greeks arguments, for example in last week's discussion in his New York Times Op Ed column (Greece as Victim).  Krugman acknowledges the faults of many Greeks, and of the Greek government and its current politico-economic system, but he argues that these faults are no worse than those of Floridians, Texans, Mississippians, Swedes, or (get this!) Germans, in certain ways.  Yet Krugman writes parenthetically in his latest column, "[f]orget about Greece, which is pretty much a lost cause; Spain is where the fate of Europe will be decided" (The Great Abdication).  Unfortunately, not all of us can forget about Greece, important as the fate of Spain now is to the world economy.  We live here. 

In Greece, Business as Usual Means Some Hope, and More Fear

I was brushing my teeth last Friday night when I heard a roar of cheers erupt outside the bathroom window.  There was no one outside the bathroom, nor in the garden or the neighbors' gardens.  What I heard was cheers for the Greek national soccer team's first goal in the Euro 2012 quarterfinals game against the German team--cheers that must have been heard around the country.  During the second goal, I was picking chewing gum off my son's blanket.  I didn't hear cheers that time; still down by two goals late in the game, Greece no longer had much hope of beating Germany.  I don't care much about sports, but I considered that loss--likely as it was--a pity, given how badly Greeks needed something to cheer them up.  That wasn't just a soccer game; it was a missed chance for a desperately needed catharsis.

Around mid afternoon on Saturday, downtown Chania was hot, quiet, and calm.  (Our city's name is also spelled, and more properly pronounced by non-Greeks, "Hania," or hahn-YAH.)  With stores closed for the weekend by 3:00, as usual, even most of the immigrants we often see in a central playground and park must have found their way either to beaches or out of the country.  A few solitary men were sleeping on benches, a few families with children shared the playground, and one family with unusually dark skin for Crete was feeding leaves to a baby goat in one of the park's animal cages and sitting on the shaded grass to eat.  There was hardly more activity in the Old Port, the city's major tourist attraction, with its picturesque lighthouse, marina, and Venetian arsenal and shipyards, plus narrow cobblestoned alleys full of restaurants, cafes, tourist shops, hotels, and homes.  A waiter at one of the better restaurants said business had been slow.  Tourism was fine in May, but there were many cancellations in June due to political and economic confusion and fears; he hopes for improvement in July.  He probably saw more action after dark on Saturday night, when the cooled-off port area came to life, as people who'd escaped to beaches during the day filled the open-air bars and restaurants.  Competition for our parking space was keen and antagonistic as D and I left at the ridiculously early hour of 11:00 p.m. to relieve our babysitter.  The packed outdoor restaurant where we'd joined friends for a rare (for us) night out showed no signs of an economic crisis, although the older Greek woman sitting next to me pitied me for living in Greece when it's at its worst.  Her husband had been offered a job in Dubai two years ago, and she wished he'd taken it, but they hadn't known, then, that things would get so bad in Greece.  The woman across from me, just married, cheerful, and friendly, said she didn't think things could get any worse here, so she tries to hope things will get better.

 

As we wonder what will happen to this country and everyone in it, people carry on with daily life:  they go to work if they still have jobs, or care for homes and kids; they drive children to activities, swim in the sea, meet with friends, cook meals, eat, clean up, do laundry, hang it on their balconies to dry (since few have dryers), fill up tanks with gas  that's actually a few cents cheaper than a few weeks ago, shop at the still well stocked grocery stores to take advantage of many buy-one-get-one-free offers.  Life continues as usual for most of us.

 

Assaults of Immigrants in Greece, and a New Anti-Racist Initiative

"Business as usual" in recent months has been awful for many immigrants of color, who, in addition to suffering from difficulty finding work, shelter, food, and clothing, have faced an increased danger of racist attacks.  Members or supporters of the neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant, ultra-conservative "Golden Dawn" party, which has risen in popularity as racist and ethnocentric groups so often do in hard times, have allegedly been involved in violent attacks on Pakistani, Tunisian, and Bangladeshi immigrants, among others, in the Athens area and elsewhere.  Just this past week, unidentified groups of attackers seriously injured Egyptian and Algerian immigrants who were sleeping outside right here in Chania.  A Greek friend who helps out at a soup kitchen where these immigrants often ate joined other concerned citizens there in a new, spontaneous Anti-Fascist Initiative to try to fight this tide of hate in our city.  A migrant support center here has also called for a united fight against racist violence, and the Seventh Anti-Racist Festival is underway this week in the neighborhood of the attacks, with the support of members of SYRIZA and other leftist groups.  My friend and others in the new Initiative drafted an informative flyer which they distributed to 800 Greek residents in the Nea Hora neighborhood where the attacks occurred, going door to door on Monday to discuss the plight of impoverished immigrants. 

Rather than simply assuring sometimes angry, unemployed, struggling Greeks that most immigrants are good people, friends and allies, while many Greeks blame them for an increase in crime, my friend and her colleagues provide more useful facts.  For example, they point out that the Dublin Regulation required that asylum seekers and refugees who entered the European Union, and then tried to move on to another EU country, be returned to the point at which they entered the EU.  While this seems to have been discontinued in relation to Greece due to the huge, unsupportable burden this imposed on this already struggling country at the edge of Europe, refugees who wish to proceed to another European country are not permitted to do so legally.  This works badly for both many immigrants, and Greece, since Greece is such an easy point of entry, both geographically, and in terms of its inability to enforce many immigration laws.  Many impoverished immigrants enter Greece via Turkey, coming from eastern Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East, leading to a higher concentration of impoverished individuals than this troubled country has the resources to employ and feed.  Numerous immigrants take jobs that Greeks don't want, cleaning, caring for elders, or doing road work and construction, working hard to provide services Greeks do want.  But many of the immigrants would also prefer to live in a more prosperous part of the EU, especially now that the Greek economy is in such bad shape--and the law prevents them from moving on.  It is still better here, some immigrants have told me (in more or less accented Greek than mine), than in Romania or Albania, where there are even fewer jobs, even lower pay.  But unemployment is up to 22% for the general population in Greece now.  And the Greek government, ill equipped to provide the help so many need, or even to ensure that hospitals have all the medications they require, has not managed the influx of immigrants effectively.

So the Anti-Racist Initiative and the other festival organizers in Chania are attempting to educate the Greek public about the immigrants' situation and humanity with videos, talks, and flyers.  Downtown Chania is full of posters and banners announcing the anti-racist festival, and I was cheered to see some anti-neo-Nazi graffiti.  There is now a Facebook page devoted to recording accounts of attacks on immigrants in Greece, so that trends may be analyzed and brutality can be publicized.  I was surprised to learn from my friend that many Greeks are not worried about racist attacks, but she also added that most do agree that the solution to problems related to immigration does not include beating up people who were trying to go somewhere else, or voting for those who assault immigrants, but rather requires that we put pressure on the government and the EU to create and act on sensible immigration policies.  I used to view Greece as a fairly safe, tolerant country with a low crime rate.  It's sad to see racist hate helping to change that. But it is encouraging to witness such a strong anti-racist response from the Greeks in my community who care about all human lives.

Anxiety Before--and During--the Greek Election: And Then What?

Spring into Summer:  Things Are Really Heating Up In Greece

It suddenly got hot in Greece last week, as schools closed a day early in preparation for the Greek national elections.  Before, it felt like spring--not the sociopolitical Greek Spring that some political party overoptimistically wished to invoke last month, with the most encouraging days of the Arab Spring in mind, but a more modest, pleasantly cool, botanical and meteorological spring with its delicate red anemones, small fuschia sword lilies, and abundant Cretan rock roses blooming among herbaceous shrubs under picturesquely puffy clouds.  These have given way to the hardier wild carrot (called Queen Anne's lace in my Pennsylvania days) and well watered gardens full of glowing bougainvillea, pink and white oleander that sways in our island winds, and the largest, hardiest rose and geranium bushes I've ever seen.  But what will this summer heat bring?  Will the current mess be followed by chaos?  The suspense and tension build as we await results of elections along with a surprisingly large portion of the world population.

Greek Political Parties, Slogans, Promises, and Fears, Old and New

SYRIZA, the Coalition of the Radical Left, has the political advantage as the party who can't be blamed for past corruption or mistakes.  It is now a full-fledged, highly visible  political party, although it had struggled along as a minor leftist coalition in previous years.  And it appears to have slogan writers skilled at taking advantage of that fact.  Last month's posters insisted, "They decided without us; we'll go ahead without them," referring to the entrenched political elite who'd gone along with the punishing austerity measures imposed along with the European bailout for Greece.  A few days ago, new posters appeared, proclaiming, "The memorandum past, we open a road to hope," referring to its rejection of the bailout agreement, at least as it now stands.  There's certainly an appealing logic to these slogans, given the extent of political and economic corruption and the failure of the two previously dominant political parties in Greece, the conservative New Democracy and the socialist PASOK.  One of the Communist parties (yes, there's more than one here) has ironically been reduced to a reactionary response on the posters that appeared recently:  "Don't believe SYRIZA!" 

Unfortunately, there may be some merit to that response:  SYRIZA suggests that Greeks can have everything--enough money from Europe, the euro as their currency, and their own terms rather than the dreadful austerity from which they've clearly been suffering intensely.  Most powerful Europeans seem to disagree, as they implied by refusing to meet with SYRIZA's young, inexperienced leader during an international tour after the May 6 election.  So it's quite possible that belief in SYRIZA's message--appealing as it is for hopeless, jobless, overtaxed, struggling, fed up citizens--may increase the danger that Greece will return to the drachma.  We faced that danger last fall, when the former prime minister, George Papandreou, threatened to hold a referendum to see if Greeks really wanted to keep the euro (and all the “austerity” that goes with it these days).  For a few days, until it became clear that Papandreou would resign and there would be no such referendum, many feared that Greece would lose its chance of European debt relief and be forced to deal with life with the drachma and no foreign aid.  I hear that a return to the drachma would also mean drastic inflation; vastly higher costs for imports; shortages of imported goods such as medicines, certain foods, oil, and gas; a vastly lower value for our money; the closing of many businesses; and probably more civil unrest.  We face the potential for the same problem now. 

Last fall, a bank teller was asked what to do with money in savings accounts, those in euros and those in dollars.  The bank teller answered, almost in tears, that she had no idea what would happen, or what to do with her own money, either. She said some people exchanged their euros for dollars, others did the opposite, and she’d take hers home and put it under her mattress if she wasn’t afraid of being robbed on the way!  Since then, of course, billions of euros have been removed from Greece.  That was one of several times in the last year or so that I started stocking up on nonperishable grocery items in fear of a return to the drachma and general economic, political, and social chaos that might include empty grocery store shelves since Greece might not continue receiving imports from exporters lacking confidence they'd be paid.  Even my children seem to be concerned about a currency change, as they feverishly try to empty their coin banks by turning them upside down.  Fortunately, though, they remain blissfully ignorant of the economic situation here.

Last November, I was already struck by one of many ironic developments in the confusion that’s called Greek politics: for some time, government leaders failed to agree on a new cabinet for what was supposed to be a “government of national unity.”  The problem?  Everyone was more worried about how appealing he or she'd look to voters during the next elections.  No one—the just-resigned prime minister included, I presume—really wanted to have anything to do with being in charge of approving and administering the latest miserable package of so-called “debt relief” from Europe, given the “austerity” measures of layoffs, benefit and salary reductions, and tax increases we keep seeing to “relieve” those of us living in what the German government seemed to consider immoral laziness and luxury in Greece.  No matter that there was, and is, no chance for economic growth here.  It seems that the politicians were correct in fearing for their jobs, since the new party, SYRIZA, is the one that has gained ground, while the centrist old guard's popularity has plunged, both on the left and on the right.  Interestingly, as of yesterday, my drive through part of Chania did not reveal one poster from PASOK, which appears to have no chance of winning this election, or even New Democracy, which does have a chance.  That may be partly due to the fact that some Communist students were printing thousands of flyers on university printers, with paper and ink meant to be used for academic purposes, the other day.  Or does it have something to do with New Democracy's anti-immigrant message?

I am neither a political scientist nor an economist, so I'll end today's political commentary with links to some articles that strike me as useful.  I do not appreciate the flippancy of whoever coined the term "Grexit" (mentioned in a New York Times article) to refer to the possible exit of Greece from the euro zone, with far more concern for international financial markets than for the people of Greece.  On the other hand, the most sensible brief article I've seen about what's at stake in today's election, and what led up to it, appeared on Friday in the online English edition of one of Greece's major dailies, the politically moderate Kathemerini, titled "Greece's creditors matter as much as its voters"--and, we might add, vice versa (http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_15/06/2012_447265).  I also like Ross Douthat's discussion of SYRIZA in the New York Times, except that it doesn't acknowledge the party leader's lack of qualifications to lead a country, especially one in as much trouble as Greece, or SYRIZA's lack of a concrete, detailed solution ("Sympathy for the Radical Left" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/opinion/sunday/douthat-sympathy-for-the-radical-left.html?hp).

 

School Celebration, and Stocking Up for Possible Emergencies or Shortages

On Friday, I spent more money at the supermarket than I ever had before.  And two nights before, I paid less attention to an elementary school performance than I ever had before.  It was like this:  all the elementary children, their teachers, and their parents in the schoolyard, most arriving late, on a hot evening in the sun.  There is no auditorium or gym at our school, although it's only about a decade old--so there were too many people for too few seats, and no stage.  For the last two years, we'd had a temporary wooden stage to raise the children high enough to be seen, but for some reason (perhaps related to a new principal) that was missing this year.  So once the performance began, anyone who wanted to watch the children dance, sing, or recite information about the different regions and cities of Greece needed to stand up.  The center aisle was full of standing parents, further obscuring the view of the children (and no one noticed that the sun was sinking into the Mediterranean, spectacular view that we had, since we see that every day).  Probably at least half of the parents were conversing, which is typical of Greek school functions, award ceremonies, weddings, and baptisms--so typical that I doubt anyone considers it rude.  I valiantly strove to watch and listen, walking over to the far side of the crowd for a vantage point and dutifully recording my daughter's part in the evening (proud that she said her piece better than the boy next to her with two native Greeks for parents, though of course I wouldn't say so to them and told her it didn't matter if he messed up a bit). 

I watched a while longer, but then, an hour or so into it, I gave up, sat down, and whispered with a bilingual Greek friend.  She drew from her purse  some lists of emergency supplies which she'd collected from both American and Greek sites in preparation for the uncertain times ahead of us here in Greece--the possibility of extreme inflation, shortages, and power outages:  matches, canned foods, gas burners, batteries, pastas, beans, olives, etc.  We compared lists, since I was certainly at least as paranoid (or eager to be prepared:  time will tell), and I made some adjustments to mine.  We discussed the accuracy of the NPR report about Greece's major electric company running out of money due to unpaid bills, so that it couldn't buy enough natural gas to get the country through the summer without extensive blackouts.  Apparently the company denies it, but considering all the blackouts we've endured in previous years, I expect that we'll have more this year.  The New York Times writes that Greeks dread the future.  Yep, me too.

 

Greek Generosity, Beauty, and Uncertainty

I feel a weight of sadness and worry.  But, whatever happens, I don't think there's any danger that people as fortunate as us will go hungry:  we have many friends here, and Crete is an island full of not only natural beauty, but good produce, and great hospitality and generosity.  We still haven't finished the bags of apricots and potatoes that neighbors gave us.  Even if the government runs out of money and can't pay public workers, including university professors such as D, we will have plenty to eat.  And we can share our beans and pasta with those who have fresh produce.  The jovial party after the school performance made it clear that Greeks will continue to be generous:  parents had brought plenty of juice, soft drinks, raki, cheese pies, cakes, cookies, popcorn, and potato chips to satisfy the crowd that surged toward the refreshment tables even before all the treats could be brought to them.  There are other concrete reasons for hope, too:  the pharmacists are accepting public health insurance again--starting Thursday night, just in time for me to refill my prescriptions for allergy medicines without (again) paying cash.  In spite of problems, the beaches are often clean and lovely, with gorgeous clear waters, and they are free.  The Greek national soccer team even beat Russia to qualify for the Euro 2012 quarterfinals, adding a much-needed positive note to the national consciousness.

D has been in Athens this weekend for another celebration, a baptism--a function as big, expensive, and important as a wedding, and as much a time for reunion--and to vote.  (So far, weddings and baptisms, school celebrations and exams, continue.)  Like many Greeks, D chose not to move his voter registration out of his hometown (or village, in many cases); this makes voting day a time of reunion for so many of the Greeks who deeply value ties to family, old friends, and former homes.  This afternoon, all remained relatively calm.  But people ask, what will you do this summer?  We reply that we don't know yet.  We'll have some preliminary election results shortly, but neither they nor the final outcome of this election will immediately clarify Greece's future. 

Living in Greece Today

Living in Crete with my Family

Here I am now, an American mom in Greece today.  I never expected to be here.  When I was growing up in a semi-rural neighborhood in southeastern Pennsylvania, my family's trips across Canada and the U. S. seemed to strike many of my friends as impressively wide-ranging adventures.  These days, I'm living in a typical box-shaped, two-floor, two-family concrete dwelling generously surrounded by balconies, in a more densely populated middle-class residential neighborhood outside the city of Chania on the island of Crete.  Living high up on a hill above a small marina and beach, with occasional views of mountains and the Mediterranean sea, I expect that my preoccupations are vastly different from those of my former schoolmates and neighbors.  For example, I worry about what this Sunday's Greek national elections will mean for me, my two bicultural, bilingual children, my Greek husband ("D"), our friends and family, and Greece.  Even before the recession and political turmoil hit Greece, leaving the country without the political majority or even an adequately unified coalition of political parties necessary to "form a government," as they say here, it was hard enough for this particular American to adjust (more or less) to living in a southern European country.  When asked how I like it here, over the last ten years, I have diplomatically--and truthfully--replied that life in Greece has both advantages and disadvantages.  Some of the advantages are obvious to most people, since they can envision dream vacations on sunny beaches next to the clear turquoise waters of the Mediterranean, with ancient temples standing guard in the distance.  But the glories of ancient Greece have now been overshadowed by the prosaic struggles of modern Greeks, and life in Greece today is no vacation.

Strikes, Outages, Dangerous Driving, Strays,  Littering, and Waiting for Doctors

Many times during the last ten years, strikes have disrupted school days, pharmacy and doctors' services, garbage pickup, public transport, gasoline deliveries, and more.  I support workers' rights to strike and collectively bargain, but striking is taken to such frequent extremes here that it seems more destructive of ordinary people's lives (never mind the tourism-based economy!) than productive of fruitful change.  In addition, outages in electricity, telephone, internet, and water have occurred more times than I can count, the first often due to efforts to complete work during peak hours of daytime electricity usage.  I see the problem there as not only an inadequate infrastructure in a rapidly developing area, but also a prioritization of the rights of the few--electricity company workers--to work at desirable hours, over the rights of the many--thousands of electricity consumers--to conduct their daily affairs using the utility they pay for and (foolishly, in Greece!) depend on.  Basically, it has seemed that people have many rights when viewed as workers, but few when treated as consumers, a puzzle since most of us are both, at least in some sense.  And we all face additional frustrations:  crazy, dangerous drivers pass us anywhere and park their cars wherever they please, even if it means blocking a lane of traffic on a two-way city street.  Stray cats and dogs add to road and sidewalk hazards, mess, and sadness, spreading garbage outside bins and leaving feces where they please, often suffering from eye diseases or getting hit by cars as they rest on the road.  Littering and inappropriate dumping lead to impromptu roadside garbage dumps and shockingly dirty seas and beaches when the wind blows the wrong way, especially in the summer.  Inconvenience abounds, as checks are seldom used, parking lots are relatively rare, and a visit to the nearest post office requires a time investment of nearly one hour, round trip.  Few doctors keep records of patients' medical histories, or trouble themselves to understand patients as whole people, and many don't bother with appointments, so it's first come, first served, and the rest wait around with a room full of sick people for up to two or three hours.  And the whole world has now heard about the rampant corruption and tax evasion in Greece.

Medical Benefits, Past and Present

All of that was true in the good old days (up to a few years ago), when public university professors such as my husband, D, as well as their families, still enjoyed rather impressive health insurance coverage:  although we lacked dental coverage, we seldom paid for doctor visits to most physicians in our area (unlike in Athens, where copays were required) and owed only a 25% copay for most of the prescription medications we needed, and even less for many lab tests.  Some would argue that such generous benefits were part of Greece's problem, but I considered them one of Greece's (former) attractions.  Since January, however, there have been so few physicians in the new public insurance program--the one that insures most Greeks--that sick people must pay to see a doctor while they're still sick (if they don't prefer to wait until the following month for a visit covered by insurance).  Admittedly, we don't pay as much as we would in the U. S.--only 20 to 50 euros around here, away from major cities, as far as I've heard.  But it gets worse:  recently, pharmacists stopped accepting our insurance, demanding full payment for medications, since the federal government is millions of euros behind on payments owed to pharmacists for medicines covered by public insurance.  There has already been a shortage of cancer medications, and I hear that there may be additional medicine shortages, since pharmacists hesitate to pay for (and stock) expensive medications that no one can afford.  Depending on what happens with this week's elections, there could be shortages of much more than medicines in Greece, and some of us are stocking up on various food and grocery items.   

We aren't sure whether my mother in law's public health insurance will actually pay for the knee replacement surgery she just endured, which could certainly be a problem on top of all the (no longer covered) medications she regularly takes for various health problems. She is the person I know who suffers most from all the strikes, as well: when public transit workers strike, she must fight for a taxi to take her to her doctors' appointments in the Athens area; when pharmacists and doctors strike, she struggles to keep her prescriptions up to date.  A friend's mother was declared fit to leave her hospital, but there is no ambulance to take her home, and she is not allowed to go in a car.  So she is stuck in the hospital, but no longer provided with her medications since she was officially discharged!  Meanwhile, gasoline, water, and heating costs rise (with our water rates suddenly doubling, gas something like $7 a gallon).  To make things worse, the Greek government--pressured into "austerity measures" by the "Troika" of the IMF, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission--reduces pensions, raises taxes, and imposes new ones.  These days, it's innocent people like my mother in law and my friend's mother who are punished far more than the wealthy politicians and major tax evaders who contributed most to Greece's current economic and political crisis. 

 

Closed Businesses, Poverty, Unemployment, and Migration Out of Greece:  That's Austerity

So we see the empty shells of businesses that were forced to close and wonder about the missing beggars who may have left for more promising lands.  An immigrant mother desperate for work leaves her 3 1/2 year old in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki with her unemployed husband and moves all the way south to Crete for a job, but is forced to return home, jobless, when her young daughter's tantrums become too excruciating.  Unemployment has reached nearly 22% for the general population, and more than double that for young people.  This is just part of what "austerity" means, as salary cuts and layoffs in the huge public sector have a domino effect in all other sectors of the economy. Those who can are leaving Greece:  many immigrants who frequented a local soup kitchen have disappeared, apparently fleeing to Italy; our hairdresser is taking her sons to join her husband, a  mechanic, in France; our dentist is updating his CV and considering England.  One of D's colleagues suggests moving our families to a remote Pacific island to live on fish.  Some may ask, isn't Crete an equally Edenic spot for fishing?

 

Natural Beauty, Fresh Produce, Generosity, and Hospitality: That's Greece

To some extent, yes:  this is a lovely place to vacation.  I encourage all my friends and family members to come visit--if the upcoming elections don't lead from us from mess to chaos.  Those who paint a completely bleak picture of Greece and Greeks don't do them justice.  The spectacular mountains, gorges, caves, sea, beaches, forests, and flowers combine for an amazing beauty that struck me every day for the first year or so of living here (after which I partly failed my conscious fight against taking it for granted).  Before my first trip to Greece, I had no idea how mountainous it is; now, in June, I still marvel at traces of snow atop the White Mountains of Crete.  Many Greeks demonstrate a strong appreciation for nature, with even senior citizens walking considerable distances, whether for exercise or pleasure, or out of necessity (since most of the older Greek women I know do not drive).  Perhaps this contributes to the good health so often linked to the Mediterranean diet. 

Certainly, the Cretans I know seem to value both flowers and fresh fruit and vegetables, which many grow in their yards, where Americans would have the grass plots that are too difficult and expensive to maintain in the hot, dry summers of Greece.  These garden plots and fruit trees are becoming increasingly important as economic uncertainty worsens.  And given the extent of Greek hospitality and generosity, this benefits people who can't grow their own produce, as well the growers:  several neighbors recently gave  us bags of apricots from their trees; we've received hundreds of lemons over the years; our favorite family restaurant owner gave us a large bag of freshly-dug potatoes; and after I gave away an old, chipped coffee table, I received spinach, lemons, and oranges, with the promise of summer produce from "the village" when it's ready.  While Greeks can sometimes be quite rude to strangers, for example while competing, er, I mean waiting, in line, the opposite is also true.  Once, walking in another neighborhood where I knew no one, an old woman--a perfect stranger--invited me to pick the best oranges from her crates, and to come back for more another time!  Somewhere in the mountains, years ago, D and I came across a man with a donkey loaded down with avocadoes, and he presented us with several.  After photographing an elderly woman in central Greece, we were invited into her house to eat some sweets and visit her disabled son, who was seated among colorful woven blankets and pillows on a mattress on the floor.  So I wasn't completely surprised last week when a doctor I've consulted dozens of times didn't charge me for my visit. 

While life in Greece today is no vacation, I try to pretend it is whenever the opportunity arises, and the famous natural beauty, generosity, and laid-back attitude do provide some chances.  During a recent meal at our favorite family restaurant, Kyria (Mrs.) Maria's Sunset Restaurant in Horafakia, our space was invaded by twenty senior citizens, some of them polluting our air with the ever-present cigarette smoke.  However, invasion soon transformed into wonderful free entertainment as the smokers, politely asked, moved farther away from us, and the group began singing melodic Greek songs from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s to the accompaniment of a spirited guitarist. Some of them were talented singers, and their sweet songs brought back memories of good times for D, in a brief escape from the worries and pressures of life in Greece today.  Our children roamed around outside the restaurant and hotel, safe to play and wander without rebuke, as children generally are in rural Greece.  On the way home, my gaze was transfixed by the shining sea views.  And last week we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon with some visitors from the UK, savoring the clear, cool waters at Stavros beach for our first swim of the year.