STRIKES, PROTESTS, OCCUPATIONS; RESIGNATION OR DISGUST
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| Ferry boat in Piraeus harbor |
It’s been happening again, as we knew it would: the creditors formerly
known as the Troika are pushing the Greek government to pass more austerity
measures, and many demoralized, struggling Greek men, women, and even children
are responding with more strikes, protests, and occupations. In early November,
pharmacists went on strike over new regulations about who can open pharmacies,
ferry boats stopped running for four days, pensioners in Athens protested additional
pension and benefit cuts, farmers demonstrated against expected tax and pension
contribution increases, and secondary school students occupied their schools—to
name a few off the top of my head. Another general strike is coming later this
week.
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| Occupied junior high school |
I think I understand how people feel if they've worked hard all their
lives, perhaps investing time and effort far beyond the call of duty, only to
lose their jobs or have their wages or pensions reduced to below what they need
to pay their bills and buy necessities, as if they were totally expendable and
deserved no respect or consideration. I can imagine how helpless these people
must feel if they have no way of making enough money to meet their obligations.
I do not believe Greeks are generally lazy; I’ve met too many who are
hard-working and dedicated to their jobs.
However, the young student council members I saw at a local junior high
school on November 2 looked like they were seeking excitement and power more
than anything else. Why wouldn’t it be thrilling for teenagers to keep the
principal and teachers out of school, determine which students could come and
go, and oversee a vote on whether or not to “occupy” the school? When I asked why
they were preventing classes from taking place, one said “Ma’am, look at the
building where your child has class”—pointing to one of the prefabricated
temporary classrooms brought to the schoolyard to compensate for overcrowding
in a school meant for far fewer kids.
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| “Temporary” classroom (right) |
True, that’s far from ideal, and true, there were not enough teachers at
the school, but how would keeping the teachers out and learning less improve
that situation? How would that solve the many real problems facing the Greek
educational system? I wouldn’t ask these questions if student occupations of
secondary and tertiary schools were confined to rare cases of pressing problems
the powerful simply refused to acknowledge, but that’s not the case here.
Occupations are very common, the rule rather than the exception, almost more
expected than noteworthy.
The students argued that changes would be made because the authorities didn’t
want the schools to remain closed, but if it were that easy to make the
changes, it would have been done long ago. I urged my daughter—who was in the
sensible minority of 62 against the occupation, vs. 300 in favor—to talk to her
schoolmates about trying to come up with solutions they might discuss with the
principal, the mayor, or the minister of education, rather than just shutting
things down.
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| Science Day, Technical University of Crete |
If only Greek students could get out of the habit of “occupying” schools
and missing class, and in the habit of working hard for dialogue, progress, and
positive solutions, maybe something could be done. Maybe not, because the
system is so messed up and so starved for money that solutions are elusive. But
I’d really like to see more of the constructive, productive efforts from
students that I see from other Greek citizens—and from students on some
occasions. (See, for example, In
Greece, Volunteers Provide Olive Oil for Families in Need, and “Greeks
Bearing Gifts” in my October
blog entry on the university science fair, in which hundreds of student
volunteers participated.)
The school principal, parents’ association representatives, and some parents
will be talking with the mayor about the overcrowding problem. Wouldn’t,
couldn’t, that have happened in any case? Okay, one day off school isn’t that
big a deal, but the senior high schools took a whole week, and that means a lot
of classes missed. Students had little enough school already since the “school
day” ended at varying and unpredictable times between 12:30 and 2:00 through
mid November due to the Greek government’s annual failure to assign enough
teachers to each school by the time the school year starts. I’d like to see
students work with teachers to draft a logical schedule of summer planning to help
government officials prevent that.
Earlier this month, editor and writer Nikos Konstandaras wrote that “[r]epeated
protests that disrupt lives without achieving much else are not the greatest
problem that the Greeks face but highlight the dead end of our politics, our
economy and our society.” He added that “[c]itizens know that whatever plans
they make will be disrupted by the plans of others,” but “most Greeks” simply
tolerate this. While this tolerant attitude used to be “based on acknowledging
the right to protest,” Konstandaras asserts that “today it betrays exhaustion.
It leads to resignation and apathy” (Tolerance
and resignation).
I do see quite a bit of that here. Coming from a different place, though,
I feel anger and disgust at the wasted efforts to make a point by disrupting
the lives of those who can’t fix the problems being protested. Yes, the
affected citizens can contact their legislators or vote for different lawmakers
in the next election, but the combination of an entrenched party system with
the rule of the creditors and the disappointing showing of the newest political
party to take control of the government (after the old ones were voted out)
suggest this will result in little improvement.
Many of us are
thoroughly fed up with the political situation here. I am disappointed that none
of the attempts at new political beginnings during the years of the crisis seem
to have succeeded. The disbursal of the latest 12 billion euros to the Greek
government was finally approved after Parliament narrowly passed the latest
measures demanded by the creditors, but few seem to believe most of the
measures being passed this year are productive rather than destructive to the
Greek people and the Greek economy.
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| Athens store |
Jobs in commerce, for
example, show drops in salaries and increases in part-time and temporary,
rather than full-time and long-term, employment (More jobs in commerce but most new positions are part time). Shipping
companies—a major source of Greek wealth—continue a trend of leaving Greece (Dozens
of domestic shipping firms have relocated to Cyprus). Debts pile up as
people are unable to pay, and national economic data are even worse than
expected.
I’D RATHER THINK ABOUT THE OLIVE HARVEST
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| Olives at Terra Creta’s mill, Kolymbari, Crete |
Lacking any solution to the major problems of Greece, it’s much easier
to turn to everyday concerns, such as when the water company will resume
service to our neighborhood (“in a little while”), or the olive harvest—which have
occupied many Cretans (as well as other Greeks) this month.
One day, I stopped by an olive grove where the denuded tree trunks with
almost no leaves left, and the piles of branches all over the ground, seemed to
indicate that the trees were being cut down for firewood. However, I soon saw
that there was still green netting under the branches that hadn’t been cut,
with a small generator nearby and a man using a hand-held mechanical harvesting
instrument--a long rod with some small moving parts at the end--to dislodge
olives from the leafy branches of some very tall old trees, so olives flew off
onto the nets below. A middle-aged man and an older relative were pruning trees
on the other side of the lot, but he assured me that in two years the twenty
trees would produce plenty of olives again.
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| Olive harvest in Crete |
A stout, gray-haired older woman in a dark dress and apron sat on a
crate at the edge of the grove, observing and advising the harvester. A very
friendly middle-aged woman who introduced herself as Irini spoke with me about
their harvest and their trees, apparently quite interested in my interest. Irini
told me the old woman was the olive harvesting expert, involved with it
annually since she was a little girl. We watched as the harvester climbed into a
tree to reach the olives on the highest branches. Irini told me they had just
one harvesting machine because it cost 200 euros. But since they live in the
village of Malaxa, around half an hour away, they were trying to finish all the
work in one day. (They didn’t manage.)
Irini showed me a device off to the side that resembled a barbecue
grill; there they separate harvested olives from leaves and branches after
they’re gathered from the nets. Irini emphasized that olive harvesting is hard
work that makes the arms really tired by the end of the day. But she seemed
proud to be doing it, since she mentioned the health benefits of olive oil as
part of the Mediterranean diet, pointing out that it could help prevent cancer
and other diseases.
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| Olive harvesting equipment |
Irini said they expected to press 800 kg of oil from their olives—surely
including olives from other groves. 100 or 150 kg they keep for their family;
the rest they sell when the price is decent -- 3 or 4 euros/kg -- at the mill in
Chania where their oil is pressed. Irini said the oil they sell may be exported
to Italy in bulk or bottled in Greece and sold in Germany or London. Irini
thinks it could be sold for as much as 50 euros per kg, although that sounds far
too high to me. Of course, she knows her family will not earn much compared to the
retail price; the merchant makes the real profit, she said. For most Cretans
who own olive trees but are not professional farmers, the point does not seem
to be profit; rather, they supply themselves and their families, and sometimes
some friends, with a basic element of their diet, and if they have more olive
oil than they need, it provides a bit of helpful income.
So many Cretans spend weekends or, if they have many trees, two-week
fall vacations from work (taken instead of summer holidays) harvesting olives
in their family groves. One neighbor and her family (six of them) gathered
olives from their 40 trees over two weekend days, collecting 38 large burlap
sacks of olives, which yielded 180 kg of olive oil. They gave 20 kg of the oil
to the mill as payment for the milling; the rest will provide their family and
a brother’s café with about two years’ worth of olive oil.
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| Olive groves near Kolymbari, Crete |
This year, in order to write well-informed articles for the Olive Oil Times, I have spent a lot of
time learning about olive oil, its health benefits, its production, its
harvest, and its taste. (I’d already started learning how to use it during my
years here in Greece.) I’ve discovered an incredibly scenic part of the
prefecture of Chania: the endless olive groves on the hills and valleys of
Kolymbari. I’ve observed and (very briefly) assisted in the harvest. I’ve seen
different methods of pruning and harvesting: one in which large trees are
pruned before the highest branches are harvested, so olives are removed from
cut branches that are held against a special machine, with plans to return
later to finish the pruning; another in which the olives are harvested first in
the usual way, and then the trees are cut back so far that they’re little more
than a stumpy trunk with a few branches. I’ve learned that olive wood and some
of the olive waste that remains after milling can be burned for heat, while
olive leaves can be eaten by sheep and goats. I saw a farmer back his pickup
truck up to a leaf holder at Terra Creta’s mill which opened to drop leaves
into the truck and onto the farmer.
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| Stone mill at Biolea in Astrikas, Crete |
I’ve watched olives unloaded from burlap sacks into a vat so they could
climb a conveyor for washing and entry into the mill. I’ve seen huge piles of
olives collected before processing, watched them being washed and crushed into
paste. That was most exciting with the stone mill at Biolea, where huge
millstones came around their circle toward me, throwing occasional bits of
olive into my face. I’ve seen the paste pressed by Biolea’s traditional
presses, so it runs down the side of piles of round mats in streams. I’ve seen
the fresh oil run out of a pipe in a golden flow, then tasted its bitter
thickness. I’ve talked with a marketing manager, company owners, a taster, an
industry organization leader, a scientific advisor, an entomologist, an
exporting association leader, and olive farmers and producers. They have opened
up a fascinating new world to me that is rooted in the trees, the land, and the
fruit that produce Greece’s valuable liquid gold.
TERRORIST ATTACKS IN PARIS AND REFUGEES IN EUROPE
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| Syrian refugee children |
The world of Greek olive groves is not the world I come from, nor the
world I read about in major news stories. The gentle, hollow, tinkling clanging
of goats’ bells emphasizes the quiet calm of my Cretan neighborhood in contrast
to the panic of Paris after the terrorist attacks there, in Beirut, and on a
Russian airplane. I have been wondering what ISIS leaders were thinking. They
are obviously not worried about killing people most of us consider innocent; they
do not seem concerned about intensifying the war against them. Nor are they
worried about the fate of the millions of Muslim refugees seeking asylum in
Europe, where increasing numbers of citizens seek to turn refugees away and
leave them homeless and stateless.
I am so sad for the people who have been injured, those who suffered as
they were killed, and the families of those who died. I can imagine the anxiety
of the people who were or are afraid to leave their homes, whether in France,
Belgium, Syria, Iraq, or elsewhere. And I feel distressed by the thought of all
the refugees trying to escape shooting, bombing, or kidnapping in Syria and other
countries who now have to face greater suspicion and fear, and much greater
likelihood of rejection and hatred, thanks to terrorists and the xenophobes whose
arguments terrorists appear to have strengthened.
Encouraged by major European countries, a number of Balkan nations have
begun allowing only refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan to enter,
leaving other migrants stranded in Greece. The Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia is the latest country to build a fence along its border, in this case
with Greece, to control the flow of migrants. A summit meeting between Turkey
and EU members this past weekend ended with agreements on various concessions
for Turkey, plus 3 billion euros to improve conditions for refugees there, in
exchange for Turkey’s increasing efforts to stop migrants from entering the EU
illegally. I have not heard anything about refugees being allowed to work
legally in Turkey, however, which should be a major concern. The major concern
was apparently to keep refugees in the region, and out of Europe, except when
invited in.
Even so, German chancellor Angela Merkel has continued to call for
Europeans to “liv[e] our values with courage” after the terrorist attacks (Attacker’s Possible Link to Migrant Trail
Heightens Security Fears). The New
York Times reported that Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European
Commission, was among those reminding people that “[t]hose who organized these
attacks, and those who carried them out, are exactly those who the refugees are
fleeing.” A Czech volunteer who works with migrants added, “What happened in
Paris on Friday night is happening in Syria every day, and it is exactly why
those people are running away.” A Latvian man suggested that if we help
migrants more, “the risk of a terror attack happening again would be less” (Paris Attacks Shift Europe’s Migrant Focus to
Security).
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| Say No to Racism, Open Borders signs |
While it is much more difficult to weed out the one in 100,000 or so
terrorists who may sneak into Europe among refugees than it is to keep
terrorists from entering the U. S. disguised as refugees, given the one and a
half to two years’ vetting of those destined for American soil, that doesn’t
mean 99,999 innocent, desperate children, women, and men need to be rejected
for each terrorist who hides among them. Lately, American citizens with guns have
been killing more Americans than foreign terrorists have, and it’s mostly
European citizens who are committing terrorist acts in Europe. Yes, this could
change, and of course we should try to stop terrorists, but we also need to continue
to make refugees welcome.
GATHERING WILD GREENS AND HERBS
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| Heather among other plants |
Musical migratory birdsong has replaced the summer’s cricket and cicada
sounds in semi-rural Crete. The smoke from wood fires in fireplaces adds an
autumnal scent. On hillsides leading down to the sea, dark rust-colored buds
that will open into tiny pink-purple blossoms on low wild shrubs mix with dry
grey branches left over from the summer and new green leaves brought out by a
few early and recent rains. The high humidity that comes with darkness and
stays past dawn produces cool, damp school mornings, but temperatures often get
into the 70s before midday in this very mild autumn, so we struggle to convince
our kids to wear light jackets.
Walking on one of our warm, sunny, calm late November days, I met a neighbor
who was collecting edible wild greens, or “horta.” He told me that where he
came from in northern Greece, no one collected wild greens. His Cretan mother
in law taught him what was what after he moved here. He showed me three
different kinds of greens, and when I asked him if the sprig I held was thyme,
he said no, it was throumbi (pronounced throombee--savory), a “cousin” of
thyme. We found a great deal of wild thyme as well, with its new leaves just
beginning to cover the dry grey branches of summer, and only a few of its tiny
lavender blossoms open. The throumbi got its new leaves and flowers earlier.
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| Irini discussing the harvest |
I commented on a large herd of goats feeding on the wild shrubs on the
side of a gorge. I’d been thinking the creatures were rather picturesque, and a
rustic sign of Greeks making do (letting the livestock eat where and what it
can). But my neighbor replied in disgust that it was a “catastrophe,” because
the goats eat so much that the plants don’t grow back. Learn something new
every day and every year. I have, thanks to Greeks, including olive oil farmers
and businesspeople, and thanks to migrants and refugees I’ve spoken with. This
keeps life interesting, exercises the brain, and broadens the mind.
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| Olive groves near Kolymbari, Crete |
