Elections, Incursions, Examinations, Diversions

Their Patience Has Ended, But No Earthquake Here

Although they have participated in over 20,000 demonstrations and protest rallies since the beginning of the bailout program in May 2010 ("The cost of protests"), Greeks can also be amazingly patient with the situation in their country. They wait uncomplainingly for hours to see doctors without even bothering to bring reading material, they only occasionally shout at drivers who stop their cars where they block traffic, they pay thousands of euros for public school students to make up for the deficiencies of those schools in private evening classes, and they hardly murmur about school closings on the Monday and Friday surrounding each Sunday election, regardless of child care difficulties for working parents. One of the most common responses to any complaint in Greece—after τί να κάνουμε, tee nah kahnoomeh (what can we do?)—is υπομονή, eepoemoenee (patience)—as loyal readers of my blog will already know. Drives me crazy, partly because I didn’t grow up even partly conditioned to endure the inefficient, illogical, inconsiderate aspects of modern Greek life, which leaves me intolerant of a lot that goes on here and generally impatient with the stock responses. I don’t see why Greeks are so patient about all of this, or why they should be patient in the face of round after round of governmental budget cuts, tax hikes, firings, pension and health care cuts, failed businesses, unemployment of more than a quarter of those seeking jobs, and the inability to make ends meet. But then I noticed that one of the recent campaign posters states, “Our patience has ended.” It’s about time. And so said many Greek voters on May 25—but not all of them.

Before the May 18 elections of town council members, mayors, and prefectural governors, the May 25 runoffs for those elections, and the May 25 European Parliament elections, politicians seemed inclined to stir up yet another storm of anxiety by warning (once again) that the outcome could change the course of the country for the worse. The (once surprising) centrist governing coalition of the conservative New Democracy and Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) parties cautioned that too many votes for the main opposition party, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), could undo the supposed progress the country has made since the austerity program of the bailout began—statistical economic progress the government loves to boast about, but only economists and the wealthy seem to actually see in any concrete form. New Democracy emphasized their slogan, a call for continuing “stathera vimata brosta,” or “steady steps forward,” warning that SYRIZA’s plan to hold “snap” national elections for prime minister and Greek Parliament as soon as possible if their party led the vote count by at least 4-6% could destabilize the country, and discussing a tax decrease for 2015 after all the tax increases of recent years. SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras billed the elections as referenda on whether Greeks wanted a new government, promising to undo many of the austerity measures that so many have protested against since the crisis began, to raise the minimum wage and increase unemployment compensation, if he should gain power. The stock markets reacted with nervousness to the specter of unexpected national elections, wondering again if Greek instability threatened the world economy. On the other hand, amused by unusual signs of positive local governmental activity--new trees planted in our neighborhood playground for the first time in 11 years--I didn’t even bother stocking up on groceries, because this warning of instability has become an old story here—besides which, I have quite a lot of supermarket staples, given all the 40-50% off sales meant to entice people without money to buy more.

Despite the hopes of SYRIZA, we didn’t experience the “earthquake” that the French prime minister felt in France when the anti-immigration, anti-euro National Front party led in the polls, and I’m not sure the New York Times is quite right that “insurgent forces from the far right and, in Greece’s case, also from the radical left stunned the established political parties” here, although they may have stunned them elsewhere in Europe ("Populists’ Rise in Europe Vote Shakes Leaders"). In Greece, polls had already (accurately) predicted SYRIZA’s victory in European Parliament elections, although Greeks were surprised by the extent of SYRIZA’s triumph in the race for governor of Attica, and indeed many have been dismayed by the strong showing of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, in third place with 9.4 percent of the votes. SYRIZA earned more votes than New Democracy in the European Parliament election (26.6% vs. 22.7%), but New Democracy’s plus PASOK’s share of the votes (via their new Elia, or Olive Tree, alliance with some other center leftists, 8%) equaled more than SYRIZA’s. So the governing coalition seems likely to remain in power for now, and it has felt free to reject SYRIZA’s continuing call for new national elections as soon as possible. Greece doesn’t have a regular election cycle or election day as we do in the U. S.; there are dates by which new officials must be elected, but if a governing party or coalition (“the government”) does not retain the confidence of a majority of parliamentarians or the people, rather sudden elections may be called earlier than expected, and the country’s government and policies could change with little notice. This is what investors were afraid of: political instability leading to financial instability.

Americans may be more aware of the results of the Ukrainian presidential vote on May 25 and more concerned about the significance of the Syrian elections, but as Egyptians began to vote and Europeans finished counting their ballots for European Parliamentarians, Greeks were largely focused on what their elections meant for the future of this small, struggling country. It’s fascinating to see how different Greek newspapers characterized the election results: a win for everyone, a win for no one, or a win for the party they support. (That’s evident in “European elections - a win, but no landslide, for Alexis Tsipras.”) The leftist SYRIZA won the most votes in the election for European Parliament, as well as a surprising, impressive victory for their candidate for governor of Greece’s most populous region of Attica (where Athens is) and a near-victory (but eventual defeat) for their candidate for Athens mayor. However, they earned a slightly lower percentage of the votes than they did in 2012. The major partner in the governing coalition, the conservative centrist New Democracy, lagged behind but won the majority of the vote in many parts of Greece, and did not lose too many of the votes they’d earned before these recent years of association with punishing austerity measures, considering all they’ve been blamed for. The socialist PASOK hopes its involvement in the new center-left Elia coalition heralds a new beginning for the party that earned 44% of the vote in 2009, but only 8% for its coalition now. (See, for example, “European election result: the left scores a historic win and facism rears its head” and “Has our political system reached rock bottom?”) So people who are more or less satisfied with the status quo—or at least see it as the least threatening of the current political choices—heaved a sigh of relief. But those who are totally dissatisfied with the austerity-induced 26.5% unemployment, decreased salaries, pensions, and benefits, and long lists of problems here emphasize that the share of votes given to SYRIZA and other new or formerly fringe political parties underscores a high level of discontent with a political establishment that is dominated by wealthy, elite families and is often considered corrupt and untrustworthy.

Another Blow for the Old Guard: Unsettling the Establishment

The Greek political and electoral systems differ from the American ones. Once upon a time, from the end of the dictatorship in 1974 until 2010, Greece did have a more or less two-party system, at least in terms of who was really in power. Even then, that system left room in Parliament for various others, including leftists (such as communist parties) and rightists (for example, nationalists). But it has been seriously eroded since average Greeks and the rest of the world learned just what a mess the Greek economy and political system were in back in 2010. That caused the immediate downfall of the party then in power, which was PASOK, although it was not solely responsible for that mess. After a brief government by technocrats brought to power under the wing of the Troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund and their “memorandum” of agreement for extreme austerity in exchange for the enormous financial bailout of Greece, the more conservative centrist party, New Democracy (ND), won a larger portion of votes than any other party, but not the majority required by Greek law to govern on its own. So its leader, American-educated Antonis Samaras, negotiated a coalition with the leader of PASOK, Evangelos Venizelos, and the smaller Democratic Left party, which provided the coalition with the majority in parliament which Greek law requires to “form a government.” After divisive arguments over various policy moves, the coalition’s majority has been whittled down to two or three votes: Democratic Left left the coalition in protest over Samaras’s sudden closing of the public radio and television broadcaster last spring, and several PASOK and ND members of parliament were ejected from their parties (yes, ejected!) for failing to toe the party line.

As an American, I was surprised that SYRIZA’s victory in the national European Parliament election was hailed as a “historic” first for a leftist party in Greece, because I’d considered the socialist PASOK, which had led the country for decades, leftist. But by Greek standards I suppose those socialists were more centrist than leftist, even before their present role in a coalition with conservatives. In spite of their historic victory, Alexis Tsipras and his SYRIZA colleagues apparently did not convince enough voters that they had consistent, workable solutions to the problems caused by excessive austerity measures and years of corruption and mismanagement to earn a clear mandate to take over the government. While their promises of a better life for working people did appeal to more voters than any other messages, promises, or past records, a fair amount of faith in New Democracy’s plans to stick to the memorandum of agreement for the bailout, along with ND’s claims that the economy is now improving and things can only get better here, is also evident. Acknowledging that it’s gotten the message that Greeks are not happy with the way things are, the governing coalition is now planning a major cabinet reshuffle and promising to work hard on economic growth, job creation, and tax reductions. There is even some talk of a broader coalition that would better represent all Greeks, although I suspect that the political climate is too heated for that much cooperation.

The lack of a majority consensus and the downfall of the old political elite are emphasized by the large number of parties competing for votes--43 for European Parliament and almost as many for local elections in Chania. Greeks voted for their preferred party on 5.5 X 14 inch paper ballots for European parliament (yes, a lot of parties, and a lot of paper!), including an animal husbandry party, a Trotskyite party, an anti-capitalist party, four communist parties, two socialist ones, two environmentalist parties, and a large collection of centrist and right wing parties whose names don’t identify their ideologies so clearly. Some of the successful candidates, such as the new mayor of the major port city of Pireas, are primarily associated with soccer teams. Even SYRIZA won barely more than a quarter of the votes. The barely-defined new party To Potami, or The River, made a relatively strong showing in fifth place, as did one of several communist parties in sixth place, so it’s clear that no single party will satisfy any majority of Greeks. Many don’t know where to turn--to the right, to the left, or to the center.

Most troubling, to many of us here, is 9.4% of voters’ sharp right turn toward the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, even with several of its leaders and members in jail facing criminal charges which include links to violence against immigrants and leftists (see, for example, “Golden Dawn leader and No 2 jailed before trial”), as if almost a tenth of voters believe scapegoating people from outside Greece is the solution to the country’s problems. Last year, when the governing coalition finally decided to crack down on some Golden Dawn members and leaders for their alleged links to crimes, charging them and jailing them pending trial, I thought ordinary Greeks would recognize how dangerous the group is. However, the move seems to have backfired, as Golden Dawn claims to be the victim of a political witch hunt, hands out free food to Greeks who show their IDs to prove their nationality, and helps elderly Greeks make their way safely through crime-ridden streets in Athens. Golden Dawn provides some services that the austerity-starved state does not offer, so now even many non-fascist Greeks look to them for help. This shift toward xenophobic ultra-nationalist parties has been recognized as a phenomenon throughout Europe, where such parties made significant gains in European Parliament membership, along with other “Euro-sceptic” parties who don’t believe the European Union should continue to exist.  

Here in Greece, voting took place in privately curtained voting booths in schools (and occasionally other public buildings). Voters had the option of marking crosses next to particular names on long lists of parties’ candidates (42 names, for example, on one), or simply folding the paper for their chosen party and sealing it in the envelope provided before dropping the envelope into a clear ballot box. There is no electronic voting here, although Greeks don’t necessarily vote in the district where they currently live; many remain registered in their hometown or village, due to strong sentimental ties to the place and a desire for reunions with old friends and family. This provides one explanation for the Friday and Monday school closings surrounding each Sunday that’s an election day (probably so almost no one has to show up for work, and many can make a holiday of it). Another explanation is that public workers must set up and take down voting booths and ballot boxes during regular working hours—a bigger job than in the U. S., since with no school gym in most towns, all the school rooms tend to be used, with people divided among rooms alphabetically. So after two weeks of Easter vacation and one May Day holiday, four more lost school days left my kids with a total of 29 days at school in April and May—minus another one for my son’s field trip, 28, and minus three for my daughter’s field trips and teacher’s personal day, 26. One parent assured me that that’s okay, because Greeks learn fast. They’d better.

The Rites and Rains of School and Spring

It rained mud the other week, and again the other day—or at least rained very muddy drops. I didn’t believe that could really happen before I moved to Crete, but a look at all the cars after such a rain makes it clear—as mud. Sounds like Greek politics or education. The major concern of Greek high school seniors and their parents has now shifted away from politics, to the dreaded annual Panhellenic university entrance exams, when 105,000 students compete “for 70,305 spots, which will determine whether they will get into their university or technical college of choice”—or any public college or university in Greece ("Greek seniors start battle for university placement"). I’ve complained at length about the Greek educational system already (see my October 2013 blog), but I have to admit that some surprising, impressive successes do emerge from it, such as the Athens Law School students’ first-place finish in “the global Moot Court Competition on May 18 at the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, beating a team from Harvard University” ("Greek law students take first prize at Moot Court"). What is even more impressive: a public secondary education is free for the students who pass these horrendous exams. That’s an amazing reward, from an American perspective, but simply an entitlement, in the Greek view. The problem is that it follows a cruel feat of endurance that costs parents thousands of euros, and students years of childhood. Those years and euros are lost because so many teens have to give up many, if not all, their extracurricular activities (most of them not offered at public schools, either) in order to attend costly private night school classes which may run until 10:00 or later—after which they are expected to study for both public and private school lessons. The struggle comes early in Greece, rather than lasting for years, as it does for American college students who pile up outrageous debts.

College-bound Greek high school seniors are known to work harder than anyone else in the country, so I figure they’re totally burnt out and ready for time off when they enter university—which explains frequently lackluster academic performances as university students, especially in the first year or two. (As I’ve said, there are important exceptions to this.) But before they can begin their often relaxed university careers, they must do a very good job regurgitating memorized material on seven three-hour exams taken on different days from May 28 to June 12. Parents share their children’s stress and take time off work to wait outside schools during exam hours. Never mind high school achievement or extracurricular activities—this is it. For those who think SATs and ACTs are bad, just look at the Greek system; a recent evaluation calls it the worst in Europe ("Greek education ranked worst in the EU"). But if nearly one quarter of the Greek population (including babies and small children) cannot pay their taxes ("Debts to state grow by over 1 bln euros every month"), the Troika insists on more and more budget cutbacks, and a large percentage of Greeks also work for the private school or tutoring system that prepares students for entrance exams, how can the situation be improved? This is another question to which Greeks respond with τί να κάνουμε (what can we do?) and υπομονή (patience)—or ας’ το, “oss toe” (leave it, as in “I don’t want to think about it”).

So let’s change the subject. The day before the first round of municipal and district elections, we drove through a maze of Chania streets, then turned toward Theriso, in the foothills of the White Mountains. Theriso itself is more interesting theoretically, as the birthplace of the great statesman Eleftherios Venizelos, than as a place to visit, aside from two small, picturesque churches and a multitude of tavernas to serve the tourists on one of the little open-sided train-buses you’d expect to see in an amusement park parking lot rather than a Greek mountain village. Maybe we missed something, aside from the historical monuments and small former school that’s become a museum focused on the Greek resistance fight during WWII, but the drive through the Theriso Gorge struck me as more intriguing than the village. I love these Cretan gorges, with their winding roads between irregular, steeply rising rock walls, some wooded, some rough, and others smooth, exposing the varied colors of mineral deposits smoothed down by the elements. In the little museum in Theriso, some of the photos of resistance fighters were blocked by two makeshift voting booths, with large, heavy-duty clear plastic boxes ready to hold completed ballots on election day. The two young girls staffing the museum said voting took place there because there were no longer enough children in the village for it to have its own school.

Farther along the single-lane road that winds through the hills beyond the village, we found the Dounias Taverna or “Traditional Center of Gastronomy of the Cretan Diet,” as they advertise, with its most appealing tables across the road, on a hill with a tranquil view of forested valleys. Owner Stelios Trilirakis proudly showed us into the kitchen, with its multitude of clay pots full of rich dishes prepared from local organically-grown produce and livestock. A procession of creatively prepared foods soon began to trickle out to our table, from the unusual mixed salad of purslane, artichoke, tomato, olives, and more to the tzatziki made with carrots and the surprisingly rich, filling cauliflower with carrots and hondros (a sort of homemade dried bread). The procession of foods did not stop with what we ordered; several additional samples, including meat and stuffed vegetables, appeared courtesy of Stelios, even after D declared himself too full to eat another bite and the kids and I gave up trying to fit more into our stomachs and wandered off with Stelios’s small son to see their rabbits, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cow and pick a few of the wildflowers still blooming at this higher elevation. Yet that profusion of tasty food was followed by a plate of loquats and an astonishingly reasonable bill. Completely stuffed, we headed home by a different route below some of the stunning cloudy skies of Crete that tourists miss during summer's clear blue heat. Winding along a narrow road toward Aptera, we reached a high plateau with an impressive view of Souda Bay, Chania, and the Akrotiri Peninsula spread out below us.

Most of the wildflowers in our area have dried up and been mowed down, which contributes to my occasionally more depressed mood as one of my distractions from the reality facing me in Greece has been removed. However, friendly gestures and words, walks and gatherings, explorations and excursions provide welcome diversions. An older woman I don’t know gave me a gardenia as I photographed her bougainvillea. I discovered a new place to walk over some very rough rocks with a gorgeous view of sea, sky, and Chania. On May Day, we joined a small, low-key neighborhood gathering around a little church near the sea and continued the tradition of gathering flowers for our May wreaths, and our favorite family restaurant, Sunset Restaurant in Tersanas, opened again for the season. May Day should really be the first of March or April in Crete, since we have so many more wildflowers in bloom then, in addition to May’s thistle, mournful widow, and wild carrot; as it is, wreath makers have to resort to raiding gardens, where roses, bougainvillea, honeysuckle, jasmine, and oleander have begun to bloom profusely beside the year-round geranium blossoms. Those gardens provide cheery bright spots, along with the summer fruit coming into season. Cherries hang in bunches and lie heaped in piles for sale next to honeydew at the farmers’ market, which we might consider the cornucopia of Crete. This can remind us that while we live in no paradise, we have so much more of the good things we want and need here than so many people of the world, including sustenance, shelter, peace, and security. As Greeks say, if we have our health, the rest can wait.

 

Christmas in Greece: Festivities, Feasts, Fires, and Fears

Leading up to Christmas in Greece, a mild season this year in Crete and Athens, poinsettia trees and cyclamen flowers bloom, community groups organize charity bazaars, schoolchildren stage performances during which parents talk, and schools offer parties featuring cheese pies and sweets, Santa and stories, crafts and (in our case) Cretan dances and Zumba. Christmas carnivals spring up in various city squares, parks, and stadiums, with colorful rides, giant bubbles, and seasonal activities for children, as well as opportunities for commerce by immigrants, Roma, and Greeks. Greeks gather at the homes of friends and family for reunions, reminiscences, gifts for the kids, food, and drink--and to share their pessimism about the future of Greece, complaining about high taxes and expenses, with salaries back at 2006 levels for those who still have jobs, and ever lower pensions. I have spoken with only one person who believes the current centrist coalition government is doing the right thing, and only one other person who believes the leftist SYRIZA (the main opposition party) can improve things. And those are the leading political parties in Greece, nearly tied in the polls--but with not even a quarter of respondents supporting either one.

 

Piraeus, or Pireas (the port city that runs into Athens), is really not where I wanted to spend this most home- and family-centered holiday (in my own American experience), partly because it's not a place where I can satisfy my very particular sentimental and aesthetic preferences for small colorful lights on large houseplants and live Christmas trees, plus the dozens of red and white candles my mother used to light all over our spacious living room, the menorah candles for Hanukkah, a fire in the fireplace (and no concern for smog), hot chocolate and Monopoly after ice skating and sledding or frisbee football, my mother's cooking and baking and our Christmas cookie decorating sessions: my all-American, intercultural, nostalgic memories, not even completely marred by my parents' divorce, with extended family so far-flung across our large continent that we adopted dear friends as family to share holidays with us. Of course, this first Christmas and New Year’s after my mother died were bound to be difficult. I miss her, as well as my father, and I haven’t yet gotten used to her absence.

But here we are with my mother in law (one of the most thoughtful, accommodating, unselfish people I know) in Piraeus for the typically long school vacation: more than two weeks this year, to encompass everything from Christmas Eve through New Year's and then the celebration of the lights (Epiphany) and Agios Ioannis (Saint John's) day. And it was busy enough here with the shopping, children's gifts, kitchen cleanup, visiting with Greek family, and cooking (including my annual turkey soup with leftovers from the bird Greeks eat only at Christmas and New Year's, along with goat and pork) that I kept my nostalgic desires in check and just accepted the day for what it was, here and now, festive and celebratory in its own family- and food-centered Greek way.

While the White Mountains of Crete have been living up to their name, well covered with snow for weeks now, here in Piraeus on my Christmas morning walk it felt like fall, with mild temperatures and many trees still full of more yellow leaves than we tend to see in our part of Crete, with some crumbling underfoot as they used to back in Pennsylvania, except that here they mix with citrus trees in front of the few dilapidated and renovated neoclassical houses that remain, dwarfed between five to seven-story apartment blocks. A few boats decorated with lights add an interesting twist to the ubiquitous Christmas trees and scattering of Santas (and the large boat in Athens's central Syntagma Square provides an especially noteworthy return to Greek tradition this year after last year's bizarre, needlessly expensive scaffolding-light-and-noise monstrosity).

Once our company joined us, I witnessed an interesting Christmas dinner discussion of the accuracy of goat bone readers (like fortune tellers, or the readers of eggs and interpreters of coffee grounds left in a cup). A father claimed that the first initial of his then-future wife's name, the birth of their two sons, and the sons' first initials had all been correctly foretold by a Romanian woman, but his wife disagreed, and his son objected that such beliefs were un-Christian. A grandmother explained that the Orthodox Church allows such fortune telling on Saint George's day in April, and her son whispered to me that this was part of the church's attempts to reconcile the pagan and Christian beliefs of Greeks in early Christian times. I suppose I could have heard a similar conversation (which reminds me of Zora Neale Hurston) in some parts of the U. S., but I haven't been in the right place for it so far.

Young people in Greece sing their Christmas carols, or Calenda, in return for money, often accompanying themselves with triangles, on Christmas Eve morning and again on New Year's Eve morning and January 5, the day before Epiphany, which is known here as Fota, the festival of light and day for blessing the waters and boats (when a priest throws a cross into the freezing sea, and brave youths race to retrieve it). Sometimes we see wandering bands or accordionists playing carols or other music in the streets these days. What I'd never seen before was a little band of youths with two trombones, a clarinet, a trumpet, and a drum

marching through a small neighborhood "super"market as they played (and how they could do that, with the crowds in that small space, I don't know; I find it difficult to just make my way through some of the aisles to shop there when it's busy!). I hadn't ever seen (or heard) the Calenda played with plastic tubes of varying lengths, either, as groups of visitors did at the Eugenides Foundation's Interactive Science and Technology Exhibition Hall next to its digital planetarium last week. I played my part best in the carol with the same tune as "Jingle Bells," where I actually knew the rhythm. Then we watched a wonderful film about expeditions to Everest, which was the highlight of our visit, since some of the exhibits didn't work correctly, although others were fascinating. Our favorite was the air percussion room, where it sounded like we were playing drums, cymbals, and bells when we hit the air.

Actually, there was a great deal more energy, as well as far more people, when the Technical University of Crete hosted a science fair for elementary school students on December 7, with chemistry demonstrations using ordinary household materials such as baking soda, vinegar, eggs, water, oil, and dyes; small robotic dogs and soccer players that ran (awkwardly) and attempted goals (without any remote control); cell phones to tell when plants must be watered; illustrations and elementary discussions of mathematical models and fractals; computer-generated shadow puppetry; elementary students' exhibits of the water cycle and a volcano that erupted; and more demonstrations than anyone could visit in a few hours. What was most encouraging was that both children and parents were excited and impressed by the science, and with an estimated 3,000 visitors, it felt like the university was THE place to be on that Saturday afternoon! My son even delayed leaving for a birthday party in order to watch more of the chemistry demonstrations. I suppose that event was more impressive than the Athens museum both due to the enthusiastic, energetic efforts of hundreds of students and professors, and because Chania residents unaccustomed to access to a science museum really appreciated seeing something extraordinary.

More recently, we delayed our venture into central Athens to see what Christmas carnivals and activities might impress our children and to check out this year's lovely traditional decorations in Syntagma Square, because of concern about the severe smog created by the fireplaces and wood stoves used to heat homes. This is the result of heating oil prices that are drastically higher than a few years ago (and much higher than in New York and London), thanks to the government’s efforts to combat smuggling and to raise more of the money that the Troika demands, while salaries are so much lower than they used to be, and many families’ electricity has been cut off because they couldn’t pay their bills. There has been such a serious problem with air quality in Athens and some other Greek cities that children and elderly people were advised to stay indoors some days, and people were asked to stop using fireplaces. Since one teenager died and another couple's house burned down during recent attempts to heat homes with fires, more assistance has been offered to the most impoverished so they can afford to heat their homes more safely, but I don't know if the aid will reach enough people in time to prevent more tragedies. And southern Greece isn’t even very cold yet. We are fortunate; we are still able to pay our bills, even though D’s salary and benefits have been cut several times. I was not even bothered by the air quality in the city; nor did I notice a smell of smoke outside. Even so, each time I came in after going out at night, I was surprised to find that my hair smelled like a wood fire.

The government and its supporters claim that the economy is improving--but so they've been saying for some time, and many ordinary Greeks have yet to see evidence of this. Granted, Greece will have a primary surplus this year, and investors in government bonds will make a great deal of money, but this occurs at the expense of people who lack heat, electricity, homes, sufficient warm clothing and shoes, necessary health care, and/or adequate nutritious food, since the government and the Troika have acted less to promote ordinary people's well-being than to help banks, bonds, and the national economic numbers that are most important to the upper classes. It's true that some Greeks have enough money to rent little cars for small children or pedal-powered cars for families next to the extensive Paleo Faliro playgrounds and promenade by the sea, while others can afford the entry fees required for children's holiday activities that were free last year, when the city of Athens spent far more on Christmas, or pay for carnival rides. New exercise equipment for adults in Paleo Faliro, a new daycare center and toddlers' playground in Neo Faliro, and still

impressive metro stations such as the one in Kerameikos with its sculpted forest also imply a measure of prosperity. 

However, many small businesses are struggling to stay open, or closing, leaving many empty spaces for rent or destroyed by weather and vandalism. Tens of thousands of university students began their fall semester only in mid December due to staff strikes, and prisons suffer from such excessively overcrowded, unhygienic, barbaric conditions that they sound like they resemble the dungeons of the Dark Ages (Greek prison system collapsing – labeled 'inhuman'). Doctors serving Greek public servants, including teachers and professors,

have been striking for months, except for emergency treatment, leaving basic and preventive care unprovided for many who cannot afford to pay private doctors. The article about the "Council of Europe report: 10austerity imposed human rights abuses in Greece" provides a concise overview of the ways hastily applied, inadequately considered austerity measures threaten the health and well-being of Greeks and other Europeans with their negative effects on pensions, health care, workers' rights,

unemployment rates, and freedom of expression, rather than “Safeguarding human rights in times of economic crises” (as the report is titled). The article suggests that Greek leaders' plans to satisfy the Troika's demands to save money often end up conflicting with the Treaty on European Union and the European Social Charter. On subways and sidewalks, wandering Roma children with accordions  and collection cups compete with Greek beggars' stories of hardship, prompting some handouts, some silence, and one well-dressed middle-aged woman’s notation of an unemployed father's address, with the comment that she wanted to send him something.

On the other hand, some free-spirited Greek youths demonstrated their exuberance with back flips and twists into the Paleo Faliro sand the other day. And the impressive wall painting of two blue hands cupped below a flaming euro coin (pictured in my October 22, 2012 blog) outside the Theatro kato ap' tin Gefira (Theater Under the Bridge) near the Olympiakos soccer stadium in Neo Faliro has been replaced by a possibly more hopeful image of a lit candle. I don't know if that refers to the Christmas holiday, or to increased hope for the Greek economy and the country as a whole. In any case, we shall see whether the midnight firecrackers and phone calls of New Year’s Eve, the Vasilopita or New Year’s cake, with one piece set aside for strangers, and the family gatherings over holiday dinners foreshadow a more joyful, caring, generous and hopeful year for Greece in 2014. We finally visited the nearby Archaeological Museum of Piraeus for the first time yesterday and were impressed with its small but often impressive collection before beginning a long seaside walk past the boats and harbors of Piraeus, so that was a good start for us. May it be a happier new year for those who struggled in 2013.