Greek Crisis, Summer 2015, Part 2: Syrian Refugees in Greece

Connecting With Some of the Refugees

I first talked with some of the refugees from Syria who ended up in Chania, Crete, Greece last September and October, when there were 45 refugees here, far fewer than the 153 who had been brought here the previous spring after their smugglers’ boat to Italy began to sink. Now, all but 14 of them have managed to leave, whether by plane or on foot, heading to the more prosperous northern and central European countries where they hoped to find family, jobs, support, and good schools. None of the children have both parents here with them, and they are anxious for paperwork to be processed so they can join other family members in the countries where they have been granted asylum. They have been staying in a beachfront hotel on a Greek island, but after their terrifying boat journey from Egypt, with families divided and homes destroyed, this is no vacation.

Only in May did I learn that two of the Syrian women in Chania speak some English, and that one of the men is an artist. Apparently I wasn’t asking the right questions before—just questions about where their families were (scattered), if they had all survived the bombing and shooting in Syria (no), whether they expected to be able to join surviving family members in other countries (eventually), what had happened to their homes in Syria (destroyed), whether they needed food and clothing (yes). Important questions, to be sure, but not enough to learn the whole story—a story that goes way beyond the numbers, the border policing, the boats, the smugglers, and the politics we hear about in the news.

It didn’t take long for me to feel like the Syrian mother I’ll call Rima was becoming my friend. Talking with her and her friend, whom I’ll call Maram, in the small fifth-floor walk-up hotel room where she had been living with her six year old twins for 14 months by May, we were just mothers and daughters together wearing similar clothes, with no veils. (“Rima,” “Maram,” and some of the other women there spoke with me on the condition that I not use their real names, because they are worried about relatives who are still in Syria.) Rima and I share an interest in language and writing; she had taught Arabic and learned to create beautiful Arabic calligraphy, while I’ve taught English and took a calligraphy class in college. We both care about our children and try to make the best decisions for them. But she has gone to great lengths to get hers to safety, while I have never been seriously worried that mine could be shot, crushed under a bombed building, or drowned in an overcrowded boat in a rough sea.  

Ordinary Families Making Extraordinary Efforts to Escape War

Rima says their problems started with the war in Syria. (If you prefer a very short summary of her story, see my brief article at Lancaster Online.) Before the war, life was perfect for her happy, loving family, with their small house in Damascus, a car, a bank account, and the gold jewelry every husband traditionally bought his wife. Her husband was a barber, Rima taught Arabic to foreign women in her home, and her four daughters attended school. Now that life is gone. Rima has a sister and brother in Egypt, and her parents and another sister are still in a small town near Damascus. She seems worried about them but doesn’t know what they can do, aside from crying together on the phone.

Rima told me her brother in law was killed when he went out to buy bread, and Assad’s soldiers shot him repeatedly. Then, she reported, he lay on the street in Barza (next to Damascus) for three or four hours, because people were too scared to move him with soldiers around. There, Rima said, everyone wanted freedom from Assad. All of Syria did, she added, but especially the people of Barza, who demonstrated for freedom daily. Many people were killed—one or two in every family there, she thinks. She said Maram’s 28 year old cousin was killed, as well as three other family members, plus many of Rima’s and her daughters’ friends, including a 12 year old boy and a 10 year old shot by a gun from a passing car. Rima told me that on Fridays, the Muslim holy day, soldiers came out on rooftops after prayers and shot people as they left the mosques. She said soldiers even waited for children to leave school so they could kill them.

So they were afraid. Rima kept her daughters—the twins and two others who are now 15 and 17--home from school, sent them back when soldiers stopped shooting, kept them home again, then finally gave up trying to figure out when it was safe to venture out of the house, and left Syria. With her sister and brother and their families, her daughters and her husband, Rima took a bus to Lebanon, stopping at a checkpoint every half hour for questioning by Assad’s soldiers. From Lebanon, they flew to Egypt, along with Maram’s mother and brother and their families and many other Syrians. Maram (who is related to Rima by marriage) also traveled to Egypt with her three daughters, but without her husband. She said they began their trip at the very dangerous Damascus airport, with bombs falling around them. Rima was reunited with Maram and her girls in Egypt, where they lived on the same street. Maram had arrived earlier and ended up staying there for 1 ½ years, while Rima and her family stayed for 11 months.

They sold some of their gold jewelry in Syria and the rest of it in Egypt, because their money ran out. All the furniture in their houses, even down to the light switches, has been stolen, according to friends who have been there since Rima left. The houses on her street were bombed or shot full of bullet holes. Maram showed me before and after photos of her once beautiful living room, with orange draperies and fabrics complemented by paler colors before the bombing, and then a complete mess with holes in the walls and huge pieces of cement all over afterwards. It is good these people got away. But now they have no homes.

Crowded together with her and her brother’s families in one unimpressive house in Egypt to save money, Rima cried daily and told her husband she wanted to return to Syria. He said they could be killed if they did. All the men were scared to go back, lest they be taken by soldiers and never heard from again. Rima told me the teacher at the dirty school her girls attended insulted the children and beat them with a wooden rod, so the girls didn’t want to attend. It was also very hot in Egypt, with biting insects that prevented sleep and made the girls look ill. Egyptians asked why they came, told them to leave, swore at them, and expected the women to be their prostitutes. Rima was scared; she said they left because it was almost as bad as Syria. Greeks are not like that, she told me: Rima can walk alone in the streets at night here as she could not in Egypt.

Rima, Maram, and their families left Egypt together. They were told they’d travel on a good boat featuring cabins with beds, food, water, and even wi fi, but the smuggler lied to them. He charged $2500 per adult, and half that for each child. A small wooden boat took them to a medium sized one where they spent one night with just enough room to sit up next to all the other Syrians. After one day, they had to jump from the medium boat to a large one, the one that later broke down. There was no bridge, so men threw the women and children up to the larger boat like sacks, while big waves rocked the boats. One man bumped his head, got dizzy, and fell down. One heavy woman fell down, lost her shoes, robe, and scarf, and suffered pain for two days. Rima and Maram think two or three people died on that boat, perhaps from drug overdoses; it came from Morocco, and they believe it was carrying heroin as well as refugees and migrants from Syria and Egypt.

It was Rima and Maram’s first time on a boat, and they became seasick. Two of their daughters couldn’t eat or even drink water properly for four days—they managed only drops of water, fresh lemon, and salt. Everyone ate lemons which a man brought around along with bags for seasickness. Everyone vomited in the bags, so they ran out of them. Although they had brought plenty of food with them (including chocolate, bread, and cheese), they were too seasick to eat it.  

After two days on the big boat, a large wave broke a window, and sea water washed over Rima’s little twin girls, leaving them wet and cold. The children were crying; everyone was crying. Rima’s husband couldn’t look at his daughters. They thought they’d die. They prayed. The boat rocked wildly. After four days and five nights, the boat broke down in the middle of the sea.

They hoped for help from Italians, since they were trying to get to Italy, and then to Germany, but Greeks came to the rescue. The refugees thanked God for their rescuers and their children’s lives and health, but they were upset to learn that they were put on a Greek boat. They didn’t want to come to Greece, because they knew it was hard to get to Germany from here.

Rima said Greece “closes the door – if we go in Greece we can’t go out” because the authorities don’t let them board planes. Rima tried twice, Maram once; Maram’s older daughters (who are 19 and 21) tried once a week, ten or twelve times, and finally succeeded. They paid $150 for a fake ID from Belgium or France, or $300 for a fake passport from the Czech Republic. One friend with a lot of money got through the first time. But generally officials took the fake ID, destroyed it, and refused to let them travel, so they lost the money paid for all the plane tickets as well as the IDs.

Why keep breaking the law, then, and giving their limited savings to criminals? With family in Germany, which has been giving asylum and support to the Syrian refugees who get there, while Greece is unable to support its own citizens during an economic crisis comparable to America’s Great Depression, and incapable of guaranteeing support or jobs for refugees, what would you have them do? Most refugees cannot find legal ways to reach a safe, prosperous country; one father said he went from embassy to embassy in Egypt in vain. A UN HCR representative informed me that for those who “have no documentation in Greece, there is no legal way for them to travel to EU or other countries unless embassies of such countries issue visas for humanitarian or other grounds, which is in practice very difficult”—except when an immediate family member is there already. So at least one family member must get to a land of safety and prosperity however they can. That is what current laws push them to do.

So Rima’s husband came to Crete with his wife and their daughters, but then he walked for 40 days to reach Germany. He now has the asylum he sought there, so the rest of the family will eventually be able to join him. Her husband would have stayed in Greece if he could have found work; Rima likes Greece. But like many Syrian refugees, Rima and Maram want to go to Germany because they expect to be able to find the jobs, support, and educational opportunities their families need, especially since the kids have barely attended school for three years. There was a good university in Syria, but now Rima supposes her girls will go to a German university after they finish high school. Once her husband learns German and gets the appropriate permit, Rima expects him to be able to cut hair or fix cars. Meanwhile, the German government is supporting him. Rima may look for a job once her girls return to school. She and Maram are thinking of opening a small restaurant featuring Syrian food, because they are good cooks—as I know from sampling some of their tasty cooking.

Additional Obstacles, Cultural, Legal, Residential, and Financial

Maram’s husband lives in Germany, where he also has a German wife. Islamic law allows up to four wives, but since German law does not, he has told German officials that he and Maram are divorced. This makes it more difficult for Maram to get permission to go there, although her husband’s German wife has shown compassionate concern for her and her children. Two of Maram’s daughters joined their father in Germany six months ago. A German friend who lives here in Greece tells us that according to the Dublin Regulation, children are supposed to be reunited with both parents, whether the parents are divorced or not. She has been trying to help Maram with paperwork to enable a family reunion in Germany. If the Germans don’t make an exception for a Syrian refugee, the Dublin Regulation may help. I very much hope Maram won’t be left behind when the rest of her family is reunited. 

Maram, Rima, and some of the other refugees from Syria have been living for 17 months in small rooms in a hotel whose owner the Greek government promised to pay for their lodging. Any time I asked the owner or his son, however, they said that they had not been paid and were having serious financial difficulties, losing income from tourists for two summers while facing bills, taxes, and loan payments. But there is nowhere else for the refugee families, which include children, to go; Crete has no shelter for them, and in Athens and other parts of Greece thousands of refugees are sleeping on the streets or in parks while waiting for their documents to be processed. The government managed to move a couple hundred out of an Athens park where they’d been camping, and into some prefabricated housing, but there are still thousands of homeless migrants and refugees waiting for processing.

Another mother I met (from Aleppo) came here with her three boys. Her husband visited from Sweden, where he’d been granted asylum. When I gave them a ride back to the hotel from the Anti-Racist Festival earlier this summer, I was struck by how little he fit the stereotype of a Muslim man or an Arab refugee. A fairly short, slim man with light skin and light, reddish curly hair, he spoke with sensitivity in very good English. His wife and her younger boys expect to join him in Sweden without any problem, but that’s not true of their 18 year old son, who is not eligible for family reunification under the Dublin Regulation at his age. Unwilling to remain in Greece without his family, any connections, knowledge of the language, or employment prospects, the 18 year old set out on the long road travelled by so many refugees, walking to Sweden from Greece to join his father. He seems to have preferred to walk that far alone, rather than remain in a foreign country by himself. I just hope Sweden will grant him asylum once he gets there.

As Europe awaits the result of Greece’s upcoming sixth general election in eight years—a pro-European majority or a revitalization of anti-bailout parties—refugees from Syria wait for permission to join family members elsewhere in Europe. Of course, these are the lucky ones, not the relatives left behind in Syria, where their houses may be bombed or their children may be shot. These are the lucky ones who made it out of the chaos of Egypt and Libya, beyond the crowded refugee camps or slums of Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. Most of them used to be well-off, so they could afford to pay what the smugglers demanded, and what the long journey required, assuming things went smoothly. However, their shipwreck further complicated their lives and strained their resources.

While talking with me, one of the women mentioned that they’d lost everything, left everything behind in Syria—their work and routines, their neighborhoods, their homes, and all that was in them. Tears came to their eyes as they thought about it, and all I could think of to say was “you still have your family.” But that isn’t quite right, since the surviving members of their families are scattered in several different countries.

A Lonely Artist Who Longs for His Family

Like Shamsalddin, a Palestinian refugee who had been living in Syria with his wife and two small daughters before the war, I am drawn to the arts and artistic expression, although I focus on writing and photography, while he paints and draws, and I have not been separated from my spouse and children for a year. I am not so depressed that I can barely function and don’t have the will for self-expression. I do not wonder when paperwork will be completed so I can join little six and eight year old daughters I haven’t seen all year. I have not lived in a lonely room without the job I need to support my children, worried that they might not be allowed to continue attending school since the answer to their mother’s asylum request was delayed for more than ten months.

Shamsalddin told me he used to have a good life as an artist in Syria. But then his computer, paintings, and entire home were bombed, and now they’re gone. All he has left are a few imperfect smart phone photos of his art work (pictured here). His wife and daughters are safe in Sweden, but they were granted asylum and a residence permit only recently, after a long wait. Since others received residence permits a few months after getting to Sweden, or even just two or three weeks after their arrival, Shamsalddin didn’t see why the Swedish officials wouldn’t give his wife a permit earlier. He doubted they understood how hard things were for him and his family, who live in a modest hotel like the one he is in here and eat with other asylum seekers, not at home with their family.

 

For many months, Shamsalddin worried that everyone in the hotel except him would soon join their families in other countries. Although he smiled at me occasionally when I visited, Shamsalddin said he worried too much about his wife and little girls to focus on painting or drawing; he just wasn’t in the mood for it. He emphasized his loneliness, and he didn’t seem to talk with other people much. He said when he is happy, he can paint very well, but when he isn’t happy he doesn’t want to paint. I tried to talk with him about letting out our pain through writing (in my case) or painting and drawing (in his case), reminding him that all art isn’t rooted in happiness. Some of his art suggests he already knows that perfectly well, but maybe he would have been more convinced to try to express himself now if I’d discussed my writing about my parents and my feelings after they died. That is the only suffering I have endured that can begin to compare with what these refugees have faced, although the circumstances were very different.

Never allow the numbers and politics to let you forget that these refugees are people like you, people with talents, skills, needs, feelings, problems, and children. The difference is that they fled cities plagued by bombing and shooting to save their children’s lives, and now they are looking for places where their children can have a safe, healthy future, an education, and hope. Yes, some refugees may have crossed borders without the appropriate papers, but if you couldn’t find a legal way out of a war zone, wouldn’t you get your children to safety any way you could? Yes, everyone has problems, yes, there are unemployment and need among the native population everywhere, but would you keep your children in a city full of bombing and shooting, or in a refugee camp or slum plagued by overcrowding, health, safety, and sanitation problems, inadequate food and water supplies, and unemployment, or would you try to take them somewhere with more to offer?

An Overview of the News and the Numbers

Recently, the New York Times  and NPR have been following fleeing refugees up to and beyond the Greek islands closest to Turkey, which has become refugees’ preferred starting point this summer on the way to more prosperous central and northern European countries. Some Greek islands in the eastern Aegean have been overwhelmed by tens of thousands of needy refugees, who then head north from mainland Greece to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Serbia, and the European country of Hungary. Aside from a short-lived struggle on the border with FYROM, Greece and its impoverished Balkan neighbors have tended to allow desperate refugees and migrants to pass through on their way to countries where they hope to find more jobs and governmental support, but Hungary has almost finished a giant wall along its 109-mile border with Serbia that is meant to push migrants and refugees away.

Every time another fence is erected, that simply pushes migrants and refugees in a different direction, or toward more unscrupulous smugglers, such as those who seem to have let 71 people die in a truck in Austria last week. Fences between Turkey and Bulgaria, Turkey and northeastern Greece, and Morocco and the Spanish territories in North Africa don’t stop people who are desperate to reach a land of opportunity, such as Germany, Sweden, Austria, France, or the UK. Germany expects to receive as many as 800,000 migrants and asylum seekers this year, and it has been the most generous country for refugees, but its leaders have warned that the country cannot continue to care for such large numbers of needy human beings.

This year, many countries—including Greece, which now has a caretaker government until the September 20 election—are struggling to cope with the huge influx of refugees, mostly from Syria, some from Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Volunteers and NGOs offer some of the food, clothing, care, services, and shelter governments do not provide, but everyone is overwhelmed by the numbers. The UN recently reported that about 310,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe so far this year, with almost 200,000 of them coming to Greece, which has replaced Italy as their most popular initial destination within Europe. The UNHCR announced a 750% increase in refugees and migrants arriving in Greece by sea from January to the end of last month, compared with the same period last year, and about 76,000 more have come since then. Again and again this year, the media spotlight has reminded people that migrants and refugees are drowning in the Mediterranean Sea at unprecedented rates. According to the UN, more than 2500 people have already died this year in their dangerous efforts to cross the sea.

In spite of repeated calls for an organized, united European response to save lives and reduce the burden on Greece and Italy, tentative agreements to relocate a mere 40,000 of the refugees in other EU countries have led to little action and many arguments with countries that just don’t want to accept refugees. The issue of migration has joined that of the common currency during the extended Greek economic crisis to raise the question of whether a united Europe remains possible. With about 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, it seems clear to me that prosperous countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and elsewhere should, in all fairness, act on their claims to support human rights by accepting far more refugees than they have so far agreed to.

Of course, the best solution is to solve the problems that make people leave their homelands—war, other violence, famine, poverty, forced military conscription--but that has proven extremely difficult so far. In the meantime, human beings fleeing dangerous situations need good, viable options. They do not find these in the overburdened refugee camps bordering conflict zones, or—even worse--the other spaces refugees manage to live in, many of them plagued by crime, safety concerns, and a lack of adequate healthcare, education, food, clean water, and hope. Prosperous nations need to provide more legal channels for migration and, especially, asylum for refugees, including different types of humanitarian and temporary visas and more choices and help for people fleeing war zones. These legal avenues need to be within reach of the desperate people who need them, in or near the troubled areas. If only unscrupulous smugglers offer so-called “help” to refugees, where do you expect them to turn?

Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, argues that “European countries have lost all sense of proportion. With a total population estimated at more than 740 million, they are among the richest and most stable countries in the world, but they pretend to be threatened by the idea of admitting 600,000 asylum seekers a year…. The values of tolerance, acceptance and solidarity have defined the European project. We cannot abandon them now, over this.” Hear, hear! Americans and others should think about the way a very similar argument applies to them, too.

Updates on Some of the Refugees Who Have Left Crete

Having seen his baby son Adam only in cell phone photos, the former Syrian restaurant owner Abdulkader Alkadi recently flew with his four children (ages 7 to 13) to join their mother and new baby brother in London, where Mrs. Alkadi had flown alone when she was pregnant, in search of medical care and a residence permit. Mohammed, whose badly burned wife Hanan is in Malta with four of their seven children, went to Athens, planning to join his family in Malta. Mahmoud, the first of the refugees to speak with me here, is in Germany with his family.

Adeeb Mayyasa, the father with a heart problem who was here with his 9-year old daughter Jode, has gone to Athens with her to request asylum in Greece. Last I heard, his wife, 17-year-old daughter, and 22-year-old son were in Egypt; some family members were unreachable, while others were killed in Syria. Mohammed Khalid and his daughter Besan are also in Athens to apply for asylum in Greece. Although they did not want to remain in Greece, given 25% unemployment and limited support services, they have no family in a prosperous nation, so they have no better prospects for asylum.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Migrant or Refugee? There Is a Difference, With Legal Implications

Up to 200 dead after boat carrying refugees sinks off Libya

Dealing With the Influx of Migrants and Refugees

 

Migrants Face Fortress Europe’s Deadly Moat

  

Migrants Race North as Hungary Builds a Border Fence

  

Europe still has time to help Greece with its refugee crisis

 

In Testy Debate, E.U. Leaders Fail to Agree on Quotas to Spread Migrants Across Bloc

   

A 21st-Century Migrant’s Essentials: Food, Shelter, Smartphone 

Hope Falls in the Greek Spring: Austerity, Generosity, Brutality, and Wildflower Escapes

The Fall of Greece? Any Spring Ahead?

During the past month or so, the worldwide popularity of SYRIZA seems to have dropped, although the government remains popular here, and many Greeks are still hopeful. If last month was a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, this month felt to me like a long ride down—into what, remains to be seen. More and more Greeks nervously withdrew any savings they had left in banks, the Greek credit rating fell even further, rumors proliferated about when the Greek government would run out of money, whether capital controls would be imposed, and if and how Greece might leave the Eurozone, default, and/or start using a different currency. Like much of Europe, I was puzzled by the SYRIZA government’s relative inaction, especially in relation to the agreement with the institutions on February 20; why were we waiting so long for the clear proposals discussed way back in February? A friend who’s sympathetic with SYRIZA plausibly suggests it’s a matter of the SYRIZA government’s inexperience. On the other hand, many of us are also puzzled by highly experienced European officials’ refusal to provide the type of financial help they gave the previous Greek government, even after SYRIZA agreed to reforms and budgetary restraints. And many of us are frustrated by foreign leaders’ continuing efforts to control Greece in return for bailouts that benefited European banks rather than Greek people.

Depending on where you look or whom you ask, Greece could run out of money April 9 or April 20 if the institutions (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) don’t approve dispersal of more aid. Depending on where you look or whom you ask, Greece could be having constructive discussions with the institutions, determined to remain on good terms with Europe as part of the Eurozone, promising to repay all debts; or Greece could be wasting time, on the verge of a major default and an exit from the Eurozone. Around the middle of the month, I first noticed the term “Grexident” used in the news instead of “Grexit.” Whether or not I just missed it before, the new word seems to emphasize that many were beginning to view the possibility of an accidental Greek exit from the Eurozone as increasingly likely. At the same time, the Greek and German governments were engaged in a war of words and economics, with the Greeks asking for war reparations the Germans claim to have settled long ago, the Germans claiming the Greeks are not serious about making reforms or working with the institutions, and both Greeks and Germans claiming the others have insulted them.

Formerly known as the troika, the institutions seem intent on putting as much pressure on Greece as possible now that the country is desperate for money. The Greek Parliament defiantly passed one bill to help the needy, even though they were told they shouldn’t do that. Mark Weisbrot argues that “blackmail is actually an understatement of what the troika is doing to Greece. It has become increasingly clear that it is trying to harm the Greek economy in order to increase pressure on the new Greek government to agree to its demands” after the so-called “bailout,” in which “most Greeks have been not bailed out but thrown overboard, having lost more than 25 percent of their national income since 2008.” Weisbrot claims that European officials are doing this “to show who is boss” and states that “by destabilizing the economy and discouraging investment and consumption” their actions will “almost certainly slow Greece’s recovery and [probably] undermine support for the government,” which he says they aim to do. However, “European officials’ actions could inadvertently force Greece out of the euro — a dangerous strategy for all concerned. They should stop undermining the economic recovery that Greece will need if it is to achieve fiscal sustainability” (Destroying the Greek economy in order to save it). I agree.

Greece needs an economic recovery even more than many realize. Princeton and Harvard trained economist Stelios Markianos points out that “per capita consumption [in Greece] dropped between 2009 and 2013 … by 31.5% adjusted for inflation”—not just 25%, which refers to the GDP--on the basis of Eurostat approved published data. And for Markianos, the solution is not tax collection, since he does not consider tax evasion the country’s major problem (although many would like to see the wealthiest tax evaders, especially, make a fair contribution to the Greek state budget). In a work in progress, Markianos compares state revenues in Greece and Germany, which were about equal at around 47% of GDP in 2013; in Greece before 2009, they were approximately 38% of GDP, and thus comparable with Spain’s and Portugal’s. So, Markianos argues, if Greece wasn’t collecting enough taxes before 2009, neither were Spain and Portugal; if Greece wasn’t collecting enough in 2013, neither was Germany. Greeks pay more taxes than Spaniards and Portuguese and as much as Germans, compared to their economies.

Markianos also compares the size of the informal economy (the untaxed part of the economy) relative to GDP in several European countries up to 2009; Greece does come out ahead in this, with Spain’s informal economy at 22.2% of GDP and Greece’s at 26.5%. However, looking at the size of the GDP and the population, “the actual per capita annual amount of tax evasion was in 2012 higher in Germany and France than in Greece at 4,621 euros, 4,057 euros, and 4,001 euros respectively!” On the other hand, Spain, Portugal, and Germany provide more state services than Greece, so Greece’s problem is not undercollection of taxes, but inefficient overspending. Markianos argues, then, that the Greek state needs to cut costs and corruption and introduce reforms that make it more efficient, rather than focusing on collecting more taxes. And the proof for that, he argues, is that “the focus on additional revenues implemented rigorously over the last five years has proved to result in one of the most profound depressions in history, excluding times of war.”

That’s not to say people shouldn’t pay the taxes they owe—at least when they can afford them, after paying for food, clothing, electricity, water, and rent. I’ve understood for some time that new taxation and austerity measures had not been applied fairly in Greece, but I was still shocked by the details of a “Study [that] finds Greek crisis policies created huge inequalities.” It shows that “the tax burden on lower-income Greek households skyrocketed by 337.7 percent compared to just 9 percent for high-income groups” between 2008 and 2012! How could that make sense? Lower income people who were just getting by were expected to come up with more than three times as much money to pay increased taxes, while those who had more than enough just made a slightly larger payment?! Astonishing stupidity and injustice! As Markianos argues, “this regressive fiscal policy has further deepened the depression, as low income persons tend to consume more domestically.”

On top of that, average public sector pay cuts were just 8%, while private sector pay cuts were 19% from 2009-2013 (not adjusting further for the 0 wage unemployed), the former part of a mere 7.5% reduction in government spending. (And even that 7.5% was keenly felt, as public health care coverage dropped drastically, so it was not the wisest sort of reduction—and SYRIZA is now trying to restore universal health care, since Greece spends less on health care than the rest of the EU [Greece scraps hospital visit fee, to hire health workers].) More than 72% of the “fiscal adjustments” came from increased taxation—mostly of the poor. How could that make sense, with the Greek bureaucracy world-famous for being bloated? Part of the problem seems to be that if more public servants were laid off, poverty would seem likely to increase in this land of more than 25% unemployment. But at the root of it all is the excessive patronage politics that led to a great deal of unnecessary hiring in the first place.

And now the Greek state clearly can’t afford to pay so many people. But this is no longer just the fault of patronage politics; it’s also because “Germany and other euro-zone states are effectively bailing out their own banks, thereby rewarding poor lending decisions and speculation,” as a very good overview of the recent history of the Greek crisis in the New Yorker puts it, and as many others have said before. “Close to ninety per cent of the [bailout] money returns directly to the original creditors, or goes to recapitalize Greek banks; most of the funds don’t even touch the Greek government’s hands,” let alone help the Greek people (What Austerity Looks Like Inside Greece).

Last Thursday, there was a severe dust storm here in northwestern Crete, with strong winds bringing dirt from Africa that blocked our view of the mountains we generally see clearly, and the horizon line between the sea and the sky replaced with something like a fuzzy fog bank. The skies are now clear, but the future of Greece is not.

Four Gestures of Varying Significance

Meanwhile, a two-year-old video of Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis giving the finger to Germany before he entered politics surfaced to great fanfare last month, along with a photo spread for a Paris publication that seems to portray Varoufakis and his wife living in luxury. The question of whether or not Varoufakis gave Germany the finger years ago—and what it means if he did or didn’t--has attracted an astonishing amount of attention. However, the real questions here are whether everyone can afford enough nutritious food, adequate medical care, and housing, whether they can earn enough money to pay their bills, and whether the government will manage to pay civil servants’ salaries and pensions this month. Eating fresh spinach and fresh turkey eggs from friends—that’s real. Fingergate? Varoufake? That’s part of a ridiculous media circus.

A more significant gesture was notable at the Greek Independence Day parade in Chania on March 25, where I was struck by the large number of traditional Greek dancing groups passing by in ornate, colorful costumes that contrasted with the dark blue and white of the parading schoolchildren and with the well-matched, serious precision of the military marchers. I was pleased to note that the general public was no longer forced to make a many-block-long detour in order to avoid approaching government officials who had watched the parade from a place of guarded honor during last October’s Ohi Day parade. Although finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was among the dignitaries this time—a newsworthy event, since he doesn’t live in or come from Crete--the SYRIZA government had decreed that there would be no separation between the people and the officials, and we were allowed to pass by in a more civilized manner, aside from some mild pushing on crowded sidewalks.

Some Germans have joined many Greeks in asking Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government to make an even more important gesture. Discussions about German war reparations for Nazi atrocities during WWII have gained particular prominence now, inspiring renewed debate about whether Greece deserves them, or whether past treaties have already settled the issue. Some argue that Greece was not a party to the agreements that declared the reparations issue settled and claim that was not something that could be decided for this country; others assert that Germany won’t re-open the can of worms of general reparations but might at least consider repaying the forced loan from Greece to the Nazis—or at the very least make a symbolic payment as a gesture of goodwill (see, e.g., Pressure mounts on Merkel over Greek war reparations calls).

A German couple recently went to the mayor of Nafplio, chosen because it was “the first capitol of Greece in the 19^th century,” and paid him what they had calculated to be one German’s share of what Germany owes Greece in WWII reparations. (With one retired and the other not working full-time, they couldn’t afford to pay for two.) They were trying to “make up for their government’s attitude” (German couple pay Greece £630 'war reparations'). While two people can hardly make up for a government’s attitude, action, or inaction, I find that a moving individual gesture. If more would make that kind of cross-cultural effort to atone for great wrongs, and fewer would focus on the media circus around a single obscene, but essentially harmless, gesture, perhaps compassionate intercultural relations between individuals would have a greater chance of improving international relations, lessening the harmful effects of the political posturing that creates so much trouble.

Unrealistic idealism? Maybe, maybe not. Too little too late? Perhaps. Politicians  need to get their acts together? Absolutely. But I think such ordinary people’s efforts  are worthwhile. I was also inspired by an article about Erwin Schrumpf, an Austrian who survived the Norman Atlantic ferry fire in December. Both before and after that tragedy, he has been collecting medicines and medical supplies to donate to underfunded Greek hospitals and medical centers, making a noteworthy difference in many people’s lives (Narrow escape from Norman Atlantic fails to dampen one Austrian's support for Greece; see also their web site, although it's not in English). If only I could do something like that! But I’ve already exhausted my family, friends, and friends’ friends with requests to support one fundraiser to help an uninsured, unemployed father of five who has been ill (Help pay Nikolaos’s hospital bills and support his children). My Greek neighbors and friends can and do donate food and clothing for the neediest people here, so that seems to be the most realistic kind of charitable activity for ordinary people within this country. Elsewhere, I’d encourage more people to be as generous as possible to those in need. Of course, private charity is not a solution to the problems facing Greece or any other part of the world, but it can temporarily alleviate a small fraction of the worst suffering.

A Brutal Attack on an Anti-Racist Doctor

At a pizza party to celebrate the strong performance of the children from our school who participated in the Panhellenic Kung Fu Championship, I walked in on a shocked discussion of the brutal beating of a doctor who is well known and loved in Chania for his efforts to help alleviate suffering. In the evening on Greek Independence Day, there was a performance by Yar Aman, a music group of Greeks and migrants, who sang Turkish and Greek songs together in the Old Port of Chania. Afterwards, one of the musicians, a migrant, was verbally attacked by a group of young men. Later, a calm, kind doctor, Dimitris Makreas, who is respected for supporting migrants and caring for those in need, was standing next to the man who had been insulted when some other people shouted at the young men to stop bothering the migrant and go away.

A short time later, according to quotations from Dimitris in a newspaper article, he and his wife were walking down Daskalogianni Street, not far from the Old Port, when he saw one of the young men from the earlier group talking on the phone, looking at Dimitris, and saying “Yes, yes, he is.” Three men were approaching Dimitris and his wife when the one who had been talking on the phone came up behind Dimitris and, without warning—as a video clip from a store’s security camera shows--began to hit him on the back of the head with a heavy wooden handle. A moment later, Dimitris said, three others began kicking and punching him, continuing after he fell down, until an elderly couple began shouting. Even then, when Dimitris managed to get up, a man punched him in the face, throwing him back down and hitting his head on the asphalt, leaving him numb and in pain throughout his body. He was taken to the hospital and treated for a fracture in the front of his skull, a brain hematoma, and bruises on his head. He has been released from the hospital and is recovering from his injuries.

I have heard that at least one witness identified one of the attackers as a member of the fascist group Golden Dawn, and many believe that Dimitris was the victim of an organized assault by a gang of about ten men. Dimitris is especially shocked because some of the young men he identified as his attackers in police photos are residents of Akrotiri, Chania, where he has worked in a community clinic for years, possibly treating some of his attackers’ family members. So far, three men have been arrested for this attack.

Many were surprised that several of the early news reports focused more on damage done to Golden Dawn offices and a store after a spontaneous march to protest this attack, rather than on the serious injury to a human being, while he remained hospitalized. Fortunately, additional coverage provided more attention to the doctor and the brutal attack he suffered. Since the attack, many people have gathered in front of the court house, in a central square in Chania, in the streets of Chania, at various organizations’ meeting places, and in Kounoupidiana, Akrotiri, in support of Dimitris and his migrant friend and in protests against racist violence.

Many feel the attack should have been defined as severe bodily injury or even attempted murder, since several perpetrators repeatedly struck one unarmed person, sometimes with a weapon, and, according to a video, without any provocation. Reporter George Konstas wrote (as translated by Google), “the neurosurgeon Anthony Krasoudakis stressed that apart from the external wounds (on the face, around the head) the most important [problems] ‘are internal bleeding, lesions in the brain and a fractured skull. These blows could cause death. We have seen people killed even with much less severe blows.’”

The timing of the attack shortly after the racist insults, the apparent organization of a gang of ten attackers and accomplices by phone, and the availability of a getaway car—or three cars and one motorbike--have been discussed at length by those who feel that there was a racist motivation for this attack, but the doctor’s lawyers claim this has not been adequately investigated by the police or the judiciary. The lawyers, according to news reports, say witnesses were not pursued, and videos from nearby shops were not entered as evidence. Many local organizations, politicians, and individuals have condemned the attack and called for a complete investigation and full prosecution of everyone involved (Κατακραυγήαπό φορείς και συγκέντρωση διαμαρτυρίας για την απρόκλητη επίθεση σε γιατρό). Now that a good, kind, generous Greek doctor has been attacked, we really don’t know who will be next.

Yesterday, a verdict was announced in the trial of three men: one innocent, two guilty of grievous bodily harm, one of the guilty men also guilty of possession and use of a weapon, with sentences of four years, in one case, and four years ten months, in the other. Both sentences have been suspended until trial in the Court of Appeals, with bail set at 5,000 euros each. All of the attackers are free now, and many of those alleged to have been involved in organizing the attack were not even tried in court, although the prosecutor said the participation of others would be investigated (Χανιά: Ένοχοι οι 2 από τους 3 για τη φασιστική επίθεσηστον Δ. Μακρέα (ενημέρωση) and Ένοχοι δίχως αναστολή για την επίθεση στο γιατρό Δημήτρη Μακρέα).

My Brief Escape into a Wildflower Wonderland

Many do not feel that either the investigation and prosecution of Dimitris Makreas’s attackers, or the case of Greece as a whole, has been handled justly. Many worry about the resumption of racist attacks in Chania after Golden Dawn leaders were released from their pre-trial custody, and many worry about the persistence of unemployment and economic problems throughout Greece. My personal consolation is outdoors, where the 45 species of wildflowers I counted on just one walk in and beyond my neighborhood led me to lose track of time and exercise as well as politics, economics, and racist brutality. Of course, that’s only possible because I am privileged enough to feel fairly confident that my family and I will have enough food, clothing, safety, health care, and housing, whatever happens—although I am adequately aware that I could be wrong about this to worry about our future as well as that of others.

Getting back into walking in the mild, sunny days of the first week of March after a series of viruses struck me in February, I was astonished to see how many wildflowers had sprung up while I wasn’t looking. I’ve seen some since December, but March was the height of their season, and many different flowers came into bloom over the course of the month. (The 45 species I counted one day were not all the same as the 42 I counted another day, and I saw even more different kinds other days.) I am addicted to wildflowers: taking photos and gathering some of the most plentiful blossoms, I lose track of the time and fail to attain the aerobic benefits of a brisk walk. I promise myself not to pick or photograph them some days, since I have enough photos and bouquets, but then I break down and decide we could use a few fresh flowers, or another one of the neighbors might like a bouquet….

There is a profusion of yellow, including Bermuda buttercups, dandelion-like blooms, trees with ball-like yellow blossoms hanging like miniature ornaments, Jerusalem sage, and sharp bushes of spiny broom. White and yellow crown daisies are thriving by the roadside, mingled with upside-down blue violet blossoms with fuzzy stems. A few brilliant red poppies shiver in the breezes, even when it’s warm; various lavender and purple flowers are also abundant. Bee orchids or their relatives are still blooming as various other tiny pink and white orchids appear between pink crepe-paper like Cretan rock roses, white cistus, wild mignonette, and lacy white tordylium. My wildflower habit is hardest to kick this time of year, so I just keep pausing in admiration and hope to get more exercise when the flowers have faded in the heat of the Greek sun.

My rose-colored glasses were shattered when I discovered that the prime  wildflower habitat among olive groves nearby was partly destroyed by a bulldozer’s attack on large patches of ground, probably to gather pruned olive branches, and then by aggressive mowing. The site is ideal for wildflowers since it is kept free of the hardier herbs and shrubs, but hazardous for them since the olive farmer thinks they need to be removed for the sake of his trees—probably, according to the horticulturalist and agronomist I asked, an erroneous belief. A friend and I tried to rescue some of the flowers in danger of immediate destruction—or at least photograph some and save others for temporary enjoyment since they were about to be pulverized. We hope that since none of us except the bulldozer pulls up the roots, the flowers’ offspring will return next year—as they did this year and last—although this is the first year I’ve seen the ground bulldozed down to bare mud (a bad idea in this region of occasionally very heavy rain).

We tried to convince the elderly Cretan farmer mowing around the olive trees to spare some of the possibly rare orchids just starting to bloom toward the end of last month, pointing out a lovely cluster that wasn’t too close to the trees and hence, we argued, wouldn’t hurt them. He nodded, smiled, and took a break from cutting while we were there. But after we’d left, we saw a bulldozer heading for that olive grove. Returning another day, I saw that the farmer had not left us any orchids. But at least he didn’t bulldoze their roots: he just mowed them all down. Nor did cruel thugs destroy the roots of the anti-racist movement in Chania; in fact, in beating down one of its strongest supporters, they united much of the community in support of equality for all. And on the first day of April, schoolchildren in Chania watched a play in which a Greek father overcomes his mean ethnocentrism so his family can befriend some immigrants. We may escape from harsh reality temporarily, but it doesn’t go away while we’re looking at pretty flowers. There is hope, though, if we can educate our children to be anti-racist, compassionate, responsible human beings.

Acknowledgements: I am grateful to the two friends who commented on drafts of parts of this blog posting. Thanks also to the individuals, including journalists, who provided me with information and photos related to the attack on Dr. Dimitris Makreas, and especially to George Konstas and Chaniotika Nea for the photos of the doctor and of people demonstrating outside the court house. (The other photos--including one of a gathering in front of the Agora in Chania--are mine, as usual.)