THE VIRTUES OF THE GREEKS

No country has had a worse Press than Greece in recent months. Biting scorn, international contempt and acid sarcasm has been the lot of the Greeks and it has hurt them. As I spend much time in Athens, I share the widely-held dim view of the Greek government. Suffice it to say, a political elite, corrupt and greedy beyond words, has guided the Greek economy beyond redemption and maybe beyond rescue. It is not surprising that the Greeks are reluctant to pay any taxes to such a government, but that is a longer story. I want to counter the prevailing ill-feeling and extol the positive aspects of the generally likeable Greeks.

Greeks are not much like other Europeans. Living in a chronically failed state has long forced them to be self-reliant. They do not parade their hardships, real as they are. They know that nobody else will help them, as they live in a feeble parody of a modern welfare state. The Greek grows a protective shell around him. This is in part the source of his self-absorption, his total egotism, his firm belief that he “can do what he likes in his own country”.

This belief manifests itself in a variety of ways. Oblivious of planning laws, he will build his house wherever he can and in whatever way he wishes. As traffic regulations only apply to others, he will drive the wrong way down one-way streets, park on a neighbour’s front door step and, defiant of others, jump a queue without any compunction. In short the Greek is almost ungovernable, as invading Ottomans and Nazi Germans discovered. To some, this is what the French call incivisme, lack of community feeling, and we British call “bloody-mindedness” but I prefer to characterise it as admirable independence and the absence of a slave-mentality.

This self absorption is best illustrated in the rembetico solo male dance. A Greek, full of confidence, dances alone in front of some admiring, usually lady, onlookers, concentrating on the insistent rhythm of the plangent mandolins and executing the complex steps with robust energy, oblivious to his surroundings. He enjoys the applause but his real pleasure derives from the assertion of his masculinity. There is nobility, long lost in the West, in this display of male dominance.

The Greek most cherishes his family circle. His mother is placed on a pedestal of purity and high worth, his arrival deemed to be a Virgin Birth after an Immaculate Conception. Father is respected and must pay the bills, but only has a walk-on part. Granny (Yaya) is looked upon as a fount of ancient wisdom and interfering aunts complete the profoundly matriarchal system. In return Greek male children are spoiled and pampered, commonly living with their parents well into their 30s.  Moving out into a world of which they are not the centre must be a nasty culture shock, which they are reluctant to accept, hence their chronic over-assertiveness. It is their Mums’ fault!

After his family, the Greek values his home town, village or island. Usually a second generation resident in Athens or Thessaloniki, he has a primeval urge to return to his birthplace like a migratory salmon, on many a public or private holiday. But just as in ancient times Spartan distrusted Athenian, Lakonian distrusted Arcadian, so the modern Greek peasant distrusts the town-dweller and any outsider. Although he will be hospitable in the obligatory traditional way the Macdonalds of Glencoe were hospitable to the Campbells, at heart the Greek is a confirmed xenophobe. Outsiders historically brought trouble. Why should he trust an Italian or a Briton, let alone a German or an American? I will not even mention the Turks…… Problems in his relations with Europe are explicable in this context.

Despite relative poverty, the Greek enjoys an enviable, if simple, life-style.  Work is an inconvenience and often resented, as testified by the legendarily rude civil servants and shop assistants. But in his element, at leisure, the Greek can be delightful. He bursts into song easily as he drives to the warm seaside for a swim. This is followed by a lazy taverna meal of fried squid and salad, washed down by ouzo or cold beer, as the Med laps gently by your table.  Even in the modest island café, the Greek laughs and jokes in his vest, exchanging loud banter with his friends, eating a plate of beans and drinking cold draught wine and maybe playing tavli (backgammon). Okay, the French will deprecate the culinary standards, the English the lack of table linen and the German the casual service, but if a Greek prefers stewed goat to something dreamt up by Escoffier, who is to say his simple tastes are wrong?

Above all the Greek loves to talk. Oscar Wilde said the Irish were the greatest talkers since the Greeks. The modern Greek keeps up this tradition and if the conversation is not up to that of the ancient Symposia and Dialogues, he expounds his views on a huge variety of subjects at some length and with much passion, with his friends fully participating. Who does not cherish this lifestyle?

It is true that the Greek is undisciplined and does not do rules and regulations. There are for example only a handful of golf clubs in Greece. I sometimes have a nightmare that I am secretary of a Greek golf club and have to stop members driving from the wrong tee, racing tractors down the fairways or stamping on their opponents ball. The line between the free spirit and the anarchic one is thin.

It is not strange that the Greek finds the rules of the Eurozone alien and he is in baffled denial. Sadly his representatives now have to bone up on the rules, rather late in the game, as the Greek is in the humiliating position of not standing his round and having to cadge from richer members. It could be said that the Greek is “unclubbable” but Sarkozy struck the right note a few days ago when he drew an analogy with a family. When a family member gets into trouble, he said, the rest of the family rallies round.

The Greek has the same humanity as we do. Yesterday the 19-year old daughter of a friend sat beside my wife and me in a café in the square and squeezed herself with pleasure as she told us she had passed her piano exams with flying colours. Last night a young neighbour, short of work, replaced 10-year old flower beds in front of our house and provided new earth and new plant cuttings. He would not take payment but, as a keen gardener, wants to tend the flowers himself.

Such are the Greeks. They are basically good people.  Maybe they are the black sheep of the family, but family members they should remain and be helped through their present difficulties, if at all possible, and the smile brought back to their faces.

SMD

2.10.11                                          Copyright Sidney Donald 2011