This is the time of year I normally write a sun-kissed
update on the good life in Greece among the olive trees, the blue Med, the
tasty kebabs and the chirruping cicadas. This year of 2015, there is palpable
unease; a middle-class Greek friend of ours, reading about production collapses
and stock market slumps, lowered her eyes and groaned “We are drowning!” Greece
has been in difficulties for at least 6 years, but usually in early August the
Greeks forget all that and concentrate on enjoying their blissful summer
holidays. Bitterly divided themselves, surrounded by hostile states and beset
by their creditor/”partners” in Europe, the outlook this month has seldom been
darker or more hopeless. Everything is going wrong.
The sick charade of “discussions” between Greece and the
Troika about the 3rd bailout stagger on. Greece has already totally
surrendered to the Eurozone and passed the enabling legislation. But as usual,
the devil is in the detail and the Troika team is now led by Romanian iron lady
Delia Velculescu of the IMF fresh from sucking the blood of Cyprus. She has
been piling on the agony, demanding deeper cuts and much tighter impositions than
had first been announced.
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| Delia Velculescu, the new scourge of Greece |
There is a surreal aspect to these discussions in that
Tsipras of Greece has stated the terms are much too onerous and unworkable and
the IMF has already said it will not participate unless there is a substantial
(30%+?) write-off of Greek debt. The Eurozone, especially Germany, refuses to
consider any debt write-offs and will not participate in the bailout unless the
IMF does so too. So deadlock and the collapse of talks seem inevitable. Greece
will be forced willy-nilly out of the Euro despite her love affair with this
wretched currency. Germany will be shot
of Greece, which is what she really wants. The ensuing period in Greece will be
fraught, the leftist SYRIZA will be blamed, unjustly, and the panicked
electorate could easily turn to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, noisily nationalistic
while her leaders are gradually released from custody. Let us hope that wiser
counsels somehow prevail.
It is not easy to whistle in the dark. Despite extravagant
claims, I cannot believe Greek tourism is booming. The modest hotels here on
Samos have plenty proletarian Eastern European tourists on inclusive terms, but
they hardly spend a bean. The usual open-handed Greek tourists are absent, the
restaurants and tavernas are empty, the cars for hire immobile. Capital
controls prevent Greeks from accessing their savings apart from €420 per week
in cash, not much for a family in high season; so they stay at home dismally.
Tempers are short, money is elusive and fear for the future stalks the land.
Maybe things are better in the up-market resorts like Santorini, Mykonos and
Corfu but the summer will soon end and grim reality intrude.
The world around adds to the problems. Every day at least 50
immigrants, mainly fleeing from Syria, arrive near us in Karlovasi in leaky
boats from Turkey. They are allotted door-steps at the port and tiny patches of
ground. They wash their clothes and depend on the locals (nothing from the
municipality, NGOs or Europe) to give them food and water and milk for the many
children. In the heat, generously people rally round. After a day or two they
get temporary papers and a ferry passage to Athens. They are pointed in the
direction of the Balkans and some get to Italy, some to France, most to Germany
or Scandinavia. Greece can afford nothing: the problem is immense and
insoluble.
Of course life carries on. The vineyards will be harvested
in August – no problem about accessing the local wine, thank heavens! The Feast
of the Assumption on 15 August marks the climax of the summer; there will be
processions, conviviality and a few day’s break. The sea will be warm well into
September, often a balmy month. By October, many seasonal places will close,
the university students will have returned, hoping against hope for a decent
job in Greece but making contingency plans for heart-breaking exile elsewhere.
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| The bay of Avlakia, Samos, where we eat heavenly food at Kosmos |
So the problems abound in 2015. But the beauty of Greece is
eternal and the spirit of her people will surely revive as she creates her own
destiny.
SMD
4.08.15
Text Copyright ©Sidney Donald 2015
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