Jonathan and Lucia are keeping up
a busy and tiresome schedule, with late nights getting progressively later
(both) and early mornings getting earlier (Jonathan). Four hours of sleep is
feasible when the afternoon siesta—lasting anywhere from a half hour to a two
solid, blissful hours—is factored in. For Jonathan the post-siesta routine is
familiar: Wake, hydrate, drink a frappe, run down the mountain to Loutsa beach
for a swim in his birthday suit, run back up the mountain to the house. The
post-siesta routine is invigorating and life-giving. It sets the foundation for
a night that lasts until 3or 4 a.m.
Greece for the Greeks—and for those with money
The old saw that money is power and influence is best
manifested in post-crisis Greece. Gradually, the Greece of old is vanishing.
Yes, the beaches are still indescribably beautiful, the food delectible, the
people (in places not too jaded by tourism or wracked by poverty) welcoming,
friendly, and gushing with a uniquely Hellenic hospitality. There is the
richness of culture (dance, music, traditional arts and crafts), the world of
the spirit (Orthodox Christianity, particularly here in rural Peloponnese), and
so on.
And yet a new phenenomen, one
that is regrettably unstoppable, emerges. Greece itself, owing to the severe
financial crisis and the influence of the IMF, European Central Bank, and
“banksters” such as Goldman Sacks—i.e., “the troika,” those criminal sorts who
have engineered the worst of the misery for ordinary people—has been given
over, piece by piece, to foreign entities: banks, institutional lenders, and
the wealthy and powerful. It is a terrible price to pay for the misdeeds of a
generation of corrupt Greek politicians and uniquely Balkan-style thievery.
Greece for Sale
A debate has raged in the Greek
parliament. For five thousand-plus years Greece’s panoramic ocean front has
been accessible to all Greeks. It is so much part of Greece’s shared cultural
heritage. Soon this will all change, despite a rising chorus of protests
domestically and abroad. Legislation is solidifying that will privatize all of
Greece’s many thousands of kilometers of waterfront. International outcry (a
petition signed by a half million people) temporarily stalled the enactment of
this legislation—a bump in the road for the shameless politicians who have
destroyed this once-great land—but the vote is being held again, and the
writing is on the wall, as they say. Ninety percent of Greece’s
parliamentarians on someone else’s payroll.
How will these changes be
manifested? One prime example is the 15,000 stremata
(four strema=one acre) of prime
ocean frontage on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, purchased by a Saudi Arabian
sheik whose influence on Greek parliamentarians is abundantly clear. Some of
that island’s best known beaches will be forever closed to the public. In fact,
much of Greece is being sold to stupendously wealthy Arabs (from Saudi and the
Emirates). The irony is that after 400 years of occupation by Muslim
overlords—and long history of bloody resistance, including that of Jonathan’s
own ancestors—Greece’s feckless and Mafia-inspired politicians are selling out
their country to those who will ultimatly impose their Paleolithic mentality on
ordinary Greeks. Greek culture, under the weight of money and influence, will
wane. This is not a worrisome conjecture but a living, breathing reality. An
assertion to the country is naïve at best—or exceedingly ignorant. The gradual
erosion of the culture and values of Northern Europe—respect for women,
tolerance of other religions, and the like—may be coming to Greece sooner
rather than later.
Other examples of Greece’s
powerless in the wake of the financial crisis—the phrase is an understatement:
America’s Great Depression, with its marque breadlines and severe unemployment
and misery, pales in comparison—are easily found and abundant.
For example, Syria’s “de-natured”
chemical weapons are presently being dumped in the Aegean. Both German and
France refused to deal with them, hence hapless Greece has been chosen as the
dumping ground.
Israel’s influence on Greek
politics is another abomination. Corrupt politicians, from all sides, which
comprise the lion’s share of the Greek Parliament, have given the green light
to Israeli oil and gas exploration, south of Crete and southwest of Cyprus. The
consequences could be devastating. There is talk of oil refineries, shipping
terminals, strip mining (a Canadian mining company ravishes northern Greece’s
gold deposits, polluting large tracks of wetlands and ocean with a nasty slurry
of chemical runoff), and much, much worse.
A common complaint is that Greece
will no longer be for the Greeks, but instead a playground for wealthy northern
Europeans, Chinese (who now own 75 percent of the port of Pireaus), Russian
oligarchs (who are buying enormous tracks of land in Halkidiki), and, of
course, Arabs. Arab Stone Age “culture,” for what it’s worth, would have once
been considered utterly anathema to Greece’s open-minded, vibrant society. Of
course, while generous Greece allows the construction of mosques, the ancient
Christian churches of the Arab world are beleaguered, their adherents
slaughtered like sheep. The EU and the corrupt and entrenched Greek political
class are the primary culprits, and all blame must lie with them. A single
generation of greed can wipe out five thousand years of Europe’s legacy.
Your author begs you to please
excuse the political diversion, but it must be part of the “official” record.
If you love Greece, keep signing those international petitions: Keep Greece for
the Greeks and for its beloved foreign visitors!
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Invasion of the creepy crawlies
If snakes were the only objectionable
creatures present during the Greek summer, Jonathan and Lucia could contend.
However, there are a wide variety of creepy-crawling insects and other
undesirable creatures in God’s mighty kingdom. They have found there way into
the house, two by two, Biblical representatives of Creation finding their way
into the four walls of their spitaki.
This week brought bats and sarantapoderouses (forty-legged worms
with the pinching power of a Maine lobster) into the house. The latter
creature, most disgusting and alarming, found its way into Jonathan’s bed two
nights ago. He woke with a start, followed by a scream, somehow managing to
shake himself free at the eleventh hour—said creature being halfway between his
knee and his….belt.
In the same evening, a flittering
bat found its way into the house. It was especially drawn to the loft, site of
the princess. Several hours and much frenzy later, the catch and (not) release
policy was exercised.
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Reconstruction, Deconstruction
While their Athenian friends (koumbaroi) Thanasi, Koula, and Dionysia
visit, Jonathan is engaged in the twin prospect of hosting and constructing—or
in some cases, deconstructing. Exacting violence on the spitaki, and then reconstructing with tender, loving care.
In just three days time, the
master mason and his Albanian compatriots tore down the four exterior walls—the
outer layer of troubled masonry and stucco—and replaced them entirely with the
standard slurry of marble dust, lime and concrete. The finished product was
well worth the effort. In a few short days, the house will have a brand new
covered veranda, complete with ceramic tiles and lovely vertical beams. It will
be ready to paint in five days.
The ktima (property) is also being transformed and has been the source
of many compliments from neighbors and passers-by. This week’s plantings
included pomegranate, Kalamata olive trees and other species of olives, and a
much desired avocado tree. Still to come: bouganvillia (to crawl up the new
pergola), more cypress, and oleander (red, rose, white, and yellow). With
arrangements made for watering in their absence until the fall rains begin, the
result—in the years to come—will be delight for the senses: the smells of
citrus and lavender, the tastes of fresh Mediterranean fruits, and a vision of
natural beauty.
The perivoli (orchard) is a part life in Messinia and all of rural Greece—and
extension of their “green” life in Downeast Maine.
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