BLACK CLOUDS revised

Is Europe still high on your holiday list?  How about Greece.  Those picturesque greek islands shimmering blue and white in the summer sun, are they still a desirable destination? 

The EU has brought Greece to its economic knees and kicked over the ouzo bottle. 

Turkey and Russia are firing thunderbolts of insults at each other.  How long before the barrage of mere propaganda becomes warheads instead.

The war in Syria has made millions run for their lives.  Over 800.000 refugees and migrants made it to Greece in 2015, another 150,000 to Italy.

Thousands of  hopeful asylum seekers are still arriving on greek islands every day.  Samos, Chios, Leros, Lesvos, Symi, Farmakonisi, Kalminos, Gavdos, Amorgos, even Santorini, Crete and Mykonos.    Poor little Kastelorizo only 650 metres from the Turkish shore and 300 inhabitants has been over run .  Kos, 5 kilometres away from the Turkish coast, has the locals rioting in protest at the construction of ‘reception’ centres.  These will ruin tourism they say, their main source of income.

Skopje (Macedonia) is building a second fence along its border with Greece.  Macedonia, the only entrance point from Greece to the rest of Europe, now allows  entry to only Syrians and Iranians with proper papers.  Today there were 80 let through the border, yesterday 200. Thousands wait and protest.

 Detention camps, are being built around Athens.
Many think concentration camps on the islands  of Yarra and Macronisi should be reopened.  Political prisoners were held here during the military junta.

Border crossings  into Bulgaria and Albania have been closed by farmers objecting to new  measures which will triple their social security payments.  Lines of tractors have blocked  all  main highways for over ten days now .  Bypass roads are closed for hours every day.  Greece has been cut into pieces.

General strikes occur on a regular basis.  Even little Galatas, across the water, held a protest march. Car ferries, water taxis and fishing boats cruised in the straits on a 2 hour stoppage.

Rumours are spreading that large numbers of men have been recalled to the armed forces, there will be a general call up, the 6th Fleet is  patrolling the Aegean and the greek navy and coast guard are on high alert.   Just rumours now, but they are being discussed over coffee in the cafeterias and it is making us all feel a little insecure.

NATO ships have been sent to the Aegean to deter human smugglers sending migrants from Turkey.  Their role is simply to patrol and prevent ‘illegal activities’ at sea.

New words we learnt.

  Schengen agreement.  The free passage of European citizens from one country in the EU to another.  Greek citizens can travel to other EU countries using only their ID card.  The latest threat is that if Greece cannot control its borders  they will be expelled from the Schengen area.

FRONTEX  the European Union’s border patrol agency

HOTSPOTS  refugee reception centres on the greek islands

Winter has been so warm the almond trees are blossoming two months early. 

But.   The olive harvest was bountiful.  Vine yards produced plenty of wine.  Our lemon trees are bowed down with fruit.  We've burnt half the amount of fire wood we used last year.  No rain, means no flooding, no mould.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT CHRISTMAS

WINE IN A PLASTIC BOTTLE.  20 KILOS OF YIANNI'S WINE NEXT TO THE

OLD 1 1/2 LITRE COKE BOTTLE OF WINE

octopus and ouzo

NEXT BLOG POST .  THE GOOD LIFE.

don't forget to visit

www.ricthewriter.com

2015..austerity All Blacks and more

XMAS 2015

NZ NIGHT - ALL BLACKS WIN THE WORLD RUGBY CUP

ALL BLACKS - DANAE AND ELLI

What can I write that I have not already written  during this long year, last year and the year before. Economic ruin was on the cards for the first six months.  Worse than the years before, but with the usual outcome.  A last minute bailout saved Greece from bankruptcy but the threat is still there to keep the masses toeing the line.   Our stockpiles of macaroni and toilet paper gave us supplies for the next few months.  What we saved on food and hygiene products we gave to the government in the hope that we wouldn’t lose the roof over our heads.    January 1^st will bring more pension cuts, from 10-25%.  Our family are still able to pay all their taxes and we are grateful for that.  I hope I can still write that at the end of 2016.

 Refugees and asylum seekers took first place in the news in the second 6 months.  In previous years refugees from Afganistan and Pakistan arrived in the thousands on the greek islands.    This year asylum seekers, mainly fleeing the war in Syria, have topped the half million mark.  You’ve all seen the news reports and horrific photos.

  Thousands are still arriving each day on greek shores crossing the 'sea of death' between Turkey and Greece.  Seas are rough, bodies are washed up daily on greek beaches.  Borders are closing as fences and walls are built all along the refugee route to restrict and control the huge numbers of people passing through.  Refugees are stuck in the freezing cold for days or weeks before they continue on to Europe.  Athens has opened up its Olympic stadiums to accommodate those who want to wait out the winter. 

And terrorists creep through to bring terror in Paris and all of Europe.``  

At the moment there are an estimated 7,000 on the northern greek borders.  Last week Iranian men sewed their lips together in protest at not being able to cross into Skopje.  Yesterday it was a war of stones with the police and bona fide refugees who are allowed through the border.  A Moroccan migrant was electrocuted whilst attempting to climb on top of  a train.  Why a Moroccan?     Was his life threatened in Morocco or was he just in search of a better life and trying to get into Europe via a back door.

Syrian families who can qualify as genuine refugees are the first to be allowed through to continue on their long trek.  But young men from Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran....and Morocco are the majority on the borders.  They are the irregular migrants who are stopped from continuing and they are the trouble makers.  They are fighting between themselves and with police. All of them are supposed to have been photographed and fingerprinted but what does that do really.  At least one of the Paris attackers came through the island of Leros.    Whose is to say if they are genuine refugees or a threat to peace in Europe.  Young men are deported regularly.  As soon as they set foot 'home' they are off again, on their way back to the refugee trail.

After the incident between  Russia and Turkey the 'Csar' and the 'Sultan' are insulting each other and making threats which I hope they do not carry out.  Russian ships have been stopped from sailing through the Bosphorous and out into the med.  Turkey has stopped providing fresh fruit and vegetable to the Russians.

Turkish war planes invade Greek airspace a dozen times a week.  As the Greek PM said, 'thank goodness our pilots are not as nervy as the Turks.'

A blessed greek monk, named brother Paisios, who died in 1994, left behind him Nostradamus type predictions.  One of them was that Russia and Turkey would go to war and Turkey would be wiped off the map.  Whilst he says Konstantinople (Istanbul) will be returned to the Greeks, something they have been waiting for since its fall  to the Ottomans on a Tuesday (a most unlucky day) in 1453, it would also mean a war on our border.  Peace brothers.

Greek chemists, hospitals, the employed and the unemployed are out on the streets striking and protesting.  Farmers have warmed up their tracters and are blocking roads.  Our local school still has not got its full quota of teachers although the schools opened in September. 

Big businesses are moving across the border to Bulgaria, Skopje and even Albania where life and taxes are cheaper.    We've all gone back to shopping at the Chinese 'emporiums'.  Galatas across the waters has  a large store where we find cheap clothes for all the family. 

Our days here are still sunny and bright but the nights are getting colder.  We lit our wood burning stove for the first time last night.  The neighbours have gathered most of their olives and we have a 17 kilo tin of fresh olive oil to keep us going for a few months, plus half a ton of fresh olive wood.

GREEN OLIVES READY FOR PICKING

10 kilos of olives pressed to get one litre of oil at the beginning of the season

by December it was 6 to 1

HAPPY HELPERS MOVING OLIVE WOOD FROM FRONT ENTRANCE

K STACKING THE WOOD AT THE BACK OF THE HOUSE

The grape harvest went really well, especially considering that most of the grapevines in our area were under water for months after flooding last December.  For the first time Kostas did not get any grape juice and has not made his own wine.  We buy a few kilos from our neighbour as needed.  An extra tax has been put on wine and there was a huge uproar.  Politicians did agree that wine was not a luxury in this country but a tradition.  A few glasses of wine are drunk with every meal . Fiery  raki cleans out the rust and warms the blood, a necessary 'medicine' not a luxury.

The winter was wet, the summer was hot.  We all grew a year older.

“May calm be widespread, may the sea lie smooth as greenstone, may the warmth of summer fall upon us all”.

A maori blessing



as usual all the types of type face have been used, much to my bewilderment.  One day I will get it all the same, I hope. 

DURRELL BROS ON GREECE - A LITTLE LIGHT READING

The Durrell family moved to the island of Corfu for four years in the 1930's.  Both Lawrence and Gerald have written about their time on the island and a film was made of Gerry's  book "My Family and Other Animals".

Lawrence Durrell was a novelist and a poet and also wrote books about his sojourns in Corfu, Rhodes and Cyprus. His books are a little out of date now, being written just before and after WWII, but he gets into the soul of the people, the country, its culture and quirks. These are not travel stories but as someone  wrote 'foreign residence' books .    His novels I find difficult to read though have enjoyed some.  His travel books on the other hand are delightful, rich in description, witty and shrewd. 

Spirit of Place is the one I have just finished and here are some quotes I enjoyed.

"My books are always about living in places, not just rushing through them.  .......tasting the wines, cheeses and characters of the different countries you begin to realise that the important determination of any culture is after all - the spirit of place."

"Most travellers hurry too much.  But try just for a moment sitting on the great stone omphalos*, the navel of the ancient greek world at Delphi.  Don't ask mental questions, but just relax and empty your mind."

"Ten minutes of this sort of quiet inner identification will give you the notion of the greek landscape which you could not get in twenty years of studying greek texts."

*omphalos - tummy button

This would be a delightful way to get in tune with Greece but nowadays it would be hard to find the peace and quiet needed. Cars and tourist coaches haul in hundreds of people every day and hour.  Maybe in a snow flurry in the middle of winter, and then only early in the morning.

And on Greek potholes.  So, so true even today. He is talking about his return to Corfu after twenty odd years.

"I'm not joking when I say that I remembered many of them from my youth - the identical holes. "

"An army of gnomes with teaspoons comes out one night and very deftly fills the holes with a light mix of cement and clinker - like filling cavities in teeth.  This just passes the test of summer weather, but the first thunderstorms of the autumn deftly wash out the fillings and leave us once more with the original road surface - a sort of confluent smallpox effect"

So it's gnomes with teaspoons that used to fill those damn potholes here on Poros.   I think they've gone on strike or have been frightened away by trolls on fiery four-wheeled  dragons.  Our potholes have not been re-filled for many a summer.

And one last quote describing a grande gourmet at a French restaurant.

"L'abdomen est un peu majestueux."

What I found even more entertaining was a couple of hours of his brother Gerald reading his highly entertaining books on his childhood in Corfu.  Most of you must know of the book 'My family and other Animals'.  It is a chuckle a page.  If you liked his books then these recordings are even better.  Great for taking the drudge out of the ironing.  There is one clip on YouTube where he reads his own work and is preferable to excerpts read by others.

Gerald Durrell.  Stories from a Corfu Childhood.  Look for it on YouTube.

Lawrence Durrell -
Prospero's Cell        Corfu
Bitter Lemons          Cyprus
Reflections of a Marine Venus          Rhodes
Spirit of Place    a collection of letters and memories

Gerald Durrell -
My Family and Other Animals
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
The Garden of the Gods

These three now seem to be sold as the 'Corfu Trilogy'.


for more on Greece and Poros

www.ricthewriter.com 

FOREIGN REFUGEES AND MINOR POLITICAL PROBLEMS

This is not just a few boat people arriving illegally under cover of darkness on a few greek islands. Summer and calm seas has brought an invasion with boats arriving on the hour during daylight hours.  Imagine a plague of ants climbing up and over your doorstep and swarming all through your house.

Thousands of refugees are now on Greece's northern border with Skopje* .   The route for this onslaught of refugees mainly from Syria but also Iran, Afghanistan and other middle east combat zones, is from the shores of Turkey to a greek island by some sort of flimsy vessel (although some were brought across by jet ski before the human trafficker was caught by the greek coast guard).  On they go by ferry to Athens, train to northern Greece and the border with Skopje where they are let through a few hundred at a time.  There they are allowed as far as the nearest railway station where they board a train for Serbia.  From Serbia they hope to reach Hungary and eventually Germany and places east, west and anywhere European. 

Bulgaria has closed its greek border for refugees so Skopje is the only passage way for them. Thousands were repelled by tear gas and stun grenades as they stormed the country's border.  Skopje has declared a state of emergency and is calling for more trains to transport them to Serbia.  Serbia meanwhile is struggling to give them food and water on their passage through the country.  Hungary is reputed to be building a 13' high fence along their border to keep out or at least restrain this human onslaught.  At the moment thousands are camped out on the main railway station in Budapest waiting to enter Europe. 

100,000 have entered Austria and Switzerland over the alps from Italy. Many more thousands are arriving in Italy from Libya which involves a much longer sea journey.  Italian authorities are reputed to let refugees escape  from camps in Sicily because it is just too expensive to keep them.

There are riots and fighting at the channel tunnel entrance on the coast of France. Official reports say they have stopped 37,000 attempts to reach England through the tunnel since January.

In Greece thousands are now being washed up daily and big passenger ferries have been put into service to transport them a few thousand at a time to the Port of Pireaus. Riots  on the island of Mytilene ended in two refugee deaths.  It is no longer just a case of those few hundred camped in Athens parks being rehoused (where they are complaining about the lack of WiFi).  Many of those fleeing Syria were from the middle class, educated, with good jobs.

  On the islands they must be fingerprinted and receive an official paper so they can continue.  Delays are making the crowds angry and frustrated.  Police cannot process them fast enough.  The biggest worry is that Islamic militants are among those seeking asylum.

5,000  are  today at the border of Skopje waiting for permission to enter.  The guards are letting in 100 at a time, families first.  The rest are left in a no mans land between the two countries.  They have already cleared the fields of anything edible, from the seeds of fields of sunflowers to watermelons.  Human aid workers are trying to keep them supplied with food and water and the small villages nearby are providing what aid they can.

The weather is changing and nights are cold. Rain is forecast.

There are 200,000 more refugees in camps on the Turkish/Syrian border.  

This a human tragedy of huge proportions.  It involves families, pregnant women and hundreds of  children who are fleeing alone hoping for the chance to live their lives free and in safety.

*The foreign press know the country as Macedonia but Macedonia is part of northern Greece, the birth place of Alexander the Great.  Macedonia is Greek.  The country's offical name is Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia or FYROM.  The greeks call the republic 'Skopje after its capital city.

Greece's political and economic problems are minor compared to the surge of human beings from the inferno of the  middle east.

Tsipras has resigned and called for elections.  Opposition parties are now trying to form a coalition government but that is unlikely to happen.  Elections will probably take place on September 20th before unpopular new tax laws come into force.

25 radical members of his party have broken away and formed a new party called 'Popular Unity' saying that Tsipras has gone against party promises of no more austerity.    

Tsipras  is seeking a majority for the SYRIZA party and he is still well liked because of the tough stance he took towards the European creditors.   However the first poll puts him only slightly in front of the opposition New Democratic party.

So now we have a month of endless political discussion and the prospect of an unstable future with another coalition government. The caretaker government will be headed by Supreme Court president Vassiliki Thanou-Cristophilou and Greece will have its first female Prime Minister.

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www.ricthewriter.com     

Some more comments on the greek situation

GREEK CRISIS

Banks are open again but only to take in our money. Cash machines still give out daily rations of 50 or 60 euros. Bills are paid in this once cash society without money changing hands, simply transfers of numbers from bank account to collecting office.

Meanwhile the news is full of the dastardly plots of the left wing to return us to the drachma. Lafouzanis, leader of the extreme far left of the ruling party, dreamt up a wild scheme to invade the Bank of Greece, arrest the Governor and relocate 2 or 3 billion euros to be used to run the country while the drachma was being printed and distributed.

Varoufakis, outspoken ex-finance minister had plans to hack into his own ministry's computers in preparation for Greece’s exit from the eurozone.

Grumbling European partners suggested that Greece sell off its uninhabited islands, the Acropolis and other famous antiquities to pay back its creditors. French tourists at the archealogical site of Lindos on Rhodes demanded free entrance saying their country was owed billions by the Greeks and they had no right to ask for more. Security guards refused them entrance.

Tax inspectors are making sweeping checks all over the islands and inland resorts. In Crete the archealogical site of Knossos was found to be one of the islands big tax evaders. There was no official record of money coming in and no tickets being issued. After an inspection of all archeological ruins in the country it was found that only 2 of the ticket machines were connected to the tax revenue office. Millions of tourists visit these sites every year and they all belong to the Ministry of Culture. The government's own ministry was in violation.

New V.A.T. tax laws are a supreme absurdity. Souvlaki has a 13% tax but if salt is added the tax goes up to 23%. Parsley and rocket have 13% tax, basil 23%. Beef 23%, chicken , lamb and pork 13%.

There has been great and witty debate about the logic behind these taxes. General agreement - there is no logical explanation.

23% tax is supposedly only on luxury goods. This includes the carob and 'mountain tea' . The latter is a herb gathered for eons by the greeks from the hillsides and considered a fragrant healing infusion which they drink daily. Carobs are fed to the goats.

Leave these absurdities for the greeks to debate. The month of August is the peak of the holiday season. Sun is guaranteed every day. Souvlaki is still cheap with or without salt. There are dozens of cultural festivals this month especially on the islands. You can enjoy performances of ancient greek plays at the 2500 year old theatre of epidavros. Grape harvest festivals have already begun. Bathe in the romance of the August full moon at midnight on the Acropolis. Come and enjoy Greece.
 

EPIDAVROS THEATRE - 345BC

STILL USED FOR SUMMER PERFORMANCES

ONLY 45 MINUTES FROM THE ISLAND

GREECE. THE GOOD AND THE BAD.

And another one’s down, another bill passed in the house.  The proverbial Fat Lady (female with luxurious curves) is warming up.  The Germans are rubbing their plump frankwurster paws. The agreement is almost sealed.

“Germany has gained £71billion from its tough stance on Greek debt crisis... and will still make a profit if Athens never pays back a single cent”
Thank you www.dailymail.co.uk  via facebook

Looks like we’re set for three years of endless taxes, thirty years of payback and another 50 of recovery.   

The  road ahead is full of potholes although the PM, as usual, came on TV with a big grin on his face telling us that the final agreement is in sight and ‘we shall,  we shall overcome’.  The same thing he has been telling us since his election in January.

Many Europeans refuse to believe that Greece will  implement changes and insist  we just want  to exist on handouts.   Finland is pushing for a grexit. Slovakia will not pay ‘ one more cent of taxpayer money for greek debt’. The rebels in the ruling party SYRIZA  may cause a split and lead PM Tsipras to call for elections.  Just what we want after the pointless referendum.  Let’s throw away a few more million on an unnecessary election.

 On the islands opposite the Turkish coast those fleeing from their own war torn countries are floating in daily by the hundreds.  Riots broke out yesterday on the island of Kos .  ‘If this is Europe, then I want to go back to Syria’ said one.  Duuh.  You’re a refugee in a country that can hardly look after its own people.  The islands are overwhelmed. 124,000 arrived by boat in the first seven months of 2015.  Papers cannot be finished fast enough to get them off the islands and into Athens (where life will be better?)  There is nowhere for them to stay, no toilets and no water supply.  The refugees have  been described as ‘ticking health bombs’ because of the threat of malaria, TB and hepatitis.  They don’t want to stay in Greece and Europe doesn’t want them. 

The  campsite set up by the refugees  in a central Athens square is still there although  temporary  housing is being set up for these people in small container-like cabins  with aircon and a daily meal handout.  Greek homeless are complaining and rightly so saying that because of the economic crisis they lost their jobs, lost their houses and now sleep on park benches.  No aircondition or daily meals for them.

August 15 is the biggest holiday of the year,  the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.  Athens empties and the islands and villages prepare for a week of church services, village fetes, outdoor markets selling everything from donkeys to icons and always feasting, drinking , music and dancing.

Toursim has bounced back.  Greeks have dug deep and  departed from the big cities in droves.  Poros is full.  It has traffic jams, the harbour road is closed every evening, open only for pedestrians. The mayor, who still has to make any noticeable improvements for the locals is putting all his money into concerts and exhibitons.  We have this month the Celebration of the Lemon Tree, the International Piano Festival, usually in amongst the ruins of the temple of Poseidon on the hill opposite our house,  and something else called the Room of Music, which is probably greek or foreign music played on the steps of the old harbour front building and does enchant all those who are out to promenade on a warm summer evening.

 
RUINS OF POSEIDON'S TEMPLE

THE SIMPLE GREEK LIFE

A large clay pot sealed with bread dough.  This goes into the wood fired oven and cooks meat in its own juices for three or four hours.  This time it was a chicken.  All we added was lots of garlic, salt and pepper. 

A plate of snails stewed with onions and tomatoes.  These are sucked out with  lots of noisy satisfaction.  If you're shy you could always pick the flesh out with a toothpick .  The tomatoey, saucy juices are sopped up with lots of heavy bread and helped down with lots of cold white wine.  A typical mid summer dish.

My butternut/squash harvest.  I make sweet pumpkin pie, savoury pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin puree and roast pumpkin.  Anyone coming this way, please put a packet of proper pumpkin seeds in your bags (along  with the pineapple chunks and vegemite).  We don't get proper pumpkin here, alas

   

My hydrangea (called an 'ortansia' here, delightful word).  It originally had pink flowers but now just seems to have green blooms.  I read that it is the Ph of the soil that determines the colour.  Anyone got an idea how I can get the colour back - besides having the soil tested?  That is not going to happen.  I have since cut off all the flowers and am waiting for the next growth.

Summer treasures - not from our garden.  Melon, watermelon, figs, peaches and grapes.

Our local beach, Vagionia Bay.

Ghika the goat, this years resident at the beach bar.  He loves to eat towels. 

Refugees.  Still coming over from the close by shores of Turkey in their hundreds of thousands.  They eventually get to northern Greece and the borders of Scopje, Croatia, Bulgaria , where they are not welcome any more even though they just want to pass through. 

This is a transfer of population which is going to change the stability, cultures of europe.  Four million asylum seekers are expected.  As some one recently pointed out to me, that is the population of New Zealand.

Greek schools opened with a lack of 13,000 teachers.  270 did not open at all because no teachers had been posted to them.  One of our primary schools is trying to teach with two teachers missing and the intermediate has  three teachers less than needed.  It will be mid October before new teachers are appointed.

Elections this Sunday.  Whatever government is formed they will have to carry out European austerity measures. 

Second-year memorial service for my brother-in-law at the Poros Monastery.  No-one was happy when my sister-in-law Dina announced this service would take place in the monastery church.  The monk, Loukas, is very strict and is always giving lectures on the correct dress for women and the inferiority of infidels like me.  However, we were lucky.  He was away for the weekend and his place was taken by an extremely friendly black priest from the nearby town of Methana.

Also I saw that the notice on the door of the church has been changed.  Women wearing 'men's clothes' used not be  allowed inside the church at all.  Now they may enter but will be refused communion.  I still stood outside the door for the service.  There is not a very friendly feeling up there.

Dina made a big tray of funeral wheat which was bagged and shared out by my youngest granddaughters.  I made a 'fanouropita' which is a raisin cake made without eggs, milk or butter and it was darn good. After the service we 'retire' to the monastery's 'social' room where some of us make the small cups of greek coffee, others (women of course) share out the koliva (wheat with sugar, cinnamon, raisins and almonds) and I cut up and plated the cake.  We all had coffee and mastiha (which is a sticky liqeuer), cake and cinnamon biscuits.  Usually we then listen to a lecture from Loukas the monk.  This time we just cleared up and went down to the little coffee bar below under the spreading chestnut tree for a freddo cappuccino.








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