HEATWAVE

As is often the case, when the rain comes down and the weather is horrible in the UK, by some law of meteorology, the weather is the complete opposite in Greece. We are in the midst of a heatwave and trying to muddle along from day to day by doing anything energetic or necessary as early in the day as we can. In such a simple design of house, I am often reminded of advice from the Bible about how to do things. K twice dropped a screw from his specs on the stone floor and declared it 'lost for ever'. (The second time it jumped out of his hands as he tried to fix his glasses). Remembering a story about a woman who loses a coin, I promptly swept the whole area, moved everything, and cleaned every corner and found the microscopic article in the dustpan each time. Great advice, read, learned and inwardly digested! I could write an entire article about the difficulty of finding an efficient, matching dustpan and brush in Crete, but I digress .. the books of scripture did not specify what sort of broom the woman used. Kimon will tell you what a temper tantrum I threw when I saw what I thought was a nice matching shiny blue dustpan and brush in the local store – all neatly encased in cardboard to keep them together – only to unwrap them and find a dustpan and a broom head which was wider than the mouth of the dustpan. I was furious! There are many and diverse brooms and dustpans in the shops but none of them match or work as well as those we take for standard in the UK.

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By 2.00 p.m., we have done as much work around the house as we can and it is time to put up the Siesta sign and have a rest while the sun is at its hottest. At one point I took the silvered window shades out of the car and fixed them over the living room windows with clothes pegs to keep out the mid day sun as far as possible and took them down again at sunset to try and keep the temperature down. We cheer ourselves by reminding each other that this time last year we were restricted to life inside four walls at the University Hospital and are glad to be free this year to spend the day as we choose to without queuing in hot, dusty waiting rooms.

As for the Greek financial crisis, we have seen little evidence of it first hand in Crete. The beaches seem to be very packed locally and people have braved all the untruths printed in the media about having to walk about with masses of cash and none of the services working properly. From our point of view, everything is working much as ever and we hope that things will continue so that the tourist season is a good one. The tavernas are all still serving delicious food and local wines. We have talked to lots of the tourists and asked they if they are having good holidays and they all have replied that it has been no different than previous years. We do wish the foreign press would get their facts right before turning a bad situation even worse. Tourism is one of the few industries that Greece is geared up for at the moment and vital to keep families afloat and people in work. The only change we have seen is the increase in VAT, but this did not seem to be burdensome, especially to tourists from abroad.

Kostas and Angeliki and other neighbours were discussing things in the nearby Kafeneon. They all have gardens and land to keep goats and chickens. All the gardens have masses of extra produce right now and they so wish they could get all this great stuff to their compatriots in the cities on the main land who are feeling the pinch. I puzzled about the logistics of making masses and masses of jars of pasta sauce with some of the overload and how to find ways that it could be shared. Food in jars, packets and tins is very much more expensive here and also, the raw materials of glass jars and other containers. Getting all the stuff together, processed and transported needs a bit of expertise. It must be possible, but time is marching on and all the produce will be long past its best by the end of the week if this heatwave continues. None of my neighbours would dream of buying packaged or tinned food – it is all fresh from their plots and they plant to have food the year round with two or three growing seasons. Our neighbour, Niko the Wood has been setting off early each morning to his roadside booth where water melons, honey dew melons, tomatoes, potatoes and other garden produce are set out for cars to stop and buy. We hope he makes enough money to help get through the lean winter time. There must be good scriptural advice also somewhere about storing foodstuffs during years with good harvests for years of famine. I must check.

K and I had a great swim in the sea today. Granted, it takes a good deal more planning than it did before, but he loved the freedom of walking without sticks and being suspended by the lovely salt water. We realise that we will need to think about a car that can cope with rough tracks though because access to handy swimming places is never easy. Then after a wonderful swim, adjusting to being held up by the water and emerging at the edge of the waves to normal gravity again is a crunch point. We were touched that lots of people stopped and offered us help because my shoulder alone wasn't enough. He felt so good afterwards – and encouraged, we will keep trying.

If you are suffering with moody blues and grey skies in Northern Europe, help your European neighbours and book a holiday to Greece! You will help shore up the economy, have a great time and the local businesses will welcome you with even more enthusiasm and hospitality than ever!

OXI and its Aftermath

Democracy, n. A system of government under which a country's future is decided by the EU and the IMF.

Austerity, n. A technique for siphoning money from the poor to the well-off, the banks etc. Used to make the vulnerable pay for the mistakes of others.

Referendeum, n. 1. A popular vote which is only valid if it goes your way.

2. An evil crime against your true rulers which must be punished by even more austerity.

Debt relief, n. A total impossibility even though it would allow Greece to recover but it ain't going to happen as it means admitting austerity is wrong and the 1% do very nicely out of austerity thank you and how dare you even mention the fact that a large part of Germany's debt was cancelled in 1953 allowing them to become the great nation they are today.

Agreement, n. A chance to completely humiliate a country so as to cause even more misery for ordinary people and, hopefully, bring about regime change so no-one will ever question your right to make money again.

(published via Facebook as EU Dictionary)

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Saturday night was one for ear plugs. No, not because of the uncertainty about Greece's economy, local unrest, the closure of the banks, the media frenzy and horrifying speculations, but because there was a Baptism at the Kentro on the hillside and loud music and celebrations were taking place all night. At 03.15, a loud noise sounding like a lorry falling off a bridge turned out only to be a drunken reveller blowing into the microphone before tuning into a long, loud lament. So after I had woken up with a jump and scouted round the house for a bit, I adjusted my earplugs and tried to get back to sleep. It is very hot at the moment but the tourists are enjoying the beach.

So we checked at intervals during the day via on line newspapers, TV and Facebook, to find out what had been decided. Facebook and Twitter started to get full of invective about selling off the country's assets. The electricity, the water, the Acropolis and so on … the family silver …. Hang on, I thought, the UK did all this decades ago. The UK's had French electricity companies and foreign interests in fuel and food for a while, so how did all this happen to the UK without such a furore? Perhaps we Brits have been beaten into submission from an early age and realise that it will be a fortunate person who emerges from debt during their working lives and gets to live without feeling obligated to some powerful organisation to which megabucks is owed. However, much damage has been done to the unity of Europe and this is to be regretted. I hope that it will not create a backlash for German ex pats and companies in Greece, because there are old, festering wounds that were beginning to be just beyond living memory and all this has stirred things up in a horrible way. That the unelected Committee of the EU can convene on the quiet in order to plot and interfere with the democratic mandate of a member nation and manipulate and threaten its Prime Minister into accepting worse terms than the population were opposed to in the first place, is scary. Other European nations need to take note of this pantomime and make contingency plans!

Another comment from Facebook: "The monetization of assets will be a source that made scheduled repayments of the new loan and the ESM to be created during the term of the new loan total of 50 bn. Euros, of which 25 bn. Euros will be used to repay the recapitalization of banks and other financial assets and 50% of every dollar that remains (ie 50% of the 25 billion. euros) will be used to reduce the debt to GDP ratio and the remaining 50% will be used for investment. This fund will be established in Greece and the Greek managing authorities under the supervision of the competent European Institutions."

So let me get this straight. Greece borrows 50 billion from the banks, gives back 37.5 billion to the banks and invests 12.5 billion, presumably into the banking system.

Am I missing something here?

We are all missing something. It's a system that cannot possibly work for anyone other than Bankers. Have we heard any update on this year's bonuses?

I had a Dental appointment in Rethymnon on Monday morning. I heard two elderly ladies talking and saying that they could not get their 60 euros today because there was nothing in any of the Banks and to be honest the banks never had 10 euro notes, so 50 was the limit. In practical terms, the bother with the banks is the major problem right now and it is the locals who are taking the brunt, since tourists are not affected. On a local level, we know that the shop keepers would not bat an eyelid if people could not pay for groceries until next week. Most people do remember and settle up when they can. K and I went to Perama to get lab tests done and visit the Health Centre. We are back to this because the doctor who held a weekly surgery in our village for the old folk had to stop. The shortage of doctors and lack of pay meant that she had to move elsewhere. We managed to get money from the ATM in Perama, but there were queues of confused elderly people who had never used an ATM before and had no idea what to do. They are used to queueing up in the Bank and talking to people. It is all very hard for them, but they are hardy types and will survive. It is the elderlies' pension money that is keeping entire families afloat at the moment since there are no welfare payments for the unemployed, sick or disabled and never have been. The shops were all well stocked though, and the fruit and vegetables are at their peak at the moment. Tourists need have no fear that their holidays will not be as good as ever since all the Greeks know that this is their only bread and butter and will bend over backwards to welcome them.

Rik the Builder turned up while I was at the Dentist this morning bearing gifts from his kitchen garden. The soil is so fertile in sunny Crete that we will never starve! His harvest meant that he had more veggies than he knew what to do with. Wonderful stuff which means I will be cooking and preserving tomorrow. Thank goodness for the larger freezer. With only a Greek bank account Rik is completely walloped at the moment since lots of ex pats had building work done and they are unable to transfer money from outside Greece into Greece to pay for it. In the short term, he is owed thousands. On the plus side, his lovely wife has unexpectedly found some new part time work, so they are OK for now.

We are not sure how this will all pan out, but the idea of Europe being chummy allies has been badly damaged and we realise now that we are ruled by large conglomerate organisations and banks. Shylock will be taking his pound of flesh for many years to come.

YES or NO!

Facebook is simply bursting with links to TV interviews, speeches, twitters and blogs about the forthcoming referendum for the Greek people to decide whether they want to say Yes – to more years of austerity, and hard times or No and cast away the suggested proposals and protection of the EU and try to function alone with a vastly devalued currency.

In other words, Greece is perched between a rock and a hard place. None of the options are likely to solve the problem which – as most people will have gathered by now – has all to do with a monetary system which bears no relationship with reality. It is as if we are all in some bizarre symbolic version of Monopoly Wars with nations raising unimaginable quantities of banknotes based on no security whatsoever. I have to keep reminding ourselves that there is still food growing, bread in the shops and tourists largely unaffected by the drama of what is going on in people's lives. In addition, Crete is less affected by the austerity measures than the mainland because crops are still growing, tourists are still enjoying themselves and our Cretan friends with their rich Minoan history and tradition live close to their land and smallholdings. They do not suffer quite as much as the many others who left the villages, went to University, trained for professions and now find that these are the first people to find their urban lives so harshly affected. We have asked all our local friends about it. Niko at the Pharmacy says that for a short while it will be difficult, but he is optimistic. K now has to pay for his prescriptions in advance, while supply lines are shaky. Marina at the Cafe in Panormo says, “We don't want any more austerity but so long as we have barley rusks, tomatoes, olive oil and feta, we will survive OK”. Kimon's mates at the village Kafeneon talk about it constantly and nobody can really decide how to get out of this impasse.

Lots of graphs and economic explanations tell us that of all the bail out money received, only a small fraction of it actually helps anyone in Greece since it is paid back in interest to big banks in Germany and France and many other countries, including the UK before anything is available centrally. If you can believe statistics. Others raise the historical issue of the Bank of Greece's cancellation of a large debt owed by Germany after the second world war when things were bad and Germany was in the process of rebuilding the country. By Tuesday, there was so much divisive stuff that I turned the computer off in the end; none of this was helpful but it did launch me into a Utopian daydream about all countries around the world cancelling each others' debts and what the answers on the balance sheets would be in … Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It seems that Europe needs to work out what its priorities are and whether unity and security can be sustained under an economic system which, in spite of so many rules and regulations, manages to penalise the poor while the rich have all the aces to take evasive action. Do we really want to perpetuate a system of growth and inflation if the majority have a poor quality of life, in spite of what their bank balance tells them? I think quite a few people across the world admire Greece for getting people to stop and think about it.

Most of us expats do not have a vote either in our home countries or here in our country of residence, which is just as well as we have no idea how to solve the problem. We had a couple of days this week where there were some petrol supply blips and the banks have been closed, but in truth everyone we know kept minimal money in their Greek banks for some time now. This has all been going on for so long and in spite of pensions cuts, masses of extra taxes raised and austerity, Greece seems to be more indebted than ever.

Kimon was discussing the news with our friend Vassilis in Bali and they both said how sad they were that now we had to lock our houses each day when we went out and how times were changing. Worry did not stop Vassilis and Katerina from giving us a huge bag of oranges to take away with us from their trees. Kostas at the shop heard that I had learned how to make Kolokithiakeftedes – courgette rissoles - (delicious) and so cut half a dozen beauties from his kitchen garden for me to cook with. He refused to let K pay for them!

There is no price on love, care or friendship and fortunately, no rationing of that! None of this has spoiled the holiday of our son Leo and his friends who have been with us here in Crete this week.

The most moving photo from Facebook was a queue of people – not at the cash machine or at the garage but queuing up outside a church to light prayer candles. At last, we have realised that only God can sort this one out!