“They put our feet in one single shoe” shouts the old lady as she enters slowly a bakery shop in a middle class suburb of Athens. She stands half-at the doorway and sends a smile to the bakery woman; she shouts over my head “I can’t buy anything today, I’ve run out of money. My pension comes next week”. I’m the only customer in the bread, cookies and pastry shop. Everything home made, excellent quality. Rather expensive. A luxury, nowadays. But today I need thecomfort that translates into one lemon cream, one chocolate croissant and a Tuscan bread, two pieces of carrot cake for my parents. I was at the bank paying some extra what-ever taxes. The rest of my emergency financial obligations to the broke state are on the way. I hardly dare open my mailing box. Utility bills, emergency taxes and contributions. Modest income with negative outlook. Fitch or Moody’s would have stamped me as “junk”.
Jobs have the value of rarity. There are simply no jobs around. A friend was telling me his son, 26, University degree in computer engineering, was offered a job in a shop. Four hours work, twice a week. Salary €100. No social insurance.
A friend of a friend, 45, widow, one child, finaly got a job. At the promotion stand of a supermarket. Once per week. Salary 4×20 = €80.
If you translate the daily payment in full time work the money is not bad considering today’s situation. But the jobless of the last two years hardly manage to get a full time job. Another friend who has a job in an accountant office was telling me “With the majority of my friends without job, I will soon be ashamed to say I still work”.
I pack my comfort bag and walk out of the bakery. The open market is near to close for the day and prices drop an hour before the closure. Here and there you will see a man or a woman picking up what the vendors have separated as garbage: half rotten potatoes, onions, a ‘tired’ lettuce, broccoli leaves greens that are not for sale.
At a stand a middle aged woman tries to bargain over a bundle of parsley. “Can I have it for 0.30 cents?” she asks the seller. “Lady, the price is already down from 0.5o to 0.40 cents”. The woman walks away, with the frustration written in her face. Not able to buy a bunch of parsley? Who have thought about that two years ago?
As I buy carrots, cucumbers, lentils, herbs and salads, my ears pick up dialogues full fo frustration and anger against the government. “They will make us slaves and have us work for nothing” says an a man in the 30’s and the vendor shouts over the stand “Hanging! All the 300 of them!”. With his raised hand shows towards downtown Athens, where the parliament is located.
I ask a friend who works at the open market whether he is afraid of the impact of the “haircut”. “A haircut? I don’t know what it is. All I know is that I need two thousand euro per month for my household and I don’t get even half of it in my pockets,” he says as he keeps praising dumping prices for his lettuce, green onions and herbs
“Haircut? That’s political bullshit for the banks!” says one of his collegues at the left. “My wife lost her job, I have two kids 14 and 12. My revenues have been sharply decreased. That’s the haircut I understand and I have it now!”
A third seller intervenes in our conversation ” We can’t blame the people for not buying or asking for price reductions. Everybody is on a tight budget” he says and urges an old woman starring at his fruits “Hurry up, mam’, choose two apples and two pears”. As I take a look at the fruit stand, the woman whispers in my ear “Are you also tight? Does he also give to you for free?”
After reading your artical I thought about just pointing out a few extra
points. Ive been living in Greece for the past 21 years. I have raised
three young men here. Two of them at the moment are in the greek army.
When I came here my kids were little. As soon as they were old enough to go to school I realized that this country had no organization. Third world class. No proper educational facilities. No proper medical support. No government information. Just a mess!! Athens is ugly, dirty and at night dangerous. Police are no where, and why should they be cause they have no idea what they are doing. Just a mess. Transit system is basically free cause hardly no one pays ticket. Unbelieavable. Im here til Febuary and then I go home to civilization. Thnks
Frustration very understandable. I felt and feel the same after 30 yrs living abroad.
The shame decent people feel when they get something for free is a feeling nobody understands who has never been in that position. It is a horrible feeling of gratitude mixed with shame and the realization that you are not able to take care for yourself anymore… And you know that that guy who gives you the two apples and two peers for free knows. You just want to disappear in thin air and sneak back to your home to cover yourself with a blanket and cry…….
of course. I know people who are even ashamed to get unemployment allowance. I should have mentioned on the post how stunned I was she thought I was ‘entitled’ to get for free too. Why I was stunned? because I was used to think for many years that poor people look …different. Stupid me 🙁
Yes. Exactly. I never forget the look on my mothers face. Way back in the 70s-80s. She had to raise us on almost nothing. Everything she owned broke down. Freezer, car… nothing left. Then she went to a shop and had not enough money in her wallet. The guy knew her and whispered: “Come, take it.” He was kind. But I saw how she started dying at that moment… Couple of years later, I found myself in a same kind of situation. Some friends gave me stuff. Great… but I saw my mothers eyes and knew what she felt.
So, I really think I know how you felt there…
When I look around me now, I see way to many people with the same look in their eyes. Totally decent people, with this sense of disbelieve. You put it well: “…because I was used to think for many years that poor people look …different.” And that is NOT stupid. It is the truth!
sorry to hear this bad experiences in your family. Yes, it is a schock when the middle classes go broke.
similar story, father grew up barefoot in a village had to make a life for himself with work. and when i was 12 and my highschool did “katalipsi” he said if you cant go to school you will work. so i went to work with him there is nothing like never having to ask your parents for money you havent earned with your own sweat. so after university and military service when i joined the army of the unemployed i felt like a complete loser not beeing able to find a steady job and pay my own way and make a life for myself. so i know what all these people feel like especially when we are called lazy and other things by foreigners and our own represantatives “politicians” agree with them and act as if they are squeeky clean and moral. KTG that last paragraph was a moving snapshot of how things are in greece. the anger of the vendors, the other people joining in the conversation, the kindness of the vendor offering free produce to someone in need and finally the duality of the shame and joy of the woman who can get some food for free.
I am German by accident and I know only one country I love from deep within my heart. It’s Greece, not Germany. It’s a real shame what the “Europeans” are performing on the Greek people, leaving out the big ones as usual. It’s just a crime, but who cares? The normal TV users in Europe don’t. They believe every shit they are told. OK, in a way they did the same with us during the last 20 years, but slowly cooking the frog….Greece is now the test case for the quick doomesday scenario, I think. Hope the monsters will learn. Greeks have a lot of sheeps, but they aren’t ones like the Germans. Other countries will have to follow that path and rise against it. But anyway, despite that fact that I can’t really afford it, I will find a way to continue to come to my felt homeland at least 3 times a year (like I did for 34 years) and leave a small amount of money there. If the price for coming in is the same on different Airlines (including Taxi, Buses and so on) I always take the connection that leaves more money on Greek ground rather than the much more comfortable one which leaves the money in Germany. Keep on keeping on….
Man, man, man. Some Eyes have to be opened in “Europe”. That’s why you are linked on my website for some weeks now. So, just moderate it ;-))..
thank you, that’s KTG-point of view too. That eyes have to be opened.
And yeah, yeah, yea. Latest news in Germany:
“Euro-Staaten einig mit Banken
Griechenland muss nur die Hälfte zurückzahlen”.
Payback? What? Everything went to the banks. At least your “corrupt” goverments fed their people, ours were the other way round. Now they are f…… us all. Ok, we have to feed the banks again. Maybe two times Greece per year in the future or one time for 12 months. I really am fed up with “Europe”, the moneymachine is trying to keep us apart from each other…