Hello again, James;
Greece is in the news rather a lot at the moment and none of said news appears very good. Debt, sinecure occupations, corruption (the infamous ‘fakiraki‘, or little brown envelope), bail-outs, strikes, riots, deaths. A downward spiral, if you believe all you read.
However, 99% of the news footage is from Athens and life away from the Capitol carries on pretty much as always. Here in the islands, the main pre-occupations are repairing the winter damage to the infrastructure and preparing for the hoped for influx of tourists.
Whilst the age-old occupations of farming and fishing continue, the main source of revenue for many Greek communities (in the islands particularly) is the yearly crop of pale-skinned northern Europeans who are disgorged from an endless stream of charter flights, in search of some much needed sunshine and R&R.
The tourist season extends approximately from Easter to the end of October, some seven months. For those employed in the tourist trade, this period is their sole opportunity to earn the year’s money. If one has worked and paid into the national insurance scheme (IKA), for two years, one is entitled to unemployment benefit over the winter months. It is sometimes as low as 30 euro a month. If one doesn’t have the requisite number of stamps, no benefit is paid.
To ensure sufficient funds to survive the year then, many of the Greek people involved in tourism have two or even three jobs during the season and 20 hour days, 7 days a week are frequently the norm throughout the tourist season. Whilst non-tourism related businesses often close their doors from around midday to about 5pm (the hottest part of the day, where temperatures can and do reach the mid to high 40s) tourist businesses are by necessity open throughout the day, often till the early hours. No siestas here.
In recent years the tourist trade has been hit by a variety of problems. The collapse of tour companies, the seemingly never-ending increase of ‘all-inclusive’ holidays and hotels (where the money is paid in the tourist’s home country and little, if anything reaches the local economy), the dire exchange rate (affects the non-EMU countries) and of course the recent unpronounceable Icelandic volcano’s attempts to ground Europe’s air traffic. One family run hotel, the owners of which are great friends of ours, during August 2009 suddenly lost their contract with their tour company. This led to large hotel having two couples in residence during the last two weeks of the month and similarly dire occupancy for the rest of the year. Not enough to pay the electricity bills, let alone living costs.
Flying in the face of the much-vaunted Greek complacency, the owners went it alone, advertised their wares independently and this year are fully booked, volcanism permitting.
Away from the tourist fleshpots, this is a lifestyle where you can still go out for the day and leave your house unlocked, your bag on the seat of your open top car and where violent crime is virtually unknown. Indeed some of the smaller islands have no police presence at all, as is the case in many of the villages throughout the many islands.
The only noticeable effects of the current crisis is the ever-increasing tax on goods (e.g. VAT now 23%, up from the previous 21% rate) and a similar increase in bureaucrats looking for novel ways to extract taxes from businesses and home-owners.
This is not to say that all the media hype is incorrect. The only time we have been issued receipts for anything is when shopping at the supermarket. Most everyone else does appear to like good, old-fashioned cash and always seem to have left the receipt book somewhere else. Similarly, the ‘fakiraki‘ or little brown envelope, is on occasion required to gain access to services – or so I am told!
Financial crises notwithstanding, life here is very different from life on the mainland, indeed it is very different from our previous life in the UK. We are completely off-grid, installing solar photovoltaics and wind turbines, collecting rain water for household and irrigation and attempting to turn a wild patch of land into a sustainable plot. What is on our side, is the fertility of the place. Three crops a year, plenty of rain and 300 sunshine days a year (average) with one or less days below freezing on an average year.
We’ve been trying out various forms of lighting, LED, olive-oil lamps, candle power, etc and are also experimenting with water collection, storage and filtration. SurvivalBlog is an invaluable resource for us and I’d like to say a hearty ‘thanks’ to Jim and all the contributors, from whom we’ve learned – and are continuing to learn – so much.
More on our adventure, and about a country relocation and its joys and pitfalls when the batteries have enough to supply the computer, or when we’re back on the mainland for a visit!
Keep up the great work James. SurvivalBlog is required reading these days!
Best, – Michael