July 2023

What a month it has been! Full of drama and disaster. Disaster was very localised with the sinking of the overloaded ship that had set off from Tobruk in Libya and then later sank off the coast of Kalamata on June the 14^th. Over a hundred people were rescued, but it is thought that at least 500 people perished. According to the Greek coastguard, the captain and crew refused offers of help because they wanted to stay on course for Italy. The captain deserted the ship, and the coastguard’s version of events has been regularly challenged since the crisis, while nine men were charged in Kalamata with the crime of people trafficking. The foreign press has been extremely critical of Greek actions or lack of them, and very few media outlets have mentioned the generous reaction of the citizens of Kalamata, who rallied immediately with offers of help: food, clothes and accommodation. The people saved were speedily removed to a refugee camp in Athens, which is the last place they want to be.

In the meantime the Greek government declared three days of national mourning, which seemed to me and plenty of others to be a very hypocritical act when the strengthening of the wall in Evro in northern Greece was going on at the same time: this wall is designed to keep so-called illegal migrants out, and there is some thought that the people on the doomed ship did not accept offers of coastguard help because they knew Greece’s dark reputation for the pushing back of desperate people. I don’t know why politicians cannot accept that only people clutching at the last straws of hope would put themselves at such risk.

And then there was the grim episode of the submersible, in which five very privileged people died. The rest of us learned all over again about the fickle nature of publicity: billionaires will always command more attention than the poor, and so it was again, with the 500 lying at the bottom of the sea apparently forgotten while the world at large agonised over the fate of the Titan. Many people also wondered why people would want to go on such an expedition. I’m not claustrophobic, for example, and am certainly not wealthy, but nothing would induce me to undertake such a venture even if it were possible for me to do so. At least the five unfortunates were spared a slow death involving the dwindling supply of oxygen. Former President Obama spoke for a great many people when he deplored the discrepancy in the amount of publicity given to both cases.

Closer to home, some good and entertaining things happened. School has broken up for the long Greek summer, so that both my grandson and granddaughter took part in class celebrations. Orestes’s class put on a play, written by teachers, about the very topical subject of bullying, while Natalia’s class put on a show involving poems, songs and dances. Once again I was amazed at the self-confidence Greek children have. At least as a rule: there was not the least sign of nerves or stage-fright. Of course they knew the audience of adoring parents and grandparents was with them all the way.

The Greek election, with a month between the two rounds, is now over, for which much thanks. The result was as expected, with PM Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party returned and with the bonus seats that the PM wanted and indeed needed in order to gain a majority. The main opposition party Syriza was trounced, and its leader Alexis Tsipras resigned as a consequence. The Left is currently very fragmented, and the far Right has risen in a frightening manner: one commentator has said that this new government is the most conservative since the era of the Colonels, who were in power from 1967 to 1974. This is not a cheering thought, at least not to me.

Still nature goes on its inexorable way, and the Greek summer is definitely here. Tourists are here in goodly numbers, and we all hope they are spending a lot of money. They are certainly enjoying the beaches. The jacarandas are a picture this year, and the Persian Silk trees are also making what my grannies would have called a glorious show. Earlier I bought some gladioli bulbs without really knowing what they were (the grannies would be ashamed) and they are blooming very well, too. The late Edna Everage would be pleased.