- Will other countries follow Greece Potato Movement example.
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Is Greece laying the groundwork for how debt ridden countries will manage in the future? Will they follow Greece’s Potato Movement example?
It’s no real surprise that the Greek people face an uncertain future with a degree of stoicism.
After all it is a Greek word, a philosophy founded on the principles espoused by Zeno of Citium and taught in Athens around 300BC.
What is surprising is that a proportion of Stoic principle is so un-Greek. Zeno taught that people should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity.
Greeks free from passion? Not something I would have thought would ever catch on here. To see a Greek person holding forth on almost any subject, be it football, food, finance or family, is to behold a whirlwind of extravagant gestures, a multitude of facial expressions and a verbal bombardment of unbridled opinion.
OK, so the current economic situation could not in all conscience be declared unavoidable necessity, but it’s the Greek in the Street who is bearing the brunt of reform. One who works hard, pays his taxes and is seeing his wages cut by perhaps 30%.
With prices rising in the shops, and new taxes being introduced, ends are not only not meeting, but moving further apart.
Nonetheless, there is stoicism. More in the currently accepted definition, that there is adversity that must be met and difficulties to be overcome, and the Greeks are making a good fist of it.
I recently travelled to Larissa on the Greek mainland, in an area of large agricultural production. Potato farmers there have formed co-operatives to market their produce, bypassing the wholesalers and bringing goods to the consumers at more affordable prices. There is talk of apple producers doing the same. They are finding new ways to mitigate the impact of reform.
The shops in Larissa bustled, the cafes thronged. People just tried to get on with their lives. However, a doctor I spoke to was fearful about cuts in health services, and she was uncertain whether she could afford to continue working here, suggesting that a move to a more ‘developed’ country may be her only option.
This is a big part of the Greek tragedy. Those with desirable and transferable skills may end up leaving, and the country will be poorer if they do.
Ultimately, the Greek situation is an experimental work-in-progress. This will form the model for the next failed economy, and of course there will be more than one to come. Be it Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain, it can be no surprise that whatever happens in Greece is likely to be replicated elsewhere when the EU moguls come calling.
All of that means if you take your holidays in Tuscany, the Algarve, the Costas or in Wicklow, you would do well to pay attention to the Greeks, as this may be a portent of things to come.
And as for Zeno of Citium? Because he was a foreigner in Athens, being Byzantine Cretan by birth, he also gave rise to the word Xenophobia, an unreasonable fear of that which is foreign or strange. Again, from personal experience something which the Greeks as a whole cannot be accused of.
Maybe he went from Zeno to hero to zero….
Glossa is starting to wake up from winter, we’re in the middle of Lent of course but still only 2 restaurants open until at least after Easter, and the car ferry has only just started again. But on the plus side, the sun has started to shine after one of the longest and wettest winters most people can remember!
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