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Street stories: Crisis can land us into reality with healthier foundation

23 April 2010 / 09:04:54  GRReporter
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The fact is that inside the country, things are more difficult. It seems we have better communication with people from Greek history than with the current situation. From spiritual perspective Greece is currently orphaned. For a long period of time we were proud of and admiring people who were born during the war period. Theodorakis, Elitis, Seferis, Melina, Hadzidakis, Xenakis... These were people who either contributed to the development of certain ideologies and cultural currents, such as was the case of Elitis for example, or people whose names were later waved on flags in various cultural areas. Though these people left and things now are much more difficult. Things are difficult all around the world too. All traditional frameworks on which one can rely on to create and build, are now gone. 

Unfortunately, today chaos is everywhere. If anyone follows what is being said in the past two months on television, what is written in the press and what people talk about us abroad, it is clear that what we are facing today did not come to us because some "bad" guy envies us because we are Greeks and wants to torture us. The economic collapse and all this panic is a process that began 10, 20 years ago. Politicians were playing their political game and people also "participated in the game” – everyone with his or her party and class interests. And today we are facing the bill due. The twist things took with strong populist trend, with the demand for easy money the dependency on them, managed to kill the very unity of Greek society. Another thing that happened to Greece is that for historical reasons we never paid off our bills to history. We never said: “OK, whatever happened, during the wars, happened”. I believe Bulgarians, Romanians and Serbs have already established a position they have adopted and have accepted it. We live with the idea that we are number one, but we are being punished, because we are a nation of winners, we are this and we are that... But the important thing is for a person to have a more earthly, healthier relationship with reality. 

Very sorry for what I am about to say but I would deliberately change a quality in today's Greek – shallowness. If I could I would eradicate it. I would keep alertness, cheerfulness, and wit. But all these qualities are result of the circumstances we live in. While circumstances are such, we will have those qualities. Just like when you live in a jungle. You should always be awake and alert in order to survive. On the other hand this means a serious loss of energy. And when energy is not concentrated in one place, it is wasted. In other countries where things from historical perspective are more balanced, this energy is harnessed in correctly. It goes into development, building, etc. 

With all the shocks Greece is experiencing right now, it is hard. I believe that today things are exceptionally difficult for us. This is because we went through the postwar period, when there was money, development and much more. Currently, however, we are quite powerless to what globalization brings in terms of technology, industry, sociology, culture, etc. I think one must not only be able to plunge into the soup of globalization, but also swim in it. As if there is a flood in your house – you need to be able to swim and not get on a chair and look at the water from above... Nobody can isolate neither immigrants nor ideas, nor Internet, nor the International Monetary Fund... Things are already happening and they are a fact. Talking that we exist and we are such and such is stupid... One must understand what is happening in order to know what to do. 

X-raying my dreams I would say that I wish I could retire now. If you asked me a year ago what my dream was, I would answer that my dream was to contribute more in the cultural field. But now I am beginning to seek for calmness. My dreams go towards my private plans. Now I am silent. 

Years ago things were different. Today Greeks look for a corner in order to hide. I believe Greeks today do not know where to hide and how to run escape. As a society we do not seek for balance now. The time for this was years ago. Now we are forced again to fight for survival - economical and cultural. 

Zero certainty for the future. This crisis attacked us and pressed us to seek ways to cope with everything. Is all of this going to affect people in a good way in the future, I don’t know. We'll talk again in a year and we'll see. At the moment the right word for what is happening is "unknown". One thing though, is clear. The crisis can land us into reality with a healthier foundation, to have to deal with a healthier law of the jungle. And this is what’s positive from the whole situation.

Tags: Greece classical music arts interview economy
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