Greece - Korina Miller [30]
The Greeks are undeniably passionate, fiercely independent and proud of their heritage. While their ancestry can give them a smug sense of cultural superiority, they are well aware of their present-day underdog status in the new Europe and are more firmly focused on building a future.
Since they came hurtling into the EU in 1981 as the smallest and poorest nation on the block, Greeks have been struggling to catch up with the radical, fast-tracked social changes, modernisation and economic reforms that are still sweeping the country.
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The World of the Ancient Greeks (2002), by archaeologists John Camp and Elizabeth Fisher, is a broad and in-depth look at how the Greeks have left their imprint on politics, philosophy, theatre, art, medicine and architecture.
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The resounding success of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games was a major turning-point in changing the perception of Greece as a European backwater, while Greece’s euphoric European Cup football triumph that same year also boosted morale and national pride.
Freedom and self-determination has only been a recent phenomenon but these days the resilience of Greek culture and traditions are being tested by globalisation, market forces and radical social change. The current generation of Greeks is dealing with a massive generational and technological divide; multilingual children playing games on their mobile phones while their illiterate grandfathers still get around on a mule. In the major shift from a largely poor, agrarian existence to increasingly sophisticated urban dwellers, Greeks are also delicately balancing cultural and religious mores. The younger generation of Greeks is multilingual, educated, far less insular and increasingly more widely travelled. They are also living in a wealthier and far more multicultural society.
As Greeks continue to reinvent themselves, the Greek psyche presents some intriguing paradoxes.
Greeks have an undeniable zest for life, but aren’t into making plans, with spontaneity a refreshing aspect of social life. They like to flaunt their newfound wealth with top brand-name clothing and flashy cars, and they are prone to displays of excess, especially in spending on entertainment. In many ways the chain-smoking, mobile-phone-addicted, consumerist Greeks are making up for lost time.
Greeks have long enjoyed a reputation as loyal friends and generous hosts. They pride themselves on their filotimo (dignity and sense of honour), and their filoxenia (hospitality, welcome, shelter), which you will find in even the poorest household.
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Greeks are among the world’s biggest mobile phone users, with more than 11.9 million mobile phones connected, which is more than the estimated population of 11.2 million people.
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Yet this hospitality and generosity seems to extinguish in the public sphere, where surly civil servants show a distinct lack of interest in customer service. The notion of the greater good often plays second fiddle to personal interests and there is little sense of collective responsibility in relation to issues such as the environment. The pride Greeks have in their homes rarely extends to public spaces.
Greeks have a residual mistrust of authority and little respect for the state; personal freedom and democratic rights are almost sacrosanct and there is an aversion to the Big Brother approach of over-regulated Western nations (in 2009, Greece banned Google Earth’s street-view function after an outcry over invasion of privacy). This inherent insubordinate streak means rules and regulations are routinely ignored. Many visitors are indeed surprised to learn there are road rules at all. Despite hefty fines, wearing a seatbelt is treated as an optional inconvenience; creative and inconsiderate parking is the norm; dangerous overtaking is rife; and you’ll often see people riding motorbikes, carrying their helmets as they chat on their mobile phones. New smoking bans introduced in 2009 were set to test the nation – heralded by some commentators as ‘the second civil war’.
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