கோரா தளத்தில் இதைப் படித்தேன். உங்களோடு பகிராமல் இருக்க முடியவில்லை. எழுதியவர் Debbie Todd. இதைப் படித்தபோது கிரேக்கத்தின் கிராமப்புறங்களில் சில மாதங்கள் சுற்ற வேண்டும் என்று தோன்றியது. இதேபோல் தமிழக கிராமங்கள் பற்றி எழுத முடியுமா என்று யோசித்துப் பார்த்தேன். வாய்ப்பே இல்லை. நூறு ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு என்றால் முடிந்திருக்கும். இப்போது முடியாது. காரணம், தமிழ்நாடு தன் ஆன்மாவை இழந்து போய் வெகு காலம் ஆகிறது.
Q: How is Greece able to maintain a high quality of life despite a high unemployment rate?
As a UK citizen living in Greece, I find I have a better quality of life here than I had in the UK. The main reason for this is that my income is relatively low, making it difficult for me to rent even a bedsit in the UK. However, here in Greece, I’m able to rent a very small house for less than €200 per month! There are no mod cons, no heating or double glazing and my only heat is in winter from a wood burning stove. I don’t have an electric oven, just a hob which means that in summer I have to manage with the hob only. In winter, when the woodburner is lit, I can cook in the oven and heat water in kettles on the top of the stove.
Public transport here is surprisingly cheap – we have some quite luxurious buses but, unfortunately, the time tables often make travel difficult. The bus service to my village is fairly poor, especially in winter when there is no bus service on weekends. I do tend to walk or hitch rides quite a lot.
Going out is relatively cheap – it’s mostly Greek tavernas using local produce so instead of paying a small fortune for food that is bought in and heated up, we pay much less for good quality food that is cooked from scratch. When it comes to bars and tavernas, going for a coffee or drink is quite affordable in most parts of Greece. I’m not much of a drinker and rarely get a bar bill that is more than €6. One of the local taverna owners is reluctant to let me pay for anything so I try to make sure I leave some money on the counter every other visit or so!
I tend to try to shop local if possible, either in my own village or in the nearest town. When I do venture into the city (Chania is my nearest city) and buy non-essentials like clothing, I go to the same shops and am usually given a discount as a returning customer. If it’s not a discount, they’ll throw in a freebie, for instance if I go to a bakery to stock up on breadsticks, the counter assistant will add a small pack of cakes.
The Greek people (and the immigrants who live here, like myself) are very generous, always giving away produce from their gardens. I can’t remember the last time I bought cooking oil – I currently have about 5 litres of olive oil, all given to me by the people who owned the trees the olives were picked from. When I buy logs, I usually get a carrier bag full of oranges and a bottle of wine when they’re delivered. I wouldn’t dream of buying a lemon in a shop – I just wander down the street until I find a tree with ripe lemons and pick one. I get avocados from a tree in the garden of a disused house in the next street to mine. I pick wild herbs when I’m out walking, I plan to pick enough olives on a walk to pickle a couple of jars over the winter. I forage for walnuts, mulberries, apricots, wild asparagus, etc. In May and June, I collected capers and have pickled four jars for the next year.
The majority of the Greeks live in their family homes, built on family land. When the kids grow up, it’s usually the case that a new home is built for them on the family land, or an extra storey is added to the existing family home. This means no rent or mortgage to pay – it would be nigh on impossible for most Greeks to pay rent or mortgage from what they earn in jobs – the hourly wage is usually really low compared with other European countries.
A lot of Greek people where I live will have inherited houses or parcels of land in a few different local villages. They may have goats in one field, olive trees (harvested for fruit and firewood) in a couple of other fields, oranges in another and perhaps beehives somewhere else. If they own any houses, they can rent them out for a passive income.
I wouldn’t call it a high standard of living, more of a hard-scrabble way of living, making the most of what they have and what they’ve inherited. Those Greeks who rely on the tourist season for employment are the worst off, financially as they need to make enough in the summer months to last the whole year. This is doable if you’re a business owner, but much more difficult for an employee on an hourly wage.