In the image above is a small undefined area in Central Athens as it is projected to become. In an extremely densely populated where a parking spot can cost you 100 euro a month or more. Most people just drive around until they find a space, or try to “hold” a spot using crates or their kids and spouses and other tricks.
As you can see the cars park more or less without any plan because, well, Greece, it is an “undefined” area, much contended public space in the city is like that. But then some brave mayor thinks he has a solution! In this case to turn it into a park! The most obvious advantage is that nobody can say no to more green in a city already suffering from global warming. And better still, find a corporate sponsor. Problem solved!
Well not really. Not at all.
This is prime real estate in the most densely packed part of town. It is glaringly obvious that it is an absolute waste not to use the underground opportunity. I wouldn’t even suggest using it for car parking, unless it was a high rise car parking with a green park on top. Probably a center for micromobility would be best. Have charging stations for ebikes and escooters and such. Greece is sorely lacking in availability and support for these. Imagine getting out of your house, walking through a small park and going down to pick up your scooter to work instead.
But that’s not how politics work in Greece.
We need a quick win. Not some boring , long term, expensive actual solution. We just need something for the press releases. And the corporate sponsors love it. Like the pointless “green solar island” the VW group has been harping about for ages. This is just an excuse for PR and corporate people to get free trips to Greece as a mini holiday. So everyone looks good, feels good, gets what they want in the short term.
Except the inhabitants of this area just lost the open space and some invaluable parking spots. Sure, go ahead, make a park. And watch it dry up when the funding does the same. We have seen it a million times.
It is not easy or pleasurable to oppose any green park project. I remember when my local quarries started planting trees on the side of the road I was torn. They were not only illegally in dangerous places by the road but – more to the point – they were only in those places they needed to be in order to hide the quarry!
Sometimes however we need to say no. Do it right, or don’t do it all.
Just switched off the first Mavs-Celtics game. Since the iconic rivalry of the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, NBA Finals ratings have never recovered. Strangely enough however the lowest TV rated series was the most interesting to me. It was 2020, the year of “the bubble”, an innovative solution the NBA found to continue working despite restrictions.
And it won Joe Biden the elections.
At a time when we were all stuck at home watching Netflix they managed to produce top level basketball and a potent political message at the same time. Every match was a black lives matter match, a platform for players to talk about the importance of voting. Personally I truly believe it made the difference by getting especially black voters determined enough to overcome all of Trump’s hurdles in order to vote against him and swing the election. It wasn’t easy post Obama to keep their support, especially in the COVID mess of disinformation.
Lebron James is a divisive figure in the world of basketball. Billed from a very young age as “the next Michael Jordan” he is in fact much much more than Jordan can even imagine. (Yes, I have written about him before, here is a good summary of a lot of things I admire in him.) Mostly because this athlete had the courage to stand up against an acting President. He alienated half his fans forever. But he was right. And he didn’t win that ring “for Cleveland” like the last one he got. He won it for social justice, so he could have a platform to make change.
LBJ is what I call “a benevolent dictator”.
This is a term I have often used to describe Google too. I laughed out loudly when reading magazine titles about how “open AI is challenging Google in artificial intelligence”. Nobody is even close. Google, much like LeBron James, is several steps ahead of everyone. Google makes assists to everyone for as long as possible and only hammers specific baskets in if and when necessary. LeBron this season at age 39 single handedly outscored the entire much hyped Clippers team in the fourth quarter to come back from a 19 point deficit. Google can do the same any day of the week to Open AI.
With much power, comes much responsibility. Blowing out opponents simply makes nobody watch the game. LBJs history, much like Google’s is a constant string of everyone doubting them. You rarely see a LeBron James team blowout opponents. I have oftened wondered why I am awake at 4am (Greek time) watching him play. I now know and it is addictive, he is very cunningly making sure the end result, what you bought a ticket for, is worth watching. It is the exact opposite of watching Giannis play. But even an aging LeBron can turn games around when he really needs to, he controls the narrative. He knows when the league isn’t going to give him MVP, he knows when the league needs a different team to get a championship. He adapts the story, sure. But the end result is always worth watching if you know what you are looking for.
Sundar Pichai, if you ever need help, who you gonna call?
PS Lebron it’s time you switched to a Google Pixel.
If you have booked a holiday in Greece for June, July or August you have made a big mistake. Unless you are heading for the mountains in the North you are in for multiple unpleasant surprises.
In this post I described the horrors of visiting Santorini. And that was at the end of October! Many people recommend September as the ideal month in terms of weather. They lack an understanding of Greek tourism. It is mainly small business, family run or short termist approaches. By September they are exhausted, they are sick and tired of tourists. Even the beaches, even if they are empty feel used and out of energy. Maybe you can’t see rubbish, but you can feel the presence of thousands that packed the sand before you.
Severe heat presents a problem on multiple fronts. First of all you can’t really do anything. Running from shade to shade is no way to live unless it is a dystopian movie. When the heat is unbearable even in the evening you are reduced to sitting in the room with the AC on and jumping in the pool briefly with multiple lotions slathered on generously, hats, umbrellas and any other available technology against skin cancer.
But it gets worse. Because those ACs are simply pumping out more heat and noise. We have just moved the problem beyond sight. And Greek islands have no sustainable energy sources. So if you drive around you will usually find a petrol burning electricity station producing inefficient quantities of power. Which is why even Santorini often is left without power.
And without water. Greek islands barely had enough water for their few inhabitants a hundred years ago. Now they have to carry it over from the mainland and truck millions of bottles of it for you to drink. And forgoing all the problems of the energy demanded for that, they all also end up in landfills. Like the famously hideous one in Santorini. Every Greek island has one, some islands actually export their rubbish in trucks that get on the boat with you. It is a ludicrous reminder of just how unsustainable this is. Getting millions of people on a little rocky island.
But wait, it gets worse. Because as is well documented, severe heat also increases the chances of forest fires.
These past 3-4 years in Greece have been devastating. Personally I blame the current government which has dramatically changed the approach to fire fighting. They also do not enforce any measures to reduce fire hazards, always pretending to pass responsibility to citizens.
And that is Greek tourism in a nutshell. An important sector of the economy which relies 100% on the ability of the State to provide infrastructure:
Power Infrastructure. A joke. The government brags about wind energy which is produced by destroying Greek mountains. At the same time power cables are overland! They destroy your pictures as a tourist and they greatly increase the fire risk as most wild fires are started by faulty electric cabling. (And then everyone pretends it was arson.)
Water infrastructure. Non existent. And given the fact that tourists stupidly keep going to the same few islands it is a hard one to solve. This isn’t just about the water you drink, it is even more so about toilet waste disposal. For too many years the easy solution was just a pipe going out to sea. This is still often the case.
Waste infrastructure. Greece just keeps getting fined from the EU because we recycle less than everyone else. Landfills are disgraceful and largely unregulated anarchy.
Communication infrastructure. The most expensive in Europe for most things (mobile and fixed line internet) and far behind in terms of available speeds. So much for being a digital nomad.
Transport infrastructure. We Greeks don’t even think of getting on a boat with our cars to go to an island. Prices have rocketed as it is essentially monopolies of government cronies. There is no rail network and prices of motorway tolls are out of control. That is usually motorways built on government loans and european funds, somehow we end up paying them back in tolls for decades…
Tourism infrastructure. Closed! This may sound crazy but most Greek antiquities are free to visit. Free to loot. Completely unprotected, often without even a fence to pretend we care. The Greek government seems to focus only on public relations campaigns like the one for the Elgin marbles, or on opening new museums which then get abandoned. Due to lack of staff they are often closed. Or open severely restricted hours. Or closed due to strikes. But the real problem is the lack of information. You drive along and see a fantastic ruin but there is no information anywhere about it.
But please come to Greece. It is still one of the most beautiful countries I know. Just don’t “do” Mykonos, Santorini and a quick run up the Acropolis. Come in April or May if you like the sea to find fresh beaches and locals that are still happy and energized. Go to smaller islands or – better still- thousands of kilometers of great beaches that are off the mainland. Come any other period other than the summer months and enjoy antiquities, nature and (depending where you go) great people that generally speak English and are very hospitable.
A friend once told me that “tourism destroys all it touches”. This is true of much of Greece, more now than ever before. So be careful where you touch.
PS All the images on this post are from the Acropolis of ancient Siphai. One of thousands of important archaelogical sites left to crumble (literally) in Greece. So come quick and see them at least. Good luck learning more about them, here is the official Ministry of Culture page on this site:
