News from Athens
I have been in Greece for a few days, and made the usual 'pilgrimage' to the Acropolis. A few years ago I posted about the Museum and the row that was then raging between Vangelis (Greece's best known musician) and the Museum authorities. They wanted to bulldoze Vangelis's nice house (above) whoch stands between the Museum and the Acropolis itself (and so from the lower floors spoils the vista between the two). Understandably, Vangelis rather fancied staying put.
There was a lot of mud slinging on both sides. Vangelis insisted on the architectural distinction of his house (true from the front, not from the back) and that the design brief for the Museum had made it clear that the house (and its next door neighbour) should be preserved. The opposition said that Vangelis was (ab)using his influence and his international contacts in keeping his own house standing, when the cityscape demanded the reverse. Has it been the house of any old Athenian, it would have been bulldozed long since.
Anyway, Vangelis won. And all the notices that used to cover the front of the house, explaining the case for preservation have gone.
Instead, as you can see in the picture, there is nowa nicely traditional anarchist slogan -- "Eat the Rich" -- plastered on the facade. Whether this is aimed at the super-rich Vangelis or at the super-rich bankers/euro--exploiters or whoever, is not clear.
As for whether Greece is obviously suffering, is constantly in mid-riot and denuded of tourists ... the answer is no. I am sure that Greece IS suffering (and Greek friends tell bad stories of redundancies, strikes, and no money to keep basic services going). But on the main tourist sites, you would not actually know (except the number of guards with whistles peeping at offending tourists who stray where they shouldnt seems strikingly reduced) .. and the usual places were all packed as usual.
Which is either testimony to a very efficient cover up, or to the fact that somehow life does (at least) APPEAR to go on, even when the infra-structure is in mid-collapse.
