Imitation of life – a walk through the streets of Athens
Joana Ramiro writes.
If you want to know what austerity really means all you need to do is walk through the streets of Athens.
In the morning when we arrived – straight from the airport, suitcase in hand – almost as if mirroring my frazzled mood, the streets were bursting with activity. As soon as you start walking out of Syntagma Square’s metro station – boom! – the sound of people loudly shouting 50% discounts and the end of the world. Quite literally. We emerge from the entrails of the Athenian underground to be greeted on the right hand side by a Seventh Day Adventist type, and on the left by two leafleteers promoting English classes now at half price.
The large square in front of Parliament is feverishly alive. People coming up and down with shopping bags and end-of-week expressions. Despite the buzz the environment is somewhat relaxed, almost festive. Not the atmosphere one would expect from an austerity-riddled nation.When we meet Nikolas Papatrianphyllou, a Syriza trade union organiser, he quips:
“Well, let’s put it this way, it’s Friday, most young people are unemployed, so what else are they going to do but relax?”
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| Finance ministry blocked by cleaners’ #RubberGlove movement camp (Athens) |
“As you know the European Union is not one of solidarity but one of finance, of markets and of profits”,
Nikolas tells me as we compare the fates of the Greek, Spanish and Portuguese youth.
In a cruel twist of irony, Europe takes its name from a Greek mythological figure – a beautiful woman abducted and raped by Zeus when in the form of a bull. An image disturbingly meaningful in times like these.
Less than 48 hours away from a new radical left-wing government in Greece, a government that promises to stand firm against austerity and the whims of the Troika (International Monetary Fund/European Central Bank/European Commission), I cannot help but wonder what the effects will be on Athenian streets and Athenian peoples.How much will they idly wander through shops and stands distracting themselves from the looming threat of economic collapse?Will the tavernas be busy once more?
And will dogs stay awake through the night, as humans break out of their cash-strapped confinements and take to the streets, to revel or rebel, depending on what next the Gods have in store for a people that has for too long been bearing the brunt of a crisis that has so little to do with them at all.
This article was first published on Joana’s blog Volume 3.
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