Hyperbole is a Greek word. And we have heard plenty of it recently regarding the detained Eva Kaili. First of all, her party (PASOK) disowned her instead of suspending her pending the results of the investigation. Not content with this guilty-until-proven-innocent manoeuvre, the leader of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, levelled the ridiculous accusation that Kaili was the Trojan Horse of the New Democracy Party (ο Δούρειος Ίππος της Νέας Δημοκρατίας). Though PASOK leader since December 2021, Androulakis is still clinging on to his well-paid seat in the European Parliament. Unsurprisingly, people see through the bullshit, so PASOK are tanking in the polls. They were crawling their way back with numbers nudging towards 15%, but with elections due in March or April, SYRIZA are now creaming votes off PASOK, who are down to about 8%. Anyway, PASOK’s travails are not my main concern. One might think it hard to get more stupid than our Trojan Crazy Horse, but Kaili’s lawyers have managed it. At the beginning of her detention, she was held for two days in a police station rather than prison. The light in her cell was kept on and she was denied an extra blanket. Not nice, but not exactly an Iranian pedicure where your toenails are forcibly separated from your toes. Kaili’s lawyers have called her treatment torture and medieval. Such ridiculous exaggeration dishonours women undergoing real suffering.
The above is the best I’ve seen so far about Eva Kaili. The caption states, “Our Eva isn’t to blame for anything. The Athenians envy her because she is a beautiful woman from Thessaloniki and they have cursed her.” If you look carefully at the last word, the first five letters, Qatar, have replaced the Greek καταρ.
I have recently spent a morning in a private hospital. It was full. Parking was nearly impossible. In spite of economic hardship, Greeks will still spend money on health care. Which brings me to our next scandal: ψευτογιατροί = quacks.
Two men, a Greek and a German, have been peddling the 21st century equivalent of snake oil, promising patients revolutionary treatment with stem cell injections (so they claimed) at around €20,000 a pop. I thought it was confined to northern Greece, but the two “doctors” have been covering the whole country since 2009, screwing victims out of millions. Victims is the correct word as at least five people have died. You can read more here: https://www.voria.gr/article/thessaloniki-se-exelixi-megali-ereyna-tis-asfaleias-gia-nea-ypothesi-pseytogiatroy-me-pente
On a lighter note, Greeks’ capacity for petty lawlessness never ceases to amaze. Police issued several fines for anti-smoking violations. My son tells me that the law is generally observed until around 11pm/midnight when things tend to fall apart.
Another example: Thessaloniki’s ring road is in most parts a six-lane highway (3 lanes in either direction). It can be dangerous because there is no emergency lane while access and egress lanes are dangerously short – in many cases not more than 50 metres. One dark evening I was stunned to see a cyclist on the road. No lights and no reflectors. I lowered my window to remind him he was not allowed on the ring road. He caught up with me as I exited the road and stopped at a red light. “Γαμώ το σπίτι σου,” (Fuck you and your family) was his unrepentant reaction. Having grown up in Ireland and Scotland, you can imagine how shocked I was at such language! However, it is the following case which is of interest. An electric scooter was caught on the ring road motoring along at a pace fast enough to overtake other vehicles. As if this wasn’t dangerous enough, he was filming himself and uploading to social media at the same time: https://www.voria.gr/article/thessaloniki-andras-bgike-me-ilektriko-patini-ston-perifereiako-ekane-mehri-kai
Never a dull day…