Monday, 25th October 21: This afternoon Fofi Gennimata, the leader of KINAL (formerly PASOK), died. She was relatively young, a month shy of her 57th birthday. Her father, Georgios Gennimatas, also died young, being only 54 when cancer took him back in 1994. Georgios Gennimatas’s main achievement lay in setting up the National Health System (Εθνικό Σύστημα Υγείας) back in the 80s. Health care improved immensely, but the problem was it was funded through European loans rather than taxation. This and other feats of creative accounting bit Greece in the arse in 2010. I’m not sure what exactly Fofi achieved, but she held the rump of PASOK together under its new name KINAL. Greek politics is war without the weaponry; there aren’t many friendships between left and right, but Fofi was generally liked across the political spectrum. Several TV presenters and commentators were visibly upset.
Death also came to fifty-four Covid sufferers today, quite a jump from previous days. As I have said previously, new Covid cases are usually low on Mondays as not many people get tested on Sundays, so today’s numbers were very discouraging. There were just under 4,000 new cases. Intubations still remain under 400 but there are serious problems regarding the availability of ICU beds in the north. In other news, it was reported in www.voria.gr – an online newspaper that specialises in Northern Greek news – that of the 340 people who have died of Covid in the last 52 days, 299 (88%) were unvaccinated.
The authorities are shitting themselves over how matters might develop following the events planned for this week. Thursday 28th October is “No Day” (Όχι Μέρα), Greece’s second National Day, commemorating Metaxas’s defiance of Mussolini’s ultimatum in 1940. It is a day of military parades all over the country. The day before No Day, the schoolchildren’s parades are also held, again all over the country. These two events are obvious Covid super-spreaders. To make matters worse, in the GUN (the Great Unvaccinated North) we have the additional problem of October 26th, the feast of St. Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki. So, this year Thessaloniki is enjoying a three-day midweek holiday. (This is why I am in the UK. My wife requested unpaid leave for today (25th) and Friday (29th) and we took off.)
Although, the feast of St. Demetrius is tomorrow, today there was the procession of the icon of the saint. TV footage shows that most of the faithful were unmasked, but I was shocked to see the kissing of the icon. Worshippers lined up, kissed the icon and then touched the protective glass with their foreheads – kiss headbutt, kiss headbutt – with nobody sterilizing the glass. As most of the worshippers belonged to an older demographic, it is likely that they were fully vaccinated, but it was still a disturbing sight. My mother-in-law is quite religious, but she would never do anything stupid like that. To summarise, in a period during which Covid cases are rising, Greece has two days of parades; Salonika, however, has four days of super-spreader events. As I write, some parades are being cancelled as the country is officially entering three days of mourning for Fofi Gennimata. Fofi was leader of Greece’s third party, so I think her death has been used as an excuse to reduce the number of parades.
So how does the England compare to Greece? Here in the West Midlands most people are unmasked even in enclosed spaces. Pubs, cafes and restaurants are open to everyone. In Greece you can’t get into a bar unless you can provide proof of vaccination. Even if UK rules changed to be more aligned with Greece’s, a punter could go into a bar with someone else’s certificate as we do not need to carry ID. As the Greeks say, της πουτάνας γίνεται. It’s a fuck-up. I have decided not to look for sessions here due to the laissez-faire Covid attitudes. Personally, it’s hard to believe that I’ve spent eight days here without going to a pub.
Nothing happening musically this week. I hooked up with our Malta friends last Sunday for our online session. Numbers logging onto these lovely weekly online sessions have decreased as we are no longer in lockdown, so it has been decided to hold them on the first Sunday of the month from now on.
Irish music is for everybody. I think the fiddler is British and the guitarist Danish or Norwegian. If you key “Good tunes” into YouTube’s search box, you’ll get a nice selection of their music.