In LinNG 14/2022 I mentioned the deaths of two people who drove off the harbour wall in Nei Epivates. They were a mother and son. A couple of years ago, the woman’s daughter committed suicide. Her husband later died of a broken heart. Although they were receiving counselling, the widow and her son did not want to continue living. They weighted the car down with sandbags and ended things. Here is the car being fished out of the water.
July 8th. It is cold and wet. Evening rainstorms after a hot day are not uncommon, but heavy rain lasting several hours throughout the day is unusual for July.
July 9th. It has been raining all day and has just stopped. More than 24 hours. I cannot remember this happening in the summer. In the meantime, a Level 3 heat warning has been announced in London!
Covid is not going away. Over 18,200 cases in the past 24 hours with 23 deaths and 101 intubated. The median ages of those infected and dying are 37 and 80 respectively. It is quite clear that most people don’t really care anymore. In an earlier blog I said there appears to be an under 30/over 30 split on public transport, the younger age group overwhelmingly refusing to observe the mask-wearing rule. Unsurprising when Covid is killing people who, on average, are over 75.
Judging from this report https://news.gtp.gr/2022/07/07/greece-new-rules-for-tourists-infected-with-covid-19/ , it seems that the government does not care much either. According to the report, residents with Covid still have to isolate while tourists don’t! Infected tourists can even go on public transport provided the are wearing FFP2 or ΚΝ95 masks.
Reading what you mention made me very sad, at first for the family tragedy and then, all of a sudden, i felt this sadness expanding further, until i became aware that it had somehow been connected with my sense of the whole Greece today, which i am experiencing also as a huge tragedy.
So I got inspired to note here some associations, even if they are not directly connected with your article (i clear that I am not at all a nationalist, not even what is called a “patriot” and I feel very little to be a “Greek”):
Year 1972 and Manos Hadjidakis releases a magnificent Vinyl (and later CD) for a documentary film about Greece = Ελλάς η χώρα των ονείρων (Greece, the land of dreams).
Very beautiful music and some superb songs on poetry of Nikos Gatsos.
That was still the time that a few Greek artists (Odisseas Elitis between them) were rooting with their creations a new Greek culture based on the joy of light, the sea, the colours, the magic of the nature of this country.
Unfortunately this cultural movement lasted only a few years. Νέα Δημοκρατία brought again the old fashioned mentality of corruption (who is with the government enjoys privileges) and ΠΑΣΟΚ added a very dirty and cheap popularism.
So, what happened with the promissing land of dreams? Looking around today in Greece I see just nightmares, unprecedented ugliness and an homogenous mass of consumers. This is why i try much to grasp and keep whatever little beauty I am still able to discover in this ex-land of dreams…