THE GREEK WAY OF LIFETHE GREEK CHARACTER
Greeks prefer spontaneity to making plans and are notoriously late
(turning up on time is often referred to as ‘being English’).
The renowned Greek hospitality and generosity seems to extinguish
in the public sphere, where your typical surly civil servants lack con-
ventional notions of customer service. This is one of the many para-
doxes of the Greek psyche. The pride Greeks have in their homes rarely
extends to public spaces. The notion of the greater good often plays
second fi ddle to personal interests, and there is little sense of collec-
tive responsibility – a point one politician tried to drive home during
the outcry over measures to address Greek debt, when he proclaimed
‘We all ate it together’. Yet many also saw the crisis as an opportunity
for much-needed cultural change and supported moves to eliminate
entrenched patronage and make Greece more competitive, transparent
and effi cient.
Civil Society
Greeks have long had a residual mistrust of authority and politicians
and little respect for the state and its institutions, deriving from years of
foreign masters and meddlers, civil war and political instability that only
ended in the 1970s, when the last dictatorship collapsed and the monar-
chy was abolished. By this time, a weak civil society based on tax evasion
and reliance on personal networks had become entrenched, patronage
and nepotism an accepted state of aff airs. The black-market economy is
estimated by various studies at up to 30% of the country’s GDP.
Making headway with Greece’s bloated bureaucracy often requires
meson (the help of a friend or family member working within the sys-
tem). Merit has taken second place to political connections and inter-
est groups for coveted public-sector jobs or EU fund distributions. The
infamous fakelakii(little envelope of cash) remains a common way to
cut red tape, from jumping the queue for surgery to dealing with the
tax offi ce or building permits (Transparency International found 13%
of Greeks had given bribes to grease the wheels of the system in 2008).
Personal freedom and democratic rights are almost sacrosanct and
there is an aversion to the perceived over-regulated approach of West-
ern nations. An undercurrent of civil disobedience extends to lax at-
titude to road rules. Despite hefty fi nes, wearing a seatbelt is treated as
an optional inconvenience; creative and inconsiderate parking is the
norm; dangerous overtaking is rife; and you’ll often see people riding
motorbikes, carrying their helmets as they chat on their mobile phones.
De-stressing
komboloï ( worry
beads) are not
just an enduring
tradition but a
fashion state-
ment and a skill
to master. Some
komboloï are
worth more than
€10,000 and
rare ones are
collector’s items.Greece has com-
pulsory 12-month
military service
for males aged
19 to 50. Women
are accepted into
the Greek army,
though are not
obliged to join
and rarely do.THE MEDIA CIRCUSGiven they invented democracy, it’s no surprise Greeks are political animals who gorge
on news and current aff airs. You will often see people standing outside periptera (street
kiosks) reading the day’s juicy front-page headlines from the gallery of daily papers
displayed. Greece has a disproportionate number of newspapers and TV stations given
its population – 30 national dailies (including 10 sports dailies) and seven national TV
networks. Newspapers, like most Greeks, are mostly openly partisan, with papers repre-
senting the gamut of political views from conservative to communist. The line between
news and opinion is often blurred, with more reams dedicated to commentators and
diatribe than news. With the exception of the more straight-shooting public broadcast-
ers, TV news leans towards sensationalism and parochialism. TV is dominated by socie-
ty scandals and punctuated by dramatic music and multiple screens with talking heads
(usually shouting at the same time).
The contentious entangled relationship between media owners, journalists, big busi-
ness and the government, coined diaplekomena (intertwined), regularly raises its head.