Ill fares the land of Greece

Nikos drove me to Oiniades, the land of wine, which in the fourth century BCE was an independent polis in Akarnania allied to Athens. But now Oiniades is a small archaeological site with stonewalls, a theater chiseled out of stone, and ship-sheds. Oiniades in antiquity was an island with its own navy. I walked in the ruins of Oiniades and tried to imagine the Greeks who lived in that wild but civilised mountainous country. I asked the lone guard for more information but he had none.

From Oiniades we drove to Mesologgi, the sacred city of Greece. In 1826, Mesologgi defied huge Turkish armies and sacrificed its population in defense of freedom. Our guide, George Apostolakos, put it this way. The 300 Spartan soldiers of Leonidas fought to death against the Persians. But these Spartans waged war with full stomachs. The people of Mesologgi, however, scarified themselves with empty stomachs. Indeed, the heroism of the Greeks of Mesologgi is unparalleled in history. They killed thousands of Turks and chose willingly to die rather than surrender to the enemy.

The experience from Oiniades and Mesologgi was sobering. It reminded me of the price Greeks have paid for freedom. This connection turned my attention to the Greeks of today.

I asked Nikos and several others about Machairas. No one knew the exact number of people living in Machairas. But certain things became clear to me. I noticed uncultivated fields: farms empty of farmers. We visited the elementary school and saw just four children. I talked to the young teacher and she admitted all four children were Albanian.

This revelation confirmed the anxiety and anger I sensed in talking to elderly Greeks at Machairas. They feel betrayed by the government that forced them out of growing tobacco. They will continue to get subsidies until 2014, but they are terrified of what they will do after 2014. The government has offered no alternatives to tobacco and the farmers are paralysed by the prospect of no subsidies. And this is going on in a village in the midst of prosperous land with all the ingredients for growing excellent food and democracy.

But Machairas, in 2011, is a dying village. The demographic crush; the decision of the peasants to have no children, complements the agricultural crush; the abandonment of traditional farming, the growing of crops for self-reliance, for the easy and imported idea of growing cash crops like tobacco and sugar.

The gods of agriculture, Demeter and Dionysos, are having their revenge.

The tragedy, of course, is that these evolving demographic and agrarian crises are engulfing more than Machairas. They are infecting all of Greece. These wounds are deep but no one is doing anything about them. Greece is in so much debt the country is losing its sovereignty. Spreading poverty and the humiliation of depending on foreigners all but cripple local initiatives for self-reliance and independence.

There’s a way out of this slow-moving disaster but it demands a metamorphosis of the country from a colony of the West to a proud country of Hellenes. All the ingredients exist in the country for returning to her Hellenic origins. Even those Greeks who describe themselves as Christian know there’s more than Christianity in their lives. They have heard and probably know of their ancient ancestors that made our world. They live in the land of Homer and speak Greek.

Second, Greeks must exile most of their politicians primarily responsible for the financial meltdown of the Greek economy. These are the people who borrowed huge amounts of money, forcing the country into insolvency. Instead of using those funds to create an industrial infrastructure for the country and spread prosperity, they misallocated the money and, in the process, made themselves rich.

Third, a new government of citizens without party affiliation has to renegotiate the loans and embark on a self-reliance strategy. This means the country must produce all of its food; take charge of its rich tourism so all profits stay in the country; and vigorously start green industries to meet its vital needs in transportation, energy, and national defense.

Greece must also separate church and state: cease paying the clergy salaries. The state should appropriate all church and monastery lands, donating those lands to Greeks able and willing to farm in a traditional and ecological way.  

Finally, Greece must export goods to free herself of debt. There’s no reason she cannot succeed in exporting environmentally friendly technologies. Greece has also the most outstanding historical and archaeological culture in the West. This could easily spark expanded tourism as well as a new Renaissance to save the world from the rising barbarism of warfare and environmental destruction. Thus, Greece could become, once again, the cultural capital of the Western world.