{"id":21566,"date":"2014-12-07T12:19:29","date_gmt":"2014-12-07T10:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.ikaria.ch\/?p=21566"},"modified":"2024-04-07T19:28:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T17:28:51","slug":"island-stories-the-crisis-has-many-faces-one-year-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/island-stories-the-crisis-has-many-faces-one-year-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Island stories: The crisis has many faces – one year later…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prose, partly funny, partly profound about our everyday life in Ikaria, the island of centenarians, about the intertwining of relationships, about the happiness, love and the unshakable joy of life of these people. I’ve written a whole series of little island stories. You can find the links below.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
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\"Land<\/span><\/div>
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The crisis has many faces – one year later…<\/h1><\/h1><\/span>
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This morning the scales fell from my eyes. Fear! He is afraid. Our conversation lingered in my head for a long time last night before I went to sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe internet is to blame for everything. It’s part of their plan, of capitalism, to keep us all quiet, parked in front of a screen, staring at it, consuming.” The refrigerator in the corner was gurgling softly. \u201cNo money, no worries. Everyone sits at home in front of a box and forgets reality.\u201d He carefully lit a home-made cigarette. Maria behind the counter washed the glasses and put wood in the kiln. It was gloomy outside and the cold wind swept the yellow plane tree leaves across the lonely village square.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo one communicates with the other anymore. Check out our village square! Not a soul around, and it\u2019s only nine o\u2019clock!\u201d He snorted. \u201cEveryone is sitting at home in front of a box. That\u2019s exactly what they want.\u201d \u201cYou?\u201d I ask cautiously. \u201cThe government, the system, capitalism.\u201d I look at him in disbelief and a little amusement. So this rail. I wouldn’t have thought that he, an experienced man my age, politically critical, three almost grown children, a nice wife and his own business, would come with this KKE Laier. He puffed on his cigarette and took a sip. \u201cThis is our time,\u201d I replied laconically. Wasn’t that the case everywhere? “No exchanges, no disagreements… no resistance.” His eyes sparkled. “So they can do whatever they want with us, we don’t even notice!”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think television does the same thing,\u201d I replied hopefully. \u201cTelevision has been around for many years. You sat together, watched a lousy show and laughed about it. But today things are different. Everyone sits alone in front of their own box.\u201d There\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

\u201cK\u00f3stas watches football games and Arg\u00fdris plays the lottery for money, P\u00e9tros watches porn, Ir\u00edni watches music videos until three in the morning, El\u00e9ni \u00a0documentaries and Athin\u00e1 feeds animals on a comic farm.\u201d He\u2019s not entirely wrong. All adult people, each in their own reality. \u201cPeople become sheep.\u201d \u201cVang\u00e9lis just sits in his room in the evenings and plays.\u201d Mar\u00eda wiped her hands on her jeans and joined us. \u201cVang\u00e9lis is fourteen, what are the boys supposed to do? Going out in the evening?\u201d I ask. \u201cNo, the boys don\u2019t know anything else. If the power goes out, they are lost. They couldn’t survive without the Internet. But our generation has literally kicked the bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I read my report<\/a> from last year and think about what has changed since then. I haven’t seen Dim\u00edtri’s wife in Ikaria for a long time, actually only once for a few days in the summer, with a wig and pale skin. L\u00e9na’s son has now lost his teaching position in Patras and has also moved in with his parents in Ikaria. Now they are five adults and two small children in the same household, living on their parents’ pension.<\/p>\n

People have no money and no longer go outside their front doors. Actually nothing new. But this winter it’s scarier than ever, as if the crisis has only just now truly hit Ikaria.<\/p>\n

But why is Stelios so angry at the internet? Internet is everywhere. This is our age. Suddenly it dawns on me. Anger at capitalism, anger at the system that turns us into sheep, anger actually means fear. Fear and hopelessness. That’s the worst. People don’t communicate anymore. That’s what’s scary. They no longer exchange ideas. No words. No opinion. That’s worse than no money! Stelios is kind of right.<\/p>\n

It’s so eerily quiet everywhere, as if people are holding out in silence, waiting to see what comes next. A year ago, despite the crisis, everything was loud and lively everywhere. It’s not the lack of money, it’s more the mood, the atmosphere of resignation and hopelessness that has become noticeable, tangible.<\/p>\n

Despite \u201cGreek economic growth\u201d being loudly praised everywhere, people\u2019s fears have grown. The ENFIA, the new property and property tax, has brought everyone to their knees. \u201cHow am I supposed to pay this tax for a piece of land with an old stone house without a roof and from which I don’t get a penny? What choice do I have but to sell my ancestral land?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many have fled to the city over the winter and their houses are locked. Even Thodor\u00eds, my neighbor, the film star from \u201cLittle Land,\u201d flew to France to spend the winter. And those who remained here have barricaded themselves. The platia has become unreally quiet.<\/p>\n

This story, like all my others, is of course a lie and a fabrication. How much I love the art of fiction, interwoven with my ideas and opinions, but as always inspired by the encounters and events with the idiosyncratic, lovable people and the wonderful island that surround me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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This morning the scales fell from my eyes. Fear! He is afraid. Our conversation lingered in my head for a long time last night before I went to sleep. \u201cThe internet is to blame for everything. It’s part of their plan, of capitalism, to keep us all quiet, parked in front of a screen, staring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emigrate","category-inselalltag-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}