How Greeks were driven back to the land
While politicians decide the fate of the eurozone's most
stricken economy, the people are being forced to turn back the clock to make
ends meet. Patrick Cockburn reports from Naxos
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
More pictures
"People are coming back to farms around here that they
abandoned years ago so they can grow potatoes, cabbages and vegetables to help
them survive the crisis," says Petros Citouzouris, as he pruned his vines high
in the mountains of Naxos, the largest island in the Cyclades. The financial
catastrophe in Greece is engulfing the most isolated parts of the country.
Pointing to newly cultivated terraces close to a long
derelict leper colony at Sifones, Mr Citouzouris says that since the crisis
began "unemployed builders, miners and pensioners have started returning to
family farms they inherited a generation ago, but never worked". He reckons that
10 out of 20 nearby farms belong to the new arrivals. "They don't see any light
at the end of the tunnel," he says. "They won't be able to grow enough to live
off farming alone, but it will help them get by." He says he is happy that he
himself never left the land during Greece's boom years.
Economic disaster affects every part of Naxos, creating a
mood that varies between half-hidden anxiety, open despair and a general dread
that, however bad things are today, they will be a great deal worse tomorrow.
The island remains extraordinarily beautiful, filled with ancient Greek remains
and Venetian towers, its whitewashed villages and well-watered terraces clinging
to the sides of mountains that soar above deep green valleys. Olive trees and
vineyards flourish in the fertile soil that for 5,000 years has attracted
settlers.
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