the many faces of (new) athens

an insider's look at the realities of a changing society

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letter to Istanbul

Posted by Gigi P. on March 13, 2014

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The zipper on my jacket broke last month and instead of trying to find a tailor who can replace the zipper, I found it easier to just walk around with an unzipped jacket for weeks… The other day, I happened to mention the broken zipper to an aunt and the seemingly dull subject led to an interesting conversation. “A broken zipper, you said?!!” she put down her coffee cup and leaned in closer. “Yeah…” “I know of a φερμουαρατζής , a zipper man – probably the last one left in Athens…” And so the story began… It was just a few days ago in fact, that her friend went to the zipper man and waited in line for two whole hours. He only charged her a few euro to fix the zipper, you see. He has tools and old machines that can magically repair zippers instead of replacing them with new ones, which can be very costly. The place is downtown, she told me - in a narrow street, it’s hard to find, you have to go early as people get there as soon as the zipper man opens and a line forms right a...

a new day has dawned…

Today, I was going to post the article below. However, this morning, new events unfolded and first of all, I would like to mention this morning’s news… As I sat there, sipping my morning frape, I watched the live news show on Antenna channel. The usual morning line-up of politicians, analysts, discussion, disagreements and then suddenly Golden Dawn MP, Ilias Kasidiaris, got up and physically attacked two women on the panel. He threw a glass of water on Syriza MP Rena Dourou, (who sat across from him) and then proceeded to hit/slap/punch the MP of KKE (Communist Party) Liana Kanelli who was sitting near him. State prosecuter Eleni Raikou has already issued a warrant for Kasidiaris’ arrest but for now, he is on the run and has yet to be apprehended. *** I have not posted anything in over three weeks. The only reason why I hesitate is because I find myself in an atmosphere of constant doom and gloom; negative news swirls around us every day. Trying to stay positive is v...

Exarheia wanderings

Recently I had the opportunity to explore the Athenian neighborhood of Exarheia with a group of architects, artists and creatives. Exarheia is like that group of rebellious teenagers you remember from high school. The ones with the ripped jeans and studded leather jackets. The tough kids who smoked in the bathroom without getting caught. The ones who sat at the back of the class, looking cool and uninterested. Whenever something was vandalized or stolen, everyone assumed that those kids did it. Exarheia has a rough-and-tough exterior, it always gets a bad rap, and most people don’t bother to look beneath the surface to discover its many interesting layers. Every neighborhood of Athens has a unique color; together, like each brushstroke on a canvas, they create an overall image of Athens that is hauntingly beautiful. Exarheia is one of the modern city's oldest neighborhoods. During the late 1800’s both the Polytechnic University and the Archeological Museum...

smoke signals

Anyone living or passing through Athens these days will certainly have noticed another new reality that has emerged from the crisis. When night falls and temperatures drop, the smell of smoke wafts through the air, rising from every neighborhood, every district, every suburb. In fact, the smoke can actually be seen; it hovers over the city like a hazy gauze enveloping a gaping wound. If you are out and about at night, the smell seeps into your clothes, your hair, your skin and your lungs. The reason for all this smoke is because most Athenians can no longer afford to buy heating fuel, which is now taxed at 48%. Fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are being used to heat hundreds of thousands of apartments across Athens. However, people are not just burning firewood – they are burning anything they can get their hands on – old furniture, bits of wood found in the trash and other unsuitable items. The smog levels have risen dangerously; on Dec 28 the Environment Ministry iss...

in limbo

And so here we are. It is the seventh day after national elections and we still don’t have a government. This week political party leaders held a series of meetings with one another, trying to figure out if they could piece together a government which would complete the parliamentary puzzle. And it seems like today’s last-ditch efforts to form a coalition government has also failed. The probable result of this week’s political wrangling is new elections in June, and until then, a caretaker government. The election results produced new realities – Pasok, the established party which dominated Greek politics since the 1980’s, came in third with 13%. Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left), a party which was only founded about 10 years ago, was second, with 17%. Main opposition party New Democracy, was first with 19% of the votes. The most distressing election result was the 7% that neo-Nazi Chrisi Avgi (Golden Dawn) gained, which would give them 21 seats in parliament if a governme...

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