Over the past 15 years, the “Europeanization” of Greece has been similarly dramatic, especially the past 6 years or so. I am of two minds about what has happened down in the old country. I can remember being in Greece in the early 90s and being disgusted with the trash which had been dumped everywhere. Find a ravine in the mountains, miles from the nearest village, let alone within village limits and it was full of black plastic trash bags. In Athens, the trash problem became overwhelming so the city government instituted a recycling program. There were large recycling bins on each block right next to the block dumpsters. The Greeks wouldn;t use them; they simply threw the recyclables into the trash dumpsters. When I commented to one of my uncles that the Europeans would stop coming if the country got much dirtier, he replied that if the Europeans didn;t like it, the Europeans could clean it up (the same went for straight pipe sewers running into the Med). In those days the Greeks saw themselves as Levantines, not Europeans, and as being religiously and thus culturally very different from “the Europeans”. But in addition to being dirty, Greece's infrastructure was still in the shambles left by the civil war and its people were very, very poor. In my maternal village, it seems like half the houses were ruins. In other villages it was worse. Now, however, things have changed. I have seen infrastructure marvels there the like of which I have never seen here. The water is now cleaned up, there is no trash in the countryside, the economy is good and even in the country the people are prosperous and seem to walk with a bounce in their steps. They are confident about their future and that of their children. In my village those tumbled down houses have virtually all been rebuilt and we just finished building a brand new church (the 12th in a village of about 250 people!). The downside is that the EU has no understanding or appreciation of Orthodoxy, no more than it has for the Roman Catholicism of Ireland or Poland. EU regs have cut into the influence and authority of The Church and that has had the effect of creating a sort of odd Greek agnosticism (not atheism; Greeks know all about that from the communists and extreme socialists)which has lead to immorality among younger Greeks which used to be confined to the European vacationers. Abortion is growing fast and while the divorce rate is still relatively low, it is growing.
Personally, I think that EU induced prosperity has much to do with the bad changes but in all honesty I think that the intent to be “bad” was formed before the influence of the EU got very powerful and came from watching American TV and movies and listening to American and British music. The Greeks had the most deplorable ability to pick the very worst we had to offer and embrace it! EU prosperity just provided the Greeks with the wherewithal to do what they already wanted to do.
Things do seem to be changing, though. More and more young people are going to church and getting involved in the running of the local parishes. The monasteries are filling up with novices, new ones established and old ones, abandoned for decades and more are being reopened. The birth rate isn't growing so that's a problem, especially with an influx of Mohammedans from the Middle East and Africa into the country. But so far Greece has known what to do about that and has consistently defied the EU-crats with their “human rights” edicts. In entry of Eastern European Orthodox countries into the EU and with Poland seemingly still strong in its Roman Catholicism, maybe things will work out alright. Right now, things look pretty good and my bet is that it will get even better.
Very interesting. There are definitely some parallels with Ireland.
It sounds as though there have been major changes in Greece since my parents were there. Mom said it was one of the dirtiest countries she’d visited. (Mid 90’s, I think.)