Last night you would have thought that the Greek soccer team just won the World Cup. People were driving around honking their horns in precise rhythms, waving Greek flags out their windows and charging through the streets in celebratory mobs. Fireworks could be heard exploding all night long. Kate's sister Caroline arrived for a spring break visit, and not knowing what was going on, she thought that the people here were awfully proud of being Greek. That really isn't a wrong thought. I'm not sure I've ever met people more proud of their nationality than the Greeks. But that wasn't the cause of all the commotion. What was the cause were the elections for prime minister.
Voting is a big deal here. It's compulsory (although nothing bad happens to you if you don't go vote I'm told), and you have to vote where you are registered. Although 1/3 of the Greek population lives here in Athens, most of them are actually registered in their villages. So come election weekend everyone migrates back home, just like Mary, Joseph and that donkey did thousands of years ago. Yes, I've told you before, Greece isn't particularly modern. So to accomodate all of the travel, Friday and Monday are holidays. And in the US we think it's nice that our places of employment have to give us an hour or two to vote. Here the election is on a weekend, but you still get two days off. We sure get the short end of the stick.
Anyhow, the elections resulted in the conservative party regaining power. This is quite a change, considering the socialists have been in power since the year I was born (and for those of you who may not be good with dates, on this coming Wednesday I will have been alive for exactly 23 years), excepting one term in the early 90s. Since Greece didn't even become a democracy until after the revolution of the 70s, that's quite a lot of control the socialists have had. But people here aren't happy. The standard of living isn't all that good...especially for an EU country. Salaries are low. The strong Euro is hurting Greece, because less Americans and other foreigners want to spend their dollars here. And the Olympics, which are now only five months away, may turn out to be a major embarrassment for the country. Currently, there is concern over where the roof of the main stadium and a vital link in the metro will be done before the Games begin. Yeah, kind of important things. Whether the new government will be able to change things remains to be seen, but the celebrations that were taking place all over town yesterday give the impression that the people think it can happen.
I hope come November we too have something to celebrate. Wouldn't it be nice to see people in the US care so much about voting? Imagine that...caring as much about voting as about the SuperBowl. Whoa...what a concept.
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