Greek austerity in the big picture

But here’s the thing. Perhaps the woman on Facebook hadn’t yet noticed whole shopping arcades mournfully darkened with lists of For Rent and For Sale signs out the front. Or streets now unkempt because local councils have run out of money to clean them up. Or suburbs of eerily quiet streets which used to be bustling with Athenians out and about. The Greek capital used to be a city that never slept. You could get a meal at 3am and still bar hop at 5am and have a truck driver style breakfast at 6am. In some areas you can still enjoy this wonderful tradition.

There are shops mysteriously bereft of stock (I went to five different electronic stores trying unsuccessfully to find a simple adaptor) and others have endless 10-day sales. Upmarket coffee shops and eateries barely have customers. Although the price of coffee has dropped dramatically, in a bid to lure people back.

The beautiful Greece remains: beaches, islands, azure water, gutsy food, shopping to die for, multi-million dollar homes and yachts, dazzling riches of an ancient history with the majestic Acropolis overlooking her financially-troubled domain.

And there’s imploding Greece: In the Athens centre, one day it’s heaving with protestors and tear gas, and the next day coaches are lining up in front of parliament  for tourists to get out and snap pictures. Angry graffiti is prolific.

Drug addicts openly use needles in parks, beggars are prominent in the city centre and I saw the homeless sleeping behind a hospital in fashionable Kolonaki – the suburb of boutiques. People dumpster dive for food. Unemployment is 25.1 per cent. In the worst-affected 15-24 age group, unemployment is 54.2 per cent.

On an island famed for its wealth, I meet two young women who live in their home without electricity because they can’t afford to keep paying arbitrary new taxes dreamed up in the vain hope of digging Greece out of its financial quagmire. Tourists on other islands complain because they can’t pay by credit card. The cash economy of yesteryear has become the payment of choice again. Greeks no longer trust credit. And the EU no longer trusts Greece with credit.

Thank goodness some people are still able to spend money, filling bars and restaurants and driving their smart cars, because austerity has bitten most other Greeks in the ass. Or arse.