So when the new Minister of Environment, City Planning and Housing, Stefanos Manos, made the statement last month, “In a little while this city will die of arteriosclerosis,M everybody wallowed in the pleasure of the idea. Tell Athenians, when this fit is upon them, that Belgrade is more polluted (let alone Mexico City), that Rome has fewer parks in its centre (let alone Venice), and that Istanbul is noisier, and they become quite militant and anti-chauvinist, as if asking, “How dare you say there is a city worse than ours?”
Nor did Mr Manos’ statement merely inspire city editors to write flowery obituaries for their hometown. The whole country was thrown in for good measure: its water, its soil, its beaches, its forests, its atmosphere, its seas – all contaminated – as well, of course, as its people.
Have some high government officials run off with a few Pamper boxes full of money stolen from state-controlled agencies, and moralists will have a heyday condemning the Greek people in toto to perdition. It easily explains to these ethic killjoys why Greece is scorned by the West, castigated by the EC, condemned by the IMF, kicked out of history by French intellectuals, its northern borders closed by southern Slavs, its southern parts threatened by North African terrorists, its air space (already polluted) violated by Turks and Americans everyday, and even being scolded by Israel (even though the relationship was upgraded) for not having done so earlier.
Luckily, when these bouts of irrationality appear, it is well to remember that when bureaucrats employed by international bodies like the UN, OECD and the EC have nothing better to do, they produce global or continental reports comparing cities and states by a variety of standards.
One of these, released by the UN last month, places Greece commendably high among the countries of ‘human development1. Rather than using the Gross National Product (or, thank God, the gross national deficit) as the criterion for assessing a country’s wealth, this report is based on the extent to which economic growth can be translated into human development. The criteria, among other things, are health, education, employment, and child mortality.
In calculating wealth purely by GNP, Greece ranks considerably lower than it does by the standard of human development, which indicates right off that the level of affluence alone is not the true measure of the Hellene.
It lies elsewhere, but it is not quite clear where. Literacy is not a strong point. In the first 13 countries on the list, only one percent of the population is illiterate; in Greece it is seven percent. Here the poll shows a northern European bias: in the north they read more; in the south they talk more. If points were given for verbal skills, southern Europeans, and Greeks in particular, would have done better.
In medicine, Greece had mixed results. There is a large number of doctors – one for every 400 people -but a shortage of nurses. In Greece, for every ten doctors there are eight nurses, whereas in Norway there are 75.
Due to its sensitive geopolitical situation (which seems unlikely to change, since its immediate northern neighbors have freely and enthusiastically voted to remain communist), Greece rates low on the list in the relation between military spending visa-vis spending for education and health. In Greece, money spent on the military is about equal to that spent on health and education combined. Western European countries, however, instead of frowning on this state of affairs should be thankful for their more protected geographical positions.
In this mixed bag of goods and ills, why does Greece come out as well as it does – among nations it places 22nd to the US’s 19th – if it is not for the wealth of its human resources?
For these, other reports must be examined, too, and other polls weighed. When it comes to those which are said to measure ‘life-styles’ or described as ieisure arts’, Athens always rates high. This is attributed to climate and topography. Whatever the degree of sea and air pollution, the proximity of mountains and seashore, the many days of sunshine and the agreeableness of the temperature have long made Athens a desirable place of residence. The soaring real estate prices being paid for office space by European companies is solid evidence that it remains desirable.
The factor most difficult to measure, the one that defies percentage points, is the potential of its human resources. Yet even the most casual visitor would agree that Athens, except for its obvious interests, is, for the most part, an indifferent city inhabited by extraordinary people. Athenians’ sheer zest for life fills the air (polluted) with pure energy night and day. Their capacity for enjoyment is unlimited and contagious. When it comes to ‘human development,’ one could say, without exaggerating, that this is every Athenian’s purpose in life.
Greek politicians, no less than Greek moralists, have never understood their fellow countrymen. Junta colonel Papadopoulos would have put the Greek people into a cast; Karamanlis would have them ‘belong’ to the West; Andreas would have them ‘belong’ to the Third World – whereas they only belong to themselves. If Greeks only had the wit to accept themselves as they are, and develop that resource, most of the problems they moan about would solve themselves.
