Few things seem to have changed in this ancient land. The valleys described by fervid poets are still redolent of the same odors. Any Greek worthy of the name has surely visited the Valley of the Fennel and has warmed his heart with the aroma of the umbelliferous plant with the finely divided leaves. Indeed, Athenaeus mentions a few recipes which will please many a refined palate. Dill and fennel are generously used in good Greek cuisine as they have always been. The fenny land that grows this plant bears the indelible mark, So much so that it conveys a very famous name: Marathon.
Here is a word that has suffered the foulness of banal usage in modern times. Marathon is where Athena landed coming from the East on her way to her city. Ever since that event, all invaders learned the way: hit the Greeks at Marathon! Even the mayor of Atlanta, the glorious city of Coca-Cola and CNN, offered his “Olympic” runners the classical course. This has been mended by way of rule in all big cities where hordes run on bituminous wet trash. They call it “the Marathon run”. Pheidippides would surely sicken at the idea that sallow puritans for no reason whatsoever run for the sake of running without having any good tidings to announce. What is even worst is that they all survive the run in contrast with the glorious Athenian.
The modern “Olympic” games made the reputation of Marathon throughout the world. Actually, no one worries about the beautiful valley in Northern Attica. The 26-mile-and-385-yard foot run is it. But if the word has been emasculated, the land is still there for those who want to remember the intransigence of the Hellenes and their victory over the invader.
Grammatikon is a nice little village overlooking the Valley of the Fennel. It has been chosen as one of two sites in the future to home the trash Athenians produce daily. Yes, the Greek Ministry of the Interior and the Municipality of Athens have selected Marathon as one of two possibilities to become Attica’s mound of mining refuse. The other lucky village is Avlona, a few miles to the west, at the foot of Mount Parnes.
The dynamic young mayor of Grammatikon, Mr Athanasios Ditnitrakis, is however of a different opinion. “Twelve villages in our area, from Pallini and Rodopolis to Oropos, are not at all thrilled to receive the refuse Athens produces as this will mean the pollution of Lake Marathon and a catastrophe for our environment. The Municipality of Athens has no right to destroy the natural environment and surely the cultural heritage of Northern Attica. We have appealed against this arbitrary decision at the Council of State, and we will surely have recourse to the European Parliament and the European Commission to stop this decrepit idea. I can also assure anyone who is willing to listen that we won’t only fight with words. We will turn to our weapons in order to protect our families from pollution and destruction. Let no one harbor evil thoughts about land fills and the likes in this area because they will stand and deliver.” The inhabitants of the village are just as bitter in their outcry and support their mayor fully. They all rap out the same notion.
A few kilometres to the northwest, at Avlona, fair words butter no parsnips. The inhabitants are already armed and do not allow anyone to come near the area which might one day become the refuse dump of Greater Athens. Mr Dimitrios Kyriakou, the mayor of Avlona says that “the area the Athenian bureaucrats have chosen to become the future dump of Greater Athens is practically a virgin forest which is a natural continuation of the National Park of Mount Parnes. We have had enough of talking to state bureaucrats because they don’t seem to take our views into consideration. The Prefect of Attica has promised me that as long as he is in charge, no land fill project would even be considered. This is not reassuring enough, so we have also asked the intervention of the European Community which is entitled to know how the moneys allocated for the protection of the environment are spent. Until this project is out of the horizon, we won’t sleep on both ears. Our job is to keep the rubbish of Athens out of Northern Attica.”
Mr Antonis Tritsis, mayor of Athens, has promised to declare the whole of Attica an ecologically protected area. He does not seem to be able to keep the rubbish off the streets of his city; nor has he been able to implement any of his pre-electoral promises yet!
The professional mayor of Piraeus, Mr Logothetis, has been taking his administrative tasks more seriously. His municipality is constructing a recycling plant which will disencumber Piraeus from the bulk of refuse the city produces. It will also help decongest the choked land fills at Schistos and Nea Liosia.
It would not be very amusing to refer to the farrago of nonsense one can hear at the Ministry of the Interior as it seemed difficult enough to locate the qualified civil servant to comment on the land fill project in Northern Attica. The qualified civil servant was not competent to comment. Nobody seemed to know what was happening to the project of Grammatikon or Avlona.
Mr Dimitrakis mentioned that some sort of decision would be reached by the month of November. In any case, Attica is in an environmental impasse, and a decision will not be easy to take. Mr Logothetis took the first step without having to count on the competence of the Ministry of the Interior. Good wine needs no bush!
The repressed “Marathon” runner eludes Marathon, the Valley of the Fennel, through the mystical indulgence of having to run for sports’ sake. The valley is much more than a run. It is the history of this country and what it has to go through in order to keep its love-in-a-mist and soul. Attica is still populated by intransigent people who are determined to do something about their lives. A word to the wise is enough.
Happen what may, we stand Marathon’s ground.
