The Athens press can be rarely accused of finding itself at a loss for words or lacking in fanciful reportage, but the disclosure during Holy Week of a series of murders involving lethal injections, asphyxiations, stifled cries, nocturnal gravedigging, forged wills, falsified autopsies and lots of money had journalists racking their imaginations and ransacking their lexicons in order to give their readers just the plain facts.
A bill introduced before parliament early last month caused a fracas in church and political circles which continued unabated for weeks. The bill involves, primarily, the distribution of church property and the administration of the church itself.
From a long distance, Greek reality resembles those phenomena of modern physics which are said to alter just be being observed, and when not observed, don’t seem to exist at all.
The introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on the first of the year caused the greatest confusion throughout the country since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
In a post-mortem performed on the recent municipal elections, the government wallowed for a moment in critical introspection (or what John Foster Dulles used to call “agonizing reappraisal”) and confessed to certain acts of arrogance.
Whether or not Greeks have a sense of humor has been warmly debated for years. Some say that if they had one, the Greeks would have a word for it (which they don’t); that they take themselves far too seriously ever to be able to exhibit self-mockery; that the pursuit and expression of filotimo, or sense of personal honor, is the antithesis of humor.
The prime minister recently told reporters, “Greece is’ not a banana republic, I said, and our allies will be making a big mistake if they consider us as such. If they have to hear that again, they will.”
With an imbalance of payments that refuses to adjust itself, flagging industry, growing unemployment, foundering shipping and a stubborn 24 percent rise in the cost of living, it was clear to the government that something ingenious had to be thought of.
In spite of the tens of millions of work hours lost in strikes annual-ly and the growing reputation that Greeks are the laziest people in the EEC, August each year is a holiday month which becomes increasingly nationwide.
Nothing had been seen at Epidaurus by so many since superstar Callas sang Cherubini’s Medea there a quarter of a century ago.
