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| Eat olive oil and watch football: alternative ways to help Greece | Eat olive oil and watch football: alternative ways to help Greece |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Whatever your views on the Greek crisis, watching the gradual implosion of a country leaves many of us wishing there was something we could do to help. But unless you’re a billionaire, or ideally a multibillionaire, your power is limited. If you are determined to make some sort of difference, however, no matter how small, here are some suggestions. | Whatever your views on the Greek crisis, watching the gradual implosion of a country leaves many of us wishing there was something we could do to help. But unless you’re a billionaire, or ideally a multibillionaire, your power is limited. If you are determined to make some sort of difference, however, no matter how small, here are some suggestions. |
| Related: Want to help Greece? Go there on holiday | Related: Want to help Greece? Go there on holiday |
| Buy Greek | Buy Greek |
| In one sense, it isn’t complicated. Greeks need money right now, and may soon need euros especially (or even pounds), so it would help a lot if you bought Greek things. For instance, you might choose to get your cosmetics from companies such as Apivita, Fisika or Korres, drink Fix or Vergina beer (and snigger slightly while doing so), or get your olives and olive oil from producers including Threpsi, Abea, Gaea or direct from a small producer, such as those on greekoliveoildirect.com. | In one sense, it isn’t complicated. Greeks need money right now, and may soon need euros especially (or even pounds), so it would help a lot if you bought Greek things. For instance, you might choose to get your cosmetics from companies such as Apivita, Fisika or Korres, drink Fix or Vergina beer (and snigger slightly while doing so), or get your olives and olive oil from producers including Threpsi, Abea, Gaea or direct from a small producer, such as those on greekoliveoildirect.com. |
| A bit of caveat emptor is needed too, however. Some Greek businesses may go bankrupt soon, and if you order something direct from a Greek company just before they do, you may never get what you paid for. It may therefore be safer to buy from a British importer – assuming they are still ordering things from Greece themselves. You might also want to boycott “Greek-style” yoghurt in favour of the real thing. | |
| Tackle their smoking problem | Tackle their smoking problem |
| It is tempting to wonder whether there is a self-destructive streak in the Greek national character, if you believe in national characters, since the world’s most famous bankrupt state is also one of the heaviest-smoking. More than 40% of Greek adults smoke, more than double the rate in the UK, with all the attendant costs for the Greek economy and healthcare system – not that many long-term unemployed Greeks have any healthcare now, not unless they can pay for it. This is complicated, however, – it is the seventh largest tobacco grower and sixth largest exporter in the world, an industry that employs thousands of people. Overseas smokers are therefore contributing valuable euros to the Greek economy, and will become still more valuable as a source of hard currency in the event of a Grexit. This in turn may drive up the domestic tobacco price, make smoking suddenly more expensive for Greeks, perhaps leading many to quit. Maybe the best course, therefore, is to buy mountains of cigarettes made with Greek tobacco (Philip Morris has a big plant there) – and burn them on a bonfire. | It is tempting to wonder whether there is a self-destructive streak in the Greek national character, if you believe in national characters, since the world’s most famous bankrupt state is also one of the heaviest-smoking. More than 40% of Greek adults smoke, more than double the rate in the UK, with all the attendant costs for the Greek economy and healthcare system – not that many long-term unemployed Greeks have any healthcare now, not unless they can pay for it. This is complicated, however, – it is the seventh largest tobacco grower and sixth largest exporter in the world, an industry that employs thousands of people. Overseas smokers are therefore contributing valuable euros to the Greek economy, and will become still more valuable as a source of hard currency in the event of a Grexit. This in turn may drive up the domestic tobacco price, make smoking suddenly more expensive for Greeks, perhaps leading many to quit. Maybe the best course, therefore, is to buy mountains of cigarettes made with Greek tobacco (Philip Morris has a big plant there) – and burn them on a bonfire. |
| Choose a Greek charity to support | Choose a Greek charity to support |
| Many people in Greece need help, and perhaps many more are going to, so giving money to humanitarian groups working in the country may be the best and most direct way to make a difference. Choosing which humanitarian group can be difficult, however, since most people aren’t very familiar with Greek charities. | Many people in Greece need help, and perhaps many more are going to, so giving money to humanitarian groups working in the country may be the best and most direct way to make a difference. Choosing which humanitarian group can be difficult, however, since most people aren’t very familiar with Greek charities. |
| One good shortcut was set up in 2013 by the Greek America Foundation, a non-profit organisation intending to “promote, preserve and perpetuate the Greek culture, history and heritage in North America”. Project Hope for Greece recruited people to contribute to a selection of vetted and reviewed charities, including Médecins Sans Frontières Greece, To Chamoyelo Tou Paidiou, a children’s charity, and Desmos, which itself helps to match donors of goods, services and cash with Greek non-profits. The Project Hope for Greece website is therefore a good starting point to help you decide. | One good shortcut was set up in 2013 by the Greek America Foundation, a non-profit organisation intending to “promote, preserve and perpetuate the Greek culture, history and heritage in North America”. Project Hope for Greece recruited people to contribute to a selection of vetted and reviewed charities, including Médecins Sans Frontières Greece, To Chamoyelo Tou Paidiou, a children’s charity, and Desmos, which itself helps to match donors of goods, services and cash with Greek non-profits. The Project Hope for Greece website is therefore a good starting point to help you decide. |
| Pick your side (Come on you Atromitos!) | Pick your side (Come on you Atromitos!) |
| Perhaps the most enjoyable way to support Greece, and to get some common feeling with many Greek people, is to pick a team to follow. As your enthusiasm grows, the cost of the replica shirts and expensive tickets will come naturally. | Perhaps the most enjoyable way to support Greece, and to get some common feeling with many Greek people, is to pick a team to follow. As your enthusiasm grows, the cost of the replica shirts and expensive tickets will come naturally. |
| Like most football nations, Greece has an aristocracy of powerful clubs. Historically, these were the three big Athens teams, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, known together as the POK. Olympiakos were last season’s champions and will compete in the Champions League this year, making them the glamour choice and the easiest to watch on British television. Panathinaikos will be in Europe too, either Champions League or Europa League, along with PAOK (from Thessaloniki), Asteras Tripoli (Tripoli) and Atromitos (Peristeri, an Athens suburb). This will also be a big season for AEK, who are back in the top division, known as the Superleague, after several years away following their own financial disaster – a hopeful symbol for Greece as a whole, perhaps. Not that supporters of Olympiakos and Panathinaikos will feel that way. | Like most football nations, Greece has an aristocracy of powerful clubs. Historically, these were the three big Athens teams, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, known together as the POK. Olympiakos were last season’s champions and will compete in the Champions League this year, making them the glamour choice and the easiest to watch on British television. Panathinaikos will be in Europe too, either Champions League or Europa League, along with PAOK (from Thessaloniki), Asteras Tripoli (Tripoli) and Atromitos (Peristeri, an Athens suburb). This will also be a big season for AEK, who are back in the top division, known as the Superleague, after several years away following their own financial disaster – a hopeful symbol for Greece as a whole, perhaps. Not that supporters of Olympiakos and Panathinaikos will feel that way. |
| Promote Greek dignity | Promote Greek dignity |
| The country’s financial situation could hardly be any worse, yet much of the misery that Greeks feel isn’t isn’t about money, it’s about suddenly being Europe’s charity case. Whatever practical measures you take to support Greece, therefore, it is worth remembering – and repeating to others – that this is not just any old “proud nation” that has got terribly into debt. This is Greece, formerly known as Ancient Greece, the country in whose language the founding documents of the modern world were written. | The country’s financial situation could hardly be any worse, yet much of the misery that Greeks feel isn’t isn’t about money, it’s about suddenly being Europe’s charity case. Whatever practical measures you take to support Greece, therefore, it is worth remembering – and repeating to others – that this is not just any old “proud nation” that has got terribly into debt. This is Greece, formerly known as Ancient Greece, the country in whose language the founding documents of the modern world were written. |
| If you have ever meant to, now would be a good time to read Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Poetics or Oedipus the King by Sophocles, and consider how much that peninsula and archipelago have given the world – including the word “archipelago” and an awful lot else in English. Most present-day Greeks can’t take much individual credit for Plato, of course, but neither are they individually much to blame for where their country is. | If you have ever meant to, now would be a good time to read Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Poetics or Oedipus the King by Sophocles, and consider how much that peninsula and archipelago have given the world – including the word “archipelago” and an awful lot else in English. Most present-day Greeks can’t take much individual credit for Plato, of course, but neither are they individually much to blame for where their country is. |