{"id":1259,"date":"2013-05-23T08:18:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T13:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2025-06-04T16:54:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T21:54:04","slug":"greece-and-the-eu-is-the-birthplace-of-democracy-the-graveyard-of-the-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2013\/05\/23\/greece-and-the-eu-is-the-birthplace-of-democracy-the-graveyard-of-the-european-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece and the EU: is the birthplace of democracy the graveyard of the European Union?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re at the limits of the European Union\u2014in more ways than one.\u00a0\u00a0We arrived yesterday (though it seems longer ago) in Athens, 1100 miles from \"\"Berlin, via Warsaw on Lot Airlines\u2014no doubt an event to be celebrated.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re in the city with 5 million people, and it\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0easy to talk about the birth of democracy.\u00a0\u00a0It happened here, and we\u2019ve seen the love affair that Europe has had with Greece reflected in the museums in London, Paris, and Berlin.\u00a0\u00a0The independence of Greece from Turkey, in the 1820s, was partly Europe\u2019s payback for that love affair.<\/p>\n

The heyday though (and Greece continues to cash in on it) was the Golden Age. Flush with its victories over the Persians in the 5th<\/sup> century, Pericles \"\"and his cohorts constructed on the Acropolis a literal \u201ccity on a hill\u201d that has become the second most-desired site to see in the world (second to Angkor Wat).\u00a0We visited the Acropolis this afternoon as part of our city-of-Athens tour, and really the major highlight of it.\u00a0\u00a0Perched atop the highest flat hill in Athens, the Greeks built temples to the main gods of the city, Athena (who supposedly gave the city olive trees), and Poseidon, who was the lord of the seas.<\/p>\n

What remains from 2500 years of wars, Christianity, Islam, and pollution is still impressive. The Parthenon, the virgin Athena\u2019s apartment, with its \"\"<\/a>massive Doric pillars; the second temple to \"\"Poseidon and Athena has the Caryatids that support the roof, rather like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s also a temple to Athena Nike (victory) and another smaller temple at the entrance. The Acropolis was used by the Greeks, the Romans, then converted to a Church when the empire went Christian, then converted to a Mosque when the Turks conquered Greece, then reconverted to the Acropolis.\u00a0\u00a0One of the features we noted in London was the \u201cElgin Marbles\u201d (saved from pollution and depredation, says the British Museum; stolen illegally, say the Greeks), the friezes that make up the story of the procession of Athena on the frieze at the Parthenon.<\/p>\n

That was part of our city tour, though there really isn\u2019t a lot to see in Athens; there\u2019s a lot of temples from Greek and Roman days–the Romans adored Greek civilization, and helped spread it throughout the West.\u00a0\u00a0The \"\"<\/a>emperor Hadrian (2nd<\/sup> century) had a special place for Athens, completing the Temple of Zeus, begun 5 centuries earlier and a triumphal arch, etc.\u00a0\u00a0Athens, unlike Rome, wasn\u2019t really the center of an Empire. Rather, our guide\u2019s family background exemplifies the spread of Greek civilization; one parent has roots in Istanbul (Constantinople) and the other in Smyrna (Izmir in Turkey).\u00a0\u00a0Greek colonies dotted the eastern Mediterranean and the former Byzantine empire, lasting really until Ataturk in the 1920s fought to preserve and define a Turkish state that resulted in massive population movements of Greeks to Greece and Turks to Turkey.<\/p>\n

We had about two hours of free time which I used to do what I love to do\u2014wander aimlessly, exploring.\u00a0\u00a0It gave me a new sense of ancient Greece \"\"because I went to areas that I\u2019d never been before, which are not really accessible by bus.\u00a0\u00a0The area is Monastiraki, an old monastery area at the base of the Acropolis, that is really the old town.\u00a0\u00a0One after another sights\u2014the Roman baths, the library of Hadrian, the Tower of the Winds\u2014all part of the ancient city artifacts, and all closed as of 3 pm.\u00a0\u00a0Can you believe that?\u00a0\u00a0Only one museum in the city is open after 3 pm\u2026.<\/p>\n

The other question was partially settled at our visit to PWC (no, not with an alum, but set up by Jim Majernick, with Price Waterhouse Cooper, who was a student on one May term trip in 2001 which went around the world\u2014and I\u2019m glad I kept in touch with him).\u00a0\u00a0PWC is a global accounting firm, which gave us an introduction to both Greece and the company.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s no doubt that Greece is one of the problem children in the European Union.\u00a0\u00a0The \"\"<\/a>unemployment rate is staggering\u2014almost 30 per cent in the country, and over 60 percent among people under 24. Even the optimistic folks at PWC admitted that Greeks have lived beyond their means, and needed some of the discipline imposed on the country as the price for the bailout funds that have kept it afloat.\u00a0\u00a0They were quick to note, however, that the press, especially CNN, has sensationalized the protests in Greece, hiring someone to launch tear gas for better pictures and a better story.<\/p>\n

Whatever the truth (and we\u2019re not going to Delphi for the oracle to predict the future or even give us a reading on the present), it\u2019s pretty obvious that the EU is not the United States. The cultures, languages, histories, economies, are speed bumps in a flat world.\u00a0\u00a0Economically, for example, of the 27 countries, 17 use the Euro, which means that there is one monetary policy for 17 countries, and 17 fiscal policies for those countries, not to mention the other ten. I think the folks in Brussels who called it an \u201cunprecedented experiment\u201d and \u201ca work in progress\u201d may have described it best. It\u2019s too entangled to be untangled easily.<\/p>\n

We mused about this on our way to having dinner on the Saronic Gulf, watching the sunset over the ocean.\u00a0\u00a0I must say that the Olympics (we visited the 1896 site and passed by the 2004 village) in 2004 gave Greece a great public infrastructure, with a clean subway, but contributed part of the debt that, in the days of easy money, made everyone happy in the European Union.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s pretty obvious we tourists are now among the happiest people in the European Union.\u00a0\u00a0Dining on saganaki and mousaka certainly helped.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow\u00a0we visit places that predate the golden age of Greece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re at the limits of the European Union\u2014in more ways than one.\u00a0\u00a0We arrived yesterday (though it seems longer ago) in Athens, 1100 miles from Berlin, via Warsaw on Lot Airlines\u2014no doubt an event to be celebrated.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re in the city with 5 million people, and it\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0easy to talk about the birth of democracy.\u00a0\u00a0It happened here, and … Continue reading “Greece and the EU: is the birthplace of democracy the graveyard of the European Union?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may-term-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9462,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/9462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}