Christmas in Thessaloniki
The writer travels to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, and talks to the mayor and other residents about they city’s social and economic life. Here, he speaks with Dora Seitanidou, a percussionist and university worker in her late 30s:
“‘If we become increasingly fascist—and Greek society is becoming increasingly fascist—you have to put the blame not only on the crisis but also on the educational system. The whole system is sick. Until recently everyone wanted to work for the government in Athens, because working for the government meant security, and it also meant you didn’t have to really work—it meant you could just set up a business for yourself on the side. Security is an obsession that was passed down from grandfather to father to son; maybe it can be explained by the fact that here in Thessaloniki, we’re almost all the descendants of refugees.’ (Many of the inhabitants of Thessaloniki are the descendants of Greeks who were run out of Turkey.) ‘Take my uncle and aunt, for example; they’re not incredibly rich people, but they have five houses. They have the house that they live in, three houses they rent out, and they also have a vacation home. The Greek is obsessed with property because he sees property ownership as security. My uncle and aunt have a son who’s confined to a wheelchair; they think that those houses are going to guarantee his financial security.'”
