Greece is facing its worst crisis since World War II. What can be done to help the country? As a Greek American it pains me, and many like me, to see and hear of the terrible situation in Greece. Many people call and complain that we need to do more, we need to solve this and we need to be vocal about what needs to take place. How can we (Greek Americans) solve this problem? These questions are difficult to comprehend and more difficult to answer.
by Basil N. Mossaidis*
All of who have been to Greece on a regular basis and those of who have been active in trying to assist understand that Greece is not a country that has many natural resources in order to create jobs and industry. Greece sole natural resource is…its beauty. Greece has about 9,000 miles of coast line, which includes all the islands. That is equal to driving from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA round trip 1 ½ times. There are 3,000 islands in Greece, of which 140 are inhabited. There are over 9,000 hotels in Greece with over 650,000 beds. The tourist industry accounts for close to 20% of the Gross Domestic Product. The largest numbers of tourists are from Europe, Americans number at about 500,000 visitors a year.
What is it we can do? We can all work together to promote visiting Greece. We can not necessarily fix the political problems Greece currently faces, nor is it our duty to fix those problems. Our concern is to assist the people. We can send food, we can send blankets, we can send medicine, but all those are like band aids on a problem that is too big to fix. We can encourage business to foster in Greece, but the way Americans do business differs from how business is done in Greece.
Our immediate and easiest impact is to promote visiting Greece. We see all the upheaval in Greece; the media shows us the worst case scenario. The people in America are afraid to go to Greece. We need to change that outlook. As many of us who visit Greece frequently know, the area around parliament is the most popular place for demonstrations and civil unrest to take place. The rest of Greece is not affected, and certainly the rest of Athens is not either.
It pains all of us to see the news that Greece is melting down, but we have an obligation. We must defend the Glory that was Greece and the quickest and easiest way is to visit Greece. Ancient Greece and Hellenistic Greece are the most famous periods of Greece. Plato, Aristotle, Pericles, Demosthenes, Leonidas and Alexander and countless other famous Greek names are associated with this period. Science, math, politics and philosophy are by products of these periods. Civilization owes so much to these progenitors. Those Greeks are no more but their legacy survives. We are that legacy. We should never forget what our ancestors did to carve our place in history.
All Hellenes from around the world need to try to do their part to help Greece. The Greek people have undergone tremendous sacrifice and pain, forget placing blame, let’s work to assist the people of Greece. Governments come and go, hopefully the need for the leaders in Greece to lead will make them take the necessary steps to solve their crisis, but WE all Greeks in the Diaspora should do our best to support the people. There are several ways to help, donate money, time, food, clothing, medicine to name a few, but perhaps if all of us visited Greece to bolster the people in their time of need would be the best way to help.
On our part the AHEPA will promote travel to Greece aggressively as a means of support. We are currently collecting funds to assist in sending food and medical supplies, but we will be promoting an aggressive tourism agenda in our efforts to assist. For 90 years the AHEPA has assisted our friends in Greece, we will continue to do so. To make a donation to AHEPA’s efforts for Greek relief, visit our web site at www.ahepa.org
*Basil N. Mossaidis is the Executive Director of the Order of AHEPA
