Here we are, Mum, Peter and I at Christmas, maybe 1980. I don’t remember this in the slightest, nor our family being musical. Peter’s got his Arsenal scarf, I’m in jazz black and still with chicken pox scars. I probably thought I was in The Police, my favourite band at the time.
You don’t expect to see so many hungry people in a major European city. They line up each day looking for a handout in the soup kitchens and bread lines run by the municipality. But the 40 workers under contract to prepare a basic lunch of pasta and bread say they will lose their jobs in June because the city has run out of money to pay them.
Essentially, the country is broke. And to borrow enough money to stay solvent, the Greek government has agreed to severe austerity measures imposed by the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The money will run out next month unless another chunk of the bailout is handed over. But the European Union wants even more cuts in government job, salaries and benefits.
Public employees have already taken a 40 percent pay cut and pensions are being reduced. The private sector has also been hit and unemployment is nearing 20 percent. A staggering 40 percent of youths between the ages of 18 and 24 are without jobs.
Take, for instance, Leo, a 64-year-old painter of religious icons for devout Greeks and tourists. His business dried up. The money ran out and he ended up living on the street. Evicted for not paying rent, Leo, who didn’t give his last name, took warm clothes, books and ten boiled eggs to his new home – a metal bench near a park in central Athens. He spent 45 days in the open with what he called the “unhappy homeless.”
What makes Leo unhappy is the realization that the government is to blame. “They borrowed,” he said. “Every time they needed money they borrowed and then borrowed some more.”
Successive Greek governments borrowed an estimated $498 billion, in essence to bribe the Greek people into being happy. Governments who could offer cushy office jobs, fat pensions and long vacations got re-elected. It made perfect political sense, but it was economic suicide.
Imagine for a moment taking a 40 percent pay cut. Then suffer an increase in sales tax to 23 percent. Add on increased rates for electricity, a new tax on heating oil and the cost of a gallon of gas hitting almost $10. Oh and your pension is not secure, and your kids stay home because there aren’t enough teachers. It is enough to make you sick.
And that’s precisely what the Greeks are doing. Getting ill. Hospital admissions are up 25 percent. At the same time hospital budgets have been cut 40 percent so there are shortages of medicine and staff.
Nikitas Kanekis is the director of Doctors of the World, a charity that runs health clinics. He has the genteel manner necessary to be a pediatric dentist, but the economic decline has unsettled him. “We have seen four times the number of Greek patients over the last year,” he said. “We are afraid the humanitarian crisis can develop into a humanitarian catastrophe.”
It may already be happening. The department of health reports that suicides are up 40 percent. And violent crimes including murder are up almost 100 percent. “We have all the characteristics we see in big cities in the Third World,” said Kanekis. “People with no shelter, starving people and people looking for doctors and medicine.”
Healthiest and unhealthiest places to live:
Top 10 EPI
1 76.69 Switzerland
2 70.37 Latvia
3 69.92 Norway
4 69.2 Luxembourg
5 69.03 Costa Rica
6 69 France
7 68.92 Austria
8 68.9 Italy
9 68.82 United Kingdom
9 68.82 Sweden
Bottom 10 EPI
123 37.68 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
124 36.76 Bosnia and Herzegovina
125 36.23 India
126 35.54 Kuwait
127 35.49 Yemen
128 34.55 South Africa
129 32.94 Kazakhstan
130 32.24 Uzbekistan
131 31.75 Turkmenistan
132 25.32 Iraq
A tour of the listed buildings in the vicinity of the Cathedral. I started north of Kingsgate in St Swithuns St, to Little Minster St, Great Minster St, along the north of the Cathedral grounds (excluding The Square for now, except those whose rears face the green), then south to The Close and Dome Alley and through St Swithuns Gate to the start. Obviously this area in the city centre is dominated by this longest Gothic cathedral in Europe and one of the biggest churches in England with its enormous nave. To the south and west are typically charming C17 and C18 century town houses, and in The Close a variety of styles of buildings from medieval to C18. Dome Alley is an interesting example of a C17 purpose-built street, within the walls of the cathedral grounds. Christs Hospital and Morleys Alms Houses are also in the area.
My favourites this time are 3 St Swithuns St, 2 Great Minster St and 8 Great Minster Street (same building as The Old Vine)
I was kicking some water down the road when I realised it’s not this or that, it’s both
Brockwood Park School Pavilions Project, a set on Flickr.
Due for completion in July this year, work on the pavilions is really moving forward, with most of the major construction work completed. Currently the verandahs and walkways are being built in a horseshoe, linking the seven buildings with boardwalks.
The pavilions are heated using a geothermal system. Deep down, the temperature is a constant 14 degrees C year round. Installed by a local company using the most efficient technique for heating, it uses a multiplier to build the heat enough for hot water and underfloor heating. A heat exchanger will circulate the warm air. The pavilions are highly insulated using paper pulp in the walls and polystyrene under the floor. The windows and patio doors are triple glazed, made in Sweden.
Each pavilion is for accommodation, with shared kitchen spaces. Two will be for students only, one for staff only, and the others a mix of students, mature students and staff. The staff pavilion has two flats, each with two bedrooms, designed for those staff with a family.
I’m looking forward to seeing the project move toward completion in the coming months, with the interior fittings, walkways and landscaping.
Continuing my tour of the Listed Buildings of Winchester, today I covered Kingsgate Rd/St and Canon St. This area is to the south of the city centre, outside of the old walls. From the medieval gate, Kingsgate Street runs directly south towards St Cross, transforming into Kingsgate Road after Romans Road. The road is wider and more rural as you head away from the gate, the buildings even becoming more mossy. Walking north towards the gate, as the street gets narrower there is a charming view of a gently winding Georgian road that can’t have changed very much in more than 200 years. To the east are the college playing fields and various faculty buildings (for another tour), and to the west many Victorian villas and more college buildings around Culver Rd and Romans Road, including the music department. Kingsgate St contains several college boarding houses, including the large purpose-built Kingsgate House (Beloe’s) and the far older Moberly’s. Near Kingsgate itself, running E-W is Canon St, flanked by the city wall for much of its north side. At the eastern end are several C18 houses from small terraced to the imposing No 64. Unusually, above the gate is a church, with its entrance on the north side of the gate.
My favourite buildings this time are 46 Kingsgate Rd, 55-57 Kingsgate St, 65 Kingsgate St, and 47 Canon St. These are ordered first below, after the view looking north up Kingsgate St:
