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Greece’s crisis and the generational divide

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Greece has seen another day of nationwide strikes. Tens of thousands went out to protest drastic wage cuts and pension freezes. Those government cuts are aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis that’s threatening other countries in the Eurozone. But the Greek public says the plan is threatening Greece’s middle class. And as Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens it’s leaving a bleak future for young Greeks.

• BBC coverage
• Global Economy podcast: The Financial Problems With Greece
• Joanna Kakissis’s website

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DAVID BARON:  In Greece, it’s been another day of nationwide strikes. [SOUND CLIP] Tens of thousands went out to protest sever wage cuts. Those government cuts are aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis that’s threatening other countries in the Euro zone. But the Greek public say the plan is threatening them. And as JOANNA KAKISSIS reports, young Greeks fear it’s leaving them with no future.

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  MYRTO AGIAKATZIKA is 16.  She speaks three languages and loves economics and music. She’s standing outside her high school, but she can’t get in. All the teachers are on strike today. She says things don’t look good for her country.

MYRTO AGIAKATZIKA:  I think they are going to be much, much worse. How are we supposed to live without money when all prices are too high to buy anything? It’s very difficult to live in Greece now.

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  Greece has a reputation as a place where people can expect to get steady government jobs and retire early on generous pensions. But that’s not the case anymore for younger Greeks. College graduates are having trouble finding work. Many are just scraping by. KOSTAS ALEXANDRIDIS is 26.  He makes about 13-hundred dollars a month as a teacher.

KOSTAS ALEXANDRIDIS:  It’s not enough, especially if you have a family. I don’t have a family nowadays but for a family [LAUGHS] that’s very little money.

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  His parents both have steady pensions.

KOSTAS ALEXANDRIDIS:  They had security. At 35 years of work, you get a pension. There was social security. The hospitals were all free, and education was free.

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  Young families, working couples with children, are having an especially hard time.

[SOUND CLIP]

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  Konstantinos Skoufis is 39, and the married father of two young girls. He’s a government-employed driver for a near by Athens suburb. Together he and his wife Natasa [SOUNDS LIKE: Pirgopoulu] earn about 25-hundred dollars a month. But under Greece’s latest austerity measures, their pay will probably go down by a quarter. Natasa says she’s worried.

NATASA PIRGOPOULU:  [SPEAKS IN GREEK]

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  “In the past,” she says, “everyone made less but had more because everything wasn’t so expensive. Now, we can barely make it.” They save money on heat by lighting the fireplace. Sometimes Natasa and her husband talk about moving to Canada.

KOSTAS ALEXANDRIDIS:  [SPEAKS IN GREEK]

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  Konstantinos says it’s hard to live the Greek dream. “I always imagined things would be better, much better,” he says. “But the truth is, every year that passes, my dreams fade.” This kind of talk upsets Natasa’s 64-year-old mother Kaiti. She’s a psychiatric nurse who retired on a very good pension. Greece takes care of her, Kaiti says. But it’s not taking care of her children, or her grandchildren.

KAITI: [SPEAKS IN GREEK]

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  “What’s going to happen to my grandchildren?” She says, “I’m already worrying about them.”

[SOUND CLIP]

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  Back at the high school, students have ditched their books and are playing basketball. MYRTO AGIAKATZIKA says she’s tired of everyone being angry and worried here.

MYRTO AGIAKATZIKA:  In Greece I don’t think there is future, that’s why I’m not going to stay here. I’m going abroad.

JOANNA KAKISSIS:  She plans to study and work in Spain, her mother’s country, even though Spain has its own economic problems. Her Greek father hates the idea, she says, but her mind is made up. She says Greece has a long way to go, and she doesn’t have time to wait. For the World, this is JOANNA KAKISSIS in Athens.

[MUSIC PLAYS]

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