An update to a post from March this year:
I really hope this film will make it to Athens. The story of a Greek Roma family displaced from their home, without compensation, because of the prestigious Olympics in Athens 2004. I just love the title. Garlic and Watermelons
The co-directer left a comment on the post this morning.
From lavrentia
I’m co-director of Garlic and Watermelons, and hope to screen the film in Athens soon. If anyone has any ideas for a venue, please let me know. Unfortunately, we’re based in the US now, so it’s a bit hard to organize something from here. But I will let you know as soon a screening is planned. Thanks for your interest!
If anyone has any ideas/influence in the film world, please leave a message here or get in touch with Pattern films directly. Thanks for getting in touch, lavrentia and I hope we can get the film screened over here in Athens.
Rejected Europeans on January 12th, 2010
Make Some Noise on December 21st, 2009
The Mandra Settlement on December 17th, 2009
Asproprygos Revisited on December 9th, 2009
Roma and Madonna on August 28th, 2009
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Do you know if this Roma family were squatting illegally on this land to start with or did they have a legal deed? I know that the government of Greece is cracking down on people who build illegally and this may just be one of many folks who lost their homes. There could quite be Greek Orthodox families who also were booted but did not get a movie made about them….
Michahael. The reason I put links in my posts is so that people can go and read the background information for themselves. I will help you out this time.
The subject of the film, Prokopis Nikolau and his family
"are Greek Gypsies. They have lived in this village, built with their own hands, for over forty years"
"Their struggle to find a new home, to extract the subsidies that they were promised from the local municipality, and to rebuild their lives represents a humble battle against racism and poverty"
More background:
The Roma in this film
"are Greek citizens and legally have all the rights and responsibilities that citizenship entails"
Also:
"In 2001, the Greek government allocated 300 million euros to an eight-year program meant to further integrate the Roma into society, but due to poor planning and corruption, little of this money has actually reached Roma communities"
I am not sure whether they are orthodox but I fail to see what that has to do with the film. It does say that they celebrated a traditional Easter feast, if that makes you feel any better.
If this sounds a bit grumpy, it is. Just ask yourself how many films in total have been made about the Roma in Greece compared to how many films are made about the "acceptable" citizens. I can promise you, there are hardly any.
Diva,
It might be worth sending an email to NET because they did a feature on this film a month or so ago on their 9pm news bulitian. This only stuck in my mind because I remember reading your last post on this film and thinking it looks interesting. Maybe they could help…
Good idea EllasDevil. I will email them with that suggestion. Thanks.
The comments by Prokopis fail to address the question whether the ****** had legal title to the land.
****Edited by DevousDiva. Hermes. The term you use (which I blanked out) is unacceptable and derogatory. Please do not post again with this terminology or I will delete you. i will not tolerate this on my site. BTW the comment was from me.
this is so cool devious, i started following you when you posted your very first post about this movie, and here we are again!! new site, new look, and watermelons and garlic for our dinner!!!i hope you get it over there…you will have to do a write up if you do.ps. i’m working on my own site right now, battering my head against the wall on a regular occassion!!!!
DD: This comment is off topic and for that I apologize.. Im a vlogger/podcaster in Amsterdam and I’ve recently noticed your blog and am interested in contacting you to be a guest on my program… couldnt find your email.. hence this comment. please send me an email saying you read this and Ill email all the details.
I stand corrected on the Greek orthodox thing. I thought they were from Romania.
DD: I don’t know whether you’ve watched clips of the film or not, but you will find them at this link :
http://www.panoramatos.com/clips.php
Cute Roma activist, don’t you think?
Psst – Hermes, ‘Gyftoi’ is pejoritave. Try and be classy, willya?
The comments by Prokopios do not address whether the Roma had legal title to the land. If they did not then they may be infringing on the rights of people who did.
Why do you jump to the conclusion that they had no rights? In case you care about legality, you should know that there was a contract for the compensation that has not been honored for a couple of years. Or maybe the state should not honor its signature? Go to Ta Nea 15 March page 16 to see the contract which I can also provide in total.This is from the most recent Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner report on Greece (March 2006):"58. As to the other specific file in which the Commissioner had taken interest in 2002 and where concrete assurances had been given the him (re-lodging of the Roma families evicted from the Olympic site of Amaroussia), the development has been the following: Six months or so after their eviction and re-settlement in apartments for which the Ministry of the Interior and the municipality were to pay the rents until houses would be built for the Roma in question, the municipality invoked financial difficulties, ceased to pay its part of the rents and apparently gave up the construction plans for the benefit of the Roma. The Roma concerned had to leave the flats and trace has been lost of them.[1]
[1] The Ministry of the Interior underlines that it had at the time provided funds amounting to 50,000 euros to the Municipality of Amaroussia in order to tackle the problem of the above-mentioned financial difficulties. In even more recent developments, the Ministry has approved the sum of 888,410 euros in order to resolve the problem and is currently awaiting the Municipality’s final proposals with regard to the allocation of a suitable plot of land for Roma housing. Furthermore, 21 of 35 applications for housing loans on the part of Roma families from the area have been approved."
Moreover, last year the European Committe on Socila Rights convicted Greece:"CONCLUSIONFor these reasons, the Committee concludes by 8 votes to 2:-that the insufficiency of permanent dwellings constitutes a violationof Article 16 of the European Social Charter;-that the lack of temporary stopping facilities constitutes a violationof Article 16 of the European Social Charter;-that the forced eviction and other sanctions of Roma constitutes aviolation of Article 16 of the European Social Charter;and invites the Committee of Ministers to recommend that Greece pay the complainant organisation a sum of 2000 euros as compensation for expenses incurred by the procedure."
Panagioti, I am banned from this site. However, if this ever gets through I specifically asked a question on legal title to the land, which you have failed to address.
By the way the Roma leadership and Greek Helsinki Monitor have decided to hold such a screening in Athens with the participation of the Roma involved but as we are both busy (including helping the film’s hero) we will turn to that later.
Thanks Panayote! and thanks to everyone for your interest!
And to Hermes and Micahael, I am glad to answer your question as best as I can, though, I think that when you have a chance to see the film, you will realize that it’s not really relevant to the story.
No, the Roma families did not have a paper deed to the land. What they did have is a legal contract, signed by the Mayor of Marousi, promising them rent subsidies and, eventually, new homes in the district of Marousi. As you will understand when you have the opportunity to see the film, the specific complaint of the Roma families is not the fact that they had to vacate the land. While they express some nostalgia for the place where they lived for generations, the issue is really the fact that they signed a contract that has not been honored. This has led to further problems including subsequent evictions. And, of course, all this is just symptomatic of the root problems of poverty and racism, which manifest themselves in many different ways throughout the film and are the real themes of this story.
Thank you Panayote for the extra information. I am very happy to hear that this film will get a screening here in Athens. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Daffodil, thanks for the link. The clips are incredible and do explain the themes of the film. Hi lavrentia, thank you for answering some of the queries here. I sometimes lose patience when people don’t use the links I have provided for them but I am glad you and Panayote answered clearly and precisely. I am really looking forward to seeing this film in its entirety.
By the way, Ellasdevil and deviousdiva, we’ve talked with ERT about showing the film on TV and they sounded positive, but we’ve been having some trouble getting them to follow through. A well-placed email or phonecall from an interested viewer might do the trick. Thanks for your help!
I will send one straight away and I am sure others will to. I will do a post to put up here tomorrow and ask people to write in. Have you got a specific email address for the people at ERT? We’re on it!
By all means insist with ERT. Maybe you can pass on privayely the info on whom you are contacting to see how we can help.The ownership issue is irrelevant indeed. Please read the texts again, Roma laos have the right to adequate housing and the state should provide it to them, which means that when evicitng them from one piece of land -which they have the right to do- they should relocate them with better housing to some other place. This is in their contract whihc the Roma honored and left and the state did not honor. Whose shame is it? The UN and the Council of Europe say it is the state's shame, racists will start stereotyping the Roma…
Here is the contact page from the ERT website:
http://www.ert.gr/ertae/en/Contact/index.asp
Perhaps the Public Relations Department would be good people to contact. There is also someone listed as the Programmes Dept. Director who might be useful. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to post the contact information of the person we’ve spoken with since he’s not listed here.
There are also email addresses and phone numbers listed for feedback on the individual channels:
http://tvradio.ert.gr/en/et3contact.asp
http://tvradio.ert.gr/en/et1.asp
http://tvradio.ert.gr/en/worldcontact.asp
Sorry if this is a complicated answer. Perhaps the easiest thing would be to write one message and copy it to the various addresses.
Thanks! I hope it helps!
I’ll certainly call them and see what they’ve got to say…
Thank you for finally answering my question. If they do not have legal title then they should leave the land. The other agreement on rent subsidies and new homes is a separate issue. If the a Greek Municipal official has signed that paper then the Municipal office should honour it. Simple really.
Panagioti, let me remind you I am banned from this site so please do not address answers or questions to me as I do not want to upset people. If the Greek officials have promised rent subsidies and housing then they should honour their agreement. However, I am not sure the Greek taxpayer will like to find out that their taxes are being used to subsidise Roma housing. Also, I am not sure why the Roma would accept these subsidies. It will only make them more dependent on the State and further erode their dignity.
However, your website is fascinating. There are many articles berating Serbia and Greece but I do not see many bringing up the issue of Greek minorities in Albania, Turkey and Skopje. That sure is strange. Can you tell me why?
Would you also be so kind and tell me you provides the funding for this organisation?
Hermes, no one is blaming you for not living here and therefore not knowing much about contemporary Greek society. It helps that you are polite about it. But the implication behind your question is that Greeks hate the Roma, they cannot be blamed for it, and that anything that happens to the Roma is their own fault for being Roma. This borders on racist nonsense. The Roma in question are Greek citizens who are entitled to whatever it is Greek citizens are entitled to. This includes not having their homes demolished by the state. There are actually not many Greeks who would support actions of this kind, and the fact that there hasn't been an uproar has more to do with the Greek media's ignoring the story. There are definitely racist undertones to the silence, but a more likely explanation is that the Olympics were and are a holy cow, and the many, MANY scandals in the massive construction effort are still waiting to be exposed. Aside from the basic issue of wrongdoing, for your information the European Union gave Greece many millions of euros (don't know the exact figure) to create a national land registry a few years ago. Today, the money is spent and there is no registry. Why? Because it is in no one's interest to have one. People can make far more money and increase their property holdings when the situation is left vague. Probably the Greek Orthodox Church, the largest landowner in Greece, likes the situation as it is as well. So the fact that the Roma in question did not have title to the land doesn't actually mean very much. There are _innumerable_ illegal houses all over Greece, built and owned by 'Greek' Greeks, who simply build wherever they can and wait for the government to declare one of its periodic amnesties – generally around election time. The European Union is, of course, asking for its money back. These particular Roma lived on this land for over 40 years, back when there were still olive groves and flocks of sheep along Kifisias Avenue. That's probably 30 years longer than the vast majority of illegal houses in Attiki. These unfortunate people just happened to live in a part of Maroussi affected by the Olympic juggernaut. You can bet that if the house had been owned by a cousin of the Maroussi mayor's, the compensation would have been paid promptly – and it would have been triple. As far as I can tell, Hermes, and having read some of your postings on other blogs, deviousdiva has you on probation these days. If your mission in continuing to post here is to propagandize for ethnic purity, diva will start deleting in earnest. If your mission is to learn something, I'd suggest you read more Greek newspapers online and stop judging things based on some mythical notion of Greece's present reality.
scarf
Well done for saying it like it is man. I am going to make so bold as to say your comments must be heeded by others who also take these ill-informed (not to say malicious) attitudes towards this and other similar blogs. Here endeth the lesson.
Hermes. I have allowed some of your comments and not others because I feel you might have something to learn from some people here. Scarf+ is correct on the probation thing.
If you wish to discover something else by coming here, there is nothing wrong with hanging back a bit and just reading. Perhaps researching. Asking some questions before wading in with opinions. Just a thought.
I feel, and I may be wrong, that you are interested in the issues. If that is so, good. Ask questions. There are plenty of people here who will gladly give you their opinions.
Scarf+, do you want to come and take over this blog for a while? You manage to say things that I am thinking. Maybe I am just tired. Thank you for taking the time and doing it with a freshness that I just cannot muster at the moment.
Diva –
No thanks! I’ve only been posting so much lately out of procrastination. Believe it or not, I don’t get paid to write on other people’s blogs. I should, though, right? Actually I’ve got this job that requires far more care and attention than _I_ can muster at the moment. Why don’t you take my job?
But if you’re saying I shouldn’t say the things I’ve been saying, then I’ll just go back to work. Is my employer paying you too?
Ok. So you caught us out. Your employer, Misssss thing says get back to work right now or else. You are being far too sharp and witty on this blog and you’ve got work to do. Head down Scarf+ . Remember. Money, money, that’s the thing !
I hope you didn’t take my comment in the wrong way scarf+? I was in no way implying that you shouldn’t say the things you’ve said! You are doing such a great job here answering certain people (something I can’t get my head around sometimes) that I was just wishful thinking.
No worries, div. Well, money…