Lawlessness threatens to turn heart of Athens into no-go zone

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Milestones Footnotes + BY NIKOS KONSTANDARAS In David Mamet’s definitive play on real estate hucksters, an envoy from the company’s headquarters hectors the “losers” in a regional office who can’t close a sale. “You know what it takes to sell real estate? It takes brass balls to sell real estate,” he declares. With his smooth, killer looks and gleaming eye, he holds out first prize (a Cadillac), second prize (a set of steak knives) and third prize (dismissal), starting a dogeat-dog battle among the salesmen as they try to sell worthless real estate for gold. “The money’s out there. You pick it up, it’s yours. You don’t, I’ve got no sympathy for you,” the killer from downtown tells them. He would have loved Greece, where everyone’s selling real estate. In fact, selling off our greatest treasure –the country’s beauty – and covering it in concrete is the backbone of our economy. From the peasant farmers and shepherds who found themselves in control of land with views of the sea, to monks on Mount Athos, everyone’s making money off this most precious commodity. The consequences have been catastrophic and they are bound to get worse. Concrete has been on an unstoppable march across Greece from the 1950s, with the decision by the late Constantine Karamanlis to allow contractors to reach agreement with homeowners in which, in exchange for the land, the contractors would build 12 apartment blocks, giving a couple of apartments to the previous owners. The sell-off of land in the countryside began with the advent of mass tourism in the late 1960s and early 70s, and this has been complemented by the housing developments rampaging across the countryside, expanding cities without providing the necessary infrastructure. This great sell-off al- ATHENSPLUS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008 OPINION God’s country lowed people to live beyond their means. They sold property in the countryside in order to buy apartments in the city, as well as luxury cars and so on. They sold more property to buy more homes for their children. The easy money from selling property inflated prices across the country, leading to a bubble that has been growing for decades and which has no relation to the real purchasing power of Greeks. Those without land to sell had to borrow money in order to pay for grossly overpriced property. Now the children of those who bought their homes by selling their property have run out of property to sell. The result is that at least 200,000 new homes built by contractors remain unsold. And yet home prices have shown no substan- LETTER COMMENTARY Athens ripoff Taking the sport out of politics Reading your publication left me with the impression you have an interest in identifying local ripoffs. Here’s my story. Our cruise ended in Athens. Of course, we visited the Acropolis. We planned to have a late lunch in the Plaka area. We approached the taxi line and the person in charge told us the restaurants in the Plaka were closed in the afternoon and all touristoriented and overpriced. He suggested another direction, one the locals like, and much less expensive. When we arrived to find only four people in the large restaurant and dozens in another a block or two away, we should have gotten the clue – even more so when the taxi driver told them we were from the United States, a pattern continued with each arriving taxi. We talked to four people, all picked up at the same taxi stand, all given the same story. You know the rest. The waiter pretended to misunderstand us and brought us an absolutely dry, poorly prepared seafood dish quoted at 45 euros and charged us 70 euros. If the food or the service had been decent, I would not have objected. But it was the worst of the worst. Two were from our Crystal Cruise and neither ate their meal. It was that bad! This is an organized scam and it should be stopped. DON (VIA E-MAIL) Athens Plus has the name of the restaurant at its disposal should the authorities require it. BY NICK MALKOUTZIS Greeks are pretty much resigned to the fact that their politicians will get up to all kinds of things they’re not supposed to. All they ask from their elected representatives is that they stand up and accept responsibility if they get caught. It was always a request born out of hope rather than expectation, a sport rather than an exact science, but it seems that even this simple pleasure is going to be whipped away. Like a fussy mother who won’t let her child kick a ball before dinner, the prime minister effectively informed the public on Sunday that it would not have the satisfaction of seeing its wayward politicians explain themselves. The reason for this is that he believes they have done nothing wrong. The ex-minister whose aide is to be tried for blackmail, the minister who allegedly runs real estate firms with his wife while in office, the spokesman whose wife has become a media player; they have done nothing “illegal,” therefore they have done nothing “unethical,” according to the prime minister. In keeping with this philosophy, the Supreme Court prosecutor who just hours later launched an investigation into a suspicious BY ILIAS MAKRIS exchange of land between the state and the Vatopedi Monastery said that none of the ministers who signed off on the deal would be probed because they had been “misled” by those around them. It just doesn’t seem sporting that politicians are not willing to even indulge people’s hopes that they might actually see one of them have to account for his or her actions. Look at Thailand: There’s a country that’s giving its voters some satisfaction. A court ordered Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign this week after ruling that he violated the constitution because he continued to present a TV cooking show after taking up office. Samak had hosted the show, “Tasting and Grumbling,” for seven years before being elected and insists that he only received expenses payments during the two months in which became the first ever political leader to actually put the phrase “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” to the test. The ruling People Power Party says it will reappoint Samak but at least the thousands that have protested against his premiership have seen him brought to task, even if it is fleeting. A little further north, the Chinese also ex- tial correction, unlike every other country in the world, where property prices are tied to the real economy. The reason is that everyone has a stake in keeping property prices high. Property owners, banks, contractors and the state conspire to protect their investments, with contractors and banks having made so much money in the past that they can afford to sit out the crisis for a few years without dropping their prices. Such has been the plunder of the past years. The new government slogan, coined by Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, who is under fire for running a lucrative real estate business with his wife while in office, is “whatever is legal is ethical.” (I’d like to see him try that with his wife if she catches him with a girlfriend.) Governments and the state have done their best to keep property an inexhaustible commodity, by doing nothing serious to create zones and establish what land can be used for which uses. Such a measure would bring some semblance of order and rational thinking to the “real estate industry.” It might also preserve some of what’s left of the country’s beauty. But that might put an end to the current free-for-all and no one wants to do that. Why protect the country for future generations when you can make life easier for yourself now? That is what is so outrageous about the latest scandal, the marriage made in heaven between entrepreneurial monks and unethical politicians. Together, they are looting and plundering the treasure that they should have been the first to protect. But that would take brass balls. perienced this week just what satisfaction can be derived by witnessing people in authority explain themselves when they get caught doing something they shouldn’t, thanks to a crafty blogger who secretly posted comments made by corrupt officials. “Although I received money, I feel I am more incorruptible than others,” a secretary of a county in Zheijang province apparently told investigators. The former head of a hospital in Chongqing said that he accepted money because he needed it for his playboy lifestyle. “I have lovers. Many women like me. I have no other way,” he said before being sentenced to 12 years in jail. But the trophy for best sport has to go to a departmental head in the city of Leshan, Sichuan, who explained, “I didn’t know corruption was a serious crime until I was arrested.” Rumors that he came up with this excuse after officials refused to accept claims he had been “misled” and not done anything “unethical” have not been confirmed. HAVE YOUR SAY Send comments to editor@athensplus.gr
Do you use the same technology to produce biofuels from all these products? It’s the same general principles. But some types of oil require more processing, more refining and more energy, which makes them more or less cost-effective and more or less practical as biofuels. What’s the most efficient product? There are various new products being used. Algae is very good for making biodiesel. It is also good for the environment because for the same land space needed for soya you could produce a thousand times more oil. There are also crops like jatropha (an evergreen shrub with oily seeds) that grows in the desert where you couldn’t grow ATHENSPLUS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008 INTERVIEW Andy Pag Self-styled green traveler talks about his round-the-world trips on low-carbon fuels On the road, with a tankful of waste Grease to Greece ‘The idea behind the Greek trip was to see if we could find sustainable fuels as we traveled and the way to do this was to knock on the doors of restaurants asking for their waste oil’ Green days ‘I just wanted to go on holiday without feeling guilty. My wife and I drove from London to Cape Town and it dawned on us that we were contributing a mass of CO2 emissions in the process’ BY NIKI KITSANTONIS Sometimes one person with a good idea and a lot of determination can capture the attention of the public and communicate a concept more eloquently than a host of international organizations and pressure groups. Andy Pag is one of these people. A 34-year-old engineer and webcasting specialist from South London, he has organized a series of unprecedented road trips to demonstrate the potential of alternative energy as petrol prices rise, fossil fuel reserves dwindle and the world heats up from the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions these fuels release. Last year Pag traveled from London to Timbuktu in a truck running on factory-reject chocolate. Last month, he and fellow travelers drove from London to Athens in a car running on used vegetable oil, stopping to fill up at restaurants rather than gas stations. Now planning a trip to China – which will involve brief flights with a small aircraft fed by household trash – Pag spoke to Athens Plus about his experiences as a self-proclaimed “petrol-head” and promoter of “good” biofuels. What was the philosophy behind your most recent expedition to Greece, on grease? The idea behind the Greece trip was to see if we could find sustainable fuels as we traveled and the way to do this was to knock on the doors of restaurants asking for their waste oil. It started off as an idea for a holiday for me and my wife but then more and more people wanted to get involved and Biofuel production technologies ‘as simple as using a washing machine’ food anyway. Everything we have used has been waste. How viable are these technologies for use by the public? It is pretty straightforward. Most participants in the Greece rally were novices. The fuel pod we took with us is the sort of thing you fill up with used vegetable oil once a week, leave the machine running for four or five hours and it produces biodiesel for you. It’s about as complicated as using a washing machine. How did you become an environmentalist/biofuel guru? I just wanted to go on holiday without feeling guilty. My wife and I drove from London to Cape Town three years it ended up a rally with 10 teams. What sort of response did you get from the restaurant owners? Were they happy to help or bemused? Pretty positive. The only times they didn’t give us their used oil was when it had already been collected. Some were curious at first but then were keen to convert their own vehicles. The best oil was in Germany – they are very good at changing their fryers so the oil was quite clean. The worst oil was what we set off with from the UK. What about Greek oil? Actually we took a load of Greek oil when we left for the return journey but it had been used to fry fish and, as a result, it was quite watery, which makes it quite hard to filter, but it was very ago and it dawned on us that we were contributing a huge amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the process. This led to the chocolate-fueled trip to Timbuktu. The more research I did into biofuels, the more I wondered why more people aren’t using them. The biofuels industry hasn’t promoted itself very well – there’s been more infighting than presenting a clear message. So have you given up your full-time job to be a biofuel promoter? No, I just do this for holidays. I run a company webcasting weddings. I’ve always put aside one month of the year to organize expeditions. And the next stop is China next year, I hear. Is it true that you are clean and good quality oil – and olive oil, too, which was a first. So you’ve used chocolate and vegetable oil. What other products can be used to produce biofuels? Basically anything that has oil in it because oil contains energy. In the Greece rally I was driving a car with a converted engine that would take used vegetable oil directly. Other vehicles in the rally used a fuel “pod” that we carried with us and that converted the vegetable oil to biodiesel that could then be used in the car engines. Another alternative fuel is bioethanol, a petrol substitute that can be made from anything that has sugar in it. But bioethanol is much more flammable and so can be dangerous – not really a viable home brew alternative. TARGETS & LIMITS CROP FUNCTIONS The European Union dictates that fuel companies’ production must include 10 percent of biofuels by 2010. But firms are looking at the cheapest option, which invariably is to get their oil by chopping down rain forests. Hopefully this will change over the next year when the EU directive is refined to balance sustainability against production. There probably isn’t enough waste material out there to feed our total fuel needs but at the same time there is an awful lot of waste going to waste. Every drop of used vegetable oil that we use in our cars is one less drop of crude oil used. It would be nice to get to a saturation point where all the waste is being used. It might not be enough to free us from our dependency on fossil fuels but it would certainly make a positive impact. There has been a lot of controversy about the “downside” of biofuels, chiefly about the ethics of food being used for fuel. I am not an environmentalist – if anything I’m a petrol-head – but I’ve researched the subject. There is the argument that the use of crops in Europe for biofuels has been responsible for rising food prices. The other argument is that the cost of food is quite energydependent – you need agricultural machinery, transportation, packaging – and all that is being driven by the high cost of crude. It’s ironic – growing more biofuels might drop the price of fossil fuels! Also there’s a lot of confusion about good biofuels versus bad biofuels. There are some biofuels being made that are damaging the environment but there are also lots of biofuels that are good. going to fly part of the way there on waste products? We’ll drive but also take a small aircraft called a paramotor, basically a parachute with an engine. I’m going to film villages from the air and give the videos to the residents so they can see what their villages look from the air. I’ve started paragliding lessons already. What’s this trip going to be fueled by? A range of alternative fuels, all sustainable. We’ll be using waste oil to run the truck. Then we’re using a process called Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, a process that takes household rubbish and plastic bags and turns them into aviation fuel. We’re working with a company developing this process now – it’s really exciting. 13
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Lawlessness threatens to turn heart of Athens into no-go zone

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