InfoAnda - Insight: In Greece, a painful return to country roots |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Online viewers still loving regular TV, poll shows | | 15 November 2010
China central bank to promote currency reform | 19 June 2010
Privacy concerns over Google book project | 25 July 2009

Mayor-elect vows to bolster Israel's 'undivided' capital | 12 November 2008

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Insight: In Greece, a painful return to country roots |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (1) Slideshow Video Full Focus Editor's choice Our best photos from the last 24 hours. See more Images of May Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Ex-Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch dead 07 Jun 2012 Ex-Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch dead 07 Jun 2012 U.N. monitors shot at in Syria, Annan plan crumbles | 3:33am EDT Analysis: In scare for newspapers, digital ad growth stalls 07 Jun 2012 Romney, Republicans raise $76.8 million in May 07 Jun 2012 Discussed 353 NY mayor blasts sugar ban critics: ”That’s a lot of soda” 285 Louisiana’s bold bid to privatize schools 277 Florida to continue voter purge in defiance of warning Watched A look at the UK’s most beautiful face Thu, May 10 2012 NASA delivers high-def view of Venus transit Wed, Jun 6 2012 Syria fighting continues amid global condemnation Thu, Jun 7 2012 Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Greece's invisible tourists Greece's slumping tourism industry accounts for one in five jobs in the country. Slideshow CMT Music Awards Toby Keith and Kristen Bell host as Carrie Underwood wins big. Slideshow Insight: In Greece, a painful return to country roots Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Greeks embrace some new myths about life with the euro Tue, May 22 2012 Analysis & Opinion Little America: An Afghan town, an American dream and the folly of for-profit war Almost knightly Related Topics World » Greece » Related Video Greeks make beeline for sweeter life 12:00am EDT 1 of 9. Spiridoula Lakka, 32, poses in front of her parents' cafe-restaurant in the village of Kalithea near Konitsa town in northwestern Greece April 2, 2012. Thirteen years after abandoning rural Greece for a career in graphic design, Lakka finds herself in the last place she expected to end up - watering a patch of lettuce and herbs in her sleepy village. As Greece sank into its worst economic crisis since World War Two, Lakka had already given up her dream of becoming a web designer. Even waitressing seemed impossible. She faced a simple choice: be stranded without money in Athens, or return to the geriatric village she spent her childhood plotting to escape. Picture taken April 2, 2012. Credit: Reuters/John Kolesidis By Deepa Babington and Lefteris Papadimas KONITSA, Greece | Fri Jun 8, 2012 2:41am EDT KONITSA, Greece (Reuters) - Thirteen years after abandoning rural Greece for a career in graphic design, Spiridoula Lakka finds herself in the last place she expected to end up - watering a patch of lettuce and herbs in her sleepy village. As Greece sank into its worst economic crisis since World War Two, Lakka had already given up her dream of becoming a web designer. Even waitressing seemed impossible. She faced a simple choice: be stranded without money in Athens, or return to the geriatric village where she grew up plotting to escape. At age 32, Lakka, an office clerk who also juggled odd jobs, joined a growing number of Greeks returning to the countryside in the hope of living off the land. It's a reversal of the journey their parents and grandparents made in the 1960s and '70s. Data is scarce on how many people have made the trek, but as people angered by austerity head to the polls on June 17, anecdotal evidence and interviews with officials suggest the trend is gaining momentum. In a survey of nearly 1,300 Greeks by Kapa Research in March, over 68 percent said they had considered moving to the countryside, with most citing cheaper and higher quality life. Most expected to move permanently. "A year ago, I couldn't imagine myself holding a garden hoe, or doing any farming," said Lakka, as she watered the herbs she grows in the village of Konitsa, which nestles among snow-capped peaks near the Albanian border. "I've always wanted to leave the village. I never imagined I would actually spend my whole life here." Her experience has been far from idyllic. The arrival of young, city-dwelling Greeks is being watched with a mix of pity and hope by those who never left. "Those who have returned are desperate. They aren't coming back because they wanted to," said Stefanou Vaggelis, a 50-year-old distillery owner as he threw back tsipouro - a strong spirit favored by locals - with friends in the village centre dotted with taverns. This summer, judging from the queries he has received from city-dwellers on vacation, Vaggelis predicts as many as 60 people will move to Konitsa, where over half of the population of about 3,000 is aged 60 or over. "They usually ask whether there are state subsidies for agriculture and for growing pomegranates, snails and aromatic herbs," he said, recounting how a 40-year-old acquaintance had returned to tend sheep in the hills. Greece's farmers mostly run small operations and rely on EU subsidies to survive. They complain that over the past five years subsidies have halved. TREMENDOUS INTEREST In the northern city of Thessaloniki, a school for farmers says applications for its high school program have tripled this year. Cheese-making and bee-keeping have also filled quickly at the American Farm School, founded in 1904 by an American missionary who was keen to teach practical skills. Its courses run from pre-school to adult level. "There is tremendous interest," said Panos Kanellis, the school's president. The trend, he said, is driven by both the crisis and a desire among many Greeks for a quality of life that's impossible to find in the city. Greek families have traditionally owned houses or plots of land in their native villages, often devoted to fragrant olive, lemon and orange groves or a mix of vibrant greens and tomatoes. For those returning, rural life promises rent-free housing, backyard produce to fill dinner plates and support from a network of relatives and friends. The Kapa survey showed most people planned to count on family and friends to help. "In Athens, I worked many jobs I didn't like but I had to compromise," said Lakka. "In the village, you have your own home and you can grow vegetables to eat." Five decades ago, one in two Greeks was employed in farming. The Pan-Hellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives, a farmers' union, says employment steadily shrank in the early 2000s, but agriculture added 38,000 jobs between 2008 and 2010 as Greece slid into a recession that is now in its fifth year. It lost jobs again in 2011 when the banking crisis squeezed lending to farmers, but people have continued to return to villages, said the union's general manager Ioannis Tsiforos. "We have a number of people, most of them middle-aged, entering the farming business," he said: the trend is especially visible in Crete and the Dodecanese islands in the east. NO PLACE TO DREAM Until recently, the Greek countryside was largely a place young people escaped from. The lure of city jobs spurred a wave of migration to urban centres after World War Two. In the three decades to 1981, Athens' population more than doubled to more than 3 million people. Today, the Greek capital is still home to about 4 million of Greece's 11 million population, but it is no longer a magnet for the young and ambitious. At 22 percent, unemployment in Athens hovers just above the national average. Homeless people line the streets, the poor scavenge through bins for scrap. "For Rent" signs hang across shuttered shop windows. Crime has surged, turning pockets of Athens into virtual no-go zones at night. All this came as a shock to Lakka. Like almost everyone else in Konitsa, she grew up convinced the move to the big city was a rite of passage. She studied design in Thessaloniki and moved to the capital at 22. A graphic design job proved difficult to find, so she took up odd jobs. Her big break came with a temporary contract as an office clerk with a state social security fund, which she hoped would eventually turn permanent. The pay was a paltry 640 euros ($800) per month, so Lakka did waitressing and office work on the side. Then the debt crisis hit, forcing Greece to take a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Lakka struggled to find extra work. Panic set in. The final straw came last June, when she learned there was no money to renew her contract. "At that moment I said to myself: 'That's it. There is no way I'm going to start begging my friends again for a new job," she said. "I decided to return to my village." INSULTS AND GOSSIP Up a wild cherry- and maple tree-lined road from Lakka's family business - a petrol station and cafe - Konitsa's deputy mayor Nikos Karras smiles as he ponders the unexpected homecoming of village youth. About 10 people returned last year, and the area is gearing up for many more, he says. "It is important for the region that young people come back because until now we've been living through the opposite: everyone left and the only people who stayed back were the elderly," says the 41-year-old. "When someone loses their job in a city and has no hope of finding another, they come here as a last resort. We will be the last to starve because when you have a field or a garden, you can produce food for yourself and make sure you survive." But adjusting to life in the village is not easy. Hoping to put her city skills to use, Lakka tried to transform the petrol station cafe. With a fading Coca-Cola sign outside and a fog of cigarette smoke hanging over wooden tables inside, the cafe offered its elderly clientele basic fare of tsipouro, coffee and sandwiches. Lakka had other ideas. Her eyes lit up as she recounted her plans from a corner table in the cafe, her mother by her side. She wanted to allow local hunters to cook their catch on the restaurant grill; she would spice up the menu with goat stews, tripe, casseroles and pasta dishes. "My dream was to change the shop completely," she said. But the tight-knit village community had other thoughts. A rival cafe owner said he hoped Lakka would shut shop and go back to Athens; others snickered behind her back. "One woman said 'The girl from Athens has come to change our ways, but she has to adapt to us, not the other way round,'" Lakka said. "These things upset me. I just can't get used to it," she said. "They don't say it directly to me, but to people they know will pass it on to me." As a single woman with no plans to marry, Lakka was also an anomaly in a deeply traditional place. "There is a lot of pressure to get married and have children, even from my own parents." She used to wear short skirts and bare midriff tops. She has replaced them with loose jeans. "There is no privacy here in the village. You feel like everyone is judging and trying to control you, and there is gossip," she said. "It's a closed society." Instead, she turned to cultivating herbs. The craggy mountains encircling her village are home to more than 2,000 varieties. She also tends to a row of beehives on a dirt track near the cafe. Lakka says she hopes she can one day sell her bunches of sage, nettle and peppermint at a roadside kiosk. There is no certainty of a happy ending. What she does know is that Athens did not leave her much choice. "I still have second thoughts, though from what I hear from friends in Athens, I've made the right choice," she said. "Things have become too difficult there and they also want to leave." (Editing by Sara Ledwith and Simon Robinson) World Greece Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (1) samian.quazi wrote: Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Friday, 8 June 2012
Yemeni army clashes with al Qaeda fighters, 25 killed |
Palestinian corruption court convicts Arafat aide |
Hollande urges turnout as poll shows French left winning |
Worthy Cassava transformed into lucrative cash crop |
Egypt's army says ends deadlock on assembly |
Apple may seek to stop U.S. launch of Galaxy phone |
App allows tracking of New York police stop-and-frisk |
Pushing the PRAM: when chips just can't get any smaller |
Nintendo's new Wii fires up two-screen game debate |
RIM discards 16 GB PlayBook tablet |
Barnes & Noble says e-books settlement hurts public |
Reckoning arrives for Schilling's video game firm |
Google dips toe into customer service business |
Pulitzer Prize-winner Trethewey named U.S. poet laureate |
Ex-Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch dead |
Lauryn Hill failed to file tax returns on $1.8 million in income: DOJ |
Insight: In Greece, a painful return to country roots |
U.N. monitors shot at in Syria, Annan plan crumbles |
Al Qaeda leader's wife praises women for Arab Spring |
Argentines bang pots and pans to protest government |
Japan's government, opposition aim for tax deal by mid-June |
Fourteen dismembered bodies dumped in northern Mexico |
China says to provide selfless help to Afghanistan |
Three French tourists killed in Dominican bus crash |
Accused Canadian cannibal probed in Hollywood body parts case |
Insight: Intel's plans for virtual TV come into focus |
EU gives Google till early July in antitrust case |
U.S. judge cancels Apple-Google phone patent trial |
Barnes & Noble says e-books settlement hurts public |
Screams, tears as Japan fans choose pop group leader |
Ex-Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch dead |
Insight: Vatican bank-money, mystery and monsignors |
Bus bomb kills 19 in northwest Pakistan: police |
IAEA says no progress in atom probe talks with Iran |
Suicide bombing of Nigeria police station kills 4 |
Egyptians protest against ex premier ahead of vote |
Man killed by sniper fire in Tripoli |
Serbia's new president seeks EU answers on Kosovo |
Breivik ill but not psychotic: court expert |
Facebook backer turns his attention to Brazil |
Hybrid ultrabooks blur line between tablets, laptops |
India's Zensar targets U.S. deal by year end |
Barclays downgrades NetApp on rising competition |
Facebook IPO mishandling hurt investor confidence: TD Ameritrade |
Apple may seek to stop U.S. launch of Galaxy phone |
What is art? German fair tests limits |
NPR's Car Talk guys to hang up wrenches, microphones |
Folies Bergere plumage hits auction block in Paris |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01