[Hewitt]

I have just got back from Kos in Greece. I have posted what I saw on my blog. In brief areas of high private sector employment the crisis seem's to be having much less of an effect. I certainly didn't get the impression of a country which could be in civil war in a few years time as the media has suggested. What does everyone else think?

[Emaemmaemily]

I was there last year.
I certainly doubt the threat of civil war, but I certainly did notice the number of people begging, homeless and starving was quite high. Especially while I was in and around Athens. The situation certainly is terrible for them, but I don't know if the threat of violence is as bad as they said. Obviously time has passed since I was there, so it could be worse.

[prog2djent]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
starving .

suuuurrree

[Emaemmaemily]

(Original post by prog2djent)
suuuurrree

What exactly is your problem with what I said? If you didn't see it, how can you comment?

[Clip]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
What exactly is your problem with what I said? If you didn't see it, how can you comment?

How did you notice that they were starving?

[Emaemmaemily]

(Original post by Clip)
How did you notice that they were starving?

I noticed that they (they being SOME of the inividuals I saw on the streets) were dangerously thin and emaciated at times.
Obviously I'm not talking about the entire population, I was referring to the number of people begging or sleeping on the streets.

[Hobo389]

The islands are their own micro-economies mostly. It's the mainland that is really struggling.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T

[Joinedup]

The places you see as a tourist aren't necessarily the places where the worst problems are happening.
For instance people used to come back from holidays in aparthied south africa saying they didn't see any violence therefore it wasn't such a bad system really.
Tbh I trust the BBC more than you because they've more experience of what countries that are about to have civil wars are like.

[A Mysterious Lord]

I saw no problems in Crete last year, though Crete/Kos/Rhodes are pretty much autonomous, fairly well protected from the mainland because of the tourist industry.

[Emaemmaemily]

I noticed similar things to what other people are saying here. While I was on one of the islands, there was no evidence of the economy and alike being terrible. Some of the resteraunt owners would say things have been a little slower than usual, but that's it.
In contrast, I was in athens and surrounding areas for a little while and it was far more apparent that they were very much affected here. I already mentioned the high number of homeless and beggers, and there were various businesses that were shut up as if out of business.

The islands are most probably not as bad because they are almost mini economies in themselves, and run on tourism which isn't AS great as before but still going along stronger than other sectors within their economy.

[kka25]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
I noticed that they (they being SOME of the inividuals I saw on the streets) were dangerously thin and emaciated at times.
Obviously I'm not talking about the entire population, I was referring to the number of people begging or sleeping on the streets.

Maybe, just maybe, those people you mentioned have been like that waay before the actual situation in Greece occurred?

And, 'some individuals' do not represent the actual situation of a country; it's not statistically valid.

[JamesNeedHelp2]

(Original post by kka25)
Maybe, just maybe, those people you mentioned have been like that waay before the actual situation in Greece occurred?

And, 'some individuals' do not represent the actual situation of a country; it's not statistically valid.

Maybe not.

[Emaemmaemily]

(Original post by kka25)
Maybe, just maybe, those people you mentioned have been like that waay before the actual situation in Greece occurred?

And, 'some individuals' do not represent the actual situation of a country; it's not statistically valid.

Maybe, maybe not. But the fact that there were so many of them certainly IS a sign that things aren't very good in the country, whether it is because of recent events or not.

I didn't claim that these individuals represented the whole country. But my time in the mainland certainly highlighted that people are struggling a lot, from everything I saw (not just the people in the streets, as I've mentioned).

[Hewitt]

The thing is in Greece there are so many of these self-sufficient micro economies that it actually makes up a very large chunk of the population. The media purely focusing on Athens doesn't give a very good view of the overall situation in the country.

[kka25]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
Maybe, maybe not. But the fact that there were so many of them certainly IS a sign that things aren't very good in the country, whether it is because of recent events or not.

I didn't claim that these individuals represented the whole country. But my time in the mainland certainly highlighted that people are struggling a lot, from everything I saw (not just the people in the streets, as I've mentioned).

Well, from whatever you wrote, it seems you do; this actually proves, in away, the essence of what the OP mentioned.

[Emaemmaemily]

(Original post by kka25)
Well, from whatever you wrote, it seems you do; this actually proves, in away, the essence of what the OP mentioned.

No, I don't. I'm not saying the entire country is that way, but the area I visited (Athens) WAS in a bad way for a lot of people (although not all). Why does this prove what the OP mentioned? They seemed to say that their visit to an island showed that none of Greece is that bad, which isn't the case. I'm saying that while the islands in particular are much better (I visited some of those too), Athens certainly isn't in a good way.

I was simply pointing out that some of the country seems to be in a worse state than other parts. I pointed out that what I saw certainly doesn't point towards there being a civil war (although I don't know that for sure, obviously), but things were worse in places I visited than on the islands, so you can't judge the whole country just by how the islands are doing.

[kka25]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
No, I don't. I'm not saying the entire country is that way, but the area I visited (Athens) WAS in a bad way for a lot of people (although not all). Why does this prove what the OP mentioned? They seemed to say that their visit to an island showed that none of Greece is that bad, which isn't the case. I'm saying that while the islands in particular are much better (I visited some of those too), Athens certainly isn't in a good way.

I was simply pointing out that some of the country seems to be in a worse state than other parts. I pointed out that what I saw certainly doesn't point towards there being a civil war (although I don't know that for sure, obviously), but things were worse in places I visited than on the islands, so you can't judge the whole country just by how the islands are doing.

I'm sorry, but this reply is very incoherent.

[Hewitt]

(Original post by Emaemmaemily)
No, I don't. I'm not saying the entire country is that way, but the area I visited (Athens) WAS in a bad way for a lot of people (although not all). Why does this prove what the OP mentioned? They seemed to say that their visit to an island showed that none of Greece is that bad, which isn't the case. I'm saying that while the islands in particular are much better (I visited some of those too), Athens certainly isn't in a good way.

I was simply pointing out that some of the country seems to be in a worse state than other parts. I pointed out that what I saw certainly doesn't point towards there being a civil war (although I don't know that for sure, obviously), but things were worse in places I visited than on the islands, so you can't judge the whole country just by how the islands are doing.

I didn't judge the whole country on how an island was doing:

'This post is solely based on my observations and opinion. I only saw one island out of many, but many other parts of the country have a similar local economy configuration, so I do not see why the situation should be any different in those other areas.'

And the media is providing an unbalanced picture - you would think the whole country was in a mess from how it has been made out, but that simply isn't true.

[Cephalus]

Yes it is. And here is an article from a well known paper to prove this assertion:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s-spreads.html

[Emaemmaemily]

(Original post by Hewitt)
I didn't judge the whole country on how an island was doing:

'This post is solely based on my observations and opinion. I only saw one island out of many, but many other parts of the country have a similar local economy configuration, so I do not see why the situation should be any different in those other areas.'

And the media is providing an unbalanced picture - you would think the whole country was in a mess from how it has been made out, but that simply isn't true.

I was kind of aggreeing with you then, just trying to point out that it certainly could be as bad as the media make out, but in a different part of the country to what you saw.
It wasn't said to disprove you or anything, I was just adding my experience so that we could see that things ARE bad, even if it's not affective the whole country.