No Parking Parklife

Photographs and text by Hatto Fisher

Some days have it in them – Saturday 7.3.2009

Certain days conjoin different strands of meaning, so as well as Woman's Day, which was celebrated worldwide on March 8^th. It so happened that we discussed yesterday with Tamar Fortgang, actress and theatre producer from Los Angeles, why she wishes to use the cave of Pentenli by Athens for staging the Ancient Theatrical play of Medea this coming September? Medea entails a horrific theme but some people begin to admit slowly, that it is no longer just an ancient theme.

They admit that it has become a modern phenomenon as well. That question resonates in Greece around these times all the more after a fifteen year old boy was shot by a policeman on Dec. 6^th 2008.

There followed an outburst of anger. Not only students, but the entire society took to the streets to express their anger at the current state of affairs marked by scandals and the gap between the rich and poor growing ever more. This eruption here in Greece took many by surprise. Generally it was accepted that such riots could erupt in the suburbs of Paris, but not in Greece. Here it did not take place in the suburbs, but turned against modern forms of consumption and a way of life no longer sustainable and yet prevailing in the very centre of the city. Amazing to all has been the strength and consistency the movement has shown since Dec. 6^th. One key explanation can be given for that. For there could really be felt the fear of mothers for the lives of their children.

That fear became a force. At first they hesitated, but then they joined the demonstrations. At times, they would take the smaller children to safety before the police would close in and start to fire tear gas. This fear is well founded. No violence can ever be innocent. Like a green snake creeping through the streets of modern cities and through the places where everyone is discussing the events, it is always ready to bite again. Radicalization means just that, namely to let actions speak before words. No parent is immune against the fear that the own children can easily fall astray and turn to violence as form of expression. First there can fly stones against windows of luxury cars or banks, but then it can go further especially when a rock hits a by passer. By miracle that has not happened so far but the fear has not receded.

As a matter of fact other forms of violence have dominated in the news e.g. a police man was shot at, a grenade thrown towards a group of immigrants meeting in a room but luckily fell back onto the pavement before exploding and just yesterday a man lost both his legs after his car exploded since someone had transformed it into a booby trap. So to see mothers this Saturday, one day before mother day, amidst an action aiming to convert a parking lot into a park by bringing olive and lemon trees to those who are tearing up the pavement and planting trees, it is possible to say mothers have left the cave. They are facing together with their children, through a positive action, a world bombarded by negative images of advertisement for more cars to consume still more space. This is why the question which the Greek youth raised at the funeral of that boy shot is so crucial for understanding the currents prevailing in Athens before mother’s day being celebrated on Sunday March 8th. The youth asked in their farewell letter to that boy being buried where are you parents and artists, why do you not protect us? The mothers have responded, but not so sure is as of yet the response by the artists. So why take Medea into a cave? With that question in mind, the poem about ‘caves of truth’ came about without yet linking it to Plato’s cave analogy, in order to give tribute to those courageous mothers facing with their children openly questions of an uncertain future.

Monday 9.3.2009

First impression of the park landscape

The entire park like landscape was ready with stones showing the path. Even a brand new bench in the form of a cross had been put up. Young people had gathered around a bon fire while someone played a Cretan violin with others joining in the song. An amazing opening up of a space once occupied by cars to people wishing to breathe in the city. I shall return to take more photos to see how things develop. Certainly the sensitivity to trees underscores what Greeks feel after the tremendous forest fires which ravaged the forests near and around Athens especially in 2007.

It is also a good feeling to know people themselves can put their stamp on land in the city otherwise dominated by land use speculators wishing to make money out of the last square meters. The Irish poetess Paula Meehan had said during our conference held in Crete and which was called ‘Myth of the City’, each city needs wild, untamed places so that people do not forget the ratio of man built compared to nature. As I walked home with my wife, our talk turned again to the olive tree. For her it was like leaving a child behind. This olive tree had grown out of a small plant on our balcony and was a bit wild, like a boy with uncombed hair. Anna is an urban planner working for the Ministry of Planning and Environment. She will now undertake to save that child, the olive tree, from not being removed with the other trees to make way for a building the owners of the former parking lot wish to construct. The owners are the Technical Chamber of Greece and represents all engineers. Days before that Anna had said to our daughter you cannot find solutions by just sticking to yourself, for you need coalition partners who share with you the same goals but work inside the established institutions. Progress is made by furthering dialogue across the usual divides in society. That is also politics.