As an American-Greek I discovered that even though I was a Greek born in another country, I was not too different from the ones born here, especially here in Mani. We all have the same DNA! I wrote about the development of the "Greek Crisis" that began to surface when my wife and I arrived 14 years ago. I described the early symptoms of the oncoming financial crisis and the subsequent protests against the agreed-on austerity measures from the EU that were necessary in order to receive the bailout money to avert bankruptcy. I described the reasons for our decision to live and practice medicine here for the rest of my life. As a private physician in a socialized medicine country, I was able to take advantage of our relationship so they would open up to me about their personal feelings and customs. I discovered that many of these vocal Maniates were very proud of their heritage, and probably not too different from their ancestors that freed our country from the Turks, or from the ancient Greeks that founded civilization and democracy. I also touched on the history of this iconic country that all of us should know in addition to village customs, food, elections, our church wedding, farming, immigrants, economics, GDP, civil service, unemployment, protest rallies, strikes, Crete union, austerity, gossip, so-called laziness, garbage disposal, politics, fiscal deficit, pensions, olives, laws, religion, mythology, medicine, relatives. Cyprus, crime, relatives, wild flowers, Mesons, our arrest, landlords, arranged marriages, anti-Americanism, bribes, corruption, Eleftherios Venizelos, the Balkan Wars, etc, and more history, even though this is not a history book, but it contains what we Greeks should know about our country.. I wish I had read a book like this when I first arrived here.
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