Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: September 2011
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
YOU KNOW that when I hate you, it is because I love you to a point of passion that unhinges my soul,” said Parisian salon owner Julie de Lespinasse, in the 1700s.
We can feel the same love-hate about where we live, with newcomers being even more susceptible to such mood swings.
An initial insight into what starts a new arrival onto the path of this emotional equation can be gained from Forbes magazine’s online article entitled “World’s Friendliest Countries”.
The article examines four factors – the ability to befriend locals, learn the local language, integrate into the community and fit into the new culture – based on a comprehensive 2010 Expat Explorer survey by HSBC Bank International.
Lack of knowledge of the local language stands out as a common barrier for newcomers: the top five scorers for friendliness in the 25 ranked countries all benefited from their use of the English language. Top-scorers were: Canada, Bermuda, South Africa, the United States and Australia.
New arrivals, Forbes points out, also tend to compare their native homeland’s core beliefs, values and language with those found in the new land. The closer the similarity with their home country, the more comfortable the neophytes feel, leaning towards the positive feelings.
So what about us old-timers?
Livin’ here ain’t easy
“I’ve been in Greece long enough to love and hate it,” says Canadian Marc Theriault, in Greece since 1992.
He feels adjusting here has been easier because the Greeks love those who show an interest in their culture. But, like everywhere else, there are pros and cons.
“The unexpected keeps you alive and kicking, and Greece will always have plenty. Living in Greece is not easy, even for the Greeks.”
Briton Emma Rachael Parker, who moved to Greece in 1999, agrees.
“Greece is incredibly, frustratingly schizophrenic,” Parker says. “Even Greeks love and hate their country in equal measures – if they are being completely honest with you.”
Things might not happen as smoothly, or as quickly here, she says, but she recommends we let the good overshadow the bad.
Greece as a teenager
“I kind of feel about Greece as I do about my children,” Parker says. “They exhaust and frustrate me during the day, so that I long for bedtime. But the minute they fall asleep, I stand there watching them sleeping, missing them already and wishing for the morning to come, so that we can start anew.”
Greek repatriate Caterina Skiniotou spent a total of 12 years in the United States before deciding to return to Greece in 2000. She provides a similar analogy.
“Greece is, to me, a teenage daughter,” Skiniotou says. “So beautiful and promising, I can’t help adoring her. So cocky and sassy, I feel like slapping her. But, that would be against my principles ”
She acknowledges that love-hate is a very accurate description of her relationship. The words of the 1963 Nobel Prize winner in literature, Greece’s Yiorgos Seferis, reflect her own inner torment: “Wherever I travel, Greece wounds me.”
“I miss it terribly when I am away,” Skiniotou says, “but not a day has gone by in the last eleven years that I have not thought of leaving it ‘for good’.”
Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas is an Athens-based, Canadian Greek (by marriage) writer and a transnational of some 30-odd years. She blogs at kathrynlukeycoutsocostas.wordpress.com
Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: March 2012
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
EMPLOYMENT changes of so-called trailing spouses are often hampered by high unemployment rates, work permit difficulties, other expats on the market and personal selectivity.According to a 2011 report on Global Relocation Trends by Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 60 percent of the trailing spouses of expats abroad on assignment were employed before the couple moved to another country, but only 15 percent worked after arrival.
So, is volunteerism a viable filler?
Besides benefiting society, the Global HR News article “Man, Trailing Spouse” suggests that volunteering can prevent resume gaps, spark alternative careers and promote personal fulfilment and self-improvement.
Avid volunteer Jennifer Ananiadis has spent a total of eleven years in Greece – Thessaloniki and then Athens, with an in-between year in India – because of her husband’s job. She’d previously worked for twenty years, but raising their young sons became her priority in Greece – along with volunteering at their schools.
It’s our obligation as citizens of the world to volunteer, American Ananiadis says, adding: “Even if you are one of those in need of help, there is always someone that you, in turn, can help.”
She’s a founding partner of the non-profit, Athens-based organisation Helping Handbags Hellas, which facilitates the donation and purchase of gently used designer handbags to support a variety of good causes. Ananiadis feels volunteerism enables her to help women become actively engaged in the act of charity. Through it, she feels useful and meets many people. With its flexible hours, it’s taken the place of a paying job for her. Uruguayan Gabriela Larrieux agrees with the pluses, but highlights one difference. “When you have a real job,” she says, “you expect that your efforts will be recognised in some way, especially by getting your salary at the end of the month.” Larrieux moved to Athens in 1982 and to Thessaloniki in 1993, where she became the president of the International Women’s Organisation of Greece (IWOG). Under her leadership, IWOG was one of the founding organisations to establish the city’s annual Food-for-Good Festival. Larrieux continues to coordinate the festival’s Latin American table.
In addition, she was a founding member and network facilitator of the Thessaloniki Organisation for Women’s Employment and Resources (Tower), as well as active in the American Farm School of Thessaloniki’s Group for Student Services for many years. Last, but not least, she’s been the honorary consul of Uruguay since 1995.
“Voluntary work taught me how to deal with people from different environments,” says Larrieux, as well as paving the way for her finding fulltime work in 2009.
Articles
Cultural Integration Issues:
To read additional articles on Cultural Integration Issues please click here:The Perpetual Guest
Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: November 2011
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
SHOULD we newcomers to a country feel at home or, instead, make ourselves at home? There’s a slight, but important, distinction between the two. In the former we remain guests, but in the latter we claim ownership.
Continue reading
Is Your Child a TCK?
Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: January 2012
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
TRADITIONALLY, Third Culture Kids (TCKs) have been defined as those who’ve spent a significant part of their developmental years outside their parents’ homeland culture.
The first culture is that of their parents. The second is the host culture’s. And the third springs from living “between” cultures.
Continue reading
Culture Gap
Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: December 2011
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
CHRISTMAS EVE slips by unnoticed in most Greek homes, but it’s the one night in our house that’s Canadian.
This makes me wonder how many Canadian customs and cultural references elude me – and what the personal ramifications are.
Continue reading
Legal-Political Issues:
To read additional articles on Legal-Political Issues please click here:Domestic Workers And Their Children March For Rights
Author: David Bacon
Date: January 2012
Source: Working In These Times
SACRAMENTO, CA – Early Tuesday morning busses of domestic workers and their children began arriving at the huge grassy mall in front of California’s state capitol building. Dozens of Mexican, Filipina and African American moms, kids in tow, poured out onto the steps leading into the legislature’s chamber. When the crowd grew to several hundred, they took up their placards, pushed their strollers out in front, and began marching around the building.
Some of the kids had clearly done things like this before. One five-year-old raised her fist in the air as the crowd chanted, calling on members of the state Assembly and Senate to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Another girl, who looked about three, knew the chant by heart: “We are the children, mighty mighty children, fighting for justice and our future.” She didn’t miss a beat, and as one of the organizers held the bullhorn up to her mouth she did a little militant dance to accompany it.
With balloons and even a couple of clowns, it all seemed very festive. But the happy atmosphere didn’t hide a more unpleasant truth. Many of the moms there probably see less of their own children than the youngsters they care for. And in the case of those caring for the aged, sick or disabled, the conditions of that work can seem like something a century ago.
Domestic workers often don’t get a break to eat, even working many more than the eight-hour workday considered normal for most workers. Others cook for the families they work for, but can’t use the same implements to cook for themselves. If they have to sleep in the homes of clients, they often have to get up during the night several times to perform basic services for them, like taking them to the bathroom, or giving them medicine. And the night is considered a rest period, for which they sometimes don’t get paid.
One Filipina caregiver from the East Bay explained that she sleeps in the same bed as her client. “What I’d like would be a bed where I could sleep by myself,” she said.
Even at five or six, the kids marching with their moms are old enough to understand a little of those bitter truths. When one young girl, who looked about kindergarten age, held up a sign saying “trabajo digno,” or “decent work,” she knew enough to explain, “she doesn’t get enough money, and she works too hard.”
Last year the state Assembly passed AB 889, authored by Assembly members Tom Ammiano and V. Manuel Perez, that would give domestic workers some state-recognized rights in their efforts to curb abusive conditions. It would provide meal and rest breaks, overtime and reporting pay as enjoyed by other workers, and expand domestic workers’ access to workers compensation. In addition, it would guarantee eight hours of sleep for those who work around the clock, and allow them to use kitchen facilities.
The bill would affect the 200,000 people who work in California domestic service, who are almost entirely women, and immigrants or people of color. While domestic workers face the same excuses for substandard conditions faced by other women, namely that they’re only working to supplement the income of men, most of them are either the sole source of income for their families, or are bringing home pay that their families can’t live without. One woman explained that she was still working many more than 40 hours a week, and was in her 70s.
The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights is modeled on one that was enacted in New York State in 2010. It is supported by dozens of statewide worker and community advocates, including the California Labor Federation and many other unions, Filipino Advocates for Justice, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, the Women’s Collective of the San Francisco Day Labor Program, a number of churches and synagogues, and Hand in Hand, the Domestic Workers Employers Association. Its main opponent is the business association for agencies that provide domestic workers to clients.
At the end of the last session of the legislature, the bill was in the appropriations committee of the state Senate. The marchers hoped to pry the bill loose, get it passed through the Senate, and convince Governor Jerry Brown to sign it. One of several legislators who spoke to the crowd, Watsonville Assembly member Bill Monning explained in Spanish, “This bill is just, and we’re going to make sure it becomes law and that domestic workers finally get the same basic rights as other workers.”
The Modern Immigrant Rights Movement
Author: David Bacon
Date: January 2012
Source: Americas Program website
Development of the Immigrant Rights Movement to 1986
Before the cold war, the defense of the rights of immigrants in the U.S., especially those from Mexico, Central America and Asia was mounted mostly by immigrant working class communities, and the alliances they built with the left wing of the U.S. labor movement. At the time when the left came under attack and was partly destroyed in the cold war, immigrant rights leaders were also targeted for deportation. Meanwhile, U.S. immigration policy became more overtly a labor supply scheme than at any other time in its history.
Continue reading
Marching Away From The Cold War
Author: David Bacon
Date: January 2012
Source: Monthly Review Press
One sign carried in almost every May Day march of the last few years in the United States says it all: “We are Workers, not Criminals!” Often it was held in the calloused hands of men and women who looked as though they’d just come from work in a factory, cleaning an office building, or picking grapes.
Continue reading
Socio-Economic Issues:
YOU KNOW that when I hate you, it is because I love you to a point of passion that unhinges my soul,” said Parisian salon owner Julie de Lespinasse, in the 1700s.
EMPLOYMENT changes of so-called trailing spouses are often hampered by high unemployment rates, work permit difficulties, other expats on the market and personal selectivity.According to a 2011 report on Global Relocation Trends by Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 60 percent of the trailing spouses of expats abroad on assignment were employed before the couple moved to another country, but only 15 percent worked after arrival.
So, is volunteerism a viable filler?
Besides benefiting society, the Global HR News article “Man, Trailing Spouse” suggests that volunteering can prevent resume gaps, spark alternative careers and promote personal fulfilment and self-improvement.
Avid volunteer Jennifer Ananiadis has spent a total of eleven years in Greece – Thessaloniki and then Athens, with an in-between year in India – because of her husband’s job. She’d previously worked for twenty years, but raising their young sons became her priority in Greece – along with volunteering at their schools.
It’s our obligation as citizens of the world to volunteer, American Ananiadis says, adding: “Even if you are one of those in need of help, there is always someone that you, in turn, can help.”
She’s a founding partner of the non-profit, Athens-based organisation Helping Handbags Hellas, which facilitates the donation and purchase of gently used designer handbags to support a variety of good causes. Ananiadis feels volunteerism enables her to help women become actively engaged in the act of charity. Through it, she feels useful and meets many people. With its flexible hours, it’s taken the place of a paying job for her. Uruguayan Gabriela Larrieux agrees with the pluses, but highlights one difference. “When you have a real job,” she says, “you expect that your efforts will be recognised in some way, especially by getting your salary at the end of the month.” Larrieux moved to Athens in 1982 and to Thessaloniki in 1993, where she became the president of the International Women’s Organisation of Greece (IWOG). Under her leadership, IWOG was one of the founding organisations to establish the city’s annual Food-for-Good Festival. Larrieux continues to coordinate the festival’s Latin American table.
In addition, she was a founding member and network facilitator of the Thessaloniki Organisation for Women’s Employment and Resources (Tower), as well as active in the American Farm School of Thessaloniki’s Group for Student Services for many years. Last, but not least, she’s been the honorary consul of Uruguay since 1995.
“Voluntary work taught me how to deal with people from different environments,” says Larrieux, as well as paving the way for her finding fulltime work in 2009.
Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas is an Athens-based, Canadian Greek (by marriage) writer and a transnational of some 30-odd years. She blogs at kathrynlukeycoutsocostas.wordpress.com
To read additional articles on Socio-Economic Issues please click here:Love-Hate Relationship
Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: September 2011
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
We can feel the same love-hate about where we live, with newcomers being even more susceptible to such mood swings.
An initial insight into what starts a new arrival onto the path of this emotional equation can be gained from Forbes magazine’s online article entitled “World’s Friendliest Countries”.
The article examines four factors – the ability to befriend locals, learn the local language, integrate into the community and fit into the new culture – based on a comprehensive 2010 Expat Explorer survey by HSBC Bank International.
Lack of knowledge of the local language stands out as a common barrier for newcomers: the top five scorers for friendliness in the 25 ranked countries all benefited from their use of the English language. Top-scorers were: Canada, Bermuda, South Africa, the United States and Australia.
New arrivals, Forbes points out, also tend to compare their native homeland’s core beliefs, values and language with those found in the new land. The closer the similarity with their home country, the more comfortable the neophytes feel, leaning towards the positive feelings.
So what about us old-timers?
Livin’ here ain’t easy
“I’ve been in Greece long enough to love and hate it,” says Canadian Marc Theriault, in Greece since 1992.
He feels adjusting here has been easier because the Greeks love those who show an interest in their culture. But, like everywhere else, there are pros and cons.
“The unexpected keeps you alive and kicking, and Greece will always have plenty. Living in Greece is not easy, even for the Greeks.”
Briton Emma Rachael Parker, who moved to Greece in 1999, agrees.
“Greece is incredibly, frustratingly schizophrenic,” Parker says. “Even Greeks love and hate their country in equal measures – if they are being completely honest with you.”
Things might not happen as smoothly, or as quickly here, she says, but she recommends we let the good overshadow the bad.
Greece as a teenager
“I kind of feel about Greece as I do about my children,” Parker says. “They exhaust and frustrate me during the day, so that I long for bedtime. But the minute they fall asleep, I stand there watching them sleeping, missing them already and wishing for the morning to come, so that we can start anew.”
Greek repatriate Caterina Skiniotou spent a total of 12 years in the United States before deciding to return to Greece in 2000. She provides a similar analogy.
“Greece is, to me, a teenage daughter,” Skiniotou says. “So beautiful and promising, I can’t help adoring her. So cocky and sassy, I feel like slapping her. But, that would be against my principles ”
She acknowledges that love-hate is a very accurate description of her relationship. The words of the 1963 Nobel Prize winner in literature, Greece’s Yiorgos Seferis, reflect her own inner torment: “Wherever I travel, Greece wounds me.”
“I miss it terribly when I am away,” Skiniotou says, “but not a day has gone by in the last eleven years that I have not thought of leaving it ‘for good’.”
Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas is an Athens-based, Canadian Greek (by marriage) writer and a transnational of some 30-odd years. She blogs at kathrynlukeycoutsocostas.wordpress.com
The worth of unpaid work
Author: Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas
Date: March 2012
Source: Athens News, Column ‘On the borderline’
San Francisco and Oakland celebrate May Day
Author: David Bacon
Date: May 2012
Source:
SAN FRANCISCO AND OAKLAND, CA – Among the many different events celebrating May Day in San Francisco and Oakland were the occupation of an intersection in San Francisco’s financial district, and an immigrant rights march through East Oakland. Participants in Occupy San Francisco, groups in the Progressive Workers Coalition and Jobs with Justice, several unions and other immigrant rights organizations took over the intersection of Market and Montgomery Streets to make speeches, put on street theater and protest the power of the wealthy 1%. In Oakland, immigrant community organizations and immigrant rights groups in Sin Fronteras organized a loud contingent in a May Day march through East Oakland. Sin Fronteras has organized the Oakland May Day march every year since the big immigrant rights marches of 2006. This year several unions and participants in Occupy Oakland joined them.