Local Greek community reflects on Greece’s economic crisis

By Chloë Ellingson

“Before the Euro, we didn’t have a problem,” said Kanellos Fountoukis last week in the kitchen of his Wellington restaurant. The then imminent recent Greek bailout is, in his opinion, backwards. “We don’t need to borrow any more money. Let us do it.”

Three years ago, Fountoukis left his life on the large Greek island of Kefalonia with his wife and three children to return to his native Canada. The child of Greek immigrants, he spent his early life in Montreal, returning to Greece as a young boy. Greece is where he built his life, and much of his family is still there.

“I came back for my kids’ future,” he says.

Fountoukis said Kefalonia’s main industry is tourism, and that was his business. He owned and operated four restaurants that collectively employed 70 people. “Now 70 people have to look for jobs,” says Fountoukis. He hears from them all too often.

“Everyday I receive phone calls,” he says. They all ask about working for him in Canada, or if he knows of any jobs here. He’d like to bring former employees to Canada, but says he can’t because of immigration regulations. “Right now it’s not easy,” he says.

Fountoukis doesn’t know why Greece isn’t bankrupt already after years of it being threatened. He wishes Greece would declare bankruptcy and return to its former currency. “If we go back to the drachma,” he says, “Greece is going to be in the right place.”

“Greece, it’s a beautiful country,” says Nicky Kotsovos in her Belleville home. “Beautiful, beautiful islands.”

Kotsovos left Greece with her then husband at the age of 18. She left for love, she says, not the need to earn money. Kotsovos says her father was doing well as a farmer in Peloponnese at the time. “I was too young, no brains,” she says. “I met my husband and I followed him.”

Both Kotsovos and her former husband have since worked in the restaurant business in Canada. “The Greeks in Canada have done well,” she says. “They started off washing dishes, and most of them have restaurants now.”

Kotsovos thinks Canada should welcome Greeks who wish to immigrate. “Canada should do that for any country,” she says.

Much of her family still lives in Peloponnese. “People there have farms,” she explains, both for subsistence and for business. “They can survive.” She said it’s the regions dependent on tourism and the urban centres that concern her.

From Kotsovos’s perspective, the Greek crisis is a result of irresponsibility on a governmental and individual level. “Before, people didn’t appreciate the things they had,” she says. “Some people save, but most Greeks didn’t.”

“I think it will take a lot for things to get better,” said Kotsovos, “If they do.”

Aristeidis Maroulis works in the restaurant his family has owned for decades. His parents have been in Canada for 32 years. He and his brother were born here.

Maroulis’s family is from a small town on the island of Kefalonia. Family members of his who are still in Greece are in the businesses of running restaurants and fixing engines. Maroulis says his family has “had a slowdown,” but says it’s nothing like the situation in Athens.

His opinion on the Greek economy mirrors the many reports in the media of the Greek people’s mistrust of their government. “The government should have stepped up,” he says, “but they didn’t.”

While Maroulis doesn’t feel closely connected with Greece’s current situation, it still hits home. “If Ontario continues spending and doesn’t fix its deficit,” he predicts, “we’ll be like Europe.”

When Bill Yeotes is not exercising at the Belleville YMCA, he’s hanging out at his daughter’s vintage clothing store.

He says his family members have long been business people in the area, with their Canadian roots reaching back 90 years.

Yeotes has seen the area’s Greek community grow. “When I was growing up, the Greek community was 12 families,” he says. “Now there might be 200 in the area, or more.”

Yeotes talks about the first wave of immigrants, which came after the Second World War, and predicts a second wave anytime now. “A lot of university graduates are leaving to go wherever they can make a living,” he says. “I’m sure Canada would be a prime destination.”

“I’ve been to Greece 10 times,” says Yeotes. “It’s the cradle of western civilization, but it’s not rich in resources.”

He thinks Greek bankruptcy is a viable option. “Iceland went bankrupt. Argentina went bankrupt. It’s not unusual for countries to go bankrupt,” he said. “Eventually they came out of it.”

Yeotes says he’s not very close with his local Greek community. He has family in Peloponnese and Athens, but doesn’t often talk to them. His interest in the Greek economy has more to do with economics than it does Greece, and the situation doesn’t plague him. “I don’t worry about it,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

Anastasia Argiris can’t get Greece off her mind as she sets up her Belleville restaurant for lunch hour. “My family is worse than other ones,” she says. “If they don’t pay, they’ll cut the hydro.”

Formerly construction business owners in the peninsula of Peloponnese, her two brothers have been out of business for the past three years. “They aren’t fixing anything anymore,” says Argiris.

“My father is in the hospital,” she says, and explains that her siblings “don’t have money to put gas in the car and see him.”

Like Fountoukis, Argiris wants to sponsor family members to come to Canada, but says she doesn’t have enough work for them.

Asked about why the Greek economy is in its current state, she first blames the Greek government. “They give too much money out,” she says. “The government gives $15,000 to people starting businesses.”

She also emphasizes the lack of frugality in Greek citizens. “In Greece, they’re spending their money,” she says. “Here, we save our money.”

Argiris has a prudent financial mindset, but feels guilty about what success she’s achieved. “For me it’s very hard,” she says. “Even if I make a little bit of money, I feel bad for them.”

“I live their problems,” she says. “Things have changed. Our lives have changed.”