Brexit and Some Implications for Expats in Greece.

In my last post I mentioned, ‘disaffection with Westminster politics’ which affords a wonderful link to today’s topic: Brexit. Having lived outside of Britain for more than 15 years, I have long lost the right to vote, but it does seem unfair that on such topics as EU membership ex-pats did not have a say in the referendum, especially since the outcome can impinge greatly on us. We keep updated on relevant developments through two very important information sources from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Gov.UK and our particular bespoke page, Living In Greece.

So we know about the big day of 29^th March and we know how long the period of grace is, allowed for by the Withdrawal Agreement, which always suggests to me some kind of consensual method of contraception. After that, we move into the area that ancient cartographers depicted as, ‘Here be monsters’- the great fearsome unknown. There is even a helpful little flow-chart, outlining diagrammatically, the binary if-not-then option range in the event of a no-deal deal. Me? - I can’t see past the red EU refuses option.

 Now that really is moving into the realms of a WTF situation. An alternative, wonderfully graphic description is one furnished by my beautiful, insightful niece, Jenny: a heavy-duty car-crash being watched in horror …. and in slow-motion!

I am the proud owner of a Greek Permanent Residence Permit, tattered though it may be,  but, since its validity is contingent on my being a citizen of a member state, this no longer holds after the Brexit transition period comes to an end.

Which is why I have been busy collecting documents in preparation for my application for Greek citizenship.  Dealing with Greek bureaucracy is viewed as an almost Sisyphean task, certainly not one to be undertaken lightly. Harry Klyn, a dear-departed Greek comedian, performed a memorable sketch about presenting credentials to officialdom. So in the office is a winding queue, each person dutifully standing there clutching bulging files – Klyn with an actual wheelbarrow stuffed with papers! As each supplicant approaches the guichet, his/her plea is rejected because some document is missing. In each case Klyn checks against his pile - smiling with satisfaction - yes, he has that one! When his time comes, he confidently produces each requested - and ever more obscure - certification before the civil servant. It begins to look as if patience, prudence and profusion is about to win the day,  until the official sullenly declares to an astounded Klyn that he cannot process his application – it’s now 12.55 and the office is about to close!

Here is what I thought was the complete file for my application. :(

The document below, issued by the Greek authorities, outlines what documents are necessary.  Points to note are:

a) The naturalization statement is a written declaration, made in the local authority office before two witnesses, confirming ones eligibility to make such an application and entails quite a number of documents relating to domicile, registration in the local authority and in the country as a foreign resident, marriage certificate, tax return copies, etc..

c) My passport is a relatively new one - unblemished in that my recent travels have been within the EU so required no stamps. But bureaucracy demands that each - empty- page be copied, then validated by a lawyer who has the specific authority to do so. This is apparently to check that I’ve not been out of the EU community for more than three months. But there seems to me to be an underlying misconception there: surely the permit affords me the right to reside there but does not entail an obligation to do so?

e) They required, we were told by the local office, an ‘up-to-date ‘birth certificate’  - what  IS that?? When booking tickets online, it’s humbling enough to have to scroll back soooooo far to reach the relevant year of birth, but I’d never heard of updating ones birth certificate.  Turns out they were looking for a certificate that had a recent apostille– ie a stamp as outlined by the Hague Convention of 1961 which certifies the validity of a document. This check and certification is run by the issuing country, thereby absolving the recipient country from undertaking any further checks.

Greek citizenship through naturalization: Prerequisites and process

Regarding the supporting documents that need to be submitted for the application for naturalization, they must, in accordance with Article 6 (3) of the Greek Citizenship Code, be certified, either bearing the apostille stamp, the countries from which they have been issued have adhered to the relevant contract or are validated by the Greek consular authorities abroad or the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs as to the authenticity of the foreign citizen signature.

        The documents that every interested person who wishes to apply for naturalization must provide are as follows:

a) A true and validated copy of the naturalization statement,

b) A copy of the Social Security Number (AMKA),

c) A true and validated copy of a passport or other travel document proving identity,

d) A copy of the residence permit in force,

e) Certificate of birth of the applicant or birth certificate of the Greek authorities or other equivalent certificate provided for by the legislation of the first country of nationality,

f) Copy of a statement of income or tax return for the last financial year.

        The above documents must be submitted by the non-EU citizen submitting the application together with the fee provided in each case. The amount of the fee that should be paid to the Greek authorities corresponds to € 700 when it comes to third-country nationals to € 100 in the case of expatriates or nationals of EU Member States or for recognized political refugees and stateless persons. If the application is rejected and the non- citizen wishes to reapply, then the amount for third-country nationals is € 200 and for the remaining € 100.

Now, being a true Scot, I am breaking a leg to submit my application before Brexit which would then render me a ‘third country national’, thereby obliged to pay a 700 euro fee rather than the current 100 one!

Just around this time came the invitation from the British Embassy in Athens to attend their Thessaloniki Outreach Meeting on Monday 18^th February.

Wonderful! I was sure I was not the only person among the British expats resident here who had questions following on from the If no-deal, then ……….????

To be continued ………!

IATEFL Conference and Cognitive Dissonance.

 Now that the festivities are all over and the new year well underway, thoughts move on to the next big professional event:

                                          

described as:

Greatly looking forward to it as is Angeliki who is doing a poster presentation. I’ve never been to The Pool so this is a wonderful opportunity to meet up with fellow TEFLers and to do a bit of exploring as well.

Visiting the Beatles Museum is definitely a must and I’ve heard there’s lots to do there. But right now my sights are on getting together the talk I am to deliver.                                                            

    

The subject in focus is whether teachers should be social justice warriors and what I want to explore is how our perspectives and attitudes are informed by language, experiences, etc. and how they are very subjective, individual constructs. My take on it is that we cannot necessarily pass on our particular perspectives to others simply because they are our students.

 While doing my research I have been trying to clearly define the difference between perception and perspective.  It seems the former is the information that we receive from our senses, while the latter is the frame through which we see the world. Clearly each one influences the other and there is a reflexive interrelationship there.

Related to those is the concept of attitude. This is described as a psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that characterizes a person and is a complex, acquired state formed through ones past and present experiences. According to the ABC model, there are three key attitudinal components: affective - feelings and emotions, behavioral – previous actions or experiences and cognitive - beliefs, thoughts, etc..

And what particularly interests me is how most of us construct a fairly cohesive, unified perspective from what is essentially a fairly fragmented reality. To explain this we refer to the psychology field of cognitive dissonance. This state is described as a mental discomfort or psychological stress that is caused by being confronted with facts that contradict our beliefs, ideals and values. Whoever experiences this internal inconsistency is motivated to reduce this cognitive dissonance and make changes by justifying this stress, by adding to the cognition, or by avoiding what is causing the contradiction.

That brings me to consider something that caused me distress some time ago. We happened to be in Scotland in September 2014, at the run-up to the referendum on ‘Should Scotland be an Independent Country?’. 

We were quite by chance leaving the day before the vote. I liked to say it was because Z was afraid he might be obliged to wear the kilt, depending on how things turned out! While we were in Stirling, I was proudly wearing the NO badge, which I still retain. What disturbed me was that I saw that the “Yes Scotland’ group were using the saltire as their symbol.

 And now I understand my reaction of extreme annoyance: the saltire was for me a treasured symbol of nationality, culture and identity but here it was representing an attitude I did not hold – that Scotland be an independent country. Instant cognitive dissonance!! My perceived reality was suddenly fragmented: my beloved saltire could not be associated with what was for me a ‘bad thing’ – Scottish separatism.  My need for cohesion was dealt with not by avoiding the contradiction, but by challenging it. I walked into the NO canvassing office and gave them a good piece of my mind, stating that they had no right using our national symbol for political reasons.  The poor lad there looked somewhat perplexed and had no answer, which was not relevant – I felt better in my attempt to reduce the fragmentation in my perspective!  The results of the referendum I was happy to see were: 55.3% for the Nos, and 44.7% for the Yes group.

 It is particularly interesting to note in that referendum there was a voting turn-out of 84.% - the highest ever recorded for an election or referendum in the UK since the introduction of universal suffrage.

It is also interesting that the main reason given for the Yes votes was ‘disaffection with Westminster politics’. Which is why I am seriously rethinking my position on an independent Scotland.               

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 Ideally, I think a union with the Republic of Ireland would be an excellent solution: an alternative, enhanced Celtic Tiger – what a delightful concept!

Sophia, Telemachus, Ypatia ....And How To Cope With Them!

Sophia,Telemachos and Ypatia – why have they been in the news here recently? What do they have in common, apart from being names from Ancient Greece?

Sophia was to become the goddess of wisdom, her name coming from the Greek word sophia for wisdom, from which the word philosopher, or lover of wisdom, is derived. Incidentally, Pythagoras (c 570BC - c 495 BC) was the first to call himself a philosopher.

Moving on to Telemachus who, in Greek mythology, was the son of Odysseus and Penelope He was the central character in Homer’s Odyssey where he went in search of his father who had been in combat in the Trojan Wars.

Finally, we come to Ypatia, a very progressive lady for her time. She lived in Alexandria, Egypt and was a Hellenistic philosopher, astronomer and mathematician. Held in great esteem, she was, unfortunately, killed at the hands of a Christian mob.

We have a tendency to anthropomorphise – to confer human attributes to animals or inanimate objects. This has become particularly evident in the case of meteorological phenomena. And what these three names have in common is that they were names given to the extreme cold fronts visited upon Greece recently.

Whether some form of harbinger for what lies ahead in the new year, Sophia soon made her presence known by a sudden drop in temperature and a pretty light dusting of icing-sugar snow on the mountain tops. Pretty - but there was more to come!

                                                 

 On Friday 4^th, I made my way in a bitterly, cold wind to the surgery for my 7^th acupuncture session. There I lay, needles in situ, power-plugged-in, covered in a gossamer-light scarf, a heat-ray lamp trained on me, with feng shui background music playing. Could it get any more relaxing? And that was when it began to snow, in the fullest sense of the word. No piddling little polka-dot stuff, no dandruffy dusting, but the real deal: down-feathers fluttering down and lying firmly afoot with no intention of melting away.  Cocooned in the warmth, I joyously welcomed the arrival of Telemachus, our first really cold front. Session over, reality kicked in as I stood waiting for 20 minutes on a sea-front being attacked by the blizzard, for a local bus which came packed to the gunnels and making heavy weather - no pun intended - of the road conditions which were fast becoming treacherous. 

 

     

 I did, fortunately make it home safely, but very shortly afterwards, several local roads were declared impassable. Fortunately, too, Z had just done a big shop, so we lit the fire, and prepared to hunker down for the week-end.     

                       

                    

Safe inside and in the knowledge that Leon was protecting us and the homestead from this strange white stuff covering the garden.

                

Staying warm was the obvious priority and we all of us have different ways of getting there. I really appreciated my Christmas-gift slippers while Z downed a wee ouzo – or two – along with a meze mound.

                            

                                  

 

Continuing on the food topic, in a warm kitchen it’s a joint effort to produce the Greek dish youvarlakia, meatballs cooked in a broth and served with an egg and lemon sauce. This dish is just right for cold weather - sorry we’d already had large helpings of it before we took the picture! :o  After that, we had a clootie dumpling that I had stuffed full of lots of spices, dates, prunes, cranberries and sultanas and several glugs of brandy. Served hot with ice-cream.

                           

The cats expected – and demanded - extra portions of food during the cold spell, but they chose their snoozing areas carefully: Mr Mao has snuggled into a warm shawl, while Prunella has cleverly found a little window of sun rays playing on a warm duvet cover.

   

 

Outside the birdies have ruffled their down feathers to keep warm as they perch on our wild rose briars.  We can’t bring ourselves to prune them as they are regularly used as sparrow swings. Fortunately their red berries can still provide a nibble for our wee neighbours.

                                      

And we have other, closer neighbours. One little bird has been coming to roost over the winter months in our upper balcony for several years now – well, we assume it is the same one. He is very resourceful and managed to find a way in even after we closed off the area with perspex blinds as a wind shield. He perches on the rafters just under the roof. But in this bitterly cold spell, another little bird came in to roost on a spar above the window.

                             

 

We hope to share our accommodation with their treasured company for many a long winter.