A Happy New Year to one and all – let’s
hope it’s a good one!
In December I wrote about the
technological changes being made especially in the area of state information
systems. I mentioned, too, the role that
the pandemic had played in moving things along: ‘Certainly the pandemic - because of related restricted mobility,
working at home, setting up systems to deal with vaccination procedures -
necessitated rapid developments on many fronts.
This was a catalyst in dismantling old systems of red tape and bringing
state and citizen closer together, which in itself merits a separate blog
post.
So, here is that separate post about
new developments in Greece that have come about in response to needs created
and restraints imposed by the pandemic. Last time my focus was mainly on the
changes in medical services, particularly in relation to vaccination
administration. This time we will broaden that focus a little.
The time was when shoppers could be viewed as
nuisances by some local small-time retailers. On Tsimiski – the main commercial area in Thessaloniki - I was
once shouted at by the owner of a small boutique who told me to get out,
couldn’t I see the floor was wet! She had just washed the floor and clearly her
clean tiles were a higher priority than dealing with a customer. Or shop
assistants y would tailgate you, shadowing your every move till you left, feeling
you were viewed as a potential shop-lifter. Our economic crisis purged the more
cavalier businesses in general and those surviving realize that we customers are
the key to their survival and their tactics have changed accordingly. Now they
are extremely cordial but not clingy and seem genuinely pleased to see you. Every
cloud …..
They have had to learn digital
skills too: with the Click and Collect
system devised during lockdown, retailers had to set up their online stock
display whereby clients could select items for their order, then arrange a time
to pick it up at the shop entrance- no entry allowed. Now, there are strict
procedures to gain access to shops. They have a member of staff checking your
credentials that you have been vaccinated or have recovered from the illness
and that you are appropriately masked up.
As one of our critical sources of income tourism was devastated by the virus and
this was an area that urgently required attention. A consequence of this was
the creation of Greecefromhome.com,
a digital platform designed to connect the tourist with the country and some of
what it has to offer. It really is an
interesting development in response to the Mohammed and the mountain problem:
if the tourist cannot come to Greece, then Greece must go to the tourist. Since we, along with many countries, were
observing the #menoumespiti - #westayhome - policy, this was the way to go.
The portal is arranged into 3 main
categories: those of Watch, Visit
and Learn. The first offers videos
of well-known Greeks, experts in a wide range of fields, showing what Greece
has to offer in, say, sports, music, fashion, cuisine, etc. I found this really interesting and aim to
explore it more fully. Visit, as you
might expect, allows you to digitally call on places of interest, letting you
see what each place is like, as well as offering advice on where to go, where and
what to eat and what facilities are available. Finally Learn affords you access to the Google Digital Garage Platform where free courses and webinars are
available; some of the topics covered are business, marketing, advertising,
programming and coding. Similarly training is offered to those in the industry and,
through Visit, they are given a
platform whereby more diversified services can be promoted.
This is an exciting prospect as
tourism and its perspective badly need to go beyond pension owners in Halkidiki continuing to throw cement at nature,
regardless of architectural and environmental outcome so long as it provides
income, coupled with the strident night clubs which issue incontinent,
inebriates into the streets in the wee-ing small hours! Let’s give tourism here
a real face-lift! Far beyond souvlaki, tzatziki, retsina, cheap beer and
Zorbas, the country and its people, history and culture just have soooo much to
offer.
It has to be said
that existing systems are not perfect; on the vaccination front the fact that
Greece has a really mobile population needs to be taken into account. People
who had their first or second vaccination abroad and had valid documentation of
that, found the system could not read the foreign certification and refused to
permit appointments for booster shots. This is now being fine-tuned.
In November our national census was to take place, though the pandemic rendered a
synchronic data collection impossible. One could register online, but first one
had to be given a code and those were to be delivered to our doors - in theory.
But nothing happened, and only yesterday did we get ‘done’ after multiple calls
- even unto Athens!- to find someone who would undertake our registration. So, that was not quite
thought-through as a system, where the left hand tech did not know what the
right hand personnel were up to.
Many
citizens have not been entered in the census which, thereby, shows inaccurate
data.These, then, are examples of the
low levels of systemic connectivity and
integration. However, we see our daily life greatly improved thanks to
Gov.gr. On receiving Greek nationality, I could inform different government
bodies electronically of my changed status - so no multiple office visits.
JTax
payment and car licensing can now be done from home.
With Messrs Mitsotakis and Pierrakakis at
the helm, Hellas is surely charting her progress into an exciting 5Gand wifi 6
future.
