How full up are you really?

September 15, 2015 James Collins

Here’s an argument I’m getting seriously fed up with, and I heard it on Symi the other day. Actually it’s not really an argument at all, but an expression of fear, in my opinion at least. The conversation, when talking to a rational person goes something like, ‘You’re doing great work with the refugees, but we really can’t take any more in (our country), we really are full up.’ Less rational folk on Facebook and elsewhere, tend to say, ‘We’re full up,’ and leave it at that, To which I say, ‘I’m glad you had a big lunch now sit back and think about what you are actually saying.’ I’m talking UK here as that’s my country but I am sure it applies to other countries too.

Images from Symi Greece by Neil Gosling and James Collins — Inside the old post office, Symi

Apparently the United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is full up. There is no more room for anyone, particularly not the refugees. Okay, there are parallels between that and the Nativity of course, but let’s not bring religion into it. Let’s look at that statement again. ‘We are full up.’ Actually there are around 63,000,000 people living in Britain at the moment, very roughly speaking, and there are any number of empty homes. If you read the Telegraph then the number is 218,000 and if you look at the pictures in the Mirror, the number is 635,000 empty homes in England alone (2015). Emptyhomes.com says, “The latest Government data on vacant dwellings shows over 610,000 empty homes in England with over 200,000 long-term vacant dwellings (that is homes unoccupied for over six months).” I won’t bore you with further stats and images of the thousands of empty (i.e., not full up) homes in the country, I think you’ve got the message.

Here’s another thing. According to the Daily Mail (and who are we to argue?) there were 5,000,000 British Expats living abroad in 2014, so that’s 5,000,000 spare places in the UK alone. Let me repeat: the country can’t be ‘full up’ because over five million of us are not living there at the moment. Someone can have my place, I’m not planning to return anytime soon – and if I ever do I’m happy to share.

Sorry mate, we're full up here too — Sorry mate, we’re full up here too

Actually, I looked at a very handy site called Statslife who rather back me up and say, “The British public is obsessed with immigration. The notion of Johnny Foreigner coming over here, taking British jobs and straining public services is now rampant in UK politics. Regardless of what statistics and evidence say, the myth of Britain being ‘swamped’ by immigrants is proving incredibly resilient.” And don’t we know it! We even hear it here on Symi. They go on to point out that around 7 to 8% of the UK population live abroad (In America the figure is 0.8% living abroad, Spain its 3% and Australia it 2.1% as of 2014.) I love the part where, when talking about British expats in Spain, they say: “An ESRC funded survey conducted in 2005 showed that a third of the British immigrants rarely or never meet Spanish people (other than in shops and restaurants), 60% did not speak good Spanish, half do not have residence cards, and over a third are not registered on the town hall register.”

So, British folk moving abroad, or to Spain at least, are not only freeing up space for refuges but don’t even bother to get themselves properly registered, a matter in which refugees have no say. Remember yesterday’s blog and the fingerprints, photos and 17 pieces of paper filled out for each refugee.

As you can tell, the so called argument that Great Britain can’t take any more people is a load of bunkum. I don’t know exactly who the people are who say this, luckily none of my friends have said it, though some may think it, but I wonder if those who do have considered how to make more space in their country? Well, you could choose to not have any more children Mr and Mrs six kids and demanding a bigger council house, that’d help in the long term, and if you’re in politics or somewhere where you can make a difference there are things like, regenerating disused estates, cleaning up empty properties, improving areas so people do want to live in them, there’s plenty of places and space without having to build more – sad to see the world of social housing hasn’t changed since I took my MSc in it and social policy all those years ago.

So, I’ll leave you with the above thoughts and please, don’t let me hear you say that your country can take no more people in need because you are ‘full up.’ No country can ever be ‘full up’ and if you mean the social infrastructure can’t take it, then you need to be electing people who can sort that out. Actually I will leave you with this thought (courtesy of Fastcoxist.com). If everyone lived as densely as they do in Manila, the population of the world could fit in Tunisia. Or, if you like a little more leg room (and sheep), if everyone in the world lived as densely as they do in Manhattan, the population of the world could fit in New Zealand. No, your country is not full up.

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As it happens

Symi as it happens – Refugee update

September 14, 2015 James Collins

Here’s what we did on Saturday morning… We headed down to Yialos to do our regular three hours at the refugee station. That’s all we can do at the moment and many others are doing a lot more hours than we are, but we did take some washing down that we had done during the week, plus three bags of donations people had given us as they left to go home after a holiday. So, pretty nicely ladened down, we wandered down to the old post office.

There we discovered that 100 refugees had left on the Blue Star the previous evening and 50 had just landed and were being taken to the port police station to start their registration process.

Now here’s a thing that will calm all those silly people who are paranoid and think that every refugee is an IS terrorist – in fact those people seem to think that every Muslim is an IS terrorist, and those people really ought to get an education and calm down a little. Would it help if I told you that there were probably more terrorists entering your country quite legitimately today, right now, than there are washing up on Greek shores this month? You see, when a refugee lands in Greece, this is the start of the process: they are fingerprinted and have their photo taken, their details are recorded, their passports are recorded and 17 pieces of paper per refugee are filled out. That’s what each one has to go through – and what our port police and police-police have to do for each of the 50 who arrived on Saturday, and for every single person who arrives here without a visa. Now then, if I was a terrorist and wanted to slip into, say, the UK, without detection would I a) get on a plane with a visa (a real one would be safest) and a passport and pose as a tourist or business person, or b) join a group of strangers walking hundreds of miles across Turkey, risking detection by the Turkish authorities (who may even send me back to Syria as they are now starting to do), then pay thousands to get in a boat and risk sinking and drowning to then face the Greek authorities (fingerprints, photos, 17 forms to fill out) and then walk from Greece to Hungary and face detection and aggravation from the Hungarian authorities and then, hopefully, walk through Austria, Germany and France, and then hang around at Calais hoping to get through and then… I think we can all rest assured that most refugees are not going to blow up your shopping centre, love.

I digress. There will be another of my replies to the current round of racist arguments during the week. But back to Saturday… So, I went with Andy to welcome these new refugees with some fruit, water, milk, biscuits, wet wipes and a smile. I also got to ride in the Manos Fish Taverna pink golf cart which was a bit of a bonus. We gave out the supplies, Andy explained to the refugees what would happen next and how, when they were done there, they would be able to come around to the other side, see the police and then use the Solidarity Symi aid station. We also assured them that a doctor would be over to see them soon. One lady was suffering from very high sugar levels, not having been able to take her insulin. We also cleared up the steps where someone had been sick and then headed back to the OPO (Old post office, where Solidarity Symi has the aid station.)

Back there, Neil had been tidying up with another volunteer and, as things were quiet for a change, we were able to sort donations and do bits and pieces. A lovely lady from Penzance was there and attended to the curtain in the medical room so now the doctors have a decent curtain which opens and closes smoothly – the little things really count! Other people came in with donations and Neil showed them around and showed them the work being done and how their donations are used. Thank you to the ladies who came with bags and also put money in the donation tin. There are very generous people coming on holiday to Symi.

Panos, from Thea Apartments (http://www.symi-thea.gr/index.php/en/ Neil did their photos a few years back) came with two of his guests to bring donations including lots of bags that will be very useful; thank you Cindy and Clive. Later, fabulous lady from Penzance went and bought some colouring books and crayons for children, Neil delivered some to the refugees at the port police and the kids loved them, and I expect the parents liked the fact they were then occupied for a while, and the volunteer doctor went and did his visit. (Diabetic lady’s life was saved thanks to a medical kit bought with donations made to Solidarity Symi.)

So, it was a quiet day for us, but a useful one taking donations and sorting them and afterwards we treated ourselves to lunch at Meraklis and did eventually get home for an evening of films, ‘Camp’ and ‘Into The Woods’ seem a far cry from giving out nappies and biscuits, but that’s kind of how Saturdays are going around here. Now then, I am off to Rhodes tonight to collect mother who arrives on Tuesday, so I’m going to get a couple of blog posts ready in advance and post them up for while I am away. Check in tomorrow for more of my personal opinion, if you can bear it.

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Walks

A quick two hour Symi walk

September 12, 2015 James Collins

Friday late morning and I am thinking of heading out for another afternoon walk later. I need to consider the next chapter in ‘The Saddling’ and a long walk around the hillside is a good way to spend the time contemplating. Thinking thus made me wonder if I’d told you about the walk I took the other day? I checked back a week or so but didn’t see anything so I reckon my refugee rambles had taken over and I’d forgotten to talk about the simple stroll I did. So let’s do that now.

First of all, getting yourself out of the village is not always an easy task. You can head up the main road like we do of an early morning, but that’s a pretty laborious way to go, though the views are fab. Instead, head for the donkey path which you find by crossing behind Ag Stavros and heading to where… Hang on, it’s easy when you know how but no so easy to explain. Best off asking one of the tour operators of they have any of the walking on Symi books, or see if the Olive Tree have a guide. Or ask someone for the donkey track and eventually, after a climb and some scenery, you should find yourself at a gate, and then a lone tree with views of Yialos.

The path separates and there’s now a sign directing you to Panormitis along the upper track or toe Xissos on the lower one. This is the one I followed and along here I saw some black and white birds that my learned friend (Lyndon) later told me were ‘white eared windsheeters’ or ‘white wind chat eaters,’ or even a wheateater of some sort. I dunno, black and white things they were. And my attempt to photograph them led to pictures of rocks with a tiny bird in there somewhere. Don’t even bother looking. (But look here for a list of birds you can find on Symi: http://symifloraandfauna.jigsy.com/symibirdlist )

Further on, past the chapel at Ag Paraskevi and the house just beyond it, you can find a red arrow on the path. Not a crashed jet but a direction. Two in fact. Carry on to Xissos or turn right onto a rough track. Here you need decent shoos, flop-flips won’t cut the greater bustard (didn’t see one of them), you need proper walking boots as some of the time you are walking over rubble. You’re following the old ‘wall’ as it’s marked on the map, and we’ve walked this way before I am sure of it. After some time you reach the top of the hill and join the road. From here you can see over the island to the sea on the western side, and look back to see the bay on the eastern side too. If you snap your head around really fast you can almost see both at once before you fall over and hurt yourself.

I simply followed the road back from here. You get some good views coming this way and see all kinds of folk heading off towards the western side of the island, to Roukouniotis or their farms out on the hills. You end up thinking, ‘Oh there’s… I wonder what he’s heading over this way for?’ and ‘Where’s he off to at this time of day?’ as you amble down the gentle slope back towards the village.

Keep an eye out for goat action on the right and the views to Yialos and Pedi and Turkey on the left as you zig zag down to the upper village where you can either carry on down the road (Starring Sid James and Hattie Jacques) or cut through to Periotisa and make your way down the steps and back into the village. This is what I did as it was coming close to beer O’clock and so I thought I would surprise Neil at work.

That’s a very rough outline of one walk you can do on Symi, it took me under two hours and I know how to get to the path out of the village. It was late afternoon in August so still hot and you should wear a hat really, and take water. I got through about one litre in two hours. But there you go. That’s me on a Saturday morning for you – whether I went out on Friday afternoon is yet to be seen, but I shall no doubt let you know one day. Here are a few more shots of the same walk. Have a good weekend.

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Day to day on Symi

‘We should look after our own first,’ my reply

September 11, 2015 James Collins

Before I get on my high horse… Had a lovely courtyard evening on Wednesday, thank you to everyone for coming; just a glass of wine before dinner but great fun. Always a bit ad hoc in our courtyard though. We get the table out and the kitchen chairs as we now only have one functioning directors’ chair out of the four we have bought in the last 12 months… and we sit about and chat about all kinds of things. It’s going swimmingly and then the cat comes and digs about enthusiastically in his litter tray, ejects his breakfast with gusto and you have to explain it’s not actually me that’s just done that, it is the cat under the table over there, honestly, and then you change the subject fast.

One of the subjects of the evening was the reaction of some British people to the refugees and don’t get me started on it in detail but something did occur to me on Thursday morning as I was slogging up the hill at dawn trying to clear my mind of some rather odd dreams. (Being in a medieval battle with arrows being fired and having to dodge, them, and then cracking jokes with the current Queen were both in there. All very odd and I’d only had my customary two glasses of red.) Anyway, there I was being flashed by Sotiris (his truck headlights) on his way to see to his farm, waving at Papas Stephanos on his way to, well, I assume a very early service in the hills somewhere, when my mind switched from Her Maj to some of the comments I’ve been seeing on Facebook and elsewhere recently. Quick pause for a photo:

The comment is, or comments are as there have been far too many of them: ‘We should look after our own first.’ That is, ‘look after our homeless people before offering housing to Johnny Foreigner who will probably be a terrorist because, after all, all those from that part of the world are.’ I’m sorry, I’ll start that again – people are saying, in their thousands, that ‘we’ (the British public) should look after our own homeless people before we help and house those fleeing war. Okay, fine. Go ahead. Homelessness could be solved in a fortnight. Here (after another pause for a photo) is how:

If every whinnying, worried, paranoid loudmouth who rants, ‘We should help our own first,’ did one of the following there would be no homeless people on the streets within two weeks.

1 Give up your spare room to a homeless person, rent free until they find an income
2 Not got a spare room? Okay, you’ve got a sofa? Let them use that, your address and your bathroom, for a few weeks while they get cleaned up and out to work.
3 Instead of saving up that money for a second holiday next year, let a homeless person use it for one month’s ret and a deposit on a flat.
4 Do you really need two cars? Sell one and see 3, above
5 Thinking longer term? Stop smoking 20 a day, save it up, and see 3 above. (Apparently 20 a day can now cost as much as £3,650, you could probably see 3, above a couple of times for that.)
6 Have a garden? Chip in, buy a tent, house a family, letting them use your address so they can get on the social care ladder. You could also offer use of your downstairs bathroom too, do their washing, maybe give them a meal once in a while.
7 Got a holiday home you only use twice a year? See 6, above
8 Got a boat you only use at weekends? See 6, above

And so on. How many thousands of rooms, facilities and housing possibilities would be released if the country said, ‘Here use mine until you’re sorted,’ rather than ‘We should look after our own’ and then do absolutely nothing to look after their own.

Here on Symi (ah ha! A link to Symi!) families do look after their own and then go further and look after other people’s own who have nowhere to call their own. And yes, people will scream, ‘there’s not enough housing in the UK.’ Well actually, unless things have altered considerably in the last 15 years (and they may have but I doubt it) there is actually plenty of housing in the UK. When I worked in that field there were whole estates built and ready and no one wanting to movie into them. I’m talking state of the art estates, not run down tower blocks. There were plenty of empty homes initiatives, all housing associations had a plethora of ‘voids’ we were always trying to get back into use. It’s out there, so why don’t people use it? I mean if you feel that strongly about ‘Helping your own’ why not take up an empty private let yourself and let a homeless family use your house? Of course, you will have to deal with all the social issues that go with it, i.e. people who are not as lucky as you, but at least you would be putting your money where your mouth is. And if that is too extreme, see 1 to 8, above.

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Day to day on Symi

Night out, photos and funds

September 10, 2015 James Collins

Now, I know you will be expecting news and views of the birthday bash on Tuesday, but I haven’t got the pics yet, so I’ll have to give you the words and save the images for another time. Meanwhile, here are some views and shots from the other day.

Neil’s birthday was a great day and he sends huge thanks to everyone who sent cards, presents and notes and messages and jewellery. It started out with an early morning walk and jog and some work, and soon descended into mayhem. After I’d been to the dentist (need to return for root canal work over the next few weeks, yummy), we headed to one of his favourite tavernas for a light lunch; salad and fish at To Spitiko. Then a taxi up to The Olive Tree to say hello there and then to work while I sorted the house out. Meeting friends and other birthday girls (Claudia and Justine are also the same day) in the evening we headed to Mythos for a wonderful meal – Coquille Saint Symi, Chicken in blue cheese sauce, chocolate mousse, and that was just for me – and some dancing on the roof terrace ensued.

After dinner, beautifully cooked, presented and served, while the others took a taxi back up, I headed up the slope and steps and arrived at the Sunrise a few minutes later. Although I was accused of having taken a cab I can assure you I didn’t, and thus we settled in for a nightcap, reaching home at not too late an hour and that was that. Great time and good fun and maybe some pics to follow if they are suitable (unlikely).

While on the roof terrace we saw the coastguard bringing in another group of refugees, some on the coastguard boat some on a ‘Sunsail’ style yacht (not sure what they are called other than white), seriously overcrowded, but finally safe. As I look out of my window now I can see a navy boat hanging around the bay again. I am assuming it’s a navy boat, the guns and rocket launchers give it away, but I expect it is doing coastguard patrols.

I know there’s a lot of ‘stuff’ going back and forth in the press and on social media in the never-ending and no-solution argument about what one’s country should or should not be doing for those fleeing the war in Syria (and frankly I find it’s been a very useful way of weeding out friends form my Facebook Friends list – I’m all for freedom of speech but I don’t need to read racial hatred and I don’t need those that spout it as my ‘friends’), but… What was I saying? Oh yes, if you would like to help the Solidarity Symi on-going campaign for humanitarian aid to those who wash up alive on our shores, the link is here: http://www.everyclick.com/solidaritysymi/info They’re now aiming for 30k by the end of the month and looking to finance some way we can house children so they don’t have to sleep on the street or the police station veranda (if they are lucky) especially when the weather changes.

Anyway, back to the photos. Neil took these on a trip to Pedi with Harry last weekend. As you can see the holiday season is still in full swing, or as full as it gets these days. I am off to Rhodes on Monday night for a day there and to be there for Tuesday when Mother arrives for a month’s holiday, so I should probably get something posted in advance so the blog can look after itself while I’m away. Will have to think about that over the weekend.

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Symi Dream

How full up are you really?

Symi as it happens – Refugee update

A quick two hour Symi walk

‘We should look after our own first,’ my reply

Night out, photos and funds

Writing on a Greek island