Fakelaki

It is a time of changes here in Greece. A time of redirection and re-evaluation. Of changing values and behaviours. Of restructuring and reorganizing. The pressure is on and it is high. A volatile situation as the real problems we have been facing for years have been left unadressed by the government and the troika (the loan givers), governmental corruption, so deeply rooted in fact that it is considered improper not to partake. The latest scandal that has unfolded is a series of bribes needed to be buried in one of Athens three cemeteries. The funeral chapel driver was in charge of the bribing that included employees of the cemetery and even the police officer directing traffic to and from the cemetery. Certainly a bizarre case and typical of the "fakelaki" style corruption where one gives a bribe in an envelope to a civil servant or a doctor or whoever else need be in order to get through some red tape or to ensure better treatment in a hospital. I was of course against this bribing, espescialy of doctors, as there is an obvious conflict of interest when one bribes in order to have adequate health care. It is something I have been passionately opposed to, so much so infact that I have never attempted to write about it. I personally bribed both doctors who gave birth to my children. It is the way things are done here and one must do as the Romans, or opt for birth at home. Another repatriated Greek, and Ozzie, lost her husband in a car accident and opted to donate his organs. His organs went to save the lives of two people on waiting lists, in Italy. It is strange as one would think the organs would go to someone on the endless waiting lists right here in Greece. However considering that there may well be a market for organs, enabled by this system of tipping your doctor with a "fakelaki", signing up as an organ donor is risky indeed. Very few Greeks do. I am sure that the pressure to sign consent for the widow would be immense. Even more disturbing is the fact that the doctors need consent to get the organs and consent to remove all external life support so that they may remove the organs just as soon as the donor is pronounced dead. The organs need to be taken while still warm, so to speak. How can one trust a doctor who accepts bribes? Can you trust their opinion as to when to stop life support. There is the example, years ago, of a man who was pronounced braindead, in the very same hospital, and as the nursing staff began removing life support, shed a single tear. Luckily his family was present in the room and subsequently refused to co-operate any more. The man was kept on life support and although it may seem unbelievable I met him in the local grocery store with his daughter. He started his own family after his near death experience. It is crazy how a little bribing can change the dynamic of trust that is so nescessary when entrusting your life to someone else. We still need to take about fakelaki's predecessor, the dreaded Fakeloma and the modern day version, and very free, facebook. In another instalment though.