By Katerina
Sokou, October 4
washingtonpost.com
On a
typically humid summer day, Greek ambassador Christos Panagopoulos welcomed his
guests for a salon performance of Opera Camerata of Washington at the Fairfax
Embassy Row hotel. “I would have loved to host you at my residence across the
street,” he said, “but, like the economy of my country, it is under
reconstruction.”
The American-educated ambassador was putting
on a brave face. Renovations on the 1906 Beaux-Arts building, the most
impressive of the four that Greece owns around Sheridan Park, have been a low
priority for his government given the country’s strained finances. The building
has been closed for three years.
The only hope for its revival anytime soon
may be the Greek American community. As the country’s reputation suffered in
the crisis, many were initially slow to support the land of their ancestors,
but they are rallying now. They’ve embraced crowd-funding campaigns, sold
T-shirts to promote Greek tourism and have even enlisted former president Bill
Clinton to attract investment in the country.
Greece could use a boost. Its economy is in its sixth year of recession, having lost 25 percent of its GDP since 2009. Unemployment has spiked to 27.6 percent, shunting more than one in five Greeks under the poverty line of just $8,588 per year. Among the young, that number approaches a staggering 65 percent.
These days, any request for new public
spending comes under the scrutiny of a tough austerity program that has slashed
pensions and salaries. It has stretched thin the provision of even basic public
services like emergency medical care, public schools and the police. Embassy
renovations are way down the list.
This government is not sprucing up places,
it is selling assets - the Greek consulate in London sold for $36.5 million
this year - to bring down its fiscal deficit, as demanded by its international
lenders in return for massive loans from the IMF and the European Union.
Valued at $10 million, the 35-room mansion, a work of famed local architect George Oakley Totten, was donated to the war-torn country after World War II by William Helis. A Greek who immigrated to the United States in 1904 with $22 in his pocket, Helis moved to Louisiana, worked in the oil industry and was soon among the nation’s wealthiest Greeks.
There have been countless such stories
since. From the arts and letters to politics and business, Greeks have thrived
here. Today, the 3 million Americans of Greek descent are mostly
third-generation who long ago assimilated into the economy. By comparison,
fewer than 11 million people live in Greece. The fortune of the 50 richest is
an estimated $35 billion to $50 billion. The Greek GDP in 2012 was $250
billion.
Despite their strong emotional connection
and family bonds, however, the contribution of Greek Americans to their
motherland in the first years of its financial crisis has been less obvious
than their numbers or wealth would suggest. Daunted by demonstrations and
strikes, Greek Americans wouldn’t even go on holiday to Greece, let alone
invest there.
