| What or
who is a Greek? If you born outside Greece what makes you a greek? Is
it liking greek music, eating greek food, being able to read or write
in greek? What is the future of the diaspora? This is a question that
I will attempt to answer.
 If
you were born abroad, you learn different customs and ideas and you
also pick some up from your parents and I believe that your greekness
is built in you. Filoxenia is one the great characteristics and
wherever you go the Greek diaspora have that.
We work to live and live to
Work.
Greeks are hard workers and even more
the Diaspora. First lets learn about Greece.
Where is Greece?
Greece is a country in the southeast
of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. It is bordered
in the north by Bulgaria, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and
Albania, Turkey to the east and the Aegean Sea in the east and Ionian
Sea to the west and Mediterranean Seas to the south. Greece is
regarded by many as the cradle of Western civilization, Greece has a
long and rich history during which it spread its influence over three
continents.
Greece consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the
Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula, which is separated from the
mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth and numerous islands:
including Crete, Rhodes, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups
of the Aegean Sea. Greece has more than 14,880 kilometres of coastline
and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres.
About 80% of Greece is mountainous or hilly. Much of the country is
dry and rocky; only 28% of the land is arable. Western Greece contains
lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has an average
elevation of 2,650 m. The legendary Mount Olympus is the highest point
in Greece at 2,917 m above sea level.
Greece's climate features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers.
Temperatures are rarely extreme, although snowfalls do occur in the
mountains and occasionally even in Athens in the winter.
Economy of Greece
Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector
accounting for about half of GDP. Tourism is a key industry, providing
a large portion of GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece is a
major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 2.4% of GNP. The economy
has improved steadily over the last few years, as the government
tightened policy in the run-up to Greece's entry into the European
single currency, the Euro, on January 1, 2001.
Major challenges remaining include the reduction of unemployment and
further restructuring of the economy, including privatising several
state enterprises, undertaking social security reforms, overhauling
the tax system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Demographics
The population of Greece is about
11.100,000 (2007). Of those, 58.8% live in urban areas, whereas only
28.4% live in rural areas. The population of the two largest cities in
Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki, is almost 4 million. Although the
population of Greece is still growing, Greece faces a serious
demographic problem: 2002 was the first year where the number of
deaths surpassed the number of births.
There are numerous linguistic,
religious or cultural groups and minorities in Greece. They include,
but are not limited to, various Roma groups, Slavs, and Vlachs.
A large number of immigrants live in
Greece today. About 65% have come from Albania, and large-scale
Albanian migration to Greece since the fall of Communism in Albania
has become a source of conflict in Greece. The Albanians suffer from
discrimination and exploitation in Greece, and are widely described as
trouble-makers and criminals, despite their enormous contribution to
the Greek economy.
There are smaller numbers of immigrants from Bulgaria, Romania,
Pakistan, Ukraine, Poland and Georgia. The true number is not known,
since the majority live illegally in Greece.
The only minority to which special rights are granted (deriving mainly
from the Treaty of Lausanne) is the Muslim Turkish minority of Thrace.
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