Greece Glory 2 Gloom !

Two years back, I changed all my Dollar assets into Euro and now all my Euro have gone on a spin. So, first I lost on Dollar and now on Euro. Guess, keeping in some Asian currency is more sensible.

Thanks to Greece and Euro has sunk.

Greece is a small country with an interesting history. Known for its Philosophy, Mathematics and the Acropolis.

The total population is only around 11.5 million people. Which would account to be around the total population of 1 metropolis city of India. Early 19th century, out from the Ottoman empire, Greece was largely a kingdom till late 1960 and much into war before that either fighting the Germans or the Italians or the communist.

At GDP per capital of USD30k+, it is still too strong to cause any major issue, but the budget deficit of Euro 30 billion has sent the panic bell ringing across Europe. It would easily refinance the same via bonds or help from Germany or IMF etc. But what I want to drive from this blog is how countries fail to exploit there own ancient culture and heritage as part of their Tourism.

Greece with its many islands is a major tourist country. Much of its economy depends on tourism and it is estimated around 20 million tourist would have visited Greece in the last year.

I have been to Greece 3 times and I had around 5 customers , all based in Athens. Year after year, I saw the textile industry collapse and on my last visit, my customer Helatex told me , may be next time, you come, the company will not be there and the same happened. What is left in Greece today, is the skeleton of one time flourishing textile industry.

Textile is not just an industry, it is also a very large job provider, in fact amongst all industries, Textile employs the most people. Therefore in any over populated nation or poor nation, Textile becomes the key employer and a social keeper of society. However, the reverse is also true, that as the economy moves north wards for the country, textile is the first industry to be axed. Greece was no omission to it.

What pains me, when the Textile Industry altogether is wiped out of a country, then it is a very large part of history, culture and heritage, which the country looses out. The skill, knowledge and expertise of all those who have been into this industry slowly decays.

Ancient Greeks were the first to have textiles from the Roman empire and that knowledge went down till the last century. However, the next generation would never know, what Textiles was part of their culture, except in the library books.

Second, for each and every country I have traveled, I have never seen " Textiles " being promoted as the part of culture and traditions of that nation. I recall visiting Athens and having a Greek Salad, and recall going for a nice Greek Dance and a cruise to the nearby islands and having my picture shot with Ms Universe, who incidentally was traveling to that Island. I also recall buying Acropolis as souvenir and visiting the museum.

But I don't recall that I could anywhere buy any "Textiles" which was special to Greece. Nor was it seen in the Museum at Acropolis.

If an average of 20 Million annual visitors to Greece would buy one metre of textile MADE IN GREECE as souvenir , it would still make 20 million metres of fabric and the garments or home furnishing or dresses etc. Making of 20 million metres would atleast employ 1000 people directly to indirectly. And for a nation of 11.5 million, and may be the working group of only 3 to 4 million, this is still a large volume. But more important is the preservation of a culture , heritage and history of a nation.

Textile is not just an industry, it is an art, culture, history, tradition, design, skill , knowledge and a piece of joy.

When last I stayed at North Carolina US at Hilton, the most outstanding thing that was written in large letters and carved on bronze plate was . " All The Textiles Used In This Hotel Is Made In USA"

Well, there is a message in it. Unless Inter Industry supports one another and Nations value their culture and heritage, the world will only sink to the limits of greed.