Last fall I was on vacation in Greece, visiting distant in-law relatives in an ancient small village high in the hills overlooking the sea somewhere south of Corinth. There are dozens of empty houses, no resident children and no adults under age 55. A Blue Zone village with rosemary and basil growing out of cracks in walls, and narrow donkey-track roads winding up steep hills, where almost all the seniors are on proton pump inhibitors, statins and mood control drugs. A place where astonishingly ancient widows take their small herds of goats and sheep through the village each morning to graze among the olive trees in the surrounding valley. There is no safe drinking water there, too much salt. No municipal budget or tax base to improve the water supply. People have to purchase bottled water and every occupied house has stacks of them. No resident doctor or nurse. No school. No police. Several small churches though. Only a few kilometres away lie the ruins of an ancient amphitheatre that could seat thousands.
Interesting start. Found engaging. We can imagine that turn in society. The Japanese are there now. But older villages with seniors who refuse to leave requiring food trucks to replace lost retail businesses. Eventually the decaying homes force seniors out but to neighbors homes. Dystopian future.
Last fall I was on vacation in Greece, visiting distant in-law relatives in an ancient small village high in the hills overlooking the sea somewhere south of Corinth. There are dozens of empty houses, no resident children and no adults under age 55. A Blue Zone village with rosemary and basil growing out of cracks in walls, and narrow donkey-track roads winding up steep hills, where almost all the seniors are on proton pump inhibitors, statins and mood control drugs. A place where astonishingly ancient widows take their small herds of goats and sheep through the village each morning to graze among the olive trees in the surrounding valley. There is no safe drinking water there, too much salt. No municipal budget or tax base to improve the water supply. People have to purchase bottled water and every occupied house has stacks of them. No resident doctor or nurse. No school. No police. Several small churches though. Only a few kilometres away lie the ruins of an ancient amphitheatre that could seat thousands.
It's so tragic. Greece was one of the FIRST COUNTRIES to really feel the impact.
Interesting start. Found engaging. We can imagine that turn in society. The Japanese are there now. But older villages with seniors who refuse to leave requiring food trucks to replace lost retail businesses. Eventually the decaying homes force seniors out but to neighbors homes. Dystopian future.
A chapter on foreign experiences like in Asia is forthcoming!