A Cab Ride in Athens

Sometimes the only way to start big conversations is a short chat with a stranger.

I just arrived in Athens. My cab driver’s name was Christos.

His father was from Greek Macedonia, his mother from Crete. Men in Crete wear all black as a symbol of respect, he told me, “for the men who fought and lost their lives in the many wars, ‘fighting for our freedoms.’”

“Greece has so much history for such a little country.” “Look at you, you have such a big country and so little history.” (Ahem… I had been reading Thomas Jefferson’s biography on the plane.)

Christos had a construction company with over 25 employees before the Economic Crisis. As work started to dry up, he continued to pay his workers and had to lay them off gradually as the money ran out. He still has a company “on paper” but there has been no work for years. The company was started by his father who, he said, cries because he thought he had given his son a livelihood and now there is nothing.

I asked if he was against Greece being in the European Union. “No, I am not against Europe, I just want Europe to care about Greeks. Not Greece. Greeks.”

Cristos has three children so, he said, what was he to do? He spent money buying a taxi license. Two years ago, it cost him 100,000 euros (from 250,000 before the crisis.) Now the price has dropped again to 50,000 but Christos can’t recover the money he has already paid. He says that there is no work and even if there were, no one would hire him because he has several diplomas — he is too qualified.

He was rushing to finish up and get home before tonight’s World Cup soccer match started. Brazil-Colombia. I asked who he was for. “Brazil, of course.”

“You know they have the most expensive player in the world: Neymar?” (I did know.) “One hundred million euros. That is what they paid for a futbol player,” Christos said. “We — this humanity — we have to change. We have to change because we have children.”

As he pulled into the hotel, he apologized, “So much history. Such a much bigger conversation.”

But, sometimes the only way to start big conversations is with small ones — like a short chat with a stranger.