Greeks Go Back to Basics as Recession Bites
bbc.co.uk
The members of the community on the isle of Evia live off the land
As Greece sinks ever deeper into the most severe economic depression in living memory, some young people are taking drastic action to change their lives.
In the spring of 2010, just as the Greek government was embarking on some of its harshest austerity measures, 29-year-old Apostolos Sianos packed in his well-paid job as a website designer, gave up his Athens apartment and walked away from modern civilisation.
In the foothills of Mount Telaithrion on the Greek island of Evia, Mr Sianos and three other like-minded Athenians set up an eco-community.
The idea was to live in an entirely sustainable way, free from the ties of money and cut off from the national electricity grid.
‘Crisis of civilisation’
The group sleeps communally in yurts they have built themselves, they grow their own food and exchange the surplus in the nearest village for any necessities they cannot produce.
“What others saw as a global economic crisis, we saw as a crisis of civilisation,” Mr Sianos explains.