{"id":4860,"date":"2020-09-10T13:10:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T10:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4860"},"modified":"2020-09-10T13:10:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T10:10:27","slug":"4860","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4860","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE OPEN SPACES AND SOCIAL\/FAMILY STRUCTURE OF MANI PROVIDE PROTECTION FROM COVID-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Although there are many things\nunknown regarding the spead of the corona virus, epidemiologists agree that\nsocial distancing is very important for our protection. However, social\ndistancing is difficult in cities because of the dense urban living, close\nproximity in the working enviroment and the urban way of life in general. After\nthe end of the two-month lockdown, the experts were advising the most\nvulnerable in the population who own homes in their places of origin, in the\nprovinces, to move there.  We knowsince the outbreak of the pandemic in\nMarch, that sparse population and\nwidely-spaced buildings together with the rest of the measures against corona\nvirus are important protection factors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Mani\nis a good example of an area with sparsity of population and buildings. <\/strong>The establishment and the\ndevelopment of the Maniot settlements, particularly during the last five\ncenturies, reflects the lifestyle choices of our ancestors, their love for\nfreedom, their decisions and cultural expressions, as well as the financial and\nsocial autonomy of each patriarchal family. Because of all these factors, the\nresidential areas of Mani consist of small, widely-spaced family settlements.\nThe infertile terrain meant that the inhabitants needed to work much harder, extensively\ncultivating the land, growing crops and raising livestock. The sparsity of\nsettlements meant that with the exception of social communication within each\nindividual family, Maniots rarely had social interactions with others, except\nfor when they jointly undertook activities in times of war and peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Specialists\ntell us that long-term social customs gradually become the norm in the moral\ncode and conduct of each society. According to the science of Sociobiology,\nsome of the social customs that have been practised for centuries, eventually\nbecome part of our genetic code. It seems that our ancestors, in addition to\nprotecting and preserving the geographical area where they lived and became\ndistinguished in military operations, they also passed on to us the ability to\napply the advantages of scarsity and distancing to today\u2019s conditions.             <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Because\nwe do not know how long the pandemic will last, it is very difficult to foresee\nthe changes that COVID-19 will bring to the social structure and its effects on\nthe working environment and on the building domain. The big changes that\nhappened in the workplace during the past six months of the pandemic have given\nus a rough idea of the possibilities that are provided by the sparsity that\ncharacterises Mani. We have now discovered that recent advancements in\ntechnology provide the opportunity for remote working, teleconferencing and\nteleteaching (i.e., delivery of lessons, archive research and text study).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The\ntrial period that we recently went through has shown us that there are new\nroads to be explored, such as exploiting the splendid geophysics and the\ntemperate climate of our area and promoting Mani as an ideal workplace for\nremote working. Of course, for this to happen, we need first to work on the\nfollowing infrastructures:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) improve the road access to Kalamata and\nSparta, and through these roads the access to the new motorway that leads to\nAthens (two such public projects which are to be auctioned soon are the first\nstep in the right direction, although other more extensive technical projects\nstill need to be implemented).  Easy\naccess to these cities \/ bases of operations will allow efficient radial\ntravelling for those who work remotedly either in full-time or in part-time\npositions and as a result, will be provided with higher quality and more secure\nworking conditions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) upgrade computer skills for both students\n(through the public education system) and also for employees who work in the\npublic and municipal sectors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) upgrade the services offered by those who\nwork in the tourist industry, so that tourist income is distributed more fairly\nto more small businesses. This makes sense because of the compact size of local\nManiot hotels. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) gradually step up the agricultural\nproduction through larger cluster organisations so that the agricultural\nproduction income sums up with family income that is derived from other\nsources.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Of\ncourse, advocating and realising these development proposals requires fostering\nand coordinating them by the two main local institutional venues, the\nmunicipality of Western Mani and the municipality of Eastern Mani.\nUnfortunately, during the 20 years that have elapsed since the establishment of\nthese two municipalities, no such long-term measures and projects have been\nundertaken or initiatives that would substantially improve the future of our\narea. Neither have the two prefectural administrations until 2010 or, after\nthat, the regional self-government undertaken any worthwhile development public\nworks in our region. Let us hope that the corona virus pandemic and the first\nauspicious signal by the new administration of the regional government will\nlead to some new extensive investment projects, like the ones we stated above,\nand which need to be undertaken in the present circumstances.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE OPEN SPACES AND SOCIAL\/FAMILY STRUCTURE OF MANI PROVIDE PROTECTION FROM COVID-19                 Although there are many things unknown regarding the spead of the corona virus, epidemiologists agree that social distancing is very important for our protection. However, social distancing is difficult in cities because of the dense urban living, close proximity in the working … \u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2 <\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,392],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-main-articles-in-english","category-main-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4860"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4862,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions\/4862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}