Guess Who's Paid Me A Visit

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

The following paragraph is what I wrote two and a half years ago in introducing my then monthly Corona Chronicles column for Athens Insider Magazine:

 

“The last century had its ‘Roaring 20s,’ and I suppose someone will label this century’s third decade with a similarly catchy moniker tied to Covid-19. But it’s still too early to say for sure. We’re only four months into the first year of that decade, three months beyond the nascent worldwide acknowledgment of the pandemic, two months into a generally underplayed game of catch-up, and a month into watching infections and deaths skyrocket.”

 

We’ve all been through a lot in the years since then, including the various stages of personal denial that come from overconfidence at how we’ve successfully negotiated Covid-laden national and international venues without so much as a sniffle—fully vaccinated and boostered, of course. 

 

But, alas. Guess what.  That spiky little golf ball is out there waiting to tee-off on us the moment we give it the chance.

 

For example—just in case you can’t tell where this post is headed–I’m the tough guy who survived two masked summers packing into loaded Greek ferry boats, sitting aboard crowded nine-hour flights, and walking down countless cramped Manhattan and Mykonos streets. Surviving one close encounter after another, while friends and family with us proved not as lucky at missing the isolation experience…and all that comes with it.

 

Deep within myself I somehow came to believe that the world was ready to emerge, and it was (obviously) safe to go with the flow.  What I missed was that the key word in that revelation... emerge…means to go out from.

 

Mistakenly, I felt it safe to go inside.  Bad move.  Covid is waiting for the cool weather to bring us all closer, because closely bunched targets are easier to hit.  So, whether it be an indoor Texas-size celebration or an intimate Manhattan dining soiree, Covid is waiting for us to drop our guard.  Don’t take the bait, stay masked and socially distanced.  If you still contract the disease, take Paxovid or whatever other drug medical science has blessedly made available to battle this scourge.  Including appropriate vitamins.

 

I’ve just finished my five-day run of Paxlovid, and am feeling as fine as one could confined by Covid, and targeted by those pesky routine country-life allergens that always seem to find me at this time of year. 

 

Bottom line, I’m doing fine, but if there were a soundtrack to this story, it would be a relentless hacking cough.  Something I’ve come to realize is a sort of the battle cry for we new guys who never thought we’d ever become part of the “sooner or later everyone’s going to get Covid” crew.

 

I don’t even want to think of what could have happened were I not fully vaccinated and boostered.  Stay alert, stay strong, stay safe.

 

Oh, there was an upside to my isolation—aside from being lovingly tended to by my still fully healthy and negative testing Barbara (puh, puh, puh).

 

I finished a relatively polished “first draft” of my most complex CI Andreas Kaldis novel yet– both from a plotting and subject matter perspective.  Or so it seems through my Covid induced haze.

 

–Jeff

 

Jeff’s upcoming events

 

Friday, November 18, 2002 @11am

ICELAND NOIR

Reykjavik, Iceland

Where is My Mind? Madness and Obsession
AUTHORS:  Louise Mangos, Paul Cleave, Jeff Siger, Thomas Fecchio
MODERATOR: Ewa Sherman

Payback's a Bitch

 

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

Through most of 2020 I wrote a monthly “Corona Chronicles” column for Greece’s Athens Insider Magazine.  It addressed living through pandemic times, as told from the perspective of an American mystery writer who’d called Greece home for 35 years.  I tried to end each column on a note more akin to Pollyanna’s unbridled optimism than Cassandra’s dire predictions of misfortune.

 

But by December 2020, I’d concluded Covid fatigue had set in, and writing about the pandemic was too much of a downer for reader and writer alike to continue. 

 

So, I stopped writing the column on what I thought an upbeat note. Like every upbeat note, its impact depends upon the composition from which it springs.

 

At that time, the world was caught up in a looping unrelenting dirge.  Eight months had passed since my first column and in that brief period total covid infections and deaths, in the US alone, had jumped from 1 million cases and 55,000 deaths to 13.4 million cases and 267,000 deaths.

 

Yet, millions of Americans chose not to wear masks, not to socially distance, not to avoid crowds, and not to wash their hands conscientiously; largely refusing to do so in service to disparate political, economic, and social agendas. Agendas with goals they believed more deserving of their trust and confidence than a simple request that they temporarily modify their lives so to protect their families, communities, and themselves from an invisible, silent, merciless slayer.

 

Me thinks there's a copyright infringement here

In hindsight, the corona virus’ deadliest advantage may prove to be that its effects were not obvious enough to turn skeptics into believers—bombs were not exploding around them, rivers were not flooding over them, ground was not giving way beneath them, and buildings were not crashing down upon them.

 

So, what optimistic upbeat note could I find amid all of that on which to end my column?  Here’s what I wrote. 

 

Thank God there are vaccines and therapeutics on the horizon, for I dare not think of how we’d fare were our survival contingent upon each of us doing the right thing for the common good.  With the finish line in this race for survival so close, all of us should band together to do whatever is necessary to assure that we all cross it safely.

 

As if that were not Pollyannaish enough, I went on to write:

 

I sense a hidden reward should we somehow find ways to feed the food insecure, save small businesses facing extinction, shelter the homeless, and provide renewed work opportunities for the unemployed. If we come even close to achieving those goals, it would seem but child’s play to mobilize the same world-wide cooperative scientific efforts that brought us Covid vaccines in record time, to join together in common cause toward eradicating other killer afflictions, such as cancer, tuberculosis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and AIDS.

 

So much for my daring to challenge the Cassandras among us.

 

Who could have anticipated that such medical miracles offered up to the world in record time would be vilified by faithless, merciless, charlatan opinion makers (I’m using the kindest words I can think of) to further personal political, social, and economic goals no matter the suffering their actions wreaked upon families, neighbors, and the world?

 

Today, the US has exceeded 46,180,000 total cases, and 754,000 total deaths.

 

Current world totals are reported to exceed 243,521,002 cases and 4,948,917 deaths.

 

There is a prayer often said in memory of souls who pass on in which the utterer beseeches the Lord, “May their memory be a blessing to their families for eternity.”

 

I wonder what sort of prayer of remembrance the many who’ve lost or will lose loved ones to the pandemic, or will suffer from long haul Covid complications, might offer upon the passing of those who, for merciless selfish ends, manipulated the trust reposed in them by so many unwary believing folk.

 

Payback’s a bitch.

 

–Jeff

 

Jeff’s Upcoming Events

 

Thursday, November 18, 2021 @ 16:00

ICELAND NOIR, Iðnó Theater

Reykjavic, Iceland

Panelist, Murderous Islands

with Katrin Juliusdottir, Michael Ridpath, and William Ryan (Moderator)

A Late Covid-Summer Musings on a Mystery Writer's Dilemma

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

This is the fifth of my monthly chronicles on living through pandemic times that I’ve written for Athens Insider Magazine, as told from the perspective of an American mystery writer who has called Greece home for 35 years. My wife and I had been in lockdown mode at our pastoral New Jersey farm since late February, but for August we’re experiencing lockdown Manhattan-style. I’ve entrusted the care of the farm to my resident bear, on the assumption that unlike virtually every human soul on the planet, he’s not preoccupied by thoughts of a dramatic autumn and cataclysmic winter.  He’ll just sleep through whatever comes.

 

In past columns I’ve made sparce mention of the effect of the pandemic on creative types—like writers--in part because I sensed few wanted to hear about the drama in another’s life with so much going on in their own. I thought I’d wait until things got better, and then drop my thoughts in as a “reflection” on those past days when things seemed bleakest.

 

Sadly, I fear better days are far away for many, so perhaps it’s time to reveal my dilemma as a distraction--if only for me.

.

I have a new book coming out in April 2021 in my Greece-based Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series.  I finished it long before the days of Covid-19, but have not modified it to reflect the gloom that hangs over the universe. Besides, it’s about Naxos, a special place in my heart that deserves a testament to better times and memories. 

 

But my quandary’s not over that book, it’s with the one I’m working on for 2022.  I don’t see how a novel set in contemporary times can avoid the reach of the pandemic, particularly a police procedural mystery-thriller.  Imagine a world where eyewitness identifications are left to describing the mask worn by the perpetrator snuggly below a tight fitting head covering, and fingerprints disappear beneath hospital gloves openly worn as a sign of compliance with public health concerns, while police struggle with whether to confront, transport, and interrogate a coughing feverish suspect.

 

But those are petty stylistic concerns.  Let’s cut to the chase.  No matter how well-written or ingenious an author’s tale may be, who will want to read about the very thing they’re desperately seeking to escape?  We’re too close to the flames of this wildfire to think anytime soon about toasting marshmallows.

 

All we want to know is when this looming foreboding, growing inexorably more ominous every day, will run its course, and give our lives a chance of returning to what they once were.

 

I wish I had a solution, but all I have are questions.  Four to be precise, each intended to yield a clue as to how our respective societies will likely fare in navigating these treacherous times. Each is based on a simple premise: What is more important to your society…

 

Businesses or lives?

 

Political strategies or public health principles?

 

Learning from mistakes, or defending them to the death?

 

The welfare of the community or individual freedom?

 

I suspect your answers will be nuanced, as it appears most societies are struggling to find a balance between extremes, either by plan or default. It’s as if most of the world is off doing its own thing, leaving Covid-19 to do its own thing—infecting every target of opportunity.

 

I wish I could say the United States has seen the error of its ways and is once again a beacon of leadership.  But we all know I can’t. America’s situation grows direr each day, as Americans await the first wave to run its largely unchecked course, and brace for the predicted second wave. The nation’s 4% of the world’s population now heads into the school year and peak flu season accounting for 25% of the world’s Covid-19 cases.

 

Greece has stumbled a bit, with cases recently quadrupling in a two-week period. Frankly, that’s not unexpected, as the country reopened for tourism relying upon visiting revelers to behave properly. That worked out for Greece about as well as it did for the US during its college break season.  Partiers (especially the young) are not predisposed to respecting “don’t party” rules, and with businesses actively encourage the fun, the consequences are inevitable.  Thankfully, the Greek government stepped in to quell the spike, as we await the impact of the nation’s August 15 holiday festivities.

 

In critically trying times such as these, polities look to their leaders for straight answers, reasoned judgments, and determined action. Yet, so much of the world seems to be slipping back into darker days. The EU and UK are scrambling, Russia (and others) are likely obfuscating, Brazil remains in denial, and Venezuela is imprisoning its infected as “bioterrorists.”

 

Hmm, perhaps I should check with my neighborhood bear to see if his cave can accommodate any additional hibernators.

 

­–Jeff

 

 

 

Ruthlessly at Play With Our Destinies and Moods

Jeff­–Saturday

Shortly after submitting my July column chronicling coronavirus for Greece’s Athens Insider Magazine, I received this email from its publisher: “When I suggested a monthly column, I really didn’t expect this invisible virus to play with our destinies and moods as ruthlessly as it has!”

And I thought I was the writer.

In a simple phrase she’d summed up the universal impact of a worldwide catastrophe on every soul on the planet … from pauper to President.  

That sort of insight on our times continues in this month’s issue of Athens Insider as it “kicks off the glorious Greek summer, rife with stories about how the way we perceive travel, fashion, the environment and freedom has been transformed forever.”  No wonder it’s been honored in its 20^th year of publication by its hospitality industry peers with “The Best Travel Magazine Award.”  Congratulations.

And now, on to my column, as introduced by the publisher and titled, “The Fate of Nations at a Covid Crossroads.”

In his fourth chronicle since Covid took over our collective destinies, Jeff Siger, the American mystery writer who has called Greece home for 35 years, ponders on how countries like Greece have to balance conflicting goals – letting tourists in without jeopardizing national health. At issue in 2020 is whether Greece will emerge from the year with its reputation intact as a place where tourists and locals value one another, and the health of all is paramount. Siger believes that what will keep tourists flocking back is a sense that in Greece they’re safe, amidst a world seeming less so every day.

This is the fourth of my monthly chronicles on living through pandemic times, as told from the perspective of an American mystery writer who has called Greece home for 35 years. My wife and I are in lockdown mode at our rural New Jersey farm, and expect to be here for the foreseeable future. New York and New Jersey have done a good job at battling the crisis, but by and large the situation in the US is an unmitigated disaster.

Even the bear that wanders across my property seems adrift these days. Yes, it goes through the paces of what was once its normal life, scratching its back upon a fir tree, flopping into the pond to briefly escape stifling mid-day heat—but it does so without enthusiasm, as if by rote more than desire. A post put up by a South African friend of mine on Facebook, railing at her current circumstances, could just as easily have been written by the bear. Here it is: 

“I think that perhaps, finally, I am losing it. What is ‘it’ you may ask? Well it has something to do with the brain, with expectations, with disappointments and with a gross suppression of anything that made our life what it was. I am without enthusiasm, hanging on to a modicum of humour and too many times in a day think ‘WTF.’ I suspect about half the world's population feels similarly, but that doesn't help. What to do. What to do. I'm confused. I'm sad. I'm fed up and yes, I'm thoroughly pissed off. At something I can't see!”

GROWL.

I’m starting from an indisputable medical premise: Covid-19 is a highly contagious, multi-organ destructive virus unlike any medical science has ever known, with long term risks to those exposed who survive that are still not understood.  That reality has hundreds of millions in our world wandering around muttering to themselves Laurence Olivier’s famous line from the film Marathon Man, “Is it safe?”

 As I’d feared in earlier chronicles, the US and several other nations (notably Brazil) have politicized public health issues, muzzled respected healthcare professionals, and jettisoned sound scientific advice in pursuit of selfish political agendas.  But enough about the US and its sorry state of affairs.  Nothing is likely to change for the better there in the foreseeable future.

What I wonder is how Greece will fare now that it’s out of strict lockup and welcoming back tourists. Of course, there are still rules and restrictions to follow, and categories of tourists (e.g., Americans) barred from entering Greece (or the EU), but Greeks are understandably desperate to do business. Financially, 2020 will undoubtedly be depressing…following a decade of the same.

Greece faces a momentous month ahead, entering into the very heart of tourist season.  At risk is its battle-tested reputation as a worldwide leader in successfully confronting Covid-19. The question is, how much of its newly gilded international stature is the nation willing to risk sacrificing in order to meet increasing domestic pressure from its distraught summertime tourism industry?

What is needed is a vision that will serve the nation best in the long run.  I don’t have one. I write fiction.

What I do know is that in the hard-partying tourist parts of Greece (and no place knows how to throw a better party than Greece) it’s hard to imagine social distancing and face covering efforts succeeding without uniform strict enforcement. The US certainly hasn’t been successful on that score. And it’s paying the price.

Friends tell me that some islands are reminiscent of the 70s and early 80s, sparse crowds, umbrella-less beaches, more intimate experiences.  Some see that as a sign of a new dawn.

But let’s be real.  There’s no going back to the 70, 80s, 90s, 00s or even 10s.  Greece is a tourist goldmine, with monied interests having established a massive presence offering every facility and service one can imagine for those willing to pay to be part of it all. 

At issue in 2020 is whether Greece will emerge from the year with its reputation intact as a place where tourists and locals value one another, and the health of all is paramount. What will keep tourists flocking back is a sense that in Greece they’re safe, amidst a world seeming less so every day.

So far, the international media has largely showered praise upon Greece for how well it’s handled the pandemic, barely touching upon other matters facing the nation. But the media is fickle, and if things should turn around, so will the news coverage. Determination, faith in science, and broad national pride has rightly elevated Greece’s position in the world, but along with that inevitably comes the unwelcome companion role of target for those poised to pounce on a fall.

I’m rooting for Greece.  So’s the bear; it knows what it means to be a target. 

–Jeff

A Pandemic of Populism

For the past three months I’ve been writing a monthly column for Greece’s premier English language magazine, ATHENS INSIDER.  I submit each column untitled, leaving it to the publisher, Sudha Nair-Iliades, to select a title and write an appropriate lede (aka lead).

I get almost as much of a kick out of her take on my brief essay as I do in writing it!  This week she titled the column A PANDEMIC OF POPULISM, and for the lede wrote:

In his third corona series, Jeff Siger ponders on populist choices and consequences when politics trumps science. One of the lessons in June has been how the power of one event can have an impact on global business and popular culture. “When faced with a pandemic disease of the human body or of the body politic, it is only the elected and their electors who can change things for the better…or leave us to the worse,” he concludes.

Here’s my June column:

This is the third of my monthly chronicles on living through pandemic times, as told from the perspective of an American mystery writer who has called Greece home for 35 years. My wife and I are back in lockdown mode at our rural New Jersey farm, having just returned from two weeks in Manhattan, a worldwide coronavirus epicenter.  New York has beaten down the first wave, and is into its re-opening phases, while keeping a sharp eye out for a pandemic that thrives on complacency. 

While in NYC, I thought of the bear that ranges across my farm.  Next time I see him I’ll have to mention I saw Manhattan streets where he could wander more undisturbed than he does through my pasture.  As long as he wears a mask.

The City has a decidedly different vibe from any I’ve sensed in my fifty years living there. People move with decided purpose, keeping strictly to themselves, and virtually all in masks.  Even many homeless are masked. We’re in a thirty-story building, with all but a third of its residents having escaped to places outside the City. A third of the building’s workforce has been struck down by the virus, some for weeks, some for months. One young doorman told me how he’d spent weeks battling the virus alone in his upper-Manhattan apartment, terrorized as he listened to 24/7 wailings of ambulances carrying critically ill to hospitals, wondering whether he’d be next. I see it as a city on the verge of pandemic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In the introduction to my second column my editor wrote, “The emotions that run through this column starkly contrast with the hope he expresses in his first corona chronicle.”

I wonder what the lead will be this time?

In April I wrote how nations found new heroes in public health professionals leading non-partisan efforts.  In May I warned of political leaders pandering to impatient to reopen constituents through partisan attacks discrediting those same heroes. 

I pondered what would happen should politics trump science. I need ponder no longer

In Brazil, which has the second highest number of coronavirus deaths after the US, its President attempted to end coronavirus reporting, as if hoping to hide the consequences of his administration’s blasé attitude toward the pandemic. 

In the US, the government first abandoned its nationwide public health briefings, relegating US public health officials to soundbite moments on news networks, but now limits even that. Bizarrely, whether to wear or not to wear a mask has morphed into a battleground symbol of which Presidential candidate you support.  Even testing faces that same fate. As for the pandemic, it grinds on inexorably, exacting an ever-increasing toll when prudence preached by public health officials is ignored.

It seems much of the world is living in Alice in Wonderland times, where up is down and down is up.

Aside from wearing a mask and washing your hands, social distancing is a key preventative.  The amount of time you spend in close proximity to another directly influences your risk of infection. Being packed together multiplies your risk, especially when without masks. No (sane) person seems to question those principles.

The question those principles beg is, under what circumstances do the perceived benefits of being part of a large gathering outweigh the potential consequences to you and those you later might infect?

Greece is about to face that question in a head-on test of its commitment to continued strict enforcement of strong public health policies, even if enforcement costs the nation desperately needed tourist cash.  Tourists descending upon the country expecting to experience the same good times as in the past, will find very different rules in place. Stay tuned for next month’s take on how that’s playing out.

As for the rest of our Alice in Wonderland world, much of it will undoubtedly remain fixated on the coronavirus until a vaccine or remedy is available. 

And upon something else. 

Since my last column, a second event of worldwide historic implications has spread around the globe.  The name George Floyd is now known throughout the world, as demonstrators put aside their social distancing concerns in pursuit of social justice. 

Both events are of unique historic significance, taking quick root in popular culture as evidenced by how many global businesses are taking heed. Art, literature, film, fashion, and style are already boring down on the implications of it all…and how the power of one event will affect the impact of the other. 

It’s too soon to tell how each will play out, for there are far too many rapidly moving parts, but I do see one overriding common principle. Whether facing down a pandemic disease of the human body or of the body politic, it is only the elected and their electors who can change things for the better…or leave us to the worse. 

I think I’ll go look for the bear.  He’s more predictable these days than the rest of our world.

–Jeff

Jeff’s Upcoming Events.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020, at 5PM EDT

An International Crime Date with Tim Hallinan, Ragnar Jonasson, and Jeff Siger (moderated by Barbara Peters of Scottsdale’s Poisoned Pen Bookstore)

A Zoom/Facebook Live Event

A Greek's Take on US

Jeff–Saturday

America is going through a confluence of events unlike any before experienced all at once, and while those still sane among us fervently wish/pray/beg times will soon be better, in our hearts we know that won’t be the case.

On a far less cataclysmic but personal level, for the first time in thirty-five plus years, I will not be making it to Greece this summer.

Sigh. Deeper sigh.

While casting about the Greek news for something to write about that would bring a bit of distraction to my mood, I came across an article published on Wednesday in Kathimerini–Greece’s newspaper of record–written by its Executive Editor, Alexis Papachelas, titled, “The other America hopes.”

Alexis Papachelas

It’s far from the fun thing I was looking for, but in it I found serendipitous solace.  As dark as the writer’s view of our current circumstances, our destiny is not in the hands of fate, but in our own. In other words, folks, what happens to US is up to us.

Here’s Alexis' take:

Ex-Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis

Konstantinos Mitsotakis often said that a few determined people can make a country. It was a reference to Greece. What would the late Greek prime minister [and father of Greece’s current prime minister] have to say about developments in the US if he was alive today? Most likely that a determined man can throw a country into turmoil.

It’s horrifying that strong states with a long tradition and solid institutions have entered a period of upheaval, irrationality and institutional backsliding. It happened in Britain and it is now happening in the US. Sure, developments in both countries were generated by more profound causes. However, they would not have come about without the stubbornness and the catastrophic rage of their leaders. 

I assume that, like other leaders of his generation, Mitsotakis would find it hard to accept the ease with which US President Donald Trump challenges the international system which was set up after the Second World War and which secured the lengthiest period of peace and prosperity for the West. Mitsotakis belonged to a generation that experienced war and understood very well the risks which arise when more profound forces of history are combined with the destructive and/or paranoid rage of leaders.

Trump has divided American society so deeply that many pundits fear that the lack of a clear result in November’s presidential election could spark civil strife. He treats institutions with arrogance and vengeance, as if they were a straitjacket confining his movement. 

The sight of Trump appearing with officials of his administration and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in particular, in front of a church holding aloft a bible is shocking by American standards. His attacks against the media makes local “Doberman” trolls seem like kittens by comparison. There are no limits. Moving downhill.

In recent days, the pendulum appears to be swinging against what Trump stands for. Moderate Republicans have started to openly criticize him. The American middle class is terrified of the chaos and, despite its commitment to the principles of law and order, feels that Trump is dangerous and unpredictable. 

Right now, it would be premature to draw conclusions. However, we can be optimistic that the other America has not given up.

It remains to be seen if – should Trump lose the November election – Mitsotakis’ saying will prove correct in this case. That is, if his Democratic rival Joe Biden and his administration will manage to contain the damage, restore equilibrium at home, and reunite American society. Winning the election will not be easy for Biden. Nor will accomplishing any of that.

****

Now on to a bit of brash commercialism. Greece’s Athens Insider Magazine has selected my 10^th Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis novel, Island of Secrets (the paperback version of The Mykonos Mob) as it’s “Book of the Week.”  Coincidentally, an e-book version is available until Tuesday, June 16^th, for $1.99 across a panoply of e-book formats by simply clicking here or https://books2read.com/islandofsecretssiger

Happy Fathers’ Day.

--Jeff