Greece

World Eye Reports met with the Greek Minister of Culture, Professor Evangelos Venizelos, to discuss the preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and its wider implications for the country and the Olympic movement

What is the current status for Olympic preparations in Athens? What areas are near completion and which areas are your top priority?

WER: For the Ministry of Culture, the Olympic Games preparation is the most important and ambitious project for the reorganization of the country. The Olympic preparation project is a unique opportunity to organize a new model of development for the country. It is going to be a model based on culture, high quality tourism and alternative tourism. We have the opportunity to change the mentalities of civil society, the private and public sectors as well as public administration.
Greek Minister of Culture Evangelos Venizalos

Athens and regional Greece are being transformed both on the athletic and cultural level -- simultaneously in so far as general infrastructure -- as we prepare many new roads, railways, tramways and even crossroads. The Ministry of Culture is responsible for the coordination of the technical preparation of athletic and cultural projects but also of the basic infrastructures. We are concentrating on the two projects of creating a new network of athletic and cultural venues. We are also responsible for new museums, the renovation of museums and intervention in different archaeological sites.

WER: In what ways is Greece connecting the history and birthplace of the Olympics with today's modern games?

We are preparing the Olympic Games as a technical and professional project, in the same way they did in Australia, the USA, or Spain. We believe that after the technical preparations we'll have the right to repeat and renew the historical, cultural and moral arguments about Greece's culture and Greece's firm position on the need to return to the authenticity of the Olympic Games in 2004. You see, here we have a great comeback of the Olympic movement to the cradle of the Olympic ideals. We believe we can offer the international Olympic movement an opportunity to rehabilitate Olympic morality and ideology. Helpful in this effort is the symbolic value of places such as Olympia, Marathon or the stadium of Athens. This historical and ideological renovation of the Olympic Games is a contribution to the International Olympic Movement that only Greece can make. I am confident that the International Olympic Committee realizes that the organization of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games does not represent a common event, but instead a unique opportunity for the International Olympic Movement. The human dimension and authenticity of the Olympic Games are the two important additions to our preparations.

WER: In what ways will the atmosphere and perception of Greece be changed during and after the completion of the Olympic games?

Venizelos: We would like our country to be seen not only as a historical and cultural phenomenon, but also we would like to show the effectiveness of a modern European country with a very important place in the wider area of South Eastern Europe. This combination between the past and the future is extremely important for us because we have the historical obligation to preserve and promote Greek cultural heritage as a European and, more generally, as a global cultural heritage. But also we have to promote the Modern Greek reality, the reality of a country with high standards of living, with a European vision very competitive in the frame of the European Union but also with a very important regional identity. We must respect our European identity and at the same time our other regional identities.

WER: How many jobs are being created because of the Olympics and what can be done to retain a high number of jobs after 2004?

Venizelos: The process of preparation for the Olympics is nothing less than a comprehensive and ambitious project for the genuine modernization of the country. Not only of Athens and Attica, but of all the regions of Greece in which we are implementing the "Greece 2004" plan. The whole process coincides, of course, with the implementation of the 3rd Community Support Framework, which runs till the year 2006 and will be releasing funds roughly ten times larger than those available specifically for the work of Olympic preparation.

New sporting and cultural infrastructures, new buildings, new roads, new systems of transport will transform the whole face of our public spaces. The Games will leave Greece with an impressive legacy: the post-Olympic use of all these new infrastructures will be a challenge and an opportunity for the model of the post-industrial development of Greece.

All of this will have a direct, positive impact on the national economy, on growth in GDP (increasing by roughly 0.5% each year thanks to investment in Olympic projects) and on the creation of new jobs (about 40,000 jobs a year are being created thanks to the Olympic projects).

WER: What is your involvement with the Cultural Olympiad project, what are the ideals behind the project? What are some of the specific events taking place here and internationally?

Venizelos: The cultural dimension of the Games in 2004 has taken on a much more compact and systematic form with the Cultural Olympiad 2001-2004. And I believe that our country's comparative advantages will bring home results, raise its international prestige, boost the tourist sector, and contribute to the effective implementation of a new post-industrial model of development.

The Cultural Olympiad is above all an international institution that we would like to take on permanent features and to continue with the next Olympic Games. The International Foundation for the Cultural Olympiad, which was established in 1998 by Juan Antonio Samaranch, Federico Mayor and myself, seated in Ancient Olympia, is a very useful and suitable vehicle for achieving this. On this matter we already have close contacts and cooperation with the Organizing Committee for Beijing 2008. The "Kotinos" Awards given by the International Committee of the Foundation for the Cultural Olympiad and the network of national committees established in many countries are also important elements of the institutional reserve of the Cultural Olympiad.

Since 2001 major exhibitions, musical events, conferences, theatrical and opera performances have been sending out the message of the Cultural Olympiad which is the search for a "Culture of Civilizations", a message which has taken on a much more intense and urgent meaning following the terrorist attack on September 11th 2001 in the United States. Contrary to theories which consider the "conflict of cultures" unavoidable or inevitable, the Cultural Olympiad and the entire International Olympic Movement must stress the need for a "Culture of Civilisations" -- a culture which respects and integrates traditional, modern and post-modern elements and is based on diversity and the principle of cultural equality. Cultural equality does not mean that all cultures exert the same influence or have the same historical endurance and the same duration. However, it does mean that they have the same ability to exist and to express themselves, primarily via various collective identities.

WER: In what ways are security issues being handled for the Games? Are there any specific concerns or focuses on developing safety measures?

Venizelos: Security is the issue of our foremost concern in view of the Olympic games. It is the priority of every international event of this magnitude. Greece is an entirely safe European country. The IOC has firmly and clearly stated that the Athens Olympic Games are not concerned by any particular or additional security issues other than those already routinely associated with the colossal athletic event of the Olympic Games.

The spectacular achievements of the Greek police in regard to "November 17" are of great assistance. These significant developments directly impact the environment in which Olympic preparation is being conducted.

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