We first started coming to Paros, an island in the Aegean Sea, about 20 years ago. At the time, there was a more traditional Greek atmosphere compared to better known and more commercially developed islands. But over the years, that has dramatically changed. Paros has lost much of its charm due to greed.

Mykonos and Santorini, the two better known Aegean islands, have become excessively expensive and crowded so much tourism is being redirected towards Paros. And this has caused much discomfort for locals. One of the biggest problems is that of the beaches. In Greece, beaches cannot be privatized. However, the state can, at a cost, give permission to businesses for beach bars with sunbeds. But even then 50% of the beach must remain public.

Unfortunately, greed has taken over and unscrupulous businesses have taken over more of the beach that they are entitled to. As a result, the public beaches have been gobbled up by illegal sunbeds making it difficult to find a place to stay on the beach if you are not able or not willing to pay the exorbitant prices to rent a sunbed.

The locals now find it difficult to enjoy a day at the beach on their own island. Exasperated, a group of Parian residents organized The Towel Movement—a movement determined to reclaim the beaches that legally belong to the citizens and not to greedy businessmen

The group went to the city registry to obtain copies of beach bar permits and related “floor plans” to see how much space the bar was legally permitted to have. Most bars had greatly exceeded the space permitted. And since authorities weren’t doing anything to change the situation, residents got organized. For four Sundays in a row, they would arrive at a designated beach. Armed with beach towels, residents began occupying all the space they could. Imagine being a tourist who paid E60 for a sunbed only to find yourself surrounded by people laying out their towels ready to spend the rest of the day glued to your expensive sunbed. And the beach bar owner couldn’t do anything about it as his sunbeds were there illegally.

The Towel Movement has gotten much press encouraging residents from other islands with the same problem to do the same thing. Because as a result of this movement, many beach bars were fined and dismantled.

One reason why this exploitation was so rampant was, in part, due to lax oversight and bureaucratic delays by authorities. With all the publicity the movement has received, authorities were forced to wake up to take action.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if similar movements took off elsewhere and not just regarding beach bars? How many injustices is the normal citizen subjected to every day? How many times have we wanted to protest but without the pertinent skills to do so?

Beaches are ecosystems and, as such, should be respected.

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