Greeks look to Ukraine for a love match

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041015/80/f4n6i.html



ZACHARO, Greece (Reuters) - Imagine a peaceful and wealthy farming community located on one of Greece's finest sandy beaches. Sound like a great place to marry and raise a family.


Not so, says the mayor of Zacharo who is planning to import dozens of Ukrainian brides to increase the town's fast dwindling female population.


In a few days a group of town officials and 10 future grooms will leave on a matchmaking trip to the town of Vynnitsya in Ukraine to bring back women looking for a spouse and breathe new life into the town with a population of about 4,000.


Dubbed by Greek newspapers as a "Love Bus" trip -- even though the only bus ride will be the group's travel to Athens to catch a flight to Ukraine -- the group will be just the forerunner of other mathmaking visits.


"I found this town in Ukraine and we will go there to meet the prospective brides," mayor Panatazis Chronopoulos, a former police officer, told Reuters on Friday. "But we will not be fooled and just take anyone. We will take their CVs, meet them, and then we will decide."


Another 180 men from Zacharo have also put their names down for a bride. Even more are expected to follow.


Hundreds of young Greek women, scoffing at the idea of farm life, have abandoned this southwestern Greek seaside town in the past years for the excitement of Athens, leaving behind lonely men with almost no prospect of marriage or family.


Of a total male population of a few thousand, more than 500 aged between 18-45 are still single, town officials said.


"Everyone is leaving for what they think is the exciting city life," the mayor said. "They have not realised they will fall on hard times in Athens, ending up looking for a job."


Zacharo does not have such worries. With thousands of acres of fertile land, some of the best olive oil in Greece and a thriving greenhouse business, the town, lying on a spectacular stretch of beach has hardly any unemployment.


"There are lots of jobs that are needed here like builders, plumbers, doctors, and people could earn a good living. But young people, mainly girls, still leave," the mayor said.


ALL MALE


The town's only female councillor who did not want to be named said there were not even enough women candidates to run for the local council to meet the required state quotas.


"The girls and women are all leaving, unwilling to take over the family business," she said at her seaside cafe. "The girls who work in my cafe are not even from Zacharo because none of the girls from here want to work as waitresses."


Along the wide beachfront, a handful of young men ride their bicycles past other males, while in the town's cafes and restaurants, men of all ages gather to play cards or eat. Women under the age of 40 are a rare site.


"What is there to do?" a young customer said. "I am 23 and if you look around there are no women here. I hope the mayor and the others come back with the Ukrainians and make things more exciting here."


Town official Giorgos Athanassoulis dismisses fears the foreign women could alter the town's character.


"This Greek-Ukrainian combination works. We have already eight who have married Ukrainian women and they have made good families," he said.


"In one case both sons married a Ukrainian and then the father also went ahead and married one."


Mayor Chronopoulos, who says is flooded by calls from other Greek mayors eager to do the same, said the response for grooms has so far been massive in Vynnitsya with 400 women signing up.


"Now other Greek towns want to know how we set it up because they are also without brides."