The Great Report: Logistics of Paradise (Crete)

A small, idyllic place on the Southern coast of Crete. 34º55'51'' North and 24º48'03'' East, according to Google Maps. Seventeen houses, and a bar covered with palm leaves, right there, on the beach. The deep-blue water glistens peacefully in the sun. The bay is well protected from the wind and waves, the pebbles and the sand tickle under your feet. Kali Limenes literally means 'good harbors'. Tradition has it that Saint Paul found refuge in this paradise on his way to Rome when his ship was caught in a heavy storm.

The only thing that disturbs the eye is a large infrastructure facility: In the middle of the bay, on the small island of Mikronisi, there is a bunkering station. Heavy oil is stored in several silos, which are used to refuel container ships, freighters and other boats. The filling station is managed by the SEKA company. The logo of the company, whose double wings remind us of Pegasus, is attached to the small seamen's club. In front of it, workers sit in the sun and smoke [1]. 

International waters are only a short distance from Kali Limenes. Ships pass this southernmost point of Crete on their way to the Suez Canal, Cyprus, Beirut, Athens or Gibraltar. Since it is cheaper to cross the canal with little draught, some of them fill up their fuel reserves here. Larger ships anchor further out and are loaded by the smaller tankers which lie around the bay like lazy fish.

In Kali Limenes ships can also order fresh water, have the deck cleaned, can dispose of their waste, or sign crew members on or off who are not from the Schengen area. Those who wish can also order a selection of Cretan products delivered directly to the ship, including honey, olive oil, oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers and fresh Cretan sea salt. It is then, as if a part of paradise is being loaded. 

Paula and I do not need to have the ingredients of paradise delivered to our accommodation or car. We simply go for lunch, to the Neo Panorama, in search of a new overview or insight.

[1] The filmmaker and author Paula Hildebrandt and I spent several days in Kali Limenes in order to get a better understanding of the place. However, our request to visit the bunkering station for artistic research purposes is being rejected by the SEKA several times. Paula thus tries to swim to the island, but does not enter it. Later on, local fishermen take us on a trip around the island for a small fee. One of the fishermen, Minos, who is named after the mythical first king of Crete, tells us about various safety exercises which the SEKA performed just recently, in which oil disasters were simulated. I ask Minos if he has ever been allowed to enter the island. He denies. We have not been able to enter the bunkering station either.

On the right side of the bay, a few steps lead up the hill. In the tavern called Neo Panorama SEKA workers sit and eat grilled fish. Except for the bearded men, who give instructions on their walkie-talkies and take a small speedboat trip to the tanker island every now and then, the whole village seems to be deserted. We are the only tourists here, and my impression is that the village is not that empty just by coincidence.

After lunch we try to interrogate Alexandra, the waitress of the tavern, about the bunkering station and the slightly run-down hotel on the other side of the bay. It seems to be uninhabited, even if the caretaker family mows the lawn and cleans the swimming pool all year round. Once a year, there are glittering summer parties here, Alexandra reports, with Arab princesses coming over in helicopters [1]. She cannot say much about the bunkering station, though, except that it is guarded by sharks that supposedly swim around the island. 

Can you train sharks like you train watchdogs? Do the guests come from Saudi Arabia, or from Lebanon, like the Phoenician princess once called Europe? And do the boys dress up as bulls? In any case, the hotel, just like the bunkering station, belongs to the rich Cretan family that goes by the name of Vardinogiannis.
 

[1] The ingenious inventor Daedalus, the builder of the Cretan labyrinth, once tried to escape the island by flying away, together with his son Icarus. When Icarus came too close to the sun, the wax with which his artificial wings were attached to his body famously melted, so that he fell into the sea and died. At the exact place of his fall is where today the island of Icaira lies. Fleeing from Minos, the enraged ruler of Crete, Daedalus managed to escape to Sicily, where later he was found. The furious quarrel between the mythical king and his best technologist, who had to murder the tyrant for self-protection, marks the end of the myth of King Minos.

The Vardinogiannis come from a small village named Episkopi in the north-east of Crete. The family is not rich, but maintains good relations with Cretan politicians and the army. It is Nikos Vardinogiannis, the elder brother of the present-day company patriarch called Vardis, that recognises the strategic importance of the paradisiac bay of Kali Limenes and buys a part of the beach in 1961. Initially, individual freighters anchor here to refuel larger ships, mainly the Mediterranean fleet of the US Army. For almost no money at all, Nikos also buys the island of Mikronisi from the Greek state. When a tanker accident occurs in 1965, in which large quantities of crude oil leak out, the bunkering station is constructed on the island.

By acquiring the island and the coastal land, the Vardinogiannis have found themselves a little treasure. In order to be able to operate untroubledly, they are trying to drive the local population away. But only a short time after the purchase, its illegality is pointed out: The land that Nikos Vardinogiannis had originally bought from local shepherds at a ridiculous price actually belongs to the monastery of Ogiditria, which lies above Kali Limenes in the Asterousia Mountains. A theft occurs: unknown persons do not steal the famous icon called Zoodochos Pigi but the land register of the monastery, which is lost ever since.

In the following years, there are recurrent disputes with the local population, who want to rebuild their abandoned houses in Kali Limenes. When the communist mayor of the neighbouring village of Pigaidakia decides to travel to the patriarch in Istanbul to see a copy of the old land register, he is shot on 28 April 1986 on the road between Pigaidakia and Pómbia. The perpetrators will never be caught.

Meanwhile, the Vardinogiannis are expanding their business empire. In autumn 1966, they break the oil embargo against Southern Rhodesia, and in 1971 they buy the refinery in Corinth from the competing oligarch Aristotle Onassis. At the same time, they invest in drilling projects in North Africa and the Arab world. Today, the family owns a football club and several television stations, among other things, and has holdings in almost 100 companies.

Even if they count the Kennedys and Clintons among their friends, they own estates in London and Athens, and go skiing in St. Moritz, the Vardinogiannis come to Kali Limenes every summer to relax. Can they not get enough of the waves of the Libyan Sea, the Cretan olives and honey? Or is this secluded place their only chance to ever become invisible, to hide from envy, the forces of the market, and the threads of the Moirai? Here, they can bathe naked and project themselves back in time, to a point before their own fall.

What do you actually want to find out about these oligarchs, Paula asks me. What fascinates you so much about them? Is this male fantasies of wealth, influence and power? She is right: I am fascinated by their money and connections with which they secretly determine the fate of the island. Besides, not only ships buy fuel from the Vardinogiannis, but also we ourselves. Through its subsidiary Coral Energy, the family operates all Shell petrol stations in Greece, and, by extension, on the island of Crete. If ever you want to visit the paradise bay of Kali Limenes by rental car, you may have to go shopping at theirs without even knowing it.

Paula and I refuel only on the way back. Then we swim at the beach of Kommos.