I would like to clarify a point about recent events: As bullets can not be answer to words, likewise you can not honor someone’s memory with stones and Molotov.
As I see things...an ostracized bullet to Alexis’ chest, a straight one to Greek society’s heart: I am continually trying to understand riots motive but they refuse to talk. I approached them today with two friends having a camera but they insisted on turning off the camera. Actually there are no cameramen during their march. They do not want journalists among them because they believe journalists are alternating facts. I give them reason. But I would like also to know about their anger. I ask to see them in private but the answer was vague. Facing today’s march, I witnessed anger and rage against the policemen. They throw pieces of marbles and stones. They scream and yell. Their faces are covered. I want to understand them. Being a young nowadays do not mean at all being carefree and cool. I agree, but to start as a teenager with violence is very dangerous. During the protest a heard a passer-by say “How can you call yourself Greek when you try to put fire to the National Library, to the Archeological Museum, no matter the age.”
I would like also to clarify something about the recent events in Greece: They have NOTHING to do with the international economic crisis. On the contrary, as wisely pointed out by Nikos Xidakis in “Kathimerini” newspaper (9.12.08) as society “we just offer material, as much as we‘ve got, no matter what! This is all we got. We are spiritually and ethically orphans”. I can understand the youngsters. I am one of them! As society, as parents, as professors we do not encourage the pursuit of any calling in writing, music, dance, painting, any creative art, any spiritual advancement or any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower…and lower is violence. Alexis Grigoropoulos was unlucky but one could say that he was born lucky. He was coming from a wealthy family, schooled at one of the best private schools in Greece but somehow this was not enough for him. Unfortunately the same night before he was shot dead, he was reported as participating in violent events at a polo game.
I have lived abroad and teenagers and students do not enjoy all that goods from family as we do in Greece. They do not grow up with expectations from family, society and university to find them a job in the public sector as soon as they graduate, to live in the security of the public sector, buy them a car, pay for their vacations, in other words they live with less “acquis” than we do. We have been hypnotized from the cradle, we have been made to fear to dream, we have been made to fear to dare and we feel that deep in our soul. Because the last thing when you TRULY DARE in your life is a hood to cover your face. Then we protest for the wrong reasons, serving the political interests of others, charged with our education, in a way to prepare us to become exemplary employees and not to be free thinkers. “Carry their bag” until they have the generosity to treat us as equals. The only possible way for many –for those not exposed to intellectual art or culture- seems protest or vandalism of what they can not create. But vandalism and free thinking are mutually exclusive. It goes without saying that this principle applies to drugs, alcohol, shopping, depression, gossip, TV.
How can we make the world a better place? For me real revolution passes by decent hard work and when I say work I mean the active exercise of one’s faculties in conformity with virtue (Aristotle). John Lennon once wrote: Well, you think you‘re so clever And CLASSLESS and free But you‘re all fucking peasants As far as I can see
I think it is clear, even to a foreigner, that what is happening these days in Athens remarks that ''en era is about to finish.'' The government of the country, in a desperate effort to proof that...exists, tries to take measures. It is clear from what happened that PM Karamanlis is incapable of taking any political initiative for the country to escape the crisis. This can be witnessed from the way Karamanlis is taking decisions. After 2 days of Athens being in flames, Karamanlis asked to see his ministers and the President of the Republic in order to find a way to handle the situation. These 2 days, the political parties of the Parliament weren't capable of making a single statement about what is currently happening in the country. These measures should have been taken earlier. The assassination of little Alex in Exarcheia was not the cause, it was just the occasion for a whole generation to protest. This generation was shot in Exarcheia... It is this generation, which is the most educated of all which work without insurance and labor rights for only 700 euros. ''This generation has to pay the bill for all the depths of the greek economy.'' The ruling class of our fathers, who protested against the military junta in 1974 asking for democracy, established a ''prime minister's dictatorship'' in the country. It is this generation, which burnt and continues to burn forests in order to build illegally, which practices corruption and is corrupted and which managed to gain all the labor right for itself. The country demands changes, our society demands changes! I refuse to accept that we stick to the so-called anarchists and we don't face the problem. Day after day, people are getting poorer, the prices are skyrocketing while the wages are the lowest within the EU. At the same time the political system of the country is full of corruption scandals between politicians and companies such as Siemens as well as real estate businesses, between the State and the Vatopedion Monastery... This government must resign not because a child was killed. It must
resign because it failed to fulfill the demands of its citizens. It
failed to protect their lives and their properties and because this government attested in the cruelest way, that we miss essential political proposals. So we ask for hope ... a new political approach is demanded. We ask for politicians who will make changes in the state, politicians who is about to implement real social policy. Furthermore, we want politicians who will be capable to find solutions for those Greeks who suffer from unemployment, poverty ... and believe me, we aren' talking about just one or two. It is a whole nation! We ask for politicians who end all the bribing and nepotism, who fight those Greeks stealing taxes, those who vote only because of their personal interest. These are not just people. It is our very own nature that we ask to fight. We ask for a leader, who will attack this bad side of us as citizens and as a state... So we ask for hope...
The centre of Athens looks like a conflict zone, probably the worst seen in Greece since the restoration of democracy in 1974. Dozens of shops, banks, businesses and cars are being destroyed by the rioters on Athens main shopping streets and business centre.
Incidents started on Saturday night, soon after an officer who was patrolling shot dead a teenager (Alexis Grigoropoulos) in Exarchia district, an area where they often take place clashes between self-styled anarchists known as “known-unknowns” and police.
The circumstances surrounding the death are still unclear. According to the officer’s version of events, his vehicle was attacked by a group of some 30 people and he fired three times with his service gun (twice in the air and one on the ground) for self-defence. His version is contradicted by several witnesses who claim there was simply a verbal exchange between a small group of youngsters and the two officers who got out of their car to pursue the youths. The two officers have been arrested and charged with murder and illegal use of gun.
In Athens, rioters set up burning barricades across downtown streets, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails, torched the capital’s massive Christmas tree in central Syntagma Square, smashed windows, burned and robbed shops and ATM machines causing millions of euros worth damage.
Massive riots spread across Greek cities and towns including Thessaloniki, Patra, Ioannina and Crete in the third day of rioting.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has called an emergency Cabinet Meeting Monday night and the Rector of the University of Athens has resigned.
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