Giasou Paidia. Me lene Manousos. Eimai 18 kai apo tin Kriti stin Ellada.
Like many young people, I am a student and it has long been a dream of mine to travel to the UK and carry on my education at a good university. However, being from Greece this dream is slowly drifting away from me. People in England may be aware of the recent rioting and protests that have taken place here, however from the research I have done, I am unsure whether or not you realise why they are happening and who is behind them. In many ways I am proud of my nationality, however the way things are run over here make many things very difficult to do, with getting a good education being very high on that list. I feel it is important that the people of the UK and Europe know the truth, what is really happening here, both sides of the argument. This is my story. This is my Big Fat Greek Politics. Pame.
Greece is a country filled to the brim with history, both good and bad. We find here that much of our history is glamorised by the global media, with films such as 300 and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin giving a rose tinted view on what has happened here in the past. However many people fail to see past this and don’t realise how much the people here have had to put up with, even from their own government. Put into context, we are a small, Eastern European country who has had many foreign invaders taking control and stripping us of our wealth with the Ottoman Turks and Hitler’s Nazis being the guiltiest parties. This was merely a starting point for the economic problems currently facing Greece with modern problems making things even worse.
Here in Greece we have a history of overthrowing oppressive regimes, with the general feeling amongst the population that governments are there for their own benefit, and not that of the general public. During the 1960s and 70s, the country was under the control of a military fascist dictatorship under the guidance of a man called Giorgos Papadopoulos. The violence and oppressive methods used by this dictatorship through means of both the armed forces and the police soon led to a campaign of protests and uprisings amongst the general population. The government had no wish to change their policies and crushed many of these mainly peaceful demonstrations using force. One such demonstration during November 1973 even led to the charging down of a barricaded area with a tank and the shooting dead of roughly 24 protesters. The people however, outraged by what had happened, started to fight back and by morning the government was overthrown. It is this passion for the good of the population that you see today also in the rioters and the protesters of today’s government, although for very different reasons.
The current political problems in Greece can and have been compared to those of the military dictatorship. With neither of today’s main two political parties, PASOK and Nea Democratia, showing any real desire to actually help sort out any of the problems facing Greek society today, despite the promises they have made. It can be argued that the welfare of the state is being overridden by the personal greed of politicians both in office and in opposition. Reading about the recent British expenses scandal is laughable in Greece with the same thing and much worse happening here on a daily basis. Another comparison that can be made to the dictatorship is the role of much of the police force. Their methods have been described as brutish and thuggish amongst a number of many other things and not just against criminals. They are perceived as puppet soldiers of the government used to quash any feeling of revolt or revolution against the government, no matter how innocent the victim accused. It is not fair to say this about the entirety of the police force with some of the local officers being close family friends.
However, there is still evidence that many within the force are just as corrupt as those controlling them. In fact it was the shooting of fifteen year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a police officer in an Athenian suburb that led to the widespread protesting against the government in the first place. Like myself, Alex was a young man frustrated by the poor situation his government had placed him in, and when verbally confronted by the police officer about his views he let his feelings be known, which unfortunately led to his unnecessary and untimely death. This tragedy proved to be the catalyst to fight against oppression once again with protesting and riots being inevitable.
The state of the Greek economy has become a joke in the eyes of many Europeans, with many not understanding why the people of Greece have such a problem with paying increased taxes in order to help the economy. After all they got themselves into these problems in the first place right? Wrong. Alex’s death shook the ground for an even greater social movement against the government, whom the Greek people feel have got them into all of this financial trouble in the first place. During the 1990s the newly elected PASOK government introduced what they described as new and modern liberal ideas. This modernisation of Greece included the entering of the country into the single European currency. However, to be able to do this they needed to save money. They did this by severely cutting national welfare, completely neglecting the healthcare system and extensively privatising many of the nations businesses. The government claimed that this would be good for the country as a whole; however the opposite was evident from the state of the general public. The average wage for a Greek person ranges from about a half to a third of the amount paid to someone in either the UK or the rest Western Europe, with many people struggling to even buy food at normal EU prices. The situation has become so bad that after the year 2000 at least a third of the population were living at or below the poverty line.
This would not have seemed so bad if the government were at least trying to put money back in to help people. Nevertheless, what money the country did make always seemed to go into the back pocket of the politicians or was wasted on useless project such as the huge Christmas Tree in the Athenian central plaza, which was duly burned down as a result of the 2008 protests. It is this theft and waste of people’s money that has aroused such anger within the people. The PASOK government did in the end fall due to their lack of social policies and Nea Democratia took over, though mostly due to PASOK’s loss of supporters than their gain. Unfortunately Nea Democratia took PASOK’s corruption to a whole new level, with even more cuts in public spending and even more tax increases issued on a public who were basically broke anyway. The Education system has been particularly affected by this bid to try and save money. Under PASOK the education system was at least readily available to all, but under the new leadership it was quite literally destroyed leaving people like me with no education, meaning no job prospects leading to basic poverty for me in the future. The destruction of the education of those who could lead the country out of this dire situation in the future must surely be seen as a step backwards rather than forwards by the government and one which is seeing many of Greece’s gifted young people pursuing careers abroad.
The riots themselves are a reflection on how the Greek people feel neglected and betrayed by the governments which they entrusted with their not only their money, but their lives. It is an outcry that something needs to drastically change; otherwise revolution could well be inevitable. From what I have seen from the British press, an idea has spread that this is a revolt led by both Communists and young Anarchists. This is not true. Although they are involved, this is a popular social movement against a Capitalist regime that has proved to have no interest in the rights or needs of the Greek people, with the majority feeling the need for change. I am not going to tell you what to think. Whether you believe these riots are right or not is your decision. I will however express my own opinion that although violence is wrong, sometimes the only way to get what you need in life is to stop and make a stand. I am neither communist nor anarchist, however I believe the suffering of my people needs to end now, and if revolution brings around the chance of that happening then I will support it to the very end. The original idea of this documentary was to give you a real insight into what is happening here, and I hope I have succeeded in doing that.
S’epharisto gia tin prosihi, kai ta logia tou NiVo:
Ellada, Signomi, An thes n’allaksognomi [Greece I am sorry, but if you want me to change my mind]
Prepei ki esi na matheis n’agapas [You must learn to love me back]
Papse na me paideveis kai na me koroidevis [Stop giving me a hard time and messing me about]
Kai ta oneira mou Ellada, mi skorpas.. [And please don’t throw away my dreams]
