A letter from London / Uma Carta de Londres

Eis uma carta escrita por P., um amigo grego em Londres.
(se alguém tiver tempo para traduzir agradeçemos - exarchialx@gmail.com)

11/12/08

Dear all,

Over the past few days, you may have watched the news about the widespreadriots in Athens and other Greek cities, which were sparked by the killing of a15-year old boy by a police officer.

Now, I’m fairly sure most of you, quite understandably, don’t care thatmuch about the social problems of Greece.

But, on the other hand, I’m quite sure you do care about the quality of newsyou get from the rest of the world.

And, if this quality is reflected at all in recent “analyses” of thesituation in respected international media, like Malcolm Brabant’s in BBCOnline or John Carr’s in The Times, it is frustratingly low indeed.

Reading either of these pieces, one would form the idea that recent events arebased on a vague “historical” propensity of Greeks to rebel againstauthority –as if the furious demonstrators and the Molotov cocktails thrown atpolice stations over the past few nights are somehow directly linked to the warculture of the Spartans, or even –according to Mr Carr’s informed opinion-to the Trojan wars.

Alas, apart from The Land Of Stereotype, there is a place called the realworld.

And, in this world, Greek police can get away, literally, with murder. Time,and time, again. They can beat immigrants in police stations, without anyonebeing charged or detained. They are allowed, indeed encouraged, to nurture anattitude towards citizens based on force and suppression.

In this world, Greece suffers chronically from a deeply corrupt political andeconomic elite, which over the last few years has been constantly mired inscandals involving public money and even public land; but unashamedly refuses toeven apologize, let alone accept reform.

In this world, virtually every Greek under 25 knows that he or she belongs towhat has been widely termed “The 700-Euro generation”; the first generationafter WWII growing up with the firm knowledge that they will be worse off thantheir parents. A generation with little prospect for a better future, and evenless hope for it.

It is in this world –and not the one of archaeologically-inclinedcommentators- that a single bullet can set alight a rage that has been steadilybuilding up for years; and, on a cautiously positive note, begin a much-neededpublic soul searching of a whole country.

Of course, there is no point in asking you to do something about this. Butthere is a point in asking you to do something.

Next time you read about “senseless riots” in another country, please dopause for a moment to think of the things the journalistic eye fails to catch.

And please do remember that people don’t burn their own cities just becausethey have a bad national temper.

Thank you for your attention and have a happy new year.

P.