'Austerity takes toll on cradle of democracy'

Richard Pine has circulated his latest 'Greek letter' in The Irish Times but writes:

I have been unable to create a link to my column in yesterday's Irish Times (Wednesday 18 September). I am therefore sending it in the body of this email. The brutal killing (by stabbing) of an anti-Nazi rap artist, Pavlos Fyssas, by a member of Golden Dawn last night has raised the 'hate' and the 'fear' stakes even further. If you do not wish to receive copies of my future columns, please notify me and I will remove your name from the distribution list. Sincerely Richard Pine

'Extremism is fast becoming a political default in this humiliated country' Photo: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Wed, Sep 18, 2013, 01:00

First published:Wed, Sep 18, 2013, 01:00

   

Given the low opinion held by most citizens of their political leaders, and of international institutions such as the EU and IMF, it’s astonishing that we seem to cling to the concept of democracy – especially in Greece, where the word was invented – to describe government of the people by the people. Today it’s all up for questioning, including the composition of the nation state.

There is a significant gap between our faith in the concept of democracy and our suspicion of the democratic process which produces people we cannot trust. A mismatch between the ideal and the real, including the operation of the civil service, the clientelist system and the passing of parliamentary seats from father to son – or daughter – a not unknown phenomenon in Ireland.

Do we distrust our fellow citizens because we fear that, as soon as elected, they will turn into powermongers, the political equivalent of werewolves or Frankenstein’s monster? In Greece we have a democratically elected parliament and a government appointed under the terms of the constitution, rejected and abhorred by the vast majority of voters.

Pavlos Fyssas Παύλος Φύσσας ~ April 1979 – 18 September 2013

Extremism
Plutocracy, oligarchy, autocracy, monarchy (all words with Greek roots) have their supporters, and even fascism (definitely not of Greek origin) has a hold in modern Greece (as reported in last month’s letter) although, as the third largest political party in the opinion polls, Golden Dawn is still not yet the overwhelming popular choice, but may have a very significant stake in the next parliament, with 14 per cent of the vote in current opinion polls.

But there is another Greek term gathering momentum today: anarchism. Many citizens, disenchanted with the political system which they regard as having failed the state, have turned their backs on politics and, instead, advocate lawlessness and, at its most extreme, tearing down political and social structures by terrorist means. The group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire (one of the most successful) describes its mission as 'urban guerrilla warfare'.

I am surprised that the Greek indignados (who made such a dignified, peaceful process in Athens’ Constitution Square for many weeks in 2011) have not re-emerged during the latest crisis; some of them are merely disenchanted with all forms of protest, but I expect that many, more aggressive types, are actively pursuing the anarchist option.

At one end of the spectrum is the fascist Golden Dawn, burning synagogues and mosques and beating up migrants and gays; at the other are the various terrorist groups, the latest of which calls itself Untamed Desires, which sounds more like the title of a porno movie than a bunch of arsonists and bombers attacking civil servants, lawmakers and judges.

Richard Pine

Back to the future - 23 Sep'13 Nightmare on Democracy Street by Nick Malkoutzis on Macropolis
***
Just driving dully along I catch people on the beach at Ipsos enjoying their holiday in the sun.

Κι εγώ. In readiness for the wind vane removed from the roof of Brin Croft and due here by carrier at the start of next month, I've attached the iron bracket made for me by Steve Lee to a corner of the house. I bought five 9 inch coach bolts and the largest rawlplugs I could buy; dug out a metre length chunk of wood recovered from the beach and rejected as too good for the firewood in the apothiki, and drilled five holes in it. On a stepladder I offered the beam to the wall and, through the holes in the wood, drilled five marker holes on the mortar, then using my SDS drill followed these with five deeper holes in the stonework of the house. I filled these with a dollop of strong glue and then, with the coach bolts through the beam, and the rawlplugs lightly screwed on the end of each, offered the whole to the wall and tapped it home, until I could place a bottle spanner on each coach bolt and tighten.

I painted the wood, now tight on the wall, to match, and with a spirit-level positioned Steve's bracket, its end just beyond the gutter, pointing as vertical as I could make it. I gave it a couple of coats of rust resistant black gloss before using four four inch coach bolts to fix it firmly ready for the vane. I shall need a compass to find the north, or perhaps use the north star, or the wind vane on the church a few yards down Democracy Street.

Dover Beach: winter over the Kerkyra Sea

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; —on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægæan, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night

ΠΈΜΠΤΗ, 24 ΙΑΝΟΥΑΡΊΟΥ 2013 ~ Έναρξη λειτουργίας των Γραφείων Αντιμετώπισης Ρατσιστικής Βίας στα Ιόνια ΝησιάΑπό την Γενική Αστυνομική Διεύθυνση Περιφέρειας Ιονίων Νήσων, ανακοινώνεται η ίδρυση Γραφείων Αντιμετώπισης Ρατσιστικής Βίας στις Αστυνομικές Διευθύνσεις Κερκύρας, Ζακύνθου, Κεφαλονιάς και Λευκάδας.Τα Γραφεία Αντιμετώπισης Ρατσιστικής Βίας στελεχώνονται με ειδικά εκπαιδευμένους αστυνομικούς και αντικειμενικός σκοπός της λειτουργίας τους είναι:...

-η αυτεπάγγελτη ή ύστερα από σχετική μήνυση ή καταγγελία
διερεύνηση αδικημάτων ή εκδήλωση ενεργειών που μπορεί να προκαλέσουν διακρίσεις, μίσος ή βία σε βάρος προσώπων λόγω της φυλής, του χρώματος, της θρησκείας και της εθνικής ή εθνοτικής τους καταγωγής.
-η συλλογή, επεξεργασία και η κατάλληλη αξιοποίηση πληροφοριών και στοιχείων που αφορούν τη διάπραξη ή την προπαρασκευή αδικημάτων με ρατσιστικά χαρακτηριστικά.
- η συνεργασία με κρατικές, κοινωνικές ή άλλες Υπηρεσίες και Οργανώσεις καθώς και κοινωνικούς Φορείς με σκοπό την αποτελεσματικότερη διαχείριση περιστατικών ρατσιστικής βίας.
Οι πολίτες μπορούν να απευθύνονται:
-Στην Κέρκυρα στην Υποδιεύθυνση Ασφαλείας Κέρκυρας (Αλυκές
Ποταμού- Κέρκυρα) στα τηλέφωνα 26610 29176-29170 και στο fax 26610 22214
-Στη Ζάκυνθο στο Τμήμα Ασφαλείας Ζακύνθου (Λομβάρδου 62-
Ζάκυνθος) στα τηλέφωνα 26950 24490-24494 και στο fax 26950 44871
- Στην Λευκάδα στο Τμήμα Ασφαλείας Λευκάδας (Ηρώων Πολυτεχνείου 30-Λευκάδα) στο τηλέφωνο 26450 29375 και στο fax 26450 22941
-Στην Κεφαλονιά στο Τμήμα Ασφαλείας Αργοστολίου (Βιομηχανική Περιοχή Αργοστολίου) στα τηλέφωνα 26710 27842-27843-28404 και στο fax 26710 25270
Επιπλέον έχει τεθεί σε λειτουργία ο πενταψήφιος ειδικός αριθμός κλήσης - 11414 - στον οποίο, καθʼ
όλη τη διάρκεια του 24ώρου, είναι δυνατή η γνωστοποίηση ή καταγγελία διάπραξης κάθε άδικης πράξης με ρατσιστικά χαρακτηριστικά ή κίνητρα.

This on Corfu Country - Κερκυραϊκή Xώρα - posted by the journalist Dimitris S Karidis - Δημήτρης Σ. Καρύδης - in Corfu:

THURSDAY 24 JANUARY 2013 ~  Opening of an Office of Response to Racial Violence in the Ionian Islands
The General Police Directorate of the Islands Region, announced the establishment of Offices of Response to Racial Violence in Police Departments in Corfu, Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Lefkada.
The Racial Violence Response Offices staffed with specially trained officers to: ...
- pursue indictments and respond to complaints
- investigate offences or incidents that can lead to discrimination, hatred or violence against persons because of race, colour, religion and national or ethnic origin.
- collect and analyse information and data that relates to the commission or preparation of offences that may be racist.
- co-operate with governmental, social, or other agencies and organisations and also other social organisations in order to achieve more effective management of racist violence.
Citizens can contact:
- Corfu Subdivision Security (Alykes River-Corfu) to 26610-29176 to 29170 phones and fax 26610-22214
- Zakynthos Security Department (Lombardia 62 - Zakynthos) to 26950-24490 to 24494 phones and fax 26950-44871
- Lefkada/Lefkas Security Department (University of Heroes 30-Lefkas) on telephone 26 450 and 29375 fax 26450-22941
- Kefalonia, Argostoli Security Department (Industrial Area Argostoli) phone at 27842-27843-28404 and 26710 fax 26710-25270
Moreover, there is also a dedicated 24 hour phone number - 11414 - on which it is possible to report or complain about any act that is or appears to be racially motivated.

DESTROY FASCISM from ThePressProject on Vimeo.