Greek Elections will be held at 6th of May. At 9th May we celebrate Europe’s Day. In terms of semantics we have two celebrations within 3 days, one for Democracy, in the candle of democracy, and one for celebrating peace. Both of these two carry very heavy meanings theoretically and practically.
Practically Greece and Europe walk alike on the same path. Despite the rhetoric of walking away the European path of some Greek political parties it’s firmly believed that the European path is a one way solution not only as a choice of the so called mainstream parties (PASOK and New Democracy) but as a voice of reality and reason.
Theoretically, because not only Europe’s heart started beating here some thousands years ago but also due to its name itself. Princess Europe abducted from Cretan Zeus transformed to a bull and on its back started a vivid civilization the Minoan one, a unique peaceful civilization that gave to a whole continent its cultural, historical, societal backbone through ages. Mythology by all means is a historic collective memory.
Let’s talk about present. In the coming national elections, the political agenda mainly of the two mainstream parties is based once more on a dilemma. Follow the mainstream or lose the A-Train. Democracy shouldn’t and will not operate as a Damoclean sword above our heads. Democracy is a choice. Unfortunately we have let aside participation and chose confrontation instead of dialogue of essence.
Procrastination has been chosen as a method of running government. In terms of management programming tends to be a flagship of pre-election agenda. After elections almost everybody seems to forget them.
There is an urgent need of a humanitarian approach; we must help our compatriots that suffer the results of the crisis. There is an urgent need of reorganizing our society and economy through one and only action: Restructure the “Ecclesia of Dimos”. We are in need of a working Democracy and not of a malfunctioning Parliamentarism.
Professor Kostas Vergopoulos[i] back in 2005 among others posed reality on the point we should have seen, admit and work on that by then. Everybody or at least the policy and opinion makers alike either inside Greece or in EU knew the truth.
They were aware of the bloody situation that Greece was up to, the foreseeable debt crisis explosion, the photon-running-like unemployment rate, the negative effects of the Olympic Games of 2004.
A lot of ink (and blood) has been shed for claiming and adopting democratic institutions national and supranational. Greeks as part and parcel through the centuries of this political process and Europeans alike cannot stand and bear any further a crashing financial crisis that mortgaged their lives and future. It’s a matter of dignity, reason and dreaming alike. It’s not just putting in jeopardy all the gains of welfare state in Europe. It’s a living nightmare for Europe. We cannot anticipate for the “medicine” through bankrupted remedies of the past.
We need hope and dream for creating possible viable solutions for our societies. It’s a matter of leadership evolving through the very backbone of our institutions. A new paradigm is necessary for overcoming these inequalities and discontinuities. By staring reality as a machine, all we can expect is a machine that rotten and dismantle to pieces. Why not changing lenses and seeing it as a dynamic system that is trying to find right solutions for societies and not for some bankers of any level and nationality (money has no country).
Greeks or Ellines or however you want to name them (us) are hard decent workers, dreamers and fighters. Life is a struggle. We knew and we know it since the beginning. Somehow this awkward paralyzing parenthesis of hypertrophic attitudes that tended to become patterns is not a paradigm anymore. Yet “lamogia” and “piranhas” continue to function below the radar. They must be found, brought a.s.a.p to justice and returning the loots. One minister, even powerful, in jail is just a drop in the ocean of corruption. But one more “lamogio” unpunished could be the drop that will flood the glass of patience.
So the 6th and 9th of May are two great occasions not for remembering but for dreaming a better tomorrow for Greece and Europe alike. Do not throw this opportunity to garbage (and dogs).
[i] K. Vergopoulos, The seize of Wealth, (Η αρπαγή του Πλούτου) Livanis editions Athens, 2005.