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Volos: Homeless Man Dies Inside a … Refrigerator
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society
These are conditions that were unknown in Greece until recently…. A homeless man was found dead inside a refrigerator abandoned at a plot of a square at the city of Volos, in central Greece. The 70-year old man was ‘living’ inside the abandoned refrigerator for deep frozen fish, size 2 x 4 meters. The professional refrigerator was ‘donated’ to the man by the owner, so that he would have a place to sleep and avoid the spend his nights on municipality benches.
The causes of the man’s death have not been known. The police investigates the case.
According to International Labour Organisation (ILO) 2.2 million Greeks were living under the poverty threshold before the outbreak of the economic crisis. The ILO predicts that this number is about to double within 2012 not only due to unemployment, wages and pensions cuts but also to high taxation.
Civic organisations in Greece claim that the number of homeless increases on a daily basis. The Social Service of Athens Municipality speaks of a 15% increase of homeless and hungry in the streets of the Greek capital. NGO “Climaka” speaks of a 20-25% increase across the country. The phenomenon affects people from all social classes, professions and income levels (previous ones!). Currently homeless in Greece are estimated to be some twenty thousand people.
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Horrible! Really.
Not to diminish any of that drama and the drama of the growing poverty. It is getting clearer around us every day.
But yesterday I heard that the official figure of people living below the poverty line in The Netherlands stands at the moment at about 1 million. ONE million in a rich country like that?! And that figure was even higher in the mid 1990s… What is that official poverty line? 1000 euro a month net for a single person and about 1300 euro for a single with two children.
Poverty is defined there as not being able to afford:
no hot food
no heating in the house
not able to buy clothes
not able to pay for shopping
no additional insurance
no dentist visit
unable to meet basic needs
never vacation
and no additional human necessities
This figure of 1 million is remarkable stable. Already in 2005 there were food kitchens operating all over the land and food supplement packages given out in large quantities.
Why this all? Well it made me wonder what this poverty-line is ILO is talking about for Greece. Even basic income is below these Dutch amounts. And I know from experience that things are most of the times even more expensive here in Greece… Just some worrying thoughts…
poverty line within EU is 6,000 euro per year. Iin genious Greece the taxable income is 5,000 euro. And nobody complains or protest about it. What a shame!
Thanks for the NL report!