Hundreds of Athenians queued as early as 8 o’ clock in the morning at the park of Pedion tou Areos in downtown Athens in order to receive vegetables free of charge. The action initiated by farmers from Ierapetra, Crete, was to start at 10 a.m.
However as the stunned donors saw people of all ages to stand in line under the summer heat they decided to start the distribution two hours earlier than planned.
Video:
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Priority was given to registered impoverished families living in the Athens municipality area. However also other residents who flocked to the park could get a box of vegetables home. Within three hours, 25 tonnes of vegetables were carried away by happy residents of Athens.
A total of 2,700 boxes each containing 10-12 kilos of aubergines, cucumbers, tomatoes and paprikas were handed out to the people.
The price of one box in the open market would be approximately 12 to 13 euro.
Many of the beneficiaries told Greek media, that they are jobless or low pensioners. “My husband is without job since 2008” a woman told private Mega Tv and another said “We’re hungry”. A third woman said she had a special needs child and that “the social benefits were not paid since quite some time”.
Crete farmers wanted not only to launch an publicity action for their products but also to deliver a message of solidarity to debt-ridden Greeks.
The President of the agricultural co-operative “Anatoli” from Ierapetra stated that “we, farmers, send a message of solidarity to those Greeks who struggle to survive and cannot buy our products. We have the same problem and we have to help each other.”
more pictures and video: NewsIt and Zougla
If only the powers that be could show the same sort of humanity, the world would not be in the state it’s in. Well done to those farmers, they are the people that matter in this world.
Bravo !
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For those that don’t believe that Greece has hungry people, and there are proud Athenians who tell me everyday that only a few are hungry, I tell them to watch this Swedish Documentary by a Greek-Swedish lady and it’s very sad to watch but hopefully after you cry, you’ll cut the crap and help the people when you can…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQF2rSHnbw
nevertheless a part of the Greek society has good time.
Yes, KTG, but we don’t care about helping the ones who have a good time, only the people (Greeks and immigrants alike) who are in need. A random act of kindness will suprise them, and several times, I’ve just handed my cheese pie, or pizza, or coulouri to someone begging outside without saying a word, and I feel at peace for a few minutes until I see the next person in need and feel bad because I can’t help them all.
Well done!
Over the last 20 years, income distribution in Greece has WORSENED instead of remaining at 1980s levels. Moreover, Yfantopoulos in 1990 was able to describe the Greek welfare state as “a negative welfare state” — that is, one where the poor paid taxes to give money to the rich. This also deteriorated since the 1980s.
Basically, Greece has been hijacked by crooks — in both Pasok and ND — who set up structures that benefited themselves and made them part of the the private sector large businesses and banks. They all belong in prison, and instead the cow Merkel makes sure that they are re-elected (because that is in Germany’s interests).
By the way, the common Greek belief is that this all is the fault of Andreas Papandreou. This is not correct; he did more than anyone to protect the poor. This is the fault of everyone who held power AFTER papandreou — and most especially of Papademos, Simitis and Rapanos. These criminal assholes took Greece into the euro with no programme, no strategy, no comprehension of what they were doing — other than the certainty of cheap loans. They refuse to accept responsibility for their incompetence, and now the economists have been rewarded with high salaries, acting prime ministership and the latest crap as Finance Minister.
Until Greece sends these people to prison, there is no hope for the ordinary people. Sorry to say it, but Greeks need to revolt.
Yes, just saw it. I agreed with almost everything too, from comments from KKE, ordinary people to the right wing Kyrtzis. It is heart-rending, and this is from last year! The worst thing is the situation of children 🙁 This is the very worst thing imaginable.
The only thing I didn’t like was the economist at the beginning: he has no grasp of the nature of the problems with the Greek economy, and simply reiterated the usual crap about public sector waste and non-payment of taxes.