The holiday spirit in our debt-ridden and austerity-hit country was not strong enough to hinder three Greek men from putting end to their lives.
On Saturday a 42-year-old actor hanged himself suicide in his parents’ home in Volos. Dimitris Vogiatzis was known to Greeks through his appearance in many television serials and theater performances. But that was before the crisis. Vogiatzis’ friends wrote on internet, that the talented actor had not any assignment for quite some time, that he was forced to sell personal items to pay bills and that he was suffering from the economic hardship.
On the first day of the new year, a 63-year-old man took his own life with a rope and a stone in the Plastira lake. He had left several notes so that his relatives could locate his lifeless body.
On the second day of the year, another 63-year-old man sat in his car, poured fuel over his body and set it alight in Aegaleo suburb of western Athens. Neighbours could extinguish the fire and save the life of the desperate retired taxi driver. He hospitalized in an Athens hospital where doctors struggle to keep him alive.
Tragic decisions in a country where even Christmas decorations look grim – like in Madra village in Xanthi where the major threw a tiny ship with lights to cheer up the people.
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Greece experiences a sharp increase in suicides since the beginning of the economic crisis and the austerity programs imposed by its lenders. Official numbers speak of some 3,000 people, the majority of them men, who could not continue living in debts and lack of persepctive for the future.
Why would the actor hang himself. If he could just wait a bit longer, maybe things get better and he would make another film. Sad.
the film, theater, television production industry is broke. Totally. 150%.