The story is incredible. In fact, it is “tragicomic,” as the protagonist described it. Lambros Moustakis, 52 years old, homeless and jobless in Athens. Born in Brazil by Greek parents. He was a worker in Argentina, when the International Monetary Fund moved to ‘rescue’ the country. HE moved back to Brazil and had a job until the IMF moved to ‘rescue ‘ Brazil. And from Brazil to Greece… Hardly settled in Greece, he might had thought that nobody can escape his fate: to be chased by the IMF!
“Now my friends jokingly propose, I should move to …Germany”, Moustakis told zougla.gr the news website that brought up his story.
Moustakis was already a migrant in Argentina where he worked at the country’s most profitable sector, the meat. The IMF arrival closed down thousands of businesses, he lost his job and was forced to move back to Brazil.
In Brazil he got a job at the mall contruction industry that flourishes back then. But even there, the IMF arrives. Businesses close down, Moustakis lives a year on unemployment allowance, he is unable to find a new job.
In 1997, he decides to return to the country of his ancestors. He finds a job just four days after his arrival. In the tourism sector. When he hears PM Papandreou from Kastelorizo speaking of the IMF and the rescue mechanism, he feels like fainting.
Lambros Mouzakis does not need to read economic analyses, program multiplicators, budget targets, horizontal austerity measures and other proposals that would solve a debt crisis. While Greeks have no idea what the arrival of IMF means for the citizens, the country and the real economy, the IMF-ridden Moustakis knows much too well.
In short time, he loses his job. He ends up in park bench in Victoria Square where he sleeps at night.
“There I felt I was done with everything,” he says.
At the very end, he was lucky enough to find a place at the Solidarity Center of Athens municipality. He stays in a hostel, he has food and the chance to earn some euros by selling the homeless’ magazine “Schedia”.
Whoever has a job for Lambros Moustakis can contact the zougla.gr offices in 211 555 0 500
