I have almost forgotten this anniversary we call “four years loan agreements”. I almost forgot it because hardly any mainstream media and websites and blogs mentioned it. The day started with the festive celebrations of the primary surplus confirmed more or less by the Eurostat. And so were the loan agreements forgotten, banned from the media. Not that the mainstream media of this country made any special programs on the previous years, on the previous anniversaries.
The painful austerity program is nothing one wants to think and remember, how much more to collect the shameful data of suicides, of bankruptcies, of households without electricity, of starving families depending on soup kitchens, of elderly searching in garbage bins, of the homeless, of the sick without medication and access to health care.
No, nobody wants to think of all the victims of austerity, nobody wants to mention them.
Now we live in Greece of success story and primary surplus and investors standing queues to come and create new jobs for the over 1,3 million unemployed.
Now we live in Greece of “effort”, a word of government propaganda that has been tootling us on 24/7 basis by any Nead Dimokratia and Pasok minister and lawmaker who finds his way on our television screens.
We should look into the future and forget the past.
Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras said it today: “After 4 very difficult years, Greece managed to stand on its feet and looks to the future with much greater optimism.”
Yes, it was 23rd April 2010, when the stunned Greeks watched their then prime minister to have traveled to a remote island only to announce that the government would surrender to the claws of International Monetary Fund.
Four years later, four years of pain, broke households and broken dignities, nobody cares to bring to justice those who deprived Greeks of their honor and coverage of their basic needs.
Do as if nothing happened? Sorry, I don’t think so. The impact of harsh austerity still hurts my family and the families of my relatives and friends.
The future is ours but we don’t see.
PS No, I will not make any review of four years of austerity. I do this though this blog on a daily basis.
