Greek Elections set

Sure we all knew there were gonna have an election sooner or later but nobody was sure quite when. Now the date is locked in for May the 6th. We already have been treated to that festive pre-election atmosphere for over a week now so setting an actual date was inevitable. Our interim non-elected coalition government has been ruling, along with some help from troika, since early November. Elections were to be held in February but that was not possible because the troika needed more guarantees from the present government before alowing elections to be held. Thus the second memorandum of a month ago. Both ruling parties, there has been no official opposition since October of last year, have chosen their leaders and are gearing up. They make speeches and hold conferences and do what they do in rented halls and behind closed doors. No more public speeches in this country. Both parties, PASOK and ND have become the laughing and crying stock of an entire nation. Whenever I am in a public place and one of the leaders is making a speech on tv, something that happens quite often, people are either laughing or blaspheming. So why all the anger and cynicism?

When I was growing up we use to spend our summers on the island of Aegina and would often visit the quaint fishing village of Perdika. A beautiful and traditional village of a few hundred souls. I became acquainted with one of the elders, a man in his early sixties at the time, who related to me many of his wartime experiences. His most amazing story had to do with hyperinflation. It was a phenomenom of WW2 Greece where daily devaluations of the drachma eroded the buying power of money overnight. Four digit inflation will do that and there was nothing that could be done as the Greek reserve had been "borrowed", with no interest of course, by the Nazis. This is what is known today as the "occupational loan". The only single one never returned by Germany. So my friend, the fisherman, in his twenties at the time, would set out with his nets every night to fish. After filling his boat he would spend the next six hours rowing to Pireaus to sell his fish. He would then fill his boat with paper currency and row back to Perdika, another six hours. On arrival the money was already worthless. Then they would do it again. It sounds extremely unreasonable and I had to ask him why. "Because Athens was starving" was his unwavering answer.

Last week, in Syntagma square and right under the Greek Parliament, a pensioner who could not stomache his pension being reduced anymore, shot himself in the head. He was 78. He had been a pharmacist and had lived through all kinds of situations but this last bit of state violence was too much. Having paid for his pension many times over during his productive years seeing it now being stolen was too much. He is part of that generation that suffered so severely in the war and the years that followed. They are a generation that worked hard, paid their taxes, lived with their heads held high. They are the generation that resisted fascism and paid dearly for their foolishness. In the end they prevailed. Until this very day when their bought and paid for pensions have had a haircut. Now it is hard to keep your dignity when someone switches the rules on you. Elections are coming and we are all still in good humour. It is the next day, after the ballots have been shut down, that counts. It is the next day that we will see if this state violence will continue or be halted. It is the next day we are all waiting for as our hands are armed and untied. Figuratively speeking of course, even though suicides have just about doubled over the last couple of years.