A NOble cause.

 I was born to Greek parents in Canada and grew up in the United States. When I was 13 my family moved to Greece. Form the age of 13 to the age of 43 – for 30 years – I lived in a country I grew to love. I studied, worked, traveled, married (twice) and had two children… without ever cheating or stealing or snatching rights and special privileges from others. I worked with passion; I became financially independent and built a career in the profession I chose to follow. And finally I reached a point where I was proud of the way my life was going and the principles that had led me along the way; and I conveyed these principles to my children.

And then Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou and his “socialist” PASOK came along to state the notorious “the money exists” and win the 2009 election. But a few months later – on April 23^rd 2010 from the remote island of Kastelorizo, an image I’ll never forget – he announces to the Greek people that there is no money and we will be receiving a bailout from the IMF to avoid going bankrupt. A year and a half later, Papandreou was dismantled from his position as PM and a non-elected prime minister (Papadimos) took his place. And so begins the dismantling of democracy…

And after the 2012 election, the formerly “anti-memorandum” Samaras joins forces with other formerly anti-memorandum albeit power-hungry politicians from an even farther extreme right party ( Adonis Georgiadis from LAOS) and the "left" (Fotis Kouvelis) and all together they begin the dismantling of society, under the blessings of the EC-ECB-IMF. And I found myself with a 40% slash in my salary (same with my husband, only he’s now been unemployed for 7 months). In a dead market, which has eliminated even the slightest chance of earning extra income from translations; an occupation I legitimately exercised (with all the necessary financial statements, VAT etc.) for years before being appointed as a teacher. At the age of 45 I couldn’t afford the flat I was renting with my second family anymore, so we moved in to my parents’ home. And we counted our blessings for actually having a house to move in to, as many others in our place did not have this “luxury” and ended up homeless.

We soon got used to our new living situation, and continued our hard-working, honest lives… but now our anger against the "leaders" who had thrown us into humiliation and compromise to less and less – always with the blessings of the EC-ECB-IMF – was raging. And I searched, and I read, and I reached my conclusions. And on Sunday I will cast a furious NO. After everything they have stolen from me, our so-called friends are now trying to rob me of my dignity. It’s the last thing I have left, and I refuse to hand it over to them, and I don’t care if that means we’ll be kicked out of the EU and the Eurozone. The one thing they can’t do is kick us out of Europe; geography and culture are much stronger than the hypocrites that come across as the leaders of the European (dis)Union while having trodden down fundamental human rights and ideals in the country that gave birth to the continent's very name.   

The mainstream media have been bombarding us and the world with images of people queuing at ATMs to withdraw their daily 60 Euro “capital control” limit, in an effort to convince us of how tragic the situation in Greece currently is. What I know is that people queuing in line for free meals is a much more tragic scene, and it’s been going on for years… plus these people couldn’t care less if there is a curfew on withdrawals, quite simply because they have nothing to withdraw.

This is certainly not the first instance in history when Greeks have had to rise to challenging circumstances, and the NO road is certainly a bumpy one. But we owe it to our ancestors, who never hesitated to heed the call for democracy, liberty and national sovereignty over and over again. We owe it to our children, who carry a debt tag from the day they are born in a country ridden with cruel austerity and injustice. And we owe it to the victims of this crisis, who buckled under the despair and took their own lives. 

We’re in for rough times…. but with our heads up high, and for a NOble cause.