LETTER FROM GREECE:The recent killing of a journalist in Athens is a terrifying reflection of a society grappling with a broad spectrum of crises, writes RICHARD PINE
THOSE WHO write for the media expect the privilege of freedom of speech. In some circumstances, they can also expect the privilege of death.
In Algeria and Iraq, Colombia or Mexico, for example, it is a journalist’s daily risk. Even though it is 25 years since the last Greek journalist was assassinated, the killing on July 19th of Sokratis Giolias, head of news at Thema Radio in Athens and principal figure in a controversial political blog, reminds us of the community to which we belong. Giolias’s death diminishes me.
Is the gunning down of one journalist any more reprehensible than the terrorist murder of George Vassilakis, aide to the Greek security minister, on June 24th, or the gratuitous deaths by anarchist fire-bomb of three bank officials on May 5th? Of course not. But it focuses that sense of community which is largely lacking in Greek society today – a society fragmented by crises.
It is believed Giolias was about to reveal a political scandal, but why that should have made him a target for the “Sect of Revolutionaries” group is unclear, even though he himself had recently predicted attacks on journalists alleged by the terrorists to be concealing, rather than revealing, political dishonesty. These affronts to human dignity are at one end of the scale of protest.
At the other end are the all-out strikes and smaller work stoppages almost every week. The Athens metro, Piraeus port, the Acropolis, air traffic control, taxi services – all are vulnerable to disruption. (School holidays means teachers are excused from striking till September.) Some of these stoppages will have domestic consequences, some hit tourist industries already staggering from cancellations due to a downturn in the euro, the pound and the dollar. What effect the bombs have is anyone’s guess.
Tourism accounts for 20 per cent of Greek gross domestic product (GDP). One might expect niche markets like Corfu and Rhodes to weather the downturn more successfully than the mainland. But although upmarket villa rentals have not been so badly affected, hoteliers in Rhodes and Athens are admitting a drop of up to 20 per cent on 2009 figures, which means a 4 per cent drop in Greece’s GDP if the trend continues.
Is one man’s brutal death more or less important to Greece than a national financial disaster? And what is the prime minister doing about it?
Some disgruntled members of the ruling Pasok party have criticised leader George Papandreou for taking time out to attend his annual think-tank, the “Symi Symposium”, rather than sticking at his Athens desk dealing with the nitty-gritty of the crisis. Most of his internal opponents are old-school socialists who are appalled at the dismantling of the “jobs for the boys” mentality created by Papandreou’s father, Andreas, when he was premier in the 1980s.
His son has no option but to think big and to think small at the same time, if he is to stabilise the Greek state, give it a new sense of direction, and – not necessarily the same thing – restore its financial equilibrium. If he loses sight of the larger issues, such as the “why” of Vassilakis’s and Giolias’s assassinations, his ideological drive will falter. To accomplish a turnaround in Greek society – and its economy – depends not only on fiscal rectitude but also on a new understanding of what the Greek state means to the Greek people.
Papandreou is faced with a dichotomy: which is more serious, the threat from terrorism (which steals lives in order to bring down the democratic state) or the kleptocracy (which allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer)? If you want to maintain the fabric of the state, then that fabric must be durable and acceptable to the members of the state. No one – other than the terrorists themselves – would argue that the state is worthless, yet few would accept the present vortex as a sustainable society.
In the middle, between the stabilisers and the terrorists, are the trade unions, which, quite understandably, are seeking the best deal for their members. Few union leaders, other than the ideologically focused and well-positioned communists, can see the vortex for what it is: that, beyond the economic circumstances, there is a massive social danger to this still-developing nation.
The death of a journalist affects his wife and children (one, in Giolias’s case, as yet unborn), his colleagues at Thema Radio, and the whole media hinterland. Ten cent on a litre of petrol (currently €1.60-€1.80) and a hike in VAT from 19 to 23 per cent, affect everyone. Which is the greater tragedy? Which story tells us more about the society in which we live? Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not put another 10 per cent tax on a bottle of ouzo. Thou shalt not raise the retirement age.
Ironically, in the midst of all this moral and structural confusion, Dora Bakoyannis, one of Greece’s most able politicians (and Papandreou’s predecessor as foreign minister), who is critical of the innate clientelism of the Greek state, is forming a new party. It started with a “Forum for Greece”.
It’s tragic that such a forum could not become a multiparty government of national unity, since the call on all sides is for transparency.
But it would be little consolation to the memory of Sokratis Giolias, who was killed for pursuing exactly that.