Saturday, February 11, 2012

The presses have stopped.

When the new coalition government was formed, I stopped following the news. I was deeply shaken and disgusted by the fact that there were now far right extremists in the government, with a percentage in the last election of 5.63%. Ridiculously high anyway, but under no circumstances high enough to justify them being in government, even if it is a well known fact that at times of social turmoil some people affiliate themselves with the nationalists (oh, why be kind, when fascists is what they are). The extreme right, from here on referred to as the fascists, hadn't had any active role in parliament, other than occupying the occasional seat, and talking the occasional nonsense, since the fall of the junta, in 1975. That was before I was born, but lucky me, in my lifetime I was granted the privilege to see them as ministers and vice ministers. Scary and ludicrous at the same time.

Shortly after the new government picked up where the previous had left off, signing all the ridiculous terms the troika posed, and, as I said I stopped following the news, the newspaper I used to read the online version of, at the office, while having my morning coffee, went bankrupt. In the olden days, the closure of ελευθεροτυπία would have constituted major news. It wasn't just any newspaper and it's not a coincidence that it was founded in 1975. Until the end, it was where some of the more radical voices were allowed to express their views. On a much more personal level, it provided a common pool of information for me and my sister who lives abroad, with a daily exchange of links to articles that we would discuss at length during our weekend phone call. Refusing to believe that what had appeared to be a strike was actually the end of ελευθεροτυπία, I keep returning to their home page with my coffee in hand, only to be met by the same frozen news of December, 21st: the homeless die 30 years early, a lack of ethics in politics, what films to expect in 2012. Since then, as the situation around us becomes grimmer and grimmer, as we become utterly helpless and hopeless, I get a sense of comfort, knowing that somewhere is always December 21st 2011, there is still some hope for an uprising, and I can pretend to care about the imminent release of Men in Black 3.