5 May 2010 - Remembering Marfin and All Those who Fell in the Line of Duty ...

 

Flowers and  messages left by passers-by at the impromptu shrine set up in front of the burnt out Stadiou Street branch of Marfin Bank, after last year's senseless, heartless, murderous attack by brutal thugs, an attack which sickened everyone in Greece  and resulted in the loss of four lives, Epaminondas Tsakalis, Paraskevi Zoulia and Aggeliki Papathanasopoulou and her unborn child - employees at Greece's Marfin Bank who did not take part in the strike and remained at their desks, on duty - a tragic waste of lives. 

Today one year later, the bank's branches are all closed as a mark of respect and mourning and our hearts go out to those three families whose lives have changed forever from that day ...

What we wrote last year is just as relevant today, on the first anniversary of that black day for Greece

'For the people of Athens and Greece it is time to take stock and think carefully about what is next, where do we want to see this country go? Why do we allow the minority to consistently ruin it for the majority?

Let's reflect on something one of our much wiser ancestors said many many years ago...

"Η Δημοκρατία μας αυτοκαταστρέφεται διότι κατεχράσθη το δικαίωμα της ελευθερίας και της ισότητας, διότι έμαθε τους πολίτες να θεωρούν την αυθάδεια δικαίωμα, την παρανομία ελευθερία, την αναίδεια του λόγου ισότητα και την αναρχία ευδαιμονία."

Ισοκράτης (436 - 338π.Χ. )

"Our Democracy is destroying itself because it abused the rights of freedom and equality, because it taught it's citizens to consider insolence as a right, illegal acts as a freedom, rudeness as equality and anarchy as prosperity".

Isocrates (436 - 338 b.C.)

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This post is dedicated to to Epaminondas Tsakalis, Paraskevi Zoulia and Aggeliki Papathanasopoulou and her unborn child, and to all those men and women who have lost their lives so totally unnecessarily, in the line of duty, whether directly or indirectly, whether at their desks or in a fighter plane, whether fighting bush fires or pursuing armed and ruthless criminals...

The beautiful song, Ηλιος Θεός ( Sun - God) sung below by Vasilis Skoulas, was written for Kostas Iliakis, who fell heroically on the 23rd day of another fateful May some years before in 2006...one of Greece's many heroic pilots who have lost their lives trying to repel Turkish fighter planes in the dangerous zone over the Aegean in order to keep Greece a safe place to live...

Lest we forget

Σαν το σύννεφο φεύγω πετάω
έχω φίλο τον Ήλιο-Θεό
με του αγέρα το νέκταρ μεθάω
αγκαλιάζω και γη κι ουρανό.

Και χωρίς τα φτερά δεν φοβάμαι
το γαλάζιο ζεστή αγκαλιά
στα ψηλά τα βουνά να κοιμάμαι
στο Αιγαίο να δίνω φιλιά.

Λευτεριά στους ανέμους ζητάω
έχω πάψει να είμαι θνητός
ανεβαίνω ψηλά κι αγαπάω
δίχως σώμα χρυσός αετός.

Και χωρίς τα φτερά δεν φοβάμαι
το γαλάζιο ζεστή αγκαλιά
στα ψηλά τα βουνά να κοιμάμαι
στο Αιγαίο να δίνω φιλιά.
Σαν το σύννεφο φεύγω πετάω
έχω φίλο τον Ήλιο-Θεό
με του αγέρα το νέκταρ μεθάω
αγκαλιάζω και γη κι ουρανό