The Sound of Silence?

The Sound of Silence in Athens, by Annette.


The basic premiss in Annette's video, which I think is brilliant, is that Greek people need to rise up and fight against the austerity measures that have resulted in a huge decrease in the standard of living for the majority of the population; a huge rise in unemployment and homelessness; the erosion of basic human rights and civil liberties; and in police brutality directed at anyone who resists.

There are two schools of thought about this. One is that Greek people are not doing enough to resist. Athens is full of the Wake Up graffitti, a call to arms if I ever saw one - you can't walk more than a few yards anywhere in Athens without seeing another call to Wake up and Rise up, as shown below:

        
The other school of thought is that people in Greece are resisting on a daily basis. Not a day goes by without some form of strike or another. There have been so many general strikes that I have lost count. There are demonstrations in Athens and the other major cities every week, quite often several days in a week. There is resistance even in small rural areas as in Chalkidiki, where the local community are demonstrating on a daily basis against the proposed gold mining. Resistance surrounds you when in Greece. Some describe the Greek people as the vanguard of resistance to austerity.

So, which is true? I am not sure. In a funny sort of way, both, I think.




If you want to find out more about Greece and lots more on current affairs go to: http://99getsmart.com/