It is unbelievable what’s happening in the world now days. This is the year of 2009 and if you still cannot believe it? yes it is true. We came through wars, through dictatorships, we have suffered so much from the WWII, the consequence of the far right extremism that took place in Europe during the 30′s. Despite that this was one of the most destructive events the human race had to suffer there are still people who support nationalism (national conservatism) which is an integral part of the far-right ideology.
In previous posts especially in the “Artist and the Society” category we speak about the negative stereotypes the artists (especially those who are involved with modern arts) confront from the conservative society. I should clarify that the far right – nationalist supporters are the worst artist-haters in the world; they only appreciate the baroque-classical-romantic era musicians and support the idea of proudly preserving the ?pure? cultural background of each country. Unfortunately this is confirmed once again by taking the following example from Greece.
In less than 2 months (September & October 2009) far right groups have targeted and attacked artists. The first case was the folk singer Sofia Papazoglou. She was walking towards a subway station while outside a group of skinheads from the nazi party “Golden Sunrise” was distributing leaflets for the national elections campaign. Once they saw that she dropped the racist leaflet in the bin they attacked her with acid. What is more, the group knew that she was a singer and chose to attack her personally although many other people had binned their leaflet too.
The second case was a comedian-singer Panos Mouzourakis. According to tvxs.gr a group of young people (nationalist hooligans) attacked him outside the music scene where he performs and tried to burn his face with spray. He also admitted to have received death threats before. The attack happened because he recorded a satirical video regarding the national bank holiday of the 28th of October (known as an OHI Day when the Greek army was involved in the WWII and won against the fascist Italian invasion). There is also a group in Facebook against the comedian which blames him as “The Great Anti-Greek and Modern Nightmare” .
In the video (it is in Greek language only and there are no subtitles) he talks in satirical tone about the flag as a national symbol trying to give a lesson to some far right groups that this is just a piece of clothe and the people should be more open minded instead of taking some things so seriously. Also he points out that the national day of the 28th of October should not be a bank holiday because after the victory against the Italians, the German nazi soldiers took over the whole country and occupied it for 3 years, therefore there is nothing to celebrate about.
I personally one-hundred-percent agree with this opinion. I respect the soldiers who died fighting the Nazi war machine but they did not do it for the younger generations to live freely today. They fought and died because they had no other choice. For all those who have different opinion it would be fair to check the lyrics of the song below, a song that talks about the tragedy of the WWI “Green Fields of France“.”But young Willie Mc Bride this all happened again, and again and again”?. A timeless song as of course this has happened again and even worse in the WWII, in Vietnam, in Balkans, in Africa, in Middle East!.
Back to Greece, similar examples have happened though the years. The famous comedian Jimis Panousis has been blamed for “offending national symbols” and often he had to confront Orthodox Christians extremists.
In fact the situation has worsened. In the recent Euro elections the far right LAOS party gained 7% and 5% in the national elections of 2009 in contrast of the 3% in 2007. And Greece is not the worst case despite the hostile climate towards activists, immigrants and artists. In Russia people who belong in these categories have been killed by the dozens. In almost every East-European country the situation is similarly bad. Perhaps the people are unable to get rid of their nonsense fear towards the new, the unknown, embrace the world, embrace the difference. We are 70 years or more after the WW2. 70 years have passed after the fall of fascism and we see it rise again!
Sources: tvxs.gr
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17/02/2010 @ 11:31
So far 3 immigrants beaten up by the police and died last year. This is racism. Black people keep on complaining about racism especially from the police. Attacks are not unheard. The neo nazi party Golden Dawn has been complained several times for stabbings and vandalisms during rallies. Racist attacks do not attract the interest of the media. Fortunately there are a lot of anti racist movements as the country has a strong left wing culture. Me as a Greek I lived abroad I can tell you there is a huge line between natives and immigrants in Greece. Also in the latest research the 70% of the people said “there are too many immigrants and the government should encourage a lot to leave“.
The word Albanian or gypsy is equivalent to a swearing. A typical Greek person could be highly offended by calling him./her Albanian
29/11/2009 @ 18:46
Great post, I agree… I am happy for having that hosted in our site.
It seems like these fascist thugs have filled up the whole youtube with their nasty videos. Finaly they have to accept what damages Metaxas and Junda has done.
I love the Green fields of France. I believe it… it is on the player