economic crisis kills fairy tales 3#

Today, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos asked to leave the cell he shares with eight more men and move to another one.

The rest of the prisoners were smoking and he could not stand it anymore.

Vassilis Papageorgopoulos was led to prison just yesterday. He's the former Mayor of the city of Thessaloniki and he was sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement of public money totaling 18 million euros.

His lifelong conviction shocked public opinion as it's the first such harsh punishment imposed on Greek political misuse of public money. But the amount of money is huge and judges didn't recognize any mitigating factor.

Vassilis Papageorgopoulos became popular as an athlete. He was many times the champion of 100 meters in Greece and Balkan and three times in Europe.

In 1976, he was flag bearer at the Olympic Games in Montreal and two years later he entered politics first time.

After three years as a municipal counselor, he was elected and kept on being elected as a member of the Parliament House for 15 years.

It was his decision to leave the House to claim the Municipality of Thessaloniki and he managed to keep on being elected for 14 years.

Although rumors about misuse on public money went on for ages, citizens of Thessaloniki loved him.At that time,the general idea in Greece was that "all politicians steal" so it didn't matter until economic crisis broke.

Currently, there are 40 more cases of corruption in Municipalities under the microscope of the investigating authorities.

Traveling to Volos

The other day, due to a very important obligation, I had to travel to the city of Volos which is 324 kilometers away from Athens. In fact, Volos is in central Greece and to me the best way to get there is by train.

So, at 7am I got to the main railway station of Athens.

The first morning train departs at 7.18am and travelers are already getting on the train.

The sound of the engine gave march and my five-hour trip started.

As we're moving away from Athens the scenery is getting different...

...and this view can only be seen when traveling by train.

The construction of Greek railway started in 1834 and 35 years later the first railway line connected Athens to Piraeus. As Greece was getting bigger more lines were constructed connecting the country almost from end to end.

Along the way to Volos one can also see some old and traditional railway stations

After I changed train in the city of Larissa, I finally reached Volos.

This beautiful building was built in 1882.

Despite of the earthquakes of 1955 that changed the face of old Volos, the railway station is still there. On the first floor,where it used to be the house of station master, today there's the Railway Museum of Thessaly.

The architect of the railway station of Volos was Evaristo de Chirico, father of the famous artist Giorgio de Chirico.In fact, the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico was born and raised in Volos and later moved to Athens where he studied art in the Athens School of Fine Arts.

Natural born posers!

"I'm being tortured"

There's this beautiful Greek song saying "Road had its own story, somebody wrote it on the wall with paint".
Βασανίζομαι : vassanizome means I'm being tortured and during the last years this single world has spread on the walls of Athens screaming how this city feels.

Reversing the popular aversion, it's like a word is worth a thousand pictures: people losing their job and house, people dying without a blanket in the hospital, patients not being able to buy their drugs and parents to feed their children, teenagers with no dreams. Everyone feels like being tortured.

At the same time more and more claim and conquer a little piece of the city which filled with smudges and abstract slogans.

It seems that as economic instability intensifies social insecurity more and more need to have their own constant reference point .

According to the new forecasts Greek recession will deepen further this year.

New Molotov attack shortly before

I was having a drink with some friends in a bar on Navarinou street, in Exarchia, when all by sudden I heard the familiar boom of Molotov. I run out. Almost everyone run out to see what was going on. I saw men of the special forces of police running and run after them.

Groups of anarchists threw Molotov cocktails a couple of minutes before.

A parked car is on fire.

Firemen got to the spot very soon.

But these few minutes were enough to burn the interior of the car.

A few meters below anarchists barricaded with overturned garbage bins.

"And in the cradle of democracy the pigeons are wearing gas masks", Nick Cave Lighting Bolts.

Athens inspires Nick Cave

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -Lighting Bolts-published 22 February 2013

Two lightning bolts were delivered to my room
They were gifts from Zeus
I rock the bolts in a bassinet of pine
People ask me how I am
I say I am all right
I'm fine!
I push the lightning bolt in a pram
Till the sun goes down & it gets dark
The girls from Jubilee Street hang out their windows
And they wave & ask me how I am tonight
I say I am good
I'm all right!

In Athens all the youths are crying from the gas
I am by the hotel room working on a tan
People come up and ask me who I am
I say if you don't know
Don't ask
Zeus laughs but it's the gas
He asks me how I am
I say Zeus don't ask
My lightning bolts are jolts of joy
They are joy boys from Zeus
I fed them porridge in their booster seats of knowledge
And in the cradle of democracy the pigeons are wearing gas masks

My lightning bolts play in the elevators
They slide down the hotel banister
And Zeus throws a gas canister
And it spins around the pool
As pigeons wearing respirators
Steal the lightning bolts
Zeus wants them back
O my bolts of joy
O my darling little boys
They are lost to us
And people
They are never coming back
At night I watch them sleep
And cry years of tears
And it's not the gas
People ask me how we are
We are I say mostly lost

A rainy morning in Athens

8.50a.m. Outside it rains a lot.

Rain caused a lot of problems in Athens. It's been raining since late last night and as I hear it's the strongest storm since 1961. Once more many houses, stores and streets flooded.

photo: www.902.gr

I would expect nothing else. That's what always happens because no Greek government has ever dealt seriously with the necessary infrastructure and most people involved in public works just took the chance to make money.

photo:www.news247.gr

In the center of Athens problems were less.

In the evening I walked around my neighborhood. In Anagnostopoulou street the trunk of a tree broke and fell onto parked cars.

But that's nothing compared to the damage caused by the rain in other areas.