Now the world is beginning to take notice, at last, of the suffering and deprivation Greeks have been experiencing for many months, slowly worsening with every instruction from the EU Troika until the latest (but not the last) became unsupportable. What has been forgotten by many observers is that Greece has complied with everything they have been asked to do by their EU creditors, but each time it is found subsequently to be not enough and more is demanded with little thought for the repercussions on her people's ability to survive.
So, legislators led by an unelected bureaucrat have made their choice about the way forward, but it will not be the end. Demonstrations will spread and become more violent as Greeks express their anger and sense of powerlessness in the only way they can, and there may be further deaths over and above the suicides and poverty-related deaths that are a part of life now. If events allow the parliamentary elections to go ahead, voters will punish those whom they see as having betrayed them and the results could be extraordinary and undesirable to EU leaders. However, chaos means change, and change is always good.
As I watched police use tear gas and water cannon against the protestors last night, I used Twitter to ask for prayers for Greece and am grateful to the many readers who responded and spread the word. Her attempted subjugation by Germany in particular is now abuse and harrowing, and literally breaches human rights. Greece cannot fulfil all that is, more and more, being demanded of her: would it not be kinder to help her to a dignified independence, if that is what the Greeks want, than to perpetuate a situation of intolerable, choiceless tension and suffering imposed by outsiders in order to preserve their status quo?
Last night was the turning point in Greece, and its future is now in the hands of the people where, indeed, it should be. All will be well.]]>
