Page 7 - C.A.L.L. #40 - Winter 2015

Greece: Community Building in Times of Crisis

http://gen.ecovillage.org

At Skala Ecovillage, a network meeting of grassroots projects from all over
Greece brought ideas, actions for change, community building, and hope as Anna
Fillipou writes in her moving letter.

Dear Friends of Skala Ecovillage,

Next Sunday, on 20 September, elections will take place once again in Greece.
After Tsipras put Greece in the third international bailout and austerity
measures, the political party Syriza has split into two parties. The demands of a
radical overhaul of the Greek economy, including major reforms of health,
welfare, pensions and taxation, that was the only way to ensure Greece
remained in the eurozone, bring many people to even deeper despair.

But the issue which moves
us more than anything

else, is the situation with
the refugees. Lesbos, Kos,
and all the Greek islands
on the East coast are on
the verge of an explosion,
as refugees crowd onto
Greek islands. Greece is
the southern gateway for
Europe. The island of
Lesbos (with 85,000

inhabitants), is currently
hosting as many as 25,000
refugees in its capital alone. The television shows scenes of chaos with the
refugees crowding the island’s port with a cruise liner being pressed into action
to transport newcomers to the mainland.

Athens’ caretaker government, which has made the handling of the crisis its top
priority, ahead of general elections on 20 September, said it was also stepping
up emergency aid, dispatching doctors and medical units to the islands. We, in
Greece, are very familiar because of our history with the issue of being
refugees. We know this pain so intimately. All my grandparents were refugees
and the same with the grandparents of Nikiforos. We grew up with their

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