For months now I have suffered from
a serious case of writer’s block for various reasons. And while I know exactly
what I want to write about – mainly continue the list – I cannot put myself to
doing it. The words simply do not flow as they used to and that frustrates me,
like I cannot begin to describe how much. Also, it has been a very long time
since I last expressed any public view whatsoever regarding the state Greece is
in and most particularly culture and education – the two segments of
civilization that are of importance to me. And while my writing is still
stifled and the words refuse to reveal themselves to me obstinately, today I cannot
remain silent; for a crime has been committed and despite the fact that my
voice is hardly ever heard (or even agreed with for that matter), my sense of
justice has taken over the best of me and it forces my hand. What will come of
it, I do not know. [I might lose my job, but that is of no importance,
considering that my current position will be over in less than two months time,
so it is not such a huge deal at the moment.]
I spoke of a crime and obviously I must
name it (for my non-Greek readers, that is, because the Greek readers already
know from the title what I will be writing about). Yesterday afternoon – May 11th,
2013 – the Greek government, applying a unique measure that has absolutely
nothing to do with Democracy and in order to fulfill its obligations towards
our European lenders, announced that the National Radio and Television Broadcasting
Service of Greece (EPT), a stately funded institution (we, the people also pay
for it a rather small fee for its service), was to be shut down. Just like that
and – what is even more shocking – on the very same day the announcement was
made. Which meant, that by the end of the day the radio stations and television
channels, as well as any other institution associated with EPT, would cease its
operations, whatever they may have been!
For my non-Greek readers, I will try
to explain in as quick a manner as possible what EPT was (past tense). EPT was
the National Broadcasting Service that from the radio, eventually expanded over
to the television, internet and social media functions of Information, News,
Culture and Education. It consisted of a number of radio stations all over
Greece, each dedicated to a different kind of either news or culture; three
state wide broadcast television channels (ET1, NET and ET3) with different
objectives and goals in their programming; a magazine; a webpage; the obvious
social network connections; an orchestra; a choir; technicians to keep
everything in working order and probably a gazillion of other things as well,
which I am unaware of. In total, those parts amounted to 2.656 individuals –
from reporters to musicians to technicians to the cleaning staff – who as of
today are essentially, unemployed.
I would love to go on about the way
they ended up on the streets – namely through the personal choice of our Prime
Minister, who, in order to please our European lenders and achieve the set goal
of firing some 2.000 people from the public sector by the end of June had to do
something, otherwise we wouldn’t get the loan… But I will not, because I refuse
to meddle with politics, even by criticizing such an abomination of a choice.
And I refuse to do so, because, despite my little life experience I know that
much: in today’s world, people are only viewed as numbers and those numbers
need to procure money for the rich; when they stop doing so they need to be
laid off. At least, that is the very blunt and least detailed explanation. But,
please, couldn’t they have come up with a better idea?
I am not going to say that everybody
in Greece in general and in EPT in particular is a saint. It would be the
biggest lie in the world! I live here, I have the distinct ………………… [deliberately
left like that, in case you were wondering] of working in the public sector, I have
seen things that will make your hair jump and I know that there are a lot of
worthless people in important positions that simply cannot be moved, because
they know somebody in an even higher place. But shutting down the National
Broadcasting Service is a crime. No matter what. And it is not only a crime
because 2.656 people and their families are laid off, no. I am convinced that
not everybody in there was worth it – but that amount of people must have been
small, hell, even if only half of those 2.656 people were worth it, they at
least should have been allowed to stay. The way I hear, currently Greece is the
only nation on the planet that does not have a National Broadcasting Service.
Fabulous! Just great! We are even worse than North Korea! The crime of shutting
down a news service goes way further.
Firstly, it is a distinct violation
of the right to free speech which every individual has from day one. You shut
down the National Broadcasting Service and all you have left are the private
channels, each serving a different master and with different obligations to
different political and financial parties. Let’s make one thing clear: I am not
saying that EPT was unbiased or that at no time in the past, news were
influenced by the governing body. But, believe me, after seeing the crap the
other news channels feed us every single day, the little amount of government
propaganda EPT did was harmless. At least there you knew who they served and
why.
Secondly, EPT has always held up
some standards regarding its programming – and here I am going to start
reminiscing incessantly. When I was a kid (not so long ago, mind you) I literally
grew up watching the children’s program of the 90’s which consisted of “Little
House in the Prairie” (loved it and it made me want to read the books, which I did
when I became a teen), “Carousel” (a Brazilian children soap opera that took
place in a school that had the greatest teacher of them all, Ms. Jimena, who
was not only beautiful, but extremely kind – I know that every child my age
back then wished to have her as their teacher), “The Chronicles of Narnia” (the
four installations made by the BBC of four of the seven books – the doll Aslan
is a joke by today’s standards, but for someone who adored the books that
series was incredible; I have the DVD’s and occasionally still watch them), “The
Teacher” (an exceptional French series, that I would kill to see again, because
it is probably the best series ever made, period!), an installation of the “Adventure”
series by Enid Blyton (I think it was the “Adventure” series, but I am not very
sure any more) which was fun and enjoyable and did actually make the books come
to life (huge fan of Blyton’s books, by the way – nowadays children do not even
know who she was), and not to mention the Greek productions for children and
adults made back then that unfortunately will not resonate with my non-Greek
readers and therefore I refrain from mentioning them. I learned great lessons
back then through all those programs and the best thing about them was I actually
watched them together with my parents, because even they found them interesting
and qualitative.
Then, of course, there were the
documentaries: EPT had always a huge arsenal of extremely interesting
documentaries to present, from “Lonely Planet” to fictionalized versions of the
life of Dostoyevsky and what have you. Also, they produced themselves extremely
interesting documentaries about all kinds of things, many of which have
received numerous international awards (the documentary series “Exantas” is one
example). By the way, one of the last documentaries I saw some months ago was a
report on “El Sistema”, brilliantly done and executed by our Greek reporters.
And then, there was the music. I
watched my first opera on the established Sunday matinee program of ET3, which
was then moved to the afternoon, to a more appropriate time slot. They
broadcasted concerts of classical music from all over the world, not only
through the television, but also through their radio channels, most importantly
– for classical music – the 3rd. That radio channel was on non-stop
in our house every single day; in fact, it was the only radio station we ever
listened to with undying devotion!
Also, the sports. I am a huge sports
fan – I do not enjoy doing them myself, but I love watching them. Football,
basketball, tennis, water sports, athletics and figure skating… I still
remember the final of the 2004 Euro Championships where Greece upset Portugal
and won the Cup – it was on NET. Every single basketball event – from European
Championships to the World Championships – where Greece always in the past years
has a team to speak of was shown there. Every May it was Rolland Garros time!
Water sports and athletics; the Olympic Games obviously! And figure skating… I
will never forget the numerous times I cried watching exceptional artists dance
on the ice in competitions, bringing a moment of beauty in our tormented everyday
lives.
Finally the nations’ archives. It is
incredible once you realize that right now, Greece’s modern day history of the
past century is in danger. EPT has one of the most concise and complete
audiovisual archives in the country. Not only that, but during the past years,
an effort was made to digitize everything and spread it – for free – to the
public via the Internet. I have seen old shows there, shows from before I was
born. I learned about people I was interested in through old documentaries. I explored
those archives whenever I had the chance and the time and they were marvelous!
If anyone wants to destroy our nation that is the way to do it: destroy the
archives. Right now, they – whoever “they” are – have total access and control
over them. That archive contains Greece’s cultural heritage of the 20th
century and we are about to lose it. The cultural implications of such a loss
are magnanimous, to say the least and impossible to calculate at this moment.
Should it happen, it will be a crime against humanity and those responsible for
it, should face trial.
I am so overwhelmed by all these
happenings, that I am uncertain whether I have said enough. Probably not. And
also, probably, my entry is not as powerful as I would like it to be, nor does
it make its’ point. But, what I want to stress out is this: despite the fact
that often I was irritated by a lot of things that had to do with EPT – from the
wrong announcement of a music piece on the radio, to the complete overhaul
(without any warning) of their program when I really needed it to be a
different way, to the censored kiss from “Deep Space 9” in the year 2008 (I think)
– I appreciated its existence in my life. And I never could have imagined a
life without it. Well, I’m living that life right now – and so are 10 million
others just like me…
How is this going to play out? Mind
you, the government has already announced a new form of EPT coming to
existence, sometime in the future. But I already dislike the name of it, so I probably
won’t care much about it. And even if they restore the old EPT to the way it
was yesterday, with all its problems and downsides, it wouldn’t be the same.
Not only that, but they would make themselves even greater fools than they
already are. Well, I never voted for anyone in the current parliament, nor am I
ever going to, but it is rather disturbing to see yourself represented by such
idiots to the world. No wonder everybody thinks Greeks are stupid and lame. Still,
I remain an optimist and pray that the world in general will come to its senses
and our lives will get better. Maybe. One day.
*Greek Radio-television Tomb
