GREEKS MAY BE BROKE BUT NOT BROKEN! (ΤΩΡΑ, ΑΡΘΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΑ ΑΓΓΛΙΚΑ)

Η Ροδέτα Τζανέα είναι η νέα συνεργάτης μας. Γεννημένη στο Σικάγο των ΗΠΑ έχει την Αμερικανική υπηκοότητα αλλά ζει και εργάζεται στην Ελλάδα ως καθηγήτρια Αγγλικών (από τις καλύτερες). Κάθε τόσο, η Ροδέτα θα γράφει για τον "Ανεξάρτητο Παρατηρητή" άρθρα στα Αγγλικά, βγαλμένα μέσα από την επικαιρότητα. 

Ιδού λοιπόν το πρώτο της άρθρο, για το οποίο την ευχαριστούμε:

GREEKS MAY BE BROKE BUT NOT BROKEN

As a Greek-American living in Athens, life was good. And then the crisis ...

hit Greece. Eventually, the crisis hit me, and then a few days ago, a car hit me too. As I lay sprawled all over the street, it hit me that I may have also hit rock bottom. Now, I was broke, unemployed and injured. So, as Greece was falling apart, I was falling apart too. But before I had a chance to react, passersby rushed to my rescue. A witness stayed to testify to the police who arrived in record time – the same police whose salaries have been slashed and who pay for their gear (like bulletproof vests) out of their pocket. Luckily, I didn’t need an ambulance because I hadn’t sustained injuries serious enough to warrant it, and instead decided to go to the hospital on my own. I went late at night hoping that it wouldn’t be crowded. It was. And yet, I received a full checkup, blood tests and x-rays. All of this without endless waiting and with free medical insurance for unemployed moms like me, in one of Athens biggest hospitals, among hundreds of other patients, by underpaid (and in some cases, unpaid) doctors working multiple shifts and under difficult conditions because they lack supplies.

Greece may be on the verge of collapse, but its welfare system is alive and kicking. The worse things become, the more the government and the community band together to provide aid. I am offered free food by my neighborhood social workers. And other benefits like reduced electricity rates. And the list goes on. Neighbors give each other clothes, food, etc. Poor children are provided with school lunches. Free meals and medicine are delivered to the elderly. Neighborhood churches run soup kitchens. Clinics gather medicine and supplies, and treat people with no medical insurance. And the government has extended free medical insurance to almost everyone who cannot afford their own.

The economy may be crumbling, but the community is rising up to the occasion. People may not have the money they used to because salaries and pensions have been slashed or they have found themselves out of work. But they have retained their humanity and are reaching out to others around them who are in the same, or even worse, situation. For this reason, and although the country is in the midst of chaos, I have a sense of security because not all is lost, and the goodness of man reigns supreme.

Rodetta Tzanea                              May 20, 2015