Galery

1

"In Greece, we are ready to give everything for the family, but we are not interested in anything outside it. We make huge sacrifices to obtain a large and comfortable home, but we do not care about the communal areas in the block. We throw the waste bag from the balcony with no concern that it will tear and dirty the entire pavement. We are known for our almost hysterical care for our children, but we take the last place in Europe in blood and organ donation. On the other hand, we take the first place in terms of racism and xenophobia." According to Dimitris Gousetis, nepotism in Greek universities and in the very politics of the country are typical examples of this model of society. "My opinion is that even today's protests involve only those civil servants who are likely to be sent to the labour reserve. The rest who will not be affected by the measure in one way or another do not respond. I.e. the reaction is an expression of the fear of every man individually, with no concern for the fate of others."

The second type of grouping in a segmented society is branch organizations. "In the old days, people were united in guilds according to their profession. They were all involved, from the master to the apprentice and each guild defended its interests against the interests of other professions. After the industrial revolution, it became clear that this type of vertical separation was useless and it was abandoned. Then, the unions were established based on class belonging and they continued to fight for the rights of their members. In the West, people are aware that economic interests are not the result of a zero sum and the interests of employees are not always opposed to the interests of their bosses, whereas things in Greece are different. In Germany, trade unions agreed to a reduction in income in order to cope with a crisis. If this happens here in Greece, or if a trade unionist even agreed to discuss this possibility with the Minister of Economy, he would immediately be declared a betrayer. Italian and Spanish trade unions voted in favour of the increasing the retirement age to 67 years. This is something the Greek trade unions would never do.

In Greece, we have examples of "fictitious" unions that fight for their interests to the detriment of the common interests. Civil servants and their associations are typical examples. "

The third category is local communities. "In no other country in the world are there unions of people coming from the country to the capital as in Greece. They are the source of votes for provincial deputies, and this forms the circle of clientelist relations. "For example, when the present Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos was Minister of Culture and Sport in the previous government, he cancelled the financial obligations of the football clubs of Thessaloniki. The opposition leader Antonis Samaras took the control over the archaeological department of the ancient temple of Apollo Epicurus from the district of Ilia and transferred it to the region of Messinia a few years ago, when he was also Minister of Culture."

The road blockades and heavy clashes of the Keratea and Gramatiko residents with the police because of their reluctance to the construction of a landfill in the area are more recent examples. "This attitude inevitably leads to racism. Local communities reject the possibility of their neighbourhoods having subdivisions of the organization to combat drugs as if no one needs them there. Victims of this racism are immigrants, national and religious minorities, and many others."

This segmentation in a country leads to the emergence and imposition of great negligence to democratic order and human rights. As an example, the lecturer pointed out the Greek Communist Party, which is very far from the definition of a democratic party. "These people exonerated Stalin, but apparently it does not annoy anyone here." In Ireland and Portugal, which have serious financial problems too, political parties are united in their efforts to save their countries from the worst crisis, whereas in Greece division and dissension dominate, because the parties act as former guilds. The other features of segmented society are found very easily, if one looks at the events happening in Greece every day: non-observance of laws, social irresponsibility, inability of authorities to respond to their obligations, over-large public sector, corruption and nationalism.

According to Dimitris Gousetis, the main reasons for these phenomena in Greek society are the uncertainty caused by the economic and social conditions and, largely, the influence of the Orthodox Church.

"I'm not optimistic about the future because the battle between the two "souls" of Greece will continue for a long time. I think the only hope lies in European integration. To be an area of Europe that will have all rights and obligations under the common governance that will take the decisions for those of us who are unable to do it ourselves."