"lost in the fire"

"What is lost in the fire may be greater than that which we feared to lose (...)

What matters more is the fact that we cannot seem to escape the weaknesses which trapped us on this course to destruction. On Sunday we again saw our politicians skirmishing in Parliament, as if they still had the luxury of division and false narratives, as if they could keep looking for external threats when that which is killing us is the plague within our walls. Again we saw the popular rage which feeds off the indifference of our leaders, who do not inform citizens, who do not inspire them, who do not make them feel that someone cares for them, that no one will be left behind. Our incompetent state does to citizens what Europe does to Greece – it condemns them to deprivation and insecurity and then sits back and watches them flounder and react and fall into dead ends.

Our only hope is that within the collapsing political system there are still enough politicians who dare to carry the burden of this difficult time, when others think only of their careers, as popular rage grows dangerously. The flames are licking at our future and at the vision of Europe”. By Nikos Konstandaras*

ekathimerini.com , Monday February 13, 2012

* Nikos Konstandaras is managing editor and a columnist of Kathimerini, the leading Greek morning daily. He is also the founding editor of Kathimerini’s English Edition, which is published as a supplement to The International Herald Tribune in Greece, Cyprus and Albania.