We've been advised that there will be no school tomorrow (this is primary level, not senior children) due to the current difficulties. My Greek is poor so I couldn't get to the bottom of exactly why, but assume it is a protest.
I also found this link from the associated press a little while ago that mentions Corfu. It doesn't suggest that any of the other islands have become actively involved in the protests as yet:
It is actually getting much much worse. We have been glued to the TV all evening watching the centre of Athens burn as rioters run amok. Really scary.
All schools are closed tomorrow as a mark of respect for the funeral of the boy who was shot on Saturday.
What we find hard to understand is why the situation is allowed to escalate in this way. The Police have been ordered to keep in the background in case anyone else gets hurt and fairly obviously if they did intervene it would be very hard to avoid casualties.
It does seem that almost anything would be better than allowing the rioters to continue burning and looting. How much damage should people be allowed to cause before being stopped?
Susanna
Message posted by ecotrails on 09 December 2008 at 12:59am - IP Logged
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Greeks love their riots, if you watch Greek tv you will weekly find a riot over this and that. Not trying to be flippant over these latest outbreaks which are more serious cos a young protestor was killed by the police.
Government will always try to avoid full confrontation to restore order because, although many people forget or don't know, Greece was a dictatorship in a lot of peoples living memory and many bad things happened between rival political groups..
Eco
Message posted by KEIRA on 09 December 2008 at 6:26am - IP Logged
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I read something yesterday about the troubles when the dictatorship ruled Greece and how riots in the schools were put down with the loss of a lot of lives (true figure was never disclosed). Eventually schools and colleges were given asylum status and police were not allowed to enter them. The link to the full article is below.
I suppose with the Greek government in such a precarious position,popularity wise, they will be even less popular no matter which way they handle the riots and rioters.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7771628.stm
Message posted by Bill on 09 December 2008 at 12:42pm - IP Logged
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The Greek government are having an emergency meeting today and are considering declaring a state of emergency throughout Greece.
There are various reports about the young boy who was shot. The officer who fired the shot says the youth was hit by a ricochet bullet from a warning shot. A witness says he was hit by a direct shot.
The family paid for an independant autopsy to find out the true trajectory of the bullet to see if he was shot directly or if it was a ricochet.
There are reports on www.ekathimerini.com the greek news website in English.
Message posted by seaangler (Chat Room Administrator) on 09 December 2008 at 3:58pm - IP Logged
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seaangler
If that was the case why did they not use rubber bullets(in the case of a riot) as there are a lot of ifs and buts and rumoring going on you do not know what to belive.....But the damage has been done...and the consequences are going to cause a lot of trouble...
Chris....My opinion only...
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