Dr Joseph Fitsanakis
(Department of History and Political Science, King College, USA and Senior Editor at intelNews.org.)
Copyright: www.rieas.gr
Note: Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis has written this original article specifically for RIEAS.
The WikiLeaks cablegate revelations appear to be subsiding in the new year, and so is the public debate about their meaning and consequences.
A little over a year ago, Athens and several other cities in Greece were in flames. The trigger for that unprecedented wave of violence was the shooting death of a high school student by police. Within minutes of the shooting, throngs of anarchists, hooded street thugs, and looters, Greek as well as foreign, intermingled with students of all levels and other "discontented" youth, some of whom were as young as twelve (!) had seized the streets and begun burning, plundering, and laying waste across businesses, large and small, banks, public buildings, and university campuses.
Summertime in Greece is traditionally a period of letting sleeping dogs lie, a time when most people retreat into the slumber associated with the holidays and the general slowdown across the spectrum.
This is the time when unpalatable facts and figures are generally removed from broadcasting the “news”, with program schedulers going en masse for inane “human interest” topics; the latest on the price of ferry boat tickets; and such volcanically important announcements as the latest trysts of popular female reality television hosts and the saucy developments in the bottom feeder “glamour” sub-culture populating Greece’s “glittery” islands.