These are my ideals too. You make me proud!
'You don't need to be born Greek to be Greek' - Έλληνας και γεννιέσαι και γίνεσαι.These are the words of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Parliament yesterday. They make me proud to be Greek.
If we really love our country, we have to help make their (immigrants') dreams the dreams of our country. Why raise the ghost of 'dilluting the purity of the nation'? After all, what does it mean to be Greek? Democracy, equality, humanism. Is our faith in Greece and our ideals across the centuries so weak and shallow?
We can't be fooling ourselves; we can't keep denying them a voice.
There are no perfect solutions, but there are better solutions. (This law) gives us new opportunities: to see Greeks of Indian ancestry, of Albanian ancestry, proud of our common Greek nationality.
And all this while the main opposition party is promising to repeal the law if elected (their plan is to only award Greek citizenship to children born in Greece when they reach adulthood and provided they have a full Greek education and they relinquish their parents' nationality) and with large segments of the Greek public - perhaps a majority - being sceptical or outright hostile.
This is a true moment of greatness, all so rare in politics.
In Greece, there is history in the making. Εύγε!
Εύγε
I am quite happy with Papandreou's position these past days (26.02.2010):
"No other country will pay for our debts," he said. "It is a matter of honor and pride for our country to put our own house in order."
"Unfortunately, history has fully confirmed our worst fears," he said. "Our duty today is to forget about political costs and only think about the survival of our country ... Past policies make it necessary to proceed to brutal changes."
"I want to assure the Greek people that its efforts will pay off," Papandreou said. "We must put an end to irresponsibility and cover-ups ... If someone has done something wrong, he should be charged, no matter who he is."
Let's see if he can stick to his pledges and implement drastic measures, say goodbye to more debt, let bad businesses go bust, object by all means financial help from the EU and categorically disallow protectionist measures .
A complete overhaul is required, but at the end we'll emerge much stronger than just keep bad business practices alive. (debt debt debt)
From Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61P21S20100226?feedType=nl&feedName=usbeforethebell