Blog

Dear members and friends,

EL.I.S.M.E. is changing its location after an unprofitable large increase in rent. The relevant research revealed a number of candidate apartments in Athens and its surroundings. After considering a series of criteria, the Board of Directors decided by majority to move the Institute to Piraeus (100 Kolokotroni, near the Municipal Theater) around the end of April 2019. This event constitutes a new milestone in the history of the Institute, which it hopes will receive the support of all its members. It goes without saying that the achievement of the important work of EL.I.S.M.E. is due to its members who believe in it and constitute its strength. At this delicate and transitional time of relocation (with real risk), we ask for the presence and support of our members. The geographical leap of the new address is compensated by its central location, the relatively low rent and the space of the apartment which meets the functional requirements. In due course, members will be informed about the ways of accessing our new home.
Greece, although immersed in problems, is not running to cover lost ground but is swirling in the vortex of quadruple elections. The measure has now been lost. The causes of the crisis have been forgotten and public spending has already increased by two billion € in the last four years. However, anyone who thinks that the evil ends here is mistaken. The pre-election recruitment of 8.000 more people in the public sector is imminent (many of them outside ASEP), at a time when the state owes billions to the stagnant private sector (and the main provider of the State), which, having no access to bank liquidity, is gradually laying off its employees. There is no mention of significant foreign investments in the kingdom of inertia and obsession. The deterioration of the welfare state in its main aspects of health, education and living standards does not require analysis since they are a daily experience for citizens.
Citizen safety is the new short joke. The rights of dozens of strangled senior citizens in their homes take second place to the rights of their robbers and stranglers, since self-defense with a weapon in a home's shelter is a felony. On the other hand, let the impudent people who disobeyed the instructions of the Minister of PROPO and did not pretend to be asleep be careful. In the midst of all this, the police are looking for radios and are asking for protection (from whom, I wonder?) so that their police stations are not looted. After the conclusion of the fire in Mati, those who boasted that everything was done so perfectly that they would do exactly the same in a similar future situation should not only resign but commit "hara-kiri" if they had a trace of integrity.
The above state "achievements" are complemented by the uncritical rapid pre-election Hellenization of tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of immigrants with late, scandalous simplification provisions, a fact that practically constitutes a conscious undermining of National Vital Interests. At the same time, real Greeks abroad do not have the right to vote and if they do obtain it, it will be limited to the election of three (out of 300) members of parliament.
The march "Macedonia the famous" with which the political leadership "boasted and boasted" on the official platforms will not be heard again by order of themselves (and the former Chief of the General Staff and current Minister of National Defense). Otherwise, the disapproval of thousands of our fellow citizens who suddenly acquired a Nazi and racist perception and mentality is to blame. In their self-criticism, the protesting Greek citizens should take into account that in addition to being "immature and unthinking" as Mr. Prime Minister characterizes them, they are also "loners" as Mr. Kotzias calls them since they do not let Erdogan co-exploit the underwater hydrocarbon deposits within the Greek EEZ in the Aegean and the SE Mediterranean.
Given that referendums on national issues are the prerogative of other states, Greek citizens will have multiple opportunities to express themselves in 2019. Let them take advantage of them.
*March 2019
Vice Admiral (retd) V. Martzoukos PN
Honorary Commander of the Hellenic Navy
President of EL.I.S.M.E.