‘A new image has appeared in Athens, our city that even we can’t recognize anymore.’

Dear sir/madam,

My name is Eleana  and I’m 14 years old. I live in Athens, the city in Greece that is known globally now because of the economic crisis. Every day on the news and on the internet all around the world there are fresh news about the laziness of the Greeks, their refusal to cooperate and the riots and the danger that prevails in our historical city.

Yet it’s easy to judge without being aware of the true situation that is going on. The press tries to be gainful by humiliating the Greeks. They’re waylaying for the next catastrophe to strike so that they can inflate the facts and present them as if we are the scapegoat of Europe. No one can deny that we have a big part of the responsibility for the Greek economic situation, but it is unfair to blame everything to one country when everyone has contributed to our degradation. Additionally no one seems to care about to care about the huge effort the citizens of Greece make, oppressed by the unbearable taxes, the strong increase of the goods’ prices and the pressure they have to put up with from all around the globe.

Every day dozens of people go on living on the streets with the statistics showing that we have one of Europe’s top rates of unemployment, poverty and homeless people. From one day to another, parents worry about their kids’ future since they can’t even pay for their food any more. A new image has appeared in Athens, our city that even we can’t recognize anymore.

I try to be optimistic and I hope this nightmare will soon end. I pray that everyone in Greece will change their mentality and prove once more time that our country can be reborn from its ashes. But that will be accomplished only if we have the support of others and receive all the help we can get so we can hope for a better future.

What I personally want to ask you is to publish more articles that talk about the good side of Greece and the huge effort we make. It is everyone’s right to know the truth about the hardship that we’re going through and it will be a sunshine in the rain for our people. It will encourage them to keep on going and trying to be better.

Yours sincerely,

Eleana