Seeking true greatness
Greece is celebrating, singing its national anthem and flying its flag. And why not indeed? But what is it really celebrating? Is it really last weekend’s precious soccer victory and the fact that our national team is being taken more seriously by international soccer heavyweights? Or is it that we won recognition and respect on a more general level, that Greeks all over the world can once again be proud of being Greek? It seems that the soccer victory was the trigger for a blaze of national pride. Indeed, some older citizens noted that Greeks had not celebrated that way since their liberation from the Germans. But yesterday’s real-life fire was a rude awakening. Great countries are not built on the foundation of impressive achievements in the field of sports. Great countries have developed their economies and production, have enriched their cultural heritage, and have maintained secure borders… and some of them happen to play good soccer too. Now, as the echo of our soccer victory begins to fade, we should ask ourselves a serious question: Does Greece have the wherewithal to become a truly major country of the 21st century? There is no definite answer to this. We certainly possess the human and natural resources to do so. But we are lacking in other areas such as organization, discipline and seriousness without which it is impossible to progress…
