Flags for honor, stamps for profit…
Aren’t they Greek, the policemen who either turn a blind eye to human smuggling rings or who set them up themselves in order to make a profit? They are indeed Greek; they have Greek citizenship, along with the uniform, the badge and the flag on their balcony. And the same goes for coast guard officers who lock up exhausted immigrants and beat them; they too are Greek. And the importers and meat traders who bring in lambs and kids from Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, remove their stamp of origin and then mark them with a Greek stamp so that they can sell them for a higher profit – they too are Greek, aren’t they? They are Greek, through and through – all of them; and they have all violated a code of conduct which they had pledged to respect. And it is highly probable that many of the protagonists of countless scams to rebrand animal carcasses – not to mention imported wine, honey and fish – were also among those lambasting foreign schoolchildren who are reluctant to give up their legitimately earned right to bear the Greek flag. Some of them may have been among those who were interviewed on television saying that the Greek flag is soiled when borne in the hands of a foreigner. And these are the same people who have no problem at all stamping a Bulgarian or Romanian goat with the colors of our national flag in order to make an easy buck…
