Opinion
All of a sudden, everything went upside down: thoughts, feelings, values, systems, assumptions, convictions, certainties. People throughout the world, with their eyes fixed on the television screen, dumbfounded and shocked, watched – live from History – an inconceivable tragedy, the implementation of a horrible scenario that was beyond the most nightmarish imagination: The heart of the sole superpower, the center of the globe, was hit by aircraft hijacked by people of unidentified political or ideological identity. The giant which believed – as all of us did, both its loyal citizens and its polemics – itself to be immune, was finally proved to be tragically vulnerable. Its famous security measures, its innumerable secret services, the arrogant feeling of unmatched power – all proved a mere fallacy. What symbolized America in its most authentic form, what defined it politically, militarily, commercially and, of course, ideologically was hit and tarnished by a faceless enemy… The incomprehensible and the impossible took place before our eyes without the saving, movie-like ending of the super-hero because, unlike what happens in disaster movies, life is always more strange and complex that its depiction. It will take a lot of time to interpret the tragedy and even more to overcome the shock… The Greek government has to be on the alert. In the context of the current global economy, there are no isolated, impregnable castles. No national economy can remain unaffected in a climate of international recession or survive global political disorder unscathed. The precipitous fall of the Athens Stock Exchange yesterday, even though clearly a temporary emotional reaction, should be taken as a painless warning sign so that the government can avoid experiencing an extremely rude awakening in the future.
