OPINION

The bleak mantras of the ‘TV imams’

Most people watch TV news bulletins with trepidation these days. According to these reports, we are living in the worst country in Europe, we are being governed by crooks or incompetents, we are overrun with foreigners, 80 percent of our telecommunications are rigged, our food is moldy or otherwise inedible, all traders are thieves and swindlers and all civil servants are lazy and corrupt. And the «television imams» start their mantras from the early hours each morning. They say the current government is to blame for failing to pay back pensioners’ social security contributions to the LAFKA fund (which the previous government had abolished), contrary to its pre-electoral pledge. They say that politics is bankrupt, that street market traders are ripping us off, that bad weather is ruining our country, and that school buildings are filled with carcinogenic asbestos. And despite all this, citizens must set off for work, engage in transactions with civil servants, talk on their mobile phones, buy meat from their local trader, go shopping at their street market, use the national road network and, generally, participate in all levels of everyday life. They can do this because they are selective about which «news items» they take seriously and which ones they disregard. Most of them know that the situation in this country is not as bleak as depicted on television every day. Otherwise, how do we explain the boost in tourism over the past few years? Maybe there are some positive things about this country, too.

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