Time to re-establish Cretan pride
The recent events regarding the cultivation and trafficking of narcotics in the region of Milopotamos, Crete, and more specifically in the Zoniana village, is indeed shameful for us Cretans. We are very proud of our culture, traditions and history. Events of this sort are a blemish on our heritage. What is both astonishing and unacceptable is that it took an attack on the police in which an officer was gravely wounded to make the government finally take action and enforce the law. We certainly hope they clean up this mess. Amazingly enough, these kind of criminal activities were allowed to continue uninterrupted for over 20 years, probably with the «protection» or «cover» of highly placed influential persons and officials in the country. It is incredulous to us overseas Cretans that for so long a small village like Zoniana could produce such a vast quantity of narcotics and no one – supposedly – realized what was going on. In addition, several young shepherds had multimillion-euro bank accounts, yet nothing prompted the state or government to take action. Let us hope this time that the Greek state has the strength of character to stamp out these criminal activities and re-establish the pride in being a Cretan. ANTIGONI KEFALOGIANNIS, via e-mail.
