Apr 1, 2010

They fled Afghanistan to avoid death and found it in Athens

A mother and father took their children and fled Afghanistan, their homeland, because life was unbearable. Terrorist attacks, Taliban rule, American bombs. Their painful Odyssey brought them to Greece, a country the father, who as a teacher had always admired.

They were immigrants, frowned upon, looked down upon... but they had brought the children to safety and would not be shot down by a stray bullet or blown to bits by a random bomb. Like back home.

Last Sunday, while the mother, her 15 year old son and 10 year old daughter were passing by a public trash container in the Athenian suburb of Patisia, the children picked up a travel-bag from the bin. The teenager was blown to bits and the young girl lost her sight by the explosion. The mother "survived" but like most mothers who have their hearts ripped from their chests after witnessing the death of a child and almost fatal wounding of another one... probably wishes she had not lived.

I am wondering if the idiots who placed the bomb are AT ALL distressed, sorry, guilty that an innocent boy was blown to pieces, a little girl condemned to darkness and an entire family thrown in the abyss of eternal mourning.

Do these pseudo-revolutionaries believe they will change the world,
the system,
anything...
by blowing people up?

I am ashamed we Greeks didn't spill out on the streets to declare our abomination for this act of terror, to demonstrate our solidarity to the family, to the community of migrants.


Last night the Afghan migrants in Athens gathered for a silent demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament and held up signs of "Why?", "It could have been any child" {photo from Greek newspaper "To Vima")