The recession has indeed taken its toll on Greek society. Families are giving up their children for adoption because they cannot support them, tens of thousands of young adults are leaving the country to seek work abroad, people are looking into the rubbish to eat and our schools are becoming poorer and less desirable areas for enlightenment. In such a framework, an interesting story was released on the news247 web site claiming that aside from not having books, children attending primary and secondary schools in Samothrace have also had no heating in their classrooms for weeks now and have been suffering from blistering temperatures. The seriousness of the matter struck a cord of generosity in Minister of National Defence Dimitris Avramopoulos who sent a mandate to the Armed Forces to quickly distribute half of its fuel supply to the schools on this north Aegean island so that the students there can finally receive some heat, even if it meant that the soldiers themselves would freeze to death. The Ministry said in an announcement later on that this gesture was "a small token of recognition and respect to their daily struggle". The story was also featured on newsit and zoogla.gr. Indeed Mr. Avramopoulos this was an honorable gesture on your part, but your focus should now be on how to confront similar issues in hundreds of other schools around the country since your colleague Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou has not even distributed the required text books to some of these schools and we are already in the second semester of the school year, let alone address the problem of heating. Here is a proposal: Maybe you can use your influence to slash some of the salaries and benefits from our privileged politicians including your friend Anna! Surely we could heat up hundreds of schools that way. (Editor's note: Similar reports have also been noted in Rethymno, Chania as well as other areas of Greece).
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