News

The Greeks are Fucked

By HENRY LANGSTON

parliament

In economic terms Greece is the limping kid of Europe right now, having to beg cash from Germans who’re kind of wishing the Greeks would just fuck off and die. However, in terms of civil disobedience, (and by disobedience, I mean a complete transformation from a civilised society into a set of roaming tribes burning buildings), they, along with these guys, are setting the European agenda. We’ve been here before, remember, but the government seem set on punishing the people and leading the country into the sea. We have an office out there, so we got in touch.

photo-8

Right now the country is so far in debt to the rest of Europe that everyone in the country is going to have to pay big for mistakes, which, let’s face it, were made by the rich and powerful. Yesterday people tried to storm Parliament to stop them voting in the miserable austerity measures, which will hike taxes and cut wages and pensions; the violence that followed killed three people and injured lots more.

We called our man in Greece, Freddie F., who’s been running around taking photos on his iPhone, to find out what it’s like out there. He’s American Greek and probably wishing he was living in Obama’s health care wonderland right now.

Vice: Hi Freddie, how's life in Athens?
Freddie F: Smokey and tense, very tense.

How bad is the damage?
The destruction is quite massive, as you walk your way to the center the banks are all smashed up. The streets are full of riot cops, undercover cops, fire trucks and curious tourists; mostly Americans.

photo-2

Are there still people out on the streets protesting or has everything calmed down?
I don't think so, I reckon this is the calm before the storm.

How are the police holding out?

The police presence is massive. I've been taking pictures on my iPhone because they're so paranoid and controlling that they've been taking photographers' cameras and deleting the shit that they don't like. Of course maybe they're just checking they look OK, getting the edit down, and looking to get their retoucher on board.

As a Greek you must have some kind of wonderful perspective on both the debt crisis and these violent outbursts, right?

As a Greek American I'm confused as fuck. Let's put it this way, living here is like getting fucked without having an orgasm. It feels like rape, fucking balls out gang-bang rape. I have to support my wife and two cats. This is a Greek tragedy. Oh yeah and can you tell Ryan McGinley that the kids are NOT alright! He'll know what I'm talking about.