The Greatest Generation

Το κλαρίνο βαρεί το μοιρολόι.... Το μοιρολόι..... Και θαρρείς πως κάθε τι γύρω σου μεταμορφώνεται. Μεταμορφώνεται από μια άχαρη και συνηθισμένη τσιμεντούπολη σε δάσος, σε χωριό, σε πετρόχτιστα σπίτια, σε κάρα, σε αλέτρια, σε αργαλειούς, σε γάστρες. Το μοιρολόι φέρνει θύμησες, από αυτές που μόνο οι παππούδες γνωρίζουν.... Σαν βγαλμένα από μια άλλη εποχή, έρχονται το ένα μετά το άλλο να σε στοιχειώσουν τα φαντάσματα εκείνα. Τα άταφα σώματα Ελλήνων στρατιωτών, οι υπέρτατες θυσίες των Ηπειρωτισσών, η χαρά της απελευθέρωσης και ξανά η απόγνωση και το κλάμα της σκλαβιάς των Βορειοηπειρωτών. Το ΟΧΙ του 1940, που τόσο αβίαστα το προφέρουμε σήμερα, δεν υπήρξε πραγματικά. Δεν είπε ο Μεταξάς το ΟΧΙ. Αλλά ο Ελληνικός λαός, μην υπολογίζοντας ζωή, περιουσία, υλικά αγαθά, ρίχθηκε στον Αγώνα για την σωτηρία ενός ιδανικού που υπερβαίνει κάθε άλλου... της Ελευθερίας. Και πίσω από τους στρατιώτες, οι Ηπειρώτισσες γυναίκες, εξαθλιωμένες από τη φτώχεια και τις αγροτικές εργασίες, απελπισμένες από τους άντρες, τους γιους και τους πατεράδες τους, που έφυγαν να πολεμήσουν στα απάτητα Ηπειρώτικα και Βορειοηπειρώτικα βουνά, δεν δίστασαν, αλλά παρακάμπτοντας κάθε εμπόδιο,

κάθε περιορισμό του φύλου τους πολέμησαν στο πλευρό των ανδρών μεταφέροντας πολεμοφόδια και σε μερικές περιπτώσεις, πολεμώντας κι όλας. Εκεί, στην Πίνδο, στην σημερινή Αλβανία, οι Έλληνες Βορειοηπειρώτες, λίγο σκάβουν και ανακαλύπτουν ακόμη τα κόκκαλα των Ελλήνων, όσων δεν είχαν κανέναν μαζί τους να τους θάψει με τις τιμές ηρώων, όπως τους άξιζε. Και εδώ, το μοιρολόι αυτό, ο επικήδιος θρήνος, ας ταξιδέψει στους ουρανούς να αποδόσει Τιμής Ένεκεν ένα τελευταίο αντίο και ένα μεγάλο Ευχαριστώ. 
Ας γίνει το παράδειγμα των προγόνων μας, φωτεινό σημάδι στο σκοτεινό τούνελ των εποχών που διανύουμε.... Αν ποτέ βρεθούμε σε τρομερές δυσκολίες, τότε όλοι μας θα ξέρουμε ποιος είναι ο δρόμος... Δύσκολος, απάτητος όσο σε ένα βουνό, αλλά ένδοξος, ηρωικός..... δρόμος που ταιριάζει μόνο σε παλικάρια και λεβέντισσες.....

The clarinet plays its melancholy tune .... a dirge ..... And it seems that everything around you is transformed, from a drab and ordinary cement metropolis to a forest and a village of stone houses, carts, plows, looms and dreams. The music awakens memories of the kind that only our grandparents knew .... plucked from another era, coming one after another like ghosts that haunt us. The bodies of Greek soldiers sleep in unknown graves, the many sacrifices, the joy of liberation then the despair and tears of enslavement of the ever suffering people of Northern Epirus. The NO of 1940, as we effortlessly pronounce it today, was not really such a simple matter. It wasn't Metaxas who said "no" but an entire people. The people of Greece who gambled their lives and fortunes, to pursue a struggle for the salvation of an ideal that transcends any other ... freedom. And helping the soldiers were the village women of Epirus.  Worn out by poverty and work, their sons and husbands off fighting in the trackless mountains of Northern Epirus, they did not hesitate. They carried ammunition boxes and cleared the roads to the front lines. There, in the Pindos mountains, in today's Albania, the Greek inhabitants of Northern Epirus, even now still discover the bones of those Greek heroes who never received the honors they were owed by a grateful nation.  And here, the music's lament travels to heaven to confer one last goodbye and a big thank you.

Let's make an example of our ancestors, a bright spot in the darkness of our present condition.... when we find ourselves in the midst of great difficulties we shall know what road we must take... precarious, untrodden as a mountain trail, but a glorious, heroic path only fit for Greek heroes and heroines.

Μοιρολόι Ηπειρώτικο

Comments

[Dimitri]

I look at those "women in black" and always remember my yaya, whom I met only twice, and remember all the sufferance my mother and her grandmothers went through to hold the Greek values of "Timi" which gaves their children strength and confidence. The Philtimo of the Greeks is interpreted to be, people that want something from others now in the Western world, corrupting its true meaning of openness and respect for "outsiders".

The Global bankers have created a world which rubbishes "our world" and way of life and is doing away with minorities. If you have money you are somebody no matter what you do. What has happened to when somebody earned respect through care and love?

[Stavros]

Dimitri mou,

Perhaps we are all of us to blame to an extent, if we buy into a world that values money more than philotimo, narcissism more than love of our fellow man, doubt more than faith. Fate places us in a classroom of our own making and God willing, adversity will teach us a lesson that will make the latter much more desirable than the former.

We cannot but try mightily to emulate in our own lives all that was good and decent in those that came before us even though they too faltered at times. They were far from perfect, being human, yet they aspired to loftier goals than we have.

[Joseph]

Dear Dimitri and Stavros,

I cannot understand how one dares to criticize Greeks and say they are "a people that want something from others" so to speak, and hint that Greeks are a burden on global economy or need to be supported by the large economies of the EU. As you may know, the Nazi occupation forced the bank of Greece to "load equivalent of £9bn in Reichsmarks". This was calculated to be equivalent to some £60bn. As said in the article below, “that would be enough to cover Greece’s fiscal deficit for the next five years, giving the country time to restructure its economy and put government finances on a more sustainable footing....” (an article worth reading)

I have nothing but respect to Greece and its people!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056400/Greece-debt-crisis-Greeks-believe-Germans-owe-60bn.html#ixzz1lu0xpuFi

[Stavros]

Joseph,

There is much blame to go around for the present condition Greeks find themselves in and most of it I fear must be laid at their own feet. I agree that Germany wrecked the Greek economy during World War II and never repaid what it actually owed the Greeks in reparations. That said, Greeks must also accept their role in voting in the successive governments that have given them what they wanted without much thought as to where the money is coming from.

What I find abhorent is the EU insistence on inflicting the draconian measures that have already crippled the Greek economy and have sentenced Greeks to a life of misery for years to come. Surely the Germans have forgotten that they too were similarly treated after World War I, leading to hyperinflation, unemployment, poverty and ultimately the rise of Nazism. Now they are doing the same to the Greeks. How soon we forget.

[Dimitri]

Joseph, the Greeks have developed a mentality that has taken itself from thousands of years of wars, and has cultured the whole world while it has seen the ground taken beneath its feet.

Now it's those who cry and shout that get the attention because people are have been handcuffed to answer back.

Whenever I talk to an Irishman or a Greek they always talk about making life good, and living it, and they never complain about the past.

The biggest problem is that people are only respected if they can do good for you and make you rich and dignity and honour are laughed at now.
When you are willing to help an old lady cross the road or lift somebody up these days, it's because they think you want something.

Nazism was part of the new world just like Bolshevism etc. All power struggles moulding the new world. One thing for sure is that whenever Democracy or Christianity is under attack Greece and the Greek mentality is always under threat, and their people are always on the front line. I think it was much easier when we were Pagans because we had no compassion, but then again what goes around........