Our compatriot Kostas Andronikos, resident of Alimos, sends a sharp response to the publisher Manolis Kalligeros in an open letter, via KytheraNews. Mr Andronikos declares himself a supporter of the Nursing Home but at the same time he describes some of Mr Kalligeros' reports as offensive. Below is his letter.
When there is no philanthropy, there is the publisher...
After much thought and patience and because I have already lost it, I feel obliged to give an answer to the insulting expressions of the editor of Kytheraika, which are directed against my compatriots and against my person.
It refers to the absolute hypocrisy of those who «suddenly emerged» and care for culture (our horror) in Alimos and uses a word that is awful, vulgar and offensive against them. I say all of us.
He has every right to insult and abuse us. But that is not enough for him. He is trying to link the problem between the Spiritual Centre and the Trifyllion with the education of the Alimos Kytherians! As if only the educated have the right to the Cultural Centre and culture.
He, of course, thinks of himself as “educated”. But such a vulgar and insulting speech even to your fellow countrymen only refers to an educated person. A skilled one might.
Your subscribers, my lord, in Australia, Athens, Piraeus, Alimos and those who left Tsirigo, uneducated and uneducated, made it big wherever they went and kept their identity and their ideals.
These more than 80 properties and the building in Australia as well as the cash that every Tsirigote sends from his or her savings to the Home for the Aged come from various “uneducated” Tsirigotes in the Diaspora. This wealth is managed by you, your council.
And instead of thanking them, you curse them. This whole pile was given by Tsirigoians who in their childhood read with a lychno, wrote with a slate and a stick and warmed themselves with a mangal. And you come with great audacity to call them uneducated and to ridicule them.
It is a great ingratitude on your part when you subjugate all these eponymous (because they have names) Tsirigote benefactors, who you belittle for being illiterate, who you ridicule and call late lovers of civilization.
I just want you to post your contribution to the nursing home. Let us know how much you've put in your pocket.
You also decorated us for the books. If you count people by the books they've printed, then yes, we are the uneducated, but the dust you've written, look for it in your own soul. You show that you don't care if Chirigot is uneducated as long as he buys your books when you go back to the coffee shops to sell them like Adonis. You don't care if he buys them and puts them on the shelf to gather dust as long as he pays.
Also Manolis «sprayed» we are many Tsirigotes by the deliberate indifference - inadequacy of the state to educate us. Because maybe that's how it suits us.
But what surpasses and surprises me is this: How you managed to convince even my Potamite friends. Especially Spyros. My Spyro, you asked me what I was baiting the boogie. Certainly not the same one that the editor put you on and turned you against the residents of Alimos. Against Chiriyogotes. Against us. You've got an understanding and we understand.
My Spyrakos, the bait he has set you is the Theodorakis dilemma «Karamanlis or Tanks». So anyone who's for the Spiritualist is against the Home for the Aged at the same time. So let Mr. Big Issue find out: No, man, we're more with the nursing home than you are. Especially you.
Each of us contributes from our own savings to support the Home for the Elderly.
So I urge you to put an end to the vulgarity, we don't need you to give us admonitions, grammar lessons and knowledge lessons. Devote yourself to selling your books. Again, if you are tired of all of us WITHDERS, you might as well quit. No one is irreplaceable!
I don't want to follow you any further down this downhill path you've chosen. I didn't think you'd get that far.
Goodbye, Manolis.
Costas Andronikos
Resident Area Kythiria Alimos
