We cry out that we are being lost in assimilation and some people back home are under the impression that we have established ourselves with power and riches in the far corners of the earth.. How ironic.. The truth is that we are grieving for the far off villages of our distant homeland which are deserted, while at the same time the migrants on foreign soil, lost and weak, crippled with arthritis, blindly kill vacant time in the plazas and doughnut shops. While all the while at home they boast about how we make them proud by carrying on the immortal history of our civilisation!
So, where do our vanity and our arrogance begin and end? Many people say that the low birth-rate in Greece will soon bring about the disappearance of the Greek race, while others speak about a Greece which will not only prevail but will also support the existence of other states, by helping them in their poverty, etc, etc.. Who should we believe?
Perhaps it would be better - since we are talking about immigration- to tell the truth about what we see around us. That is to say, that the Greeks of the Diaspora have been left unprotected in these foreign lands and without any care and Greek education, or help from the Greek state, and that is why we are rapidly becoming Cavafy's Poseidonians of the future.
Κώστας Δουρίδας
Απρίλιος 1999