person:zoe mavroudi

  • Greece - Macedonia

    from Zoe Mavroudi sur FB - Une réflexion intéressante à propos du différend sur le nom « Macédoine »

    If you don’t follow Greek politics you may have come across reports and photos from a protest in Athens on the “Macedonian” issue. The political dispute between Greece and Macedonia (the country) on this issue goes back more than a century, and is too complicated to parse in one post but, in brief, it centers on the right of Greece’s neighbouring State to use the word “Macedonia” in its official name. The Greek State has historically claimed that this right would be an infringement on its history because the Greek region of Macedonia (which covers the largest part of its northern territory) used to be the home of Alexander the Great, the place where his golden hair glowed under the sun and that only Greeks as his true descendants can claim this name and bask in his glory forever etc etc.

    Last week’s protest was held against a new pact scheduled for a vote tomorrow in Greece’s parliament, which will settle the issue once and for all between the two countries, binding Greece to accept the name “North Macedonia” in return for real concessions that Macedonians will never again attempt to steal Alexander’s glory from us...or something. The pact is advantageous for Greece and will be the end of a political hot potato.

    You might have seen pictures from last week’s protest of men wearing ancient garb, armour and helmets, looking like Pride gays with some kind of Greco-Roman fetish.

    Needless to say not everyone who is Greek, including myself, agrees with their bullshit.

    Among the reasons why their bullshit is such pure bullshit should be obvious: their argument imagines that “Greekness” involves racial and linguistic purity and that other ethnicities which lived in the region, a melting pot of different cultures for centuries, are impure and therefore unwelcome. Scratch the surface of Greek patriotic dissent and you get some good-old fascism. Fascist MPs have manipulated popular sentiment around this issue for years and were front line at the protest, where journos were attacked and beaten by fascist groups.

    The nationalism that has been unleashed about all this has existed on both sides of the border of course but ultimately, it is Greece, a member of the EU and NATO that has infringed on the right of its neighbour to self-determination by repeatedly vetoing its attempts to enter international organizations and doing this based on historical inaccuracies and fantasies of a supposedly uninterrupted continuum of its national identity. The Greek argument was also predicated on the erasure of the history of Slavo-Macedonians (I use the term “slavo” for the purposes of explaining the issue but don’t fully accept its accuracy) via systematic exclusion, confiscation of property through racist laws and linguistic oppression.

    As someone born and raised in Greece, I was only vaguely aware of these facts until relatively recently given that it was all omitted from our school manuals and suppressed in public discourse. I have received abuse on twitter for simply expressing support for the pact.

    The dangers of rejecting this new deal for Greece and Macedonia are multi-fold and involve the increased influence in the Balkans of Turkey’s Erdogan and the real danger that the region becomes inflamed by conflict. Though the pact is NATO and EU-approved, NATO being one of the main culprits of the war in Yugoslavia, there is imo no excuse for left-wing opposition against the deal, given the lack of alternatives. This is a case where Greece’s geopolitical interests happen to be aligned with those of NATO-EU and where workers in N. Macedonia, who have been suffering for too long under what is, essentially, an embargo aimed at their society, must have our support. On a personal note, I wouldn’t give one piece of my pure Greek hair for any argument that supports one imperialist influence in the Balkans over another (in this case, Putin-Erdogan over NATO-EU). I stand with citizens of another country, especially one weaker and poorer than mine and support their democratic right to self-determination.

    #grèce #macédoin #noms #terminologie #mots

  • Cher Zak, chère Zackie, hier nous sommes allé.e.s à ton enterrement

    ׀ FILTIG ׀ lettre ouverte à Zak Kostopoulos

    Le vendredi 21 septembre 2018, Zak Kostopoulos, activiste #LGBTQI+, séropositif et drag queen (Zackie Oh), a été assassiné dans des circonstances atroces et à la vue de tous dans le centre d’#Athènes. Ce lynchage est le fait de « bons citoyens » qui ont agi sous la protection et avec le concours de la #police grecque. Ces faits ont été suivis d’une entreprise sans précédent de désinformation de l’opinion publique et de culpabilisation de la victime, notamment accusée par les assassins puis une grande partie de la presse d’avoir essayé de commettre un cambriolage, avant que cette version ne s’effondre à l’épreuve des témoignages et des vidéos recueillis depuis lors.

    #lgbt #queer #zakkostopoulos #zak #Grèce

    https://www.lautrequotidien.fr/articles/2018/9/29/0514ges4b1leust52qw9dugwo35m1k?rq=zak+kostopoulos

    _________________

    • Filtig - Δολοφόνοι

      These are the peaceful citizens
      Those that defend their property
      These are the lads that do not cry
      The world of television spectacle

      These are the guys who fuck
      These are the women who know their place
      Those who drink after work
      Those who mind their business
      Those

      Those who choose the good girls
      Those who choose the real men
      Those that produce proper Greek kids
      The seed of the Hellenic youth

      Those who kill, wipe and finish
      Those who protect us from the immigrants
      Those who “are not racists, but”
      Those who remember what Athens was once like
      Those

      Murderers, murderers, murderers

      Those who have no problem with faggots
      they have no problem as long as they do not see them
      Those who have no problem with foreigners
      they have no problem as long as they do not meet them
      Those who do not hate women
      They do not hate them if they do not listen to them
      Those who have no problem with junkies
      They have no problem as long as they don’t dirty their space
      Those

      Those who have clean hands
      Those who have clean sidewalks
      Those who have clean parks
      Those who have clean shores
      Those who have a clean conscience
      Those who have a clean record
      Those who have clean bodies
      Those who have pure, clean blue-white blood

      Murderers, murderers, murderers

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFbQpN-dWlI&feature=youtu.be

    • Commentaire important de la réalisatrice et activiste Zoe Mavroudi à propos des derniers développements (publié en anglais sur FB ce dimanche 30 septembre) :

      Friends:
      As many of you know, the queer community in Greece is under shock for the past nine days over the public lynching in broad daylight in central Athens of Zak Kostopoulos, an HIV+ gay activist and drag performer and a widely loved and influential human being.

      I would kindly suggest to those who can handle descriptions of violence at this time, to consider reading and sharing the article I’m posting here. It is the first English-language piece of journalism from a Greek outlet, which details the latest developments, including from medical exams and forensics. It also traces the media coverage of the murder and the disgraceful and sloppy attempt at victim blaming which unfolded during the first hours. Mainstream outlets reproduced stigmatizing hate speech in an attempt to paint Zak as a “burglar” who threatened passer-by at knife point as a result of an unspecified substance abuse. The claims quickly collapsed and were exposed as a blatant attempt to conceal and whitewash the role of not only the men who attacked Zak (possibly three males) but also of the police, in his death.

      I would add to the information in the piece, two things:
      1. a suggestion made recently on facebook by one of the lawyers involved with the prosecution of evidence that the cause of death was positional asphyxia brought on during Zak’s arrest when police handcuffed his arms behind his back and dragged him lifting his feet up from behind; all this while he was bleeding profusely from head wounds (a disturbing video of the moment of the arrest is online).
      2. a suggestion made by the same lawyer that blood traces shown in video on the glass door of the shop Zak allegedly attempted to rob were from inside. This would mean Zak was already bleeding when he entered the shop, possibly after an earlier attack. A prominent LGBT-rights figure in Greece has also suggested he knows of evidence that Zak’s lynching started before he entered the store and the doors closed behind him trapping him inside.

      For additional info on the case, and in lieu of comprehensive announcements from the Greek LGBTQ+ organizations, I would also recommend that you check out the page “Justice For Zak/Zackie” (@justice4ZakZackie) on Facebook.

      My condolences to those of you abroad who knew him.

      https://www.thepressproject.gr/details_en.php?aid=134723

      #zak #zakkostopoulos #lgbt #lgbtqi #queer #Grèce #athènes

  • la démocratie aux ordures | ou la vie sauvage
    https://oulaviesauvage.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/la-democratie-aux-ordures
    https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/fbff544e751a012cf407fcbfd5e6a699?s=200&ts=1437399532

    Dans un paysage économique ruiné par six années de récession, le gouvernement grec s’apprête à légiférer sur une hausse de la TVA (de 13% à 23%) qui affectera les préparations alimentaires pour enfants, le pain, les pâtes alimentaires, l’eau en bouteille, le courant électrique et le gaz naturel, le sucre, le cacao, la farine, les féculents, le lait, les fleurs, le café, le thé, les épices, les œufs, le vinaigre, les aliments pour animaux, les produits d’élevage, le sel et l’eau de mer, toutes les huiles, hors l’huile d’olive, les préparations à base de céréales, le bois de chauffage, les engrais, les insecticides, les préservatifs, les tampons hygiéniques, les produits pharmaceutiques, les cathéters, les seringues, les appareils orthopédiques, certains accessoires destinés aux personnes handicapées, les tickets de métro et de bus.

    Il ne s’agit pas de « mesures ».

    Comme le remarque la réalisatrice et auteur de théâtre Zoe Mavroudi, qui a justement épinglé le caractère surréaliste de cette liste : « Lorsque les êtres humains n’ont plus la possibilité de subvenir économiquement à leurs besoins, ils meurent. Ce mercredi, ce ne sont pas des “mesures“ qui seront signées mais des condamnations à mort. »

    #Tsipras #Varoufakis #Syriza #austérité #Europe #UE #Eurogroupe #Grèce #Konstantopoulou #Zoe #Mavroudi #récession #dette #démocratie #mémorandum

  • RUINES : chro­nique d’une chasse aux sor­cières séropositives

    Ce film raconte l’histoire de plus de 30 femmes qui ont été per­sé­cu­tées et pré­sen­tées comme des « pros­ti­tuées infec­tées par le VIH », dans une cam­pagne orches­trée poli­ti­que­ment dans la pers­pec­tive des élec­tions de mai 2012 en Grèce.

    http://pvsq.org/2013/11/ruines-chro%C2%ADnique-dune-chasse-aux-sor%C2%ADcieres-seropositives

    #film #documentaire #HIV #sida #femmes #Grèce #Zoé_Mavroudi

    Trailer :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=56IYPutvYP0