This is lovely snapshot from the anti-nazi demo held in Athens on 19.1.13 which unfortunately coinciding with the attack against a Pakistani migrant who was stabbed to death by two Greeks members of the neonazi gang of Golden Dawn. More details about its circumstances here:
The older brother holds a placard which slogans “out with the neo-Nazis.” I wonder how much he actually knows about the Nazis, how much he actually learnt at school, or how much time his father had to say to him about it. The little one holds a balloon in hand, how much more compatible this with his age and what he is able to register in his developing consciousness !
For these two boy trying to understand would be titanic. Too mnay things to come to terms with. There was a death: premature, sudden, violent. And there is hatred: racist, revengful, targeted. And then it’s this recurrent discrimination against them. Their diversity which has become violently guilty. Their color. Their religion. Their command of greek language and the audacity for it being their second language. Their accent. Their very identity. Who they are. Their very existence. There is so much for such a young age to undesrtand that I wonder if they will ever be able to allow themselves to dream again.
And their father, whom they may see little in the day, and whom when they finally meet they need to succumb to this unconscious obligation to become his carers in this regime of terror and violence against him, this father, on that day, a day of mourning and solidarity, this father had them wear their best pieces of clothes, a nice little suit with a tie for the older one and this great three pieces suit for the little one.
As if they were going to a fest.
Shining with dignity.
la beaute est dans la rue 