Members of Hobsons Bay’s Greek Orthodox community are praying for their loved ones affected by the Greek debt crisis.
The Greek government has to decide this week on whether to support economic reforms to secure a further European bailout.
George Said, a life member of the Greek Orthodox Community of Hobsons Bay Inc, said many Australian Greeks felt like powerless spectators as they watched people suffering in their debt-stricken homeland.
“We have family in Athens, an elderly sister-in-law,” he said. “Our sister-in-law is worried about her pension but has not had a cut yet. She thinks it’s imminent.
“She doesn’t have heating for the coming winter. Her son and grandson have been unemployed for years and can only find occasional jobs.
“Poverty is widespread and is getting worse,” he said.
“However, there are those in tourist destinations who get work and survive.”
Reverend George Frangos, of the Greek Orthodox Parish in Altona North, returned from visiting family in Greece two weeks ago.
“Seeing it first hand, my family’s not that much affected, only because the issue really only exists in the big cities,” he said.
“Anything outside the big cities – the islands and the villages – they tend to be self-sufficient, almost like they have their own micro-economies or micro-societies.
“It’s almost like Victoria going through a recession and Ballarat not feeling it because they’ve got a low unemployment rate.”
Father George said the situation was worse for the elderly and for those who relied on face-to-face banking.
“Most of the Greeks in Greece have still got their heads held up high and they’re still continuing on with their daily lives and trying not to pay a lot of attention to it,” he said. “Although the situation has got a little bit worse now with banks closed, and things.
“From a Greek community perspective in Australia, we’re all concerned as to what’s going on over there.
“For the migrants here in Australia, it tends to hurt them a little bit more because they don’t like seeing their homeland portrayed in such a way, or they don’t want to see their loved ones suffering and going through certain things.
“Everybody’s got an opinion, political opinions and things like that, but at the end of the day that’s all politics,” he said.
“It’s all about the people and what the people are going through.
“We do have grave concerns for the people over there and we try to be as hopeful as possible.”
