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Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP - Getty Images
People read messages left by passers-by near the place where an elderly man shot himself dead Wednesday in the central Syntagma Square, a focal point of anti-austerity protests.
A retired Greek pharmacist shot himself dead outside Greece's parliament Wednesday, saying he refused to scrounge for food in the garbage, touching a nerve among ordinary Greeks feeling the brunt of the country's economic crisis.
The public suicide by the 77-year-old in the center of Athens quickly triggered an outpouring of sympathy in a country where one in five is jobless and a sense of national humiliation has accompanied successive rounds of salary and pension cuts.
Just hours after the death, an impromptu shrine with candles, flowers and hand-written notes protesting the crisis sprung up in the central Syntagma square where the suicide occurred. Dozens of bystanders gathered to pay their respects.
One note nailed to a tree said "Enough is enough", while another asked "Who will be the next victim?"
"This is a human tragedy," government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said as politicians in parliament decried the death.
Acts of suicide have been instrumental in the past in provoking popular protest. A Tunisian vegetable seller triggered the start of the so-called "Arab Spring" by setting himself on fire in December 2010.
CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera reports despite a 130 billion euro bailout package for Greece, it still leaves the country as the euro zone's most indebted member.
Witnesses said the man put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger after yelling out: "I have debts, I can't stand this anymore."
Another passerby told Greek television the man said, "I don't want to leave my debts to my children."
A suicide note found in his coat pocket blamed politicians and financial troubles for driving him to take his life, police said.
Compared government to Nazi collaborators
The government had "annihilated any hope for my survival and I could not get any justice. I cannot find any other form of struggle except a dignified end before I have to start scrounging for food from the trash," the note said.
“I can’t find another way to react apart from putting a dignified end to things before I start looking through garbage in order to survive and before I become a burden for my child,” the note added, according to reports cited by ekathimerini.com, which named the dead man as Dimitris Christoulas.
Julia Chatterly looks at the annual budget numbers from the Spanish government, which include 17.8 billion euros in government spending cuts. With Larry McDonald, Newedge, who discusses whether Spain is the new Greece.
In his note, Christoulas compared the current government in Greece to the administration that collaborated with the Nazi occupation during World War II, ekathimerini.com added.
The president of the pharmacists' union in the broader Attica region, Costas Lourantos, said he recalled meeting the man several years ago and was struck by his dignified manner.
"When dignified people like him are brought to this state, somebody must answer for it," said Lourantos. "There is a moral instigator to this crime - which is the government that has brought people to such despair."
Second pharmacist says she's next
Shortly after news of the man's death, Lourantos says he received an anonymous call from a pharmacist saying she would be next to follow suit.
"I am now frantically looking to find out who it was so we can stop her," Lourantos said.
The busy square, through which thousands pass by during the morning commute hours when the suicide occurred, was cordoned off while the body was taken away.
Greece is stumbling through its worst post-World War Two economic crisis as austerity measures demanded by foreign lenders in exchange for financial aid push the country into its fifth year of recession.
The government last year said suicides had increased 40 percent over the previous two years as the worsening crisis drives ordinary Greeks to despair.
With financial hardship fast becoming an unavoidable facet of life for many, some Greeks said the pharmacist's public suicide would not be the last.
"This is the point to which they've brought us," asked 54-year old Maria Parashou, who rushed to the square to pay her respects after reading about the suicide. "They've cut our salaries, they've humiliated us. I have one daughter who is unemployed and my husband has lost half of his income, but I won't allow myself to lose hope."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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This is the road Oblunder has us on, time to fire his butt.
Greek politicians have done more damage to their own country than any Ottoman could to them.
Any questions?
The sad result of what happens when we rely on government to provide for us. What happens when government no longer has the money from citizens pockets to give "free stuff'? I am afraid for my United States. Too many who do not think are beginning to demand. What will happen when they cannot get it....?
Yashmak and Allison, actually you are both right. Yashmak's comments that some people could have jobs but refuse to work is right in alot of cases. I hear people all the time say they needed a break from work and are living on unemployment,even though they could be working. I have been out of a job since Feb. 1st and have not filed for unemployment because I still have a smidge of savings left. I am using that while I continue to look for work, but in the meantime, I am doing what I can to help others too. Allison is correct also. 16 hours is not enough to live on. Usually unemployment is between $175-$600/week depending on your field. I cannot see how trying a 16 hour shift and hoping for more is the best idea. As soon as she does that her unemployment goes away and if she quits that 16 hour job, she won't be eligible for any more unemployment benefits. This scenario of yours Yashmak would only work, if she could earn the 16 hours and still get unemployment minus the 16 hours. That way she could try to get more hours and still keep a roof over her head. But, unfortunately, unemployment does not work that way. I hoped NO ONE would take their life over this crises, but I see that has already started. Mr. Obama is NOT YOUR FRIEND. He intends to further erode our economy, cut our military, and has assured Russia that if he is re-elected he will cut our missile defense further (at a time when we need that more than ever). With a weak economy, smaller military, and many people out of work, we are sitting ducks for a takeover by one of the other countries. Obama needs to go. If someone now wants to play the race card here...just remember that man is both BLACK AND WHITE! I vote out bad white Presidents and I will vote out a bad black and white one too! This isn't about race, but rather survival. Allison, I will put in here some sources that might help with your job search, but for now, have you tried applying for a teaching position? Maybe you can pass on some of your knowlege in the universities? As for the rest of us, we should try to be ready for anything. I think that soon enough there will be rioting when people can no longer afford to feed their families. What would YOU do to feed yours if you have no money? Once the riots break out, Obama can call for Marshal Law. That will stop the election process altogether. Then you will no longer have a choice. Our last generation has been told the government is the answer. Right now the government is the problem. We need to keep our form of government, but vote out those who would "govern" for personal gain. Greece and Great Britian had the "government will fix everything" society. We are quickly following suit. There are other candidates to vote for besides just the ones the news media tells you about here (and YES, they are biased). Check out the 2012 Presidential Candidate website to see other candidates and if you see one you want to vote for in November that isn't on the ballot write in that candidate's name. We don't have to keep voting in people with their own agendas. Find one with a good plan for America and then register to vote and then VOTE. Our government can't fix this. IT'S UP TO US!
Allison, I'm sure you've probably already seen these; but if not, here are some resources for you to try: Workforce 50.com, retirementrevised.com, retirementjobs.com, 1stResumes.com, aarp.org/work,Retireecareers.com,Seniorjobbank.org, apla.org.
I hope these help and I'll pray for a speedy outcome for you and me! Happy job hunting!
What we need to remember here, is that it is not directly the government's fault, either Greek or any other, but rather the banksters and top echelon industrialistas that run this world for their personal gain and expression of power.
It is this heartless New World Order, the Bilderburgers and their ilk, who are determined to grind us all down to powder and eliminate 80% of the world's population within a few years, these are the ones to blame, and if we allow them by buying into their money power structure, we get what we deserve.
Vote with your pockebooks and billfolds, cut their blood supply off by stopping the buying! What do you think the whole fight over the Health Care law is here in the US?? If they can force us to buy insurance by legal mandate, they can force us to buy anything, thereby perpetuating their power forever. We won't even be able to say no by refusing to buy. Don't say you weren't warned!!
Save your dollars for a free future. Refuse to spend, for even a week. They will collapse quickly.
No, it is the individual Greek guy's fault for not saving anything for a rainy day, and this whole new world order thing is bs if it was real why dont they just "disappear" you or whatever right? theyre all powerful and shlt. Personal responsibility wouldve saved them all, you're only poor cause of your own fault 99% of the time, either you didnt save, you yourself made bad financial decisions again and again, grow the fck up and be a man and make sure you dont fall under peer pressure to drink away all your money
Where is the individual accountability for ones own financial hardships? Years of lavish life styles living beyond ones own means is to blame here for this mans suicide (individual choice). Not the government, nor unsustainable pensions for every one within society. Where is the financial accountability?
Sure. You can lay blame with everyone else, the government; but ultimately the onus is on the individual for carrying ridiculously unsustainable levels of personal debt. I do not weep for the purported victim here; but for the individuals laying blame on everyone but themselves including the government for massive personal debt that is unsustainable.
Since when is a government to be responsible for individual debt??! No good government I know of..
It was his own fault for not having any savings, if you eat, drink, gamble, play away all your earnings when you were young to have nothing left for when you are old it is your own fault! Suicide also doesn't get rid of your debts so he fcked up there..
@ GCV
And the reason is the gimme dis and gimme dats can't vote..
dont feel sorry for them....i have lived in greece and i seen how selfish and greedy these sick , disgraceful people are. they surely are getting what they deserve. justice has not satisfied herself yet though, this is the tip of the iceburgh for these cheap 2 dollar hustler drama queens. other than italians, i have never seen such a selfish, greedy country....truly an embarrassment to be greek.