Before the crisis started, Greece was proud to be at the bottom of the list in Europe for the number of suicides, with a rate of 2.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. But that might be changing. Experts believe that in 2009 the rate of Greek suicides increased by 18% increase compared with 2007, with that figure expected to have climbed even higher in 2010. (…)
Note the buried lede:
If experts believe these national blues to stem mainly from economic troubles, they also suspect worries about the future of Greece to be at work too.
“The Greek identity has suffered a tremendous blow,” says Violatzis. “[People] are ashamed. The entire world today thinks that the Greeks are cheaters and the black sheep of Europe. This is very hard to accept.”
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I’m reminded of similar things I heard just after Katrina. People were embarrassed — that now the whole world knew the truth, that New Orleans was populated by shiftless, helpless incompetents and parasites.
