Perdika - Greece - Natural Gas Pipeline

Let me just say sorry for not having written for the past two weeks. They have been weeks of mixed feelings, as all of my free time has been spent looking into the facts surrounding the development and operation of natural gas compression stations around the world. A few adjectives I would use to express my current emotional state are exhausted, enlightened, betrayed, insecure, distraught, and these are only the feelings I am feeling at the moment; imagine what every day has been like since we were informed of what was apparently going to become our future home.

I will not go into the ins and outs of what I have read, what I have heard, or what I have seen. Let me just tell you a little about what we are faced with. Some of you may know this area, some may not. In 1993, having finished university, I was approached by a multi national company, who wanted to take me on having done my work experience with them. After many attempts to contact me by mail, two of my colleagues and two of the partners in the branch I worked for, came (for what I thought was a visit) to Greece. On the last day of their vacation they approached me with a contract to join the company, which I turned down. Flattered as I was, I felt deep inside that I was meant to be here, in my father's village, giving what I could back to my father's birthplace. It was a feeling...I gave up a career for a feeling...a feeling of waking up to a view of the Ionian sea...a feeling of fitting in...a feeling of bringing up my children in a place which was made up of freshness, the air, the water, nature...a feeling. I had the choice, I made the decision.

Today, even though the problems are more than I could have expected on that sleepy autumn day in 1993, I still have that feeling. Yes, there have been days when I have thought this is too hard, when the bills pile up, when I don't get paid, when I think "you should move, the kids deserve more", when I feel like I'm fighting more than living, but I still have that feeling.

That's the feeling I don't want to lose. No one wants their home turned into an industrial development site. Not when they have chosen to make a place their home. Everyone has a choice...I made mine...and that was to stay here...where the air I breathe is fresh, the sea is 5 minutes from my home and my children can live a childhood surrounded by nature and all it has to offer.

My parents have moved back here. Many of the Greeks who live and work in other countries have invested their savings here. The whole village has invested its future to make this a village where tourists can come and find peace of mind, clean beaches and a traditional Greek way of life.

So we say NO. No to industrial development in tourist regions. No to National Companies making decisions without thinking of anyone else. No to any type of pollution so near homes. No to the most economic solutions. There are other areas, far from homes, far from natural habitats, far from tourism, far from farms, far from anybody's back yard. The village of Perdika says NO.