Chicago was host to the recent 2012 NATO Summit. Local news zeroed in on the small clashes between the police and the protestors.
Just north on the Magnificent Mile, another big event in our community took place at the Ritz Carlton in downtown Chicago. On Saturday, Greek dignitaries and members of the Greek-American community celebrated Greece’s 60 years of membership in NATO. However, despite this momentous occasion, looking at the following statistics it is hard to celebrate.
According to a recent news story from Derek Gatopoulos of AP: “Nearly 320,000 people lost their jobs in the 12-month period ending in February, pushing the unemployment rate to 22 percent...Some 80,000 businesses were shuttered last year, and 136,000 more are expected to fail in 2012, according to estimates from the Athens Chamber of Commerce...The Public Order Ministry has reported an increase in nearly all categories of crime between 2010 and 2011, with murder up 5 percent and armed robberies in occupied homes up 110 percent...Homelessness, the most visible sign of Greece’s financial despair, has risen by around 25 percent, according to estimates by a state-funded relief agency. That number includes more people from traditionally stable background such as high school and university graduates...All these problems have led to a general rise in depression. According to several state-funded health and relief agencies, rates of suicide, drug dependency and depression have all broadly risen by 20 to 25 percent since the financial crisis hit in late 2009.”
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