Giorgos Vasilopoulos, secretary-general of the Hellenic Small Islands Network, former mayor of Ithaca and retired educator, joins “Fair Winds and Following Seas” on Voice of Greece.
Having attended the 17th Panhellenic Small Islands Conference on the Heroic Island of Kasos, held under the theme “The right to stay / The right to return,” he discusses the challenges and particular circumstances facing Greece’s small islands.
“Our islands’ problems are growing rather than diminishing,” Vasilopoulos stresses. “Legislation takes a one-size-fits-all approach, yet every place and every island has its own characteristics and problems. Local authorities should have responsibility for their own affairs and the power to legislate on them. Population decline is perhaps the greatest challenge facing our small islands and Greece as a whole. Unless we care deeply about our homeland and put right our mistakes, we will get nowhere and have no future.”
Speaking with heartfelt emotion about his beloved Ithaca, he says: “It is my whole life.”
He closes by urging people of all ages to contribute: “Let each of us do our part to keep the small islands from being deserted. Let us love our country and keep our hometowns alive.”
Produced and presented by Antonis Karagiannakis