On Alex

Alex Meschisvili was an 11 year old kid from Georgia murdered on February 2006 in the small greek town of Veria. Four children, (3 greek, 1 rumanian and 1 albanian), were arrested on the suspicion that they murdered Alex while their parents are also accused of harboring them and maybe occulting the cadaver. It has been reported that his school officials ignored the claims of his mother that he was being bullied and there are serious reasons to believe that the police acted sloppily enough to give grounds to suspicions that either it wished to cover up, or it failed to exercise due diligence due to the identity of Alex. Also the lack of testimonies and any information appears unusual for greek standards, especially given the fact that indeed some must exist since the initial kickoff for solving the case was made by an anonymous tip to a greek TV program dealing with missing persons.

Until now we have a disgusting – unfortunately all too common – case of child criminality. It is also not uncommon for parents to attempt to subtract their children from the consequences of their actions. There are dozens and dozens of cases all around Europe of children killing other children and racist motivations have often surfaced behind these cases. All these suspicions are not a greek peculiarity and racial prejudice entering the police department is all to familiar in the USA. But what is different in Greece was the denial to deal with the actual problem and the denial at all costs to acknowledge that while the crime may not have had racial motives, the indifference after it might indeed had because he was not one of «us», ie greek.

Everybody is to blame according to the media and public opinion, the society (not pinpointing specific persons – God forbid!), the educational system, capitalism, «social causes», modernity… Hell even the Jews managed to get involved in a revival of the Blood Libel by Ioannis Fourakis, the spiritual father of all conspiracy theories fanatics like D.Liakopoulos or LAOS parliamentarian K.Velopoulos. (the haste of these people to create confusion and try to introduce conspirationism should serve as an answer to those who still claim that Alex was just another victim of «ordinary» criminality and hate plays no role). Never were discussed the actual responsibilities of the school teachers and of the police, the indifference of the Parent Association and of the city until the matter acquired publicity and how prejudice might have played a role. Still the stance of some courageous persons in the city of Veria must be praised and at least now the city’s institutions have tried to speak up.

I, too, would like to express my solidarity with the mother of Alex and hope that this case shall bring justice and some peace in a destroyed family. I hope it shall also serve to understand that justice is not an abstract idea and individual responsibility is a concept to be taken seriously in our society – especially in the cases where hate is involved and indifferently if it was because Alex was a foreigner, or because simply he was a sensitive kid and an easy target. If not, results such as Alex’s fate after his murder will become more common and next time the victim or the perpetrator might not be a foreigner but your or mine child.

More information:

• The blog of Alex’s mother – Natela.
• Articles in greek, english by Greek media; BBC’s take and the opinion of another englishman comparing Alex and Madeleine McCann.
• Just one of DeviousDiva’s posts on the subject – take the time to review more posts of hers on the subject.
• Blood libel – Jews sell the organs of children and/or drink their blood – 1, 2
• An interesting post on individual responsability and Alex