There are fundamentally two issues that concern those of us interested in preserving our Hellenic identities. The first is whether we as a community are able to pass on our history and culture to the generations that follow us and the second is whether we are able to defend the historical image we have inherited in a country where we as a group of people are part of a small minority.
But as some of us have observed there have been a number of obstacles in the way and the most dangerous one is the image promoted by those of the host country showing us as people of certain habits and characteristics that simply fit in to their own stereotypes. In some instances this is to do with an attempt to attack the confidence of those of us in the Hellenic community who may feel weakened by this attack. The notion or the obsession of certain parts of the media to associate a Greek with a kebab shop is an example of this negativity.
And of course the reason we are raising this as an issue is to question as to whether we as a community and our leaders have been able or capable of identifying these problems and doing anything about them? The Greek community in the U.K has a number of distinguished people amongst its own ranks and they are the ones we should be projecting but who in the community is doing this job and do we have a good PR machine to deal with these fundamental problems?
Questions need to be asked.
Helen Nicholas
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