Excerpt from Mikis Theodorakis' Interview
"The great evil comes from the fact that very large countries base a significant part of their wealth on the military industry.
François Mitterrand was a friend of mine. At that time, he came to Vrahati, and there was a civil war in Lebanon.
He told me, 'Now the ship carrying weapons will have reached the waters off Lebanon. On one side of the gangway, one group will go up, and on the other, the opposing group will climb up to collect the weapons to kill each other.
But what matters to us,' Mitterrand said, 'is not small arms. It’s the big weapons – the airplanes, the tanks, the missiles, the submarines, the destroyers. If France does not sell these big weapons, the standard of living will drop dramatically.'
'So, as you understand, entire nations depend on their happiness from selling the black death.'
There’s also the white death: heroin. And you can see how heroin is trafficked.
But as for the black death, it’s the prime ministers themselves who go to sell it: Putin came here to sell weapons, Clinton sold weapons.
'Today, we have the great powers – America, England, France, Germany, Russia, China – which generate enormous wealth from the sale of weapons. That’s why you see that when wars break out every year to sell weapons, the other countries remain indifferent. Every year, there is a new war. They will always find something to start.'
Therefore, I am deeply distressed because this truth is something I have been shouting about for a very long time. The tragic thing is that in the death industry, it is not only those who sell death that are involved but also all those who benefit from it. And you know who benefits? All those who sit back and watch a country being destroyed by its own airplanes or bombs, while sitting comfortably in their armchairs, drinking their beer.
That’s the core of the issue: the black death industry must turn green; it must become a peace industry. When that happens, the world will breathe again. That is my vision for humanity."
Source: Pontiki
