‘I’ll pay his pension for as long as it takes’

HE WAS the sobbing pensioner who became the face of the Greek debt crisis. Now an Australian man is on his way to help with a very generous offer.

Help on the way for sobbing pensioner

HE WAS the sobbing pensioner who became the human face of the Greek debt crisis. Now an Australian businessman is heading to Greece to help with a very generous offer.

James Koufos, chief executive officer of personal finance company Gap Finance, appealed for help to track down the man after discovering 77-year-old Giorgos Chatzifotiadis was a childhood friend of his late father, George Koufidis, news.com.au revealed yesterday.

His appeal was successful — late last night, he said he had tracked down Mr Chatzifotiadis and would fly to Greece this Saturday to meet him.

Mr Chatzifotiadis was photographed by Agence France-Presse slumped in despair on the footpath outside a bank in the Greek city of Thessaloniki on Friday.

He had queued up at three banks in the hope of withdrawing his 120 euro pension, only to be turned away at a fourth bank. Mr Chatzifotiadis said he “just collapsed” when told he could not get the money.

The former coalmine worker said he “cannot stand to see my country in this distress”. “That’s why I feel so beaten, more than for my own personal problems,” Mr Chatzifotiadis said.

The photo went around the world, highlighting the human cost of the crippling capital controls imposed last week.

“I see my fellow citizens begging for a few cents to buy bread. I see more and more suicides. I am a sensitive person. I cannot stand to see my country in this situation,” he said. “Europe and Greece have made mistakes. We must find a solution.”

Mr Koufos has appealed for help.

On Facebook, Mr Koufos posted a public appeal to track down Mr Chatzifotiadis, offering to pay him 250 euros for “as long as it takes”.

“I urge all my Facebook friends to please help us track this man, even the journalists who wrote this or anyone out there who may have media ties,” he wrote.

“This man is an old school friend of my late father. Gap Finance and I will pay this man’s pension for 12 months-plus. As long as it takes. 170 euros a week? We will give him 250 euros!

“I will never allow ... a fellow Greek proud hardworking man [to] starve. Please, please, if anyone can help track this man down with his details I urge you to contact us.

“We must help, [we] don’t want your $$$ just help to find him and his details please!”

Mr Koufos said his mother, who is in Greece, got in touch with him after seeing the story. “She was tearful on the phone. She said, ‘That was a very good friend of your dad’s, they went to school together.’ I got a bit emotional about it,” he told news.com.au.

The photograph was taken in Thessaloniki but Mr Koufos believes Mr Chatzifotiadis lives in the city of Serres, about 80km away. He said they had tried to find the man’s phone number or address but without any luck.

He said he was willing to help Mr Chatzifotiadis out financially because it’s what his father, who left him a large inheritance after his recent death, would have wanted.

“I’ve got people in Greece that could deliver cash to him; it could be through money transfer, Western Union. I’ve also got bank accounts in Greece,” Mr Koufos said. “Even if we had to pay for an international courier — whatever we can do.

“It’s very emotional. It hit us, and a lot of Greek people, very hard.”

Gap Finance CEO James Koufos says Mr Chatzifotiadis was a childhood friend of his late father, and is desperate to get in touch so he can help financially.

Giorgos Chatzifotiadis is assisted by an employee and a policeman as he sits on the ground outside a national bank branch, as pensioners queue to withdraw their pensions.

‘AN AVALANCHE OF PEOPLE WANT TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY’

Meanwhile, the crisis is deeply affecting many in the local Greek community.

Vrasidas Karalis flew back to Sydney from his native Greece last weekend, the day before the government imposed strict limits on withdrawals of 60 euros a day to prevent a run on the banks.

Like a good son, he left his elderly mother cash — he prefers not to say how much — but undoubtedly would have left more if he had known the crippling capital controls, previously ruled out by outgoing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, were coming.

“I’m talking to my mother every day. I’m worried she won’t have enough money. I left her cash — not a lot, because I never believed this would have happened,” said the University of Sydney professor, who ironically is a former colleague of Mr Varoufakis.

Professor Karalis admits the powerful rhetoric of the “no” — or “oxi” — campaign around “injustices” of austerity visited on the Greeks by the European paymasters was overwhelming.

“Oxi has a very strong historical context for the Greeks,” he said. “The term was very clever. It was powerful rhetoric, very emotional. Most of my friends supported the ‘no’ campaign, even though I tried to convince them,” he said.

He added the referendum was formulated in a way that would lead to a “no” vote. “It was very clever policy by Varoufakis,” he said. “He’s a very, very cunning populist.”

Professor Karalis said among his relatives, feeling was divided. Some think the chaos will be temporary and in a few weeks everything will be better. Others are much more pessimistic and think it will be a period of crisis and “social implosion”.

The government has promised banks will reopen by Wednesday, but whether there will be any cash in them is another question altogether. The Greek banks are tipped to run dry this week.

“What they need in the short term is continued support from the European Central Bank [to maintain liquidity], but that’s already being limited and will be turned off fairly soon,” AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said.

“At some point, Greece will have to say the only way we can shore up our economy is to print our own currency. To do that you’ll have to leave the eurozone. The logic of their current situation is that it leads to a Grexit, but that could take months and it will be long and torturous.”

University of Sydney Modern Greek professor Vrasidas Karalis says there is euphoria in Greece, but the difficulties are just beginning.

Greek parliament’s president and Syriza party member Zoe Kostantopoulou, centre, takes a selfie with a ‘No’ supporter as she joins the celebrations in front of the parliament.

Professor Karalis says he has had many inquiries from colleagues wanting to find work in Australia. “I think an avalanche of people want to leave the country. Most of these people are highly skilled workers. It’s an enormous brain drain.”

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has already admitted that 400,000 people have left the country in the past five years, and the exodus will have lasting impact on Greece’s ability to recover.

“It’s a serious, evolving social problem,” said Professor Karalis, who described the atmosphere in Athens before he left as one of “confusion”. “There was a sense of confusion and that something is happening which is not going to be good.

“Now of course there is a lot of euphoria after the referendum, but let’s see how long that will last when the ATMs run out of money. I think the difficulties haven’t started yet.”

Barter economies are already popping up in some communities as ordinary Greeks hoard their precious euro notes, and crime is on the rise.

“I haven’t heard anything [from my family and friends] so far, but of course it’s something expected in the near future,” said Professor Karalis. “It will be dangerous for the elderly and people who can’t protect themselves.”

Athens-based Australian journalist Amanda Dardanis, who lives in Greece with her husband and two sons, told 2GB’s Neil Breen people had “basically put themselves down where they are”. “No one’s travelling anywhere,” she said.

“I have never in the whole time we’ve lived here seen things so tense. Since last Monday when the credit controls came in it’s a totally different environment here. There’s petrol panic, at my local supermarket people are filling up two or three trolleys at a time. It’s crazy.”

Dardanis said there was a sense of paralysis. “No one’s enrolled their kids in school for the next semester because we don’t know whether we’ll be paying in euros or drachmas. People are cancelling plans all over the place.

“The average Greek doesn’t understand [the referendum question]. They’ve got them voting not about politics but about emotion and ideology, about what kind of Europe they want. They’re saying ‘yes’ to the euro but ‘no’ to austerity.”

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