How much better would life become for all of us able-bodied, “normal” people if, one day, disabled people simply disappeared?
Just think about it. All those parking spaces sitting there empty while the rest of us are forced to park miles away — ours again. All those benefits supposedly being drained from hardworking patriots could finally go back to their “rightful” owners. No more expensive, irritating adaptations to roads, buildings, vehicles or businesses — goodbye ramps, lifts, accessible toilets and all the rest of it.
And best of all? We’d finally get some peace and quiet from the endless whining about “equal rights”, “accessibility”, “state obligations”, “benefits”, “support” and all that other woke bullshit. Not to mention we’d save a fortune on the charity thrown their way.
What’s wrong, kids? Shocked?
Did you think, what the hell happened here — has Nomikos turned into some neo-Nazi fantasising about throwing anyone who doesn’t fit the standards of the pap-Aryan race [Editor’s note: The author is using a Greek wordplay that fuses “Aryan” with paparas, a vulgar Greek term roughly meaning “bullshitter” or “idiot”.] off a cliff? Maybe we should have seen it coming: the pale skin, the blue eyes, the inevitable evolution into a reincarnated Mengele. You just can’t escape your nature, right?
Before you send Mossad after me, stop for a second and think about the introduction.
Because the behaviour of some people — especially public officials — screams exactly this rotten mentality: that some would much rather disabled citizens stayed locked away at home, hidden in an institution or shoved anywhere outside their field of vision, just so nobody has to be inconvenienced or — God forbid — shift their massively overpaid arse and actually do some work.
At Agios Athanasios Secondary School, they knew A FULL YEAR in advance that a quadriplegic pupil using a wheelchair would be attending the school. A whole year before he first crossed the school gates last September.
The boy’s mother informed them early on about the adjustments, modifications and arrangements needed so her son could attend lessons properly, take part — wherever physically possible — in school activities and events, and simply belong, the way every child should.
In fact, she had been told the school already employed a teacher who used a wheelchair, so naturally she assumed the staff would be familiar with accessibility issues and the building itself would be suitable.
How wrong she was.
Not only does the school not have a lift — despite being relatively new, which honestly raises the question of how the hell public buildings this inaccessible are ever approved — but the school events hall is located on a lower level accessible only by stairs.
Stairs the boy obviously cannot use because, sadly, his wheelchair is a standard model and not a Batplane capable of taking flight whenever necessary.
So the child was excluded from EVERY single school event held in that hall. Celebrations. Performances. Talks. Everything.
And not just as a spectator. As a participant too.
You see, the boy may be disabled, but apparently some people decided he may as well be dead. That he has no awareness. No feelings.
The child is highly intelligent. Fully aware of what is happening around him. He enjoys taking part in activities and events like every other child his age. He even appears in an award-winning school video produced with the help of Parents’ Association president Michalis Aristeidou, a filmmaker and one of the boy’s strongest supporters — despite every attempt he has made to improve the child’s school life falling on deaf ears. It was through his social media post that I first learned about the case.
Dozens of letters were sent to every relevant authority — I have copies of them. Every one acknowledged. Every one met with promises that the matter would be resolved.
Guess what happened.
The school year ends in a few weeks and absolutely nothing has been done.
For an entire academic year, this child has remained excluded from every school event.
The lift costs money, of course. Somewhere, no doubt, a public official is wringing their hands over “limited budgets” — though this sudden concern for public spending rarely seems to apply to overseas trips, overtime payments or expensive PR spectacles for officials. Truly heartbreaking stuff.
At one point, someone even floated the idea of a fundraiser. Thankfully, that was rejected, because charity must never become an alibi for brutal state indifference!
Meanwhile, some temporary solution — even something as simple as a ramp — could easily have been found. But which public servant would: a) think of it, b) take the initiative, and c) actually see it through personally? If the boy’s mother could build the ramp herself with her bare hands, she probably would. Or carry him on her back every time there was an event. There is no feat a parent would not attempt for their disabled child. What outsiders romanticise as a “cross to bear” is simply everyday life for these families.
But she cannot do it herself. And she should not have to.
Because supposedly we have a state. And this — literally this — is its job description.
The key word there being “supposedly”.
The public exposure, unsurprisingly, annoyed the people responsible. So brace yourselves for a barrage of “wasn’t me” excuses, as one by one they scramble to cover their arses and protect their promotions. In a normal country — yes, I know the cliché is getting tired, and I promise I’ll stop using it when, you know, we stop being a complete bloody shambles — the callous officials who allowed a disabled child to suffer the psychological trauma of constant exclusion for an entire school year, on top of his physical condition, would already have been thrown out. But the corks always float to the top, precisely because we are a parody of a state and a hypocritical society, where the exposure of a disabled child’s exclusion causes more discomfort than the exclusion itself.
This article was fist published on 28.04.2026
