Doujon Zammit - Clear View of the Beating

For many years, I have lived on the Greek island of Mykonos —just a short distance from the Tropicana Club (on Paradise Beach), where Doujon Zammit was murdered early Tuesday morning.

Throughout my time here, close to 23 years, I have watched with sadness as this once quaint, always peaceful island community has devolved into an out-of-the-way place where no one in his or her "right mind" should want to spend a holiday—never mind a life.



Their son clinically dead since his vicious beating, Zammit's family made the dreadful decision to switch off his life support machines on Friday afternoon following which this vibrant, young, Australian tourist officially died.

Zammit suffered extreme brain damage when he was beaten with a metal baton by four nightclub bouncers who'd accused him and his cousin, Cameron Tabone, of stealing a handbag and after they refused to hand over their passports.

In my opinion, business owners here on the island—there are no business "leaders"—no longer welcome their paying customers or guests as they once did, but instead view them as an inconvenience—that must simply be tolerated during the short 186-day tourist season from May to October.

Few people live on Mykonos during the off-season any more—most of those involved in the local tourist industry leave with the last tourist and return just after Easter, for another round of (cash extraction).

With each passing year, Mykonos has become more a place where the business operators vie for cash and where tourists are thought of as a never-ending cash-cow. Some leave unhappy; some lucky souls return home not knowing how close they came to disaster; others die here.

Each year, Mykonos grows a little rougher, a little grimier (read: seedier) and, all the while, the drivers become a little more reckless as they ignore even the most basic laws of the Greek road.

And yet, while the same may apply to certain other places around the world, the impact upon this tiny, previously close-knit community has been magnified and has literally torn the fabric of Mykonian society asunder.

And yet, sad as the tale of Zammit is, there have been many others. Such as that of the woman raped and killed, less than a mile from my home last year, by a local Greek man, whom "everyone on the island" (including a local priest) continues to protect while they collectively and creatively fit-up a foreign worker, who languishes to this day in an Athens prison cell.

Or of the countless bikers who have died or been maimed for life due to the careless actions of local drivers who either failed to stop or, astonishingly, just stood there at the scene and denied they had anything to do with the accident they just caused!

Case in point: last week, I watched from two cars back at a roundabout while a hotel owner drove straight through a stop sign and ploughed right into a tourist who was trying to return a rental car as a first step to going home.

I pulled off the road and found the tourist in tears. She endured being screamed at in Greek by the perpetrator, and might have been arrested had I not approached the cop and said, "Officer, I saw the whole thing and this lady, the hotel owner, didn't stop at the sign."

Perhaps not a great way to garner local support but, in my opinion, these people (the locals) are giving Mykonos, and Greece at large, a bad name.

Over the years, Mykonos—once the playground of the rich and artsy—has become a deteriorating barrel in which tourists are picked off one after another, with most losing just their cash—and others...their lives.

If you're thinking about a holiday on Mykonos and you've already been to Tijuana, give us a miss: you've already been here; done this.

Try the south of France or Venice instead.

Το μοναδικό πράγμα που ρωτάμε είναι τι γίνεται με την υπόθεση της γυναίκας που βιάστηκε και σκοτώθηκε από τον κάτοικο εκεί αλλά την πληρώνει ένας ξένος...

Τους παπάδες θα τους μαζέψει κάποιος;

Και μην μας πείτε ότι κανείς δεν ξέρει τίποτα για τίποτα, διότι οι ίδιες νησιώτικες συνομωσίες έχουν συμβεί και σε άλλες περιπτώσεις...

Ντροπή σου Ελλάδα...

Doujon Zammit - Οι Δράστες στα Πούπουλα
Doujon Zammit - Ελλάδα η Αχάριστη Αλήτισα
Doujon Zammit - It Was Only Manslaughter
Αντωνόπουλος - Ίδιες Διαστάσεις με τον Cameron;
Doujon Zammit - Ο Δολοφόνος ως Όσιος Ονούφριος
Doujon Zammit - Οι Συνεργοί Γιατί Δεν Είναι Φυλακή;
Doujon Zammit - Άξιζε να Δεις τον Αντωνόπουλο;
Doujon Zammit - Το Μεγαλείο Της Ατιμωρησίας
Χρυσώνουν το Χάπι της Ατιμωρησίας για τον Doujon
Funeral of Doujon Zammit
This man killed Doujon Zammit