Back in July, the assassination of Sokratis Giolias shocked the Greek blogosphere. The politically (over)charged blog was a big thorn in the side of corrupt politicians and power-hungry entrepreneurs.
The cold-blooded murder of Giolias and the closing of his popular blog, Troktiko (the rodent), displayed the level of real world anarchy and violence invading the virtual world of blogs.
The murder of Socrates Giolias was also the reason that DomainGang started displaying the “100%” graphic on all content that is not parody or fiction in its nature.
Since closing down on July 24, the high-traffic blog hosted on Blogger has lost a significant amount of its visitors, dropping down from 5th place to 253rd for the Greek Internet market, according to Alexa ratings.
A still image from the videoclip of "Fonazo" - "I scream" in memoriam of Socrates Giolias, the slain administrator of Troktiko blog.
However, on October 19th Troktiko returned with a single post: to announce the availability of a web site commemorating the demise of Socrates Giolias, created by members of his family.
The all-Greek web site is built in somber black and white, at SokratisGiolias.gr and it contains photographs, articles, testimonials of friends and co-workers along with a song written by Nikos Giolias – the brother of slain Socrates.
The song – “FonaZO” or “I scream out” – presents Sokratis Giolias as the sacrificial lamb or the scapegoat of a deeply corrupt and inhumane sociopolitical system; it’s an epic message to the common people who aspire to keep the dream alive in Greece. The song title is also a play on words, as the “-ZO” part, capitalized to stand out as a separate word, means “I’m alive“.
So far there have been no arrests related to the assassination of Socrates Giolias, a common practice for the ever-so slow moving, bureaucratic – some say, systematic – Greek police.
