Hate Graffiti 2
Published by deviousdiva October 9th, 2006 in Hate Graffiti Campaign.Teacher Dude has a post up today on the graffiti poblem in Thessaloniki and his personal reaction to the message it is sending to his daughter. One of the most disturbing he mentions reads
Αλβανος καλος μονο νεκρος
“The only good Albanian is a dead one”
Go over and read…
Technorati Tags: greece, racism, xenophobia
This is what I spoted at the Teacher Dude blog:
I may have come too late into this -deviating from devious diva :)- but in a way all Greeks ARE the same: they dont give a damn when they see this graffiti and ask no one to erase it; ministers, intelelctuals et al drive by that and are insensitive; thise of us who care are called exaggerated extremists, which by Greek standrads we are. Ask an Albanian, a Jew, etc how they feel when they see all that.
Could Teacher provide pictures of that crap?
Panyote, if it was anti-greek writing on a wall, would it stay there for just as long? Or do you think it would be cleaned up right away.
That woud be the real test I suppose. To see if it’s true whether they are just lazy or not.
your question is rhetorical, right?
Actually, yes rhetorical.
However, can you give me any examples Panayote where you’ve seen any anti-Greek graffiti in Greece?
I’ve never seen any but haven’t lived here that long. Have you?
Oh, one more thing Panayote. Since the graffiti is in Greece, and Greece is part of the European Union, could a citizen write a letter to the European commission for complaints (or whatever it’s called) and bring this to the attention of the authorities in Brussels.
Maybe if the Greeks get in trouble with their boss (Europe), maybe they will do something?
Is this an option? Would the European Union give Greece a fine if they don’t clean the graffiti up in a timely manner?
Maybe your group could write a letter to the EU about this since you have more weight than an average citizen.
I don’t know where to begin, but I’ll try…
to anon :
I’m sorry, but europe is no-ones boss.
I see graffitis like ” metanastes aderfia mas” ( immigrants are our brothers) and ” eimaste oloi alvanoi” ( we are all albanians) all the time. “xrysh augh” (golden dawn) is usually turned into “xrysa auga” (golden eggs)-my personal favourite:-), and a lot of the time I see ultra left graffiti like “kremala stous fasistes” ( hang fascists). No-one ever bothers to clean those either.
Just because I mention other popular graffitis doesn’t mean that I am not concerned with the issue here. Therefore, please don’t take my following points out of context and think that I approve of the inertia of local councils. Here are my two cents:
1. do you seriously expect any public body in greece to employ people to paint over graffitis ? I remember driving to some remote village and seeing ” pshfiste koutsogiorga” in green. anyone with a bit of knowledge about recent greek politics would date that to before 1989 !!!!!
have you seen the state of our roads, waste management and other municipal and ” nomarxiakes” responsibilities ? there is an excellent editorial in athens voice (12.10.06) http://www.athensvoice.gr for those of you who can read in greek. I’ll try to post the essence in english : the editor basically says that if people don’t want to face floods again in thessaloniki they should vote with a little more sense, and obviously not for someone who spends resources on things like alexander’s memorials, flying europe’s biggest kite, handing out ouzo on bank holidays, and generally neglecting his job to go and sing kazantzidis on tv ! I know how surreal all this must sound, but this guy didn’t land in thessaloniki from another planet, he is the local media’s and therefore the people’s favorite… in re: public authorities’ incompetence in greece.
2. My hair stands up straight everytime I see one of those things, but would removing them actually make a difference ? that’s like saying getting homeless people off the streets to where you can’t see them solves the problem. the real issue is why does a working class 15 year old boy (sh*t ! how did I manage to gender-age-class-profile in one sentence ???) think that writing that on the wall is a good idea ? and no, I don’t think it’s because he saw it written somewhere else,but because he is constantly being told by the media, his teachers, liakopoulos, whatever, about how greeks have invented evrything, albanians are thiefs and murderers, muslims brainless fanatics and jews money-loving palestinian blood-drinking beasts.
to me, the fact that liakopoulos and his clones dominate cult tv is no longer funny. and when some of the things he says become commonplace distortions of history, it will be too late. so if something is worth making a fuss about to “europe”, that’s not nameless graffiti, because that would dissapear a short time after hate preachers in traceable (albeit probably unlicenced) channels were off the air.
Danilena: Well, Europe may not be anyone’s boss as you think, but generally the only way to get Greece’s attention is to report them to the ombudsman of the European Union.
Many issues (some you’ve mentioned) regarding human rights, animal rights, waste disposal, mismanagement of EU funds, and just plain ole’ “Attention to Detail of the Directives of the EU” seem to allude the country of Greece.
If I was the EU, I’d revoke the membership of banana republics who flaunt the rules and attempt to make a mockery of the EU.
The EU is not some SLOW TOURIST in Monastiraki that you can sell your used Floakatis as Persian Rugs or easily fool with your tired shtick.
Greece is already in hot water with the EU on several fronts and maybe the only way to get their attention is suspension of their EU membership or at least to “report them to their bosses.” (sic)
hendrie, my idealistic side agrees with what you say about the eu being a great way to bring change in greece. but the eu ( or anyone for that matter) can’t just shake it’s magic wand and make everything alright. unless a society is ready to accept change, forcing it is not going to work. look at secularism in turkey. kemal was a pioneer who granted women equal rights in a muslim society, when most european countries didn’t give women the right to vote. he also created a constitutional balance between politicians and the army, which he considered a “safeguard of the republic”. 80 years later, turkish women might have equal rights on paper, but the reality is still pretty grim, and the army is constantly abusing its constitutional position by raising obstacles against democracy and human rights. all I’m saying is it takes time for things to change, and the thirty years of relative normality greece has enjoyed since the junta are nowhere near enough for us to reach european standards.
And now for my other, more practical side… the eu is primarily an economic union. the other two pillars the european foundation was originally supposed to be based on ( common foreign and defence policy, and co-operation in home and justice affairs ) have failed so miserably, they almost sound like a joke. this has turned the eu into a massive marketplace ( as in pazari) where the only thing you need to do when you break a rule, is strike a protection deal with those who break different rules, support each other and keep everyone happy. the difference between greece and other countries is that because here people are still insensitive about some things ( say the environment) the government doesn’t even bother to keep appearances.
but do you call the netherlands a banana republic when a dutch company hires a boat to dump toxic waste anywhere but here in our precious crap producing continent, and the dutch port authorities do nothing to stop the ship even though they have suspicions about it’s cargο ?
and what do you call belgian authorities for not supervising the proper destruction of contaminated meat which ends up some seven years later imported by our banana republic ?
how about the uk, where you can sell your body for £2000 and end up paralysed or dead when the drug trial goes horribly wrong?
berlusconi’s italy? a country where the prime minister owned ALL media ?
austria’s far-right government coalition?
spain’s domestic violonce records?
Le pen’s 20% in french elections?
and what about europe’s hyper-succesful recycling programs for old computers that somehow end up polluting indian and african rivers with heavy metals ?
greece certainly has a horrible record, but it’s not the only place in the eu where things go wrong. if someone started to kick countries out of the eu, pretty soon there’d be no-one left - except maybe scandinavian countries … HOW the hell do they do it ?????
Danilena,
Since we are in Greece, we can start the process here. Sure, the things you mention about other EU countries sound grim, but the old saying “out of sight, out of mind” comes to me.
Maybe those other countries need their own citizens or foreign residents to bring the complaints forward.
Maybe they need a DEVIOUS DIVA like we have to make it known that they WONT just lay down in a corner and go to sleep.