Riots in Athens, Part 3

So, it appears that the riots have calmed down considerably since Monday night, which is a good thing, because to be honest, much of dowtown Athens has been burned/smashed by now and there was a bit too much residual teargas and smoke in the air for my personal comfort. On Tuesday the funeral of the boy was held, and yesterday there was a general strike (which had nothing to do with this whole incident and had actually been announced two weeks ago.) and there was some rioting on both days, but nothing compared to the horror that was Sunday or Monday night. The city is not in great shape, but it seems to be picking itself back up. The streets are no longer deserted. The air has lost the palpable tension and the scent of smoke. Etc.



Many people have asked how this experience has affected my perception of Greece, and there seems to be a lot of concern that this has soured my entire study abroad experience. Honestly, this is not the case. Would I have wished this to happen? No. Of course not. Many people have been injured, many people have lost their livlihoods. There is over 50 million in damages in Athens alone. A boy is dead. They burned the Christmas tree in Syntagma Square, for goodness sake. I mean, it has been awful. But has it soured my entire experience? No. What it has made me (and, I think, many, many other people) do is think about how this sort of thing could ever happen, and what this means for the future.



It's a bit like in Thucydides, where he gives a lot of immediate reasons why the Peloponnesian War started, and then says that the real reason was that the Spartans and their allies were feeling threatened by the growing power of the Athenians. The death of the boy was a horrible incident (again, the details are still murky to me) but the rioting that has ensued is really the product of a whole lot of other circumstances. The relationship between the people and the police (especially students and the police) is not the same here as it is at home- I would say that I don't generally mistrust policemen at home, but here, that seems to be the norm. I think that this is a big part of the issue- a lot of people don't seem to trust the police force, and so when some tragedy like this occurs, people get really angry. There also are a lot of economic and social issues in Greece. The unemployment rate, especially among young people, is very high, and with the economy the way it is, there is a lot of unrest to go around in the first place. Also, the current government has been wracked by a series of scandals in recent months, and I think that some of the opposing political parties are using this incident as a reason to demand that they step down. This incident has brought back memories of other times as well, especially the times during and right after the military dictatorship, and that's not a good thing. There is a long tradition of demonstrations (especially student demonstrations) in Greece, and I think that that contributes as well.

I can't say that I understand what has happened here in the past few days, and honestly I don't know that many people can really claim that. It is complex, and you get a different view with every person that you talk to. But it has made me think a lot, and I think that that is really the point of studying abroad.