My, my, my… What can I say? During our trip to Athens this
weekend I have to admit, I have probably never been so disgusted in a city in a
long time. I can even compare the city to some of those in South Africa – minus
the severe crime.
The central city is polluted with graffiti and litter. There
is almost no clean space left on the first story of buildings. It is absolutely
disgusting. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind graffiti which can be passed as
art, especially if it has been done in legal ways and if it doesn't damage a
country’s property which has been paid by the hard working taxpayers. But most
of the graffiti is tasteless and leaves nothing to the imagination. There is
especially a lot of graffiti on the Parliamentary and Financial buildings –
some of it is written in (poor) English – hence you realize that it is probably mostly political. I reckon most of the graffiti is just purely out of a lack of
respect for public buildings.
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| Photo from dailymail.co.uk |
Now, have the financial crisis in Greece really hit them so
hard that they have no dignity or pride left for their country? Didn’t the
Grecians vote for those who misspent their money on, for example, the ghastly amounts
spent on the “glorious” Olympic city, which, like ancient Greece, now lies in
ruins? Didn’t these Grecians enjoy riding on the socialist gravy train which
now created their tragic financial circumstances? Oh well… these thoughts are
probably left for a completely different topic. But it is sad to see that even some
architectural gems are littered with graffiti, with Anarchist signs protruding
almost everywhere, and slogans like “burn parliament” etc. Unfortunately, I see
no point in destroying the last bit of pride you have – unless you can provide
a better answer to your problems (unlike “burn parliament”) which will, most
probably, render your country in a worse state of chaos – isn’t it time to stop
the “misbehaving”?
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| Photo from poienkaiprattein.org |
Only after our trip did I realize I didn’t take any photos
of the graffiti, nor the living conditions. But I decided to Google a bit and
share the photos here. During our trip we wondered why nobody bothers to clean
the graffiti – I read they said that as soon as it gets cleaned, new ones
spring up, so now they are “waiting for the city to get stable again”. Isn’t it
that exact mentality that got countries, for example, like previously colonized
countries, to take a step backward and not forward? Why do we have to wait? Isn’t
it exactly that time that you should act and get the people to start acting
respectfully again? Perhaps if there isn’t so much decay and disgust
everywhere, more people will automatically get a bit more positive. And perhaps
they will see some pride in what used to be a thriving country…
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| Photo from dailymail.co.uk |
Sadly, I think that a place which was, in ancient times, the
centre of civilization, has degraded into what even the ancient Greeks and
Romans would shamefully walk away from. If only Athena could see the graffiti just
steps away from her temple at the acropolis, I’m sure even she would’ve
abandoned Athens and rather give it to Poseidon, who fought so hard for it in
the first place.
What is your opinion of Athens? Do you also think it is
declining into a state of despair?
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