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.'.:::::::`. Petros Katiforis (Πέτρος Κατηφόρης)
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\ | / \ This post was published on the 28th of October, 2023
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I was trying to figure out what I should talk next on this gemlog and I've finally discovered something worth sharing. My country's (Greece's) economy generates a substantial portion of its income through tourism. That portion is so substantial in fact, that Greek politicians and citizens alike often refer to tourism (both ironically and boastfully) as our sole national heavy industry. Since I'm now essentially obligated to attend University lectures most of the weekdays, I've finally come to get familiar with the Athenian centre, its culture and its evident dependence on foreign travelers.
I, a resident of Attica but yet unfamiliar with downtown Athens, was somewhat surprised at how my country's capital looked like. For the native Greek, it looks nothing more than a colossal scenery optimized for the extraction of tourist cash. Everything is monetized, including ancient artifacts and structures, stereotypical Greek culture, and even clothing depicting ancient Sparta, a city hundreds of kilometers away. Cabrio buses wander around the monetized neighborhoods quaintly avoiding the majority Athenian slums which are only a ten minute walk away from the Acropolis... Whenever I come across such buses I can't help but feel like I'm some sort of wild animal enclosed in a private zoo. Germans, Russians, Americans and Koreans go out of their way to arrive at a place that they've associated with the Ancient Greeks, only to realize (or more often that not, not realize) that we're nothing more than a Balkan protectorate and that only a tiny minority of Modern Greeks are actually adequately educated about Attica's ancestors.
I was trying to purchase a bus ticket and while I was waiting on a never-ending queue, I was abruptly (and frankly rudely) ordered by a public servant to help translate her words into English because she just couldn't communicate with some German tourists. I wonder how she got a job there, she must have probably been a product of nepotism. Most Athenians share at least one occasion of such nature: it has formed into some sort of informal obligation. Millions of Athenians can't make ends meet all while some ignorant retired foreigners are having a "great" time taking selfies just a few hundred meters away from their depressing flats. The average Athenian won't consider visiting the Parthenon because they just can't afford the overpriced ticket which can certainly be considered quite the expense when the average *worker* receives a monthly wage of about 750 Euros! Unemployment is astonishingly high and living conditions are hardly humanly acceptable. The centre of Athens is nothing but a dystopian zoo.