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Thieves Without Shame
By Yaffa Fredrick, New Jersey
In Paradise Regained John Milton referred to Athens as "the eye of Greece, the mother of arts and eloquence." Yet, as I watched the pickpockets run away from Athens bus #14 after they had stolen my chaperone's wallet, I could not help but think I had entered an unscrupulous city where one had to prey or be preyed upon. As my school group was composed of naïve American tourists, we became victim to the former.
"I learned that Americans were viewed as uncultured, self-seeking war hawks, too conservative on social issues and too liberal with their declarations of war." -Yaffa Fredrick
Our tour guide later informed us that this was not an unusual occurrence as there is lingering anti-American sentiment in the region. Her words were confirmed once more as we passed the American embassy, where a few wooden planks covered the gaping hole through which a hand grenade had been thrown by leftist Greek radicals a week earlier.
The origin of this hate dates back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a Greek military dictator assumed control of Greece against the will of the people. Georgios Papadopoulos, the head of the 1967 military coup d'état, was endorsed by the American government because, as American ambassador to Greece Henry Tasca phrased it, the military government was "the most anti-communist group you'll find anywhere." During the heart of the Cold War, the Americans needed as many European allies as possible in order to keep the Russians at bay.
American officials ignored the fact that Papadopoulos' regime imposed martial law, dissolved political parties, and inflicted mass beatings on its opposition. Not surprisingly, this garnered American resentment amongst the Greek people, a resentment that former President Bill Clinton attempted to pacify in 1999 when he visited Greece and apologized for American support during that difficult time. While Clinton's apology may have extinguished some of the flames of anger, I can attest to the fact that there are lasting sparks.
Those sparks extended beyond the pickpocket incident and beyond the Greeks themselves. The day my tour group visited the Acropolis I was approached by an Italian family and asked to take of picture of them in front of the Parthenon. When I attempted to explain to them in Egliano (the Italian form of Spanglish) that I did not comprehend their request because I was American, the father rifled through his pockets looking for a few euros. When I asked him why he was searching for money he responded, "We don't want anything from the Americans for free. There is always a catch, always a hidden cost."
The Italians were not the only ones who thought Americans were opportunists. A French couple made a similar photo request and after once again explaining to them I was not fluent in French, I watched the man pull some loose change from his pocket, too.
Did the entire continent have a grudge against the United States? While I partially understood the Greek antagonism, I could not fathom why other European countries loathed Americans so much. I soon learned that Americans were viewed as uncultured, self-seeking war hawks, too conservative on social issues and too liberal with their declarations of war.
Upon reflection I came to realize that Europeans judged us solely by our economic and foreign policy - the United States is a capitalist country, whereas many European countries are socialist, the U.S. initiated the war in Iraq, despite the protests of other European countries, namely France and Russia. In the eyes of the Europeans, the United States entered Iraq without justification. In the eyes of my tour group, the pickpocket had stolen my chaperone's wallet without justification. And yet in an environment that is already hostile towards the United States and in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, it is not surprising a pickpocket felt no shame in robbing an American of some of his vacation sanity; in fact, he might have even felt slightly heroic spreading his anti-American attitude.
