After such a weekend, today's events were somewhat jarring.
As my Greek professor put so simply: "Today should have been an ordinary day. But it is not. The German chancellor has made an unexpected visit here."
Another of my professors told us that it was an interesting decision for Chancellor Merkel to come here, seeing as she is about as reviled as Adolph.
We received two emails from the program regarding today:
1)
Dear CYA Faculty and Students,
Tomorrow morning, (Tuesday, 9 October) there will be a country-wide testing of air defense sirens, as part of a normal civil defense exercise called "Alexandros-2012".
2)
Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 9, extra security measures and traffic diversions will be in effect in Athens for the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Traffic will be cut-off and/or diverted at various points to accommodate Merkel's visit. Metro stations in the area will remain closed. All public gatherings have been banned from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm in certain areas of the city including areas of Pangrati. Police presence will be very evident throughout Athens.
The ban on public gatherings is also apparently highly unusual and reminiscent of the bans on public assembly during the Junta (military government from 1967-1974).
Needless to say, there was a great deal of unrest in Athens today. I stayed away from Syntagma and the Parliament building area until after the protestors had been dispersed. It was pretty eerie to walk through the quiet streets, empty of cars, pretty empty of people, just the littered remains of the protesting masses on the ground and remnants of tear gas floating in the air--still enough to cause my nose and eyes to burn. Some of the other kids from the program went during the height of the demonstration, which apparently included re-enactments of the German occupation--full Nazi attire and swastikas and setting fire to a gate.
Merkel's visit here seems to be a major slap in the face to the Greek citizens (they are, at the very least, treating it as such): representing the EU and holding financial power over Greece's head, Merkel is reminding them that, while not technically occupied by, they are once again at the hands of Germany.
As my Greek professor put so simply: "Today should have been an ordinary day. But it is not. The German chancellor has made an unexpected visit here."
Another of my professors told us that it was an interesting decision for Chancellor Merkel to come here, seeing as she is about as reviled as Adolph.
We received two emails from the program regarding today:
1)
Dear CYA Faculty and Students,
Tomorrow morning, (Tuesday, 9 October) there will be a country-wide testing of air defense sirens, as part of a normal civil defense exercise called "Alexandros-2012".
- At 11:00 a.m. the sirens will sound an air-raid warning for 60 seconds (intermittent sound of varying volume)
- At 11:05 a.m. the sirens will sound the end of the warning for 60 seconds (continuous sound of steady volume).
This, I assumed, was a routine occurrence. But according to one of my professors, the air sirens have not sounded since...the 1940s (WWII)--when the Germans were occupying Greece.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 9, extra security measures and traffic diversions will be in effect in Athens for the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Traffic will be cut-off and/or diverted at various points to accommodate Merkel's visit. Metro stations in the area will remain closed. All public gatherings have been banned from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm in certain areas of the city including areas of Pangrati. Police presence will be very evident throughout Athens.
The ban on public gatherings is also apparently highly unusual and reminiscent of the bans on public assembly during the Junta (military government from 1967-1974).
Needless to say, there was a great deal of unrest in Athens today. I stayed away from Syntagma and the Parliament building area until after the protestors had been dispersed. It was pretty eerie to walk through the quiet streets, empty of cars, pretty empty of people, just the littered remains of the protesting masses on the ground and remnants of tear gas floating in the air--still enough to cause my nose and eyes to burn. Some of the other kids from the program went during the height of the demonstration, which apparently included re-enactments of the German occupation--full Nazi attire and swastikas and setting fire to a gate.
Merkel's visit here seems to be a major slap in the face to the Greek citizens (they are, at the very least, treating it as such): representing the EU and holding financial power over Greece's head, Merkel is reminding them that, while not technically occupied by, they are once again at the hands of Germany.
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