Sphaera Ephemeris

Last week, television news carried images of Shiites in Piraeus flogging themselves with chain cat o’ nine tails on the day of Ashura. Muslim community representatives were at hand to give us commentary on this civilized, enchanting, uplifting traditional way of commemorating the martyrdom of the prophet’s grandson some 1,300 years ago.

I find these displays in the midst of our towns grotesque and unacceptable. I’m sorry that I will sound “intolerant,” but allowing these “customs” to evolve among us is an insult to our local traditions — imperfect as they might be — not to mention the risk of fueling religious fanaticism and cultivating the notion that, in the name of some “religious freedom,” Greece is ready to accept more of such brutal imported customs and practices.

While these self-flogging pious youth hurt only themselves, there is no guarantee that, tomorrow, other pious youth, with more aggressive tendencies, won’t choose different methods to express their devotion to the prophet — peace be unto him — and deal a blow to the surrounding society of infidels in the process so that their stock with heavenly Islam improves in value.

By commission of its political “leaders,” and thanks to constant subversion emanating from its smaller leftwing parties, Greece has long lost the ability to assert its own domestic legal and public order regime. The mobs of illegal immigrants, with the help of “non-government organizations” and “human and refugee rights” statutes passed by the EU, are exerting such pressure upon an already rickety system that the Greek government is permanently on the defensive. In the case of the Muslim element, there is a steadily escalating sense of foreboding, but nobody seems capable of instituting contingency planning and bracing for the worst that will inevitably arrive.

More “multiculturalism”

The other day I got on the bus to travel to downtown Athens. At one stop, two young black Africans, one male and one female, boarded the bus and occupied the two remaining free seats. They happily chatted in some unrecognizable language while, at the same time, speaking into cell phones both.

At the following stop, three elderly Greeks, all male, came onto the bus that was now getting crowded. As they stood there, hanging from rails, I heard one of them mumble something like “…look who’s sitting while we have to stand.” The old man obviously never considered the possibility of the two Africans actually understanding Greek and that was his undoing.

In a matter of seconds, the two arrivals from the dark continent had launched withering verbal abuse on the three septuagenarians. In heavily accented Greek, they cursed at them and called them names. The male protagonist was more aggressive. “I’m paying taxes,” he grunted, “so that you useless types have food to eat.”

After recovering from the first shock, the old man who had mumbled threw back the inevitable taunt: “Go back to where you came from, you….” Other passengers were now getting involved, some murmuring insults at the two Africans, others, a minority, taking the side of the new arrivals.

Then, suddenly, the brilliant topping to this pathetic incident came from a young black-clad Greek woman, no more than 20, who abandoned her cell phone momentarily and, in a hoarse voice that easily topped the hubbub on the bus, screamed at the three grandfathers: “Shut up you fascists! Fascists! You are filthy fascists!”

I got off the bus shortly afterward. The young Greek “lady” had delivered an excellent visual and auditory example of the trends that have already embedded themselves in large segments of our “frustrated” youth — the same “frustrated” youth who, last year, demolished the center of Athens, unopposed, and cause widespread damage to many other cities and towns across Greece: people outside her age group are usually “fascist;” people who happen to come from an older social past are usually, if not always, “fascist;” people who would actually oppose the brutal changing of their ways of life are usually, if not always, “fascist;” the “non-fascists” are now the salt of the earth. The latter group also include all those of Greek descent who have no fear of this country becoming a rather amorphous lump of a myriad tribes.

We will leave aside for the moment what I thought would be the proper response to the bus “human rights” activist.

In today’s Greece it is very difficult, if at all possible, to chastise “frustrated” youth like the young “lady” on the bus. Indeed, the three old men could have been in danger of their physical safety if the “human rights” activist was in the company of others like her. “Frustrated” youth are a lot more violent these days, since there is the certainty of not suffering any penalties for committing crimes in favor of “human rights” defense.

Happy New Year!