THE BEGGARS OF ATHENS

 

Begging is as old as prostitution. It has always existed. In varying degrees. Depending on factors peculiar to a certain locale.

 

Athens has beggars galore. Overladen. So much so that the situation is worthy of analysis.

 

Again, begging has been part and parcel of man since earliest times. People need to survive. It is a basic. When all else fails, begging or stealing is all that is left.

 

Athens had the same everyday beggars as the rest of the known world till sometime around 400 B.C.. Then Diogenes came upon the scene.

 

The name Diogenes is familiar to most. One thinks philosopher when hearing the name. He was. Crazy, also. A real fruit cake.

 

He ended up becoming Athens most famous beggar during his time there.

 

Diogenes initially lived in Sinope, Turkey. He came from money. His father was a banker and coin maker. Diogenes followed in his foot steps.

 

Diogenes had larceny in his heart. He devised a scam involving coins. Defacing coins. Making them worthless, in effect.  Whatever he did caused him to become extremely rich.

 

The problem was that the defacing was seriously affecting Turkey's economic stability. The Turkish government stripped Diogenes of his wealth and exiled him.

 

Diogenes ended up in Athens, Greece. Broke. He decided to become a beggar. At the same time, it was his intent to become a philosopher, a man of wisdom. He desired to be a guiding light for all peoples.

 

He survived by begging. He made a virtue of poverty.  Everyone knew of him. He literally preached from the rooftops.

 

In due course, his mental instability became evident. He challenged Greek customs and virtues. At one point, he started walking  the streets of Athens with a candle lamp. In the day time. When asked what he was doing, Diogenes replied, "I am looking for an honest man." He is best known historically for the statement.

 

The problem was that Diogenes was a dishonest man to begin with. Recall he was exiled from Turkey because of a money/coin scam.

 

Whatever, he never found the honest man he sought.

 

Diogenes began pontificating about anything and everything. He embarrassed Plato. He disputed Plato's interpretation of Socrates and sabotaged Plato's lectures. He publicly mocked Alexander the Great.

 

The Athens' city fathers finally had it with him. Diogenes had to go. He was too much trouble.

 

They arranged to get rid of him. They paid pirates to capture him in the dead of night. He was taken aboard a pirate ship and eventually deposited somewhere.

 

Diogenes was never heard from again.

 

Fast track to the modern era. The 1900s till the late 1980s. Begging basically involved two groups. Perky gypsy children and pathetic old ladies.

 

Gypsy children begged as part of an overall scheme by the adult
gypsy community to make money. The money received was not necessarily needed. It was not the difference between life and death. It was a gypsy way of life.

 

The old ladies were widows. Left alone. Penniless and neglected. Toothless and bent over as their counterpart of today. No social network existed to care for them. They were on their own. Begging was their means of survival.

 

Up to this point, Athens' begging was similar to that which existed in many countries.

 

Then a dramatic change occurred. One which dumped thousands into Greece. Involved were three occurrences.

 

The Balkan Wars was the first. It started with the breakup of Yugoslavia  in the early 1990s. It was an ethnic conflict.

 

The Balkan Wars have been described as the deadliest conflict since World War II. War crimes, genocide, and mass murders.140,000 died.  Many survivors left with horrific injuries. Crippled and disfigured for life.

 

Recall the news reports regarding Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia during the war years.

 

Another contributing factor was the breakup of the Soviet Union beginning in 1989. Most of the states which had made up the Soviet Union wanted to be independent. Some nearby countries also. Wars began. Deadly wars. Many survivors maimed and crippled.

 

The states and countries were known as the Eastern Block.

 

Note that the Balkan Wars and Eastern Block problems basically occurred at the same time.

 

The third and final contributing factor involved Africans and Asians. They sought  to escape tyranny and poverty. They ended up in Greece, also.

 

All this occurred in the past fifteen years.

 

Many settled in Athens. Athens and Greece as a whole could not handle the thousands who sought refuge. There was neither sufficient government assistance nor jobs to help/absorb this mass of people.

 

Where did many end up? On the streets of Athens! Their occupation? Begging! There was no other way.

 

They were new faces. Different faces. The gypsy children and elderly ladies were relegated to a small minority.

 

These former Yugoslavs, Russians, Africans, and Asians brought their misery with them. Disfigured and crippled from the wars. Sickly. Many eventually became emaciated from a lack of food.

 

These were and are the peoples who comprise the begging community. They utilize  their disfigurements and poverty. They make sure others are keenly aware of them. They are every where on the streets of Athens.

 

I have spoken of the begging problem in the past. I found and continue to find the entire situation a cultural shock.

 

We have all seen begging of one sort or another. Give me a quarter, buddy. I need some money for food. I need a place to sleep. Some in rags.

 

However from my perspective, nothing so hideous and heart wrenching as that which I observed on the streets of Athens.

 

The facts described could have further consequence.

 

Greece is broke. It is well known. 27.2 per cent unemployed. 62.2 per cent of that number under 25. Greece's economy has shrunk consistently in the last 19 quarters. The unemployed exceed 1.4 million. Being out of work means health coverage lost. The Athens Stock Exchange has dropped 85 per cent since 2007.

 

Bad things are happening and about to happen. Someone has to be at fault. That is the way of the world.

 

The Golden Dawn Party is a political party. It is Hitler's Nazi party recreated in Greece. Blackshirts, Nazi type flags, beatings, store front windows destroyed.....all the things that happened in Germany in the late 1920s and into the early 1930s.

 

Hitler blamed the Jews. The Golden Dawn Party blames the immigrants. The Greek immigrants of today are Hitler's Jews of yesterday.

 

The Golden Dawn Party is increasing in influence. They now hold 18 seats in Parliament. Greece's third largest political party and growing. They have a member in the Greek cabinet.

 

It is said that history repeats itself. Hopefully not in this situation. I fear the Golden Dawn Party may eliminate Athens' begging problem.

 

If not, again I hope not, then begging in Athens will continue as it presently is. There is neither money nor programs available now or in the foreseeable  to help these people.