Strike 2

We had a UNF group field trip to the Acropolis Museum again this morning and it also made a nice review session for those of us in the art class because we have a mid-term tomorrow! Erika, Erin, Micah and I walked back through the important pieces of sculpture and repeated what we remembered about the pieces from class and from our professor. This was actually quite an easy way to study! We realized we knew a lot more than we thought, and we were able to share some of what we learned with our classmates.

Our professors kirios (Mr.) Kaplan and kiria (Mrs.) Kaplan pointed out to us that this museum is more than just an impressive, modern building that houses ancient sculptures, pediment, metopes and pottery. This museum is making a very political argument. It's a message to the British, saying give us our stuff back. In the early 19th century, Lord Byron from England took one of the Caryatids (famous maidens) from the porch of the Erectheion and it was never returned. To this day, the Greeks argue that the maiden should be reunited with her other 5 sisters safely protected in the Acropolis Museum.

Entering the museum, you will go through security and a metal detector. Nowhere else in Athens is there a museum with such security measures. Although I have to say I think a lot of it is for show, because one of my classmates accidentally walked in with a pocket knife and he wasn't searched or anything. The metal detector beeped a few more times as we were walking in, but the guard just told people to keep moving without even checking to see what set off the beeper. But the fact that the museum has security portrays how serious the Greeks are at keeping theft out of this museum. Also, the museum says, "look we can take care of our stuff."

The layout and location of the Acropolis Museum is no coincidence, every floor is laid out with specific intentions. The location is just a few minutes walk from the Acropolis and provides a perfect view of the Parthenon. Visitors enter the museum by walking up a ramp that resembles the slope up the Acropolis. There are items (mostly pottery) on both walls leading up to the first floor which houses the gorgeous white-washed statues primarily from the 6th century. Then you head up to the top floor which has the precise dimensions of the Parthenon, and is also situated in the exact same orientation. The west and east pediments in the museum line up with the pediments on the Parthenon, as well as the marble frieze which fully wraps around the exterior wall. There are also parts of the frieze located in the British Museum, and these parts are distinguished as missing because they are a different color than the rest of the frieze. This is the one floor where you can freely take pictures, unlike the first floor where no photography is aloud. It's clear that the Greeks want people to know that they are missing parts of history that they want back. As you descend back down to the ground level, you will see the focal point of the whole museum: the Maidens. It is a very subtle placement but the maidens are placed in the center of the Museum and you can see it from every floor, thanks to the see-through floors. You can also take pictures of the maidens, and the Greeks have made it very obvious that one is missing from the collection.

The famous Maidens. There is a spot left for the missing one, front and second from the left.

So my question is why don't the Brits just return the statue if it's causing so much tension? Kiria Kaplan explained that there are three arguments the British have for not returning the statue.
1. Pollution used to be awful in Athens in the 80's and they didn't want the statue to be affected by the air in Greece.
2. There have been multiple thefts from Greek museums in the past (like the one we heard about in Corinth) and the Brits argue that the statue is safer in their museum.
3. If the maiden statue is returned, should everything from the ancient Greeks and all of Greek history be returned to Greece?
This last reason is the most relevant and presents the best argument. Yes, Lord Byron stole a maiden and took some of the frieze as well. But does that mean that every museum should return items to the home country? Then people will only ever be able to see the remains of the rich Greek history by traveling to Greece, something that not everyone can afford in their lifetime. For now though, the maiden remains in the British Museum and the Greeks remain determined to retrieve her and reunite her with her sisters.

After the museum visit, I witnessed the rawest, most pure form of Greek emotion that I've yet to see on this trip. I can officially say I survived my first strike and lived to tell the story. Kiria Kaplan informed us that there would be an organized (and non-dangerous) strike on the main street if we wanted to check it out on our own time. Naturally, I wanted to go. I've never seen a strike in real life and since it was deemed peaceful by our professor it seemed safe enough.

The fliers that were being handed out in Greek and English around the site of the strike.

The strike was about working on Sundays. Sunday has previously been a day when no one has had to work, a chance to rest before the coming week. Now, however, bigger corporations are taking over and today is the first Sunday they were allowed to be open. This new law puts smaller businesses and locally owned stores in a tough place. They can either continue to stay closed on Sundays and face the risk of being put out of business by the bigger corporations, or they can be open 7 days a week, with no day to rest.

There are two sides to every coin, so before automatically siding with the small business owners, I tried to understand why the bigger corporations and stores would feel the need to be open on a day of rest. If corporations are hiring teenagers or college kids who have school and class during the week, then it  makes sense that they would want to be open the whole weekend. With the harsh unemployment rates for my generation, these employees would be able to get more hours, which is always needed. Regardless though, I still side with the emotions and reasoning of the small business owners.

My family has personally been a victim of a bigger corporation taking over and forcing us out of business. Our family drug store was forced to sell out to CVS because they would be open 7 days a week and with really long hours. I completely understand why the strike happened, people are scared of what might happen if they don't give in to working 7 days a week.

Although we couldn't understand what they were saying, the overall message was easy to understand.

Watching the emotions and force of the crowd was addicting. The amount of passion and organization that went into this strike blew me away. The people fed off each others energy and channeled it into one cause, forcing the store owners to close down for the day. It was not violent or aggressive, the people were united in peacefully fighting for what they believe in. The process was simple: they started at one end of the street and would go from door to door of all the stores that were open, crowd around the door and chant in unison until the store would finally have no other choice but to close their doors for the day. We did see one store that didn't close their doors, but I don't think they were going to get any business for the rest of the day anyway. Some of the protesters stayed behind and barricaded the door with their bodies and a sign. 

The crowds gathered outside of a store called Pink, with flags and a mission.

Most of the people seemed to be part of the strike, but there were the occasional Greeks who were actually there to shop. And that did not go over well with the crowd. At one point I was standing on a bench to get a better view and witnessed a middle-aged Greek couple walking down the street with two shopping bags in hand. A woman who was with the strike began to yell and speak very passionately to them and started following them down the street. The couple did not respond, they kept their heads down and kept walking. 

As the crowd moved down the street, each store already had a sign taped up from the protesters that looked like this.

Their approach was powerful, effective and made a statement. It was not violent (although there were plenty of cops around just in case) nor threatening. I could have stayed with the crowd all day, watching them fight for something they truly believe in. It was captivating to see the real, true, unfiltered emotions of the Greek people. It didn't matter that tourists were around, this was a vulnerable moment that we were lucky enough to witness. And this definitely makes my top 5 favorite moments of this trip so far.