boomcie said:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/25/voula-papachristou-greek-olympic-racist-tweet_n_1701410.html
Absolutely ridiculous. That is
not racism.
[...]
I'm amazed at how people aren't allowed to make regular jokes anymore.
Do those mosquitoes come from Africa, yes.
Do those people come from Africa? Yes.
Is it a true statement that those mosquitoes will be eating home food? Yes. Does it matter? Absolutely not.
Why on earth do people have to make such a fuzz about silly things like this. Jokes about Belgians would never be treated the same way.
Talking about ignorance.
The Western Nile Wirus (WNV) is hitting Greece again for the second consecutive year and it has nothing to do with the "African-ness" of mosquitoes.
Did you check the mosquitoes' passports when they entered Greece? Mosquitoes don't even fly further then a couple of miles, and unless they were traveling in someone's suitcase, it is highly unlikely they flew to Greece from "Africa"
The Western Nile Virus (WNV) occurs in mammals, including human beings, and mostly birds. The mosquito, whether it originated in "Africa" or in Greece, bites the disease carrier (WNV), and when it bites a non-infected subject, there is a chance the disease is transferred. The original carrier could be an "African" (migrated) bird, or an African human being, or a Greek bird, or Greek human being....
There is nothing "home food" about it; especially since the Western Nile Virus, which might at one point in history have originated, or perhaps just discovered in and thus named after, the Western Nile region, also occurs in Greece, Canada, the US (since 1999), Mexico and many other countries.
Making comments about an ominous, potentially lethal, and exotic disease, that affects a country's population and associating that disease solely with ("African") immigrants, at a time that the country has a high influx of ("African") immigrants, is text book racism.
I remember something about the 30s and 40s in Europe, when one group in Germany was also accused of carrying and spreading diseases.
Also, The HuffPo
Greece has removed triple jumper Voula Papachristou from the country's team at the London Olympics over her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party.
Comments should be 'read' within a context; i.e. an actor, or a comedian saying X on stage is different from a president saying the X, or even you saying it to your friends in you living room over dinner. I don't read Greek; I don't know more then what she said, through reports.
The Greeks responded first to those tweet(s) and I guess that they, within their context, within their society (Euro crisis/unemployment/anti-immigrant sentiments/outbreak of WNV/rise of extremist parties and all the other (cultural) sensitivities that we as non-Greeks don't know about), and understanding the nuances of the Greek language, detected at least a hint of racism. From the AP/HuffPo article, it seems she has also expressed sympathies for the far right political party (
Golden Dawn?), which, arguably, makes people 'read' the "joke" differently.
If you want to continue the conversation, please PM, so as to not hijack the thread.