Greek Flags, Feta Cheese, and Olives

By now we are all pretty good with Facebook. Young kids and Yiayias and Papous all have personal Facebook pages. There are many business or social Facebook pages like my own at facebook.com/atlantisofpa (I get a perk every once in a while), or facebook.com/cosmosphilly (for the guys that publish me), and even facebook.com/MyParea, where all the Greeks go to see what is happening in Greekland.

There are great articles, stories, documentaries, music videos, and everything and anything you want to read, see, watch, and learn on Facebook. I can also see what my cousins in Canada are doing with their lives – which kid got a hit in his Little League game, or, who has the lead in the school play.

Lately we have been watching what is happening in Greece with the back and forth between the Greek politicians, the Troika, and the protests in Athens. What is bizarre is that at the same time I’m watching a video posting of the protests the next post that comes up is a photo of some friends of mine in Greece sitting at a table in a small village taverna with their relatives enjoying a good meal, dancing, and everyone seems to be having a great time. Another post is a shot of the Greek Parliament with some politician screaming and making arm movements reminiscent of Hitler’s speeches in those old newsreels and right after that is another post of tourists in skimpy bathing suits on a sunny Greek beach. So at one end of the spectrum, chaos and turbulence, while at the other end of the spectrum, tranquility and bliss.

Bottom line… people really don’t care. If it doesn’t affect them, they just don’t give a damn, but they want to act as if they do. All those postings on Facebook of Greek flags and some quant saying how much one supports Greece or it’s all the German’s fault, really doesn’t matter. If you really want to show your support for Greece… send the Greek politicians a $1.00 so they can pay off the debt. Yeah right, you don’t trust them either! Not even with a $1.00! Better, send the $1.00 to the IMF. You don’t trust them too? Okay, then book a flight to Athens and join the protesters. You say you can’t? Oh, you have a flight booked to Greece, but you have to visit your cousins on some Greek island and you don’t have time for that protesting stuff. See what mean… no one cares so just continue posting the Greek flag instead, if it makes you feel better.

And this brings me to the gist of the article.

I know the owners and administrators of CosmosPhilly.com and MyParea.com and they have confirmed my suspicions, or, as I like to put it, scientific analysis. They post an excellent video of a professor talking about a breathtaking historical find in Greece or an article about the Greek crises and what it will mean to the world economy. They may have photos of early 19th Century Athens or of a Greek-American business in the 1930s. Usually, the “likes” will be between 30 and 70, and the “reaches” will be about double that. BUT, have them post a nice color photo of feta cheese and olives on a plate… over 100,000 reaches with at least 30,000 likes!

Really people? Have we become so dull? Is this what life has become – feta cheese and olives? Do I need to get up in the morning, get myself ready, and go to Facebook to see what is happening in the world, and there it is… staring at me like some giant clown with a big smile – a plate full of feta cheese and olives, and yes, there are over 150,000 likes! How many variations of feta cheese and olives can there be?

And do we really need to see a 1,000 photos of moussaka? Can anyone come up with something more original? Perhaps a plate of moussaka – with a side of feta cheese and olives?

Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what ya gonna get.” Obviously Forrest wasn’t friends with any Greeks on Facebook. No, Forrest, “Life is like a plate of feta cheese and olives. Taste great until you bite down on a pit.”

So do you really want to show you care and do the best thing for Greece? Go there and spend money. Don’t worry about whose fault it is. The Greeks were slaves under the Ottoman Turks for 400 years. They survived. They also survived the Nazis and a few other malcontents over the centuries. They’ll survive this time too and will figure it out. So if you really feel like you need to post on Facebook the Greek flags or those cute sayings in support of the Greeks during this crises, go ahead. Just do me a favor, please. Stop with the feta cheese and olive photos!