by Emmanuel Bouhalakis
The unfortunate incident of the death of a young Englishman by the knife of an also young Greek taxi driver in Zakinthos illustrated once again the problem of transforming whole towns and resorts across Europe into wild spots of lawlessness with unlimited alcohol use and debauchery.
Whether it is Ibiza, Agia Nappa, Malia or Laganas, the idea is the same : Bring hordes of young people, promise them sun, sea, sex and alcohol (the latter at amazingly low price) and get ready for mayhem.
In order to facilitate the advance of these hordes, many local businessmen create whole squares that look like cheap British pubs and restaurants. Oftentimes, one sees names like "The three lions", "Shamrock"or "Camelot" and the restaurants serve roast beef with potatoes, puddings and fish and chips. Cafes broadcast live or recorded Premier League football matches 24 hours a day and there are corners with the daily UK tabloids and gossip magazines.
There have been innumerable cases of drunken brawls, sex in plain sight, attacks on property, violence and in the early hours of the morning the areas of last night's entertainment smell with vomit and urine. Some of the young people end up in jail after a quick arrest by the police for violating one law or another.
Who may benefit from such form of tourism is not the issue here nor it is why a big part of the British youth considers getting drunk to unconsciousness, fighting with broken bottles of beer or showing their private parts to shocked bystanders, an achievement or a rite of passage.
What causes concern, however, and is an issue of skepticism and wonder, is the tendency of many British newspapers and media to follow a certain practice if there is a tragic event like that of the Briton who was killed by the taxi driver. Although the killing is thoroughly condemned and the particular taxi driver was not, it seems, defending his life but rather he reacted disproportionately when the Briton and a group of his friends "blinded" him with laser pens, the fact remains that especially the British tabloids portrayed the deceased young man as a decent boy, with his photo as a child in front of David Beckham acting as a mascot for the UK national football team.
The actual young man who died looked very differently from the sweet boy of the photo but the importance here is the symbolism: A national team mascot, a sweet little kid is murdered. That may be very wrong. Sweet little kids do and can become violent, law-defying and dangerous if they spend some days in an environment with tons of alcohol, lewdness and wild partying in which drugs are also often offered.
In a previous incident in another part of Greece, a convicted Briton was shown in photos on the day he graduated from college with a nice suit and an innocent look. Next to this photo, his parents were smiling charmingly as if they were saying "there's no darn way our son would ever break any law". Naive parents? Naive children? Nobody can tell for sure.
There is obviously nothing wrong with partying or drinking or flirting. That is what youth is about. But breaking the laws of the host country and going into violent extremes to prove somebody, may not be the safest or most logical option. Because other than the police, one may encounter other wild young men who could equally bring the situation out of hand.
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