[Battlemesh] Situation in Athens

Fotis P fotisp87 at gmail.com
Mon Feb 13 13:00:47 CET 2012


If criminality is your concern (which is reasonable) we are still close to
european capital levels perhaps even safer than some.

About riots:

While you will not be in any danger from the protesters, in case of riots
police makes excessive use of tear gas, flashbang grenades
and sometimes they blindly storm groups of people that may happen to be in
their path.

HOWEVER most of the protests/riots take place at the central square of
Athens( Syntagma sq) and the surrounding streets AND they are not (YET) a
daily event.
Also note that the battlemesh event site (The Old Polytechnique University)
used to become 'active' during riots serving as a basecamp. This is no
longer the case. It is also very near the 'Exarcheia' district
which is a neighborhood with strong political/liberal/leftist scent, and is
sometimes place of clashes with the police (but is nice to visit when calm)

Strikes are another concern, especially public transportation but if you
are walking distance from the site you will be ok.

Finally I dont advice to do this path by bicycle! Patra- Athens is a narrow
2-way highway with no middle bars, very narrow side road and no sidewalks /
resting places. It is also the highway with the most deadly traffic
accidents in Greece. (there are also construction works to build a new road
which in some parts make the situation more difficult)

P.S. as far as services are concerned, there is nothing you will not find
in Greece (yet:S)


2012/2/13 Joseph Bonicioli <nettraptor at awmn.net>

> Hi,
>
> All this is bad media and over bloated war zone like info.
>
> The situation is bad as it is and they do their best to make it worse.
>
> Saverio the picture you got is blown out of proportion. The situation is
> really bad economic wise but we are nowhere near a war zone :) Basically
> they created a nice atmosphere to force ridiculous measures down our
> thoughts.
>
> Let's hope that on the dates you are going to be here there are no riots.
> The location of the university is close to the epicenter but I am sure the
> organizers will make sure you are safe. After all Violent guys causing a
> havoc are a minority and things are not always as they are presented to
> you.
> You should know better after all since you shared your time with another
> media king in Italy.
>
> But to answer your questions, no you will not have problems traveling here
> by any means unless you are lucky enough to get caught in a transportation
> strike. Stating that, strikers do make sure you will get where you want at
> some point. They will not leave you in the middle of the desert with no
> water :) Even if they do, we will come to rescue :)
>
> To cut the long story short, you can shop, you can travel, you can visit
> places, sleep in luxurious and not so luxurious hotels, have fun and you
> can
> easily pretend nothing is going on. There is no danger in visiting Greece
> what so ever. I guess it probably is the most interesting time to visit
> Greece. It can be both entertaining and educational if you get my point! An
> eye opener so to speak!
>
> Don't worry! People here are well known for their hospitality so in any
> kind
> of situation you will be in safe hands!
>
> Regards,
> JB
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: battlemesh-bounces at ml.ninux.org
> [mailto:battlemesh-bounces at ml.ninux.org] On Behalf Of ZioPRoTo (Saverio
> Proto)
> Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 12:28 AM
> To: Battle of the Mesh Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Battlemesh] Situation in Athens
>
> Hello,
>
> first of all I want to say I feel very close to Greek people tonight.
> Big changes are going on there. Good luck !!
>
> sorry Marek. I think the problem is my English. I am not speaking and
> writing in English too much lately. I think "danger" is not the correct
> word.
> also I missed very important information in my email.
>
> My first concern is about transportation and hotels. I consider my self
> some
> sort of tourist going to the battlemesh, and our western minds are used to
> think that some essential services are just matter of money. This is not
> always true.
>
> Me and two other crazy Ninux guys were thinking of coming to BM riding
> bycicle, on this path
>
> http://g.co/maps/9v3jf
>
> From the news I read that many restaurants and hotels are closing because
> of
> this economical crisis. But from the news is hard to get a real idea of
> what
> is going on.
>
> What I want to ask to the Greek people is if we should consider the
> possibily of not finding easily places for sleep in this path.
> What about trains ?? There is any strike already programmed ??
>
> ciao,
>
> Saverio
>
> PS For example in Italy we had a very heavy strike 3 weeks ago, and all
> highways in the country were blocked. I would inform people coming to my
> country with cars.
>
>
>
> 2012/2/12 Marek Lindner <lindner_marek at yahoo.de>:
> > On Sunday, February 12, 2012 22:33:55 ZioPRoTo (Saverio Proto) wrote:
> >> it describes a sitation much worse than I imagined in the everyday
> >> life. Sorry the video is in Italian but it says stuff like 30% of the
> >> people in Athens do not have the money to pay bills and they live
> >> without electricity. People occupy the office and they go to live
> >> there because they have no money to pay the rent of the house.
> >>
> >> I just wanted to ask to the Greek people in this mailing list, if
> >> there is any sort of danger that we should consider in travelling
> >> across Greece.
> >
> > Maybe it is just me but I fail to understand the purpose of this mail.
> > What do you expect from a reply ?
> >
> > If a Greek were to say "It is heaven on earth here!" would you believe it
> ?
> > Would it change anything ?
> >
> > If he/she claimed the opposite "We are going to die !!" would that be
> > more believable ?
> >
> > What if we have several Greeks contradicting each other ?
> >
> > Let me ask you: Is any sort of danger that we should consider in
> > travelling across Italy ? Can you give a meaningful answer to that ?
> >
> > I mean, we are not going to meet in Somalia where every white person
> > could be kidnapped in order to be exchanged for cash.
> >
> > Perhaps I missed the whole point of this mail ?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Marek
> > _______________________________________________
> > Battlemesh mailing list
> > Battlemesh at ml.ninux.org
> > http://ml.ninux.org/mailman/listinfo/battlemesh
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