The word “crisis” has its roots in Greek word krisis, which is translated as “decision”. In English, Oxford dictionary defines crisis as both “A time of intense difficulty or danger” and “A time when a difficult or important decision must be made”. That is an unsafe situation in which an urgent and important decision has to be made. Ironically, “crisis” is the word with which global society describe the situation that has happened in modern Greece.
Along with Greek economic and political crises, the one in the social sphere is happening right now. What Guardian’s correspondent in Greece Helena Smith draws people’s attention to in her article “Athens under pressure: city races to clear port’s refugee camp before tourists arrive” is the country’s struggle to facilitate refugees. This problematic situation undoubtedly partly is the result of two other long-time crises the country is still going through. With over 1 million people that have crossed the border on their way to Europe via Athens and thousands of those who have settled in the refugee camps and Olympic venues, the habitations for refugees are poorly adjusted. Even though Greeks have responded to the influx with compassion and solidarity” by giving away clothes and food to stateless people, the refugee crisis remains an urgent problem, for the country is still not capable of providing the special services in the amount in which they are needed. To the overall tension contributed the fact that many of people do not want to move from the camps — it is a fear of unknown future that makes them want to settle in.
Despite that Lefteris Papayiannakis, the deputy of mayor in charge of refugee and migrant affairs, says he does not consider refugee situation in Greece to be the crisis, this what it really is, for it is extreme circumstances that have a gigantic influence on everything. Reading this article, I cannot help but recall Mohsin Hamid’s recent book Exit West that follows the lives of two refugees Nadia and Saeed. The novel itself uncovers emigration and refugee problems. In one of the chapters, protagonists stopped in a refugee camp in Greece. Contrary to fiction genre, the frightening reality of the crisis has been painted by Mohsin just as it is. What combines Smith’s article, Exit West and #JeSuis performance together is art (of the written word and of body movement) that have been used by creators as the tool for political activism that in its end calls people for humanity and word’s piece.
Hi Anastasiia,
There indeed is a “crisis” where important decisions have to be mad, but I wonder whether the refugees are the effect or the cause of that crisis. In a world that is so interconnected and transnational, the civil war in Syria, genocide in the Central African Republic, the rise of ISIS, the persistence of the Taliban are global and not internal problems. Europe and North America are complicit in this devastation. So why is this called “the refugee crisis?” Because, as you note, decisions have to be made about the multitudes of people who flee persecution, and so the crisis becomes about managing their movement, their socialization, their migration and eventual settlement elsewhere. Except, it would be helpful to put this term in conversation with another article we read – Giorgio Agamben’s reflection on Hannah Arendt, where this crisis is now a permanent “state of exception.” It’s important to ask how artists whose ambition is to somehow engage with this political situation can make work that shifts our understanding of the roots of the crisis, and not just, as Aakash said, emulate the media representation which isn’t making an intervention in our political or social will. If we just represent the plight of the refugees, how does that support that the refugees themselves are the crisis? But, as you point out, how also can art promote a more humane engagement with the basic living conditions of refugees and suggest that they have the right, as we all do, to work toward creating a safe and fulfilling life?