Propaganda attack against Greece by National Geographic
Propaganda attack against Greece by National Geographic
On Saturday night, April 23 at 22:40 PM, the "valid" National Geographic on Nova television aired the series "Prisoners Abroad 12", a dramatized documentary, based (supposedly) on the true story of two young Americans, who were transporting a large quantity of hashish from Afghanistan and were arrested by Greek authorities at the border with Turkey.
The story unfolds in 1969 and is supposed – I repeat – to be true. From here on, therefore, such a violent alteration of the image of Greece and the Greeks begins that it escapes any reproduction of a stereotype and now enters the sphere of hybrid war. Thus, the Greek police officers on the Greek-Turkish border appear wearing strange uniforms that resemble those of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the first years after the Islamic revolution, they have beards or are unshaven and are holding Kalashnikovs! The buildings are, by the way, shacks in a landscape that resembles a desert!
So these “Greek” police officers arrest the poor young Americans, treat them with excessive brutality, and send them to prisons in Corfu where they are tortured and abused in the morning. And the prison, like the prisoners and the guards in it, is something of a caricature of the Turkish prisons depicted in “Midnight Express.”
The prisons are a rundown place, while the characteristics of the prisoners have nothing to do with those of the average Greek. The guards naturally have beards or are unshaven and of course they are armed with Kalashnikovs! And the courts, to which the Americans are transferred to stand trial in Athens, are in a building of ostentatiously Islamic architecture, the entrance of which is again guarded by bearded soldiers in strange “Middle Eastern” uniforms and of course they are armed with Kalashnikovs.
Primitive country
In general, Greece appears as a primitive country, something like Afghanistan, with barbaric inhabitants, among whom the “civilized” Americans stand out like a fly in the ointment. The interesting thing about the case is that this alteration seems to have been done consciously and is not the result of carelessness. This is because certain details show that the film’s creators knew very well what they were doing. For example, a van that appears has Greek license plates from that era.
So it is hard to imagine that the producers would bother to pay attention to such a small detail, at the same time as they were making the Greek policemen hold Kalashnikovs and appear like caricatures of the Taliban. I insist on the Kalashnikov, because of course at that time it was simply impossible for a NATO country to have this weapon, and even young children know this.
So, depicting it in the hands of “Greeks” cannot have been done by accident. In addition, this particular weapon is a symbol of the enemies of the US, from the Soviet Army to the Taliban and the insurgents in Iraq, so its virtual placement in “Greek” hands conveys the message of the enemy country, along with the entire “package” promoted by the documentary.
Caricature Afghanistan
It is also noteworthy that the usual stereotypes with which Western Europeans and Americans have become accustomed to identifying Greece are not reproduced. That is, those of syrtaki, ouzo, “a little wine, a little sea and my boy”. In the documentary we have an alteration of reality of enormous proportions, with novel qualitative characteristics, which aims to depict a Greece that is completely foreign and hostile to the West, something, I repeat, like a caricature of the Afghanistan of the Taliban.
And because times are wicked, we are tempted to think that such actions are intended to create a sense of foreignness of Greece, especially towards the easily manipulated American public. The only explanation for this scandalous distortion of reality by a supposedly serious media outlet such as National Geographic is that it is a conscious act of communication sabotage. It hides so much hatred and aversion for Greece that it inevitably makes us think about its purpose.
Now that the competent Greek authorities cannot claim that they were unaware of the matter, we await with great interest what their reaction will be. The Greek State, if it still respects itself, is obliged not only to make a demarche to National Geographic to withdraw the documentary in question, but also to demand a public apology. This is so that everyone knows that they cannot play propaganda games against Greece and any other country.
Slpress.gr