Until recently I lived in Beirut, Lebanon (yes, let's do it like the North Americans do it - town and state/country...), and now I live in Athens, Greece (not Georgia...).
In Lebanon, I was usually ignored because I wasn't a US citizen, and that suited me down to the ground; seemingly everybody I met either was a US citizen, or also had US citizenship, or wanted to have it, or aspired to go there, or, mostly, aped US customs, habits, TV-viewing schedules, accents, attitudes...the whole panoply of Americana (oh yes, except when the US did something naughty in the Middle East, when they all became Pan-Arabist...for a day or so, before forgetting that and sashaying off back to Starbucks or the "Mall" to begin practicing being Americans again...).
Well, now, in Greece, I am getting my come-uppance. When the Greeks are not busy demonstrating outside the US Embassy, or firing rockets into it's toilets, forcing it to build a whole new building...five metres behind the old one!!, or sounding-off (correctly) about the pernicious influence of the US in the region, they are mostly busy being rampant Anglophiles.
You know, those of you from the Occident who have ever lived in non-Occidental countries (and Greece is the Balkans, really...), the "5 Taxi Driver Questions" ('taxi driver' is, of course, a metaphor...but it usually is taxi drivers because I take a lot of taxis)...'Where are you from?'; 'Which part?'; 'Which football team do you support?' (you are never allowed NOT to support a football team....); 'How long have you lived here?' The fifth question has options - for men, 'What do you think of Greek women?', or, for either gender I believe, some sort of question based on the assumption, common to many denizens of small countries, that their own country is of course the best in the world. Here it sometimes takes the form of a lecture in disguised question form; the cultivated will lecture me about Greek history, antiquity, the language or the geography; others will, a la 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', try to assert the supremacy of Greek anything and everything. It's always a disguised question..."pez moy kati...", but it never is a question.
Of course there are variations; there is the 'Proto-Fascist Taxi Driver', the 'Pseudo-Intellectual Taxi Driver', the 'Germans Are Out To Destroy Us Taxi Driver', or, worst of all of late, the 'Economic Bore Taxi Driver.' Yes, there is a crisis; it's big, very big. Greece is a mess, it's going to get worse. People of all classes and ages are suffering, the politicians (all of them) are liars, charlatans and incestuous, and we all basically agree on who and what is to blame...but can we please, please not talk about it...
However, what they ALL have in common is a tedious Anglophilia.
The easiest ones to block out are those who hear "I'm English" and who just use it to go on a lengthy reminiscence of when they lived in/visited/have a cousin who lives in (etcetera) London (usually) (occasionally there is some surrealism: I met a friend of a friend the other day who had spent a year living in Grimsby, which actually did pique my interest...).
Another category of Anglophile (and the next couple of categories are hard to tune out) are those who begin by slating, bemoaning, criticizing England (it's always, only, ever 'England'. I was at a Mogwai concert the other night, and they introduced themselves as being from "Glasgow, Scotland." An Emo standing next to me ("next"? It was packed. It was almost like osmosis...) translated this for her friend as "England"), and will at some point mention the Elgin Marbles if my 'Tedious Greek Anglophile Bingo Card' was created by Lady Luck, before gradually, rhetorically, but permanently, sliding into an all-round eulogy of all things 'English' (university education, tea, London shopping, British customs, politeness, fake amusement with the concept of queuing...you name the stereotype, it is rasied up for praise under the guise of mock amusement.
However, it is the third category of tedious Anglophiles that makes me remember Lebanon. This category is composed of two sets of people. The one is no worse or more tedious than the other; both are unbearable for different reasons. The first sub-category are the expatriate Brits themselves, with their endless gatherings ("a bunch of us like to get together..."), societies and associations (what in God's name is the "Hash House Harriers"???), endless references to them BEING British, to having recently VISITED Britain, constantly bringing up comparisons with, or referring to, Britain at the slightest irrelevant pass ("Souvlaki? Well, you know we have Steak and Kidney Pie, and I tell you English food is not as bad as the stereotypes suggest...."), or endless dull reminiscences centred on Britain, being British and, worst of all, being British IN GREECE. Thank God Christmas is over: all I could ever hear from my British colleagues was talk of mince pies, Yorkshire puddings, the technicalities of Christmas pudding, enfin, an endless litany of nostalgic, pseudo-cultural trivia.
Sub-category two, however, is a different kettle of fish.
I have not lived in Britain for the last thirteen years. I have only visited it once, for four (work) days in all that time. I have no intention of setting foot in the place ever again if I can help it. I had 23 years there, and I think that's enough for any one country. I'm with George Monbiot on this one ("I don’t hate Britain, and I am not ashamed of my nationality, but I have no idea why I should love this country more than any other. There are some things I like about it and some things I don’t, and the same goes for everywhere else I’ve visited." (http://www.monbiot.com/2005/08/09/the-new-chauvinism/) . I also have a certain affinity with Amin Maalouf (“Isn't it a characteristic of the age we live in that it has made everyone in a way a migrant and a member of a minority?” ― Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong). I still subscribe to a satirical BBC Radio 4 podcast, but am increasingly missing the references; my browser home page is 'The Guardian', and the same thing goes for that also. I happen to BE British, but that is just an accident of biology and time that has nothing to do with me - it is pure Sartrean 'facticite'...
However, Greek Anglophiles don't appear to get this. A typical conversation might go something like: Me - "I am sick of the rain"; GA - "Doesn't it rain a lot in England"? Me - "I have just moved here after six years in Lebanon"; GA - "Where did you live in England? Ah, you were born in Sheffield! I once visited Rotherham..." Me - "The Greek education system is terrible"; GA - "What, the British system is better?"
It's like being a US citizen in Lebanon, I imagine, except, from what I could see, they were more than happy to take any opportunity they could to talk about it (with notable, beautiful exceptions). I'd rather not, thank you. Is it possible that we could have a conversation that doesn't revolve around what you think I am like, and actually have a real conversation?
That was a rhetorical question, by the way...and you know the Greeks invented rhetoric.....
