The 'Find-a-foreigner-and-play-dumb-not-caring-of-any-consequences' syndrome

Since this blog is written in reverse chronological order it would be good for those who are joining us for the first time to quickly skim or peruse the previous posts in order to catch up with certain lingo that i might be using in my most recent entries. Or, feel free to find a 'Syndrome" that is of interest to you from the Archive section at the top of the left sidebar. After my first(2nd par. below) personal account -since it was one of the most tragically vivid experiences of my Greek encounters- the topics that I'll deal with will be more randomized and won't necessarily adhere to a sequential time line. Speaking of encounters, maybe I should have entitled this post as: "close encounters of the third kind." Just kidding...

I can still vividly recall my first encounter when I first arrived here four years ago. It was during the Olympic games and the mascot banners were being advertised everywhere. The Greek pride could be felt and heard even minutes before I landed with the plane. When I got to the luggage claim area I automatically became victim to a scene of utter havoc that inevitably immersed my mind into a state of panic. I couldn't believe the overwhelming feeling I got when I saw a mob of people screaming at the customs officer who was inspecting some property that obviously belonged to the person who was most adamantly yelling above the others. I had to push my way through the bestirred crowd in order to wait my turn. It wasn't before long that a person approached me and offered to take my stuff, and in exchange he would help me bypass the inspection area and get me to where I wanted to go. At the time I remember thinking it was too good to be true. Boy, if only I can go back in time to smack myself upside the head...lol Anyway, to make a long story short I was escorted by this gentleman to his vehicle when all of a sudden I noticed that one of my handbags was missing... It didn't take very long for me to figure out that he had taken off with it once he had the added advantage(when I was putting the carriage for the luggage back in place).. But yet again I was new to the climate; how was I suppose to know I was being insidiously taken advantage of. At the time, it took a while for me to get over the stun(I must have stood there like a statue for about an hour), but eventually when I got to my senses a cavalcade of cars kept lining up to pick people up; so I called for one and made my way into the streets of Athens.

You'll find that this syndrome tends to be the case with most taxi drivers here in Greece who've tried to swindle money from foreigners not caring if word leaks out about it in the media. All they care about is getting their two cents' worth in their pockets and neglecting the fact that the whole country's reputation gets trashed to bits when news about the event gets publicized worldwide. There's also the classic case of the Greek kiosk owners who are known to look for opportunities to markup their items when they see foreigners who are interested in buying their products.
Analogy: This would be similar to the Jedi mind trick. The Jedi have the power by use of the force to manipulate people's minds into doing their bidding. Greeks seem to have some form of extraordinary perception of figuring people out and getting them to do anything it is that they want them to do(usually illegal stuff).