Near-sighted or Simply Blind?

For the past 10 days or so, I’ve watched what’s going on in Athens, the first stop on my retirement cruise to Greece. People are violently rioting in the streets, smashing windows, starting fires, and seemingly unwilling to stop the violence until stability returns to Greece's economy. Officials are fighting back with all the enforcement mechanisms at their disposal, but the violence has continued to escalate with each passing day, so I decided over the weekend to contact the travel agency and ask if I should be concerned about my May cruise departure.

Imagine my surprise when the first responder, a woman, was stunned into silence with the mention of “violence in Greece.” You know that moment of silence, when, as the caller, you ask, “Are you still there?” She acknowledged that she was still on the line, but an unexpected click was followed by a male voice introducing himself to me and asking if he could help me. “Yes,” I answered. “What happened to the woman who answered the phone?”

He told me that I (evidently) have a question that she felt he could answer better than she, so she transferred me – without making me aware of her decision to do so. I asked him my question: I’ve been watching the violence in Greece escalate for about 10 days, with it becoming out of control over the weekend, including rioting, fire bombings, and shootings in the streets of Athens, the first stop on my May cruise. Is this violence, combined with the financial problems that may lead Greece into bankruptcy, going to affect my cruise?

Again, the stunned silence, followed by an absolute denial of any of the issues I had just described. As a matter of fact, he slightly laughed, he explained that what’s going on in Greece is just like the US’s Occupy rallies: harmless, non-violent, and nothing to worry about.

This time, I am stunned silent. “Really?” I finally asked. “Have you watched any TV news over the past 10 days or listened to the radio at all? What’s going on in Greece is far beyond the US Occupy protests of senior citizens standing on street corners and asking passersby to honk if they support the cause!”

The man admitted that he doesn’t watch much TV; instead, he relies on the State Department to provide the agency with necessary information about worldwide violence that could affect one of their overseas trips. And, he assured me, because I purchased trip insurance, I won’t lose anything if the trip is cancelled.

Lucky me, I guess, but I’d feel so much better if the travel agency had a better handle on what’s going on in the world, rather than worrying only whether it will cost them revenue if they have to cancel my trip to Greece the first of May!! My final payment is due March 8, so I’m going to do some thinking about this until then and decide whether to cancel my reservation.