Yes, I am proud to be Greek. Yes, I am proud of the Games! Yes, I knew we could do it! Yes, we have shown the world what the people who gave us Civilization can accomplish if they try.

So, now that the Games are over, I have this empty feeling inside.

I look at the Acropolis, and the Parthenon is still stripped of our national treasures - the “Elgin Marbles” (isn’t it enough that they took the marbles away from us, they had to change the name as well?) I can relate with the “Elgin Marbles”, as my name was changed when I entered this English-speaking country as a Greek immigrant at the age of 5. My name was changed from Foteini to “Sophie” - as “Sophie” sounds more “English”.

For the longest time, I was actually made to feel ashamed for being Greek. People would ask me where I came from and I would reply “Greece”, and they would say, “Oh, you’re Greek, eh?” like I was some kind of alien from another planet. For the longest time, growing up in Canada, I had to deny my Greek identity in order to “blend-in” with the Canadian mungie-cakes.

Imagine, being made to feel ashamed for being Greek!
And I continued to feel this way, more so again, in 1991 when Greece lost the 100 anniversary Games to Atlanta because “Greeks could not be trusted to host their own Olympic Games”! Too much of a security risk, they said. The Greeks could never organize anything like this, they said.

And then, to add insult to injury, Melina Mercury asks for the “Elgin Marbles” to be rightfully returned to its rightful owners, the Athenians, the people who created them in the first place, and the British respond (is it any wonder?): Oh no, we couldn’t possibly return something that does not belong to you any more - besides, you are too incompetent to take care that nothing happens to them in the first place. Your country is too full of terrorists, and besides your museums are crap.

Now that the Games are such a great success, and now that we have blown all our money on them and will be paying for them for the rest of our lives, can we please have our Marbles back?