Words matter. The last School Compass issue, the newsletter of the Greek School in Cardiff, included the following text in the announcement for the March School Parade:

We invite you to be part of a historic moment as The Greek School of Wales proudly leads The First Open Parade of Hellenism in Wales

In this blog post I am questioning the use of the term Hellenism in that announcement.

Hellenism

Hellenism often refers to the culture, language and people that are associated with Greece from antiquity until today. This encompasses a vast range of activity and it includes from Ulyses and Iliad to Theodorakis’s compositions and from classic architecture to modern Greek cousine. The richness of the Greek culture, like that of many others, means that any attempt of representative activities for it are impossible. To claim coverage of a culture and people over an event of a few hours long is unreasonable.

1) From that vast variety of facets and manifestations of Greek culture, the School chose a parade whose history is deeply rooted in militarism to represent hellenism. I wonder why other choices were not appropriate. The answer is of course simple: this continues a tradition established in the 20th century in Greece where militarism and nationalism are considered enough to represent the idea of hellenism, and in many cases hellenism is reduced solely to such activities ignoring everything else.

2) The follow up question is therefore, why use the word “Hellenism” in the first place? After all the parade is only for the School and only a fraction of the Greek community will be in attendance. The use of the word is an attempt to increase the significance of the event. This is also augmented by mentioning the “historic moment” of the parade taking place. What is the purpose of inflating the event beyond its true scale? In my view, the purpose is to force validation of the event for whoever will be present. This is in alignment with a communication strategy that pre-empts outcomes and self-assesses success.

Success for the School means certain basic provisions: providing teachers and providing a building. Any other “success” is secondary and at the moment, in my view, irrelevant.

Representation

Let us now consider that, in the above phrase, the term “Hellenism” is meant alongside its qualifier, i.e. “Hellenism in Wales”. Perhaps, “Hellenism in Wales” is a much narrower context that can be represented during a short event. Who does this representation cover? Does it cover the Greeks in the Cardiff docks over the past century? Does it cover the families that have left the School? Does it cover those families that have decided not to join the School? Does it cover the Greek immigrants who do not have children? Does it cover the Greeks in West and North Wales for whom travel to Cardiff is impossible? Does it cover people like me who consider the idea of the parade inappropriate and irresponsible image of my country abroad? I could carry on, but the point I am making is that the forthcoming fiesta is far from a representation of Hellenism in Wales or anywhere else.

The Greek Leek