It’s funny how I never thought about the similarity between Police (with its variations in different European languages) and ‘polis’ as in metropolis. It’s interesting that we’ve derived so many words from Greek, often scientific, yet most are not part of our everyday language. Even though English is a Germanic language, the Norman occupation of England added a huge percentage of words with Latin origins. And California English has a significant percentage of Spanish words added, although most commonly in geography and food. ;-)
It seems like Greece has gone from being the center of the (ancient) world to being Europe’s frontier. Greece is being forced to deal with not only its crippling debt problems, but also the majority of Europe’s refugee problem. While it sounds like the Greek people are doing everything they can to assist the flood of people trying to get to the more affluent parts of Europe, there has to be fatigue setting in when it seems like no one else is helping.
It’s a good thing that Eric Simon wasn't thought to be one of those fleeing refugees and placed in a refugee camp. I don’t recall reading any description of Eric’s Simon's appearance, just his use of the English language. Would the story have progressed the same way if the villagers thought he was African or Middle Eastern – even if he spoke only English to them? ;-)
On the news in the US, the ‘default’ race of someone mentioned in a report is white. A racial description is usually only mentioned when the person is not white. (This often happens with gender too, with male being the default in politics, business, and other contexts.) The effect of that is to exaggerate the perceived numbers of criminals who are non-white even more than the criminal justice system does. Mentioning race and crimes links the two subconsciously. People who do not have daily contact with others of a different ethnicity often rely on unconscious bias. This leads to situations like the Starbucks arrests.