The Free Thinking Zone

One of the things I'll miss when I move out is the Free Thinking Zone which is right opposite to where I live. Though it's been less than two years since its opening, I have the feeling that it's been in the basement of that 1950's building forever.

Free Thinking Zone's opening came as a surprise to the neighborhood since only a few take the risk to start a business now days how much less to open a bookstore!

Areti really took her chances when she decided to move on with her plans. As she says, she wanted to create not just another bookstore in town but mostly a warm living-room where readers could share ideas and thoughts as well. So she created this beautiful space !

Free Thinking Zone is a conceptual bookstore that works based on a concept similar to the one of museums. It hosts both permanent book collections and periodic ones which are created upon a hot topic. Though economic crisis and its different sides and side effects tend to dominate the interest, presently the topic presented for some free thinking is even hotter!

Nonetheless Greeks still don't read that much. In fact, according to the latest relevant research, Greeks read less than six books per year. Especially as recession goes deeper, book sales go lower. It is estimated that since the beginning of the recession, book sales reduced around 30%.

The Crying Square

Tomorrow, public sector workers will demonstrate in the center of Athens against the agreement of the greek government with troika for 180.000 layoffs by 2015.

Their protest will start from the National Reconciliation Square where since 1989 stands the hononym statue of the Greek sculptor Vassilis Doropoulos.

The 8-meter-tall statue is made of copper and shows three men holding up each other's hand symbolizing the official end of the greek civil war.

From 1884 to 1989, this square was called the 25th of March but until today most Greeks know it as Klathmonos Square which means the Crying Square.

That's a nickname stuck on the square by a chronograph-er of the 19th century.

At that time the public sector workers were not permanent. Their jobs depended on the election result. Every time the government changed, public assistants were getting fired and the voters of the new government took their jobs.

Public sector workers used to gather up and wait for the results on this square. Their crying after losing the elections- and ,of course, their jobs- was not an uncommon picture of this part of the city at that time.

In 1878, the chronographer Dimitris Kamporoglou, making a pun, named the square the "Crying Square" in a chronograph published in "Estia" paper.

Currently, greek politicians lead Greece back to the 19th century. It seems they look forward to destroying more lives in order to put their voters in the public sector.

little poor rich girl

Rumors say that in 2008 Athina Roussel de Miranda and her Brazilian husband Alvaro de Miranda Netta were seriously considering of moving to Greece.

Among their plans was to built a beautiful house in the land Athina inherited by her grandfather Aristotelis Onassis in the south of Athens and invest money on horse-riding. All they asked was the greek nationality for Alvaro.

The greek part though was negative. The law says that, before getting the nationality, one should either already be living in Greece for a certain time period or have honored the country in anyway. Alvaro's connection to Greece was only his rich French-Greek wife.

After getting a negative answer that wouldn't allow Alvaro to participate to the Beijing Olympics with the greek national team, Athina sold her grandfather's land in Glyfada. She then tried to sell the Scorpios island to Turks businessmen for 500 million euros, despite the sensitive relations between Greece and Turkey.

Her attempts to sell the Skorpios island started in 2004. The price was 300 million euros and among the interested buyers it is rumored to be Madonna and Bill Gates. Athina recently succeeded to sell it despite her grandfather's will.

Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of the Russian tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev, is the new owner of one of the greatest symbols of status in the world after paying 130 million euros.

Athina finally got rid of what her grandfather and mother loved. Christina Onassis visited Scorpios every summer and her beach parties were famous. She preferred the East Beach, which was created by Onassis who brought sand from Salamis island for this purpose.

Aristotelis Onassis bought the island in 1963 for 3.5 million drachmas (about 10.000 euros) from Philippa family who lived in Chicago permanently. They had bought it six years earlier from the Mavroudis family whose members were the owners since the 17th century.

Scorpios has 800 acres that are heavily forested featuring a rich variety of trees and plants. Onassis also ordered the construction of a standalone water-system.

On the island there are three villas, a chapel, a small marina and a stone jetty.

For five whole years 200 builders, gardeners, mechanics etc worked every single day on the island where Aristotelis Onassis married Jackie Kennedy in 1968.

At the same chapel which stands in the middle of a 30-acres-land, there are the graves of Aristotelis, Alexandros and Christina Onassis.

In his will Aristotelis Onassis made clear his wish for his beloved private paradise: his inheritants couldn't sell it and in case they were not able to keep it they should give it to the greek public.

Even in this case though, the 30-acres-land where his and his children graves are, should never be given away.

Athina managed to find the way to break her grandfather's will and give away the place that he and her mother loved most.

Hopefully, Ekaterina will appreciate more what her father gave to her and respect the history of this legendary piece of land in the Ionian Sea more than Athina Roussel de Miranda.

Cannibalism

What troika wants, troika gets!
180.000 public sector workers will be fired by 2015!

The nightmare is about to begin with 4.000 layoffs by the end of the year. 11.000 more people will fired in 2014 and in 2015...165.000!

Layoffs will start by public assistants who either have trouble with the law or are lazy and bad in their work.

The first ones are estimated to be less than 1.500 which means that 163.000 people working at the public sector are not good employees.

That's a joke!!!

"LET NOT LIVE LIKE SLAVES"

Who are going to set the criteria? Greek politicians? The worse of all working in the public sector and responsible for all this mess?

Greek government agreed to dismiss 15.000 people and hire younger employees with the lowest salary which is 510 euros and in nine years will be 750!

The scenarios that we all thought were conspiracy scenarios are coming true. The economic crisis is just the excuse for turning Greeks into slaves.

"FIRE IN THE STATE AND POWER - LET AT LAST LIVE FREEDOM"

Earlier I took a taxi to go to my god-mother's. The woman driving couldn't stop crying. "What's wrong?" I asked her.
"Everything's wrong" she said."I'm a single mother of three and I'm out of electricity. They cut my connection 'cause I couldn't pay the bill. I'm trying hard but where am I supposed to find all that money?I can't even pay to feed my kids. I'd kill myself if I wasn't thinking of my babies".

On the 8 o'clock news I heard that the 50-year-old man who set himself on fire in the middle of the street died. He was unemployed for three whole years during which he suffered of deep depression.

In the previous german occupation, Greece lost 13.5% of its population because of starvation, cold and -of course- cold blooded executions by Nazis.

STOP MERKELISM

Children of the economic crisis

While economic recession is going deeper more and more students have to leave school and get a job or even peg for some money. It is estimated that since the beginning of crisis 30.000 students leave school every year in Greece.
In Attica the phenomenon is rare but in Crete and Thrace the rate of students leaving school is 43.5% and 65%.

This 13-year-old boy lives in a very poor district of Athens. He plays bouzouki and sings on Ermou street trying to get some money to help his family.

He doesn't look very happy. Does he?.

Athens daily images: Syntagma Square

Syntagma Square is the main square of Athens and is right in front of the Parliament House.

It was built in 1835 after the wish of King Otto's father, King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

The fountain, in the middle of the square, was ordered by Otto's wife Queen Amalia with whom he shared the Palace which today is the House.

In fact the square was called the Palace's Square until 1843 and the revolution of the 3rd of September under the leadership of Ioannis Makrigiannis.

Greeks rebelled against the tyranny of the palace and demanded a Constitution. The first Constitution(=Syntagma) was signed two months later and the Palace's Square was renamed to Syntagma Square.

Streets Philellinon and Mitropoleos, Syntagma Square,1860

Streets Philellinon and Mitropoleos, Syntagma Square, 2013

"HELLAS, LAND OF THE PROSECUTOR"

A boy is dancing zeimbekiko while the director Dimitris Kollatos is filming him lying on the marble.

Just beyond, citizens quarrel with policemen a little before their protest against austerity and suicides starts.

An unemployed man begs for money.
The poster he holds says he suffers of cancer.

And life goes on.

Germany owes Greece 162 billion euros

It's so disappointing to hear that, according to recent gallops, Angela Merkel seems to be winning easily the coming elections in Germany. In fact, it is not just disappointing but also frightening as it reveals that Germans just don't care for the thousands victims of german policy. But that's not the first time.

According to the german newspaper Tagersspiegel the Nazis did more damage to Greece than in any other country.

“130,000 civilians, women and children, were executed in retaliation for rebel attacks. 70,000 Jews were taken to concentration camps, 300,000 suffered frostbite and hunger, because the Germans confiscated food and fuel. Fifty percent of the country’s infrastructure and 75% of industry were destroyed”.

As the german paper says, if Germany paid Greece what it is alleged to owe, Greece could probably overcome the current crisis.

Germany owes Greece 162 billion euros!

Athens: the city of fun or just a funny city

It is really sad to see so many stores closing or closed ...

But then again it is even sadder to realize that only bars and cafes open now more. Bars show up like mushrooms. They are all over by now!

In my neighborhood, there are 3-4 or even more bars on some squares. It's gotten very noisy and dirty. The whole situation is totally out of control.

Most bars in the center of Athens are illegal. They don't have the needed license, they illegally use public space, they are not soundproof but instead they are open and after midnight turn up the music at full blast.

" Our clients leave the area one after the other" told me Th. for the baker-shop. " I wonder to who we're going to sell bread in a few months".

" Four of our clients who lived on the Delfon street, moved out since the beginning of the year and one more on Skoufa is about to leave because of the bars. This is destructive for everyone" says N. from the deli on the next street.

Despite thousands of complaints the State does nothing. In the past, the reason why was a "mystery" followed by a legend that wanted all the responsible departments of the City corrupted.

Currently, it is in the name of development that no one touches those 15-20 businessmen who keep on ruining the lives of hundreds family people so as to get richer.
It is in the name of development that this maniac built on the 3/4 of the public pavement some years ago, long before crisis, and 'till today the extension he made is still there.

The same businessman owes the grill a little above which not only has no license but shows no respect to the environment.

It's the same one on the Delfon street too that burnt down the little green left because the bugs were disturbing the clients of another bar he owns.
I also have to mention that he doesn't pay to use this corner of the public pedestrian - we all pay.

Recently, I called the lady who's responsible for the whole mess. I politely asked her for a solution but she started to yell. "Bars have to work and you have to be patient" told me the lady who was elected and is getting paid by the citizens to protect the quality of our living. Congratulations to her voters.