July 21, 2015

Our Sun, by George Seferis

This sun was mine and yours; we shared it.
Who’s suffering behind the golden silk, who’s dying?
A woman beating her dry breasts cried out: ‘Cowards,
they’ve taken my children and torn them to shreds, you’ve killed them
gazing at the fire-flies at dusk with a strange look,
lost in blind thought.’
The blood was drying on a hand that a tree made green,
a warrior was asleep clutching the lance that cast light against his side.

It was ours, this sun, we saw nothing behind the gold embroidery
then the messengers came, dirty and breathless,
stuttering unintelligible words
twenty days and nights on the barren earth with thorns only
twenty days and nights feeling the bellies of the horses bleeding
and not a moment’s break to drink the rain-water.
You told them to rest first and then to speak, the light had dazzled you.
They died saying ‘We don’t have time’, touching some rays of the sun.
You’d forgotten that no one rests.

A woman howled ‘Cowards’, like a dog in the night.
Once she would have been beautiful like you
with wet mouth, veins alive beneath the skin,
with love.

This sun was ours; you kept all of it, you wouldn’t follow me.
And it was then I found out about those things behind the gold and the silk:
we don’t have time. The messengers were right.

July 20, 2015

Remember-remember

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it "
George Santanaya

July 19, 2015

Never on Sunday

Today, it was the first day of summer sales and many shops in the center of Athens were open despite the reactions of the Federation of Private Employees that called on shop owners not to open their businesses.

The Sunday holiday was first established in Greece in 1908 and since then stores have only opened on Sundays during holiday periods.

Nevertheless, the Sunday store opening has been among the prior actions demanded of Greece under the memorandum agreement for the bailout loans.
"It is an absolute absurdity in a market that is dissolved , with both workers and our people to be in a regime of closed banks and capital controls , with hundreds of thousands of employees unpaid and exhausted , employers to insist suicidally in the opening of shops and to call employees to work for another Sunday for free !" note the employees.

Store owners hope that opening their shops on Sundays will attract more costumers. In May, while negotiation with eurozone were still going on, the Sunday store opening helped the market and spring sales ended up with 5% earnings.

At that time though, there was still hope that there would be a better bailout agreement and costumers were not as cautious as they are lately.

According to official figures, the turnover of stores from June 10 to July 10 declined 5% compared to the same period in 2014. In addition, at the same time, food and fuel sales increased by 30%.

In many neighborhoods, Super Markets were also crowed today since taxes on food items will be increased 10% by tomorrow.

Instead, commercial shops were not that crowed in Kolonaki which is one of the most commercial spots in Athens.

This time, most shop owners decided to open their stores in order to cover the losses of the past weeks.

Throughout my walk on Patriarchou Ioakim street, though, I saw no customer in any shop. I only met employees trying to kill their time since almost no one even passed by.

The wisest ones didn't even bother to open their shops on such a hot Sunday in the city.

July 17, 2015

72 fires in 24 hours

How accidental can that be?

In 24 hours, 72 separate fires broke out on four main fronts in a region stretching from the island of Evia, north-east of Athens, to the southern Peloponnese.

Thousands of acres of forest land was burnt along with at least 40 houses.

But this is not the first time.
From 1998 to 2014 more than 10.000.000 acres of forest land have been burnt along with over 4.000 houses. Even worse, between 2000-2012, 125 people lost their lives due to forest fires.
During the past six years about 300 suspects were arrested for arson. However, we've never heard of even one conviction.

July 15, 2015

No to Yes?

While the PM Alexis Tsipras was giving one more hard fight in the Parliament House, violent clashes broke out at Syntagma .

Τonight, the Greek parliament votes for eurozone's 86-billion-euros bailout proposal. The far left, though, insists on saying NO to it, accusing Tsipras for betrayal.

"He's the worst of all" told me Eugenia . "We should leave euro. I'm 49 years old and I remember better days with drachma" she explained.
" May I have a picture of yours?" I asked her.
"Yes but don't show my face. I'm scared because two weeks ago my employer gathered all employees and warned us not to vote for NO".

July 13, 2015

#ThisIsACoup

"Who will ever trust Germany’s good intentions after this?" Paul Krugman

Naomi Klein
Are they going to act all shocked and innocent if Greeks vote for neo-nazis next time around? #ThisIsACoup

STOP THEM

July 03, 2015

WE SAY NOOO!

Syntagma Square, 18.30
The NO appointment was at 19.30.
It was such a surprise to see such a big crowd an hour earlier.
People kept on coming. We were stepping on each other, we were (accidentally) pushing each other. We could not breathe. But it didn't matter. We were all there united, determined and full of hope that the Merkel Horror Show will finally end.
We say NO to austerity. We say No to the German domination over Europe. Europe is about democracy and solidarity. What we live is not the European dream. We're on a road to nowhere and they know it and you know it and we know it.
European People Unite.

July 01, 2015

First they came...

First they came for the communists
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak for me.
 
Martin Niemoller

June 24, 2015

Europe: the myth behind the name

In Greek mythology, Europe was the daughter of King Agenor of Sidon. Her divine beauty caught the eye of God Zeus who fell in love with her. So, one shinny day that Europe with other maidens were walking by the sea , Zeus appeared as a white bull. All girls got excited and wanted to pet the beautiful animal.

Surprising them though, the white bull laid down in front of Europe who slid onto his back.
Unexpectedly, Zeus moved towards to the sea and soon Triton blowing his horn and Nereids riding dolphins joined them.
Zeus took the beautiful princess to Crete where he was raised and there, he revealed his divine identity.
Europe gave him three sons: Minos,Rhamadanthys and Sarpedon .
NOTE: "According to Arnold Toynbee, the original continental distinction was devised by ancient Greek mariners, who gave the names Europe and Asia to the lands on either side of the complex interior waterway running from the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, the Black Sea, and the Kerch Strait before reaching the Sea of Azov. This water passage became the core of a continental system when the earliest Greek philosophers, the Ionians of Miletus, designated it as the boundary between the two great landmasses of their world. Somewhat later, Libya (or Africa) was added to form a three-continent scheme. Not surprisingly, the Aegean Sea lay at the heart of the Greek conception of the globe; Asia essentially denoted those lands to its east, Europe those lands to its west and north, and Libya those lands to the south". MARTIN W. LEWIS and KAREN E. WIGEN "The Myth of Continents- A Critique of Metageography" University of California Press