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.

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!

A little vintage story of bankrupt

It's not the first time Greece is under the pressure of loans from Europe. In the illustration below, which dates back in the late 19th century, Greece is depicted as a girl leaning from the weight of the european loans that the then Prime Minister of the country took, supporting all wrong decisions.

The accumulated debt was so much that in 1893 Greece is bankrupt. "Unfortunately, we bankrupt" said Harilaos Trikoupis after replacing the former Prime Minister, Theodore Deligiannis. His phrase passed in modern greek history. Below, it's a poster of the time showing Trikoupis. On top there's the word "bankrupt", on his collar says "damn" and below "unfortunately, we bankrupt".

Greece borrowed from Europe again and from 1897 to the end of World War II was under International Economic Control. In an illustration of the time, Europe is depicted as an aggressive chicken while Trikoupis is trying to steal her eggs with his left hand. On his right hand, he holds his hat which is placed in this way so as he can put the eggs in.

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

George Santanaya

left to right:
Antonis Samaras, Prime Minister of Greece, Evangelos Venizelos head of PASOK (and wanna-be PM), Fotis Kouvelis head of "Democratic Left" party

Political suicide in Syntagma: a year after

It was nine o'clock in the morning when all people who happened to be at Syntagma Square froze. All by sudden, an old man took a gun of his jacket and shouted:
"I'm leaving so as not to leave my children in debt.
I'm not killing myself, they kill me".
He then turned the gun to his head and shot himself to death.

Today, completed one year of the death of the 77-year-old retired pharmacist, Dimitris Christoulas and lots of people stopped by the spot he left his last breath.

"Suicides, poverty, misery, exploitation, fascism.
And you?
Silence?"

In his suicide note he wrote:

" The Tsolakoglou* occupation government deprived me from any chance of survivalMy survival was supported on a decent pension for which I contributed (without any support from the state) for 35 years.
As I am in an age that does not allow for individual active resistance (without excluding the fact that if one Greek was found to take the Kalashnikov, the second would be me), I do not find any other solution than to give a decent end to my life before starting to search in the garbage to find food.
I believe that, some day, the young people without future will take the arms and will hang upside down the national traitors in Syntagma Square as the Italians did in 1945 to Mussolini".

*Georgios Tsolakoglou was the prime minister under the axis in 1941

don't stop caring for stray animals

I was getting a picture of this big guy sitting on the edge of the pavement when suddenly this girl showed up...

She just touched the dog and he automatically stood up and followed her asking for more petting.

It was so sad watching him watching her leaving.

Just beyond, another stray dog is going to get some human tenderness ...

...before getting a nap under the sun.

"You're a stray dog. We're not playing with you"

It's so hard for everyone to live on the streets.

Tomorrow, it's the Day for Compassion, Caring, and Action for all Stray Animals. But just one day is never enough.

Euro or drachma?

Although the talk about Eurozone's future never closed since economic crisis hit Greece, after the case of Cyprus it has never been hotter.

NO MORE SAVIOR, Panepistimiou st.

In last year's elections in Greece, the dilemma "euro or drachma" was crucial and determined the outcome.

In the main opposite party Syriza there are many voices against Eurozone and that scared away many voters who wouldn't take such a risk.

Today though, less than a year later, things don't seem to be like that.

BEST DRACHMA AND BROKE DESPITE EURO AND SLAVES, Panepistimiou st

People are so tired of all european savior. No one believes anymore that sacrifices will make things better.

In contrast, people talk about scary scenarios and worse days in the near future.

Currently, according to a research published in Ethnos newspaper,Syriza is ahead with a 0.1 point lead which means that the left wing Alexis Tsipras (below depicted as Mao) is possibly the next Prime Minister of Greece.

At the same time, it's very impressive that the 48% of Syriza's voters are against euro and want Greece to go back to drachma.

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Natural born posers!