This is junta

Today, the greek government announced the shutdown of the ERT public Radio/Television ...by midnight and for some months!

The shock can't be described. It is not only about the 2.656 people that surprisingly found themselves unemployed but also for the authoritative policy of this government.

The government promised to reopen the public Radio/TV channels by September: with journalists of their choice, I'm adding.

The closing of public media is only in advantage of private and foreign interests. ERT IS THE VOICE OF GREECE ALL OVER THE WORLD.

The reactions are intensive. Hundreds of people are already in the courtyard of the main building of the public Radio/TV channels on Mesogion avenue, in Agia Paraskevi.

The Unknown Soldier

Following the movement that arose in Europe a little after the World War I, the dictator Theodoros Pagalos decided that a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier should be built in Athens, too.

After three years and lots of disagreements on where it should be built and how it should look, its construction started in 1929 right infront of the Parliament House, in Syntagma.

Αrtists and intellectuals severely criticized the site selected as well as the form of the monument which was characterized "monsterity" by lots of people.

Criticism was so sharp that both the then President and the Prime Minister of Greece avoided to go to the inauguration which took place on 25 March 1932 in celebratory atmosphere.

The sculpture depicts a dying hoplite. It's the Unknown Soldier who's all the soldiers that gave their lives for Greece.

On the retaining wall are inscribed the important battles of Greece and two quotations by Thucydides, from Pericles' Funeral Oration: "... and one bed is carried empty, made for the unknown ones" and "For eminent men, every place is (worthy) burial ground"

Although this kind of monuments usually content the corpse of an anonymous dead soldier, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma is empty following the relative ancient greek custom.

Anargiros Paschalis: interpreting loneliness

It's really not easy to talk about Anargiros Paschalis' work since words are not always enough to describe some certain feelings running out of certain situations.

Anargiros' work is about these times in life that no matter how long and rough the way may be, we've got to walk it all alone to the end in order to find ourselves and save what's left.

"My work is about spirituality. It's about self-knowledge" explains Anargiros.

"All people have worries, little jealousies, insecurities...that's what makes human world so sweet and tender".

"We all have fears and personal demons. I'm inspired of people that dare to face them. It's a hard procedure and it takes lots of courage to do that no matter if it's about getting rid of a bad addiction or feeling".

"I believe that people who've been through it finally succeed to get along with themselves".

"These people have taken a step forward: they swing in the air".

" I try to interpret iconically the meanings of loneliness and swinging in the air, the relation between the sky and earth..." he goes on.

The element of loneliness is also dominating in Anargiros Paschalis' work.

The funambulists, his personal trademark, always walk alone in a dark, unfriendly universe. It's a personal universe in which loneliness is a state between imbalance and balance on the way to self-knowledge.

Anargiros ' latest exhibition at the Athens Art Gallery, in Kolonaki, ended recently after being extended with four weeks by public demand.

His work has definitely caught the attention of art lovers and has already earned the respect of a fanatic audience that would never miss the chance to step into Anargiros Paschalis' universe.

paschalis.atspace.com

Athens Pride 2013

The appointment for the most colorful parade of the year is always at the Klathmonos Square.

Once again thousands of members of the GLBT community celebrated their right to love without fear claiming, at the same time, equal rights for an equal society.

"Sinners, regret! Only God can save you!
What you do is a sin", Eleni Luca , famous Jesus freak

"Take your hands off me"

cries out Eleni Luca but it was right here that her "divine" mission was stopped.

At Syntagma lots of tourists were gathered waiting for the parade.
It seems that some of them will be laughing for years after...

... but this young (I guess) Japanese guy
looks so shocked ...

"We come from Brazil. In a couple of days it's our fist anniversary".

When we reached the House the gay parade mixed up with members of the European Alter Summit that were protesting against austerity.

Don't you just love Athens? x

Abduction of Turkish citizen in the center of Athens

PUNISH THOSE GUILTY
FOR THE KIDNAP AND HANDING OF
THE POLITICAL REFUGEE BULUT YAYLA
TO TURKEY
DENDIAS TO RESIGN
ASYLUM TO POLITICAL REFUGEES

SOLIDARITY TO THE REBELLION IN TURKEY!

This poster is all around the area of Exarchia where the Kurd activist Bulut Yayla - according to eye witnesses - was forced by five men to get in a car and vanished last week.

The 24-year-old was transferred to Istanbul and is kept by the police.

An investigation about this mysterious kidnap in the center of Athens is already running in Greece. At the same time the High Commissioner of UN expressed his being worried about this case since Greece seems to have violated a series of international obligations that potentially undermine the rule of Law.

R E S I N S T A B U L !

Earlier, lots of people in Athens went down the street to stand by the people of Turkey that give an extremely important fight against the authoritative policy of Erdogan.

The appointment was on Vassilissis Sofias Avenue and Rigillis street but the protesters were prevented by the police to reach the Embassy of Turkey.

A little above another protest is about to begin by members of the Communistic Party of Greece.

" We are here to protest against the policy of repression in Turkey".

" We want to express our solidarity to our brothers and sisters in Turkey.
What's going on there is not about the park and the mall it is much more. It is about freedom".

"What started as a conflict for the park is just the spark that lit the fire.
It is clear that a big part of people in Turkey don't want to live under the laws that the Islamists try to impose".

"They mustn't give up. We mustn't give up. What's going on there maybe the beginning of something better in the whole area". Maria, 25

In view of the Athens Pride Festival

Today the Bishop of Thessaloniki asked people to keep themselves and their children

away from the 2nd Gay Pride Festival that's going to take place in town on the 14 and 15 of June. He also said that nearly 20.000 people signed against the Gay Parade and asked the Mayor of the city to postpone the event 'cause as he explained "this carnival is unnatural and unholy".

His homophobic outburst follows the decision of the National Council for the TV/Radio not to play the spot of the festival for free on TV and of course the decision not to hang the Gay Parade posters at the metro stations, in Athens.

But who cares?

Last year thousands of people participated in the 8th Athens Pride Festival and marched on the streets of Athens celebrating their right to love without fear and guilt.

This year the Athens Pride is on the 8th of June and is taking place on the Klathmonos Square. I'll be there not only taking photos but mainly supporting the greek GLBT community whose members still don't enjoy equal rights in Greece.

I'll be there supporting my neighbor's right to hang the flag of Gay Pride on his balcony.

Calendar of an Invisible April , by Odysseas Elytis

FRIDAY, 10

The wind was whistling continuously,
it was getting darker, and that distant voice was
incessantly reaching my ears :
"an entire life... an entire life"...

On the opposite wall, the shadows of the
trees were playing cinema

FRIDAY, 10 b

It seems that somewhere people are celebrating;
although there are no houses or human beings
I can listen to guitars and other laughters which
are not nearby
Maybe far away, within the ashes of heavens
Andromeda, the Bear, or the Virgin...

I wonder; is loneliness the same, all over the
worlds ?

FRIDAY, 10c

Late midnight my room is moving in the
neighborhood shining like an emerald.
Someone searches it, but truth eludes him
constantly.
How to imagine that it is placed lower

Much lower
That death too, has its own Red Sea.