The cleansing of Lent Monday – A conceptual-linguistic detour / Η καθαρση της Καθαρας Δευτερας – Μια περιηγηση εις τον γλωσσο-εννοιολογικον χωρον

Επερχομενης καλπαζουσης της Καθαρας Δευτερας, αποδιδομαι ελευθερως εις περιηγησιν εις τον γλωσσο-εννοιολογικον μετα-σημασιολογικον χωρον, εναγωνιως αποζητων την αποδομητικην αποκαταστασιν της απολυτης ανεπαρκειας του γλωσσικου εργαλειου. Και να τονισω μετα στεντοριου φωνης οτι κατεληξα εις το συμπερασμα οτι δεν μου αρεσει ο Βιτγκενσταιν.

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Καθαιρω = απαλλασσω απο κατι βλαβερο.

Συνωνυμος ο εξαγνισμος.

Δυστυχως δεν αρκει το να πατε σε χαμαμι δια να εξαγνισθειτε.

Αν υποθεσομε οτι ειναι εφικτος ο εξαγνισμος σας.

Σας θυμιζω οτι οσοι καηκαν στην Ιερα Πυρα της Ιερας Εξετασεως επασχαν απο την ουτοπικη ελπιδα οτι μπορει να εξαγνισθουν. Ερχοντουσαν λοιπον οι καλοι ανθρωποι της Εξετασεως και τους ελεγαν “που πατε πουλακια μου; δεν εχει δρομο για σας, δεν εχει οδο, στην Πυρα!!!!!”

Ο Στρατηγος Θεοδωρος Παγκαλος
Χαμαμ – Λουτρο με ατμους

Καθαρτηριος ο τοπος στον οποιον θα πεταξωμεν τους χαρταετους. Αλλα και ο χωρος εις τον οποιον συντελειται καθαρσις.

Καθαρτηριον = τοπος εις τον οποιον συνανων, ωστιζονται ψυχες προσδοκουσες οτι θα εισελθουσιν εις την Βασιλειαν των Ουρανων, ηγουν οτι εις τον Παραδεισον.

Ομως αφελεις συνοδοιποροι, που βαδιζετε;

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Με τι προσοντα θα πατε στον Παραδεισο;;;

Για την Κολαση ειμαστε οι περισσοτεροι.

Φαγωμεν πιωμεν….

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Καθαρση = η πραξη ή το αποτελεσμα του να απαλλαξομε τον τοπον, την χωραν, τους εαυτους μας, απο κατι βλαβερον. Αβεβαιως αλλα αμετανοητως,  ο νους συνειρμικα ακουμπα την υπεροχον εικονα της Ελλαδος ανευ Μνημονιου. Καθαρσις, Εγερσις, Αναστασις!!!!!

Καθαρτικον = ουσια ητις υποβοηθει την κενωσιν του οργανισμου.

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Τουτων ρηθεντων, ποια η διαφορα καθαρσεως και απολυμανσεως;

Εις ποιον βαθμον κινδυνευομεν απο τα μιασματα;

Μιασμα = μολυσμενος αερας

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Θεωρια μιασματος = η θεωρια συμφωνα με την οποια η πανουκλα, η χολερα και λοιπες μολυσματικες ασθενειες ωφειλονται εις τον μιασματικον αεραν.

Μιασματα = εις την μετεμφυλιακην Ελλαδα. Οι κομμουνισται, οι συνοδοιποροι, τα κομμουνια, οι ανταρτες, οι σλαβοφιλοι. ΜΑζι με αυτους πανε πακεττο και οι ομοφυλοφυλοι, οι αθιγγανοι, οι Εβραιοι, οι αλλοθρησκοι, γενικως και ειδικως οσοι δεν ειναι ακριβως ιδιοι με την ¨καθαρη” ελληνικη φυλη.

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Με ποια ερμηνευτικα εργαλεια θα προσεγγισομε την παραλληλον πορειαν της καθαρσεως της χωρας και της απολυμανσεως που κηρυσσει η Χρυση Αυγη;;;;;

Ειναι απλο. Η καθαρση προϋποθετει επιγνωση αμαρτιας και οικειοθελους παραστρατηματος.

Θεοδωρος Παγκαλος
Θεοδωρος Παγκαλος

Ενω η απολυμανση αποτελει διαδικασια που ειναι τυφλη.

Πορευομεθα λοιπον ως τυφλοι προς την Καθαραν Δευτεραν;;;;;

Η πορευομεθα με αυτογνωσιαν και αυτοσυντριβην;;;;;

olympiakos-panathinaikos

Παιδιά, ήρθε η ώρα να αντιμετωπίσετε την Αλήθεια.

Ποτε δεν ειναι αργα.

Και οποια – διερωτωμαι – η σχεισις της καθαρσεως με την εξομολογησιν;;;;;;

Αμαρτια εξομολογηθεισα αμαρτια ουκ εστι.

sgodspeed0082

Μετανοειτε αμαρτωλοι!!!!!

Η κρισις της Ελλαδος αποτελει ευκαιριαν δια ομαδικην εξομολογησιν και καθαρσιν.

Καλη Καθαρη Δευτερα, και μην ξεχνατε!!!!! Με τον ειναι ή τον αλλο τροπο, οι συντριπτικα περισσοτεροι οδευομεν προς την κολασιν.

INSTRU~2

Εμπιστευτικες πληροφοριες αναφερουν οτι οι ιθυνοντες ελαβαν τον Νομο του Παρετο και απο 80/20 τον εκαναν 1/99.

Οποτε χαλαρωστε, και απολαυστε τον αμαρτωλον βιον!!!!!

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Proselytizing children and adolescents to fascism – Greece’s Golden Dawn “spiritual awakening” seminars

Europe has a tradition in democracy.

Democracy was born in Athens, Greece.

However, today democracy is having a really tough time in its own birthplace.

The town of Artemisia (Loutsa) is 20 km east of Athens.

Golden Dawn's "Spiritual Awakening" Seminars
Golden Dawn’s “Spiritual Awakening” Seminars

In this low to middle income sleepy town, the extreme right party of Golden Dawn has started proselytizing children and adolescents, claiming that they teach them history.

“Ta Nea” (The News) newspaper reports today that on Saturday, 23rd February the Artemissia (Loutsa) office of the Golden Dawn party issued a statement that they started a program of “spiritual awakening” that is addressed to children and adolescents.

According to the article written by Yannis Papadopoulos, the program is based on the book “Propaganda – Methodology and techniques of the manipulation of the masses”, written by the Propaganda Minister of the Colonel’s Greek Junta Georgios Georgalas back in 1967.

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On the website of the newspaper one can find also interviews with 14-14 year olds who say that “whenever they meet a Pakistani they run after him”. The argument they use is convincing: “If the Golden Dawn (adult) members do it, why shouldn’t we?”

Attacking – and even murdering – “foreigners with dark skin color” is happening in the country that gave birth to democracy.

Golden Dawn is the third most popular party according to the polls after New Democracy and SYRIZA.

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The leaders of the fascist party make open and clear statements regarding their view of democracy and its institutions.

Recently Golden Dawn invited in their offices in the Greek Parliament German Neo-Nazis.

In spite of all that, Golden Dawn is today a legally recognized party that benefits from all the rights of – whatever remains of – the Greek Democracy.

Golden Dawn and German Neo-Nazis in the Greek Parliament
Golden Dawn and German Neo-Nazis in the Greek Parliament

This attitude of tolerance – or rather cowardice – towards the fascists I find as one more sign that Greece is rapidly becoming a society that has lost its democratic bearings. With potentially disastrous implications.

Why New Democracy, PASOK, Democratic Left and SYRIZA do not ask the institutional court of the country to outlaw Golden Dawn?

My question should be read as technical. I am not a constitutional expert. The procedure may be different, but the fact is that if these parties wanted, they could outlaw Golden Dawn.

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The fact is that they do not do it.

“We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal.” Karl Popper, Philosopher.

 

Reflecting on the results of the Italian Elections, February 2013: When things don’t work, they don’t work.

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A lot has been written about the results of the Italian elections. The ink has not dried yet.

I want to offer a very simple view on the results.

When things don’t work, they don’t work.

A man walks past election campaign posters in Rome

The Berlin-Brussels doctrine and policy of fiscal austerity is not working.

The Italian voters have very clearly expressed this.

But the political leaders involved and supporting this, with their entourage, turn their eyes away from this fact, and insist on moving on with their policies that lead Italy – and many other countries – to disaster.

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We have  in front of us a new totalitarianism.

I am afraid that the proponents of this are not going to stop at any cost.

We may be entering a very dark period of European history.

Adventures and perils in the life of an innocent flower, or more than one

Anselm Kiefer, Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
Anselm Kiefer, Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

In 1957 Mao wrote: “Letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy of promoting the progress of the arts and sciences.” (1)

Anselm Kiefer, Morgenthau: laßt tausend Blumen blühen; (Morgenthau: Let a thousand flowers bloom), 2012
Anselm Kiefer, Morgenthau: laßt tausend Blumen blühen; (Morgenthau: Let a thousand flowers bloom), 2012

“A World-Historical individual is devoted to the One Aim, regardless of all else.  It is even possible that such men may treat other great, even sacred interests inconsiderately; conduct which is indeed obnoxious to moral reprehension.  But so mighty a form must trample down many an innocent flower or crush to pieces many an object in its path.

From G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of History in Jacob Loewenberg (ed.), Hegel: Selections (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1929), pp. 376-80. (2)

Anselm Kiefer, From Oscar Wilde, 1974
Anselm Kiefer, From Oscar Wilde, 1974

The Nightingale and the Rose (1888). In Wilde’s story, the songbird impales herself on the thorn of a rosebush so that her song and blood will infuse the plant and give birth to a red flower. The rose produced by the nightingale’s sacrifice is then plucked by a feckless student of philosophy to give to his unrequited love. In turn she rejects his offer, choosing instead the jewels proffered by another suitor, and the scholar turns back to the only kind of knowledge he comprehends—philosophy. (3)

Anselm Kiefer, For Robert Fludd (Für Robert Fludd), 1995-96
Anselm Kiefer, For Robert Fludd (Für Robert Fludd), 1995-96

For Robert Fludd (Für Robert Fludd, 1995–96) is dedicated to the eponymous English metaphysical philosopher and alchemist (1574–1637), for whom the essence of each and every one of the universe’s elements could be found in mankind, a notion that established a cosmological order between different spheres of the universe. Fludd was also renowned for his understanding of how to convey his philosophical and cosmological ideas graphically, with the help of the best printmakers of his day.

Kiefer began to make books and paintings with underlying themes devoted to Fludd in the early 1990s. This particular book contains a series of photographs illustrating the process of growth in a sunflower field. For Kiefer, sunflowers offer an optimal analogy for Fludd’s thinking about the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. (4)

Odilon Redon, Decorative Floral Panel, Domency 1902, Musee D'Orsay, Paris
Odilon Redon, Decorative Floral Panel, Domency 1902, Musee D’Orsay, Paris

Flower 

by Paul Celan

The stone.
The stone in the air, which I followed.
Your eye as blind as the stone.

We were
hands,
we scooped the darkness empty, we found
the word that ascended summer:
Flower.

Flower—a blindman’s word.
Your eye and my eye:
they look
after water.

Growth.
Heartwall by heartwall
adds on petals.

One more word like this, and the hammers
will be swinging free.

(Trans. John Felstiner)

Original Japanese art "Chrysanthemum" - sumi-e drawing - wash ink - painting - Wall decor - from AnimaAllegra - bamboo brash & rice paper
Original Japanese art “Chrysanthemum” – sumi-e drawing – wash ink – painting – Wall decor – from AnimaAllegra – bamboo brash & rice paper

The chrysanthemum, known as kiku (菊) in Japanese, is the symbol of autumn in Japan. It is at this time of year that the flower blooms most brightly. Once a flower begins to bloom, specialist chrysanthemum growers use custom-made sticks to meticulously train the petals to point upwards. This painstaking attention to detail ensures that the flower has a distinctive and unique look with its some 300 petals all pointing straight up.

Chrysanthemums originated in China, and were later transported to Japan where they have been long admired for their elegance. Chrysanthemum has long been associated with notions of rejuvenation and longevity. In times past, people would use use cloths to wipe chrysanthemum dew on their skin on Chrysanthemum Day, which is on the 9th day of the 9th month of the year, in hopes of maintaining their youth. Today it is still very popular to have chrysanthemum motifs on pieces of clothing and furnishings. (5)

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“While walking in the Public Gardens of Palermo, it came to me in a flash that in the organ of the plant which we are accustomed to call the leaf lies the true Proteus who can hide or reveal himself in all vegetal forms. From first to last, the plant is nothing but leaf, which is so inseparable from the future germ that one cannot think of one without the other. Anyone who has had the experience of being confronted by an idea, pregnant with possibilities, whether he thought of it for himself or caught it from others, will know that it creates a tumult and enthusiasm in the mind, which makes one intuitively anticipate its further developments
and the conclusions towards which it points. Knowing this, he will understand that my vision had become an obsessive passion with which I was to be occupied, if not exclusively perhaps, still for the rest of my
life”. [6]

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The Fury of Flowers and Worms

by Anne Sexton

Let the flowers make a journey
on Monday so that I can see
ten daisies in a blue vase
with perhaps one red ant
crawling to the gold center.
A bit of the field on my table,
close to the worms
who struggle blinding,
moving deep into their slime,
moving deep into God’s abdomen,
moving like oil through water,
sliding through the good brown.
The daisies grow wild
like popcorn.
They are God’s promise to the field.
How happy I am, daisies, to love you.
How happy you are to be loved
and found magical, like a secret
from the sluggish field.
If all the world picked daisies
wars would end, the common cold would stop,
unemployment would end, the monetary market
would hold steady and no money would float.
Listen world.
if you’d just take the time to pick
the white flowers, the penny heart,
all would be well.
They are so unexpected.
They are as good as salt.
If someone had brought them
to van Gogh’s room daily
his ear would have stayed on.
I would like to think that no one would die anymore
if we all believed in daisies
but the worms know better, don’t they?
They slide into the ear of a corpse
and listen to his great sigh.

Sources

(1) Let a thousand flowers bloom, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York

(2) HEGEL AND TOTALITARIANISM

(3) From Oscar Wilde, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York

(4) Anselm Kiefer, For Robert Fludd, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

(5) What is the meaning of the chrysanthemum (kiku) in the Japanese culture? By Jean Somerville-Rabbitt.

(6) Johann Wolfgand von Goethe, Italian Journey, Penguin

Greece: voices from the past

Mermaid – Γοργονα

As Greece continues to suffer from the worst financial, social and political crisis since the civil war of 1945-1949, I retreated back in time, and heard some voices from the past.

Καθως η Ελλας συνεχιζει να ευρισκεται εις την δινη της μεγαλυτερης οικονομικης, κοινωνικης και πολιτικης κρισης μετα τον εμφυλιο (1945-1949), αποσυρθηκα εις τον παρελθοντα χρονο για να ακουσω καποιες φωνες.

Kokinia between the wars (1918-1939) – Η Κοκινια στον μεσοπολεμο

“Οι μικροαστοι επιθυμουν τη δικτατορια μοναχα σα φτασουνε στο τελευταιο σταδιο του φοβου ή της απογνωσης ή της αβουλιας. Μα οσο υπαρχουν ελπιδες μιας εθνικης και ατομικης ανορθωσης, θελουνε να βλεπουνε τους λογαριασμους του Κρατους, να τους συζητουνε ελευθερα και να νοιωθουνε πως μπορουνε να αλλαξουνε το προσωπικο κατα το κεφι τους, σα νοικοκυραιοι.

Petite bourgeoisie are in favour of a dictatorship only when they arrive at the last stage of fear, desperation, or lack of direction. But as long as there are hopes of a national and personal recovery, they want to see the finances of the State, discuss them freely and feel that they can change the political personnel as they desire, like good housekeepers. (1)

Greece between the wars – Η Ελλας στον μεσοπολεμο

Η κοινοβουλευτικη συντεχνια βρηκε μια λυση της πολιτικης κρισης, που εσωζε τους θεσμους διχως να προσβαλλει τις σταδιοδρομιες και τα φιλοτιμα των κομματων και των προσωπων: Κυβερνηση συνασπισμου. Τα κομματα της συμπολιτευσης και της αντιπολιτευσης μοιραστηκαν τα υπουργεια με ενα κοινο “προγραμμα περισυλλογης”, αφηνοντας εξω μερικες μικρες ομαδες των ακρων. Βρεθηκε ευκολα και ενας επιβλητικος γερος κοινοβουλευτικος, που ειχε καλες προσωπικες σχεσεις με ολους τους πολιτικους αρχηγους, και του δοθηκε η πρωθυπουργια. ..

The parliamentarians found a way out of the political crisis, that retained the institutions without assaulting the carriers and the pride of the parties and the political personnel: a coalition government. The parties of the majority and the opposition shared the ministerial posts on the basis of a common “recovery programme”, leaving out the small groups of the extremes. It was easy to find a respectable aged parliamentarian, who had good personal relationships with all the party leaders, and make him the prime minister… (1)

Open air market in Thission, Athens – Λαϊκη Αγορα στο Θησειο

Ενιωθε και κατι αλλο, που σε λιγο αρχισε να το νιωθει κι ενα μερος του κοινου: οτι η Κυβερνηση του συνασπισμου απο τη φυση της, ειναι ανικανη να παρει γενναιες πρωτοβουλιες και να επιβαλει ριζικες λυσεις στα οικονομικα και κρατικα ζητηματα, που παραλυανε τη ζωη του τοπου. Ουτε την ξεκουρδισμενη μηχανη της διοικησης μπορουσε να φρεσκαρει και να ξανακουρδισει, ουτε το στρατο να καθαρισει απο τα ταραχοποια στοιχεια του, ουτε αληθινες οικονομιες να πραγματοποιησει και να ισοσκλεισει τον προϋπολογισμο, ουτε την εθνικη οικονομια να διευθυνει και να τη συγκρατησει σ’ ενα ανεκτο επιπεδο μες στη συγχυση των διεθνων οικονομικων συνθηκων.

He also felt something else, which was also felt by the public: that the coalition Government was by nature unable to take bold initiatives and implement all-encompassing solutions to the financial and adminsitrative issues that were paralyzing the life of the country. The government could not refresh the broken down machinery of the state, nor clean up the army of its radical elements, cut public spending, balance the budget, and adequately manage the national economy in the midst of the international confusion.” (1)

Festival in Delphi – Δελφικες εορτες

“Γιατι λοιπον να μη μ’ ανησυχει και να μη με εξοργιζει οταν διακρινω ξεδιαντροπα να καλλιεργειται μια κουλτουρα δηθεν εθνικη απο ατομα ή οργανισμους ή κομματα και με εναν σκοπο, την υποδουλωση σας, τον πνευματικο και αισθησιακο ευνουχισμο σας, την υποπτη αντικατασταση της ανησυχιας απο την ακινδυνη παραδοσιακη γραφικοτητα; Κι υστερα δεν ειναι επισης καπως υποπτη η αυθαιρεσια ορισμενων κομματικων οργανισμων να οικειοποιουνται την προοδευτικοτητα σα να’ ναι γεννημα τους; Και ποία η διαφορα σ’ αυθαιρεσια μ’ εκεινους τους αλλους, τα τρωκτικα του τοπου μας, που ετσιθελικα οικειοποιουνται την εννοια του εθνους, ώστε όταν εναντιωνεσαι στις παρανομες επιδιωξεις τους να γινεσαι αυτοματα αντεθνικος; (2)

Maroussi

So why should I not be worried and outraged when I see people, organizations and parties promoting without shame a supposedly national culture with only one objective, your enslavement, your mental and sensual castration, and the suspicious substitution of concern by the harmless traditional stereotypes? Following that, isn’t it somehow suspicious to see some political organizations pretending that they are the owners of progressive ideas and beliefs? And in what do they differ from the others, the rats of our country, who declare themselves the owners of the concept of the nation, so that when you rise against their illegal designs you automatically become an enemy of the nation?” (2)

Technical Lyceum – Σιβιτανιδειος Σχολη

“Ο φασισμός στις μέρες μας φανερώνεται με δυο μορφές. Ή προκλητικός, με το πρόσχημα αντιδράσεως σε πολιτικά ή κοινωνικά γεγονότα που δεν ευνοούν την περίπτωσή τους ή παθητικός μες στον οποίο κυριαρχεί ο φόβος για ό,τι συμβαίνει γύρω μας. Ανοχή και παθητικότητα λοιπόν. Κι έτσι εδραιώνεται η πρόκληση. Με την ανοχή των πολλών. Προτιμότερο αργός και σιωπηλός θάνατος από την αντίδραση του ζωντανού και ευαίσθητου οργανισμού που περιέχουμε.

Fascism in our days appears with two faces. Either provocative, on the pretext of reacting to political or social events that do not favour them, or passive, where fear about everything going on around us is prominent. Tolerance and passivity give room to the challenge of fascism. We seem to prefer the slow and silent death to the reaction of the live and sensitive self inside us. (3)

George Theotokas (left). Athens 1941

Και μη βρίσκοντας αντίσταση από μια στέρεη παιδεία όλα αυτά δημιουργούν ένα κατάλληλο έδαφος για να ανθίσει ο εγωκεντρισμός η εγωπάθεια, η κενότητα και φυσικά κάθε κτηνώδες ένστιχτο στο εσωτερικό τους. Προσέξτε το χορό τους με τις ομοιόμορφες στρατιωτικές κινήσεις, μακρά από κάθε διάθεση επαφής και επικοινωνίας. Το τραγούδι τους με τις συνθηματικές επαναλαμβανόμενες λέξεις, η απουσία του βιβλίου και της σκέψης από τη συμπεριφορά τους και ο στόχος για μια άνετη σταδιοδρομία κέρδους και εύκολης επιτυχίας.

Not finding any resistance from a solid education, all these create a suitable ground for egocentricity to bloom, emptiness, and of course every animal instnct. Notice how they dance (the fascists) making these militarymovements, away from any desire to contaqct and communicate. Their song, with the coded repeating words, the anbsence of the book (reading) and thinking from their behaviour, and the goal of a comfortable career and easy success. (3)

M. Karagatsis in his youth

Βιώνουμε μέρα με τη μέρα περισσότερο το τμήμα του εαυτού μας – που ή φοβάται ή δεν σκέφτεται, επιδιώκοντας όσο γίνεται περισσότερα οφέλη. Ώσπου να βρεθεί ο κατάλληλος «αρχηγός» που θα ηγηθεί αυτό το κατάπτυστο περιεχόμενό μας. Και τότε θα ‘ναι αργά για ν’ αντιδράσουμε. Ο νεοναζισμός είμαστε εσείς κι εμείς – όπως στη γνωστή παράσταση του Πιραντέλο. Είμαστε εσείς, εμείς και τα παιδιά μας. Δεχόμαστε να ‘μαστε απάνθρωποι μπρος στους φορείς του AIDS, από άγνοια αλλά και τόσο «ανθρώπινοι» και συγκαταβατικοί μπροστά στα ανθρωποειδή ερπετά του φασισμού, πάλι από άγνοια, αλλά κι από φόβο κι από συνήθεια.

We experience day after day the part of ourself that is either scared or does not think, seeking to maximize personal benefits. Until we find the right “leader” to command this despicable side of our existence. But then it will be too late to react. Neonazism is you and us – as in the known play of Pirandello. It is us, us and our children. We accept to be inhuman when we face AIDS carriers, due to lack of knowledge, but so “human” and understanding in front of the humanoids of fascism, not only because of lack of knowledge, but also because of fear and habit.    (3)

Greek Civil War 1945-1949

Και το Κακό ελλοχεύει χωρίς προφύλαξη, χωρίς ντροπή. Ο νεοναζισμός δεν είναι θεωρία, σκέψη και αναρχία. Είναι μια παράσταση. Εσείς κι εμείς. Και πρωταγωνιστεί ο Θάνατος.

And Evil is lurking without precaution, without shame. Neonazism is not theory, thought, or anarchy. It is a show. You and us. And Death is the protagonist. ” (3)

Young women on a boat outside the port of Alexandroupolis – Κοπελλες σε βαρκα εξω απο την Αλεξανδρουπολη

“Στο αναμεταξυ (1921) οι νεοπλουτοι, μπουχτισμενοι απο ευκολοκερδισμενο παρά και λιμασμενοι απο μακροχρονια νηστεια, το’ χαν ριξει εξω. Γινοταν ενα γλεντι αλλιωτικο, ουτε πρωτογονο ουτε συμβατικο, μα κατι το ατοπο, το χυδαιο. Προβαλαν μεσα στην ξαφνιασμενη κοινωνια της Αθηνας ανθρωποι αγνωστοι, μυστηριοι, που κανεις δεν ηξερε πούθε βαστουσε η σκουφια τους, με τις τσεπες φίσκα στο χρημα και διχως συναισθηση τι παει να πει χρημα. Σπαταλουσαν ποσα αφανταστα σ’ ενα γλεντι κακογουστο κι άνοστο, μη λογαριαζοντας τιποτα, μην ξεροντας πως να διαθεσουν τα εκατομμυρια τους. Βασικη προϋποθεση του γλεντιου ηταν ν’ αποχτησουν αμερικάνικο αυτοκινητο και να τριγυρναν στους ανυπαρκτους τοτε δρομους της Αττικης, αραζοντας σε ξωτικα λιμανια – Ραφηνα και Σκαραμαγκα – που ο μη εκατομμυριούχος μοναχα στ’ ονειρο του μπορουσε να τα ιδει. Ησαν εκει κατι βρωμοταβερνες, που παρισταναν τα κεντρα πολυτελειας, που πουλουσαν τα τηγανητα μπαρμπουνια και τον μποτιλιαρισμενο σταφιδιτη σε τιμες αστρονομικες. (4)

Rafina 1930

In the meantime (1921), the newly rich, fed up by easily won money and starved by long abstinence, were going overboard. They were partying in a different way, neither primitive nor conventional, but somehow out of place and vulgar. Unknown, mysterious people, who nobody knew where they were coming from, were emerging in the midst of the puzzled Athenian society, with their pockets stuffed with money and no conception whatsoever of what money means. They were wasting unimaginable amounts of money in pasties of bad taste, disregarding everything, not knowing what to do with their money. A basiv requirement for them to have a good time was to buy an american car and roam the non-existent roads of Attica, arriving at exotix ports – Rafina and Skaramanga – which an ordinary person could see only in their dreams. There were some horrible tavernas there, pretending to be luxurious restaurants, selling fried barbounia and bottled wine at astronomical prices  ” (4)

Miss Europe, 1926

“Η Ελλαδα πεθανε και τη σκοτωσαμε εμεις – δεν ειναι ρητορικο σχημα. Δεν υπαρχει προηγουμενο λαου που με αποφαση της Βουλης (ομοφωνη) να καταργει τον τροπο της γραφης που συντηρησε τη γλωσσα του ζωντανη δυο χιλιαδες χρονια. .. Ο ευρωπαιος, οταν υιοθετησει το μηδενισμο, ελεγε ο Ντοστογιεφκσυ, εχει τα ιδια ερεισματα ζωης που συντηρουσε και θρησκευομενος: την προτεραιοτητα της λογικης, τον ωφελιμισμο, τη θεσμοποιηση των ατομικων εξασφαλισεων, γι’ αυτο και δυσκολα φτανει στην κοινωνικη αποσυνθεση και στο χαος. Ενω λαοι που επεζησαν μεσα στους αιωνες χαρη σε διαφορετικα ερεισματα ζωης – οπως οι Ρωσοι ή οι Ελληνες – οταν γινουν μηδενιστες, “βουτανε κατακεφαλα στον παραλογισμο” – δεν ξερουν μετρο. ” (5)

Musicians – Στης μαστουρας το σκοπο

Greece is dead and we killed her – this is not a rhetorical statement. There is no precedent of a people who with a unanimous parliamentary vote abandons the way of writing that has preserved his language alive for two thousand years…. The european, when becomes a nihillist, wrote Dostoevski, has the same pillars in life that he had when he was a believer: the priority of rational thinking, utilitarianism, the institutionalization of the personal, and so it is difficult for him to arrive at social disintegration and chaos. While peoples who have survived through the centuries thanks to other pillars in life, like the Russians or the Greeks, when they become nihillists, “they go all the way to insanity”, they know no restraint.  (5)

Korina in the Allatini Factory (6)

Θα σου παρουν τον ισκιο των δεντρων, θα τον παρουν

Θα σου παρουν τον ισκιο της θαλασσας, θα τον παρουν

Θα σου παρουν τον ισκιο της καρδιας, θα τον παρουν

Θα παρουν τον ισκιο σου… (7)

They will take away from you the shadow of the trees, they will take it

They will take away from you the shadow of the sea, they will take it

They will take away from you the shadow of the heart, they will take it

They will take away your shadow… (7)

Plakes, Volos

Sources – Πηγες

(1) Γιωργος  Θεοτοκας, ΑΡΓΩ 1936, Εστια. George Theotokas, ARGO 1936, Hestia Publishing.

(2) Μανος Χατζιδακις, Η πολιτκη στην τεχνη και η κακη τεχνη της πολτικης,   Ο Καθρεφτης και το Μαχαιρι, 1988, Ικαρος. Manos Hadjidakis, Politics in art and the bad art of politics, The mirror and the knife 1988, Ikaros Publishing.

(3) Μανος Χατζηδακις, Φεβρουαριος 1993, ΑΒΕΡΩΦ. Manos Hadjidakis, February 1993.

(4) Μ. Καραγατσης, Γιουγκερμαν, 1938, ΕΣΤΙΑ. M. Karagatsis, Yungermann, 1938, Hestia Publishing.

(5) Χρηστος Γιανναρας, Finis Greciae, 1986, Το Κενο στην τρεχουσα Πολιτικη, Εκδοσεις Καστανιωτη. Christos Giannaras, Finis Greciae, 1986, The vacuum in present day politics, Kastaniotis Publishing.

(6) Korina – Ceramics Allatini

(7) Γιωργος Σεφερης, Μερες Ε’, 15 Μαρτη 1947, Ικαρος Εκδοτικη. George Seferis, Days E’, 15 March 1947, Ikaros Publishing.

Smyrna, September 1922: When Paradise turned into Hell

The map of the war’s operations

“THE TURKISH cavalry presented a magnificent spectacle as it cantered along the waterfront. The horsemen sat high in their saddles, their scimitars unsheathed and glinting in the sun. On their heads they wore black Circassian fezzes adorned with the crescent and star. As they rode, they cried out, ‘Korkma! Korkma! ‘Fear not! Fear not!’

Their entry into the city of Smyrna on 9 September 1922 was watched by thousands of anxious inhabitants. On the terrace of the famous Sporting Club, a group of British businessmen rose to their feet in order to catch a better view of the historic scene. From the nearby Greek warehouses, the packers and stevedores spilled out onto the quayside. ‘Long Live Kemal,’ they cried nervously, praising the man who would soon acquire the sobriquet Ataturk.” (9th September 1922)

Giles Milton, Paradise Lost, Smyrna 1922: The destruction of Islam’s city of tolerance

Landing of Greek troops in Smyrna, May 1919

I was in Smyrna in May of 1917, when Turkey severed relations with the United States, and I received the oral and written statements of native-born American eye-witnesses of the vast and incredibly horrible Armenian massacres of 1915-16 — some of which will be here given for the first time; I personally observed and otherwise confirmed the outrageous treatment of the Christian population of the Smyrna vilayet, both during the Great War, and before its outbreak. I returned to Smyrna later and was there up until the evening of September 11, 1922, on which date the city was set on fire by the army of Mustapha Khemal, and a large part of its population done to death, and I witnessed the development of that Dantesque tragedy, which possesses few, if any parallels in the history of the world.

George Horton, The Blight of Asia

Mustafa Kemal Pasha

1918

The Moudros (island of Lemnos) Armistice, concluded on 30 October 1918, put an end to the Ottoman Empire’s involvement in World War One

1919

18 January: Peace Conference opens in Versailles.

3 February: Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos demands the entire East Thrace and the Aegean shores of Anatolia including Izmir to be annexed to Greece.

8 February: French General Franchet d’Esperey, commander of the Allied Army, enters Istanbul mounted on a white horse.

4 March: Damat Ferit Paşa, brother-in-law of the Sultan, appointed as the new Grand Vizier.

8 April: British Foreign Minister, Lord Balfour, proposed Istanbul to become a neutral zone under the administration of the League of Nations.

29 April: Italian warship Caio Duilio anchors at Izmir.

Altay Atlı

The harbor of Smyrna before September 1922

1919

30 April: Sultan Vahidettin sends Mustafa Kemal to Anatolia as inspector general.

6 May: Allied nations agree to allow Greek occupation of Izmir.

15 May: Izmir occupied by the Greek army. Journalist Hasan Tahsin shoots a Greek flag bearer, firing the first bullet of the Turkish resistance.

16 May: Mustafa Kemal leaves Istanbul.

19 May: Mustafa Kemal arrives in Samsun. Turkish War of Independence begins.

24 May: Demonstration at Sultanahmet in Istanbul against the occupation of Izmir.

Altay Atlı
King Constantine I of Greece decorating regimental war flags of the Greek Army during the war with Turkey, at Eski Shehir (Dorylaeum), 18 July 1921

“At the ceremony on 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sevres) the Ottoman signatories agreed on behalf of their countrymen that Thrace be ceded to Greece, and that Greece would be sovereign in the Izmir (Smyrna) area for five years – after which the League of Nations would decide whether it became a full part of Greece; the frontiers of an independent Armenian state were to be determined by the US President Woodrow Wilson; the Kurdish areas of south-eastern Anatolia were to remain under Ottoman sovereignty for the present, with the question of whether the Kurds might become independent left to the decision of the LEague of Nations; and so on. The empire had shrunk to comprise Istanbul and northern Anatolia – large swathes of which were presently under occupation.” 

Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream

Question: In June 1920, the Greek Army carried out an offensive move, towards the Büyük Menderes River (Meander) Valley, Karşıyaka (Peramos) and Alaşehir (Philadelphia). What was the point of this offensive? Was it consistent with a strategy? Was there a strategy at all? Or the military operations were carried out in a rather cavalier and opportunistic way? In this case possibly to give support to the British? 

Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece, signing the Treaty of Sevres, 10 August 1920

“The shadow of Sèvres [i.e. of the humiliating Sèvres treaty of 1920, which left much of Anatolia’s fate in the hands of Greece and the League of Nations] hangs over Turkey to this day in the lingering fear that foreign enemies and their collaborators inside Turkey may again seek to divide the state which was defended with such tenacity and at such cost.  Attitudes in some quarters of Turkish society to the possibility of entry to the European Union are also colored by the specter of Sèvres, and European intentions are closely scrutinized for signs of duplicity.” 

Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream

Minor Asia after the Treaty of Sevres

I have the honor to call the attention of the (US State) Department to the fact that immediately after the Greeks landed in Smyrna (1919), I telegraphed that this would prove a second “Syracusan Expedition”, referring to the war against Syracuse in 413 B.C. which led to the complete depletion of the Athenian treasury and the effacement of Athens as the leading power of the ancient world.

George Horton, extract from the report written on September 26th and 27th, 1922

Landing of Greek soldiers at the docks. Smyrna, 1919

The landing of the Greeks in Asia Minor as actually carried out was the great mistake of Venizelos. Though undoubtedly asked by the representatives of all the allies to go to Smyrna, he should not have done so without an actual treaty, with a written statement of what support they would give. To avoid the horrible catastrophe which has followed, which is exciting the fanaticism and daring of the entire Mussulman world, involving both France and Italy in untold dangers, only two plans were possible: (1st) Never to have sent the Greeks to Asia Minor; (2nd) Once having sent them there, to support them in a loyal manner. What really happened was immediate dissension among the allies as always in history among Christians. Italy, which had practically been promised Smyrna, started a port at New Ephesus to draw the trade if possible away from the former city and began to sell arms to the Turks and to flatter them. The French, to undermine Great Britain in the Near East, took up an attitude towards the Turks which finally resulted in the Treaty of Angora and the recognition by the French of that government.

George Horton, extract from the report written on September 26th and 27th, 1922

Question: When Venizelos lost the elections in November 1920 and King Constantine returned  to power, the Greek Army carried out offenses towards the East, moving in the direction of Ankara. What was the point of these offensives? Now that Venizelos was gone, we see that the other side is carrying out an even more opportunistic military operation. 

Greek General Paraskevopoulos addresses the crowd in Smyrna, 29th June 1919

I remember the exciting time I had on the morning of September 13 (1922), when I was on my way to the office. I was coming through the Armenian quarter, and as ill luck would have it, fell in with a mob. There was firing on both sides, for of course, Turkish soldiers were everywhere.

I had long since taken the precautionary measure of arming myself with an American flag, for that little bit of bunting was of more potential defense than any Colt automatic. Finding myself in this pleasant little party, I pulled out my flag, pinned it on, and made for the nearest wall.

I finally reached it and then walked sideways for quite a distance, for I had always been told that if you must be shot by all means avoid being shot in the back.

Asa Jennings

The burning of Smyrna 14 September 1922

Wednesday, the 13th …I see a Turk who approached me say, ‘We did what was due; you turn back.’ The Turk, who obviously had assumed an active role in the arson, takes me obviously for his compatriot and accomplice and advises me not to advance, but to turn back. I answer, “Very well,” with the attitude of someone who understands the situation and I stop for a moment to distance myself from the Turk and to avoid conversation….”

Garabed Hatcherian

A (UK) Royal Navy launch towing a cutter full of refugees to an awaiting ship in Smyrna harbour during the evacuation (September 1922)

“Within hours of Ataturk’s victorious entry into the beautiful, thriving and predominantly Greek city of Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkish soldiers began the killing and raping of Greeks and Armenians, and the looting and pillaging of their homes and shops. Over 100,000 Greek and Armenian civilians were killed by the Turks…”

Marjorie Housepian Dobkin

“The strange thing was . . . how they screamed every night at midnight. I do not know why they screamed at that time. We were in the harbor and they were all on the pier and at midnight they started screaming.
. . . The worst . . . were the women with dead babies. You couldn’t get the women to give up their dead babies. They’d have babies dead for six days. Wouldn’t give them up. Nothing you could do about it.”

Ernest Hemingway, “On the Quai at Smyrna,” The Short Stories

Question: Why did the Greek Army evacuate Smyrna on the 8th September? Was it so difficult to figure out that Kemal and his troops would not be kind to the civilian population? In the face of certain disaster, the Greek Army fled leaving the civilian Christians behind. This in the context of the presence of ships of the Allied forces. 

Greek refugees boarding ship, September 1922, Smyrna

More recently a mutual friend arranged for me to interview Nino Russo of Freeport, Long Island; I was happy to obtain an Italian view. A youthful eighty years old when I spoke with him, Russo had been ship’s engineer on the Italian battleship Vittore Imanuele, which had sailed into Smyrna har­bor just as the fires were beginning to break out at various points in the city. Russo spoke with the same intense feeling as had most of the Ameri­can seamen I interviewed. The heat at one point was so strong, he con­firmed, that even though his large ship stood at considerable distance from the shore, it had to move back. The Italians had come in to pick up their own nationals but they sent out twenty lifeboats and picked up anyone within range without asking who was or was not Italian. “There were so many bodies in the water you couldn’t count. Everybody, … all the big-shots, the Captain, all those people going back and forth to shore, they knew and they reported that the Turks were burning Smyrna . All the crew, we all knew it was the Turks.” None of his testimony is new, but it is noteworthy considering that Italian policy strongly and openly supported the Turks. Russo’s account also confirms the victims’ reports concerning the kindness of Italian ships and corroborated other reports of the intense heat on the waterfront at the height of the fire.

Marjorie Housepian Dobkin

The New York Times, 8 October 1922

I have also the honor also to point out to the Department that all massacres on a large scale perpetrated by Turks, and the history of the Turkish empire is largely a history of massacres, are always ordered by higher authorities. Anyone who believes that the forces of Mustapha Kemal got out of hand at Smyrna and that he controlled them as soon as he could, knows nothing about the history of Turkey or events in the Near East. I believe also if the Allied fleets in Smyrna harbor, the French, Italians, British and Americans, had emphatically told Mustapha Kemal that there must be no massacring, none would have taken place. If they told him today that he must cease carrying off the men between eighteen and forty-five into the interior, he would stop, but when he sees the great powers of the world sitting by in security on their battleships watching his fearful procedures, he is emboldened to greated and still greater excesses. The sight of a massacre going on under the eyes of the great powers of Europe and with their seemingly tacit consent, is one that I hope never to see again.

I believe that when the real truth is known of what happened in Smyrna and what has been happening in the Near East, all decent people in Europe and the United States will feel as I do.

George Horton, extract from the report written on September 26th and 27th, 1922

Christians on the quay of Smyrna, September 1922

The retreating Greek Army left Smyrna on September 8, 1922; the Turkish Army occupied the city on September 9, and the fire was started on September 13. From that date, the Christian population, Turkish subjects of the Greek Orthodox religion, and Armenians, had been without shelter. During the fire with its attendant murders, robberies and other outrages, men, women and children swam from the quay, and every boat, raft and floating bit of timber was utilized in a desperate effort to reach the ships in the harbor.

The mothers with families were not able to swim and take their little ones on their backs, but the strong, who had the luck to board the ships in the beginning while the fire was raging, were not put ashore. They were taken away and saved from the additional anguish and suffering experienced by those who remained on the quay, after the representatives of the different nations had been officially instructed to maintain neutrality.

There were approximately 300,000 people huddled together on the cobblestones of the Smyrna waterfront and hiding in the ruins, when we reached that port. For ten days and nights, they had held their places. The quay, within view of the warships of the Allied nations in the harbor, and within range of their searchlights at night, was the zone of greatest safety, the least likely place for a wholesale massacre.

City-dwelling human beings, suddenly deprived of the conveniences of civilized life, are utterly unable to care for themselves. They are far more offensive than animals can possibly be. The people squatting on that quay were filthy. They had no means of keeping clean. They dared not go back into the ruins of the city for any purpose, lest they lose their lives. In less than two weeks the quay had become a reeking sewer in which the refugees sat and waited for deliverance. When that crowd stirred, the stench was beyond belief.

Esther Lovejoy, Certain Samaritans

The New York Times, 8 October 1922

The last view of the ill-fated town by daylight was one of vast enveloping clouds rolling up to heaven, a narrow water-front covered with a great throng of people—an ever-increasing throng, with the fire behind and the sea before, and a powerful fleet of inter-allied battle-ships, among which were two American destroyers, moored a short distance from the quay and looking on.

As the destroyer moved away from the fearful scene and darkness descended, the flames, raging now over a vast area, grew brighter and brighter, presenting a scene of awful and sinister beauty. Historians and archeologists have declared that they know of but one event in the annals of the world which can equal in savagery, extent and all the elements of horror, cruelty and human suffer­ing, the destruction of Smyrna and its Christian population by the Turks, and this was the demoli­tion of Carthage by the Romans.

Certainly at Smyrna, nothing was lacking in the way of atrocity, lust, cruelty and all that fury of human passion which, given their full play, degrade the human race to a level lower than the vilest and cruelest of beasts. For during all this diabolical drama the Turks robbed and raped. Even the rap­ing can be understood as an impulse of nature, irresistible perhaps, when passions are running wild among a people of low mentality and less civiliza­tion, but the repeated robbing of women and girls can be attributed neither to religious frenzy nor to animal passions. One of the keenest impressions, which I brought away with me from Smyrna was a feeling of shame that I belonged to the human race.

At the destruction of Smyrna there was one fea­ture for which Carthage presents no parallel. There was no fleet of Christian battle-ships at Carthage looking on at a situation for which their govern­ments were responsible. There were no American cruisers at Carthage.

The Turks were glutting freely their racial and religious lust for slaughter, rape and plunder with­in a stone’s throw of the Allied and American battle-ships because they had been systematically led to believe that they would not be interfered with. A united order from the commanders or from any two of them—one harmless shell thrown across the Turkish quarter—would have brought the Turks to their senses.

And this, the presence of those battle-ships in Smyrna harbor, in the year of our Lord 1922, im­potently watching the last great scene in the tragedy of the Christians of Turkey, was the saddest and most significant feature of the whole picture.

George Horton, The Blight of Asia

Awaiting the ships, Smyrna September 1922

1922

11 October: Armistice of Mudanya signed between Turkey, Italy, France and Britain. Greece accedes to the armistice three days later. East Thrace as far as the Maritsa River and Edirne are handed over by Greece to Turkey. Turkish sovereignty over Istanbul and the Dardanelles is recognized.

20 October: Peace Conference opens in Lausanne.

1 November: The Sultanate is abolished.

17 November: Sultan Vahidettin leaves Istanbul on board the British warship Malaya.

Altay Atlı

Dr Lovejoy, quoted in :The New York Times”, 8 October 1922

“In Smyrna on September 24, 1922, the Hatcherian family managed to escape to the Greek island of Mitilini, leaving behind in Akhisar ten members of the extended family on both sides. All ten family members including the mothers and brothers with their families, were massacred after the occupation of Akhisar [original Greek name was Thyatira 80km/50miles NE of Smyrna] by the Kemalist army. Another positive outcome of reading the diary was that I was once again filled with gratitude toward Greece, the country of my birth, for its humanitarian act of giving shelter, along with thousands of Greeks, to so many Armenian refugees. Among them was my grandfather with his family who was given the opportunity to restore not only a normal and happy family life, but also his faith in humanity. Reading the pages of my grandfather’s ordeal, I also realized how fortunate we are to be living in a free humanitarian country like Canada, a country which espouses the humanitarian principles in which my grandfather believed.”

Dora Sakayan

They did not manage to get away

Another thing that has greatly handicapped the Greeks is their pernicious and corrupt politics. The amount to which politics is played in Greece and the extent to which the Greek politician will go, even to the sacrifice of his country and of many lives in order to keep his party in power for a few weeks can hardly be believed. The overthrow of Venizelos, Greece’s great advocate in Europe and America, and the bringing back of its discredited king, was the beginning of the end. Politics is played to such an extent that even now, in the face of this tremendous tragedy to Greece, it is not lost sight of, and the Royalist party will not even allow Venizelists to distribute money which they are receiving from Europe or to establish soup kitchens.

George Horton,  extract from the report written on September 26th and 27th, 1922

Walking the plank

The people on the quay were panic-stricken. The Allies had forsaken them. The Turks were going to deport them to the interior on the thirtieth of September. What country would help them? Greece had signified her willingness to receive them, but how could they get there without ships? For twelve terrible days and nights they had watched, waited and prayed. The stones of the quay were hard, but not so hard as the hearts of nations! The sun was blistering during the daylight hours, and the nights were full of horror, but the time was passing so fast, so fast. Only five days more to the thirtieth of September and deportation.(3). Even if ships should come, how could they all embark in so short a time? Besides, Greece was poor and overcrowded, and since the strong countries, indirectly responsible for their suffering, had definitely refused to admit them, perhaps Greece would change her mind. Why should one nation accept all the Anatolian Christians fleeing for their lives, including the Armenians?

Most of them called themselves Greek, but were they Greek? They had never lived in Greece and many of them could not speak the Greek language. On the other hand, they were not Turks, it seemed, although they had lived under the Turkish Government, generation after generation, for five hundred years. They were people without a country, and the Armenians among them were sorry they had not turned toward Russia and joined the Soviet.

Nationality and religion to the people on that quay was a hopeless muddle. Two hundred years before the colonization of America the Turks had taken Smyrna, but Turk meant religion to most of the Christian people in Asia Minor. They had seen too many Christians turn Turk by accepting the Mohammedan faith. Before accepting the Faith they were Armenians or Greeks perhaps, and the next day they were Turks, with all the privileges of Turks.

This confusion of nationality and religion was very well shown in the strange case of a certain man who had been in the service of an American tobacco company for so many years that he looked, acted, talked and no doubt felt like an American. He told me quite simply that he was a man without a country, and that that was the status of most of the Christian people in Turkey. His father was German, his mother English, and he was born in Smyrna. Naturally, they were cosmopolitan in thought and language, but he had always considered himself of German nationality. He had married a German girl and he thought his children were Germans. They were all members of the Lutheran Church.

Esther Lovejoy, Certain Samaritans

Greek Army Officers POW

I firmly believe from my observations in Smyrna and from information which I have received from various sources, that the terrible disaster which has happened to the inhabitants of Asia Minor was the result of a contemptible political move. The party in power believed they could not get the help of Europe without turning out Constantine and bringing back Venizelos. Without that help, they could not stay in Smyrna, they could not announce that they were willing to withdraw their armies from the Smyrna district, and they therefore deliberately provoked the debacle which the world has seen. For months there has been a steady withdrawing of Venizelist officers and their replacing by trusted Royal-ists, many of whom have been deserting their troops, leaving whole regiments without officers. I am credibly informed that the Greek army, even at the last moment, could have made a stand and retrieved the situation as the Turkish forces which entered Smyrna were insignificant. But even the Greek officers who desired to make a stand and expressed their ability to do so were ordered to retire. 

George Horton,  extract from the report written on September 26th and 27th, 1922

The Turkish Delegation in the Lausanne Treaty 1923

1923

4 February: Talks in Lausanne interrupted due to Turkish protest.

23 April: Talks in Lausanne resume.

24 July: Treaty of Lausanne signed between Turkey, Greece and other countries that fought the First World War and the Turkish Independence War. Turkey recovers full sovereign rights over its territory.

6 October: Occupation forces leave Istanbul.

13 October: Ankara declared as the capital of the new Turkish State.

29 October: The Republic of Turkey is proclaimed.

Altay Atlı

In one of its most controversial clauses, the Lausanne treaty barred the return of the refugees who had left Anatolia during the war and stipulated the exchange of the remaining Greek Orthodox residents of Turkey for the Muslims of Macedonia and western Thrace.

A few months following the signing of the Lausanne Treaty, by which the Allied powers and the world recognized the independence and sovereignty of Turkey, the Republican People’s Party was established on 9 September 1923 and Mustafa Kemal was elected as its chairman.

Refugees from Asia in Thessaloniki

“The total number of Christians who fled to Greece was probably in the region of 1.2 million with the main wave occurring in 1922 before the signing of the convention. According to the official records of the Mixed Commission set up to monitor the movements, the “Greeks’ who were transferred after 1923 numbered 189,916 and the number of Muslims expelled to Turkey was 355,635 [Ladas 1932, 438-439; but using the same source Eddy 1931, 201 states that the post-1923 exchange involved 192,356 Greeks from Turkey and 354,647 Muslims from Greece.”

Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen. (2005). Immigration and Asylum: from 1900 to the Present, Volume 3. ABC-CLIO. p. 377.

In the aftermath of the First World War, Greece again paved the way for Europe’s future. Only now it was democracy’s dark side that came to the fore. In a world of nation-states, ethnic minorities like Greece’s Muslim population and the Orthodox Christians of Asia Minor were a recipe for international instability. In the early 1920s, Greek and Turkish leaders decided to swap their minority populations, expelling some two million Christians and Muslims in the interest of national homogeneity. The Greco-Turkish population exchange was the largest such organized refugee movement in history to that point and a model that the Nazis and others would point to later for displacing peoples in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and India.

Mark Mazower: Democracy’s Cradle, Rocking the World

Minor Asia after the Treaty of Lausanne

For several years after the Smyrna debacle, American interests in Turkey conducted an intensive campaign to revise public opinion at home. This was no small task, for in the course of massive fund appeals the American Protestant leadership had created a certain amount of antipathy toward Turkey and sympathy for her minori­ties. Yet the Lausanne Treaty constituted a victory for Turkey on the question of the Christian population and a triumph of political and economic considerations for the West. Not the least of these was the matter of oil. According to Standard Oil Company his­torians, “there were many issues of importance at Lausanne but oil usurped the center of the stage”.

In varying degrees every Western nation involved had to defend this order of priorities. But the greater the discrepancy between a nation’s professed and actual motives, the greater its need to justify its policies. Political scientists might wave “morality” aside as irrele­vant to the national interest. American historians might proclaim the triumph of American diplomacy; but spokesmen for America had been denouncing the ignominious motives of her rivals too loudly and for too long to let the nature of her triumph speak for itself. In 1924 the Near East desk at the State Department was still busily enlisting co-operative writers to its cause.

Marjorie Housepian Dobkin

Atatürk and the accompanying delegation
in front of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Building
29 October 1933.
History Matters
You can find more history in “History Matters”.
The sources

Altay Atlı, author of the blog “Turkey in the First World War”

Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, a Professor at Barnard College of Columbia University, NY , NY , USA.

Caroline Finkel, a British historian and writer, has a doctorate in Ottoman history

Dr Garabed Hatcherian, Senior Physician at the Armenian National Hospital in Smyrna.

Ernest Hemingway, American Journalist and Writer

George Horton, American Consul in Smyrna.

Asa Jennings, employee of the YMCA in the city of Smyrna, and director of the rescue operation.

Esther Lovejoy, an American doctor who played a leading role in the humanitarian rescue.

Mark Mazower, British historian

Giles Milton, English historian

Dora Sakayan, granddaughter of Garabed Hatcherian, a Professor in Armenian Studies. 

On the Dark Side: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Ludwig Wittgenstein: “In a conversation: one person throws a ball; the other does not know whether he is supposed to throw it back, or throw it to a third person, or leave it on the ground, or pick it up and put it in his pocket,…Any interpretation still hangs in the air along with what it interprets, and cannot give it any support. Interpretations by themselves do not determine meaning.”

Socrates: So it is that the good man too could sometimes become bad, either through age or toil or disease or some misfortune – for doing badly is nothing other than being deprived of knowledge – but the bad man could never become bad – for he is bad all the time – but if he is to become bad he must first become good.

MM: Are you a good man?

Mr. FFF: I am good and bad at the same time. And not because of lack of knowledge.

Mrs. T: Are you then disagreeing with Socrates?

Mr. FFF: Good and bad is only one of the “dialectical” dichotomies of man. Others being: reason / faith,  bright / dark, rational / irrational, sacred / profane, Apollonian / Dionysian, nature / culture. Dialectics dictate that both sides are taken together, and dealt with as a whole.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Every human embodies a compound of nature and culture, chaos and order, instinct and reason… symbolised by Dionysus and Apollo.

Mrs. T: What are the origins of bad, of the dark side? Was man in the past a unitary entity? How did this dichotomy of bright and dark come about?

Mr. FFF (Reads from Genesis): “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’  And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.’  And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die for God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.  She gave also to her husband with her and he ate.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

St. Augustine: We took away an enormous quantity of pears, not to eat them ourselves, but simply to throw them to the pigs. Perhaps we ate some of them, but our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden. .. the evil in me was foul, but I loved it. I loved my own perdition and my own faults, not the things for which I committed wrong, but the wrong itself. My soul was vicious and broke away from your (God’s) safe keeping to seek its own destruction, looking for no profit in disgrace but only for disgrace itself.

Mrs. T: Surely the Judeo-Christian view is not the only one.

Mr. FFF: Of course not. To take an example, daemons were benevolent spirits in the time of Hesiod. It was Plato and his pupil Xenocrates, who first characterized daemons as dangerous spirits. This was later absorbed by the Christians.

Mrs. T: Is the dark side a moral construct?

Mr. FFF: The dark side is a multifaceted construct. It has moral and religious connotations to say the least.

MM: The seductress of Juliette claimed immediately after the act that morality and religion are meaningless.

Mr. FFF: Lets put two of the prominent “dark side” attributes on the table: sin and evil.

MM: Juliette’s aim in life is to to enjoy oneself at no matter whose expense. What is the meaning of sin and evil for Juliette?

Clairwil: I expect Juliette to do evil – not to quicken her lust, as I believe is her habit at present, but solely for the pleasure of doing it…one must proceed calmly, deliberately, lucidly. Crime is the torch that should fire the passions.

Mephistopheles: Das beste, das du wissen kannst, / Darfst du den Buben doch nichts sagen.

(Mephistopheles: The best of what you know may not, after all, be told to boys.)

Georges Battaile: Sexual reproductive activity is common to sexual animals and men, but only men appear to have turned their sexual activity into erotic activity. Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest independent of the natural goal: reproduction and the desire for children…Eroticism always entails a breaking down of established patterns, the patterns, I repeat, of the regulated social order basic to our discontinuous mode of existence.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pigs”): “Την κοιτουσε απο κοντα. Καρφωνε το βλεμμα του στα χειλη, στις λεπτομερειες της επιδερμιδας, στο λαιμο, στα χερια που του φαινοντουσαν εκφραστικα και μυστηριωδη. Ξαφνικα καταλαβε πως αν δεν τη φιλουσε, η στερηση θα ηταν ανυποφορη. Ειπε μεσα του: “Ειμαι τρελος”. Κι επανελαβε πως αν την φιλουσε, θα κατεστρεφε ολη αυτη την τρυφεροτητα, που τοσο αυθορμητα του προσφερε εκεινη. Θα εκανε ισως τη λαθος κινηση, που θα την απογοητευε και θα τον εμφανιζε σαν ενα ατομο χωρις ευαισθησια, ανικανο να ερμηνευσει σωστα μαι πραξη γενναιοδωριας, σαν ενα υποκριτη που παριστανε τον καλο, ενω μεσα του κοχλαζουν οι χυδαιες ορεξεις, σαν εναν ανοητο που τολμα να τις εκφρασει. Σκεφτηκε: “Αυτο δε μου συνεβαινε αλλοτε” (και ειπε μεσα του πως αυτο το σχολιο του ειχε γινει πια εμμονη ιδεα). “Σε μια παρομοια κατασταση εγω θα ημουν ενας αντρας μπροστα σε μια γυναικα, ενω τωρα…” Κι αν τωρα εκανε λαθος; Αν εχανε εξαιτιας μιας αγιατρευτης ντροπαλοσυνης την καλυτερη ευκαιρια; Γατι να μη δει τα πραγματα απλα, να μην αφησει τον εαυτο του να καταλαβει πως η Ν κι εκεινος…”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pigs”): He was watching her from a close distance. His stare was penetrating her lips, the details of her skin, the neck, the hands, mysterious and ever so expressive. He told himself: ” I am mad”. And repeated that if he were to kiss her, he would destroy all the tenderness that she was so spontaneously offering to him. He might make the wrong move, that would disappoint her and present him in her eyes as a person without sensitivity, unable to interpret correctly an act of generosity, like an hypocrite who was pretending to be good, while inside him burn all sorts of vile desires, like a fool who dares express them. He thought: “this was not happening to me in the past” (and told himself that this was becoming now a persistent thought). “In a similar situation in the past, I would be a man in front of a woman, while now…” And if he were wrong? If  because of this incurable shyness he was to miss the best chance? Why not see things in the simple way, not let himself understand that N and himself…”

Michel Foucault: …transgression is not related to the limit as black is to white […] the outside to the inside […] their relationship takes the form of a spiral which no simple infraction can exhaust…sexuality is a fissure – not one which surrounds us as the basis of our isolation or individuality, but one which marks the limit within us and designates us as a limit…transgression and the limit has replaced the older dichotomy of the sacred and the profane.

Marlow: And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom and all the truth, all the sincerity, are just compresses into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.

Brother Medardus: One morning when I was going to the choirmaster for my music lesson, I caught his sister by surprise in a light negligee, her breast almost completely bare. She swiftly covered it up, but my prying eyes had already seen too much. Words failed me. New, unknownfeelings welled up within me and drove the red-hot blood through my veins so that my pulse beat out loud for all to hear. My heart was held in a convulsive grip and nearly bursting, until I eased my torment with a gentle sigh.
Georges Bataille:  …eroticism fell within the bounds of the profane and was at the same time condemned out of hand. The development of eroticism is parallel with that of uncleaness. Sacredness misunderstood is readily identified with evil.
Michel Foucault: If it is extremely dangerous to say that reason is the enemy that should be eliminated, it is just as dangerous to say that any critical questioning of this rationality risks sending us into irrationality… if critical thought itself has a function…it is precisely to accept this sort of spiral, this sort of revolving door of rationality that refers us to its necessity… and at the same time to its intrinsic dangers.

Mr. FFF: The spiral negates the dichotomy. A new paradigm is born. I am a descendant of Gerard de Nerval.
Friedrich Nietzsche:…morality takes good and evil for realities that contradict one another (not as complementary value concepts,which would be true), it advises taking the side of the good, it desires that the good should renounce and oppose the evil down to its ultimate roots – it therefore denies life which has in all its instincts both Yes and No.
Alexander Nehamas: The essential unity of what we commonly distinguish as good and evil is one of the most central themes in Nietzsche’s writing.
Georges Bataille:  If they want to elevate sexuality above its organic matrix and turn it into a spiritual activity, human beings cannot but conceive erotism as a gateway to death and the diabolical. The taking over of evil is an extreme and sovereign value. This process would not require the excision of morality, rather it would bring forth a higher level morality, an a-theological “hypermorality”.


Marlow: We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.
Mr. Kurtz: The Horror, the Horror!
Marlow: I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.
Friedrich Nietzsche: It is with people as it is with the trees. The more they aspire to the height and light, the more strongly do their roots strive earthward, downward, into the dark, the deep – into evil.
Marlow: The mind of man is capable of anything – because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future… Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of unextinguishable regrets.
Friedrich Nietzsche: Human beings need what is most evil in them for what is best in them… whatever is most evil is their best power and the hardest stone for the highest creator… human beings must become better and more evil.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): “Πιστεψε πως δεν ειχε πια ουτε δυναμεις ουτε ψευδαισθησεις για ν’αντεξει τη ζωη. Η φιλια ηταν αδιαφορη, ο ερωτας ποταπος και απιστος και το μονο που περισσευε ηταν το μισος. … του περασε απο το μυαλο μια λυση που αξιζε τον κοπο να την μελετησει κανεις¨το ιδιο του το χερι, οπλισμενο μ’ ενα φανταστικο ρεβολβερ να τον σημαδευει στον κροταφο.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): “He felt that he no longer had any powers or illusions to stay alive. Friendship was indifferent and love unworthy and vile and the only thing in abundance was hatred… a solution emerged in his mind to be further explored “his own hand, armed with a imagined revolver, aiming his temple”.

Participants

Georges Battaile, French writer and philosopher

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer

Clairwil, character in de Sade’s “Juliette”

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Michel Foucault, French philosopher

Mr. Kurtz, half-English, half-French, ivory merchant and commander of a trading post

Marlow, main character in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Brother Medardus, a Capuchin Friar

Mephistopheles

MM, partner

Alexander Nehamas, professor of philosophy

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Mrs. T, unknown ethinicity, gourmant

The enemies of Hellas – Greece: Part II

Every human being has his own particular web of associations for identifying and interpreting reality, which, most often, instinctively and unthinkingly, he superimposes on every set of circumstances. Frequently, however, those external circumstances do not conform with, or fit, the structure of our webs, and then we can misread the unfamiliar reality, and interpret its elements incorrectly…
— Ryszard Kapuscinski, “Travels with Herodotus” (2007)

This is the second part of an attempt to identify the enemies of Greece. I hope it is the last, because if there are too many enemies, it will take ages to hunt them down and destroy them. On the other hand, life is boring without enemies. How are we going to spend our time? Especially now that we have no money to spend, and shopping is out of the question, travelling is out of the question, and so on, we might have a cost free entertaining and uplifting activity chasing and obliterating our enemies. Time will tell.

I remind you that according to my methodology, I identify the enemies of Greece indirectly, by focusing (not always) on the political parties, and making the inference that an enemy of our political parties is also an enemy of Greece.

New Democracy

New Democracy is the party of the traditional populist right.

They see “The Drachma Club” or “The Drachma Lobby” as enemies of Greece. These are people who are betting on Greece returning to the drachma, so that everything is devalued by at least 80% and they – the club members or lobbyists – buy everything for nothing, as they already have their huge fortunes in hard currency somewhere in the vaults of the world.

Another great enemy of Greece is [The “Little Match Stick Girl”}, also known as [The dangerous and irresponsible Mr Tsipras], the head of the SYRIZA party. The leader of New Democracy has created this powerful metaphor, of Mr Tsipras as the little match girl in a storage room full of dynamite. The question for us, ordinary citizens now is “how are we going to neutralize the little girl?”

Unfortunately I do not have an answer, but I am tempted to remember the proven strategy “nuke them till they glow, they shoot them in the dark”. Although I am not very keen on physical violence, as I definitely prefer psychological violence, I must confess that the “nuke them…” approach has an eternally alluring quality for me.

It might be a good idea for me to suggest to Mr Samaras to call Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, or even meet him (last time I saw him he was somewhere in the jungle of the Golden Traingle), to get some advice on how to best neutralize the little match stick girl.

Now that I have said that, I consider it absolutely brilliant, because a true political leader is nothing without a seasoned in battle military adviser.

Should Colonel Kurtz be unavailable, it might be best to contact Alexander Haig. I do not want to brag about it, but I have met the General at a conference in Paris in 2002. He delivered a speech on how executives should act. Not that I am an executive, but I was there anyway, so I got to hear him speak, and then I shook his hand. Oh my!!!!

Finally, the New Democracy has identified “The hooded men (and women?)” as a big enemy of Greece. These are people who wear a hood, and then run around trying to find a reason to exist. they are people in a huge existential crisis. New Democracy does not like them because they lower the morale of the population in the big urban centers, where the existential crisis is at its peak. And as you know, morale is everything, it is the decisive factor. And I understand the outrage of New Democracy.

These people are losers, and are dragging all of  us down with them!!!! No pasaran!!!!

PASOK

PASOK is suffering from Dissociative identity disorder (DID, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) its essential feature “…is the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states…that recurrently take control of behavior.” The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities (one may be the host) routinely take control of the individual’s behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness; in addition, symptoms cannot be the temporary effects of drug use or a general medical condition. Memory loss will occur in those with DID when an alternate part of the personality becomes dominant. DID is less common than other dissociative disorders, occurring in approximately 10% of dissociative disorder cases and .5-1% of the general population.Women tend to outnumber men in this disorder, resulting in about a 9:1 ratio. 

Diagnosis is often difficult as there is considerable co-morbidity with other conditions and many symptoms overlap with other types of mental illness. 

Individuals diagnosed with DID frequently report severe physical and sexual abuse as a child. The etiology of DID has been attributed to the experience of pathological levels of stress which disrupts normal functioning and forces some memories, thoughts and aspects of personality from consciousness, though an alternative explanation is that dissociated identities are the iatrogenic effect of certain psychotherapeutic practices or increased popular interest.

All of the above is an extensive scientific quotation that I will ow interpret in my simplistic way.

The best proof of the dissociation of identity is the loss of memory.

PASOK has done a lot of things during the last three years. But the dissociated PASOK does not remember any of them.

It is like they were done by somebody else. It is like they were out, and all of a sudden they are back and they do not recognize what has happened.

If this is not scary, what could be?

We have a body that has the capacity through the dissociated identity disorder to continuously create new identities, each of which knows not what the others are doing.

It is clear that this dissociation of identity is an enemy of Greece, as it takes away from the country one its best children.

I am talking of course abour George Papandreou. PASOK had to sacrifice this child of hers, as it were trapped inside this dissociated body of PASOK.

The historical implications are huge, as among other things the country may miss the gigantic opportunity that George Papandreou had afforded to her to legalize marijuana in order to boost the economy and the country’s exports. What a shame!

How can a country deal with a psychological disease? That is becoming such a huge problem? Do we know from the medical profession whether death is the cure of the disease? Or do the DID dead continue to leave and return as jombies forever living dead to torture the country?

I strongly suggest before people bath their hands in the blood of PASOK to consult with the doctors.

Democratic Left

The Democratic left is a relatively new (two years’ old) party. The party has been described as a combination of a SYRIZA spin off and a PASOK spin off. The spin offs occurred at distinct moments of time, and there appears to be no design of this merge of splinter groups. However, design or not, this appears to be the case today.

I must confess I quite like the Democratic Left’s leader. He is a nice chap, and his use of the Greek language is decent, a rarity these days. The rest is complicated, as he takes ages to arrive at a conclusion, and when he does it is not clear what the conclusion is.

This is definitely not the result of the leader’s inability to articulate. It is most likely the result of the party’s blurred identity.

PASOK suffers from the dissociated identity disorder, and the Democratic Left from the blurred identity disorder!

The good news for the country and the Democratic Left is that their blurred identity will not necessarily cause a major problem, unless they will become the critical factor in the formation of a coalition government after the 17th June election. But we have to wait for this.

KKE – The Greek Communist Party

No identity disorder here!!!!

There is only one enemy: Capitalism. And another, Capital, and another, Capitalists.

All of these bad guys are against the workers, and as Greece is a workers’ country, they are all enemies of Greece.

But the biggest enemy of KKE these days is not capitalism. It is Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA. No need to say more. And if you do not understand what I am saying, you are also an enemy!!!!

Health

Yet another violation of my methodology. Fully justified though.

The Health of the Greek people, is being viciously attacked.

They (our enemies) are spraying us with all sorts of things. Every day airplanes of all kinds fly our friendly blue skies and spray us with all types of chemicals.

According to my informers, and secret reports that I have received, the most common substance used is a personality change agent. Once you inhale it you become a servile and docile citizen.

The originators of this act are not known yet. Rumours abound. All I can say is that we will find them, drag them to Constitution Square, and offer them ouzo!!!

Another way they are attacking our health is by importing into Greece HIV positive women who have unprotected sex with innocent, unsuspecting Greeks.

These women attract the men by promising them that they will solve all their problems, as their body is blessed by the waters of a holy river in India, where they went on holiday some time ago.

Unfortunately they are lying. Most of them come from the secret service of a neighbouring small country that is trying to destabilize Greece. They will not succeed!!!

Conclusion

Concluding this two-part monumental article, that is going to be read by hundreds of thousands of citizens of the world, I would like to offer the distilled wisdom that I have plenty in my inner self. Here it comes.

We should not be concerned about the Turks, the Albanians, the “FYROM-Macedonians”, the sionists, the Bankers, the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, the pawnbrokers, the freemasons, the hedge funds, the spies, the secret agents, the chemical spray, AIDS, and so on.

We should not be concerned about our own failings of character, and the centuries old fratricide.

Asteroid Hermes’ elliptical orbit (red) brings it to the inner solar system every 777 days

Our biggest enemy, who eventually is going to bring our downfall is asteroid Hermes. Let me quote extensively from NASA’s website, to build my argument and at the same time educate all of you who think that I am losing my marbles and talking nonsense.

“It is almost accepted today, that an asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. But in 1980 when scientists Walter and Luis Alvarez first suggested the idea to a gathering at the American Association for Advancement of Sciences, their listeners were skeptical. Asteroids hitting Earth? Wiping out species? It seemed incredible.

At that very moment, unknown to the audience, an asteroid named Hermes halfway between Mars and Jupiter was beginning a long plunge toward our planet. Six months later it would pass 300,000 miles from Earth’s orbit, only a little more than the distance to the Moon. Rhetorically speaking, this would have made a great point in favor of the Alvarezes. Curiously, though, no one noticed the flyby.

1980 wasn’t the first time Hermes had sailed by unremarked. Hermes is a good-sized asteroid, easy to see, and a frequent visitor to Earth’s neighborhood. Yet astronomers had gotten into the habit of missing it. How this came to be is a curious tale, which begins in Germany just before World War II:

On Oct. 28, 1937, astronomer Karl Reinmuth of Heidelberg noticed an odd streak of light in a picture he had just taken of the night sky. About as bright as a 9th magnitude star, it was an asteroid, close to Earth and moving fast–so fast that he named it Hermes, the herald of Olympian gods. On Oct. 30, 1937, Hermes glided past Earth only twice as far away as the Moon, racing across the sky at a rate of 5 degrees per hour. Nowadays only meteors and Earth-orbiting satellites move faster.

Plenty of asteroids were known in 1937, but most were plodding members of the asteroid belt far beyond Mars. Hermes was different. It visited the inner solar system. It crossed Earth’s orbit. It proved that asteroids could come perilously close to our planet. And when they came, they came fast.

Reinmuth observed Hermes for five days. Then, to make a long story short, he lost it.

Hermes approaches Earth’s orbit twice every 777 days. Usually our planet is far away when the orbit crossing happens, but in 1937, 1942, 1954, 1974 and 1986, Hermes came harrowingly close to Earth itself. We know about most of these encounters only because Lowell Observatory astronomer Brian Skiff re-discovered Hermes… on Oct. 15, 2003. Astronomers around the world have been tracking it carefully ever since. Orbit-specialists Steve Chesley and Paul Chodas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have used the new observations to trace Hermes’ path backwards in time, and so they identified all the unnoticed flybys.

“It’s a little unnerving,” says Chodas. “Hermes has sailed by Earth so many times and we didn’t even know it.”

“Hermes’ orbit is the most chaotic of all near-Earth asteroids,” he adds. This is because the asteroid is so often tugged by Earth’s gravity. Hermes has occasional close encounters with Venus, too. In 1954 the asteroid flew by both planets. “That was a real orbit scrambler,” Chodas says. Frequent encounters with Earth and Venus make it hard to forecast Hermes’ path much more than a century in advance. The good news is that “Hermes won’t approach Earth any closer than about 0.02 AU within the next hundred years.” We’re safe for now.

I do not think we are safe!!!!

Hermes will fall on Greece, more specifically on the island of Yaros, in the very near future. I cannot predict exactly when, but I may be able to do so, after I visit my personal (mis)fortune teller, Mrs. Regina.

In any case, I rest my case, and cry out loud: “you have been warned!!!!!”

What type of State should we have in Greece?

Ideally, the forthcoming general elections of the 17th June 2012 should be decided on the basis of what type of State we want to have in Greece.

The Greek State has been nurtured and used as a primary instrument for political domination by the two parties that dominated Greek politics since 1974, New Democracy and PASOK.

Unfortunately, the State is also the Theater of Dreams of the re-emerging political power of the left.

It seems that if the left wins the forthcoming elections Greece will have an even bigger State.

This story goes back all the way to the establishment of the Greek State after the war of independence against the Ottoman Empire.

I remind the reader that the first Governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, was murdered in 1831 because his attempts to build a “modern” state were perceived as a major threat to the interests of powerful local groups.

Kapodistrias paid for this with his life.

Since 1831 the Greek State has increased, has become very complex, inefficient, and a nest of corruption.

The Greek State has also become the key customer of the private sector.

To the extent that the private sector in Greece depends on the Greek State.

The Greek economy as a result of this perverse development of the State has been distorted.

In Greece we have never had “capitalism”.

What we have had was “state-capitalism”.

Ironically, the “state-capitalism” that is the creation of the center-right and center-left governments in Greece, is now to be replaced by the “state-socialism” that is preached by the emerging power of Greek Politics, the SYRIZA party. One way or another, it seems, there is no escape from the state.

This is bad news, because this State is going and has been going for centuries now in the wrong direction.

Primarily, it is a mechanism that preserves and promotes the interests of special interest groups in the society. It is deeply divisive as it turns one part of society against another. At the same time, it goes against the basics of a capitalist economy, as it actually discourages and hinders private investment, any type of healthy entrepreneurial activity and business.

The major failure of the Greek Government in the last two and a half years has been the fact they have left the State intact.

Even the cirisis that has been destroying the country has not been a good enough motive for the politicians to start addressing the key cause of Greece’s demise.

PASOK, the socialist party, has the primary responsibility for this; but New Democracy, the conservative party, also has huge responsibility.

PASOK and New Democracy have been “punished” by the voters in the elections of the 6th May 2012, but it appears for the wrong reason. The voters want to return to the Greek Valhalla, the huge Greek State which gives jobs to all the faithful to the leading parties, strengthens the unions to a ridiculous extent, and enables some smart guys to make an extra buck.

Today both PASOK and New Democracy appear voiceless when it comes to this issue: what are we going to do with the Greek State?

There is no comprehensive plan to rebuild the state so that it helps the recovery of the country and the economy.

The left party of SYRIZA that emerged second from the elections of the 6th May 2012 and is now a contender for winning the next election, is saying that in Greece we do not have the State we need, and we therefore have to restructure it. Without putting forward a plan for the restructuring of the State, they say things that appeal to the man on the street, like hiring enough nurses for the hospitals, but they do not say where they will find the money.

They also say a lot about public control of the Banks, new taxes for the rich, and measures that have been floating about in every left leaning political agenda, but remain abstract, without any financial documentation and a specific timeframe for implementation.

The lack of specifics from SYRIZA’s alleged “political program” prevents any specific critique of it.

I can only say that overall they are going in the wrong way, by creating yet again a huge inefficient State that will have a “progressive” touch to it.

SYRIZA’ s political fortunes have been built by the support of the disenchanted public servants and all the voters who perceive themselves threatened by the “memorandum”, i.e. by the creditors attempts to rebuild the Greek State.

Unfortunately most of these voters wish to return to the good old days when the loans were flowing and – more or less – squandered by the party boys and girls, acting as guardians of the State, when all they were doing was to dig the country’s grave.

In addition, a significant percentage of PASOK party and labour union apparatchiks have emmigrated to SYRIZA, where they are building their new nest based on their dreams of re-building the State and maintaining their status and privileges forever.

In this light, SYRIZA does not appear to be a (so called) “progressive” party. On the contrary, it comes out as a highly reactionary one, trying to restore the old order of the monstrous State that has huge operating costs and delivers minimal value to the citizens.

For the record, I add some comments about the other parties that got more than 3% in the 6th May election.

The New Democracy spin-off “Independent Greeks” is collecting anti-memorandum votes. It has taken a populist stance, emphasizing national pride and “independence”, and accusing New Democracy and PASOK as traitors.

There is only a short step to walk, and hang the traitors in Constitution Square. In a country that has gone through the Minor Asia disaster of 1922 and the Civil War of 1946-1949, with devastating results, to use rhetoric like this is verging either on insanity or complete lack of political morals. Maybe both.

The voters have also brought forward a party that is more like a militia, the “Golden Dawn”. In the past they were praising Adolf Hitler. Now this past is somehow “erased”.

Finally, the “Democratic Left” is a moderate SYRIZA spin-off that lacks punch and purpose. It seems to be lost between the aggresive populist SYRIZA and the conservative center-left PASOK, but has managed to attract a lot of disenchanted politicians and voters away from PASOK.

The conclusion? I have the feeling that the most important elections in Greece since 1974 will take place without the parties addressing the most important and decisive issue facing the Greek society and economy. Even worse, we are attacking the windmills of the “memorandum” and the “evil” creditors, when the real problem is the making of the parties on the left and center and right, and is the Greek State.

God help us. But I don’t think he will. Not this time.

Greek Parliamentary Elections 6th May 2012 – Ελληνικες Κοινοβουλευτικες Εκλογες 6η Μαϊου 2012

The parliamentary elections of 6th May 2012 may be the most critical in Greece since 1974.

Οι εκλογες της 6ης Μαϊου 2012 ειναι ισως οι πιο κρισιμες στην Ελλαδα μετα το 1974.

Manos Hadjidakis – Μανος Χατζηδακις

This may sound like a trivial statement, as the words lose their meaning when repeated blindly. I will therefore try to explain why I consider them important and also express my views regarding the status of the political system in Greece.

Αυτο εχει καταντησει κοινοτυπια ισως, αλλα καμια φορα ολοι λεμε το ιδιο, αλλά εννοουμε κατι διαφορετικο. Θα προσπαθησω λοιπον να εξηγησω πως και γιατι τις θεωρω τοσο σημαντικες αυτες τις εκλογες, και να διατυπωσω καποιες σκεψεις για το πολιτικο σκηνικο στην Ελλαδα.

Aris Alexandrou – Αρης Αλεξανδρου

In my opinion the elections are critical because Greece is already at the edge. The country has not yet fallen down the ridge, but is almost ready to fall. Unemployment has exceeded 21%.  Private businesses are going bankrupt, one after another. And the worst of all, there appears to be no way out of this nightmare. We talk a lot about the future, but we do not actually see a future.

Κατα τη γνωμη μου η κρισιμοτητα των εκλογων εγκειται στο οτι αυτες οι εκλογες πραγματοποιουνται με την Ελλαδα ευρισκομενη στα καγκελα. Ισως οχι επανω στα καγκελα, αλλα πολυ κοντα σε αυτα. Η ανεργια ξεπερασε το 21%. Οι επιχειρησεις κλεινουν η μια μετα την αλλη. Και το χειροτερο απο ολα, δεν υπαρχει προοπτικη. Μιλαμε για το μελλον και μελλον δενβλεπουμε.

Yannis Tsarouhis – Γιαννης Τσαρουχης

The polls show the end of the duopoly of power in Greek politics. New Democracy (ND), the center-right party and PASOK, the center-left party, who dominated Greek politics since 1974 will not even get between them half of the votes. Thousands of pages have been written regarding the exact numbers, the parliament seats between the two parties. the fact remains that none of the two will be able to form a government alone.

Ολα τα στοιχεια των δημοσκοπησεων δειχνουν το τελος της εναλλαγης των δυο μεγαλων κομματων στην εξουσια. Με την εννοια οτι τα δυο μεγαλα κομματα που κυριαρχησαν στο πολιτικο πεδιο απο το 1974 μεχρι σημερα δεν θα εχουν πλεον ουτε το ημισυ των εγκυρων ψηφων. Και μαλιστα εχουν αναλωθει τοννοι μελανης για το που θα κυμανθει το αθροιστικο τους ποσοστο και ποιες θα ειναι οι κατανομες των εδρων, και αλλα σχετικα. Πιθανωτατα κανενα απο τα δυο δεν θα εχει τις εδρες που απαιτουνται για να σχηματισει αυτοδυναμη Κυβερνηση.

Maria Callas – Μαρια Καλλας

The end of the duopoly of power and the lack of absolute majority may force ND, who will most likely get most of the votes, albeit a very small percentage compared to the “glorious” past (and PASOK) to form a coalition government with the participation of more than one other parties.

At the same time, this dramatic shift in the electoral vote may also signal the beginning of a period of uncertainty and instability in Greek politics.

Το τελος της αυτοδυναμιας σημαινει ομως και την πιθανη απαρχη κυβερνησεων συνεργασιας. Κυβερνησεων στις οποιες συμμετεχουν περισσοτερα απο ενα κομματα.

Μπορει ομως και να σημαινει την πιθανη εναρξη μιας περιοδου ασταθειας και αβεβαιοτητας στο πολιτικο σκηνικο.

Yannis Ritsos – Γιαννης Ριτσος

Some analysts have put forward the scenario of a repeat election, should the first one end without a government.

It is possible, although in my view nothing will change dramatically with a repeat election. ND and PASOK will continue to have approximately half of the votes between themselves and whoever forms a government, will either do it jointly with another party, or ask for another party’s vote of confidence.

Ακουγεται επισης και το σεναριο της επαναληψεως των εκλογων.

Ολα ειναι πιθανα, αλλα κατα την γνωμη μου και με επαναληπτικες εκλογες το τοπιο δεν θα αλλαξει ριζικα. Τα μεγαλα κομματα δεν θα ειναι πια τοσο μεγαλα, και η οποια Κυβερνηση θα πρεπει να εχει και ενα τουλαχιστον αλλο κομμα, ή να εξασφαλισει ψηφο εμπιστοσυνης απο ενα ή περισσοτερα άλλα κομματα.

Melina Merkouri – Μελινα Μερκουρη

Having said that, one should allow for transfers of members of parliament from one party to another, after they have been elected. This could be similar to the phenomenon of the mice jumping off a sinking ship. The identities of the ships and the mice will have to be established.

As this article is written, we only have three days to go to election day. ND and PASOK attempt a last minute gathering of votes. Is it going to change anything? Rather difficult. A lot of Greek citizens seem to have decided to turn their face away from their old loves.

Δεν θα πρεπει βεβαια να αποκλειεται το ενδεχομενο να εχομε και φαινομενα αποσκιρτησεως βουλευτων που εκλεχτηκαν με ενα κομμα αλλα μεταγραφονται σε αλλο κομμα μετα τις εκλογες. Εδω ισως ισχυει και το οτι “τα ποντικια εγκαταλειπουν το σκαφος οταν αυτο βυθιζεται”. Τωρα ποια θα ειναι τα βυθιζομενα σκαφη και ποια τα ποντικια, θα το δειξει η ιστορια.

Την εβδομαδα αυτη, την τελευταια πριν τις εκλογες, επιχειρειται η συσπειρωση των δυο μεγαλων. Απεγνωσμενη προσπαθεια; Φαινεται οτι παρα πολλοι πολιτες φαινονται αποφασισμενοι να γυρισουν το προσωπο αλλου.

Σωτηρια Μπελλου

Is the country going to have a stable government if only ND and PASOK are the potential participants? What about a government of ND that receives a confidence (tolerance) vote from PASOK? Or are we going to see alliances built around the left of center parties and the so called anti-memorandum parties?

Before I answer this question, I need to first address another one.

Θα ειναι επαρκης και σταθερη μια Κυβερνηση μονο με τη Νεα Δημοκρατια και το ΠΑΣΟΚ; Η εστω μια Κυβερνηση ΝΔ με ψηφο εμπιστοσυνης, δηλαδη ψηφο ανοχης απο το ΠΑΣΟΚ; Η μηπως θα δουμε συνεργατικα σχηματα με πυρηνα αριστερα κομματα και λοιπες αντιμνημονιακες δυναμεις;

Για να απαντησω αυτο το ερωτημα θα πρεπει προηγουμενα να θεσω ενα αλλο.

Vassilis Tsitsanis and Stelios Kazantzidis – Βασιλης Τσιτσανης και Στελιος Καζαντζιδης

What is the action plan of the new government? Will there be one?

One the one hand we have the parties that support the memorandum that is the foundation of the rescue plan of the Greek economy. But the memorandum by itself is not a plan, it is a contract between Greece and its lenders. By saying yes to this contract and expressing a wish to remain in the EURO-zone, we do not really answer how we are going to get out of today’s nightmare.

Ποιο προγραμμα θα κληθει να εκτελεσει η οποιαδηποτε νεα Κυβερνηση; Θα εχει πορεια πλευσης;

Απο τη μια μερια εχομε το λεγομενο μπλοκ των μνημονιακων δυναμεων. Ομως, το να λεμε ΝΑΙ στο μνημονιο και ΝΑΙ στην Ευρωπη και το ΕΥΡΩ δεν απαντα το θεμελιωδες ερωτημα: “Τι πρεπει να κανουμε για να βγουμε απο τον εφιαλτη;”

Domna Samiou – Δομνα Σαμιου

As a reminder, the memorandum – based contracts today provide for a regular cash infusion every quarter so that the Greek State can pay interest on its loans, salaries and pensions.

Υπενθυμιζω οτι αυτη τη στιγμη με τις δανειακες μνημονιακες συμβασεις εχομε απλα εξασφαλισει τριμηνο με το τριμηνο καποιες στοιχειωδεις χρηματορροες για να πληρωνονται οι τοκοι των δανειων, οι μισθοι και συνταξεις του Δημοσιου Τομεα.

Dimitri Mitropoulos – Δημητρης Μητροπουλος

The future of Greece continues to be uncertain, as the private sector day after day goes downhill and there seems to be nothing new to create value and jobs in the economy.

At the same time, the monstrous state machine continues to operate almost unhindered, using huge amounts of cash.

Το μελλον της Ελλαδας εξακολουθει να ειναι αβεβαιο, αφου ο ιδιωτικος τομεας μερα με τη μερα εξασθενιζει και δεν φαινεται να δημιουργειται κατι καινουργιο για να δημιουργησει αξια και θεσεις εργασιας.

Την ιδια στιγμη, το τερατωδες κρατος συνεχιζει αταραχο να καταβροχθιζει τεραστια ποσα.

Odisseas Elytis – Οδυσσεας Ελυτης

The other side of the political landscape is occupied by the forces against the memorandum.

They do not seem to have a plan for walking out of the memorandum and its obligations. I think they verge on a “Deus ex machina” solution, or a glorified suicide.

A lot has been said and written about the return to the Drachma. I would be willing to listen to a serious plan and be convinced by a team of people who know what they are talking about. I am still waiting.

Απο την αλλη μερια εχομε τους αντιμνημονιακους, που ομολογω οτι δεν με πειθουν οτι λενε κατι περισσοτερο απο το να αυτοκτονησουμε με υπερηφανια. Σερνουνε ενα μοντερνο χορο του Ζαλογγου, και καλουν ολους τους Ελληνες και τις Ελληνιδες να τους ακολουθησουν.  Δεν εχω κανενα προβλημα να συζητησω και να ακουσω την επιστροφη στη δραχμη. Θελω ομως να δω ενα συνεκτικο προγραμμα και ποιοι ειναι οι αξιοπιστοι διαχειριστες που θα εχουν την ευθυνη εφαρμογης του προγραμματος.

Mikis Theodorakis – Μικης Θεοδωρακης

As it happens today, the anti-memorandum parties express wishes or their will. But this is not enough.

In addition, they are deploying terminology reminiscent of the Great Divide of the Greeks for centuries.

Instead of arguments, they call the other side traitors, not good enough Greeks, and so on. Attitudes that have cost us dearly in the past.

Δεν ειναι δυνατον να στηριζομαστε σε ευχες.

Επισης εκεινο που με απωθει στο αντιμνημονιακο μπλοκ ειναι ολοη η φρασεολογια περι προδοτων και εθνικης μειοδοσιας. Η φρασεολογια αυτη φερνει στη μνημη τις δοξασμενες εποχες οπου η Ελλας ηταν διχασμενη και χρεωκοπημενη. Προς τι λοιπον η επαναληψη των λαθων του παρελθοντος;

Markos Vamvakaris – Μαρκος Βαμβακαρης

Back in the pro-memorandum camp, ND and PASOK do not have a comprehensive action plan for the return of Greece to growth and prosperity, nor do they have any credibility left to buy more time. The smaller parties try to formulate plans and present them, but very few people listen. This is due to the prevailing until today attitude, of dealing with the small parties as add-ons of convenience to ND and PASOK.

This pathetic situation leads to the domination of the teams put forward by the lenders (the so called troika). They dominate because they play alone in the field.

Καταληγω λοιπον στο συμπερασμα οτι στο μεν μνημονιακο χωρο ΝΔ και ΠΑΣΟΚ πρακτικα δεν εχουν συγκεκριμενο προγραμμα ουτε και – δυστυχως – την απαιτουμενη αξιοπιστια για να εφαρμοσουν οποιοδηποτε προγραμμα εχουν. Τα μικροτερα κομματα προσπαθουν να ειναι πιο συγκεκριμενα, αλλα η φωνη τους δεν εχει ακομη ακουστει επι της ουσιας. Και αυτο επειδη μεχρι σημερα τα μικρα κομματα επαιζαν το ρολο της ουρας και του παραγεμισματος, και οχι τον ρολο ενος εταιρου στην διακυβερνηση της χωρας.

Αυτο το κενο οδηγει μαθηματικα στην επικυριαρχια των τεχνοκρατων της τροϊκας και των δανειστων μας. Επικυριαρχουν επανω στην ταπεινωτικη ανεπαρκεια των ελληνικων μνημονιακων δυναμεων. Ανεπαρκεια που κρινεται εκ του αποτελεσματος, οχι εκ των προθεσεων. Και εκ της ανικανοτητας των ΝΔ και ΠΑΣΟΚ να μορφωσουν και συγκροτησουν πραγματικες πλατφορμας συνεργασιας με τα μικροτερα κομματα.

Andreas Empeirikos – Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος

Unless ND and PASOK change, which I cannot see how, I foresse a continuation of the disastrous policies of more and more taxes that kill whatever is left of the real economy in Greece.

In the anti-memorandum camp, I do not see any alliance forming with the capability of forming a government. They will remain a force of denial.

Εαν η ΝΔ και το ΠΑΣΟΚ δεν αλλαξουν πορεια, προβλεπω επισης οτι θα συνεχισθει ο βαναυσος δρομος της επιβολης προσθετων φορολογικων βαρων, που σκοτωνει την οποια οικονομια εχει απομεινει σε αυτον τον τοπο.

Στο αντιμνημονιακο μπλοκ δεν βλεπω τελικα να διαμορφωνεται πλατφορμα κυβερνητικης συνεργασιας. Το ΚΚΕ ειναι ανενδοτο. Ο Πανος Καμμενος ειναι σχεδον αδυνατο να συνυπαρξει με τις αριστερες δυναμεις.

Elli Lampeti – Ελλη Λαμπετη

Today we do not have solid ground to be optimistic that Greece will have a stable government with a plan to restart the economy and a team of experienced people who will implement it.

Παρολον οτι λοιπον θα ηθελα πολυ να εχει η Ελλας Κυβερνηση μετα τις εκλογες, αλλα πανω απολα να εχει Κυβερνηση με Προγραμμα και με ικανα στελεχη για να εφαρμοσει το προγραμμα, τα μεχρι σημερα δεδομενα αλλα και η συμπεριφορα των μεχρι σημερα κυριαρχων πολιτικων δυναμεων, δηλωνουν κατι διαφορετικο.

Katina Paxinou – Κατινα Παξινου

It is more likely that we will have a government without stability and clear direction.

Should this happen, the situation in Greece will deteriorate substantially.

Το πιο πιθανο ειναι να εχομε μια αδυνατη και ασταθη Κυβερνηση που δεν θα εχει σταθερο προσανατολισμο και εκτελεστικη ικανοτητα. Και το χειροτερο απολα, μια κυβερνηση που δεν θα εχει το οραμα και την τολμη και την εκτελεστικη ικανοτητα να βαλει τη χωρα σε μια σταθερη πορεια.

Αυτο σημαινει οτι η κατασταση της χωρας πορει και να επιδεινωθει, αφου το κενο που θα δημιουργηθει θα προκαλεσει νεες εσωτερικες ανακαταταξεις στους πολιτικους σχηματισμους αλλα και την κοινωνια.

Οι δε μαθητευομενοι και εν πολλοις ανικανοι μαγοι της ελληνικης πολιτικης μπορει να διαμορφωσουν ενα εκρηκτικο μιγμα στην κοινωνια, που δεν θα αντεξει για πολυ.

George Seferis – Γιωργος Σεφερης

If we take into account the developments in Europe, things look even worse for Greece. Spain is now entrenched  in acute crisis that does not leave room for doubt about priorities. Greece is no longer the focus of attention, and most likely it will not be unless we have catastrophic failures and social explosion.

Τα πραγματα ειναι ακομη χειροτερα αν δουμε τι γινεται στην Ευρωπη. Η συνεχως επεκτεινομενη κριση – τωρα η Ισπανια ειναι σε τραγικη κατασταση – δημιουργει στους Ευρωπαιους εταιρους της Ελλαδας και δευτερες σκεψεις. Αυτο που ισχυε πριν, οτι δηλαδη η Ελλαδα ειναι ο αδυναμος κρικος και θα δημιουργησει χαος αν φυγει απο το ΕΥΡΩ, δεν ισχυει πια, αφου η Ισπανια ειναι ο νεος αδυναμος κρικος που θα απαιτησει και πολυ μεγαλυτερα ποσα για την σωτηρια της. Το μονο βεβαιο ειναι οτι η κατασταση βαινει επιδεινουμενη για την μικρη και αδυνατη Ελλαδα.

Costis Palamas – Κωστης Παλαμας

Reading the text again, I can see that it is not an optimistic text.

I hope that the future will prove me wrong. I only need to wait (and survive) the next five years.

Φοβαμαι τωρα που ξαναδιαβαζω το κειμενο οτι ειναι απαισιοδοξο.

Μακαρι να βγω λαθος. Η επομενη πενταετια θα το δειξει.