BEST WISHES for a BETTER everything

BEcause, you deserve it,

BEcause, it's about time,

BEcause, it's against all odds and sometimes against the odds works better than with them,

BEcause....


Haappy(ier) New YEAR!

Intrusion, confusion, obfuscation. Athens resists... WHAT?? The LOSER syndrome perhaps???

The question is, who / what / are they resisting? Rebelling against???

In the minds of all the people I have spoken to, this is not clear.

Many (all?) feels that youth (and not so youth) are expressing something very important in a very unorthodox manner. Others, who analyse situations, have a great way of hiding behind their analyses to deflect situations.

All this lead me to speculate profusely and propose a number of bullet-point advocations.

In contemporary Greece a loser psychology seems to prevail:

• Dispense with your neighbour's goat if you haven't got one yourself. Thus you both will have nothing -- rather than try to acquire two goats & surpass your neighbour.
• Question anything and anyone who is perceptibly and subjectively superior.
• No one succeeds on merit alone.
• Multinationals are bad; they are success stories, hence reprehensible. We are glad when they stumble and make a mess of things. We forget we may be part of the mess.
  
• Whatever happens is somebody else's fault.
• Whatever happens is somebody's fault: while we debate whose fault it is (not ours) nothing is done about it.
• Whatever happens I want to dispute over it. I dispute therefore I am. I exist through controversy.
  

Is this what youth is protesting against?

Further interestingly illuminating conundrums:
In the absence of a common enemy, the enemy of any contemporary Greek is any and every other contemporary Greek.

The multiple and confusing facets of the contemporary Greek dream:
The untold dream is, money in the bank and/or property enough to live on without relying on a steady job; a Porsche Cayenne is the ultimate -- but any auto conspicuously parked on the pavement in front of the cafe is OK.
The traditional dream is, arrange for the kids (the daughters especially) to become public servants and enjoy lifetime employment and early retirement.

The major problem is that the above is NOT available to everyone. Yet, the majority of people in Greece feel entitled to the above. The disillusion of not being one of the chosen ones...

Another point: People will support a perennial corruption system hoping their turn comes around one day...

Further:
Anyone resisting any authority, except mine, is OK.
No one should be a teacher's pet, not even at 30, 40, 50... the anal phase and adolescence in Greece last forever.
Anyone beating up a cop must be OK. I mean, it's a cop, right? That's what cops are for.

Need one go on?
Maybe people are revolting against all the above and more?

If by working I get nowhere, by creating I can hardly survive and I have no connections, and the price of an average flat in town is more than 32 years of an entry-level salary... where's hope and what's the vision?

Television Democracy and Riotous Awakening

Kids entered the premises of Greek state-owned ERT (television) bandying a slogan loosely translated as, "stop watching (TV) and start walking (the streets)".

Amen!
Amen.

The revolutionary intifada has yielded at least one spark of common sense. Life seen through Greece's trash tv is depressing indeed. It is also very polarising and reductionist; cops are bad, non-cops are good, teacher's pets are bad, it's us against them (without any "them"), it's all their fault, down with authority (except mine). In other words, "Stereotype thy name is television".

Of course, all channels hastened to deplore this "undemocratic" act. Amazingly, so did some newspapers! So, what else is new?

The truth of the matter is, few (if anyone) in Greece dare challenge the media, esp. tv, despite distorted news reporting, thinly disguised short-cuts to programming, relentless tabloid content fed under the banner of "serious news and analysis". The "you know who I am?" syndrome seems deeply rooted in many contemporary Greeks; there is also a certain pomposity that comes with it. Both these traits are rampant on TV; one needs only watch the analyses and random pontifications by all and sundry whose face appears on the screen, to get sufficient grip in a very short time.

For that and more, yay to the banner -- even if storming other peoples' workplace may not be the most elegant way of doing it.

Just a thought: what would TV have to say if it were the police entering the building with a similar banner???

Athens-Riots and rebellions; a quick overview

35 years ago, there was mayhem in Athens because of a military junta. In many ways, the results of that mayhem went a long way towards justifying the sacrifice..

Yesterday there was mayhem in Athens seemingly because of the lack of a military junta. At a heavy cost in all & every way, the only ones to benefit are the television planners: they get free content. The usual soggy sincerity from the usual pseudo-scientists and analysts flows from most channels.

But let us go down there and participate and get a feel of what it's all about...
Free all that pent up hatred. I feel cornered, I cannot create, I cannot be heard.

If I cannot create let me destroy.

If I can't create, let me at least break a few windows -- through the breaking glass, I can hear my existence.
While we're at it, look over there! The usual thugs breaking a few shop-windows -- preferably shops with useful stuff: electronics, clothes, maybe a cash register/ an ATM or two for cash?
While they're at it, see the entertainment industry making the best of free content; it beats Grey's Anatomy any time (that was nearly 12.000 euro/episode, and this is free) !
And while we're at it, let's remember... why are we officially doing this ??? Oh yes, give them that 15 year-old (what was his name again???). Yes, yes, that's why we are rioting.
Of course.
After 20 years in Athens -- on and off -- someone else beat me by a few hours to what I wanted to say; he also beat me by very many strokes of very fine prose.

RowanThorpe ends his rant thus: "Educate yourselves. Or we will all drown in hate-filled ignorance..."
I would add, "...and the non-ignorant will pack up and leave."

And this is already happening, slowly. People are fleeing absurdity that can turn lethal.

Why? Riots, police shooting, riots... in Greece.

As my grandmother used to say, these things usually end badly.

This one couldn't have been worse: a 15 yrear old got killed by the police, no less.

In Greece it's unacceptable to lose one's life; it's even worse to lose it through police action.

But, unfortunately, it hasn't ended for the victim. In fact, the party has only just begun.

Robbing the grave in their usual manner, Greek television is happily saving money on content by speculating on this unfortunate youth's death. It rarely gets better than this: youth, policemen, and death -- for free!

And then there are more riots.
Why is this happening?

a) Politicians, as other rodents, hope to capitalise. "Yipee!" exclaimed the socialist party spokesman, and patted his communist namesake on the back. They both quickly resumed appropriate gravitas.

b) More importantly and aptly put by an expatriate living in Athens, Greece:
"Children, adolescents are not given any outlet to look forward to, any hope, any vision of a future... somewhere, somehow. Their schools give them no outlet, no direction, no hope for something that is there for them in the future; they live with parents who are living their own dead end.
Youth feels completely closed in and cornered, and ignored ...parents and television don;t offer much. A dream, a vision, something...
Just rules & nothing to look forward to.

So the kids lash out at the only figure of authority that's easily accessible and is newsworthy: the police."

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Police-shooting-sparks-riots-Greece-Athens-December-7-Greece-police-station/ss/events/wl/120708greeceriots/im:/081208/photos_ts_wl_afp/c2af016900785dc0ea0f5cbdc82a0547/;_ylt=AvdfZ0iSUPEVkNzsNuPxDlcFO7gF

Americans' capacity to amaze and their 2008 presidential election

The man you see portrayed on your left was voted, early November 2008, into the presidency of the federal democracy named "United States of America", one of the largest and wealthiest (if not the) industrial countries.

For voting in majority for Obama, American voters deserve a brownie and three stars. They deserve hope for a better future, hope for a President who will restore their dignity in the world... and most importantly, for a President who will motivate people and give people a sense of purpose. That is all Mr Obama can offer and that is enough, for others can thereby do the rest.

Unbeleivable but true, Americans have made history!

Kudos to these people then; they voted into office a man whose father was Kenyan (i.e. African, the real item -- not the politically correct afro-american variety), and who looks African. Basically, Mr Obama is black. He is also very intelligent (not appealing to rednecks), well educated and a tad intellectual (i.e. a suspicious character), comes from educated parents (hmmm, intellectuals & office workers, pansy) but worse of all he's, well, just look at the colour of his skin!

And he is a shrewed orator -- not necessarily manipulative -- just very good. So good in fact that I, citizen of other nations, actually listened to part of his speech; admittedly, it had moving moments. Very light on political bullshit.

On the other hand though, were we to say that the President is the embodiment of Americans' national identity... well, therein lies another secret, I think. Americans are probably looking for a national identity and voted for Mr Obama to get help in finding their way. Even if ultimately it doesn't look like Mr Obama.

They need a leader and, if nothing else, Mr Obama does have a leader profile. They need a doer devoid of the plagiarism and conniving of the past.

Thus Mr Obama, precursor of change, in his speech early Wednesday, stated that we will initiate change; change takes time to be completed.

Give the man time!

We all deserve better leaders. The Americans got theirs.
3cheers for President Obama!

(U.S.) Elections -- the hidden provocation

Not the US elections in particular, but election campaigns in Western countries in general.

• The provocation is this: millions are spent on an elections show.
• On the other hand, people out there are suffering to the tune of a minute fraction of the millions spent on the elections show.
• The elections show is officially for the benefit of "the people".
• With or without the show, some people are still starving. They could do with a little bit of that money.
  

From the view point of the needy, the whole election campaign thing is either very ironic or very tragic or a very tragic waste of money... or any combination thereof.

Again, it's not a matter of the yanks' elections -- it's all elections. It's just that the show being currently aired is the yanks' show. Since the US elections are imminent and Americans prepare to vote (or some of them do), their the whole shenanigan has received much airing. Hence the reference to them. It's also a really grand show, and their campaign seems to last for ever.
Now, how about if someone requested the candidates bail out a bank or support a few jobs being cut... say for a year?

Wealth is Relative

...the road to wealth may not be relative or theoretical, however.

Wealth is relative to what other peoples' wealth may be. No doubt. As we found out in the past fortnight without a shadow of doubt, some forms of wealth sometimes tumble and crumble easily and fast. Indeed, wealth did tumble fast and easily for very many; some of these people were even well off until one month ago. Some probably planned to sit back and enjoy whatever life was left to them.
No longer.

Here's a very short story:
It was the 1st of September. A day I expect I'll remember.
A man, senior executive in a global corporation, wanted to purchase a small house on a Greek island. For many reasons, he believed this would be a good purchase, a useful asset and a family abode that would be put into frequent and good use. Frequent is the operand word. He had no real assets to use towards that purchase; a loan would be crippling.

He discussed with family, but most of the family was average income or cash-stripped. He ended up asking one member to consider. It was a bold move: on total net worth of, say, 10, the man was asking for a considerable share: no less than 10% of that family member's net liquidity.
As that member had no children and a monthly guaranteed income, the man promised a pay back and hedged the request with house ownership and other considerations.

Unfortunately, the two did not see eye to eye, and the family loan did not come through.

Unfortunately the money the man was asking for was tied up in stock.

• By 30 days later (to the day) the family member was sustaining losses of 40% of her net worth.
• The amount of her losses could subsidised the purchase of 5 houses.
• Those houses would have provided something; as we discovered through this crisis something for nothing. I.e., by substituting an entry for cash and using said cash to purchase real estate.
  
• Now, in our story, we are left with 40% less of the nothing we had 31 days ago.
  

What a shame no-one can predict the future!

Kaput: banks, shares, savings, younameit...

The US parliament (Congress?) did not approve the bankers bailout plan. Markets are going kaput.

Of course, why should failed bank executives' employers, i.e. the banks, be saved from annihilation just because they failed?
Answer: Because the extent, the reach, and the consequence of their failure is tremendous.
Savings will topple, people are left without a penny, and those banks' senior management is left without its golden parachute...

Of course, some say that it is better this way. I'm not sure I wouldn't support this view myself: why use our children's money to bail out out bankers' fathers?

Whatever the case may be, it is useful to pray. Buying power in many European countries is down by 35% in the past 8 years. The erstwhile middle class is getting poorer. And in becoming so, it is breeding widespread discontent.

Easy to grasp, if you think of this in the following way: see your children worse off than you were.
In the hitherto inalienable grand scheme of life, offspring were supposedly bequeathed a better world than their forefathers.

No longer! Pray, pray, fast, right now, immediately. Who else is there to save us but God & ourselves. We are incapable of saving ourselves.

That leaves only God. Yet again.

DaDa DadADAda DaDa DadADAda

MANIFESTO

OF

SURREALISM

BY

ANDRÉ BRETON

(1924)

So strong is the belief in life, in what is most fragile in life – real life, I mean – that in the end this belief is lost. Man, that inveterate dreamer, daily more discontent with his destiny, has trouble assessing the objects he has been led to use, objects that his nonchalance has brought his way, or that he has earned through his own efforts, almost always through his own efforts, for he has agreed to work, at least he has not refused to try his luck (or what he calls his luck!).
Nope! Man is no longer a dreamer. He has been roused violently; he is no longer discontent with his destiny but, rather, desperately hopeless. There are few if any objects earned through own efforts since such effort is insufficient to warrant the objects; nowadays we inherit or grasp or partake in an historical aberration, a revolutionary turn of events...
(A revolutionary turn of events which shows that half of Fortune's listed top billionaires are Russian. Imagine the above sentence, 20 years ago: Dangerous science fiction!)

So what is in store. Nothing. The store is empty.

The surrealist manifesto has been duly incorporated and floated and now lists in a few SEs. Indeed, not so long ago, people made money off surrealist inspired derivatives.

We need a new manifesto.

We need is something that is obscure enough to be under the radar for a while and, at the same time, popular enough to have widespread appeal!

Hell of a product. Unobtainium!

We need help and no-one is listening ! Make them listen. Call: +4790369389

The telemegaphone (left) guarantees your voice will resound over a Norwegian mountain. THAT'S BETTER THAN NOWHERE!

And what's more, the device is commendably & politically correctly green: it's wind-powered. (One wonders how these people expect struggling oil people to survive.)


At least let's have some contemporary SURREALIST humour courtesy of the telemegaphone.

(It's better, i.e. healthier and more constructive, than sitting around moping and hoping it will all go away, simply because you are moping. Simply because the "sun will shine following the rain" etc. That sentimental clap-trap does not apply in real life.)

Here we go again. I DON'T WANT...

...to be the reference others look up to. I was happy looking up to my elders.
They are dying away, one after the other, like flies.
Now Solzhenitsyn is dead. He too was a reference for me, conveniently tucked away in a corner of my comfortable world.
A world that is crumbling irreparably.
All my old references are disappearing, one by one.
Am I now expected to take play that role? A reference for others to look up to! Perish the thought! Let me instead bewail my lost Atlantis...

It's uncomfortable and unsettling. I don't want it. After all, nobody asked me!

Presumably nature must take its course; the show must certainly go on.
(Can I, may I, hide for the duration and return when it's all been dealt with?)

Paradox: in Greece, people see one another

as impediments.

Except from benefactors and immediate family -- the non-threatening part of the family, that is.

(more later)

A quickie: remember that oft misquoted line about hell, woman, scorn, and fury.
Here it is a l'original:
Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd
Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd.
(From W.Congreve, "The Mourning Bride")

Style is going out of style...

...in cars. Elsewhere too. How you dress and, most certainly, in how you act. Look at this Ferrari: it exemplifies the marriage between the beautiful and the aerodynamic.

There was a time, not so long ago, when streamlined styling was sought after and admired. Attractive...

No longer. Our tastes are moving away from sleek, elegant lines in the direction of clumsy macho -- tough, rugged and ugly ducklings:





Seriously ugly has become the trend. Let's see where it takes us. Along with the sullen and clumsy rap gesticulating, ugly items -- ugliness justified by function -- seem to have taken the fort.

Maybe we've had one too many of designed, feigned elegance and phony refinement and soggy exaltation -- and this tripped the trigger...

I admit, the wholesale ugly is sometimes attractive. Nevertheless I haven't yet reached the point where I turn away from the elegant in favour of the awkward and unwieldy.

I miss the older generation

People seem to be slipping away, out of circulation, leaving me feeling lonely and strangely unfulfilled. I don't know what it is... They are either no longer actively pursuing their old role or, worse, some of them are dying away merrily.
I miss that generation. I miss the presence of that generation. These are people I used to look up to, act against, talk against, and generally challenge at every waking moment. It was part of the meaning of life: the part that dealt with defining who I am, defined as who I believed I was not. (I.e. a rebel with a cause)

Presumably, I now am that generation.

But I feel that I still haven't finished with that other generation -- although they seem to have finished with me. I am not ready to take on their role. I feel singularly unprepared to take on the serious aspects of life, take them on for real...

Do not strive for excellence... And a few business words.

Do not strive for excellence; rather, go for best yet.

Talk about optimise -- but practise a policy of slight improvements.

Pursue and promote leadership as a competency, but recruit executives -- people who do things as opposed to people who talk about things.

Only you, the leader (and politicians, aspiring leaders), are there to talk about things rather than do things.

Do NOT recruit talent to satisfy management consumerism needs, but because you need gifted people.

You only need gifted people if you are, yourself, gifted; otherwise such people will get you down. If, however, you yourself are gifted, then the result of working around such people will be uplifting and the precursor to your operating at high potential.

Your core team is usually composed of people you know, are used to, and who know you, and are used to your quirks. They are the best people out there, if you define best as, "the least fatiguing, getting my job done satisfactorily". The reason you chose one person and not the other is not competency of one over the other. It is other things. You can identify these. Do so.

Tricky Business

Remember that scandals SHOULD not be the resort of business development & improvement and they are NOT, unless when business comes to close exchange with politics -- or when politics becomes the better, or an important, part of the business.

Politics can become the better part of business in democratic and authoritarian environments. The democratic environments are better in the short run because they operate under a veil of legality; authoritarian environments are presumed illegal in politically-correctese.

In the long-run, however, political business is best practised in authoritarian environments because these are (inter alia):

• less corrupt (this no longer holds true in Africa) and thereby cheaper
• more predictable, short-term
• safer, short-term
• more efficient because of red-tape exemptions
• more efficient because of quick decision-making.

Remember the maxim:
"The price of democracy is corruption; the price of efficiency is dictatorship"©

This image has little direct relation to the above UNTIL you come to realise that she works for you in some capacity other than the one illustrated here. Hence you are correlated.

Why fucking the planet and burning what's left will never stop

Because people are mostly ignorant and they don't understand why they do much of what they do.

Because the ignorant people and the dumb people and the dumb-ignorant people are the majority -- but failure of the brain does not always signify failure of the pocket. So some of these dumb-ignorant people are wealthy or well off.

Wealthy people can buy their right to rights. One of these is the privilege of not abiding by all the laws.

All the other people, are too busy trying to assert their rights. They have to assert because they have insufficient money to buy the right to a right.

So,
When you say to these people, "stop polluting the planet!", their reaction is to assert their right... to NOT be bossed around, by you or anyone else. They don't register what you're actually saying!

Do you get it?

Nobody tells them what to do and what not to do!

That's why they keep on fucking nature and burning the planet, the neighbourhood, the forests and the trees: nobody told them not to!

"They want more for themsleves...

and less for everybody else."

That was George Carlin (on "Who Owns You)".
He dead.
He dead the day before yesterday, or summat round there. He was 71.
A very interesting man, amazingly outspoken and undeniably interesting and invariably funny. Hilarious at times! I could just dumb-sit watching a TV screen & laugh like an idiot. It's not that I wanted to clap knowingly at the irreverent truths he would (dare) express -- it's that, too, but that's a bit conventionally stereotyped. No, it's the plain hilarity of some of the things he said and the way he said them.

So why pick that quotation above? Because it is the only time I know of, where I would venture a rephrasing.

Here's what I propose:
From,
"they want more for themselves and less for everybody else" to
"they want so much more for themselves that there's not enough to go round... So they've got to take some of yours -- what else can they do? It's not personal".

Have fun, mate, wherever you may be! Enjoy. And bash all those pretentious, self-serving, plutocratic, smug spirits out there, too.

Thinking of Politicians

...and the endless complaints (by constituents) once said politicians get into power.

(The picture has nothing or something to do with the subject. Which of the two, and why, is left to your creative spirit.)

Politicians are elected on the strength of their "elective appeal" i.e. their propensity to,
a) convince party apparatchiks that they are worthy to be on the party's bandwagon,
b) convince enough voters to cast a vote for them;

and NOT
c) because they are highly qualified and rarely competent talent ready to perform tasks other than the above.

If we want to have people who can manage the country, we should look for managerial clout and experience, and a proven experience... not politicians.

After all how many global corps fight over giving a politician a functional job? CEO? OK, sales rep is OK, no doubt. But then, an ex military also makes a good sales rep -- and cheaper. And usually, better disciplined and much harder working...

Bad news...

Late in the day before yesterday, a good friend lost his father. He too, just joined the "next in line" club.
We all become members of this club, some sooner and some later...
It has got me thinking about "life": life used to be about fun and about having fun. This is nothing new.
Many of us would have been glad to continue this life -- but life itself wishes otherwise. Life insists on getting serious. The differences are unsettling and uncomfortable and demanding; they require us to look for new meanings and to find new truths.

And Truth is rarely pure and never simple*. For some, or for all.



*O. Wilde

Too late, baby...

It looks like the earth is slowly giving up. It also looks like we are not giving up -- destroying, that is. Because after all, things will sort themselves out in the end. They always do. Even when they don't -- but we'll be all dead by then and it will be other peoples' nightmare.

Our children's nightmare to be precise.
But it's going to be all right...

Our children have worldly possessions we all worked so hard to give them. I for one had to marry into money. Our next door neighbours had to help International Aid suppliers with political kickbacks...

Earth & nature have in their possession all those words and speeches about protecting and saving them. We worked very hard to say and write those words. After so many words, you would think that nature would get its act together and stop being suicidal!

I hope it's not a case of diminishing resistance: that nature is giving up with ever increasing speed....
Things go downhill very quickly after that.

What I hate most of all is this: the earth is dying and there's no-one to blame but me. And you of course, but that does not help. You are me.

Greek Property Owners: Beware! You do NOT really OWN your property...

...unless you can prove otherwise.
If you thought the house you purchased in Greece is yours to use & dispose of at will, think again. The house may soon become the property of the Greek State by default. In other words, it is in the running to be transformed into the next local politician's daughter's wedding present.
How?
The national cadastre, a triviality that much of Greece did not have and whose absence allowed some flexibility in defining what is mine and what is yours in my favour, of course.
The national cadastre was defined in a law published in 1995 and is finally being implemented. So far so good, and better late than never.
However, the closely guarded secret of this enterprise is... just that: that it is a closely guarded secret. If you do NOT declare your ownership, through the customary for Greece convoluted, complex, and expensive process, the property reverts to the Greek State.

In fact, the wording of this law is such that all property is presumed to belong to the Greek state unless proven otherwise -- proven otherwise by you, of course. Never mind your precious declarations made in your tax returns, etc; here we go again as if your declarations and subsequent tax levied on your property never has been and never happened.You need to provide and present "clear" claims and titles.

Far be it from me to present the declaration procedure. Suffice it to say, it is complex and expensive: by the way, a duty is levied per declaration, not per piece of property. So if you own 1% of 100 pieces of property, you will have to pay 100 times to validate your claims... Accordingly, of course, if you own 100% of one property, you are in luck.

Anyway, for those who are not in the know, get talking to a certified local accountant immediately. Or you may just find out that the house you paid for and lived in for a while, is now officially labelled a "forest"*: officially the house no longer exists. You may think you are looking at it, but it just isn't there. It's a forest. Worse, it's not your forest.

Do you think that this is the view from your house in Greece? Think again. This is a forest and it is in the public domain in Greece. What? It doesn't look like a forest? What counts is, it is officially labelled as a forest. Later on, the local authorities will declassify this forest, and sell the property, now a house again, to a local dignitary. So, either become a dignitary or run -- don;t walk -- to declare your property. And make sure you have proff of your declaration; mistakes are human.

*:Reference to an actual case. A man, living in a house with a small garden for the past 40(?) years and who failed miserably to follow the correct declaration procedure has seen his house + land officially labelled a "forest"... My goodness!

Eurovision: miserabile visu

We all know that the Eurovision* noise contest is an exercise in bad taste and jumping around, with some degree of voyeurism thrown in for good measure. This epitome of bad taste is so powerful, it makes one cringe and look away embarrassed pretending, "this is not happening and I'm not involved". One wonders if this bad taste is not part of the grand scheme of things: you really have to work hard to push the limits of conventional vulgarity so far -- and, moreover, a little bit further each year.

The whole thing is inexplicable -- except, perhaps, if considered in the context of national television...

Maybe the phenomenal bad taste is aligned to TV pundits' view of what "the people out there want to see and hear". As this usually translates into "the easiest and cheapest programming I can get away with on the air", aka "trash", Eurovision may just fit this bill. On the other hand, Eurovision is hardly a cheap investment, one country at least having invested just over Euro: 0,3 mill. for its "national" representation. That country did not win so, presumably, a much cheaper participation could only have yielded the same results -- or better. I.e. money that could probably have been better spent elsewhere.

In the above light, Italy may have the best view of things: Italy simply refuses to participate!


*Eurovision is a canned show, labelled "song contest", with one rep per participating country. It encompasses European countries as well as Middle East, at present. The list of participant countries may expand further in the future, who knows.

Mom's e-market value: porn is the best business

Well, we all suspected as much. And it can be thinly disguised as erotic art. It can genuinely be erotic and artistic - sometimes.

But just how good business it actually is, seems to be anybody's guess.
Well, here is someone's guess: $ +130 billion, or... € +100 billion!

How much of that is internet? I really do not know.
Another guess-ti-rumour has it that General Motors has more revenue through its entertainment investments than the better-known automotive interests... while this seems unlikely, it nevertheless offers an interesting sideline to the matter.

All sorts of interesting sites with experiments /projects have virtually surfaced; some purport to be amateur-run (but requiring paid subscription). Others are real projects uniting people who are trying to combat the fetishistic attitude and the voyeurism that makes glamour porn as big as it is boring.

On the other hand, it seems that the Internet has also brought together people of unconventional and politically incorrect persuasions (see opposite). Interestingly enough, people who probably thought they belonged to a deviant category and shunned from revealing their fantasies even to a psychiatrist, now find their virtual brethren...

So, whether it is for the love or for the money -- or both -- the Internet erotics & porn has done a lot to bring people together! No?
Shall we, all together now: two cheers for pornography!

Couldn't we "liberate" them, instead? 100.000 dead in Myanmar

and more than 2 million living in appalling conditions even by television standards, which makes it horrible indeed.

But "logistical bottlenecks" are slowing down the distribution of aid... whatever part of that aid is destined for its original recipients, that is. And in the face of this, the local regime does not look kindly upon "foreign goody-goody do-gooders", while more people are poised to, just to drive the message home, to die, to croak, to kick the bucket. AND THEY ARE NOT ALLOWING ANY AID to GO IN (but a trickle).

How affirmative and assertive of them. How good for us, to be so far away from all the fracas, too!

Since the Myanmar junta we once liked is not dancing to our tune any more and I think we don't like therefore and since, by the time I finish writing this, a few more people will have died and a few more body-masters will have set up shop to soon start shipping boatloads of refugees... couldn't we save them, in a jiffy???

I.e. instead of sending help to buy our sleep, why not invade the place instead and thereby liberate them.

We are saving Iraq et alia in this way, and they did not even have a cyclone.

In the old times, the Soviets entered a country and saved and liberated its inhabitants. Now that they gave up on such charity, it is up to the West to do the job.

When "Fun Isn't Fun Anymore..."

As a matter of fact, this is from a book by Dame Agatha (Christie), Lady Mallowan, a book whose title I do not remember. Despite my short memory for the book's title, I kept the paragraph that follows. It is a very appropriate and well written piece although, as I remember, strangely inconsequential to the main storyline of the book (crime, obviously).

The paragraph begins, "Life was good fun, and I'd been content to go on with life being fun. That attitude goes with youth. When youth begins to pass, fun isn't fun any more."

It seems we grow up, from somebodies into nobodies; or, the lifetime efforts of escaping nonentity are stumped simply by the passage of time. It is important therefore, to have prepared the ground for growing older. Here are some of the things you should have:
a) Knowledge and choice: know what you want and want what you have, the latter being far more complicated than the former.
b) A home, the correct kind of home, one which affords you relaxation and contentment and pride, and inspires your hospitality instinct.
c) Pursue two interests at least: one mental, the other manual. One of these should be a (potential) income generator.
d) Access to and contact with friends and close family, schools, medical facilities, library.
e) No regrets except for missing the next drink after reading this -- which is hardly a major loss.

With the above, you are of the way to "When youth begins to pass, fun becomes different and deeper".

Asia Poised to Save Classical Music...

...and, in so doing, save an important part of our (i.e.western) civilisation.

About twenty (20) million people in China are studying the piano; about ten (10) million are studying the violin. What we call classical music in the West is becoming increasingly popular...

Let us all hope this continues, to cover up and make up for the lamentable dearth of interest and musical education in youth closer to home... Maestro Maazel is reported to have said something along the lines of, "China will be the future of our classical music".

He is also reported to have said along the lines of, "orchestra musicians in the future will be predominantly female", as more than 70% of the students in conservatories are women.

Amen for both: a) because music may live on, b) we will continue to have concerts accessible to most.

Terrorism rears its ugly head.. again? Let's hope it's all just hot air..

Yutube clips clips showed scenes of anti-Greek rallies in Albania & Kossovo (or what is purported to be either) with singing suggesting invasive action by said, alleged Albanians. If confirmed, in any area of the world this would constitute clear terrorist threat.

There is nothing mystical or cryptic about the message, nor is there any base for political expediency and speculation or half-baked justification for questionable action. It is clear, unadulterated, racially motivated terrorism.

Let us hope the threats are bogus; and that someone does something about it.

Newsempires vs blogs: the generation gap

What's the difference between a blogger and a press magnate.

Not much -- one-two generations...

Blogs is the beginning of what can become a career in the news & entertainment industry. The corporation is the end of the road for a blogger.

It's also a new beginning, which may or may not retain the principles the previous journey was founded upon.
It;s up to the ex blogger, presently news magnate.

27yr old woman to be sent to the UK for a kidney transplant... following direct action by Greece's Health Minister; all this thanks to Mega "tsannel"

Should I smile, laugh, or cry??? Well, smile for the 27yr old who will, in all probability, live a better life!
Cry for the expediency of the TV channel capitalising upon someone else's dire need...

The storyline: Social Security cover for the transplant had been denied a 27yr old mother because the donor was distant relative (a good excuse for IKA to avoid the humongous cost of this operation... the woman might die, of course, but the money wouldn't). As is usual whenever anyone need something to be done (anyone amongst us, the riff-raff), the family appealed to local private television... and the Minister of Health etc, personally solved this matter. She also promised to amend the contentious regulation which helps throw out similar requests...

Not bad, eh?

1. In other words, unless anyone appeals on the air, they might as well curl up in a corner and wait to die.
2. The Ministry of Health etc etc is so convoluted that it's impossible to manage; so, damage control is the only name of the game left...
3. The situation is so out of control for the normal chain of command that it's best to let civil servants run the business as they see fit-- bar a few ad-hoc interventions here and there.

Not least, the transplant could not be performed in the country? How embarrassing!

But again... what do the television channel's self-serving sorrow-mongers making merry over this woman's medical straits deserve?

Earthquakes I forecasted long ago...

Most regrettably, certain people who shall go nameless* (they know who they are) doubt my ability to foresee and forecast earthquakes. This is all the more puerile since it was not long ago that I issued the following statement, duly recorded by all and sundry: "there will be an earthquake in Greece in the near future, of more or less medium intensity in the south bordering the mid-northern area of the country."
Can't get any clearer than that, can you???
Λυπούμαι που σε αυτή τη χώρα ορισμένοι (και ξέρουν αυτοί ποιοί είναι*) μεμφονται την ικανότητά μου να προβλέπω σεισμούς.

Προ διετίας είχα προβλέψει και είχα αναφέρει, ενώπιον δε και τρίτων, ότι στο εγγυς ή μαρκύτερο μέλλον θα γίνει σεισμός, μέτριας ή και μεγαλύτερης ισχύος, στη Πελοπόννησο ή και στις γύρω περιοχές, με επίκεντρο τη θάλλασα αλλά ενδεχομένως και τη στερεά.

Ρητώς σύστησα να μη πανικοβάλλονται οι κάτοικοι των οικισμών όπου (προέβλεψα) θα γινόταν ο σεισμός.

Προς τι το τηλεοπτικό μίσος και οι αλληλοσπαραγμοί των "σεισμολόγων";;; Δεν τάπα; Τάπα.

Όταν τάλεγα εγώ, φωνή βοώντος εν τη ερήμω!!!

*Don't you just love these stupid references to the unknown and unidentified dark forces whose sole occupation is... us :)

Τα τρωκτικά της δημοσιογραφίας (εν ελλάδι...)

Τυχαία άκουσα σήμερα στο ραδιόφωνο (3ο πρόγραμμα) την εκφώνηση ενός καλογραμμένου, πλην πέραν του δέοντος ρομαντικού, γραπτού από έλληνα δημοσιογράφο. Aναφερόταν στη ξεπεσμένη κατάσταση της δημιογραφίας σήμερα και στους αυτο-αποκαλούμενους δημοσιογράφους οι οποίοι δεν είναι άλλο από "ασπόνδυλα" και "τρωκτικά της δηοσιογραφίας". Ενω οι αληθινοί δημοσιογράφοι είναι οι ερευνητές και υποστηρικτές της αλήθειας, κλπ.

Αντιπαρέρχομαι τον ρομαντισμό του ρόλου των αληθινών "δημοσιογράφων" -- είναι πολύ υψηλά γράμματα αυτά. Λίγοι, πάντως, φαίνεται να είναι σε θέση να αναφέρουν γεγονότα, οι περισσότεροι αρκούνται στο να αναφέρουν μπαγιάτικες γνώμες πολιτικής χρειάς ή μισοκαλυμμένης άγνοιας.

Δεν λέγω ότι διαφωνώ με τον γράψαντα τα όμορφα λόγια¨δείχνει να έχει ήθος και το ήθος πάντα σκλαβώνει.

Θέλω μόνο να επισημάνω ότι οι εμφανιζόμενοι στις τηλεοπτικές οθόνες δεν είναι δημοσιογράφοι αλλά παρουσιαστές (presenters) και διασκεδαστές (entertainers). Πρόκειται για ρόλο που υπάρχει από τα παλαιά χρόνια: ο αστείος / σαχλός / ανούσιος σχολιασμός γεγονότων παντός είδους -- ή ακόμη, η δημιουργία γεγονότων προς αναφορά και σχολιασμό (βλέπε π.χ., τους γελοτοποιούς της αυλής).

Δήλον ότι η δημοφιλία των ανθρώπων αυτών είναι υψιστης σημασίας, ενώ η πολιτιστική "ποιότητα" και η ακεραιότητα των προϊόντων τους δεν έχει καμμία σημασία: άλλωστε τα προγράμματα δεν πωλούνται ως τροφή για μωρά... αγνή και καθαρή. Έτσι; Μπούλσιτ για να σκοτώνει ο κόσμος την ώρα και τις έγνοιες του, είναι. Εδώ που τα λέμε, που το λέει το περι αγνής δημοσιογραφίας και καθαρής αναφοράς γεγονότων στις προδιαγραφές και τις οδηγίες χρήσης του προϊόντος;;; Πουθενά!

Το μόνο που καταλογίζουμε στους σύγχρονους γελοτοποιούς, αυτο-αποκαλούμενους δημοσιογράφους, είναι ότι δεν το λένε -- διπλωματικά πλην σαφώς. Αντ'αυτού έχουν βρει εύφορο έδαφος πλέον για να φέρονται σαν δάσκαλοι που εξετάζουν άτακτα παιδιά... Ρόλο των παιδιών παίζουν οι πολιτικοί μας (πλην αυτών των λεγομένων "αριστερών" κομμάτων -- ίσως για ιστορικούς λόγους;).

Μεγάλη πλάκα και εύστοχα....

...τα περί ελλήνων οδηγών (αυτοκινήτων βέβαια, όχι το άλλο) γραφόμενα σε ένα blog.

Μεταξύ των "Κανόνων οδήγησης" και του "Νέου Κώδικα Οδ. Κ" σπάς μεγάλη πλάκα. Εκτός κι'αν είσαι μέσα σε αυτοκίνητο κολλημένος σε κίνηση οπότε σπας κεφάλια.

Με εμπνέει σφόδρα να προσθέσω...

1. Τα κόκκινα φανάρια αποτελούν πρόταση κι'όχι υποχρέωση. Να παραμείνουν αλλά με αλλαγές στα χρώματα (για επιπλέον σασπένς).
2. Τα όρια ταχύτητας είναι ασυνάρτητα, ανακόλουθα (δεν ακολουθούνται έτσι κι'αλλιώς) και συχνάκις άσχετα με την ασφάλεια και τις ανοχές του οδοστρώματος¨ είναι όμως πολύ σχετικά και χρήσιμα για τη συγκομιδή προστίμων ταχύτητας.
1. Πονηρή πρόταση: να αναρτηθούν όρια ταχύτητας απόλυτης ακρίβειας! Δηλαδή οι πινακίδες να γράφουν: 27,8 / 55,5 / 12,4.... κοκ. Μάλιστα, οι ενδείξεις μείωσης της ταχύτητας να έχουν ως εξής με πινακίδες ανηρτημένες ανά 25 μέτρα το πολύ: 100 - 64,5 - 12,9! Να δούμε ποιός θα ξεφύγει κλήση για υπερβολική ταχύτητα!
3. Οι πινακίδες δεόν να αναρτούνται πίσω από δένδρα -- πράγμα το οποίο ωθεί εξόχως και στη δενδρο-φύτευση!
4. Να επισημοποιηθεί εύφημος μνεία για τον(ους) οδηγό (ούς) δημ. μεσ. μεταφοράς που κτυπά(νε) πεζούς. Ειδικά οδηγοί αυτονικήτων τύπου "Μερσεντέ" έχουν και έτοιμο στόχαστρο¨ εξ'ου και οφείλουν να δείξουν καλυτερες επιδόσεις.
5. Σαφώς να καταργηθούν τα περάσματα πεζών: η Αθήνα είναι πόλη μελετημένη για αυτοκίνητα, κατοικίδια ζώα και έντομα.
6. Να σταματήσει η αλόγιαστη σπατάλη χώρου για τη δημιουργία υποτιθεμένων "πεζοδρομίων". Οι χώροι να διατεθούν για να φαρδύνουν οι δρόμοι.
7. Τα καρότσια μωρών και τα αναπηρικά να πληρώνουν τέλη κυκλοφορίας.
   

Θέμα προς συνέχιση!!!

Legitimising violence: moralising

Don't you just love it? Maybe not, because behind the joke people lose their limbs and lives...

Whenever any bigger guy invades any smaller guy, it's always for the smaller guy's benefit. "We're doing this for you!" Unbeknownst to the smaller guy, he is being saved.

So what's all the fuss???

Some people really don't know what's good for them!

Noam Chomsky once said that every rising imperialistic state has a moralistic policy to justify its actions. Interesting. I am not so sure about the word "imperialist", so let me substitute "a powerful and influential, country or authorised organisation, in the course of meddling in other peoples' affairs" instead.

• In WW-2 the 3rd Reich preached (at least a bit, in the beginning) about liberating, bringing civilisation, technology, and financial help to other countries. It soon dropped any pretence, however.
• In the 1930s the Japanese were very apt at "liberating oppressed masses in Asia": they brought technology and relief funding and safety, to Asian masses hitherto oppressed, or threatened by, commies. As the operation cost the Japanese a pretty packet, they also touted the aid angle (look at all the money we're spending for you).
• Not so long ago, the good old Soviet Union had liberated a number of countries from the malady of western capitalistic and imperialistic social rot -- and kept them thus liberated until Mr Gorbachev came along and allowed them to unliberate. So much so that some of these countries outlawed communism after being un-liberated.
  
• Today we have a US lead "coalition" saving Eye-rack and the Eye-rackease from oppression, from something, from something else, as well as establishing democracy. The same moralistic rigmarole used by the Japanese 70 years ago is used today, too...
• Likewise, the Afghans are being saved as well -- as it turns out, they are now being saved from the results of the previous saving operation...
  

Pursuant to liberation and stabilisation, the smaller guy is called upon to foot the bill for being saved, demolished and reconstructed, and being democratised.

Who foots the bill for all the lives that are lost? The liberators' and liberatees' alike?

Ο πολιτισμός δεν γεννάται με Διοικητική Πράξη

...όσο καλοπροαίρετες οι διαθέσεις. Ή, όσο αδιάφορες κι'αν είναι οι διαθέσεις. Η ισιγορία των παντος είδους εχόντων άποψην εγγυάται την εν ελλάδι πολιτιστικήν απραγίαν που, άλλωστε, αντικαθίσταται από την φλυαρία.

Εξόχως αξιέπαινη χειρονομία:
Σήμερον 4/2/2008 και περί ώραν 12ην μεσημβρινήν, καλλιτέχναι, ποιηταί, υποκριταί και λοιποί επρόσωποι της νεο-γηγενούς κουλτούρας μαζώχτηκαν στο Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και παρέδωσαν σε κάποιο(ους) Δημόσιο (ους) Υπάλληλο(ους), αιρετούς ή μη, υπόμνημα όπερ καλούνται οι έχοντες την εξουσίαν πολιτικών πράξεων να πράξουν προωθούντες τον πολιτισμό.

Θεωρείται ότι έχουμε πιάσει πολιτισςτικό πάτο ως χώρα...

Χμμμ. Γιατί σήμερα, 4 Φεβ 2008, κι'όχι ήδη από καιρό;

• Διότι έχουν επισήμως προστεθεί και τα (ιδιωτικά μέσα μαζικής αποχαύνωσης) στο κουρμπέτη των απελέκιστων ξύλω;
• ή διότι σήμερα φαίνονται πιο πολύ, βοηθούσης της αυξημένης ελευθερίας του γκρινιαζειν και της επικοινωνιακής απειρίας της κυβέρνησης μας

Αναμενόμενο αποτέλεσμα: ο πολιτισμός αγοράζεται
Πιστεύω ότι στη καλύτερη περίπτωση (ήγουν, η περίπτωσις όπου πιάνει τόπο η προσπάθεια των ευαισθητοποιημένων δημιουργών) θα πέσει χρήμα άπαξ: θα το ρίξει το αρμόδιο υπουργείο ή και άλλα κρατικά κονκλάβια για να φύγει από τη μέση η ενοχλητική αλήθεια -- δηλαδή ότι ο γηγενής πολιτιστικός πάτος, πάτο δεν έχει.

Άλλωστε εμείς, ως εφευρέτες του πολιτισμού -- του δυτικού, ου μην αλλά και έχοντες εν πολλοίς επιρρεάσει και καθοδηγήσει ωσαύτως και τον ανατολικόν -- γνωρίζουμε καλύτερα από όλους ότι η κουλτούρα αγοράζεται... Αιώνες τώρα, πολιτισμό πουλούσαμε, τόσο που δεν εμείνε για τις σημερινές γενιές.
Ως απόγονοι των εφευρετών, τώρα πλέον αγαπάμε και την κουλτούρα των άλλων και επενδύουμε σε αυτή. Δηλαδή αγοράζουμε σημαντικά πράγματα.

Η Ελλάς έχει μπάϊ φαρ τα περισσότερα κατα κεφαλήν Porsche μοντέλλο "Τσούχτρα"* από κάθε άλλο μέρος.

Τι είναι καλύτερο: να οδηγάς δικό σου Cayenne ή να γνωρίζεις τι συμπληρώνει το κενό: "οδός 28ης ......"; Σαφώς το πρώτο.


Επιδιωκούμενο αποτέλεσμα της σημερινής χειρονομίας
Πέραν όμως του κοινωνικού θορύβου (που μακάρι να επιφέρει αφύπνηση μέρους του τηλε-απορριμματοφάγου κοινού), δεν είναι σαφές το επιδιωκούμενο αποτέλεσμα της προσπάθειας. Ο θόρυβος είναι καλύτερος από τη σιγή, σαφώς...

Πλην όμως, μήπως ελπίζουμε ότι διοικητική τις πράξις θα μας σώσει;

{*"Τσούχτρα" νοείται η καυτερή πιπεριά -- όχι το θαλάσσιο παράσιτο.}