Some things to be proud of...

"...Αλλά υπάρχουν στιγμές κατά τις οποίες ένας λαός οφείλει, αν θέλη να μείνη μεγάλος, να είναι ικανός να πολεμήση, έστω και χωρίς καμμίαν ελπίδα νίκης. Μόνον διότι πρέπει."
(There are moments when a nation, willing to remain a great nation, must be ready to fight, even if it means fighting a war without any hope of victory...)

Powerful words spoken by men with balls to men with balls**.

None of them owned a Porsche Cayenne and none spoke with a whiny mew.

That was Greece in the '40s and those were people to be proud of -- some of them at least.



Today's Greeks are much more comfortable and many have the ultimate symbol of success: the Porsche Cayenne.

They are less fortunate in other ways. Today's Greeks have less to be proud of. Indeed, in a "global world" they have very little to be proud of: check out the Minister of National Defence, * for example.







* to do him justice, the guy has some experience in urban militia: he spent some time studying at faco (Paris2) which used to be populated by right-wing activists.

**or women, insert as appropriate. In the quote above it was Ioannis Metaxas, a General)

Plus ca change, plus c'est... changé!!

I was in hospital for a week (not recommended) and spent some time talking to physios. Our short converastions took us to trips abroad; for the most part to Paris, France. That's where my home used to be. (Everyone in the hospital asked me where my home used to be.)

Well you know what we say about les Parisiens... unhospitable, unwelcoming, bad-tempered, etc.

The physios -- both -- as well as one of the nurses who spent part of her honeymoon there spoke to me about "how nice people were in Paris; hospitable, nice, helpful!"

Some things do change.

Maybe Athenians could follow suit.

Political Philandering... the extreme right meets the extreme left

Walking past the Greek Socialist Party's HQ in Athens the other day I heard a snippet of a conversation. As two persons entered the building, I heard one saying to the other "...a good position indeed! And he's not even one of ours" (in fact the person said, "...he isn't even a party subscriber"...!)

How many times have I heard this, both in France & in Greece! It is certainly not a uniquely Socialist matter, the incident above is fortuitous.

Nowadays I rarely hear this in France any more...

But anyway, it got me thinking.

Politics & personal gain is thicker than water. Appurtenance is everything: one must belong & thereby acquire a stronghold in order to survive -- or concede defeat. You can't fight them, join them. Tight-knit groups.

In non Anglo-Saxon democracies the most vociferous and staunch political fighters traditionally have been the (seriously) left wingers. In recent times, a new force, the (serious) right wing have surfaced. One only needs to look at French, Austrian, German elections and/ or political gatherings. In Greece, the "Official" exponent of the "official right wing is LAOS (the acronym read "people"). Laos is very soft core compared to its northern brethren; Greeks don't really like political hard core despite their rampant adolescent behaviour.

To a degree all of these parties tout a populist approach mixed with half baked nationalistic superiority.

There is, it seems, an interesting difference between the Greeks and the rest: the Greek right wing talk seems to echo the left-wing feeling. In fact the die-hard self-appointed left wing evangelists are just about as clear in their nationalistic-populist speech as the Right wingers are abroad.

I know one expects to hear bullshit bandied about in the political arena -- but this is overcooked.

It is also too bad, when the voice of moderation & down to earth common sense comes from a party like Laos. They rarely refer to "ours"; they, as all extreme right wing players always think in terms of inclusion rather than exclusion.

And their popularity rose 50% from 2007.

Ok, it's still only <6%.


Another unusual thing is that Greek TV is resolute in its support of anything left-ish: hard luck stories, the rich becoming richer at the expense of the poor who become poorer. There is a good measure of pseudo-populist content mixed with expensive looking ladies brandishing their designer wear or underwear, all served with a few twists:

* the TV propaganda does not touch the tax-free income of its stars. It is not quite clear why the presenters do not touch this issue...

* there is no escape from misery.


So far, only one TV persona /writer /political commentator turned politician, Ms L. Kanelli, makes any sense and is thereby worth listening to. Other than the wit value, she makes sense. She also knows her history and her grasp of the Greek language is refreshingly superior. Compared to her, other politicians are lukewarm at best.


*L. Kanelli is an MP with the local Communists. Amazingly, she is also one person who defended Milosevic.

Elections in Greece: Well, whaddya know, Socialists again! ND vs PASOK: 0-1

Greece voted Socialist yesterday, ending a 6 year tenure of the conservative New Democracy party.

Mr George Papandreou, leader of the Socialist party, a US-born male, not the wittiest boy in town, is to become the 3rd generation prime minister in Greece -- following his grandfather and father.
Sign of the times: Greece honours (nepotist) tradition!

In fine, however, these electoral results remind me of a singles tennis match; as it happens, it is not really the Socialists who won, but the Conservatives who lost.
Whatever.
Hopefully, people living in Greece will not have to suffer, yet again, the customary PASOK arrogance...


Further: digging deeper into electoral mechanics, there is no doubt that from an operational point of view one had to vote for one or the other of the major parties. Failure to do so could easily lead to a minority in parliament, in turn leading to complications, frail coalitions, and ultimately new elections... ad nauseam.

Yet, a good 20% of the voters chose one of the other parties -- i.e. the ones you have on the menu even though everyone knows that their cumulative contribution to day-to-day administration and their grasp of social matters, is nil. They are vociferous and stultifying of course.

So why do people choose them?
I believe it is a non-rational (as opposed to irrational) vote: it is an emotional choice. Nostalgia and the sadness for lost causes and broken dreams
E.g. why else, if not for die-hard emotional reasons, would one vote for Soviet-type communists? God (Lenin) Bless them, the Soviet Union does not exist any more!

And you get many others, too: mostly revolutionary of one ilk or another; not to be outdone, there are humorous choices too (ex: KOTES= HE. N.S.)


So, fortunately, for all those who have the guts to vote anything BUT utilitarian: in Greece there was choice -- 16 choices in fact.


How many countries are thus fortunate?