How to get him out

The only topic that I found equally grave if not graver that the beggining of the fire season, is the crisis and violence in Zimbabwe. All the press world wide is dealing with this crisis as headline news - except of course the Greek press who considers the Siemens scandal and the name dispute of the small poor country that had the mishap to neighbor us as the only two worthy areas of information to their readers.
The economist is publishing a very interesting opinionated article on how to get rid of this obviously insane figure. The Economist of course, is reluctant to offer force as a solution giving diplomacy priority, something that W. did not do in Iraq (of course there is no oil in Zimbabwe). I agree. Force should always be the last resort. But it should be prepared and Mugabe should understand that he can soon be under siege. Sometimes the threat of force is more powerful than force itself. The West is turning their back on Mugabe. Well done! The problem is that they have turned their back on the poor African people a long time ago. They need to act asap.
It is worth reading the economist article at
http://www.economist.co.uk/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11622442

NB: My top gravest topic is always the unethical treatment of animals, but that is never in the news

Burn down the villas, not the trees

Yesterday between 6am and 6pm 51 fires were declared, 22 of which in Attica. Fire department acted swiftly and they were all put down. However just after 19.00, just I was getting in my car to go to my business, I saw a thick cloud of smoke and a fire helicopter flying litteraly above my head. I automatically went indoors changed to my old jeans and t-shirt and instead of driving toward the tube, I drove up toward the mountain. The fire was still alive but the helicopters were thank God on time and on target despite strong winds. There is a small spot between houses in Patima Vrilission (2klm from my house) where the municipality of Vrilissia helped by some of the citizen associations (we participate with our filozoiki organization) keep 24/7 guard against arsony. Yet, despite that, there was a fire. Because of that, it was put down soon enough. The good thing is that the trees although were licked by the fire, their core is still alive.
And my point is: even in a place like Vrilissia where the municipality, the fire department and the people living there are taking their own measures to prevent and to fight the fire, they still can not escape this danger. Some of us will cut their holidays half to make sure that there will always be someone up there at any time during the day or night to keep an eye of what's left of the forrest that used to be there.
The mayor has been asking for a few months now to declare what is the ownership status of that location as it is in the eye of many construction companies. Despite our efforts there was a fire. Our efforts will be intensified. And even if local government and civilians will be there they can not make up for the organized and coordinated efforts of central government. I keep searching every day to look for detailed measures against wood fires. None. What about having forrest rangers? Or have the soldiers take turns instead of reading porn maganizes and watching the footie? (those that actually serve)
And most importantly: I have never seen a villa being demolished if it was built in a previously burnt forrest area. Or better yet, put in jail the construction feudal lords that sold them out in the first place. That would probably be the best measure.
I am really afraid of what is coming this summer.

http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11424&subid=2&tag=8400&pubid=1212473

Athens is burning down

As I write this, Hemyttos is burning down. Again. When will they learn??? Flames are at least 40m high and the smoke has reached my office building in Maroussi.
My ending in my previous comment stands

A new immigrant wave?

According to a Manpower research Greek employees seem to be overwilling to migrate abroad or to a different town if they can find better work conditions (better job, salary, boss etc). Those who replied they would immediately live for work reasons made up 87.7% (that percentage world wide is 78%).
This research was conducted in April 2008 with 31,574 participants from 38 different countries (1079 Greeks questioned). The UK, the US and Italy were aspiring Greeks immigrants top work destinations. 30.3% were willing to migrate anywhere in the world. Better salary and better career prospects where the key motives.
Greece is a country that had a huge immigrant wave following the poverty of WWII and the civil war. Greece's economy is far better than it was back then. With flunctuations but still it is quite good and at least half of Greeks enjoy a relatively good quality of life. Unfortunately Greece has never managed to keep its talent within borders. A new brain drain is about to take place and unfortunately nothing is done to prevent it. On the contrary the continuously increasing cost of living, lack of decent jobs, ridiculous delays in dealing with state business, chaotic country management (if it can be called management) and painful lack of meritocracy will lead talent abroad. This is the surest way to keep Greece a developing country and never fully develop it.

The ones that do stay, do so out of purely emotional reasons.
The more I think about this, the lower I think of the 300; top of the list make the three smiling ahambaroi* in the pictures (and the majority of their predecessors)

* 'ahambaros' is a Cypriot slang word meaning someone who has completely lost the plot - den pairnoun hambari.

You must notice that I exist

Manos and his wife Libia have been living in Tokyo, Japan for about a year now. The country is not very hospitable to foreigners - there is a high rate of racism but in a very subtle fashion. They could not get a house to rent as they were not Japanese and flat owners were refusing non-Japanese to be living in their flat. Hence they found a flat in the chinese neighoborhood. Not a self-respecting Japanese would be caught dead living there, as Chinese are considered probably the lowest life form. According to Manos the place is vivid, colorful with cute little chinese restaurants.
The country culture is also quite unique. Libia was telling me stories about their real estate agent was calling them to tell them that they had placed their garbage in the wrong box. The cartons in the place of the real garbage. Their neighbor who saw that thought that it would be extremely embarassing for the young couple to face an older lady telling them about such a grave mistake.
On the good side, they enjoy living in a crimeless city. Tokyo, despite being one of the world's top 5 megacities with more than 20million people, is one of the safest places to live. Libia was telling me how she could forget her purse somewhere and if she was to go there the next day she would find it at the same place intact. Shop owners leave their merchandise unattended outside their stores with no cameras monitoring them as there is no crime. Actually very little things could be more embarassing than be caught stealing. Talk about losing face.
And living in one of the world's most populated cities with such little room for each one to breath, means that everyone has to obey rules. Any non-conformity to the rule would risk the balance of harmony. People respect other's space - to a ridiculous level perhaps if seen from a western angle.
In that context, it is shocking that earlier this June Tomohiro Kato, 25, a part-time worker in a car parts factor, decided to go out and kill some people in Tokyo's Akihabara market, one of the busiest electronic gadgets shopping districts. Not only did he leave 7 people dead, but he had notified everybody that was going to do that. He was sending out messages on the internet. Hhis first post was logged at 5:21 a.m. Sunday on a mobile phone website and was titled, "I will kill people in Akihabara."I want to crash the vehicle and, if it is rendered useless, then I will use a knife. Goodbye everyone." In his final chilling message, posted at 12:10, Kato simply stated, "It is time." Twenty minutes later, Kato drove the lorry into three pedestrians before leaping from the cab and knifing one of the men that he had run over. Witnesses have described Kato as "shrieking" and roaring like an animal as he indiscriminately attacked passers-by with a survival knife.
It is really shocking that in such an ordelry place such an unexpected mass killing took place. Shocking yes. But I don't know whether or not it is surprising. Living in such a rule abiding place that no-one should be different than the next person perhaps creates a deep need to stand out. Choosing to do that in such a horrible manner indicates the sickness of the person in question. Yet, in my mind it also indicates the need of individualism to find its place in such a collective culture. Extremes are always to be avoided. The median is trully the best place to be. Aristotle said so a couple of thousand years ago and it is still true

Z&Z are back

The trip to Greece's midwest had its good side. First of all we changed scenery, had a swim in a lovely lovely beach, ate a lot, drunk a lot, saw new places, went to pelion for the first time, met new people etc etc. The only downside was that there was a lot of driving involved and the whole trip was not at all resting.

Back to school today and a very hectic day workwise, so is tomorrow. Yet, will try to squeeze in new postings. I've really missed my blog. It is indeed therapeutic.

Cheers

LIONS FOR LAMBS

There is no way I would not watch Lions for Lambs. Didnt go much to the movies last year. With Manos living in Tokyo, there are not many people left that would like to go to the movies with me. Unless they go to a ridiculous blockbuster that I avoid. So, I rented the DVD last night. With this cast, there was no way I would miss it. And Redford directing it, was another must see film for me. Ever since his 'ordinary people' he made my list of top 5 favorite directors.

The movie is not great in the sense that you want to watch it over and over again. It has a strong Redford influence in the character building. The entire movie was 6 scenes, or acts, as it reminded me more of a theatrical play than a movie.

Redford dealt less with the actual war in Iraq - thank God - and more with profiling America's pshychogram. In his six acts, the identity of an entire nation was revealed. Tom Cruise was an ambitious republican senator trying to sell himself and his new plan to invade afganistan to the press. The press was good to them, they sold the war on terror to the voters. Meryl Streep is the press who realizes what they have done and is completely devastated when she realises that for 40 years she was in fact part of the system that made america a fear factory and death sentense for young underpriviledged minorities (as they are the only ones that go to battle hoping that one day america will be kind to them). Redford is the university professor who is trying to convince his star poli sci student not to stop caring. If everyone stops caring nothing will be done to improve the country. The student argues that politicians are all becoming clowns caring about elections and not about the polis. He was interested when the old philosophers, the Greeks were studied. Redford's response is really one of the best lines that I have ever heard in a movie: 'Have you ever been to Greece? No, of course not, because you would know that their government makes ours look like a streamlined vision of the future'. Yet, I think what did it for the student and started caring again - at least as it is implied - was his fraternity mate who was so intrigued watching the news about a pop-nobody-starlet's divorce, when the real news where on a strip at the bottom of the screen. Redford's other two star students, an african american and a spaniard raised in the ghetto, went to war and died on their first assignment. So in a six-act movie Redford showed the six profiles of american pshycic: ambitious, powerful, guilty, intelligent, patriotic and moron.

NightWatch

I am not by no means an expert in Russian cinema. I have hardly watched any Russian movies. But Nightwatch changed all that.

A year ago, Manos, my younger brother and a fanatic cinema goer - a cinefil kind of person - suggested we went to watch NightWatch. (Original title: Nochnoy dozor). It was the first of a trilogy of the Russian version of Blade. Not exactly a thriller. The movie is about the eternal battle of good and evil. The two troupes of good and evil met - in a medieval setting - and fought. Just before everyone was perished, the two leaders decided to hold a truce. Good and Evil would live side by side as people would be free to choose anyside they wanted. No force would be allowed to ask people to choose sides. To make sure that the truce was kept, the Light Others and the Dark Others would police the truce. Light Others would perform the NightWatch making sure that Dark Others would not kill people or turn them to the dark side. Dark Others would constitute the Day Watch making sure that the same is true for the Light Others.

The forces of Dark and Light are now in equilibrium due to the work done by the Night and Day watch officers. One day, legend has it, a great other will come and the balance will turn for ever toward one side. Wise man believe that it will be easier for the Great Other to turn to the dark side as it is harder to see in the darkness than kill the light inside that we all have.

A science fiction movie at its best. The cinematography is great, as almost every scene of the movie is like an art photography. Nightwatch is much faster, groovier, and shocking than its sequel DayWatch. Looking forward to the third sequel, the Twilight watch. (Manos, did not like the movie ,needless to say)

Best watched one after the other. I had seen both movies once released in Greek theaters, but when I watched both of them one after another in my home cinema the script made more sense. The first time around I was captivated by the action scenes, photography, music and Russian bohemian chic.

It is definitely one of my favorite titles, and keep in mind that I don't like vampire or horror movies (except Blade). The scenes are too fast to be scary.

Also, I had not realized what a fantastic sound the Russian language makes

A few wikipedia facts:

Night Watch (Russian: Ночной дозор, Nochnoy Dozor) is a 2004 Russian fantasy action thriller film by the Kazakhstan-born film director Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on The Night Watch, and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Day Watch and ending with the 2009 release of Twilight Watch as confirmed by IMDB[1].

The film was the first big-budget Russian fantasy film and one of the first blockbusters made after the collapse of the Soviet film industry. The film was produced by Channel One, the government-owned TV channel, with a budget of US$4.2 million.[2] It was shot in an 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Part of the challenge for such a big-budget fantasy film was creating hundreds of visual effects (VFX) shots to which a modern audience is accustomed. 16 Russian VFX studios and several freelancers were used, each chosen for their individual strengths. Many shots were created by different artists across different time zones, using the Internet to share data and images, mostly using Windows NT workstations.[3]

After a first appearance at the Moscow Film Festival on June 27, 2004, it went on general cinema release across the CIS on July 8, 2004. The film was extremely successful, becoming the highest-grossing Russian release ever, grossing US$16.7 million in Russia alone, thus making more money in Russia than The Lord of the Rings. The sequel, Day Watch, was released across the CIS on January 1, 2006, with a third film in the works. There is also a TV series in production.
The film attracted the attention of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which paid $4 million to acquire the worldwide distribution rights (excluding Russia and the Baltic states) of Night Watch and its sequel Day Watch.

Fox Searchlight also offered to finance the third part. As a consequence, the third part will be filmed in the United States, likely with other actors speaking English instead of Russian

Fires

We are now very much into the summer season. 30+ degrees C, can hardly be considered springtime. I am very afraid that the fire season will not be long now as our incompetent central government and equally incompentent local bodies did most likely nothing else but saving their fat bottoms from last year's disaster and consequent constant failings.

I have heard nothing of the oposition either. All I would like for someone to tell me is what are the measures that have been taken to prevent any major catastrophy again. And to remedy the old one(s).

To be honnest, I have heard noone asking either. The journalists have been too busy covering Zaxopouliada, the FYROM-Macedonia name dispute, and of course Eurovision.

Panygiri tis Analipsis

Last night we had our PANYGIRI in Vrilissia. People rushed in to pay their respects to merchants' booths and to the dozens of cafeterias and meat serving souvlakeries. Oh yes, some went to attend the mass at the church.

We also had a booth. By 'we' I mean our humane society. There are about 20 of us that squeeze in our daily life volunteer work for our 4 (or sometimes 3)-legged friends. Amy was the star of the evening showing off her new coiffure, her new outfit, and her freshly manicured 3 paws.

I have kept her since her operation where she escaped death (and the teeth of a very angry rodweiler) and she is now a part of our 7-member family (besides myself and Amy, the other members are all 4-legged)

We had lots of fan and sold about 150 T-shirts and about 100 hats totalling 1000 euros that equals saving about 6 dogs and feeding more than 50. What we are fighting against is human cruelty over innoscent animals. People hitting or poisoning animals, or living them on the street or somewhere away from home once they decided that they are too big now and not cute puppies any more and want to get rid of them, of neglecting them, of keeping them tighted up in short ropes all their life.

As George Orwell had put it: Four legs good, two legs bad.

We hope not all of them