Sad remains of a bright past

The world with humans in it have witnessed over the centuries the rise and fall of several great civilizations. Greece, Egypt, Rome, China, the Aztec and the Mayas, the US in more modern times. The cultural heritage will never stop insipiring the rest of the world even when the dominance is gone. What is sad is to realize that when there is still modern versions of the glorious past that not only are not glorious but also shameful. I am fundamentaly proud to be Greek - due to the teachings of the great masters. I am ashamed on account of our modern society. But nothing, I repeat nothing, would make me more ashamed to originate from a country that gave the world Luxor and ended up as dark as it is today.
A 17-year old girl at a province outside the delta of Nile, was beaten to death by her 45-year old father because he found out that she had a boyfriend. He could not face his fellow morons at the village cafe and had to kill his daughter to restore his pride. A similar crime occured a year or so ago in a TUrkish village where a father killed by beating to death his 12-year old daughter because she was raped (and of course her tragedy was not important compared to his injured pride). But Turkey has never been a great civilization - only a great empire. And by great I mean its size. Neither crimes are justifiable - both equally appauling. The one in Egypt is a sharper contrast than the one in Turkey due to Egypt's weight in world history and culture
I wonder how the Egyptian elite - and it exists around the world - will come to terms with such a low level of education in the country (that once was the university of the world) and the scary rise of hard core islamism. Sad sad sad

Another inconvenient truth

With all the talk about financial crisis, wars, elections, and whatever else might occupy the thinker's mind, we kind of forgot that our planet is actually dying.
We, by we I am referring to the human race and mainly to the people of each country - they have the power not the politicians, they elect the politicians, are not doing anything really to stop the destruction of our planet. Already some very intuitive travel agent - from Miami I believe - is selling land on the moon, venus and mars. If I am not mistaken the price of 1sqklm on the moon is approx 30usd.
What we have really not done is reverse the destruction of the planet. Details you can observe in Gore's an unconvienent truth and other documentaries or books or greenpeace leaflets.
The distraction starts from the sea. No matter how cute I believe pollar bears and pandas are, or how gorgeous the tiger is, 90% of species endagered with exstinction live in the sea. Entire habitats have been wiped out. Some varieties of tuna - the med tuna - is close to exctintion as it is a premium sushi delicacy. During the last few days there have been large amounts of big fish (30klg) that are found dead in the Maliakos sea. Although sample water has been extracted for testing no toxic material was found. Of course nothing comfirms that the sample water was taken from teh right spot, or that the natural habitat of those fish in deep sea can still provide the food it takes for them to feed. Perhaps the water is contaminated deeper than where the fish bodies are found.
Given the fact that Greece is gearing up for national elections, I am pretty confident that this incident will be burried in paper work by clerks, officers, ministers that will just care over the next few months to maintain - or win - a spot under the sun.
In the meantime more dead fish bodies will be found and all the more Greece's richness will be robbed.
We have three options: forget about it, cry about it (and then forget about it), or do something about it. Those of us who have ever tried to do something about it can very clearly determine that unless it is tied to national or regional elections and will personally benefit a strong political figure NOTHING will ever be done.
It is another inconvenient truth that us Greeks are trying to forget - or accept it as part of life. Shame