Post mortem oscar

When Heath Ledger was found dead in January this year, I immediately felt a great loss. I have never met him, the loss was not personal, but as a cinema lover, I felt the art of making movies lost a huge asset. Even though he was only 28 when he died, his immense talent was obvious in every movie that he played portraying such different personalities. The gay cowboy role that made him famous in Brokeback mountain, was one of his later roles. I've watched him in his earlier roles in aussie movies and he was fantastic. In brokeback mountain, he was simply awsome. He portrayed his character so clearly that he was relevant to everybody, not only to reserved in the closet homosexuals living in an unforgiving environment.
He has also been a most beautiful, charismatic, funny, clumsy and self-sarcastic Don Juan I have ever seen.
Apparently his performance as Joker in Batman begins - a film so much anticipated in theaters - is so extraordinary that all his fellow cast have asked that his performance is nominated for an academy award. Michael Caine - he is also enriching with his divine presense the movie - said that Heath's Joker character was 10 times scarier than Nicholson's Joker in Tim Burton's movie, immensely scarier than Hanibal Leckter, and equally - if not more - sadist and insane as Denis Hoper character in Blue Velvet. Michael said that Heath was the scariest vilain he knew.
If nothing else, I am looking forward to see that movie to pay my respects to this marvellous actor gone so soon leaving us with only a fraction of his unbelievable talent.

Lessons from superior beings

Need I say more? Only that of course animals are definitely superior to humans.

Helios accident, 3 years later

Many times things happen and we shiver. The Helios airline accident 3 years ago was one of them. 121 people died. The pilot forgot to adjust the oxygen levels in the cockpit and he and the copilot fainted. They blocked the door. Andreas Prodromou, a stewart who also was a trained pilot, managed to get in and lift the plane. He managed to fly the plane for as long as there was fuel. Had there be enough fuel left for 10 more minutes, Andreas would have landed the plane and noone would have been killed. The F16 pilot that was flying alongside testified that. Andreas did not try to land in Spata. Perhaps he was afraid for more deaths. Noone knows that.
Three years have passed and we forgot. When we remember we shiver. The same is true for so many instances of unfair loss of fellow men. But there are some people that remember every day. Twenty four hours a day. For ever. And their life will not be the same. But they manage to live. And they live for as long as they can. And they will always carry their grief. And will always value what is important in life. People that have lost a child are always marked with an outstanding amount of maturity and endurance. Once you have seen this mark on one parent that has burried a child you recognize it in all of them.
Such a face was that of Dinos Prodromou, the father of Andreas, he was flying back to Cyprus and was sitting next to me. He was coming back from the crash site as he and the relatives of the other victims are now building a church there. To remember.
Mr Prodromou cried when we talked about the accident and the circumstances that it took place. I cried as well. And then he tried to consol me and make me feel betterand talked about life and his face lit up. The grief was still there but he was smiling.
We have to remember that we have to live and we have to remember the ones that are gone.

OA trouble

Today I was supposed to be flying to Cyprus for a business meeting. My flight was to leave at 06.50 and my meeting was at 10.00 - Plenty of time. Well nope. One should flight to a destination that is only an hour and a half at least a day before to make sure that Olympic will keep the schedule and not divert the passenger via Rome! Yes, you read well. The 06.50 (aka the FIRST FLIGHT OUT) was cancelled and the only consolation that olympic offered to half awaken but shocked passengers was a flight to Larnaka via Rome!!!!! No kidding. Or else there was the flight the next day.
I must say that I have appreciated Aegean Airlines' employee professionalism and politeness that booked me immediatel a flight for 2pm. Of course I did not attend the meeting - my colleagues that flew the night before did. The good thing is that I did not present in that one, so not much harm done. But still. How can the first flight out be cancelled with no contingency plan is one of the worst experiences I've had with any airline. So far I have been an Olympic fan. Not anymore. The worst? You don't need a wild guess. Alitalia in Sicily..

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