Greece welcomed this summer many more visitors from abroad than in the previous 2 years. It’s something we all enjoy because it means additional income but also because Greeks revere whatever is cosmopolitan. We thrive in the difference. A foreign accent, or a foreign look, gestate expectations and generate communication endeavors. Visitors are a very important cultural ornament in the life of this country.
Like every other year also this August Greeks traveled to the islands in great numbers, but spent less days and less money there. I noticed that many people volunteered this information in the small talk one engages at the end of August: “yes we went to Aegina, but did not stay very long this year- those are not times for long vacations”. Or: “yes my wife’s aunt invited us to stay for a week in Paros- it was great”. I was always convinced that most Greeks are not embarrassed when they are poor and are not proud when they are rich. Wealth seems to many almost like sin, particularly at difficult times. So as I am convinced that the savings on vacation money are a must to the majority of families here so I believe that conveying that in daily conversation has to do with the need to give evidence of participating in the austerity measures, of behaving like one should.
There is added incentive to act with such discretion. Last year comments were made on Greeks having fun at the beach instead of working to save their country from bankruptcy. It made a strong impression here because people never thought that those were two mutually excluding options. Even the most hardworking person can find the time to go to the beach in summer. If you are blessed with some of the finest strands on hearth and can spare the time to plunge don’t let remorse stop you. We will certainly not go bankrupt. But being or risking bankruptcy is not a sin. It’s a big mistake, or a big misfortune, or both. But not a sin. Besides never forget that we were born naked ignorant and in pain. However tough things turned out in between they certainly are much better than this beginning. So keep a stiff upper lip. We will make it.
Greece goes bust; Greece will return to the drachma; Greece is bound to resign from the EU till things balance out in the Euro zone; 15 state members in the euro zone secretly agreed to expel Greece; Germany will return to the mark and Italy to the lira.
A New York ceremonial courtroom was graciously provided for an ancient Athens court session to take place with a 2.410 years’ time lap. On the 12th of May 2011 the ancient philosopher Socrates was retried and this time acquitted.
Greek film director and producer Nicos Koundouros gives us the chronologically first account of Thanassis Vengos: they both were exiled on the island of Makronissos after the end of the Greek civil war in 1949.
In January of this year Harris Ikonomopoulos, President of the British Hellenic Chamber of Commerce and Faye Leoussi, of Leoussis Advertising had a meeting with a double agenda
People from abroad who really mean well for Greece and the Greeks use the paradigm of “illness and cure” to symbolize our situation.
Zagori is an area of great natural beauty and unique architecture in the Pindus Mountains in Epirus in Northwestern Greece. The area is of about 1.000 square kilometers and contains 46 villages. Zagoria villages is called by Greeks “Zagorochoria” meaning the villages behind the mountain.
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In 1989, Professor of Byzantine Studies, Helen Ahrweiler is appointed Chairman of the Cultural Centre Pompidou in Paris