slenderbeak: Greek General Election 7th July 2019

slenderbeak: Greek General Election 7th July 2019: I was here for the 2015 General Election. What a different atmosphere this time. My Greek friends will mainly vote Syriza. They say that t...

Greek General Election 7th July 2019

I was here for the 2015 General Election. What a different atmosphere this time.
My Greek friends will mainly vote Syriza. They say that the choice is between Syriza and New Democracy and that if they voted for any smaller party or coalition of parties such as Varoufakis's MeRA25, they would certainly be allowing the right wing New Democracy to win. I can see their logic. It's not so far removed from the way UK voters behave. And, they say, four years is not long enough to judge the neo-liberal policies of Alexis Tsipras.

Of course, Tsipras was never a revolutionary socialist anymore than Jeremy Corbyn is, so we shouldn't expect anything different from them. According to Zoe Konstantopoulou (former Greek Parliament Speaker and Syriza), Tsipras only lasted seventeen hours in negotiations with the EU over the imposition of austerity measures on the Greek people. That pales into insignificance when you compare it to the physical torture endured by people like her father during the 1967 dictatorship. Fair point.

So, what is to be done? Mitsotakis of New Democracy wants to win an absolute majority so he can do whatever he wants but if they get it I suspect the Greek voters will live to regret the result. He has also avoided public debate with Tsipras. Uhm! Now who does that remind me of? If you scrutinize the neo-liberal agendas of western democracies they don't differ so much.

Many people are afraid to vote for who they really think will bring profound change, not only for their country but the world because alternative parties are too small and so the carousel spins round once again. It takes conviction to branch out from the stale, established system by getting off that horse and sticking to our principles. But If we don't, we will continue to get more of the same, whether it's New Democracy or Syriza, Tory or Labour. I feel I owe my children better than that.

slenderbeak: National Poetry DayByron in KefaloniaByron sp...

slenderbeak:

National Poetry Day

Byron in Kefalonia
Byron sp...: National Poetry Day Byron in Kefalonia Byron spent four months in Kefalonia. In1821 the Ionian islands were governed by the B...

National Poetry Day

Byron in Kefalonia

Byron spent four months in Kefalonia. In1821 the Ionian islands were governed by the British Protectorate who wanted to remain neutral in the war between Turkey and Greece. This relatively unknown verse from Byron’s journal, was written in 1823 during his four month stay on the island.  Byron came to Kefalonia to support the men who defied the 1821 decree of the British Protectorate government that denied them the right to help their fellow countrymen in their uprising against the Turkish domination of the mainland.

“The Dead have been awakened – shall I sleep?

The World’s at war with tyrants – shall I crouch?

The Harvest’s ripe – and shall I pause to reap?

I slumber not – the thorn is in my Couch –

Each day a trumpet soundeth in mine ear –

Its Echo in my heart.”

slenderbeak: The Season Ending

slenderbeak: The Season Ending: I visit someone in poor health. I tread on almond shells dropping from the trees as I walk up into the heart of the village. Plastic ba...

The Season Ending

I visit someone in poor health. I tread on almond shells dropping from the trees as I walk up into the heart of the village. Plastic bags tied to gateposts wait for the baker to drop in the daily bread. Brittle leaves from the abandoned vines scratch along the road. The sun beats down on the ripening pomegranates.

There is a musty smell coming from the open doorway of a storehouse that nurtures stone jars and an old leather harness from a donkey long since departed. Soapy clean clothes billow in the breeze. The tiny yellow shuttered house on the corner surrounded like a fortress by flower pots of all sizes, roses, jasmine, coral, petunias, geraniums. I pass a garden with a well, its bucket dancing on a rope pulley.

Prickly pears are thudding onto the parched plot behind my house. 

Today we have a fresh westerly wind chasing the clouds, causing a swell in the bay, no ferry today but the boats ride high.

According to Greek myth the pomegranate symbolizes the fruit of the dead and the juice springs from the blood of Adonis. They are supposed to bring prosperity, abundance and luck to all.

Persephone, goddess of the underworld, was kidnapped by Hades and taken to live in the underworld as his wife. Her mother, Demeter, goddess of harvest, went into mourning for her lost daughter and so all things green stopped growing. Zeus, biggest of all gods, couldn’t allow the earth to die so he commanded Hades to return Persephone. The fates ruled that anyone who ate or drank in the underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone had no food but Hades offered her a pomegranate and she ate six seeds (the number varies according to which text you read). From then on she had to spend six months a year in the underworld. During these six months Demeter mourns and no longer gives fertility to the earth

This was the ancient Greek explanation for the seasons and I'm leaving some pomegranate seeds on my doorstep tonight just in case Adonis appears.

Review of The Cleaner of Kastoria

 This novel encapsulates the Greek political scene over the past seventy years through the engaging character and lifestyle of Dina, the Cleaner of Kastoria. She  is a poor and embittered 50 year old Greek woman, whose considerable potential could not flower both as a result of the poverty of her village upbringing  and because she fought for the Democratic Army in the Greek Civil War of 1947.

Dina spends her life battling to make a living as a cleaner in a rich man's mansion. She then returns home at night to further domestic tasks and to tend her sick daughter and a beloved little granddaughter. Rena's lungs are affected by her unhealthy working conditions in a factory. She remembers her time in the woman's brigade as a period when she was respected, although h she was often half starved, exhausted and in danger.  There Greek patriarchal attitudes were replaced by equal treatment and admiration for her courage and that of her fellow women fighters there she enjoyed a close camaraderie and some fun with her fellow women fighters.

This is an extremely well- researched novel giving graphic insight into the horrors the fighters endured during that brutal civil war as well as  the  repression suffered by the Greek people under the Colonels  in the seventies and the resultant inequality . The author manages to evoke the authentic atmosphere and beauty of the Greek landscape and to celebrate the joyous culture as well as the struggle of ordinary people just to survive. Dina despite her travails can often be moved by the beauty of the lake or the mountains. The narrative flows and Dina's character, particularly, is vividly evoked as she struggles between her commitment to her ideology and human compassion, between the needs of her family  and her passion for  her left wing past. The novel is well constructed each chapter headed by apposite historical quotes and it is an engaging read.

Val Simanowitz.