Roma felix

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 Rome, 24 May 2012

CAPUT MUNDI

Federico Fellini’s 1972 film “Roma” is a fictionalised autobiography of the Rimini-born director and a kaleidoscopic tribute to the glory and chaos of the City (Urbs) that for four centuries was the Capital of the World (Caput Mundi).  Making a cameo appearance in the film, US author Gore Vidal tells the camera, in effect, that there is no better place on earth from which to observe the decay of civilisation than the place where it all began. Observing the dusty facades of Baroque palaces and churches, Bernini, Boromini and Giacomo della Porta, the mighty riposte of the Church of St Peter to the life-hating iconoclasm of Geneva, the marbled statues of emperors and long-dead statesmen, the peeling stucco a myriad hues of tawny ochre, the palm trees and the cypresses, all this under the soft caress of a warm Latin sun in the late spring of the twelfth year of yet another century, today – even as the financial architecture of Old Europe crashes down about our heads – the secular pilgrim can empathise instinctively with what that native of the new Rome might have meant.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Shopping trolley in Campus Martius

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 Rome, 23 May 2012

Seen on a poster on a wall in the Via del Corallo in the fifth ward (Rione V) in the historic centre (the classical Campus Martius) the words “WORK, BUY, CONSUME and DIE!” against a black background. Below, on a red background, is a stylised picture of a human figure pushing a shopping trolley along a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt suddenly comes to an end – and the homunculus, still clutching the trolley, plunges down into the void. The poster is signed “Zenit”.

We imagined initially that that Zenit must be a leftwing anti-consumerist organisation whose moniker derived from “Zen.it”, ie “Zen Italia”. That may well be so. However, on investigating, we find that, in any case, it is more than that. Zenit is a non-profit-making Catholic news agency. Moreover, its name has nothing to do with Japanese Buddhism. Zenit’s own website gives the following explanation for its name:

L’origine del nome “ZENIT”



Per i primi cristiani, che si rifacevano alle profezie bibliche, il sole era uno dei simboli per antonomasia di Cristo. A lui si riferivano come al “sole di giustizia”. Scelsero come data del Natale la più antica festa per eccellenza del sole, il solstizio di inverno, che rappresentava la vittoria annuale del sole sulle tenebre, il 25 di dicembre. I cristiani tentano di vedere il mondo con gli occhi di Cristo, dalla massima altezza raggiunta dal sole, lo “zenit”.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Economics, Italy, Religion | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Stalingrad, then Berlin

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 Rome, 22 May 2012

Having just rocked up here amid the grey rains of a late Roman spring, we find that the political mood has lightened considerably, despite the recent earthquake in Emilia Romagna and the mysterious murder of a teenage girl in Brindisi by a killer who exploded three gas cylinders outside the entrance to a school.

That is because of the landslide against the right which took place yesterday 21 May 2012 in a series of municipal elections.

Until yesterday the centre-right controlled 98 of Italian local authorities with a population of more than 15 000 inhabitants. The centre-left controlled 56.

Yesterday the tables were reversed.

The centre-left now controls 95 towns and cities, the centre-right 34.

The big losers were Berlusconi’s party, Il Pop0lo della Libertà, and that of his ally, La Lega Nord, whose founder Umberto Bossi has been caught up in a financial scandal.

The centre-left Partito Democratico of Pierluigi Bersani is now the biggest party in the Centro-Nord of Italy.

Cities gained by the centre-left included Genova, where Marco Doria, scion of an ancient Genoese family,  was elected mayor, as well as Monza, Alessandria, Como and Lucca.

However, smaller parties also did well.

Veteran anti-mafia campaigner Leoluca Orlando scored a landslide victory for Lista civica over the centre-right candidate. He now becomes mayor of Palermo for the fourth time. Lista civica also beat the centre-right in Agrigento, another major Sicilian city.

The joker in the pack of election results, however, was the breakthrough by the anti-party “Five Stars’ Movement” which defeated the centre-left to win the important food production centre of Parma. This anti-establishment group was founded by the maverick comedian, actor and blogger Beppe Grillo, who wants a clean-up of Italian politics. Winning the mayorality of Parma for his candidate Federico Pizzarotti was his first major victory. Grillo’s comment, after the results were announced, was in character: “After Stalingrad, it’s Berlin. We’re going to take over the country.”

It would be wrong to read too much into the results of partial local elections in one European country. Moreover, abstentions were at an all-time high, with only 51.4 % of those eligible taking part in the vote.

However, recent political developments elsewhere in Europe have given grounds for hope. France has moved from right to centre-left with the the election as President of François Hollande.  The hardish left Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipras is riding high in the polls in Greece and may well become the leading party after the re-run of the country’s parliamentary elections on 17 June 2012. Angela Merkel’s rightwing Christian Democrats were thrashed by the opposition Social Democrats in the recent regional elections in Nordrhein-Westfalen, the most populous Land in the German Federation.

These may be mere straws in the wind. But they could also be the harbinger of a deeper shift in political mood in a Europe which has long been a virtual monopoly of the right.

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  You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in France, Germany, Greece, Italy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nihil sub sole novum

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 21 May 2012

Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.

Whatever mad acts their rulers perpetrate, it is the ordinary Greeks that get it in the neck.

Horace (65 to 8 BC). Roman poet. Epistles. Book 1, No. 2, Line 14

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Greece, Literature, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Smelling a rat

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 

20 May 2012

POLLS THAT STINK

A seminal question about one aspect of the current political and economic crisis in Greece has been nagging us for a long time now.

We do not know whether this question has been raised in Greece – frankly, we doubt it – but our assiduous perusal of the European press outside Greece has revealed not a single reference to it.

In near non-stop demonstrations over the past six months and also in the parliamentary election the Greek people have overwhelmingly demonstrated that they are opposed to the austerity measures imposed on them by Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington in exchange for fresh loans to enable the Greek government to pay off existing loans made to it in the past by foreign banks.

The question which piques our curiosity is this: despite the Greek people’s hostility to the austerity imposed on them by the European Union, opinion polls appear to show that they are nonetheless overwhelmingly in favour of retaining the euro as their national currency instead of reverting to the drachma. One poll said that 75% of Greeks wanted to retain the euro.

By eliminating Greek debt and restructuring the Greek economy so that it resembles – dream on – that of Germany, the austerity measures are designed to turn Greece into an efficient productive debt-free member of the eurozone. However, since the Greeks are not prepared to accept the austerity package, it is not clear how they can knock their economy into shape to such an extent that they can remain in the same currency union as less indebted more free-market-oriented economies such as Germany or Finland.

It would be logical, it seems to us, for those Greeks who reject the austerity to reject the euro as well. By extracting itself from the straitjacket of monetary union, the Greeks could simply write off their debts and devalue their currency, thus kick-starting growth and employment. Exports would soar in response to devaluation while imports would plummet, thus encouraging the emergence of Greek firms providing indigenous goods and services to replace imports made too expensive as result of the replacement of the euro by the devalued Greek drachma.

Which is why we find it extraordinary that the polls consistently show a substantial majority of Greeks in favour of retaining the euro while rejecting the austerity package that inevitably goes with it.

In fact, we smell a rat.

Brussels, Frankfurt, Washington and their Greek collaborators, the establishment pro-austerity parties Pasok and New Democracy, desperately need a straw to clutch at, given the population’s thorough rejection of austerity.

That straw is the opinion polls which conveniently show that, despite their hostility to austerity, a majority of Greeks want to continue to benefit from the supposed economic security provided by membership of the eurozone.

Antigone1984 would like to know a lot more about these opinion polls, which apparently show repeated majorities in favour of the retaining the euro. For instance:

1. Who is paying for these polls?

2. Who is setting the questions?

3. What precisely are the questions?

4. Are the poll results being scrutinised by an independent polling verification board?

5. Are there any personal or structural connections between the polling organisations and Pasok and New Democracy or between the polling organisations and any of the Greek newspapers in which the polls are being published?

6. Is the European Union funding any of the polls?

7. What are the size of the samples questioned in each of these polls?

8.  Have the samples been weighted for social class, district, age, region, etc to provide a representative selection of the Greek people?

9. How has it been possible to carry out accurate statistically reliable polls in a broken country ravaged by social, political and economic turmoil?

As we said above, we smell a rat.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Europe, Germany, Greece, UN | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Nationalise the banks!

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 

19 May 2012

NATIONALISE THE BANKS!

Europe’s banks should be nationalised, according to a letter from Welsh resident S. P. Chakravarty published in the Guardian yesterday 18 May 2012.

“Banks are borrowing at virtually no interest from central banks to lend to governments at a higher interest rate. This public subsidy has not, however, resulted in much new lending by banks to businesses,” he writes.

“This is madness. The banking system that crashed four years ago is now beyond repair. The start of a policy of direct lending to governments by central banks and direct lending to industry by nationalized banks would help as a stopgap measure for a couple of years, until these banks can again be privatised when legislation is in place to let banks operate under credible supervision.

“A nationalised banking sector is not necessarily incompatible with a successful market economy as the experience of Taiwan and South Korea during their years of double-digit growth demonstrates.”

Comment by Antigone1984:

A lot of what S. P. Chakravarty says seems to us to make sense, particularly his proposal to cut out the middle man – the commercial banks – between central banks and governments.  This would not only save public money by eliminating the usurious interest charged to governments for the loan of money which the commercial banks themselves have acquired from central banks at rock-bottom interest rates. It would also allow governments to direct the loans it acquires directly from the central banks to targeted businesses, thus promoting growth and employment.

However, we have the following quibbles:

1. Why propose the nationalisation of banks as merely a stopgap measure? Chakravarty provides no argument to back up this proposal. At Antigone1984 we think that as key economic actors the banks should be nationalised permanently.

Chakravarty talks of the adopting of legislation “to let banks operate under credible supervision”. Since the global banking system collapsed in 2008, we have been waiting in vain for the introduction of credible supervision of the banking system. US bank JP Morgan has just announced the loss of $2 billion as a result of unregulated rogue trading. There is no appetite in the financial community for tougher regulation nor any sign that governments have the grit to impose it against their will. Besides which, any regulation is bound to be a compromise between regulator and deregulator interests so that any resulting legislation will necessarily be full of loopholes. As Chakravarty himself writes in a passage we have just quoted: ‘The banking system that crashed four years ago is now beyond repair.”  Quite.

Why not cut the Gordian knot and simply nationalise the banks for good?

2. As regards Taiwan and South Korea, given that the banking sector in those countries was nationalised during their boom years, we think it would be better to describe their economies as “mixed” rather than “market”. In fact, this is very much the situation in China today – the state maintaining a tight rein over the commanding sectors of the economy, including the banks – and something which has contributed immeasurably to the phenomenal growth of the Chinese economy over the past decade.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in China, Economics, Europe | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Royal feast for royal tyrants

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 18 May 2012

UK SOVEREIGN LAYS ON JUNKET FOR SEVEN TYRANTS

Kings and queens from around the world have arrived at Windsor Castle near London today for a lunch to celebrate the diamond jubilee this year of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, who acceded to the throne in 1952 on the death of her father George VI. According to the BBC, twelve members of the British royal family will join the Queen to welcome the sovereigns of 26 countries. The lunch will be followed by an evening banquet hosted by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

BBC news correspondent Peter Hunt explains – for the benefit of those at the back of the class – that this is a celebratory gathering of heads of state who owe their positions to accidents of birth rather than the ballot box. Correct. Well spotted, Sir!

Not surprisingly, the royal junketing has attracted controversy.

Republic, the group campaigning for a republic in the UK, points out that the sovereigns being feasted by the British royal family include seven royal tyrants from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Brunei, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Swaziland.

Said Graham Smith, chief executive officer of Republic (which Antigone1984 supports): “We believe the Queen should not be inviting such people to her jubilee celebrations and must take personal responsibility for doing so.  With these dictators currently oppressing their citizens it’s unacceptable for them to be hosted by our head of state at lavish parties and dinners.”

A protest being staged this evening outside the Queen’s central London home, Buckingham Palace, is backed by supporters of democracy movements in Bahrain and Swaziland.

However, one royal who will not be present at today’s pomp and flummery is Queen Sofia of Spain. She has snubbed the invitation to attend because of Gibraltar, a peninsula in southern Spain which was captured by the British in 1704 and incorporated into the British empire. Spain wants it back.

 —————–

 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Spain, UK | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crooked timber

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

17 May 2012

We  reprint below the substance of an article by commentator Simon Jenkins in the print edition of the UK’s Guardian newspaper on 16 May 2012.

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO EXIT THIS NIGHTMARE: GREXIT

The article, published under the headline above, is summed up by the following extract from its concluding paragraph:

“The peoples of Europe are made of crooked timber. They have always fought back against hubristic rulers seeking undue authority over their affairs. While the old Common Market knew its limitations, the euro was a step too far. It required a degree of union that Europe has never tolerated, from the Holy Roman Empire through Napoleon to the Third Reich…”

 Simon Jenkins begins his article by predicting “economic nemesis”  in Europe.

“The eurozone,” he says, “is a state without a government.”

The article continues along the following lines:

“It has been clear for years that Greece’s political economy cannot manage the cost of euro membership. Debts and subsidies cannot cover its bills any longer. It cannot indefinitely fail to repay money that it should never have borrowed and banks should never have lent….The message from Greece’s democracy this week is to default and take the consequences.

“These days only fools voluntarily leave money in Greek banks. An estimated £28bn in euro notes is said to be hidden in Greek mattresses, awaiting release into the economy via a devalued currency. There will be no recovery until this happens. The bullet must be bitten. Banks must go on holiday and come under state control, while debts are redenominated in drachmas. Lenders, savers and importers will take a mighty haircut….

“Only then can this nightmare begin to end. Only with the decks cleared of debt can Greece, like Iceland and Argentina, before it, start rebuilding its economy at a realistic rate of exchange. One thing only is certain. A year on, Greece will be on the mend and everyone will wonder why exit took so long, and why anyone believed the fools who said it would be an inconceivable calamity.

“….Already the bears are gathering round Spain and Italy, not because their economies are like the Greek one …The austerities required to bring all the eurozone economies into cost equilibrium with Germany are breaking the back of democracy….

“Voters everywhere are punishing governments for repressing demand. What cannot be raised in taxes is borrowed, sending sovereign debt back into the stratosphere. For three years finance ministers have gone cap in hand to Germany, pleading for various forms of bailout.…

“To its besotted acolytes, the euro was to be the final icing on the cake of political union. It was an exquisitely crafted currency that would enable German efficiency to permeate the continent and usher in a dawn of prosperity and contentment. Sceptics said it would merely enable Germany to swamp lesser economies and wipe their exports from the map….

“….But a continent is not a nation. It has diverse loyalties and obligations….

“If Europe’s finance ministers contrived a Greek exit, they would at least have a marginally more plausible euro than now. They could hurl more money at the firewalls round Spanish and Italian debt. They could prop up banks by printing euros….

“This would work only for a while. The sort of fiscal union dreamed of by Germany and its allies in Brussels would soon be rejected by Spanish voters, and eventually by Portuguese, Irish and French ones. Every few years there would be another Greece, and another punishing, debilitating combat between Europe’s rulers and market reality. These are wars that markets always win. Why keep fighting them?”….

Antigone1984: Amen to all that.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Europe, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Potential for panic

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 16 May 2012

GREAT FEAR THAT COULD DEVELOP INTO A PANIC – BANK CHIEF

At least 700 million euros was withdrawn from Greek banks in the week up to last Monday 14 May 2012, Greek President Karolos Papoulias is quoted as saying in a BBC report today 16 May.

But there are no signs of a bank run, according to the BBC report.

However, the Financial Times is cited by the BBC as quoting Athens-based bankers to the effect that withdrawals exceeded 1.2bn euros on Monday 14 May and Tuesday 15 May. That is said to amount to 0.75% of deposits.

Moreover, in minutes of talks on Tuesday with Greek political parties, President Papoulias is quoted as saying:

“[Greek central bank chief George] Provopoulos told me there was no panic, but there was great fear that could develop into a panic.”

However, according to the BBC, there were no signs of panic or queues outside banks in Athens today 16 May.

The patchwork of political parties that emerged from the recent parliamentary elections on 6 May 2012 failed to agree on the composition of a new government, so fresh elections are to be held on 17 June 2012.

Syriza, a coalition of radical leftwing groups, is tipped to come top in the poll. While opposing austerity measures imposed on Greece by the EU and the IMF in exchange for emergency loans, Syriza says it wants to retain the euro as the country’s currency instead of resurrecting the drachma.

Many commentators believe, however, that if Greece rejects the austerity package it will have to leave the eurozone willy-nilly.

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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Posted in Europe, Greece | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Syriza

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Antigone1984.com

Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 15 May 2012

Ζήτω η Ελλάδα                                                               Ζήτω η Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

SYRIZA TAKES GREECE BACK TO THE ROOTS OF DEMOCRACY

Greece is to hold new parliamentary elections next month, probably on 10 or 17 June 2012, the exact date to be announced tomorrow.

This follows the failure of last-ditch talks held today under the aegis of the Greek President Karolos Papoulias.

The political parties that emerged from the recent parliamentary elections on 6 May 2012 failed to agree on the composition of a new government.

The collapse of the talks did not reflect the usual split between left and right.

The disagreement was, on the one hand, between two traditional establishment parties – nominally socialist Pasok and rightwing New Democracy – which both favoured pushing ahead with the savage austerity programme imposed on debt-hit Greece by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, and, on the other hand, parties of both left and right which rejected the externally imposed austerity measures.

International media and financial market speculation has centred on the growing belief that, if the austerity programme is rejected, Greece will be forced out of the eurozone, the 17-state European common currency area, and compelled to revert to the drachma.

However, according to Antigone1984, this is not the main  reason for the panic now seizing the European political establishment.

The latest opinion polls in Greece predict that Syriza, a coalition of radical leftwing groups, will come out top in the June ballot. Buoyed high on a wave of popular revulsion to the austerity package, the party came a close second to New Democracy in the elections on 6 May.

If Syriza does emerge as the leading party in June, it will benefit from the extraordinary Greek election rules that give the party winning the largest percentage of the vote a free bonus of an extra 50 seats – over-and-above the number of seats it has won straightforwardly on the basis of the country’s proportional voting regulations.

Accordingly, the stakes could not be higher.

If Syriza does become the largest party in the June election, it will be in pole position to take the lead in forming a government.

For the first time since the French Revolution, then, there the chance that a radical leftwing party will come to power in a western European country.

If this happens, the reverberations will be felt throughout the continent as well as globally. The seemingly immutable duopolistic two-party stranglehold on western democracy will have been prised unprecedentedly apart.

Who knows where this could lead?

No wonder the political elite is quaking in its boots.

Democracy, freed from the suffocating straitjacket of the partitocracy, will be returning in pristine condition to the land of the Hellenes, where it all began 2 500 years ago.

Ζήτω η Ελλάδα                                                                    Ζήτω η Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

——————

Posted in Europe, Greece | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment