A little courtesy in international affairs never hurt
anyone. Netanyahu would not have lost much in
congratulating the new Iranian President and in
wishing him and the Iranian people success in an,
admissibly, difficult international climate for Iran.
At least, the veteran Israeli President, Shimon Peres,
more composed and, perhaps, with more wisdom
and more penetrating insight than the Prime Minister,
did not think it inappropriate to express his hope
for more conciliatory policies and for improvement
in regional relations.
Given the understanding that there are many differences
in the Iranian and the Western approach towards a wide
variety of issues and many unresolved bilateral problems,
the Iranian People's election of a moderate, that has
already made some statements to the effect that he is
going to constructively engage Iran with the community
of nations, and that will, hopefully, refrain from a
mindless and pointless aggressive rhetoric, is a hugely
positive sign, especially in contrast to the recent past.
I honestly and wholeheartedly wish the Iranian People
and their newly elected President success; the success
of such an important country, from the historical,
cultural, political and geographical point of view, will
contribute decisively in a better, more peaceful and
more fraternal world, a hope of all of this world's
citizens.
I am perplexed and disconcerted by Barack's approach to
the Syrian crisis and developing situation. While I neither
support nor oppose unequivocally the latest decision of
providing more military materiel to the rebel forces, I would
think that the only remaining superpower would have had
something better to offer for ending the crisis than a piece-
meal incoherent approach full of reluctant and unconvincing
improvisations. How is it possible for a country of this high
of a stature with such an international influence not to have
the right mechanisms both in State and Defense to come up,
together with regional and global support and commitment,
with a clear coherent strategy for ending this bloodshed and
clearing a path for a transition to a fully democratic system,
based on full respect for Syrian sovereignty and self-rule,
without any future foreign interferences?
When 100,000 people lose their lives in a regional conflict
with much greater ease than was happening several decades
ago, in a much more retarded climate of international co-
operation and a much more underdeveloped framework of
international legal affairs, and our United Nations is just
reporting, there is something fundamentally wrong.
The main role of our United Nations is to prevent those
conflicts from flaring up and to safeguard human life and
protect human dignity. When in Syria, or any other part of
the globe, carnage, that would have been deemed utterly
unacceptable in places favored by the few and powerful of
this world, is condoned or even enabled, our United Nations
is sadly and terribly at fault. For such fundamental failures,
the Secretary General has a non-negotiable responsibility:
he either has to find a breakthrough or, if he deems that
the powers-to-be, instead of aiding, are inhibiting his main
fundamental and crucial role as a peace maker and keeper
of world peace and stability, he has to resign and offer a
transparent and credible explanation of how and why this
primitive state of world affairs can still exist under the
watch of the organization in the political international
arena of the 21st century. Us, the United Nations citizens
have much higher expectations and want to be represented
by officials that have the energy, the guts and the audacity
to rise up to the difficult, demanding and challenging tasks.
If the Secretary General and his team are not up to it, they
should let someone else at least try to fulfill those
responsibilities... Enough is enough is enough...
A very prudent and balanced unanimous decision by the
U.S. Supreme Court is showing the way forward for both
the practice and the ethics of gene research as related to
gene patenting.
Prime Minister Erdogan may be unhappy with the protesters
out at Taksim for obvious reasons; the inner motivation, the
political activism and the social and political sensitivities of
the Turkish youth are, however, extremely refreshing; in a
world where much of the youth in the developed and many
of the developing countries are characterized by apathy and
passivity, the citizens at Taksim are, for all of us, a reminder
that the people of this world do indeed realize that the
democratically elected governments, OUR governments, are
there to serve us and the public interest in issues including
promotion of culture and environmental stewardship and
long term sustainability, and not just to take care of fiscally
related matters, however important those may be, and that,
unfortunately, all too often the latter take precedent to the
detriment of or disregard for the former.
Hollande's latest remarks will do little to alter, at least the
perception, if not the substance, that the Élysées officials
are secluded and completely out of touch with realities on
the ground; nor will it change the Japanese point of view,
which is based on hard facts and cold realities, rather than
wishful rhetoric emanating from unreliable sources...
"the crisis in Europe is over"?????
"we have all the instruments of stability and solidarity"??????
Instead of President Obama going to the California meeting
with President Xi empowered by America's values, trying
to influence the Chinese towards higher respect for human
rights, freedom and transparency and confronting them
about causing an almost open electronic warfare with their
cyber-espionage methods, the Presidency, under the pretext
of national security, has itself adopted China's techniques
in spying on its citizens, thus betraying our own traditions
of cherishing and upholding individual liberties and of
championing civil rights both at home and globally...
Nelson Mandela is again hospitalized in Pretoria, this time
in serious condition. Sooner or later the world will have to
learn to live without his towering presence. Sad as that may
be, what is actually even sadder is that there has not been
any other politician in the Mother Continent (and, perhaps,
in the entire globe) that has even remotely approached the
dedication, determination and selflessness of that Greatest
of Leaders.
I recall Prime Minister Erdogan a few years ago claiming
that Turkey was a mature democracy not afraid to engage
into a meaningful dialog with its minorities and ready to
offer some degree of autonomy and self-government to
its Kurdish citizens. How ironic that, now on the defensive,
probably on his way to the benches of the opposition, his
current statements, accusing Twitter of being a "menace"
spreading "lies", reveal that he no longer believes in that
maturity of the Turkish democracy.
A truly mature democratic regime is not afraid of and shows
respect for the role that social media have to play in ensuring
open dialog and transparency, despite occasionally becoming
originators or propagators of lies and misinformation. Such a
democratic regime has nothing to lose by the freedom of the
various forms of the media. He can face them and respond to
them head on with a straight face and a clear consciousness...
The pot called the kettle black...
Είπε ο γάϊδαρος (literally) το πετεινό κεφάλα...
If this report is true, then it will be one of the,
admittedly, few but, nevertheless, disheartening
occasions in which the Michigan Governor, has
not been entirely forthcoming and transparent
in his machinations with the state electorate.
It is to his credit that he has mostly established
a reputation of working openly to achieve the
right political balance for the benefit of the state
and it is to his discredit when these underground
secretive committees are working away veiled
from the public eye under his auspices and
without much of an opportunity for the people
of the State to discuss their business and to
comment on the relative merits of the proposals
under consideration...
Out of the political chaos and the charlatanism of
the Italian politics, largely a legacy of the Berlusconi
administration style and quality of government, a
brightly shining ray of hope emerged at last: the
solidifying enormous stature of Presidente Giorgio
Napolitano will be there to guarantee a semblance
of stability and, perhaps, a safe passage away from
the terrible effects of Berlusconism...
This agreement is a historic agreement; It neither forces
Serbia to recognize Kosovo nor does it force Kosovo to
accept the secession of the Serbian enclaves in northern
Kosovo (which of course have an equal right under
international law to secede from Kosovo as Kosovo
itself had to secede from Serbia). What is of very great
significance here is that these two countries or entities
have the unique opportunity to become part of the wider
European family under the auspices of the European
Union and this is a political umbrella under which unity
is a de facto datum and ethnic disagreements, uncivilized
rivalries and secessionist tendencies have no meaning
and no place. This ideal in progress is one of the biggest
successes and of the biggest appeals of the Grand
European project and the Chancellor of Germany,
the President of France and the Prime Minister of the
U.K. should take a moment to fully grasp and digest
its significance which they occasionally seem inclined
to underplay for various expedient reasons...
Οι υπόδουλοι είναι τα χειρότερα αφεντικά και,
δυστυχώς, οι υπό εκμετάλλευση και υποδουλωμένοι
Έλληνες του σήμερα προσπαθούν να εκμεταλλευτούν
και να βγάλουν το άχτι τους με τον πιο άγριο και
απάνθρωπο τρόπο, στρεφόμενοι βάναυσα ενάντια
σε πιο ατυχείς και καταφρονεμένους συνανθρώπους
τους. Ντρέπομαι γιατί τρείς χιλιετίες πολιτισμού
και πολισμικής επικοινωνίας μεταξύ της Μεγάλης
Ελλάδας, της Μέσης και της Άπω Ανατολής και
της Δύσης άφησε τον σύγχρονο Ελληνικό πολιτισμό
ακαλλιέργητο και τραχύ, όπου ατυχία και ανέχεια
δεν εκδηλώνονται μέσω συμπόνιας και αλληλεγγύης
παρά μέσω απανθρωπιάς και ανείπωτης, φριχτής,
αλόγιστης εκδικητικότητας εναντίον ομόμοιρων,
συμπορευόμενων συνανθρώπων... Ντρέπομαι...
A BIG POLITICAL NO to this patent. I have the
suspicion that it will usher in a new unfortunate era
of incessant legal proceedings standing on the way
of scientific and medical innovations in the field.
Even by just frustrating, delaying or discouraging
such innovations, its effect will be a huge blow to
those, who mostly under public funding and personal
sacrifices, have made such progress possible in the
last few decades.
A reasonable analysis of the available evidence based
on international events and developments leads to the
uncertain, but probable, conclusion that, vis-à-vis its
international and treaty obligations, China acts mostly
according to the letter of the law, but, either directly
or by proxy, is indifferent about the spirit of the law;
sometimes even willing to bend or break it when it
perceives that such actions serve its own short or
longer term interests, position and stature. The proxy
issue is a convenience that enables China to "say the
right things" on the international political arena, thus,
keeping a facade of legality, which is necessary
especially because of its status as a permanent member
of the Security Council, while, at the same time, being
able to engage into any actions it deems appropriate
for its interests without incurring a direct blame or
assuming direct responsibility. This leads one to believe
that China is a less reliable actor and partner towards
international peace and security than it appears to be...
It is very exciting when one hears that, at last, the interests
of a city, a state, a country and, frankly, common sense,
triumph over the interests of a single businessman, business
family or business entity. On the other hand, the fact that
the entire weight of a 99%-in-the-right argument, including
the interests of an entire country and the interests of an
entire state and the benefit of the overwhelming majority
of its citizens, is needed to tip the balance over the special
interests of that single business group is a sad reminder of
how much effort needs to be invested to convince others
even about the most obvious and beneficial things, when
even a single, but financially powerful and politically
connected, person or entity wishes to follow the most unrea-
sonable, selfish and self-serving route against common sense
and the common good. Thus, even for achieving something
that should have been straightforward and easy to do in the
first place, I am afraid that one has to assign some credit,
once more, to the Michigan Governor for his determination
and his stubbornness and to the Canadian authorities for
helping push the project through.
Bravo to Leonard Lauder for the huge donation of
extremely significant cubism masterpieces to the New
York Metropolitan. His family fortune has been put
to an extraordinarily beneficial use for the cultural
education and appreciation of the public. Despite,
the private ownership of these works, the way these
artists and their most important contributions have
affected our humanity, have made them an integral
part of our global cultural heritage and, needless to
say, there is, perhaps, no better place where to have
them preserved and exhibited than the Met in NY.
"Not a failure of the teachers"? What kind of a scam of
the earth of a lawyer can stand in front of the parents and
the people of Georgia and even think of uttering such
pronouncements?
Ο Κύπρου Χρυσόστομος θα έπραττε πανσόφως εάν
περιόριζε τις ρητορίες του στα περι του ποιμαντικού
και φιλανθρωπικού έργου υπό την ευθύνη του και
άφηνε τα πολιτικά στους εκλεγμένους πολιτικούς, τα
οικονομικά στους υπεύθυνους οικονομολόγους και τα
υπόλοιπα τεχνικά και τεχνοκρατικά ζητήματα στους
επί τα ανάλογα εκπαιδευμένους τεχνοκράτες. Υπάρχει
λόγος σοβαρός για τον οποίο οι μαθηματικοί μελετούν
μαθηματικά, οι φυσικοί φυσική, οι χημικοί χημεία,
οι οικονομολόγοι οικονομικά και οι παπάδες παπα-
τζιλίκια...
Amen!
The arguments at the Supreme Court on the right of same-sex
partners to marry (the essence being them being recognized as
having exactly the same rights and responsibilities associated
with this institution as heterosexual couples do) have an eerily
familiar vibe reverberating from our recent and not so recent
history concerning the struggles surrounding human rights and
race equality. Unfortunately, they show how little and how
shallowly indeed we understand our history and how little
we have digested and how weakly we espouse the power of
our constitutional rights...
The Cypriot officials have to be careful to tell their constituents
the truth about what happened. The statement of the Chairman
of the Parliament's Finance Committee that ``they've destroyed
our banking sector" is blatantly false and intentionally misleading.
The Cypriot banking sector destroyed itself and what the new
European emergency decision is achieving is not the already
attained self-inflicted destruction but, rather, an avoidance of
a free fall by creating some friction and causing, thus, the effected
destruction and consequent fall to be a controlled one. The
politicians and the culprits in Cyprus should look primarily
in the mirror if they want to honestly assign blame and should
stop disproportionately blaming outsiders for their plight...
When these things occur and when people like this are
so shameless and some conservative voters are ready
to forgive them, one cannot stop but wonder what are
the manifestations of applied conservatism in America.
Is an applied conservative someone that, while raising
his left hand to vote for the castration of his fellow
citizens to prevent "immoral behavior" and "defend
family values", is also raising his right hand to swipe
his credit card to purchase a trip to a safe haven, under
the illusion of complete discretion and secrecy, where
he intends to fulfill all his own long suppressed urges
and desires? It seems like a lot of voters on the right
are willing to at least accept, if not embrace, this
definition and to vote accordingly...
The government of Cyprus and its lenders are at fault
imposing the levy on bank deposits on the island and,
in my opinion, in breach of the Universal Declaration
on Human Rights, adopted by the U.N. General
Assembly on December 10, 1948. Article 17(2) of the
Instrument states clearly and unequivocally that ``No
one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property".
Therefore, the only acceptable way to mend public
finances and to re-balance deficient budgets, as well
as to fill-in monetary deficiencies such as faced by
the Cypriot banks, is for the government and its
lenders to adopt drastic measures in terms of cutting
public expenditures by shrinking the public sector
and by reducing employee compensations, i.e., by
manipulating future commitments, rather than by
retroactively instituting cuts by depriving people
of their already acquired property. This is the path
followed in all other bailouts and this is the one
that should be followed in this case as well.
The problem with many U.S. politicians, especially those
on the right, is that they show compassion only when an
issue hits home and they lack the ability to abstract and
be compassionate towards the general population when
an issue does not affect them personally in some way.
We have seen countless examples of this phenomenon:
Politicians preaching abstinence and chastity until they
are revealed as incapable of controlling their own desires,
politicians vigorously and aggressively prosecuting
prostitutes and their clients until their names are found
on the lists, politicians supporting restrictions on the sales
and consumption of alcoholic beverages until they
themselves are caught drunk driving and now, once
more, an example of a politician opposing gay marriage
up until his own son comes out and, perhaps, expresses
a desire to marry. Why is it not possible for the people
pretending to be representatives of the people to think of
all other human beings as brothers and sisters, as persons
who, despite the fact that they were not born of the same
blood, have responsibilities, needs, desires and hopes not
unlike the ones that they themselves and their own kin do?
Has Jorge Bergoglio been a heroic anti-junta activist
during Argentina's most recent darkest hours? The
fair answer seems to be definitely not. Has Jorge
Bergoglio been an eager collaborator with the military
regime or in any way bearing the prime responsibility
for crimes against humanity during Argentina's most
recent darkest hours? The fair answer seems to also
be definitely not. First, I think that it is unfair to ask,
on the one hand, for a pope to be behaving with the
humility and unpretentiousness of an ordinary human
being while, on the other, placing on him the demand
of a super-human heroism, the kind of quality that it
takes for one to sacrifice substantially to oppose the
armed power of a military state. Furthermore, one
should bear in mind that it is highly unlikely that it
would be possible among that group of 100+ cardinals,
mostly conformists with full bellies and with very little
in terms of unfulfilled personal desires, to find real
revolutionaries, with uncompromising activist attitudes,
willing to put their comforts and personal well-being
on the line for the sake of democracy and freedom.
Such a stance requires a special creed of a person and
I do not think that a person of such an extraordinary
selflessness would have ever risen to the necessary
political power required to occupy the seat of Saint
Peter...
The Catholics and the rest of the world hope that the
election of Cardinal Bergoglio from Buenos Aires as
Pope Francis I will fill the sails of Catholicism with
favorable winds and will contribute as a spiritual,
social and political force decisively in a global move
towards peace, fraternity and cooperation between
all nations on earth and their governments.
It would be a nice surprise if the new pope was one of
the outsiders rather than one of the frontrunners. How
about Manila or Vienna?
The only person that does not believe (or at least does not
admit so) that Afghanistan will be in an even worse shape
after the reduction of the NATO forces in 2014 is Hamid
Karzai. And Afghanistan will be in worse shape, contrary
to what Karzai insists on claiming, not because of the US
forces or the Taliban insurgents, but, to a large extent,
because of the incompetence and the corruption of his
own government and because of his own mental instability,
intellectual stupidity and political retardation. There is
simply no other way to explain his wishy-washy attitude,
his fluctuating destabilizing allegiances, his terrible choice
of loyal domestic (and occasionally foreign) partners and
his proclivity for making absurd statements showing that,
often, his mouth either operates without any mental
pre-processing whatsoever or, simply, runs before his
mind, thus contradicting his everyday actions and his
apparent mode of governing.
The international legal framework should be the guiding
framework in which all bilateral and multilateral resolutions
of differences take place and international law should be
employed as the basis for the resolution of all conflicts.
These principles that the Greek Foreign Affairs Minister
so eloquently emphasized using the phrase ``Ευαγγέλιο
είναι για την Ελλάδα το Διεθνές Δίκαιο" (``For Greece,
International Law is the Gospel") should be followed
not just by Greece and Turkey in resolving all their
current disputes, but also, and perhaps especially so,
by all Far Eastern Countries and Nations, including
China, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and
all other nations in the Western Pacific, trying to amicably
resolve all territorial disputes in a manner that promotes
and enhances brotherhood and cooperation among the
citizens and the governments of these (and all) nations.
The BBC reports today that the Filipino observers of our
United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan
have been freed by the Syrian rebel group that had been
holding them hostage in Jamla. It was the right thing to do
and my hope is that the acknowledgement of this faux pas
on the part of the group will send a message to all other
complainant, belligerent or aggressive sides that, regardless
of any other actions, peaceful or military, that they decide
to pursue, the soldiers and envoys of our United Nations,
in particular, and all other diplomats, in general, around
the globe are not and should not become targets or objects
of manipulation for amplifying a point (any point) of view.
Whoever you are, wherever you come from, lay your hands off
the blue berets. These are OUR soldiers, these are OUR envoys.
It took our civilization a few millennia to reach the maturity that
enabled us to sit together, to take careful decisions of wide
acceptance and globally sanctioned measures towards ensuring
stability, peace and prosperity for all. The blue berets are the
messengers of hope of these pioneering world achievements in
global cooperation. Do not even think of attacking them or
holding them hostage. These actions touch adversely our
fundamental sensitivities as political and social beings and
are not going to enhance your political or other positions,
nor increase anyone's sympathy in support of your goals
and aspirations (even the just ones) in any way.
FREE SAFELY the blue berets and SHOW RESPECT to
our United Nations and the missionaries of its Secretariat.
WE, THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD, STAND UNITED in
DEMANDING THIS without compromise.
What a pleasure it was to listen to the extraordinary combination
of depth and simplicity of thought and of expression of the retired
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor.
It was a joy to absorb the thoughtfulness and elegance by which
she answered the questions she thought relevant and interesting,
and the gracefulness by which she brushed aside the fluff that
sometimes journalists either like to, or simply have to, use to fill
up page space or air time with. The realization that some people
in positions of power have such a level of education, such elegance
of character and such an ability makes one more optimistic and
hopeful about the future of our country and of its public life.
Μετά τις κουταλομαχίες των '80 και των '90, τώρα η πλήρως
αναμενόμενη σμίκρυνση και το συνεπαγόμενο αδιαχώρητο, το
οποίο καθίσταται εντονότερο λόγου αποκτηθέντος όγκου
κατά τις κυβερνώσες δεκαετίες, προκαλούν ανισορροπία και
έκρυθμες συμπεριφορές οι οποίες κατά διαστήματα οδηγούν
και σε βαρέων βαρών στελεχομαχίες...
Since arguing with the leadership of the "Golden Dawn"
seems to be a lost proposition, I direct this plea to all young
Greek parents: DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS to the schools
set up by Golden Dawn. The mission and the responsibility
of a school is not to shield children from the realities of their
surroundings and close their eyes, ears and minds to the
currents and influences of their times.
The role of school is to open the kids' horizons and make them
aware and appreciative of the pluralism of the society they live
in and will be asked to navigate in and to contribute to and of the
advantages and the richness that come from the confluence and
constructive synthesis of aspects of multiple cultures and ideas.
Greece is the beacon of Western Civilization in part due to its
historical role as a absorber, critical examiner and synthesizer
of ideas of other cultures from the far east to the far west and
younger Greeks, through appropriate education, have a unique
opportunity to exploit anew this unique historical and cultural
environment for new achievements, new successes and renewed
global recognition. DO NOT ALLOW the old-fashioned and
bankrupt political and social ideals of the Golden Dawn to rob
our children from these fascinating and promising prospects
and opportunities.
Detroit has serious financial problems that its own local
political establishment has been unable to cope with for
some time now. It is my humble opinion that, being
unable to reign on its big deficits, the Detroit politicians
would have been eager and willing to get some constructive
external advice and help. Therefore, to claim that Governor
Snyder's offering such help is a political decision with some
secret underlying ulterior motives sounds very unconvincing.
Moreover, it just seems to me that the governor would be
willing to discuss with the city appointing someone that
would have the confidence and the trust of both sides and
the experience, determination and appropriate authority,
balanced with firm supervision, so as to be able to deliver
some desperately needed results relatively quickly. All of
us, residents of Michigan, want this to happen and wish for
Detroit the best, because, simply put, the destiny and well
being, economic, social and cultural, of our flagship city
coincides with the destiny of our State and of the entire
Midwestern region.
I think it is rather improper for a U.S. Supreme Court Judge,
and for that matter, any other judge to employ at the bench
terminology that is politically charged and judicially meaning-
less. Unless the expression "racial entitlement" does have a
precise legal meaning of which I am unaware, I think that
its use by Associate Justice Scalia was tactless, ungraceful
and unproductive, to say the least. It is perhaps, an indication
that his mouth runs occasionally before his mind or that in his
mind he is justified to possess a political agenda at the bench,
which would lead to the conclusion that one would be naive
to expect politically unbiased, purely logically supported legal
analysis of presented arguments on his part...
This article of BBC news about a class action lawsuit that is
being filed in the U.S. against InBev for watering down its
Anheuser-Busch branded products fails to point out a very
simple, but fundamental, issue: The claim of the lawsuit
does not appear at all to be an "I said - You said"-style
litigation. In an era, when neither blind belief in the Gods
of Mount Olympus nor alchemy are used to unquestionably
justify our prejudices or our observations concerning
chemical processes and where chemical analysis is extremely
precise, one would have thought that BBC news would have
pointed out that, regardless of what the litigators and the
company executives claim, one could buy 1000 randomly
selected bottles of Budweiser, Michelob, and whichever other
products are being suspected as tainted, and perform a
detailed chemical analysis as to the alcohol content per
volume. If that is found to be consistently lower than what
is claimed on the bottles' labels and/or company ads, then
the company should be fined for breach of trust and for
mislabeling its products; otherwise the issue is nonexistent,
just another gimmick of litigators for amassing even more
wealth and attention...As simple as that.
I was very surprised to find out that in Mexico's school system,
teaching positions can be "sold or inherited" through, what
are apparently, bribes paid to the teacher union to enrich its
leadership. But should I have been really surprised? Maybe
one should have fully expected something along these or
similar lines to be happening in a politically and socially
under-developed, chaotic and semi-civilized country (where
drug cartels reign and whose citizens cast blame habitually
on others rather than facing their own responsibilities and
fixing their own shortcomings affecting the condition of
their country) that has fallen way behind other countries
in the Continent in terms of updating and synchronizing
its state apparatus, polities, and effectiveness and efficiency
of its government and combating cronyism, favoritism and
corruption in public life.
On this occasion of the birthday of Demetrios Vikelas, it is sad
to be reminded, by the decision of the IOC to withdraw wrestling
from the Olympic list of sports, that there is close to nothing left
from the original spirit of the Games. Greed, money, material
rewards, commercialization, megalomania, continued conflicts
and ongoing wars, cheating, deficient sportsmanship; only rarely
are we reminded anymore of what the true essence and the
noble original intentions of the Games had been. Perhaps, it
is high time that a genuinely non-for-profit authority took
charge and organized a cleansed, purified, purely athletically
oriented version of the Great Games in the Western Peloponnese.
BRING THE OLYMPIC GAMES BACK WHERE THEY BELONG!
In 1963 President Kennedy organized a White House reception
to celebrate 100 years since President Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation. Reverend King excused himself, declining to
attend. It seemed unfathomable to him to accept an invitation
to a luxurious glitz event at a time when young black Americans
were suffering possibly from the worst segregationist tendencies
in post-slavery era, and after the President had declined to take
executive action to provide a significant remedy.
In 2013, the bankrupt Socialist International's failed leaders,
many of whom are miserably failed ex-prime ministers and mini-
sters of the mainstream political establishment that have lost the
trust of their respective citizens, organized a glitz conference at a
five-star Portuguese hotel. An apparently unwelcome guest, a
Spanish youth, lambasted their aloofness from the practical social
problems of their time, the irrelevance of the policies they have
been implementing, their conformist attitudes in an era that
calls for revolutionary fervor and radical rethinking, and their
provocative sidelining of the enthusiastic, talented and educated
youth. The whole world stood on its feet, applauding the sincere
outpour of feelings from this outspoken Spanish Socialist youth,
expressing with anger, but also with respect, the feelings of a lost
generation, as the whole world stood in awe in the 1960s of the
leadership and the determination of the uncompromising,
demanding black civil rights leader.
However, the President of the Socialist, the incapable, the little
and the ridiculous George Papandreou, a scion of a dynasty that
has exploited shamelessly Socialism for self-aggrandizement,
stood to defend the undefendable catastrophic failings of the fat
politicians against the worries, the dissatisfaction, the desperate
inner cry of the youth for a chance, any chance, and against their
hunger for freedom, democracy, fraternity, justice and equality.
Bravo to Pope Benedict for sending the powerful message that
a Pope is human and has responsibilities similar to all other
humans on earth, besides the spiritual and moral aspects of
his position. Bravo, also, for setting an example for all those
dinosaurs that stay indefinitely in their positions of employ-
ment and/or leadership, much beyond their due time, to the
frustration of their powerless colleagues and, occasionally,
to the detriment of their employers.
(Having nothing better to do in one's private life, or, simply,
habit and fear of an alternative future should not be excuses
for people that are able to retire to indefinitely stay in office.
Benedict seems to have seriously thought about the issue...)
Ο Κώστας ``ο σκοπός αγιάζει τα μέσα" Σημίτης, ύστερα από
μία ενδελεχή ψυχανάλυση και εκ βαθέων εξομολόγηση, ψυχανε-
μίστηκε ότι παρά τη δραστική βελτίωση της ποιότητας της
πατάτας κατά τη διάρκεια των δικών του υπουργειών και της
δικιάς του πρωθυπουργείας, δεν υπήρξε ανάλογη δραστική
βελτίωση της ποιότητας της δημοκρατίας. Ων Παπανδρεϊκός,
ούτε συζήτηση για μία ειλικρινή απολογία για τα δικά του λάθη
και τις δικές του ευθύνες, απλοχεριά όμως για τις ευθύνες, τα
σφάλματα και τις παραλείψεις όλων των άλλων... Αφελές,
αθώο και φιλότιμο ανθρωπάκι. Στερνή μου γνώση να σ'είχα
πρώτα... Η Ελλάδα όλων μας, των πολιτικών και όχι μόνο,
σ'όλο της το μεγαλείο.
Assuming that the leader of Golden Dawn is not an imbecile,
I am wondering what it is that he wants to imitate from the
agenda of, or to discuss with those politicians that espouse
the ideology of a leader and a party that destroyed democracy,
embraced militarism over peaceful coexistence and cooperation,
planned and executed an aggressive military campaign against
their neighbors, massacred millions of innocent human beings
for both political and ethnic reasons and, ultimately, led to
the defeat of their own nation, its humiliation in the eyes of
the international community, and to the human and physical
destruction of their own homeland. Honestly, I find it very
hard to see what counsel people nostalgic for such a catastrophic
past could provide, or why anyone in a sane state of mind
would even seek their advice on how to steer their own country
along a similar direction towards a comparable abyss...
The U.S. Department of Justice seems to have forgotten that it is
the major Department of the U.S. Government charged with legal
affairs and, as a consequence, it has a responsibility of being
particularly careful in the reasoning and the phrasing of its white
and other papers.
With stupefaction, I read that in the NBC-revealed white paper:
1. lethal force used against U.S. citizens is deemed lawful if they
are judged to pose an "imminent threat" and their capture
is not feasible;
2. to make that judgment, it is not necessary to produce
evidence that a specific attack is being planned if the
target is generally engaged in plotting against the U.S..
The Department of Justice should have used precise sentences
that mean exactly what it intended to say. And that is:
``The use of drones to kill Americans suspected of planning or
plotting (attacks) against U.S. interests, or based on their
previous suspicious record related to similar charges, is lawful.
Moreover, to decide on that condemning "judgment", no judge
needs to be involved, i.e., this can be a purely political or military
judgment."
Instead, the way the Justice department used the nearly-irrelevant
phrase ``imminent threat" and tried to make it relevant, by clearly
and unsuccessfully redefining it to mean something that it does not
mean, is tantamount to making a statement in passing a law like
``A citizen will not be considered guilty if he kills a fellow
citizen in self-defense. To establish self-defense it is not
necessary to establish that the said citizen was threatened
by the victim in any way."
Even though I am sure that any lawyer who reads this last
sentence will be shocked, I am not exactly sure why we are
willing and, occasionally eager, to allow our elected and
other officials to use similar catastrophic manipulations
of the English language without a great public uproar...
It really bothered me to be reminded of George Papandreou's lack
of understanding of his culpability and responsibility and, ultimately,
of his surroundings and ambient realities. I am going to quote from
Kazantzakis' "Report to Greco" for him to recall the passage, because,
in my opinion, the Cretan's feelings and sensitivities should shake the
Achaian's aloofness and delusional attitude. But, perhaps, I should
not keep my hopes high; the Papandreou dynasty is notorious for its
thick skin: one has used it for good, another for bad, and a third for
ugly. Here is the quotation anyway:
