Nature lovers

You may recall, from reading this blog, that about a month ago there was a fire that reduced 20% of the forest around Athens to to ashes.

It seems that this country is "blessed" with numerous "nature loving" individuals, who want to be as close to the forest as they possibly can, perhaps in an attempt to stop such an occurrence from happening again.

To significant personal expense, they have rushed to be the first to show their love for nature, and the way for future generations.

I am disgusted being a law abiding, tax paying citizen in a country with people of such mentality!

We are a third world country with no hope of development!

The Phoenix has no hope of resurrecting. It's ashes have been covered with concrete!

Disgusting concrete structure in the midst of the burnt trees

Disgusting concrete structure #2 in the midst of the burnt trees

A third concrete monster bearing it's ugly head

And a fourth one!

The facts, the figures and the usual suspects

Although some of the wildfires are still raging in some places in Greece, things have - with the grace of God - improved significantly over the past twenty four hours.

It is now that the size of the destruction - devastation, would be the most operative word - is becoming evident.

A few numbers to give you an idea of what has happened here:

• 68 dead people.


• 3,000 homeless families.


• 1,900,000 acres of woodland reduced to ashes.


• Tens of thousands of dead animals.


• 150 villages wiped out of the map.


• Financial cost approximately 2% of the GNP.

This is the worst disaster to hit this country since WW II!

What has become clearly evident, however, is the gross inefficiency of government and local authorities. We are talking about people who cannot organise themselves to go to the bathroom!

It has been the heroics of poorly trained, ill equipped fire fighters, who quite literally threw themselves in the flames along with common folk who were fighting against the odds to save their livelihood.

The sacred site of Olympia was just about spared, although the historic hills surrounding the site were badly burnt. It is embarrassing to know that no harm came to that beautiful site our ancestors selected to hold the Olympic games and feed the Olympic ideals, was burnt during our generation.

It will take decades for nature to recover, which raises the question of what will these people do during that time? Their livelihood has been destroyed! People who were working the land, growing olive trees, vines, goats and sheep are left with nothing! Even if their houses were spared during the raging inferno, everything else around them has been reduced to cinders!

In the midst of this - keeping in mind that there's a general election on September the 16th - political parties are making a circus of this calamity by trying to achieve political gains out of the situation, arguing over the ashes, over the pain of the people caught in this disaster.

Enough is enough! It is these blithering idiots who are the main reason for the utter chaos and disorganisation in the government, in the authorities.

We all know who they are! They are the blood sucking leeches, who will do and say anything to gain a government post, not to do an ounce of good to this country, but instead fill their pockets and those of their lackeys.

Don't they know that you only need one coin for the ferry man to take you across the river Styx?

Under Attack

Having disappeared for a few days, inundated with the demands at the work front, I return bearing apologies for my disappearance along with bad news.

For the past three days, Greece and in particular the Peloponese and Evia have been on fire! They even started a couple of fires at the remaining parts of green surrounding Athens, which were thankfully put out. Saturday morning, the skies over the capital were covered by thick smoke, and it was literally raining ashes!

With an approximate 200 odd wild fires over the past days, the situation is pretty desperate, and the whole country has been set in a state of emergency and assistance has been requested from our international friends. Greece is under attack!

The weather is on the arsonists side, since this time of the year the prevailing north-eastern winds keep the fires burning, while they consume tree after tree, village after village, leaving behind them chaos and disaster.

The authorities were once again caught with their pants down, unprepared and in a state of utter panic and disorganisation. Watching pictures of people fighting the fires with branches, buckets of water and garden hoses, trying in vain to save their livelihood from the ten meter high flames, just shows the desperation of the situation.

We are already mourning the deaths of 53 people, who were unable to flee their houses and were caught in the midst of the raging inferno. The charred remains of a woman were found in a car, along with her three children!

Fears that that there is some kind of sinister plan to destroy this country are enhanced by the simultaneous appearance of new fronts during the evenings - when the fire fighting aircraft can not operate - and the recovery of sophisticated incendiary devices. There's even a video of a couple of guys starting a fire at the forests near Athens!

At the time of writing these lines, the raging fire is steadily approaching the sacred ancient site of Olympia - the cradle of the Olympic Games - and it is yet unclear whether the museum has been consumed by the flames or not!

Over the past three days people have lost their houses, all their possessions, while beautiful forests have been reduced to ashes. The only hope is the spirit of these people!

As a country we have been through several disasters over the centuries and still have managed to recover and come back strong.

Let's just hope that the Phoenix will soon resurrect from its ashes and fly high in full pride!

Please don't laugh

I've been contemplating writing a post of this sort, revealing the actual philosopher behind the ancient facade, for quite some time now. Stealing jyankee's recent post was the perfect idea! I've done it once more before and got away with it, so why not push my luck a bit further.

So, my dear friends from the blogoshere, sit back comfortably, brace yourselves because it's time for revelations!

This is a picture of yours-truly from a couple of years back - notice how I unceremoniously removed my sister from the photo - in the wonderful Greek island of Sifnos. (You'd want to visit there sometime 'cause the food is fantastic!)

Hoping that you have recovered from the shock (especially the ladies), I shall proceed without further ado to providing you some more information on Epi.

• Blog Title: Analysing It (as a response to the movie "Analyse This")


• Blogging Since: May '07.


• Description: A mix of everything. An attempt to put thought to paper (so-to-speak), while attempting to provide some humour for the benefit of my sanity and the pleasure of any visitors here.


• Why "Epimenides"?: Why Engelbert Humberdink?
  
  
• Name: Emil. A bit easier to pronounce, isn't it?
  
  
• Birthday: 13th February 1967! (Almost made it to Valentine's day)


• Country: Greece


• Occupation: Logistics for a world known furniture retailer from Sweden.


• Favourite Colour: Sky blue.


• Favourite Drink: Caipirinha! Sweet, refreshing and with a sting in the tail. (Not to mention it's country of origin).


• Favourite Fruit: No contest here! It's got to be the Mango.


• Hobbies: Blogging, gym, music (listening not playing), PS2 and electronic gadgets. I would mention Manchester United, but they fall under the category of religion.


For the baton pass, I am going to do as jyankee did on hers and tag everybody, too!


And the brave ones who already have thrown aside the velvet curtain...



Gayla at Mom Gadget, Char at Essential Keystrokes, Paul at Reflections, Rob at 2Dolphins, Zep at The In-Sect, Ingo at Stixster, Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace, The Paper Bull at (oddly enough) The Paper Bull, Lisa Sabin-Wilson at Just A Girl In The World, Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com, Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home, Dennis Bjorn Petersen at The Beta News, Randa Clay at Randa Clay Design, Drew McLellan at The Marketing Minute, Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival, Phil Gerbyshak at Make it Great!, Steve Woodruff at StickyFigure, Dave Olson at Live the GREAT life that you desire, Greg at Become a Remote Control SEO, Ariane Benefit at Neat Living Blog, Genesis at the At Home Mom, Blog Armen at iFFECT.NET, Mihaela Lica at Online Public Relations ,Tara at Graphic Design Blog, Doris Chua at Home Office Women, Edward Mills at Evolving Times, Tony D. Clark at Success from the Nest, Jonathan-C Phillips at SmartWealthyRich, Karen at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World, Lisa Gates at intrinsic life design, Rammel Firdaus at rammelfirdaus.com, Carol at Pentimento, Adam Kayce at Monk at Work, Thomas at Technical Blogger, Tammy Lenski at I Can?t Say That!, Chris Brown at Branding & Marketing, Rory Sullivan at Hamelife, Derek Wong at Going The Wong Way, Embuck at embuck.com, Ms. Q at QMusings, Shelly Tucker at This Eclectic Life, Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized, Troy Worman at on!blog, Lilith at Lilith’s Owl Nest, Revov at REVO-OVER, Karin at Stop/Start, Jamy at Seay's, Kopitam this is a miracle, Anything Goes!, My Life Starts at Forty-Two, Seiche, Wolfgang at Gazing Into the Abyss, Pen at The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword, Josie at Picking Up Pieces, ME, New Beginnings, Analysing it

Stavros

It's been a long 14 hour day and I just got in from work. I am too tired to post anything serious tonight - as if I ever do - but I'll share with you a joke I heared today.
This Greek guy full of himself, lets call him Stavros, takes his wife to the maternity clinic to give birth. He is a scruffy looking kinda guy, with a long moustache, sideburns, and greasy hair. He is wearing a shirt with only one button done, at the level of his belly button, a large belly, bearing a hairy chest and a large cross hanging from his neck on a large golden chain.
His wife is taken to the operating theater - or whatever it is called - and soon after the doctor comes out to speak to Stavros.
Doctor - "Your wife is expecting triplets, sir!"
Stavros proudly responds - " Well, of course doc! With Stavros' tool being as big as a hosepipe, what did you expect? And I bet you they are all going to be boys!!!"
The doctor, in shock from Stavros's answer, shakes his head and goes back to attend to his wife.
A couple of minutes later he comes back outside.
Doctor - "What do you know! The first one is a healthy boy!"
Stavros proudly responds - "I told you doc! With Stavros' tool being as big as a hosepipe, what did you expect? And I bet you the two are going to be boys, too!"
Shocked again the doctor returns to the theater.
He emerges a couple of minutes later.
Doctor - "The second is a boy, too!"
Stavros proudly responds - "I told you doc! With Stavros' tool being as big as a hosepipe, what did you expect? I'm sure the third is male, too!"
Once again, the doctor returns to the theater, shocked with this crude guy.
Comes back outside for the third time.
Doctor - "The third one is a boy as well!"
Stavros proudly responds - "I told you doc! With Stavros' tool being as big as a hosepipe, what did you expect?"
Annoyed by now with Stavros's cockiness, the doctor responds.
"Well, my dear friend Stavros, it's high time you started cleaning your hosepipe because all three boys have come out black!"

Mom's plants

What can I say? The next place they'll start a fire in this city, will most probably be my mom's balcony! She's got a couple of plants there, so what the heck!
The ARSEonists hit again yesterday, setting fire to a hill about 7km from the centre of Athens!!!! (As I'm writing this, there's a new fire about 15km from the center! Go figure!).
At this rate, the dogs will have to go to the toilet on our legs and finding a tree in the vicinity of Athens will become the new Treasure Hunt - it will most probably be broadcast live on television, as the new reality game craze, so stay tuned!
For the life of them, the authorities can not catch a single one of these guys for the past thirty years! Simply catch him and let him to the hands of the mob. The only justice their sort deserves!
What the heck is wrong with these people? It must be true that when god was handing out genitalia, they rushed to jump the cue, but when he started handing out brains, they were busy playing with what they already got!
Words coming to my head are of the "decorative" type adjectives about the bunch of lunatics inhabiting this arm like piece of land, so I gather this should be the best place to end this post and promise to return to my blogging routine tomorrow with a happier theme!

A song for the ARSEonists:




PS. Next time you visit this country, please bring your own tree!!!

Friday morning in Athens

I couldn't get to sleep last night, so I took my drawing pad and started doodling, while listening to soft music and drinking water. I know, not much excitement in drinking water, but it is still quite hot over here.
The result was something that looks like snoopy and his little bird friend, whose name, for the life of me, I cannot remember. Behold the evidence:

I didn't wake up until nine this morning-I wish it was ten or eleven since I am not working today, but alas, once I opened my eyes, that was it. So, what better excuse to go to the city centre for a walkabout, take some pictures and buy some contact lenses. (Perhaps I've omitted informing my audience that Epi is blind as a bat, and without contacts he would be walking into furniture or even worse, walls).
Equipped myself with my iPod, tickets and patience for the bus, and started off into my Friday morning adventure. I always find it an experience taking the bus. Thankfully, these days they are air-conditioned, but still remain rather "vibrating" -for need of a better word - and with the added bonus of standing, you get to thoroughly enjoy the drivers' impressions of Nikki Lauda! I'm sure it must be quite an experience for all the ladies on board, if you know what I mean.
The excitement only lasted for about ten minutes-suggesting that quite a few folks have started leaving the city for their summers holidays-and we were there!
Since some of you requested photos of Greece, what a perfect opportunity to oblige by mingling with the tourists and going to the change of guard in front of our parliament house. I missed the change of guard by a couple of minutes-damn-but got a couple of photos of the soldiers, the square and the parliament house itself. As far as mingling with the tourists is concerned, I stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only one there without a camera!
Its been such a long time since I last went to that side of the square. I remember my grandpa, Canon, used to take me the to feed the pigeons and the swans in the National Gardens further down. (Great! Now I feel a thousand years old).

Syntagma (Constitution) Square, with the Parliament house in the background

And again.

Parliament House

National Guard in summer uniform

By the end of this excursion down memory lane, it was time to buy my contacts which were packaged for me in a bag bearing a rather odd-as far as optical products are concerned-advert on it. No wonder my eyes water every time I wear my contacts!

Will I grow more eyes in a few months?

Speechless

I could write about the forest fires of the past few days-305 fires in 3 days-which consumed large amounts of the precious little green left on this rugged land.
I could write about the bitter squabbling of the politicians, firemen, and forestry department on all media, on who's fault this disaster is.
I could write about the ugly pictures of burnt carcases of forest animals caught in the inferno.
I could write about the findings of incendiary devices at the scenes where the fires started.
I could write about the temperature rise, the flash flooding, the landslides, or the unbearable smog. Threats looming over us, after we failed to protect the forest surrounding the concrete maze of Athens.
I will not!
I will quietly mourn the deep scars we inflicted on our host land!
Mourn the death of dignity in this country!

Heatwave? What heatwave?

Well, since you asked Buggsy, I am f... hot! (and I don't mean "fairly").
It's the topic of the day! There's a heat wave going on, and all of the sudden, all other issues have disappeared from people's thoughts. Our sole concern these days is whether it is 43 degrees in the sun or in the shade! Big difference if you ask me! I feel as if I am melting away! (Just a note for our newscasters. I spent the best part of my life in Africa, and unless you are referring to the desert-but even there, temperatures drop at night- please avoid using the term "African temperatures" to characterise this heatwave, because you are WRONG!)
Putting a positive perspective on it, all this heat and perspiration is working wonders with my physique. At this rate, when I hit the beach, I will be totally fat free and proudly displaying my six pack (no! not the beers)!
I don't care about all the complaints I hear on the media, I don't care whether we are breaking twenty year old records here. No! This is a sign from Him, that I should bite my lip for a few days, and at the end I will have something to show for it.
This is the kinda weather that suits Greece, anyway!
It makes it official for people to skive off work and hit the beach. Even public sector workers have a good excuse for not working efficiently.
It is a good excuse for the Electricity company to put all the blame for years of neglect to scorching temperatures damaging the grid.
It's a good opportunity for taxi drivers to charge extra for turning the air conditioning on.
The Water company raised rates a couple of months ago, and all of us were complaining. Little did we know that they had a look in their crystal balls, and saw this coming. We should be grateful, because this kind of foresight simply didn't exist a few years back. The country is actually progressing!
If only we could convince everyone on the benefits of using a deodorant, perhaps our public transport system could prove useful, too.
Heck! Thinking about it this heatwave is a blessing!

"It's all Greek to me"!

What a weird expression! Willing to stand corrected, I believe it is an expression used when something is not understood. That is what I can not comprehend about it!

What is there not to understand about the things the Greek civilisation offered to mankind?

Is it the art? Is it Democracy? Is it philosophy? Is it science? It can not be, since we based all of our advances in these fields on the legacy that great civilisation left behind.

"It is the language!" I hear you say. It is a strange language, so different to English that we all know.

Hmm? Let's see.

I'm sure the word "philosophy" is widely understood. What about "tragedy"? What about "poetry"? And then, of course there is "geography", "alphabet", "gynaecology", "phenomenon", "hegemon" to name a few. Even the word "salary", peoples' daily quest, has its roots in the Greek language.

In actual fact, there are millions of words in "western" languages that originate from Greek.
I am not being a snobbish Greek by any means! In fact there isn't enough room in the whole of the net for me to outline the disadvantages of the Greek people. Come one guys! I'm just helping you win at Scrabble!

It is just that this expression does not sound right to me.

It is an "oxymoron"!

Taking it easy

With the monster tamed once again this morning, and the weather being gorgeous and hot, Epi decided to go for a swim.

He was going to take a rather long drive to a nice beach just in the outskirts of Athens (Shinias- the site of the ancient battle of Marathon), and make a day out of it.

It is a nice, though busy beach that's well organised, with a bar and everything, and the waters are always clean.

Swimming trunks, hawaianas, beach towel, a book, the inevitable sunglasses and he was off.

It wasn't meant to be! The whole of Athens, it seems, had the same idea.

After spending twenty minutes in traffic, in total stand still, he turned off the road and went to a bar by the sea for a nice ice cold capuchino freddo!

Perhaps he didn't get a swim, but he relaxed and took the day easy!

Farewell Amalia

I did not want to get into politics in my blog, but this is a story that really touched me in the past few days, and I think should not go unmentioned.
At 30, Amalia Kalyvinou recently passed away, following a long battle with cancer, but also the Greek Health establishment!
Her blog, malpractice, on her experiences with corrupt and unprofessional doctors and the dysfunctional public health system, has caused a lot reaction from other Greek bloggers.
"Doctors in Athens pledged yesterday to look into accusations of malpractice and corruption made against their colleagues" , is the starting line of the newspaper's article.
Will they bollocks, is my response! The vast majority of them are a bunch of butchering professionals who will do anything for a buck, ignoring the pain and the suffering of their patients.
To them, patients are an open wallet, a blank checkbook, the means of getting a new villa, a new car and jewelry. Screw the Hippocratic oath! They had their long studies, and it is now time to cash in.
What is there to say about the public health system in Greece? How can someone expect it to work, when not much else works in this country. Immersed in bureaucracy, with a vast number of lazy poorly educated and untrained public servants, who more often than not are lackeys of political parties, it is painfully slow and grossly inefficient. They have a job for life and, you see, and they think they can do as they please.
No disrespect to the 3rd world countries, but Greece is one of them. The only difference is that, while they are making an effort to improve, we are continuously sinking deeper and deeper in the shit!
There's always inquiries to the scandals that are riddling this country for yonks now, but absolutely nothing useful comes out of them. They take ages to complete and nobody is ever punished, thrown away to jail, to rot in a wet and dark cell.
Our politicians, 300 members of parliament are doing nothing of purpose, sitting on their hands counting votes and making promises they have absolutely no intention of keeping. Their only concern is getting re-elected!
The result? Young people like Amalia, not being able to live life as all humans deserve, in a country that claims to be part of 21st century Europe.
A country where the basis of Democracy originated!

Flying Ships on the Aegean

I got this in my email and were left staring at the screen gob smacked.

Flying ships taking people to the Greek islands?

Boats flying 12 meters above the sea, at speeds approaching 200kph are expected to appear in the Greek seas in the year 2008.

Hoverwings are the next revolution in sea travel! Piraeus to Crete in 1hour30 minutes. (It currently takes anything between 8 and 12hours, depending on the ship).

These type of vessels offer the marine transport with air travel features. They are neither planes or hydroplanes. They are called WIG's due to the Wing In Ground technology which they are based on.

Built using high pressure resistant, aerospace materials can carry 80 passengers, at high speeds (up to 112 knots), virtually unaffected by waves, even at 8 Beaufort scale seas, with a range of 800km.

They have low cost operation and maintenance, and do not require special harbour installations since they have foldable wigs.

The first three such crafts, will be built in Hamburg - Germany in the next years, by Hoverwing GMBH, they will carry German flag and crew, and the first is expected in Greece by the end of 2008.



The cost to the passengers is not expected to be higher than the current fares.

Each of these beauties will cost about 22million euros.

It is almost like science fiction. Yes, I am proud to announce the Greece is entering the 21st century!

Beware of Greeks ... Especially Taxi Drivers!

Five days have passed since a taxi driver in Athens ripped off a Liverpool supporter visiting Greece with his family for the Champions League final and a few days holidays.

Driving the man and his family from the airport to the hotel, the taxi driver asked to be paid 95 euros for a fare of 30-35 euros.

When the poor tourist confronted him about the price and requested a receipt, the cab driver punched him in the face and drove away in his car, taking with him all the luggage, money and the tickets for the final.

The Briton gave a full description of both car and driver to the police, who have been unable to locate him for the past five days! This is not entirely surprising as Greek police have proven on several occasions that they are unable to even catch ... a cold!

With tourism being the largest industry in Greece, the country cannot afford its reputation being tinted by incidents like this.

More over, it looks as if yet another brainless idiot is going to get away with it unpunished.

How reassuring to know that the Greek spirit lives on.