In 2024 we will be invited to vote in the European Parliament Elections, while the year will continue to be the European Year of Skills. At the same time, the UN has declared 2024 as the International Year of the Camelids, the animal family that includes (various species of) camels, llamas and alpacas. They are key to the livelihoods of millions of households across over 90 countries. They contribute to food security, nutrition and economic growth, as well as holding a strong cultural significance for communities across the world.
Our era is characterized by numerous wars and ideological conflicts between extremes. Therefore, perhaps we should seriously consider following individually and collectively, where possible, the middle road, the camel's path... Of course, in most cases we face "double binds", i.e. situations in which no matter what a person does, (s)he "can't win". Without forgetting the biggest ongoing disaster of our time, the climate crisis, in which our perpetual individual and collective choices have trapped us.
I wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous 2024 with Health, Prudence, Peace of mind, Nice Feelings and Practical Solidarity towards the "neighbour", realizing that all this depends to a large extent on our own choices and habits.
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα English article. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα English article. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
28 Δεκεμβρίου 2023
26 Μαρτίου 2010
EN-Philosophy über alles
For more serious analyses of recent events pertaining to the European Economic and Monetary Union i.e. the €uro, please refer to the Coulisses de Bruxelles blog (in French) or the Charlemagne's notebook blog (in English).
12 Αυγούστου 2008
EN-Zhang Yimou's real China
We all admired the grandiose openning ceremony directed by the acclaimed Chinese filmmaker and cinematographer Zhang Yimou. A great power able to coordinate thousands of actors, musicians and dancers to provide a unique spectacle.
However, China is not the illusion Zhang Yimou created to impress the world. The real China is the one he portayed in his less-known (but nevertheless acclaimed) films «Not one less» and «Happy times hotel».
«Not one less» is a story about the persistence of a 13-year old girl who is called upon to replace a primary school teacher in a remote chinese village. She must keep the students from going away, as is very often the case with young boys and girls in poor villages, who must go off and work to help sustain their families. When one of her pupils does not show up for lessons she will try everything to find him and bring him back. A view of rural and urban China light years away from Beijing and the Olympics. It won the 1999 Golden Lion Award at the Venice film festival, as well almost a dozen other awards in China and abroad. It shows the faith China puts in education and in its youth and it helps explain why so many children were given a prominent role at the openning ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. A great power is made first of all in the classroom, not in the battlefields.
The «Happy times hotel», tells the story of a blind girl who finds herself under the supervision of an unemployed bachelor. With the help of his friends he creates an illusion for the girl. She is led to believe that he works in a rich hotel where she gets engaged as a masseuse. A view of urban China with its unemployment and its human side, its solidarity and its sentimentalism. Some of these traspired through the songs performed at the openning ceremony but again the image projected in Beijing is nothing compared with the image projected in the film which won three prizes at the Valladolid international film festival, one for «its powerful appeal to preserve the human hopes for happiness, made in a humorous-drama style».
Of course Zhang Yimou has also given us several other masterpieces, including «Raise the Red Lantern», the «House of Flying Daggers» and «Hero». But I find the two films I mentioned above as real masterpieces for the everyday China we will not be seeing through the polished up images of the Beijing Olympics. And the China which will dominate the future.
P.S. I used the word «illusion» a couple of times in this post. Before the ink was dry, we learned that the little girl in the red dress who sang during the openning ceremony was just miming - the real singer's face was not as charming as to be shown on the TV sceens of billions of viewers. And the 29 firework "footprints" which travelled across Beijing's sky during the opening ceremony were also fake as they came from previously recorded footage.
However, China is not the illusion Zhang Yimou created to impress the world. The real China is the one he portayed in his less-known (but nevertheless acclaimed) films «Not one less» and «Happy times hotel».
«Not one less» is a story about the persistence of a 13-year old girl who is called upon to replace a primary school teacher in a remote chinese village. She must keep the students from going away, as is very often the case with young boys and girls in poor villages, who must go off and work to help sustain their families. When one of her pupils does not show up for lessons she will try everything to find him and bring him back. A view of rural and urban China light years away from Beijing and the Olympics. It won the 1999 Golden Lion Award at the Venice film festival, as well almost a dozen other awards in China and abroad. It shows the faith China puts in education and in its youth and it helps explain why so many children were given a prominent role at the openning ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. A great power is made first of all in the classroom, not in the battlefields.The «Happy times hotel», tells the story of a blind girl who finds herself under the supervision of an unemployed bachelor. With the help of his friends he creates an illusion for the girl. She is led to believe that he works in a rich hotel where she gets engaged as a masseuse. A view of urban China with its unemployment and its human side, its solidarity and its sentimentalism. Some of these traspired through the songs performed at the openning ceremony but again the image projected in Beijing is nothing compared with the image projected in the film which won three prizes at the Valladolid international film festival, one for «its powerful appeal to preserve the human hopes for happiness, made in a humorous-drama style».Of course Zhang Yimou has also given us several other masterpieces, including «Raise the Red Lantern», the «House of Flying Daggers» and «Hero». But I find the two films I mentioned above as real masterpieces for the everyday China we will not be seeing through the polished up images of the Beijing Olympics. And the China which will dominate the future.
P.S. I used the word «illusion» a couple of times in this post. Before the ink was dry, we learned that the little girl in the red dress who sang during the openning ceremony was just miming - the real singer's face was not as charming as to be shown on the TV sceens of billions of viewers. And the 29 firework "footprints" which travelled across Beijing's sky during the opening ceremony were also fake as they came from previously recorded footage.
01 Ιουνίου 2007
EN-This one is for Amalia…
Amalia Kalyvinou passed away on Friday, May the 25th, 2007, at the age of 30. She started having pains since the age of 8 but none of the many doctors she visited made a timely diagnosis of the benign neurinoma of her leg, which 17 years later, was transformed into a malignant tumour. For the next 5 years, Amalia had to fight with cancer and amputation, with radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well as with the briberies and the time-consuming bureaucratic methods of the Greek National Health System. Before passing away, she documented her experience in her blog, where she named each and every one of the doctors she had to bribe, praising at the same time the ones who honoured the Hippocratic Oath. Her testimony moved thousands of people in Greece and abroad that stood by her side all the way to the end.
"Amalia's main aim was to tell her story, so that she could awaken as many people and as many consciences as possible. She mainly wanted to show that there are ways to resist not only the self-regulation and authority of dishonest and heartless doctors, but also the bureaucrats of the Health System." (Dikaia Tsavari & Georgia Kalyvinou – Amalia's mother & sister)
The Internet Movement of Amalia's friends established the 1st of June as Amalia's memorial day for Greek bloggers. As she said "Quacks should be the exception, you guys, not the norm…". To stop bribery - through measures from the government but also through everyone's effort not to bribe but to make a donation. To reduce bureaucratic procedures in healthcare. To reduce unethical relations between corporations and the medical profession. To valorise unused hospital infrastructure and improve training of medical personnel in the Greek NHS. To establish digital medical records for all Greeks.
Amalia's last wish was to support the construction of th Oncological Centre for Children undertaken by the ELPIDA foundation.
Video by George Krogias
"Amalia's main aim was to tell her story, so that she could awaken as many people and as many consciences as possible. She mainly wanted to show that there are ways to resist not only the self-regulation and authority of dishonest and heartless doctors, but also the bureaucrats of the Health System." (Dikaia Tsavari & Georgia Kalyvinou – Amalia's mother & sister)
The Internet Movement of Amalia's friends established the 1st of June as Amalia's memorial day for Greek bloggers. As she said "Quacks should be the exception, you guys, not the norm…". To stop bribery - through measures from the government but also through everyone's effort not to bribe but to make a donation. To reduce bureaucratic procedures in healthcare. To reduce unethical relations between corporations and the medical profession. To valorise unused hospital infrastructure and improve training of medical personnel in the Greek NHS. To establish digital medical records for all Greeks.
Amalia's last wish was to support the construction of th Oncological Centre for Children undertaken by the ELPIDA foundation.
Video by George Krogias
05 Απριλίου 2007
EN-Some thoughts on blogging
A log kept publicly on the World Wide Web is just this – a private journal for somebody to express his/her thoughts, feelings and ideas, using this excellent medium that is the internet. And because the internet is by definition a networking tool, blogs may or may not allow comments by people surfing on the net.
This however does not mean that a blog is a dustbin or a trashcan. A blog is more like a house to which access is only allowed to the owner and to which (s)he may or may not accept guests and friends.
We all have mailboxes at the entrance of our homes. We receive our personal correspondence and bills as well as publicity leaflets, announcements, information packages from our local church or town hall, even hate mail. Some we keep in our drawers but most we throw away to recycling. Some we do not even open – they go directly to the recycling bin in the same way spam is automatically deleted from our electronic inbox.
This has nothing to do with democracy or human rights. It has nothing to do with censorship or fascism. Unless the author is a public figure who wants to open up a dialogue and wants all the opinions to be heard, a normal blogger is a private person, who sets up a small one-room cabin in the internet woods and cooks some intellectual meal from time to time. (S)he is kind enough to share this food with others and receive some letters, ads or other written contributions. But (s)he has the right to keep this data online or sent them to the trash bin as (s)he likes. Even public personas who start being the target of spam and irrational comments, have the right to either delete them or not accept them in the first place.
The blog owner is the only one who can decide if (s)he is keeping people out (disabling comments) or that (s)he needs to approve written contributions before publication (moderation). But above all (s)he has the fundamental right to delete whatever (s)he does not like. And this is a very good form of democracy – believe me!
This however does not mean that a blog is a dustbin or a trashcan. A blog is more like a house to which access is only allowed to the owner and to which (s)he may or may not accept guests and friends.
We all have mailboxes at the entrance of our homes. We receive our personal correspondence and bills as well as publicity leaflets, announcements, information packages from our local church or town hall, even hate mail. Some we keep in our drawers but most we throw away to recycling. Some we do not even open – they go directly to the recycling bin in the same way spam is automatically deleted from our electronic inbox.
This has nothing to do with democracy or human rights. It has nothing to do with censorship or fascism. Unless the author is a public figure who wants to open up a dialogue and wants all the opinions to be heard, a normal blogger is a private person, who sets up a small one-room cabin in the internet woods and cooks some intellectual meal from time to time. (S)he is kind enough to share this food with others and receive some letters, ads or other written contributions. But (s)he has the right to keep this data online or sent them to the trash bin as (s)he likes. Even public personas who start being the target of spam and irrational comments, have the right to either delete them or not accept them in the first place.
The blog owner is the only one who can decide if (s)he is keeping people out (disabling comments) or that (s)he needs to approve written contributions before publication (moderation). But above all (s)he has the fundamental right to delete whatever (s)he does not like. And this is a very good form of democracy – believe me!
25 Ιουνίου 2006
EN-Emergency love
My love is an accident. My love is a pain.
How can I face it? Oh tell me again !
It hit unexpectedly. Oh my, what a drain !
One, One, Two. I love her to death,
One, One, Two. Just get me some help !
My love is a fire. My love is a mugging!
I need all the power, to kiss back a poking.
To face my crying. Oh my, how nagging !
Un, Un. Deux. Je meurs d'un amour.
Un, Un, Deux. Appelle les secours.
Your lips are so precious. Your kiss can revive !
I don’t need an ambulance. I just want your smile !
C'mon paramedics, police, fire brigades.
Just bring me my loved one. She brings me to life !
One, One, Two. I love her to death.
One, One, Two. Just get me some help !
How can I face it? Oh tell me again !
It hit unexpectedly. Oh my, what a drain !
One, One, Two. I love her to death,
One, One, Two. Just get me some help !
My love is a fire. My love is a mugging!
I need all the power, to kiss back a poking.
To face my crying. Oh my, how nagging !
Un, Un. Deux. Je meurs d'un amour.
Un, Un, Deux. Appelle les secours.
Your lips are so precious. Your kiss can revive !
I don’t need an ambulance. I just want your smile !
C'mon paramedics, police, fire brigades.
Just bring me my loved one. She brings me to life !
One, One, Two. I love her to death.
One, One, Two. Just get me some help !
Dedicated to the European Emergency Number Association (www.eena.org)
and its fight for a better 112 all over Europe.
and its fight for a better 112 all over Europe.
13 Μαρτίου 2006
EN-My previous lives
«I die daily» says Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:31). And I live everyday a new life, a new opportunity, a new experience. Considering that I am some 52 years old, I could say that I have lived more than 18.000 lives. But this is not true as I started being aware of life when I was two or three years old. And then some days are so similar that I could not say that my lives can be counted by the thousands. Rather by the dozens.
Of course I was a boy, a pupil and a student. Sometimes I still feel a student, like Socrates, who became wiser each day he became older. I was also a boy-scout, a sea-scout and a cub-scout chief. Then yes I worked briefly in an electronics lab, in a pharmacy lab and in my father's restaurant. How many lives is this? Add my serving in the construction company of my uncle and as an assistant painter and you get the picture of my lives before graduating from University.
Then I was a soldier and a military interpreter and a staff member at the Army General Staff. I was a private professor of Physics and a translator of scientific and technical texts in the Encyclopaedia Papyros-Larousse-Britannica. At the same time I was a journalist for the Epikaira, the 4Wheels (4Τροχοί) and the Flight (Πτήση) magazines. All these make a lot of lives, each with its own rich experiences and difficulties and daily «deaths» and daily jubilations.
And then I came over to Brussels and was a translator once more but also an official and a public servant. I moved to become a computer specialist and taught some computers to handle Greek characters, then I became a database manager and teacher and presenter and specificator. And a project leader and simplificator on top of all these. After moving to my new duties as an information officer I also became manager of people and communicator and producer of newsletters and publications and videos and web sites.
At the same time I was a husband and a father and a Christian and church-goer. And I was a builder of a house which implies being an accountant and a banker and a specialist in 1001 things pertaining to heating and plumbing and electricity and tiles and bricks and insulation and double glazing and paints and wooden floor-coverings.
Finally, I became project leader and proposer of legislation and project evaluator and meeting chairman and consensus builder and above all a dreamer of a better European Union closer to its citizens and dealing with human suffering and risks and disasters. At the same time I had my share of bullying which led to a nice burn-out and a depression and made me go through a very interesting life as a psychoanalytic «subject» and a recipient of a wonder drug called Prozac. And so finally I decided that for my remaining lives I would rather become a full time translator and writer and husband and father again, well and a bιt of a blogger and poet and teaser.
How many lives, how many happy and bad moments and worries and jubilations ? Well why count them? I have only to live them and take strength from the nice moments and teachings from the bad. Life is above all a very short enterprise to spoil it with wondering and stress. Isn't it ?
Of course I was a boy, a pupil and a student. Sometimes I still feel a student, like Socrates, who became wiser each day he became older. I was also a boy-scout, a sea-scout and a cub-scout chief. Then yes I worked briefly in an electronics lab, in a pharmacy lab and in my father's restaurant. How many lives is this? Add my serving in the construction company of my uncle and as an assistant painter and you get the picture of my lives before graduating from University.
Then I was a soldier and a military interpreter and a staff member at the Army General Staff. I was a private professor of Physics and a translator of scientific and technical texts in the Encyclopaedia Papyros-Larousse-Britannica. At the same time I was a journalist for the Epikaira, the 4Wheels (4Τροχοί) and the Flight (Πτήση) magazines. All these make a lot of lives, each with its own rich experiences and difficulties and daily «deaths» and daily jubilations.
And then I came over to Brussels and was a translator once more but also an official and a public servant. I moved to become a computer specialist and taught some computers to handle Greek characters, then I became a database manager and teacher and presenter and specificator. And a project leader and simplificator on top of all these. After moving to my new duties as an information officer I also became manager of people and communicator and producer of newsletters and publications and videos and web sites.
At the same time I was a husband and a father and a Christian and church-goer. And I was a builder of a house which implies being an accountant and a banker and a specialist in 1001 things pertaining to heating and plumbing and electricity and tiles and bricks and insulation and double glazing and paints and wooden floor-coverings.
Finally, I became project leader and proposer of legislation and project evaluator and meeting chairman and consensus builder and above all a dreamer of a better European Union closer to its citizens and dealing with human suffering and risks and disasters. At the same time I had my share of bullying which led to a nice burn-out and a depression and made me go through a very interesting life as a psychoanalytic «subject» and a recipient of a wonder drug called Prozac. And so finally I decided that for my remaining lives I would rather become a full time translator and writer and husband and father again, well and a bιt of a blogger and poet and teaser.
How many lives, how many happy and bad moments and worries and jubilations ? Well why count them? I have only to live them and take strength from the nice moments and teachings from the bad. Life is above all a very short enterprise to spoil it with wondering and stress. Isn't it ?
04 Ιανουαρίου 2006
EN-Equation(s)
I think that the world is the manifestation of one or more equations - still to be discovered. They are similar to the equations producing fractals, but much more complex.
Humans may never be able to understand them, because they are the products of these same equations and the Gödel theorem applies (see the book by Douglas Hofstadter «Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid»).
Some of the levels of complexity of the equation(s) : ... quarks, elementary particles, atoms, molecules, cells, organs, living organisms (... language, nevroses, psychoses, illnesses, thoughts, inventions, new theories, religions, dependencies, ...), societies, planets, planetary systems, galaxies, ...
This represents a regulated though unpredictable, ever-evolving though self-replicating, chaotic though structured universe.
Humans may never be able to understand them, because they are the products of these same equations and the Gödel theorem applies (see the book by Douglas Hofstadter «Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid»).
Some of the levels of complexity of the equation(s) : ... quarks, elementary particles, atoms, molecules, cells, organs, living organisms (... language, nevroses, psychoses, illnesses, thoughts, inventions, new theories, religions, dependencies, ...), societies, planets, planetary systems, galaxies, ...
This represents a regulated though unpredictable, ever-evolving though self-replicating, chaotic though structured universe.
Début - Starting - Εγκαίνια
This is a first message on my blog. I will write in three languages as I see fit. Readers can post comments in any of these three languages. All articles in English will be marked EN.
Ceci est un premier message sur mon blogue. J'écrirai en trois langues selon mes priorités. Les lecteurs peuvent introduire des commentaires dans une de ces langues. Tous les articles en Français seront marqués avec FR.
Εγκαίνια του ιστολογίου μου. Θα γράφω σε μιαν από τις τρεις γλώσσες αναλόγως. Οι αναγνώστες μπορούν να σχολιάσουν σε μιαν από αυτές τις τρεις γλώσσες. Όλα τα άρθρα στα Ελληνικά θα σημειώνονται με GR.
Ceci est un premier message sur mon blogue. J'écrirai en trois langues selon mes priorités. Les lecteurs peuvent introduire des commentaires dans une de ces langues. Tous les articles en Français seront marqués avec FR.
Εγκαίνια του ιστολογίου μου. Θα γράφω σε μιαν από τις τρεις γλώσσες αναλόγως. Οι αναγνώστες μπορούν να σχολιάσουν σε μιαν από αυτές τις τρεις γλώσσες. Όλα τα άρθρα στα Ελληνικά θα σημειώνονται με GR.
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