@kkoolook

Greeks live on facebook and use no youtube anymore.

 

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Social Media Market Share

While sailing every year I stop by Lixouri and visit the Ulysses' action area to relax and recharge batteries…

If you happen to be around, then just call George up and you are nicely done in the suburbs of Captain Corellis' movie area!

Villa Reverenza is situated in the lovely Paliki, which plays among the green of the mountains, the deep blue sea and the vivid colors of the traditional houses in different tones that suit with the landscape.

Fabulous!

Hey, also don't forget to ask for a 10% Discount by simply naming @kkoolook (this was meant to be a commission!)

DM me @kkoolook on twitter, so if I'm around we can get to know each other and have quick sail, following Ulysses step…

Amplify’d from reverenza.gr

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bmmxz via @kkoolook Amplify.com

Before making a commitment to indefinite recession and slow recovery, Greece may want to consider the alternatives

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

As of today the idea that Greece might be better off leaving the euro and renegotiating its debt is considered by many to be unthinkable. Instead, the country is embarking upon a programme of "internal devaluation" – in which it keeps the euro and lowers its real exchange rate by creating enough unemployment to drive down the country's wages and prices.

Let's compare this process to two other countries that have tried it – one which abandoned it after three and a half years – Argentina – and one that is continuing it – Latvia.

First, Greece. Figure 1 shows the IMF's April 2010 projections for real (inflation-adjusted) GDP. Note that in 2015, Greece still does not reach its pre-crisis (2008) level of GDP. However, these projections are already out of date; the current projections from the Greek finance ministry show a 4% decline for 2010, whereas the IMF's projections had only shown a 2% drop. Moreover, it will most likely be worse; when Latvia began its "internal devaluation" in 2008, the IMF projected a 5% drop in GDP for 2009; it came in at more than 18%. Result: Greece will probably need at least eight or nine years, if things go well under the current programme, to reach pre-crisis output.

Figure 1

Source for figures 1 and 2: IMF International Financial Statistics and World Economic Outlook

Second, Latvia. As can be seen in Figure 2, Latvia – which set a world-historic record in 2008-2009 by losing more than 25% of GDP – is not expected to reach even its 2006 level of GDP in 2015. And in 2015, it is still 16% below its pre-crisis peak in 2007. Result: well over a decade to return to pre-crisis GDP, barring unforeseen negative events.

Figure 2

Third, Argentina. Figure 3 shows Argentina's recession beginning in the middle of 1998. Argentina tried the "internal devaluation" process – its currency was pegged at 1 to 1 to the dollar – until the end of 2001, leading to an economic and financial collapse. In December 2001-January 2002, the government defaulted on its debt and abandoned the fixed exchange rate. Result: after the default/devaluation, the economy continued to shrink for just one quarter (first quarter 2002). It then grew and passed up its pre-crisis peak within three years of the default and devaluation, with real (inflation-adjusted) growth of 63% over six years.

Figure 3

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, República Argentina

So before making a commitment to indefinite recession and slow recovery, including many years of high unemployment and other social costs, Greece may want to consider the alternatives. They may be less painful and allow for a speedier, more robust economic recovery. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

A lengthy interview with composer, emblematic figure of modern Greece

Amplify’d from www.buenosairesherald.com

I left the Acropolis with a vague feeling of sadness: to descend towards the noisy neighbourhood of Monastiraki was to turn my back on the sources of our culture and the way we see the world. A Greek word —“kaimós”— describes well the feeling that took hold of us. It is a feeling of indefinite deprivation, melancholy and sweet at the same time, much like the “saudades” of the Portuguese and the Brazilians. Even so, a few minutes after leaving the Parthenon, that feeling opened the way to one of stimulating anticipation. I had left behind a magic place, the essence of all that is classic. Very soon, at its feet, I would meet the most emblematic personality of modern-day Greece. Fascinated by this perspective, suddenly all kinds of unexpected fears started gripping me. What was I thinking — knowing  I would soon travel to Athens— when I sent an e-mail there, practically certain we would never get a reply? Instead I did get one advising us to call once in Athens and to ask for someone called Rena. As I walked on the path paved with worn marble slabs towards the residential district of Philopappou, I felt definitely not up to the challenge much like a child that cries, screams and has a tantrum to get a particular toy and, once he gets it, does not know what to do with it. It was early, and Rena had told me to be there at 5.00pm sharp. A couple of minutes before 5, I rang the bell of an ivory-coloured house similar to the ones around it, with street level and first floor. A lady of austere aspect and hard to define age opened the door for our limited command of Greek, enabled me to understand that a problem would keep Rena from attending. She led me to a totally carpeted study, with warm tones of wood and many bookcases full of books and folders and framed etchings hanging from the walls. There were many chairs and small armchairs and, next to a bulky dark desk, a large easy chair with pillows on it, all guarded by a towering grandfather clock that struck five like Big Ben. The lady invited me to sit; “he” would be coming soon. A few moments later she returned to accompany him to the large easy chair and put his cane next to him. I had never seen him such a short distance, even though we had attended all his concerts in Buenos Aires. Possibly because of the perspective of the stage, I had not realized he was so tall, solid, robust and, at the same time, graced by such gentle, expressive movements. I did recognize his unmistakable mane of hair, his trademark. Seated in front of me, slight smile lighting up his features, Mikis Theodorakis was observing us, the Theodorakis of Zorba, the Greek and a myriad of songs that today have become a must in the taverns of Plaka and the “estiatoria” (restaurants) of the smallest and remotest Greek islands, that same Theodorakis, composer of so many oratorios, cantatas, operas, symphonies and concerts. We introduced ourselves using some Greek and much English, but later on I had to shift mostly to French and some English and a few phrases in Greek. The first question helped me get my bearings: “How should I address you: Mr. Theodorakis, Maestro Theodorakis, or Maestro?” A wide, radiant smile and a brief answer: “Mikis!” The hour and a half with one of the greatest contemporary musicians, a committed, courageous, passionate man whose music helped put modern-day Greece on the map, who fought for his ideals and beliefs, who had to endure torture, imprisonment and exile at the time of the “colonels” seemed to last just a few minutes. A man, who, throughout his life, created, composed, played, conducted and made music, spelled with a capital “M”, just like in Mikis. He has recently turned 85 and was born on the island of Chios (Xíos) in 1925. According to the legend, Chios is the most probable birthplace of another famous Greek: Homer. This northern Aegean island, not far from the Turkish coast in Asia Minor, can be reached by ferry from the same port of Piraeus where Zorba Anthony Quinn and his boss, the English intellectual Alan Bates set sail followed by the rhythm of a song in which the “bouzouki” starts to play mildly until it reaches a moving, closing escalation: Zorba’s Dance. It makes sense that both Theodorakis and Homer — the great poet of ancient Greece — were born on the same island and that Theodorakis based many of his works on the poems of Pablo Neruda, Federico García Lorca and Greek Nobel Laureate Odysseas Elytis. His wife Myrto, a year younger than he, suffers from miopathy and never leaves home. This is why Mikis himself seldom goes out. He has difficulty walking and has a pair of little bells on the table next to his large armchair in order to be helped getting up as it is difficult for him to do so unaided. The lady materialized in total silence bringing us coffee and then disappeared. -Mikis (this first time calling him Mikis was hard for me) how important was it for you to have composed the soundtrack for Cacoyannis’ film Zorba, the Greek, screened all over the world, with giants such as Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Pappas and Lila Kedrova? -Not especially important… that is music I have composed and for me all music has the same hierarchy, the same relevance. -Yet everybody knows Zorba’s music and the “sirtaki” rhythm…” - “That may be so, but it is not important. -Wouldn’t you say that Zorba marked a ‘before and after’ in your career? -In a certain sense, yes, but not on account of the music, but because of the movie. Cinema is very powerful and I was fortunate to have been called to compose the soundtrack of this film based on the book by one of our greatest writers, Nikos Kazantzakis. -Mikis (this time it came easier…), Zorba is a classic today, but you cannot say it is classical music, such as that of so many works you have composed. -All music is music and it is wrong to separate it. What many describe as classical music would not come to be if popular music did not exist before. There would not be classical music if we didn’t have popular music: there’s no gap between them. It is all music… At the most, we might say that what we define classical is more spiritual, while what we call popular is basically emotional. -Your music then should not be catalogued either as classical or popular? -No, and it should not be described as political music either. At the most it could be defined as committed music. Anyway, I always composed music without labels. -Yet all through your life you had intense political activity, which cost you years in jail and exile... -I have never ceased being interested in politics; I follow the developments and read a lot even now. Some time ago, in an interview with the weekly magazine Eptá (Seven) — noticing that a great paralysis and lack of leadership were damaging Greece- I stated: Govern or resign! -How would you define yourself: a leftist, a socialist or a communist? - I would define myself as a utopian communist. During the years of the occupation, in the war, I enrolled in the Greek Popular Army and I was a partisan both in the mountains as well as in Athens. Those were the most important years in my life. - Is the problem that today affects your legs the product of injuries suffered during the war? -No! I was in jail for 12 years and was tortured by the fascists and this is the result of those tortures… You may also want to add that I also was a representative in Parliament and, for a short time, a minister. One never stops being active in politics. -A great Greek actress — Melina Merkouri — was a minister too and fought for the return of the Parthenon’s marbles. What do you think about those marbles that Lord Elgin took to the British Museum in London and which the English refuse to give back to Greece? - I believe, just as Melina in her day, that those sculptures should be returned to Greece because they were stolen. It is terrible to see the beauty of the Acropolis and the damage those monuments have endured when entire pieces were taken elsewhere. The only pretext of the English against [returning them] was that Greece did not have a suitable museum to protect them. Today this is no longer valid, because we have one of the most modern and lovely museums. - Returning to music… did you study music formally? - I am not too sure of what ‘formally’ would be… I did not have a teacher or a professor, if that’s what you mean. I learned alone observing and listening to others and I only attended a conservatory for about three years, between 1956 and1958, in Paris. - You have composed music for works of great Greek poets. Those of us who speak Spanish are both gratified and surprised by the fact that you have also written music for Neruda’s Canto General and García Lorca’s Romancero Gitano. Why did you? - Spanish is very attractive to me, I feel very attracted to those poems, I am really attracted to the feelings and ideals they express. -You have visited many Latin American countries… Which Latin American people have impressed you most? With which one do you feel most identified? - The Chileans, no doubt. Chileans have ways of being and of thinking which — from my point of view — is very Greek. We are very much alike and this must be why Pablo [Neruda] and I were such good friends! - Any anecdote you can share with us? -Many years ago I was in Havana and met Fidel Castro. Knowing Greek and French it was very easy for me to communicate with him and understand all he was telling me. You see, Spanish –a language that I like so much but that I almost do not speak- shares the same intonation, rhythm and cadence with Greek. There’s much affinity between them. - Why did you decide to make a musical adaptation of Canto General? - We were having breakfast with Pablo in his Paris home one morning — he was an Ambassador there- and that was when I decided to compose music for his Canto General. At the time, Neruda had the entire Chilean bourgeoisie, the leading daily in his country — El Mercurio newspaper — and the US against him. Then one day he and his wife came to our recording studio when I had already composed the music for the first five poems. The first one was Amor América. The singers were two of the best I have ever worked with: Maria Farandouri and Petros Pandís. Pablo listened very attentively and invited me for dinner at his place for the following evening. There he made a toast raising his glass. Taking a green crayon he dedicated his poem Voy a Vivir to “A genial man, Mikis Theodorakis”. In that poem he writes about Emiliano Zapata, Lautaro, Sandino… That was the last time I saw him. Shortly after, I went on a Latin American tour with my orchestra, which started in Buenos Aires. He let me know that he would not be able to meet me there due to his crippling rheumatism, but committed to be at my side once I reached Santiago. From Buenos Aires, we went on to play in Venezuela and Mexico. It was precisely the day of the premiere of Canto General in Mexico City’s theater that we got the news about his passing in Chile…” - ¿What does that painting in front of you represent, full of handwritten words connected by a network of straight and curving lines? - Ah… that? That is the ‘galaxy’ of all my works, of all my music, that shows how each composition relates to the others… I am not just the composer of Zorba. - Do you keep composing? - Composing — no! I do no longer compose but I continue making arrangements and some changes. I read quite a lot and every so often I write about contemporary affairs. Politics are still my passion and my worry. - How many concerts have you conducted with your orchestra?  - About two thousand, all over the world. Just as the greatest pleasure in my whole life has been to compose, one of my greatest delights has been to conduct my own music. Without music, there’s no life! -Would you mind if we took a few pictures of you? -I’d rather you didn’t. Besides — as I just said in my recent interview with Eptá — I am not a museum and this is why I prefer to have no pictures taken… They have taken so many of them and then they have always published the worst ones. But do not worry. I’ll tell Rena –my secretary- to send you a few interesting ones, with me alone or with other people I have loved and admired, like Anthony Quinn and Melina Merkouri. - Regarding Anthony Quinn… did it bother you that for Zorba’s role Cacoyannis did not choose a Greek actor? -Not at all… he was Mexican, you know. He had a very Greek countenance and was a great actor. - Do you know Astor Piazzolla’s work? -Of course. I like it very much, just as I like the work of Ariel Ramírez and especially his Misa Criolla. - How old were you when you composed for the first time? -I was very young – just twelve. We would have kept going the rest of the afternoon, but we had already abused enough of his patience and time. We got up to say good-bye by he stopped us with an energetic gesture of his hand, just as if we were musicians and he were on the podium. He produced a number of CDs from a drawer in the little table and a marker with which he started dedicating them to us, one by one with a firm, expressive handwriting, asking about the spelling of our names and making jokes all along. Only when he was done he picked up of the bells to call the silent lady. He shook hands with us with energy, seated in his armchair and we felt that he kept looking at us as we walked towards the door. Those strong handshakes, and having held our hands between his for a moment, made us recall that Mikis always conducted with his bare hands, his arms and all his body, clad with a simple black shirt and trousers of the same colour, with his mane to the wind. We turned right on the narrow sidewalk. Up there, as for many centuries, stood the Parthenon, outlined against the backdrop of a very deep blue sky, the columns shining like gold in the setting sun. A Mikis Theodorakis can only have been born in Greece, in that magic, impressive context. It is hard to say where Mikis Theodorakis begins and where Greece ends! They are two parts of the same continuum. His memorable sentence “Without music, there’s no life!” kept ringing in my ears. And as Kazantzakis put in Zorba’s lips, Theodorakis is one of those human beings who have “the fire inside” and who can light up the world with the power and energy of his music. As I walked by a small taverna in Plaka, they were playing a Theodorakis favorite: Doxa to Theó [Thanks to God]. In our hearts, we too thanked the gods of Olympus and Rena for having given us the gift of being with Mikis that afternoon. Read more at www.buenosairesherald.com

The IMF and European Central Bank were giving their verdict on the Greek economy, and the press conference was packed.

A colleague from the local media put up her hand, and started to ask her question, in Greek.

The IMF official looked at her blankly; "please, speak in English," he interrupted.

My colleague replied, in Greek: "We are in Greece, so I will speak Greek".

"I'm sorry, we can't understand you," said the IMF official, and asked for another question.

She protested, and a murmur of discontent rumbled round the room, but the press conference went on.

It was a telling moment. Yes, it was insensitive of the IMF and the ECB not to have provided any translation for an important press conference, largely attended by Greek journalists. But there's also a subtext.

Read the rest of this post »

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

EVEN as Greece’s Socialist government struggles to avoid bankruptcy, its long-suffering voters have opted out of party politics. For the first time in memory, more than half abstained in the second round of local elections on November 14th. Almost 30% of mayors who won run-off contests around the country were independents, including Yiannis Dimaras, a civil engineer who took Patras, a port in western Greece where the ruling Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) usually holds sway. Two progressives, both new to politics, won in Athens and Thessaloniki after a quarter of a century of right-wing control of both cities. George Kaminis, a constitutional expert, left his job as national ombudsman to run for mayor of Athens. In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, Yiannis Boutaris, a winemaker and environmentalist, scored a surprise victory. Both candidates were hand-picked by George Papandreou, the prime minister, in a bid to bring fresh talent to local government.

Once again Greece’s budget deficit has been revised upwards (see chart). It reached 15.4% of GDP in 2009, compared with a previous estimate of 13.6%. This year’s deficit target of 7.8% will be missed as a result, although Greece is still aiming to cut the deficit by six percentage points of GDP, just ahead of what was agreed with the IMF and EU.

See more at www.economist.com