Hate to Say I Told You So… (An Elegy and a Wake-Up Call)

In case you missed it, a 77-year-old retiree killed himself earlier today mere metres away from the Greek Parliament, as hardships finally proved too much for him. According  to a note they found on his person, he said he did it so he wouldn’t be a burden to his children, or forced to scavenge in trash cans for people’s leftovers in order to survive. As they took his body away from Syntagma Square, bystanders broke out in applause. This man is every man – and woman – in Greece right now: pushed to the brink, taunted, extorted out of every option.

The public outrage is just, and abundant. While many of the comments I’ve read online are of the “this is murder, not a suicide” variety, naming current and former government officials as the ones who put the gun in the man’s hand, there are others that look at this appalling tragedy as a wake-up call and a warning, that it’s this generation of politicians, the so-called “Γενιά του Πολυτεχνείου” (the Polytechnic Generation), and all the voters in the same age-group, that are responsible for the greater state of the country. This is something I’ve touched upon relatively recently, and even years before the creation of this blog. Doubtlessly other Greeks have had the same insight: that as long as our mindset is stuck in the ’70s, so will our politics, and our economy, and stagnation will be all we’ll ever know.

Filed under: Articles/Essays, English Posts, Greece, Athens, I told you so, Politics, suicide

Να είσαι ειδικός ή να μην είσαι;

Πριν πω οτιδήποτε, δυο λόγια απευθυνόμενα στο μέσο αναγνώστη που δεν ξέρει ποια και τι είμαι: αν και δεν θεωρώ τον εαυτό μου ειδήμονα ούτε στο χώρο της δημοσιογραφίας ούτε και της τέχνης, τό’χω σπουδάσει ρε φίλε το θέμα (το γράψιμο) εις τας Βρετανίας (όπου και ζω) και ξέρω πέντε πράγματα για το πώς συντάσσει κανείς ένα άρθρο. Όσο για την τέχνη, είτε πρόκειται για ταινίες και τηλεοπτικές σειρές είτε για μουσική και φωτογραφία, είναι ίσως η μόνη σταθερή ενασχόληση που έχω κρατήσει σ’όλη μου τη ζωή. Και γι’αυτό ξέρω πέντε πράγματα… αλλά αυτό δεν είναι το θέμα μας.

Το θέμα μας σήμερα είναι η κλασσική Ελληνική τεμπελιά και πώς αυτή μεταφέρεται στο χώρο της δημοσιογραφίας, έστω και της ερασιτεχνικής δημοσιογραφίας. Χωρίς να θέλω να γενικεύσω τα σχόλιά μου για όλο τον Ελληνικό δημοσιογραφικό πληθυσμό, ερασιτεχνικό και μη, συνειδητοποιώ έντρομη ότι ο μέσος αρθρογράφος δεν κάνει μια στοιχειώδη έρευνα πριν δημοσιεύσει τα άρθρα που αργότερα ενημερώνουν τον κόσμο, ουσιαστικά με λανθασμένες πληροφορίες – και πολλές φορές, άκουσον άκουσον, διαπομπεύουν και την άγνοιά τους, να μάθει όλος ο κόσμος πόσο τίποτα δεν ξέρουν γι’αυτό που γράφουν.

Ε διορθώστε με αν κάνω λάθος ρε παιδιά, αλλά δεν γράφεις άρθρα έτσι.

Filed under: Greece, Greek Posts, Internet/Web 2.0, Writing, hunger games, lifo.gr, manga

Everything Else is Coloured Bubbles: The Real Injustice Behind Tom Hiddleston’s Defeat at the BAFTAs

I will admit that my bias in favour of Tom Hiddleston immediately predisposed me against all the other candidates for the BAFTA Rising Star Award this year – even against Chris Hemsworth, whom I admire greatly – simply because Tom Hiddleston’s talent surpasses everyone else’s by a mile. He doesn’t just pretend to be other people; he becomes other people, and every time he is someone else there is no trace of his own self whatsoever. That is the mark of a great actor, not the ability to portray people with experiences not far from one’s own.

But this is something that every loyal moviegoer has already noticed about Tom; his every performance, from F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Magnus Martinsson in Wallander to Captain Nicholls in War Horse, and from Loki in Thor to Freddie Page in The Deep Blue Sea and Edward in Archipelago, Tom has proven his worth time and time again. For those privileged enough to have seen him on stage as well (and I am incredibly lucky to be among them) it’s the only thing that makes sense. But the trouble with today’s award is that it was up for a public vote, and that revealed far more than just a winner among the candidates. It showed what people in Britain value, what they relate to, and what they consider good. Now let’s take a step back and see what that is.

Filed under: Articles/Essays, England, English Posts, Movies, acting, Adam Deacon, BAFTAs, Chris Hemsworth, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston

The Good Wife 3×12 review: Mama Knows Best [W&F missed post]

The following post was originally going to be published on Wit & Fancy; however due to scheduling issues it was left out. The rest of the reviews continue to be posted there normally.

Season 3, Episode 12: “Alienation of Affection”

In the first episode after the Christmas break, The Good Wife gives us all a scare by making us believe Wendy Scott-Carr (Anika Noni Rose) is finally going after Will Gardner (Josh Charles) in the much anticipated grand jury investigation into judicial bribery. Will, Dianne (Christine Baranski), Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and David Lee (Zach Grenier) all get served by the same adorable Australian process-server, Jack Copeland (Bryan Brown) who seems to have a thing for Dianne, but it’s not what we think—Lockhart/Gardner is simply getting sued for $44 million (!), after a disgruntled, formerly divorced couple whom David Lee helped divide and sell their assets discover they made a substantial mistake and lost a lot of money in selling one of their companies.

Filed under: English Posts, Television, Wit & Fancy, the good wife

Anne Marsen’s real-life connection to her character on The Good Wife?

Anne Marsen, the girl in the video above, has made guest appearances on the CBS drama The Good Wife, one of my personal all-time favourite TV shows. I was intrigued by her character, the eccentric Jennifer who films herself doing street dancing in public places and then posts the videos online, and was rather pleasantly surprised when, while looking Anne up on IMDB, I discovered that Jennifer isn’t that different from the actress that portrays her.

Makes me wonder, did the writers and production team select Anne because she does pretty much what the character of Jennifer does in the show, or did they write her into the show to promote her activity?

Either way, it’s pretty cool.
And so is this video. Watch it, it’ll stay in your head for days.

Filed under: English Posts, Television, anne marsen, the good wife

Remember, remember, the 17th of November: a brief lesson in modern Greek history

This is a series of tweets I posted on November 17th to commemorate the Athens Polytechnic uprising on the same day in 1973, edited into a few short paragraphs:

In 17/11/1973 a group of Greek university students were trampled on -literally and metaphorically- by the military government for speaking out. Those were terrible, tough times for Greece, as all dictatorships usually are. These kids stood up against them, broadcast inspirational words on pirate stations they’d built themselves, just so they could give courage to the people. Then most of them were killed, and those who survived were never the same. It’s a classic tale of bravery in times of need, and it pains me that it isn’t remembered as it should be.

17/11/1973 marked a turning point in modern Greek history. Soon after the Junta fell and we got democracy back, only to fall into a lull full of corruption, laziness, bribery and tax evasion. All meaning of democracy, of the freedom of speech, has been lost since then.

I wish that, even with a simple few tweets, I can remember the students – kids my age but much braver than I – who gave their lives just so our parents’ generation could be free (and then later, us too). I wish Greece were evolved enough to appreciate what they did. Doubtless schools are having celebrations right now, but they’re kind of meaningless when kids these days use their constitutional rights–those the 17/11/1973 victims died protecting–over stupid, farcical demands that ridicule the very institution of sanctuary & occupation.

There’s a choice few of us that appreciate what that generation did for us. Revolution has lost its meaning in my country now, but there was a time it meant something. There was a time protests were done for a cause, not just to shout angrily at the government, and youngsters no older than myself had the political conscience and determination to use the constitution in their favour and protest with class.

Rest in peace, 17/11/1973 victims. We salute and thank you for your sacrifice.

I wish I could’ve done something more for this important day, because for me it means so much; but alas, living in England has made me less mindful of the calendar. Next year there will be a video of some kind. Promise.

Filed under: Articles/Essays, English Posts, Greece

Greece Shifts Gear: Meet the New Prime Minister [W&F archive]

Post originally published on Wit & Fancy on November 14th, 2011.

Filed under: Articles/Essays, English Posts, Greece, Wit & Fancy, Politics

Defending an Identity: Feminist and Proud! [W&F archive]

Post originally published on Wit & Fancy on November 9th, 2011.

At a friend’s birthday party last week, I was telling this new male acquaintance I’d just made about how I write for Wit & Fancy, an online women’s magazine. I could instantly see a flash of disdain cross his face. “So, you’re a feminist,” he said almost accusingly, with a dismissive hand gesture that felt downright insulting. “What’s wrong with that?” I said. And really, what is the problem with being a feminist nowadays? When it comes down to it, what does it really mean, and why are we being looked down on like that?

Filed under: Articles/Essays, English Posts, Gender and sexuality, Wit & Fancy, feminism

Occupy LSX: Things Get Freaky In the English Capital [W&F archive]

Post originally published on Wit & Fancy on November 1st, 2011.

The Occupy movement has gone global in the last couple of weeks, in a wave of heartfelt support for the New Yorkers who started the protest against capitalism and the social injustice that has rendered the vast majority of the world’s population into taxpaying machines. “The 99%” in London’s capital attempted to occupy the London Stock Exchange square, but after being kicked out of there on the grounds of it being considered private property, they settled nearby outside St Paul’s Cathedral, erecting tents and camping it out in protest for the recent economic downturns in the UK—the high prices on housing, student debt, and the corruption among financial corporations to name but a few. The first week went by swimmingly, with protesters gathering peacefully outside the biggest church in central London to shout out their indignation at the global financial situation and at the powers that make life in the United Kingdom so difficult to get through. Even when police tried to break the protest up, the canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, Reverend Giles Fraser, stepped forward to protect the protesters, saying they had a right to protest peacefully and that he was happy for them to do it then and there. He went on to vouch for them and even support the movement in one of his sermons; Occupy London grew stronger in numbers and in spirit.

All that somehow shifted this week. After having to close the cathedral for the first time since World War II, the same priest briefly sided with the city of London, who are vying for a court-ordered eviction of the protesters; his troubled conscience over that decision (as well as his earlier promise/threat to quit if force is used against the activists camping outside the church) caused him, a celebrated man who advocates for free speech, to resign his position as canon. Even as he walked down the steps of the church, the Dean of St Paul’s and the chaplains show conflicting attitudes about whether or not they should continue their support of the OccupyLSX movement, and as the City of London Corporation (yes, they’re corporate) seeks legal action against the activists, the fate of Occupy London seems uncertain at best.

Filed under: Articles/Essays, England, English Posts, Wit & Fancy, london, Occupy Movement

Change Comes from the Inside: The Three Greek Ministers’ Open Letter at an Angle [W&F archive]

Post originally published on Wit & Fancy on October 19th, 2011.

To say that things in Greece have been turbulent would be putting it mildly; the country has been brought down to its knees again and again as more and more austerity measures are being put into effect, and with barely enough time to recover between the blows both citizens and government are absolutely exhausted. There is chaos in the streets, and more importantly in the hearts of the people; no one trusts the authorities, and in turn the authorities can’t do their jobs. Workers go on strike every other week to ask back for what was taken from them during the cuts, and students occupy their schools and universities for no reason at all, simply out of the desperation induced by the recent reform law and the lack of school books, resources and teaching staff.

The worst part of it all is that the feeling of resignation is ingrained into the mindset of Greek society, and it’s been like that for as long as I remember. It’s what’s led the country to its current state: not trusting the politicians, yet voting them in term after term and being outraged at the numerous scandals paraded in the media; asking for favours and perpetuating the culture of bribery and embezzlement; avoiding paying the taxes and delivering promises made. It’s all been rotten for a while, and everyone knows it, yet nothing’s ever done. A stagnant, rotten society: that’s the face of modern Greece, which Europe and the world have only now begun to see.

Filed under: Articles/Essays, English Posts, Greece, Wit & Fancy, Politics