Hellas i pressen

[Pjokken]

Ikke alle ferieminner er gode ferieminner...

Ris på baken.

[MaFi]

Thor Bjarne Bore (kjent mediamann og kulturpersonlighet, tidligere sjefredaktør i Romsdals Budstikke, Vårt Land og Stavanger Aftenblad o.s.v), er på Naxos for tida, og blogger i Stavanger Aftenblad:

(Bores erfaring med senior-øyloffing i 1998 endte opp med Naxos 11 ganger til...)

\"Sutalaust på Naxos\" (26.
http://www.aftenbladet.no/blogg/Borebloggen/article1253241.ece

\"Varm dag, kald krig og krig\" (1.9)
http://www.aftenbladet.no/blogg/Borebloggen/article1254239.ece

\"Sol og strand kan ikke devalueres\" (4.9)
http://www.aftenbladet.no/blogg/Borebloggen/article1255545.ece

[kaka]

Her var det mye fin lesing, MaFi, båder ren ferieskildring, og mer tankevekkende betraktninger.

[ElleNida]

Fra \"Athens Plus\" denne uken, handler om den nye røykeloven i landet og den greske mentaliteten. Neste gang kan jeg kanskje selv gå inn på det lokale rådhuset og betale den årlige vannavgiften. Er astmatiker og har inntil nå  måttet få andre til å gå inn der. :alien:

COMMENTARIES
Another smoke screen?

There was something almost festive about the first day of Greece's ostensible smoking ban on Wednesday - as if people were trying out a strange foreign ritual before reverting to their old habits. Coffee shop patrons and office workers stepped outside to light up, in keeping with the law that prohibits smoking indoors - with the exception of bouzouki joints and casinos with floor space greater than 300 square meters (those with cash to burn have the right to poison themselves and others, it seems). The mood was that we should give this European and American craze a try, rather than accepting it as a step toward liberating ourselves from the chains of addiction. As we know, previous attempts to limit smoking have run aground on the Greeks' God-given right to do as they please.

In this year of change, it is fitting that the government should try to adopt one more change to the way we behave. However unrelated this seems to the monumental effort of reforming the economy, social security and the labor market, the smoking ban could serve as a measure of how much Greeks are prepared to change. As anyone with experience of Greece knows, smoking cigarettes is not simply the ritualized inhalation of nicotine, tar and other addictive substances but a personal statement; not an admission of dependence but a declaration of personal liberty; not a waste of money and a mortal danger but a constant companion through all of life's joys, trials and everyday routines. The utter failure of the ban on taxi drivers' smoking a few years ago simply confirmed that, in Greece, laws serve only as a smoke screen for public opinion, not as an effort to modify behavior, to facilitate the smooth running of society or to enforce prohibitions.

So, at this time when Greeks are being pressed to change radically the way they work and the way they live, the attempt to ban smoking will show whether their spirit has been broken or whether they are still not prepared to go gently into the night. Will they accept that, at last, something has to change in their personal behavior, as they appear to have accepted the major economic reforms? Or will they say: "Enough! We have already given up so much, we will not tolerate any further impositions on our personal freedom"? Will they put aside their emotions and see the restrictions as an incentive to give up a habit that is both dangerous and very, very expensive?

It is difficult to guess which way things will go. But what is clear is that if the ban is not enforced through decisive and constant action by the authorities, it will degenerate into yet another travesty, one that will simply push smokers and nonsmokers to keep quarreling, as they do now, with one group trying to impose its will on the other without any state body serving as arbiter. It will be further confirmation that Greeks are left to fend for themselves, as if they were in some prehistoric society rather than citizens of a state in which laws are established by Parliament and enforced by the police, municipal authorities and anyone else in a position of responsibility.

In a popular phrase, freedom is defined as stretching your body to the length that it is covered by your blanket without extending onto your neighbor's. This rule has often been broken in the general breakdown of social mores that accompanies Greece's breakneck urbanization and reliance on political connections and easy money for personal progress. We see it in politics, in the economy, in how we drive and park, how we jump queues and pay and take bribes. But nowhere do we see it more dramatically than in the clouds of smoke that emanate from most smokers, as they stake their personal claim to territory far beyond their expansive selves. The latest effort to ban smoking in closed public spaces will show whether we have begun to understand that we are all members of one society, not many intersecting ones, and whether, eventually, someone in authority cares about enforcing the law.

[Tjorven]

Kan bare bekrefte at forbudet mot innendørs røyking (iallfall på EN taverna) i Parga ble overholdt etter 1.september.....

[Admirala]

Se, hør og les om statsminister Papandreou, som akkurat nå er på besøk i Oslo:
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/okonomi/1.7290293

[Kalimera]

Fant en meget interessant artikkel om Hellas som har litt ulike vinklinger på endel av problemstillingene landet akkurat nå befinner seg i.

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010?currentPage=1

[bengalow]

Jag har alltid menat, att \"staten i staten\", kyrkan, är en pestböld.  Man lever sitt liv därinne, nästan som kriminella med amnesti. Dom förser sig av fattiga människors sista smulor. Har ni sett en smal munk?  Nej, feta och välmående, och klostren har mer pengar än staten. Förstatliga kyrkan i Grekland, och de ekonomiska problemen är ur världen. Greker har större tilltro till kyrkans välsignelser än till staten. Det finns inget evigt liv, när dagen kommer, då man går av daga, så är alla offergåvorna \"putz weck\"! Att lova evigt liv, bara man får en \"skärv av änkan\", är ren blasfemi, och borde straffas!

[Tjorven]

Vel talt, Bengalow   :thumbright:

[Admirala]

Støtter Bengalow på alle punkter  :wav:

[bengalow]

Well, pressen eller inte, men på svenska TV-Aktuellt/Rapport, så hade man ett inslag om Grekland, och den ekonomiska situationen.  Man berättade att ca 10% av alla småföretag är på ruinens brant. Som exempel visades en klädeshandlare i Aten, med mer än 80 års  familjeverksamhet, som inte sålde för mer än 100 kr om dagen. Likadana små mysiga butiker, är det inte det som är den grekiska drömmen om \"eget\"?  Men är det fel? Det kommer nya affärsideer, med standardmått till envar. Den svenska affärskedjan H&M, eller norska Adelsten och spanska Zara etablerar sig överallt, och konkurrerar ut de små. Har Grekland levt för länge i sin konservatism? Sin tro på det småskaliga? I början på 90-talet gick den grekiska öljätten Fix i konkurs, för att grekerna själv  ville ha importerad öl, som Amstel, Carlsberg och Heinekken. Den bästa öl jag smakat i Grekland var Fix - den originala på 60-80-talet. Perfekt i den varma miljön!!!  Dagens Fix är nada!!

[marjana]

Heller ikke her kommer et direkte sitat fra pressen, men jeg så på Dagsrevyen på tv der George Papandreou var på toppmøte med de andre europeiske statsministene for å drøfte arbeidsledigheten, eller hva det nå var, her i Oslo.
Papandreou sa at han hadde nok gått ut i gatene og demonstrert i Hellas, hvis han ikke var statsminister. Det er urettferdig at den vanlige borger må ta støyten for et skakkjørt land der de rike virkelig har stukket av med penga.