Category: Greece
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Greece’s wartime history: a reflection
Hitler’s German army invaded Greece in Operation Marita on April 6, 1941. Using overwhelming ground and air forces, including 10 armoured, mechanised and mountain divisions and the SS Adolf Hitler Bodyguard, the campaign was to avenge the humiliating defeat inflicted on Mussolini’s army. The German army blitzed its way to victory in three weeks with…
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Severe case of foot in mouth
Greeks are in disbelief at the way they are being blamed for the crisis by right-wing European politicians. German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged them in the recent elections to vote for parties that would enforce the European Union’s proposed austerity measures. Last week British Prime Minister David Cameron courted the Little England vote by saying…
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Greece told to flog its assets
The troika supervising Greece’s relegation into poverty, unemployment and a Third World economy based on tourism, olives and cheap wine has been laying down the law to the New Democracy-Pasok-Kavala coalition government. The troika represents the unelected European Commission, the unelected European Central Bank and the unelected International Monetary Fund. Their reps are sleek, cold-blooded…
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Discovering a region – and a writer
The Mani is the long peninsula, like the middle prong of the Peloponnese trident, stretching down into the Mediterranean between the Aegean and Ionian seas. We’ve parked ourselves like true Australians on its coastal fringe, at the northern, most accessible end, and are only just beginning to explore it. One who knew the area intimately…
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Paddy’s gift to the nation stalled
When Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, the swashbuckling adventurer, travel writer and war hero, died just over a year ago he bequeathed his magnificent residence at Kardamyli on the coast of the Peloponnese to the Greek people. (See previous online despatch “Where Paddy meets Bruce”, 6.7.12, plus photos on Facebook). In his last will and testament…
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Where Paddy meets Bruce
A 70-minute drive south to Kardamyli on a divine mission to pay tribute to the extraordinary accomplishments of two Englishmen, now departed – Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bruce Chatwin. Leigh Fermor lived in the area almost 50 years and was given honorary citizenship of the village as well as greater awards by the Greek Government.…
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War and peace Greek-style
This area is so peaceful today that it’s hard to realise it’s been a theatre of wars and conflict for millennia. But a chance encounter on a sleepy day brings it home. In search of a sandy beach we set off for Stoupa, some 40kms to the south. The trip through the mountains is hair-raising…
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Touchdown in lotus land
There’s something about the soporific atmosphere because I keep forgetting what day it is. I had to ask Judith whether it was Wednesday or Thursday and she seemed uncertain too. It’s very hot during the day with temperatures above 30 degrees, but that doesn’t fully explain our slumberousness (new word). We are staying with friends…
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On the Gulf of Messinia
It’s evening. From our hillside terrace we look down across olive groves and cypresses to the calm waters of the Gulf of Messinia. The light is golden; the heat has finally gone out of the day. Our landlord, coming up the hill in his tractor, waves a greeting. It’s blessedly peaceful. We arrived on Monday…
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Papandreou drops referendum – and credibility with Greeks
The international bankers have stiff-armed the Greek Government and forced Prime Minister George Papandreou to drop the planned people’s referendum on the Euro zone bail-out. The decision to put the poverty-inflicting measures to a vote followed a marathon session of ministers and senior members of the ruling PASOK, the Pan Hellenic So…cialist Party, which ended…