Come the Revolution – Alex Mitchell
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A tale of two cities
In London, Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint is the British Government’s Minister for Trade and Investment. Between 2003 and 2010 he was CEO and chairman of HSBC, the bank that laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states. He is also an ordained minister of the Church of England who wrote the 1996…
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Into the wilds
We’ve been in the Deep Mani, the southernmost part of the Peloponnese, discovering stories of warrior women and relics of the one of the oldest known civilisations in all of Greece. Our way led over winding mountain coastal roads into the wildest, most barren landscape we’ve yet seen. Clinging to folds in the stony hills…
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A vision of classical Greece
It’s one thing to read about an early civilisation or see pictures of its monuments. But to stand above a great amphitheatre, and look across what remains of the city below, is something quite different. You feel its history all about you. Ancient Messini in the southern Peloponnese is one of the most significant sites…
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Whither Greece?
After a series of despatches on wartime and post-war Greece, it’s time to draw some political conclusions about the ancient nation regarded as “the cradle of democracy”. To all intents and purposes it is broke and living week-to-week on life support from Euro-bank loans. It is ruled by a weak three-party coalition whose partners are…
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Unholy alliance against bail-out
The Greek bail-out negotiations are so tortuous that they require a knowledge of quantum physics to track their progress. The next “crunch date” is July 24 when the so-called “troika” representing the Euro-banks, the IMF and the European Commission return with their final report on what the Greek people must sacrifice to satisfy the German,…
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Museums under attack
History under our feet Pottery, says Greek archaeologist Giorgos Hourmouziadis, “is the gold of pre-history”. So it turned out to be when we visited Messenia’s Archaeological Museum in Kalamata. It’s tucked away behind the beautiful 13th century church of Agii Apostoli in the centre of town, housed in what was once the mansion of the…
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Where Zorba danced
Near Stoupa in the Mani where we go to swim there’s a beach named Kalogria, which in Greek means “nun”. Local legend has it that almost 1,000 years ago, a novice from the nearby nunnery fell in love with a prince. When the church would not release her from her vows so that she could…
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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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