November 1, 2011
Almost everyone with whom I meet asks me what
I'm looking in Greece, if I have relatives there
etc. I answer them that I have no relationship in
Greece and that I am go there for climate. Some
envious could not help replying: "it's good for
you, that you can afford it". But, I am
accustomed to such nasty people. I remember a
statement of a parvenu, became engineer with
the help of the communist party, temporarily
colleague with me: "You had an easy life. You
went to school because your mom sent you and,
slowly-slowly, you become an engineer, without
effort. I had to work for it. In a single school
year I followed a year of College, two classes at
high school (without frequency), besides the
school-leaving examination." From his point of
view, my life probably seems to have been easy
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slight, though I doubt; I think it was just a
replica of his knowing to be an impostor.
All the childhoods are happy in the adults’ eyes
and all the others’ childhoods are easy, flat and
trivial, unlike ours, which was dramatic and
unpaired. I know, however, that, in the same
period, my mother, a widow, lived many days with
only bread and tea, while his father was the head
of the “The Household of the Party”, which
provisioned the activists with foods forbidden
the others.
As for the idea to stay in Greece in cold season,
my income is modest enough, smaller than that of
many other people, who envy me. How could I
manage in Greece? If I count the cost of gas,
maintenance and, especially, the price of the
medicines in Romania, I almost cover the rent for
apartment in Athens. As for eating, I must eat
wherever I stay. And, if sell some paintings –
living there would be just better.
And there is something more: Romanian politics,
news of everyday about all sorts of thieves and
many others like this make me nervous. I become
grumbling even in what I write. Not that I would
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not have to critic in Greece. I have, thank God!,
perhaps even more than in Romania, but those
ones do not hurt me. They are not mine. I only
comment them.
That does not mean that I broke away from
those from at home. I learn in Greece what is
happening in Romania. There is the Internet!
However, I have the advantage that we can
select what interests me.
The Distance? The distance can help me to see
more clearly. How about my writings? So far they
had a stronger impact abroad than in my country.
Perhaps now, writing from abroad, they will have
more searching in Romania. Dreams!
November 2, 2011
- What do you think about Friedman’s
predictions on Romania?
- The name sounds familiar to me, but now I do
not know if I know who is it about.
- There is an interview appeared in a magazine;
I think I still have it a home. I will give to
you, to read. He says that Romania was wrong
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entering into OTAN and the UE. A better was
would be to ally with Turkey.
- A rather categorical solution. Politics is much
too complex for such simple verdicts. But you
made me curious.
- Tomorrow I will bring you the magazine. And
I'm curious what you think.
I received the magazine. George Friedman is the
founder of Stratfor Analysis Company. The
article is an interview, originally published in "Hot
News", from which someone extracted - I do not
know how correctly – some passages about
Romania. Here's my opinion.
Some statements are correct; others do not.
He is correct when says that Romania has no
chances to export in the UE its own products,
because of the strong competition from more
developed countries, as France, Germany and
others.
It is only polite when praise the Romanians talent
and it make him to be wrong, saying that Romania
can export to other countries except the UE and
recommends Turkey. Here, he maybe reveals a
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hidden thought (a desire), namely the formation
of a centre of power in the flank of UE and
Russia.
His mistake lays in assuming that Romania could
competitively produce by itself and on their own
initiative. No, unfortunately, Romania is not
capable for such a thing, and those few young
people, with whom we love to praise, are
marginalized, or leave abroad. As a member of a
larger community, it may assimilate a part of the
characteristics of that community. Along with
the USSR, we know what Romania assimilated. I
note today that even the food – perhaps the only
what could have been of good quality – is inferior
than from some more developed countries, and
even those from Romania of 50 years ago. As a
member of UE – even like a slum and a city – it
borrows something from western civilization. The
difference between Brasov of today, for
example, and that of 20 years ago is relevant. As
a member of the UE it may produce at least
component parts of some performing products,
can assimilate modern technologies. In one
optimistic variant, it may acquire intellectual
capacities and create opportunities for export in
countries like Turkey.
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As for the entry into OTAN, I agree that in the
event of an armed conflict, nobody will help us.
We know that when the USSR invaded
Czechoslovakia and there was a danger to do the
same with Romania, nobody offers a support for
Romania. This was the reason because of which
Ceaushescu turned extern politics from West to
Est. It is equally true that an alliance with any of
the belligerents is a mistake. The only solution is
the defence with own forces, because, in the
case of very likely defeat, it remains the honour
and the opportunity of fast restoration, without
debts of war – material or moral – after the end
of the conflict. In our case, however, the
accession to OTAN was the first step to return
to Europe.
November 3, 2011
- You loose flesh. Greece was not favourable
for you?
- In Greece was very well.
- And then?
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- Because of the language. It is not easy to
speak Greek with your hands.
- I see that your hair have fallen too; is that
because of the language too?
- No, my hair fell down washing it.
- That's a variant on that joke with the Russian
soldier, who has found his waistcoat.
- Which joke? I do not remember.
- You were Hellenised; you forgot the
autochthon jokes. Sasha and Ivan, two good
friends, were in the war together and they
were sworn to remain bachelors. After a few
years, however, Sasha decides to married.
Ivan, angry that he had been betrayed,
refused the invitation to the wedding,
especially since he was asked to come
correctly dressed, with a tie. All that all, but
the claim to wear a tie was over his
conception. However, after a few days, he
changed his mind and comes to the wedding as
he was asked. Very happy, Sasha thanks him.
Ivan responds that he was not to give up at
their friendship for a thing so little. "Besides,
I've found my waistcoat", he says – "Which
waistcoat?", asks, Ivan. - "The waistcoat that
I wore all the war under the shirt and keep
me warm in frosty days.” "-Yeah, it's your
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jacket of which you was never separated. And
where was it?" – "Under the shirt, of course."
- Yes, I remembered now the joke.
- Really? You started to come back. You did not
find anything?
- Not yet. I do not had the time.
* * *
- "At in Arcadia ego".
- I was not in Arcadia.
- Everyone was in Arcadia.
- This is a platitude with stiffener. Of course,
we all was in the Arcadia of Pan, the ugly one,
with beard, horns and hooves.
- It was ugly, but he invented the pan flute.
- I would prefer Poussin's Arcadia.
- The painter of you is speaking. Or do you have
somehow the nostalgia for a lost happiness to
which you dreamed? I know that idyllic life is
not one of yours characteristics.
- Even if I have it, I'm awake at this hour.
- And that is why you limit yourself to Arcadia
from geography.
- I give you a satisfaction living to consider me
to be limited; at this hour I am open to other
topics.
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- To geography.
- Not to the geography from the atlas, but to
the world, to the people. Moreover, the
phrase "Et in Arcadia ego” wants to suggest a
idyllic life in a beautiful scenery and,
especially, quiet. No space is important, but
the life. Well, I do not known any of these
alternatives. I have not been in Arcadia from
Peloponnese without speaking about the idyllic
life.
- I've taken me the whole poem. Now I stay to
think about the modern Arcadia, i.e. where
the movement for the liberation of the
Greeks was born.
- You fallen from one extreme to the other.
- Did you visit Delphi?
- No, I have been only in Athens. I hope in the
future, sitting there more, to do some
excursions. But why are you interested in?
Have you any question for Pythia?
- Is she still there? If I sit to think well, I
have enough questions. Who does not?
- Most of the questions since 3,000 years were
the same as nowadays: what career to follow,
if have or not trust in someone (friend,
fiancé, fiancée), if the partner is devoted to
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you etc. Her answers were just goads. "Know
yourself!" one says that belongs to her.
- She get into a trance due to gas source.
- Yes, gases are important.
* * *
- You said once that Greeks have passed from
Mythology – who have been infected and the
Romans – to Christianity, at a speed higher
than any other peoples. Not to mention about
that they are among the most faithful people
today.
- Yes, a philosophy is not born overnight, and
each religion has in its core a philosophy. It
has need a long period of gestation, and that
happened in Greece to a greater extent than
in any other part. When Christianity has
crystallized and become public – having
churches, bishops etc. – it was immediately
assimilated by the Greeks. The population was
prepared.
- What did not happen in the countries where it
was imposed top-down. There, the population
was unprepared and needed several centuries
to understand what is all about.
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- Or they never understood, as the natives
from America, where the Europeans imposed
Catholic Religion, but people continue to
maintain the old beliefs even today.
- They do not want to understand. And if you
mentioned the Catholicism, I believe that
Western Europeans never understood the
essence of Christianity, in any case, not at the
time of the Inquisition and Crusades.
-
But on which you rely on suggesting that the
ideas of Christianity was born in Greece?
-
Even St. Paul was a Jew trained in Greece. But
history is much longer. Thalion Law, for
example; the Old Testament is full of such
indications: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth
and so on. It was replaced by its backside in
the New Testament had been disbanded by
the Greek lawgiver Draco as early as 620 b.c.
He is also the man who tries to introduce the
equality of men before the law, the Christian
principle, according to which people are equal
in the face of God. About Plato, a French man
– I do not remember now his name – said that
he was "the first systematic theologian." (It's
about M. Louis, in „ De la grand séminaire de Meaux”,
quoted by Pan Pan Vandoros in a very beautiful novel:
"Greece with and without gods".)
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November 4, 2011
A dialogue imaginary but not too
- Big changes have not been ever made with
brutality. The revolutions produced only
disasters.
- Well, and then, how changes occur, because
the leaders never give up voluntarily to their
privileges.
- Through apparent small changes, but continue.
Christian society - European and American –
failed,
because
they
changed
the
philosophical-religious paradigm, but kept the
old economic formula, and created a
discrepancy between people’s aspirations and
reality.
- You have gone from small changes and
concluded with philosophical ideas, which I've
not understood very well.
- Specifically, when the society passed from
hereditary monarchy to modern state, based
on the institutionalisation of main social
activities, nobody thought to a state with
universal elections, where all uneducated
people are to choose their “wise” men.
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Communist ideas were in hatching. The rich
men of that time were still thinking that - in
the defending of their wealth – it is naturally
to contribute to the general expenses of the
state in proportion to their wealth. The idea
was not new. Even in Romanian countries,
every boyar used to come to war with his
army and contributed to the budget of the
country according to his economic power. Of
course, the power of his decision was
proportional with his contribution. Well, this
idea of the contribution proportional with the
wealth was perpetuated even in the market
economy. Applied to profit, it became a brake.
Its anachronism continues and creates strong
wrongdoing in society.
- Okay, you convinced me with that. How about
universal elections, everyone thinks to the
communists, but also the idea did not belong
to them.
- Obviously, it belongs to the West, with its
utopia.
We have an example just in Romania. In 1919,
some politicians created the Party of Peasants.
It was not born from the desire of farmers to
participate in the vote. The poor of them, in
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their ignorance, did not know what it was. The
politicians – although townspeople - had the idea
that – under the conditions of universal vote –
the great number of the peasants will be decisive
in the fight with their political opponents. The
Solution? Nothing simpler: put the name “of
Peasants” to their party and have initiated a
proper propaganda.
Behold, not even here, the communists have not
new ideas, but used some of the others, overdone
them.
Over a week I will go back in Athens.
November 5, 2011
Back in the country, I was curious to find out
how the situation evolves in Greece, especially
since, over a week I return. I was even glad that
you learn the news in Romanian language. As far
as I was in Athens, not knowing Greek language,
only from C.N.N. I learnt a little bit more than
nothing.
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But, my puzzles increased by one. At Romanian
television they talk about opposition of right,
with the Prime Minister, Giorgos Papandreou,
faces in the Parliament. Socialist. He is a
Member of Socialist Panelenic Movement
(PASOC), was even the President of Socialist
International in 2006. It is a socialist born in the
U.S., Saint Paul, Minnesota, where his father,
Andreas Papandreou was student and has very
serious studies, both before and after 1974,
when he came to Greece after the restoration of
the democracy, and was heavily involved in the
politic life of his country. Moreover, its name is
George Jeffrey Papandreou, his mother,
Margaret Chant, being American. The head of
the opposition is none other but Antonis
Samaras, who had been friends with and
roommate
from
College,
at
Amgerst,
Massachusetts. As a matter of facts, both of
them pretend to be socialists.
In each of us there is an Apollo, but also a
Dionysus. How the peace between the two is not
possible the armistice is the only solution. The
fact that the violation of armistice makes one of
them to put himself forward for the moment do
not ensure him a favourable place in history.
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But this is not that surprised me; more important
is the opposition organised in the street by KKE
(Greek Communist Party). Their claims are low
wages and taxes too high. I did not learn it from
the TV, but I saw it with my eyes. KKE is of left
extreme and has 5 percents in the Parliament.
Not a word about the right opposition, un-
represented in the Parliament.
The real problem is the economic crisis and how
to go out from it. Unfortunately, nobody think of
it; common people’s options are not left or right,
but with or without U.E. and euro.
On this chessboard, Papandreou plays with
ability. In my opinion, the Parliament will honour
its name and will remains at the level of words
(parlare, in Italian language). Left and right wings
of the opposition are both truly dangerous,
because they can determine a slippage towards
anarchy, from which other countries will know
how to seize. As for crisis, it is a deep one and
has implications in an inadequate legislation,
people’s mentality and the lack of will to change
it. Those who ought to solve it are even those
who have caused it. Unfortunately, they do not
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want to do it, and the others are either unable,
or are handled, or both of them.
* * *
Constantin Noica complained that the Dacians
from the Trojan’s column looks like perfect with
the Romanian peasant of today: "The Romanian
<<eternity>> is rather inflexible", he said, in his
"Philosophical Journal". Here's they no longer
resemble. Something has changed. It's Okay?
We will see on the following column, perhaps in
Beijing. The Romanians, for seeing their
ancestors represented in stone, must go to Rome.
The Greeks have hundreds, maybe thousands, of
statues and bas-reliefs at their home. That
people of today do not resemble with those of
the past, anyone see. The idealization of the past
is not a solution, but its remembrance helps us to
see from where we started and where we ended
up. Was it well? Was it wrong? Why?
Athens, the goddess of wisdom, is represented
with lance and shield. What conclusion should we
draw from here? Perhaps that the wisdom must
be defended. It's clear that it does not impose
by itself and it seems that it is vulnerable. It is
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sure that Greece – and not only - needs a Solon.
He was one of the seven sages. Seven, because so
it must: seven wonders of the world, The
Magnificent Seven, The Seven Dwarfs and so on.
I do not know much about the first five. Solon
was the sixth and is known as a legislator. He
made a constitution; by his reforms stopped the
decline of Athens in an important moment and it
is said to have laid the foundations of the
democracy. Well, with the democracy I have
some question marks, but no one asks me about
my opinion. The last of the sages was Thales of
Miletus, who invented the philosophy. I was
wicked! He did not invent it, but is known as its
fathers. One ought to say "one of the parent”,
because a child needs at least two parents. Or
perhaps not, and just it might to be the reason
that it died before to truly born. The philosophy!
Thales died later.
* * *
- Why the Greeks are nosy?
- ?
- Because they are liars.
- Bravo! Have you thought about Pinocchio.
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- Of Course. Carlo