Tree-planting and Tax-evasion: A Proposal
Last spring this newspaper called its readers’ attention to a privately sponsored organization called “Plant Your Roots in Greece” which was collecting funds for national afforestation.
The Spirit of Christmas
When The Athenian asked me to interview Santa Claus it was a simple matter to don a few extra sweaters and a pair of mittens and hop a plane to Spitsbergen.
Cretan Leather
The industry isn’t exactly walking on air, but for the few who want ‘the real thing’, handmade by the true craftsman, its products are luxuries without being extravagant.
Standing Up with the Bears
A recently completed WWF project finds local populations supportive, but disturbances of all kinds need to be reduced to keep the Brown Bear from extinction.
A Saint for Our Times
Born in Ottoman Thrace, ordained in Egypt, Dean of the Rizareios Ecclesiastical School in Athens, Nektarios founded a monastery on Aegina which is a repository of miracles.
Exploring Nature on the Island of Aphrodite
While environmentalists have expressed concern that uncontrolled development has downgraded the quality of tourism, the Cyprus Tourist Organization is emphasizing idyllic retreats for nature lovers and the creation of a second national park.
Cyprus Today (Part 2): The View From The North
Northern Cyprus possesses at first glance a certain Ruritanian charm, but there are a few ugly twists.
Greek Reality is Life by Candlelight
One of the more picturesque sights in downtown Athens last month came to view when bus drivers of the disfranchised Urban Transport Company (EAS) were set upon as ‘scabs’ by striking, erstwhile colleagues when lined up to apply for new licenses. They were assaulted, beaten, stripped and turned into the street as naked as the day their mothers brought them into this cruel world.
A Feeling for the Macedonian Earth
One of the more soul-scorching, mind-boggling, tummy-aching ironies of history is that the land which produced the leader who first conceived the idea of the brotherhood of man, and proclaimed it while out on the road to its realization at a banquet set for 10,000, over 2000 kilometers from home (Alexander the Great at Opis), should two millennia later give its name to a dish of diced, mixed vegetables which are, more likely than not, leftovers from last night’s dinner.
The City of Profit-Bringing Hermes
When the name ‘Ermoupolis’, honoring the ancient god of commerce (and of cunning), was proposed officially to the people of the new boom-town on the island of Syros in 1826, everyone in the main square cheered.