General Election ~ 'a new and more volatile chapter'

Voting in the Greek General Election is tomorrow. There’s a polling station in the middle of the village. I hear the sound of politicians talking on people’s televisions as I walk down Democracy Street. On 2 May it was Lefteris’ 70th birthday.

Irini, Kostas, Lefteri and Vasiliki

Lin and I bought greetings and chocolates and sang a universal ‘Happy Birthday to you’. In the background the ignored TV showed politicians speaking from podiums in Q & A sessions with studio audiences. Now and then I followed enough of the chat round the table to know politics was also being discussed in the family.
“No-one knows what will happen” Heads nodded politely when I repeated the widely held opinion that there will be no overall majority and asked, rhetorically, whether any new government would be a coalition, all of whose members will be committed to continuing the current austerity policies. The grim intractability of the picture may explain why the run-up to the Hellenic General Election has felt so quiet, with minimal canvassing, few posters or strewn leaflets. I get more news via phone texts and the web about local elections in the UK, but Teacherdude in Thessaloniki reports to the contrary.

...For many 6th May national elections will mark the end of an era begun in the 70's in which PASOK and New Democracy dominated national politics and promises to usher in a newer, more volatile chapter in public life in Greece...

Here in the village it does seem quiet. The law says voting is compulsory in Greece but as Cinta told me, Greece shares with twelve other countries the habit of not enforcing this. Jim Potts dug out a quote from a chapter on Greece in Cultural Patterns and Technical Change, ed. Margaret Mead (UNESCO 1955)

Government is not personal, and the law is external to the organic, structured whole. It is not the voice of Greece. There is therefore no obligation to obey the law; the guide to conduct here is expediency, and the ability to circumvent.

A low turn-out for polls would be in line with what has happened in local elections in the last couple of years. This is not apathy. Politics is there – but its forms have become a cover for much more that remains unspoken. A plethora of inarticulated apprehensions and passions not yet connected with the exciting organisation of ideas capable of refuting the vice-like hold of the neo-liberal fallacy. It as thought we see the disparate vestiges of an emerging paradigm, held with strong and even happy conviction at the proofs contained in its detailed and diverse manifestations in daily life, in friendship, in talking, writing, gardening, housework and digging across the world, yet arrayed against our disorganised rabble -the fluttering banners of common-sense, faith and normal science. Thus it was between Ptolemaic and Copernican understandings of the cosmos, between Darwin and the bizarre fantasy of special creation. It’s so easy to miss out on inexpressed tensions, hidden even from the self, inside families and friendships, as we know from periodic outbreaks of violence we’ve known in our own part of Birmingham – ‘out of a blue sky’ said the authorities.

Not so. I strive uselessly to make sense of a messy confusing incubation of ideas – some, the worst of the new, others the best of the old, like a human leaving childhood, a gestation whose climax can be predicted, and yet abrupt and unexpected as the breaking of an egg. (See Teacherdude on 'what it takes to be part of the new Greek/EU middleclass')
I asked a friend in the north of the island what he expected in the aftermath of the election.
His reply: 'Chaos'

BBC Radio 4 programmes on Greece

Greece: An Unquiet History (Mar 2012) Writer Maria Margaronis returns home to listen to those living through the Greek disaster - 2

Greece: Broken Marble, Broken Future (Dec 2011) Writer Maria Margaronis returns home to listen to those living through the Greek disaster - 1

Analysis: Preparing for Eurogeddon (Feb 2012) What if Greece had to get a new currency?

Generation E: Far Right Extremists in Greece (Sep 2011)

In Greece, financial meltdown and soaring illegal immigration have led to the rise of young right-wing extremists 

You and Yours: Greek Tourism (Feb 2012)

Winifred Robinson speaks to the Greek Culture and Tourism Minister to find out how the tourist industry in Greece is faring.

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I am excited that we've received conditional permission to place a bee-hive on Plot 14 of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments. Getting permission is not straightforward. Birmingham City Council wants to encourage bees on allotments, having for quite a while prohibited them. I realise, as I did not earlier, that the ‘return of bees’ to urban allotments is fraught with risk-averse considerations. There’s only to be one, let alone two, publicised incidents of negative encounters between bees and the public, and the process of making it normal to allow and indeed encourage beekeeping on allotments will be set back, not to mention the local authority facing litigation from parties inclined to blame them for not protecting the public. I do not, despite the frustrations of getting permissions and removing possible risks and observing probation and being reviewed, consider that council officers are being over-zealous about rules and conditions. This is the price beekeepers within a thoroughly urbanised population must pay for the distancing of so many people of all ages from the details of the cultivation on which we all depend for our food. Everyone knows bees can sting; far fewer know about their vital role in pollination.
Bar Maine, my grandmother, kept bees on Mill End Dairy Farm - where I was born. Many years ago - in the late 1940s - one of her bees got caught in my sister’s hair (she was about 5 or 6) and stung her. I think in curiosity Bay might have wandered rather close to a hive. She naturally screamed in shock and then cried. I was inclined to think ill of bees. Bar came to the rescue, calmed my sister and treated the sting (I think she removed it with tweezers) and told us that the bee who’d stung my sister would now die. I was 7 and I remember even now that my sympathies spread to include the bee (even tho' I now read that idea that a bee's death after it has stung is a 'myth'. It's not automatic) . So it has been since. I am, though, a newcomer to the whole process and the initiative by a friend to use my allotment - encouraged by me - as a hive site, has spurred my interest in the ancient art.

The conditions:

- The bees should be from a new colony, rather than an established one.
 - the beekeeper must have public liability insurance and be a member of the National Bee Keepers Association - No more than one hive can be placed on the plot
- A screen (including insect netting) of around 8ft should be installed a metre away from the boundary of the site alongside the fence. This will also help to shield the bees from unwanted attention from park users, and so ensuring the security of the hive. There is still concern that the bees are rather close to both park users and people working on the site, but the screen should mitigate some of the concerns.
- No bees are to be placed on the plot until the requisite screening has been added to the plot. If you could let your Allotment Liaison Officer know when it has been installed, he will be able to inspect it.
- A risk assessment should be completed by the beekeeper as soon as possible. The Allotment Liaison Officer can advise the tenant of the format of the risk assessment
- The introduction of the bees to be reviewed after this summer in late September, early October.
- Any complaints that the Allotments Team receive will be forwarded to the Victoria Jubilee Allotments Association for action. If any complaints are received, they will form part of the information used as part of the 12 month review.
- An approved bees expert to show where to position the hive on your plot.

With these conditions I was referred to 'a very useful document from NSALG in relation to keeping bees on Allotment sites.' (see also this from the British Beekeepers' Association)

I phoned my neighbour John Rose whose wife Gill, has public liability insurance and is a member of the National Bee Keepers Association. I hope and pray she will be placing her bees on Plot 14 in the very near future. John's already planning the safety netting
"I'll pay you when I see you, John. Brilliant!" We also chatted about local government news. So elected mayors have been voted out everywhere they were proposed except Bristol, though Liverpool went ahead with their Mayor without waiting for a vote.
"I voted against." said John "We are being asked to vote for the post without being told what powers the proposed elected mayors will have."
Nice news that all BNP councillors - sitting and proposed - have disappeared from the local electoral map.
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My friend John Martin - my host and colleague for three lecture tours in Australia - has set out on a Canadian bicycle odyssey, working his way across the continent visiting sustainable communities, research that compares them  them with those in his own Australia and will surely enrich the concept and practice:

We now have our itinerary for the first month worked out. Some people are welcoming, others rather pedestrian in their response. I guess we are the ones who are excited, why should they be. My colleague at U Concordia Bill Reimer - whom you would get on superbly with - is very good smoothing the way forward for us. He has bought an old car and in June will come to Vancouver with his wife Fran and they will travel across Canada with their oldest grand daughter (also an Amy!). They will stop off in many places (Bill's family history is Russian Mennonites and  his relative settles across the plains of Canada) so their Amy can learn about her family history (the Google map of our itinerary on Annie's blog was an idea from Bill).
I will do an update to sustainable canadian communities (the site about the study) early next week. I expect Al will do one his site - canadothis - mid next week and I believe Annie is always working on her site - visual journey across canada. I like the way these are all linked. Enjoy cycling and boating in Corfu. We have great memories of how special a place it is. You guys are very lucky to be able to live there for a good time of the year. Love to Lin, John and Annie

Why the bicycles? This from the project's website:

There are three of us involved in this research across Canada. Professor John Martin is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at La Trobe University. Alistair Walker is an Analyst with the Rural Finance Corporation, both based in Bendigo, Victoria. John and Alistair will cycle to each community and the story of these places will be part of a documentary on the sustainability of small Canadian towns produced by John’s partner, a filmmaker Annie Guthrie. Annie will be in a car. The car travelling with us will provide a backup for safety purposes as well to enable Annie to transport film equipment.
We have chosen to visit these places by bicycle because we are interested in seeing the country through the eyes of a cyclist, allowing us to take our time to take in more along the way. While we are both experienced cyclists we wanted the meet the challenge of the rigour and length of this 7,400 km ride. We believe using a slower means of transport will bring a new perspective to what we find on our journey.
We know from our previous journeys in Australia, you see things as you are cycling along that you don’t see in a car. We also have found that people are most welcoming when you arrive by bike. I can’t explain why but suspect people admire the tenacity or courage in taking on the challenge of a long distance ride. Arriving this way gives you an introduction to people and places that you would not otherwise get when rushing in and out in a car or bus. As such our itinerary below might slip a day or two here and there but it is our intention to stick with it as close as possible assuming the weather and other unforeseen events don’t intervene.

Outline of the research: Canadian and Australian rural communities have much in common. They are located in federations similar in structure and function with provinces/states having considerable authority over these places. Governments are often challenged to provide equitable services to all places, especially so in rural communities. Yet these communities continue to survive often facing the most challenging demographic, economic and environmental circumstances. In this comparative research study we ask:
What is it about these places, people and institutions that sustain them over time.
How does their past, current economic fortunes, social networks and public institutions work together to ensure their sustainability?

I recognise this research is not only about Canada and Australia. Apart from my pleasure (and envy) at following the adventure on which John, Annie and Bill are embarked, I am fascinated by their work; interested in the application of their research to the places and people that matter to me.

John and Annie to stay

The new balcony

Sandwiched between wet days we've had John Martin and Annie Guthrie, last here in Easter 2009, to stay for two days on their way home after cycling the cols of the Tour de France with Australian friends:

Dear John and Annie. It was great having you two to stay again. I so like your different views on the place as well as all the other things we get to discuss. We certainly packed a lot into the time between Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning - getting your washing out of the way and sending a parcel home from Tzavros Post Office, meeting Richard Pine at his home, discussing Greek local politics and the Kallicrates Plan, eating together in Palia Perithia, Annie walking up to Sokraki (all 29 hairpin bends) and back, visiting Dominoes for email... picnicking on top of Angelocastro, gazing over the Ropa Valley from the square in Gianades, discovering the white church among the olive groves, coming across that secluded smallholding above the west coast cliffs, paddling at Ermones before eating spitted lamb, drinking retsina and dancing with local people at the Kokkino Village panigiri (didn't film so here's another) and everything in between and yet it never seemed hurried.  Saturday afternoon here and the rain continues from low cloud and will stay with us a couple of days. It was such fun having you both to stay and we're looking forward to seeing you in Australia - and having another opportunity to enjoy summer. xxx Simon & Lin

Hi Simon, from Hong Kong in transit. Yes we packed a lot in. Life is short so we make the most of it while we can. We both greatly appreciated your friendship and hospitality in Ano Korakiana. It is indeed a special place which you greatly value. I am sure you will both have great times there together over the years. Working in NZ and Oz will be great also. I am very much looking forward to our travels together again this year. We also want to make it as pleasant as possible for Lin such that she also wants to return to Oz. Be in touch when we get back. Cheers, John

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June Samaras reports a sombre anniversary - the 66th - to be marked on 4 October 2010

Working together

This is so very exhilarating. John and I have been selecting and analysing clips from his Australian videos in our shared apartment on the edge of Perth. Today we tutored the first event of our October-November tour. We're confident the first day's gone well, with spontaneous applause at the end. As lecturers and tutors we complement one another, as did the mix of Australian and British teaching material. Although I've invariably been supported in my research and teaching at inlogov, in thirty years John Martin is the first to experiment with my various ways of making sense - or trying to make sense - of political-management relations, more than my equal in passing on what he's learned to practitioners, because so good at gaining rapport with his audience. I can get so involved in ideas, I overlook the truth that they can never come to practical life if not enthusiastically communicated to the people who might find them valuable.

Writing - a link that goes to writing on Google.docs

Thinking + illustrations one and two - links that go to

transcripts and films of political-management conversations

Tomorrow we fly on to Darwin for the second of our joint seminars. Today it was really nice - in a fine teaching room at Belmont Council Offices - to click on the thumbnail of a video from an Australian political management pair - Mayor and Chief Executive from Wyndham - and to show and discuss it with seminar participants, among them quite a few chief executives, one with his Mayor. After that, extracts from other videos - Marion and Toodyay - which John has made with help from Annie Guthrie, his partner, were slipped into our programme to compare with the films I'd bought from UK. The process was smooth - reward for much joint planning with John, via email and skype, before getting to Australia, followed by rehearsal and planning in our lodgings. I feel pleasantly exhausted with time to phone Lin, my mother and the office where I joked with Sue and asked her to pass on thanks to everyone who'd helped with the Japan local government course.

We deserve to share these smiles

Dear Dhiaa. I've been in Australia for four days. When I was in Singapore for an hour on the way I went into the prayer room at the airport and they were kind enough to allow me to sit there. I made a prayer there for your safety and your family's when you return to your dear but troubled country for your Phd research. Our first seminar has just finished. It has been successful. It was strange flying over Iraq at 11000 metres the other night (see image on my airline seat screen). Kindest regards. Simon

Dear Simon. Great news indeed. Thank you for letting me know how things are going with you. I loved very much your idea of getting into the prayer room and praying to our safety. I thank you heartily and I am sure that your prayers will be accepted because they come from a loving, sincere heart. I pray that next time we both not just fly over Iraq but land there and have a wonderful time touring around different places and getting you introduced to a place you always wanted to see. Please, take care. My prayers and best wishes that your trip my be rounded safely and successfuly. Best Regards. Dhiaa

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From Mari Takano

Dear Simon. How are you in beautiful Australia? We, Japanese trainees, are now trying hard preparing for our own next visit(s) and still spending nice time in Lucas House. Please don't worry. On the coming Thursday we're going to leave here for new destinations with splendid memories of Birmingham and this university. We really appreciate you, Fay, two Chrises(!) and other kind teachers/staff for giving us unforgettable, valuable days. And you really cared about us very much, so we could always enjoy our university life and learn a lot of things. Your lectures and talking will surely help us not only on our next visits but also in our lives in Japan. Thank you very very much!!! (And I also thank your daughter. who gave me really helpful documents!) ... Please don't forget us. Mari

Latest on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments

John Tyrrell's copied me this from the City Cabinet member who deals with allotments, the latter having sent him an email from Peter Short, Senior Constituency Parks Manager - 0121 464 8728 - Birmingham City Council, Parks and Nature Conservation:

Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 8:41 PM Subject: Victoria Jubilee Allotments Cllr Mullaney. The work on the site is progressing, and the building is due to be delivered next Tuesday, 13th October. We are hopeful ... given continued reasonable weather, that the site will be practically complete by the end of the month. Andy Hogben is working on an arrangement to allow us to begin letting plots in January 2010, so that the land transfer does not delay us any longer. As long as this is successful, we will begin notifying potential plot holders who have registered an interest towards the end of this year. We will keep you updated as matters progress. Regards, Pete. Sent from my Blackberry handheld.

* * * *

I'd not think of it as anything but perfect sailing. Yet as the wind increased until gusting over 7 off Trompetta - under a clear blue sky; not unpredictable, typically Mediterranean - the old boat was overpressed. So was I.

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Talking across an ocean by Skype to John and Annie in The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec. We've four films from Australia; conversations between politicians and managers from Shire of Toodyay Council (Charlie Wroth, President and Graham Merrick, Chief Executive), Marion City (Mayor Felicity Ann Lewis and Chief Executive Mark Searle), Wyndham City (Mayor Shane Bourke and Ian Robins, recently retired as CEO) and Coffs Harbour (Mayor Keith Rhoades with Stephen Sawtell, General Manager) - prepared in readiness for the joint series of seminars John Martin and I are going to be leading in Perth, Darwin, Canberra, Brisbane, Launceston, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Alice Springs this November. I've done some editing on some and compressed the films so they can be displayed on the screen like thumbnails - minimised to share the screen with others - so that we can switch easily between 'conversations'.

Some forthcoming dates ~ City of Belmont, Brighton Beach, Adelaide Pavilion, and LGPro and more on the relationships that make government and some words...

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Friday I drove my young Japanese guests down to the Forest of Dean. I asked Dhiaa to come along to help and the university hired me a seven seater Ford Galaxy with darkened windows - not the kind of campus minibus I'd expected - but a nice drive. Everyone fitted in neatly and we sped south to Gloucestershire, to Ross-on-Wye and on to Goodrich to see a little of a village that seemed to be working - village hall, local shop with post office, new primary school, bus stop, church... .

Katsuyuki, Mami, Simon, Shinya, Mari, Eiichi near Kerne Bridge

I drove on via Lydbrook to Beechenhurst, had a talk from Derek Yemm of Forest Connections about running a business in the forest, about the role of the Forestry Commission and the local council. Then a swift visit to the Cycle Centre and then on to restored Lydney Docks to gaze over the Severn Estuary, with observations from me on the rural economy. After that a walk in the woods, a stroll by the river Wye - all under a grey sky and slight drizzle. I dropped everyone off at the university at 6.30, dropped off the car and cycled home.

With Dhiaa by the Severn at Lydney Docks

I asked Dhiaa for his impressions. He wrote today:

As for the English countryside, I was simply amazed at the richness of nature and the style of peoples’ living. This is the first time I had the feeling of being in the thicket of a real forest.

Trees and greenery everywhere, rivers and hills and people who are harnessing the wild nature to make their living. Frankly, it should not be a one-day visit. One must live for sometime in the countryside to be able to gradually regain his consciousness and awareness of nature. The first impression is that of amazement and shock especially for someone who has not seen a real forest before ( with every step I was saying in my secret “subhana Allah” – glory be to Allah; how great and magnificent His work is). I have seen high mountains and spectacular water springs in the North of Iraq; I have seen the great sea at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland; I have seen the Dead Sea, The Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, and of course Shat al-Arab and the Marshes, and many farms and fields, but the experience of the English countryside was a unique experience.

I have always wanted to see the English countryside and I had my own imaginative pictures of it; I am revising all these pictures now because reality sweeps away fictional realms.

Maybe the pictures I had in mind of the English countryside are of what it was in the 1920s or a bit later; the impact of modernity and mechanization can readily be seen and felt on it; the virginity of nature may have been lost due to man’s interference and persistence in harnessing and nurturing nature. My earlier conceptions of the English countryside were formed by my readings and by seeing the product of the Romantic artists, for instance. Nature, I was thinking, is the idyllic world portrayed by Pope, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and all other poets who were inspired by its brutal beauty.

I am sure you know what does it mean when you tread a route with the feeling that no one before you has trodden it. Well-trodden routes cannot arise in you the feeling of estrangeness and enigma that deserted routes can. I think nature – wild and brutal nature I mean – was not created to please. When I feel I am pleased in the midst of what is supposed to be nature, I feel immediately that there is something wrong. When calm and quiet, the sea is like a dumb child. When furious and turbulent, the sea gets back to its nature. So is the forest. There are people who love made-up beauty, with decorations and ornaments; and there are people who love brutal beauty. I am of the second type.

However, I am extremely pleased to have gone there and would love very much to go again and again; I would love to take my family one day, it is a place full of beauty. So, thank you very much again for your great company and your kind invitation.

At Lydbrook on the edge of the Forest of Dean

*** *** I was looking at this clustermap thumbnail - a year on. Lin says, to prick my ego, that that's mainly people looking up 'Democracy' and 'street'. She's surely right. It's been my assumption that I've the same number of readers as Prof Russ Ackoff told me long ago when commenting on the readership of the average academic publication - "two - and one's the author." The cluster map purporting to record visitors to Democracy Street is still fun to see, along with its global statistics.

I assume about six people drop in on this blog, with occasional additions marked by greetings in the village. I enjoy reading back over what I've published on the web over the last few years, adding occasional links I call - 'back to the future' - and looking at the pictures. The whole blog unlike my diaries, which I stopped keeping when I started on 'Democracy Street' is so easy to search. I like the way pictures, videos, graphics and links combine with text. But it's ephemeral compared to paper and writing.