Where democracy begins

...or as my friend Jonathan Davies comments "Bread, peace and land!". Freecycle took us to Antrobus Road where someone was giving away plants. Soil's too dry to plant so I mixed some of our rich compost - worms in abundance - with dry topsoil from the garden, kneading it into a friable mix for us to pot and water a selection of cherry saplings (for the orchard on part of our allotment), aromatic geraniums, St Johns Wort, lilac, forget-me-knots, Lady's Mantle, tomatoes, a nameless hedge shrub with fluffy pink flowers...

Between theory and practice

Η κοινοτοπία του καλού

*** ***

Learning to decline a verb - our homework for next week:

TO BE I am Εγώ είμαι You are Εσύ είσαι He is Αυτός είναι She is Αυτή είναι It is Αυτό είναι We are Εμείς είμαστε You are (pl) Εσείς είμαστε They are (m) Αυτόι είναι They are (f) Αυτές είναι They are (n) Αυτά είναι

Some tutoring on YouTube with phrases in Greeklish and this and more ruddy homework:

Singular/Ενικός
	I	You	He	She	It
Nom	Εγώ	Εσύ	Αυτός	Αυτή	Αυτό
Gen	Μου=my/mine	Σου=your	Του=his	Της=hers	Του=its
Acc	Με=me	Σε=you	Τον=him	Τυν=her	Το=it
Voc	-	Εσύ	Αυτέ	Αυτή	Αυτό

Plural/Μληθγτικός
	We	You	They (m)	They (f)	They (n)
Nom	Εμείς	Εσείσ	Αυτοί	Αυτές	Αυτά
Gen	Μας	Σασ	Των	Των	Των
Acc	-		Τους	Τις	Τα

**** In Ano Korakiana there's been a meeting on the future of the long unused PAOK funded soccer pitch near Saint Athanasios Church. Perhaps it may at last be played on.

9/07/10 Ano Korakiana website: Από τη σύσκεψη προέκυψε ότι η Νομαρχιακή Αυτοδιοίκηση ετοιμάζει την δημοπράτηση του χλοοτάπητα του γηπέδου για τις επόμενες βδομάδες (πιθανότατα για τις 3 Αυγούστου 2010) και θα εξετάσει τη δυνατότητα αποκατάστασης και των αποδυτήριων, ενώ από πρόσφατο έγγραφο προκύπτει ότι ο Δήμος Φαιάκων θα ολοκληρώσει άμεσα τις δικές του δεσμεύσεις (ολοκλήρωση περίφραξης κλπ)

In Parliament in Athens pension overhaul legislation has been passed (See Teacherdude's images from Thessaloniki of public reaction).

The gifts of the senior Greek politician - Sotirios Hatzigakis (Σωτήριος Χατζηγάκης) - to his friends and relatives, while in office, have been revealed and widely reported especially in Germany but unlike many German readers who see this as a reproach against bailed-out Greece, my vexatious contempt is for all corrupt politicians and the harm they do to democracy and social trust. While Hatzigakis was Minister of Justice in the previous government he spoke at the 13th International Anti-Corruption Conference.

And Richard Pine has notified friends and acquaintances of his new book, just reviewed in The Irish Times. I've never heard of Charles Acton and until I'd begun Richard's study of Brian Friel it wouldn't have occurred to me to go to a performance of Dancing at Lughnasa as we did earlier in the year.

Carpentry, cake and democracy

This morning Mrs Lefteris came to our door with a delicious cake made from a squash (kolokithi), warm from the oven - moist, dotted with raisins, topped with pieces of orange and sesame seed. Three slices disappeared from a red plastic plate that sat between us as we got ready for another day on the cupboard. Our tustle with this has lasted ten days. We've still to strip down to the wood, wax it, paint inside and replace a pane of glass. This amateur joinery is a parable for my attitude to democracy - a system of government marginally superior to the others, easily distorted by populism, based on that hallowed invention of Classical Greece which excluded women and the slaves, on which their economy, and the leisure that allowed a relative minority to take part in politics, depended.

We could hear young Leftheris trying out his new trumpet and high in the sky glimpse one of the first contrails since the volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded planes across the continent. "If Iceland can send south this chaos as revenge for allowing it to go bankrupt, what could Greece send north as a commensurate threat to the bankers in Brussels?" asked Richard Pine at supper in town.

Henry Maine wrote about democracy as 'popular government', suggesting that idealists could not accept the idea of democracy as 'just another form of government'. Instead they had a way of speaking of the 'divine right of the people' that sounded suspiciously like those monarchists who claimed the same ridiculous rights for a king. I hope I could fight to the death, or at least be prepared to die for the marginal difference that makes democracy better than totalitarianism, but I'm aware that, like fitting separate pieces of recovered woodwork into an uneven hole in the wall to create something that holds together, serves a useful purpose and looks good, democracies require regular redesign, repetitious tweaking, good will, perseverance, tolerance and all the gifts of diplomacy. I suspect that some of our neighbours feel compassion for us, assuming we are unable to afford to buy a new cupboard or have one fitted by a professional. The idea that we actually enjoy giving all this attention to recovered wood and old fittings may seem bizarre - ditto those who strive to make democracy work.

Meantime from England I had a nice briefing of the current situation in the run-up to our General Election on 6 May.

I don't know how many votes there are for our expiring administration in whistling up a couple of aircraft carriers and restaging Dunkirk but this turns out to be a very good time to be in the UK, not least because both politics and nature are conspiring to stand the world as we know it (TWAWKI) on its pointy head. By this afternoon it had dawned on both major parties that the electorate (aka the Great Dismissed) has chosen to pile onto the Clegg/Lib Dem bandwagon as a way of stiffing PAU (Politics As Usual). As a consequence the Tory backwoodsmen are re-emerging (cometh the hour, cometh the Tebbit) instructing Their Dave to cancel tonight's mega-expensive party political (which Dave's done) and unleash the attack dogs on the proper target. Which will play exactly into the Lib Dems' hand. Glorious stuff. And about time too....

My reply begins:

Dear G. It's briefings like this that keep me in touch so that I sound as if I know what I'm talking about when running a session on 'political nous' the morning after I get back from Corfu in May. Thanks. If the Lib Dems show up significantly in a new Parliament they'll push, as they did during the brief Lib-Lab pact, for proportional representation. Few in England understand PR (especially as there are so many versions - ever been cornered by a PR anorak. Run. I wouldn't as it's my bread and butter and probably not you 'cos you're a writer) yet voters still sense PR's fairer than first past the post and would be good for the multiplicity of TWAWKI (an acronym I'm stealing along with PAU). PR's proved popular in Scotland after start-up problems two years ago....

* * *

On Paul and Cinta's house - a present from their opposite - neighbour Nico, there's a bi-lingual sign in bright fresh colours:

This street, running about a mile, through the centre of Ano Korakiana, from Venetia westward, only got its name in the time of the Colonels when we were told by Kostas Apergis, soon after we bought our house here, and I started this web diary, that a message - a directive - came from Athens to the villages and towns, to give names to streets that celebrated the regime - names like Οδός 21ην Απριλίου 1967 - a date still celebrated by some in Greece. Ano Korakiana's response, if I understand correctly, was, in those dangerous times, an exercise in practical wisdom (Μῆτις). They chose the name Οδός Δημοκρατίας - a Odyssean response to a dilemma that has lasted well. In fact the places in the village are still known - like Venetia, to the east on the Sokraki road - by their local names. Thus Natasha says our part of the village has long been known as 'the bear'. I give our address as 208 Democracy Street but no mail is delivered to our house, nor has it a mailbox. Our letters go, with most others, to the shop 30 metres from us at one of Democracy Street’s slight bends, where cars can pass, opposite a cake shop with a shade and and alcove where familiar people will often be standing or sitting, chatting and musing, greeting passersby, in the morning and evenings, a few yards from a Venetian arch leading into shade down steps to the lower road. Like all small shopkeepers, Stamatis Savvanis, competes with foodsellers whose vans drive through the village on weekdays announcing themselves through loudspeakers, and many main road supermarkets from Tzavros on – Sconto, A&B, Lidl. His shop sells bread from the village’s bakery – warm and crispy. Open weekdays from 10.00am to 2.00pm and 5.00pm to about 9.30pm. It's sensible to reserve bread on Saturdays as it leaves the shelf even more swiftly for the weekend.

Σταμάτης Ζαββανης

Thunder, lightning and lots of rain

After ripping, capturing, editing and compressing a film of a second political-management conversation mailed me by John Martin from Australia I cycled into town. The sky grew heavier. At the markets people began looking for cover, scattering as lightning and thunder converged and the skies opened, water dripping from awnings and gutters, running down gullies, shining the streets. People watched from cover. Others scurried between shelters under umbrellas and hoods. - enjoying the wet.

I returned home along the mainline canal, its water drifting from the city centre. The drains on the lower roads were overflowing, a sign of how the Birmingham water table has risen with the end of industry, while loss of green space from a thousand thousand hard surfaced garden has taken away absorbency.

Once home I find my e-mail connection has gone. Rare and vexing, though I can always use Lin's for sending urgent material. A woman working evenings at the campus IT helpdesk said I'd need to wait until Monday before anyone could look at the problem. The cat staring up draws my attention to a moth circling inside the kitchen lampshade. I reach up, catch it and let it out into the warm night.

[By midnight on Sunday the university has restored my e-mail. I leave a message of thanks and close the Helpdesk log]

* * *

Twitter: CORFU, Greece, 28 June 2009 - The informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers on the Greek island of Corfu concluded today with the launch of the 'Corfu Process' ... Ministers concurred that it is also time to consider that "much work remains undone." Bakoyannis said that traditional security problems remained unresolved as new threats and challenges continued to emerge ... protracted conflicts and other unresolved tensions, the suspended CFE Treaty, the need to strengthen democracy and rule of law in parts of the region, the economic crisis, terrorism, trafficking and instability in neighbouring regions. The meeting ended with agreement on the 'Corfu Process' - steps to take the dialogue on European security forward...

[See RIZOSPASTIS news story]

Earlier reflections on the history of civil society in Europe, the extinction and survival of democracy

.....Something must be invented that matched the vigour of Fascism or Communism – whose epic encounter at Stalingrad was probably the pivotal battle of WW2. This had to be democracy’s second chance – a system and philosophy of government that could not only survive and defeat fascism and resist communism but also replace with new policies, popular consent and civic competencies the failures of its predecessors.

* * * As Corfucius says "He was damned good". I like the invention in 'black or white'

* * * Note on the British Library on-line feedback form:

The `Rizospastai': politics and nationalism in the British Protectorate of the Ionian Islands 1815-1964 (sic - surely 1864). Calligas, E., 1994, A9m British Library Shelfmark DX187456 Ph.D., London, London School of Economics, 44-9204

After being unable to download this thesis on 15 June 2009 I have been e-mailed by a librarian - Mr J Dixon - on 27 June 09 that this thesis which your system says is available for download has become ' corrupted' He goes on to say 'I will contact our technical support department and have them check the file at their end, when they come back to say all is ok, we will contact you and ask you to submit a new order. Yours Sincerely, Jonathan Dixon.' This reply suggests an indefinite period before I can access the Calligas thesis, despite your catalogue appearing to be open to order an immediate download. Mr Dixon cannot now be directly contacted as his e-mail is 'non-reply'. I can imagine how busy you are but I plan to be in Corfu from 25 August 09 and was hoping to have been able to start reading the Calligas thesis before then. Is there any other way i can get to at least start reading it? Is it possible to come into the library or is it also unavailable in hard copy? I am next in London on 9 July 2009...

Reply:

Dear Simon, Thank you for your email. I'm sorry my reply did not satisfy your query. I forwarded your query to our technicians and have as yet received no reply, we no longer accept theses in their original hardback format and these cannot be read in the reading room, Ethos is the ONLY way to view and order British Theses from the British Library. I appreciate your frustration we have so far digitised over 16,000 theses and some of these have had corrupt files and we have to solve each one on a case by case basis, the service has been immensely popular and regrettably we do not have the resources to fully cope with the initial interest that has been generated. I can assure you we are doing all that we can to resolve this situation. If you are in desperate need of the thesis I can only suggest you contact the university direct and they may be able to source a copy for you or you can wait for a response from us, however your query is in a long backlog of emails and queries we receive everyday and we have to deal with each one in turn. Yours Sincerely, Jonathan Dixon, British Library Ethos Help

I phoned the LSE. No record in their catalogue but I was directed to Archives where, though she could find no record of Calligas' thesis, a helpful voice spoke the name of Eleni's supervisor, "...but he's left." I googled the name and found a Professor of International History at the University of East Anglia. I've sent him an e-mail. 'Have you a copy of Eleni C's dissertation, or do you know where I can find her?' It'll turn up.

Democracy

It has been a proclaimed dream of democracy – an unrealised advance on the Hellenic invention – that ‘all men are created equal’. Those against this idea see no problem in its inaccuracy. All who favour it know it isn’t true. Their erratic journey along this potted road (universal franchise, progressive taxation, rights upheld in highest courts, freedom of speech) has been ponderously slow, the wheels on the showman’s wagon forever falling in the ruts of human nature, being constantly pushed and hauled from one to the other by hopeless idealists, to the amusement of watching cynics and the frustration of those still waiting on the promise of delivery, inclined to follow swifter remedies – the old conflict in Hellas between klephts and constitutionalists, the snake-oil simplicities of totalitarianism ("they are wrong - we are right, they are evil - we are good"), the siren call of charismatic leaders mocking the trudging oxtrain of democracy, between those impulsive libertarians for whom means justify ends and those who know as an article of faith and therefore at whatever the cost that they are inseparable. But when it comes to the contradictions Leonard Cohen describes them well.

...It's coming from the sorrow in the street, the holy places where the races meet; from the homicidal bitchin' that goes down in every kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat...

* * * With the help of Katerina, secateurs and saw, we’ve cut back and bagged the high overflowing ivy hedge by the fallow garden across the path that’s been blocking the sun - rare since Easter Monday. Several passing by as we worked said this should’ve been done by the absent owners who've not been around, so far as we know, since last year. The children – small Katerina and Leftheris and his cousin, Angelis - helped pick up. sweep, and drag bagged-up foliage to the bins down the street, making work into play, as children do; lemonade and lollies for wages. “Now I can see to Kato Korakiana” said Mrs L approvingly.

Out of corruption comes integrity

“Socrates: ... Do you intend then to avoid well-governed states and the higher forms of civilised society? And if you do will life be worth living?...” Crito 51D-52E

There's a fleeting picture of momentary headlines, seen in a bookshop in Inverness, while above is a snippet of timeless conversation, transcribed and to some extent imagined later by Plato, between Socrates and his friend Crito, as the latter tries to persuade him - for his children’s and his friends’ sake - to get out of Athens and escape the death penalty imposed on him by the democratic government of Athens. All this hardly 2500 years ago. I’m reminded of the biblical riddle in Judges “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”. Wild bees had made a hive inside the carcass of a lion killed by Samson (as a child I used to see the image on Tate & Lyle treacle tins at home). It is customary to criticise Socrates, and especially Plato, for anti-democratic values, as opposed to impulses, but it seems to me, as I study ‘The Last Days of Socrates’, having re-read the Meno, that Socrates died for an ideal of democracy as do most of those who fight for it, respecting the debated and questionable decision – 221 for acquittal and 280 against – to condemn him for heresy and corrupting the minds of the young. It is this paradox - that this form of government, which killed Socrates because he obeyed its decision, is more or less the same troublesome thing we allow to rule us now – messy, volatile, inconsistent and cruel, and occasionally sublime through the words and actions of exceptional people and events. Out of corruption, integrity? * * * A good letter from a Greek academic friend about my search on behalf of Thannassis and Kostas from somewhere in Europe arrived this morning:

Hello my friend! The truth is that my previous laptop got damaged and I lost all contacts (and the laptop). I am really glad that you e-mailed me. As a matter of fact, I will be off school this Thursday and I will be going to Greece on Friday, the same old way via Venice. I will stay in Corfu for two weeks, so we will be able to meet there. I have a two-day interview in xxx for a post in the xxx in Athens, but I will be there. I will have to come back to work in xxx on April 5th, but then I will take 4 days Easter (Greek) break and I will fly to Corfu. As far as the document goes, you know that perhaps some local(s) might have it stored somewhere without even knowing what it is all about. We can talk to some of them if you wish. Panagiotis Metallinos must be the tavern (XRYSOMALLIS) owner's grandfather. I have heard that as well about Corfiots wanting British influence on the island for many different reasons, security, ease in transport as British subjects and more. My uncle xxx xxxx (a great lawyer) told me the story. I also have a cousin who is a history expert that we could talk to him. Looking forward to our meeting, All the best! A

My delighted reply to A - a philosopher by the way:

Dear A. Your reply is an example of that makes historical research - or indeed any research - so exciting and pleasurable. Apart from that it's good to hear from you and I'm glad we are on line again. I will make a special note of your addresses. By the way I'm reading 'The Last Days of Socrates' again. Now I'm 66 it makes so much more sense than when it was required reading at school. What an irritating old man he must have been and how people - some people (including me I hope) - would have loved his company, and - I regret to say - got sadistic pleasure at watching Socrates running argumentative circles around over-opiniated and unperplexed people. I look forward to meeting in Corfu. Xerete, Simon

* * * Meanwhile back to the problem of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments and the prolonged delay in implementing the planning gain agreement with Birmingham City Council on the site.

Dear Cllr. Brom, VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS: DELAYED 106A IMPLEMENTATION My apologies for not being able to attend the forthcoming Ward Committee. I am visiting my mother in Scotland, and I have asked someone to raise this under matters of urgent local concern on Tuesday evening. The planning application - N/01514/03/FUL - to build on the VJA site with its accompanying Section 106A was determined in early 2004. In the Evening mail of 8 May 2005, Paul Flannery, technical director for Westbury Homes, said: "Westbury is legally obliged to comply with the terms of the 106 planning agreement and as part of this we will be fulfilling our plan to provide the allotments and playing fields as stipulated in this agreement. Existing hedgerows and trees required to be retained will be in accordance with our planning consent." It is now Spring 2008, a new developer has taken over from Westbury, and we see no signs of progress on the planning gain agreement to provide a cricket ground, football fields, changing rooms, allotments and gardeners' storage buildings, laid out and transferred to the city council and integrated into Handsworth Park. We have repeatedly heard that the developer cannot proceed until a given number of homes have been occupied but the local community were never informed of this clause in the consent at the time it was agreed. In the meantime Handsworth is missing needed spaces for leisure and recreation with all that such resources contribute to the area's social resilience. This matter was discussed at the last meeting of the Handsworth Park Association and I was asked by the committee to write to you to ask if you with other Ward Councillors, could arrange, as a matter of urgency, a meeting with representatives of Charles Church, the developer. It was hoped that this meeting could include our Community Planning Officer Alan Orr, the Chair of Handsworth Cricket Club, (Mr Basil Hylton on xxx & xxx), a member or members of the City Council's executive (Cllr Len Gregory? Cllr Ray Hassall?) with allotments and sport in their portfolio, the relevant Scrutiny Chair (Cllr.John Alden?), the Chair of the Handsworth Park Association Graham Winfield, hopefully myself, and Peter Short (and possibly Penny Smith, Asst. Director Leisure & Support Services) for Handsworth Park, and anyone else you judge appropriate. Thanking you as always for your continued concern and support. Yours sincerely Simon Baddeley, Handsworth Allotments Information Group * * * Obama's speech in Philadelphia - 37 minutes.

Democracy - 'only another form of government'

Henry Maine, my great great grandfather, wrote in 1876:

'To one small people, covering in its original seat no more than a hands breadth of territory, it was given to create the principle of Progress, of movement onwards and not backwards or downwards, of destruction tending to construction. That people was the Greek. Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin. A ferment spreading from that source has vitalised all the great progressive races of mankind, penetrating from one to another, and producing results accordant with its hidden and latent genius, and results of course often far greater than any exhibited in Greece itself.' p.238, 'The effects of observation of India on modern European thought' in Village Communities in the East and West (New York:Henry Holt 1876) That sting in the tale of his paean for 'the Greek' absolves Maine from the reproach of having added to the Greek 'misfortune' that Nikos Dimou describes so eloquently. Maine's approach is anthropological not classical. He challenged uncritical faith in democracy. In Popular Government - four essays published in 1885 - saying 'democracy is only another form of government', noting how the flattering rhetoric lavished on kings had been transferred uncritically to 'the people'. He was criticised as conservative, even reactionary, for questioning widely accepted justifications for 'popular government' - Rousseau's natural law, Benthamite utilitarianism, the idealism of John Stuart Mill. In fact he was not dismissing democracy in a Platonic way but providing astute cautions, matched by the Churchillian quip that democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others. Democracy is not in itself more stable than other forms of government. There is no essential connection between democracy and progress. [On Greek origins see alternative views e.g. Hindu]

Maine's lecture, The Rede Lecture for 1875, delivered before the University of Cambridge, was titled 'The Effects of observation of India on Modern European Thought'. It was aimed at impressing upon a British audience the undiscovered richness of India's contribution to world thought, through drama, comparative philo­logy and mythology and the possibility that 'it may yet give us a new science not less valuable than the sciences of language and of folk-lore.

I hesitate to call it Com­parative Jurisprudence because if it ever exists, its area will be so much wider than the field of law. F­or India not only contains (or to speak more accurately, did contain) an Aryan language older than any other descendant of the common mother-tongue, and a variety of names of natural objects less per­fectly crystallised than elsewhere into fabulous per­sonages, but it includes a whole world of Aryan institutions, Aryan customs, Aryan laws, Aryan ideas, Aryan beliefs, in a far earlier stage of growth and development than any which survive beyond its borders. (pp.210-211)

My impression is that Maine was seeking to draw his potentially sceptical audience into a recognition that here in a sort of Hindu wilderness - though he does not say that - is a treasure house of information on the roots of Western civilisation. Whereas no-one would have doubted the connection of British or European culture to those of Greece and Rome, the thought of such connection with our India was novel. So when later in the lecture Maine makes his, often quoted, reference to all things Greek in origin, I surmise an intention that was less about praising Greece (the way his quote is used) and more about using an intellectual and emotional connection, familiar to all his listeners, about us serving India's progress as Greece had served ours.

It is this principle of progress which we Englishmen are communicating to India. We did not create it. We deserve no special credit for it. It came to us filtered through many different media. But we have received it; and as we have received it, so we pass it on. There is no reason why, if it has time to work, it should not develope* in India effects as wonderful as in any other of the societies of mankind.

Maine's finale is less a fanfare for Greece, more an astutely placed douceur, to attract the attention and curiosity of his classically educated audience to India's intellectual archeology, drawing upon his posting in India as Darwin drew upon his voyage to the Galapagos. [*'develope', tho' now archaic, is not a misspelling] * * * Lin wrote to Corfu:

Hi George, Glad to hear that the money arrived safely. It was quicker than I thought it might be. Thanks for the update on work and the photos. The roof pictures look good, but I'm not sure about the bit in the bottom right corner of the 'slope looking at Lefteris' garden'. Is this before it was quite finished? The 'lower terrace' looks great. Not sure what you mean about covering the drain with plaka, though. Do you mean permanently or temporarily? I thought we were going with the idea of a reed bed in the drain? That's what we'd prefer if possible. It's great to see that wall out. Can't wait to see it with the door gone as well! I hope the top of the arch is going to be curved, as discussed with Martin before we left - look at arches on buildings near the house for reference - I looked at them with Martin and we talked about how much curve would be possible...I've attached photos of the arch in our kitchen here which might be helpful. It's much wider and therefore quite flat - I'd think there should be a bit more curve on the new arch. (Don't look at the mess! I haven't caught up with housework since our return and I'm in the middle of a major clearout at the moment, so there's lots of junk around, waiting to be moved to various places.) I looked on the internet and found information about sealing wood floors. I think we'll go with the polyurethane! We want a satin or matt finish - not shiny gloss. I'm pretty sure Squeak is a girl, so she probably is pregnant. it's a shame, 'cause she's only a kitten herself. More biscuits and sandwiches will be required! Good luck with the stairwell-widening next week. Looking forward to seeing more photos. All the best, Lin and Simon

The authors of the essays in the book Mazower edited are conscientious in their methodologies. They explain how they have striven to make the subjective objective, aware of the challenge - even now - of making space for debate about so fragmented a time. The writers tread carefully recording impressions that have become currency, observing the reconstruction of the family, nation and state but also aiding that process in their thinking and writing. They exemplify an alert approach to gentler ideas of truth built on teasing out many subjectivities, privileging none over others, describing their own part in their conclusions. These authors are not detached from their findings, yet nor are they opinionated. Each describes and argues for the truths they've uncovered. Sweet unsleeping reason.

[back to the future - from a Greek friend via Flickr on 17 Aug: Except the blind forces of nature, Εκτός από τισ τυφλέσ δυνάμεισ τησ φύσησ, nothing moves on this world τίποτα δε κινείται σε αυτον τον κόσμο which is not Greek in its origin το οποιο δεν είναι Ελληνικά στην καταγωγη The phrase "in its origin" is freely translated "apo ta genofaskia tou - από τα γενοφάσκια του" - that is commonly used in the villages in folk language and in slug Greek. It is a "warmer" expression. Genofaskia means early age or ancestors or family origin.]

Οδός Δημοκρατίας

Democracy Street Originally uploaded by Sibad.

The sign is just by our house. I like the sun light on the blue. When did our street get its name?