ΚΑΛΩΣ ΗΛΘΑΤΕ! Kalos ilthate! Welcome!
Welcome to the Global Greek World - a world of Greek-Somethings which stretches from Auckland to Zanzibar, from Aruba to Zimbabwe.
Wherever you are in the world, this is YOUR world!
“I carry two cultures, two languages, two worlds. I belong to both, I belong to neither. I am Persephone destined forever to journey between them.”
Vicky Yiannoutsos - Persephone’s Plight
Talented and multi-awarded Greek New Zealand filmmaker Vicky Yiannoutsos is very excited this week! She is in Greece in pursuit of her dream: bringing her multi-media installation exhibition Persephone’s Plight home to Greece.
In fact, Persephone's Plight homeward journey has already begun.
As we write, Vicky is adding the finishing touches for Persephone's homecoming, which will take place in Kephalonia tomorrow, at the
Ionion Centre for Arts and Culture where from the 7th to the 10th of October, Vicky and Persephone will be the honoured guests.
Drawn from over 20 years of travels between Greece and New Zealand, Persephone’s Plightis an exhibition of multiple film and video images which embodies the cycle of the seasons, the phases of birth and death, their activity, their dormancy and the regenerative phases of their eternal cycle.
Vicky Yiannoutsos outside MIC
Toi Rerehiko Gallery
in Auckland, New Zealand
with the
Persephone's Plight
exhibition poster
Photo Source:
Emmanuel Yiannoutsos
For Vicky, it is a metaphor for the 20th Century migrant experience – a time of abduction from the Motherland by the lure of the Fruits of the New World. Since first visiting Greece as a young girl, Vicky has identified the myth of Demeter and Persephone as a metaphor for the migrant experience.
Persephone’s Plight is a new chapter in a body of work which has been in progress all my life, where I continue to chose the moving image to express the complexity, confusion, richness and joy that comes from living between cultures.
The year man walked on the moon, my parents announced they were going back to Greece for 6 months and taking me with them, I flatly refused. I’d miss a year of school. I’d miss my friend Mandy!
But the Gods had a plan, the planets were already in motion.
In 1969 I took my own ‘big step for humankind’ and crossed the world to a world that would change my world, forever. I found my emotional touchstone, and would spend the rest of my life returning back there. My father tells me that I announced matter-of-factly that I would one day make a film of our island of Kastos to show the world.
I have used the camera to bridge the restlessness I feel living between two worlds, and has underpinned my work as a film-maker over the last 20 years. From the shooting of the documentary Visible Passage, its ‘20 years on’ follow-up Scattered Seeds, various feature film scripts, and many stories, poems, journals, and letters. This exhibition has given me the opportunity to unpack and abstract some of these ideas, motifs and themes into a gallery setting.
A migrant carries within them two worlds, and they live within the friction and unease of many contradictions. They try to reconcile them. They look for lumber.
When they find their lumber, they build a bridge.
I build mine by telling stories through film...
About Persephone’s Plight
Vicky represents the 4 Seasons of Migration through the quartets of Birth, Separation, Yearning, Return. Like Persephone abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld where she yearns to return to her Mother, the migrant is abducted by the New World. Separated across the waters, s/he and her Mother yearn for each other.
As Persephone eats the fruits of the Underworld and is irreversibly changed, the migrant partakes of the New World, and is changed. Though the Patrida calls, s/he can never permanently return.
Destined to journey between worlds, (s)he, like her Mother, is trapped in
yearning. The generations that follow – the new seeds – inherit this yearning, this love of a distant culture through Music, Language, Food, Dance, and Stories.
Maybe they can one day return, maybe they can one day stay?...
When we asked Vicky how she felt, now that Persephone's Plight had brought her back to where it all began, her answer was essentially straight from the soul:
I saw it as an
opportunity to return the work back to source in the Ionian Seas– a full cycle
if you like. My father, now 92, can’t return to Greece, but I can bring him back to
the waters that bore him, through this exhibition. I feel this is quite mystic,
at this time in his life, and our relationship.
I’ve been travelling between Greece and NZ all my life, and
don’t see that stopping. I love the Ionian isles and am happy to respond in any
way that is called upon me to do so, in the future. In many ways, I’m a
messenger, or the projection for others who have had similar experiences. It is
my job to elicit or stimulate the emotions that exist in those of us, who know
this experience of living between worlds. It’s complex, and its deeply
personal, and everyone has their own unique emotional response to it, yet the
‘soil’ of the experience – the rich and often complicated relationship with the
Motherland – is common and binding...
Strikingly relevant to all of us who have grown up between two cultures,Persephone's Plight presents the eternal and ongoing dilemma of living within two worlds, a dilemma
which is particularly appropriate now, as many of Greece's young people
retrace the steps their parents took in the 50's and 60's.
Persephone's Plight is a unique multimedia experience, complemented by fellow Greek New Zealander, John Psathas' composition Flight on Light, beautifully executed by Greek clarinet virtuoso Manos Achalinotopoulos.
We wish Vicky well and look forward to seeing her exhibition in Athens and in every corner of the Global Greek World very soon.
Bravo Vicky - Καλή Επιτυχία! Wish we could be there with you today...
At Global Greek World, We ♥ Greece...and it shows!
Terry Serepisos - New Zealand's answer to Donald Trump
(Photo Source: The Dominion Post - Andrew Gorrie)
Serepisos to become New Zealand's Donald Trump
By TOM FITZSIMONS - The Dominion Post
He might not have the comb-over, but millionaire Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos is to be New Zealand's answer to Donald Trump.
The Phoenix football team owner has been chosen as the host of a local version of The Apprentice. The reality-TV show, an international hit with Trump as host, pits teams of aspiring entrepreneurs against each other.
One unlucky loser is turfed off the show every week to the words "You're fired", before the eventual winner lands a plum job in the host's firm.
Mr Serepisos told Close Up he was not nervous about the role.
"I guess a little bit, but I'm not shy of the camera, so I'm okay with that." ...
Terry Serepisos' launch into property began here - Maison Cabriole Apartments
His timing was perfect for buying the ex Wellington Gas Company and turning it into inner city apartments
(Photo source: Sophia Economou)
Terry Serepisos' characteristic blue columned HQ Century City Towers
View from Wellington's James Cook Hotel
(Photo source: Sophia Economou)
Things you might want to know about Terry Serepisos
Started out in business by opening men's fashion store Trillini, which expanded to six stores around Wellington.
Moved into property by buying a derelict Wellington building from Sir Ron Brierley, founder of takeover giant, Brierley Investments for $950,000 and converting it into apartments - The Maison Cabriole Apartments ( photo above).
Owns the Phoenix football team, it lost him $2.5m during its first two seasons, but was a move which saved NZ soccer and helped send New Zealand to the World Cup in South Africa later this year.
Brought David Beckham and the LA Galaxy to Wellington in 2007....
This post is a tribute to the most globally acclaimed of our Global Greek performers, UNESCO Ambassador, Nana Mouskouri, and simply features some of our favourite videos of her songs available on You Tube.
Wonderful foot tapping melodies, a few duets with some of our other Global Greeks, all aimed at getting you out of your chair and eager to start dancing, !!! OPA!!! ENJOY!
With George Chakiris - Plaisir d' Amour
An incredible video with Harry Belafonte and Danny Kaye... Opa Ni Na Nai - Siko Horepse Koukli Mou (ΣΗΚΟ ΧΟΡΕΨΕ ΚΟΥΚΛΙ ΜΟΥ)
Her magnificent Athena (ΑΘΗΝΑ)
Ximeroni ( ΞΗΜΕΡΩΝΕΙ) - Never on Sunday Medley with Demis Roussos
With Demis Roussos - To Yelekaki
and last but not least a beautiful ballad with Julio Inglesias- La Paloma
Our write up on Nana will come later...but in the meantime you may like to see how one of our Greek-Somethings, Greek New Zealander Sophia Economou writing in her New Zealanders in Greece blog, describes Nana's last concert under the Parthenon at the Herodus Atticus Theatre in July of 2008...
How does one describe a feeling? It’s hard unless you are a poet! Well, I would have loved to have been one on Wednesday 23 July as we sat in the ancient Herodes Atticus theatre or the Herodeion as we call it, waiting for Nana Mouskouri to start what was to be her final concert after 50 years of enchanting audiences all over the world.
There, below a gleaming Parthenon set against a brilliant blue sky which slowly acquired dusky hews we watched thousands of people streaming into this magnificent ancient theatre to take their places. It was a wonderful sight - people of all ages happily assembling to pay tribute to one of Greece's best known ambassadors. The younger generation of singers and artists like Maria Farandouri, Nikos Aliagas and Sakis Rouvas were also there to pay tribute to this great lady.
Just after 9 pm it was time for the concert to start and the screens which had been set up above the stage came to life, projecting scenes from Nana's life - pictures from childhood on, with people she loved and who loved her. Symbolic in a way because it was in the outdoor cinema where her father worked as a projectionist, as she told us later, close by in the suburb of Koukaki, that she began dreaming...dreams that would take her around the world and into millions of homes and hearts over the years ahead. One of those homes was ours...
As Nana's voice filled the theatre, memories came flooding back...
Memories of our Mt Victoria home, loving memories of the whole family, Mum, Dad, my sister Pagona and myself, with some of the usual visitors to our house sitting in front of the television to watch her BBC show every week as she sang and danced with her many and varied guests, from George Chakiris to Shari Lewis, Julio Inglesias and Marinella!
Our father adored her and had every disc he could get hold of in his record collection, and my sister and I inherited that adoration. Somehow we managed to pass it on to my 8 year old daughter, so here we all were with our good friend Maria, also from Wellington, sitting in this magnificent ancient theatre below a now illuminated Parthenon waiting for the concert to begin. (July is a month of sad memories in our household... it is the month that our father left this world, so we decided that our 'memorial service' to him and our mother this year would be to go to Nana's farewell concert.)
Those weekly 'concerts' in our living room were in both our thoughts as we sat and listened to this amazing lady give her last performance...
"The Olympics came home and we showed the world the great things Greece can do - Athens was great for athletes and Greece was great for the Games." Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President, Athens 2004 Organising Committee (ATHOC)
And the Games came Home...
And what a glorious homecoming it was! Athens, and indeed the whole of Greece lived through spectacular days in the summer of 2004. To the chagrin of all those who said that we wouldn't make it, Athens not only made it, it showed the world what glorious things could be achieved! The smallest country ever , but also the only one whose history alone entitled it to host the Olympics, put on the greatest Olympics ever. All those Cassandras who predicted that we would be painting and nailing right through to the Closing Ceremony were proved wrong! Our Australian friends, who should have known better, and should have been more sympathetic, after having hosted their own Olympics four years earlier in Sydney in 2000, were amongst the most critical unfortunately!
An email which had done the rounds earlier in the preparations even gave the Games a new logo ...
ATHENS 2005 ...because good things take a little longer!
But Greeks invented satire and proved that more than anything, we knew how to laugh at ourselves... At the pre-show, just before the Opening Ceremony began, Greek French Showman Nikos Aliagas, in blue workers' overalls, hammered in the last nail and beamed ecstatically, 'At last, we're finished!', before he took off the overalls and settled in to present the show, receiving ecstatic laughter and thundering applause from the 70,000+ audience! The greatest ever celebration of youth and sport was about to begin, and Athens was in celebration mode! Let the Games Begin! And the Games began!!! And what incredible Games they were... Dimitri Papaioannou's magnificent Opening Ceremony set the tone for the days that were to follow!
Athens 2004 - Opening Ceremony
For all those who were in Athens during those magical 30 days, for all those who worked for the Olympics, either directly or indirectly, either as paid staff or as volunteers, the experience was one we will never forget!
For us, Athens changed incredibly and for the better!
Athens 2004 Mascots Phoebus and Athena at play
For 30 days, Athens was a gracious and wonderful hostess to the World and like a real Diva, lived up to her myth! The atmosphere was superb and Athens had its own unique way of making every day memorable! Hundreds of thousands of people, athletes, officials, our extraordinary volunteers, including 3500 volunteers of Greek origin from Australia to Uruguay (more about these very special volunteers in another post), gave of their very best and thus achieved the ultimate! The years of upheaval as the whole city underwent major structural and constructional changes and in fact became one huge construction site, paid off - it all pulled together beautifully just like the Calatrava Roof on the Olympic Stadium, just weeks before the Opening Ceremony. As Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee so aptly said
"Athens' preparations for the Games are like the Syrtaki - It starts very slowly, it accelerates and by the end you can't keep up with the pace."
We lived through magnificent, glorious days in August of 2004, forgetting all the problems as the countdown began for the best ever Olympic Games! The IOC President might not have said exactly that at the closing Ceremony 16 days later, but he said enough to ensure that the Athens Olympics would leave their own mark in history, along with the first Modern Olympics of 1896, and the Classic Olympics of Antiquity!
Volunteers Harvest the Wheat-Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Photo: Mike Blake for Reuters
Efharistoume, Athena! Thank you, Athens!
Dear Greek friends, you have won. You have won by brilliantly meeting the tough challenge of holding the Games.
These Games were held in peace and brotherhood.
These were the Games where it became increasingly difficult to cheat and where clean athletes were protected.
These Games were unforgettable, dream Games.
IOC President Jacques Rogge with ATHOC President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki at the Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Photo:Mike Blake for Reuters
As Dimitri Papaioannou's magnificent Opening Ceremony unfolded and several millennia of Greek history paraded before the world in his fascinating Klepsydra, as the wonderful music of Greek New Zealander John Psathas, among others, flooded the stadium, the world watched in awe, mesmerised and enchanted.
The next day, and for many days after, while competition continued and it became obvious that Athens' Olympics were a great success, the apologies came pouring in! To the credit of all concerned, these apologies (see below for just a few examples) were pretty generous, albeit sometimes a little tongue-in-cheek!
We, who knew what we Greeks can achieve when we are united were not one bit surprised. Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Photo: Reuters
Athens and Greece had once again given the World something unique to remember, something that would live on forever in our hearts!
Olympic Triple Gold Medallist Pyrros Dimas holds Greek Flag at Closing Ceremony Photo: Arko Datta for Reuters
Ευχαριστουμε Ελλάδα! Efharistoume Ellada! Greece, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for those unforgettable, magical moments !!
Athens 2004 Closing Ceremony Fireworks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- And then the apologies (and accolades) came rolling in from every side .... We were wrong
Rick Reilly in SI 31 August 2004
Greece overcame the world's paranoia to stage a glorious Games
Dear Athens, Well, we feel bad. We really owe you an apology.
So, sygnomi, as you would say. Sorry.
Sorry about the way we acted. We were paranoid and stupid and just flat out wrong. Our bad. If you want, we'll sleep on the couch.
We mocked you, ridiculed you, figured you wouldn't be ready. We envisioned you as a bunch of lazy, swarthy guys in wife-beater T-shirts chugging ouzo instead of finishing the baseball dugouts. We were sure steeplechasers would have to jump over drying cement, pole vaulters over tractors, divers into 3 feet of water.
We were wrong. It was all done and it was beautiful. OK, so the swimming stadium never got a roof. Big freaking deal. Imagine: having to swim in an outdoor pool. Let's all sue. Besides, you know what? It was more fun that way. Michael Phelps was out there so much he ended up with raccoon eyes from his goggles. He looked like a snowboarder. "Cool!" he said.
We predicted women madly weaving olive wreaths next to the podiums as the national anthems started up. We foresaw painters sprinting along painting stripes just yards ahead of 400-meter runners. We figured beams would be falling on people's heads. Who knew Wrigley Field would be a lot more dangerous?
We were sure every street corner would have three or four terrorists, just kind of killing time, looking for somebody to kidnap. Some bozo said, "The only place worse to hold an Olympics would be Baghdad." Please. I guarantee you, we felt a helluva lot safer these three weeks in Athens than we do in L.A. Or Detroit. Or the Republican National Convention.
We insisted you spend 1.2 billion euros on security. You had to put up blimps and cameras all over the city. You couldn't throw a bucket of grapes anywhere and not hit a soldier with a rifle. And nothing happened. Zero. The only incident was when our Secretary of State said he was coming to visit. In other words, if Colin Powell would've just been happy with his remote, you wouldn't have had a single problem.
Why you had to pay for our paranoia, I'll never know. It's the world's problem, the world should have to pay for it. What small country is going to be able to afford to host the Olympics anymore with these insane security demands? From now on, if a country wants to send a team to the Games, it pays its share of security, based on its share of the gross world product. In other words, it's our war, we should have to pay for it.
And our ignorance cost you more than just the billion or so Euros. Our Edvard Munch screams leading up to these games kept millions of people away. Corporations bailed on you. Fans chickened out. I know burly journalists who were too scared to come.
Sygnomi. Really. You did such a beautiful job on all the venues, arenas and stadiums and yet most of them were so empty you would've thought you'd stumbled upon a goiter seminar. At one basketball game, we counted: There were 307 people. One women's soccer game involving the U.S. started with fewer than 50 people. I had a friend call one night and say, "You better get over to gymnastics, quick. There's only 15,000 seats left."
The shopkeepers told us, "We've never seen it so dead in August." Hotels came down on their prices by three-quarters. Shirt stores lost their shirts.
It's too bad. It was a glorious Olympics. It really was. The opening ceremonies were fabulous. The nightlife was amazing. Even the stray dogs and cats couldn't have been friendlier. I got lost once and had to hitchhike out of nowhere, and a motorcyclist not only picked me up but drove for miles until he found me a cab. So, efharisto, as you say. Thanks.
Somebody did a poll and found that 97 percent of fans were "satisfied" with safety and security, 95 percent appreciated the job the volunteers did and 98 percent had a favorable impression of Greece. The other two percent were Paul Hamm's family.
And what did you get for all your trouble? Nothing but heartache. With 9,000-plus Greeks about to go delirious, our men's volleyball team handed you a giant buzzkill --- coming back from eight points down to win the fourth set and then the fifth to advance to the semifinals. The only really good game our men's basketball team played the whole time was against Greece.
It was Greek Tragedy Fortnight on TBS. It started even before the Games with your heartbroken judoka jumping from a balcony, followed two days later by her distraught boyfriend. Your two best sprinters turned in their credentials to end a doping/conspiracy/motorcycle wreck soap opera that tore the nation up. One of your favorite weightlifters had to give up a medal for a failed drug test, then wept in front of the world protesting his innocence.
And now you're stuck with about $8.5 billion in debt, a bunch of huge, expensive stadiums you'll never use (Hey, kids, who's ready to synchronized dive?!) and a whole lot of "Get Your Butt to Team Handball!" shorts nobody was around to buy. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
So, really, we're sorry. If it makes you feel any better, we all feel a lot more Greek now. We're all coming back to the States telling the daughter, "OK, you be Athena and I'll be Zeus!", demanding our favorite restaurants reserve us a table about 1 a.m. under the moon, right near a 2,500 year-old ruin. We keep spitting in people's hair for good luck, crushing plates for no reason and hollering "opa!" in the shower.
No idea how to make this right for you, except this: We vow, here and now, we'll never make you host us again.
By ANN KILLION
San Jose Mercury News
Posted on Sat, Aug. 21, 2004
ATHENS – The Greeks could sue for defamation of character. They could demand an apology from the world. Instead they just shrug and order another frappe.
Their Olympics are going beautifully. Just like they expected. After all, they invented this business.
For years, we heard how miserable these Olympics would be, how dangerous, how choked with traffic, how polluted, how unfinished. After just a couple of days, some observers turned in an instant thumbs-down on the Games. No atmosphere. No crowds. The horror – gymnastics wasn’t even sold out!
Such rips are ridiculous. For one thing, you can’t judge the Olympics until they start. And, in reality, the Athens Games didn’t start until Friday, when track and field got under way. Olympic atmosphere comes from 160,000 people streaming into the park every day. And that can only happen when track starts. Until then, the Olympic park seems deserted even with 30,000 people inside it.
Saturday night, the upper bowl of Olympic Stadium was filled with rippling blue and white Greek flags and fans cheering for runners and discus throwers. The roar of the crowd rose into the Athens night. You couldn’t convince anyone there that these Games have no atmosphere.
So far these Games get a huge thumbs-up from this corner. And not just because I set my personal bar so low – my goal was to come home alive. I swore I wouldn’t whine about slow buses or hot weather.
I’m still alive and feeling sheepish about all my worries. The heightened security is evident but not oppressive. The fear-mongering has dissolved into a happy Olympic atmosphere where Canadian fans wander around in togas and olive wreaths drinking Mythos beer. The Games aren’t over, but so far, Athens feels very safe.
And there hasn’t been much to whine about. The buses run on time. The taxis are cheap. The phones work. Even the weather has cooperated, with temperature mostly in the 90s during the days, but not the 100-plus heat that had been advertised.
Are they as great as the Sydney Summer Olympics, which drew rave reviews? So far, they’re not far behind (and gymnastics wasn’t sold out there either – not everyone loves the little pixies as much as Americans).
The scene at Darling Harbor was terrific – but the crowded cafes of the Plaka, in the shadow of the Acropolis, are almost as lively.
Are these Games as great as Barcelona, which I didn’t attend but many veteran Olympic writers say is their favorite? They’re not far behind – and they’re beating Barcelona in ticket sales.
And how do they compare to Atlanta? There is no comparison. The United States hosted the worst Summer Olympics of the modern mega-Games era.
Everything people feared would happen here actually did happen in Atlanta: There was a bombing, the buses didn’t run on time, the computer system didn’t function, the crowds were suffocating and the weather was oppressive. Greece, the smallest country to host an Olympics in 52 years and one of the poorest countries in the European Union, is outperforming the world’s super power.
On Saturday, Athens was abuzz. The efficient new metro system was packed with fans heading to every venue. Inside the Olympic park every event except trampoline was sold out (and you’re not going to hold it against the Athenians if they don’t support trampoline, are you?).
On Friday, 244,144 fans went to 47 events. Ticket sales have reached 3.2 million – close to the target of 3.4 million – and they’re not done yet. The fact that most Athenians were on vacation until last week is part of the Games’ new energy.
Not only were the Greeks underestimated, their capital city has been mistreated. For those of us who haven’t been here before, Athens is a surprising delight.
Yes, it’s crowded and poorly laid out. But it has dazzling historic sites around almost every corner, restaurants and bars that stay open until almost dawn, and wonderful, gracious hosts.
It also has a terrific coastline along the Saronic Gulf. A new tram runs along the water, and Saturday it carried both Olympic spectators and sunbathers. The beaches were packed and Athenians bobbed in the sparkling water.
The first eight days have been a success. I told my cabdriver how impressed I was. “Of course,” he said and shrugged. What did you expect from the folks who came up with idea in the first place? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Zeus, the Greeks are great again! Instead of sneering at the supposed failings of the Olympic hosts, the British should address their own inadequacies
Helena Smith
Sunday August 15, 2004
The Observer
The only time I met Jeffrey Archer, he was ranting about the Greeks. ‘These bloody people, they couldn’t organise their way out of a paper bag.’
It was the eve of the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens. Archer was standing in the foyer of the Hilton, fuming because an overworked saleswoman in the hotel bookshop had had the temerity to keep him waiting. ‘To think that they’re organising these games is a real joke,’ he grumbled. ‘They’re bloody hopeless.’ His tirade was embarrassing. But what struck me more, living in Greece and being British, was the ferocity of such Anglo-Saxon condescension. It was both disquieting and buffoonish. In the event, the championships were the best of recent times.
As Greeks defy sceptics with world-class sports venues and a vastly improved city for the Olympics, I wonder what put-downs Archer and his ilk will come up with now? That Athens 2004 isn’t a patch on what London could be in 2012? Or perhaps they will take a leaf out of Tessa Jowell’s book? After touring the Greek capital last week, the British sports minister could only exclaim: ‘We are here to learn … and support the city in the face of doomsayers – they have turned it around.’
Greece is the smallest country to stage the Olympics, which are the biggest ever. The feat will help dispel some of the self-doubt and nagging inferiorities that torment Greeks. Not even the humiliation of seeing the farcical flight from drug testers of their two star athletes could take the gloss off Friday’s magnificent opening ceremony.
If the Games go as well and remain incident-free – and the Greeks have spent a record £900 million providing security for the event – the organisers may just succeed in proving that Athens is no longer Europe’s Christian Orthodox ‘odd-man out’. That, actually, it can very effectively ‘organise its way out of a paper bag’. But will the Olympics also change the prejudices against Hellenes?
In Britain, it seems, there is still a readiness to think of the Greeks as barely civilised: they are all called Zorba, sport bushy moustaches and smash plates. If not that, then they are corrupt southern Europeans with a criminal justice system that goes out of its way to target British plane spotters. Such stereotypes are born of an idea of Greece as a Balkan backwater, a country that has no place in the European Union.
Again and again, in the course of reporting from Greece, I have met such prejudices. What still surprises me, though, is the extent to which they appear to have colonised the minds of people I might otherwise respect.
A year spent in the irrepressibly progressive environment of Harvard, as the new century dawned, only served to highlight how entrenched and peculiarly British such views tend to be. Like our fondness for that cliche of Greeks bearing gifts, we seem unable to abandon our belief that modern Greece is a contradiction in terms. Increasingly, I find myself thinking the British, rather than the Greeks, are trapped in outdated mindsets.
As a Briton, I find much to squirm about, whether it’s the Elgin marbles or my compatriots running wild in vomit-splattered Faliraki or feckless, bare-breasted English girls being incarcerated in Greek jails, which are, naturally, described as ‘medieval’ in the British press.
Few ever stop to think how the British might behave if hordes of unprepossessing, out-of-control Greeks invaded our coasts? More often than not, Greek authorities react to such excesses with a leniency far beyond the call of duty.
No one can deny the Greeks’ bewildering last-minute work ethic. In recent months, preparations for the Games appeared so chaotic that they bordered on the burlesque. But, sadly, stereotypes tend to colour political views.
What people tend to forget is just how far the Greeks have come. Three decades ago, Athens was under the iron grip of small-minded military dictators, men as intent on banning mini-skirts as banishing leftists to remote island prisons.
Now, Hellenes worry not about human rights or the rule of law, but consumer goods and their second homes overlooking the sea. It is all the more miraculous when you remember that before the colonels came years of wars, coups and near-constant political and social unrest.
It is true that with their extraordinary ability to be their own worst enemy, the tumult was often self-inflicted. The disastrous 1923 Pelepponese campaign, subject of Louis de Berniere’s latest book, did not enhance the country’s reputation. Nor did Athens’s fiercely pro-Serbian and less than magnanimous stance in the recent Balkan wars.
But Greece is changing. Just as the country is no longer the economic laggard of the European Union (at around 4 per cent, its GDP growth rates are the second highest in the eurozone), it is no longer the political juvenile of yore. The trenchant nationalism of the 1980s and early 1990s is no more; instead of generating firebrand politicians with only thinly disguised dreams of conquering Constantinople, it produces men and women who want only to improve relations with Turkey.
Progressive immigration policies, an area for which Greece deserves more credit, are rapidly changing the country’s ethnic make-up. Around 10 per cent of its 11-million strong population are now foreign-born, mostly Albanian, although increasingly from the former Soviet republics, Africa and the Middle East. Admittedly, Greece was never a multicultural paradise; treatment of newcomers has not always been exemplary. But I have often wondered what the reaction would be in other European countries to such a great influx.
In years to come, others might contemplate the wisdom of tasking small states such as Greece with the organisation of a show such as the Olympics. But of one thing there can be no doubt: no other single event has so effectively transformed or revitalised Athens in the 180-plus years since Greece won independence from the Ottoman Turks.
In one fell swoop, it seems, the Greeks have cleaned up their act. They have cracked the nasty November 17 (the group that killed British military attache Stephen Saunders); they’ve used EU funds and dug deep into their coffers to build highways, a sophisticated transport network, a gleaming new airport and a metro system that makes the London Underground look primitive.
They haven’t built a new Acropolis Museum yet, but they’ve united all their ancient masterpieces into a giant and spectacular archaeological park, no mean feat in a city of more than four million people. How long has it taken to even agree to build London’s Crossrail? It is unlikely it will be ready by 2012.
The new Greeks are innovative. In contrast to the patronising eggheads who govern the likes of the British Museum, they come up with forward-looking polices: ‘Why not loan us the Elgin marbles, instead of ‘giving them back’ and we’ll display them in a branch of the British Museum beneath the Parthenon?’
Lovers of Greece will weep to see that acceptance has taken so long, but it could prove to be one of the greatest legacies of the Games.
--------------------------------------------------------------- The Olympics Are Ending: Now Athens Pays for a Nice Party
By GEORGE VECSEY – New York Times ATHENS
THERE will always be two versions of the 2004 Summer Games:
The very pleasant Games most people experienced, superimposed on one of the world’s historic cities.
The very expensive Games that Greeks will have to underwrite for decades.
Many thousands of visitors will go home with a memory of some epic sporting event – a Greek winning a gold medal, a luminous smile on the podium, a perfect meal in a local taverna.
On the other hand, millions of Greeks will stay home and sort out the ledger sheet, and make up their minds whether the security and the new infrastructure were even remotely worth $9 billion, the current estimate.
But whatever Greeks come to think about these Games, they need to remember they were good hosts. They took care of us, with our low expectations and our high demands. Greece came through.
These Games were secure and peaceful, at least until Secretary of State Colin L. Powell planned to come to town, a visceral reminder of things that annoy some Greeks about the order of the world. A nasty demonstration Friday made him change his plans.
These Games were friendly and capable. Maybe that came through on television sets around the world. Or maybe such considerations are not relevant to viewers.
The Olympic Games have become a made-for-television extravaganza, to keep the American masses occupied for 17 days in August until football, tennis, the baseball pennant races and the Champions League of soccer all kick in on the tube.
For athletes, tourists and wretches from the news media, the Games are reality. Fans walk through an Athenian square carrying their national banner, having an experience they will tell their grandchildren about.
When I get home in a few days, I will tell my grandchildren mostly about the ferry rides and the ancient ruins, far more than most sporting events I witnessed. (I loved the use of the ancient stadium and the old stadium, the respect for history. Best single Olympic action? Kristine Lilly’s superb blast-from-the-past corner kick that set up the gold-medal header by Abby Wambach.)
The nice people with the Olympic committee all blur together. I cannot tell a paid official from an unpaid volunteer. They seem to wear the same uniform. They all speak English. They all anticipate our needs.
Greece is said to have a culture of privacy and individualism. (If I may say so after a month here, many Athenians tend to talk, walk and smoke oblivious to others around them.) It is said that Greeks do not volunteer, but somehow the organizers found thousands of the best and brightest of their society and put them in uniforms where some cranky American would come lurching along, trying to find a bus or a bathroom. I will always remember their tolerant and worldly ways.
Some people do stand out. Remember that in Ancient Olympia, women were barred from the grounds. Greece tried that act again in 1997, shunning the woman who had earned the Olympic bid for Athens. Three years later, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki was brought back to save the nation from disgrace.
Like many charismatic leaders, Mrs. A is easy to caricature. I’m just guessing she may even have a bit of an ego. Let’s be clear about one thing: if it were not for Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, I would be typing this column in L.A. or Sydney or Seoul. I hope Greece and the International Olympic Committee have a big enough medal for this extremely capable leader.
Then there was the mayor, Dora Bakoyannis, who kept telling us her city would be fine. We got here, and the trains were upgraded and the public squares were refreshed and the bilingual signs were up. She’s another big-timer.
A few months ago the mayor laughed when I told her how grungy Athens had seemed when my wife and I visited last year. She let me know that she had been smart enough not to invite houseguests in 2003. Besides, she said, these Games are really about 2005. Next year, the subways and the beaches and the ruins will still be here.
Are you getting the feeling my enthusiasm is for the site and not the Games themselves? The Olympics have become too big. They have lost their center. Maybe that is a function of television. We lumber around on endless bus rides to events halfway to the equator, and NBC polishes it up for the folks back home.
Up close, the Games aren’t all that compelling. “Seinfeld” was about nothing. The Olympics are about buses and security and lines – and ghastly food inside the Olympic perimeter. I blame the sponsors, who insist on selling their burgers and their sodas. In a country of great tavernas, how contemptuous.
Then there are the drugs, which hang over the Games the way smog used to hang over Athens. That clump of jawbone and biceps and thighs who just won a gold medal is tomorrow’s fugitive, running from the drug police like some bicycle thief.
Testing is getting better, I suppose, but if you want to know the truth, I’m sick of drugs and I’m sick of drug testing. I’m sick of judges and decimal points and particularly the weasels from the gymnastics federation. I think I’m Olympicked out. More to the point, the Olympics may be Olympicked out.
I hope the Games go somewhere other than New York in 2012. We don’t need the kind of costly fix these poor folks are about to pay for. But they were good sports, good hosts. Next time we come back, there won’t be any Games and we can get right to the museums and the beaches.
Celebrated Greek-New Zealand composer John Psathas is one of our Global Greeks.
John is one of New Zealand's most frequently performed composers, and one of the finest and most talented of the younger generation of composers in New Zealand.
His music is energetic and vibrant, with a passionate exuberance that is a product of his Greek heritage.
One of the few, if not the only, Greek-Somethings to be involved in such a way, John's music was a major part of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the highlight of his career to date.
John commuted several times between Wellington and Athens to work on the music and supervise the rehearsal process. His music included a number of fanfares and processionals to accompany the arrival of the IOC President, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron and also the music that preceded the Olympic oaths, and he was responsible for the soundtrack to the entire flame sequence of the ceremony.
John also arranged the National Anthem of Greece, the Olympic Hymn and music by Shostakovich, Debussy and the foremost living Greek Composer Mikis Theodorakis that accompanied other parts of the ceremony. Listen to John's superb arrangement of the Olympic Anthem.
Born in New Zealand to Greek parents, Emmanuel and Anastasia, who have since returned to live in the family town of Michaniona in Northern Greece, today John lectures at the Victoria University School of Music but visits Greece regularly both for personal and professional reasons.
Apart from his numerous visits to Greece in preparation for the Olympics, in December of 2006 he gave a series of concerts in Cyprus and in Patras, which was the Cultural Capital of Europe that year.
His music is heard regularly on the world's concert stages, and has been performed by Michael Brecker, Joshua Redman, Evelyn Glennie, Pedro Carneiro, Federico Mondelci, Michael Houstoun, and many fine ensembles.
Some of John's most recent compositions are View from Olympus, which he wrote while on Sabbatical in Greece and stayed at the top of New Zealand's classical charts for 5 months, and ‘Zeibekiko’, an entire programme of Greek music celebrating the heritage of Greek music from Antiquity to the present day.
‘Zeibekiko’ was commissioned by the Eduard van Beinum Foundation at the request of the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble - an invitation to John to create an entire programme based around the theme of 2500 years of Greek Music and was performed by the Nederlands Blazers throughout Holland, at the Bath Festival UK and at the 2006 New Zealand International Arts Festival among others.
The ambience of the Zeibekiko, a Greek dance traditionally performed by men, sets the tone for this magnificent programme which evokes the beauty of the Mediterranean as we accompany John on this musical journey as he explores his ancestral roots. His programme includes the first Hymn to Apollo from Delphi, traditional folk and popular music, as well as original compositions -wonderful and unique, classic Psathas!
For the performances of Zeibekiko, John worked closely with two very gifted traditional Greek musicians, Clarino virtuoso, Manos Achalinotopoulos and master percussionist, Vagelis Karypis.
On August 29 of the same year, his’ "Olympiad XXVIII" had its World Premiere in Beijing at Forbidden City in the context of Beijing’s Olympic Games. Olympiad XXVIII is a new suite of symphonic arrangements based on John’s music for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympics Games.
In 2008, John's composition 'Helix' was played by the New Zealand Trio at Government House in Auckland, to a private audience of Prime Minister Helen Clark and visiting US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice.
Although his music has been performed at the Megaron Mousikis (The Athens Concert Hall) in the past, it would be fantastic to see one of John’s Greek-inspired works either ‘View from Olympus’ or 'Zeibekiko' performed at either the Herodeion or the Megaron!!
What They Said About John
"John Psathas is one of the most talented composers of his generation. He produced wonderful music which added a lot to the success of the music in the ceremonies."
George Koumendakis, Director of Music, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Olympic Games, Athens 2004
"Many of his compositions have an energy and drive more extreme than any other music I know - it sweeps one up on a frantic roller-coaster ride and carries one to that height of exhilaration."
Jack Body - Mentor and Colleague
Distinctions
Awarded the 2002 SouNZ Contemporary Award for View From Olympus
Named an Arts Laureate by the Arts Foundation in 2003.
His album Rhythm Spike was BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM 2000, and Fragments BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM - 2004, in the NZ MUSIC AWARDS.
At Victoria University School of Music he is nurturing a new generation of composers.
The NZ Herald named him as a contender for New Zealander of the Year 2004.
He was awarded Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the 2005 list for his services to music.
