Greece goes on fire!

The last weeks the Greeks are watching their forests being burned out. The Fire Brigade loses the war. This year has been burned more forests than ever. I’m surprised that this time people are not blaming the government… but actually the Fire Brigade although 3 firemen lost their lives!



I’ve been helping the Fire Brigade troops in big fires as a Red Cross volunteer last year in Crete. I’ve seen myself that due to the wild surface of Greece, ground troops cannot do much. At least not without help from the air. I’ve seen with my own eyes a small tree catching up fire on its own 4 times, although the firemen had thrown tons of water on it each time.

Is still the Fire Brigade responsible, when the government hires 3000 totally useless agrofylakes (agro-field guards) instead of firemen or instead of buying equipment (e.g. planes or helicopters) to enhance the Fire Brigade? Then what the hell is the government responsible for?

I hope to get an answer before the last tree of this country turns into ashes.

Turkey: Elections and immature meaningless acts.

Turkey goes to elections this weekend and once again Greece has to pay the price. Usually it’s Turkish military airplanes getting illegally into the Greek borders (or something with Cyprus). Increase of the number of such incidents, to be more accurate, since such intrusions/provocations are done by the Turkish army very often, almost every day. But this time it was something else. The International Union of Greek Orthodox Christian Youth had their festival in Istanbul where the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Orthodox Christian Church lays. The festival would conclude with a concert given by a famous Greek singer Georgios Dalaras.

The Turks took back the permission they had given for the concert and the concert was cancelled. The Turkish media said this singer is anti-Turk. Georgios Dalaras has sung actually for the re-union of the island of Cyprus as well as to raise money for Turkish children suffering from mental diseases. And for Turkey this person is an enemy!

What can someone say about a country (willing to join EU) in which it is ILLEGAL to talk against this country, to admit that the Armenian or the Pontian-Greek genocide are not science fictions or that Kurds are actually a different ethnic group?!

Al een jaar in Nederland

Already one year in the Netherlands. It was like a glimpse. I’m sitting in my childhood bedroom now in hot Greece. This year is running back in my mind. Since I got in Greece I already miss the Dutch trains, the perfect roads and generally that abstract sense that everything works! However, by the first moment here, I felt the difference in those two countries view over the food! Oh, really, Dutch people have no idea. They just put something in their mouth to make their stomach stop complaining (“brood met iets erop”). Greeks on the other way have turned cooking into a real art. And that great artist, my mother, of course had something great for me when I came back. Hehehe.

I’m having a hard time to get used to the Greek summer. I left Netherlands with 12 degrees celcius and I landed on 30 degrees Greece. Well, it’s nice not to worry about what you’re going to wear (you wear as less things as you can, all 24 hours of the day), but if you work in a big city like Athens or Thessaloniki, you really suffer! I made a small visit to the capital of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, and it was like a trip to hell. The busses usually had no air-conditioning, and even when they did, the people were not patient enough and they opened the windows. So, no use.

Also a big difference that cheered me up when I came here. Whenever you go out: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday it doesn’t matter… it’ s always crowded! In Netherlands there are people outside only on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is a dead day all day long. Here Sunday is always crowded. People go on trips or just out to drink their coffee in a café by reading their Sunday-newspaper or just meeting friends.

Every country has its pros and its cons. Although I think I’ve already got acquainted to all the cons of Netherlands, there are still many pros to discover. It was a busy year with lots of courses and only a few money. Next year there will be more time to do things and more money since I’ll be working. But till then… I can have a great summer under the Greek sun ;)