admin

Some suggestions: ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα Loosely translates to "I know that I know nothing", or more literally: I know one thing; that I know nothing". Attributed to Socrates, even though Socrates never says these exact words in any of Plato's works. Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα. Δε φοβἀμαι τίποτα. Είμαι λέφτερος. This is Niko Kazantzakis' epitaph. It says: "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free." ἄνθρωπος μέτρον This is attributed to Protagoras. It means that "man is the measure (of all things)" Ἀνδρῶν γὰρ ἐπιφανῶν πᾶσα γῆ τάφος Thucydides attributes this to a speech of Pericles to the Athenians during the Peloponessean war. It losely translates as "Heroes have the whole earth is their tomb" I hope this will get you started

You guys are arguing like a married couple about a problem which doesn't have an easy and straight forward solution. This problem won't be solved if we close Greece's borders or if we bring Frontex to control the borders or if we let all refugees in and give them food and a place to stay or or or...it's much more complex than this. Firstly, it's clear than some people are taking advantage of the real need of the Syrian people to get out of their war torn country and they're trying to sneak into Europe pretending they're Syrians or pretending they're coming from other war torn countries. Secondly, Europe cannot and should not be the only ones responsible for the displacement of the Syrians. The rest of the world has to pitch in and help out (and I'm not singling out their rich "cousins" in middle east). Most importantly, ISIS needs to be stopped. This is the only way to stop the influx of refugees. As soon as ISIS is eradicated I'm sure many Syrians will return to their homes and they'll try to rebuild their country and their lives.

It's very hard for the Greeks to confirm people's ages, real names etc. when they land on the Aegean islands. Most of them come without papers, and those who do come with papers nobody can be 100% sure that these papers are real or fake. If a refugee lands on an island and says he's 16 years old and his name is Abdul Rahim, how can the Greek people receiving these people refute this claim? I mean in some cases where it's clear that someone looks clearly middle aged they could refuse putting them down as 16 year olds, but the point here is that in most cases is next to impossible to verify each and everyone coming through, especially when you're overwhelmed with thousands of refugees coming daily. If Greece is the easternmost border of Europe then EU needs to step up and help out with identifying all those thousands of refugees and immigrants crossing the Greek borders daily. They can't just let Greece, in the midst of her own troubles, deal with all this.

That's what you said a year ago too but Greece s is still part of he EU and still part of the discussion, despite the proven incompetent government we elected. Greece is part of Europe and Europe wants Greece as part of the EU. It's just a matter of finding the right formula to make this work. Part of the formula of course is getting rid of the idiots elected in government and electing someone a bit better, or even better, hand over the keys to the EU and let them run the show instead of the incompetent Greek politicians.

Exactly, and that's the point. They're clearly in their 20s and some in their 30s yet they all claim that they're 17-18 when they get ashore and the Greeks don't seem to care either way (and that's part of the problem) so they provide them with documents showing that they're underage. So when these people end up in Denmark, Sweden, Finland etc. they're holding documents showing that they're underage and they ask for the benefits underage refugees receive from these countries.

A few months ago when we started discussing the refugee crisis one of the questions that came up from many of you was "how come those refugee boats are mostly loaded with young men. Why don't these people stay behind to protect their families and fight off ISIS"? I guess there's a good answer to this, and I only recently stumbled upon it after talking about the refugee issue with some friends who live in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland). Not sure if what they told me also applies to Germany too. Very possible. Here's what's happening and why we're seeing so many young men trying to get to those countries and apply for asylum. The law in these countries says that if an underage boy (18 or less) applies for asylum and is accepted then he can bring over his whole family. On top of this, underage kids are given a place to stay and money to spend while waiting for their papers to be processed. Seems that refugees from the middle east and other places have found out this information through friends and relatives that's why they're all trying to reach those countries, to secure asylum for themselves and eventually bring over their whole families. There's a side story to this too. All those young men crossing the Aegean and trying to reach northern Europe are obviously not all under 18. What happens though is that they all claim to be under 18, and having no papers with them makes it hard for the authorities to refute their claims. I was told that it's an almost comical (despite the seriousness of the situation...) scene to see men in their 30s, balding, and clearly showing their age, claiming that they're 17 years old. Most of these people are desperate, and they're in real need to get out of their war-torn countries. The fact that they choose shady ways to do this doesn't diminish the seriousness of their situation. They need help and the world (not only Europe...) needs to step up and help them out.

eyoismos, if you don't like Patrick's opinions - I don't like them either - use your words and reason and refute his claims. As it is right now his claim that Greece may be in deep trouble because of the way the Tsipras government has dealt with the immigrants/refugees situation is not far from true.

Even though I do feel for these people the reality is that some of them are trying to take advantage of the European systems. A telling story emerged recently around migrants who had entered Russia and tried to cross over to Norway on bikes as this was a loophole which was allowing people on bikes to cross from Russia to Norway without documents. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/14/norway-tells-refugees-bikes-russia-bicycle-immigration-storskog There are plenty more stories for refugees trying to cross between European countries when they find out that one offers more benefits or help than the other. I've heard stories of people trying to cross from Sweden to Finland just because Finland offers refugees a few more Euros/month as compared to Sweden. Thing is that those refugees are human beings like you and I, and in a group of thousands of refugees you'll find many decent human beings and as many scumbags. You'll also have to take into consideration that these people come from a culture which encourages this type of behaviour.

There was a long discussion about this a couple of years ago. I do not use e-readers myself. If I want (and have time...) to read a book then I pick up the real thing. Eyoismos was mentioning though that he finds Kindle easy to use.

I guess you'll have to wait for the next election and if most German people think like you do then she will step down.

What happened? Merkel went from a hero to a villain within a few months' time?

I wouldn't call Patrick a philhellene

He's referring to all refugees.

I hope there's not going to be any blind violence from either side. The situation is tense as I'm reading that similar things happened in other countries too, like Sweden, Finland, Switzerland etc. If it's indeed Arabs who are the perpetrators there's a need to educate them and familiarize them with the western lifestyle. From what I hear in Finland they're already doing this as they realize that these people are culturally different than us (Europeans). If they are to live and prosper in Europe they need to understand and accept our lifestyle.

I hear there's trouble brewing in Germany after the latest events in Stuttgart. What do people there think about all this? http://www.wsj.com/articles/german-authorities-investigating-three-in-connection-with-new-years-eve-assaults-1452091543

I wonder why migrants from North Africa do not cross the straights of Gibraltar to go to Spain but they rather try the much more dangerous route from Libya or Egypt to Italy. Seems that only 3,500 of them crossed to Spain while 150,000 crossed to Italy. No wonder of course why most of them prefer Greece. We're not only closer to those coming from the middle East. Our borders are also more or less open to everyone

Does big boobs count?

Are you talking about direct flights to some island? Why don't you try looking for a direct flight to Athens (which should be fairly cheap) and from there grab a boat to any Aegean island you want.

Picking the right weeds is an art, which unfortunately will be soon lost as most younger generation Greeks do not go out picking weeds anymore. Eating all this kind of horta is one of the things I enjoy every time I go back to Greece. Vlita, radikia (not be confused with the Italian "radicchio") and all other weeds are all excellent sources of vitamins and they're super tasty. Greeks have been eating these things for centuries (possibly millennia).

Also to add to this, Greeks eat several different kinds of greens. We eat several different kinds of "horta" (green in Greek), mostly what's identified as "dandelions" in North America. We also eat a green called roka (or "rocket" in English). Not sure if this is some native Mediterranean plant, but I've never seen it served in any North American restaurants.

Funny guy

Thanks for sharing. Visiting a tropical island is always a unique experience for anyone growing up in Europe or North America.

Thanks Jen. Unfortunately the old posts are gone so let's slowly start adding recipes again

There's not enough land, so in order to grow production Greece needs to invest in new technologies.

We hope so too Dino. Best wishes to you and your family!