MPs introduce bill to return ‘Elgin Marbles’ to Greece 200 years after the UK decided to buy them

(photo http://www.jstor.org)

Campaigners say allowing the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures kept in London with those still in Athens could be a diplomatic coup for the UK as it negotiates Brexit. A cross-party group of MPs has launched a fresh bid to return the statuary to Greece on the 200th anniversary (1816-2016) of the British Government’s decision to buy them. Campaigners have said this could help the UK secure a better deal during the Brexit talks with the EU.

The issue has long been a source of tension between, on one side, the UK government and the British Museum, where the 2,500-year-old marbles are currently on display, and, on the other, Greece and international supporters of the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures.

About half the surviving sculptures were taken from the Parthenon in Athens by Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, and later bought by the British Government after parliament passed an Act that came into force on 11 July, 1816. The other half are currently in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

The rest of the article is here

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Knitting for Solidarity: Hundreds of Greek women organize to knit hats, gloves, scarves for refugees

Irini Akritidou, a woman from Thessaloniki — a grand daughter of refugees from Pontos who learned to knit from her grandmother — has started a movement to turn her knitting skills that were passed from one generation to the 21st century’s refugees.
In just a few months, several thousand people have joined the Knitting Solidarity Facebook Group and calls to action are sent via Facebook to women throughout Greece — and now the world. To date, thousands of hats, scarves and sets of gloves have been made “Made with love and solidarity for these people,” Dimitra Fotiadou, one of the group’s organizers, told The Pappas Post in an interview.

Source: http://www.pappaspost.com/knitting-for-solidarity-hundreds-of-greek-women-organize-to-knit-hats-gloves-scarves-for-refugees/?fb_action_ids=10153864834761796&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.VpZbukhZfuM.like

When asked if the group would accept cash donations to further their work, Fotiadou said they were not in the charity business — and only wanted to use their skills to help fellow human beings in need. As a result, the group doesn’t take cash donations — only donations of yarn!

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Home is where the heart is; Happy New year!

It is great to go on holiday, see family and friends and visit new or familiar places but to be back on Skopelos is the best.

New technologies, the latest trends cannot replace the friendly greetings, the heartfelt wishes for a good New Year we received coming back. This is why I love writing about Skopelos. It is home, I knew it but sometimes I need to go away to remember. A happy, healthy New Year from Skopelosnews with lots of love and happiness and hopefully everybody is surrounded by their loved ones.
Daphne

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Books on the Map

We found this online feature via the Greek Reporter site. Called “Books on the Map” the site features locations of literature written by Greek authors. Interested readers can navigate the map and click on the red points which will reveal title, author and a brief synopsis of a book or books. The text is in Greek and can be copied and pasted into an online translator to be read in any language one prefers for the usual online translation semi-comprehension.

Interestingly, the “Books on the Map” link opens in Chile with “Death in Valparaizo”- by Menis Koumandareas.

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My big fat Greek wedding2

Seen it? Haven’t seen it? All the stereotypes of what Greeks do,like, say etc. are presented here.
I (Daphne) liked the first my big fat Greek wedding. Let’s see how this one has turned out.

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Murder in the Aegean?

Today Keep Talking Greece blog published a story that we knew nothing about until now.

This story has been around for a month or so, but the practice has probably been going on longer.
As Europe’s refugee crisis continues without showing signs of abatement, the people in this video are apparently trying to do their share in slowing it down.

That so many inflatable boats sink between Turkey and Greece resulting in loss of innocent lives makes one wonder why a more humanitarian response to this murderous anarchy is not forthcoming from the EU. Maybe less is really better?

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Life goes on

Lesbos, Greece on October 17, 2015. / Λέσβος, 17 Οκτωβρίου 2015.

With all the horrible news and photos presented to the public over the past year of the desperate dilemma facing immigrants trying to escape war or poverty, this photo by professional photographer Lefteris Partsalis is a welcome relief. The photo, taken in Mytilini Lesbos and its accompanying story, has gone “viral” around the internet and it is easy to see why.

The caption was “Three elderly women feed a migrant child at the island of Lesbos, Greece on October 17, 2015. The photographer later added “Three grandmothers ξαποστεναν while a woman in front of them was trying to feed her baby as it cried incessantly. The grandmothers, speaking in the dialect of Lesbos, asked her for the baby. From their gestures the mother understood and handed the baby to them”.

I, (Tom) might add that the elderly women, perhaps in their 90s, might well have been refugees in the 1923 population exchange and, if so, quite possibly at the same age as the baby they are feeding.

This is a great photo simply by its content but also highlighted by the contrast of muted tones with the vibrant hues of the mother’s clothing, and the contrasts of old/young, endings/beginnings, past/future etc.

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Ai Giorgi

The small and derelict monastery/church on the islet of Ai Giorgi has been renovated and cleaned up over the past few months. The islet Ai Giorgi (Agios Giorgios) lies between Skopelos and Alonissos and is featured through the church doorway in the Mamma Mia wedding scene. The church appeared to be a ruin for many years yet now has a fresh coat of whitewash. The monastery building appears to still need a lot of work and access by boat is very difficult. Word is that a local (Skopelitan) family either owns the islet or is merely responsible for the church.

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Coming to a bus stop near you soon. Not

This weekend sees the first driver-less municipal bus service in Greece trundle into action, in Trikala, the Thessaly town sixty miles west of Volos and self-described as the first digital town in Greece. The pocket-sized buses can take ten passengers, have a top speed of 15mph and will use laser mapping and GPS to follow a two-mile circular route in the historic town centre. The digital hub for Trikala, e-Trikala, which includes a health monitoring system for senior citizens and a number of other tech projects, says that the city hopes to have six driver-less buses in circulation in the near future. (e-Trikala seems to work better in the Greek version than the English one, although that may be a glitch in our own tech.) We are still reeling at the comic potential of such a system arriving here on Skopelos.

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Meduses…

…or whatever you call two jellyfish in Greek.
These beauties were photographed from the deck of the Apollon Hellas at anchor at Agios Konstantinos. Happily this post is filed in the category “Nothing to do with Skopelos”, and we hope that these specimens and their yellow and blue cousins stay right where they are.

Due to a busy schedule, I (Tom) have not been the Skopelos seas for a week or so and therefore can’t report accurately on any local invasions of jellyfish but I think that the sea here is clear of them.

[photo enlarges if you’d like]

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