Today Βerlin celebrates. Humanity celebrates. The Wall of Berlin is just a (bad) memory.
Thousands of blogs, newspapers, channels will broadcast live from the German capital in order
to commemorate an event which changed the world as we know it. Many of them will surely speak of
the remaining walls which still stand in the planet: Korea, Cyprus, US-Mexico border, Palestine, Nothern Ireland and many more.

However, beyond the above, it seems that there is another Wall, an invisible one, which was built without understanding how and why..''Imperceptibly'' as Constantine P. Cavafy wrote in his own poem ''Walls''.

This wall knows no homeland. Nor a race, a religion or a social status. It exists ''imperceptibly'' in every one of us.

 It is the same wall which prevents us from hearing, offering, loving. Look at yourself in the mirror,think for a while and ask yourself: Do I really listen to people when they talk to you, or I just hear? Do I really understand their problems?  
People do not communicate anymore. Even in pubs, cafes, or wherever you see people socialize, you can notice that actually people do not communicate. They are just having parallel monologues. We do not actually listen to what our fellow has to share with us. What we are thinking, is our own problem, which of course is much more ''serious''. We are the centre of our world. We and our own-problems.

You can test my argument if you just notice, some small ''imperceptible'' things that we do in many cases. You walk in the street and you can notice that nobody watches were the other people are going..That's why when we ''crush'', nobody knows to which direction to head! It is the same ''imperceptible'', slight stare over the beggar, the homeless the migrant, which we unwittingly cast. We ignore the problem and we move on.
There is no actual communion between us anymore. Everything spins around our Ego.

The Age of Communication, which is supposed to be the revolution of our era, didnt manage to bring us closer. It actually did it, technically speaking, but the very context of communion changed. It became ''communication'', it was described in quantitative terms. The word communion is made of ''common'' and ''union''. But today, communication is just a series of means; it is know known through various acronyms like WAP, SMS, ADSL, 3G, WIFI, BROADBAND. Human interaction, human relations, are no more interpreted through quality but through quantity: charge per minute, volume of data.
A person I love, once wrote that ''when things which cannot be measured, start to appear through digits and numbers, then you can be sure, that we count in reverse to the end..''

We have created a world, were there is only room for one person: ME. All the others, are just people passing through, minor actors in the show..

These are the walls we have to tear down. It is the same walls who prevent us from being tolerant and open. These walls make us ready to through a stone against anything different, instead of embracing it. These walls prevent us of the poor, the immigrant, the opponent. These walls are the very routes of racism, the cornerstone of a new Holocaust.

Berlin Wall is also known as the ''Wall of Shame''. However, even though the Wall has fallen, this doesn't means that shame actually left.

Shame is all around us.

Shame is existant when poverty is a statistics measure, where 1 out of 3 doesnt has access to food. Shame is existant when the victims of a war are regarded as either ''mistakes'', or ''collateral damage'' . Shame is existant when human suffering enters in a TV-box and can generate money for the channels.

Human pain and suffering is non countable.

The refugee who lost his house in Famagusta, Cyprus in 1974, lost the same house as the Darfur-refugee last year. The immigrants from Mexico who are trying to reach the American ''Land of Promise'' have no different intentions to those East-Germans who died in the Berlin Wall, when trying to cross it. The family which found itself half in Pyong Yang and half in a Seoul-suburb is the same family which was divided in 1961 between Eastern and Western Berlin. The mother from Palestine, who holds in her hands the body of her dead child, feels the same pain as the Michaelangelo's known Pieta...

All these months, since the New Acropolis Museum was opened and we at the Athens local team tried to open the file of the Parthenon marbles and their possible reunification I was thinking of what should be mentioned from our part in order to give another dimension to the issue. Should we write about where should the sculptures be ? Should we write why or why not should they be returned to Athens? Dozens of articles and books have been written to cover these issues and still very few actually came up with the true dimension of the problem. 

First and foremost lets clear something : The Parthenon Marbles are not Marbles. Nor sculptures or statues. Greeks were wise enough to create such a language that could express even the slightest difference of what a thing resembled. That is the reason they called these artifacts, ''άγαλμα'' (agalma). The world ''marble'' definites the identity of the material they have used in order to create them. The word ''sculpture'' was used in order to express the outcome of human work over a material. But the word ''αγαλμα'' (agalma) wanted to present the metaphysical dimension of the sculpture, which was the main reason for its creation. The word agalma comes from the verb ''αγάλλομαι'' (agallomai) which means jubilate. Means the joy of the soul. 

But why they have chosen this name ? What is the thing that provokes joy, that jubilates the soul ? 

The answer to the above questions, is the one which defines the difference of the greek civilization, of the greek way to comprehend the world and ourselves within it. The Greeks do not created these magnificent buildings and artifacts in order to show the world their abilities. Nor for the people around the globe to be able to compare them among other artifacts from different civilization (as the British Museum suggests). The reason for their creation is metaphysical. It is the joy of the soul when it faces what is really real, the ''όντως υπαρκτόν''. We all tend to believe that when an ancient Greek sculptor made Hermes, Aphrodite or Zeus had a model in his atelier where he depicted the model. Well, this is not the case. In total contrast with the Rennaisance, the ancient culture tries to depict, to resemble the nature through ablation. The artist tries to remove from the sculpture what is temporarely. He wants to magnify the elements that make a man being a man, a woman being a woman etc. The ancient Greek civilization doesnt want to impress. Greeks do not want to add things that are needless, unnecessary. 

Did anyone thought what is the element that makes the Parthenon more important to humanity than e.g. The Eiffel Tower, or the Big Ben? 

 It is not the era that it was created, nor the means that were used for its construction. If you visit the Acropolis in Athens and stand before the Parthenon, you can easily notice that the building isn't impressive at all. No extra decorations, no corinthian columns instead of doric. Nothing but the nudity of the building. And this is the apocalypse of the Greek art. Parthenon is greater than other landmarks because it resembles the way the ancient Greeks understood the world. A world full of harmony - a harmony full of logical relations. What is really real cannot be corruptible nor temporary according to them. This ideal is embodied in every event of the ancient greek life: from the Parthenon to tragedy and from language to democracy. This ideal is embodied in the ''αγάλματα'' (agalmata) of Parthenon. 

I would be really amazed if one out of all the millions of tourists in the Acropolis or the British Museum could understand this without just taking photos. I would be also amazed if modern Greeks or modern British could understand this. The return of these magnificent agalmata to their birthplace is not a romantic demand. It doesnt mean that modern Greeks have the monopoly of the ancient legacy.It is our common duty, to a monument, to a civilization which affected the course of humanity throught the eons. Let us hope that one day in our modern societies we will set the same priorities as they did. Until then we will daze in front of them without reason..

"What did you learn about money at school? Have you ever wondered why our school systems do not teach us much-if anything-bout money? Is the lack of financial education in our schools simply an oversight by our educational leaders? Or is it part of a larger conspiracy?"

“Regardless, whether we are rich or poor. Educated or uneducated, child or adult, retired or working, we all use money. Like it or not, money has a tremendous impact on our lives in today’s world.”

Quite interesting points!! This is an extract from Robert Kiyosaki's new book "The Conspiracy of the Rich" that I was able to read the first pages online. http://conspiracyoftherich.com/read/toc (check the widget at the end of the page of the blog)

In his book one of the points for the thesis he is trying to put forward is that school does not necessary prepares us for the real world and very important issues in life such as financial education and the role of money in life are issues where the educational system remains silent! I agree! Why don’t we learn something about money at school or at the university, why nobody explains how it works but everybody finds sufficient to say that rich are rich because they steel. Really? An easy excuse but very far from today’s realities.

At the moment, some European countries are reforming their educational system and students oppose strongly to these reforms (France, Spain, Greece). I believe to have understood the new reforms but what I have better apprehended is that the reforms as their opponents are once again far away from the real causes that make an educational system insufficient. Both sides are “hors sujet”.

I agree with Napoleon Hill who wrote in 1939 (“Think And Grow Rich”) that there is something radically wrong with a civilization and a system of education which permit 98% of the people to go through life as failures. And if this is not true can anybody explain me why in many European countries most of young people are educated, better say “overqualified” but they do not have a job or they are obliged to work for very little money in spite of their “good studies” and consequently they can not plan their life or dream about a better future. Why did I have to go to the university in order to “carry the bag” of my professors, or later that of my bosses. Why did we have to go to the university in order to be modern slaves?

“Is it about a simple oversight by our educational leaders or is it part of a larger conspiracy?” Conspiracy you will ask why? The answer comes a little later at the fourth page: “I‘ve often marvelled at the lack of financial education in our modern school system. At best, our children are taught how to balance a check book or speculate on stocks. But they are not taught how to read a balance sheet or to understand what makes a business profitable. This seems to ensure that the best and brightest students in our country will end up working as high-paid employees-not as partners-which in turn allows for the consolidation of both money and power.” I am afraid students do not apprehend all the above concerns when they protest. They understand that something is wrong but I hope they grasp that necessary educational reforms is not about some administrative reforms such as the status of ‘chercheur” in France or the abrogation of the university asylum or the recognition of professional rights to the graduates of private universities in Greece. I hope we get to see the forest and not just some trees..

I would like to clarify a point about recent events: As bullets can not be answer to words, likewise you can not honor someone’s memory with stones and Molotov.

As I see things...an ostracized bullet to Alexis’ chest, a straight one to Greek society’s heart: I am continually trying to understand riots motive but they refuse to talk. I approached them today with two friends having a camera but they insisted on turning off the camera. Actually there are no cameramen during their march. They do not want journalists among them because they believe journalists are alternating facts. I give them reason. But I would like also to know about their anger. I ask to see them in private but the answer was vague. Facing today’s march, I witnessed anger and rage against the policemen. They throw pieces of marbles and stones. They scream and yell. Their faces are covered. I want to understand them. Being a young nowadays do not mean at all being carefree and cool. I agree, but to start as a teenager with violence is very dangerous. During the protest a heard a passer-by say “How can you call yourself Greek when you try to put fire to the National Library, to the Archeological Museum, no matter the age.”

I would like also to clarify something about the recent events in Greece: They have NOTHING to do with the international economic crisis. On the contrary, as wisely pointed out by Nikos Xidakis in “Kathimerini” newspaper (9.12.08) as society “we just offer material, as much as we‘ve got, no matter what! This is all we got. We are spiritually and ethically orphans”. I can understand the youngsters. I am one of them! As society, as parents, as professors we do not encourage the pursuit of any calling in writing, music, dance, painting, any creative art, any spiritual advancement or any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower…and lower is violence. Alexis Grigoropoulos was unlucky but one could say that he was born lucky. He was coming from a wealthy family, schooled at one of the best private schools in Greece but somehow this was not enough for him. Unfortunately the same night before he was shot dead, he was reported as participating in violent events at a polo game.

I have lived abroad and teenagers and students do not enjoy all that goods from family as we do in Greece. They do not grow up with expectations from family, society and university to find them a job in the public sector as soon as they graduate, to live in the security of the public sector, buy them a car, pay for their vacations, in other words they live with less “acquis” than we do. We have been hypnotized from the cradle, we have been made to fear to dream, we have been made to fear to dare and we feel that deep in our soul. Because the last thing when you TRULY DARE in your life is a hood to cover your face. Then we protest for the wrong reasons, serving the political interests of others, charged with our education, in a way to prepare us to become exemplary employees and not to be free thinkers. “Carry their bag” until they have the generosity to treat us as equals. The only possible way for many –for those not exposed to intellectual art or culture- seems protest or vandalism of what they can not create. But vandalism and free thinking are mutually exclusive. It goes without saying that this principle applies to drugs, alcohol, shopping, depression, gossip, TV.

How can we make the world a better place? For me real revolution passes by decent hard work and when I say work I mean the active exercise of one’s faculties in conformity with virtue (Aristotle). John Lennon once wrote: Well, you think you‘re so clever And CLASSLESS and free But you‘re all fucking peasants As far as I can see

I think it is clear, even to a foreigner, that what is happening these days in Athens remarks that ''en era is about to finish.'' The government of the country, in a desperate effort to proof that...exists, tries to take measures. It is clear from what happened that PM Karamanlis is incapable of taking any political initiative for the country to escape the crisis. This can be witnessed from the way Karamanlis is taking decisions. After 2 days of Athens being in flames, Karamanlis asked to see his ministers and the President of the Republic in order to find a way to handle the situation. These 2 days, the political parties of the Parliament weren't capable of making a single statement about what is currently happening in the country. These measures should have been taken earlier. The assassination of little Alex in Exarcheia was not the cause, it was just the occasion for a whole generation to protest. This generation was shot in Exarcheia... It is this generation, which is the most educated of all which work without insurance and labor rights for only 700 euros. ''This generation has to pay the bill for all the depths of the greek economy.'' The ruling class of our fathers, who protested against the military junta in 1974 asking for democracy, established a ''prime minister's dictatorship'' in the country. It is this generation, which burnt and continues to burn forests in order to build illegally, which practices corruption and is corrupted and which managed to gain all the labor right for itself. The country demands changes, our society demands changes! I refuse to accept that we stick to the so-called anarchists and we don't face the problem. Day after day, people are getting poorer, the prices are skyrocketing while the wages are the lowest within the EU. At the same time the political system of the country is full of corruption scandals between politicians and companies such as Siemens as well as real estate businesses, between the State and the Vatopedion Monastery... This government must resign not because a child was killed. It must resign because it failed to fulfill the demands of its citizens. It failed to protect their lives and their properties and because this government attested in the cruelest way, that we miss essential political proposals. So we ask for hope ... a new political approach is demanded. We ask for politicians who will make changes in the state, politicians who is about to implement real social policy. Furthermore, we want politicians who will be capable to find solutions for those Greeks who suffer from unemployment, poverty ... and believe me, we aren' talking about just one or two. It is a whole nation! We ask for politicians who end all the bribing and nepotism, who fight those Greeks stealing taxes, those who vote only because of their personal interest. These are not just people. It is our very own nature that we ask to fight. We ask for a leader, who will attack this bad side of us as citizens and as a state... So we ask for hope...

photo by courtesy of Mariana (murplejane/flickr)

Athens is on fire..Greece is on fire..and I am really afraid that nobody can bring an extinguisher..I feel really upset of what happened in Exarcheia. No matter if the child attacked or not to the policemen it is unacceptable for a policeman, who knows the sensitivity of this certain district, to shoot. No public force has the right to shoot any civilian, let alone a 15 year old child. If the child is regarded as a criminal then they arrest him..After all nobody believes that a bullet in the heart and and the stomach can happen by mistake. What is really important to me is first of all that the civil society, through blogs and through the facebook is fully aware of the event and want to react. However, those anarchists-who apparently seem to not know what their ideology is all about- for another time burn Athens and there are so many people, students, professionals and civilians who will pay for all this mess. The government and personally the PM Karamanlis are totally ABSENT and seem incapable of protecting the people who are in trouble. Also the rest of the political parties are also ABSENT and only after 48 hours later Papandreou (PASOK party) makes a statement. Our society demands changes, the political system of the country seems incapable (not to say dangerous) to handle the situation and we are waiting to see what is going to happen..The Hellenic Republic became the Banana Republic