Athens

Theophilos was born in Mytilene, son of a cobbler and became self-taught painter. His art was ridiculed from the salons of his time,  which did not give proper attention to his works. Yet, Theophilos Hadjimichael, known as THEOPHILOS was to be recognized (naturally after his death in Greece) as the cornerstone of modern Greek painting. His art will receive the ''credentials'' of any artist of the 30's with artist- legends of the greek painting like Kontoglou and Tsarouchis to honor their great teacher of the authenticity and the masterpiece of his art.

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