One more travel interval, Riga, Latvia

My travel impressions from Riga, Latvia are now complete, too.

Impressions are in my Travel Blog:
Riga travel impressions

Photos are in Flickr:
Stitches and Panoramas
Normal Photos

A few videos in Youtube:
Summer 2009 Videos

Another travel interval - LITHUANIA

My "reports" on Lithuania are now complete :)

Part 1 : General Impressions
Part 2: Trakai and around
Part 3: Around Vilnius Old city
Part 4: Kaunas

Also all my photos are in Flickr:
Stitches and Panoramas
Trakai and Around
Vilnius
Kaunas

Enjoy :)

Whatever happened to 8 hours of work per day?!?! (part 1)

First off, i want to get things clear. I am a kind of workaholic too. I LOVE my work and devote myself to it for as many hours as I have to, in order to do it, especially when i am paid well for it. And i admit i have worked for very long hours too, and many times i work at home, or prepare my next day at work at home, but that was and is entirely my choice. BUT, nevertheless, i cannot overlook what happens around me. And i cannot overlook that something bad is happening. So here goes, a desperate cry to come to our senses :-)

I was really disappointed this summer, because i realised that a significant win of the workers all over the world, won by major struggle for many years in the past, is being lost. And worse thing is, noone seems to care!!

To get to the point, I was searching for job recently and it seems like every company around (i am an IT person, if you didn't know already) has a 9-hours-at-the-very-least job on offer!!! What's worse, it is considered NORMAL both by employers AND employees!!! And the thing that frustrates me the most, is that people seem to WANT that. It feels like they don't find any other pleasure in life. So what happened to hobbies? Meeting with other people?? Creativity??? Being with family????

Are we so full of everything that the only thing for us to do is work all day every day? Can people not find pleasure in all the other things? Even small things, like taking a walk in the park, smelling the grass, watching the clouds, etc, etc....??

And to top it off, talking with my friends in Asia leads to even more despair.... Working on Satturday and Sundays too, seems to come natural there. No time for anything and anyone. Just small, quick escapes (the usual seems to be 15 days off per year, instead of 20 here). I really hope this way of life will not be imported here too... Let's just stick to Chinese clothes and stuff :-)

Anyway, i am off to study for my new job tomorrow. But, remember, this is entirely MY choice. To be forced upon by your employer is plain WRONG and something that takes humanity BACK in history.

Cyprus travel logs

My travel blog was finally updated with all of my Cyprus-trip details!

General Impressions
Limassol/Λεμεσός
Nicosia/Λευκωσία
Paphos and Larnaka/Πάφος και Λάρνακα


Also I got photos at Flickr

And videos at Youtube

On the psychology of politics...

I just wanted to expose my thoughts on the two remaining economicopolitical systems (since Feudarchy, Aristocracy and some more mostly disappeared into historic obscurity) and more specifically in what they have to offer to the human psyche.

So, in my opinion, it all boils down to two essential psychological needs:

• Capitalism offers HOPE
• Communism offers SAFETY

A bit more detailed...,

Capitalism offers the (sometimes evil) hope that each person can be the one, the one to get the most money, own the most things, be the most influential and generally somehow to be the one on top of the others.

Communism on the other had delivers no such hope. Everything is predetermined and equally (except the ones in power, of course) divided amongst people. So, one may have no hope of being "the one", BUT at least they have the safety that they will never be the ones below, the ones that will get stepped upon by the "ones".

In effect, it's all a matter of choosing what suits each person. It would appear that the masses prefer having hope than being safe, which is totally fine anyway... (except when applied to ecology, and thus we are destroying our planet... but that's a talk for another post :-).

13o Φεστιβάλ comics Βαβέλ

Sorry to non-Greek readers, the following post is in Greek and regards to a Greek event : the 13th Babel's comic exhibition.

Κατ'αρχήν πρέπει να διαβάσετε αυτό το post στο blog του olrandir, με την οποία σε γενικές γραμμές συμφωνώ σχεδόν απόλυτα και είναι κρίμα να γράφω τα ίδια κι εγώ! Απλώς να συμπληρώσω με ένα λίγο εκτεταμένο σχόλιο μου σε αυτά που λέει:

"Πήγα και εγώ χθες και έχω σχεδόν ακριβώς τις ίδιες απόψεις με τον olrandir (ΑΣΥΓΧΩΡΗΤΗ Η ΕΛΛΕΙΨΗ ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΗΣ btw, χαλάει όλο το νόημα του κόμικ ως εικόνα με λόγο), με μια μικρή εξαίρεση: πωλούνταν και πιο ψαγμένα κόμικ στην έκθεση, όπως είπε ήταν τα fanzines. Όμως, είμαστε μια μικρή χώρα με μικρή παραγωγή κόμικ και με άθλια νοοτροπία απέναντί τους (σκεφτείτε ότι πολλοί είχαν φέρει τα ΠΑΙΔΙΑ ΤΟΥΣ στην έκθεση, αν είναι ποτέ δυνατόν, λες και ήταν έκθεση για παιδιά με τόση βία και ψυχεδέλεια!), οπότε για το επίπεδό μας ήταν αρκετά ικανοποιητική η εκπροσώπηση τους.

Εγώ θέλω να σταθώ σε ένα άλλο σημείο που δεν ανέφερε ο olrandir (ίσως να μη τον πείραξε). Η νοοτροπία της έκθεσης ως προς τους Έλληνες δημιουργούς και η νοοτροπία των ιδίων των δημιουργών απέναντι στο κοινό τους. Αντί να παρουσιάζεται ενδεικτικό κομμάτι της δουλειάς τους (όπως γίνεται σε εκθέσεις του εξωτερικού που έχω πάει και όπως έγινε με το κομμάτι των ξένων δημιουργών) τους ζητήθηκε προφανώς να σχεδιάσουν κάτι ειδικά για την έκθεση με θεμα το 13. Εκτός του Πεχλιβανίδη (που για μένα ΜΟΝΟ το δικό του ξεχώρισε) και ένα πολύ πολύ διεστραμμένο κόμικ με πορτούλες που κάποιος είχε ξεσηκώσει Ιαπωνικά gore manga (μόνο για την παρουσίαση δλδ. καθώς το νόημα του ήταν απλώς να δείξει παρανοϊκά βίαιες εικόνες), σχεδόν όλοι οι άλλοι επιδόθηκαν σε ένα αγώνα ψευδο-intellectual σουρρεαλισμού, χωρίς να έχουν κάτι να “πουν”, πέραν ενός εύκολου και πολλές φορές ασυνάρτητου εντυπωσιασμού… Είναι κρίμα πάντως γιατί πολλοί είχαν εξαιρετική ποιότητα σχεδίου και φαινόταν ότι είχαν και αρκετή φαντασία και δημιουργικότητα!"

On recent happenings...

Just my two cents on recent happenings and I want to shout about (in this wide web universe that almost noone can hear you scream).

1. The Athens Riots of December 6.
   While there was a really good reason and really good ways to get the message accross it deterorated (in the usual Greek fashion) to the burning of innocent people's shops and cars. Although it is not certain how much of the burning is actually undercover policemen's work (there were some articles in the press, photos of hooded men coming out of policemen's lines, etc) it still is awful, mostly because human lives were in danger as well (For example along Alexandra's avenue, every shop/bank/super-market that was burned, was at the ground floor of a block of flats, with people living inside it).
   Anyway, after all that, there was a wave of peaceful protests (sitting protests, take over of Acropolis, take over of radio and TV stations, etc) that were actually quite more to the point and got the message across in new and, sometimes even fun, ways.
   Eventually, as all things in this universe, they died out as well.... but it was enough for some countries to promote their agentas, by labelling Greece as a "terrorist state", "a country in which there is a change of political system in progress" (!!), "a place of great uncertainty", etc... which I believe in every thinking man's opinion (yes, is the usual sohpistry argument) is complete bullshit. A brief period of unrest and (not so violent) protests can never be a source of "terrorism" or "change of the political system" in a country where people enjoy the life described below... (see below obviously). I am completely aware that during the course of history, events like the "French revolution" (that abolished and then very soon reinstated monarchy - you have to admire the French) did start from such kind of events. But it was a different era and people were REALLY suffering under a system of injustice and prejudice. (I recommend the novel "Tale of Two Cities" for a well written account of the era.
   
   1 week after the riots:
   
   
   Same road, 1 month after the riots:
   
   
   
2. The economical crisis in Greece
   What economical crisis??? In Greece?? Hahaha!!! Lately i've been noticing the nationality of people working around me. It appears that in the 10-20% of taxis, 40-50% of the "Periptera" (don't know the english word for those big yellow little-house-stands on the street that sell all kind of small things, sorry), 50-75% of the stands in the weekly food market ("Laiki agora") and most of the construction sites and farms in the country are not Greeks.
   So, WHERE ARE THE GREEKS WORKING???Am i the only one that thinks that in a period of crisis, people should not be picky about what work to do?? There are people raving about the unemployment, yet, one can most definitely see (if they just NOTICE a bit) that Greek people avoid any kind of "labour" job and gradually even jobs that have no 'prestige'. So, what gives? Do people prefer to starve than work?? I don't think one can blame the immigrants (legal or not) for taking over our jobs, since Greek people willing to do them do not appear to exist.
   Of course, one could argue that "Hey, the immigrants work with a low pay, illegaly, being taken advantage of, without social insurance, etc", but this just brings me to my next point... 
3. Corruption in Greece
   I think it is a well known fact that the level of corruption in Greece is very high, indeed. People try to get away with as much as possible, they don't respect the laws (NOT EVEN THE ONES THAT ARE THERE TO PROTECT THEM - such as the red traffic lights), the state places illogicaly large taxes, because they know in advance that most people will avoid to pay them completely or to a large percent of it... etc, etc, etc...
   And Greeks know all that!! And, well, you know, they just don't care. It is as if this situation is bound in our DNA. Even if there are some people shouting about it, it quickly gets "hush, hush, we will get you some illegaly benefits too". And this whole "let's make ourselves comfortable and promote our interests even on the expense of other people's rights" attitude just goes on and on and on...
   And more to my second point : Economic crisis, yet the government announces more and more jobs at the public sector (of course without contests and such trifle matters). Economic crisis, yet the Greek people prefer to accuse the immigrants for stealing their jobs, than admit that it is they, themselves, that gave away the jobs to them by trying to take advantage of them (hiring them without social insurance and wages below the accepted minimum wages, etc).
4. Bottomline
   And this boils down to... nothing~! What can one do about it? Should there be a revolution? Of what kind? How can one make an ethical revolution?? And what kind of revolution would that be that would go against people's interests and will??? Who would stage it???? The answers, in my opinion, are (in the same order as the questions): nothing, no, can't be, there is no ethical revoltion, non-existant and noone, and maybe it is for the better. The system in Greece is "stable"in a biological way (that means that even if some people try to make the system better or even different, they are doomed to fail and be assimilated in future generations) and it is an interesting experiment in the grand sociological sense. Only time (in a very large scale) will tell which system of society will survive in the long run. Who knows, maybe the corrupted system is the best for humankind afterall :-P