Are you staying home?

Manolis Glezos passed away yesterday

Manolis Glezos, the legenadary anti-fascist resistance fighter who fought all his life against oppression all his life passed away yesterday. Here is a potrait I took of him in 2009.

Cooking for the end of the world - Season one episode one

Last night I had the choice of either watching Contagion (2011) and never sleeping again or cooking something from scratch. Luckily, I enjoy cooking and I find it helps calm me in stressful times. The problem is the output is outpacing my ability to consume it and storage space in my small refrigerator. However, here is a recipe which is a good way to use up stuff from your cupboards or fridge which might go to waste otherwise.

Spinach, onion and feta corn bread

Ingredients

250 gr corn flour

250 gr plain flour (you can use this instead of 500 gr corn flour if you want it lighter)

2 large onions

3 cloves of garlic

250 gr spinach or any other cooked vegetable

200 gr feta cheese (optional)

Large glass of milk (water for vegan version)

large glass of vegetable oil

1 spoonful of baking powder

1 spoonful of baking soda

1 spoonful of paprika/cayenne/salt/black pepper/lemon juice

Instructions

1 - Gently cook the sliced onions till soft, then add the chopped garlic for a minute

2 - Add the spinach and cook until wilts down.

3 - Mix the dry ingredients -  flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices

4 - Add the oil and mix with the dry ingredients and then add the cooked onion and spinach.

5 - Add the lemon to the milk and then add the milk to the mix until its a thick, thick batter.

6 - Cook in a pre-heated oven at 160C for about 30-40 minutes

The dangerous role of machismo in COVID19 politics

On of the things the COVID19 crisis has exposed is the kind of macho, bullish politics practiced by many on the Right. We've all seen leaders such as US president, Donald Trump and  UK prime minister, Boris Johnson play down the pandemic, dismiss experts' fears as overblown and even continue to deliberately flaunt advice on social distancing. during public appearances.

In addition we've seen  how private health provision, which has been flaunted by economic conservatives, as a universal panacea for public health woes is in no better position to deal with these kind of mass public health issues. Indeed many of the base elements on which modern Conservative dogma is based; supremacy of the private sector, the advantages of a  smaller state and the primacy of individual freedom over all other considerations, have proven to be catastrophic in dealing with a pandemic. Left unchecked  the ideas of the free market ultras will literally end up wrecking the  global economy and along with it, millions of people's lives.

In its most insidious form, this new political and ideological machismo is being expressed in the form of a return of the idea of Eugenics and the belief that the older and more vulnerable must be sacrificed in order for the global economy to survive. This is being expressed more bluntly in US conservative circles but there is a British version ,which although framed more delicately, is just as dangerous, We can see in the idea of 'herd immunity' which the  ruling British Conservative Party was so happy to promote until they realised that it would end up crushing the nation's public health system

Latest Greek Corona virus lock down regulations

Greece has imposed a form of curfew in order to curb the spread of  Covid19. From yesterday those outdoors need to have some reason for travelling and some form ID (passport/police ID etc). Those who are travelling to or from work need to fill in a Type A form from the Greek government site which they have to fill in. That form has to signed and their employer needs to stamp the paper There is a fine of 150 euros for those not heeding the news rules.

Type A form can be downloaded in English  here.

For reasons other than work, people need a Type B form which can be downloaded in English here.

Alternatively, you can send a free SMS to 13033 in the way.
X (number listed below-space-name&address

eg 3 Giannis Papadopoulos 4 Agiou Dimitriou, Thessaloniki

1 Pharmacy/doctor
2 Supermarket etc
3 Banks
4 Giving help to member of a vulnerable group e.g shopping for an elderly neighbour.
5 Traveling to a ceremony
6 Physical exercise or exercising/feeding pet

Finally, you can write out a handwritten version of this ahead of your journey. This must contain the following information:

Full Name
Home Address
Reason for moving within the above permitted categories and destination address
Date, Time, Signature

NOTE: Greek banks are no longer accepting payments in cash in branches and putting limits of the amount of money that can be withdrawn per day.via ATMs.

For more info and latest development check out the Keep Talking Greece blog.

The Plague

"There have been as many plagues as wars in history, yet always

plagues and wars take people equally by surprise."

Albert Camus - The Plague (1947)

You can hear the audio book here

Greece imposes curfew

Yesterday the Greek government tightened up its rules concerning travel and movement. For now on people have to justify why they have left their home via some kind of official statement and carry with them either their passport or police ID.  Otherwise there is a 150 euro fine.

There are three ways to declare reason for travelling;

1 Send a free text message to 13033 along with name, address and reason for travel (see below for details).

2 Download, print out  and fill in a form from this Greek government site.

3 Write by hand the same information - For people who are travellling to work this includes, name, home address, employer, times of travel. Full details (but only in Greek) are here

Here are details for the SMS/text message option in Greek English and Arabic.

Το SMS στο 13033 θα είναι της μορφής:

X κενό ονοματεπώνυμο και διεύθυνση κατοικίας
όπου Χ ο λόγος εξόδου με αριθμους:

1. Φαρμακείο - γιατρός
2. Super market κτλ
3. Τράπεζα
4. Παροχή βοήθειας
5. Μετάβαση σε τελετή
6. Σωματική άσκηση - κίνηση με κατοικίδιο - σίτιση αδέσποτων

You can send a free SMS to 13033 in this way

X (number listed below-space-name&address

eg 3 Giannis Papadopoulos 4 Dimitriou

1 Pharmacy/doctor
2 Supermarket etc
3 Banks
4 Giving help
5 Traveling to a ceremony
6 Physical exercise or exercising/feeding pet

بالنسبة للأشخاص الذين لا
يتحدثون اليونانية
إذا كنت بحاجة إلى التنقل داخل اليونان ، يمكنك إرسال رسالة قصيرة مجانية إلى 13033 بهذه الطريقة
X (عدد الأسباب المذكورة أدناه) - مسافة - الاسم والعنوان
على سبيل المثال 3 Giannis Papadopoulos 3 Agiou Dimitriou Thessaloniki
1 صيدلية / طبيب
2 سوبر ماركت الخ
3 بنوك
4 إعطاء المساعدة
5 السفر لحفل
6 ممارسة الرياضة البدنية أو ممارسة / تغذية الحيوانات الأليفة

The Corona Blog

I'm not sleeping. Or rather I'm not sleeping enough. Every night this week I've woken up around 4 or 5 o'clock and been unable to get back to sleep. However, unlike this is no '4 AM of the soul' kind of insomnia, driven by existential questions about what will happen to me in the future. No, this is far more concrete and far scarier. The Corona virus outbreak has been in Greece for weeks now and the news just keeps on getting grimmer and grimmer with restrictions on movement becoming ever tighter. There's even talk of a possible curfew over the weekend, though what this depends on seems unclear.

Officially the number of COVID-19 cases in Greece seems to be rising slowly, with just 30 or 40 new ones per day. The number of deaths is currently six, in both cases the figures are far lower than in many other places, yet it is very hard to get accurate, independent information. The current Greek government, like so many before it, always attempts to bury or ignore bad news. The fact that so much of the local mainstream media is willing to support the ruling conservatives New Democracy party, just adds to their ability to present whatever message they see fit.

During the recent tensions on the Greek-Turkish border, example of extreme abuse of migrants and refugees by Greek security forces only came to light due to the work of foreign news crews. Even then, the government and their many supporters in domestic media were happy to decry all such incidents as 'fake news' without feeling the need to provide any kind of evidence to support their claims. I'm worried that  this same pattern will be repeated, either in the name of national security or for less honourable reasons of party self-interest.

Whatever the true picture is, the good news is that ordinary Greeks are taking the official instructions about self-isolation, social distancing and other preventive measures in deadly earnest. The streets are not empty yet, but the number of those out and about is far, far lower than before. The thing is we are having a gloriously mild spring and the weather seems perfect for going out and relaxing at a cafe or in park. Not that this is possible as all the cafes, bars, restaurants have been closed down for anything other than take away.

This morning, once again unable to sleep beyond 5 AM, I decided to stock up once again just in case the talks of a weekend curfew proves to true. The local supermarket security guard was carefully controlling the flow of people entering and there were gloves for customers who wanted them. The shelves are still full and there are few shortages, with the one exception of yeast. It turns out Greece is once again turning into a nation of home bakers, a folk reaction, perhaps, to previous crises and disaster the nation has been through in living memory.

I remember when I first came to Greece, my then girlfriend, Athena had invited me to her place and I still remember vividly standing in her kitchen as she explained in an somewhat embarrassed way why all the cupboard space was full of bags of sugar, sacks of flour and large 5 litre metal containers with olive oil called 'teneke'. This was something her mother always insisted on having in the home, a relic of the difficult times she had lived as a young child during the German occupation of Greece in WWII. Then, a collapse in food production and distribution to the cities caused widespread famine which killed tens of thousands. Even so many years later, after most Greeks had achieved the kind of material comfort and prosperity undreamt  of by previous generations, the memories of those difficult times still haunted Athena's mother and many other members of her generation.

And not just her. The sudden spike in prices for things like surgical masks and hand gel was termed 'black marketing' by many and the urge by some, especially those who have the wealth and power to exploit a crisis reappeared. TV stations, owned by some of the richest
men in Greece were full of their own ads for 25 euro packs of masks. A week ago those same six masks would have cost just a few euros from any pharmacy. The fact that these very same TV stations are the ones who are so happy to support the government and act as PR agents just add to my anxiety.

The funny thing is that I stopped blogging regularly here just as another crisis was starting in 2015. Then I ended up heading a refugee solidarity group that worked in the camps on Greece's northern border for six months and I saw just how bad things can get when things fall apart. 

WEIL SIE UNS BRAUCHEN

Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde,

Wir sind uns eurer Einfühlungsvermögens und eurer Aufmerksamkeit bewusst, sowie eurer außerordentlichen Arbeit an allen die in Nöten sind, und wir wollen euch über die Situation geflüchteter Menschen in Griechenland und speziell in Thessaloniki, sowie der Umgebung in Nordgriechenland informieren

Dadurch dass mehr und mehr Konflikte in Syrien und in den umgebenden Gebieten entstehen, sind mehr Menschen auf der Flucht, verlassen ihr Zuhause und suchen Zuflucht in Europa. Als Ergebnis gab es eine erhebliche Zahl von geflüchteten Menschen in den vergangenen vier Monaten die zu uns kamen. Die große Mehrheit der Ankömmlinge sind Familien mit minderjährigen Kindern, ältere Menschen, aber auch alleinstehende Personen.

In Thessaloniki sind es im Moment täglich ca. vierzig bis zu ein paar hundert Menschen, die neu ankommen. Nur wenige der in den vergangenen zwei Jahren durch die Regierung eingerichteten Ankunftszentren sind noch in Betrieb und sicherlich sind es nicht genug um all die ankommenden Geflüchteten zu beherbergen. Die drei großen Camps rund um Thessaloniki sind ca. 50-70 km entfernt von der Stadt. Zudem können sie ausschließlich eine bloße Unterkunft für die Neuankömmlinge sein.

Dadurch dass diese Einrichtungen bereits überfüllt sind, müssen viele Menschen in den Straßen bleiben. An vielen Orten in Thessaloniki sind Familien gezwungen auf dem Gehweg zu schlafen, ohne jegliche Unterstützung des Staates.

Wir, die Menschen der Ökologischen Bewegung Thessaloniki und Oikopolis, sehen es als unsere Pflicht, diese Menschen auf ihrem schwierigen Weg ein Stück Sicherheit zu gewährleisten und wir arbeiten eng mit allen Organisationen und Gruppen von Freiwilligen zusammen, die in unserer Stadt engagiert sind.

Um diesen Menschen zu helfen, versuchen wir dauerhaft

• zu kochen und warme Mahlzeiten sowie Obst und Gemüse zu verteilen
• ihnen unverderbliche Lebensmittel anzubieten, damit sie in ihren Wohnungen und in den Camps kochen können
• sie mit Hygieneartikeln für Erwachsene und für Kinder zu versorgen
• Babymilch anzubieten, sowie die Möglichkeit, diese bei uns zuzubereiten
• sie bei der medizinischen Versorgung zu unterstützen
• Kleider zu sammeln und zu verteilen, ebenso Schuhe, Schlafsäcke, Zelte und alles was den obdachlosen Menschen hilft
• Kostenlosen Englisch- und Griechischunterricht anzubieten

Wir sammeln alle zur Verfügung stehenden Vorräte und wären dankbar, wenn jemand etwas aus der folgenden Liste beitragen könnte:

Babymilch und Babynahrung

Windeln und Feuchttücher

Buggies, Kinderwägen und Tragetücher

Hygieneprodukte, Seife etc.

Reis und Nudeln

Hülsenfrüchte

Öl (Sonnenblumenöl, Olivenöl)

Obst und Gemüse

Männerschuhe und –kleidung

Kinderschuhe und –kleidung

Socken und Unterwäsche

Rucksäcke

Schlafsäcke

Jede finanzielle Unterstützung ist ebenso sehr geschäzt!

Unsere Kontaktdaten:

Tel: 0030 2310222503 - email: oikopolis.social.center@gmail.com

Oder besucht uns:

ΟΙΚΟΠΟΛΙΣ/ΕCOPOLIS, Ptolemeon 29a, 5th floor, Thessaloniki

Oder schaut euch unsere Seite an:

https://www.facebook.com/oikopolis.social.center/

Oder gebt eine Spende an folgende Bankverbindung:

ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ / NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE

IBAN GR2301102170000021729602652

Swift code: ETHNGRAAXXX

ΟΙΚΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΚΙΝΗΣΗ Ν. ΘΕΣ/ΝΙΚΗΣ

ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENT OF THESSALONIKI

Call for help and solidarity in support of refugees in northern Greece

Dear friends,

 we would like to inform you about the refugee situation in Greece and specifically in the city of Thessaloniki and the surrounding Macedonia region in the hope you can help us con tend with the growing crisis.

As more and more conflict arises in Syria and the surrounding areas, more people are fleeing, leaving their homes behind to seek refuge in Europe.

There has been a considerably large incoming wave of refugees during the past four months, as a result of the recent strikes. The vast majority of the refugees arriving are families with underaged children and elders, as well as individuals.

In Thessaloniki, there are a few tens to a few hundreds of arrivals per day. Only very few of the hospitality centers set up by the government in the past two years are still working and they are certainly not enough to host all the arriving refugees. The three centers around Thessaloniki are about 50 to 70 km away from the city and can only offer housing to the newly arrived.

But since these facilities are already overcrowded, a lot of people have to stay in the streets. In many places in Thessaloniki, families are forced to sleep on the sidewalks, without any support from the state.

We, the people of the Ecological Movement of Thessaloniki and Oikopolis, consider it our duty to support these people during their rough journey towards safety and we collaborate closely with all the organizations and volunteer groups that are engaged in our city.

In order to help these people we constantly try to:

• Cook and distribute hot meals and fruits - vegetables for people that don’t have any access to cooked food.
• Provide them with raw materials for cooking in their houses or in the camps.
• Supply them with personal hygiene products for adults and children as well
• Offer baby milk as well as the possibility to prepare it in our place
• Support them with their medical expenses
• Collect and distribute clothes , shoes, sleeping bags, tents and anything else that will help them if they are homeless.
• Have free English and Greek language lessons

We are gathering all available supplies and we would be grateful if anyone would like to contribute any of the following:

Baby formula and baby food

Baby diapers and wet wipes

Strollers and baby carriers

Personal hygiene and care goods, soaps etc.

Rice and pasta

Legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils etc.)

Flour, Oil (sunflower oil, olive oil)

Fruit and vegetables

Men’s clothes and shoes

Children’s clothes and shoes

Socks and underwear

Backpacks

Sleeping bags

Any financial contribution will also be highly appreciated!

You can contact us at:

Tel: 0030 2310222503 - email: oikopolis.social.center@gmail.com

Visit us at:

ΟΙΚΟΠΟΛΙΣ/ΕCOPOLIS, Ptolemeon 29a, 5th floor, Thessaloniki

Visit our pages:

https://www.facebook.com/oikopolis.social.center/

https://www.facebook.com/SupportRefugeesInGreece/

Make a donation at the following account:

ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ / NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE

IBAN GR2301102170000021729602652

Swift code: ETHNGRAAXXX

ΟΙΚΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΚΙΝΗΣΗ Ν. ΘΕΣ/ΝΙΚΗΣ

ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENT OF THESSALONIKI

Back in the saddle again

It's been a  long time since I last wrote a post here but I decided I would revive this platform as I have started to work with refugees once again here in Thessaloniki, northern Greece. Despite what much of the media say, the crisis has not gone away and indeed over the last few months has grown more intense in the parts of Greece such such as the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos, whilst here in the north the number of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty has doubled and doubled again.

If you're curious about what I have been doing over the last year, check out my Flickr page here.

The Secret Diary Of The Best President Ever

For more from The Secret Diary Of The Best President Ever click here.

Don and Mike's Big Adventure

A short account of his first foreign visit by Donald J, Trump, President of The United Sates of America.

For more from The Secret Diary Of The Best President Ever click here

Passing through - memories from the Western Balkan Route

I took this photograph in August, 2015 in the neutral zone that separates Greece from it's northern neighbour, Macedonia. Then, the village of Idomeni was unknown, even to the vast majority of Greeks. A tiny railway crossing that for some reason was fast becoming the focal point for refugees taking the Western Balkan Route from  Turkey to the countries of northern Europe.

However, this day was different, instead of tens or hundreds making their surreptitiously across the border to catch the north bound train in the town of Gevgeliji, thousands had been left stranded by the decision by the Macedonian government to close down the unofficial crossing point and deploy both riot police and border troops to enforce this decision.

With summer temperatures reaching 35C+  these people were left to fend for themselves in the fields around the tiny railways station on the Greek side of the border, Drinking water was virtually non-existent and refugees were reduced to drinking water from the irrigation systems in nearby fields, and sanitary facilities were just a handful of portoloos that quickly became unusable due to the demands of so many people.

The fact that the border had been closed came as no surprise as this had been a fairly regular occurrence all through the summer of 2015 as EU and Balkan governments vacillated over what to do with the ever increasing number of refugees and migrants fleeing the fighting in Syria and Afghanistan and poverty in other regions of the world.

This confusion manifested itself as an endlessly changing policy on the part of the Greek authorities and in particular, the police who would turn a blind eye to refugees making their way from the Greek islands to Idomeni and then suddenly introduce bans of movement in the north. Not, that such moves made much of difference to the numbers of refugees moving north, if the trains were denied them, refugees took the local buses or taxis. In the worst cases when all other options were denied them , they simply walked, guided the 70 km from the nearest large city, Thessaloniki by Google maps.

However, not only the Greek authorities but also their Macedonia counterparts had started to clamp down on refugee movement and not only were the borders more tightly guarded, the train that connected Gevgeliji with Belgrade had been suspended, the daily service completely overwhelmed by the scale of the passenger flow.

Yet, the border was still relatively porous and the nothing to mark it out but a dusty series of paths and raggedy hedges that separated Macedonian and Greek fields. With nothing in the way of natural or man made barriers to deter them , many made the dash to the nearby town , chased down by Macedonia police or border units in the wheat fields.

On the other hand while this was an option for healthy young people with a sense of adventure, it was really possible for the bulk of refugees who were travelling in family groups, often with older relatives or young children, Instead, they sweltered in the summer heat, waiting for the travel rules to change once again as they has so many times before.

The local solidarity groups that had been helping those making the journey north since 2014 were overwhelmed by the sudden increase in the scale of the numbers of refugees suddenly amassed in Idomeni and so appeals groups across northern Greece to come and help out. I managed to wing a place on a convoy of cars and vans that had set out from Thessaloniki, carrying drinking water, cooked food, clothing and sanitary items. I had been doing this with my group since May and I thought my experience would help in this situation and in that I was completely and utterly wrong.

Not only was the scale of the crisis much greater than I had previously experienced, the state of those in need was far more precarious. Instead of providing food and clothing to those who were tired and weary from their journey from Athens to Thessaloniki, these people were in need of far more and as a result more desperate. It was a combination that required all those providing help and required a degree of discipline and organisation that we had till then not obtained.It quickly became clear that if we were not to create more problems then we were solving then we would have to up our game.

The experience and failures I witnessed that day would prove invaluable when our group started going up to Idomeni on a regular basis later on in September and till the route was finally shut down for good in March 2017.

Preparing for Clean Monday

People shopping in the central market of Thessaloniki for Clean Monday public holiday in Greece.

Moving north

A reminder of what I was doing last year in the refugee transit camp in Idomeni on the Greek border.

The traditional "bell ringers" from Greece and many other parts of the Balkans gathered in Thessaloniki

These dances were used to drive off evil spirits with the sound of their bells and so ensure health and prosperity for the whole community in the coming year.

Join the resistance

Teaching language via story telling.

Story telling seems to be hard wired into us and tapping that deeply rooted need is a great way to get students to be more creative and expressive in the foreign language they wish to learn. Nowadays, with the advent of ever cheaper hardware and a ready supply of free-to-use applications, the cost of using such equipment in lessons has dropped significantly.

Here is a teaching idea that utilises such opportunities.  A number of different aspects of language can be practiced with this exercise and it encourages active production in written form while creating dialogues and via the recording section it encourages students to listen to themselves and change their performances in response.

This is a long term project that will need multiple lessons and much will be best assigned for homework, also it requires the teacher to be comfortable with the software used and so is not for the technologically faint hearted. However, to simplify the procedure the video segment could be omitted and student could record themselves on their smart phones.

The level of the lesson depends very much on the source material chosen but could range from near beginner to advanced.

You'll need:

-Access to PC with a microphone and speakers and ideally the internet (useful but not absolutely
  necessary).
-Comics in digital form or scanned pages from regular comics
-Windows Movie Maker
-An image processing app/program such as Windows Paint./Photoshop or GIMP.
-Audacity a free audio editor and recorder program (Optional).

Many comics in digital form come in .CBR/CBZ and other similar formats which means you'll need a special program to read them on a PC e.g. Comic Book Reader. However, this format cannot be read by image processing programs, To make them compatible you'll have to decompress or "unzip" them. which you can easily do by right clicking with your mouse or touch pad the file you need and decompressing it.The result will be that every page will become a jpg image file which you can then use with the other programs mentioned here.
.

Lesson Plan

There are three possible options for this stage of the lesson, you can use a comic strip with no dialogue e.g.  Tiny Titan's Beast Boy or you could use a strip with dialogue and either let students read existing dialogue or blank out the speech bubbles and let students replace it with their own - see Star Wars Rebels example.

Once again the choice of comic strip also will reflect what kind of language structure,  and/or vocabulary is being practiced/taught. Also whether the project will be best done by individual students or in groups is on best decided by the teacher. The exercise is very open ended and can be adapted for any number of language teaching items. This plan is a general introduction to the concepts rather than a step-by-step guide. Also the burden of much of the preparation will have to be taken up by the teacher unless you want to spend hours explaining several different programs to your students.

You will need to cut up the comic strip into sets of one, two or three using your image processing program and then add these images to the the Windows Movie Maker program (Here is a video tutorial on how to use WWM). To add your dialogue to the video you can use the existing recorder function that WMM has or record them via Audacity, an excellent free to use studio recording program, in which case you'll need to add the audio files separately to your WMM project.

You'll then need to adjust the length of time the images stay on screen in order to fit images and dialogue (the video tutorial mentioned above explains how to do this)..

BE WARNED: Recording dialogue correctly is a time consuming process and your students will probably need multiple takes before you or they are happy with the final result. However, this is the heart of the exercise as it requires students to listen to themselves closely and correct any mistakes made in pronunciation. The time spent is well worth the results.

The downside is that older student often recoil from the sound of their own voice, the upside is that it makes them aware of long term issues and allows them to improve enormously.

Instead of using comics, you could also use children's books or pages from a school text book.

Civics in the era of Trump is set for a shake up

Ok, kids, what are the three branches on the US government?