Issue No.
13375
Mrs Robinson
I WAS going to let the Robinson affair pass by without comment but have been so shocked by the inaccurate reporting in the British and Greek press that I would ask you to allow me to put the record straight.
- Peter Robinson - first minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly - was a pupil in a grammar school in Belfast where I was a head of department for six years. Like myself, he was a working-class boy. We both lived in a world which gave us no favours in spite of the fact that we were Protestants.
- Peter Robinson is not the prime minister of Ireland. He is the first minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly which, like the assemblies in Scotland and Wales, has devolved regional powers from the Westminster parliament. The prime minister of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and NI) is Mr Brown and the prime minister of (the Republic of) Ireland is Mr Cowen.
- Neither Mr Robinson nor Mrs Robinson is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. They belong to a little known Protestant sect. This sect has no connection with the Free Presbyterian Church of Mr Ian Paisley, Mr Robinson’s predecessor as first minister.
- Mr Robinson is NOT a member of the Loyal Orange Order of Ireland (Green Ireland’s “Orangemen”).
- Mrs Robinson represented the constituency in Northern Ireland where my Greek wife and I lived before we left for Greece. There has been much speculation about the cause of her mental breakdown, most of it wide off the mark. My own view is that, as a triple jobber (MP, MLA, municipal councillor), she became lustful for power. She has now forfeited all three public positions, a heavy price indeed which most politicians would be most reluctant to pay in similar circumstances.
- Unlike many MPs and MEPs, Mrs Robinson borrowed the money for her young friend and lover: she did not purloin it from public funds. Her biggest mistake will, I believe, be found to be that she did not declare an interest when her friend’s project came before the local municipal council for approval. If only such mistakes were the biggest made by our politicians!
- A respected English journalist in The Times (of London) compared Mrs Robinson’s Northern Ireland to Afghanistan under the Taliban. This was a most grievous insult which flew in the face of the twin facts: firstly, that Mrs Robinson, a woman, was elected to three public positions; and, secondly, that when Mr Robinson stepped down temporarily as first minister, he was replaced by a woman. Would the Taliban have agreed to such gender elevations?
- Finally, it has been suggested that this whole affair is the result of an internecine struggle between the two main unionist parties: Mr Robinson’s DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) and the rival UUP (Ulster Unionist Party). If so, why have the two parties agreed to unite as one party to fight the next Assembly elections if negotiations break down this week between the DUP and Gerry Adams’ Sinn Fein?
I am not a journalist but merely a teacher. If any of my students had produced articles like those I have read in the press and seen on television on this affair, s/he would have been asked to resubmit when fully and accurately researched. It would appear that many journalists have surrendered their search for truth in favour of pandering to the predilections of the gutter press.
David Green
Athens
A look at Athens
DUE TO professional and personal reasons, I am an inveterate traveller who finds himself in a different city every couple of weeks or so. Please bear in mind I’m writing this letter solely out of love and respect I have for Athens and Greece. Also bear in mind that I have sent several emails to the mayor of Athens but, unfortunately, to no avail. Although Athens is undoubtedly a great and exciting city, its leaders and citizens obviously lack agapi and pride towards it.
Graffiti are probably the most acute problem plaguing Athens from a tourist perspective. The obvious way to tackle this is by putting more officers on the beat or by adding CCTVs around the city. A second option, which has been used in several cities around the world, is to organise a group of volunteers - with the help and supervision of city officials - to eradicate graffiti in targeted areas such as Plaka - paint would obviously be provided by the city but this expense could be offset by using corporate sponsors such as Leroy Merlin, for instance.
Mann Dunlop
Thassos dog to the rescue
AS AN ENGLISH resident on the beautiful island of Thassos, I would just like to pass on some news. The animal sanctuary on the island relies heavily on donations and goodwill to feed all the animals that it houses. We have been informed today that one of the dogs, rehomed to Germany, was trained as a sniffer dog and is now in Haiti doing a wonderful job assisting in the vital rescue work. Many people wonder why someone devotes their life to the rescue of animals but when you hear of the good work that this dog is doing who can argue that these animals aren’t worth saving?
Sue Booth
Thassos
Are the anarchists crazy?
AS A LONGTERM resident and property owner here in Exarcheia Square, I would like to add my thoughts and observations to your article about the Blue Polikatikia in Exarcheia and the area in general. Incidentally, the founder of the Athens News, Yannis Horn, lived in the polikatikia when he founded it. My mother held him as a baby.
Also the greats you mention never set foot in the Floral as it is today or was even 25 years ago: the Floral was a zacharoplastio (sweetshop) for over 40 years and not a cafeteria. These greats would be revolving at high speed in their graves if they could see the way the area has declined in the last 25 years since the inception of the illegal sidewalk tables and the arrival of the abusive technological marvel - the DJ!
I feel qualified to speak about the Floral because I own part of it. I would like to point out that Mr Thallasinos is my tenant and allowed by lease to sell books and coffee but not to play loud music with which he and others like him disturb the tenants and thereby contribute to the general air of lawlessness prevalent in the square.
There are huge speakers in the Floral which are not permitted by law and with which one could use for a stadium. Why are they there unless he plans to use them again and again, I ask? The Floral sign says “books and coffee” - not books and loud music. I kept that store empty for 15 months to find a quiet tenant. I don’t think anyone out there can deny there is an air of controlled mayhem, permissiveness and anything goes in Exarcheia, where the police are ‘afraid to come’. Or they were for years. The new Pasok government is going to have to do a lot more than it has thus far to prove to my jaded eyes that it is committed to cleaning up corruption, which is the cause of all these issues.
My next point is that illegal music and the fines it generates is the perennial source of money for corrupt officials and those responsible for licensing and administrating those venues, not to mention enforcement authorities or judicial authorities and lawyers. They fine week after week after year after year but never fix the problem - only aid and abet it, thus feathering their own nests.
Calling the police late at night in Exarcheia is a fruitless exercise. The police will not ever come to Exarcheia for noise complaints, although Exarcheia is protected by presidential decree No 1075/3 (September 1993) which forbids the playing of music of any kind. Now I like music as much as the next guy but not when I want to go to sleep and not night after night.
Not when I know the person playing the music is making money off my discomfort and couldn’t give a damn for me or my rights. Greeks will talk you blue in the face about their rights but never about their duties!
As for the anarchists, I’d like to see the Athens News do a real report on Exarcheia and investigate the cause of the trouble that emanates from here. Something about perhaps why the anarchist riot? Are they crazy or is there a reason?
The anarchists aren’t crazy. The violent and destructive ones I don’t condone - or violence in general for that matter - but there are plenty of reasons to want to rebel in Exarcheia and I am not alone!
We have had enough. Please clean up Exarcheia!
Harry Grant
Exarcheia
End of an islander in a city hospital
I DIDN’T know her, but I’m told,
She made no bones of being old,
And counted years, like seasons passed,
Each one a copy of the last.
I saw her name enwreathed with gold,
Pinned to the face of a telegraph pole,
It seemed so odd to think her dead,
While the babble of the living buzzed overhead.
I’d seen her house, but hadn’t known,
She lived there, mostly on her own,
Except for cats, who gimlet-eyed,
Still search for the scraps she once supplied.
I heard the church bell’s baleful toll,
Returning from my midday stroll,
Three peals, a pause, then several more,
Like locks being turned on a distant door.
I didn’t know her, but they say,
She smiled before she passed away,
Though what she smiled at stays unknown,
I guess she knew she was going home.
I heard the church bell’s baleful toll,
Returning from my morning stroll,
I didn’t know her, but you know,
I was sorry that she had to go.
Gordon Wallace
Hydra
ATHENS NEWS 30/08/2010, page: 21
