It's Groundhog Day...All Over Again

Jeff—Saturday

I know that somewhere out there sits a Greek man or woman patiently waiting to begin writing about the soon to be exploits of our President-Elect.  But until then, I’m afraid they’ll just have to sit back and watch me comment from afar on their nation’s affairs.

Don’t worry, dear poised posters, your chance will soon be upon us…and far too quickly.

I think a good place to start this week — after thanking Greece’s Ekathimerini for news stories inspiring this week’s post – is with that Greek Deputy Education Minister who remarked to the press it’s “no big deal if Greece loses some islands” to Turkey.  You can just imagine the uproar that created.

Sort of like an American government Secretary saying, “it would be no big deal to loose some [fill in the blank] to Russia.”

Hmmm.

Moving right along … for those of you who’d forgotten all about Greece’s debt relief situation, have no fear, it’s still here.  In fact, think “Groundhog Day.”  The Europeans continue to say “you agreed to this,” the Greeks say “no we didn’t,” or “it doesn’t really change things if we don’t do it quite as we said we would.”

As background to this week’s rerun, Greece’s Prime Minister had promised during his election campaign that he would see to it that pensioners received a reinstated Christmas bonus (so to speak) and that VAT tax levels would not be raised on islands affected by the migrant crisis. HOWEVER, as a condition for receiving bailout funds from Europe, his government had committed to doing precisely the opposite—no bonus and a VAT increase.

This week, with his party’s poll numbers at double digits lower than its main opponent’s, the Prime Minister introduced a measure in Parliament doing what he’d promised his voters he’d do, and his nation’s lenders he’d not do. In response, Europeans froze their debt relief package for Greece.  

As no politician wants to be painted at election time as voting against helping pensioners--and the Prime Minister called for all votes to be recorded for attribution--it passed on Thursday. Greece's creditors are not pleased, and the sides are feuding again.  Plus, the Prime Minister is once again scampering about for a way to blame whatever goes wrong on his parliamentary opponents. Or the Europeans…at least some of them.

As I said, Groundhog Day.  But with sequels about to start playing worldwide.

Speaking of world-class events, some great news came out this week running to what Greece truly is all about. According to Archaeology Magazine, of the “Top 10 Discoveries of 2016,” two are in Greece! The Antikythera Man, and a mass grave in the Phaleron (Faliro) Delta two miles southwest of Athens.

At Phaleron the searchers found at least 80 skeletons, their wrists clamped in shackles.  The project’s director took it as a sign of “what took place during the struggle between aristocrats in the seventh century [BCE] and led through a long process to the establishment of a democratic regime in the city of Athens.” 

Sounds uplifting, but it sort of makes one wonder how long it will take our world to work out its current struggles among the classes.

At Antikythera, an island northwest of Crete, only one skeleton was discovered, but it’s significant for several reasons. They are the first remains to be found in 40 years at the site of a 1st century BCE shipwreck discovered in 1900 by sponge divers.  I’ve seen nothing to indicate there is any evidence linking this skeleton to the Antikythera Mechanism found at this site in 1901, and often referred to as the world’s first computer.

Front of Antikythera Mechanism

Back of Mechanism

Schematic of Mechanism

Recreation of Mechanism

But DNA sampling is underway, and somehow I see a suspense thriller brewing out there, featuring a 2000-year-old Steve Jobs-like Indiana Jones character and his Antikythera Apple.

Sad, though, isn’t it that we have to look back 2000 plus years for inspirational thoughts, but what joy is there in today’s news?  Then again, I wonder what sorts of tales will be written of our civilizations by those 2000 years hence…assuming Steven Hawkins was wrong in saying we only have 1000 left to go.  Maybe we’ll learn we’ve been living through joyful times.

I think not.

God bless those poor souls in Aleppo.

—Jeff