How the world sees Greece
Small Bomb Targets Greek Far-Right Party Office ABC News A small bomb has exploded outside the local offices of a Greek extreme right-wing party in Piraeus, the port of Athens, causing no injury and minor damage. It was the second attack of its kind in two days targeting the Golden Dawn party, which rose ... |
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Dartmouth's Greek Council Unanimously Passes a Promising New Sexual ... Jezebel Dartmouth's Greek Council Unanimously Passes a Promising New Sexual Assault Policy Dartmouth's Greek council unanimously passed a new sexual assault proposal that will make it easier to both report incidents and penalize those found responsible, ... |
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Monk from Greece to lead retreat in Cardiff U-T San Diego Christian scholar and Monk, Father Maximos of the Monastery of Simonopetra in Mount Athos, Greece will lead a retreat at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church. The retreat will focus on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, entitled “Return ... |
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 Kathimerini | Greek consumers gloomiest on planet Kathimerini Greeks are the most pessimistic consumers on the planet according to a recent survey by Nielsen research company that found the consumer confidence index in the country had dropped to 35 points in the last quarter of 2012. That is the lowest level ... |
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 Kathimerini | Rehn tries to douse Greek hopes of program change due to fiscal multipliers Kathimerini European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn intervened on Wednesday in the debate over the calculations on which the Greek fiscal consolidation program was based and attempted to douse expectations in Athens that there is room to ... EU Rehn: Extended Deficit Deadline for Nations Which Deliver Structural Efforts eKathimerin: Greece takes up fiscal multipliers case, eyes concessions from Troika |
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National Bank of Greece to cut 15 percent of workforce Reuters ATHENS Feb 13 (Reuters) - Greece's biggest lender National Bank of Greece on Wednesday said it would cut up to 2,000 jobs, or about 15 percent of its workforce, to generate savings from its acquisition of smaller rival Eurobank . The cuts will target ... After Clearing A Major Hurdle, Greece's Outlook Brightens |
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 VICE | Greece's New Anarchist Generation Are Being Tortured by Police VICE A before and after shot of 20-year-old Nikolaos Romanos released to the media by Greek police. About a week ago, a group of eight people armed with AK-47s attempted to rob a bank and a post office in the Greek town of Velventos. After being chased ... |
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Greek pension fund wins with bond bet Financial Times The managers of a fund for Greek pension schemes have doubled its assets by following the example of aggressive investors who netted windfall gains buying junk-rated Greek government bonds last year. The Hellenic Pension Mutual Fund Management ... |
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 Press TV | Greek municipal workers protest social benefits, job cuts Press TV Greek municipal workers protest social benefits, job cuts. Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:8PM. Share | Email | Print. Municipal workers from across Greece have gathered in the Capital Athens to protest against wage cuts and the lack of funding that threatens ... |
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The Greek yogurt craze hits cream cheese Baltimore Sun (blog) We get lots of announcements of new products. We mostly ignore them, but this one got our attention - "the launch of the industry's first Greek Cream Cheese." Green Mountain Farms Greek Cream Cheese, according to its producer, Franklin Foods of ... |
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 Press TV | People protest social benefit cuts in Greece Press TV Welfare resources in Greece are shrinking across the spectrum, from state-run hospitals to municipal-run homecare. More Greeks are now unable to deal with emergencies against a system that appears unable to support the most vulnerable groups. Greece: Martial law ends ferry workers' strike |
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 Wilkes Barre Times-Leader | TAP Is Open to Greek and Italian Partners, Executive Says Bloomberg “TAP shareholders are still welcoming new partners and as TAP management we feel it would be good to have Italian and Greek partners,” Tungland said in an interview in Athens today. He declined to comment on whether TAP shareholders were in ... Greek market ends up Greek FM: “TAP makes Azerbaijan closer to us” Crisis-hit Greece backs pipeline for Caspian gas |
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Alain de Botton is wrong to ask the One Direction star to tell his fans to read Hegel. Styles just needs to get them all thinking
Adorable little pop poppet Harry Styles raised a few eyebrows among his 10 million Twitter followers this morning, when he shared the following nugget of knowledge:
Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy.
— Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles) February 13, 2013
The message was slightly less random than it first appeared. In an interview in Metro today, Alain de Botton described meeting Styles briefly at a party, prompting the philosopher to speculate on how stars of popular culture could use their influence to create interest in the intellectual canon.
"My plan," he said, "is to shut the Arts Council and get people such as Harry Styles to go on television and recommend to everyone they read Proust and Hegel, which would achieve more in five minutes than the Arts Council achieves year in, year out. David Beckham could do Aristotle and Plato. The cause of intellectual life in this country would be helped immeasurably."
We can presume (or hope) that de Botton's proposal was tongue in cheek, but I have to admit, I would love to live in a world where Perrie from Little Mix could be interviewed about their latest hit single Change Your Life and say something like:
"Well, the opening metaphor of the dropped mirror plays on the central motif of Sartre's La Nausée, in which the mirror presents the individual as an external reflection that can never reflect the true essence of the self. The chorus, "Change Your Life", ironically echoes Roquentin's disdain for the autodidact. And it's also about, you know, boys and stuff."
As it happens, footballers at least have made occasional forays into literary and philosophical evangelism. Joey Barton may have added to the gaiety of the nation with his musings on the work of Nietzsche, but I'm unaware of widespread discussions of The Will to Power on the terraces. Similarly, Eric Cantona's declaration of his love for Rimbaud didn't have a huge effect on the popularity of the French poet, although it may have accidentally helped shift a few Sylvester Stallone DVDs to United fans.
Musicians, if not footballers, can and do influence the thoughts and the reading of their fans. I personally hold the Canadian prog rockers Rush entirely responsible for the surge in popularity of the works of Ayn Rand in the 1980s, and I will never forgive them for it. I'll never forgive them for the drum solos either, but that is a different matter.
Bands with followers in their late teens and 20s could certainly point enquiring minds towards serious philosophy, and the likes of the Manic Street Preachers have done exactly that. Alain de Botton forgets that the role of bubblegum pop is to provide aural wallpaper on daytime radio, and its main commercial market is prepubescent girls who are more likely to be reading Michelle Paver than Marcel Proust. It's a pop star's job to be pretty and dumb, and there's nothing wrong with that – venture too far away from the formula and they will alienate their fans more than inspire them. Harry Styles could genuinely do something good just by telling interviewers or his Twitter followers that his plan for the day was to curl up under a duvet and read a book – any book.
There is something else I believe pop music could do, as an industry. Philosophy is not about knowing the century in which Socrates was born, but about learning how to think. My first pop obsession was for Blondie, and I remember spending hours and hours poring over lyrics, trying to make sense of verses like this: "The beams become my dream / My dream is on the screen / Dusty frames that still arrive / Die in 1955 / Fade away and radiate." What does it mean? I'm still not entirely sure, but I'd say the same about Remembrance of Things Past. I have a hunch the two works cover very similar ground. I do know that those happy hours spent untangling the riddles of pop lyrics were my first experiences in genuine intellectual challenge, and have stood me in good stead since. By comparison, the new One Direction single is called Kiss You, and contains lyrical gems like this: "Oh, I just wanna show you off to all of my friends / Making them drool down their chinny-chin-chins / Baby be mine tonight, mine tonight / Baby be mine tonight. Yeah."
So my own plea to the pop stars, their songwriters and svengalis would not be to harangue their fans with reading lists and address the nation with lectures on Hegel. Nobody wants that, not even Hegel. Just give them something to think about – and please, please stay well away from Ayn Rand.
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Unconventional reds for Valentine's Day–burger, butter cake, Japanese 'uni ... Inquirer.net In celebration of Valentine's Day, I am featuring my favorite finds in various shades of red. Chef Quito Jose's Valentine Burger. Imagine a freshly grilled, juicy Angus beef patty sandwiched between an earthy, toasted beetroot sesame seed bun ... |
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The BBC Is Replacing Arthurian Drama Merlin with Greek Mythology Drama ... The Mary Sue Fans of Merlin may still be reeling after the show's abrupt cancellation (I don't want to talk about it), but we now know the show that will be taking its place, in the BBC's lineup if not in our hearts: Atlantis, a Greek mythology-themed fantasy drama ... |
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 Kathimerini | Atopos: Visionary, made-in-Greece culture Kathimerini February is turning out to be a great month for Greek public relations abroad, as two major Parisian cultural venues, La Gaite Lyrique and the Palais de Tokyo, are hosting two large-scale, made-in-Greece exhibitions. At La Gaite Lyrique, a former opera ... |
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