30-01-2015, 09:55 AM
Peter Lemkin Wrote:In the EU countries, citizens actually vote for their representatives to the EU - in some countries there is some connection to the parties in power; while in others it can be little to no connection. The page on the latest election in Greece for its delegates to EU is here http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2...ml#table03 and hard to interpret quickly for a non-Greek and non-EU reader. The representatives are not directly responsive to the political winners of the current election. By custom, they usually listen to them, but they don't have to. In each country there are different mechanisms for their election and removal. I haven't researched for Greece. So, it is more complex to interpret any vote by the Greek block of delegates in the EU. If the new government or the Greek People are unhappy with the delegates they can replace them [varies how and timing in each country], but it may take some time and effort. It is a very different system then, for example, in the USA or UK internally.
I thought that letter to the German People was very nicely done.
On a personal note, I used to at one time in my life go for a short time every summer to the Greek Islands, passing through Athens and some other Greek cities on the way. I really liked the Greeks I met, generally. Perhaps those who live on the small islands are not representative, but I rather doubt that. They were hard working, friendly, gracious, well-versed in history [very aware of how the USA and others had stabbed them in the back just after WW2], progressive politically for the most part, loving of life, and less materialistic than the US and much of Western Europe. I wish them well, and don't understand where the neo-Nazis came from [what rock they crawled out from under]. I have one favorite village on a favorite island. It gets overrun in July/August by too many Italians, but off-season it is as close to paradise as I've experienced. In the winter it is an international 'artist' community, sitting on the lip of a volcano, looking out to the all-too-blue sea. This island was the one that the myth of 'Atlantis' came from, as most of the island and its people of rich Minoan culture vanished into the sea when the volcano exploded about 2000 years ago. The volcano smolders still....an apt metaphore for what is now going on politically in Greece......
I also thought the letter to the German people was nicely done, too. "So, let me be frank: Greece's debt is currently unsustainable and will never be serviced, especially while Greece is being subjected to continuous fiscal waterboarding. "
Pete, your favourite island sounds like Crete? I've been there too. Very beautiful in parts - made less so by the US Navy facilities and airbase there (so sorry that should be "NATO" facilities and airbase :
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The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14