We reviewed the news of the week (1-8 October) on Greek web radio station Radiobubble with @csyllas and @galaxyarchis. You can listen here (1 hour, Greek).
Radiobubble weekly round-up 08 October 2011
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Media interviews during 05 October 2011 protests in Syntagma
I decided to talk to the media during the anti-austerity protests on 5 October, because I believe we need to tell the world that it’s the non-lazy Greeks paying the price for the failures of the rich and powerful. It’s all after the jump. Continue reading
Interview on CBC radio
Interview I did with CBC radio on 04 October 2011 (part 1, go to 1’38”)
Salary and privileges of members of parliament in Greece
A lot has been said recently in the Greek media about the salary, allowances and benefits of members of the Greek parliament. MPs insist that their pay is not all that high, that they incur considerable expenses for the cost of running their office, and that cutting back on their benefits will cause “parliamentarian poverty.” Yet no one really knows how much Greek MPs are earning. The deputy speaker of parliament, Gr. Niotis, rejected on 23 September a proposal by far-right leader G. Karatzaferis to send a letter to the media with details of MPs’ pay, allowances and benefits. So I decided to research the relevant legislation to figure it out for myself. Here is the result of my research, with links to the relevant law/decree/decision for each item.
Two interviews on BBC radio
Here are two BBC radio programmes I participated in
Below is the BBC Assignment Programme: The Indignant of Greece, 12 September 2011
Download: p00jwyt1
Below is BBC Global News, 03 October 2011 (go to 6’25”)
Summary of events in Syntagma on 03 September 2011
03 September was our first big protest gathering in Syntagma after the summer. This is a English-language summary of the tweets of people who were there. The original tweets in Greek, English and Spanish can be found here. For those who are not familiar with the geography of Syntagma, a map of the area is available here. Note that “upper square” refers to the eastern side of Syntagma, in front of parliament while “lower square” refers to the central part of Syntagma.
The Dangers of Yoghurtification as a Political Movement in Greece
After writing my open letter to Miltiadis Papaioannou, I realised that non-Greek readers may not be conversant with the traditional form of armed resistance in Greece called yoghurtification. An explanation is therefore in order.
Yoghurtification (noun) – from Greek γιαούρτωμα. The act of throwing yoghurt at one or several public figures, such as politicians, journalists and actors. [Merriam-Webster's Standard Greek-English Dictionary]
The Encyclopaedia of Greek Popular Arts and Traditions specifies that yoghurtification may be accompanied by other projectiles, including, but not limited to, lemon rinds (λεμονόκουπες), fresh or rotten tomatoes, fresh or rotten eggs and any other relevant food and non-food items as long as they stick, stink or stain.
In the last few months, creative forms of yoghurtification have emerged in Greece, such as yoghurtification with tzatziki. While these are considered non-canon (see An Anthropological Approach To Greek Politics Through The Ages, SYRIZA publications, 2010), the involvement of garlic presents the benefit of caring for the yoghurtified person’s blood pressure in addition to skin softness, without being detrimental in any way to the criteria of stickiness, stench or staining described above.
