Remembering the Odyssey – or the Odyssey of Remembering

I think I have many gifts. Good memory is not one of them. Photographic is not the word I would use. Sketchy at best. Aged about 8 or 9 (if memory serves me right) I woefully humiliated myself in a failed attempt to publicly recite a four-line poem at school (can’t even remember which poem), despite what I felt had been a long and painstaking effort to commit to memory. The “winged words” just flew. The prompts (from my equally embarrassed teacher) failed to prompt. I drew a complete agonising blank. The teacher happened to have been my father. Now, he was truly blessed with photographic memory, as is my daughter. Genetics can be funny or cruel this way.

Peripatetics

Like most people of my generation I thought I knew how to walk (even though I hardly ever bothered to) until I actually (very recently) learned how. I became what you might say a born-again walker or a peripatitis of some conviction. It started earlier in the year as an attempt at moderate exercise. It gradually grew into a good healthy daily habit as I traversed the streets of my beautiful sea-side West Sussex town in the south of England, in late winter and early spring, admiring the well-kept famous English gardens or gazing at the distant horizon beyond the ocean. It finally turned into an inspiration during my visit over the Easter period in my hometown of Heraklion in Crete.

Ενερητική Αποτροπή Τουρκικού Επεκτατισμού ως Προϋπόθεση Ειρήνης (8 Ιουνίου 2020)

Η πάγια εθνική θέση επικοινωνεί προσήλωση στο διεθνές δίκαιο και αποστροφή προς παίγνια ισχύος. Όμως το δίλημμα είναι παραπλανητικό. Η επίκληση διεθνούς δικαίου είναι και αυτή μια συνάρτηση ισχύος. Η ισχύς, ως έννοια πολυεπίπεδη, περιλαμβάνει πολλές άλλες πτυχές, όπως διπλωματική, οικονομική, δημογραφική, γεωπολιτική, στρατιωτική. Το πραγματικό ζητούμενο, είναι πώς μεγιστοποιεί κανείς όλες τις εκφάνσεις ισχύος της χώρας μας, ώστε ως σύνολο να εγγυάται αποτροπή της όποιας επιβουλής.