Migrant Deaths in the Mediterranean: The Broader Picture

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migrants crossing the Mediterranean
Migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2016 approached by the US Navy. Credit: US Navy / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

The sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants in the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday has again brought the issue of migrant crossings to the forefront of international news.

79 of the migrants are believed to have died in the incident, whereas 104 passengers were saved, although the search continues.

Hundreds and thousands of migrants and refugees attempt to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe every year. The seaborne journey is fraught with danger and the migrants often make the journey on vessels which are far from sea-worthy. Many of those who attempt to cross the sea do not make it.

The death toll for migrants crossing the Mediterranean is rising

According to the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, although the total number of migrants who embark upon the dangerous journey has fallen since the peak in 2015, the number of those who are killed during the endeavor has in fact risen.

“[In 2021], some 3,231 were recorded as dead or missing at sea in the Mediterranean and the northwest African routes, with 1,881 in 2020, 1,510 in 2019, and more than 2,277 for 2018,” reported the UNHCR.

For Greece, which is situated at the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, the migrant crossing issue has posed difficult questions. Certain islands like Evros have had to deal with large numbers of migrants attempting to gain access to Europe.

Deadly incidents

The recent incident on Wednesday has again brought the migrant crossing issue into sharp focus, but it is not the first scenario in which a large number of people attempting to traverse the Mediterranean have been killed.

Earlier this year, on June 27, over 94 migrants were killed when their boat sank whilst attempting to land on the coast of Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort village close to the town of Crotone, in the region of Calabria in southern Italy. At least 35 children were among the dead.

Examples of such incidents have occurred since 2015. For example, on November 3, 2016, two incidents of migrant boats capsizing occurred near the shores of Libya, resulting in the loss of approximately 240 lives. The first wreck claimed about 120 lives, while 29 individuals managed to survive. Similarly, in the second wreck, only two people survived, and once again, around 120 fatalities were reported.

That same month, on November 17, another incident took place in which approximately a hundred people are believed to have drowned after being abandoned without a motor off the coast of Libya. 27 survivors were later transported to Italy.

Causes and consequences

The migrants and refugees who attempt to cross the Mediterranean every year leave their homes predominantly across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia for a myriad of reasons.

Some are driven by economic motivations, whereas others are compelled to leave by war and oppression. In Europe, where the issue has become highly politicized, the distinction between “economic migrant” and “refugee” is often an important point of debate.

The cause of the initial migrant crisis in 2015 was largely attributed to a number of interconnected conflicts; chiefly, the Libyan Civil War, the Syrian Civil War, and the Iraq War of 2014-2017. However, a broad range of other social, economic, and political reasons have been explored for the consistently high numbers of migrants and refugees who have attempted to cross the Mediterranean since the period of “crisis” started and ended between 2015 and 2016.

Could the Coast Guard Have Averted the Migrant Boat Disaster in Greece?

Greece Coast Guard Migrant Boat
Greek officials in the gruesome task of transferring bodies from Greek Coast Guard vessel. Credit: AMNA

Questions are being raised in Greece over whether the Coast Guard could have done more to prevent the migrant boat tragedy that claimed the life of at least 78 people and possibly hundreds more.

The Greek Coast Guard says that efforts by its own ships and merchant vessels sailing nearby to assist the boat were repeatedly rebuffed, with people on board insisting they wanted to continue to Italy.

“They categorically refused any help,” a spokesman said. He added that a forceful intervention by the Greek vessels in the area could have caused the sinking of the migrant boat, which was full of people, much earlier.

Questions raised over Coast Guard in Greece

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the SYRIZA party implied that the Coast Guard should have done more.

“A ship that travels overloaded with people is not doomed to sink?”, he asked the responsible minister of the caretaker government on Thursday. “I don’t accept this is common sense,” Tsipras stressed.

In a Facebook post, activist Nawal Soufi, who was the first to contact the ship’s passengers, claimed in a Facebook post that the migrants not only did not refuse help, but they asked for it at all costs.

She said that the captain of the migrant boat had abandoned ship and the passengers could no longer head for Italy as they did not know how to get there.

“I stayed in touch with them until 11pm Greek time, trying to reassure them and help them find a solution. They kept asking me what they should do and I kept telling them that Greek help would come. In that last phone call, the man I was talking to told me, ‘I feel like this is going to be our last night alive,” the activist said.

Niko Spanos, a retired officer of the Greek Coast Guard, said that Greece should have intervened before the boat sank. “The boat was not sea-worthy, the captain had fled and therefore Greece should have intervened.”

The migrant ship was 47 nautical miles southwest of Pylos in southern Peloponnese when it sank. It was in international waters, but under the jurisdiction of Greece at the search and rescue level.

The Coast Guard should have sent all available vessels to transfer the migrants, Spanos said. “When you see people drowning you don’t sit back because they refused help.”

Greek Coast Guard refutes allegations

The spokesperson of the Coast Guard, Captain Nikolaos Alexiou, rejected accusations of negligence saying that an operation to force the migrant boat to change its course towards the safety of a Greek port could have resulted in its sinking much earlier.

He said that after the migrant boat was spotted by both the Coast Guard helicopters and a Frontex plane, the Greek Coast Guard ordered ships sailing by to approach it.

The passengers received supplies from the first ship that arrived but refused supplies from the second that approach them.

“We were on the spot. We also tried to negotiate with them by phone and try to help them, but they flatly refused and said that they want to stay on the boat and go to Italy. That’s what they said to our vessel as well.”

“Any action we would have taken against their will, with 100-200 people on the outer deck, would probably have caused the ship to sink.

“You can’t forcibly divert a ship. We are talking about people, not cargo,” the Greek Coast Guard official added.

Officers were praised for their rescue efforts which saved at least 104 people from the wreckage.

Greece has launched two inquiries into the deadly migrant shipwreck.

Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos on Thursday appointed a Supreme Criminal Court deputy prosecutor to supervise the investigation, while the Kalamata Coast Guard announced the launch of its own inquiry into the sinking of the boat.

“There is not a specific number of arrests of persons suspected of being the traffickers of the irregular migrants on board the fatal fishing boat,” the Coast Guard said in a statement on Thursday.

 

 

Ancient Greeks’ Love for Their Dogs

ancient greeks dogs
Riders and their dogs depicted on an ancient Greek vase c. 510-500 BC. Credit: Public Domain

Ancient Greeks had a great love and respect for their dogs, cherishing them as companions, protectors, and hunters, as evidenced by several dog tombstones discovered over the centuries.

The most well-known story about the relationship between ancient Greeks and their pet canines comes from Homer and The Odyssey. Written as early as c.800 BC, it is a story of the unending loyalty of dogs to man.

Argos (“The Slow One”) is the dog and loyal friend of King Odysseus. His master finally returns home after being away on his adventure for twenty years and is not recognized by the hostile suitors who are vying to win the hand of Odysseus’s wife, Penelope. However, Argos recognizes his master and rises up from where he has been faithfully waiting, wagging his tail in greeting Odysseus.

Odysseus, however, is in disguise, and he is afraid that if he acknowledges the greeting, he will give away his true identity in front of the suitors, so he ignores his old friend, and Argos tragically lays back down and dies. The great philosopher Socrates himself saw wisdom in dogs.

He claimed that dogs are true philosophers because they “distinguish the face of a friend and of an enemy only by the criterion of knowing and not knowing” and concluded that dogs want to learn things because, by learning, they determine what they do and do not like based upon knowledge of the truth.

Socrates said that the dog has learned who is and is not a friend based on that knowledge and responds appropriately while human beings are often deceived as to who their true friends are.

The Philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, who lived from 412 to 323 BC called himself “The dog.” Explaining why he chose the name of an animal for himself, he replied: “Because I fawn upon those who give me anything, and bark at those who give me nothing, and bite the rogues.”

ancient greeks dogs
Archaic Greek statue of a dog and her puppy. Credit: User:MatthiasKabel/Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0

How Ancient Greeks named their dogs

Ancient Greeks built the Parthenon, became philosophers, wrote the world’s greatest tragedies and comedies, and overall laid the foundations of Western Civilization—yet, apparently, they had a hard time choosing names for their beloved dogs.

Nowadays, we usually just pick a name we like, which reminds us of something or has some pleasant meaning for us. At that time, however, there was a far more complex method to naming one’s canine companion.

According to Xenophon, the dog names preferred by the ancient Greeks were short, consisting of one or at most two syllables. They also paid special attention to the meaning of the name of the dog, and no name was ever bestowed at random or on a whim.

The reason for this was that a dog’s name also affected the owner’s psychology. Therefore, ancient Greeks chose names which expressed courage, power, speed, appearance, or other material or spiritual values. The name Xenophon himself chose for his own dog was “Impetus” (Ορμή).

Atalanti, on the other hand, the famous hunter of Greek mythology, named her dog ‘Avra’ (meaning aura or breeze).

Other notable dog names of antiquity that we know of are Impetuous  (Ορμητικός), Follower (Μεθέπων), The One Who Awakens You (Εγέρτης), Crow (Κόραξ), The Shining One (Λάμπρος), Good Shooter (Εύβολος), and, of course, Odysseus’ faithful dog, Argos.

The list of dog names from antiquity was supplemented by Polydeuces, who also mentioned names such as White (Λευκός), Ink (Μελανός), Flower (Άνθος), Storm (Θύελλα), Hunter (Κυνηγός), Digger (Σκαφτιάς) and Guard (Φύλαξ).

ancient greeks dogs
Ancient Rhyton in the shape of a dog’s head, painted by the Brygos Painter in the early 5th century. Credit: Clio20, /Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

Ancient Greeks’ love for dogs engraved forever on gravestones

After their loyal friend and companion departed from this world, ancient Greeks were not afraid to express their grief for their loss, weeping and mourning openly.

Greeks would bury their pets along the roadside in marked graves, and the entire ceremony for this was undertaken in a very solemn manner.

dog grave
Grave stele depicting two men and a dog, c. 400 BC. Credit:Mary Harrsch /Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

Archaeologists have uncovered countless epitaphs on tombstones that the Greeks dedicated to their furry friends.

“This is the tomb of the dog, Stephanos, who perished, whom Rhodope shed tears for and buried like a human. I am the dog Stephanos, and Rhodope set up a tomb for me” read one gravestone.

“Helena, foster child, soul without comparison and deserving of praise,” read another. The particular epitaph shows that some ancient Greeks, just like some people today, saw their dogs as their foster children.

In another case, a hunter mourned the female hound who had helped him hunt in the three Greek mountains mentioned on the tombstone: “Surely, even as you lie dead in this tomb, I deem the wild beasts yet fear your white bones, huntress Lycas; and your valor great Pelion knows, and splendid Ossa and the lonely peaks of Cithaeron.”

Another tombstone of a beloved family dog from Ancient Greece reads “You who pass on this path, if you happen to see this monument, laugh not, I pray, though it is a dog’s grave. Tears fell for me, and the dust was heaped above me by a master’s hand.”

Hundreds Feared Dead in Migrant Boat Disaster Off Greece

Greece Migrants
People covered practically every free stretch of the deck on a battered fishing boat before it sank. Credit: Hellenic Coast Guard

Hundreds of migrants are feared dead after the sinking of a migrant boat off southern Greece early on Wednesday in one of the deadliest migrant disasters in the Mediterranean.

Rescuers saved 104 passengers – including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians – and recovered 79 bodies. And the search went on early Thursday for more, with aircraft dropping flares to help search teams.

“It’s one of the biggest (such) operations ever in the Mediterranean,” Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV. “We won’t stop looking.”

The 25- to 30-meter (80- to 100-foot) boat is believed to have left the Tobruk area in Libya with at least 500 people on board.

A photo provided by Greece’s coast guard on Wednesday shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of the deck on a battered fishing boat that capsized and sank off southern Greece.

Migrant boat
A photo of the migrant boat shortly before it sank. Credit: Hellenic Coast Guard

Migrant boat refused help from Greece

Greece’s coast guard said it was notified by Italian authorities of the trawler’s presence in international waters. It said in a statement that efforts by its own ships and merchant vessels to assist the boat were repeatedly rebuffed, with people on board insisting they wanted to continue to Italy.

“They categorically refused any help,” Alexiou said.

After that first alert, Frontex aircraft and two merchant ships spotted the boat heading north, according to the Greek coast guard, and more aircraft and ships were sent to the area.

“In the afternoon, a merchant vessel approached the ship and provided it with food and supplies, while the (passengers) refused any further assistance,” a statement said. A second merchant ship later offered more supplies and assistance, which were turned down, it added.

In the evening, a coast guard patrol boat reached the vessel, “but they refused any assistance and said they wanted to continue to Italy.”

The coast guard boat accompanied the migrant vessel and later headed the rescue operation.

Fears that women and children have been trapped in the hold

The ship had been at sea for at least two days, and fears are voiced that women and children may have been trapped in the hold. All people rescued are male.

“The outer deck was full of people, and we presume that the interior (of the vessel) would also have been full,” Alexiou said. “It looks as if there was a shift among the people who were crammed on board, and it capsized.”

Reports say that while a Greek Coast Guard vessel was at the scene, the engine of the fishing vessel stopped working. Panic prevailed, resulting in a sudden movement of people. Due to the weight shift the boat overturned and the migrants found themselves in the water.

104 men on deck were rescued, while those in the cabins – including women and children – were swept to their deaths as the iron vessel sank.

The spot is close to the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea, and depths of up to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) could hamper any effort to locate a sunken vessel.

The Calypso Deep is the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea, located in the Hellenic Trench, Ionian Sea, 62.6 km southwest of Pylos. Credit: Wolfymoza , CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikipedia

Rescued migrants transferred to Kalamata, Greece

Those rescued were transferred to the nearby port city of Kalamata, where they are temporarily housed. By late Wednesday, 30 migrants were transferred to the hospital in Kalamata, where they were admitted.

Kalamata Mayor Thanassis Vassilopoulos told ANA-MPA that “the city has done whatever it can, in tandem with the regional unit of Messinia, the Red Cross, volunteers and others, to house the survivors, including providing clothes, mattresses and blankets, while water, portable toilets, showers, and tents have also been set up.”

He added, “Local residents have become aware [of the situation] and responded to a great degree, providing the necessary supplies to migrants; (…) the evening meal was provided by the local sports club.”

Greek public TV ERT reported that three people suspected of being the traffickers had been taken to the central port authority in Kalamata and were being interrogated.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited some of those rescued and expressed her sorrow for those who had drowned.

Greece´s caretaker prime minister, Ioannis Sarmas, declared three days of national mourning. Political parties announced they will halt their election campaigns

Electric Aircraft to Revolutionize Travel in Greece

electric aircraft Libra
An artist’s impression of an eVTOL aircraft flying over Greece. Credit: Libra Group

Electric aircraft to be acquired by Aria Hotels, one of the hospitality subsidiaries of the Libra Group, will offer a new traveling experience in Greece.

Starting around 2026 and in partnership with LCI Aviation, a sister company within the Libra Group, Aria Hotels will provide holiday-goers vacationing in and around its fifty properties across Greece with access to electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) to traverse Greece and its exceptional islands.

This paradigm-shifting technology allows guests to travel in a sustainable, time-efficient, and economical fashion, which is net-carbon zero, helping to protect the stunning ecosystem, Aria Hotels says in the announcement.

LCI, also a subsidiary of the Libra Group, recently signed an agreement with BETA Technologies (BETA), the developer of a fully integrated electric aviation system, to acquire up to 125 of the company’s eVTOL aircraft.

Electric aircraft produces zero operational emission

Under the terms of the deposit-backed agreement, LCI will initially acquire fifty aircraft with an option for a total of up to 125. The eVTOL aircraft are currently under development at BETA’s facility in Burlington, Vermont.

The eVTOL produces zero operational emissions with a maximum range of 250 nautical miles and is designed to carry five passengers and a pilot or 1,400 lbs (635 kgs) of payload.

The aircraft will provide sustainable solutions for a wide range of applications including cargo, medical, and passenger uses with true point-to-point operations.

Key advantages include the ability to recharge in under an hour, a net-zero emissions profile, and lower maintenance requirements. BETA is also developing charging infrastructure to support the electric aircraft, as well as electric ground vehicles.

Libra Group is “committed to advancing a clean energy”

Jaspal Jandu, CEO of LCI, says: “We are embracing this new era of sustainable flight and BETA Technologies’ innovative approach makes them a natural and credible partner for LCI.”

“We believe that the aircraft’s blend of rechargeable battery power, significant internal capacity, and plentiful range is an optimal one,” said Jandu, and “we are confident it will be a popular choice for operators and end-users seeking to develop and augment their fleets with this truly sustainable technology.”

“As a leading aircraft lessor with an established global track record, LCI has a strong pulse on what operators are looking for,” said Kyle Clark, Founder and CEO of BETA.

“We are gratified by their confidence that the solutions we’re building will answer the need for next generation, zero-emission electric aircraft,” Clark said. “We are excited to partner with LCI and push adoption of this solution forward within the industry.”

The new eVTOL aircraft will complement LCI’s existing fleet of modern helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as almost double the number of aircraft on its aviation platform to over 270 units.

In addition, LCI and its parent company, the Libra Group, whose subsidiaries own and operate assets in more than fifty countries, plan to share commercial, financial, and supply-chain expertise with BETA through well-established industry networks.

George Logothetis, Chairman and CEO of the Libra Group, stated that “as a global holding company, Libra Group and its subsidiaries are committed to advancing a clean energy future. Through this agreement, LCI will bring carbon-free transportation to customers around the world.”

Logothetis added: “The announcement by LCI is the tip of the spear in the innovation pivot of Libra Group and thus our entire organization. We look forward to continuing to partner with innovative and future thinking companies that can benefit from our global platform and to help catalyze the uptake of life-saving, transformative technologies across the world.”

Two-time Oscar-winning Actress Glenda Jackson Dies

Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson as a young actress. Public Domain

Oscar-winning actress and former MP Glenda Jackson has died at the age of 87, her agent has said.

Jackson became an international star in the 1970s, winning Oscars for Women In Love and A Touch of Class, and receiving two further nominations.

She was one of the few artists to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. She was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978.

She also starred as Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC drama Elizabeth R.

Politics was always important, and she gave up acting to join the House of Commons as a Labour MP in north London from 1992 to 2015. That included two years as a junior transport minister in Tony Blair’s New Labour government from 1997.

Screen career of Glenda Jackson

She later returned to the screen, winning a Bafta for her comeback role in the TV drama Elizabeth Is Missing in 2020.

Born in the western town of Birkenhead in England in 1936, Jackson joined an amateur theater group as a teenager before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

After graduating she starred on London’s West End and made her Broadway debut in 1965 in a production of “Marat/Sade.”

She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada) in London, and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963.

After making her name on stage, she won her first Oscar for playing a headstrong artist in director Ken Russell’s film of DH Lawrence’s novel Women in Love.

Her second Academy Award came three years later for A Touch of Class, a romantic comedy in which she played s fashion designer caught up in a catastrophic love affair with a US businessman.

She did not attend either ceremony, though, saying she was busy.

“All awards are very nice to have,” she told BBC Radio 4‘s This Cultural Life last year. “But they don’t make you any better.”

In 1978, she scored box office success in the United States in the romantic comedy House Calls, co-starring Walter Matthau, with the film spending two weeks at No. 1 in the US box-office rankings. House Calls was the biggest box-office hit of her career in the US.

In July 2022, the British Film Institute celebrated her film and television career with a month-long retrospective season at the BFI Southbank in London. As well as screenings of her work, the programme included Glenda Jackson in Conversation, in which she was interviewed about her career live on stage by broadcaster John Wilson

Greece Launches Inquiry into Deadly Migrant Shipwreck

Migrant shipwreck
The survivors were all men and spent the first night at a temporary accommodation in Kalamata, Greece. Credit: AMNA

Greece has launched two inquiries into the deadly migrant shipwreck that has claimed at least 78 lives, while many more perhaps hundreds are missing presumed dead.

Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos on Thursday appointed a Supreme Criminal Court deputy prosecutor to supervise the investigation, while the Kalamata Coast Guard announced the launch of its own inquiry into the sinking of the boat.

“There is not a specific number of arrests of persons suspected of being the traffickers of the irregular migrants on board the fatal fishing boat,” the Coast Guard said in a statement on Thursday.

It also amended the confirmed body count, saying the number of bodies recovered was 78 and not 79.

Bodies from migrant shipwreck transferred to Athens

The bodies of the dead migrants recovered after the sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Pylos were transferred to Athens on Thursday.

The bodies were transported in refrigerator trucks to a special facility in Schisto, in order to undergo post mortem examinations that will clarify the causes of death.

The autopsies will be carried out by the Coroner’s services in Athens and Pireaus as there in no such facility in Kalamata.

Meanwhile, a search-and-rescue operation to locate more persons missing at sea continued through the night in the area around the shipwreck, without success, as the number of persons rescued remains at 104 and no new dead bodies were recovered. Two coast guard vessels, a helicopter and six ships sailing in the area were participating in the search.

About 30 dead bodies were loaded onto refrigerator trucks at Kalamata port and samples will be taken from them for DNA analysis to aid in identification. The survivors that were not taken to hospital spent the night in a specially adapted area in the port.

Police, fire brigade and coast guard vehicles and personnel arrived at the port early in the morning to provide assistance in the operation, along with trucks bringing food and water.

Survivors of the shipwreck are all men

Talking to the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency, a nurse with the Hellenic Red Cross in Kalamata, Katerina Tsata, said that the first night had gone well and some of those taken to hospital had already returned.

She noted that the survivors were exhausted, both physically and mentally, and in need of psychosocial support, while many had been prescribed medication that the Red Cross was preparing to procure for them.

The survivors of the shipwreck are all men, aged between 16 and 40 years old, and the problems reported were mainly hypothermia, fainting and hypoglycemic episodes and pneumonia.

In the meantime, relatives who fear their loved ones were on board the fishing vessel have been desperately appealing for information, with some arriving in Kalamata port.

One man living in Germany was looking for his 18-year-old brother, whom he had last spoken to six days earlier and knew only that he set off from Syria to reach Italy.

Another man based in Cyprus knew that his nephew had been on board the fishing boat but was unable to find him among the survivors.

Kea Island: The Unsung Jewel of the Cyclades

Kea Island Greece
Chora or Ioulida is the capital of Tzia. Credit: Michael Paraskevas, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0/Wikipedia

Kea, called Tzia by most Greeks, is the closest Cycladic island to the Greek capital city of Athens.

Even though it doesn’t share the fame and glamor of Mykonos or Santorini, Kea has many of the best qualities travelers to the Greek islands are looking for.

And one doesn’t have to travel far from the capital to reach Kea. It is only 60 km (37 miles) from Athens, and one can be there in an hour by ferry from Lavrio, the site of the famous silver mines of ancient Greece.

The Long History of Kea

Speaking of ancient ruins, Kea’s history starts in the Bronze Age, with a settlement at a site now called Ayia Irini. The island reached its height in the Late Minoan and Early Mycenaean eras from 1600 to 1400 BC.

During the classical period, Kea was the home of Simonides and of his nephew Bacchylides, who were both ancient Greek lyric poets.

The inhabitants were known for offering sacrifices to the Dog Star, Sirius and to Zeus to bring cooling breezes. Coins retrieved from the island from the 3rd century BC feature dogs or stars with rays emanating from them, highlighting Sirius’ importance.

kea
The ancient Lion of Kea, c. 600 BC. Credit: Phso2/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

The island is known for an ancient stone-carved lion, known as the Lion of Ioulis (or Liontas), which was carved sometime prior to 600 BC.

Legend has it that once the island was home to water nymphs whose beauty made the gods jealous, so much that they sent a lion to lay waste the island.

During the Byzantine period, many churches were built on Kea and the prosperity of the island increased.

It was under Byzantine rule until it was captured by the Venetians after the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The Venetians built a castle on the ancient acropolis of Ioulis.

Kea Today

Today, Kea is popular with those who like the Cyclades but want to avoid its noisy and over-crowded alternatives such as Mykonos, Santorini, and Paros.

Chora, located in the centre of the island, is built on the grounds of the ancient town Ioulida, capital of Kea from the late Roman to early Byzantine times.
It’s a charming little town with traditional clay tile-roofed houses, stone-paved streets, little terraces, galleries and a challenging number of stairs. Don’t miss two significant structures built by Ernst Ziller (a famous 19th century architect), the new Town Hall and the Historic Municipal buildings.

Accommodations and overall expenses for your stay are less expensive on Kea, too. It is ideal for families and more adventurous travelers who like to discover new places.

The first thing one seeks on a Greek island is crystal-clear waters and sandy beaches to bask in the sun and cool off with a dip in the sea.

Kea has plenty of those: Otzias, Koundouros, Pisses, Gialiskari, Frea, Korissia, Kampi are only some of the beaches that beckon to winter-weary travelers.

Kea is an island for water sports lovers, as well. It has a long tradition of classic sailing, but the visitor can also engage in water skiing, wakeboarding, surfing, wake surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, jet-skiing, SUP, scuba diving, and all other kinds of water activities.

There are several water sports facilities on the island where one can find equipment and the appropriate trainers. Quite often, water sports races are held there, as well.

Those who like walking and rambling around to discover new vistas can use the cobblestone paths to explore Kea and admire its green ravine, remote, hidden coves, ancient ruins, and Byzantine chapels.

Manos Hatzidakis: The Composer Who Shaped Greek Music

Manos Hatzidakis
Manos Hatzidakis died on June 15, 1994. Public Domain

Along with Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis was Greece’s greatest composer—and his music can also easily be described as the soundtrack of 20th century Greece. His loss on June 15, 1994 deprived Greek music of one of its two main musical ambassadors.

Hatzidakis’ speech was as lyrical as his music, his words as poetic as those of any contemporary Greek writer. In 1960, he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his song “Never on Sunday,” from the film of the same name.

His autobiographical statements are better than any biography written about him.

His life in his own words

“I was born on October 23, 1925 in Xanthi, the one that was worth preserving, not the other one which was later built by the inland immigrants,” he said.

He said that at the time, “the coexistence of a copy of the Belle-Epoque along with genuine Turkish minarets, gave color and content in a social melting pot from all corners of the Greek world, who coincidentally found themselves living in the border region and dancing the Charleston in public squares.”

“My mother was from Adrianople, daughter of Konstantinos Arvanitidis, and my father from Myrthio of Rethymnon, Crete,” he revealed. “I am the birth product of two people who, as far as I know, have never worked together, except when they decided to make me. That is why I have within me thousands of contradictions and all the difficulties in the world. But my bourgeois consciousness, along with my so-called tenure as a European, brought an impressive result.”

“All my time in Xanthi I tried to get to know my parents in depth and to wipe out my sister,” he said of his life, but “I did not succeed in either. So we moved to Athens in ’32 where it was impossible for me to forget my failure.”

Hatzidakis said he “began to live and train in the capital while studying the love and poetic function of [his] time…[and he] received an Attica Education at a time when Attica and Education still existed.”

“I was deeply influenced by Erotokritos, General Makrygiannis, the Fix (beer) factory, Charalambos of (coffee shop) ‘Byzantium,’ the humid climate of Thessaloniki, and unknown persons who I met randomly and remained unknown to all the years afterward,” he said.

“During the (German) Occupation,” he recalled, “I realized how useless music lessons were, since they were treacherously removing me away from my original goals of communicating, channeling and disappearing, which is why I stopped them right after the Occupation.”

Hence, “I did not study in a Conservatory and therefore I saved myself from looking like a member of the Panhellenic Music Association,” he said.

Hatzidakis spoke of the poems and many songs he wrote and admitted that he had been “particularly involved in imparting [his] views through democratic processes, from which [he] benefited the most as an employee in recent years,” adding that “[he] avoided at all cost everything that hurt [his] erotic feeling and…personal sensitivity.”

“I traveled a lot,” he said, “and this helped me to understand that stupidity was not exclusively a product of our country, as the Greek chauvinists and lovers of nationalism continuously prove. At the same time, I discovered that the persons who interested me had to speak Greek, because communication in a foreign language was painful.”

Move to the US

Manos Hatzidakis lived in the US from 1965 to 1972, where he worked with many notable musicians, including Quincy Jones and Michael Kamen among others.

There, he recorded “Gioconda’s Smile” (Το Χαμόγελο της Τζοκόντα), a fully instrumental album, clocking in at just over 28 minutes, which eventually became his biggest-selling album in Greece.

“In ’66 I found myself in America,” he said. “I stayed there for six years, the years of the dictatorship, for purely tax reasons—it was revealed that I owed three and a half million to the state. After I repaid my debt, I returned around ’72 and founded a café called Polytropon, until the restoration of democracy in ’74, when I closed it because it was the era of stadiums (concerts) and the decompression of people.”

“I kept my temper and I avoided national dances or dances of the Resistance,” he continued. “When I closed down Polytropon I had a loss of about three and a half million—a fatal number, it seems, for my personal life.”

According to Hatzidakis, from 1975 and on, the famous clerical era begins, which made him well known to a large and uninformed audience, Greek of course, as a sworn enemy of Greek music, Greek musicians, and Greek culture.

“During this time,” he said “and after an unsuccessful heart attack, I tried again, unsuccessfully, to realize the same coffee shop ideas when in (public broadcaster) ERT and when in the Ministry of Culture, meaning to impose my views through democratic processes. However, both these organizations, which have been corroded and corrupt from  birth, managed to resist me successfully and, as they say, to defeat me. Nevertheless, at this time, the Third (public radio station) was born and imposed itself on the country.”

Hence, he managed to complete his “personality that has been traumatized since [his] childhood, ending up selling ‘lottery tickets in heaven’, and generating the respect from the younger generations that [he] remained a genuine Greek and a Great Erotic.”

Famous quotes by Manos Hatzidakis

“The only antibiotic to fight the beast inside us is Education.”

“When you get used to the beast, you get to look like it.”

“I don’t care about fame. It imprisons me in its own confines, not mine.”

“To make music, you need three things: art, technique, and experiences. Without them you can not write music.”

“I believe in songs that expose us and express us deeply—not those that flatter our frivolous and violently won habits.”

“The two enemies of politics and culture are populism and elitism.”

“If Greece never dies (as the marching song goes), it means that it will never be resurrected.”

American Tourist Fights Off a ‘Frisky’ Kangaroo in Hilarious Video

kangaroo fight
Credit: Video screenshot/TikiTok/@brooke.so.hip

An American tourist who had to fight off a “frisky” kangaroo while on holiday in Australia has become an internet sensation.

In a TikTok posted by @brooke.so.hip on June 11, a man was seen shielding a woman away from a small kangaroo trailing behind her at an enclosure in Perth, Western Australia. It’s garnered some 17.5 million views as of June 14.

@brooke.so.hip

My dad was just trying to make sure that kangaroo stopped getting frisky with that lady #kangaroo #dad #father #thatsmydad #fight #roo #wallabee #Australia #WesternAustralia #perth #aussie #aussiethings

♬ original sound – brooke.so.hip

“My dad was just trying to make sure that kangaroo stopped getting frisky with that lady,” @brooke.so.hip wrote in the video. In the video, the kangaroo was shown standing up and flailing its arms toward the man. The man then held the animal back with one hand.

The man was later shown lightly kicking the kangaroo away as it continued chasing him and another man, who looked to be much younger. At the end of the video, one staff member at the enclosure was shown sternly telling the kangaroo off.

Users on TikTok were thoroughly entertained by the video, with several users saying that the kangaroo was taunting the man.

One user wrote: “It’s like the kangaroo just wanted to have a bar fight because the dude was messing with his lady.”

“That kangaroo turns its head looked at the kid when he walked up like you wanna piece of me too,” another user wrote, referring to the young man in the video.

One user even had a piece of advice for the man who fought the kangaroo, writing that he should never hold the arms of the animal, as it “gives them the confidence to kick” back, which could have hurt him.

Tips to avoid kangaroo fights when in Australia

While a fatal kangaroo attack took place near Perth last September, it was the first in Australia since 1936. Death by kangaroo is extremely rare.

Both male and female kangaroos are large, powerful, wild animals that are capable of inflicting injury on people and they need to be treated with an appropriate level of respect and caution.

The Queensland government has provided the following safety tips for reducing interactions with kangaroos:

Never provide food or water

Providing food or water causes the animals to become dependent on humans and increase the chances of aggressive behaviour. Exposing them to an artificial diet may also cause health problems and create unnatural concentrations of animals. Making sure kangaroos find their own natural sources of food is important for your safety, the safety of other residents and visitors in the community and the health and welfare of the kangaroos.

Keep your distance

If you enter an area where kangaroos or wallabies live, give them as much space as possible. If you see one, stay away from it and watch how it behaves. If it moves toward you, or shows signs of being aggressive, move away (even if it is only looking for food or human contact, a kangaroo or wallaby may still become aggressive). Don’t act aggressively towards the kangaroo or wallaby, as this will simply reinforce the idea that you are a threat.

Manage your personal safety and avoid risks

Don’t shoo the roo. Avoid approaching them or encouraging them to move off using gestures or objects. This may frighten them and make them feel the need to defend themselves.

Don’t go near kangaroos engaged in courtship or mating behaviour for example, males sniffing, touching or moving round with females.

Don’t go near male kangaroos that are sparring, fighting or showing off their size and strength to each other.

Don’t go near a kangaroo that is growling or clucking.

Don’t move between a female and her joey. Females will protect young at foot and may become aggressive if they feel the presence of a person is a threat to their young.