Letter from Thessaloniki
By the time you read this, the question as to who – Papandreou or Karamanlis – has, at last, got the other on the run will have been answered. However, that was not so at the time of writing. I am listening right now to Camille Saint-Saens usual syrup in Delilah’s duplicitous «Mon Coeur» aria. «Samson and Delilah» was last week’s offer of recordings of great operas with Kathimerini. When evaluating this particular opera, one always ponders the fragility of life. Just as in elections. Incidentally, the last opera we saw here in Thessaloniki was Verdi’s «Aida.» Although the orchestra and ballet came from Egypt, the singers (Norma Fantini and Nicola Martinucci) as well as the director (Paolo Micciche) and the conductor (Nader Abbasssi) were from Italy. It was an Opera of Thessaloniki production. This occurred two weeks ago, and was shown for just three nights. It was quite a major event for the city, although sadly there were no elephants and camels, which enlivened the stage of the Terme di Caracalla in Rome, as I have them in mind from the years I lived in the eternal city. Still, Fantini could hit a high C in Thessaloniki’s Dassos Theater, out in the open. Listening now to the strains of «Samson and Delilah,» I cannot help being reminded that Samson was the first hero – Jewish – who was a suicide killer. Let’s remember that the action of the opera takes place in a square in Gaza in 1150 BC. Samson is the leader of the Hebrews, who are occupied by the Philistines (the ancient Palestinians) and fights against them. During a bacchanal in Act III, the blind Samson is led between two pillars in the Temple of Dagon (the god of «the others») where, with mighty effort, he pulls down the temple, crushing himself and his foes. That was in 1150 BC. Last Tuesday (September 11, 2007), after Palestinian militants fired a rocket into an army base in southern Israel, injuring dozens of soldiers, Israeli politicians stepped up calls for a major military assault on the Gaza Strip. History repeats itself. Well, perhaps in some cases. Which is not the case for Greece. If we lived in a parallel universe 50 years ago, we could well have marked similar events happening right now – unchanged. Let me borrow from Michalis Katsigeras’s column «50 Years Ago Today» and go half a century back to 1957. The papers reported: – Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis was 51 years old and was the youngest PM in Greece’s history when he came to this high position at the age of 48. (His nephew, current PM Costas Karamanlis, had his 51st birthday two days ago and became prime minister three years ago, too.) – In 1957, the Greek media predicted a five-party Parliament resulting from the 1958 elections. Predictions were confirmed. – At that time the leader of the opposition, named Georgios Papandreou (grandfather of the current opposition leader), was strongly contested in his own party by some Venizelos (who’s first name was Sophocles). – In the 50s, Turkey was governed by Adnan Menderes, a politician who was well liked by the people in general and became increasingly unpopular among a group of radical young officers in the military, who feared that the ideals of Ataturk were in danger. – In the Red Scare years of the Cold War, Karamanlis angered Washington by enlarging the country’s commercial dealings with Moscow and its satellites by 1,100 percent between 1952 and 1958. (The story is being repeated today with the Russian pipeline.) – There were major calamities, natural disasters and earthquakes in the region of Volos at the time, causing thousands to become homeless. A museum in Volos was destroyed and since then has never reopened. – That was quite a year, 1957, the year of birth of Osama Bin Laden, pop-singer Anna Vissi, basketball player Nick Galis and PASOK politician Evangelos Venizelos. Now about colors. In the USA, the Democrats use blue and the Republicans have red as their traditional colors, while in Europe the left-wing parties traditionally use red and the conservatives frequently, although not always, use blue. In Greece, New Democracy uses blue, PASOK green, the Communists red and the smaller parties various color combinations. By doing so, all the parties intend to show their patriotism, and, with the adoption of color television, this practice also serves greatly on electoral maps. «Yes, but it’s not quite as easy as that,» the editor-in-chief of an English paper lectures a young reporter who is about to cover elections somewhere in Africa. The following paragraph is from «Scoop,» one of the wittiest novels by Evelyn Waugh (1938). It is a dialogue which takes place in London and which I simply have to quote here. «I gather it’s between the Reds and the Blacks.» «Yes, but it’s not quite as easy as that. You see, they are all Negroes. And the Fascists won’t be called black because of their racial pride, so they are called White after the White Russians. And the Bolshevists want to be called black because of their racial pride.» «So when you say black you mean red, and when you mean red you say white and when the party who call themselves blacks say traitors they mean what we call blacks, but what we mean when we say traitors I really couldn’t tell you…» Political contests are usually thought of as binary affairs: A candidate runs as a «right blue» or as a «center green» or as a «left red.» One stays up to celebrate, or concedes and goes to bed.
