The most interesting aspect of the soaring number of foreign tourists in Athens, in any case a welcome phenomenon, lies in its potential to better our self-understanding.
The situation in the Western Balkans is (once again) cause for concern. In Kosovo, tensions between the ethnic-Albanian majority and ethnic Serbs are a near-daily occurrence, while in North Macedonia, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party is expected to win in presidential and parliamentary elections.
It is strange to see events that we have experienced in this country happening in unexpected places – like the campus of Columbia University in New York, for example.
These days of Easter, when we meet with beloved family and friends, and count our blessings and the dear ones lost, as we celebrate nature’s renewal and the expectation of Resurrection, our minds turn to a group of our people who were cut off from the nation’s body at a very young age and are now trying to win back the Greek citizenship.
The tragedies at Mati and Tempe, and what followed, strengthen the lack of trust which nests inside us and determines how we see the world and what we do.
In the ever-deepening confoundment of the Palestinian-Israeli war, the protests now igniting on US college campuses offer little enlightenment other than to further testify to the extent to which this seemingly remote regional conflict is infiltrating much of American cultural and political life.
International energy rates have contracted, as have domestic ones. Nevertheless, the price of electricity in Greece remains among the highest in Europe.
The time demands that the European Union acts. The problems are evident, from the two wars on its borders and the climate crisis, to the demographic collapse of member-states and the tremors in the international system of political and economic governance.
Developments at Columbia University and other campuses in the United States and the arrest of protesting students cannot but cause alarm – regardless of whether or not one agrees with their point of view – about the freedom of speech.
A few days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Greek government responded positively to the request to send a weapons package to the defending country.
OPINION
