Being 30

Today I became officially 30..
It's a wierd feeling which makes me smile...couldn't define it, until a friend who stood by me in difficult times sent me this:

“Being thirty is good.

Because twenties are finished. The ages of not knowing what to do, finding yourself drifted to strange shores and then trying to return to yourself from those shores are over. Didn’t you go far away from yourself following several men and women, and then try hard to become yourself again?

...

Now you stand on the hill between the sweetness of youth and wisdom of aging. Now you can take the roads without fear.You are now you.

What others think of you do not matter any more. You are now a rock, life hits your outskirts like ocean waves. The words, the malices fade like water bubbles. You stand still where you are. The wind sings over you, you smile.

...

But, you also know how to like yourself without exaggerating. You are wise, and nice. Although you feel deeply annoyed from time to time, you know how to heal yourself.

Being thirty is good. Because you are thirty!”

Ece Temelkuran, quoted and translated by a purple heart only for Kelebek.

It's true...this is how I feel....

Same Day: Fidel Castro stepped down after 60 years in power
In Juba-Sourthern Sudan, the LRA and the Ugandan Government signed an accord on the mechanisms implementing Agenda item 3 on Accountability and Reconciliation Agreement

Always wanted to go to Cuba before Castro's withdrawal and the events in Uganda are linked to article 53

Kosovo,Independence under international supervision or sui generis independence

And now what?

Same day Cyprus gave its own message.

Incumbent President Papadopoulos was defeated on the polls, by two less hard line politicians regarding the solution of the problem, based on the UN proposed plan....

Is reunification possible? maybe...Greek-cypriots seem to turn their back on partition..

as a greek coumnist wrote: Greek Cypriots said "no but" didn't say "no no" at 2004 referendum

interesting times for multiethnic entities.....

China, Olympics and Human Rights legitimacy

Yesterday Steven Spielberg resigned as artistic director of the Beijing Olympics, complaining about China's policy on Darfur.
The same day the Independent published a letter writen by a coalition of Nobel laureates, athletes, celebrities and politicians, urging China to use its economic influence on Sudan, to halt its genocidal policy on Darfur.
In New York the so called Olympic Dream for Darfur campaign, advocates against the so called "genocide olympics".

3 days ago I participated in a debate on universalism v. cultural relativism.
A participant from Africa told us, that Europeans have no right to condemn China about its Human Rights record cause they colonised, they massacred people and they systematically violated Human Rights in their recent past.

I'm puzzled..who can actually talk about Human Rights?How dangerous is the demand for purity?
What would the Ancient Greeks think about the use of Olympics in a campaign against China?
During the Olympic games in ancient times, wars stopped.
For me this is message that should be promoted...that's why I beleive in the idea of the Olympic Truce..
The rest seems so hypocritical to me and I cannot be part of ....

http://www.olympictruce.org/v2/index.html

Certification of being left....

Who is left?
Who has the right to call himself left?
Who can prohibit other people from considering themselves left?

The last days in Greece, the so called Αριστερά applies the most anachronistic policy of certification...
According to their standards I could never be considered left...cause I'm central left and this is not enough...
ironically enough, me the socialist caviar, consider myself more left than the new leader of the Left party who in a fascist and arrogant way decided to distribute certifications of ideological purity...
and he is only 33 years old...is there actually room for hope?

Relevant enough: Why do HR's people share a wooden language?
It's so depressing to hear the same manifesto over and over...

one photo, thousand words....Παρακράτος

Hand by Hand police officers and members of a racist/fasist group, attack leftist-antirasist-anarchist groups...

are we really surprised?

In the transitional period after 1974( fall of junta regime) there was no lustration procedure within the police forces..

as we say in Greek, there was no αποχουντοποίηση....

we can see the results in 2008...

an indicative case of non-existing transitional justice...

Who Am I?

I wanted long time now to write about the lost children of the Argentine Dirty War.

Between 1976-1983, 500 infants were stolen by their imprisoned mothers and given to military families.The mothers were assassinated after the birth.30.000 people are desaparecidos in Argentina...

Some days ago, I read about a documentary of an american-cuban director, titled " Who am I", describing the story of those stolen children, most of them in my age...30 years now carry a fake identity, having no idea about their real parents.

The heavy task of identifying all those kids has been undertaken by the so called Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.They are the same women who used to protest every Thursday afternoon, demanding the truth about their missing children...

I cannot continue writing...inhumanity is overwhelming and I feel tiny...

http://www.abuelas.org.ar/english/history.htm

McCain laughs, Sings Bomb Iran

scary...especially from someone who was imprisoned and tortured for 5 years in Vietnam...