Sunday 2 November 2008

Dormirse en los laureles






Segovia









The Aqueduct












The Cathedral







The Alcazar







I am jealous. I envy this country (Spain). Compared to my country, this one is so clean, so nice, so beautiful. There's enough space for people to breath, for children to play, for animals to live. I don't know why our country is so abandoned (my Spanish teacher told me she went to Athens some years ago and the city was 'abandonada'). Why?

Segovia is a candidate city for the European Capital of Culture for 2016. The European Capital of Culture-as wikipedia informs us-was initiated by the Greek Minister of Culture in 1985, Melina Mercoury. Athens was the first European Capital of Culture in 1985, then Thessaloniki in 1997 and more recently Patra in 2006. However, I doubt that the Greek cities can compare to the most European cities, in terms of cleanness, green, recycling and legacy maintenance.

Athens.5 million people in a city. Half of the Greek population. 'Who cultivates the earth?', my flatmate asked. It's true, among the inhabitants of my village there are only few who are young. Everybody flees to the big city.So much money given by E.U., nothing, however, happened. No civilization (I mean a modern one, of here and now), no space, no green, no parks..Fuck! I thought that being a politician means working for the citizens' well-being (respectively, citizens would vote for those who work for their own well-being). I am jealous.

Today I came across this expression in Spanish dormirse en los laureles. Yes, it comes from ancient Greek and means 'Resting on your laurels' in Greek 'επαναπαύομαι στις δάφνες μου' (in ancient Greece, the winners of a race were given a laurel wreath and we use this expression to say 'Don't stop now because you get this, you need to continue, don't give up your effort). And it is true that many Greeks (e.g. politicians) still rest on their (?) laurels using the bright of the past as an alibi...(We invented everything, we...we..we...). Come on, what's this? Bullshit. It's high time we did something ourselves. What we should do first is to take some lessons from some other countries. I really hope that the next generation of politicians will work to make us feel really proud of being Greeks.

Click on the pictures to see them full-screen.
Should you like more information about Segovia and the sights depicted in the pictures:
www.segovia.es
wikipedia


PS1. I write my posts in English to practise the language and also to give the opportunity to some non-Greek friends to read my blog. Of course, you can comment in Greek if you want.
PS2. No comments on the PS1, please!

3 comments:

pareisaktos said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pareisaktos said...

Οι πόλεις δεν φτιάχνονται από τη μια μέρα στην άλλη. Ας μηn ξεχνάμε: ενώ στη Δύση "αναγεννιούνταν" εμείς ζούσαμε "κάτω απ' το σκοτάδι". Όταν αρχές του περασμένου αιώνα οι ευρωπαϊκές πρωτεύουσες ζούσαν την πρώτη τους μεγάλη ανάπτυξη, εμείς υποδεχόμασταν 1,5 εκατομμύριο πρόσφυγες. Και βέβαια ας μην ξεχνάμε και τον Ελύτη: "...αλλά λίγο το νερό για να το 'χεις Θεό και να κατέχεις τι σημαίνει ο λόγος του και το δέντρο μονάχο του χωρίς κοπάδι για να το κάνεις φίλο σου..."
Έλαχε.
Δεν δικαιολογώ τη σημερινή κατάντια της πόλης μας. Απλά, κάποια (διαχρονικά) ελαφρυντικά.

Unknown said...

salia moy :)
s'eyxaristoume pou eisai taxidiaris kai mas pairneis mazi soy :)

din - din