Thursday 13 June 2013

Greece - Speech by Alexis Tsipras, 13/6/2013

Excerpts from speech by leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, just broadcast by ERT:

'Who would have thought that in 2013 we would experience the gagging of state television?'

'The way they are going, they will take our homes - or rather, the banks will take them.'

'From now on, they will gag whoever disagrees with them.'

'They've silenced the voice of Greece. They've silenced our culture.'

'We've never experienced a dictatorship, but we're experiencing something similar.'

'They told Colonel Stournaras [Minister of Finance] to turn off the signal.'

'Colonel Stournaras ordered the closure of TV stations that relay the ERT signal.'

'After this, there isn't one TV station that won't want to relay the signal.'

'This is not 1967. It is 2013.'

'This is not the end of public television. This is the end of Samaras.'

'Mr Samaras - this is the end of nepotism, of cronyism.'

'There is a real Greece - where people want jobs, where there is culture, where people want to live with dignity.'

Greece - ERT Closure - EBU broadcasts rolling news programme from occupied studios in Athens

This has been a strange couple of days in Greece. There is no need for me to tell you what has happened - it's made the news all over the world. This post is just to let you know that ERT is still broadcasting - even though the government has shut down the signal in Greece.

Riot police break into the ERT facility on Hortiatis mountain, Thessaloniki, to close down the transmitter:


However, ERT journalists continue to broadcast. The European Broadcasting Union  has created this link, where you can watch the news programme coming out of Athens:

http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/news/2013/06/monitor-ert-online.html

That's all. Maybe I'll give some analysis later.




Saturday 8 June 2013

from Retreat

Gus dialed the number. He looked at his watch. The kids would be home from school.

'Hello?'

'Susie?' said Gus.

'Daddy! Mummy, it's daddy!'

He heard muffled voices.

'Gus?'

'Hey, how are you?'

'Are you for real? I've been worried sick. That number you gave me doesn't work, you idiot.'

He could feel it starting again. He scanned the front of the phone, but there was no information on it. 'That was the number they gave me,' he said.

'You should have phoned when you got there. The kids have been up the walls. Susie...'

'How is everyone?' he said.

'How the hell do you think they are?!'

He looked at the pile of coins in his hand.

'...and I had to take Malcolm to the clinic yesterday, he's got a sore ear. If you were here, you would know...'

'I have to go,' he said.

'What do you mean you have to go? You've just...'

'Tell the kids I love them.'

'Daddy!' It was Susie. 'Daddy, when are you coming home?'

He looked at the receiver. He could hear the tiny voice coming out of it. He gently pushed his fist down on the cradle.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

'Pistachio' by Andrew McCallum Crawford - published in McStorytellers

He only wanted two things, to drink and to write. Both were out of control. Consequently, he was more widely known as a drinker than a writer. He filled his mouth with wine. There are many ways to write a story, he knew, most of them a variation on a theme. As he swallowed, he closed his eyes. It wasn’t difficult to blank out the sounds of the other men in the cafeneio. He tried to concentrate on a single image – a woman’s face, and the eyes set in that face, eyes that looked at him, unblinking, as the woman spoke. This woman was beautiful. She scared him. He was trying to get to the point of understanding why, and of being able to put it into words.

*     *     *

You can read the complete story on the McStorytellers site.