The
Daily Gyro
Updated
Daily on
Greek Time
November 16, 2005
This edition of The Daily Gyro reminds us that Greece isn’t immune from the
major stories in the rest of the world, from pressure to withdraw troops from
halfway around the world, to student led rioting. On a lighter note, the near
future of Greek soccer remains in good hands with a two-year contract extension
granted to national team coach Otto Rehhagel.
Here’s the Gyro:
-
If it’s Thursday, then it’s time to riot.
For those who haven’t noticed, Thursday is November 17th, which used
to be the name of a now defunct Greek terrorist organization which took its
name from the day of a 1973 student uprising against the military junta which
was then in charge of Greece. With the wave of rioting by French youth in
France, sympathy rioting against French assets in Greece has already started
and police fear that Thursday will be a high-water mark with peaceful protests
marking the anniversary already scheduled. Police in Athens already started
towing cars around Athens Polytechnic, the site of the 1973 revolt, and over
6500 police officers will be posted along the protest route that always ends at
the U.S. Embassy, for accusations that the US backed the junta. Along with the
mainstays of Greek demonstrators -- the peaceful ones, and the anarchists --
adding the above mentioned copy cat demonstrators and those who have been
recently protesting against Greek involvement in the UN military operations in
Afghanistan (where recent attacks on Greek troops have caused some concern)
could make Thursday quite hairy in the Greek Capital. Mixing reasons for
protest and protest groups is typically a recipe for disaster.
-
Greece’s plan to privatize struggling Olympic Airlines fell through on Tuesday
as the European Union ruled that Olympic benefited from illegal subsidies. With
all hopes of privatization in the short term lost, the new plan is to
restructure and re-launch the airline under a similar name. It’s gone from
Olympic Airways to Olympic Airlines. Here’s a thought. How about scrapping the
name “Olympic” for something with a little less of a curse on it? Face it, the
Olympics branding probably isn’t what it used to be, with the
over-commercialization of the event and all the doping.
-
What do the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the J. Paul Getty
Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Virginia Museum
of Fine Arts in Richmond, Toledo Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art,
and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Princeton University Art Museum
have in common? According to Italian authorities, these museums display
smuggled antiquities that Italy wants back. The allegedly smuggled items at
Princeton are two ancient Greek ceramic vases on display since 1989. Italian
authorities are apparently asking for these pieces back under the international
doctrine of “We stole it first.”
Other Servings of The Daily Gyro
06/30/2010
08/31/2009
08/03/2009
03/25/2009
08/28/2008
08/27/2008
08/13/2008
04/02/2008
03/25/2008
08/30/2007
08/14/2007
03/05/2007
02/14/2007
01/22/2007
11/06/2006
10/02/2006
09/18/2006
09/04/2006
09/01/2006
08/14/2006
07/13/2006
07/10/2006
06/25/2006
06/05/2006
05/03/2006
04/04/2006
03/22/2006
02/21/2006
01/30/2006
01/17/2006
01/11/2006
01/09/2006
01/05/2006
01/04/2006
12/12/2005
11/28/2005
11/16/2005
10/31/2005
10/17/2005
10/03/2005
09/12/2005
09/02/2005
08/29/2005
08/10/2005
07/27/2005
07/13/2005
07/06/2005
06/27/2005
06/13/2005
05/23/2005
05/16/2005
05/06/2005
05/02/2005
04/25/2005
04/18/2005
04/13/2005
04/08/2005
04/06/2005
04/04/2005
04/01/2005
03/30/2005
03/28/2005
03/25/2005
03/23/2005
Read
past feature articles.