The real enemy

How could the Turks appreciate the reaction in western Europe to their destruction of the first contingent of philhellenes at the battle of Peta in Epirus (1822), or to the massacre of Chios, immortalised by Delacroix? The names os Byron and Shelley, Goethe, Schiller and Victor Hugo meant nothing to the Sultan, but these were his real enemies. He was left to depend on Metternich and Castlereagh - an unequal match, as history was to show.
C.M. Woodhouse, Modern Greece: A Short History, chapter 5

Delacroix: Scenes from the Massacre at Chios

It is difficult to know where to begin with the contrasts with current times. The idea of a modern figure from 'high' literature or art commanding or even reflecting public opinion in political matters, let alone influencing the fate of nations (or would be nations) can scarcely be contemplated. Where is the modern Goethe or Byron or Delacroix? The idea of such a figure existing at all in our present culture seems remote. It is now almost three-quarters of a century since Picasso painted his picture in response to the bombing of Guernica. 

Maybe I've missed something, but now it seems to be campaigning (and possibly fund raising) by such as Bob Geldof or Bono. Yet their efforts seem more executive or political than imaginative. A few decade after Delacroix's Chios the novels of Charles Dickens anatomised the social, political and economic ills of his day, interweaving them with his imaginative and emotional energy. No-one now writing or painting or whatever seems able to perform the same much needed service for our own times.

(The Sultan might be held to have got his own back - eventually. A copy of the Delacroix was hung in the Byzantine museum in Chios in 2002 but was removed late in that year as gesture of raprochement towards the Turks. The Greek press protested. Guernica's location of course followed a different course.)

Greece confronts its nemesis

We are all Greece's inheritors

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/13/greece-bankrupt-ablaze-cradle-democracy

Calculation

Sachinidis added: "The consequences of disorderly default would be incalculable for the country – not just for the economy … it will lead us onto an unknown, dangerous path."

A calculation is a deliberate process for transforming one or more inputs into one or more results, with variable change.

The English word derives from the Latin calculus, which originally meant a small stone in the gall-bladder (from Latin calx). It also meant a pebble used for calculating, or a small stone used as a counter in an abacus.

A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over.

More and more minimum

After the Greek government held out to almost the last moment, as politicians, who had in their own minds accepted new austerity cuts, wanted to demonstrate to the public their extreme reluctance to do so, the 'troika', the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, now have their own turn at brinkmanship in refusing to activate the latest stage of the 'bailout' until the Greek government provides 'proof' of its intention to implement the new cuts (or perhaps even the old ones).

Whatever the scepticism, it is beyond reasonable doubt that the Greek public are suffering severely from the austerity already imposed upon them. It is often reported that part of the new programme demanded is a cut of twenty per cent in the Greek minimum wage. It is seldom reported what the current minimum actually is. I believe it is rather less than half that in the UK. The argument in Greece is that the cut will stimulate economic growth and hence employment. This is one that we heard here several years ago when the UK minimum wage was first introduced and it was claimed it would destroy jobs, but it largely fell away as a false fear. Different circumstances perhaps.