Its rather sad after thousands years of surviving and repelling invaders from Persia , the Ottoman empire ,Mussolini , Hitler etc that the Greeks should now succumb to a third world invasion without offering any resistance. Tourists visiting the Temple of Hephaestus are presented with a spectacle of seeing immigrants urinating near the temple. Twenty-five centuries ago, Socrates lectured here. Today, Adbul Karim the illegal immigrant urinates here.
If anything, it is appalling (to the uninformed) how much both the music and the style of propaganda in general and on both (or three?) sides were not all that different from similar productions throughout Europe (and even the US).
You would think that an anti-fascist, anti-axis movement would have been able to conjure its own cultural (and/or propaganda) signature style.
Its rather sad after thousands years of surviving and repelling invaders from Persia , the Ottoman empire ,Mussolini , Hitler etc that the Greeks should now succumb to a third world invasion without offering any resistance. Tourists visiting the Temple of Hephaestus are presented with a spectacle of seeing immigrants urinating near the temple. Twenty-five centuries ago, Socrates lectured here. Today, Adbul Karim the illegal immigrant urinates here.
Turkey is faced with a similar problem today: the Syrian refugees. They seem to have nothing of value to contribute to the culture and economy of Turkey. After all, what do you expect from an immigrant society whose trademark is shouting "Allahu Akbar"?
"Tourists visiting the Temple of Hephaestus are presented with a spectacle of seeing immigrants urinating near the temple."
I was in Greece two years ago and five years ago, visiting temples. Not to doubt what you say, but I saw nothing of the kind. Temples were roped off, and there was security. When I was at the Athena tholos in Delphi, there was a security guard who was yelling at people to stay away from the temple.
Today is a special day for Greece, which was spectacular to me when I visited. The people are very friendly, and you can get to know people and their families in the blink of an eye.
The Syrians are fleeing a horrendous war including chemical warfare. What they are bringing to Turkey is hardly the point.
In any case historically Syrian refugees have been notably valuable to the business communities of other nations. I am thinking particularly of my own experience of Syrian immigrants to Jamaica. One Syrian/Lebanese descendent even became Prime Minister.
I will admit more recent waves of particularly Lebanese immigrants seem to be more interested in achieving success within the local crime networks, rather than in business innovation. But the Syrian folk arriving in Turkey are mostly regular families fleeing a nation that has been relatively peaceful (unlike the catastrophe that is Lebanon). IMO they will be good for Turkey in the long run.
The Syrians are fleeing a horrendous war including chemical warfare. What they are bringing to Turkey is hardly the point.
In any case historically Syrian refugees have been notably valuable to the business communities of other nations. I am thinking particularly of my own experience of Syrian immigrants to Jamaica. One Syrian/Lebanese descendent even became Prime Minister.
I will admit more recent waves of particularly Lebanese immigrants seem to be more interested in achieving success within the local crime networks, rather than in business innovation. But the Syrian folk arriving in Turkey are mostly regular families fleeing a nation that has been relatively peaceful (unlike the catastrophe that is Lebanon). IMO they will be good for Turkey in the long run.
Those Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to the New World were overwhelmingly from the Christian or Jewish groups of Syria and Lebanon respectively. As such, they were more educated or at least more open to education than the Muslims of those countries and also more secular-minded. In contrast, the Syrian refugees coming to Turkey are overwhelmingly Muslim, and more often than not from the Islamist Muslim factions (as you may know, the biggest enemies of Asad are the Islamists).
Onur, if you want to talk politics, then Turkey is devolving from the secular state it was intended by Ataturk. There appear to be problems everywhere. Unfortunately.
Turkey has never been a secular state in the full sense of the word. Does a fully secular state harbor a government agency whose sole purpose is to fulfill all the needs of a single religious sect (Sunni Islam) and its adherents? Turkey has such a government agency called the Presidency of Religious Affairs, which is funded with the taxes collected from every citizen of Turkey, be it Muslim or non-Muslim. It was founded by Ataturk, the so-called secularizer of Turkey, as a direct continuation of the office of Sheikh ul-Islam and the ulama of the Ottoman Empire. So much for Ataturk's secularization of Turkey! Since the Ottoman times the society has secularized a lot, and is still secularizing, but the state has not changed that much in its approach to religion.
9 comments:
Seems to be a good documentary overall (do not know how much propagandist though), and good music.
Its rather sad after thousands years of surviving and repelling invaders from Persia , the Ottoman empire ,Mussolini , Hitler etc that the Greeks should now succumb to a third world invasion without offering any resistance.
Tourists visiting the Temple of Hephaestus are presented with a spectacle of seeing immigrants urinating near the temple.
Twenty-five centuries ago, Socrates lectured here. Today, Adbul Karim the illegal immigrant urinates here.
Onur,
If anything, it is appalling (to the uninformed) how much both the music and the style of propaganda in general and on both (or three?) sides were not all that different from similar productions throughout Europe (and even the US).
You would think that an anti-fascist, anti-axis movement would have been able to conjure its own cultural (and/or propaganda) signature style.
Its rather sad after thousands years of surviving and repelling invaders from Persia , the Ottoman empire ,Mussolini , Hitler etc that the Greeks should now succumb to a third world invasion without offering any resistance.
Tourists visiting the Temple of Hephaestus are presented with a spectacle of seeing immigrants urinating near the temple.
Twenty-five centuries ago, Socrates lectured here. Today, Adbul Karim the illegal immigrant urinates here.
Turkey is faced with a similar problem today: the Syrian refugees. They seem to have nothing of value to contribute to the culture and economy of Turkey. After all, what do you expect from an immigrant society whose trademark is shouting "Allahu Akbar"?
"Tourists visiting the Temple of Hephaestus are presented with a spectacle of seeing immigrants urinating near the temple."
I was in Greece two years ago and five years ago, visiting temples. Not to doubt what you say, but I saw nothing of the kind. Temples were roped off, and there was security. When I was at the Athena tholos in Delphi, there was a security guard who was yelling at people to stay away from the temple.
Today is a special day for Greece, which was spectacular to me when I visited. The people are very friendly, and you can get to know people and their families in the blink of an eye.
The Syrians are fleeing a horrendous war including chemical warfare. What they are bringing to Turkey is hardly the point.
In any case historically Syrian refugees have been notably valuable to the business communities of other nations. I am thinking particularly of my own experience of Syrian immigrants to Jamaica. One Syrian/Lebanese descendent even became Prime Minister.
I will admit more recent waves of particularly Lebanese immigrants seem to be more interested in achieving success within the local crime networks, rather than in business innovation. But the Syrian folk arriving in Turkey are mostly regular families fleeing a nation that has been relatively peaceful (unlike the catastrophe that is Lebanon). IMO they will be good for Turkey in the long run.
The Syrians are fleeing a horrendous war including chemical warfare. What they are bringing to Turkey is hardly the point.
In any case historically Syrian refugees have been notably valuable to the business communities of other nations. I am thinking particularly of my own experience of Syrian immigrants to Jamaica. One Syrian/Lebanese descendent even became Prime Minister.
I will admit more recent waves of particularly Lebanese immigrants seem to be more interested in achieving success within the local crime networks, rather than in business innovation. But the Syrian folk arriving in Turkey are mostly regular families fleeing a nation that has been relatively peaceful (unlike the catastrophe that is Lebanon). IMO they will be good for Turkey in the long run.
Those Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to the New World were overwhelmingly from the Christian or Jewish groups of Syria and Lebanon respectively. As such, they were more educated or at least more open to education than the Muslims of those countries and also more secular-minded. In contrast, the Syrian refugees coming to Turkey are overwhelmingly Muslim, and more often than not from the Islamist Muslim factions (as you may know, the biggest enemies of Asad are the Islamists).
Onur, if you want to talk politics, then Turkey is devolving from the secular state it was intended by Ataturk. There appear to be problems everywhere. Unfortunately.
@Gabriella Kadar,
Turkey has never been a secular state in the full sense of the word. Does a fully secular state harbor a government agency whose sole purpose is to fulfill all the needs of a single religious sect (Sunni Islam) and its adherents? Turkey has such a government agency called the Presidency of Religious Affairs, which is funded with the taxes collected from every citizen of Turkey, be it Muslim or non-Muslim. It was founded by Ataturk, the so-called secularizer of Turkey, as a direct continuation of the office of Sheikh ul-Islam and the ulama of the Ottoman Empire. So much for Ataturk's secularization of Turkey! Since the Ottoman times the society has secularized a lot, and is still secularizing, but the state has not changed that much in its approach to religion.
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