A message for  Benjamin Franklin

Hello Kanelle and others, Thank you, Kanelle, for this: https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1313 I write to you in English, Kanelle, so that Phillip Adams and everyone else can be part of the conversation. Phillip is not the relatively well-known veteran Australian journalist of the same name. He is a Greek-Australian who played a sterling role in the defence of Julian Assange. He participated in an online tribute to Julian that was held on Australia Day in Athens in 2019. I can put it online for you if you want it, but for the moment I will just post this extract where Phillip is speaking:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vtxjw675yc Phillip knows more about the post-imprisonment situation with Assange than I do, but Assange is in danger of being forgotten, along with Reiner Fuellmich and others who have  taken more risks than the mainstream wants citizens to  remember. Nowadays Phillip campaigns against the atrocities taking place in Palestine. He likens them to the historical experience of aborigines in Australia (continuing to the present day in his analysis). In the context of the historical record, on 1st February he posted:  https://www.facebook.com/YugambehNation/posts/pfbid0ivBYmJUNoPTAkFhYDXvTqd1XP4RtjkRfsdRgaPLNpRejH1LGQ6P71Eg271mkBd36l There were numerous reactions to it. I cite only those that strengthen what I myself want to say: Tim Robinson … Continue reading

Looking at democracy

The Greek historian Herodotus, who grew up a subject of the Persian Empire, attributes the following to the young Darius as the latter engaged in comradely debate with fellow-conspirators: “In a democracy malpractices are bound to occur. Corrupt dealings in government services lead not to private feuds, however, as in oligarchies, but to close personal associations,(to collusion), with people putting their heads together and mutually supporting one another. This continues until somebody comes forward as the people’s champion and breaks up the cliques which are out for their own interests. This wins him (her?) the admiration of the mob and this person finds himself (herself?) entrusted with absolute power.” The implication is that the cycle will then start again from the beginning. When Darius became emperor of Persia, his remedy for corruption was execution of those deemed to be corrupt. In more recent times such as following the failed English revolution of the 17th century, reforms were carried out in Britain and the United States to counter corruption through “separation of powers”, including bicameral legislatures, with elected parliaments monitored and supervised by “their betters”. . Bicameral parliaments are supposed to make possible some kind of check or limitation on corruption. … Continue reading

Capodistrias – Aegina

January is the month of celebrations in Aegina in honor of Ioannis Capodistrias. Since the early years of the 21st century, the Aegina Association of Active Citizens has been campaigning for greater recognition of Capodistrias as a pioneer of European integration. In 2013, we secured the support of former Italian MEP Giulietto Chiesa for our effort to gain wide recognition of this historical reality. On January 26, 2019, the anniversary of the founding of the modern Greek state in Aegina in 1828, a function was held very close to the Acropolis in Athens in honor of the courageous and long-suffering Australian journalist Julian Assange, in the hope that he would not suffer the same fate as Capodistrias. This was done even though Capodistrias had no connection with Athens but rather with Aegina, Athens’ historical rival, as well as with Corfu (where he was born) and Nafplio (where he was assassinated). Giulietto Chiesa had been removed from the European Parliament in response to his film on the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. Since Chiesa’s visit to Aegina in 2013 and his death in 2020, the European Union’s prestige has declined significantly. Among other things, Chiesa’s warnings … Continue reading

Preparing for 2028 (26th January)

https://halva.proboards.com/post/3143 Colleagues, On Friday December 12 (2025) the Steering Committee (of which I am a member) of the Aegina Active Citizens’ Association rejected my proposal for projection with the support of the Aegina Women’s Association but in the name of the Aegina Active Citizens’ Association, and prior to the annual celebrations in Aegina of the founding on 26th January 1828 of the modern Greek state, of a brief video https://youtu.be/V6GD_RrP02o exposing the coincidental fact that 26th January is also the date when Western civilization came to Australia in the form of a British penal colony in what is now Sydney. As Australia’s national day the appropriateness of 26th January is now disputed, but in a manner which the majority of Australians clearly find degrading and insulting. In Greece, 26th January, the date when modern Greece’s assassinated first governor was sworn in and the modern Greek state established in 1828, is not officially recognized as a national day except, after years of lobbying by Capodistrias adherents and Aeginetans, it was recognized by presidential decree, as a national day “of local significance”. The steering committee questioned the relevance in Aegina of references to Australia and was not convinced by the argument that … Continue reading