Posted on 06/29/2008 10:58:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
...Amid unprecedented protests from tour guides, travel companies and tourists irritated by conditions at prime archaeological sites, the ruling conservatives last week rushed hundreds of additional personnel to staff museums and open-air antiquities... The move follows embarrassing revelations over the upkeep of Greece's ancient wonders and mounting public disquiet, voiced mostly by foreigners in the local press, over visitor access to them.
Yesterday, the authoritative newspaper Sunday Vima disclosed that the Cycladic isle of Delos - the site of Apollo's mythological sanctuary and one of Greece's most important ancient venues - resembled an "archaeological rubbish dump". Recently, it emerged that many sites, including Delphi, Mycenae and the spectacular Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri on the popular island of Santorini, were only partially open or permanently closed.
In an effort to stem the criticism, the conservatives last week ordered that opening hours be extended at museums and sites nationwide. Following the timetable of civil servants, sites had opened at 8am and closed by 3pm, denying thousands of tourists, especially those on cruise ships, the chance to see them...
"What we are seeing is the indifference of a government that simply does not make culture a priority," the shadow culture minister, Maria Damanaki, told the Guardian...
Ancient theatre of Epidavros was the site of chaotic scenes following strikes by cleaners at its two toilets.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
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The article mentioned that the ruling party was "conservative" at least twice. |
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Whoever heard of inviting company over for dinner, but not cleaning the house in preparation for the visit? The Greeks, would be MY guess.
*sheesh*
Idiots
Hellenism alert!
The Guardian operates using stealth tactics. There is so much more to this hit piece.
The story is far more complex and compelling than this kind of ambush “journalism” would want us to believe.
The running battle lies here really...with the struggle to return to Greece the stolen Parthenon Marbles (now placed forlornly and being damaged at the British Museum) to where they belong - at the Parthenon.
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/EasyJet-founder-gets-Elgin-marbles.4186878.jp
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
Talk about run-down.
That place is in ruins!
I’ll go sit in the corner now.
Thanks for that link.
This is also VERY funny!
Timeto bring in the Armenians to do the work!
SOMEbody need to!
What. Did they fire all the maids?
Put me on your GGG list, please.
But the story's ulterior motive stems from the attempt on the part of the Brits to maintain their clutches on the stolen Parthenon Marbles.
We were at some of the most important sites last summer (Delphi, Acropolis, Mycenae, etc) and we found a very clean, organized albeit crowded environment amidst the majesty of the sites.
BTW-Ursus: I will take your comment about the Armenians as a silly remark made in jest. I am sure you realize that the Greek and Armenian people have shared much devastation by barbaric Muslims and both nations are willing to do MUCH more than help clean each other's facilities.
love it!
We get over to Greece fairly regularly. I can’t say as I ever found that the ancient sites were dirty. I did notice that the British tourists were, and generally drunk too, probably from drowning the shame brought on them by that thief Elgin.
“Timeto bring in the Armenians to do the work!”
DU, we use Albanians for that sort of work, not Armenians who are our brothers.
I believe, for what it’s worth, that ALL antiquities, no matter where they are housed, should be returned to the countries they were stolen from.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
What happens when, as in the case of Asia Minor now the parastate of Turkey, the invaders - the Turks - take over and commit human and cultural genocide destroying every vestige of Hellenism as they did in Asia Minor...the surviving Greeks who example escaped to the motherland Greece —but the relics and artifacts etc of a 5000 year old civilization remain in Turkey for the most part abandoned, destroyed, whitewashed, and the few great Christian churches that survived turned into warehouses and mosques.
Hmmm...what happens then? Who gets to claim the treasures——those who created them (Greeks) or those who tried to destroy them (Turks)?
There. Does that clear up the confusion?
Again, in the case of asia minor...those people who created the legacy no longer exist. They were exterminated by the invaders the Turks and the descendants of those who survived now live in another country—Greece.
The Turks have mostly obliterated what was left. The rest thay exploit for eceonomic gain.
What can I say? Eventually, all things will be restored.
Of course.
The Parthenon Marbles: that’s an easy one - but apparentlyt not for the Brits..
They should be returned to where it originated in the land of the originators.
Brits have been too hoggish over too many things/people/countries for too many years. But don’t quote me.
They’re ruins, so how can one tell they’re not being kept up?
“Me and Ringo are painting Buckingham Palace.” — George Harrison
None of those exist any longer; however, if Italy continues to be aggressive to the point of dishonesty regarding the “return” of “looted” antiquities, it should be penalized by being forced to return the dozens of Egyptian obelisks carted in by the Roman Empire. :’)
None of those exist any longer...
AS for Italy returning antiquities—where would one return the four horsemen residing in St. Marks’s snatched so brutally from Constantinople in the 13th century?
http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Venice/San_Marco/Basilica_San_Marco/Four_Horses.htm
Yah. Thieves will fight to the death for what they got by illegal means. The number of thieves caught tells us that, so why should a country be any different when it comes to stolen antiquities?
So, those horsemen should be returned to Istanbul, no problem. Is that what YOU were referring to?
Look—I am not arguing with you about anything -——just trying to clarify. You said this:
“None of those exist any longer”
I am just wonderng what you were referring to? I must be missing something....
As for the horsemen stalled in Venice......logically they should be returned to Greece.
Take that away, and the ruins would revert to their inevitable disappearance.
Limit the interest to the locals and these sites would simply disappear.
The locals concentrate on what really matters to them: surviving, or catching up with the 17th century.
National pride is a wonderful thing; but that is silly.
Left to themselves, the present Greeks have neither the resources nor the inclination to spend national effort and wealth. No tourist $, no interest.
Your post siginifies nothing really..except an unhealthy bias against the Hellenic people. A strange way of scapegoating your own ignorance.
The Greek people have managed to conserve their past even though barbarians (like the Taliban in Afghanistan) from Turks to Germans have done what they could to destroy that past.
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