Say hello to the press "à la grecque" !
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How many times have I heard, before leaving for Greece, with my sunglasses on and luggage in my hands: “Wait a minute, does Greece belong to the European Union?” It does, and for 27 years… 27 years? Don’t we normally say that in this country full of olive trees, one of Europe’s basic values, democracy, was born 2500 years ago?
Wasn’t it the place from where a very famous religion spread all over Europe? Don’t we generally consider that its ancient philosophers invented western philosophical thinking? And do you remember more recently the Greek cheesemakers’ fight that moved the European Institutions because they only wanted the real Greek “feta” cheese to be called “feta”?
However, I have travelled a lot of times since then to this oriental part of Europe and a more western part (France, to be precise), and I have noticed that everything that happens in Greece is still unknown in Europe. This small country was until a recent time cut from the border of any other European country and it sometimes seems to be an insignificant part of the EU, lost in the Mediterranean sea, far away from its big European body. This is particularly unfair because this country has to deal with some of the most important problems of contemporary Europe, such as clandestine immigration and also because of its geographical situation which is near the new European emerging countries. Also regularly this country organises some International cultural festivals with great success. And never forget that a very long time ago, a beautiful young woman called Europe was seduced by the king of Greek gods, Zeus himself.
Europhils and those who love Greece from all over the world, let’s prepare for a trip to a country so near and yet so far ! This is an invitation to discover Greece through the eyes and words of its journalists, taking a weekly sunny stroll through the fields of the Greek media, to which we have access on the Internet, i.e. a press review “à la grecque”.