The
Daily Gyro
Updated
Daily on
Greek Time
September 12, 2005
As much of our nation’s attention is still focused on the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, it’s remarkable to see the efforts of the Greek community in
responding to the relief effort. A number of churches across the country have
donated proceeds from their Greek festivals to the cause and have also allowed
volunteer agencies to set up booths to collect donations of food, clothing, and
supplies. Greece has offered aid in terms of money, personnel and the use of
two passenger ships to house the homeless.
Turning to lighter news, Greece’s attention last week was focused on its World
Cup qualifier vs. Khazikstan, keeping the nation’s hopes alive with a 2-1
victory in stoppage time after trailing 1-0 late.
Now we turn to other news from the Greek world:
-
In an effort to boost the Greek economy and to make state-run companies more
competitive, Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis called for the end to the
policy of jobs-for-life for all new hires. Now if they could somehow find a way
to incentivize the old timers into providing better customer service for the
simplest of transactions they’d be on to something.
-
It’s been over a year since the Olympics in Athens, and while many of the
venues still remain unused, Greece has given the green light to another venue
to be constructed for Formula One Racing. The new track would be constructed at
the old airfield site and would ensure that a race in Greece would be included
in the Formula One season. How Formula One is any different from a typical day
driving the Greek highways and why they couldn’t have just closed off a few
roads for the event is yet to be answered.
-
Prime Minister Karamanlis announced in Thessaloniki Friday that 2006 will be
dubbed “The Year of Olive Oil” to promote Greek olive oil in the wake of Spain
and Portugal’s production falling off this year due to rampant fires and severe
drought. It’s interesting to note that all three of these countries were in the
same group in last year’s European Cup soccer championship with Greece tying
Spain and beating Portugal twice on route to the championship. Talk about
kicking the competition while they’re down.
-
As the tourist season in Greece starts to wind down, much focus has been placed
on of all things British rowdiness in of all places, Zakynthos. Granted its
been about 10 years since we’ve been there, but nothing about the sleepy little
island of the western coast of Greece in the Ionian Sea would have ever made us
think that it would become Europe’s latest party haven. But somehow when you’re
that pissed drunk you tend to ignore ice-cold ocean water with twelve foot high
waves and crazy mosquitoes at night. Now Greek officials are calling for
extradition of British tourists who have been caught on film engaging in lewd
acts while inebriated to support an understaffed police force on the island of
12 in dealing with a population of 10,000 tourists. British reaction to this
crackdown has been at times quite rude, reminding the island of how much of a
privilege it must be for the island to have its economy supported by thousands
of these drunken idiots.
Other Servings of The Daily Gyro
06/30/2010
08/31/2009
08/03/2009
03/25/2009
08/28/2008
08/27/2008
08/13/2008
04/02/2008
03/25/2008
08/30/2007
08/14/2007
03/05/2007
02/14/2007
01/22/2007
11/06/2006
10/02/2006
09/18/2006
09/04/2006
09/01/2006
08/14/2006
07/13/2006
07/10/2006
06/25/2006
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05/03/2006
04/04/2006
03/22/2006
02/21/2006
01/30/2006
01/17/2006
01/11/2006
01/09/2006
01/05/2006
01/04/2006
12/12/2005
11/28/2005
11/16/2005
10/31/2005
10/17/2005
10/03/2005
09/12/2005
09/02/2005
08/29/2005
08/10/2005
07/27/2005
07/13/2005
07/06/2005
06/27/2005
06/13/2005
05/23/2005
05/16/2005
05/06/2005
05/02/2005
04/25/2005
04/18/2005
04/13/2005
04/08/2005
04/06/2005
04/04/2005
04/01/2005
03/30/2005
03/28/2005
03/25/2005
03/23/2005
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