The classic scene in Fawlty Towers - you must have seen it (if you have not, do not yet get involved in hospitality) - with the facility on fire, where Basil, the unsurpassable John Cleese, gathers the guests in the lobby and attempts to explain the dire situation in a gradual manner: "fa fa fa fire, fa fa fire, fire !" but the guests don't get it,...
Chances are that, unless you are an archaeology buff, you have not heard about the Greek Aegean island of Keros. 60 km SE of famous Mykonos, it is its antithesis, as it is totally uninhabited, unless you count an endless stream of archaeologists from all over the world (that keep digging during the day and return by boat to nearby Koufonisia island...
If in Athens this summer, do not miss a rare Takis exhibition at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC, https://www.snfcc.org/en) in Kalithea, in itself a green attraction as a multi-award winning, public urban regeneration and cultural project with exciting happenings, olive groves, herb gardens and a breathtaking 3...
As parts of the world shyly reopen for tourism, I read about two assassination attempts yesterday, one unfortunately successful.... They are, of course, totally unconnected, however if one starts thinking about it, there are similarities: two islands (or archipelagos), both well-known tourism destinations, and two victims involved in tourism, makin...
Overlooked by the vast majority of foreign travellers, who head for/are herded to, the more famous monuments (Acropolis, Theseion, Sounion), the ancient (2,300+ year old) fortresses and towers of Attica, hidden in near pristine natural surroundings, are unique monuments that can be easily discovered and enjoyed by discerning, independent travellers...
Confucius said that the man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life. All too often I am a fool for a minute, and again today, at a fascinating online event, celebrating Bookchin's 100th birthday (14 January 1921-2021) - I am referring to the great Green political phi...
Yesterday was one more anniversary, the 48th, of the November 17th, 1973 Athens Polytechnic students' uprising against the military Junta of 1967-1974. The key demands of the students back then were the triptych "Bread, Education, Liberty". 47 years later Athenians again, rightly or wrongly, defied an official ban, this time imposed for p...
An important lesson we should not forget, after the pandemic is over: it was proven beyond reasonable doubt during the great Lockdown that the world can easily survive with far fewer people going to work 9 to 5. Hopefully the lesson will be put to good use: Rather than massive redundancies and semi-permanent furloughs, we need far shorter hours and...
On May 7th, 2020 we held a Virtual Ecoclub Member Meeting to discuss 'Pandemic Adaptation Strategies for Ecotourism'. Our aim was to brief each other on local conditions and compare notes on what can be done during and in the aftermath of the pandemic so as to protect and support our businesses, our communities and Ecotourism. Due to the pandemic lockdown millions of tourism employees, professionals and small business-owners have suddenly been left unemployed or precariously employed by near bankrupt businesses. If international tourism recovers too slowly, many of them will need green (re)training and new green jobs and opportunities outside tourism. The pandemic itself can only be stopped if a cure is found, if the virus mutates into a less potent form (there are some indications in late May 2020) or if there is mass immunity. It is as if a huge earthquake has taken place (the disease) and we...
The coro-doomsday has stunned the mainstream bringing various fringes to the limelight. In celebratory mood, tourism-haters, elitist pseudo-revolutionaries, agoraphobics and misanthropic degrowthists, to die-hard fans of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" to alt-right racist conspiracists, UFOlogists and so on, a pluralistic cacophony of "we told you so". Nope, you told us nothing and you still do not have anything to tell us. Your theories are "not even wrong", your thinking is unoriginal, self-defeating, pessimistic, malthusian and discounts the propensity of humans to evolve and progress in the face of natural adversity. Yes, Marx at 202 years old is always relevant, especially if we read between the lines, but so are all other great philosophers from A to Z, from Aristotle to Zizek (pun intended). But if miraculously reincarnated, none of these greats would last a week as pandemic-era prime-ministers. Aristotle would start wars by calling all our neighbours barbarians, Pythagoras would...
