This year in some European countries with large Muslim populations, such as Belgium, France and Spain (where the proposal was narrowly defeated on Tuesday), there were proposals for a total ban on face veils (niqab / burqa) in public places. The Left, progressive and open minded people seem split on the issue, trying to defend both multiculturalism and personal freedoms. There is evidence that the niqab tradition long preceded Islam. On the other hand, moslem countries like Tunisia also ban the niqab. Also consider that "the extremist imams ... are the products of the Islamic fundamentalism that proliferated under the patronage of the grand anti-communist alliance of the past century, comprising western powers and Saudi fundamentalism, generously funded by petrodollars. "  Source: http://www.bmsd.org.uk/articles.asp?id=12 Is it the state's (i.e. the majority's) job to tell people ( i.e. the minority) how to dress, or is it a case of protecting the individual rights...

In today's Avgi newspaper, the president of the Greek Federation of Catering & Tourist Industry Employees (POEE-YTE) Leonidas Karathanassis, blasts the growing exploitation of tourism student trainees by large hotels and the displacement of hotel workers. According to Mr Karathanassis, the phenomenon first started in 2000 when some large hotels in northern Greece struck direct agreements with foreign tourism schools. He alleges that today mainly through the intermediation of specialist 'trainee agents', many of the trainees are not really tourism (or any other sort of) students, they have to work long hours, live in below-ground dormitories or even store-rooms 'like animals', without insurance, with a meagre Euros 500 half of which goes back to the agency! The union representative called on the government to investigate this illegal and abusive practice and to set maximum limits of 10% for trainees, compared to the current 50% which is the case in hundreds of...

   Two 'Na’vi' from 'planet Pandora' landed in London today to participate in multinational mining company Vedanta Resources’ Annual General Meeting.  The happening was part of a colourful demonstration against the miners, over their controversial plan to extract bauxite (Ed. surely unobtainium?) from Niyam Penu (Niyamgiri Hill) the sacred mountain of India’s Dongria Kondh tribe, that they worship as creator and sustainer, in the Indian state of Orissa. Monty Python star and travel writer Michael Palin  expressed his support to the 3 year campaign, supported by Survival International and Amnesty Int. saying he had  "seen the forces of money and power ... arrayed against a people who have occupied their land for thousands of years, who husband the forest sustainably and make no great demands on the state or the government." India’s Environment and Forests Ministry is currently investigating the Dongria’s claim to the forest while Odisha state is conducting a...

Consumerism, a modern disease: Stuffed animal beer bottles sell out in hours, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-10737787

A new report by the 'World Development Movement' describes "how the current situation came to pass, the risks of another speculation induced food crisis, and what specifically can be done by policymakers here in the UK as well as in the US and EU to tackle the problem. " Concludes that "reregulating commodity markets is a vital step in tackling hunger and reshaping the global economy to work for the benefit of people rather than profit for the small elite of bankers." Capitalism is not even mentioned once, let alone blamed, still the report makes interesting reading. The question is how can crises, which are systemic and regularly occuring, be overcome through system 'regulation', rather than system change? Download the report at:http://www.wdm.org.uk/sites/default/files/hunger lottery report_6.10.pdf

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0&feature=player_embedded 600x400] Animated version of Prof. David Harvey's speech "Crises of Capitalism" at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, UK  

The Distortion of Hospitality - From Philoxenia to Philochrematia and back In Ancient Greece,  strangers / visitors  (the “xenoi”) were considered sacred (possibly gods undercover) and Philoxenia or ‘loving care towards strangers’ was a duty. This took the form of free hospitality and even gifts to the departing stranger, creating friendship bonds that would bind offsprings as well. Of course there were similar customs in many other regions and civilizations, until the industrial era. Beyond ethics, there were practical reasons for this too, as strangers (tradesmen, explorers, philosophers etc) were rare sources of information, knowledge and wisdom, not to mention that there were very few hotels! The above sounds surreal  considering  what today goes by the name of  ‘tourism industry’, characterized by the luring of clients, who will never engage in any meaningful dialogue with their hosts, to small boxes where they will be offered fake care and attention in exchange...

  The Guardian reports (or advertises?) that the Greek government plans to sell off state-owned land in some well-known resort islands such as Mykonos, and even entire islands, under pressure from the IMF and the EU. It is indeed tragic that our - nominally socialist - government, is enthusiastically (rather than under pressure) following thatcherite, neoliberal policies, which, along with disposing public utilities, facilities (ports, airports, trains, postal services) and public lands, include the dismantling of the social welfare state, the creation of a 'flexible' labour market and more.Otherwise the - usually quiet - sale of small islands is nothing new, some have been in private hands for generations, claimed (arbitrarily) by the descendants of sheperds, monks, fishermen, seamen etc. There are also some who have been bought and resold and are in the hands of Greek shipowners (famously Skorpios, Petalioi, Spetsopoula).The newspapers are of course trying to create provocative headlines...

Anavra (Ανάβρα - 780 m asl, pop 1,000) is a mountain village and municipality on the slopes of mount Othrys, in the middle of peninsular Greece, in Magnesia prefecture near Almyros. (Map). What is so special about it? Occupied by the descendants of nomadic Sarakatsani , it enjoys 0% unemployment at a time of crisis and reactionary IMF-imposed austerity in Greece, and one of the few mountain villages where the population is steadily growing. It produces its own renewable energy with the highest Wind farm in Greece (at 1600 mt) at Alogorahi (“Horse’s Ridge”). It has a latest technology - certified Municipal Slaughter House (which sounds a bit scary but at least the meat is organic and free range although at the detriment of mountain vegetation), some 15,000 goats and sheep and an equal number of cows and swines. Also, a municipal Museum of Stockraising (no suprise there), a municipal (free)...