My Greek Odyssey

Panagia With Us All

More videos...............HERE.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY MGO

Hello again everyone. Sorry about the long absence. I have been quite busy working with Typepad to fashion a new look and functionality for MGO in celebration of its three years in the blogosphere. Stay tuned.

How time flies. Three years, one hundred and twenty thousand hits, five hundred posts and three thousand comments later and MGO is still alive and well. I am hoping that I can continue to keep writing for you and eventually can attract other freelance bloggers who want to write about things Greek.

Coincidently, one of my posts was published on the front page of the May 6th issue of the Hellenic Voice weekly newspaper. I want to thank all those friends along the way who have encouraged me to keep writing, taught me so much and to thank in particular, the News Editor of the Voice, Steve Crowe, for allowing me the opportunity to reach a wider audience. My next artcile will appear in the Memorial Day issue.

The Hellenic Voice formerly known as the Hellenic Chronicle, is for and about Hellenic Americans. It continues a long tradition of newspapers that have brought together our community and continue to do so. I encourage you to visit their website at www.thehellenicvoice.com and sign up for a trial 30 day subscription.

As a little gift for all MGO readers, I am including a narration by Elli Lambeti of my favorite Cavafy poem, Ithaka. The music is by Mark Isham. Let the journey continue.

Therapeutic Blogging

Bloggers have long suspected the therapeutic nature of  the act of blogging. It seems science  is beginning to confirm that suspicion with more than anecdotal evidence:

"Self-medication may be the reason the blogsphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.

Scientists now hope to explore the neurological underpinnings at play, especially considering the explosion of blogs. According to Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a “placebo for getting satisfied,” Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly." 

Read the whole thing here.

Blogging Friends

Anyone who has been around blogs long enough to find out, eventually understands that they provide a window into new places and new people. Other bloggers read your blog and in turn open up theirs to you. In the process you meet some interesting people who have a lot to offer in the way of knowledge and perspective.

Maria is a New Zealander who moved to Chania in Crete. She publishes two blogs. One about the city she lives in and the other about Cretan cuisine. Unfortunately for me, I am the typical (Greek) male. I know little, if anything, about preparing food other than cooking the Easter lamb or grilling the occasional steak on the barbie. I am, however, a virtuso at consuming the food that the talented women in my life prepare.

Maria's blog is filled with wonderful information about fresh, healthy and above all, tasty food, that is all too often being replaced with processed, unimaginative and rather boring fare that does little more than fill one's stomach. A recent post about Greek Easter bread known as Tsoureki is typical. Reading her posts I have suddenly had the urge to try making dishes that I love but have always been dependent on others to make for me. Wish me luck.

BTW, Maria seems to be in the vanguard of a quiet movement of diaspora Greeks back to Greece. It's hard to tell if the numbers are significant or even if  those that return have an appreciable impact on the patrida. Needless to say I have known a few who have returned to Greece only to become disenchanted and flee back to their previous homes. Maria links to a recent article by Eleni Gage in the New York Times about the phenomenon. For those brave souls that want to attempt living the Greek reality, I can think of no better place to start than over at Kat's blog. Kat is an American expatriate whom I have the pleasure of meeting during my last trip to Greece. Her posts detailing the intricacies of life in Greece and dealing with the government bureaucracy are indispensable and well researched.  You will not find anything like it anywhere else in the blogosphere or in print, yet.

Kosta lives in Sweden and is a lover of Rebetika music. His blog, Rebetiko, explores this musical tradition in a way that is unique, providing insights that someone like myself could not hope to learn without a guide at my side. Kosta writes in both Greek and English, and he explores themes, performers, and terms in this musical form that provide a greater understanding of the music. If you don't speak Greek, enjoy Rebetika and have always wondered what the songs really mean, I would recommend reading Kosta's blog.

George over at Ellopos is someone who I have never met, an anonymous blogger who has brought me closer to the treasures bequeathed to all of us, Greek and non-Greek alike, by Greek civilization. It seems that every time I venture over to visit I find something new that has me saying to myself, "I wish I had thought of that." George has a new photo section, replete with beautiful images, a section that links to Amazon and highlights books related to Greek history, philosophy and religion. The forum is another favorite, and includes such gems as this rebuttal of Daniel Clendenin's view of Orthodoxy.

Simon is an Englishman with strong family ties to Greece who commutes between two islands, Britain and  Corfu. He is a philhellene in the tradition of Lord Byron. Like me, he has a love for things Greek. His blog, Democracy Street chronicles his life and experiences in the village of Ano Korakiana.

Stavros Markos' blog, SMAnalysis,  about Greek-Albanian relations is a diamond in the rough that explores an area that is neglected in the English speaking blogosphere. Perhaps the number of people who have an interest in this particular aspect of Balkan politics are few in number, nevertheless, if you are a serious student of the region, it deserves a weekly visit.  Stavros, who is a journalist that monitors both the Greek and Albanian press will open new doors for you.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not single out "A Different Voice" blog by my friend Margaret. I think what attracts me to this blog is the fact that it often deals with subjects that I have only a passing acquaintance with. Margaret is one of those rare people who value learning for learning's sake.  Her thirst to explore the world around her is contagious. In turn, she makes me curious about new and interesting things that are outside my realm of interest. Margaret also has a knack for delving deeply into the subject of family and relationships that has helped me better understand my own.

Blogger Fatigue

Anyone stumbling across MGO and reading its contents might think I am a hopeless romantic, out of touch and disconnected with Greece and Greeks as they exist today. Perhaps so. Not so long ago a blogger named Thomas lamented my naivete: "A lot of Greeks here in Greece would disagree with you. They would say your view is quaint and old-fashioned. Some would say the Greece you talk about is dying fast, and others would say it's been dead for a long time.* 

From its inception MGO has been one man's view of Greekness.  It is a celebration of  the Greek spirit and the things that have shaped and molded that spirit. If my version of Greekness and its cultural legacy is idealized it is because I prefer to highlight what I see as worth keeping and passing on to my children. If my view is nostalgic, it is for an ethos that was preserved by those that came before me. If I sound naive about the ever shrinking piece of Greece that exists in our collective memory, it is because I am trying to keep it from shrinking even further.

Modern Greeks have often been accused of resting on the laurels earned by their ancestors, even of being peasants.  Emerging from centuries of occupation which wreaked havoc on the Greek psyche and cultural identity they were nevertheless able to come a very long way during the short history of the modern Greek state. Modern Greek history is punctuated by events during which the Greek  people or laos have scaled the Olympian heights only to fall and climb back up again. Greeks  today are the product of a turbulent unrelenting history but are they the heirs to that history? Will they  be able to teeter at the edge of the abyss and step back by rediscovering the eternal essence of the Greek soul?  That essence may mean different things to different people however, it is that something, call it what you will, that creates the requisite parts and gives them life, character and in some cases greatness. I'm not talking about DNA, or the shape of one's skull, I am talking about what resides in our brains and hearts.

The question I have grappled with since starting this blog is where exactly I was taking it. I envisaged  a wider readership and impact. Maybe that was a dream  and a hopeless one at that. Recently MGO  surpassed the 50,000 hit mark. That's when I realized that I was just scratching the surface. That's when it suddenly dawned on me that for most bloggers, including me it is not about numbers. It is about what you walk away with from the act of putting ideas down and submitting them to others.  It is the people that we connect with in blogging, whose numbers may be rather small, that can really make a difference in the overall quality of the experience. Blogging is not just about sharing your ideas, thoughts and information with the world. It is also about influencing readers and in turn being influenced. It's like planting seeds. Sometimes the ground is fertile and the seeds grow and blossom, though the flowers or weeds that spring forth may not be what we originally intended. Sometimes the soil is hard, dry, uninviting, the seeds wither and die. Those who sow enough seeds eventually reap a harvest of bittersweet fruit. I have done my share of learning in the process.

The problem with blogging, as I see it, is twofold. First, it requires a great of of time and effort. There are only so many hours in the day. So many other demands on our precious but fleeting time. As a blog grows and matures, your responsibilities grow exponentially. What free time you have is devoted to the blog, more and more. So much so that you begin to neglect other facets of your life. Like anything else, it can acquire aspects of an addiction. Second, blogging is more than just typing something on a screen and then letting the world read. Good bloggers want to give their readers a reason to return and keep returning. That requires do your share of reading and research. Otherwise it is garbage in and garbage out.

After wrestling with this dilemma for almost two years I have decided to cut back my posting to once a week as of next month. A new post will appear every Wednesday, God willing. In between posts I will continue to answer emails and comments in a timely fashion.

I would also like to thank all those readers out there who visit MGO and in particular those who take the time to comment. If anyone is interested in writing an occasional post for MGO please drop me a line and a sample of your work.  For those fellow bloggers feeling a bit "stretched," I've linked to a few suggestions for dealing with Blogger Fatigue.

Comments, again

I've decided to provide everyone a cooling off period and give myself a rest. All comments will be held for moderation until the New Year when I will re-evaluate this policy with the intent of returning things to normal if that is ever possible. I will continue to post. My sincere apologies.

Comments

Recent commentary on MGO has forced me to think long and hard about a number of key issues related to blogging. In all honesty I have to admit to my readers that MGO has been an exhausting endeavor in terms of the amount of time it requires. Not a day goes by that I don't think about throwing the towel in.  Blogging has its rewards and I firmly believe that I have reaped many benefits despite the hard work it requires. I've always felt that MGO fills a niche that does not exist elsewhere in the vastness of the Internet. MGO was inspired by another Greek oriented English speaking blog named Phylax and I have tried to continue the tradition of openness and attention to Greek issues that propelled my blogfather, Ted Laskaris.

Most readers who visit MGO do so for a short period of time and move on. Others come back on a regular basis while a few brave souls contribute to the discussions and debates. The community that MGO has created is important to me on a personal level.  I feel that I owe them my best efforts. Even though I have not met most of them I cannot help but consider them my friends. It's always painful when your friends start calling each other names. Feelings are hurt and rightly so, the discussion breaks down and worst of all, the whole thing has a chilling effect on future debate. 

If we were all sitting in my living room instead of the world wide web perhaps we wouldn't have this problem. Most folks restrain their language in a social setting if for no other reason than simply out of respect for their host. Unfortunately the anonymity of the Internet has destroyed many of those restraining boundaries. It is not just the Internet, I notice a real breakdown in people's ability to tolerate different opinions and to listen to what people are saying. Maybe it is the times we live in, a great deal is riding on decisions we have to make.

I started this blog because I wanted to reach Greeks and non-Greeks alike. It was going to be about my personal odyssey to rediscover the roots of my identity and to indirectly help those trying to do the same. I wanted to preserve in my own way what I feel is good and worthwhile in Hellenism and to introduce it to others. When I say others, I mean to anyone that wants to partake of what Hellenism in all its forms offers.  Along the way MGO has morphed into something else. It has become a forum, an agora, if you will, where people come because they are drawn for reasons of their own, to express their views and debate a variety of issues. I don't think anyone leaves with an altered world view, yet I do think we are all challenged by what we read and leave scratching our heads or wanting to learn more.

I told someone recently that blogging does not change anything or anybody. I was wrong. This experience has changed me. I am not the same person that I was when I started this blog. I have found out some things about myself that I didn't know. I have grown up a bit.

The right of free speech is one I have always taken for granted as an American. It is only human for us to chafe when some exercise their right and express opinions that we strongly disagree with. Personally I am uncomfortable about making myself the arbiter of what does or does not constitute acceptable speech. Deciding what is racist, profane, politically incorrect, or demeaning to others.  I have shied away from it for two reasons. The first being that censoring speech is a slippery slope. Once you start doing it, regardless of good intentions, things can get out of control. Secondly, the commentary on MGO has usually been high spirited or politically incorrect, at times, yet surprisingly, devoid of the over the top rhetoric one finds on other  blogs where controversial subjects are discussed.

For example, Demonax made a comment yesterday in which he referred to all Slavs as "degenerates."   If one reads the accounts of the Bulgarian occupation of Greek territory during World War II, one can make a case that some Slavs are indeed degenerates. One can also make the case that some Greeks fit that description based on atrocities committed during the Greek Civil War. Labeling all Slavs as degenerates is just like labeling all Greeks as racists, inaccurate in the extreme. It poisons the well. The question is should I delete the word, the comment or Demonax. I prefer to do none of the above.  I prefer to let the MGO community, of which I am a part of, deal with it in the forum that is available to them. 

If someone decides to stick a Cross in a pail of urine and call it artistic expression, something I would find deeply offensive, I don't expect the government to barge in and throw the guy in jail. I do expect the community at large to show its opposition to such an act in an non-violent, appropriate manner. That would exclude threatening to cut off people's head and firebombing buildings, actions currently  in vogue with those who masquerade as God-fearing.This is a difficult issue that ALL democratic countries have to deal with.  As the trial of Kostas Plevris suggests, the choice we have to make as citizens in a democracy is determining the limits of free speech, especially when that speech encourages violence toward others:

The young, the disaffected, and the ignorant are all susceptible to "hate" speech but does that justify imposing arbitrary, unenforceable limits on speech we don't like?  I don't have all the answers and frankly I am vacillating at times between the two sides. Unlike Europeans I have very little faith that government can solve all our problems, especially this one. Certainly in places like Great Britain & Canada where laws have been passed curbing certain forms of speech, things have not improved appreciably. Perhaps they have even been made worse since such laws can be used to target majority hate speech while ignoring minority hate speech.

I take personal responsibility for what has happened. I believe it started sometime ago when the word idiot was used. I should have stepped in right then. Maybe all of this could have been avoided. In the future,  I ask everyone to please refrain from using profanity to get your points across on MGO and don't call each other names.

 

Hellenic Antidote

For those who have not had the opportunity to read the offerings of the newest blog in the Greek blogosphere, I highly recommend that they take time to peruse,  Hellenic Antidote.  If its first two posts, "Dragoumis and Kazantzakis" and "Turkey's Guardian Angel" are any indication, it is well on its way to providing thinking Greeks with a greater understanding of Hellenic issues. Best wishes for continued success.

Life Goes On

Dear Friends,

Apologies for not posting for awhile.  Our lives may be quiet affairs, for the most part,  that move from day to day without fanfare. We plug along with a boring tediousness interspersed by a few memorable moments only to find ourselves sometimes abruptly plunged into a spiral of events that is often completely beyond our control.  Life is indeed fragile.  It is only prayer and the support of family and friends that sustain us in our trials. Like every storm, the sun always emerges from behind the black clouds.  We will be leaving for Greece soon,  where I hope to find an internet cafe so I can post my impressions. Stay tuned.

Many thanks again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Semper fi, Stavros

Dear Readers

It's been a week since my last post and I do apologize for my inability to churn out even a few posts.  I am not experiencing "writer's block," just preoccupied and sometimes overwhelmed with other matters.  I am working on a few posts as we speak and I have some material, kindly provided by historian Stavros Stavridis that I will make available soon. Here are some posts I am currently working on:

The First Fall of Constantinople

Project Mexico

A Photo Montage of  Maine

Greater Albania

A Report on the Pan Epirotan Convention

A Letter to the President

Another installment of  "Forty Years in the Jails of Enver Hoxha" by Minas Paras

My next post should be up within the next twenty-four hours.   

If any MGO reader is interested in submitting a post for MGO, please email the full text to me with a short bio and I will consider posting it.  The subject should pertain to anything Greek, in keeping with this blog's focus. For those of you that are shying away from starting a blog of your own but would like to test the waters, this is a great opportunity to do so without making an inordinate commitment of time.   

Hope you're all well.

Stavros

Happy Birthday MGO

This month marks the one year birthday of My Greek Odyssey.  365 days, 245 posts, and 20,000 visits later, it's hard to believe that time has flown by so fast. Along with all the other things that consume one's life, blogging can become an integral part of your day. Bloggers are always thinking about their next post, how to improve their blog and attract more readers.  They are also waiting anxiously for that next comment. Blogging is not for the faint of heart, that's because blog commentary can be withering.  Luckily, middle age does have its advantages; one of them being having come to terms about who you are as a person. Old folks like me also have a lot of things they want to get off their chest. Blogging provides the perfect vehicle for that. Another attractive thing about blogging is that it gives a guy like me, living in a small town in rural Maine, the ability to reach out beyond my own neighborhood and hometown to others all over the world.

The last few weeks have been especially difficult for me, in terms of personal demands on my time that have made it harder to post as often as I would prefer.  My generation is now sandwiched between the needs of our children and our elderly parents, with precious little time to spend in other pursuits like writing. To quote my Blogfather, Ted Laskaris, "Blogging is therapeutic," and so it is.  Unfortunately, competing demands make it more difficult to steal as much time as I would like to devote to MGO. That said, I intend to keep MGO going, Insha'Allah, for a second year.

Blogs need that "vision thing" just like any other important venture. I frequently ask myself the question: Where am I taking MGO? I'm still waiting for a reply. I would like to thank all of you who spend part of your precious time at MGO reading my posts, commenting,  providing input, critiques and encouragement.  I hope you will continue to do so.

Semper Fi,  Stavros

Going Beyond a War of Words

The beauty of blogging and the Internet is  that it allows you to communicate in a unique way with people outside of those that you would normally come into contact with.  In our modern world we now have the ability to travel far and wide, but just as importantly we can now talk to complete strangers. Here in Maine I am always amazed to run into folks that have never left the state. If it wasn't for the media and television they would be quite isolated. Reliance on the media as your main source of information about the world has its pitfalls. For the first time, we now have a tool for exchanging ideas and informing ourselves outside of the traditional methods of the past. Surfing through the blogosphere I am always amazed by the variety of blogs and information available. There is not much you can't find if you are determined to look for it.

The free discourse in the blogosphere, and I  use the words "free" and "discourse" in a very loose fashion here, is replete with people espousing every idea imaginable. Many of these ideas are, to put it mildly, both uplifting or informative as well as hateful, misinformed and downright evil. Luckily when we run into something we don't like we can move on and go elsewhere or we can even decide to use the power of  words and disagree. As a blogger I have been privileged to meet some pretty interesting people since I started blogging. People that I now consider friends. People like Ted, Yiannos, AntigoneSis, Demo, Scruffy, GANYC, Peter, and Hermes have made me think about who I am and how I view the world. Perhaps I have been able to do the same for them in some limited way.

Recently, I was perusing a blog written by a woman who lives in Greece under the pseudonym, Devious Diva. I have read some of the things she has written in the past and quite frankly I didn't agree with much of what she had to say, so I moved on. I note however that her identity was revealed by other bloggers that not only disagree with her but seem to have an ax to grind. Reading the comments after her post I was struck by one which likened what is taking place in the blogosphere to a "war," a war of words. Unfortunately, this is more than speech directed at someone that says something disagreeable. It is a direct assault against the person's privacy and an attempt to silence her. Rather than using rational arguments and facts to debate ideas we don't like, some would muzzle speech that they find unpalatable. 

Devious Diva has been accused of being anti-Hellenic. That particular point is certainly open to discussion as evidenced by the title of her blog: "This is not my Country,"  and many of her posts. As far as I am concerned however, what I consider egregiously anti-Hellenic is the inability to hold a rational discourse with those we disagree with. The problem nowadays both in the United States and elsewhere in the world is humankind's inability to rationalize, discuss and arrive at a consensus, even occasionally. We are too busy yelling and calling each other names to listen to what others have to say. I readily admit to being guilty of this in the past. Some folks eventually find it necessary to demonize those they disagree with, and in the end try to silence them through one means or another.

Greeks are better than that.  Our ancient ancestors showed us how to conduct a rational discourse. Now is the time to set an example for others to follow.

Requiem for Phylax Blog

Only a blogger can truly understand the attachment one develops to a blog.  A blog becomes a part of you.  Not only do you create it, you have to nurture it.  Successful blogs have a way of attracting a small community around them. When a popular blog is euthanized for whatever reason, it is always a sad day, not only because you lose what the blog has to offer but also the interaction with folks who are associated with the blog. Phylax was a blog about Greek current affairs. Written by a very talented Greek named Ted Laskaris, it gave both philhellenes and diasporan Greeks a forum to discuss what is happening in Greece but also in the Greek Diaspora.  Most Greek blogs are written in Greek; Phylax was one of the few written in the English language, the lingua franca of the present age.  Phylax was able to attract in many respects a really amazing group of people who have an abiding interest in things Greek. I can't begin to describe how much Phylax and the people involved with it, from Ted to contributors to commenters, made me really think about my Greek identity.  More importantly, Phylax gave me an opportunity to converse with other Greeks scattered throughout the world, most of whom I will never meet. In so doing, I have gained a greater understanding of who I am and a greater understanding of the issues that both unite and divide us as Greeks. The sometimes vitriolic debates that occurred at Phylax were described by one contributor, Hermes, as a necessary part of the Greek agon or struggle for "truth."  I don't know if we got very close to the truth, however, our debates exposed the deep chasms between Helladic Greeks and diasporan Greeks. It also revealed the fissures between diasporan Greeks themselves. I'm not sure if the lack of unity among Greeks is any worse than it is in other ethnic groups. What I can say for sure is that despite our homogenous culture we seem to have a penchant for self-destructive internecine squabbling that has reached epic proportions in our history.  Firmly implanted in the very eye of the maelstrom are those elusive "xeni."  Greeks often suffer from one of two debilitating maladies: xenolatria or xenophobia. One group sees foreigners, whether they happen to be Anglo-Saxons, Albanians, Persians, or whatever the flavor of the month happens to be as the reincarnation of Satan himself. The other group works diligently to shuck off the truly decent aspects of our culture to replace them with the infinitely more modern, fashionable, decadent, corrupt and pandering ideologies created by xeni that seek to make slaves of us all.

If I've learned anything from my travails in the eye of this Greek storm, it is what  Socrates once readily confessed: " I know nothing except the fact of my own ignorance."  Despite this hard won truth, I shall endeavor to continue the struggle, thankful that I am neither alone nor have I completely lost my ability to discern truth even when I accidently trip over it.  Greece has survived for thousands of years, yet today it stands perilously, on the edge of extinction. It is surrounded by enemies, yet our worst and most dangerous enemy is the Greek's inability to communicate effectively with his fellow Greeks.  Before we can come to a consensus with other Greeks, so as to fashion a way forward, we must be able to stop shouting and start listening. We have precious little time left.

Ονειρεύομαι ακόμη τον Ελληνισμό σε όλη την οικουμένη να χρησιμοποιεί τη νέα τεχνολογία της πληροφορικής για να δενόμαστε σφιχτά, ο ένας με τον άλλο, οι Έλληνες της διασποράς συνάμα με τους Έλληνες της Μεσογείου, δημιουργώντας έτσι μια νέα Ελλάδα , Μ. Δερτούζος

Blogging 101

What the Blogosphere needs right now is more Greeks who have something to say and are willing to spend some of their valuable time doing so. Blogging is an excellent way to communicate with people of all backgrounds who are interested in Greek culture and civilization, especially Greeks in the diaspora. Since I started blogging I have discovered a few things about myself, broadened my horizons, and most importantly, opened a line of communication with like minded Hellenes and Philhellenes.  Blogging is addictive and successful blogging (whatever that is) requires time and effort. Baby boomers like me are notorious for being handicapped when it comes to being tech savy. If you are tech challenged, don't despair even you can be a blogger. First, find a good blogging service like Typepad, Blogger, Blogspot, WorpdPress, to name a few.  They come in two forms: some are free, others require a monthly charge. Both have advantages or disadvantages. Once you get a platform, you will need a program that will simplify the process of embedding posts. The one I use is Zoundry,  Writely from Google,  is another worth checking out, both are free.  If you want a great resource to help you get started go to a fellow Greek: PaulStamatiou.com and read this and this. 

Greek blogs come in three varieties: Greek language only, English only, and a combination of both languages. There are some outstanding sites out there and I've only begun to scratch the surface. They come in all shapes and forms. They seldom conform to any particular view of the world. Keep an open mind, that's how we learn.  Here are some of my favorites:

Ellopos.net : probably the best site to get an appreciation for what Greek civilization offers in both languages. Extremely well done, visually pleasing and not your typical blog. A treasure trove.

Hellenic Reporter : a personal favorite that covers subjects that interest me.

Daily Frappe an up and coming site that is always full of good information aimed at diasporan Greeks.

HomeboyMedia News: News covering Greece and Cyprus including Greek lifestyle, culture and travel.

Phylax Blog: the Mother of serious Greek blogs in English with an emphasis on current events and political/social analysis.

GreekWorks.com: Excellent, thoughtful articles about Greek culture. Very professional.

PIGASOS: a superb blog in Greek that discusses Greek life, politics and current events. I often have to pull out my dog eared Greek dictionary,  but well worth the effort.

Please don't think that this list is comprehensive. I suggest that readers go to these sites and then try their links. It is a great way to find new Greek blogs.  BTW, don't be reticent about leaving comments, good or bad. Bloggers live for reader input as long as it does not include four letter words or uncomplimentary references to the blogger's ancestry. If you have found some good Greek sites out there let the rest of us know, I might even  link to them. Happy Blogging!

                                                                                                            Semper Fi,    STAVROS