The Pimping of Panorea (reviews); To Poulima tis Panoreas

For those who don't read Greek, an abridged version of "The Pimping of Panorea" (To Poulima tis Panoreas) was published in ISLAND magazine in 2008.

Go to http://islandmagazine.gr/

Click, on left, on Free Online Past Issues

Go to Issue 8, the Summer/Autumn 2008 issue, view pages 14-17.

About the book:

“TO POULIMA TIS PANOREAS”, MARIA STRANI-POTTS, CorfuBooks.com.

“An absolute must-read” (ISLAND).

“Πρόκειται πραγματικά για ένα λογοτέχνημα-ράπισμα και ταυτόχρονα μια αφοπλιστική περιγραφή του χώρου που ζούμε, ποιότητες που δίνουν στο βιβλίο τον χαρακτήρα μανιφέστου, το οποίο μπορεί να συνοψιστεί στο «τέρμα τα λόγια, ώρα για δράση” Dr.Kostas Kardamis.

“I didn’t just read it, I studied it closely. This book should be read by political candidates, and by all those who work in institutions and who hold any kind of power, or who hold the fate of the island in their hands.” Dimitris Konidaris, Enimerosi.

Update, from Simon Baddeley's Democracy Street Blog, 17 October 2012:

"I grumble about the commodification of philotimo contained in tourism, but at a certain point the craft of good business melds the private and the public; the domestic and the economic. A business can be managed so beautifully, that it comes almost to match the care that goes with the hospitality of neighbours, friends and family. Such achievement requires exactly the level of dedication missing from the exploitation of Greece by the behaviours and people who are excoriated in Maria Strani-Potts diatribe against the Pimping of Panorea – the pimping of everything beautiful on the island.

For anyone who aspires truly to succeed as a human being in the business of tourism, Maria’s short and powerful parable should be compulsory – it makes compelling reading, a passionate cry of outrage at the slow ruination of a culture by greedy and incompetent people lacking respect for those whose money they took for the goods and services they offered, trading on goodness and beauty they forgot or never understood".

There's also (page 13) a review of "The Cat of Portovecchio, Corfu Tales".

Dr Kostas Kardamis' review of To Poulima tis Panoreas follows, in Greek:

Μαρία Στράνη-Ποττς: "Το πούλημα της Πανωραίας"
Η Μαρία Στράνη-Ποττς, έχοντας ζήσει εξαιτίας των επαγγελματικών υποχρεώσεών της για αρκετό διάστημα εκτός Κερκύρας (και, ακόμα καλύτερα, εκτός Ελλάδος), είναι από τους ανθρώπους εκείνους που έχουν την ευτυχία να βλέπουν τον τόπο τους και με το μάτι του εξωτερικού παρατηρητή. Έτσι η ανησυχία της για την Κέρκυρα είναι εντονότερη και σαφώς διαφοροποιημένη από τα κατά καιρούς ευχολόγια διαφόρων όψιμα εμφανιζόμενων «ανησυχούντων». Το ίδιο αναμενόμενος είναι και ο τρόπος με τον οποίο η Μαρία Στράνη-Ποττς επέλεξε να επικοινωνήσει τις ανησυχίες της για αυτό που βιώνει καθημερινά: Το πούλημα της Πανωραίας είναι ένα λογοτέχνημα γεμάτο συμβολισμούς και αλληγορίες, του οποίου η ηρωίδα ταυτίζεται με την Κέρκυρα. Πάνω στην ταύτιση Κέρκυρας–Πανωραίας βασίζεται όλη η αφηγηματική πλοκή του βιβλίου στο οποίο παρελαύνουν στιγμές από την ιστορία του νησιού και, κυρίως, εκτίθεται η σύγχρονη κατάστασή του, η οποία καθόλου θετικά δεν προϊδεάζει για το μέλλον του.Η Πανωραία (βλέπε Κέρκυρα) είναι ένα ξεχωριστό και όμορφο πλάσμα με λίγους ουσιαστικούς φίλους, αλλά με πάρα πολύ περισσότερους γνωστούς. Οι τελευταίοι έχοντας τις «αγαθότερες των προθέσεων» προσπαθούν να εκμεταλλευτούν την Πανωραία προς όφελός τους, χωρίς όμως να κατανοούν ότι τραυματίζοντάν την καταστρέφουν, όχι μόνο την προαιώνια φυσική, πνευματική και πολιτισμική κληρονομιά της, αλλά και τους ίδιους.Οι παραλληλίες είναι προφανείς και βιωμένες από όλους καθημερινά Η Κέρκυρα της φυσικής ομορφιάς, του (αστικού και εξωαστικού) πολιτισμού, της μουσικής, των τεχνών, των πνευματικών ανθρώπων, της οικονομικής και κοινωνικής ανάπτυξης, της άμεσης σύνδεσης με ό,τι προοδευτικότερο στον πολιτισμένο κόσμο έχει τραυματιστεί, κατά πολλούς, ανεπανόρθωτα και έχει πλέον βρεθεί σε ένα τέλμα. Η στροφή στον γρήγορο πλουτισμό, στην μαλθακότητα του υλικού κόσμου, στις σειρήνες της πανδαιμονολογούμενης παγκοσμιοποίησης, η επιλεκτική γνώση του παρελθόντος, καθώς και η άρνηση της πολιτισμικής και κοινωνικής ιδιοπροσωπίας της ακόμα και από ανθρώπους της νεότερης γενιάς αποτελούν δεδομένα που αγγίζουν (αν όχι, ξεπερνούν) τα όρια της εγκληματικής πράξης. Υπαίτιοι οι πολιτικοί και οικονομικοί «φίλοι» της Πανωραίας, καθώς και οι ίδιοι η κάτοικοί της. Όλοι οι παραπάνω αποτελούν την πολλοστή απόδειξη της ρήσης, ότι ο δρόμος για την Κόλαση είναι στρωμένος με αγαθές προθέσεις.Έτσι, η Πανωραία παλεύει σήμερα μόνη της έχοντας στο πλευρό της ελάχιστους πραγματικούς συμπαραστάτες, όπως τον Καλοσυνάτο και τη Θάλασσα. Η Μαρία Στράνη-Ποττς γίνεται ο λογοτεχνικός κήρυκας ενός καλέσματος για να συναριθμηθούμε και άλλοι στους υποστηρικτές αυτούς της Πανωραίας, οι οποία έχει πλέον φτάσει στα όριά της πολιορκούμενη, όχι από Οθωμανούς, Ανδηγαυούς ή άλλους, αλλά από τον μεγαλύτερο κίνδυνο όλων, τα ίδια τα αλλοτριωμένα παιδιά της.


http://www.bibliokerkyra.blogspot.com/2008/blog-post_1776.html

Negative Attitudes

Why is it so hard to get projects off the ground in Corfu, and even harder to keep them going? So many missed opportunities! So many wet blankets to smother new ideas.

There isn’t a very strong can-do, or go-for-it, spirit in the island. Is it because of party political rivalry, or the result of deeply conservative, reactionary attitudes?

I know dedicated volunteers who desperately want to make a contribution, ecological, environmental or cultural, whose ideas are met only with apathy and resistance.

What happened to the wonderful magazine, “Poetry Greece”? What will happen to “Island” and the Durrell School of Corfu? What chance of finding a rehearsal space for an English Speaking Theatre, or studio-space for artists or quilters?

Wouldn’t it be great if there were literary associations dedicated to Konstantinos Theotokis, to Laskaratos or Kalvos, for instance; groups actively dedicated to restoring their houses as well as maintaining their heritage?

Henry Holland once wrote (1815) that in Cephalonia, two priests were for some time very active in opposing schemes of improvement. Was it a curious instance of their tendency to resist innovation, he asked, that when Major Du Bosset [sic] wished to introduce the culture of the potato, many of the men laboured to convince the peasants that this was the very apple with which the serpent seduced Adam and Eve in paradise?

The Ionian Islands and Epirus, A Cultural History

My new book, "The Ionian Islands and Epirus, A Cultural History" (in the series Landscapes of the Imagination) is due to be published by Signal Books, Oxford, towards the end of 2009, and later by Oxford University Press, USA.

Pre-publication and advance ordering details, and the front-cover design, can be found on: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ionian-Islands-Epirus-Landscapes-Imagination/dp/1904955657/ref=sr_1?ie=UTF8

I've just been making the final adjustments to the text and photographic captions.

I'm pleased with the look of the cover design. I hope to see the book itself before too long.

LEONARD COHEN AT 75- FREE AS A BIRD ON A WIRE

Leonard Cohen will be 75 on September 21, 2009.

It was forty years ago, in 1969, that Jonathan Cape first published “Leonard Cohen, Poems 1956-1968”.

It wasn’t a particularly even collection, but it did contain “Suzanne Takes You Down”, presented as a poem.

1969 also marked the year of release of Leonard Cohen’s second album, “Songs from a Room”, which contained “Bird on a Wire”, which he’d started writing on the island of Hydra, Greece, where he’d bought a 200 year-old house in 1960.

In a 1993 interview for the magazine Song Talk, Cohen explained the origins of the line ‘Like a drunk in a midnight choir’:

"That's also set on the island. Where drinkers, me included, would come up the stairs. There was great tolerance among the people for that because it could be in the middle of the night. You'd see three guys with their arms around each other, stumbling up the stairs and singing these impeccable thirds. So that image came from the island."

From my window, I can see swallows gathering on the telephone wires.

1969 was the year of publication of the collection “Songs of Leonard Cohen, Music, Words and Photographs”, a portfolio of songs mostly from the first two albums, containing many fascinating photographs of him, and of his Swedish girlfriend, Marianne, in Greece. The back cover photograph is of Cohen’s Greek-issued international driving licence.

Born September 21, 1934, in Montreal, Canada, he will be celebrating his 75th birthday in a month's time.

On 31 March, Leonard Cohen released 'Live In London', a 2-CD collection of 25 songs from his July, 2008 performance at London's O2 Arena.

I’m listening to it here in the mountains, watching the swallows. I recommend it.

Prince Charles likes him too!

Weekly Hubris interview

Vassilis Tsitsanis, Memorial Concert at Tsepelovo

Last night we drove to Tsepelovo for an outdoor tribute concert marking the quarter century since the death (in London) of Vassilis Tsitsanis. He died on 18 January 1984, in Brompton Hospital.

Why Tsepelovo? His mother came from that Zagori village. “Echo mia agnosti patrida’, wrote Vassilis.

The eight piece group (the Tsitsanis Orchestra from Trikala) and three singers were outstanding, and the lead bouzouki player was a real virtuoso (there were three bouzouki players).

We didn’t stay until the end, because of the mountain road and bends at night. The concert reminded me what a great song-writer, poet and composer Tsitsanis was, and how fresh and exciting his songs remain today.

Organised by the Tsepelovo Cultural Committee, the spokesman introduced the evening (pity about the 45 minute delay in starting) by talking of the way that Tsitsanis managed to bring the Eastern and Western musical elements together.

This reminded me of a poem I wrote in 1983 (it's in “Corfu Blues”, Ars Interpres):

Memories of Asia Minor: Improvisations in a Minor Key
Don’t put down that old bouzouki,
Tsitsani virtuoso!
Explore all the roads,
Extend that taqsim,
Scatter the clouds
That darken each dream.

Take me back to the East
As I move further West.
Make the rhythm more heavy
To lighten my soul:
“We’re refugees all”
Your silver streams scream.


It also appeared in Ars Interpres

The Vitsa Panigyri, 14-16 August

It's been a marathon panigyri (one of the best in the whole of Greece) for those who stayed up all night for three nights in a row, for the musicians and singers, the organisers and dedicated members of the Cultural Association, the souvlaki and sausage grillers, the dancers and, last but not least, for those who had to clean up and wash up every day.

I had a taste of each of the three nights; the atmosphere got better every night. The panigyri was still going strong at 10am this morning, with Grigoris Kapsalis (portrait above), the 80 year old klarino player from Elafotopos, playing his heart out with a moving miroloi or lament.

The panigyri finished with a "Pied Piper" procession up the kalderimi from the platanos tree in the main square.

I admire the energy and stamina of the people, young and old, who danced all night.

Other highlights of the festivities included an updated version of Dario Fo's play "Can't Pay? Won't Pay!" and an exhibition of photographs. I was proud that my own were included.

It's extraordinary to be in Vitsa with such crowds and intense activity, with so much socialising. The village is usually almost deserted. Then people have the Vitsa Blues, although many people prefer it peaceful and quiet.

I'll never forget the tragic miroloi played by Grigoris Kapsalis, in memory of one of our neighbours who died not long ago.

After so much Dionysian dancing, abandon and drinking, people broke down in tears. Such is the power of music.

Vitsa, Directions