Corfu Blues and Global Views

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Self-Exile (On Leaving Corfu)

We’ve sent the last (?) five cubic meters to England, and I’ve just dismantled my office desk and the bookcases. The ‘Corfu Blues’ proved to be a self-prophetic title.

Cavafy's poem, The City, always comes to mind at such times of regret and imminent departure :

Καινούριους τόπους δεν θα βρεις, δεν θάβρεις άλλες θάλασσες.
Η πόλις θα σε ακολουθεί. Στους δρόμους θα γυρνάς
τους ίδιους. Και στες γειτονιές τες ίδιες θα γερνάς·
και μες στα ίδια σπίτια αυτά θ' ασπρίζεις.
Πάντα στην πόλι αυτή θα φθάνεις. Για τα αλλού -- μη ελπίζεις --
δεν έχει πλοίο για σε, δεν έχει οδό.
Ετσι που τη ζωή σου ρήμαξες εδώ
στην κώχη τούτη την μικρή, σ' όλην την γή την χάλασες.

"Since that I

Must die at last, 'tis best

To use myself in jest

Thus by feign'd deaths to die".

(John Donne)

Oute ena efcharisto, Jenny Karezi

From the film

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Sea Turtle

On Sunday I was invited on board a friend's motor yacht, for a trip across to the shores of Epirus, directly opposite the Gouvia marina. We saw the fish farms close up, and then a sad casualty: a dead caretta, or Loggerhead sea turtle. It was missing one of its front flippers.

Later I read about conservation efforts in the booklet published by Archelon, The Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece. The author of "Caretta, The Loggerhead Sea Turtle in Greece" is Anna Kremezi-Margaritouli.

"Another major threat is the incidental capture of sea turtles in nets or on fishing lines. If they do not drown, it is probable that they are killed by the fishermen, who often regard them as pests or competitors."

Update, November 2016 - EC Takes Legal Action Against Greece for Failure to Protect Caretta Caretta. Greek Observer

See Island in the Sun

listen to "My Island Home" ("I'm holding that long turtle spear")