Greece

On the train now from Leipzig to Berlin listening to music and have a chance to reflect a bit about the previous cities: Thessaloniki, Belgrade and Leipzig. First Greece.

After a remarkably well organized but cold visit in Denmark, I was looking forward to some warmer weather and a slower pace in Greece. All I got was the slower pace, but it turns out it highs in the lower 60's was as warm as it would be in all of Europe while I was there.

We started the trip with a 2 hour mini-bus trip (we liked to call it the short bus) into the hills of Greece near the border of The Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia. We stayed in a small village, Nymphaio, that was saved and rebuilt thanks to a Greek and EU fund aimed at preserving the heritage of these types of towns.

If you get to Northern Greece, I highly recommend it: all stone streets and homes with metal roofs and tight, small streets. Completely cute and extremely friendly. Really the complete opposite of Thessaloniki. We've all heard of Thessaloniki if we've read any bit of the New Testament. Paul wrote letters when he was here to the Jewish and Christian inhabitants. Unfortunately the church that was associated with his visit has since been destroyed.

It was destroyed along with everything else, and they didn't take much care and planning in the reconstruction. Really --what a dump, but it didn't use to be. Which explains why you can pick a country and it has invaded Thessaloniki: Turkey, Germany, Italy, etc. They've all left their impact, but it mainly seems psychological. I think that as Americans we have an incredibly hard time imagining foreign invaders on our soil unless you've watched Patrick Swayze and C Thomas Howell in the very excellent Soviets-invade-the-US move, Red Dawn, recently.

It's pretty apparent that there are lasting resentments to all these invaders. And by the way, I could devote an entire blog to each of these countries opinion of Turkey. Turkey is either an immigration problem, a military threat or a past invader. But, in talking to my fellow Fellows that visited Ankara/Istanbul, the Turks are more interested in reaching out to Europe. Let bygones be bygones I guess. It seems the Greeks *definitely* do not share these feelings.

But any way, back to lasting resentments. Somehow Americans no longer resent the Brits. And I guess if you have dominated a country in every way except for sports no American watches you'd probably get past old animosities. Unfortunately Southern and Eastern Europe has had no such luck. In fact you could argue that Greece really had a chance to thrive, but since they missed the industrial revolution they're always trying to catch up. There is so very little manufacturing here that I think there never will be. Their chance of dominating anyone militarily or economically seems remote.

That's why they're very focused on creating intellectual property, biotech and medical devices. In fact I met with a gentleman that is the CEO of 2 corporations: one is a VC fund and the other is an Angel group that incubates tech/life science start-ups. Very odd combinations from my experience in the US, but he's very rational about the whole thing. The Greek government provides access to investors in tech/life sci that provides 50% of the funds. BTW, it was explained to me that the Greek government does not seek repayment or equity in the business, and the business can show it as cash on hand on their books! So if an Angel investor can get a business to qualify for these funds he halves his risk! Wait, what?

Yes, the Greek government is THAT generous. And I went to a $20mm science and tech museum to prove it. The EU and Greece gave the Foundation that runs it the money to build it AND has paid for the annual loss it runs for the past 6 years. The museum said they were going to try some marketing this year to increase their gate receipts. You think?

So now to Macedonia. Macedonia is a state (prefecture in Greek terms) in the country of Greece. Macedonia is also an historic region that incorporates N Greece and southern former Yugoslavia. Alexander the Great and his Dad, Philip II, were based here. These guys kicked so much ancient butt that everyone claims them --especially the Greeks, since, you know, they were both Greek.

But when a country claims independence and calls itself Macedonia the Greeks get a bit bothered. So here's the gist of the problem -the Greeks failed to copywrite the word 'Macedonia' and are now not happy about them using it. The Former Yugoslvia Republic of Macdedonia (TFYRM) not only said the Greeks can't do anything about it, but also decided to name their capital's airport Alexander the Great Intl Airport as an additional dig. Oh yeah,and the Turks support the name Macedonia. It's an incredible story. Dan Brown couldn't make this stuff up. And this country, TFYRM, is listed under 'T' in the list of countries recognized by the UN.

So after an amazingly well-planned trip by our city coordinator and a lot of attempts to make me drink copious amounts of Uzo, we went to the world's worst-planned international airport for Belgrade. Serbia. The one we bombed a lot a few years ago. Sound fun to you?