well...my friend Evaggelos Vallianatos...don't worry too much...yes, greeks made logic&reason into a form of art...but that seems to be an dying art in this modern age...

whats happening now could have been easily predicted when greeks had access to easy loans years ago...and instead of applying some logic&reason to assess the whole life cycle to it...well Greeks seem to have gone crazy on 'lets live now'...lot money quickly siphoned away and smaller portion actually spent on mega billion projects...

few greeks...those given power and position, got rich quick for doing nothing\looking other way\spinning bull*@8$ etc...while the rest of greeks marveled at the superficial transformation of their country...

now the birds have come to roost...'birds' as in the intentionally kept murky world of big money finance...which we the common people are slowing realizing is privately owned...and seems that bankrupt Greece has to sell ALL its assets that is still left to foreign owners to get out of this hole...without a shot fired...amazing...

and more amazing...same pattern here in australia, england, usa and many other countries that once used to be 'rich'...

well...lets all continue sleeping on our watch shall we...just focus on our own mortgage and debts...let the current political-government-law complex keep doing what they are without any fear of consequences...and we all join Greece shortly...

sam

This is laughable.

No wonder Greece is in such a mess if this is in any way representative of how some Greeks think. Many of the country's problems are self-created, and like all of us they will have to face up to reality and not take refuge in the glories of the remote past.

Speaking as someone Greek,tThe author is over-the-top with his comments. Its not so much that ancient Greece didn't have a monumthatental impact of western civilization. It did. (to those that doubt I recommend you check into the etymology of words like philosophy, physics, mathematics, biology, democracy, logic, etc.. etc..) However, that was then and this is now. Hubris over ancient accomplishments is unearned and unwise. I am no more responsible for the works of Aristotle than the average brit is responsible for Newton.If anything Greece is a backwater today.

That said, the author is correct there is currently amti-Greek hysteria. Greece is certainly to blame for its fiances but demonization over the matter is excessive (as Greece only represents 2% of the EU economy). A dead giveway prejudice is a factor is how apologists for the former Yugoslav republic have suddenly developed amnesia when it comes time to noticing the rampant "united Macedonia" rhetoric and remembering what government officials from FYROM used to claim about their consatntly shifting identity only a few short years ago. (prior to recognition)

'We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian.' - FYROM´s former Canadian Ambassador Gyordan Veselinov, Ottawa Citizen Newspaper, February 24 1999

"We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century ... We are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians" - FYROM's first President Kiro Gligorov, Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, February 26, 199

@StampY

You have things exactly backwards. Greeks are among the few ethnic groups that share massive amounts of culture and langauge with ancient counterparts. (along with Chinese, and a hanful of others)

You are also a quack geneticist. There is no ethnic group that's pure but studies have consistently a high percentage of the Greek population is biological connected to ancient (again higher then most country's actually)

If you argued the same sorts of thing to someone Jewish (that have mixed far more than Greeks and have less in common on practical level) you would be called a racist (and rightfully so). Unfortunately harassing Greeks as not "real" Greeks is practically an international sport. I would look in the mirror to see what you have in common with your claimed roots before csmuggly riticizing others. My bet is far far less than Greeks.

Demetri,

I'm not going to discuss genetics as different studies lead to different conclusions and I'd agree that the subject is not relevant here and there are plenty of traps for the unwary.

Certainly the terms for modern sciences have Classical Greek derivations, however that doesn't justify the assumption that these sciences were invented in Ancient Greece, most were not. We should certainly credit the Ionian Greeks with being the first people to rationally examine the human condition and the natural world, however their methods of enquiry were, with rare expections, philosophical not scientific. Science is an invention of 17th century Western Europe.

As to the claim that the 'Greeks invented democracy', modern representive democracy doesn't share much in common with the Athenian variety which was basically an unstable oligarchy by our standards.

I have to say that the current controversy over the name 'Macedonia' is rather amusing to an outsider, considering that the Ancient Greeks regarded the Macedonians as semi-barbarians.

Everyone loves a winner.

@Mac

Pop quiz.

Do FYROM nationalists speak Greek like Maceodnians did? No. Do they identify with hellenic culture as Macedonians did? no. Do theyself-identify with ancient Greek as ancietn macedonians did? no. Do they have records of ancesostors in the middle ages speaking Greek and referencing ancient Greeks as their ancestors as Greeks do? NoIs FYROM even in the original ancient maceodonia?. Paeonia and Dardinia are not ancient kingdom of Macedonia.

You say you are't going to discuss genetics but that is effectively the entire basis for FYROM's new found "macedonian" identity. Crackpot pseudo-scientific racial mixing arguments because it certainly has nothing to do with historical fact. Using such bizarre logic any country on earth could claim the identity of their neighbour.

Further reading by actual historians (as opposoed to patronizinng bigots who have no clue what they are talking about)
http://macedonia-evidence.org/obama-letter.html

Also a reminder as to what FYROM's own government used to assure everyone about their sacred "Macedonian" identity. You can't even tell history from 10 year ago correctly much less ancient.

"We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century ... We are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians" (FYROM's first President, Kiro Gligorov. Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, Feb 26, 1992)