Macedonia is Greece. Poster from protests in cities in Greece. International Hellenic Association. European and American economic and military-NATO pressures forced the Greek government in gifting of the name Macedonia to a former Yugoslav province. This foolish act is weaponizing and destabilizing Southeastern Europe How Euro-American vultures have been looting Greece  In 2019, Greece is in chaos. Since the American-triggered global financial meltdown of 2008, the country has been drained of wealth, sovereignty and, above all, self-respect.  The agents of this rapid decline and fall are the usual suspects: irresponsible American-educated Greek politicians who borrowed money from German, French, and American banks, and the international debt collectors determined to get back the borrowed money from Greece at any cost.  The American reporter  Greg Palast  is right calling the debt collection agencies vultures and poisoners. I call them dark-...

In 2014, I met Blaine Malquist. This was in Florida at the Pesticides Forum of Beyond Pesticides, a national organization fighting for environmental and public health protection from the use and misuse of pesticides. Mosquito fogging Malquist lives in Nephi City, Juab County, Utah. He briefly said to me that the careless use of pesticides in Utah has made his life and the life of his daughter unbearable.  Apparently, the Juab County has been sponsoring a regular mosquito fogging program that is out of control, spraying homes, people and the natural world indiscriminately. At least, that’s my understanding from talking to the distressed Malquist. He said to me he complained to the local authorities and, in 2011, sued the  Juab County  for poisoning his garden. Nothing worked, however. The mosquito foggers and their local and state supervisors saw no trouble in killing mosquitoes.  In 2018, Malquist and his daughter spoke to me on the phone and se...

Organic carrots from the organic foods market of Vrilisia, Attica, Greece. Photo: Evaggelos Vallianatos. In the 1980s, I met a retired general at a Borders bookstore in northern Virginia. He used to buy tons of military history books. I used to buy environmental and classics books. We started talking about books. But, slowly, in our discussion of Latin America, I criticized American policies, especially the immoral support of  landlords against landless peasants. “If I knew you a few years ago, I would take you outside the town and shoot you,” he said to me.  I dismissed this vicious threat as a sign the old man was crazy. But the threat, nevertheless, mirrors the invisible war around farming, food, and the environment. I felt the tension of that ceaseless war for decades. Agrarian reform In January 28 - February 1, 1992, I was attending an international climate and development conference in  Brazi l. I was one of the speakers addressing agraria...

The Francois Krater (Vase): Archaeological Museum of Florence. This valuable and beautiful vase was painted by Kleitias and made by potter Ergotimos, about 570 BCE. Kleitias painted miniatures of great mythical-historical events in the life of the Greeks. Courtesy Wikipedia. I rarely paid attention to images or pictures. My focus was always the written word. My mind built the gods, heroes, and material artifacts, including temples and the Parthenon. I had to do that because the country of my birth, Greece, in the twentieth century, was largely without the statues of ancient Greek gods and heroes or the temples built to honor the gods. Greek art in Greece and America Certainly, Greek museums are full of ancient Greek treasures, including statues of gods and heroes. But step outside the museums and you are in a desert decorated by Christian churches built for the most part on the ruins of temples. The first time I visited the Acropolis was when I left Greece for the Uni...