NEW DOCUMENTARY
Published by deviousdiva April 24th, 2006 in Personal.For those of us living in Greece, there is a new documentary series entitled Small Odysseys which will start on ET-1 from the 27th April. Each episode will include two human stories of a foreigner in Greece and of a Greek in a foreign country.
I have deleted the troll comments. For anyone who is interested in responding to him head over to Numptie's Revenge
Numptie has kindly offered to deal with this one now that he's "in a good mood for a scrap with a loony!" Thank you for your support.
COMMENT DELETED BY DEVIOUS DIVA
Diva, where do you find people like this? Po po?
I’m sure this blog is like flypaper for freaks sometimes!!!
Funniest thing I’ve read in ages. I shall chuckle all evening.
Very interesting how the daffodil and "anonymous" persons do not dare refute the facts.
Er… facts… donde esta “the facts” ???
You start off by saying the immigrants come to Spain to (quote) “piss on our church alters”. I think you’re confusing immigrants for British tourists on a club 18-30’s holiday!!
You are too funny
COMMENT DELETED BY DEVIOUS DIVA
Just got back to my computer to find that someone has vomited on this thread. Thanks a lot No A La Inmigration. How did you manage to spew up all this on a blog you despise? Why not just hit next blog or go somewhere where someone is remotely interested in your opinion. If you dare post such bile directed towards me and I catch it first (I’m usually here a lot more) you WILL BE DELETED.
There are NO facts in your comments. Just bile. GO AND READ MY GUIDELINES AT THE TOP OF MY BLOG.
Good Grief. I am seriously not laughing…
I am, though.
COMMENT DELETED BY DEVIOUS DIVA
Could I just ask a question, Daffodil, why is this funny? I don’t mean to be insulting to you but I just cannot see anything funny about this mans comments.
Fake name… in the guidelines I asked you to read I wrote:
“Please give yourself a name. Use a fake one. I don’t care. I really get tired talking to anonymous and the discussion gets confusing when there are so many about.”
Seeing as you already gave yourself a name why make up another one?
Deleting begins from now.
I think I’ll change my name to Dandelion rather than Daffodil because it makes me laugh so much …
No, seriously, it is funny, isn’t it, or is it just me? That some inadequate angry red-faced, screwed up, immature little person would need to spend so long trying to get his message across on your blog is not just funny, it’s hysterical.
I could be more provocative and say that he does have a point, though. Nations can only accommodate so many outsiders - few would advocate a complete Open Doors policy. It is a pity he put his views in such an extreme manner rather than encouraging a real debate about immigration - who should be allowed in and in what numbers? Every country has to decide those questions, keeping the majority on board, and reactions like that of Mr Indignant should make those in government wonder whether they’ve drawn the line at the right place. At least, that is what is happening in the UK right now with fears of BNP benefitting from disillusionment with Labour party policies resulting in Tony Blair’s immediate attempt to claw back hearts and minds.
Thank you for clarifying Daffodil (I like Dandelion too). I perhaps unfortunately, do not find his comments funny. He accuses me of child abuse! Of being somehow connected to murderers, criminals and the mafia. Of not being able to dress properly! That my compatriots (whatever that means?) are unhygienic and that “immigrants are basically like the flies that suck on rotting meat”
Not even a titter from me I’m afraid. He has already stated (this could be fantasy) that he is in politics. I find that threatening and I am not an immigrant. I am English and I am free to live anywhere in Europe I choose. Thankfully. Imagine how I would feel if I WAS an immigrant? He is against me because of what I look like (non-European? non-Mediterranean? non-white?) not what I am. And that really sucks.
Countries ARE allowed to set their laws and rules as they see fit. All I ask, all I have ever asked, is that you make it clear. If European laws that you have signed up for, says that people have a legitimate right to seek work, asylum, refugee status here then that’s their right under the law. If you want to change that, change it. Change it legally and make it clear that that’s the new law. Otherwise, get over it. Immigrants are here legally and properly and you are just going to have to get used to it.
What worries me about people like the troll above is that his tabloid comments are becoming more and more common and that the BNP and other nationalist parties are benefitting.
It’s really not funny.
I agree about the law. There’s not much wrong with the laws in place (except the Dublin Convention which was a fantasy which, fortunately for the likes of Greece and less conveniently for the UK, doesn’t work). Trouble is
(1) governments don’t all respect the law - I’ll leave others to comment on Greece’s recognition rates for UN Convention refugees and those asking for humanitarian protection - or consider the law outdated and unworkable.
(2) people don’t respect the law either - because they want a better life/more money. I might do the same in their shoes though I’d like to imagine I’d stay and fight to improve the situation in my own country.
It’s always struck me as bizarre that when friends emigrate from Europe to, say Australia or the US, we pat them on the back, encourage them, visit them, envy them, admire them, but we find it difficult when the boot is on the other foot and people seeking the same betterment come to Europe.
I haven’t got a pat answer. I’d rather see workable laws properly enforced which would mean quick transparent decisions on status even if that involved a limited period of detention in a processing centre (with access to lawyers, interpretors, health care and education) and which would include effective forced repatriation of those who break the laws. Waiting for a decision is killing.
Man, your troll really had me going there for a minute. What brilliant satire. What wit. The writer even throws in a bunch of bad grammar and syntax, just to make himself sound extra stupid. This must have taken a LOT of thought and effort, just to sound this inane and ridiculous.
People like that are simply impossible, the only thing to do with them is delete them, as I have found with some of the English nationalists. I think they are on another planet completely and are just looking for any opportunity to spout their vile filth. This is exactly why I split form the BondBloke blog so that I coul;d attack them on my own terms without having to worry about others, and it seems to be working. Hang on in there Diva and delete, delete, delete…
I agree with David, I find the same with the loonies who visit me the grammar, syntax and spelling are simply stupendous (stupendously awful that is).
I will be deleting from now on. Unfortunately this idiot got through while I was away from here for a while and people had already responded. Should I delete comments like this even when there has been such a reaction against it? I’m not sure.
Most definitely Diva, by leaving it there you are sending this evil bugger the wrong message, by deleting it you are saying “this is my space, I make the rules, and I don’t want your kind here!”. Plus the fact that it has been there long enough now for anyone whos is going to react against it to know just what they are commenting on; detlete, delete, thrice delete…
OK, I have cooled down a little now; I cannot respond adequately to this evil bugger’s remarks but one thing stands out above all else “there are too many F O R E I G N E R S in Spain”; ok so this is what ‘it’ thinks, so why don’t we all go someplace other than Spain for our holidays and see what that does to the Spanish economy. This idiot doesn’t like “foreigners” in his country and most of us don’t want to be where we are not liked, so we stay away - QED.
Thanks Numptie. I did it and it feels goooood.
Anyone who's interested in "What the Troll said" and wishes to respond, head over to http://numptiesnest.blogspot.c.....-time.html
Nice one Diva - yes it does feel so good doesn’t it?
XMMM,,
MISSED ALL TH FUN I SEE,
GOD DAMN CHOLESTOROL (FROM EASTER SUNDAYS LAMB).
GIVING ME A HARD TIME,,
SEE THAT YOURE HAVING HARD TIMES
WITH EX SPANISH ARISTOCRATS
NO WORRY,
IM POLISHING UP ,,,, … THE GUILLOTINE.!
SORRY I MISSED HIM THE FIRST TIME
COULDVE HAD TAKEN NECK MEASUREMENTS.
BUT YOURE TARGET PRACTICE
WITH THE DLETE BLASTER WEAPON
IS GOING WELL I SEE.
CONGRATULATIONS ,
KEEP IT UP, YOULL FEEL BETTER
AT THE END OF THE DAY.
==== Z ====
The director of ‘mikres odyssies’ is Marco Gastine, a French director who’s lived in Greece since the 80s. His film ‘Marseille: Distant Daughter’ (or ‘Marseille: A Greek Profile’ depending which language it’s translated from) won first prize at the Thessaloniki film festival last year.
His work is not especially political, it’s more in the tradition of documentary storytelling. He believes all immigrants’ stories are individual - that there is no generalized ‘immigrant experience.’ It’s a fascinating point of view.
Please watch it!
when is it scarf+….?
‘mikres odyssies is on Thursdays at 7:30, I think there are 12 episodes scheduled.
Last night’s program looked at a young Albanian hip-hop musician who raps in Albanian and Greek. He’s a great kid, looks a bit like John Turturro. He told how he came to Greece for the first time - he’d damaged his eye in an explosion in Albania, needed an operation fast, crossed the mountains with his father; the Greek soldiers who caught them ended up helping them get to a hospital, even gave them a little money, the operation was a success. Then later he got his lights punched out by some Greek policemen and lost the eye for good. Arban tells the whole story without bitterness, it’s just the way things happen sometimes. His rap lyrics also describe hardship and loss, country and πατρίδα with no trace of self-pity.
The second half of the program focussed on Yorgos, a Greek who immigrated to Germany and eventually Belgium in the late 50s. He worked a lot of crummy jobs for years, and is now a high-ranking official in one of the EU’s social policy departments.
Neither of the stories are rags-to-riches, they don’t have a tidy arc. The characters aren’t pushing their political agendas, if they have any. And there’s a lot more that could have been said about these characters if the director had put in a narration track - instead, everything is told by the characters themselves. I think it’s more honest that way too.
Clarifying what I said earlier - the director believes that if there is such a thing as the ‘immigrant experience’, it can only be described through individual stories.