Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

My friend Manoel tells me that the Greek accent is very similar to the Spanish. This is not the only thing they have in common, it seems. Although most events in Athens are being contested in empty stadiums, beach volleyball has proved a sell-out. Likewise, coverage of this event continues to dominate Spanish TV coverage of the Olympics.

Both El Mundo and El Pais had obituaries of Bernard Levin last week. It’s hard to imagine even the heavy British newspapers being remotely familiar with his Spanish media equivalents, let alone according one of them the honour of an elegy.


Pulling no punches, an article in El Mundo on Sunday labelled Lord [‘Marbles’] Elgin “The Despoiler of Athens – Scottish, Count and Thief” and then went on to repeat Byron’s view of him as ‘A cold man – hard and deeply imbecilic”. Am I being cynical to wonder whether this article hasn’t been stimulated by the Greek government, at a time when Athens is on every front and back page? The opposing view, of course, is that Elgin bought the marbles perfectly legally from the Turkish rulers of Greece and saved them from almost certain destruction. Which is not to say they shouldn’t go back to Athens but puts Lord Elgin in somewhat better light.

It’s reported today that food, drink and cigarettes are still cheaper here than anywhere else in Euroland. Very appropriate for a country in which so much emphasis is placed on having fun, especially out of the house. When you are not watching beach volleyball, of course.


No comments: