Photojournalist and blogger Craig Wherlock translated from reports in Greek media:

a 35 year old Armenian woman was beaten, handcuffed and detained in front of her two year old child [..] in Athens last Thursday [..] When she went to get the pushchair carrying her child they grabbed her, pushed her to the ground, kicking and punching her in the belief she was resisting arrest. The hapless mother was handcuffed and taken with her child to the Aghios Panteleimonos police department where she was kept for four hours.

The incident was promptly reported on Twitter by Cyberela:

«Νταήδες» αστυνομικοί ξυλοκόπησαν 35χρονη http://www.enet.gr/104685 (via @enetgr) @chrisochoidis Τί θα κάνετε γι αυτό;

Citizen Protection minister Michalis Chrisochoidis was harangued by demands to take action. On Twitter vivian_e said:

@chrisochoides Υπουργέ, δεν πάει άλλο η κατάσταση με την αστυνομική βία. Πρέπει να υπάρξουν παραδειγματικές τιμωρίες. Άμεσα

Half an hour after the first tweet, the minister's office responded directly to citizens for the first time through Twitter:

@Cyberela @diakoptis @teacherdude @asteris @magicasland μετά την καταγγελία της 36χρονης η ΓΑΔΑ διέταξε Ένορκη Διοικητική Εξέταση

… to which vivian_e responded

@chrisochoidis Θα σας ρωτάμε κάθε μέρα για την πορεία της ΕΔΕ.

Later, the minister announced that the officers responsible for the incident would be permanently dismissed, and initiated a public consultation for the creation of a special office to monitor incidents of police abuse.

Thirdeye tried to connect the local with the global by reminding us of the fires that devastated Greece in recent years:

Στην Ελλάδα ζήσαμε πυρκαγιές τα τελευταία χρόνια που συνεισφέρουν πολλές αρνητικές συνέπειες για το κλιματικό μέλλον της χωράς. Οι εναλλακτικές πηγές ενεργείας δεν είναι αστειάκι στα πολιτικά πηγαδάκια αλλά κοινωνική ανάγκη. Όχι μόνο στην Ελλάδα αλλά σε ολόκληρο τον πλανήτη.[..]

Δεν γνωρίζω τι μπορεί να συμβεί απλά το φαντάζομαι. Επειδή όμως ονειρεύομαι ένα καλύτερο μέλλον υποστηρίζω και υπογράφω το Hopenhagen και συμμετέχω στο Blog Action Day.

Roides posited that political correctness and patriotism trump sound environmental policy in Greece and ticked off policy failures:

Γι αυτό και εμείς αφήσαμε πίσω 67 νεκρούς, κάψαμε 3 εκατομμύρια στρέμματα δασών, δασικών και γεωργικών εκτάσεων και ως πολιτική απάντηση δώσαμε/πήραμε πολύ σημαντικά μέτρα, όπως:
- διαλύσαμε την δασική υπηρεσία
- (δεν) συντάξαμε δασολόγιο
- εξαγγείλαμε στεντορείως και ευρέως το περίφημο: «ότι ήταν δάσος θα παραμείνει δάσος» [..]

Rodia railed at the environmental disconnect:

Το περιβάλλον και η προστασία του, έτσι, γενικά και αόριστα, είναι μια φόλα, μια μούφα, μια παραπλάνηση, να το γράψω και ευγενικά. Δεν μπορεί οι εταιρείες να αλωνίζουν με τις βιομηχανίες τους, τα φουγάρα τους, τα χημικά βλαβερά τους απόβλητα, δεν μπορεί οι μεγάλες χώρες να μην έχουν υπογράψει βασικές συνθήκες προστασίας του περιβάλλοντος (π.χ. ΗΠΑ, συνθήκη Κιότο) και να ζητιέται απο τα ταπεινά ανθρωπάκια, εμάς δλδ, να προσέχουμε μη πατήσουμε το χορτάρι!

… but still went on to propose local scale solutions:

Εμείς μπορούμε να κάνουμε μικρούτσικα πραγματάκια, στη κλίμακά μας, που λένε. Να φροντίζουμε για τα σκουπίδια που παράγουμε και, αναλόγως, να τα πετάμε ή να τα ανακυκλίζουμε. Να φροντίζουμε τη καθαριότητα των ακτών της χώρας μας. Να προσέχουμε τα πάρκα μας -όσα απομείναν, δλδ- μη τα κάνει γκαράζ κάνας πρόθυμος δήμαρχος. Να καταγγέλουμε όποια εταιρεία ή βιομήχανο καταστρέφει τον υδροφόρο ορίζοντα, γιατί εκείνος μπορεί να στείλει τα παιδιά του να ζήσουν στην Ελβετία ή στις Μπαχάμες, αλλά εμείς θα εξακολουθούμε να ζούμε εδώ και να χρειαζόμαστε νερό πόσιμο. Να χρησιμοποιούμε τα Μέσα Μαζικής Μεταφοράς [..] και να πιέζουμε προς τα καλύτερα και πυκνότερα δρομολόγια

Argos reposted a video he cobbled together for Blog Action Day ‘07 and mused despondently,

Two years ago I was part of the first blog action day which had as a theme the climate change. Two years later the issue remains the same. So my contribution remains the same.

Nothing was solved the last two years, so I won’t change anything

Greek blogger mindstripper posted the view from her balcony on Saturday evening on the scratch blog:

‘Ωρα Αθήνας 8μμ

Κι εγώ θέλω να φύγω από το σπίτι μου.

A day later, London-based photographer mlazopoulou posted a photo taken from an airplane:

She commented, “Just can't describe this with words…”

Live views of the fire

On Sunday night, a webcam in the forest of Schinias recorded snapshots of advancing fires until the camera temporarily went out of order (it is now working again).

Schinias webcam image on Aug 24 at 1:53 AM in Greece

The New Athenian chronicled the events of early Sunday, when the fire reached the Pendeli suburb of Athens:

Many local residents had spent the night protecting their homes. On Sunday morning they were still doing what they could to put out small fires near their homes, beating them with olive branches and shovels, or forming human chains to relay buckets of water filled using yard hoses. The air was thick with acrid smoke, and people were covering their faces with T-shirts, kerchiefs and towels to work. [..]

Many Pendeli residents were waiting until the last moment to evacuate their houses. The roads were still lined with parked vehicles in late morning. Many people were waiting outside their homes, faces covered, their dogs beside them on leashes. From the invisible depths of the smoke explosions were audible – natural gas tanks, perhaps, or cars exploding.

On Twitter, people referred to a Google Maps mashup, with data from the fire information agency FIRMS, to monitor the fires and quickly settled on a hashtag (#grfires) to aggregate tweets related to the fire. Most messages repeated information broadcast on TV, as well as media and political criticism, with little actual firsthand reporting.

Twitter user @savvakos provided some firsthand reports of advancing fire fronts, complete with Google Maps coordinates:

Ενεργό μέτωπο της φωτιάς στην Σταμάτα, λίγο πριν από την πλατεία #grfires http://bit.ly/t38Z5 http://twitpic.com/ezarv

Also on Twitter, @kyanoun posted a real-time video with commentary using Qik from his car while he drove down a smoke-clouded Attica highway.

Flickering lights in the dark

Sunset is a dreaded time during times of fire, because aircraft are grounded and firefighting efforts are severely hampered. Eric Parks described this dramatic moment on Twitter:

@erictparks: Sunset & we're watching daring air crews make final drops in little light. Darkness reveals hundreds of points of fire on the mountains.

Greek web designer Dimitrios Doukoglou posted this photo on Twitpic on August 23:

The view from my roof, yesterday night. #grfires

Several people posted mobile phone photos on Twitter using the Twitpic application, and a Greek software developer provided an auto-refreshing web service to aggregate them, using the #grfires hashtag.

Politics in times of fire

Teacher Dude, a citizen photo-journalist based in Thessaloniki focused on the political connection between wildfires and national elections:

Although Greece regularly has wildfires a study carried out by the Athens University of Economics suggested that there was a direct link between their destructiveness and national elections. According to Spyros Skouras and Nikos Christodoulakis half of the forest lost through fires in the last 54 years took place in the 16 years in which elections were held.

The last serious fires to hit the country in 2007 took place just weeks before parliamentary elections and most political analysts consider the announcement of new elections within the next few months a certainty.

Teacher Dude reminisced on Twitter about an earlier firefighting effort in which he himself took part:

I keep on remembering what happened here in Saloniki in 1997. I volunteered to help fight the fires. Scary how fast they can move.

… and also commented wryly that:

The New Democracy [governing party] logo has new meaning now. http://tinyurl.com/m4mafa #grfires

Unknown to most Armenians, but loved by many Kurds for his songs sung in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish, Aram Tigran has passed away in Athens, Greece. Born in 1934 in Syria, Tigran's death has affected many, and not least those recognizing the important contribution he made as a cultural bridge between Armenians and Kurds. On 7 August, Kurdistan and Hayastan - Hand in Hand reported that Tigran had been rushed to hospital.

Aram Tigran, the famous Kurdish singer of Armenian origin, have been rushed to the hospital and there is almost no information on Tigrans condition.

His family were survivors of the Armenian Genocide and he is considered among the best of contemporary Kurdish singers and musicians.

The following day, Facebook status line updates passed on news that the singer had died. Gurgîn, a blogger of both Armenian and Kurdish origin, posted details (translation by Google with some editing for English).

Den berömda kurdiska sångaren av armeniskt ursprung kördes igår till akuten i Athen, vid 07.30 tiden var hans hälsotillstånd allvarligt, han blev på direkten hjärndöd och förlorade medvetandet helt och hållet. Utanför Van Gelismos sjukhuset i Athen så samlades hundratals trogna beundrare enligt Aknews för att visa sitt stöd, flera kända artister från Europa och Amerika tog första flyget till Grekland för att se efter sin vän. Tigrans kropp har nu förts till Amêd i norra Kurdistan (Diyarbakir, Turkiet) där han nu kommer att begravas.

[…]

Jag har tidigare idag talat med hans släktingar och jag förstår att de inte vill och orkar kommentera händelsen, han har lämnat efter sig två döttar och en son som förmodligen alltid kommer att definieras utifrån sin far.

[…]

Musiken han skapat har slagit rot i flera miljoner människors hjärtan i Mellanöstern men de underförstådda budskapen han sänt har aldrig riktigt slagit rot i folks tankar och handlingar.

Jag har i egenskap av halv armenier och halv kurd sedan en tid tillbaka identifierat mig med Aram som fungerat som en brobryggare mellan det kurdiska och det armeniska folket.

Jag tror verkligen på att han ensam har fört ihop två folk genom att ha använt sin armeniska bakgrund och sin kurdiska röst.

Ianyan also posts an entry on Tigran and his legacy, while pointing out that online Armenian resources fail to include him in their lists of notable figures. Nevertheless, his message of peace and friendly relations between Armenians and Kurds was noted and conveyed by others on Twitter.

Aram Tigran 1934-2009. R.I.P.

Greek journalist and blogger Panagiotis Papachatzis published two interviews with Iranian protesters on his blog, πρόχειρο τετράδιο.

In the first interview, on Tuesday, Iranian activist and blogger Jadi commented on the role Twitter played in reporting during the first few days of the election protests, and why he has chosen to blog under his real name.

γράφω επώνυμα και αυτό το κάνω γιατί είναι πολύ σημαντικό για μένα να πω ” Είμαι αυτό το συγκεκριμένο άτομο και ζω στο Ιράν και πιστεύω στα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα.” Αν γράφω ανώνυμα θα είναι σαν να αποδέχομαι ότι αυτό που κάνω είναι περίεργο. Δεν είμαι αντάρτης και δεν χρειάζεται να κρύβομαι. Και αν συλληφθώ…. και τι με αυτό; Χρησιμοποιώ τα βασικά μου ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα, δεν είμαι εγκληματίας. [..]Ο ψηφιακός κόσμος δεν έχει σύνορα και δεν υπάρχει διαφορά μεταξύ μας, και ας είμαι εγώ στο Ιράν και εσύ στην Ελλάδα. Τις τελευταίες μέρες μας έκοψαν όλες τις επικοινωνίες, όχι sms, όχι κινητά τηλέφωνα σε συγκεκριμένες περιοχές. Κάτω από αυτές τις συνθήκες, το γυρίσαμε στο Twitter και ευτυχώς δουλεύει.

In the second interview, a 20 year-old student protester who asked to remain anonymous, talks about why he feels obliged to protest and report on what is happening in his country. He describes how protesters are facing their fears and how recent events in Iran have helped shape his dreams for the future.

Θέλω να πιστεύω ότι είναι υποχρέωση μου, εκτός από το να βγαίνω στους δρόμους και να διαδηλώνω, να ενημερώνω τον κόσμο για το τι συμβαίνει στο Ιράν.[..]
Η πρώτη μέρα ήταν δύσκολη. Ο φόβος του αγνώστου. Όσο περνάνε οι μέρες τόσο πιο γενναίοι γινόμαστε να διαδηλώνουμε. Έχουμε συνηθίσει την βία της αστυνομίας [..]. Δεν μπορούν να μας κάνουν να μην σκεφτόμαστε, να μην θέλουμε.[..]
[Πάντα ήθελα να σπουδάσω στις ΗΠΑ] Αλλά όταν είδα την κλοπή των ψήφων μας, την εξαπάτηση, είπα στον εαυτό μου ” Θα κάνω τα πάντα, για να δω ένα ελεύθερο και δημοκρατικό Ιράν, πριν φύγω”. Έτσι πια, ονειρεύομαι ένα καλύτερο μέλλον για το Ιράν.

Greek blogger and journalist ttallou posted her correspondence with an Iranian expatriate using Facebook to publish photos from Tuesday's demonstration:

Government started to block most web sites, disconnected sms, mobiles, and people were not able to communicate yesterday, so far they arrested and injured many people and killed some. we (those who live outside), we started to send info from here and distribute among our fellows, also had demonstration all around the world. It’s really sad. We want our votes.
Mousavi himself is not important, what I do believe is that people decided to vote, so voted, decided to have this person as president, to have better situation, what hurts us is that government betrayed us

Blogger Sotiris Koukios published a letter from Tehran, from a young woman dreaming of freedom and equality, with a plea to Greeks for help and solidarity:

Αγαπητοί φίλοι στην Ελλάδα,

έχω κλείσει 5 μέρες στους δρόμους…. κάθε μέρα σε μια συνεχή πορεία διαμαρτυρίας… μια πορεία εναντίον ενός καθεστώτος που έζησα από την μέρα που γεννήθηκα. Είμαι 25 χρονών, την Τεχεράνη πριν από τους Αγιατολλάχ δεν τους έζησα. [..]

Η χώρα μου είναι βαθιά ρατσιστική για την γυναίκα, άδικη για τους περισσότερους πολίτες της και επικίνδυνη για όλους τους γείτονες μας. Δεν θέλω να ζω σε μια ατέλειωτη κηδεία…. Δεν θέλω το διαβατήριο μου να με κάνει ύποπτη σαν πιθανό τρομοκράτη. Και θέλω να ταξιδέψω, να ζήσω ελεύθερη και ισότιμα με όλους σας.

Αγαπητοί μου έλληνες φίλοι, βοηθήστε με και συμπαρασταθείτε. Η χώρα σας είναι αγαπητή στην χώρα μου. Είμαστε λαοί με αρχαίο πολιτισμό και ιστορικές παραδόσεις. Και πάντα με πολιτιστικούς και πολιτικούς δεσμούς. Τώρα σας έχουμε ανάγκη. Και θέλουμε από εσάς να διαδώστε το μήνυμα της ελευθερίας για εμάς. Αυτό πάντα σκεφτόμουνα για τους Έλληνες για το μπαράκι που πηγαίνω στην πόλη μου και καπνίζω κρυφά, πίνω καμμιά μπύρα κρυφά και μιλάω για την ελευθερία κρυφά. Και όλα αυτά με την υπόκρουση του Θεοδωράκη!!!

As in countless other countries, a wave of green avatars swept over the Greek “Twittersphere” last week, as Greek bloggers sought to express their solidarity with Iranian protesters in the aftermath of the June presidential elections.

The only other person who can come close in this regard is the late pop singer-turned national hero Toshe Proeski (1981-2007), but he has been allowed to rest in peace for the last couple of weeks, after the closure of a defamation lawsuit between his girlfriend and his manager.

Alexander III of Macedon (356 BC – 323 BC), on the other hand, has no such luck – national TV Kanal 5 this Sunday descended to a new level of Hades when it literally “raised” his spirit in a so-called news item [MKD] about a “historian” who went to Florida with a camera crew to seek the services of an allegedly famous medium to provide contact with his (sic!) ancestors. In the video, the spiritualist claims that a young man dressed in lion's skin is standing in the room, saying he went to Persia not for conquest but to seek cultural exchange, and would like to know more about the contemporary Macedonian linguistics.

Marble portrait of Alexander the Great said to be from Alexandria, Egypt (2^nd or 1^st century BC), currently in the British Museum, London, UK. Photo: Filip Stojanovski

Razvigor blog, run by the author of this article, commented [MKD] on this quasi-news item asking how come the ancestral spirit could communicate in English, a contemporary language which developed thousands of years after his death, but had no information on Macedonian, which developed in a similar manner. In addition, this “communication” did not provide any exclusive information which would have been known by the historical Alexander, such as locations of treasures that can be unearthed by archeologists and used as evidence, or known by his spirit – like the location of the grave containing his earthly remains.

Two days later, a user on the social bookmarking service Kajmak.ot “unearthed” [MKD] an obviously faux news item [SRP] from a Serbian blog about the discovery of Alexander's tomb in the south of the Republic of Macedonia, near the Greek border. The article is written with the structure of a “real” news story, but any resident of Macedonia with minimal knowledge of local geography or social issues would immediately recognize it as a joke, since all the names of official institutions, functions, locations and persons involved are nonexistent.

Screen shot of the front page of Macedonian news portal Kirilica from April 14, 2009, prominently displaying the faux news about discovery of the grave of Alexander the Great as a real news item.

During that day, a number of Macedonian media, such as the news portal Kirilica [MKD], published Macedonian translations of this “news” in its entirety, adding just a small, barely noticeable disclaimer that the content has not been confirmed. Such gossipy items did not contain any fact-checking whatsoever, nor did they include a link to the original source. During the day, the site was frequently unavailable, possibly due to bandwidth overload.

Some bloggers took the bait, like Vojvodataa, the author of the blog Radikalno, who wrote [MKD]:

Please God, let this be true. The article contains many first names and surnames, I think there is some truth in it. If this is true, Our Lord is coming to aid our century-old struggle for our name and the elements of our identity, of which Alexander of Macedon is an indivisible part.

Other bloggers, such as Mojon and Azhder, reacted with lascivious humor, inviting the media to republish their posts about a discovery of a sexy photo of Alexander's seventh grade math teacher taken with his iPhone Ancient [MKD], and finding of the two sculls of King Marko [MKD].

On the other hand, the scientifically-grounded Archeological Diary documented the whole affair, providing an overview of the sensationalist (including A1, the most influential national TV station) and more somber media coverage of this affair. The blog's author Vasilka Dimitrovska, an archeologist, wrote [MKD]:

First and foremost, any information must be checked with at least three independent sources. Good God, even I—a non journalist—know that. It is nebulous to distribute news about anything connected to archeology without going in the field, even about the tomb and the spirit of Alexander of Macedon in person. Unless one checks all the options and removes even a shadow of doubt, the scientific public should be spared of such turbulent, emotionally charged media observations.

I suppose that the historians and the archeologists will continue to keep mum about these events [MKD], just like they kept silent about the world's first hamburger, the Copper Book, the Hunza and the Kalash, the Rosetta Stone affair, etc. There's nothing worse than such silence and ignoring, because it implies silent approval of such hypotheses and theories. We as society slowly move closer to the axiom “that the land has always been ours,” aiming to provide an united and monolithic view of a historical walkabout from the Paleolithic to Tito, even though some of the episodes are not quite “safe” and lead to the above mentioned failures of reason.

The view that history is a science based on immaculate myths, lacking elements that would contradict the fragile “officially ours Macedonian evolutionist schema” deserves criticism. We do not need to lie [MKD] – the truth is enough, no matter what it is. In spite of the fact that the same tendency spans from Greece to Sweden – recent research showed that national myths of all European countries are almost identical [MKD]. Dissemination of such trivial information provides a fake image to the world about strengthening of our identity (esp. the ancient Macedonian part), while lacking the scientific approach, published scientific papers and documented archeological findings. I really can't see why we should use a technique of self-identification through denial [MKD] to confirm any type of identity.

To conclude, I think that the Macedonian journalists covering culture, and especially the topic of history->identity should get more education about archeology as a science which deals with societies of the past, not the present. I for one would speak at such a seminar or a workshop. If need be, pro bono. :-)

Hetalia-episode 01[RAW](Japanese only)

The story and the characters

Hetalia: Axis Powers [jp] (complete name) caricatures everyone without exception. Germany, Japan, France, U.K., U.S.A., Poland, Russia, the Baltic countries, Spain, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Poland, China, Korea and, above all, Italy, personified by boyish characters in the style typical of the Japanese manga, are portrayed exaggerating their (stereotypical) features, and are all pilloried with the same level of ironic intensity.

Yorozu Haki (万葉樹) suggests that this manga should be seen as a fictional product and as representative of a subcultural movement that, in recent times, has been spreading among the Japanese manga world, one in which many authors have started dealing with political or social themes, within the limitations of the artistic medium:

舞台は日本、イタリア、ドイツが同盟を組んだ第二次世界大戦あたりと思われます。ときおり、歴史的なうんちくが散りばめられているので、世界史マニアには興味深いかも。[…]
歴史認識が浅いという辛口の意見もあるのですが、しょせんはフィクション。ただ、現在マンガカルチャーの発言権は増しているだけに、偏見を植えつけかねないかも。日本人が国際社会で弱腰というのは、総体的にはそうかもしれないですが、いささか強調されすぎているきらいもありますよね。あと、こうした歴史文化的な興味というのは、往々にして、サブカルチャーを経由しているというのが、まさに現代的ですよね。
この漫画で描かれているように、おちゃらけ雰囲気で国際紛争もカタがつけばよろしいのでしょうけれど、現実問題、国家というのはおそろしいモンスターであって、けっしてひとりの人格に収斂させられるようなものではないのです。

Blogger Roko reflects on how such manga, despite not being meant to act as a historical reference, can nonetheless act as an opportunity to stimulate in the reader a curiosity to learn more about the world:

ウワサのヘタリア、読んでみました。国を擬人化した登場人物のからみは面白かったなぁ。
いつでも美味しいものを食べることしか考えていないヘタレなイタリア。ドイツの捕虜になって喜んでるソ連。何をするにも時間がかかるギリシャ。ケチケチなオーストリア。昔はかわいこちゃんだったのに、今じゃエラソーなアメリカ。真面目でいつも怒ってるドイツ。
　それぞれの国の個性が、思いっきり突っ込まれてます。結局はみんなヘタレなのかなぁ～？

[…]

おバカなコミックスですけど、こんなところから世界を知るのもアリかなと思います。だって、学校ではこういうこと教えてくれないもの。この頃、世界に興味のない人が増えてるでしょ。そういうのって危険だと思うんです。
　やみくもに外国がステキと思うのもいけないけど、知りもしないで否定するのはもっといけないことだと思うのです。
　世界を知れば日本のことも知りたくなります。一つ知ればそこから興味が広がります。でも、最初の一つを手にすることができないと、そこからは何も広がらないのです。1×2は2、2×2は4になるけれど、0には何をかけても0。無知は恐ろしいことであり、悲しいことなのです。

As its title suggests, the most ill-treated country in Hetalia is Italy. Descending from a glorious stock (his grampa is the Roman Empire), Italy seems to have shown signs of weakness since his childhood, being bullied by his European friends. Both in the manga and the anime, Italy is represented as always whining, lazy, keen on catching girls, and a lover of good food. Although many Italian enthusiasts of Japanese anime are looking forward to watching the fansubbed version, some of them questioned the “good taste” of the subjects selected.

In a thread dedicated to Hetalia [it] in Shinforum, a forum of Japanese culture fans, Agarsen, for example, writes:

Dopo aver letto buona parte dei capitoli, posso dire che, sebbene abbia trovato parte del manga divertente, ho trovato anche parte del manga di cattivo gusto; non offensivo, ma di cattivo gusto, proprio per la superficialità con cui certe affermazioni sono proposte al lettore. Se noi prendessimo la cultura giapponese e decidessimo di sbeffeggiarla “per quello che ci sembra” io non credo che i giapponesi ne sarebbero divertiti…

[…]

Ogni cosa può essere fatta sembrare idiota se letta superficialmente.
Il problema è che deve esistere anche una consapevolezza, una lettura più approfondita dei fatti che ti dice “Un momento, va bene riderci sopra, ma nella realtà dei fatti c'è poco da ridere”. Insomma, dovrebbe essere un riso amaro più che uno sbellicarsi. Io già m'immagino certa gente che penserà di capire la storia dopo avere letto Hetalia, esattamente come pensa di conoscere la società guardando la televisione…

Trovo difficile ridere al pensiero di gente che scappa dal fronte o si arrende senza combattere; gente pescata da ogni dove, che voleva solo farsi gli affari propri e vivere tranquilla, mal equipaggiata, mandata a combattere nel deserto… si dovrebbe ridere di questa gente?
Che si ridi di Mussolini e dei fascisti, ma loro..

Polemics and protests

As mentioned above, the broadcast of the animated series inspired by the manga was scheduled for the 24th of January on Kids Station (a Japanese TV channel for kids), but it was officially suspended after 16.000 messages of protest arrived from Korean netizens, resulting in the anime being viewable only on the Internet and on mobile phones.

News about Hetalia in South Korea　(English sub.)

That such a controversial subject as WW2, and the way in which countries were mocked and ridiculed, could result in some polemics, is not so surprising in itself. What struck many Japanese bloggers, however, was the fact that Korea, mentioned only in the comic and even there only as a minor character, considered its depiction a national insult, yet one more provocation from arrogant Japan.

In his analysis, Korean blogger no_tenki explains [jp] that the Korean reaction, which may seem extreme to many, is not in fact extreme but rather a consequence of anti-Korean messages constantly spread on the Japanese web, especially in some rightist bulletin boards or websites. These messages are what alarm Koreans living in their homeland as well as those living in Japan:

ヘタリアについて話しますと、[…]まあ、まともに読んでないので迂闊な評価はできませんが、人気があるということは、なかなかセンスのある方ではないかと思われます。ですけど韓国については、掘り下げが足りない…というより、単純に、ただのネタです。ボクもそう思いますが、韓国なんて登場しなくても構わないわけだし、どうでもいいとは思います。ですけど、韓国人としては、やっぱりこれは憂慮せざるを得ない。

韓国のキャラ設定ですけど、ただ、ネット上においての韓国のイメージを、そのまま借用しているわけですよね。ネットの住人には納得できそうなキャラ像です。「ニダー」と違って顔も美形ですし、バカではあるけど悪気のあるやつとしては描かれていない。だからニダーとは違うのだ。むしろ好意的に捉えている。と思われるかもしれませんけど、その根本にある「韓国のイメージ」というのは「ニダー」も、この「韓国」さんも同じわけで、昔の「嫌韓」の常識（今はネットの住人の常識かな）を引っ張り出してきていて、それをアレンジしてるだけで、（絵は好きですけど、設定においての）材料は同じじゃないですか。「韓国とはこういう国だ」というイメージがここまで肥大したからこそ、別に嫌韓でない人でも、ヘタリアでの韓国のキャラに違和感を感じない。むしろ「事実どおりに描かれている」と思う。これはなかなか恐ろしいことだと思いますよ。「…」

[…]

だからどっちにしろ、韓国ではヘタリアは極右の嫌韓（的な見方から韓国をキャラ化した）アニメとして知らされ、これから韓国の一般人の日本に対する認識を悪くする要因の一つとして存在しつづけるかもしれない。ということを考えると、とても心配なわけだ。

First to publish [mkd] a short review of the documentary was Arheo Blog:

[…] Although the documentary doesn’t have any political tendency, the search for an identity of a song shows the search for the identity and national impatience for the nations from the Balkans. Instead of connecting them, not knowing the situation, in some moments Peeva has to deal with emotional reaction of the interviewed people thinking that she is offending them. Trying to connect the cultural heritage for the Balkans, this time through music, Adela Peeva at the end will conclude that it’s almost unbelievable how only one song with unknown background can create hatred in people. This is shown in the end of the movie, in the scene where one Fiesta is transformed into a field that is on fire and its save by “people from different ethnicities”. This is happening at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey.

Although it’s a great documentary, I was intrigued by the two facts said in the movie – “That this is a war song and that the rhythms are from North Europe, because they are not typical for the Balkans”. It’s up to you to determine which song it is.

When the post of Arheo Blog was shared [mkd] on Kajmak.ot there were several reactions:

Arwena:

I don’t know why there is always a tendency to look for argument and reasons for national tendencies. That is always the case for the Balkans, because politics is unavoidably connected with history. I stand by: “that the documentary doesn’t have any political tendencies”, because it’s made with another purpose. Probably it didn’t have that motive at the beginning, but the results show something completely different. This is something that we have seen several times when there is mixture between cultural heritage and achievements of different ethnicities and civilizations. Everything artistic that includes more sides, by the nature of this region will lead to nationalism and it will be considered as motive with political tendencies.

Zlochko:

Yes, yes. It’s made by completely naive reasons to find the true origin of the song. That’s why she says to the Bosnians that the Serbs have the original (although she still hasn’t been in Serbia), she plays the Bosnian version to the Serbs, and to the Bulgarians she says that the Turks claim that the song is theirs.

There is nothing naive in the documentary… and if it’s full with something it’s politics. But it’s good that it’s made in that way – it shows the nations here in the best way :).

The blogger Razvigor also published the video and wrote [mkd]:

[…] The author of the film in the part for Albania said that she would return, and that really happened with her last movie “Divorce Albanian Style” [mkd]. Is that movie available on the internet also?

These are the things I was talking about when I was searching for the Macedonian Michael Moore [mkd].

There are two version of the song in Macedonia: from the town of Prilep “Oj ti Paco Drenovchanke” and from the town of Tetovo “Oj devojche, ti Tetovsko jabolche.”

Delivery of the munitions was suspended, just as the Greek government was coming under fire from opposition parties, and Amnesty International was calling for an arms embargo.

At first, official sources contested the story from the international news agency Reuters on January 9. But it was picked up by Twitter users and investigated after Indy.gr - an offshoot of the Indymedia Athens group - provided a translation of the article in Greek.

The idea to organize an embargo of the port was proposed and widely “re-tweeted”:

itsomp: http://is.gd/f8Wa Can we organise an embargo of the port of Astakos? Only the US and Israeli ships…

Some tweeted direct queries to the Greek foreign minister, whose web team is operating a Twitter account:

magicasland: @Dora_Bakoyannis τι γίνεται με το φορτίο του Αστακού; Δε θέλουμε εμπλοκή της Ελλάδας στο μακελειό της Γάζας

Breaking with earlier practice not to converse through Twitter, the minister's team responded directly:

Dora_Bakoyannis: @olrandir, @asteris, @gtzi, @magicasland, Απάντηση ΝΜ και για Αστακό, http://tinyurl.com/9ts6xw

The link led to an official ministry statement stating that shipping of arms through Astakos or other Greek ports is a “non-issue” and vaguely denying press reports to the opposite.

However, blogger Odysseas had by then located the solicitation for the shipment on a US federal website:

Στην παρακατω παραπομπη θα βρειτε το σημα που εξεδωσε το Αμερικανικο ναυτικο για μεταφορα πολεμικου υλικου απο το λιμανι του Αστακου στο Αστοντ του Ισραηλ. Το φορτιο υπαρχει ηδη και περιμενει αναδοχο μεταφορεα.

And Twitter users kept up the pressure, despite the official denial:

magicasland: @Dora_Bakoyannis και η αμερικάνικη σελίδα που αναφερει το φορτιο τι είναι τότε;

The next day, news media reported that the shipment transfer had been canceled. This was also promptly tweeted:

myrto_fenek: Αναβλήθηκε, λόγω των συγκρούσεων στη Γάζα, η αποστολή πολεμοφοδίων μέσω του Αστακού

Blogger magicasland.com summarized the outcome:

Σημερινή δημοσίευση του ΑΠΕ αναφέρει ότι αναβλήθηκε η μεταφορά του φορτίου των 325 κοντέινερ με πολεμοφοδία από τον Αστακό στο λιμάνι Ασντοντ [..] Το μόνο σίγουρο είναι πως το φορτίο θα μεταφερθεί κάποια στιγμή. Αρκεί όμως να μη μεταφερθεί τώρα και από εδώ.

Blogger coolplatanos investigated further, discovering an additional arms shipment solicitation, and verifying that the original solicitation was cancelled:

έχει υπάρξει και προγενέστερη προκήρυξη ναύλωσης με ημερομηνία ανάθεσης της σύμβασης την 6η Δεκεμβρίου του 2008 (πρώτη δημοσίευση μάλλον στις 4 Δεκεμβρίου) πάλι από το αμερικάνικο πολεμικό ναυτικό. Αυτή η ναύλωση αφορά και πάλι πυρομαχικά και μεγαλύτερο όγκο φορτίου, αφού ζητείται πλοίο ελάχιστης χωρητικότητας 989 TEU’s[..]

Πάντως σήμερα 13 Ιανουαρίου και ώρα 9:05 am (Αμερικής φαντάζομαι) υπάρχει ενημέρωση στη σελίδα του μειοδοτικού διαγωνισμού για τη ναύλωση του πλοίου που αφορούσε τα 325 κοντέινερ και η ένδειξη ότι “ακυρώθηκε προς το παρόν”.

Τις παραπάνω ναυλώσεις τις έψαξα μέσω google αυτοσχεδιάζοντας [..]