Ghosts for Halloween!

Michael Jackson's 'Ghosts' 1996 with Greek subtitles. 

This film was Michael 's attempt to create something that can surpass the success of Thriller. The result most artistically perfect, is a short film that ranks and category of the video clip. Filmed and aired in 1996 and released in limited editions along with the film Stephen King "THINNER". A year later released worldwide on video and Video CD. The film was screened out of competition at Cannes in 1997. In 2002 he was honored by the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest clips in the history of music.

Η ταινία Ghosts του Michael Jackson από το 1996 με ελληνικούς υπότιτλους. H ταινία αποτέλεσε την προσπάθεια του Michael να δημιουργήσει κάτι που να ξεπεράσει την επιτυχία του Thriller. Το αποτέλεσμα καλλιτεχνικά πιο άρτιο, είναι μία ταινία μικρού μήκους που κατατάσσεται και στη κατηγορία του βίντεο κλιπ. Κινηματογραφήθηκε και προβλήθηκε το 1996, ενώ κυκλοφόρησε σε περιορισμένα αντίτυπα μαζί με τη ταινία του Stephen King "THINNER". Ένα χρόνο αργότερα κυκλοφόρησε παγκοσμίως σε βιντεοκασέτα και Video CD. Η ταινία προβλήθηκε εκτός διαγωνισμού στο φεστιβάλ των Καννών το 1997. Το 2002 τιμήθηκε από το βιβλίο Γκίνες ως το μεγαλύτερο βιντεοκλιπ στην ιστορία της μουσικής.

On the eve of Halloween I bring you this absolute must to watch 'scary' movie clip. It's genius is unbelievably great! 

And if that doesn't scare you... take a look at this, it is the house where I was born, and my sister five years later. In those days it was a nursing home. Just a little trip down memory lane. I wonder who else was born there. Let me know if you were.

So, have a good Halloween everyone, wherever you may be. London seems to be swimming in big orange pumpkins. When I was a kid in Long Preston, we had to hollow out a turnip - and that was hard going. Ah, the good old days. Of course, there is no 'trick or treat' in Vrahassi.

Maybe my next book will be a thriller!

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'Oxi' Day Remembered

'Oxi' Day - The video says it all.



And in Crete today, I am sure there well have been lots of marching. I am also sure that there is a lot of hope for the future. In my experience, the Cretan people, at least, are not ones for sitting back and allowing injustice to get the better of them. Although the video below was filmed in 2010, this annual event does not vary from year to year.



WARNING!!!!!!!!
ONLY WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU a) HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR AND b)CAN HANDLE BAD LANGUAGE.


Well, that's 'Oxi' Day for you. Of course it is not always the best policy to say no, is it? Get a grip on life and give it a BIG THUMBS UP, YES! CAN YOU DO IT? YES YOU CAN!

Oh, and by the way, I'm not anti Italian, or anyone else come to think of it. I'm just reporting what is.

And, if you would like to look at an alternative way of improving your future, why not start blogging yourself, you will find a link at the top of this page.

You could of course, always write a book, like I did. Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey. If you are interested in all things Cretan, then take a look at my book.

I wish you all a very happy 'Oxi' Day,
Love and hugs,
Jane x

Selene - Who was she?

Who was Selene?  When I was born, my grandfather wanted to call me Selena, it was the name of my great grandmother. It wasn't until I traveled to Crete that I realized the significance of that name.

Selene is the moon goddess. She is the daughter of the Titons, Hyperion and Theia. One of her lovers was the mortal Endymion, a shepherd boy. Check out their story here.

A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink. 

John Keats

For the whole poem click here.

I think I should have liked to have been called Selena, but being a Cancerian, I am ruled by the moon anyway. You can read about the mountain, Selene, in Crete, in my book Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey. Another love story between moon goddess and shepherd. Click the link to find out more.

Love and hugs,

Jane x

Please Help if you Can...

The search for the parents of this beautiful little girl continues.

Roma couple to face magistrate as search for 'Maria's' parents intensifies The Roma couple who falsely claimed to be the parents of a 4-year-old child found at a gypsy camp in central Greece are due to face a magistrate on Monday as the international search for the child’s real mother and father continues. Charges of kidnapping and obtaining a false birth certificate will be issued against the Roma couple, who claim that they adopted the baby when it was abandoned by its foreign parents. Police are to publish the photos of the man and woman in the hope that it helps with their inquiries to locate the parents of the girl, who has been nicknamed Maria. Greek authorities have contacted Interpol to help with the search and the children’s organization The Smile of the Child, which is looking after the girl, has received thousands of calls from Greece and abroad regarding Maria. "[Her] reaction was immediate terror: She was terrified because she doesn't know where she goes. She was crying and opposing to go wherever,» said Costas Yiannopoulos, the charity’s director. "As soon as she went to the hospital and had a nice bath, and then the next morning our people looked after her. She immediately changed." Police are also extending their searches to hospitals and registry offices to seek information that may point to systematic child trafficking. The girl was found during a raid on a Roma camp in Farsala last week. Authorities noticed that Maria did not look like her supposed parents and a subsequent DNA test proved that there was no match. Authorities suspect the pair were involved in human trafficking as records show them having a total of 14 children, registered in three different parts of Greece. However, speaking to Skai TV late on Friday, the couple’s lawyer, Marietta Palavra, said that the pair decided to take on the child after feeling sorry for her. She alleged that the girl’s biological mother, a foreign national, wanted to “get rid” of her child. In response to questions about why the couple had registered so many children, the lawyer claimed it was a way of maximizing the state benefits they could receive. The case has received international attention and a spokesman for the parents of Madeleine McCann, a British girl who went missing in Portugal in 2007, said the child’s discovery had given them “great hope” their daughter would be found alive. The family of Ben Needham, a 21-month-old British toddler who was abducted from his grandparents’ home on the island of Kos in 1991, have call for further DNA tests as they continue to search for their missing loved one. “Obviously, it's been a strong belief of myself and all my family that Ben was taken by gypsies for child trafficking or illegal adoptions and this case just shows that they can be found,” said Ben’s sister, Leighanna. “I think that would be a brilliant thing to get our DNA out there, even if it's not actually Ben but any siblings or any children maybe of Ben (that are found) then that could hopefully lead us to him.” Kerry Needham, Ben’s mother, called for the investigation into her son’s disappearance to be reopened. “We have always believed that Ben's abduction was gypsy-related and have had a long ongoing inquiry in Larissa,” she told ITV. “We hope that the investigation into Ben's disappearance will now be looked at again.” Meanwhile, the Roma community in Greece fears that they will be stigmatized by the case of Maria. «We know these cases exist, but they involve Bulgarians, not Greeks like us. There are no transactions involving children here,» the president of the Roma community in Farsala, Babis Dimitriou, told the Associated Press, adding that the 40-year-old woman, who had registered Maria as her own child, «cared for her even better than for her own children." ekathimerini.com , Monday October 21, 2013 (10:16)  Please help if you can. My prayers for all those families who have had their children taken from them. And talking about help, these people could do with your help too, poor souls, sometimes I think life deals out a very bad hand. Immigrants’ interest in repatriations growing fast Almost 2,000 migrants in Greece have applied for voluntary repatriation since the beginning of July, largely due to joblessness. The Greek branch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 15,481 people have taken advantage of the European Union-funded program since it started in 2010. Whereas applications mostly came from Africans and Asians, Eastern Europeans are also showing interest now. Since the summer, 832 Pakistanis, 361 Bangladeshis and 142 Georgians have been among those who have chosen to return home. “The people who ask to leave Greece face huge problems,” said Daniel Esdras, the head of IOM in Greece. “Nine in 10 are homeless and have to look for food every day. They have realized they are in a tragic situation, a dead end.” Esdras said interest in the program from migrants at reception centers has also risen. Last year, they only made up 5 percent of those seeking to leave. That figure has grown to 18 percent. ekathimerini.com , Monday October 21, 2013 (10:16) Love and prayers for the homeless, and for all those who are in a position to help, give food, clothing, and to show these people that someone cares. And on a brighter note...  Photograph: Nick Hannes The Guardian Newspaper It's not your typical wedding reception venue, but the warm glow of the petrol pumps, the sturdy dance floor and the soft breeze from the Gulf of Corinth beat a soggy marquee in Surrey hands down. And the view is tremendous: you can just see the spectacular Rio-Antirrio bridge, which links the Peloponnese to the Greek mainland, illuminated in the background.  The groom, Christos, had to hold the reception at his own petrol station to save money. Well done for Christos and his family. Just because we have less, we can still be happy! And I'm talking from experience here. Happiness is in the mind, not in the pocket. Of course, that doesn't stop us wanting as much out of life as we can get. But we do have to live the moment with as much happiness as we can muster. I'm smiling, are you? Great, have a wonderfully happy day, Love and hugs, Jane x And don't forget, that book of mine will bring a smile to your face, even though the title might make you think otherwise. Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey Click here for the story line. It is only $2.87 as a Kindle e-book. Download your copy now, or buy a paperback, it will make a great Christmas present! Thanks in advance. Jane x

Chinese scribes date Minoan Distruction

It's all Greek to me! So now we can all speak Minoan if we put our minds to it. lol! Read on to find out what the Chinese had to say about the date of the Minoan destruction.

Linear B

In 1900 the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941) discovered a large number of clay tablets inscribed with mysterious symbols at Knossos on Crete. Believing he had discovered the palace of King Minos, together with the Minotaur's labyrinth, Evans dubbed the inscriptions and the language they represented as 'Minoan'.

Evans spent the rest of his life trying to decipher the inscriptions, with only limited success. He realized that the inscriptions represented three different writing systems: a 'hieroglyphic' script,Linear A and Linear B.

The hieroglyphic script appears only on seal stones and has yet to be deciphered. Linear A, also undecipherable, is thought to have evolved from the hieroglyphic script, and Linear B probably evolved from Linear A, though the relationship between the two scripts is unclear.

Evans figured out that short lines in Linear B texts were word dividers. He also deciphered the counting system and a number of pictograms, which led him to believe that the script was mainly pictographic. Evans also discovered a number of parallels between the Cypriot script, which had been deciphered, and Linear B. This indicated that the language represented by Linear B was an ancient form of Greek, but he wasn't prepared to accept this, being convinced that Linear B was used to write Minoan, a language unrelated to Greek.

In 1939, a large number of clay tablets inscribed with Linear B writing were found at Pylos on the Greek mainland, much to the surprise of Evans, who thought Linear B was used only on Crete.

Michael Ventris (1922-56) was the person who eventually deciphered Linear B in 1953. His interest was sparked in 1936 on a school trip to an exhibition about the Minoan world organised by Arthur Evans. For the next 17 years, Ventris struggled to understand Linear B. At first he was skeptical that the language of Linear B was Greek, even though many of the deciphered words resembled an archaic form of Greek. Later, with the help of John Chadwick, an expert on early Greek, he showed beyond reasonable doubt the Linear B did indeed represent Greek.

Linear B was used between about 1500 and 1200 BC to write a form of Greek known as Mycenaean, named after Mycenae, where Agamemnon is said to have ruled. It . The Linear B inscriptions, most of which were accounting records listing materials and goods, are the earliest known examples of written Greek.

Linear B syllabary

Linear B logograms

These logograms stand for whole words and mainly represent items that were traded. As Linear B was used mainly for recording transactions, this is not surprising. Some of the logograms resemble the things the represent, so could be called pictograms. Not all the logograms have been deciphered.

Thanks to the website: Omniglot, for the above information.

The following is taken from Charles Pellegrino's Unearthing Atlantis (pages 233-246). 

One other piece of the jigsaw puzzle, only recently brought to light, provides a glimpse of life under the pall of volcanic winter, and can be dated with reasonable assurance to the time of the Thera upheaval.

In China, during the Minoan Linear A Period, records were written on strips of bamboo. Fourteen hundred years later, all such strips that had survived to the reign of Emperor Qin were recognized as priceless treasures and, probably under orders from the emperor himself, were compiled and copied by scribes copied so many times that survival of China's past into its future was virtually guaranteed. The ancient texts state that "in the twenty-ninth year of King Chieh [the last ruler of Hsia, the earliest recorded Chinese dynasty], the Sun was dimmed . . . King Chieh lacked virtue . . . the Sun was distressed . . . during the last years of Chieh ice formed in [summer] mornings and frosts in the sixth month [July]. Heavy rainfall toppled temples and buildings.... Heaven gave severe orders. The Sun and Moon were untimely. Hot and cold weather arrived in disorder. The five cereal crops withered and died."

The bamboo annals further record that floods and ice were followed by seven years of drought lasting into the beginning of the Shang dynasty. A great famine broke out, and in the northern provinces man became a man eater. The Chinese scribes did not provide precise dates for these events; but they did footnote their royal genealogies with listings of eclipses and other astronomical phenomena. During 1990 and 1991, NASA/JPL astronomer Kevin Pang carefully tracked China's dynasties backward through time, using as probes the predictable motions of heavenly bodies to derive such precisely dated events as the lunar eclipse of January 29, 1137 B.C.which, though not dated by the scribes, was said by them to have occurred during the thirty- fifth year of King Wen.

King Chei lived at the same time as T'ang (the first king of the Shang dynasty), which, according to the scribes, was sixteen generations before King Wen. Because the Chinese considered a generation to be thirty years long, one can infer that Chieh ruled about 480 years before Wen, around 1617 B.C., plus or minus a decade or two. Armed with additional eclipse dates for 1876 B.C. (twenty - five generations before Wen) and 1302 B.C. (five generations before Wen), Kevin Pang plotted the eclipses on a graph, fitting a curve through them and locating the point that, according to Chinese history, places Chieh sixteen generations before Wen.
"We find the date is again [in the range of] 1600 B.C.," says Pang, "plus or minus thirty years. Thus the historical records confirm what was suggested by the ice cores, tree rings and older radiocarbon dates that Thera [exploded] late in the seventeenth century B. C. "

Given such evidence, I think the archaeologists will eventually come around. One thing is certain: these are exciting times for astronomers, glaciologists and paleontologists to be poking our noses into the field. Resetting dates tends to ruffle a few feathers, but Cretan and Theran scholars haven't put up any serious resistance. People have not been studying the Minoans for very long: the civilization was only discovered during the past century, and there has not been enough time for opinions to become deeply entrenched.

I think all of this is very interesting. I hope you think the so too. It makes a change from reading about Greek politicians and what they are doing with other people's money. 

Minoan history is very close to my heart. Of course, I have my own theory of how the Minoan Civilization met its end. You can read my theory in Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey, which is available from Amazon. Check it out.

And should you have read my book, maybe you would like to follow me on Face Book. Take a look at my fan page, Tears from the Sun - Jane Sharp and please click 'like' if you do.

That's all for today, I'll be back with more Cretan news, tomorrow.
Love and Hugs,
Jane x

The Church of Greece on its Knees

The creation of yet another committee - I think it's time for action, not words!

Church to draft 3-year plan to curb debt, exploit assets The Church of Greece is drawing up a three-year financial plan in a bid to determine the size of its debt and to exploit its assets to secure its autonomy, Archbishop Ieronymos told a session of the Holy Synod on Tuesday. “The situation today is dire,” Ieronymos told clerics, saying that the Church’s debts and the general economic situation “have brought us to our knees.” A three-year program would “present a picture of our debts and our reserves as well as outlining the impact of a new legislative framework on the exploitation of our assets,” he said. Emphasizing that “without assets we will never have autonomy,” Ieronymos also set the scene for a discussion about a possible change in the relationship between the Church and the state. “Will we let events overtake us?” the archbishop remarked and called for the creation of a committee of clerics and independent experts to discuss a likely constitutional revision and its implications for the Church.

ekathimerini.com , Tuesday October 15, 2013 (20:30) Thanks to ekathimerini newspaper for this article. Well, the earthquake didn't rock much, so I guess it is up to Archbishop Ieronymos to do a bit of moving and shaking. It appears that the Church of Greece also has debts. Let's hope the leaders of the Greek church have a bit more savvy than the priest in the following video. I just had to show you this. For those of you who don't speak Greek, the priest is telling his congregation not to buy the 'Furby' cuddly toy, because in his opinion it is the 'Antichrist.' He says it has a microchip inside it which enables it to speak. And that it has the devil inside it. Draw your own conclusions.    And on that happy note, I will bid you a good night. Keep smiling! Love Jane x P.S. Hey! Did you read my book yet? There's a wacky priest in my plot, too! Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey. On Kindle at Amazon.

6.3 Earthquake Rocks Crete

Crete was certainly rocking at the weekend, and was even felt as far away as Israel.

Crete rocked by 6.3 magnitude earthquake

An earthquake with a magnitude of more than six degrees struck near the island of Crete, sending items flying off supermarket shelves

This image made available by the US Geological Survey shows the epicenter of the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck at a depth of 36.2 kilometres off the western tip of Crete, Greece Photo: EPA

According to the US Geological Survey the quake in southern Greece had a 6.4 magnitude, while the Athens Observatory gave it a magnitude of 6.2.

The epicenter was some 37 miles off the city of Hania in western Crete, the state-run Athens News Agency said.

The earthquake struck at 4:11 pm (1311 GMT) and its epicenter was in the sea, 275 kilometers south of Athens, the observatory said, describing the quake as "strong."

Tremors were felt as far as the Greek capital Athens, some 180 miles away, and across southern Greece, including the Peloponnese peninsula and the Cyclades cluster of islands.

"The quake took place in an area known for its seismic activity. It was strongly felt in Crete but also in the rest of Greece," geology professor Efthymios Lekkas told Skai radio.

• "It was very impressive because the shaking lasted some 40-50 seconds," a woman who identified herself only as Vassia, told an AFP reporter on the island.

According to the Athens News Agency, life in Hania returned to normal a few hours after the quake, which had initially sent people rushing into the streets in panic.

Shops and houses suffered minor damages and local television showed images of items falling off supermarket shelves.

According to Skai radio station, an elderly person was lightly injured while attempting to jump out a window.

Local authorities also rushed to open up roads close to Hania, blocked by fallen rocks.

Greece is one of Europe's most earthquake-prone countries.

On Friday, a 4.4-magnitude earthquake, described as "mild" by the observatory, struck the north of the country causing no damage.

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I am so glad that nobody was seriously hurt. Let's hope that the rattling earth will have settled down for a while. 

That's it for this morning, I have my shopping to do, and a pile of ironing to attack. Then it is choir practice tonight. 

Keep safe dear Cretan friends, and also, dear readers, wherever you are. Have a sunshiny Monday! And if it happens to be raining where you are, you could do worse than curl up with a good book. And you could do a lot worse than to read this one: Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey

Lots of love, Jane x