When the Lights Go Out

When the lights go out and the darkness kicks-in, many of us would wish to be able to take the Elon Musk approach in defining and combating the fear associated with darkness. Only few of us, however, have the mental capacity to rationalise the phenomenon the way Elon Musk did when he was a child by decomposing darkness into its physical properties as the absence of photons in the visible wavelength of 400 - 700 nanometers. Brilliant, if you ask me. And if, by contrast, we would have to define light as the presence of photons within the same wavelengths, then I would say that this is brilliant, as well.

But light in its abstract definition is about more than just photons. Unless these photons are capable of producing some type of deeper stimulation to the human brain beyond the purpose of dilating or constricting our pupils only then do we really provide scope and substance to the process. But I guess the subject of illumination should not be confused with the subject of light. And what we are lacking as a nation today is not the absence of light -thank God we live in country with plenty of sunlight- but we genuinely lack illumination. Illumination in the sense that we seem to have lost all our mental beacons and orientation as a nation, as individuals and as a society altogether.

Plenty of concern is expressed in many Greek media outlets these days when it comes to the negotiations with our neighbours from FYROM about almost everything really that could present an obstacle today for them to join larger alliances such as the NATO and the EU. While our major concern includes a very realistic and burning element, namely the one of time and possible worries about future irredentism the current dialogue takes on a very narrow, almost naive form of discussion, with assurances that could at best be construed as hypocrisy. And while we do consent on the Greek side that we do not seek exclusivity in the use of the name Macedonia, we do need to give this country's people some credit for the fact that their concerns are justified and not windfall, if we observe the attempts made over the last decade or so by FYROM's former Prime Minister, Mr. Nicola Gruevski, to weave a whole anthem out of thin air about the historical ties of his people to Alexander the Great, whose offsprings he claimed they were, by completely appropriating our history and by fabricating a version of it that constitutes a major insult, if not an outright provocation.

And today, we are simply being told by Mr. Zaef and his cabinet, that the re-naming of a highway and the removal of a statue is the best our neighbours can offer to comfort our concerns about irredentism, while all reference to it in their constitution stays as is, bringing forward the almost ridiculous argument that documents can change back at any point in time in the future. As if street names can't. Politics gentlemen, means you put your money where your mouth is. Our neighbours need to come to terms with reality and understand that beggars cannot and should be not choosers. Let me all remind you that after Mr. Gjorke Ivanov returned from his recent meeting with Mr. Erdogan, his posture had grown bigger than the shadow of an elephant, and so did his tone. Gentlemen, we need to come back from any lethargy that has led us to believe that we are surrounded by friendly neighbours. These are the Balkans we are talking about and I would hate to quote George Santayana who once said that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it!