Complaint of censorship of a Hadjidakis song in the classroom goes viral, sparking controversy

Source: Manos Hadjidakis's official site

By @Inflammatory_ and @IrateGreek

The latest case of censorship in Greece found an unlikely target in a song by famous Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis. 

Deputy Minister of Education Theodoros Papatheodorou ordered last night an ex officio investigation into claims by a primary school music teacher in Thessaloniki that the principal of her school forbade her from teaching Hadjidakis's song Kemal to her 5th-grade class. This was followed today by a question in parliament by New Democracy MP Giannis Michelakis, who called upon the Ministry of Education to take an official position on the matter and condemned the school principal in the harshest of terms, calling the incident "a monument of ignorance, fanaticism and stupidity."

Update 19:35 EEST: The preliminary investigation of the Ministry of Education appears to show that the teacher's claim is correct. The principal has been asked to give a written explanation for her reaction. 

#rbnews international show 06 April 2013: Nationalism and national identity in Greece

This week on #rbnews international, we inaugurated a series of shows about fascism and anti-fascism in Greece with an interview with Athanasia Anagnostopoulou, a historian and associate professor in Panteion University in Athens. We discussed the formation of Greek national identity and its evolution towards elements of aggressive, dangerous nationalism not only in the recent crisis years, which saw the rise of Golden Dawn, but also in past decades, where the basis for such a form of nationalism was established.

You can listen to the podcast, as usual, after the jump.

Proposing second-rate citizenship: it's not only Golden Dawn

On 25 February 2013, the Hellenic Armed Forces General Chief of Staff Michalis Kostarakos caused considerable reaction on all sides of the political spectrum when he tweeted:

"The time has come to regulate by law the issue of genos for those enrolling in Military Academies. They should be Greek by genos."  

Media stirring up national pride over Germany-Greece soccer match

By @inflammatory_

Football is one of the remaining spheres in which it is acceptable to openly display patriotic sentiment. This seems to apply in every country. The relationship between football and nationhood was shaped by particular historical and cultural factors. There might be different perceptions among people of how direct this association is, but those with far-right political affiliations apparently find it it easier to project symbolic meanings of Greek pride on a team of players that represents the nation in a game. Georgios Papadopoulos, one of the military dictatorship's architects back in the 70's, encouraged people to watch football whilst he imposed severe constraints in civil liberties. That says a lot about how to channel outrage on a safe outlet.

In view of the historical coincidence between eurozone crisis and the advent of Euro 2012 football championship, media evoked national pride for Friday's quarter-final, fueling Greeks' sentiment as they were admittedly looking forward to watching the game on telly. Even journalist Vivi Draka dared to appear on State TV with a face paint of  the Greek flag. A soccer game suddenly came to have political connotations, with the punishing anti-austerity message having its moment again, spreading from election results to the football grass field. Despite Greek team's defeat, national pride remained intact as efforts were largely appreciated by the public. Maybe the real winners were those lucky few immigrants that were not bashed by violent xenophobic nationalists as a demonstration of strength and dominance.

Protests on the Greek National day (#oxi)

The 28 October parade in Syntagma 28 October is celebrated on Greece as "ohi day" ("no day") in reference to 28 October 1940, when Greek dictator Metaxas rejected the ultimatum by Benito Mussolini to allow the armies of fascist Italy to invade Greece. The celebrations are normally marked by a large military parade in Thessaloniki and schoolchildren parades throughout the country.