Spartan
08-01-2007, 03:37 AM
Here is an excerpt from a book by Dimitra Vaka The Heart of The Balkans.
It conveys the way Greeks truely think and what will once again propel us to the forefront of the world scene.
When I was older I talked with a sponge diver of the Aegean, not in the same spirit with which i had talked with Agamemnon, but arbumentatively. I told him that unless we develop a good army Russia some day would take Constantinople, and then we should lose it forever.
"Forever? No!" he replied. "Let the Muscovite have his smell at it; it is his turn. He will not Russianize it any more than the Turk has Ottomized it. The Greek sould can't be drowned. He will get the city, that is all. And it will come back to us because of its spirit."
Everywhere among the people I encountered this same feeling. They did not mean to fight for what would automatically remain their own. I do not mean to say that there is not a considerable party in Greece which believes in fighting, or that half the clergy is not militant, or that there are not a great number of Greeks outside of Greece who dream of fighting for Greece. One of these latter, an uncle, had charge of me during my earliest childhood. On my fifth birthday he presented me with a little Greek flag, told me to make my prayers by it, and to teach my sons to fight for it. But from my experience I should say that the majority of the Greeks do not believe in fighting. They consider it futile.
Nevertheless, when the call comes to fight for their country, like the English they flock to it from every part of the globe, although they may have become naturalized citizens of other countries, or even may be only the sons of naturalized Americans, English, Russians, or others. They answer the call without hesitation, paying their own transportation whenever they can. I have known of humble Greeks here in America, who had flourishing little fruit, candy, or flower shops, and who sold them at a great loss so that they might be free to go.
"What will you have?" they said to me; "the mother country needs us." "But you are an American citizen: you don't have to go," I replied to one of them. "No, we don't have to go; but would you have Greece call to her sons in vain?" And so they went, and seven thousand of these American citizens were killed in one battle alone, fighting against the Bulgars. They will respond whenever the call is for the liberation of their compatriots, although they will not, like the Bulgars, prepare to fight for the enslavement of other races. Therefore the Bulgar thinks the Greek effete, and meant to be conquered by him who believes in fighting. The manner of thinking of the Greek is beyond him who knows that through physical strength and material efficiency he has a lead over the Greek. While the Bulgarian glories in his muscle, the Greek delights in the plasticity of his mind and in his belief in the immortality of his soul - and from these he derives an exquisite joy which no conqueror has yet been able to take from him. All over the world today the Greek is amassing money, reading books, and dreaming of a future to match his past; and he is perfectly certain that some day, through his mind alone, he will arise once more a leader in thought, a master in spirit.
It conveys the way Greeks truely think and what will once again propel us to the forefront of the world scene.
When I was older I talked with a sponge diver of the Aegean, not in the same spirit with which i had talked with Agamemnon, but arbumentatively. I told him that unless we develop a good army Russia some day would take Constantinople, and then we should lose it forever.
"Forever? No!" he replied. "Let the Muscovite have his smell at it; it is his turn. He will not Russianize it any more than the Turk has Ottomized it. The Greek sould can't be drowned. He will get the city, that is all. And it will come back to us because of its spirit."
Everywhere among the people I encountered this same feeling. They did not mean to fight for what would automatically remain their own. I do not mean to say that there is not a considerable party in Greece which believes in fighting, or that half the clergy is not militant, or that there are not a great number of Greeks outside of Greece who dream of fighting for Greece. One of these latter, an uncle, had charge of me during my earliest childhood. On my fifth birthday he presented me with a little Greek flag, told me to make my prayers by it, and to teach my sons to fight for it. But from my experience I should say that the majority of the Greeks do not believe in fighting. They consider it futile.
Nevertheless, when the call comes to fight for their country, like the English they flock to it from every part of the globe, although they may have become naturalized citizens of other countries, or even may be only the sons of naturalized Americans, English, Russians, or others. They answer the call without hesitation, paying their own transportation whenever they can. I have known of humble Greeks here in America, who had flourishing little fruit, candy, or flower shops, and who sold them at a great loss so that they might be free to go.
"What will you have?" they said to me; "the mother country needs us." "But you are an American citizen: you don't have to go," I replied to one of them. "No, we don't have to go; but would you have Greece call to her sons in vain?" And so they went, and seven thousand of these American citizens were killed in one battle alone, fighting against the Bulgars. They will respond whenever the call is for the liberation of their compatriots, although they will not, like the Bulgars, prepare to fight for the enslavement of other races. Therefore the Bulgar thinks the Greek effete, and meant to be conquered by him who believes in fighting. The manner of thinking of the Greek is beyond him who knows that through physical strength and material efficiency he has a lead over the Greek. While the Bulgarian glories in his muscle, the Greek delights in the plasticity of his mind and in his belief in the immortality of his soul - and from these he derives an exquisite joy which no conqueror has yet been able to take from him. All over the world today the Greek is amassing money, reading books, and dreaming of a future to match his past; and he is perfectly certain that some day, through his mind alone, he will arise once more a leader in thought, a master in spirit.