Millersburg Military Institute closed in August 2006 due to lack of support from alumni, growing debt and declining enrollment. It went out with a bang however.
MMI had a first-rate basketball team, with national ranking. The Varsity players were for the most part outstanding scholars, many of whom went on to Division One schools.
MMI also offered an excellent college preparatory curriculum with electives that included Philosophy, Advanced Journalism, and Advanced Creative Writing. Cadets in the writing program received encouragement from Wendell Berry, one of MMI's most famous former students. Many of the writing students had multiple publications and one student has had his poem "Ode to Marian Anderson" re-published at least 5 times.
Now it appears that the school will reopen as a military training center. Here is the story:
Greg Wills, the bank's executive vice president, said the bank started advertising MMI as a "former boarding school" on eBay about six months ago.
"During the first three or four months, not a day went by that I didn't get at least one e-mail or phone call about it," Wills said. "I can't tell you how many times we showed it."
But Wills said representatives from the United States Army Cadet Corps were enthusiastic from the first moment they saw the property.
"I think they came and looked at it about six times with different groups of people," he said. "They said it was pretty much perfect for them. The community seems really pleased, so I think it's working out well for everybody."
The United States Army Cadet Corps traces its origins back to 1909. It is the oldest and longest-serving cadet organization in the United States, according to its Web site. Though a private organization, it maintains close ties with the U.S. Army.
According to Land, the corps has about 1,200 cadets enrolled in various parts of the country. It doesn't have a unit in Kentucky but plans to launch one soon, he said.
Cadets live and go to regular schools in their hometowns, but train as military cadets one weekend a month, usually at National Guard armories or at a military base, if one is nearby. Each summer, they receive two weeks of military-style training. This is the part of the program that will be moving to the Millersburg school.
According to Land, the corps bought a former high school in Dayton, Pa., more than a year ago, planning to make it the national headquarters. But officials dropped that plan once they saw the Millersburg institute, he said.
"After looking at MMI, we found that it was a much more suitable location," he said. "We fell in love with the history of the facility and just decided that we needed to move in this direction.
"It certainly wasn't in our original plan, but this was an opportunity to make MMI our headquarters, and maintain its long history and heritage."
The fact that Fort Knox is near also made Millersburg attractive as a center for the corps' national training program, he said.
Land said some of the buildings on the Millersburg campus have been damaged by vandals and will need repair and renovation. The goal is have things ready for the cadet corps to celebrate its 100th anniversary at Millersburg in April 2009.
"There's quite a bit to be done," Land said. "But we're going to get after it."
Read it all here.
Thinking about ethics and current events (Began 1 April 2008)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
St. Bart's Parishioners Exit TEC
Don and Gladys Miller worshipped weekly for 53 years in the sanctuary at 1064 Brighton Road. But Sunday, the Millers walked away from the Town of Tonawanda church building they’ve known as their spiritual home since 1955.
“We’ve been here a long time, and it’s hard to leave,” said Don Miller, dabbing at tears. “We decided a long time ago that we would move with the church.”
The Millers are joining an expected several hundred parishioners of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in a highly unusual journey: Not only are they moving into a new facility, they’re also leaving the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Western New York.
Henceforth, the members of St. Bartholomew’s will be known as Anglicans, not Episcopalians, and they’ll worship in a former synagogue on Eggert Road, less than a mile away from the former site at Brighton and Fries roads.
Read it here.
Santa Fe Welcomes Tibetan Monks
Santa Fe, that lovely Spanish pueblo of New Mexico and haven of everything New Age, welcomes Tibetan monks who are constructing a Green Tara mandala for the city.
"It has the power to heal those in the economic crisis and also at the individual level," Phentsok said. It is a special blessing for everyone in Santa Fe, he added.
The monks making the mandala are from the Drepung Loseling Monastery, known for its Tibetan temple music where chant masters learn to control their voices in multiphonic or "overtone" singing. The monastery dates to 1416 in Tibet.
The Santa Fe paper reports, "Mandalas and the ceremonies surrounding their creation have long been a source of healing and protection, similar in ways to the ancient tradition of sand paintings used in Navajo healing ceremonies."
Drepung Loseling monks will tour the U.S., visiting schools, churches and galleries raising money to support monks in the monastery in India. As part of the tour in Santa Fe, the group will perform an evening of sacred music and dance at 7 p.m. on Dec. 27 at the James A. Little Theater, 1060 Cerrillos Road. Read more here.
Meanwhile the other news from Santa Fe ... orthodox Episcopalians there have left The Episcopal Church because of irreconcilable differences on interpretation of Scripture, ordination of gay and lesbians, same-sex ceremonies in the church, and rejection of the historical claims of Christianity concerning the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The Santa Fe New Mexican doesn't have much to say about this publishing an Associated Press generality, but it does offer news about Muslims' difficulty in finding a mate and the approval of a domestic partner registry. I guess everyone is welcome in Santa Fe except right-believing Christians.
"It has the power to heal those in the economic crisis and also at the individual level," Phentsok said. It is a special blessing for everyone in Santa Fe, he added.
The monks making the mandala are from the Drepung Loseling Monastery, known for its Tibetan temple music where chant masters learn to control their voices in multiphonic or "overtone" singing. The monastery dates to 1416 in Tibet.
The Santa Fe paper reports, "Mandalas and the ceremonies surrounding their creation have long been a source of healing and protection, similar in ways to the ancient tradition of sand paintings used in Navajo healing ceremonies."
Drepung Loseling monks will tour the U.S., visiting schools, churches and galleries raising money to support monks in the monastery in India. As part of the tour in Santa Fe, the group will perform an evening of sacred music and dance at 7 p.m. on Dec. 27 at the James A. Little Theater, 1060 Cerrillos Road. Read more here.
Meanwhile the other news from Santa Fe ... orthodox Episcopalians there have left The Episcopal Church because of irreconcilable differences on interpretation of Scripture, ordination of gay and lesbians, same-sex ceremonies in the church, and rejection of the historical claims of Christianity concerning the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The Santa Fe New Mexican doesn't have much to say about this publishing an Associated Press generality, but it does offer news about Muslims' difficulty in finding a mate and the approval of a domestic partner registry. I guess everyone is welcome in Santa Fe except right-believing Christians.
Medical Chart Bloopers
Dr. Maurice Bernstein, a teaching physician in California, has published a list of his favorite medical chart bloopers. Here it is:
1. The patient refused autopsy.
2. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.
5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.
7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
8 The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
9. Discharge status: Alive but without permission.
10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful.
11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
12. She is numb from her toes down.
13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.
14. The skin was moist and dry.
15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.
17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.
18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce.
19 I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.
20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.
21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
22 . The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
23. Skin: somewhat pale but present.
24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.
25. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
Are there ethical ramifications for medical chart bloopers? You bet. Read Dr. Bernstein's comments here.
1. The patient refused autopsy.
2. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.
5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.
7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
8 The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
9. Discharge status: Alive but without permission.
10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful.
11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
12. She is numb from her toes down.
13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.
14. The skin was moist and dry.
15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.
17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.
18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce.
19 I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.
20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.
21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
22 . The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
23. Skin: somewhat pale but present.
24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.
25. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
Are there ethical ramifications for medical chart bloopers? You bet. Read Dr. Bernstein's comments here.
Islam Divided
Islam is portrayed by the western media as a monolithic religion to which Moslems worldwide adhere unswervingly, but the reality is quite different. Islam is as divided as Christianity between those who do good and those who break the laws of traditional religion.
The incident of the Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at President Bush is but one example. He acted contrary to traditional law by shaming a guest in his country. If an American journalist had publically shamed a Muslim head of state, the Muslim world would be outraged.
Other violations of religious law includes denying rightful wages, which the Qur'an (following ancient Afro-Asiatic law) condemns. In these acts we see that Islam is divided between the lawful and the lawless.
It is reported that eighteen peasants, including women, escaped from the captivity of a landlord in the Chotiariyoon area of Sanghar district (Pakistan) and staged a protest outside the press club in Hyderabad on Monday. Bair Chand, Rai Chand, Mohan and others said that they had been working on the lands of a landlord for the last three years but they were denied 50 per cent of their share of the crops.
Add to this kidnapping for ransom. One of the women alleges that her husband has been held captive by a brick kiln owner, Koko Khan Pathan, near Hyderabad. Zarina said that the brick kiln owner was demanding payment of Rs200,000 for release of her husband. (Read more here.)
In another incident of denying rightful wages, hundreds of employees of the Education Department protested on Monday in Sanghar, Pakistan because they have been denied their remunerations for last five months. (Read more here.)
The incident of the Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at President Bush is but one example. He acted contrary to traditional law by shaming a guest in his country. If an American journalist had publically shamed a Muslim head of state, the Muslim world would be outraged.
Other violations of religious law includes denying rightful wages, which the Qur'an (following ancient Afro-Asiatic law) condemns. In these acts we see that Islam is divided between the lawful and the lawless.
It is reported that eighteen peasants, including women, escaped from the captivity of a landlord in the Chotiariyoon area of Sanghar district (Pakistan) and staged a protest outside the press club in Hyderabad on Monday. Bair Chand, Rai Chand, Mohan and others said that they had been working on the lands of a landlord for the last three years but they were denied 50 per cent of their share of the crops.
Add to this kidnapping for ransom. One of the women alleges that her husband has been held captive by a brick kiln owner, Koko Khan Pathan, near Hyderabad. Zarina said that the brick kiln owner was demanding payment of Rs200,000 for release of her husband. (Read more here.)
In another incident of denying rightful wages, hundreds of employees of the Education Department protested on Monday in Sanghar, Pakistan because they have been denied their remunerations for last five months. (Read more here.)
Monday, December 15, 2008
A.S. Haley Parses the Dennis Canon
A lawsuit nearly always starts with one party to a dispute taking a position that surprises, angers, and finally provokes the other party into doing something which that other party never intended to do in the first place. Example: you have been living in the same rural home for the last thirty years. You have always reached your home by way of a dirt or gravel road that takes off from a county road and winds its way through three or four other properties before reaching your parcel (and maybe it continues through yours to go on to still more parcels before it dead-ends). The neighborhood has settled into a well-known pattern, and everyone is comfortable with the arrangement.
Now one of your neighbors along the road, say one of the ones whose property you have to cross, retires, moves away, or dies---so that his parcel eventually is sold to a new owner. That new owner, say, comes from a fairly large urban or suburban environment, and has dreams of retiring to the country. But no one told him that there were three or four other owners down the road who would be driving through his property twice a day.
Unhappy about having what he sees as his rural peace and quiet disturbed, he consults a surveyor, and learns that there are no recorded easements over the road through his property. So he hires a contractor, puts up big metal gates across the road on each side of his property, and locks them.
You and your neighbors are outraged at having your principal access blocked. (This being the country, there may be an alternative route you can use to get to your home, but it is much less convenient---perhaps it is very poorly maintained, and floods out during the winter months, or perhaps it takes you way out of your way.) You take a bolt cutter and cut the locks, and continue to use the road as before. You probably do not bother to close the gates.
In a week or so, you find special, hardened-steel locks on the gates which your bolt-cutters cannot cut through. At this point, depending on your degree of anger, you either (a) rent a small bulldozer and knock down the gates, or (b) bring a lawsuit. (And if you choose the first alternative, then the owner of the gates starts the lawsuit, and sues you, or has the sheriff arrest you for vandalism.)
Who "started" the lawsuit? As you can see, it is not necessarily the person who filed it. But under the facts I have given, it is easy to pinpoint the action that changed the status quo that had prevailed for over thirty years: it was the decision to block the road by the owner who had just moved in. For better or for worse, he simply assumed he "knew" what the law was, and took a position (that the road could not be used by those who were using it) which he assumed the law would support, based on the lack of any recorded easements.
But the law is not so black-and-white. In time, our hypothetical neighbor will learn about "prescriptive rights"---the right to use a road even without a deeded easement. If a person uses someone else's road openly and without asking or receiving permission, and continues that use regularly for what the law defines as the "prescriptive period" (in California, it is five years; in other States, it can be ten or even twenty years), then that person acquires a "prescriptive easement" to continue that use, which the law will recognize and protect.
The doctrine of prescriptive easements stems from a social policy that favors the active use and development of land, and discourages passive, absentee ownership. If you live in San Francisco, and visit your rural property only once every six months for a week or so, you might never notice the tire tracks that indicate someone else is using your road on a regular basis. And if more than five years go by before you finally find out, you will most likely lose any lawsuit you bring to stop the use.
Now, to the point of this piece: I want to ask---has the prescriptive user "stolen" anything from you? In one sense, of course, he has: he has acquired an easement across your land without having to compensate you for the diminution in value which your parcel will suffer as a consequence of having an easement across it. But in the eyes of the law, you have done the same thing as granting him a deeded easement without charging him for it. The law simply presumes that if five years have gone by without your objecting to the use, or trying to do anything to stop it, you must have no objection to what your neighbor has been doing.
(At this point, let us pause to recall the immortal words of Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. When told that the law "presumed" that a wife acts under the direction of her husband, Mr. Bumble replied:
If the law supposes that, . . . the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.
Objecting to what the law "presumes", or "supposes", will not get you very far, as Mr. Bumble learned to his chagrin. In the same way, the landowner who objects to the presumption behind prescriptive rights will receive short shrift from the court.)
All, right, let's bring the lesson home. As reported on several blogs, the HoB/D Listserv has carried a somewhat extensive debate on the appropriateness of the Episcopal Church (USA)'s spending some $2 million on legal fees in church property disputes over the past year. Those who suggested that the money might have been better devoted to the Church's mission were generally met with argument to the effect that "the ones who are leaving started the lawsuits", or "the departers forced us to sue, because they took the property with them, and it belongs to us." I think I am not being unfair if I summarize the general argument thus:
By canon law [the Dennis Canon], all parish property is held in trust for ECUSA. Therefore, while the members of a parish may choose to leave the Church, they cannot take the property with them---that is theft. Acts of theft leave us with no choice but to file suit. It is the only way the Church can preserve its property for future generations. Thus the $2 million had to be spent, and much more will have to be spent on lawyers before this is over.
Recently, however, facts about the Dennis Canon have emerged which tend to cast the foregoing argument in a slightly different light. For one thing, from what appears in the official records of the 1979 General Convention, the Canon may not have been adopted in the same form by both Houses concurrently, as would be required for it to take effect. And for another thing, it does not appear that the enactment of the Canon was reported to the parishes that were directly affected; the first mention of the Canon in the Episcopal News Service Archives does not occur until 2001---some twenty-one years after its supposed adoption. (I have commented in this post on the disconnect between the deputies elected to General Convention and the parishes that elect them.)
Read it all here.
What we have here is a form of "prescriptive right" to parish property that was established in a rush under questionable circumstances, in the waning days of the 1979 General Convention, and then lay dormant for years until a property dispute required its disinterment in 2001. The recognition it has received in some courts in the years since has tended to give it full legitimacy in the eyes of those who invoke it.
Now one of your neighbors along the road, say one of the ones whose property you have to cross, retires, moves away, or dies---so that his parcel eventually is sold to a new owner. That new owner, say, comes from a fairly large urban or suburban environment, and has dreams of retiring to the country. But no one told him that there were three or four other owners down the road who would be driving through his property twice a day.
Unhappy about having what he sees as his rural peace and quiet disturbed, he consults a surveyor, and learns that there are no recorded easements over the road through his property. So he hires a contractor, puts up big metal gates across the road on each side of his property, and locks them.
You and your neighbors are outraged at having your principal access blocked. (This being the country, there may be an alternative route you can use to get to your home, but it is much less convenient---perhaps it is very poorly maintained, and floods out during the winter months, or perhaps it takes you way out of your way.) You take a bolt cutter and cut the locks, and continue to use the road as before. You probably do not bother to close the gates.
In a week or so, you find special, hardened-steel locks on the gates which your bolt-cutters cannot cut through. At this point, depending on your degree of anger, you either (a) rent a small bulldozer and knock down the gates, or (b) bring a lawsuit. (And if you choose the first alternative, then the owner of the gates starts the lawsuit, and sues you, or has the sheriff arrest you for vandalism.)
Who "started" the lawsuit? As you can see, it is not necessarily the person who filed it. But under the facts I have given, it is easy to pinpoint the action that changed the status quo that had prevailed for over thirty years: it was the decision to block the road by the owner who had just moved in. For better or for worse, he simply assumed he "knew" what the law was, and took a position (that the road could not be used by those who were using it) which he assumed the law would support, based on the lack of any recorded easements.
But the law is not so black-and-white. In time, our hypothetical neighbor will learn about "prescriptive rights"---the right to use a road even without a deeded easement. If a person uses someone else's road openly and without asking or receiving permission, and continues that use regularly for what the law defines as the "prescriptive period" (in California, it is five years; in other States, it can be ten or even twenty years), then that person acquires a "prescriptive easement" to continue that use, which the law will recognize and protect.
The doctrine of prescriptive easements stems from a social policy that favors the active use and development of land, and discourages passive, absentee ownership. If you live in San Francisco, and visit your rural property only once every six months for a week or so, you might never notice the tire tracks that indicate someone else is using your road on a regular basis. And if more than five years go by before you finally find out, you will most likely lose any lawsuit you bring to stop the use.
Now, to the point of this piece: I want to ask---has the prescriptive user "stolen" anything from you? In one sense, of course, he has: he has acquired an easement across your land without having to compensate you for the diminution in value which your parcel will suffer as a consequence of having an easement across it. But in the eyes of the law, you have done the same thing as granting him a deeded easement without charging him for it. The law simply presumes that if five years have gone by without your objecting to the use, or trying to do anything to stop it, you must have no objection to what your neighbor has been doing.
(At this point, let us pause to recall the immortal words of Mr. Bumble in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. When told that the law "presumed" that a wife acts under the direction of her husband, Mr. Bumble replied:
If the law supposes that, . . . the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.
Objecting to what the law "presumes", or "supposes", will not get you very far, as Mr. Bumble learned to his chagrin. In the same way, the landowner who objects to the presumption behind prescriptive rights will receive short shrift from the court.)
All, right, let's bring the lesson home. As reported on several blogs, the HoB/D Listserv has carried a somewhat extensive debate on the appropriateness of the Episcopal Church (USA)'s spending some $2 million on legal fees in church property disputes over the past year. Those who suggested that the money might have been better devoted to the Church's mission were generally met with argument to the effect that "the ones who are leaving started the lawsuits", or "the departers forced us to sue, because they took the property with them, and it belongs to us." I think I am not being unfair if I summarize the general argument thus:
By canon law [the Dennis Canon], all parish property is held in trust for ECUSA. Therefore, while the members of a parish may choose to leave the Church, they cannot take the property with them---that is theft. Acts of theft leave us with no choice but to file suit. It is the only way the Church can preserve its property for future generations. Thus the $2 million had to be spent, and much more will have to be spent on lawyers before this is over.
Recently, however, facts about the Dennis Canon have emerged which tend to cast the foregoing argument in a slightly different light. For one thing, from what appears in the official records of the 1979 General Convention, the Canon may not have been adopted in the same form by both Houses concurrently, as would be required for it to take effect. And for another thing, it does not appear that the enactment of the Canon was reported to the parishes that were directly affected; the first mention of the Canon in the Episcopal News Service Archives does not occur until 2001---some twenty-one years after its supposed adoption. (I have commented in this post on the disconnect between the deputies elected to General Convention and the parishes that elect them.)
Read it all here.
What we have here is a form of "prescriptive right" to parish property that was established in a rush under questionable circumstances, in the waning days of the 1979 General Convention, and then lay dormant for years until a property dispute required its disinterment in 2001. The recognition it has received in some courts in the years since has tended to give it full legitimacy in the eyes of those who invoke it.
Negative Sentiment Toward Greek Government
Following the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a week ago Saturday, there have even been protests on Greek islands like Lesbos, where police used teargas against demonstrators. In Athens alone hundreds of stores have been destroyed and looted, schools have called off classes and universities have canceled lectures. Just a few days before Christmas, "the city has come to a grinding halt," says government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros.
Over the past week, the wave of protests has even spread to Europe's major cities. Sympathizers occupied the Greek consulates in Berlin and London, anarchists rioted out of solidarity in Barcelona, Rome and Copenhagen, and the sense of outrage has even reached New York.
Athens Polytechnic, in the heart of Exarchia, is the focal point of the protests and a place steeped in symbolism for Greek leftists. This is where students barricaded themselves inside university buildings in 1973 to protest against the military junta. When tanks crushed the gates on Nov. 17 and put and end to the leftist uprising, at least 34 young people died and some 800 were injured.
Today's sizeable Black Bloc anarchist movement in the Greek capital strongly identifies with the tradition of those young 1970s rebels. For years, they have been setting fire to police stations, banks and state institutions. "From a statistical perspective, there are attacks like this every day," says a security expert.
A Growing Prosperity Gap Between Young and Old
The schoolboy's death has given the Black Bloc anarchists widespread support among the population for the first time -- and has driven the country to the brink of a political crisis. "A young man killed by a police bullet is the worst thing that could happen," admits Antonaros. But he adds that "it has nothing to do with social unrest."
Sure enough, the riots, which continued until the weekend, and particularly the obvious sympathy for the young protesters, are an expression of the Greek people's overwhelming disappointment with their government and political system. The country's political class has been losing credibility for years due to graft, kickbacks and "widespread corruption," says an EU diplomat. Over the past few months, a series of ministers have had to step down in the wake of corruption allegations, most recently the predecessor of government spokesman Antonaros and the mercantile marine minister, both of whom are close associates of conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
Read it all here.
Over the past week, the wave of protests has even spread to Europe's major cities. Sympathizers occupied the Greek consulates in Berlin and London, anarchists rioted out of solidarity in Barcelona, Rome and Copenhagen, and the sense of outrage has even reached New York.
Athens Polytechnic, in the heart of Exarchia, is the focal point of the protests and a place steeped in symbolism for Greek leftists. This is where students barricaded themselves inside university buildings in 1973 to protest against the military junta. When tanks crushed the gates on Nov. 17 and put and end to the leftist uprising, at least 34 young people died and some 800 were injured.
Today's sizeable Black Bloc anarchist movement in the Greek capital strongly identifies with the tradition of those young 1970s rebels. For years, they have been setting fire to police stations, banks and state institutions. "From a statistical perspective, there are attacks like this every day," says a security expert.
A Growing Prosperity Gap Between Young and Old
The schoolboy's death has given the Black Bloc anarchists widespread support among the population for the first time -- and has driven the country to the brink of a political crisis. "A young man killed by a police bullet is the worst thing that could happen," admits Antonaros. But he adds that "it has nothing to do with social unrest."
Sure enough, the riots, which continued until the weekend, and particularly the obvious sympathy for the young protesters, are an expression of the Greek people's overwhelming disappointment with their government and political system. The country's political class has been losing credibility for years due to graft, kickbacks and "widespread corruption," says an EU diplomat. Over the past few months, a series of ministers have had to step down in the wake of corruption allegations, most recently the predecessor of government spokesman Antonaros and the mercantile marine minister, both of whom are close associates of conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
Read it all here.
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