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What have the Greeks ever done for us?

I was thinking today about Greece and the problems it faces. Should the European Union bail out Greece with large sums of money? No, the EU shouldn’t but the entire world should.

I can already hear the economists among my two readers saying that this is a bad thing. They may be correct. Argentina decided to simply default on their debts and seems to be doing just fine. I am not an economist so what do I know? Here’s what I do know:

The Parthenon in Athens

The Parthenon. Credit: Wikipedia user Thermos

Python fans will recall the moment in The Life Of Brian when the question “What have the Romans ever done for us?” was asked. Just transpose Romans to Greeks and you’ll see where I’m going with this.

If you think about it for a moment, the world owes Greece a massive favour. Almost everything you see, do or touch today will owe something, somehow to Greece.

The Greeks gave us western civilisation, democracy, mathematics, philosophy, medicine, geometry and much, much more. These innovations affect everything. They may have stood on the shoulders of a few giants to do so but what we have today is largely thanks to Greece.

And while we’re at it, how about the United Kingdom returns the Elgin Marbles to where they belong. Every little helps.

Flappity flap

Shade sail that suffered in last night's wind

Shade sail that suffered in this morning's wind

 

Shade sail that suffered in last night's wind

Shade sail that suffered in this morning's wind

We had the first storm of the wet season last night – two weeks early – and the shade sail at the renter decided to let go of one corner this morning. I can’t see this lasting long in a real blow.

A 6m x 6m sail blowing around in a strong wind isn’t the safest thing to be around.

Goanna in the garden

Goanna in the garden

Goanna in the garden

A fine specimen stomping through the garden and searching for breakfast. This big boy is about 1.5m (4 foot) long.

The usual stuff about taking photos through a fly screen applies. Click the thumbnail image  for a much larger version, as always.

Garden Cassowary

Garden Cassowary

Garden Cassowary

Garden Cassowary

Garden Cassowary

Another fine specimen wandering around the garden. As with the photo of the recent juvenile cassowary visitor these were taken through fly screens covering the louvred windows.

Huntsman spider

Luckily this was on the outside of the car as it arrived in my peripheral vision:

Huntsman Spider

Huntsman Spider