Bilingual

Exercising our voting right in Mykonos – (English)

KINHSH ENEGON POLITON MYKONOU K.E.Po.M.
“Mykonos Active Citizens’ Movement”

First thing for all is to be registered in the electoral registers. This right had a deadline on the 31.08.2010. You can check if you are registered in http://www.ypes.gr/Services/eea/eea.htm click on «Ευρωπαίοι πολίτες – European Citizens» give Surname, Name, Year of Birth, and you get info on the exact number and position in the electoral area in which you vote.

The 7^th of November 2010, we vote for:
Α. The Municipality of Mykonos and the two municipal communities

1. Municipal Community of Ano Mera
2. Municipal Community of the Municipality of Mykonians

Β. The Prefecture of the South Aegean

Polling booths open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

In Mykonos there are two main locations where polling takes place:

a)     in the district of Lakka in Chora (at the primary school and kindergarten)

b) at the primary school of Ano Mera

COMPULSORY DOCUMENTS: a valid form of identification (ID card or Passport)

At the Election Centre you will be given a small envelope, 5 voting papers, one for each of the four candidate combinations and one blank one. You should move behind the screen and place beside each name in blue or black pen, 0-3 crosses for the first group of candidates for the Municipal Council and 0-2 crosses in the second group of candidates for the Municipal Community. No other mark or colour should be used as it may result in an invalid vote.

Regarding the distribution of seats: on the first Sunday the first 11 seats are distributed between all on a pro rata basis, whilst on the second Sunday the first candidate takes from the remaining 10 seats however many he/she is entitled to until the total number of 13 seats. The rest go to the second candidate. In this way we always have a Municipal Council which is elected on the first Sunday’s votes composed thus: 13 for the ruling group/party and 8 seats in total for all of the Opposition.

After this the same process is repeated for the District elections where we may select the ballot paper of our choice and place 0-1 crosses.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is possible that we do not have a Mayor on Sunday 7/11/10 if no candidate achieves more than 50%. This means that the Elections will be repeated on Sunday 14/11/10 in which only the first two teams take part. This has the following advantage: given that the Councillors are elected based on the number of crosses they receive on the first Sunday, we have the capability to vote for the best councillors on the first Sunday and on the second Sunday for the Mayor who will have to implement the decisions of the Municipal Council anyway! Significant innovation is the fact that Municipal and Prefectural Elections will, henceforth, be repeated every 5 years and will coincide with the Elections for the European Parliament. The exception is the current term of the Municipal and District Authorities which will be three and a half years until the European elections in the summer of 2014. This means that, for us, it is very important to see more of you active in the affairs of Local Government, so that we may have citizens elected to represent you. Long before it was mandated by law we, as active citizens were always open in our relations and cooperation with all those who have chosen Mykonos as their new home either for reasons of employment, family or simply by choice. Mykonos is a meeting place of cultures, in which one deserves to live and, moreover, it is place in which one’s contribution and voluntary work for the common benefit of all and the communication between us, is well placed.

For additional help and info, contact our e-mail kepomyk@gmail.com or tel. +30 6944393323. You are also welcome in our office in Fabrica Square at the Bus Station. http://kepom.wordpress.com/

FOR MAYOR: ELVIS PRESLEY (No Cross)

CANDIDATES FOR MUNICIPALITY OF MYKONOS (Up to 3 Crosses)

AMY WINEHOUSE

BOB DYLAN

BONO

BON SCOTT

BOY GEORGE

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

CHER

DIANNA ROSS

EMINEM

+ FRANK SINATRA

JIM MORRISON

JOHN BON JOVI

+ JOHN LENNON

KURT COBAIN

LADY GAGA

LUCIANO PAVAROTTI

MADONNA

+ MARIA CALLAS

MICHAEL JACKSON

MICK JAGGER

MILES DAVIS

PRINCE

SAKIS ROUVAS

STEVIE WONDER

CANDIDATES FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY (Up to 2 Crosses)

+ ARETHA FRANKLIN

+ DAVID BOWIE

JANIS JOPLIN

JOHNNY CASH

 

Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the group. They are published in the context of healthy and transparent dialogue and responsibility remains with the authors.

---

One doesn’t drink the sea, one tastes it!

contemporised interview* of Dimitris Rousounelos from Scala Gallery

(candidate for local councillor with KEPOM)

-Born or naturalised Mykonian?
-Born here, in this very neighbourhood, in the bedroom of my paternal home.

-Do you have a nickname? What is it and how did you get it?
-Everyone in Mykonos has one. Carbonis is my grandfather’s nickname from the time he worked in America as a boilerman. It comes from the Italian ‘carbone’ which means coal. My father, as the younger child of the family, became the carbonaki (little coal), accordingly. This name is our family nickname.

-Your first memory of the island?
-A woman (my grandmother Katerno) cooking on a wood fire at the top of Kounoumba.

-Who was your role model as a child?
-Misokolaki, the hero of a Mykonian fairy tale.

-Who are your heroes in real life?
-Those who look forward, who have vision, who don’t back down, and who everyone acknowledges thirty years later. Antiheroes, basically. Dinos Tsakos, the archaeologist of the 60s, is one of those people. We owe him the uncontaminated image of Mykonos, its protection from excess and greed.

-Which Mykonian custom is your favourite?
-The one where the boys steal mayflowers and place them in the gardens of the girls they like.

-How has living in Mykonos influenced you?
-I have the sense that everything ends somewhere and then the sea begins.

-What is your greatest contribution to the island?
-I think it is the publication of the newspaper “Mykoniatiki”. For thirteen years I rang alarm bells, now the prophetic words of the newspaper have been confirmed. Unfortunately, other agendas and interests prevailed, which push things in other directions.

-Do you believe your presence played or plays a role in the development or the history of the island?
-At one time our participation in a group of young people with common goals set down the foundations of another way of thinking about the development of the island. Back then we had the strength and the vitality to open new paths. We became tired, however, because of the constant antagonism with systems and people who were motivated by personal agendas, and by a world which is indifferent to the future. The shock from the unjust death of Doujon Zammit, the resignation of Veronis, the huge scandal and the exposure of the conflicts of interest in the Municipality, the Police, Urban Planning reactivated the conscience of Mykonians.

What are you most regretful about?
I studied economics, although I should have studied cooking.

What would you like to do for Mykonos in the future?
To give her back the image of an island with calm people, with a normal everyday life, with open squares and beaches devoid of the forest of umbrellas that reach all the way to the water’s edge and injure the fragile harmony of the landscape.

What do people here not know about you?
In small communities you can’t hide anything, especially when your life is a public one. For thirty years I have written and spoken publicly about the island, so it goes without saying that everyone knows my views and beliefs. But, if you insist, I don’t think anyone knows that yesterday I counted 380 books in my library on general culinary topics. Even I didn’t know that.

What makes you proud here in Mykonos?
The fact that Mykonians, in spite of the assaults they have endured, remain largely people who care for their island.

Which fellow countryman do you admire most and why?
He is no longer alive. On the eve of the 1998 local council elections, he went to my home one afternoon and waited for me until late into the night, to confide in me personally and sobbing, that he would not vote for me. He said he was voting for the candidate who gave him firecrackers at Easter. I knew he meant the current mayor, Mr Thanasis Kousathanas-Mega. I embraced him and advised him to do what his heart told him. Yiannis Rousounelos was his name and he was my beloved first cousin. He was a Down’s Syndrome sufferer. That evening he gave me a rare lesson in honesty and bravery. I dedicate my truth to his sacred memory.

Who has been the most influential person in your life until now?
I won’t speak about individuals, but about a period. I left home at 11 years of age. I lived alone until the age of 26… Anargyreion High School in Spetses, University, the Navy. This influenced my life completely. Firstly, I did not have the adolescent problems with my parents, and then I had to solve my own problems. I learnt to gain support from my social relationships and the well-structured friendships around me.

What advice would you give a young person growing up in Mykonos?
To get up and leave and return here again some day.

What do you admire most in Mykonians?
The same as I admire in the people of Amorgos, they have drunk a lot of sea until they grow up.

What do you dislike most?
When I hear people talk about the uniqueness of the place, about the umbilical chord of the universe which surrounds them.

What has disappointed you most?
The perennial fear of most of my fellow citizens is that, if they call a spade a spade and demand the obvious, they will cause damage to … tourism. They easily inhale the dioxins from burning rubbish, cutting days and years from their lives. They make a colander out of the island because of all the boring for water. They overlook the quality of the water they drink and the products they consume. Most people are indifferent to the quality of life, to tomorrow, to the alcohol addicted children, to the social consequences of a physically exhausting work timetable.

What is the greatest fear for the island?
That all this will end ingloriously. The peak is achieved with difficulty. Nadir, ‘ground zero’, the razing to ground level, the bottom of the barrel, the complete acculturation of the island and its people, lurks just around the corner. You know, tourism has the capacity to corrupt consciences and beautiful places…

What is the greatest problem or biggest shortcoming here?
That nobody comes out to support the rights of Mykonos and that way it looks like we are hiding all our sewage under the carpet.

The non observance of the hours of common peace (siesta time).

The absence of free, living public spaces. Everything is consumed by the flora of tables and chairs, and chaise longues.

The misfortune of being a parent with a wheelchair-bound child and wanting to enter the town and walk around Megali Ammos. Menouhin sold his house because he could no longer walk a distance of 200 metres.

If you were mayor of Mykonos for a day, what would you do or change on the island?
This question is not relevant to me. Inform Mr Kousathana-Mega, Mr Kousathana-Aniksi and Mr Fiorentino so that they relax and sleep peacefully tonight. In the municipal elections in November I am a candidate for local councillor with KEPOM, headed by Despina Nazou, a dynamic woman, a time honoured old friend and fellow wayfarer in common struggles. Her professional background, her passion and decisiveness are guarantees of an outlet from the crisis which plagues the island, and is a hope for a functioning and democratic administration.

What is your favourite expression?
One cannot drink the sea but one can taste it!

*The interview was originally edited to Mykonos Cofidential -summer 2007 edition.

Link of the original Greek text: http://olastakarvouna.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post_12.html

Translated thanks to Maria Lomis

We don’t exist!
(to use this disliked fashionable expression…)

Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the group. They are published in the context of healthy and transparent dialogue and responsibility remains with the authors.

---

By Vanessa Zouganeli, KEPOM candidate in the municipal elections

My name is Vanessa Zouganeli.
Whose daughter am I?
Maki’s (Remetzo) and Paola’s.

And although I declare my background with pride and joy, I am usually met with a little smile – in the best instance – which stretches into a mischievous conspiratorial laugh. This has been happening for years now, and is not a result of our current economic scandals.
When you tell people you are from Mykonos they immediately think of lawlessness, all manner of anarchy, they imagine the island as a paradise for exploiters and a place of opportunities for suspicious types.

I wondered whether there were people who imagine Mykonos as a cinema stage in the Cinecitta mould, with extras playing the role of residents that, at the end of the fiesta season, disappear.

Recently, however, something different happened to me. Speaking with a friend, a Greek academic in a Scandinavian university, about the coming elections, he asked me the following shocking question:

- But are there permanent residents in Mykonos? Aren’t they all foreign investors and business people?

I was speechless, upset, angry, offended and I decided to take part in the elections representing the non-existent residents of Mykonos.
I wondered whether there were people who imagine Mykonos as a cinema stage in the Cinecitta mould, with extras playing the role of residents that, at the end of the fiesta season, disappear. I was shocked that as Mykonians, in the eyes of others, we descend the stairs of depreciation, reaching the depths of non-existence.
As I was thinking about all these things and I was in despair, I was saved by Karagatsis! By chance, I came upon an excerpt from one of his books, where he describes Mykonians as living beings!

“The most interesting animate resource is the locals, the permanent residents of the island, these sweetest of people with the kindest soul, cheerful spirit, sharp mind, who live simply in their tasteful, spotless and neat homes…”
What a relief! Phew… Do you think my Italian mother was right, when she said that when she first came to Mykonos in the 60s, she was impressed with the beauty of the place, and she was moved by the locals, who were hospitable, polite, open-minded people with a vibrant personality and although often uneducated, were wise and had a keen sense of humour. Perfect, I thought, all these people cannot have disappeared in such a short space of time… They must be somewhere, surely, even though they cannot be seen by the naked eye. They are probably the secret residents of Mykonos, they remain hidden and without voice in the face of all the frightful occurrences on their island.
As a participant in this category I declare that I suffer from what I see today around me and I search for those who are like me, so that we may exist again…

Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the group. They are published in the context of healthy and transparent dialogue and responsibility remains with the authors.

---

Let’s choose how we want to be governed and not by whom.

At some point, the time for me to write something would inevitably come. I greet all those whom I know and know me and all those with whom I exchange a quick, but always heartfelt, hello.

Many of you may have been surprised by my recent choices: to actively support KEPOM (“Mykonos Active Citizens’ Movement”), and to the extent that my ability allows. As other people also read this, I would like to humbly introduce myself.

I was born and raised in Mykonos and went to school here. I have always lived here except for periods of study, military service and vocational training. My dream is to become a proud old timer who will take walks up and down the seashore without whinging about the misery of our island and about the things I didn’t do whilst I was still young.

After a winter where we were not proud of the political happenings of our island, and although summer was on its way, and with €888.956 and some small change, and nothing happening, a feeling overcame me like it did with Doujon.  What’s going on, isn’t anything going to give? Breakaways from the majority groups, announcements,  false bravado and in the end, local council chaos. An atmosphere where innocent people have a lack of trust. An atmosphere that serves only the purpose of those who are guilty.

Why KEPOM (“Mykonos Active Citizens’ Movement?)

Due to my life choices I don’t have much in common with the other three groups. That is, the model: the Mayor tends towards a political party, one of the councillors has connections with government ministers, another has connections with a couple of members of parliament, a third has people in the prefecture and someone else has someone in urban planning, does not suit me.

I am sorry!

Anyway the island needs nothing more than the dignified and complete functioning of the structure already in existence and for some people to work in an organised manner.

The island does not need any more help from “outside”! Especially now with Kallikratis[1], egalitarianism, good housekeeping and transparency are required from the “inside”.

These are concepts the 300 members of parliament are allergic to, which means they cannot do anything, no matter what their origin.

I have no vengeful tendency towards my friends or acquaintances who embrace this model of government, which on a national and local level is gradually beginning to demonstrate its irrelevance. I believe, however, that this way of solving one’s problems is in decline.

That’s what I have to say about my mobilisation.

AIM: To have ears that listen, eyes that see and mouths that speak in these local government committees.

ABOUT TOURISM: Why is our priority excessive advertising and not the return of the satisfied tourist?

ABOUT ECOLOGY: Even though we have XYTA (sanitary landfill), we have bins and people cooperate as much as possible even without instruction, why is there no recycling?

ABOUT SPORT: Although I have become used to the idea that, for the 5^th four-term office, nothing has materialised with respect to a gymnasium, must I become accustomed to the notion that my children won’t see it either? I won’t make the mistake of mentioning a swimming pool. I haven’t heard anything about that since 1998.

ABOUT THE USE OF THE EARTH: Instead of helping young people carry on the traditional uses of the land from their elders through agricultural tourism and traditional products, why do we charge prohibitive taxes, rendering them professionally almost useless? Not to mention that, in this way, we have contributed to the disappearance of traditional products such as home made sausages, louza[2], trovolia[3] and xynotyra[4].

ABOUT EDUCATION: Why is it that in order to enrol their child in the child care centre, one must first pay a visit to the mayor’s office?

ABOUT HEALTH:

Finally good luck to all the “healthy cells” of the island, in whichever faction they belong and I close in the hope that in June 2014 Mykonos will have fewer and more serious proposals in terms of other candidates.

We must choose how we want to be governed and not by whom.

I thank and congratulate Despina Nazou who, from within a family life and a university career, has accepted to lead the dreams of KEPOM.

With respect, Kammis Theod. Grigoris

---

[1] The new local administration structure, which includes the unification of Councils and the elimination of Prefectures, and takes effect from the coming elections.

[2] Traditional pork ‘meze’, in the style of prosciutto

[3] Local unsalted fresh cheese

[4] Sour cheeses

I am an anonymous citizen

I am an eponymous, anonymous citizen. Eponymous for my family and few friends. Anonymous for all others but mostly for the authorities of my region. I try to walk with my head bent so that they do not see my face, so as not to remember me. You see, I built a small storeroom without a building permit to keep by barrel of wine and I am afraid they may find it. Perhaps they even know but don’t bother me as I don’t bother them about their illegalities. The bad thing is that theirs have become so huge that they have suffocated the region.
I am an anonymous citizen who becomes eponymous at funerals, weddings and all social events. They are always near me in my grief and in my joys, always there for the handshake. Thankfully, their only concern is how to greet as many people as possible and, in that way, I am overlooked again. When the elections approach their presence is more intense but it doesn’t bother me, my neighbours and I always gain something. There will be a little cement left over for our road which resembles a goat path. I am an anonymous citizen who loves art, history, tradition, the civilised societies of all the world and that is why they call me a culture lover in a derogatory tone. I am disillusioned not because they devalue me, but because it seems they have forgotten what civilisation and culture mean. How else can I explain the inappropriateness of the word?
Yiannis Mavrogiannopoulos writes: “Culture means cultivation, it means development, it means a knowledge of the subject. Greeks always had culture. They are and must remain proud of their heritage and culture. There cannot be a people, on the face of the earth, who can ignore or not admit to the colossus of the Greek spirit! And even not be jealous! The regret however is the indifference which Greeks have shown and show, from time to time, towards our cultural heritage throughout the ages and, even more so, the Greeks of today.”
I think that regressive might suit me better.
I am therefore an anonymous regressive citizen and I never understood the fanaticism of groups and political parties. Blue, green, red people revile each other, not seeing anything behind the flag they are holding or not holding in their hands. However, no colour would be what it is if it didn’t have all the others next to it. That is why the rainbow causes such elation and moves us, because it has all seven colours tied so closely, that one penetrates almost to the centre of the other.
I am an anonymous and disillusioned citizen because I see, hear and above all feel anonymous citizens around me who are afraid, who are deluded by the fake and full of promises smiles, who don’t believe in culture anymore, the main characteristic of a blossoming society and the worst of all is that they can’t see the rainbow which has already installed itself in their sky.
In spite of all this I continue to hope!

M.K.

(Signature’s details remain at the disposal of the blog administrators)