Greek unity in peril
Little Corfu is disenchanted with Greek rule and some on the island are agitating for greater autonomy or even independence. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/26/greece

"It's unacceptable for example that in 2008 on an island with 150,000 people, including 12,000 resident Britons, we still don't have a hospital and newborn babies die as a result. That is quite unbelievable... or at least it should be!

It is. I got no feeling about this when I was there three weeks ago. It was never mentioned, not even by the ex-pats I met who, without exception, told me how fantastic the island was as a place to live. There was some serious looking graffiti by the side of a few roads and bridges but I couldn't read it because it was in Greek :oops: :oops: :oops: Yes, some of the roads were poor but I'd assumed that that was a Greek thing. I'd read "My family and other animals" years ago and the roads were poor back then. I can feel a photo coming on!

That was the Porsche you hired for the duration of your trip was it? :shock:

But then would you go away on holiday and start up conversations on local politics with the people you met? Probably not... so unless you bumped into a load of people who wanted to spoil your holiday by whinging you probably wouldn't pick up on any of it. YOu might have done if you could read Greek and grabbed a local newspaper.

Tony - you're right! ...about the conversations I mean. (the Porsche just happened to be parked by the harbour when I took the photo) The BBC covered the same story today in a bit more detail. This is something that I could support. It's a scandal that the Corfiots haven't even got a hospital when they contribute so much to the Greek economy. Nice people too.

"We don't want independence," Mr Tsoukalas says. "We still want to be part of Greece. But what we want is control over our finances, so that the money we raise on the island stays on the island." They've got more chance of getting independence!