28th October – then and now

Today is one of the most important days in the Greek calendar: one of two Greek National Days (the other being 25th march), 28th October is the celebration of Greeces defeat of the Axis troops in WW2.

Each of the world wars, had a huge effect on the Greek and Cypriot culture and communities, bringing new experiences and thinking, and sharing of cultures and lives, to the people of the country who’d led quiet, land driven lives for many, many years. In the 50s and 60s, with the end of the second world war safely in the past, many Greek nationals chose to migrate to Australia, in search of the “better life”, more prosperous way of working/living and further change hit the greek culture.

Its not much different today, though the migration has moved in the very recent years from the UK expats coming to Cyprus to live to now, the Russians coming in , in their droves, in search of more sunny days and better quality of life…..

There are few countries now, unaffected by the incoming of “outsiders”, whose mission has often been to “take” and “make”. Thankfully, Cyprus seems to be settling now and the incomers are, to a huge degree, giving back to this beautiful country which hosts their lives and welcomes their dreams.

I’m thinking this morning how lucky we are to live here and how warm and friendly the Cypriot people are. We could all learn a lot from their core family values.
I’m also remembering something Sam, our Eating Monster in the office, read to me the other day. It went along the lines of, “If Women were in charge of every country and all politics in the world, there would be no wars: just a bunch of jealous countries who didn’t speak to each other!”

Its a strange world but an interesting one!