Trains, planes and automobiles

runway edition

I’m writing this in an airport, so naturally, all of my musings will be on this topic. The truth is, in the last three years, I’ve been in a lot of airports and on a lot of flights, and if I’m honest with myself, I don’t dislike it at all.   

In an airport, you are nothing more than your passport and boarding pass, just a name and a destination. Your entire ego dissipates; you’re nothing more than a black hole, absorbing views, smells, and small conversations that mean absolutely nothing. You can watch a guy discovering at security that he has an entire set of knives and forks forgotten in his backpack and feel nothing but curiosity.

In airports, you’re emotionally safe. You can choose to be angry, sad, or weird, and unless you break the rules to the point where someone calls security, nobody will remember or care. At most, you’ll be a funny story in someone’s vacation narrative. The rules are clear. There is no ambiguity, no gray areas, and as long as you stick to them, you can be perfectly yourself.

You can stay in your own head without anyone asking you to leave it. Amid all the noise, airports are the quietest places I know.

Back to reality and on a completely unrelated note: ever wonder why the Greek media is screwed? I’m trying to explain the phenomenon a bit here, in an analysis I wrote for the Media Finance Monitor about how media capture in Greece works, compared to countries like Poland or Hungary, that have received a lot more attention. This text might give you some context about how and why certain things are happening in this country—and how they’re reflected in the media.

But feel free to skip it. Let’s get down to business.

Weekly Spotlight

• A UN anti-torture task force arrived in Athens for a 12-day mission to investigate potential human rights violations in Greek police stations, migrant detention centers, and prisons, following the recent death of a 29-year-old Bangladeshi man found hanged in a police station. Τhe commander and deputy commander of the Omonia police precinct in central Athens were replaced from the posts on Friday after the death of the man. 

• The death of 37-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Kamran Ashiq, who was found with signs of beating while in custody at Agios Panteleimonas Police Station on September 21, raises many unanswered questions, with inconsistencies in police reports and concerns about the transparency of the investigation. What really happened in Agios Panteleimonas Police Station?

News You Can Use

• Nighttime prices for electricity are gone.  The Ministry of Environment and Energy will implement a new framework from 2025, shifting reduced electricity tariffs to midday hours and weekends, when energy prices are lower, replacing the current nighttime tariffs.

• Cinobo, the Greek streaming platform, is saving the historic Alexandra cinema from permanent closure, transforming it into Cinobo Patision. 

• Can a parking app save us all the parking headaches? Perhaps, and there is one in the works. 

• A group of wild boars was spotted roaming the yards of houses in Menidi, western Athens, on Monday.

• Meet NOOS, the first electric scooter of Greek production.

• On World Mental Health Day, experts highlight ongoing shortcomings in Greece’s mental health care system, with concerns over high rates of involuntary hospitalizations and insufficient mental health infrastructure, including beds and clinics. 

• Here are the projects that aspire to unblock traffic in Kifissos.

• The airports of Zakynthos (ZTH), Kavala (KVA), Kefalonia (EFL), Corfu (CFU), Mykonos (JMK), Santorini (JTR), Samos (SMI), Rhodes (RHO), and Mitilini (MJT) will not be handling commercial or private flights during certain periods in the following months, due to scheduled runway reconstruction works.

• Fancy a holiday buried under the ground in Crete? Underground houses and hotels rapidly are emerging across various Greek islands, causing alarm among locals and architects due to large-scale excavations.

• An association of short-term rental companies has argued that new tax rates for their businesses are overly burdensome, affecting Airbnb in Greece.

• In the Greek market, legal – for now – laboratory-made chemical compounds are springing up, which promise consumers the same effects as THC, the banned psychoactive substance contained in the cannabis plant. What do we know about these (semi)synthetic substances and what should we watch out for?

The Long Reads

• The right no one wants to talk about (especially in Greece)

• In the vegetable garden of the municipality of Petroupoli, the residents grow their own products

• In the age of AI, many seniors treat every digital transaction like a minefield, while their children often take on the role of 'support technician'

Wanderlust

• The third edition of the Athens Palestine Film Festival is coming from October 17th to November 16th, 2024, across three iconic cinemas: Andora Cinema, Studio New Star Art Cinema, and Trianon Cinema. The festival will feature an exciting lineup of Palestinian films, with directors and actors participating in discussions and Q&A sessions, providing unique insights into their work and the broader Palestinian reality. You can check out the entire schedule here.

• 5 wonderful trips in the nature of the Peloponese 

• Gojira is coming to Athens next year

• These three Athens bars made it into the world's 100 best for 2024

• What to watch at the Athens 2024 International Film Festival

And my musical obsession of the week: the new Trentemøller album.

Have a great weekend and do write back. Even if it’s just to complain. 

Ioana