Anastasia

Abortion

An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy before the fetus is viable, or capable of living outside the womb. An abortion may be spontaneous or induced. The latter is an act with ethical and legal ramifications.Spontaneous abortion occurs when the embryo fails to develop, when there is complete or incomplete expulsion of the products of conception - the embryo or fetus and placenta - or when the fetus dies prior to 20 weeks from the woman's last menstrual period (LMP). Induced abortion is a procedure intended to terminate a suspected or known pregnancy and to produce a non-viable fetus at any age. Although discouraged by most religions, induced abortion has been practised in every culture since ancient times.

During the 19th century several countries passed laws prohibiting abortion to protect women from the dangerous methods then in use. Today about half of the world's people live in countries where abortion is available on request and another fourth live in areas where abortion is permitted to protect the woman's health. The most restrictive policies tend to be found in fundamentalist Islamic countries and countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. In the USA legal induced abortion was generally unavailable until 1970 when a few states legalised their abortion laws. Early in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court declared most restrictive abortion laws unconstitutional because they violated the woman's right of privacy.

Opponents of legalised induced abortion believe that human life begins at conception and that abortion is the intentional killing of a human being and is thus morally wrong. Members of the Right to Life movement have lobbied for a constitutional amendment on the rights of the unborn child. The counterpart to this position is the "pro-choice" stance. Its proponents generally believe that human life begins when the fetus can survive outside the womb and that before then - since the fetus is not a separate human - it is morally acceptable to terminate the pregnancy. They argue that legal abortion is safer than illegal abortion and relieves the psychological and social problems associated with bearing an unwanted child.

The Greek Orthodox Church recognises and celebrates the beginning of life in the womb and considers induced abortion a crime since God gave life and only He can take it back. However, God also gave us free will and I believe that it's a woman's undeniable right to decide whether or not she will give birth to an unwanted child.

Monday's Greek Recipe - Loukoumades

LOUKOUMADES - HONEY PUFFS

 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 kilo (1 lb 2 oz) flour

2 teaspoons yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

oil for frying

SYRUP

2 teacups honey

1 teacup sugar

stick of cinnamon

2 teacups water

DIRECTIONS

1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.

2. Put the flour and the salt in a bowl and gradually add the dissolved yeast mixing by hand.

3. Gradually add some lukewarm water until you have a paste that is neither too fluid nor too thick.

4. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it stand in warm water for about an hour.

5. When the batter doubles in size  and forms "bubbles", heat plenty of oil in a pot, until it is scalding hot.

6. Drop teaspoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and allow the loukoumades to turn golden brown.

7. Remove the loukoumades (honey puffs) from the oil with a slotted spoon and place them onto a plate.

8. In the meantime prepare the syrup : in a pot boil the honey, the sugar  , the water and the cinnamon stick for about 10 minutes.

9. Pour the syrup over the loukoumades  and sprinkle with cinnamon.

10. Serve hot!

The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking (Editions Haitalis)

Comments or Not ?

Well, I had to change my comments settings for one very simple reason. Oh no, no spam - thanks to Typepad's great spam filters - but I've just realised that many people would take advantage of my recent  comment settings...to pretend they're my friends! Ah right!  Clever but in the long run it did not work.

As very few of you know I don't blog to get comments. I mainly blog to have readers. Readers are more important to me than comments. However, I do value my friends' comments.The comments of those people who really care for me. And they are always welcome. Signing up to Typepad Connect is free - it's up to you to decide whether your friendship is true or not. I have seen blogs "buying" comments ...promising "this time I will answer ALL your comments" . I could feel the insecurity of that blogger. How sad!  Believe me I was shocked. I can't promise you that I'll answer all your comments if you leave any. For one very simple reason: I don't always have the time. I also hate "comments for the sake of a comment so that you comment on my blog as well". To me 2 comments coming from true friends are worth 5000. Please don't get me wrong...I know that having changed my comments settings could be very unfair for those of you who are great true friends. But then again, true friends have so many other ways of communicating. And I know we will keep in touch as we've always had all those years.

The Greek Revolution - 25 March 1821

No doubt the Greeks had wanted their freedom from the very beginning of the Ottoman rule, but in the 18th century the idea of a free Greece grew into an organised plan. With Russian help a revolt started in 1770, which failed. Inspired by the French revolution and the heroic poems (thourios) of Rigas Feraios, the Greeks did not give up, and the secret society Filiki Eteria ("Friendly Union") was founded in 1814 in Odessa of Russia by Nikolaos Skoufas, Emmanuel Xanthos and Antonios Tsakalof. Weapons and funds were collected, and help was sent from Greeks in exile as well as other countries on the Balkan and the Mediterranean sea.The revolution started when Alexander Ypsilantis invaded Jassy and declared Greece a free country. In the Peloponnese the Archbishop of Patras Paleon Patron Germanos led the uprising on 23 March 1821. The Greek army of the Peloponesse was led by Theodoros Kolokotronis. Other famous Greek leaders of the revoloution where Georgios Karaiskakis, Athanassios Diakos, Odysseas Androutsos, Grigorios Dikaios or Papaflessas, while in the seas, Konstantinos Kanaris, Laskarina bouboulina and Andreas Miaoulis fight the Turkish fleat with their ships. The Greeks may have got certain aid from abroad, but they had to fight on their own. The Turks got help from Egypt and the whole of the Peloponnese was captured by the Egyptian army by 1826.The following year, a republic was proclaimed, and Ioannis Kapodistrias was declared as the first governor of Greece. The same year European countries decided to help Greece and after the failure of negotiations with Turkey, Britain, France and Russia sent naval forces to Greece. Turkey was forced to accept peace, and the so called London Protocol declared the independence of Greece in 1830. Many parts of Greece were soon given back to the Ottoman empire, though, and several parts of Greece were not free until the beginning of the 20th century..

My Blogging Experience

I've always regarded blogging as a unique way to communicate with other people and share my thoughts, ideas, experiences and even my own life and my own culture. I posted my first blog on Typepad, on September 11, 2004. As I wasn't sure then what blogging really was, I started a kind of diary or, if you like, a conversation with my alter ego. My Typepad Journal was my online hiding-place as I spent most of my online time IMing on Yahoo and MSN.  About 4 years ago, one of my chat friends told me about Yahoo 360 and that was when I started blogging there as well. Soon I made some great friends there and it was a real pleasure to visit their blogs, listen to their music, learn about their lifestyles and their way of thinking.  At the same time, I had my two Typepad blogs: my personal journal and Cypria. Then last year I added a new weblog - English Today - a free online course of English as a second language.

Although I have never abandoned my yahoo 360 friends - despite the various technical problems on that site - on Typepad I have recently had the chance to meet my friends from various other forums. It was as if the world had become a huge global village. It's been, indeed, a great experience and I would like to thank you all for your love and support. Finally, a couple of days ago, I received an invitation from my friend Constantinos who was asking me to share his new blog on Blogger, as a blog author. I must admit, I was a bit sceptical at the beginning fearing that Constantinos' readers wouldn't like that. My first posting there was rather clumsy to my mind, but I am now feeling very comfortable as a great friend's guest author and I am truly beginning to enjoy this new blogging experience.  

Inspired by a survey I have recently come across on Typepad, it would be interesting to know about your own blogging experience if you blog at all. Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.

Job Security vs Job Satisfaction

It has been suggested that worries about job security can seriously affect people's mental health. When people are worried about money or job security, they are particularly vulnerable to developing various mental health problems, such as depression. Experiences of debt make things worse.

On the other hand, employee satisfaction and retention have always been important issues for physicians. After all, high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover can affect your bottom line, as temps, recruitment and retraining take their toll. But few practices (in fact, few organisations) have made job satisfaction a top priority, perhaps because they have failed to understand the significant opportunity that lies in front of them. Satisfied employees tend to be more productive, creative and committed to their employers, and recent studies have shown a direct correlation between staff satisfaction and a higher turnover , hence higher wages and / or promotion for the satisfied and devoted employee.

However, I hear more and more people saying : "Thank God I have a job". While this is quite natural considering the current recession that has affected most parts of the world, I am a bit sceptical about the final result. Of course , the ideal is to enjoy both job satisfaction and job security - not an easy goal to achieve nowadays.

If you couldn't have both and you had to choose, what would be most important to you: job security or job satsfaction?

Monday's Greek Recipe - Soupa Fakes - Lentil Soup

PULSES

Peas, beans and lentils are known as pulses. They are the seeds of plants belonging to the family Leguminosae, which gets its name from the characteristic pod or legume that protects the seeds while they are forming and ripening. With approximately 13,000 species, the family Leguminosae is the second largest in the plant kingdom and it is very important economically. Different kinds of legumes provide us with food, medicines, oils, chemicals, timber, dyes and ornamental garden plants. Legume products include carob, senna, gum arabic, balsam, indigo and licorice. Pulses are valuable because they contain a higher percentage of protein than most other plant foods.

All pulses, except for soya beans, are very similar in nutritional content. They are rich in protein, carbohydrate and fibre, and low in fat which is mostly of the unsaturated kind. They are also important sources of some B vitamins. Fresh pulses contain vitamin C, but this declines after harvesting and virtually all is lost from dried pulses. Canned pulses however, retain about half their vitamin C except for canned, processed peas which have been dried before canning. Canning doesn't affect the protein content, eliminates the need for soaking and considerably reduces the cooking time compared with dried pulses. Frozen peas will have also lost about a quarter of their vitamin C content.

For the Greeks, fresh pulses constitute an essential part of their eating pattern. The average Greek family will include pulses in their menu at least twice a week.

TODAY'S RECIPE

SOUPA FAKES - LENTIL SOUP

Ingredients

1/2 kilo (1lb 2 oz) lentils (not canned!)

2-3 ripe tomatoes finely  chopped

2 onions finely chopped

2-3 garlic cloves finely chopped

1/4 teacup vinegar (strong)

1 bay leaf

salt-pepper

1/2 teacup olive oil

Directions

1. Clean the lentils and soak them overnight in water.

2.The following day place the lentils in a pot, cover with water and let them boil over a medium fire.

3. Allow to boil for about 10-15 minutes, then drain.

4.Put the lentils back into the pot with fresh water.

5. Add the onions, the garlic, the tomatoes, the bay leaf, and season to taste.

6.Let them cook on medium heat for another hour and a half.

7. About 10 minutes before removing the soup from the fire add the vinegar and olive oil.

8. Serve warm and garnish with black olives or grilled herring.

The Best Traditional Recipes of Greek Cooking (Editions Haitalis)

KALI OREXI - ENJOY!

The Rich and the Famous

I can picture two kinds of rich people and two kinds of fame. The former are either rich in money or rich in spirit or perhaps both. The latter are either high status figures through personal appearances and media coverage or well known only by name and reputation.

The advantages of wealth tend to be what it can buy which many others can only dream about. These can be for instance, security, luxuries and freedom to choose when, how and where to work or play. It can also make it easier to choose who or what to spend money on for profit or not. Some disadvantages of being money rich can be greed, using money to influence people corruptly, becoming the victim of envy and facing problems of forming friendships unaffected by money. On the other hand, for the rich in spirit all is favourable- kindness and friendship lead to contentment.

The famous who all but become public property can suffer much. For example , they can lose privacy and become exposed to the dangers of hero-worship and exaggerated self-importance. A side effect of such status is seeing dependants losing their individuality in the long shadow of the publicity which can invade all family life. However, such fame can be an advantage if the public image portrayed is a shining example of all that is good, beautiful and true. The famous in name only is a private fame. What has been achieved is appreciated at a distance. It is much easier to live with.

It seems clear that those who are money rich and publicly famous have a most difficult task in balancing the pros and cons of their lives. The rich in spirit will welcome public exposure to benefit others but will not be disappointed if they only operate behind the scenes.. The money rich who can manage to keep a low profile may perhaps be able to minimise the worst which their wealth creates and then lead truly privileged existences as a result.

I believe that money doesn't make happiness, yet it largely contributes to it!

The Sound of Silence

Silence is unnatural to man. He began his life with a cry and ends it in stillness. In the interval he does all he can to make a noise in the world, and there are few things of which he stands in more fear than the absence of noise. Even his conversation is in great measure a desperate attempt to prevent a dreadful silence. If he is introduced to a new acquaintance, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as a failure, a worthless person, and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox! He knows that 90% of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he longs to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a ...waxwork figure!

The object of conversation is not, for the most part, to communicate ideas: it is to keep up the buzzing sound. Hence the popularity of the word buzz in online communication! I must admit, there are different qualities of buzz: there is the even buzz that is as exasperating as the continuous ping of a mosquito. Hmmmm...but at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a mute! Right? Fortunately, most buzzing - including online buzzing - is agreeable to the ear and some of it is agreeable to the mind as well. Whoever waited to take part in the buzzing with, let's say a neighbour, would be foolish.

Very few of us join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new. Some of us are content if we are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears. At the end of an evening during which we have said nothing at immense length, we congratulate ourselves on our success as conversationalists!

Spring Thoughts

Springtime is the season in which nature wakes up and starts to grow after the long sleep of winter.  This season as it progresses becomes a noisy but colourful affair.  The first signs are the early spring flowers emerging out of the ground.  Snowdrops are a sure sign to everyone that spring has sprung but other early flowers such as Dogs Mercury can be seen as the first indication of spring.  Later on in the season, other wildflowers like Lesser Celandine and Bluebell will sprout and fill our countryside with colour.  In addition, there will be a surfacing of spring fungi. 

 Trees too come to life in spring and their buds begin to swell.  The almond tree is a tree which blooms early in Cyprus. It is found mostly in the mountains and its very first bloom occurs in February even in the snow. To me it's a kind of Edelweiss, the only difference being it's small and pink , not white. By early March, our almond trees are in full bloom!   Over the coming months, all our tree species will come into leaf, giving our woodland life and colour in preparation to spread their pollen and produce seed in autumn.

Wild birds will start to eagerly construct nests ready for their clutches of eggs. Swallows to begin with. They are the first Spring birds which build their nests under our roofs. Hence our saying: "One swallow does not bring Spring!" Yet we know that Spring is in the air!  Then small birds such as Robins will find a hedgerow or a bird-box to nest in while Crows and Jackdaws will be seen collecting twigs for their treetop homes.  The Blackbird, especially the males, will be seen and heard desperately defending his territory and trying to entice a female. In June - July, the nightingales won't let you sleep in Platres!  Other animals including insects, amphibians and mammals will too commence their courting behaviour trying to impress mates.  This will result in many different colourful and noisy displays. The 8 cats of my neighbourhood, for instance!  You may hear the howling of foxes up in the mountains and the croaking of frogs around this time - especially in Ayia Napa! 

Remember, while out spotting all these wonderful plants and animals follow the countryside code and do not disturb any wildlife or pick wild flowers and fungi.  It’s best to take nothing but memories and leave nothing but footprints.