My memories, my experiences... My Corfu
"Oasis"
O-a-sis-- (from the Greek) a fertile place in the desert, due to the presence of water
-Webster's New World Dictionary
During the 1980's and 1990's I traveled quite extensively. In the time spanning 1987 to 2001, I crossed the oceans (Atlantic and Pacific) some thirty times. I visited more than twenty foreign countries, many more than once. While I certainly had a few strange experiences, I never encountered a single circumstance that felt truly threatening.
Since 2001, when I first landed on Corfu, I have not once been off the island. So I suppose one can tire of ecstasy, too.
These days, from my sedentary seat here on this tiny oasis in the Med, I can't help thinking that the world has changed a great deal during the last twenty years. As I said, in times past I traveled without reservation to country after country, and without incident, but I fear that the negotiable world has grown smaller during the past fifteen years. Because of politics, or religious strife, or famine, or disease, or what-have-you, I find fewer and fewer places that I might travel to in comfort, confidence and safety.
For example: The Middle East seems intent on courting Armageddon; one hundred people per day die in Iraq by violence; innocent aid workers are slaughtered in Sri Lanka; Islamic Fundamentalism is taking over North Africa, the Filipines, Indonesia; Aids has deprived the entire African continent of two and maybe three generations; violence and starvation ravage Darfor; the Balkans, though mostly peaceful now, are still a bit dicey; only a strong-arm government in Egypt is keeping the lid on a religious/cultural explosion; Britain, France and Germany all have serious immigration problems; and in my home country, the literacy level in the city of Detroit has fallen below fifty per cent, less than thirty per cent of all high school students in Los Angeles actually graduate, New Orleans has been left to rot in a stinking, rancid sewer, and one third of all children are medicated (drugged) with Ritalin (or other psychoactive, brain-shrinking drugs) to mainstream their behavior (the ultimate price being the neutralization of creativity!). Meanwhile, we walk through our privileged Western lives under the constant surveillance of video cameras. Is it any wonder that I've not left this little 'oasis' for more than five years now?
While remote in some respects, Corfu is certainly not cut off from world events. CNN comes piping through my TV clear as the church bell I hear each morning. But like most Westerners, I suppose, the drone of catastrophic events portrayed daily on the news washes over me like an Ionian wave. A big splash that recedes without any real impact. Starvation may be rampant in Africa, and half the world's people may be living on less than two dollars a day, but here on Corfu, this little oasis in the Med, life moves on in a sort of bucolic wonderment. Not to say that we have no problems here, but of course degree is everything, isn't it?
Perhaps I’m locked inside a bubble here. And perhaps the scope of such catastrophic events is lost on me as I bask in sunshine, eat Feta, and debate whether or not the euro has been good for Greece. On Corfu, we bitch and moan about the decrease in tourism, but let's face it, thirty years ago the cash crop here was olives, not tourists. All in all, Corfu is an oaisis, a fertile place in the desert of inequality, strife and intolerance. How very lucky we are in our blindness!
-Webster's New World Dictionary
During the 1980's and 1990's I traveled quite extensively. In the time spanning 1987 to 2001, I crossed the oceans (Atlantic and Pacific) some thirty times. I visited more than twenty foreign countries, many more than once. While I certainly had a few strange experiences, I never encountered a single circumstance that felt truly threatening.
Since 2001, when I first landed on Corfu, I have not once been off the island. So I suppose one can tire of ecstasy, too.
These days, from my sedentary seat here on this tiny oasis in the Med, I can't help thinking that the world has changed a great deal during the last twenty years. As I said, in times past I traveled without reservation to country after country, and without incident, but I fear that the negotiable world has grown smaller during the past fifteen years. Because of politics, or religious strife, or famine, or disease, or what-have-you, I find fewer and fewer places that I might travel to in comfort, confidence and safety.
For example: The Middle East seems intent on courting Armageddon; one hundred people per day die in Iraq by violence; innocent aid workers are slaughtered in Sri Lanka; Islamic Fundamentalism is taking over North Africa, the Filipines, Indonesia; Aids has deprived the entire African continent of two and maybe three generations; violence and starvation ravage Darfor; the Balkans, though mostly peaceful now, are still a bit dicey; only a strong-arm government in Egypt is keeping the lid on a religious/cultural explosion; Britain, France and Germany all have serious immigration problems; and in my home country, the literacy level in the city of Detroit has fallen below fifty per cent, less than thirty per cent of all high school students in Los Angeles actually graduate, New Orleans has been left to rot in a stinking, rancid sewer, and one third of all children are medicated (drugged) with Ritalin (or other psychoactive, brain-shrinking drugs) to mainstream their behavior (the ultimate price being the neutralization of creativity!). Meanwhile, we walk through our privileged Western lives under the constant surveillance of video cameras. Is it any wonder that I've not left this little 'oasis' for more than five years now?
While remote in some respects, Corfu is certainly not cut off from world events. CNN comes piping through my TV clear as the church bell I hear each morning. But like most Westerners, I suppose, the drone of catastrophic events portrayed daily on the news washes over me like an Ionian wave. A big splash that recedes without any real impact. Starvation may be rampant in Africa, and half the world's people may be living on less than two dollars a day, but here on Corfu, this little oasis in the Med, life moves on in a sort of bucolic wonderment. Not to say that we have no problems here, but of course degree is everything, isn't it?
Perhaps I’m locked inside a bubble here. And perhaps the scope of such catastrophic events is lost on me as I bask in sunshine, eat Feta, and debate whether or not the euro has been good for Greece. On Corfu, we bitch and moan about the decrease in tourism, but let's face it, thirty years ago the cash crop here was olives, not tourists. All in all, Corfu is an oaisis, a fertile place in the desert of inequality, strife and intolerance. How very lucky we are in our blindness!
Add a Comment
About
Corfu Greece Real Time Weather
Current Time & Weather - Corfu, Greece
Badge
© 2009 Created by Happy Holidays Corfu on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of My Corfu to add comments!
Join this social network