Human rights are political norms dealing mainly with how people should be treated by their governments and institutions. They are not ordinary moral norms applying mainly to interpersonal conduct (such as prohibitions of lying and violence). As Thomas Pogge puts it, “to engage human rights, conduct must be in some sense official” (Pogge 2000, 47).

Human rights are international norms covering all countries and all people living today. International law plays a crucial role in giving human rights global reach. We can say that human rights are universal.

The economic crisis, which has been widely qualified as the worst in many decades, has brought recession to many parts of the world and left many people out of work.

Increased poverty and deficit have led to denial of economic and social rights – including food shortages and the use of food as a political weapon; forced deportations. Yet human rights problems have been demoted to the backseat as political and business leaders try to fight with the economic crisis in Greece.

Thousands of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity in Greece. In many cases, the economic crisis made matters worse, many more sliding into poverty.

Unsustainable debt levels has a direct negative effect on the capacity of government of the country to fulfill its human rights obligations, especially economic, social and cultural rights.

The United Nations independent expert on foreign debt and human rights warned some days ago that the austerity measures and structural reforms proposed to solve Greece’s debt crisis may result in violations of the basic human rights of the country’s people, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported.

“The implementation of the second package of austerity measures and structural reforms, which includes a wholesale privatization of state-owned enterprises and assets, is likely to have a serious impact on basic social services and therefore the enjoyment of human rights by the Greek people, particularly the most vulnerable sectors of the population such as the poor, elderly, unemployed and persons with disabilities,” said Cephas Lumina, who reports to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The rights to food, water, adequate housing and work under fair and equitable conditions should not be compromised by the implementation of austerity measures,” he said, urging the Government to “strike a careful balance between austerity and the realization of human rights, taking into account the primacy of States’ human rights obligations.” Dr. Lumina also called upon the authorities to maintain some fiscal leeway to meet its people’s basic human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights. “Tax rises, public expenditure cuts and privatization measures have to be implemented in such a way that they do not result in unbearable suffering of the people,” he said.

There are growing signs of political unrest and violence, adding to the insecurity that already exists because of deadly conflicts which Greek authorities looks like unable or unwilling to resolve. In other words: Greece gives the impression to be sitting on a powder barrel of inequality, injustice and insecurity, and it is about to explode. Although some of the government sectors directly or indirectly promote human rights, it seems that Greek administration does not have a specific policy requiring all its programmes to be consistent with a human rights-based approach to development.

Primary objective obviously will be to assist Greece to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development in line with country’s national interest. It is important that Greece aid programmes dedicate more efforts to sustain the work of local civil society organizations that play a vital role in ensuring public participation and accountability. “There will be no lasting solution to the sovereign debt problem if the human rights of the people are not taken into account,” said Dr. Lumina, who serves in an unpaid capacity.

Sources:

Greek austerity measures could violate human rights, New York, Jun 30 2011 4:10PM

Pogge, T., 2000. “The International Significance of Human Rights,” Journal of Ethics, 4: 45–69.

Pogge, T., 2002. World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms, Cambridge: Polity Press

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948b).

But where to start? An ideal starting point would be in asking what did Thea Halo create. Did she write a novel, novella or a poem? What is this literary work? What is it we read, fiction or non-fiction, which includes autobiography and memoirs?

Thinking of literature as disciplinary and writerly practices leads to consider a bridge practice interpretation and literary criticism of literary texts. Interpretation typically involves such activities as personal response, appreciation, evaluation, historical and philosophical reception, explanation and critique. In fact, in choosing a term or terms to characterize the encounter between the text and the reader one takes a specific theoretical position regarding the exact nature of reading and interpretation. This indicates the unity of literature, history, sociology, psychology, philosophy: one of the effects of powerful narrative is to engage the reader in a story arousing emotions and other responses in a process of unfolding philosophy, psychology, history and est. of plot. This suggests that the aesthetic quality of literature is indispensable to its identity, whereas with philosophy it is the intellectual quality of ideas propounded that is as well very important. This was exactly my surprise when I started reading the book.

We cannot form an articulate vision of our own moral, educational, and political values without some knowledge of where those values come from, the struggles in which they were forged, and the historical contexts which generated those struggles. To know and read the myths, Bible, Plato, Greek tragedy, and Theo Halo book is to study the sources of the conflicts and cultural tendencies which inform our present world.

The “Not Even My Name” is a remarkable synthesis of interdisciplinary material, ranging from Comparative History (focused on Turkey, Greece, great Powers in post World War I period) to Political Science and Literature. The author instead of plunging into the actual events connected with the World War I presents a general view of the historical background which created the Genocide of Greeks, Armenians and other Christians.

May 19 has been recognized by the Greek parliament as the day of remembrance of the Pontian Greek Genocide by the Turks. There are various estimates of the toll. Records kept mainly by priests show a minimum 350,000 Pontian Greeks exterminated through systematic slaughter by Turkish troops and Kurdish para-militaries. Other estimates, including those of foreign missionaries, spoke of 500,000 deaths, most through deportation and forced marches into the Anatolian desert interior. Prosperous Greek cities like Bafra, Samsous, Kerasous, and Trapezous, at the heart of Pontian Hellenism on the coast of the Black Sea, endured recurring massacres and deportations that eventually destroyed their Greek population. Thea Halo book is historical and is indeed an exceptionally interesting text with its focal point on Genocide of Pontos Greeks. The author approaches history of Pontos in 1920s by concentrating on the landmarks of the Greek People’s resistance to unjustly centralised Turkish power. This book although refers to the history of the last century remains timely. Its basic themes –on the whole the question of democratic principles and Genocide- remain open to argument.

In the pages of this book there is also a remarkable variety of characters as well as description of the events of the time.

Reading “Not Even My Name“, we can assert that we read in order to strengthen the self- to better understand and build up our sense of our individuality. All the personalities in the book are timeless portraits of men and women. In some respect, reading this book what matters most is who you are, since we cannot avoid bringing ourselves to the act of reading. Because most of us bring definite expectations, a difference enters with the Theo Halo mother’s biography, where we think to encounter, if not our friends and ourselves, then a recognizable social reality, whether contemporary or historical.

Perhaps the most interesting example is Theo Halo clearly reveals her method of using literature to shed light on historical phenomena-in this case on the history of Pontos Greeks and Smyrna catastrophe. It is true of literature, which has been defined in terms of its ability to represent reality, be logical, express its author’s inner being, or teach morality, have power of beauty, or cleanse readers’ emotions, to name only a few common formulations. In the ordinary understanding, literature represents life: it holds up, as it were, a mirror to nature to life and is therefore “mimetic”. The expressive theory of literature, which regards literature stemming from the author’s inner being, depends on a concept of mirroring.

Another element likely to attract the reading public is that author presents her material in a rarely vivid way. Her book is never pedantic and never dull. On the contrary, apart from its fresh style, an occasional unexpected touch of humour comes to the surface when the author comments change in the world of Turkish rule.

Her contribution by way of a biography of her mother’s struggle during the Genocide is invaluable for the Greeks, and thus her popularity amongst refugee Greeks worldwide is enormous.

Φωτό: Στιγμιότυπο από τη λιτή τελετή της 11ης Ιουνίου 2009, στο Γενικό Προξενείο της Ελλάδος στη Νέα Υόρκη, όπου ορκίστηκαν από την Γενική Πρόξενο Αγη Μπαλτά ως Ελληνίδες υπήκοοι η «γιαγιά του Πόντου» Ευθυμία – Σανό Χάλο και η κόρη της, συγγραφέας, Θία Χάλο. Πηγή: Dimitris Panagos (www.panagos.com).

Today, the fate and prospects of humanity are under the influence of technology. Technology represents a mode of means-ends thinking that allows us to direct material to a given end and these conditions apply to the contemporary age.

Although in ancient times scientific and technological knowledge was often presented in form of poetry, modern scientists, engineers, and writers tend to think of their enterprises as fundamentally different and perhaps even diametrically opposed.

In contrast to the modern tendency to place in opposition to one another two dominant spheres of knowledge, science and technology over against the humanities and the arts, the Greek notion of techne suggests that technique and art need not be viewed as exclusive poles.

There are five virtues of thought: technê, episteme, phronêsis, sophia, and nous. Various translations have been offered for each of these terms. Most often, technê is translated as craft or art. While epistêmê is generally rendered as knowledge, in this context, where it is used in its precise sense, it is sometimes translated as scientific knowledge Techne means both art (literature) and craft (i.e. technique). For the Greeks the artist was a craftsman, shoemaking was an art, and sculpture was a technique. For Plato no distinction existed between the fine and mechanical arts.

This connection is widely characteristic in the pre-modern world. It is well-known in drawing and painting, where perspective, anatomy, and geometrical proportions assumed great significance; as a result for Leonardo da Vinci art and science were one and the same. A shift occurs in isolated cases in the sixteenth century, then it was boosted by the scientific revolution in the 17century and became widespread by the end of the 18th cent. Art and technique no longer serve the same purpose but develop independently and autonomously. Technology becomes aligned with science and industry, while art develops stronger ties to the humanities.

Technology in a broader sense is the elevation of technical reason, and overemphasis on the technical and especially the instrumental creates an imbalance in relation to other values and relations toward other human beings.

In the age where use of technology empowers us to control others, we need the experience with something that is not purposive in a quite the same way. When we appreciate the object of beauty, we do not desire to posses it or transform it, to consume it or use it; we leave it free as it is. As something aesthetic, the object is a combination of the affective and the spiritual, as it fits for thought. This preservation of the aesthetic as what is essentially valuable neither to be consumed nor to be left behind makes it valuable as the counter-force to the instrumental, giving it a privileged position within the organic field of human activity in general and especially today.

Art works are unique. Already Kant recognized that simple understanding is not capable of exhausting the essence of art or humanity. Too much technology and too little art make the transfer of technical categories to humanity all too dangerous.

Science and technology are universal; their laws are precise and firm; arts and literature are diverse, variable, and singular. Technology is primarily oriented toward the general, not the individual, toward mass production, not uniqueness; technology is not especially culturally bound, nor do the laws of efficiency normally allow it to generate unique products. In arts, on the other hand, we gain greater sensitivity to what is singular, not only the art work and the human being but also, by analogy, the unrepeatable nature of the world which is trust, not something we own eventually in our private subjectivity or something we can destroy.

The coming of computer-based information technologies with their emphasis upon process, system, and code has enabled artists to perceive that they function as forms or subsets of information technology.

Creativity is in fact possible in any activity that engages our intelligence, because intelligence itself is essentially creative. Creative processes are rooted in the imagination and our lives are shaped by the ideas we use to give them meaning. We all have creative capacities but in many instances we don’t know what they are or how to draw upon them.

Technology is creative, as well as arts and literature. Commonalities exist between them, as ancient and medieval thinkers believed, and the spheres are enriched when interaction and reflection surface in both directions.

The challenges of our days are historic and global, indicating the difficulties of the economic crisis and the absence of a leader who can save the existing situation. The question arises: Should the leader to learn from the successes and failures of the past?

According to the experts there are at least two most important characteristics of leadership: first, anyone who accomplishes something noble in their endeavors often disregard the conventional thinking of their time; second, the factors of a successful leader have not changed since ancient times. These are: enthusiasm of the followers of leaders vision; inspiration through illustration; good judgments of duty and responsibility to those who trust and depend on person in charge; the capability to see a problem and the competence to fix it; understanding people’s limits and knowing when to drive hard and when to ease up on both subordinates and opponents.

Ancient Greeks taught that nothing is more important than good guidance for the harmonious functioning of the society and nothing is worse than to be deficient of it. Aristotle wrote in the 4th cent B.C. that Greeks were the best governed of all people because they had no national or central government to destroy their individuality or drain their recourses.

What can be learned from the leaders and thinkers of the ancient world? Three key points can emerge to command attention:

First, character is the essential upon which leadership is build. The real challenge of leadership as can be seen with Alexander the Great, Xenophon or Caesar is to maintain character in the face of success. A leader who has character is one who is transparent in his actions, who had to be above even the suspicion or appearance of impropriety or wrongdoing.

Second, the willingness to consider other opinions and point-of-view shows strengths and confidence, not weakness. Socrates one of the oldest advisers on leadership believed asking the right question was more important than proposing the right answers. He argued that person in charge must be trained to question and investigate as they lead. They must real wisdom, lie in understanding and accepting the fact that you do not have all answers and that in long run you cannot trick, threaten, or torment people into thinking that you do. Plato wrote that extraordinary leaders-“philosopher kings” were born with this quality, which sets them apart from others.

Third, success of a leader is not based exclusively on the skills and charisma of just one individual but the efforts and support of the people.

A good leader cultivates an environment that encourages subordinates to express their ideas, viewpoints, and opinions on solving problems.

We live in time of serious economic crisis since the Great Depression in 1930 and good leadership in worldwide politics and economy requires effective leadership. Historical past can teach many things, it had leaders who were very successful, capable to resolve problems and direct their societies that had problems similar to our days. Today’s leaders seek the same goals that their predecessors-ancient counterparts, they need prestige, achievement recognition and prosperity. They have the same motivation-power, ambition, and glory.

In the style of Plutarch we can make parallels between ancient and modern leaders and their backgrounds that helped them to become famous in centuries. If there is one common thing that ties successful leaders together is their astounding capacity for getting things done.

Photo: The ruins of Aristotle’s School have been found only 2 kilometers away from the contemporary Naoussa, at the district of Isvoria. Source: Youtube.com, Ava Babili’s photostream.