In my last post I referred to the water in Siviri. It posed a risk to public health. Siviri was prominent in the news yesterday because of forest fires. They were so serious that some holidaymakers were evacuated by boat. The problem was not so much the fires as the wind that was fanning the flames. At this time of the year, we experience the Meltemi (Μελτέμι), a wind that refreshes and cools the Aegean. Unfortunately, the downside is that if the winds are strong (as they were yesterday), they cause fires to spread out of control. Yesterday’s fire had spread to Fourka. Cars and homes were burnt out. Reports also expressed concern about fires in Mount Athos. Luckily this has not happened so far. Fires on Cassandra (the first leg of Halkidiki) coupled with a similar outbreak on Mt. Athos (the third leg) would leave us in Sithonia as piggy in the middle.
Leaving the fires of Halkidiki aside for a moment, let’s turn briefly to the academic conflagration dominating British news. Cambridge’s youngest ever black professor, Jason Alday, has been outed as a fraud, a cheat, and a Walter Mitty character. I don’t know what is true or false, but some of his non-academic feats were such that no rational person could, would or should believe him. However, in Cambridge, Roehampton, Liverpool John Moores and Glasgow, it seems staff were so scared or woke-possessed that his claims were never probed. His doctorate thesis contains large unattributed swathes of text from an American thesis. One academic commentator opined that the American original was nonsense, so Arday’s thesis might be gibberish with an underpinning of gobbledegook.
It leads one to wonder how much shite is written in Humanities and social sciences. In Greece, things are not much better. Private universities are always a touchy subject, so some will be rejoicing at the news that three such institutions – City of York University, Keele and Anatolia – have had their operational licences and their academic programs revoked by the Council of State. The full details have yet to come out but here is a report in English: https://greekreporter.com/2026/08/14/three-non-state-university-licenses-annulled-greece/
For me, the key section in the above report is this:
“In another case, the court found that the opinion supporting a license had been based on an evaluation report prepared by a committee member who had a relationship with the educational institution under review, creating what the court described as grounds for suspicion of bias.”
Obviously, I don’t know which institution they are talking about, but I do know this. The Greeks abolished the monarchy in December 1974. However, nobody has managed to abolish the hereditary teaching appointments in one of the above institutions. I know of people who have lost their jobs because an employee wanted them replaced by a relative. If a female employee retains her maiden name, the appointment of her son or daughter can be concealed from the general public as the new appointees will bear their father’s name. Concealment is even easier if we are talking about nephews and nieces. Incestuous.
Finally, our local fires are under control but fire, rescue and volunteer services are on extra high alert because this bank holiday weekend is peak summer. Tomorrow, 15th August is the feast of the Assumption or, in Greek, the Dormition – Η Κοίμηση της Πανάγιας. As our daughter is called Mary, we will also be celebrating, and so will everyone with a name associated with the Virgin Mary: Maria, Panagiota, Despina; and the men – Marios, Panagiotis, and many more.
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