Earthquake activity:
In Greece in February there were
three earthquakes of note affecting Crete.
21 Jan: 2.5 ML,
22.37pm. Undersea epicentre 77km S of
Iraklion.
Link to Story.
21 Jan: 3.0 ML,
22.53pm. Undersea epicentre 94km West of Chanía.
Link to Story.
27 Jan: 3.1 ML,
18.15pm. Undersea epicentre 97km E of
Iraklion.
Link to Story.
Although earthquakes most certainly are a common feature of life in Greece.
It is however, unusual for deaths, injuries and or damage to buildings to occur,
which could lead to a false sense of security.
The author of a ten year study at the National Technical University of
Athens says that Greece is sitting waiting for the next major
earthquake without doing anything to mitigate it's effects. (Our italics).
Link to Report.
There are certain existing buildings considered to be at risk from major
earthquakes. Link
to story. These buildings, which include a number of schools, are being
investigated with the objective of safety.
Link to story. Engineers have also called upon the government to
institute checks on old bridges in Greece.
Link
(Item6.)
_______________________________
A Little Extra (Current) News....
And 'O, what a magnificent fiasco'!....
It could have been a plot for a book. Perhaps even a score for an opera -
'el diablo and the fragile and pathetic attempts by the British Government
to extricate it's citizens from the current strife-torn Libya'... It would
have taken more than the 'Three Tenors' - were they still available as such
-
to make what was an almost complete fiasco even remotely palatable. One news channel even dared
to suggest that Nick Clegg, our Deputy PM, had not realised that
he was responsible for sorting the mess in the PM's absence! As a voter who
helped put the Government where it is, I feel that I have perhaps a little
right to air my views about the apparent lack of assistance to my fellow
countrymen, and to accept my portion of the responsibility.
It was
a full-blown fiasco. If the British news channels are to be believed there
was even difficulty chartering aircraft to get Britons out of Libya.
Recently, from Cairo,
there was a suggestion that each 'evacuee' would be presented with a £300 or so bill
for his or her rescue.... Being something of a cynic I could not help but
wonder whether this would be the case again those lacking the cash up-front would rescued on tick - or
not be rescued at all!
Yesterday, (Feb 24th), as a single chartered aircraft was en-route from
Libya to Gatwick with 150 or so rescued souls on board, and a thankfully not
yet to be scrapped Lockheed Hercules of the Royal Air Force with another 50
rescued Britons on board sat waiting for take-off on the
Tripoli tarmac - two Greek
passenger carrying car ferries, ANEK Lines 'Hellenic Spirit' (6524 tonnes
1850passengers and space for 650 cars) Link and her sister ship 'Olympic
Champion' Link docked on Crete, carrying not only Greeks but a full load of
Chinese workers being extricated by their governments from Libya. Greece has
undertaken to evacuate 13,000 Chinese citizens working in Libya by this
route. They will then, after a short stay in Cretan Hotels, be flown
back to China from the airports at Iraklion and Souda (Chania). Both well
known to British holiday-makers and ex-patriates.
Why, I ask myself, did our Prime Minister, and/or his men, turn to
attempting (with widely reported difficulty) an air evacuation directly from
the UK when the nearest European landfall, and safety, was but 150 nautical
miles away. And not only Crete. Rhodes and Cyprus are vast distances
closer than the UK. Would it not have been better to use the closest point
in Europe as the base from which to co-ordinate any evacuation? People could
then have been rescued much more quickly and returned to the relative safety
of the UK at a more leasurable pace. I feel certain that with the
current economic situation in Greece, the Cretan holiday industry, not yet itself
awakened from it's winter vacation would have coped admirably. Would have
been quite willing to get back to work early....
I cannot help but remember the still fairly recent debacle of crashed British
holiday companies leaving thousands of Britons stranded - and what seemed a like
another government (be it on that occasion Labour) - directing the abandoned
in Europe to incorrect destinations to join chartered coaches, as for example
occurred in Spain at the time,
and who were then told to make their own way to the French channel ports to get
ferries back to the UK... Men, women and children. What an exciting way to
end a holiday! No cash, six suitcases and kids who want to use the hidden
toilets... But that's in the past...
This time it is much more serious. People can be harmed. Injured. Even lose
their lives. A number of returning Greek citizens are apparently injured.
Can lose everything they possess - and then themselves be lost...
It appears to me that Greece is not only managing it's economic difficulties
at least as well as, if not better than, the UK, but is handling it's own
Libyan crisis considerably better.
The two mentioned Greek car ferries, without their cars, could probably take
up to 4 - 5000 people at one run; the distance to a port such as Benghazi is
but a couple of hundred nautical miles. Both these ships are capable of at
least 28 Knots. Allowing for return trips they could possibly evacuate half
the population of Tripoli in a matter of days... And they are safe,
positively luxurious - I know, I have sailed up and down the Adriatic
regularly on both since they came into service, the last time only six
months ago. And a note to 'UK Gov' - ANEK would probably give good discounts, as would I suspect Aegean and Olympic Airlines and
Greek hotels - especially for an early boost to the travel industry!
Cynicism, not sarcasm...
On Feb 26th, I had just written the following in completion of this column -
'Dear David, you had my vote, you still have (Just) my support.
How about it Gov? A little organisation rather than telling UK citizens to
leave Libya 'now' - help them to do just that'.... when our PM climbed
back into the driving seat. Within hours the BBC was telling the world that
two RAF Hercules had landed, accompanied by members of the Special Boat
Service, in the desert outside Benghazi and evacuated 60 Brits from the
desert camps. A further charter flight was already in the air heading for
Libya; HMS Cumberland was already heading back there - and HMS York, which
had been en-route to the Falklands, was already standing by somewhere close
to the Libyan coast... Magic! Thank you for that David, more power to your
elbow...
But I still have a couple of questions please... Why are we using the UK for
air charters - why not Crete, or Rhodes, or Cyprus - HMS Cumberland
apparently had a very rough passage to Malta - many hours and hundreds of
miles further in atrocious weather. And she is now wasting more time to get
back to Libya. What would we have done if things had happened a short time
later and Cumberland had already been decommissioned? Doesn't the RAF have
passenger aircraft - why the charters and Hercules?
And why, oh why, are we wasting so much time and money in such a
complicated operation when it should have been achievable from the closest
point in Europe - Crete - perhaps an hour away by air and maybe four or five
by an ANEK Lines ferries - which are rescuing people.
But Oh' - what a finale! My money is still on David Cameron's government to get the remaining
Brits out of Libya - which leads me to the last question. Why on earth is
the Foreign Office travel website, given the current flammable situation in
Libya, still advising
.."against all but essential travel to Libya.
Those without a pressing need to remain in the country, should leave if it
is safe to do so. British nationals requiring assistance or further advice
can call the Foreign Office's 24 hour hotline on +44 (0)20 7008 0000 or 021
340 3644/45 from Libya.
It seems to me that our PM has somewhat more than the Libyan situation to
cope with....
Kalos Ithate Stin Kriti.
WB. Cretanvista. Bringing the sunshine, keeping the rain off!
________________________________ |
Site Content:- No change this month.
|
Notices. |
We are still undertaking our upgrade of the site.
Changes here have left some pages outdated - new houses; hotels;
supermarkets; roads and all. But it all takes time; please
bear with us.
Contacting Cretanvista..
We have now discontinued all direct email
links. You can still reach us directly using our
new
Contact
form, and will still receive direct replies,
but if you see an email address please ignore it. |
Photo
Galleries...
Calendar Photo Galleries:
A new one every year for the past decade! The 2010 Calendar
gallery is complete and online now.. The 2009 calendar topic was 'Wild
Flowers of Crete' (after our wild flower galleries) and the result was
superb! Which is why we followed up the theme in 2010. And again
in 2011! Because
of our success we have already produced our 2012 wild flower calendar format
(and our other themes continue), but of course that is not available until
later in the year. But we can reprint any issue with the next
year's dates - whatever year that happens to be! Have a look at the 2010
wild flowers calendar Link.
Wild Flower Gallery -
Now at 240
different wild flower photographs
online -
plus dozens in preparation - Galleries 13 - 14 are about to open. Gallery 15 is developing - which will mean
380 online..
Plus we have added more
reference information on redesigned pages -
with more photos of each specimen to follow later. You may find an
occasional duplicate, which we are keeping for the moment as the
actual photographs will be different and will be used in a later
planned re-organization of the galleries.
We are now well en-route to putting the first 50% of our target 1020
individual flowers on-line. But it all takes time. First find the
flower (hopefully in full bloom); then get the photographs (sounds
easy); put the photographs on-line (simply work); with basic
information on each, making certain that it is accurate...
If you know the location of a rare flower
please don't hesitate to help us photograph - we wont reveal your
information to anyone else.
Please note also that All
flower galleries have now been successfully re-coded to eliminate a
bug which affected some Firefox browser versions. All the information will remain
online at Cretanvista. With the advent of ipods, ipads, Blackberry's and other
gizmos it will be much easier to take Cretanvista galleries on your field trips - and
all the information that goes with them. **Your
Amazon Kindle will display cretanvista perfectly. |
Wildlife Gallery - the first two
pages - 48 unique photographs, including
some
rare specimens of
the Cretan fauna. Some is quite beautiful, some a bit scary/creepy, but
all now add to our wildlife page and the ornithology gallery pages.
Remember that it is always worth checking where you walk or sit before you do!
Start here.
Chania Photo Gallery.
Our Chania photograph galleries commenced with a presentation from Klaus
Dieter Thill, whose photographs of some old buildings in the area of the
Venetian Harbour show a little of what we all sometimes miss. Have a look -
it's worth it. Start here.
Miniature Chapels of Crete Gallery.
Klaus-Dieter Thill - author of
Minaturkapellen auf Krista,
a printed photo album detailing some of those enigmatic roadside shrines of
Crete, has now contributed the first page of his Chania on-line gallery.
Cretan Art and crafts - Weaving pages...
Weaving is in full swing and natural dyes are being made up and the
photographs taken to add to this section. We will be adding our
pages on our new looms, equipment and new projects started as soon as we
can. The weaving tends to take the time right now..
Our very first nature gallery...
Contributed by Anastasios Sakoulis, whose book on Cretan wildlife
Moments of Cretan Nature is
also on our site as a book review.
Anastasios contributed 18 pictures of birds for addition to a
gallery some time ago now. We will attach these to our bird-watching pages
as soon as possible.
GENERAL: There
are now 20 galleries featuring aspects
of Cretan life, including sunrise and sunset pictures; Souda Bay War
Cemetery; the gallery of magnificent wild-life pictures by Anastasios
Sakoulis; our own wildlife gallery; the wild flowers; Chania; Mhlia (Milia)
traditional village; etc.. etc...
Our improvements continue. We sincerely hope
that you notice little - apart from increased enjoyment and ease of use.
Keep visiting - your presence is what make all worthwhile.
________________________________
 |
Living in Crete
by Carol Palioudakis
OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK!
Price £9.50 GBP
|
|
Amazon.co.uk & Selected Cretan bookstores |
________________________________
UK Nursing History - Schools of Nursing
Readers who have any
interest in the history of the UK nursing profession might well
be interested in looking at:-
www.schoolsofnursing.co.uk
There is a main site detailing every pre-university school of
nursing, the hospitals used for training and badge awarded.
A forum covering all aspects of nursing history
A 'National' nursing badge collection containing more than 2000
photographs.
Badges, nurses, hospitals et al
Web space for your own nursing related photographs.
*Membership is Free
*Membership is necessary to
use the forum and photograph Gallery areas.
Related Sites - also free.
'nursingbadges
historyofhospitals |
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|
