TEDxAthens this November, took the format even further by focusing on 'The Ones Who Do'. The theme seemed entirely appropriate, given the country's current lack of belief in the system and in the future. "Our choice of topic is not only local but urgent: we need to turn thought into action today", one of the organisers Dimitris Kalavros comments.
It's heartening for a young writer when the Chief Rabbi of your country writes a column responding to your book, and says some kind things about it - so thanks are in order to Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks for using my book as a springboard for his discussion in the Huff Post on the deficiencies of Stoicism as a philosophy for life.
At some point, the blame and part of the responsibility for what happens within their own country has to fall on the Greek public. Ninjas did not destroy the Attikon. Ninjas did not set fire to nearly 50 buildings around Athens. Ninjas were not the ones asking for money so as not to burn down the Asty cinema house, just a short walk away from the Attikon. These were citizens of Greece. Whether provoked, coerced, brainwashed or otherwise, these were citizens of Greece.
There haven't been many coherent voices speaking out against the impending money-splash of the London Olympics next year. Most have been swept away by the shiny promised land of the new Westfield, or the dubious pledges buried in tonnes of polished glass and metal, said to be invested in our potentially athletic children's futures.