After Focus, it was a pleasant change to go sailing in Greece!  The Southern Ionian has wonderful clear, deep, blue water and offers very gentlemanly sailing- referring to the 9.25 knots we reached.  The heat creates a strong afternoon breeze of force 4-5, which dies down just as one is about to anchor to look for a taverna and a quiet evening in which to enjoy the surrounding beauty!  The biggest challenge is operating the electric anchor windlass.  You only have one chance reversing at speed into a stern-to mooring in front of a watchful crowd on the harbour wall.  You time the anchor drop off, in 10-15 meters of water, 4 boat lengths in advance and stop a yard short of the quay, with port and starboard aft moorings quickly cleated off!  You then haul in the anchor to take the tension. At Vasiliki, on the island of Levkas, I so nearly lost two fingers in the chain drum - one of those occasions when I caught my breath and I just knew in my knower that God was protecting me (from my own folly that is, not the enemy necessarily, though I do sometimes wonder which is worse!).

    The island of Ithaca, and its capital Vathi, has a particular rural charm. I had not realised, until a classisist friend told me, that this was Odysseas' home (Ulysses in Latin). He was one of the most prominent Greek leaders in the Trojan War, and was the hero of Homer's Odyssey. Known for his cleverness and cunning, he fought heroically, refusing to leave the field when the Greek troops were being routed by the Trojans. He was also the originator of the Trojan Horse (not the computer virus), by which the Greeks were finally able to take the City of Troy itself. As we anchored and swam off the island, it is eerie to think that Odysseas had 12 out of a total of 1227 ships here ready to defeat the Trojans in the greatest war in Greek mythology and literature in 1194- 1184BC! (Today, City traders deal in gold in Troy ounces-uncia in Latin!) I recall thinking how odd it was when at school they made me study Afrikaans instead of Greek, reasoning that it would be more useful to a presumably expansive worldview -still, no room for regret now!

     One is reminded about the preciousness of natural resources.  For example, on Cephalonia, there are no rivers or bore-holes and little rain, so water has to be shipped in.  Also, as there are no tides to provide a cycle, waste and cleanliness are difficult issues.  Island life does have its attractions: dependence on natural resources, simplicity and remoteness all contribute to a social cohesion difficult to find elsewhere. Reminded me a little of the Southern Rhodesian farming community in which I grew up; we so relied on one another for everything, we never even questioned people's willingness to share or help- and the natural implicit trust that goes with it- something I have not often found replicated, even in the church. Some say it was artificial -relationships forged out of necessity and the survival instinct during the bush war- but it
was real enough for me to remember and cherish for ever.

     Read a wonderful book this week; "What is the Point of Being a Christian?" by Timothy Radcliffe OP, a Dominican friar. Don't be put off by the title! He writes from a profoundly human perspective with a Catholic and prophetic edge.  Refreshingly free from jargon, you get the feeling he is quite a theologian, but definitely does not live in an ivory tower.  It struck me that he says one of the ways we can express a sense of belonging to the human community is by identifying the false idols in our society that undermine our common flourishing. (I seem to remember that Nehemiah was a bit like this.) These are, he says, the cultivation of unlimited desire, the absolutization of private property and the deification of money.  Refusing idolatry, he says, frees us to worship the true God in whom we will be one with each other.
   With the loss of traditional communities, we have become insecure and anxious and we seek out people who think like us. The old neighbourhoods meant that you had to rub shoulders and negotiate compromises with those who were radically different. You were with them for the long haul and so there was no way round it. But when community collapses, identity is invented. When you no longer easily belong, then you must discover who you are. "Identity politics" is born. Isn't this what happenned in Rwanda? Many did not know whether they were Tutsi or Hutu until community collapsed and then they had to chose in a hurry. And what about the destruction of community in Yugoslavia?
   Is capitalism entering a new phase? In the world of "liquid modernity", the relationship beteween capital and labour is not so much about the production of heavy goods as the marketing of images, information, symbols, ideas, brands. The contracts are short term. If there is any trouble, then capital moves elsewhere, to employ workers who can be paid less and be more submissive. Hedge funds were supposed to be a "hedge" against volatility- but they have proved to be just the opposite and more like vehicles for unrestricted greed where the enticing claims of "absolute return" and "market neutral" strategies were like chasing the wind. Of course, they threw in a few Greek letters for added street cred-alpha and beta strategies for outsize returns on top of whatever the market was doing. The managers insisted they were doing something special to earn their extra fees and when the going got tough, they fell at the first hurdle. The "quantative" trading strategies of the rocket scientists at Goldman Sachs got their sums wrong-we learnt at school that 2 plus 2 did not make 5! Also, if you borrowed a marble from someone, you had to pay him back. Whatever happenned to service?
   Definitely a good read!