Grec_Latin_20190510-TG_FORM-TGF-012.pdf
Griechich_Broschuere_Deu_Klett_RZ_8.11.2019.g_reducedSize.pdf
epiStoa Magazine
where community members can add and comment articles or links pertinent to the epiStoa topics
European _ Values
Green Pass in Italy seen beyond constitution
The Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofoci publishes an open letter written by the leading Italian philosophers Agamben and Cacciari who hold the Italian Green Pass a despotic measure of discrimination. It has to be pointed out that virtually none of the renowned national Italian newspapers (such as Corriere della Sera, LaRepubblica,...) has published the open letter by Agamben and Cacciari, the only exception being "Il Tempo". So there appears to be an alarming consolidation of institutional powers and the press, lastly seen many decades ago.
Here is the original text:
A proposito del decreto sul green pass
La discriminazione di una categoria di persone, che diventano automaticamente cittadini di serie B, è di per sé un fatto gravissimo, le cui conseguenze possono essere drammatiche per la vita democratica. Lo si sta affrontando, con il cosidetto green pass, con inconsapevole leggerezza. Ogni regime dispotico ha sempre operato attraverso pratiche di discriminazione, all’inizio magari contenute e poi dilaganti. Non a caso in Cina dichiarano di voler continuare con tracciamenti e controlli anche al termine della pandemia. E varrà la pena ricordare il “passaporto interno” che per ogni spostamento dovevano esibire alle autorità i cittadini dell’Unione Sovietica. Quando poi un esponente politico giunge a rivolgersi a chi non si vaccina usando un gergo fascista come “li purgheremo con il green pass” c’è davvero da temere di essere già oltre ogni garanzia costituzionale.
Guai se il vaccino si trasforma in una sorta di simbolo politico-religioso. Ciò non solo rappresenterebbe una deriva anti-democratica intollerabile, ma contrasterebbe con la stessa evidenza scientifica. Nessuno invita a non vaccinarsi! Una cosa è sostenere l’utilità, comunque, del vaccino, altra, completamente diversa, tacere del fatto che ci troviamo tuttora in una fase di “sperimentazione di massa” e che su molti, fondamentali aspetti del problema il dibattito scientifico è del tutto aperto. La Gazzetta Ufficiale del Parlamento europeo del 15 giugno u.s. lo afferma con chiarezza: «È necessario evitare la discriminazione diretta o indiretta di persone che non sono vaccinate, anche di quelle che hanno scelto di non essere vaccinate». E come potrebbe essere altrimenti? Il vaccinato non solo può contagiare, ma può ancora ammalarsi: in Inghilterra su 117 nuovi decessi 50 avevano ricevuto la doppia dose. In Israele si calcola che il vaccino copra il 64% di chi l’ha ricevuto. Le stesse case farmaceutiche hanno ufficialmente dichiarato che non è possibile prevedere i danni a lungo periodo del vaccino, non avendo avuto il tempo di effettuare tutti i test di genotossicità e di cancerogenicità. “Nature” ha calcolato che sarà comunque fisiologico che un 15% della popolazione non assuma il vaccino. Dovremo dunque stare col pass fino a quando?
Tutti sono minacciati da pratiche discriminatorie. Paradossalmente, quelli “abilitati” dal green pass più ancora dei non vaccinati (che una propaganda di regime vorrebbe far passare per “nemici della scienza” e magari fautori di pratiche magiche), dal momento che tutti i loro movimenti verrebbero controllati e mai si potrebbe venire a sapere come e da chi. Il bisogno di discriminare è antico come la società, e certamente era già presente anche nella nostra, ma il renderlo oggi legge è qualcosa che la coscienza democratica non può accettare e contro cui deve subito reagire.
Covid-19 numbers: high correlation between rate of positives and intensive care unit-treated patients
In the context of the ongoing basic rights limitations, the communication of the relevant numbers is of upmost importance. It has often been discussed that the pure number of newly postive-tested persons (Fr: Incidence, cas confirmés, It. casi, G.: Neuinfektionen) is little informative.
Data published by
a) the association of German intensive care doctors and
b) the Robert Koch Institute (German state-run institute in charge of the monitoring of infection diseases)
show a high correlation between
the number of patients that are treated in an intensive care unit and have the virus (upper curve)
and
the rate of positive tests (lower curve, red dots).
The rate of positive tests is thus a much more reliable and informative indicator than the number of new cases.
Clearly, it would be even more informative to communicate the number of patients who have the corona pneumonia as it makes a big difference whether those are 90% or 9% of all icu-treated corona patients.
Years in jail for complicity in crimes against humanity
A German court in Koblenz has sentenced a former Syrian intelligence officer to four-and-a-half years in jail for complicity in crimes against humanity.
The trial is unprecedented in that the prosecutors invoked the principle of "universal jurisdiction" meaning that neither the accused nor the victim need to be citizens of the country where the trial takes place.
Timothy Garton Ash on Free Speech
In the war of fake news versus facts, here's what the next battle should be
In
Timothy Garton Ash delineates the history of free speech from Ancient Athens to today, .. and its importance today.
His advice is (among others):
Outside China, the US is the world’s leading digital trendsetter while the EU is its leading norm-setter. Put together the trendsetter and the norm-setter, add a bunch of other leading democracies, and you have a combination of market and regulatory power to which even His Digital Highness must bow.
Also interesting: Ash's recent book on Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World
256 Polish and Hungarian Mayors opposing Orbán and Kaczynski
Polish and Hungarian Mayors write a letter to the president of the EU commission
Rule of Law Report of the European Commission
The Rule of Law Report is a new preventive tool and part of the new annual European Rule of Law Mechanism.
The report can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_20_1757
(in all European languages)
The aim of the report is to look at key developments across the EU – positive and negative – as well as the specific situation in each Member State. The aim of the report is to identify possible problems in relation to the rule of law as early as possible, as well as best practices. It is not a sanctioning mechanism. Areas covered by the report include: justice systems, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues linked to checks and balances. The Rule of Law Report consists of a general report and 27 country chapters presenting the Member State-specific assessment.
CORONA FALSE ALARM? Numbers, data and background
The Proportionalists' Point Of View
K. Reiss (Univ. Kiel, Germany) and S. Bhakdi (Univ. Mainz, Germany ) answer the question whether or not the partial suspension of basic rights, unprecedented since 1949, during the corona pandemia was necessary.
Original title: CORONA FEHLALARM? Zahlen, Daten, Hintergründe. Goldegg Verlag, Wien, Berlin. 2020.
The authors mainly treat the situation in Germany, including numerous comparisons to other countries.
As the basic rights are at the heart of the European Values and as the authors' evaluation is not in the present main stream of the media, we here present a review on the book.
Read review (in German); download PDF version of the review in German.
Read review (in Italian); download PDF version of the review in Italian.
Please feel free to hand in comments, objections, or additions to community@epistoa.eu, especially if you consider certain aspects insufficiently treated by Reiss and Bhakdi (e.g. legal issues, ethics, measure commensurability, ...).
Either the above texts will be changed accordingly or your contribution will be added here.
- Commentary on the commensurability of the anti-corona measures taken (German) (Italian) (French)
- Commentary on the meaning of numbers of infections (German)
- Commentary on ethical issues in corona times (Greek) (English) (Italian)
- Commentary on the five problems of "corona numbers" (German) (English)
Amnesty International: the fight against COVID-19 and human rights
Digital surveillance to fight COVID-19 can only be justified if it respects human rights
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/covid19-digital-surveillance-ngo/
On the Future of the World
"Zhao Tingyang ist einer der einflussreichsten zeitgenössischen Philosophen Chinas."
The Washington Post 27.11.2018
JÜRGEN OSTERHAMMEL (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) reviews
Zhao Tingyang: "Alles unter dem Himmel". Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Weltordnung.
Human Rights Watch 2019 Report
Human rights violations as documented in the 2019 Human Rights Watch report:
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019
The pages on China (pp. 135-149) are particularly alarming.
L'etica spiegata a mio figlio: nuova edizione del "De Officiis" (28 Nov 2019)
Sulla nuova editione del De Officiis di Cicerone, a cura di Giusto Picone e Rosa Rita Marches (Einaudi, 2019),
e' uscita una recenzione di Alessandro Banda zu DoppioZero: L'etica spiegata a mio figlio:
https://www.doppiozero.com/materiali/letica-spiegata-mio-figlio
Human Rights and Human Future: Development of Standards
The following link cries for a new global Human Rights debate:
Europarat/Consiglio d'Europa/European Council: No to right-wing populist faction
Il Consiglio d'Europa boccia la formazione di una frazione populista di destra:
Der Europarat lehnt die Bildung einer rechtspopulistischen Fraktion ab:
The Council of Europe declines the formation of a populist right-wing faction
https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2019-05/europarat-rechtspopulismus-fraktion-demokratie
(DIE ZEIT, in German)
I partiti della destra populista non avranno un proprio gruppo nel Consiglio d'Europa. Il Consiglio d'Europa è stato fondato per proteggere la democrazia, non per distruggerla.
Rechtspopulistische Parteien werden im Europarat keine eigene Fraktion bekommen. Der Europarat sei gegründet worden, um die Demokratie zu schützen und nicht zu zerstören.
Populist right-wing parties will not have a faction in the Council of Europe since the Council of Europe has been founded to protect democracy, not to destroy it.
epiStoa: Latin and Ancient Greek as European Cultural Heritage
The promotion of Latin and Ancient Greek through epiStoa has been accepted as a European Cultural Heritage project:
https://sharingheritage.de/en/projects/european-values-and-ancient-languages-latin-and-greek/
Ancient Greek and Latin
Cultural Diversity and Latin Teaching
The Aurea Bulla as a new approach
Kattharina Wesselman on new experimentation how to teach Latin under modern conditions (p. 186):
https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2019/16910/pdf/Freund_Janssen_2019_Non_ignarus_docendi.pdf
Direct pdf retrieval of the article pages, only.
Government Decision in the UK: LATIN FOR ALL
- at least not for the happy few
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said a new programme would ensure the subject was not 'for the privileged few'.
The Department for Education's £4million Latin Excellence Programme will see the ancient language offered to 40 state schools in England as part of a four-year pilot programme.
Ancient Greek - SPOKEN !
Workshop on spoken Ancient Greek in the Hellenikon Idyllion
Mexicains, Américains, Français, Italiens, Autrichiens, Roumains - ils parlaient tous en Grèce dans la "nova lingua franca": le grec ancien
Depuis trente ans, l'HELLENIKON IDYLLION maintient la tradition d'offrir chaque été un séminaire axé sur « Philosopher et parler en grec ancien ».
Cette année, la groupe trivium-τριοδός (Jenny Teichmann, Rogelio Toledos https://www.triodos-trivium.com) et agros (Michael et Catie Kopf https://sites.google.com/view/agros-edu ) organisaient pour la première fois une « Sommer School » légèrement différente.
Malheureusement, en raison de la situation présente, seulement quatre participants ont pu se rendre au Jardin des Muses en Grèce. Ils venaient de France, des Etats Unis, de Roumanie et d'Italie - des étudiants, doctorants, professeurs de grec ancien et de latin.
Sous les citronniers escortés par le chant des cigales, ils approfondissaient leur grec ancien et s'exerçaient à parler cette langue, apprenaient non seulement la grammaire, mais aussi à réciter les textes anciens, parfois accompagnés d'une lyre grecque ancienne reconstituée (https://luthieros.com).
Avec un don lié au projet d'un membre d'epiStoa, ce séminaire était soutenu avec 200€.
On the value and importance of Ancient Greek and Latin
Figaro Vox on the importance of Ancient Greek and Latin and their suicide ...
Or, si l’étude de l’Antiquité classique est, en Occident, plus nécessaire que d’autres, c’est précisément parce que nos sociétés se sont construites, siècles après siècles, en référence à cette civilisation modèle: des rois médiévaux qui voulaient recréer l’Empire romain au néoclassicisme du XVIIIe siècle, en passant par la querelle des Anciens et des Modernes du Grand Siècle ou la prière sur l’Acropole d’Ernest Renan.
Si les lettres classiques sont importantes, c’est parce que nos sociétés, nos littératures, nos vies politiques ont été construites en référence explicite aux civilisations grecque et romaine, restées omniprésentes dans nos imaginaires, contrairement à l’Assyrie antique ou à l’Egypte.
Here is a link to the full article
https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/histoire/non-l-antiquite-n-etait-pas-raciste-20210311
Epidemics perception: from Thucydides to today
Prof. Hendrik Müller delineates the reactions to epidemics in the course of history since Thucydides and draws parallels to the sars-cov2 pandemics. Here you can view his analysis. (in German)
Source: à propos - magazine of the Fresenius University, Idstein.
Hostis. Lo straniero, l’ospite, il nemico
Giusto Picone, professore ordinario di Lingua e Letteratura latina dell’Università di Palermo, sulla figura duplice dello straniero.
Pubblicato su la Repubblica, 20 ottobre 2020 (pdf)
"Enea giunge alle foci del Tevere" di Pietro da Cortona (1597 – 1669).
I testi latini, al pari di quelli greci, rappresentano lo straniero come una figura duplice, portatore di un dono, il conferimento della nostra identità che possiamo definire solo in rapporto con chi è altro da noi, ma al contempo accompagnato da un’inquietante carica di minaccia. Questa irriducibile ambivalenza si manifesta a partire dall’ambito linguistico: non è possibile ridurre lo straniero (xenos per i Greci, hostis per i Romani) semplicemente a ospite, come non è possibile ridurlo soltanto a nemico, giacché egli è sempre ospite e nemico insieme. Dipende in ultima analisi da noi, dalla capacità di stabilire relazioni basate su una reale conoscenza di chi ci appare ‘diverso’ se questi sarà latore di un dono prezioso o di una minaccia mortale. Una lezione, quella degli antichi, che oggi merita di essere attentamente meditata alla luce del fenomeno migratorio, che per le opulente società occidentali costituisce una sfida globale ed epocale, ancora priva, in tutta evidenza, di risposte culturali e politiche adeguate.
Does Oxford make Brexit persistent ?
In defence of Homer
Oxford is considering dropping the Odyssey and the Iliad from its compulsory classics papers.
no comment.
Epicurus - A Happy Greek
Christos Yapijakis has written a theatrical play "A Happy Greek"
which regards the life, humanism and work of Epicurus.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw9QoJXIiXg
The book's title is
ΕΝΑΣ ΕΥΤΥΧΙΣΜΕΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΑΣ
Η ΖΩΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΕΡΓΟ ΤΟΥ ΕΠΙΚΟΥΡΟΥ
ΓΙΑΠΙΤΖΑΚΗΣ ΧΡΗΣΤΟΣ
Politeía, Athens 2020
An English translation is in preparation.
We all speak Greek - Wir sprechen alle Griechisch
Broschüre unterstützt von der Kultusministerkonferenz und von der EU-Kommission sowie von der Botschaft der Hellenischen Republik in Deutschland.
The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany, the EU Commission and the Greek Ambassy in Germany support this brochure.
Its first statement is: We all speak Greek - Wir sprechen alle Griechisch.
Here is a pdf of the brochure.
Totgeglaubte leben laenger
Heike Schmoll berichtet in der FAZ vom 24.12.2019 über einen Anstieg des Interesses an Altgriechisch und seine Hintergründe:
La notte nazionale dei licei classici : Vorbild für eine europäische Initiative ?
Coming up:
The Night of Classics Grammar Schools / Die Nacht der Humanistischen Gymnasien /
La notte nazionale dei licei classici 17 GENNAIO 2020 ORE 18:00 - 24:00
Il latino oggi: perché dobbiamo continuare a studiarlo
Stelio Fergola presents a summary on why learning Latin is still worth while:
https://oltrelalinea-news.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/oltrelalinea.news/2019/10/29/latino-oggi/amp/
Festival européen latin grec, 2 - 7 juin à Lyon
In Lyon wird jedes Jahr ein Festival (stadtweit) durchgeführt,
ein Jahr mit lateinischem Schwerpunkt, das andere Jahr mit griechischem Schwerpunkt.
La 14e édition mettra à l'honneur Les Métamorphoses d'Apulée. L'édition 2020 du Festival européen latin grec se déroulera du 2 au 7 juin à Lyon. https://eduscol.education.fr/lettres/actualites/actualites/article/festival-europeen-latin-grec-2020.htm
et (en anglais)
http://festival-latingrec.eu/english-public-reading-2020/
Latein ist mehr als eine Sprache !
Es gibt Tote, die ein langes Leben haben. Latein zum Beispiel.
Eine Liebeserklärung von Thomas Ribi
https://www.nzz.ch/meinung/llatein-ist-mehr-als-eine-sprache-frischluft-fuer-den-geist-ld.1471669
Nachwuchswettbewerb Latein und Altgriechisch
Nachwuchslehrkräfte in den Fächern Latein und Altgriechisch können noch bis zum 31. Oktober 2019 innovative Lerneinheiten zum Wettbewerb „Ad Astra“ einreichen. Ausgerufen wird dieser erstmals vom Ernst Klett Verlag und dem Deutschen Altphilologenverband (DAV). Nähere Informationen finden sich hier.
epiStoa: Latin and Ancient Greek as European Cultural Heritage
The promotion of Latin and Ancient Greek through epiStoa has been accepted as a European Cultural Heritage project:
https://sharingheritage.de/en/projects/european-values-and-ancient-languages-latin-and-greek/
Introductory texts
Books:
Bettini, Maurizio
A che servono i Greci e i Romani?
Einaudi, 2017
A che servono i Greci e i Romani?
Einaudi, 2017
Wilfried Stroh
Latein ist tot. Es lebe Latein!
List, 2015 (9. Aufl.)
Wilfried Stroh
Le Latin est mort, vive le latin !
Petite histoire d'une grande langue
Les Belles Lettres, 2008
Latein ist tot. Es lebe Latein!
List, 2015 (9. Aufl.)
Wilfried Stroh
Le Latin est mort, vive le latin !
Petite histoire d'une grande langue
Les Belles Lettres, 2008
Augustin d'Humières, Marion Van Renterghem
Homère et Shakespeare en banlieue
Grasset, 2009
Homère et Shakespeare en banlieue
Grasset, 2009
Press releases on epiStoa
epiStoa im Forum Classicum
Im Forum Classicum (3/2019) des Deutschen Altphilologenverbands wird über epiStoa berichtet:
https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/fc/article/view/68375/61630
Regarding the Annual Meeting of epiStoa in Verbania: IlSole24Ore, Milan
An article on epiStoa - as well as on a book published by Maurizio Bettini - has appeared under the URL:
and a second article by Lucia Orelli has appeared on DoppioZero under
https://www.doppiozero.com/materiali/riprendere-il-filo-eretico-del-pensiero
ILMaschile-IlSole24Ore, Milan, on epiStoa
An article on epiStoa has recently appeared under the URL:
http://24ilmagazine.ilsole24ore.com/2018/06/promuovo-il-greco-e-il-latino-perche-sono-uno-scienziato/?refresh_ce=1#&gid=1&pid=1
Kathimerini, Athens, on epiStoa
An article on epiStoa by Ioanna Fotiadi, editor of Kathimerini, Athens, has appeared under
http://www.kathimerini.gr/976147/article/epikairothta/ellada/o-epikoyros-kai-o-dhmokritos-mas-deixnoyn-akoma-ton-dromo?platform=hootsuite
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1. log in (otherwise, the standard menu on the left-hand side does not appear),
2. Switch to the submenu where you wish to insert a new item
3 press the Add new... button in the left-hand menu,
4. press News Item in the menue popping up on its right-hand side, and
5. insert the Title and the text of the item itself.
For making changes to the newly inserted item press the Edit button in the menu.
There is presently no reviewing of new items or contributions, and so the material added is entirely under the responsibility of the respective member.
Z_area: files, images, et al.
Griechich_Broschuere_Deu_Klett_RZ_8.11.2019.g_reducedSize.pdf
Repubblica 20 ottobre.pdf
Picone_Hostis_Lostraniero_l'ospite_ilNemico.pdf
FünfProblemeDerCoronaZahlen.pdf
ReissBhakdi_review_7.pdf
Reiss_Bhakdi_Corona_falso_allarme_Traduzione_v7.pdf
EMW_Covid20.pdf
EMW_Covid24_abbreviato_per_Mente_Politica.pdf