Archive · Reporting in Greece

The other side of the news

Absurdities of bureaucracy, government measures taken to excess, and the «other side» of political events, in Argyris Dinopoulos's freelance reporting.

In his free reporting Argyris Dinopoulos recorded absurdities of Greek bureaucracy, excesses of government measures, oddities of social life, the «other side» of political events.

On 07-02-1990, when the government announced the «great ring» measure for alternate-day car circulation, Argyris Dinopoulos found that «inside the ring» there were even … cultivable fields (the measure proved unworkable)

On 09-07-1990 he parked his car (a 2CV) on Agiou Ioannou street in Agia Paraskevi, and (a friend of his) began to wash it.

He recorded, in this way, the reactions of passers-by to the waste of water — the curbing of which was at that time a government priority against the drought.

On 15-08-1990 children playing in the National Garden … extended their game onto Vasilissis Sofias street, in front of Parliament, in an empty Athens.

The same day Argyris Dinopoulos found and interviewed the only minister who was in his office and working (Giorgos Souflias)

He reported in Athens on 19-06-1989, the day after the elections, to show the deserted and abandoned polling centres, while, a few weeks later, he went down into the police basements where (sixteen million) files on citizens' political beliefs were held, and read extracts from their contents shortly before they were destroyed in the blast furnace.

A man lies on his side on a concrete airport runway, propped on one elbow, in a denim jacket and jeans with sunglasses. The white centre line runs beside him. Far left, a tall glazed structure; at right, dry grass and trees; high and distant, an aircraft in flight. A clear blue sky.
Taking a break on the (auxiliary) runway at Elliniko, during a pause in the reporting (1990)

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