Hi there again My main concern with this whole situation is that there is a serious problem in the realisations of those in charge, by this i mean both with the beautiful houses and the grafiti situation. In a lot of cases, i love it when people re-furbish the old houses in and around Athens (these days we are losing too much heritage by bad classification of what is architecture, let's not just say the Acropolis is something to be saved, the old houses and stoa in Athens are something which defined a whole era in Greece, and the craftsmanship spans millenia). OK, maybe i was a bit off-ball with the RICH statement. In most cases, these people are doing a favour by saving the houses, and I am truly sorry that your hard work also got destroyed by the scrawls of a kid. BUT Who shouts at those that tear them down though & build a terastio 7 block apartment with cement? No one, there are a few shows of scorn and disapproving looks, but the people with money are quick enough to move into their fully kitted out apartment with all the luxuries in downtown Athens, and the whole concern just goes away, just like the history they ripped down and made disappear. But - I'm trying to separate the definition of scrawl (which you got hit with) and a work of art, because in many cases of well done graffiti, this is what it is, a form of modern art, where the kids are the creators, and the whole city are the viewers. And in my personal opinion, there are some damn fine works out there.

Now, the fact that kids scrawl is a big problem, because most people classify the scrawls and the good works together in one bucket, and this is wrong. It's also wrong that these kids have nowhere to do their works, I mean, have you ever seen any organised graffiti areas where kids can create their works? (And we already have examples how this can be a positive thing to clean the scene up, its been done in the States, and the public can view if they want, almost like an arena - surely, this will not solve the problem completely, but im sure it will help a hell of a lot and maybe, just maybe, change the mentality on both sides). A billion times the state and society is asking kids to get active and do stuff in their youth, they are, but the whole world doesnt like it that they are being creative and trying to communicate their views and concepts through pictorial expresionism and typographic works of graffiti on buildings, fine then, lets just put up a 70 meter advert of vodafone instead to terrorise my eyes, is that acceptable? No because they are selling something. Or how about the amount of posters by companies pasted on walls, and they fall off during the rainy period and pollute blocks and screw the enviroment. Take a look at BANKSY if you want: http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html

I recently saw some of the Brazilian works in the Psirri area and on a road in Sygrou, they were a mind-bending experience, full of color and life. And bigger than i had ever seen before, they were not trying to sell me anything, or tell me what i should buy, they just told me what the creator believes, how he sees the world. This is true graffiti art, and its what Alexia is showing on her blog; ok, and statements that people make called stenciling. We live in a modern filthy world, and i think it is bad if, like Ed, you had something like this happen to your dream which you worked so hard on, but at the same time, remember when you were a kid, I'm sure there was some point where you revoked society and had distain for it because they never listened to your voice and what you had to say, or you had no platform to stand and shout on - they don't, and this in their eyes, graffiti is the only way they can do it, and make a statement. Its better for us to stand back and try to understand why they do this, rather than to immediately classify all graffiti as "abomination" because your house was scrawled on (i hate that shit, most of it is rubbish), but then again, it's a world of freedom and we can have our own views - well, i hope this world is free, from all the crap i am seeing going on, i believe it is soon becoming the opposite of that... I hope this makes a bit more sense, my brain is mash potato because i work a lot. This is greece :-D

PAUL