Greek supremacy
From Michael Minas Sir: I agree entirely (for a change) with everything Taki says about the Athens Olympics (High life, 28 August). Unlike him I had to watch the Games on television. The opening was an event I shall never forget — original, imaginative and technically outstanding. And yet the hacks from the British press took no notice of it What the hacks can't swallow is that their negative press about the Greeks was wrong, and that it so closely followed their disbelief that the Hellenes could bring home the European Cup.
They were desperate for any new material to throw against Greece and so they magnified the case of the two Greek athletes who were disqualified and hoped that something would go desperately wrong before the end of the Games.
What the hacks forget is that when the Greeks' ancestors where practising democracy, theirs were living in caves. And another thing: Greece was occupied by an Islamic regime for 300 years. For that period of time progress in Greece ceased to exist. So irnag inc where Greece would be now if the occupation hadn't taken place.
Michael Minas
Twickenham, Middlesex
From Paul Banner Sir: As an Englishman attending the Olympics, I feel I have to comment on what Taki wrote about the six Americans who ruined his viewing of the basketball. Athens can be proud that it hosted a wonderful Games, but there was at least one moment when the Greeks en masse let themselves down. The chanting of 'Hellas, Hellas' may stir the cockles of Taki's heart, but when it was chanted just before the men's 200 metres final, it was incomprehensible and then became distasteful. It was incomprehensible because there were no Greek runners in that final and it became distasteful when the many thousands of Greeks in the stadium started booing the three Americans in that final and succeeded in delaying the start. The Greek sitting next to me summarised the moment well with his chanting of 'American Bastardos'. Given this was the event in which the Greeks' own pre-Games hero, Kostas Kenteris, withdrew because he was about to be caught out as a drugs cheat, it was ironic that the Greeks chose this event to display their anti-US feelings.
Paul Banner
Esher, Surrey
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