Greek elections have traditionally been raucous, ebullient affairs, a true celebration of democracy in the country that gave birth to the concept. This year, the mood is noticeably more sombre ahead of Sunday's vote. Colourful elections kiosks at main squares stand nearly empty, attracting few voters. The chat at cafes and on the Internet usually centres on voters' disappointment with politics as a whole for failing to fight corruption and put the economy on a steady growth path.

"Our expectations were dashed," said financial analyst George Kaisarios on the NewsTime blog. "The three pylons of our development strategy in the last decade, euro zone entry, Olympic Games and credit expansion, have been wasted. And unfortunately for all of us, there is nothing on the horizon to replace them."

One mood damper for Greek voters is that Oct 4 election is another big battle between the political dynasties trapped in an endlessly revolving door of political rule, with few fresh faces to excite the crowds.

The heirs to Greece's two most prominent political families are facing off for the third time. Socialist opposition leader George Papandreou seems set to wrestle power back from conservative New Democracy Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis after 5 years, according to the last published opinion polls.

A government ban on publishing polls for the two weeks leading to the ballot, to protect Greek voters from being manipulated, has angered polling agencies and the press. With no fresh numbers out, Greeks find less amusement in what was once a favourite Greek pastime - political debate at the dinner table.

Gone also are the "paper wars", when rival party youths raced to cover each other's campaign posters at night. The only face looking down from huge election campaign posters in Greece these days is that of Karamanlis. Papandreou has opted for the
environmentally-friendly option of fighting his campaign through electronic media ads.

The one constant has been the traditional Greek mix between comedy and politics. Greece's favourite TV satirist, Lakis Lazopoulos, opened his first TV show of the season by mocking both Karamanlis -- for reacting slowly -- and Papandreou -- for his linguistic faux pas. The show's rating hit 60 percent.

The satire has also moved into the blogosphere. A pro-New Democracy blog missed no opportunity to poke fun at Papandreou's efforts to appear Obama-like.

And togreki blog showed Karamanlis and his ministers dealing with the economy by "breaking the bank".

For Athenians glued to TV pictures of frantic residents trying to battle flames reaching their backyards with buckets and garden houses, it was much more than a dramatic struggle to rescue property.

What they were watching was some of the last remaining patches of green around the metropolis of nearly 5 million people going up in smoke, the capital's "lungs" giving up.

From a small town at the foot of the Acropolis in the early 1800s, Athens has grown into a huge bustling capital with heavy traffic and pollution. It relies heavily on its surrounding green hills to provide oxygen and cool it down in the difficult summer months.

Long the victim of greedy developers, the forests of Attica have been receding as buildings replace what was once pine and fir trees. Amid suspicions that arson was behind the weekend fires, a public prosecutor has ordered an inquiry.

"Despite the huge destruction wiping out Attica's forests in recent decades, no measures are taken," said the liberal Eleftherotypia daily. "How much more destruction must Attica suffer to shake a corrupt system?"

Greek blogs like http://press-gr.blogspot.com/ and http://fimotro.blogspot.com/ also decried the illegal construction that has sprouted in the forests around Athens after every big fire. They say many of the homes razed during the weekend blazes should have been have torn down by the state.

"Nobody said that many of the houses destroyed were illegal," said press-gr.

Environmental groups blame the lack of enforcement of strict zoning legislation for the chaotic development that has expanded the capital in recent decades. If a developer sets fire to a forest and the state turns a blind eye to the buildings that appear there afterwards, they ask, what is to prevent a repeat of this weekend's destruction?

(A fire-fighting helicopter drops water over a home in Anatoli village northeast of Athens August 24, 2009. Fire-fighters battled wildfires on Monday that swept through homes and huge swathes of forest near Athens, forcing thousands to flee, and were beating back the main front of the inferno on its fourth day. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis (GREECE DISASTER ENVIRONMENT))

What if early Christians tore down statues and temples in a effort to eradicate paganism? The ancient, medieval and modern merged seemlessly during the ceremony held ahead of the formal inauguration.

"Art elevates man," said the bishop officiating. "I bless all those who worked for this museum."

The stunning, glass and concrete building at the foot of the Acropolis had almost as turbulent a history as the ancient monument itself. Neighbours fought for years in court to move it away, international design contests were cancelled and finally ruins were found right beneath it, requiring a complete redesign.

"All great projects challenge and scandalise," said Culture Minister Antonis Samaras. "But it is these projects that mark their era."

Built specifically to provide proper space for the Parthenon marbles, many of which are now in the British Museum, the new museum's dark glass shell rises among residential buildings just 400 metres from the Acropolis and offers visitors a direct view of the temple to the goddess Athena - the crowing glory of the Golden Age of Athens, which laid the foundations of Western art and values.

For Greeks, who feel the connection to their ancient ancestors as if they were only a generation apart, this museum is much more than a great cultural building. It is a major weapon in getting back what they feel is an integral part of their identity - the Parthenon marbles, torn from the temple and taken to Britain 200 years ago by Lord Elgin, then ambassador to the Ottoman empire.

"The dialogue with the British Museum is now on a different basis," museum director Dimitris Pantermalis told reporters on a sneak tour of the top floor - where the Parthenon marbles are displayed, the missing pieces clearly marked.

The late actress and culture minister Melina Mercouri fought hard for years to convince the British Museum to return the art works, to no effect. One of their main arguments was that the "Elgin Marbles" were better off in London, safe from the ravages of Athens pollution, as the Greeks had no place to put them.

The Greek case has changed over the years - from legal claims to the marbles to a moral argument that the monument was vandalised and must be put back together. Nowhere is this more obvious than the top hall of the new museum. White plaster casts of limbs, heads and animals stand next to the honey-coloured originals that Lord Elgin left behind.

"The Greeks have now excelled themselves in creating a place worthy of its breath-taking content," wrote British author Christopher Hitchens in a New York Times column. "It is impossible to visit Athens and not yearn for the day Britain decides to right an ancient wrong."

(The famous Elgin Marbles on display at the British Museum June 5. Controversy continues over whether Britain should return the invaluable artifacts to their country of origin, Greece. IW)

Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, appear to have made little headway in the conundrum that has defied generations of international diplomats.

Western diplomats and analysts on the divided Mediterranean island are starting to wonder if the euphoria that surrounded the launch of the talks in September 2008, was justified.

"They went back to the drawing board, that's the main problem," said Mete Hatay, a researcher for the PRIO peace institute in Nicosia.

High hopes were pinned on the two men, who come from leftist parties and enjoyed a strong relationship as opposition leaders, to make more progress than their predecessors - Glafcos Clerides
and Rauf Denktash, British-trained lawyers whose careers were identified with the Cyprus problem.

"Both of them have trouble grappling with the language and terms. They are not lawyers like Clerides and Denktash," said a senior Western diplomat. "Christofias wants to lead by consensus but you can't operate like that as president and Talat is in a tight corner."

Christofias moves too slowly and Talat, anxious not to give up too much, stepped back from agreed positions, hoping to meet somewhere in the middle but frustrating his opponent, he said.

"The U.N. will not fill the gaps this time. The two leaders must finish the job and put the plan to a referendum," the diplomat added.

Turkish Cypriots, tired of seeing little of the EU benefits enjoyed by Greek Cypriots and angered by European Court decisions on key property cases, voted in April parliamentary elections for a hardliner, Dervis Eroglu.

Talat, whose term ends in April 2010, may not be around to clinch a deal after that. With the April deadline looming, the pressure is rising for the two leaders.

"I'm not sure they can do it by April," said Hatay. "It's not hopeless but when Turkish Cypriots feel cornered, they can do unpredictable things."

A case in point was the failure to open the Limnitis crossing on the eastern part of the green line dividing the island, at a time when any good news from the process was key to sustaining
momentum. Turkish Cypriot demands that petrol trucks, not just people, should be allowed to cross, have delayed agreement.

The European Union must be more directly involved and the talks must be intensified to have a chance of making it, diplomats said.

Some say there are some positive signs on the horizon - 70 percent of Greek Cypriots, who overwhelmingly rejected the last U.N. reunification plan in a 2004 referendum, voted for parties
backing a solution in the June 7 European Parliament election.

And the screaming that people close to the talks say often comes out of the negotiating room may not be all that bad either.

"Shouting and screaming is part of their intimacy," said a Turkish Cypriot journalist. "The fact that they come out of the room smiling is proof of their strong relationship."

(Turkish Cypriot leader Talat and Greek Cypriot leader Christofias shake hands after reunification talks in Nicosia)

Fed up with years of socialist scandals, Greeks elected the conservative New Democracy government by a landslide in 2004, mostly convinced by its pledges to clean up Greek politics.

Five years later, fresh scandals have made headlines, ranging from selling overpriced government bonds to state pension funds to suspect land deals with a wealthy monastery.

The euro zone member is among the EU's lowest ranking countries on the Transparency International corruption watchdog's index, actually worsening a few notches in recent years.

New Democracy, clinging to a one-seat majority in parliament after a narrow re-election in Sept 2008, trails the main socialist PASOK opposition by up to 7 percentage points in opinion polls.

Violent riots in December, partly fuelled by the financial crisis, and unpopular economic measures have prompted talk of a snap election - possibly as early as June 7, along with the European Parliament vote.

"Greeks appear fed up but they are more sophisticated than other Westerners when it comes to political corruption - they don't seem to mind if the amounts are small but they take offence if they are big," said a western diplomat in Athens.

Greeks regularly complain about low level graft but appear to have accepted it. They have even invented an expression for the small bribes they often have to put in a public servant's palm to get things done -"grigorossimo", meaning fast-stamp.

But the latest wave of political scandals has exasperated even some die-hard New Democracy supporters. At barber shops, cafes and restaurants around the country, the conversation inevitably revolves around political corruption but most agree little can be done under the existing political system.

In the latest case to reach parliament, lawmakers must decide next week whether a former shipping minister must stand trial after charges by a shipowner that he was asked for bribes in order to be awarded lucrative Aegean island ferry routes.

For the conservative deputies, the choice is between appearing determined to fight corruption and showing a solid front, fending off the prospect of early elections. For opposition parties, it's a chance to eat away at the government's public support.

Analysts say voters are disillusioned, unconvinced politicians from both major parties really mean to clean up house and this is reflected in opinion polls. Only 14.7 percent of those asked by the GPO polling agency said scandals was a top priority.

"No politician ever goes to jail," wrote commentator Filipos Syrigos in the liberal Eleftherotypia daily. "Scandals are only a political playing field ... until the Greek people really get fed up and look for their own way out."

(Employees sit behind a stand with souvenirs at a shop for tourists in Plaka neighbourhood in central Athens March 31, 2009. Recession-hit Europeans are trimming travel plans and their absence threatens a vital source of income in a country that relies on tourism for about one in five jobs. Holiday bookings fell about 15 to 20 percent from 2008, according to the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Tourism Enterprises (POET). Hotels have slashed prices to counter the drop, hoping wary consumers may push spending decisions to the last moment. Photo taken March 31, 2009. To match feature GREECE-TOURISM/ REUTERS/John Kolesidis (GREECE TRAVEL SOCIETY BUSINESS))

On Wednesday, the man once praised by the European Union for cutting budget deficits and pushing reforms, was sacked by Karamanlis in a reshuffle aimed at reviving the government's
ailing fortunes.

For his friends, the economics professor with the funny name
- translates as 'horse-hood' in English - paid the political
price for the conservative government's eroding public support
as the global crisis hits Greece.

But for his critics, it was Alogoskoufis's policies that
brought the ruling New Democracy, seen as supporting the rich
and neglecting the needy, to its worst standing in polls in
years.

 "He was a good economist but he has made mistakes," one of
his former colleagues at Athens University told me at a dinner
party over the holidays. "He lost his cool."

 Two months ago, angered by criticism from Greece's highest
rated news broadcaster Mega Channel, he called the newsroom, cut
short reporters' questions and hanged up on the air, in an
incident much replayed on Greek blogs -
http://dexiextrem.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html.

 Alogoskoufis started his ministerial career with a bang.
His first step after the conservatives won power from the
socialists in 2004 was to tell Brussels that Greece had
under-reported its budget deficit to the EU for years, including
2001 when it joined the euro zone. Thisled to Athens being put
under EU supervision but also embedded mistrust in Greek
statistics from then on.

When he proposed a 24 percent upward GDP revision in 2006,
eurostat cut it down to 9 percent. The revision itself - to
include proceeds of crimes such as prostitution and money
laundering - was included in CNN's 101 blunders in business -
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0701/gallery.101dumbest_2007/39.html.

Despite achievements such as bringing the budget deficit
below the EU limit, cutting corporate taxes and pushing
privatisations key for Greece's economic development, it was his
handling of 2007 summer wildfires that brought him to the
forefront as a contender for the party leadership.

Passing around quick and easy cash - 3,000 euros for every
affected household - was credited with helping Karamanlis win
re-election last year.

The European Union, the World Bank and foreign economic
analyst had long warned a consumer-fed GDP growth of 4 percent
would not be sustained without structural measures, that a huge
foreign debt - almost equal to Greece's 240 billion euros - and
gaping current account deficit were long-term threats.

But when the shock waves of the long-looming world economic
crisis started to hit Greece, Alogoskoufis appeared surprised.
Just weeks before Iceland's economy collapsed, he proposed tax
collecting measures that made even the prime minister's aides
cringe.

He announced a 28 billion euro bank support plan before
taking any measures to help families struggling with mortgages
or heating bills. Two weeks of destructive riots prompted by the
police shooting of a teenager on Dec. 6 were fuelled by
discontent over his policies.

In November, the Financial Times ranked him 9th among 19 EU
ministers, giving him high marks for cutting deficits but among
the lowest for local and European political skills.

"He overestimated the threat of returning to EU supervision
and underestimated the crisis," wrote commentator Antonis
Karakousis in a prophetic article in To Vima that month. "That
is Mr. Alogoskoufis's biggest mistake."

As police fought youths this weekend, tear gas hung in the air and even seeped through window cracks, making it hard  to breathe indoors.

Garbage cans were set ablaze, cars were destroyed and barricades were erected.

"It's never been this bad," one neighbour shouted at me from his balcony. "I've never seen anything like it."    

Clashes began on Saturday after police shot dead a 15-year-old boy who came from the Athens suburbs to one of the district's popular cafes.

Exarchia borders on the smart Kolonaki district, but it is certainly not posh itself and it is not for the faint hearted.

Exarchia is a haunt of artists and left-wing intellectuals. Favoured by lawyers, architects and publishers, is it one of the city's most charming neighbourhoods.

It is also one of its most violent, a stomping ground for anarchists, drug addicts and anyone who likes to challenge authority -- a tradition many say stems from the opposition to the 1967-1974 military junta.

"What others call a riot, we call a street party," one of my neighbours once said.

About two years ago, a public order minister acknowledged it was too dangerous to send officers into the area, which has defied decades of attempts by socialist and conservative governments alike to bring it under control.

The local police station has been fire-bombed repeatedly. Special forces stand on street corners,in full riot gear, many of them guarding the headquarters of the opposition socialist PASOK party.

Two of these special guards were involved in the shooting incident. This touched a raw spot for thousands of disaffected Greek youths who say they see no future in a country lacking meritocracy and blighted by decades of scandals, and anger spread to other Greek cities.

"In a typical Exarchia incident, someone shot a 15-year-old over a verbal vendetta," said the bollywood-greece blog http://bollywood-greece.blogspot.com/, which started a Facebook page for the dead boy. "The state has broken down and some 'sheriffs' are imposing their own law."

One policeman has been charged with murder. His colleague has been charged with abetting him. The policeman said he fired in the air. Witnesses said he took aim and fired after a verbal altercation with a group of youths.

Stelios Papathemelis, a former socialist public order minister, said: "This tragic incident and its repercussions bring up again the question - When will the state finally put an end to the notorious ‘State of Exarchia’?”

You can imagine the shock, then, when Greeks learned that one of its main monasteries, the Vatopedi monastery dating back to the late 10th century, was conducting suspect land-swap deals with the Greek state.

According to Greek media, Vatopedi had nearly clinched a deal to exchange Vistonida Lake in northern Greece -- which it claimed through 1,000-year-old documents -- for  prime real estate elsewhere in Greece. The deal reportedly would have meant a substantial loss to the state.

It then emerged that the wife of a conservative government minister was the notary agent in the deal. The minister resigned over this and other suspect real estate dealings and the swap was suspended pending a judicial probe.

This and other scandals, as well as unpopular new taxes, have brought the government's popularity to a 4-year low, for the first time falling behind the Socialist opposition, and analyst say snap elections may be called as early as next year.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who swept to power in 2004 vowing to fight corruption, has seen some of his closest aides implicated in suspected wrongdoing, threatening his 152-seat majority in the 300-seat parliament.

Conservative deputies have said the swap had started before New Democracy came to power and the monastery asked for light to be shed on the case to absolve it of any wrongdoing. "We are certain in our belief that all actions of the Holy Monastery have been legal and completely transparent," Vatopedi said in a statement.

Monks on Mount Athos have expressed shock, saying that if the allegations are true, they do not speak for all 20 monasteries or the many ascetics living in medieval isolation from the modern world.

But pictures of Vatopedi Abbot Efraim socialising with senior Greek politicians, as well as official documents pushing the property deal published in Athens dailies, clashed with the image of Athos monks living in poverty, toiling in the fields and praying.

"From a natural paradise and a way for the faithful to find Heaven, Athos has become a tax and real estate haven," said senior Leftist Coalition party member Alekos Alavanos.

The question now is how serious a blow all this is to the government.  The major liberal daily Ta Nea had this to say on its front page last week: "Karamanlis sinks in the Vatopedi swamp."

N.B. -- the above picture, from Ta Nea's front page last week, shows Abbott Efraim under the red-lettered headline "Revelation" (in the original Greek, apocalypse) -- "Vatopedi Monastery -- they gave a lake, they took building plots."