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'Destiny also flows' - Katerina Anghelaki Rooke

In her poem 'destiny flows', there appears the term 'imperishable water'. Haroula Hadjinicolaou felt so much inspired by this particular poem, that she made it as curator into the motto for the entire action in Rhodes called Biotope of ideas. The action took place in 2011.

 

Destiny also flows - Katerina Anghelaki Rooke

At dawn the sea turns green like a meadow

and you can see how the imperishable water

views the grass

how it conceives the partiality of the root

the bondage of the fruit.

A forest hour of the liquid element

a leafy moment for the water

and the beloved is planted in the mind

like a weeping concept.

I understand the basic principle

of that which while standing still hits me

while being absolute, flows:

instantaneously the fleeting

face of love is created;

it is in eternal blue

that the rooster snuffs it.

And always the same grief:

Nature asks us with constant blossoming

to confirm the copies of the invisible

while violently pushes us outside form.

My eyes then flow like fountains

as if they had never ceased to flow over him

and as adorned with drops

I emerge from my sorrows,

I don’t forget that under his nameless

skin it is he alone who moves.

 

From the Collection of Poems 1986 - 96

Katerina Anghelaki Rooke

(Translated by the author)

See also for the Greek version:

 

  

 

  Katerina with Jakovas and Louisa peeling potatos for evening meal at Lindos Apartment, Friday 3rd of June 2011

 

"The Open Question of Development"

After one week on Rhodes we realized that we had not really touched upon the open question of development. Of course, we saw tourist developments which ignored rivers and swept aside natural beaches. And we heard from Nikos Kasseris some of the issues the island faces, such as a lack of planning and no real waste disposal management, while his project of recycling paper high lighted the fact that something can be done. When walking through Rhodes itself, the imprint of tourism could be seen everywhere, but also how the local inhabitants play with the rules. Despite being a pedesterian zone they raced through it on their motorcycles. They did so always smiling. It provokes a question of development, namely what skills shall be in demand if only a certain economic activity guarantees some source of income. Especially in a time of crisis, it was noticable that Rhodes experienced in 2011 a near record influx of tourists. Official statistics stated at the end of 2011 that tourism on Rhodes had increased by 35%. It evokes the question we posed ourselves: will the water supply suffice if ever more people come yearly to this island? Must there not be imposed one day some limitation? Also, if it is officially prognosed that the island's population will grow to be around 350 000 by 2020, and this figure was used when constructing the dam, then for sure this projection will justify banks giving loans for new tourist constructions. It is to be feared even more so that without Tina Birbilli, the former Minister for the Environment, it will mean construction in the protected areas of 'natura 2000' shall be allowed. As if the crisis does not deepen thoughts about a progressive development towards sustainability, rather the very opposite is the case. Nothing qualifies really as a careful planning guiding development. By using up precious land and resources, things are ever more jeopardized.

The poetess Katherina Anghelaki Rooke, whose poem was the inspiration for this artistic and reflective action, said she realized by being with us on Rhodes, that we have all become, namely members of a 'family of fear'. For the earth is no longer a guarantee to be around after we have been long buried and that means no real sustainability can be made out anymore in out imagination. It seems we have lost the art of keeping open the question of development so that future potentialities can be discovered by generations which shall follow us and who may want to use the land and its resources in a different way than what is the case today. The current failure of development is because it limits everyone's capacity to live and to enhance his or her talents and qualities as a human being. There are already too many young people who are turning their backs on Greece and its wonderful islands. Like a cultural desertification going on, how the land and its water is being treated, that is threatening to future life. But by entering a biotop of ideas created by an action like this one, people can be brought together to open up each other to future potentialities to change course.

Hatto Fischer, Rhodes 2011 / Athens 2012

 

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