The price of 'success' is complete failure!

Should you be so inclined, dear reader, and your psychiatrist has not yet advised you against it, you may have seen and read the recent triumphalist announcements emanating from the Greek government of the day announcing the success of their economic policies. Due to aforesaid success the country is expecting to be released from the 'shackles' of its lenders and the IMF, seek to borrow on the open markets again and get on with being a normal country, fully in control of its own affairs again.

That's where the psychiatrist comes in, though he/she/it (trendy, or what???) is obviously tending to the wrong people, namely the citizenry, when the ones under supervision or, even, restriction, should be the government, its political allies and assorted politicians of all denominations responsible for the present mess. The reason I say this is that there is NO recovery, NO growth, LITTLE progress in any front after nearly ten years of crisis/recession/meltdown. Any surpluses appearing in government accounts are due to excessive taxation and careful management (some might even say massaging) of the figures to make a good impression to the outside world.

Taxation has largely not been from the tax-avoiding, scheming, non-contributing part of the population, however, but from the property owning and income-generating people; they have now, alas, been taxed to oblivion and have been living and paying taxes (those that have been able to) from the money they had set aside to invest in their future, and that of their families and their businesses. This well of funds, so richly tapped until now, is drying out - the government is eating the flesh of its citizens and destroying the middle class. At the same time, typically for this country of dishonest politicians and emotionally immature citizens, the public sector is protected, even pampered, and allies of the current lot are constantly being hired to fill newly-created, often unnecessary, positions, much as has happened over the last 35 years and more.

This is utterly shameful when the private sector is being decimated every day by excessive taxation, ludicrous strikes and business legislation, and practices that belong to the 1960s if not the 1930s. Everybody here is quick to talk about rights but hardly anyone mentions responsibilities, unless they are referring to others. The business climate - for businesses that could produce growth, that is - is worse than it had ever been, with the government mouthing platitudes on the one hand and strangling using the other.

It is amazing that, despite this state of affairs, Athens remains a place that should be on every world traveller's itinerary - it is steeped in history, the Acropolis and surrounding sites are magnificent, and the city centre is full of lovely buildings, many in poor condition, beautiful old churches, little independent wine bars and restaurants  - something to satisfy most peoples' tastes. A warming sun usually presides over this, smiling down on visitors. That is not to say that things are perfect, as on a bad day the pollution can be choking, demonstrations can bring the city to a standstill and regular public transport strikes and general unreliability can be annoying. Yet it is still a place that can enchant the visitor who is willing to walk around, look around, notice things, soak in the atmosphere and avoid the tourist traps and tawdry taverns serving shite to the unsuspecting.

If you walk around and look, though, you will also notice things that until a few years ago were almost completely unknown: the homeless sifting through the rubbish bins (something last seen in Greece during the German occupation of WW2), the drug addicts, the beggars, the destitute. These were things that used to shock Greeks when encountered elsewhere, but are now commonplace here. The smell of failure is all-pervasive and difficult to ignore, unless you are a politician.

This is the 'success' the government is crowing about. They are even, apparently, planning to have a major fiesta to celebrate, to be followed by elections before anybody has a chance to notice that it is all an illusion and, therefore, re-elect them. Meanwhile the business climate worsens, taxes do not lessen and few plan to start new businesses, or grow their existing ones in Greece. I would like to think that Greece's lenders will see through the smokescreen of lies and make-believe and will not allow the country freedom to exit the control mechanisms before it has done something - and even very little will do - to create growth. And growth can only come from the private sector, much brutalised, maligned and abused by the Greek state and its governments.

If the present state of things represents success I would hate to be confronted with failure.

Another day, another memorial service

On a beautiful, hot day in Athens the remaining core of the Friends of Dionysus got together to remember our dear departed friend Lefteris Kouris, who passed away unexpectedly a year ago. As the  whole point of the 'friends' is the appreciation of wine and, indeed, food, we held not only a traditional greek orthodox church memorial and the ensuing coffee, but a very fine lunch as well. A direct result of this is this post, where wine takes precedence bu, making things more interestingt - if you're fortunate dear reader - a tiny bit of wisdom might show its little head!

My temporary exile from London is peppered with events, some, like this, bittersweet; luckily there are other events that make up for the sorrow. And wine is ever-present, to make life (mine, anyway, and by extension yours...) more interesting. Of course the other factor that makes Athens pleasant this time of year is the decidedly spring/summer weather, necessitating wearing t-shirt and shorts quite a lot, something that this time of year is far less likely (but not impossible, it was sizzling last week) in London.

Luckily for irreligious old me the priest was in a hurry and had already finished all services early - he was done by the time I got to the little church! The traditional greek post-memorial coffee was a more modern affair, with cappuccino and espresso taking the place of 'greek' (turkish) coffee. Over coffee and biscuits we sat reminiscing and mentioning all sorts of stories involving our absent friend, many of which were quite hilarious, and it all made me feel almost that he was somewhere near, close by and soon to appear, that we would hear his gently caustic remarks again. We all miss him in our different way.

On to lunch, to replicate many such occasions when our friend was present not just in spirit, but in body as well, laughing with us and enjoying the food and wine on offer. The venue chosen - Blue Pine in Kifissia (suburb to the north of Athens) has been a regular haunt of the Friends of Dionysus for over 20 years, and the owners accommodate our need to bring our own wine so drinking is always at least very, very good and, more often than not, wonderful. And so it proved to be and we enjoyed three different wines that I'm sure Lefteris would have approved of.

We kicked off with a Chablis 1er Cru Montee de Tonnerre from Jean-Marc Brocard and from a variable vintage (2005) that was past its best but still delicious, especially if like me you like older wines. Its age is obvious in its golden colour and the first bottle was on the way to oxidation, subdued but holding on. The second bottle was fresher, with livelier ripe white fruit aromas  and a longer, cleaner finish, a graceful old wine drinking well. As most 1er Cru Chablis is not really wine for ageing, showing its best in late youth with its steely, lightly complex chardonnay flavours,  I thought this did rather well. Most of us had a salad of some sort as a starter, with mine being an excellent boiled courgette affair served with some tasty olive oil. The Chablis managed to match it and not completely overpower its flavours.

I then opted for a Tournedos Rossini, having recently mentioned it in a post; Blue Pine's version would not win any awards for execution but the meat was tender and tasty, even if the foie gras was thin and the sauce over-sweet. The brilliant pommes allumettes they always serve helped to make the dish more satisfying than it would otherwise have been. The red wine to accompany the main course was one from Lefteris' adopted country of Italy (insider joke alert), from a superb vintage (1997), one of the best areas,  a top producer and from one of his top vineyards: a Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto 1997 from Casanova di Neri. The Casanova estate was started by the Neri family in the early 1970s and Cerretalto was the first vineyard they acquired; its old vines produce a big, lush wine with deep colour, even after 21 years, and ripe, intense red fruit aromas and luscious taste, quite untypical of most wine made from the Sangiovese grape. This is serious wine from a serious producer, which stays in oak barrels for 36 months, then 24 months in the bottle before being released - no quick money making from the Nerri family! Here we started with the fresher of the two bottles and progressed to the marginally more subdued one, as we got stuck into sauces and fries, with the wine more than matching everything with the succulent red winter berry fruit and quince aromas, intense, complex and smooth as silk fruit on the palate. And long, long, staying in the mouth.

I suppose dessert HAD to follow, and with it an incredible sweet wine (moelleux) from Foreau, the amazing producer of Vouvray at Domaine du Clos Naudin in the Loire valley. Those of you who do not like sweet wine should put aside your prejudices and taste something like this - a 1997 (excellent year) moelleux - you'll wonder why you'd been so blinkered, even stupid, for so many years. To say these wines are complex is like saying the sun rises in the east, simplistic! They are natural, rich and intense yet full of subtleties and surprising nuances, and you can find traces of most any flavour in there, astounding creations of passionate, dedicated people who love what they do, and do it to perfection. What a joyous end to an occasion full of remembered warmth and laughter but tinged with sadness. My dessert was irrelevant - a chocolate ice-cream of sorts - but I consumed it anyway to keep the calorie count up. Ah, suffer the little children and I with them...

For the wine lovers among you, please understand that quality costs in more ways than one, and that fine wine is not just cheap wine in fancy bottles. Many things make a difference, from the yield of the vines, to grape selection, to cellar work, to time in cask and type of cask, to time in bottle etc. etc. Do some research, choose good producers, spend bit more but wisely and age stuff properly if possible.
Wine is often made with passion and is worth being passionate about, seeking out the stuff that contain passion as an added ingredient! Don't drink industrial rubbish - often paying only a little more results in a much better wine...

I love wine and so did my friend Lefteris, who is much missed and whom we suitably honoured - rest in peace.

Eating and Drinking

No, this is not a post about me being a piglet - or even a fully grown, adult pig - though I may well be either, but about the most important of human relationships, friendship. And, of course, it's a post about food and wine, eating and drinking, my favourite pastimes that are always made better when shared with friends.

Whilst I do not live to eat, I do consider eating and drinking a very important part of my life. The quality of everything going into my body is important to me, so everything is evaluated and rated depending on the level it is at. No-one should make the mistake of comparing simple food  (say a pizza) to more elaborate offerings (e.g. tournedos rossini); both should be excellent in their own way with the relevant attention to detail, ingredients etc., though the elaborate offering needs far more work and skill to get right. Please PLEASE be critical of everything you eat, but judge it for what it is and its price point, not some perceived universal benchmark. And be strict, avoiding places that take their patrons for fools at whatever level - in my book it is a crime to serve substandard fast food much as it is serving mediocre 'gourmet' stuff!

For me there is nothing more civilised and, indeed, civilising than breaking bread and sharing drink with people one cares about. Far more than simply a meal, this can be a joyous occasion of relaxing, talking, communicating, a shared moment on the way to becoming a memory and part of the tapestry of one's life. However simple the occasion, these experiences will form a great part of the background to, well, everything...

My friend M.G. (I know she sounds like a car, but she is in fact a human being...) recently had a birthday and invited a couple of friends and me to dinner at a rather lovely restaurant in downtown Athens called Simul. The bonus was that the other guests were JT and his wife MT - you can't have forgotten them already, observant reader - and they are valued customers there; the owners thus allow them to bring their own wines from JT's rather interesting cellar. Unlucky little me, therefore, was forced to endure not only excellent company and seriously good food, but some very special wine as well! Life can be cruel, sometimes.

My self-sacrifice began with two white wines.  One was a Chardonnay from the Jura region (Arbois subregion) mentioned recently, still relatively young (was it 2011?) but at the peak of its powers, complex yet restrained, dry with good white fruit flavours behind it. This from a small producer - most of the Jura proprietors are small in a landscape far removed from mass production of anything - started in the early 1970s and one of their special cuvees (Aigrefeu) with 36 months barrel ageing. Clearly a food wine, this would match with strong yellow cheeses, some fish and even my caramelised pancetta!

The second white wine was from one of the top producers in Alsace (Trimbach), that French region that exemplifies the need for a peaceful (and, for me, united!) Europe, as it has been both German and French interchangeably over the years, with only the wines benefitting from the strife. From a german grape variety (Riesling) and some of their best vineyards Trimbach make the stunning Cuvee Frederic Emile, a wine that never disappoints and usually thrills with its subtle complexity, its apparent simplicity masking a richness and minerality that is both luscious and dry. Alsace wines are big-flavoured beasts usually, but this displays the elegance of the true aristocrat of the wine world. If you ever get a chance to taste Cuvee Frederic Emile of any vintage - we were lucky to have a 2002, a good and almost great year - do not pass on it, DO NOT, as you would be a fool, the class dunce, an idiot. I, of course, am not and didn't, and it was everything you would expect it to be, and longer in the mouth than you can imagine! You could match it with food, but why bother?

The red wine was a mere 1er Cru (Les Cazetiers) from Gevrey Chambertin, the first of the great Burgundy villages going NE to SW on the Cote d'Or. As you all know the red wines of Burgundy are only made from Pinot Noir and are at their best, in my not so humble opinion, the most wonderful wines in the world. This 2003 specimen from the biodynamic domaine of Michel Magnien was, perhaps typical for what was a difficult, very hot summer with an early harvest (the earliest on record), slightly awkward and untypical, lacking the layered complexity of great burgundy while still clean and full of flavour. Gevrey Chambertin produces 'manly' wines with a hard edge, but usually also rather complex; this was juicy and ripe, but at the same time a bit hard and one-dimensional - this by Burgundy's august standards... We drank it with meat or vegetarian dishes and, with food, it showed its best side, slipping down nicely, so that in the end only the dregs were left in the bottle - you see, you need not have worried, dear reader, for I am of the 'waste not, want not' persuasion.

Did we have a good time? You bet we did, helped by good food and even better wine, and brought together by friendship. And you can argue 'til you're blue in the face that we didn't need the eating and drinking for our friendship, little puritan, and in a stupid way you may be right, we don't - but it sure as hell makes our moments together even more special!

I feel sorry for those who have never felt this.

Invitation to a simple dinner

My good friend J. T. invited a small group of us (all part of the same wine appreciation group - the Friends of Dionysus - mentioned before, as you well know, observant reader) to dinner recently at his home to catch up, eat simple, beautifully prepared food and drink wonderful, inspiring wines. He is not only an extremely knowledgable food and wine enthusiast but an accomplished cook (chef?), whose invitations have always been milestones in my eating and drinking in Greece. Put simply, the best meals I have had in Athens have been prepared by JT and his wife, Michelin-starred restaurants notwithstanding; the quality of the wines at their home is always special, even outstanding and occasionally mind-blowing.

This particular meal was very simple but, as always, properly executed and hugely satisfying. We started with little tidbits of bottarga (in Greek avgotaracho, made in a modern style from the top producer in Greece Trikalinos, softer, with more delicate taste and less salty than the traditional style) on toast; they were beautifully accompanied by a malt whisky from Islay, an Ardbeg, delicately smokey and pungent, complex and long. Our chat was extremely happy, I can tell you!

Our starter was just a simple salad, crisp and crunchy, delicately oiled. This was partnered with an extraordinary wine - a Jurancon called 'Les Jardins de Babylone' produced by the family of the late
and much-missed Didier Dagueneau to his exacting and uncompromising standards. Most wines of

the appellation are slightly sweeter and a touch less complex though still individual. This is not only beautifully presented - it's the bottle on the far right of the photograph - but hugely enjoyable in the glass and with the salad, a combination that I would not have thought of. The wine combines light sweetness with acidity superbly, showing great complexity and subtleness - a splendid achievement and a poke in the eye for all the idiots who 'don't like sweet wines'! The golden rule for any true wine lover is that you taste first then make up your mind, otherwise you are a probably a fool and certainly not a wine lover.

Our main course was a most unusual dish based on a recipe from the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, combining spices in a rich sauce with sausages and basmati rice, a play on tastes and textures. To stand up to the strong flavours we needed big red wine and, indeed, had two: a heady, explosive Rhone red from that super property Chateau de Fonsalette and a big, harder Lebanese red (Comte de M) from Chateau Kefraya. Not only did they manage to accompany the spices admirably but they were also both, in their different ways, gorgeous and rare experiences.

My exposure to the wines of Lebanon is limited to a few tastings of Chateau Musar and one or two other bottles of, I think, Chateau Ksara, so it is not what you would call extensive by any stretch of the imagination. The wines I have tried have been mainly made from French grape varieties and generally in a Bordeaux style adjusted for the local 'terroir', with one or two exceptions; overall my recollection is of good wines made under sometimes impossible conditions by passionate men and women of exceptional commitment. This particular wine was a 1998 vintage, nearly 20 years old and a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah with the Cab Sauv having the upper hand in the expression.  Overall I found it restrained and a bit hard, the Syrah only peeking out after it had opened up in the glass and then hesitantly. This is a big wine possibly going through a dumb phase or maybe from a vintage a bit short of ripeness - I cannot be sure.

The Chateau de Fonsalette 2001 was the opposite, bursting with ripe fruit (strawberry and yellow peach?) on the nose and palate, a far more outgoing proposition and easier in appeal. But this is not a simple, fruity number, far from it - this is a luscious, complex southern Rhone wine and its beauty is far more than skin-deep. The people who make this wine are the real thing, eccentric wine lovers who pay no attention to frills, luxuries, glory; all they care about is making outstanding wines full of heart and warmth (I apologise if this sounds pretentious). NEVER pass up an opportunity to taste wines from Chateau de Fonsalette or Chateau Rayas as they are both extremely rare and wonderful wines made by special people. Or, if you are a poncy Louis Vuitton or Gucci kind of person seeking curiosities for your 'collection' or to impress your 'nou-nou' friends, bugger off and leave them to people who will drink them with the respect and love that they deserve. Incidentally Chateau de Fonsalette is but a lowly (ha-ha) Cotes du Rhone so won't look good on a 'posh' table, so leave it alone - there are plenty of flashy and pricier Bordeaux wines to show off with and amaze your 'friends'.

But to round everything off we had a Macvin (no, it doesn't come from the golden arches crew but is a luscious sweet vin de liqueur) from Chateau d'Arlay, a superb property making amazing Jura wines. The Jura region of France is home to several such curiosities and was for years ignored by the wine experts and the 'general' public as a thank you; alas it has now been discovered and prices of its delicious products have climbed enormously, and that is IF you can find them. Almost all the Jura wines etc. deserve respect and Macvin certainly does - why this was so good that I couldn't even remember the chocolate ganache that we had for dessert! And whilst I understand and, indeed, support the notion that taste is a very personal thing, if you don't like Macvin you are a ...,  or to be polite, very unfortunate to have defective tastebuds...!

Well, as usual JT and his wife made good food look easy and simplicity so rewarding; I will tell you once again how lucky I am to have good friends who are always willing to share their love of food and wine with their friends (me, Me, ME)! And you are lucky that I am ready, willing and able to tell you all (most?) about it.

Life moves on (whether we like it or not...)

Some time ago I wrote about my friend Ivan and his wonderful Italian restaurant in Athens, which was closing down after something like twenty years in operation; my sadness at this was made clear to you, my reader, in order to share the sense of loss and to say goodbye to a favourite place.

For many years he has kept another establishment going during the tourist season on one of the Greek islands that has never been a favourite of mine, Mykonos, with some success. This has now become his main base of operations and, while the food and the wine list were always far less ambitious than his Athens place, it is still a haven of decent Italian grub and proper wine. My problem was that I had little intention of visiting an island that offends me in many different ways, even though its beaches are wonderful.

Until this year, that is, when he issued an invitation to visit and try the place out at last - and chose a quiet period to do so (so I could not refuse) - I had always found a way of avoiding what I assumed to be, for me, an ordeal. So, with a bit of apprehension, I boarded a morning ferry to island-hop and reach Mykonos with my friend M. (who was kindly hosting me throughout on a different island) - through me she is also a fan of Ivan and his hospitality.


Dear reader, I was right and wrong at the same time: Ivan's place (Sale e Pepe) is delightful but the island is definitely not to my taste! In fact, I may even expand on its perceived (by me, natch!) awfulness in a separate post at another juncture.

The wine that Ivan served (to me, M. had a lighter, more contemporary glass of something) was a curiosity, an experimental local wine of the island made in the 'orange' style, barrel-fermented and lightly aged, full of taste, round and chunky, miles away from the prevailing fresh style of most white wines today; exactly the sort of wine I would expect to share with a fellow enthusiast, interesting, unusual, rare! My first reaction was 'ouch, this looks oxidised'  but looks were deceiving as there was barely a hint of oxidation. There was a restrained white fruit richness (white peach?) but it was clearly dry overall, excellent for cheese (some ripe parmesan, perhaps?) and light meats, good with my pizza, slipping down very well indeed and gone before it warmed up fully. I may have failed to jot down the grape varieties for your information - ooops -but I enjoyed it greatly!

The food at Sale e Pepe Mykonos is largely simple, good, casual bistro food with a twist. As a starter we shared a superb and beautifully presented Caprese salad with soft, tasty mozzarella, ripe tomatoes and excellent olive oil, all mopped up by homemade ciabatta bread. Pizza was our choice as a main course and I chose the Diavola (naturally...) but asked for a bit of extra onion; my companion had the Gourmet which was a 'bianca' and featured gorgonzola, walnut, cherry tomatoes and pear - it was deemed delicious by the eater, though for me fruit other than tomatoes have no place on pizzas.

I'm a conservative pizza eater and even eschew pizzas without tomato sauce (bianca), sorry!

My innate greed then steered me to a plate of Tuscan salami after the pizza just to stoke the fire, so I also needed a glass of red wine, and had a little something from the magnificent Porto Carras estate in Northern Greece. It was ripe and juicy, well-made but indifferent and, to me, signifies the decline of this amazing undertaking since the death of its founder (shipping magnate John Carras) and its enforced sale by the banks. M. demolished a small tiramisu and seemed satisfied while I forced down an espresso and a small aged  grappa to fuel my return journey. I stopped there, clearly showing my restraint...

Our boat back was leaving at 16:30 so we had to hastily say goodbye and make our way down to the huge new port, built to accommodate the cruise ships that regularly visit this island during the tourist season, something that I am happy to leave to them. While I hope to visit my friend again and wish him every success in all his Mykonos projects - he has things exciting things up his sleeve - the place in full flow is not for me, not at all. Pah!

So goodbye for ever (for now?) Sale e Pepe Athens and all you have meant to me and the Greek gastronomic/wine scene. And all you little fans of Ivan and his skills now have to make your way to Mykonos if you can bear the place, where he will not disappoint you. Life moves on.

Is stupidity the new black?

We don't have far to look today to spot someone of monumental stupidity posing as a real person, one with brains and a grip on reality; the main person I have in mind shall, for now, be nameless - his stupidity is unconventional, after all - though you will doubtless understand when I say that he possesses an unconventional and rather ridiculous looking head of hair. The fact that he can see his reflection in the mirror every morning and think he looks good, or even passable, surely attests to his diminished powers in the brain department. That he declares himself to anyone who will listen to be a genius is further testament of his stupidity.

Alas he is not alone, with plenty of other idiotic creatures vying for attention with pronouncements of either incredible vapidity or utterings so pathetically blinkered, biased and unrealistic as to be beneath contempt. Yet these braying pygmies are attempting to form the mainstream and dominate public opinion, going way beyond political correctness and any form of common sense into a dictatorial effort of enforcing what is permissible and allowable; thankfully these creatures are not united but at war with each other - and everyone else as well!

Here are my favourite examples of breathtaking 'thought' for today:

1. People who see nature as a lovely, friendly, cuddly play-pen where every animal leads a long, happy life, unthreatened by other creatures. These people then take it further, viewing humans who kill animals in order to eat them as criminals and murderers.
Well that's nice, isn't it? Do you think these people have ever experienced nature in action? Have they even watched a nature documentary to see how brutal nature actually is, with species feeding on each other irrespective of any sensitivities? Have they watched the glorious Blue Planet or Blue Planet 2? If they have and still believe their stuff they are amazingly stupid or witlessly blind, or both.
Let's get real - the natural world is a brutal place, where survival is not assured however cute and cuddly animals look - and that includes humans, by the way.
What anybody with any brains should be fighting for is for animals to be looked after properly, to do away with cruel animal husbandry in every phase from birth to the end of their lives, whether it comes peacefully or at the hands (paws?) of another creature. Ban battery farming, ban nasty transportation practices, ban any gratuitous cruelty to animals - and prosecute perpetrators severely. But neither is nature exclusively vegan or vegetarian nor do we know whether plants experience feelings of loss and pain; not eating meat is a personal choice, one that anybody is entitled to make,  but it is NOT a moral statement to be forced on others.

2. People who believe that being a homosexual is 'normal' wilfully misunderstand the term normal - the usual form, typical, average, the rule - when, if that were so, there could be no human species, as homosexuals cannot breed 'normally'. It is, in fact, an exception, and perfectly acceptable for being such,. Homosexuals of any kind should have all the rights of their fellow human beings, as well as the right to love whomever they choose.
We should be free to love who and how we want in this life, assuming they also love us and within the limits of the law and common decency, and respect the differences that exist in our species - your freedom should not impinge on mine, and vice-versa. It is not up to me, or anyone else for that matter, to shape others' love life whether I agree with them or not, and it should not affect their rights as human beings and members of society. Their rights, however, do not include creating a new 'reality' because it is so desired - nature decrees that two men or two women cannot 'normally' have a child together but need the assistance of science and a third person from the opposite sex. That's just how it is.

3. The theory that the way to stop children from getting killed by gun-toting other children - or anyone else for that matter -  at schools (primarily but not exclusively in the United States of America) is to arm the teachers is preposterously, criminally idiotic and may lead to schools becoming versions of the O.K. Corral. Clearly anyone intent on causing mayhem in a classroom would start by attempting to kill the armed teacher and then try to move on to the pupils. With this in mind, then, the clever solution would be to arm all the pupils as well... If that proves to be insufficient, why not then arm the cleaners, caretakers etc. also? That'l take care of things, won't it?
Anybody who fails to see the absurdity of this argument must be unable to function using reason and should not be taken seriously, even if they happen to be occupying some high office of state or have exceptionally high IQ scores.

4. The 'Sultan' of a nearly Middle Eastern country recently looked upon a group of islands, forming part of a neighbouring state for the last hundred years or more according to international law, and declared that 'as they were once ours, we have a claim on them!' Oh really, your Majesty, how does that work, pray tell? The Mongols at some point, however briefly, held territories from the steppes of Asia to Eastern Europe, should we expect them to now claim these? What about all the other now extinct empires, your Eminence? Who should claim what, in your majestically humble opinion?
These odious 'dishpots' (thank you, P.G. Wodehouse, the master!) are crawling out of the woodwork intent on causing trouble around the globe with their stupid ambition and willing to send masses of innocent people to their graves.
They should be a dying breed, these rulers vying to become international criminals, not 'respected' leaders of state, but somehow they survive.

Ooof, enough for now. I loathe stupidity at all levels and nothing more than the stupidity of heads of state; I do like black, though.