SILVIA JONES: GREAT MYTHOLOGICAL GREEK POWER

Silvia Jones in Heraklion's Venetian fortress, Crete

Silvia Jones. Jedi Knight. Crete, Greece.

I'm Silvia Jones. I was born in Heraklion, in Crete. I was born in the cradle of the European civilization, the country of the great philosophers, the country where democracy was born, the country of the oracles and sibyls. Perhaps because of these characters, I started to be very interested in philosophy and I became a Jedi Knight. Jedi is a religion that fights against evil and that proclaims that you must do good acts and be a good person to avoid the dark side.

-Good morning, Silvia Jones, and thanks to attend us.

-Good morning. Welcome to my country, the cradle of Mediterranean civilization.

-Thanks. It's always a pleasure being here. Well, to start this interview I would like to know how you define yourself.

-I'm a Jedi Knight, a person who fights against dark side. I try to help people in their day by day at the same time I try to grow as a good person.

-How is a day in your life?

-Well, I have trained a lot. I must get some mental powers that aren’t easy to have. It requires a lot of effort and work and especially concentration.

-Why?

-Because you must get a great peace inside you and talk to your brain to order it to do things that go farther than conventional ones.

-Then, do you believe in magic?

-This is not magic. This is about concentration and believes in you. I was born Crete, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, between Occident and Orient. In Greek culture, heroes and gods have been something very important that has influenced our personality. I’m not a hero or a magician. I arrive to reach these skills because I practice a lot. It’s like a martial art.

-But a karateka doesn’t move objects…

-No, but they are able to break heavy and hard objects with their hands like bricks or pieces of wood without injure him. It’s the same. The power of concentration is the clue.

-How do you feel being a member of The Jones family?

-I'm not an extroverted person. Silence and concentration are very important for me and I talk more with me than with people. You assimilate this behaviour and then you continue with the same attitude when you are not working. It doesn't mean that you don't disconnect of your work, it means that, sometimes, your beliefs blend your character.

-How is a normal day with The Jones?

-It's difficult to talk about a normal day with The Jones. There's always something new to do, to discover or to enjoy. I like my family. I feel well with them and this is something very important because if you're happy in a place with someone, you can offer the best of you.

-How long have you been studying English?

-English has been always very important in Greece, especially since the arrival of the massive tourism but I didn't study English at school, I studied Russian.

-Russian? It's not possible!

-Yes. Greece has a lot of things in common with the Russian culture. Both of us are orthodox and we haven't Latin alphabets.

-Then, you speak three languages? Is it very difficult to do it?

-No it isn't. In fact, as many languages you speak is easier to learn the next. I have learnt this from The Jones. All of them speak, at least, two languages and this is very important because a language is a powerful tool of communication and, in my case, two languages mean two alphabets, too, and with English, one more.

-What can you explain about your life with The Jones?

-It's a fantastic experience. We're fifteen different people with different characters and points of view but with a common objective: improve our English to improve in our jobs. It's amazing.

-And after?

-After, we will be like the Greek Islands. We will take different ways, we will stay in different places with new people and new experiences but there will be something that no one will be able to take out: if you have been a Jones, this is something that survives in time, you will always be a Jones and all these experiences that we have lived together will live meanwhile we were able to remember them.

-Which is your best memory with the family?

-It's very difficult to choose one but I remember my birthday. It was an especial day because we could celebrate it all together.

-Which is your reference?

-I’m a Jedi Knight and, of course, I have two great Masters: Yoda and Obi-Wan-Kenobi. They are the best and their knowledge is eternal but I’m Greek and I have another reference: Ulysses, the hero who was born in Ithaca.

-What do you think about Ulysses?

-I love his adventures, his intelligence to overcome problems, his courage to fight against the enemies and I like his family because as Penelope as Telemachus are clever, too. I love the mythological idea of searching Ithaca.

-What is your idea about Ithaca?

-Well, I take as a reference the poem of Konstandinos Kavafis about Ithaca. For me, Ithaca is the end of a travel that you must enjoy with all your heart. You’re going to suffer lots of problems, bad moments and disgraces but you must go on until you arrive to the finish line that is Ithaca. When you arrive, you will have enough time to think about the entire path and meanwhile you have had some people like a guide during this journey, then it will be time to be a guide for other people. Ithaca is life in itself and this is the reason because of is an eternal poem. Ithaca is a must.

-Could you recommend me a Greek philosopher?

-It’s impossible to choose only one. Every one of them offered something important to the classic philosophy: Aristotle, Anaximander, Socrates, Plato, Anaxagoras, Epicurus… but I suppose if I must choose, I will talk about both of them: Apollonia of Crete and Hypatia of Alexandria.

-Why?

-Because both of them are women and the role of the women philosophers is not as considered as the men one. Apollonia was born in Crete, an island that has an incredible culture and history. Crete is the cradle of Minoan and Mycenaean cultures but the island also received the influence of Romans, Byzantines, Arabians, Venetians and Ottomans. It’s a multicultural island that has created its idiosyncrasy taking the best of every influenced that it has received.

-How is Crete nowadays?

-Well, one of the most important touristic places in Greece, of course. Tourism is helping my country to overcome the terrible economic crisis that we suffered some years ago. Greece has lots of things and places to show because the Classic Greek civilization was an incredible period and we keep thousands of examples to be visited. I also have incredible beaches and more that 1,000 beautiful islands.

-Do you think you are going to overcome this crisis?

-Every economic crisis is overcome with time, resources and, of course, international help but there is another crisis who is deeper and nobody pays attention. It’s moral and ethics crisis. We arrived to implosion as a country because the powerful classes stole lots and lots of millions and the middle and poor classes didn’t pay any kind of taxes. This is insane. You can’t live from international money and investments; you must create your own richness and control, in a fair way, the destination of taxes. 

-How do you see the future of your country?

-Well, I’m a Jedi Knight, not a seer but I think we’re going to live in difficult conditions during some years. We must adapt our country to European standards if we don’t want to suffer another crisis like that. In my personal opinion, we are very important for the EU not because they were very interested in our population but we are a strategic point in the continent. We’re the border with Turkey and this fact offers us the possibility of being very important and necessary.

-How do you see the present?

-We are the descents of the great philosophers and the Classic Greek. We will survive. We are offering great artists to the world: Mikis Theodorakis, Vangelis, Kharis Alexíou, Maria Farantouri… Culture is our best investment and we will continue to offer immortal works and performances because this is our lifestyle.

-Which is your advice for the future?

-Don’t give up. Follow your dreams and be in peace with yourself. It’s impossible to be fine with the entire world if you aren’t fine with yourself. All starts in you, and all finishes in you. Be authentic, don’t imitate, because originality is something much appreciated. Don’t copy, innovate. Don’t accept real truths, question all of them as Greek philosophers did. It’s the only way to advance to the future with guarantees. Past is beautiful to evocate good moments and learn about old experiences but we live in the present and we must fight the future, for us and for next generations. They deserve the best and we must work hard to reach it.

-Thank you very much, Silvia Jones.

-May the force be with you.

 As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.

Hope your road is a long one.

 Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Konstandinos Petru Kavafis

THE IMPERIAL PALACE: MADAME BUTTERFLY AND NISEI

Some selfies in the Imperial Palace, Chiyoda

Last afternoon, The Jones visited the Imperial Palace in Tokyo invited by the Japanese Emperor. It was an enormous pleasure for the family to be invited and they were very excited during the event.

It was an amazing visit where the family could discover the ancient Japanese lifestyle.

The Tokyo Imperial Palace is the primary residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains buildings including the main palace, the private residences of the Imperial Family, an archive, museums and administrative offices. It is built on the site of the old Edo Castle. The total area including the gardens is 1.15 square kilometres.

 More information: Into Japan

After the capitulation of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration, the inhabitants, including the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, were required to vacate the premises of the Edo Castle.

Previous fires had destroyed the Honmaru area containing the old donjon, which itself burned in the 1657 Meireki fire. On the night of 5 May 1873, a fire consumed the Nishinomaru Palace, formerly the shogun's residence, and the new imperial Palace Castle  was constructed on the site in 1888.

Madame Butterfly in East Garden

In the Meiji era, most structures from the Edo Castle disappeared. Some were cleared to make way for other buildings while others were destroyed by earthquakes and fire. In the late Taishō and early Shōwa period, more concrete buildings were added, such as the headquarters of the Imperial Household Ministry and the Privy Council. These structures exhibited only token Japanese elements. From 1888 to 1948, the compound was called Palace Castle. On the night of 25 May 1945, most structures of the Imperial Palace were destroyed in the Allied firebombing raid on Tokyo. 

More information: Yabai

In August 1945, in the closing days of World War II, Emperor Hirohito met with his Privy Council and made decisions culminating in the surrender of Japan at an underground air-raid shelter on the palace grounds referred to as His Majesty's Library.

Due to the large-scale destruction of the Meiji-era palace, a new main palace hall and residences were constructed on the western portion of the site in the 1960s. The area was renamed Imperial Residence in 1948, while the eastern part was renamed East Garden and became a public park in 1968.

More information: Matcha

They do not depend upon mere legends and myths. 

They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine and that the Japanese people are superior to other races. 

Emperor Hirohito

Today, the family has enjoyed a beautiful walking across East Garden. They have revised the Past Simple and its irregular forms and they have taken profit of the day to celebrate Silvia Jones's birthday and talk about last world news, historic facts and personal preferences.

More information: Past Simple (Irregular forms)

Silvia Jones is celebrating her birthday

The family has received an unexpected visit. Maria Callas, who is a great friend of Ana-Bean Jones, has joined the family in the gardens and has offered them an incredible performance with some of the best solos of Madame Butterfly, the famous Giacomo Puccini's opera. The Jones have perceived the spirit of her around East Garden.

The Jones have talked about their favourite games because this afternoon they are visiting Nintendo Company Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment. Both enterprises are world leaders in games.

  

The Jones and their favourite games

The Grandma has explained the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II. 

It was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the western interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific coast. 62 percent of the internees were United States citizens.These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Japanese Americans were incarcerated based on local population concentrations. More than 110,000 Japanese Americans in the mainland U.S., who mostly lived on the West Coast, were forced into interior camps. The internment is considered to have resulted more from racism than from any security risk posed by Japanese Americans. Those who were as little as 1/16 Japanese and orphaned infants with one drop of Japanese blood were placed in internment camps.

More information: History

 

Order 9066 against Japanese American people

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the deportation and incarceration with Executive Order 9066. Approximately 5,000 Japanese Americans relocated outside the exclusion zone before March 1942, while some 5,500 community leaders had been arrested immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack and thus were already in custody. The majority of nearly 130,000 Japanese Americans living in the U.S. mainland were forcibly relocated from their West Coast homes during the spring of 1942.

The United States Census Bureau assisted the internment efforts by providing confidential neighborhood information on Japanese Americans. The Bureau denied its role for decades, but it became public in 2007.

More information: BBC

In 1980, under mounting pressure from the Japanese American Citizens League and redress organizations, President Jimmy Carter opened an investigation to determine whether the decision to put Japanese Americans into internment camps had been justified by the government. He appointed the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) to investigate the camps. The Commission's report, titled Personal Justice Denied, found little evidence of Japanese disloyalty at the time and concluded that the incarceration had been the product of racism. It recommended that the government pay reparations to the internees.

More information: American History

Racist campaign against Japanese American people

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government and authorized a payment to each camp survivor.  

The legislation admitted that government actions were based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.

Of 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, 112,000 resided on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei, literal translation: second generation; American-born Japanese with U.S. citizenship, and Sansei third generation; the children of Nisei. The rest were Issei first generation immigrants born in Japan who were ineligible for U.S. citizenship under U.S. law.

More information: PBS

I was four years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941 by Japan, and overnight, the world was plunged into a world war. America suddenly was swept up by hysteria. 

George Takei

THE JONES PARTICIPATE IN THE 116th PARIS-ROUBAIX

Joaquín, Silvia, Claudia, Merche, Victor & Noelia Jones

The Jones have participated in the 116th Edition of the Paris-Roubaix road. This year, the organization has made an exception and the inscriptions have been opened to women. All the members of the family, except Eli Jones who is still missing in Loch Ness although is present in our memories, have participated in this fantastic race full of danger and emotions.

Víctor Jones has arrived in the fourth position being the best classified Jones and Claudia, Joaquín, Merche, Noelia and Silvia Jones have arrived in the top 20. The Grandma is still cycling, although the race has been closed some hours ago but, as you know, the most important is participating, enjoying and arriving.

More information: Paris-Roubaix

The Paris–Roubaix is a one-day professional men's bicycle road race in northern France, starting north of Paris and finishing in Roubaix, at the border with Belgium. It is one of cycling's oldest races, and is one of the Monuments or classics of the European calendar, and contributes points towards the UCI World Ranking.

The Paris–Roubaix is famous for rough terrain and cobblestones, or pavé, setts,being, with the Tour of Flanders, E3 Harelbeke and Gent–Wevelgem, one of the cobbled classics. It has been called the Hell of the North, a Sunday in Hell, also the title of a film about the 1976 race, the Queen of the Classics or la Pascale: the Easter race. Since 1977, the winner of Paris–Roubaix has received a sett, cobble stone, as part of his prize.

Download The Paris-Roubaix Route 2018

Eddy Merckx and The Grandma, 1973

The terrain has led to the development of specialised frames, wheels and tyres. Punctures and other mechanical problems are common and often influence the result. Despite the esteem of the race, some cyclists dismiss it because of its difficult conditions. The race has also seen several controversies, with winners disqualified.

From its beginning in 1896 until 1967 it started in Paris and ended in Roubaix; in 1966 the start moved to Chantilly; and since 1977 it has started in Compiègne, about 85 kilometres north-east of the centre of Paris. The finish is still in Roubaix. The race is organised by the media group Amaury Sport Organisation annually in mid-April.

The course is maintained by Les Amis de Paris–Roubaix, a group of fans of the race formed in 1983. The forçats du pavé seek to keep the course safe for riders while maintaining its difficulty.

More information: Cycling Tips

Paris–Roubaix is one of the oldest races of professional road cycling. It was first run in 1896 and has stopped only for the two world wars. The race was created by two Roubaix textile manufacturers, Théodore Vienne, born 28 July 1864, and Maurice Perez. They had been behind the building of a velodrome on 46,000 square metres at the corner of the rue Verte and the route d'Hempempont, which opened on 9 June 1895.

Víctor Jones (centre) and other participants

Vienne and Perez held several meetings on the track, one including the first appearance in France by the American sprinter Major Taylor, and then looked for further ideas. In February 1896 they hit on the idea of holding a race from Paris to their track. This presented two problems. The first was that the biggest races started or ended in Paris and that Roubaix might be too provincial a destination. The second was that they could organize the start or finish but not both.

The race usually leaves riders caked in mud and grit, from the cobbled roads and rutted tracks of northern France's former coal-mining region. However, this is not how this race earned the name l'enfer du Nord, or Hell of the North. The term was used to describe the route of the race after World War I. Organisers and journalists set off from Paris in 1919 to see how much of the route had survived four years of shelling and trench warfare.

More information: Cycling Weekly

Originally, the race was from Paris to Roubaix, but in 1966 the start moved to Chantilly, 50 km north, then in 1977 to Compiègne, 80 km north. From Compiègne it now follows a 260 km winding route north to Roubaix, hitting the first cobbles after 100 km.

During the last 150 km the cobbles extend more than 50 km. The race culminates with 750m on the smooth concrete of the large outdoor Vélodrome André-Pétrieux in Roubaix. The route is adjusted from year to year as older roads are resurfaced and the organisers seek more cobbles to maintain the character of the race, in 2005, for example, the race included 54.7 km of cobbles.

More information: Eurosport

Everyday there's something that reminds me why I love this sport.

Bernard Hinault