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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Nafplio, With Axeman

John Elkington · 17 March 2020 · Leave a Comment

Post 6 of 7

Loved our visit to Nafplio’s (or, as we knew it, Nauplion’s) Palamidi fortress 50 years ago, back in 1970. At the time, Elaine, Rex and I sat for ages in an underground cistern, watching reflected sunlight from a high window scattering across the walls.

A natural form of the light shows in fashion at the time at places like the Middle Earth club in Covent Garden, which we haunted to see bands like The Byrds, Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Pink Floyd and Marc Bolan’s Tyranosaurus Rex. Those were the days, my friend.

And here are some images from our return visit, when the town was gradually closing in on itself, because of COVID-19.

A tantalising corner of the Palamidi Fortress
Sign of the times, on Palamidi front gate
Statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis in Nafplio, a warrior-bandit made good
Closed for refurbishment: Ioannis Capodistria, foreign minister for Tsar Alexander I in Russia, and modern Greece’s first leader
Palamidi looms over Nafplio
The Lion of Bavaria, commemorating Bavarian troops who died in great numbers from typhus in 1833. Service in Greece was unpopular with the Bavarians, resulting in the deaths of around half of those who served. They failed to understand the Greeks they were meant to help pacify.
A very different artform: across the road from the Lion of Bavaria statue
And a little further along
The eyes have it
Ice cream parlour, empty
A distant Bourtzi Castle from Nafplio waterfront

Altogether, we were four nights at the Amalia Hotel outside Nafplio, a great base for exploring the city and region. But very few other people were staying – and on the day we left to fly back early to the UK, they closed the hotel entirely.

Lovely to hear frogs in the landscape around the hotel – and to see bats flitting across the evening sky.

One less romantic memory surfaced, however, when George Terezakis, our Greek guide, pointed out the local open prison as we drove by. Near the Mycenian ruin of Tiryns.

That did it. We recalled pulling our Landrover off the road nearby back in 1970. Elaine and I were sleeping in the back of the vehicle, while the others slept around about in tents.

In the morning Elaine woke up from dream that someone was sawing off her feet, which protruded onto the Landrover’s tailgate. Lifting the tarpaulin backflap, she saw a man standing outside, with an axe.

We began talking to him, in French, I think. Turned out he was from the nearby open prison. We asked why he had been imprisoned. He said he had killed his wife’s lover. With an axe. Otherwise, a perfectly charming man.

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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

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john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

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