We’ve lost Greece’s manual

Dear reader,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece. 

The iconic and super-expensive OAKA stadium roof, created by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava for Greece’s 2004 Olympic Games, has become derelict to such a degree that the stadium closed due to safety reasons, Greeks were told. It was reported that the roof was created with a license for a pergola and that its maintenance manual had been lost…

While the EU was striking an important migration deal that would supposedly lead to a change of its asylum rules to lift pressure on the continent’s border countries, Greek authorities were confiscating the mobile phones of the Coast Guard officers involved in the Pylos shipwreck - a whole 119 days after. Plus, the NYT revealed that refugees who burned alive during Greece’s wildfires were push-back victims.

Finally, a series of investigative reports named Predator Files brings stormy details on Greece’s deep involvement with Predator illegal spyware.  

The costliest Olympics end up in derelict venues and a financial crisis 

“It was a roof that symbolized Olympic glory: a giant white-ribbed steel dome cascading over a stadium that would not only be the centerpiece of the 2004 Athens Games but emblematic of the spectacular style in which the event would be held.”

That’s the Guardian intro (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) into recent developments regarding the double-arched Calatrava roof of Athens Olympic Stadium - the central venue of Athens 2004 Olympic Games.