Waiting for the Worms

2006-05-07T22:05:44Z

Modular: /* Film Version */

"'''Waiting For the Worms'''" is a song on the [[Pink Floyd]] album, [[The Wall]]. It is preceded by "[[Run Like Hell]]" and followed by "[[Stop (Pink Floyd song)|Stop]]". By now in the album, Pink has lost all hope and has let bad ideas, or "worms", control his thoughts. In his hallucination, he is a fascist dictator who spreads hatred, with the promise that his followers would see "Britannia rule again" and "send our coloured cousins home again," and announces he is "waiting to [[gas chamber#Nazi Germany|turn on the showers]] and [[crematorium#World War II|fire the ovens]]." The count-in is ''Eins, zwei, drei, alle'' - German for "one, two, three, all..." (Probably intended to rally the masses to flock to Pink's call). The song is very drastic but quiet to begin with, then at 1:21 a muffled voice starts providing a commentary-like speech, and it continues at 1:26 where the song starts to go into a very heavy section. For the rest of the song it switches back and forth from heavy to calm, the different voices coming in at different times, until the very end where the muffled voice begins very desperate calls, and the music grows louder, making the voice incomprehensible. In the film version, it goes to an animated sequence with marching hammers. The muting (muffling) of the speaker's voice is designed (as is shown in the film) to emulate the output of a megaphone used, for example, to conduct (or direct) a rally, protest or similar gathering.

==Film Version==
We see a brief portion where teenagers (the same ones from [[In The Flesh?]]) run over a ragdoll version of Pink. He then shouts through a megaphone while his followers march through the street, then after we see the Nazi crowd, the screaming head and the Nazi breaking a man's skull from [[What Shall We Do Now?]], a dog biting meat off a hook then consumed by a larger one (from the Animals tour), and the famous hammer sequence, we see Pink yell "Stop".

==Personell==
*[[David Gilmour]] - guitars, bass, synthesizer, lead vocals, backing vocals
*[[Nick Mason]] - drums
*[[Roger Waters]] - lead vocals, backing vocals, synthesizer
*[[Richard Wright]] - organ

*[[Bob Ezrin]] - piano, backing vocals
*[[Joe Chemay]] - backing vocals
*[[Stan Farber]] - backing vocals
*[[Jim Haas]] - backing vocals
*[[Bruce Johnston]] - backing vocals
*[[John Joyce (musician|John Joyce]] - backing vocals
*[[Toni Tenille]] - backing vocals

{{album track|album=[[The Wall]]|this=''Waiting For the Worms''|prev=''[[Run Like Hell]]''|next=''[[Stop (Pink Floyd song)|Stop]]''}}

[[Category:Pink Floyd songs]]
[[Category:1979 songs]]
{{1970s-rock-song-stub}}

Alcibiades Diamandi

2005-10-31T15:30:53Z

Modular: cleanup, wikify

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'''Alkiviadis Diamandi''' or Alcibiade Diamandis (sometimes spelled Diamandis or Diamantis) was a Vlach politician of Greece active during the first and second world wars in connection with the Italian officials (which were then administring parts of Greece). He was born in Samarina (which is at over 1600 metres, the village situated at the highest altitude in Greece) in a family of wealthy ethnic Vlach merchants. After attending the Romanian primary school in Samarina he studied at the Greek Lyceum in Thesaloniki/Salonica (at that time still part of Turkey) and on the eve of the Balkan wars in 1912 he leaves (as many other Vlachs of Greece) for Roumania where he enrolls at the Comercial Academy (Academia Comerciala) in Bucharest which he later graduated. Romania eneters the first world war in 1916 and Diamandi briefly volunteers into the ranks of it serving for a short while as an officer. It is not clear if he was discharged from the Romanian army or rather dispatched by the Romanians in Albania where, under the Italian and French tutelage he becomes co-founder of the short-lived '''Republic of Koritza''' (Korce or Curceaua) which was supposed to be the first autonomous state of the Vlachs of Epirus. While in Albania he befriends the Albanian politicial Fan Noli whose political ideas he shares. After the withdrawal of the Italians he seeks refuge for a while at Ayia Saranda in Albania from where he flees to Rome where he becomes involved with the nascent Mussolini party. In Rome he contacts the Romanian legacy who is issuing him a Romanian passport with which he can now travel to Greece. According to the Greek author Stavros Anthemides he is, in 1927 'pardoned' by the Greek authorities.

Shortly after the amnesty he descends in Athens as the 'vice president of the National Petroleum Company of Romania' which was exporting oil in Greece. He was also involved in the import of wood from Romania to Greece and had other vested business interests. He rents a flat in the fashionable Kolonaki and frequents the bars and cafes of Pireas where he had a brawl with a Greek navy captain one Giorgakis. During a squable Diamandi is wounded by a flying glass thrown by the Greek captain and the resulting scar was used to identify him later on when he was on the run.

From Athens he travels frequently to Rhodes (which was at that time part of Italy) drawing the attention of the Greek Counter-intelligence Services). It was widely assumed that the Greeks were aware that Diamandi was an undercover Romanian agent who was trying to incite up the Vlachs against the Greek state. Already during Metaxas, Diamandi was served an expulsion order but he managed to avoid being expelled and the political context was turning more and more in his advantage
When the Italian armies invade Greece at the end of October 1940, Diamandi was already in Konitsa on the Albanian-Greek border. The Italians offer him the rank of 'Commandatore' and he serves as translator and assistant to the Italian Chief of Staff. After Italy's initial defeat Diamandi seeks refuge in Tirana (at that time under Italian rule) and re-enters Greece again with the Italian armies a year later.
This time he is to form the so-called ''''Autonomou Kratou tis Pindou'''' or ''''Autonomou''' '''Vlahikou Kratou'''' on the territory of Epirus, Thessaly and parts of Macedonia which was supposed to be a '''Vlach Homeland''' for the Vlach ethnic group in Greece.
He is now self-styling himself 'Principe' and sketches the outlook of a 'Principality' for the Vlach cantons. Diamandi's deputy and right-hand was the Larissa based lawyer Nikos Matoussi while the third in the ierarchy of the nascent state was Rapoutikas Vassilis. The model for the Vlach state were the Swiss cantons united in a confederation or 'Principality'. In June 1941 Diamandi finds himself in Grebena and then to Metsovo where he founds the ''''Koma Koinotita''' '''Koutsovlachon'''' which were part of the ''''Enosi Roumanikon Koinotiton'''' (The Union of the Roumanian Communities). A '''Vlach 'Parliament'''' was summoned in Trikala but no laws were drawn since the Parliament had mostly a decorative role. The Italians were keen to be the real masters in the region. Nevertheless the Vlach 'Parliament' issued a series of local regulation aimed at restricting the use of the Greek language in favour of the Vlach. From the personal initiative of Dimanadi on sites at the entry and exit in the villages and towns, panels (on which the names of the places were previously in Greek only) were replaced with Vlach and Italian language only ones in Latin script. The Greek 'Metsovo' became 'Amintciu' in Vlach and 'Mincio' in Itlian, Nympheon became 'Nevesca' and 'Nevesa', 'Samarina' was doubled by 'Santa Maria' etc. On March 1st 1942 Diamandi issues an ample ''''Manifesto'''' which was published in the local press and republished by Stavros Anthemides in 1997 in his book on the 'Vlachs of Greece' (see bibliography). The Manifesto was countersigned by leading Vlach intelectuals of the Vlach state such as the lawyer Niko Matousi, Prof. Dimas Tioutras, the lawyer Vasilakis Geotgios, the medic Dr. Frangkos Georgios, the teacher A. Beca, the businessman Gachi Papas, the medic Dr. Niko Mitsibouna, Prof. Dim. Hatzigogou, the lawyer A. Kalometros, the ing. Niko Teleionis, Vasilis Tsiotzios, Prof. Kosta Nicoleskou, Prof. Toli Pasta, Dim. Tahas, Prof. Stefanos Kotsios, Prof. G. Kontoinani, Dr. Kaloera, Prof. Toli Hatzi, Giovani Mertzios of Neveska (whose son Nik. Merztios is paradoxically today a well known pro-Greek Vlach author in Greece), Pericli Papas, Prof. Virgiliu Balamace (related to Nick Balamace currently the Secretary of the 'Society Farsarotul' in the Unites States), ing. S. Pelekis, K. Pitouli, the lawyer Toli Hatzis, Dim. Barba and many others. Two Vlachs of Albania and Bulgaria, Vasilis Vartolis and the writer Ziko Araias (known also as Zicu Aria) endorsed the Manifesto. From Romania the manifesto was co-signed by the Veria born George Murnu, a professor at the university of Bucharest. When Diamandi went to Bucharest shortly after he met Murnu together with whom attended a meeting with the then ruler of Romania Marschal Ion Antonescu and the Foreign Secretary Mihai 'Misu' Antonescu (the two Antonescus were not related). The status of the Principality of Pindus was discussed. One option favoured by Diamandi was to put the Principality under the suzeranity of the Romanian Crown (as an associated 'free' state). Diamandi -as a 'Prince', would then have the right to atend the 'Consiliu de Coroana' ('Crown Councils') which were held at Bucharest or in the Carpathian mountain spa and ski resort of Sinaia. Another option was to link the principality to the Italian Royall House of Savoy (Savoia). None of these options came eventually into reality.

Towards the second year of the Italian occupation guerilla war breaks out in the area, between Greek partisans supported by the Allied Forces (both leftist and rightist) and the Italo-German side. In the chaos that ensued it is presumed that Diamandi prefered to leave (or he was ordered back) to Roumania. Subsequently his faith is unknown. His deputy Matousis escapes too first to Athens than to Romania too, while Rapoutikas was not so lucky being shot dead by one of ther factions of the Greek guerilla just outside Larissa. The Greeks then tied his corpse on the back a donkey and paraded him through the Vlach villages of Pindus. This was intended in order to scare the local populace ans as a final proof that the ''''Pindus Principality'''' came to an end.
There are many gaps in the biography of Diamandi and the information contained in the few books which mention him scarce. Accordong the to the German scholar Dr. Thede Kahl (see bibliography)
Diamandi functioned for a while as Romania's Consul in Koritsa, Albania.

Alcibiade Diamandi is given mention in 1995 by the British author Tim Salmon in his book about the Vlachs of Greece (see bibliography) as follows:
'A pro-Mussolini teacher called Dhiamantis who returned to Samarina during the Occupation and tried to set up a fascist Vlach state the '''Principality of Pindos'''. It is possible that the idea of autonomy struck a chord in some nationalistic Vlach breasts but they certainly were not the collaborators he accused them of being.'
The British author finds the antecedents of Diamandi's movement in the Vlachs' desire of separatnes: a sign -he thinks- of their 'strength'. Other pasages of his book emphasize too the 'separatness' of the Vlachs

He writes: 'Up to the 1920s the '''Vlakholoi - the Vlach''' clan as it were- had been so strong that the governmnet could not really interfere with them. There had been Roumanian schools (financed from Romania from around the '''Treaty of Berlin'''in 1881 which forced the Turks to cede Thessaly to Greece, drawing the frontier through Metsovo and thus dividing the Greek Vlachdom) in Yannina, Thessaloniki and Grevena up until 1940. In fact, there was one in Samarina itself.

[[Image:http://www.e-grammes.gr/images2/2071.jpg]]
Italian poster titled 'At war against Greece'. Alcibiade Diamandi had been disgraced for collaborating with the Italian agressors of Greece

''Bibliography:''

Evangelos Averof-Tositsas, Η πολιτική πλευρά του κουτσοβλαχικού ζητήματος [The political aspects of the Aromanian question]. Reprint Trikala 1992 (1st edition Athens 1948) p. 94

Stauros A. Papagiannis: Τα παιδιά της λύκαινας. Οι ‘επίγονοι’ της 5ης Ρωμαϊκής Λεγεώνας κατά την διάρκεια της Κατοχής 1941-1944 [Wolf children. The ‘descendants’ of the 5th Roman Legion during the occupation 1941-1944]. Athens 1998

Anthemidis, Axilleas. 1998. The Vlachs of Greece. Thessaloniki: Malliaris (Greek).

Tim Salmon - Unwritten Places. Athens Lycabettus Press, 1995 (see p.149 and 215)

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Waiting for the Worms

Alcibiades Diamandi