GREECE is the cradle of western civilization and being the birthplace of democracy.. Greece found poetry, geometry, psysics, astronomy,philosophy,the Olympic Games,western literature,political science,major scientific principles and drama (including both tragedy and comedy).. Greece has a particularly long and eventful history and a cultural heritage which has been considerably influential in Northern Africa and the Middle East and fundamentally formative for the culture of Europe and what is now called the West.. TODAY Greece is a developed country, a member of the European Union since 1981,a member of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union since 2001, NATO since 1951,the OECD since 1960,the WEU since 1995, and the ESA since 2005...