The National Herald 100€¦ · October 3-9, 2015 VOL. 18, cISSUE 938 v $1.50 O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ...
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The National Herald A WEEKLY GREEK-AMERiCAN PUBLiCATiON October 3-9, 2015 www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 18, ISSUE 938 $1.50 c v O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 NEWS 100 th anniversary 1915-2015 For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – George Yanko- poulos, born and raised in West- ern Queens and proud of his Greek roots, is one of the world’s leading biomedical sci- entists. The company he co- founded with Leonard S. Schleifer, Regeneron Pharma- ceuticals, has had brilliant suc- cesses with drugs such as EYLEA for age related macular degen- eration, ZALTRAP for colorectal cancer, and ARCALYST. But Yankopoulos, who has developed not only its drugs but the company’s foundational technologies, has only just be- gun, driven by a sense of mis- sion inspired by his grandfather, and President John F. Kennedy. “What distinguishes us as a species is the fact we can learn about ourselves and we can use science, together with the other thing that makes us human, our soul and spirit, to try to posi- tively impact the human condi- tion, and there is nothing better for society to be investing in than human knowledge and sci- ence,” he told TNH. Lest Yankopoulos’ achieve- ments be considered accidental or miraculous – he was the 11th most-cited scientist in the 1990s and is reportedly the first R&D head at a pharmaceutical com- pany, according to Forbes, to be- come a billionaire – some family history is in order. His father’s family were well- to-do and adventurous. His grandfather George Danis Yankopoulos was born in Kasto- ria before it was liberated from the Turks. “He escaped to Aus- tria… taught himself German somehow and remarkably got a degree in electrical engineer- ing.” Then, he returned to Greece and with his business partners built many of the Greek world’s first electrical power plants. He started with nothing, reached great heights, and then fate took it away. “This is the story of his life,” Yankopoulos said. The story in- cludes building two power plants near Smyrna, which were lost in the Asia Minor Catastro- phe. He then built a series of plants all over Greece – only to lose everything when the Ger- mans invaded and seized them. His mother’s family were fur- riers. Like her husband’s, her ed- ucation was interrupted, but she went back to school in her 60s and graduated valedictorian of her class at St. Joseph’s college. She followed her son’s example: he was valedictorian at both the Bronx High School of Science and Columbia University. His sister Sophie has a PhD in theoretical astrophysics. Yankopoulos humbly also credits his era for firing up his success. Born in 1959, he recalls being inspired by the sky-is-the- limit speeches President Kennedy made (broadcast fre- quently in the years shortly fol- lowing his assassination) and being fascinated by the space program. When Yankopoulos was told that while Greek children in Greece are encouraged to be- come scientists – the next Greek Nobel prize is likely to be in the hard sciences – Greek-American parents tend to steer children down paths more likely to be Regeneron co-Founder Reconciled Brains And Money; Inspired by Family – and JFK By Aria Socratous HOWELL, NJ- “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the fill- ing of a vessel”, the great philosopher Socrates said. Con- stantinos Daskalakis is a beau- tiful mind that keeps the flame of education and innovation at the highest level. He was born and raised in Athens and completed his un- dergraduate studies at the Na- tional Technical University of Athens at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Depart- ment. He graduated with the highest grade ever awarded. At 27, Daskalakis was ap- pointed Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to join- ing MIT’s faculty, Daskalakis was a postdoctoral researcher at Mi- crosoft Research and before that he finished his postgraduate doctoral studies at the Univer- sity of Berkeley. He won the 2008 Doctoral Dissertation Award from the As- sociation for Computer Machin- ery (ACM) for advancing our understanding of behavior in complex networks of interacting individuals. His dissertation, “The Complexity of Nash Equi- libria,” provides a novel algo- rithmic perspective on Game Theory and the concept of Nash Equilibrium. Daskalakis has also been awarded a 2012 Microsoft Re- search Faculty Fellowship; such grants are awarded to promising young researchers worldwide in recognition of their ground- breaking, high-impact work that has the potential to help solve some of today’s most challeng- ing social problems. TNH’s interview with Prof. Daskalakis follows: TNH: You were able to solve a problem that arose from John Nash’s work which stood unre- solved since 1950. Many econ- omists had been trying to find a solution, but with no results. What was the secret of your suc- cess? CD: The contribution of my work was to characterize the computational complexity of Nash equilibrium, a concept de- fined by John Nash in 1950. The purpose of Nash Equilibrium is to predict what may occur in a non-cooperative game. A game is a mathematical abstraction of a strategic conflict between peo- ple. This may be a representa- tion of some recreational game MIT Prof. Daskalakis Speaks to The Herald Computer Whiz Discusses His Game Theories TNH Staff WASHINGTON, DC – Among the 24 individuals who were awarded MacArthur Foundation fellowships on September 29 was Greek-American Dimitri Nakassis, a 40-year-old archae- ologist and historian who is an associate professor at the Uni- versity of Toronto. The so-called “genius grants” are a vote of confidence to some of America’s best and brightest academics, artists, entrepre- neurs, scientists, and writers, each of whom receives $625,000 in quarterly install- ments over a five-year period. Prof. Nakassis, who holds a BA from the University of Michi- gan and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, is writing a book about Greece’s political organization in the late Bronze Age, and trav- eling to Greece for an archaeo- logical survey and to oversee digital imaging of ancient tablets from Pylos. The award will bring more attention to his field, which he said suffers from a perception that historians have closed the book on Ancient Greece. His research focuses on the archaeology and scripts of the Aegean Bronze Age, in particu- lar the administrative practices of the Mycenaean state. He has published articles on Linear A, Homer and Hesiod, archaeolog- ical surveys, Greek religion and history, and the Mycenaean economy, society and prosopog- raphy. He is the author of Indi- viduals and Society in Myce- naean Pylos (Leiden 2013), and is co-Director of the Western Ar- Dimitri Nakassis Gets Genius Grant Trailblazing team at drug industry giant Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Left to Right: President/CEO Leonard S. Schleifer, Chairman P. Roy Vangelos, and Chief Scientific Officer George Yankopoulos, embody the philosophy: never stop learning, discovering, and building. Tsipras and Kerry Meet in New York, Discuss Numerous Issues Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in New York on the sidelines of the opening session of the UN General Assembly. Among the topics of discussion where the recent troika negotiations and the need for debt relief, the refugee crisis, the Cyprus and FYROM issues, energy matters, and developments in Ukraine and Syria. By Penelope Karageorge Ignoring warnings that visit- ing Greece in the middle of the economic crisis could prove dangerous, I spent five weeks this summer in my “hometown” horio of Lichna (population 300) on the island of Lemnos. It is an old village. Until ten years ago, no house had been sold, but passed down genera- tion to generation. Now the vil- lage boasts a family from Venice, and another from Copenhagen. For Lichna, life changes while remaining re- markably the same. Just next door, on the neighboring island of Lesbos, thousands of refugees flooded the island, but although Lesbos is a mere four hours away by ferry, none of the spill- over arrived on Lemnos. It Takes a (Greek) Village... By Theodore Kalmoukos CORONA – The Transfiguration parish in Corona finds itself in turmoil yet again, resulting in the resignation of Parish Council President Penny Viennas, a New York City police officer. Viennas submitted her resig- nation on September 20 after a heated confrontation with parish priest George Anastasiou – who is also a police chaplain – on parish matters, in the pres- ence of parishioners, during the coffee hour after Sunday Liturgy. Viennas wrote in her resig- nation letter that “as of tonight I am stepping down as President of the Parish Council due to family and work obligations. I will remain on the Board to fin- ish out my term.” TNH has learned that parish documents and also minutes of Council meetings are missing. There has been talk among parishioners, and also other Greeks in the Greater New York area, about the payment the Transfiguration Church gave to singer Petros Gaitanos from Greece, for three days of chant- ing during Holy Week last year, and also regarding a concert in New York he gave organized by the Church, the funds of which were to go to the Greek Chil- dren’s Fund. TNH asked Gaitanos about these matters but he refused to disclose how much money he received, or whether he re- ported it to Greek authorities as well as to the IRS – to the latter issue, he told TNH “you should- n’t care.” Fr. Anastasiou told TNH that “it is the policy of the Parish Council not to talk to the press about Council issues,” denied that he and Viennas had a heated discussion on September 20, but acknowledged that the Council is comprised of only six members, instead of the 18 that the parish charter requires. As to the issues regarding Gaitanos’ payment, he said: “I am not an accountant, I don’t know.” EMAIL WARS In an email to Anastasiou and copied to Parish Council members, Viennas who did not reply to TNH’s request for com- ment, made mention of TNH’s interview with Anastasiou, which was printed in TNH’s sis- ter publication, Ethnikos Kyrix- There’s New Transfiguration Turmoil By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – On October 8 Greek-Americans and Philhel- lenes who have been eagerly awaiting the reopening of the Onassis Cultural Center NY, even as they enjoyed the events in New York’s finest venues, will experience a unique homecom- ing. The Center’s new Executive Director, Amalia Kosmetatou, and its dedicated staff, along with Foundation officials led by Foundation President Dr. An- thony Papadimitriou, will wel- come back their friends at the Opening Night Gala Perfor- mance and Reception that is also the inauguration of its an- nual Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Onassis Festival NY. During the tenure of Amb. Loucas Tsillas, its first Executive Director, the Center became such an integral part of the Greek-American and wider New York community’s cultural scene that the Onassis Foundation (USA) embarked on a renova- tion and expansion of its facili- ties in New York’s iconic Olympic Tower. The guests will find an ex- panded lobby connected by a stairway near an evocation of a waterfall to a lower atrium. Through the doors, they will en- ter a state-of-the-art exhibition space. The Center’s first presenta- tion is a four-day festival of talks, presentations, and perfor- mances titled “Narcissus Now: The Myth Reimagined.” “Triple Echo,” a collaboration by choreographer Jonah Bokaer and composer Stavros Gas- paratos is designed as a musical and kinematic introduction to new home of the Center which “explores the relevance of the classical tradition though inno- vative and adventurous pro- grams with commissioned works and extraordinary partic- The Onassis Cultural Cntr. Is Reopening By Georgia Boutsianis and Constantinos E. Scaros MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – The term “Greek-Americans” most readily conjures thoughts of Hel- lenes living in the United States, although it certainly includes res- idents of other North and South American countries who are of Greek decent. Such is the case regarding the Greeks of Mexico, who have weighed in on ar- guably the most-discussed polit- ical figure of the summer and early fall, not only in American politics but by the international media as well – Donald Trump. As he launched his 2016 pres- idential bid early in the summer, Trump made reference to the Mexican government, claiming that it “sends its criminals and rapists” to the United States. The charge being that in its attempt to rid its nation of the dregs of society, Mexico “sends” i.e., en- courages and facilitates, the ille- gal entry of such undesirables into the United States, thereby clearing them out of Mexico, so that the country could enjoy a society of good, law-abiding cit- izens only. Trump’s comments barely had time to take root and be dis- cussed on their merits before they were quoted differently in second-hand articles that were working off of the original quote: “Trump says Mexicans ‘are crim- inals and rapists, but there are some good ones.’” Taken out of context, this implies that Trump made a broad, sweeping, and disparaging generalization of an entire nationality, allowing for just a few positive exceptions to the rule. Many Americans – of Mexican and non-Mexican descent alike – took particular exception and offense to the latter interpreta- tion of the comments. Even upon clarification – that Trump did not mean all Mexicans are like that, just the ones the Mexican gov- ernment intentionally sends here to rid its own country of them – the remarks have been subject to criticism, with many contend- ing that Trump’s accusations about the Mexican government are unfounded. The National Herald dis- cussed these issues with Greeks in Mexico, who share their per- spectives via this article with their Greek counterparts in the United States and throughout the world. MOSTLY ANTI-TRUMP Basilio Mavridis told TNH that he heard both versions (“Mexicans are criminals” vs. “the Mexican government sends its criminals”) on different tele- casts. But he doesn’t believe even the second version is true. It is unfortunate, he says, “that in What Greeks In Mexico Have to Say About Trump George Yankopoulos’ Journey to Pharmaceutical Heights Continued on page 10 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 7 TNH/COSTAS BEJ
Transcript of The National Herald 100€¦ · October 3-9, 2015 VOL. 18, cISSUE 938 v $1.50 O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ...
The National HeraldA wEEkly GrEEk-AmEriCAN PuBliCATiON
October 3-9, 2015
www.thenationalherald.comVOL. 18, ISSUE 938 $1.50c v
O C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915NEW
S 100
1
th
anniversary
1915-2015
For subscription:
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – George Yanko -poulos, born and raised in West-ern Queens and proud of hisGreek roots, is one of theworld’s leading biomedical sci-entists. The company he co-founded with Leonard S.Schleifer, Regeneron Pharma-ceuticals, has had brilliant suc-cesses with drugs such as EYLEAfor age related macular degen-eration, ZALTRAP for colorectalcancer, and ARCALYST.
But Yankopoulos, who hasdeveloped not only its drugs butthe company’s foundationaltechnologies, has only just be-gun, driven by a sense of mis-sion inspired by his grandfather,and President John F. Kennedy.
“What distinguishes us as aspecies is the fact we can learnabout ourselves and we can usescience, together with the otherthing that makes us human, oursoul and spirit, to try to posi-tively impact the human condi-tion, and there is nothing betterfor society to be investing inthan human knowledge and sci-ence,” he told TNH.
Lest Yankopoulos’ achieve-ments be considered accidentalor miraculous – he was the 11thmost-cited scientist in the 1990sand is reportedly the first R&Dhead at a pharmaceutical com-pany, according to Forbes, to be-come a billionaire – some familyhistory is in order.
His father’s family were well-to-do and adventurous. Hisgrandfather George DanisYankopoulos was born in Kasto-ria before it was liberated fromthe Turks. “He escaped to Aus-tria… taught himself Germansomehow and remarkably got adegree in electrical engineer-ing.” Then, he returned toGreece and with his businesspartners built many of the Greekworld’s first electrical powerplants. He started with nothing,reached great heights, and thenfate took it away.
“This is the story of his life,”Yankopoulos said. The story in-cludes building two power
plants near Smyrna, which werelost in the Asia Minor Catastro-phe. He then built a series ofplants all over Greece – only tolose everything when the Ger-mans invaded and seized them.
His mother’s family were fur-riers. Like her husband’s, her ed-ucation was interrupted, but shewent back to school in her 60sand graduated valedictorian ofher class at St. Joseph’s college.She followed her son’s example:he was valedictorian at both theBronx High School of Scienceand Columbia University.
His sister Sophie has a PhDin theoretical astrophysics.
Yankopoulos humbly alsocredits his era for firing up hissuccess. Born in 1959, he recallsbeing inspired by the sky-is-the-limit speeches PresidentKennedy made (broadcast fre-quently in the years shortly fol-lowing his assassination) andbeing fascinated by the spaceprogram.
When Yankopoulos was toldthat while Greek children inGreece are encouraged to be-come scientists – the next GreekNobel prize is likely to be in thehard sciences – Greek-Americanparents tend to steer childrendown paths more likely to be
Regeneron co-Founder Reconciled BrainsAnd Money; Inspired by Family – and JFK
By Aria Socratous
HOWELL, NJ- “Education is thekindling of a flame, not the fill-ing of a vessel”, the greatphilosopher Socrates said. Con-stantinos Daskalakis is a beau-tiful mind that keeps the flameof education and innovation atthe highest level.
He was born and raised inAthens and completed his un-dergraduate studies at the Na-tional Technical University ofAthens at the Electrical andComputer Engineering Depart-ment. He graduated with thehighest grade ever awarded.
At 27, Daskalakis was ap-pointed Associate Professor atthe Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT). Prior to join-ing MIT’s faculty, Daskalakis wasa postdoctoral researcher at Mi-crosoft Research and before thathe finished his postgraduatedoctoral studies at the Univer-sity of Berkeley.
He won the 2008 DoctoralDissertation Award from the As-sociation for Computer Machin-ery (ACM) for advancing ourunderstanding of behavior incomplex networks of interactingindividuals. His dissertation,“The Complexity of Nash Equi-libria,” provides a novel algo-rithmic perspective on GameTheory and the concept of NashEquilibrium.
Daskalakis has also beenawarded a 2012 Microsoft Re-search Faculty Fellowship; suchgrants are awarded to promisingyoung researchers worldwide inrecognition of their ground-breaking, high-impact work thathas the potential to help solvesome of today’s most challeng-ing social problems.
TNH’s interview with Prof.Daskalakis follows:TNH: You were able to solve
a problem that arose from JohnNash’s work which stood unre-solved since 1950. Many econ-omists had been trying to find asolution, but with no results.What was the secret of your suc-cess?CD: The contribution of my
work was to characterize thecomputational complexity ofNash equilibrium, a concept de-fined by John Nash in 1950. Thepurpose of Nash Equilibrium isto predict what may occur in anon-cooperative game. A gameis a mathematical abstraction ofa strategic conflict between peo-ple. This may be a representa-tion of some recreational game
MIT Prof.DaskalakisSpeaks toThe HeraldComputer WhizDiscusses HisGame Theories
TNH Staff
WASHINGTON, DC – Amongthe 24 individuals who wereawarded MacArthur Foundationfellowships on September 29was Greek-American DimitriNakassis, a 40-year-old archae-ologist and historian who is anassociate professor at the Uni-versity of Toronto.
The so-called “genius grants”are a vote of confidence to someof America’s best and brightestacademics, artists, entrepre-neurs, scientists, and writers,each of whom receives
$625,000 in quarterly install-ments over a five-year period.
Prof. Nakassis, who holds aBA from the University of Michi-gan and MA and PhD degreesfrom the University of Texas atAustin, is writing a book aboutGreece’s political organizationin the late Bronze Age, and trav-eling to Greece for an archaeo-logical survey and to overseedigital imaging of ancienttablets from Pylos. The awardwill bring more attention to hisfield, which he said suffers froma perception that historianshave closed the book on Ancient
Greece. His research focuses on the
archaeology and scripts of theAegean Bronze Age, in particu-lar the administrative practicesof the Mycenaean state. He haspublished articles on Linear A,Homer and Hesiod, archaeolog-ical surveys, Greek religion andhistory, and the Mycenaeaneconomy, society and prosopog-raphy. He is the author of Indi-viduals and Society in Myce-naean Pylos (Leiden 2013), andis co-Director of the Western Ar-
Dimitri Nakassis Gets Genius Grant
Trailblazing team at drug industry giant Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Left to Right:President/CEO Leonard S. Schleifer, Chairman P. Roy Vangelos, and Chief Scientific OfficerGeorge Yankopoulos, embody the philosophy: never stop learning, discovering, and building.
Tsipras and Kerry Meet in New York, Discuss Numerous IssuesGreek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in New York onthe sidelines of the opening session of the UN General Assembly. Among the topics of discussionwhere the recent troika negotiations and the need for debt relief, the refugee crisis, the Cyprusand FYROM issues, energy matters, and developments in Ukraine and Syria.
By Penelope Karageorge
Ignoring warnings that visit-ing Greece in the middle of theeconomic crisis could provedangerous, I spent five weeksthis summer in my “hometown”horio of Lichna (population300) on the island of Lemnos.
It is an old village. Until tenyears ago, no house had beensold, but passed down genera-tion to generation. Now the vil-lage boasts a family fromVenice, and another fromCopenhagen. For Lichna, lifechanges while remaining re-markably the same. Just nextdoor, on the neighboring islandof Lesbos, thousands of refugeesflooded the island, but althoughLesbos is a mere four hoursaway by ferry, none of the spill-over arrived on Lemnos.
It Takes a(Greek)Village...
By Theodore Kalmoukos
CORONA – The Transfigurationparish in Corona finds itself inturmoil yet again, resulting inthe resignation of Parish CouncilPresident Penny Viennas, a NewYork City police officer.
Viennas submitted her resig-nation on September 20 after aheated confrontation withparish priest George Anastasiou– who is also a police chaplain– on parish matters, in the pres-ence of parishioners, during thecoffee hour after SundayLiturgy.
Viennas wrote in her resig-nation letter that “as of tonightI am stepping down as Presidentof the Parish Council due tofamily and work obligations. Iwill remain on the Board to fin-ish out my term.”
TNH has learned that parishdocuments and also minutes ofCouncil meetings are missing.
There has been talk amongparishioners, and also otherGreeks in the Greater New Yorkarea, about the payment theTransfiguration Church gave tosinger Petros Gaitanos fromGreece, for three days of chant-ing during Holy Week last year,and also regarding a concert inNew York he gave organized bythe Church, the funds of whichwere to go to the Greek Chil-dren’s Fund.
TNH asked Gaitanos aboutthese matters but he refused todisclose how much money hereceived, or whether he re-ported it to Greek authorities aswell as to the IRS – to the latterissue, he told TNH “you should-n’t care.”
Fr. Anastasiou told TNH that“it is the policy of the ParishCouncil not to talk to the pressabout Council issues,” deniedthat he and Viennas had aheated discussion on September20, but acknowledged that theCouncil is comprised of only sixmembers, instead of the 18 thatthe parish charter requires. Asto the issues regarding Gaitanos’payment, he said: “I am not anaccountant, I don’t know.”
EMAIL WARSIn an email to Anastasiou
and copied to Parish Councilmembers, Viennas who did notreply to TNH’s request for com-ment, made mention of TNH’sinterview with Anastasiou,which was printed in TNH’s sis-ter publication, Ethnikos Kyrix-
There’s New Transfiguration Turmoil
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – On October 8Greek-Americans and Philhel-lenes who have been eagerlyawaiting the reopening of theOnassis Cultural Center NY,even as they enjoyed the eventsin New York’s finest venues, willexperience a unique homecom-ing.
The Center’s new ExecutiveDirector, Amalia Kosmetatou,and its dedicated staff, alongwith Foundation officials led byFoundation President Dr. An-thony Papadimitriou, will wel-come back their friends at theOpening Night Gala Perfor-mance and Reception that isalso the inauguration of its an-nual Festival of Arts and Ideas,the Onassis Festival NY.
During the tenure of Amb.Loucas Tsillas, its first ExecutiveDirector, the Center becamesuch an integral part of theGreek-American and wider NewYork community’s cultural scenethat the Onassis Foundation(USA) embarked on a renova-tion and expansion of its facili-ties in New York’s iconicOlympic Tower.
The guests will find an ex-panded lobby connected by astairway near an evocation of awaterfall to a lower atrium.Through the doors, they will en-ter a state-of-the-art exhibitionspace.
The Center’s first presenta-tion is a four-day festival oftalks, presentations, and perfor-mances titled “Narcissus Now:The Myth Reimagined.”
“Triple Echo,” a collaborationby choreographer Jonah Bokaerand composer Stavros Gas-paratos is designed as a musicaland kinematic introduction tonew home of the Center which“explores the relevance of theclassical tradition though inno-vative and adventurous pro-grams with commissionedworks and extraordinary partic-
The OnassisCultural Cntr.Is Reopening
By Georgia Boutsianis andConstantinos E. Scaros
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – Theterm “Greek-Americans” mostreadily conjures thoughts of Hel-lenes living in the United States,although it certainly includes res-idents of other North and SouthAmerican countries who are ofGreek decent. Such is the caseregarding the Greeks of Mexico,who have weighed in on ar-guably the most-discussed polit-ical figure of the summer andearly fall, not only in Americanpolitics but by the internationalmedia as well – Donald Trump.
As he launched his 2016 pres-idential bid early in the summer,Trump made reference to theMexican government, claimingthat it “sends its criminals andrapists” to the United States. Thecharge being that in its attemptto rid its nation of the dregs ofsociety, Mexico “sends” i.e., en-courages and facilitates, the ille-gal entry of such undesirablesinto the United States, therebyclearing them out of Mexico, sothat the country could enjoy asociety of good, law-abiding cit-izens only.
Trump’s comments barely hadtime to take root and be dis-cussed on their merits beforethey were quoted differently insecond-hand articles that wereworking off of the original quote:“Trump says Mexicans ‘are crim-inals and rapists, but there aresome good ones.’” Taken out ofcontext, this implies that Trumpmade a broad, sweeping, anddisparaging generalization of anentire nationality, allowing forjust a few positive exceptions tothe rule.
Many Americans – of Mexicanand non-Mexican descent alike– took particular exception andoffense to the latter interpreta-tion of the comments. Even uponclarification – that Trump did notmean all Mexicans are like that,just the ones the Mexican gov-ernment intentionally sends hereto rid its own country of them –the remarks have been subjectto criticism, with many contend-ing that Trump’s accusationsabout the Mexican governmentare unfounded.
The National Herald dis-cussed these issues with Greeksin Mexico, who share their per-spectives via this article withtheir Greek counterparts in theUnited States and throughoutthe world.
MOSTLY ANTI-TRUMPBasilio Mavridis told TNH
that he heard both versions(“Mexicans are criminals” vs.“the Mexican government sendsits criminals”) on different tele-casts. But he doesn’t believe eventhe second version is true. It isunfortunate, he says, “that in
What GreeksIn MexicoHave to SayAbout Trump
George Yankopoulos’ Journey to Pharmaceutical Heights
Continued on page 10
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Continued on page 7
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Prime Ministerof Greece Alexis Tsipras was thesurprise speaker at the thirdcharitable fundraising gala ofthe Hellenic Initiative (THI),founded by Greek-Americans,with the triple mission of re-sponding to the economic crisisby providing humanitarian aid,supporting entrepreneurs, andgenerating investment.
Tsipras’ speech outlining re-forms and inviting those presentto help build a new Greece waswell received by the more than650 Greeks and philhellenes whoshared their thoughts with eachother about how the diasporacan help as they took in spectac-ular views from the 54th floor ofthe 4 World Trade Center tower.
Guests could see the Statueof Liberty and Ellis Island,prompting observations that thequalities that enabled Hellenesto succeed in America could beharnessed in the homeland, too.
All the gala’s proceeds willgo to THI’s programs in Greece,according to Mark Arey, its Ex-ecutive Director, but the dinnerwas also an occasion to honorthree of the community’s busi-ness leaders and philan-thropists: the late Agnes Varis,represented by George Zvokos,a trustee of the Agnes VarisTrust, and her nephew TedLeonsis, the real estate magnateGeorge Marcus, who is mostproud of founding of the Na-tional Hellenic Society amonghis charitable endeavors, andbusinessman/entrepreneur JohnCatsimatidis.
Amb. Eleni TsakopoulosKounalakis gave a heartwarm-ing introduction of Marcus,whom she thanked for her firstpaying job, and John Jr. and An-drea Catsimatidis touched theguests with their appreciationfor their father’s rise from hum-ble origins and his devotion tofamily.
George Stamas, who co-chaired the event with DennisMehiel, welcomed the guestsand Archbishop Demetrios ofAmerica offered the invocationafter Greek and America na-tional anthems were sung byAnastasia Zannia. It was apoignant moment as His Emi-nence called the guests to re-membrance of the 3000 peoplewho lost their lives nearby andnoted the area, where the newSt. Nicholas Church is rising, is
now hallowed ground.MCs Emilia Behrakis and
Ryan Serhant, stars of “MillionDollar Listing” tried to keep theprogram moving forward withhumor and pep.
THI co-founder Muhtar Kent,CEO of Coca Cola, representingthe philhellenes who are proudto be part of the endeavor,
briefly noted THI’s progress andcontributions, especially its sup-port of young entrepreneurs inGreece, but emphasized “we cando better.
Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki warmly introducedTsipras, and called for the es-tablishment of “a new Greekbrand of productivity and inno-
vation,” when he outlined hisreform priorities.
Beginning with a declarationthat his reelection has usheredin political stability for four yearthat will enable him to imple-ment his strategic vision, and af-ter asserting that debt relief re-mains a target, he pledged tofight against the clientelism, cor-
ruption, and oligarchy thathelped put Greece in crisis.
He promised to implementstructural reforms and to go be-yond the requirements of thenew memorandum to create afavorable environment for inter-national investment, includinga tax overhaul and a new in-vestment law he said will be
ready in one month.Simplicity, stability, and
transparency were Tsipras’mantras, and he added that heis “very well aware” of past ob-stacles to investments. The gov-ernment will further develop the“one-stop-shops” that eliminatered tape he said.
“The brain power and influ-ence in this room and their po-tential to do good for Greece isstaggering,” one guest said,which was echoed by AndrewLiveris, THI’s chairman, whenhe said in his brief but inspiringclosing remarks, “we bring toyou a call to action…we areprivileged to have you in thisroom. You matter.”
COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015
Hellenic Initiative’s Gala Highlighted by Surprise Guest Speaker Tsipras
1) Guests were surrounded by friends old and new – and symbolism – at the THI gala. Thewindow walls of 4 WTC overlook construction in progress on the new St. Nicholas and revealthe Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty, encountered by their forbears. Some noted that Tower 4’syet-to-be finished but still-delightful event space reminded them that building a new Greece istheir goal. 2) Amb. Eleni Kounalakis, Demetra Marcus, and George Marcus. The latter, holdingTHI’s Hellenic Leadership award, had a message for PM Tsipras: unless things change in Greece,there will be no investment. 3) Left to Right: Margo, John Jr., Andrea, and John Catsimatidis, 4)Ted Leonsis, Agnes Varis’ nephew, and George Zvokos, a trustee of the Agnes Varis Trust withthe Hellenic Leadership award presented posthumously to the woman who was pioneer in thepharmaceutical industry. 5) L-R: Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Archbishop Demetrios, AndrewLiveris, an unidentified woman taking a photo with Prime Minister Tsipras, and George Stamos.
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PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, DC – The high-light of the Washington OXI DayFoundation’s celebration of the75th anniversary of the heroicmoment of October 28, 1940when Greece stood up to theforces of fascism will be the pre-sentation of the MetropolitanChrysostomos Award to repre-sentatives of Prince Philip,posthumously honoring hismother Princess Alice for herheroism during WWII.
The award will be presentedat the Foundation’s Black TieBanquet and Award Presenta-tions on October 28 – the exactday 75 years ago when thePrime Minister of Greece an-swered the Axis Forces' demandfor surrender with the famoussingle word "OXI – NO."
The celebration begin on Oc-tober 27 with a reception hostedby Greek Ambassador ChristosPanagopoulos cohosted by theNational Hellenic Society
The following afternoon par-ticipants will attend the presen-tation of the OXI Day GreatestGeneration awards at the Na-tional WW II Memorial.
The Foundation annually se-lects a non-Greek, a Greek-American and an honoree fromGreece who distinguished them-selves in WWII.
Andy Manatos, Founder andPresident of the Foundation,told TNH that although JohnGlenn – a WWII fighter pilot andthe first American to orbit theearth – accepted the award, hisschedule will not permit him toattend.
Greek-American JamesMoshovitis and General GeorgeDouratsos of Greece will receivethe awards at a ceremony thatfeatures a keynote speech bynoted investor Michael Psaros.Robert McDonald, US Secretaryof Veterans Affairs, has been in-vited to offer remarks.
The Banquet is the occasionfor honoring contemporary he-roes in the fight for freedom.
The awards will be presentedafter the invocation offered byFr. Alexander Karloutsos, Proto-presbyter of the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate and welcoming re-marks by businessman andphilanthropist George Marcus.
The Oxi Day Award will begiven to Khalil al-Dakhi, for hisrescue of women and childrencaptured by ISIS. The Battle of
Crete Award, which is presentedto women who have acted inthe spirit of the women who de-
fended Crete against nazi at-tackers, will honor Leyla Yunus,the jailed Azerbaijani human
rights activist.
Tzanetos Antypas, Presidentof Praksis, will receive the Sec-ond Annual Stavros NiarchosFoundation Philotimo Award,He will be introduced by C.Dean Metropoulos, ExecutiveChairman and CEO, C. DeanMetropoulos & Company, andthe award will be presented byAmbassador Alexander Philon,Board Member, Stavros Niar-chos Foundation.
The Foundation will also givethe Philotimo ScholarshipAward to five Greek-Americanstudents (Grades 6-12) whobest describe “philotimo.” Theywill be presented by JudgeTheodore Bozonelis, Trustee,Nicholas G. and Anna K. BourasFoundation.
George Logothetis, Chairmanand CEO of the Libra Group,will be the keynote speaker atthe banquet.
PRINCESS OUTWITSGESTAPO
The Metropolitan Chrysosto-mos Award, named for theGreek Orthodox hierarch who
along with Mayor Lucas Carrerhelped save the 275 Jews of theIsland of Zakynthos, keeps alivethis important part of Greek his-tory.
“The Washington Oxi DayFoundation is recognizing theextraordinary courage PrincessAlice displayed as she risked cer-tain death. Princess Aliceshielded an entire Jewish family,the Cohens, across the streetfrom Gestapo Headquarters inNazi-occupied Greece duringWorld War II. Periodically, theNazis came to her home search-ing for Jewish people but shemasterfully protected them eachtime she was questioned.Princess Alice is recognized inIsrael at Yad Vashem as one ofthe "Righteous Among the Na-tions," the Foundation noted ina release, which continues herfascinating life story:
“Princess Alice marriedPrince Andrew of Greece andDenmark and lived in Greece,where her son Prince Philip wasborn. After WWII, Princess Alicestayed in Greece and establishedthe order of nuns called the
Christian Sisterhood of Marthaand Mary. She returned duringthe last two years of her life toBuckingham Palace and re-mained a Greek Orthodox Nun.”
Among the other recipientsof the award were: President ofIsrael Shimon Peres, NoblePeace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel,and American Jewish Commit-tee Executive Director DavidHarris (2013).
The three-day event willhave a solemn conclusion dur-ing a Wreath Laying Ceremonyat the Tomb of the UnknownSoldiers at Arlington NationalCemetery.
According to its website,“The Washington Oxi Day Foun-dation is a nonprofit, 501c3 or-ganization dedicated to inform-ing American policymakers andthe public about the profoundrole Greece played in bringingabout the outcome of World WarII and celebrating modern dayheroes who exhibit the samecourage as the Greeks did incontinuing to fight to preserveand promote freedom anddemocracy around the world.”
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015 3
75th Wash, DC OXI Day Gala Honors Heroism of Prince Philip’s Mother
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Anthony Quinnwas born one hundred years ago.The man who comes to mindwhen people think of the quin-tessential Greek. The birth tookplace not in Greece, but in Chi-huahua, Mexico, and not in aGreek immigrant community, butto parents of Mexican and Irishstock.
Records list him as AntonioRodolfo Quinn Oaxaca. In Hol-lywood, he was Anthony Quinn,but the world knows him asZorba the Greek.
On September 25 his life andwork were commemorated witha special screening in Manhattanof the beautifully restored Zorbathe Greek presented by the Na-tional Hellenic Society (NHS),the Hellenic American Chamberof Commerce and the NYC GreekFilm Festival in association withthe Anthony Quinn Foundation.
The celebration of the cente-nary of Quinn’s birth was gracedby Katherine Benvin Quinn, whowas his personal assistant and
became his third wife in 1997.She has devoted herself to theperpetuation of her husband’smemory through the Foundationand was accompanied at thescreening by one of their twochildren, Antonia Patricia RoseQuinn.
The movie again movedguests regardless of how manytimes they had seen it. They nod-ded in assent when Quinn’sdaughter noted later that everytime she views it, more of thedepth director Michael Cakoyan-nis film and Nikos Kazantzakis’novel is revealed.
While Alan Bates’ work asZorba’s charge leaves much tobe desired, Quinn’s performancewas incandescent. KatherineQuinn noted during Q & A thather husband and Cakoyannisbattled over the role, but the di-rector later conceded that the ac-tor’s intuition was on the money.
It will come as a surprise tono one that Walter Lassally wonthe Academy Award for Best Cin-ematography. The opening shotsof Crete are breathtaking, andthe rest pulls the audience into
a fascinating, long-gone world.Irene Pappas’ portrayal of “Thewidow” is spellbinding.
The audience was greeted byattorney Art Dimopoulos, NHS’Executive Director, and James
DeMetro, the Executive Directorof the NYC Greek Film Festivalthat runs from October 2 to 25.
The Best of the NYC GreekFilm Festival will be presentedin Boston Nov. 3-5 and KatherineQuinn will be present at a freescreening of Zorba . For more in-formation visit www.nycgreek-filmfestival.com.
Dr. Apostolos Pappas, bio-chemist and cinephile, moder-ated the Q&A that followed thescreening and shared his ency-clopedic knowledge of the liveand work of Quinn with the au-dience.
In a parallel universe, whereQuinn had taken the role of theDon Vito Corleone in The God-father – he was among thoseconsidered for the role – was of-fered to him here, is he consid-ered the archetypal Italian?Highly doubtful, because whatothers feel about him, Quinn feltabout himself: Greekness res-onates deep in his soul.
Renaissance Man is as good alabel as passionate man forQuinn, but the pull of art, whichfascinated him his entire life –
drawings and paintings were in-terspersed with stills from hismovies on the big screen duringthe tribute – drew him into theorbit of Frank Lloyd Wright, whowas his architecture teacher andthen his friend.
Wright encouraged Quinnwhen roles came, and when hewas offered $800 a week to ap-pear in a film, Wright said tohim: "Take it, you'll never makethat much with me,” KatherineQuinn said.
Quinn's personal life was asvolatile and passionate as thecharacters he played in films andKatherine Quinn confirmed that“the characters he played repre-sent so many of his qualities,”emphasizing his humanity, hislove of people, and his passion-ate relationships with women.
Quinn is said to have por-trayed more than 20 ethnicgroups in his movies, but hismany turns as a Greek, besidesZorba, including in The Guns ofNavarone and as Aristotle Onas-sis in The Last Tycoon, stand out.He also played opposite IrenePappas seven times.
Princess Alice, Queen Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, will be hon-ored posthumously for WWII heroism in Washington, DC. Rep-resentatives of Prince Philip will receive the award.
Zorba the Greek and Anthony Quinn Live Again in New York
Quinn portrayed members ofmore than 20 ethnic groups,but his many turns as a Greek,including in Zorba, The Gunsof Navarone, and as AristotleOnassis in The Last Tycoon,stand out.
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This is a place, hopefully, tosoothe the soul. Lichna retainsits wild charm, along with twochurches, a beautiful old churchon the square whose bells clangfar and wide, and the small St.John the Baptist, a gem belovedby the villagers.
Sheep graze. A farmer tendshis corn and squash. A perfectbeach is a ten- minute walkaway. The fish monger arrivesdaily. The melon farmer parkshis truck and enjoys an ouzo.Every morning the bread truckpulls up to Eleni’s grocery store.Dogs, most of them pets of theAthenian summer residents,bark merrily. These urban statussymbols appear well-fed. Thecrisis is rarely discussed, but itis there. Along with its manynegatives, the crisis is attractingcreative people to Lichna, peo-ple who are making a differ-ence.
The crisis inspired Vassilis Pi-antes, 30, to open the café“Don’t Worry” on the site of aformer kafeneio. A finger-click-ing success, the café was packedevery night with people from allover the island. Reservationswere a must. Says Vassilis: “Theeconomic crisis comes to us inmany ways. My generation is ina difficult situation, because ourfathers were born poor, but theywent to the cities and mademoney. We were educated, butwhen we finished our studies,we faced a situation where wecouldn’t use our abilities.
“I studied in England, had abusiness degree, and returnedto Greece when the crisisstarted. The future did not lookgood. I did not want to be in abank working ten hours a day,waiting twenty years for my fu-ture to happen while earning
600 euros a month. I wanted tocreate my future now. Lemnosoffered a more quality way oflife.
“My grandfather was fromLichna, and although I grew upin Athens, I would come herefor the summer. I came to Lem-nos, and started the café morefor fun than for having a job.My friends Yiannis and his wifeElsa were already living here –he had studied to be an architectin England. We wanted to goout in Lemnos. We didn’t havea place to go.
“We said let’s create thisspace, and others can join us.We had a minimum budget. Werented the kafeneio. It was awreck. We fixed it with our ownhands. None of us had any ex-perience cooking, or knew whatwe were doing. But the café hasbecome a real destination.
“Our chef is Loukas Mailer.He’s half Austrian and halfGreek, and went to the culinary
academy in Thessaloniki. Hismother is a teacher here. He isreally creative. He takes originalthings and products from Lem-nos and gives them a specialtwist, a new flavor. He is 26, buthas worked for 10 years in theindustry. I think that we make agood team.
“Some of the people in vil-lage complain about the noise,and that we’re open late. Butmost of the people in the villagesupport us. They are happy notto see the square empty. Evenwith the noise they accept it, be-cause they like it. We feel thatthe café is the first step. We arebrainstorming and consideringhow we might expand – to putmore local products on the mar-ket, perhaps.
“From the beginning, wewere young people – 22 to 30 –having the joy of doing newthings. It’s not the usual foodthat we present. We don’t wantto be bored. You find too manypeople around you who arebored. We don’t want that. Wewant people to be stimulated.The food – the atmosphere –how the person talks to you –it’s coming from your soul. Ithink that’s part of the café’ssuccess.”
Eva, an artist who studiedeconomics in Crete, creates jew-elry. She grew up in Lichna, andeight years ago returned afterliving in Athens. She found lifethere extremely difficult, partic-ularly because of the new im-migrants who are flooding thecity. She sells her jewelry in ashop in Myrina, the island’smain city. Her handsome sonHaris works in the café.
Angela Diamandidou, an ar-chitect from London, has addedanother dimension to the villagewith her Malama Cottages,which she rents to people seek-ing a unique travel experience:a young German family of twodoctors with two boys whothrive on the island’s beaches; aLebanese photographer; a Bul-garian film-maker with his wifeand children. Interesting peoplefrom around the globe who seekGreek authenticity.
As for the crisis, “I don’t thinkyou notice it the way you do inthe cities. You don’t notice ithere because so many peopleare self sufficient. They havetheir own chickens. They growtheir own vegetables. In gen-eral, you can survive here betterthan in Athens. It doesn’t reallyshow here.
“I was brought up in Athens,”Angela says, “and lived thereuntil I was 18. Then I went toThessaloniki to study architec-ture, and then to Denmark, be-cause I liked Danish architectureand design. I went to London,where I married, had two chil-dren, and have spent most ofmy life. But emotionally I’m in-volved with Greece, in an al-most romantic way. I like thesea, the soil, Greek poetry.
“Looking ahead, I am count-ing on the young people. Theywant to change things. Theywant to create something differ-ent. They seem to support eachother. My daughter Daphnelives in Athens and says it’s al-most like a commune there.They help each other.”
Christina Zaimis, the thirty-something mother of four, hasa more pessimistic take on the
crisis. A former President of thevillage, Christina has spent mostof her life in Lichna, except fora detour to earn a degree inbusiness administration inAthens. Her husband works forthe post office. A true Greek,Christina would not consider liv-ing in any other place. “I lovemy country,” Christina says. “Iexpected a crisis, because thepoliticians are horrible, one af-ter the other. I think this is justthe beginning and things willget worse.
“What I realize is that peoplein the village have changed, andnot for the better. The youngerpeople as well. They don’t likeanything. You sit and have aconversation, and they say theyneed something new to happen,but when that thing happens,they change their minds andfight it.
“Their attitude towards workis learned from parents andgrandparents. If I pay a repair-man and he does a terrible job,you can be sure I won’t go back
to him. If I offer you work, andyou don’t want the work, whatcan I do? Ten years ago some-one came here and wanted tostart a factory. Nobody wantedto work for him, because theyhad money. The factory neverstarted. That’s when the Alba-nians came and took the avail-able work by offering lowerprices for anything they couldget.
“When I find someone com-plaining, I want to say why don’tyou go and fish, go and hunt,raise some vegetables and fruitfor yourself?
“I’m very pleased about thecafé, because it’s full of life. Iam happy that people come andvisit the village. The peoplefrom other countries are verypleasant. They offer -- they don’tdemand. Many people from thevillage are difficult. They builda wall and you can’t communi-cate or sort things out.”
Christina enjoys the winter,despite a busy schedule that in-cludes driving her children toother locales where ballet, foot-ball, music and English lessonsare offered. “I love winter be-cause it’s friendlier. We eat, wesocialize. As for the difficult peo-ple, I don’t care about them.Those people don’t make the vil-lage for me. It’s the church. It’sthe hills. It’s the sea. That’s myvillage, with my memories andmy family.”
Effrosyni Moschoudi and herhusband, Andrew, Athens resi-dents, were visiting her fatherand mother for the summer. Ef-frosyni lost her job with HellasJets, with no compensation, andto alleviate her depression,turned to writing. Her book,Lady of the Pier, part of a ro-mantic trilogy, will be publishedon line. Husband Andrew, aBritish ex-pat, has a secure jobinvolving the boating industryoutside of Greece. Both hermother, who worked in clothesproduction, and father, a car-penter, had their pensions cutwhile working in Athens. Theyare now making their Lichnasummer home a year-round res-idence. “My father plants an es-pecially large vegetable garden,”said Effrosyni, “and helps outneighbors who are having diffi-culties. I haven’t been here ineleven years, and nothing ap-pears to be changed. AfterAthens, it’s endearing thateveryone says hello.”
Six years ago, twin brothersPhotis and Vassilis Manolak-outhes, Lichna’s cabbies, aban-doned Athens for Lemnos andopened a successful taxi busi-ness.
Photis believes that the cur-rent crisis is just the tip of theiceberg, and will be more visibleand prevalent in days to come.“The Greek people don’t change.They don’t want to change. It’slike the wild West with no sher-iff to come to the rescue.”
Vassilis says: “Things will getbetter. My brother and I areokay with our cab business. Ofcourse, in 2009, I took all of mymoney out of the bank. I calleda cousin in Boston who had adeposit of 20,000 Euros in abank in Athens and she wasgrateful.”
It Takes a (Greek) Village: Rediscovering My Roots in Lichna, on LemnosContinued from page 1
Lichna, Lemnos, enjoys life in a pastoral setting.
Christina Zaimis, former vil-lage president, takes a pes-simistic view on the crisis.
www.GreekKitchennyc.com
By Dr. ConstantinaMichalos
HOUSTON, TX – My Yiayiacame to America when I wasabout eight years old. She wasthe only grandparent I ever met.My paternal grandmother haddied long before I was born; mypaternal grandfather lived inGreece and died before wecould ever meet; my maternalgrandfather died when he wasjust 43, and he left my Yiayia ayoung widow with seven chil-dren. She wore black from theday he died until the day shedied – almost 50 years later.
One Mother’s Day, the older,employed, grandchildrenchipped in and bought Yiayia ablack housecoat (only in NewYork can one find a store thatcaters to Greek, Italian, Jewishand Puerto Rican widowedgrandmothers). It had teensywhite polka dots – I mean youhad to go right up to her to no-tice them, and even then, theylooked like flecks of dandruff.She refused to wear the house-coat. It wasn’t black. It wouldbe disrespectful to Pappou’smemory.
I’m embarrassed to admitthat when I first met my Yiayia,she scared the daylights out ofme. She was tiny – I was proba-bly already taller than she was.And she was completelyswathed in black: black dress,black hose, black shoes, blackkerchief. A long, thin whitebraid hung down her back,punctuating the unrelievedblackness of her frame. Milkyblue eyes stared out from thewrinkles that etched her face,and her hands, dotted with liverspots, lay in her lap. She usedto sit quietly, watching us play,
and twiddle her thumbs. I don’tthink I’d ever seen someone ac-tually do that. The really scarypart, though, was her “smile.”Yiayia had two teeth – that’s it– set on a diagonal so that whenshe smiled, she looked like aJack-o’-Lantern.
Obviously, Yiayia wasn’t thegrandmother I had seen on TVor read about in the Dick andJane books at school. No piescooling on the window sill whenI got home from school. No spe-cial tea parties or shoppingsprees. I was too young andclueless to ask her about life inGreece or what her transatlanticflight was like. Imagine that.She left a village that had no in-door plumbing or electricity andboarded an airplane for Amer-ica. Alone. Now that’s courage.On my first flight, I traveledwith my cousin, we spoke bothEnglish and Greek, and I dugmy nails into the arm of a totalstranger upon takeoff and land-ing. I’m sure Yiayia just sat twid-dling the whole way.
Yiayia lived with my TheiaSevasti, my Theio Miltiadi, andmy cousin Tom. They had moreroom, and they lived on the firstfloor. She used to sit under atree outside their apartment andwatch us play. We never askedher to throw us a ball or holdthe end of a jump rope. It wasn’tlike that. She just watched us –perhaps remembering her ownchildren playing in the horafia-fields, perhaps just enjoying thegrandchildren she never imag-ined she would see.
When the ice cream man jin-gled by, she would eat a vanillacup, savoring every spoonful aswe inhaled our treats. If westarted arguing among our-selves, she would gently remind
us to be nice to one another. Butshe never ratted us out to ourparents. She wasn’t our babysit-ter. She was our guardian angel.
Our Jewish friends had theirbubbas. Our Puerto Ricanfriends had their abuelitas. Wehad our Yiayia.
AWAY TO “GREECE”Then, she died. The younger
children were shuttled off to myoldest sister’s house. We weren’ttold anything and we couldn’task questions, but we knewsomething was definitely wrong.The grownups were actingweird. Everyone was in black.Everyone was crying. When wecould go home, we weren’t al-lowed to watch TV or listen tothe radio. We were surroundedby strangers who nodded know-
ingly at us and pinched ourcheeks until we lost all feelingin our faces.
This went on forever – actu-ally, 40 days. Then things, kindof went back to normal. Exceptthat Yiayia wasn’t there any-more, and we didn’t know why.“She went back to Greece,” thegrownups said. That can’t beright. She would never leavewithout saying good-bye. With-out a kiss on the forehead. Dino,the oldest of the youngestgrandchildren, wise at 12 andthe boss of all of us, said thatYiayia had died. We didn’t quiteunderstand, but it made moresense than her mysterious re-turn to Greece.
Twenty-five years later, myTheio Epaminonda, the
youngest of my mother’s sib-lings, died of a heart attack. Iflew from Houston back to NewYork for his funeral. Oneevening, we were all sittingaround the dining room table inmy mother’s apartment, and oneof my uncles wondered whowas going to call their brother,Theio Spiro, in Greece to tellhim that his baby brother haddied.
When my Theio Yianni died,my cousins and I were in Athensand had the dubious honor oftelling Theio Spiro the news. Tosay he went nuts is an under-statement. The keening andwailing and rending of garments– he left Euripides in the dust!
So now, the grownups weretrying to figure out who would
draw the short straw and makethe call to Athens. Well, not ex-actly all the grown-ups. Thecousins, all adults now, werethinking something else com-pletely. I knew it was going tobe Tom. It had to be Tom. Wehad all waited patiently, but hehad earned this moment. Afterall, Yiayia had lived with him.
“Theio Spiro?” he asked.“What about Yiayia? Who’s go-ing to tell Yiayia?”
We held our breaths.“Yiayia? “Vre, trellos papas
se vaptise-a crazy priest bap-tized you.” Yiayia died.”
“She did? Then who’s beencashing those checks I’ve beensending for Christmas andMother’s Day?”
No one moved. We didn’tdare look at one another. Butthen we couldn’t hold it anylonger. We had waited for 25years! We burst out laughing asthe “grownups” realized howpreposterous they had been allthose years ago. In their effortsto protect us from the truth,they constructed a clumsy, un-realistic story about our Yiayiathat, under different circum-stances, could have backfired.We could have all felt aban-doned, resentful that she hadcome and gone from our livesso suddenly. But that didn’t hap-pen. In her short time with us,in her quiet way, she made usall feel special.
So, even if we didn’t reallyunderstand what it meant todie, we definitely understoodwhat it meant to be loved. Byour Yiayia. By our well-inten-tioned, ridiculous parents!
Happy Grandparents Day toall the Yiayiades and Pappoudesout there, including the oneswho went back to Greece.
“A Crazy Priest Baptized You!” Alternatively, “Yiayia Went to Live in Greece”
Grandparents Day was recently celebrated. So, this goes out to all the yiayiades and pappoudes– including the ones who mysteriously “went to live in Greece.”
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COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015 5
By Constantinos E. Scaros
HONOLULU, HI – A couple ofweeks ago while speaking at acampaign rally in New Hamp-shire, Republican presidentialcandidate Donald Trump calledon a man in the crowd who said:“we all know there’s a problemin the United States, it’s calledMuslims, and our president,well, we know he’s not even anAmerican…” The man went onto say there are secret Muslimtraining camps in the UnitedStates and wanted to know whatTrump would do about them.
When Trump summarily dis-missed the man by saying“there’s a lot of bad stuff…we’relooking into it,” and then movedto another questioner, he wascriticized for not having cor-rected the man on two counts:that President Obama is Ameri-can-born, and that he is Christ-ian, not Muslim. “It’s the firsttime I ever got in trouble for notsaying something,” Trump laterquipped.
Those two hypotheses, thatObama was born in a foreigncountry (namely, Kenya) andthat he is really a Muslim – thereligion of his father, BarackObama Sr. – are the main com-ponents of the “birther” move-ment, which can be traced backto its principal if unintentionalcreator, Andy Martin.
The attorney and perennialpresidential candidate, whosemother’s family is from theGreek town Tsaritsani, nearLarissa, has been widely deemedthe father of Obama birtherismby the New York Times, Wash-ington Post, and other majormedia outlets. In an interviewwith The National Herald, re-motely from his current Hon-olulu, HI location – where he isinvestigating Honolulu’s port’svulnerability to terrorist attack– Martin set the record straightabout his views on PresidentObama’s religion, real father,and birthplace, and on the latterpoint challenged Donald Trumpto produce evidence to the con-trary he had said he was obtain-ing.
BORN IN THE USATo clarify any confusion and
to disassociate himself from amovement he says has spiraledinto being short on facts andlong on innuendo, Martin re-cently issued his “2015 BirtherBible,” a letter clearly explaininghis positions.
“Greetings from Honolulu,the birthplace of PresidentBarack Obama,” he begins, andexplains that there is absolutelyno credible evidence thatObama was born in Kenya oranywhere else outside theUnited States, and he does notwant to be associated with such
speculation.In that letter, he also states
that U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’claim that Hillary Clinton wasthe originator of the birthermovement is false. “I like TedCruz,” Martin writes, but unlesshe has evidence that she actuallymade such comments – he ac-knowledges that her campaignran a photo of Obama wearinga turban while visiting Kenya in
2006, but nothing beyond that– then she should not be attrib-uted to founding birtherism. Itwas Martin’s 2008 lawsuit foraccess to Obama’s birth certifi-cate, he reminds, that startedthe movement.SCHOLARLY RESEARCHMartin describes his work as
scholarly research, to which heis faithfully dedicated and inter-est in which stemmed from hismother’s example. “My motherwas one of the first women froma Greek immigrant family tograduate from an Ivy Leagueuniversity (MA, Cornell), andshe also graduated from the Uni-versity of New Hampshire (BA)and the University of Illinois(PhD) and studied at OxfordUniversity, England (where Istarted on the road to becominga scholarly researcher),” he toldTNH.
For this reason, Martin haswalked away from the birthermovement, because he does notwant to be associated with the“hucksters who lie aboutObama.”
“I am a political opponent of
Obama,” Martin discloses. “But Ihave no intention or desire to lieabout the facts of his origins orlife. And, a decade after I firststarted writing about Obama, allof my factual assertions havebeen proven correct, and evenmy theories have received grow-ing acceptance for their potentialveracity. Two of such theorieshave to do with Obama’s religionand who his father really is.
NEITHER MUSLIM NORCHRISTIAN
“I am adamant that PresidentObama was born in Hawaii,”Martin told TNH. But he believesthat “the overall historical recordon Obama's religious practices isso conflicted and convoluted,reasonable people can disagreeand choose to believe he is either
a Muslim or a Christian.Personally, Martin says “I do
not believe that in practiceObama is either a Muslim orChristian. He grew up in an athe-istic home. His mother was nota believer, and neither were hisgrandparents. There is no evi-
dence that Obama was ever bap-tized, even at Reverend JeremiahWright's church. Like OrthodoxChristians, the United Church ofChrist (Wright’s church) main-tains baptismal records and nonehave ever been released byObama.”OBAMA’S REAL FATHER Although Martin bases his
contention that Obama is reallyAmerican-born on the facts, headmits that perhaps his mostdramatic accusation – that thepresident’s real father is not infact Kenyan-born Muslim BarackObama Sr., but rather FrankMarshall Davis, a journalist,poet, and labor rights activistwho, like Obama’s mother, AnnDunham, was born in Kansasand died in Hawaii – is still justa theory.
Martin says that while someconservatives have embraced histheory, others flatly deny it be-cause if true, it would completelyremove any speculation thatObama was foreign-born or hasany lineal ties to Islam. “Othershave followed in my footstepswith their own versions support-ing my original research,” Martintells TNH, “But for diehardObama opponents, the possibilitythat both his father and mothercould be American is a pill theyare unlikely to ever swallow. Iwant to underscore that theDavis theory remains just a the-ory.”
TRUMPING TRUMPMartin in his letter makes
mention of the attention Trumpdrew in 2011 when he, too,called on Obama to release hisbirth certificate. Now Martin, inturn, asks Trump to release evi-dence Trump says he was gath-ering via a team of investigatorshe says he sent to Honolulu todetermine if in fact Obama wasborn there.
If Martin were Trump’s cam-paign manager, TNH asked,what advice would he give tohim? “Well, Trump is a difficultperson to advise,” Martin began.“But given his past statements[about birtherism] his currentstandard response "I'm not dis-cussing that any longer" may bethe best place for him.”
END OF BIRTHERISM?TNH pointed out that based
on federal immigration law, evenif Obama really were born inKenya, that would not precludehim from being president be-cause the widely-held interpre-tation is that he would still havebeen eligible because his motherwas American-born – as if thereason Cruz, himself a currentGOP presidential candidate, whowas born in Canada, is eligible.
Martin agrees, and says “I donot believe any modern courtwould find either Obama or Cruzineligible. Today, I believe mostpeople (and certainly the courts)would say if you are born in theUnited States, or of an Americanparent who is temporarily out-side the states, you are eligibleto be president.” He reempha-sized: “there is not a scintilla ofevidence Obama was born out-side the United States.”
MYSTERY MANWhatever evidence unfolds
about Obama’s religion and pa-ternity, Martin has concludedthat our current president’s pastlargely remains a mystery. Hetold TNH that secrecy laws pro-hibit the ability to identify andinterview those at Columbia orHarvard Universities so they canshed some light on Obama’s col-lege and law school years.
Martin predicts that uponleaving the White House, Obamawill “discover” – Martin thinksObama already knows – thatFranklin Marshall Davis is hisreal father. “We humans find itdifficult to live a lie, and the in-ternal urge to confess is a partof our DNA. I can’t prove Davisis the father, but I have a visceralbelief in my theory that he is.Time will tell whether I was rightabout Obama, once again.”
Birtherism Originator Andy Martin Now Says Obama was Born in the US
Andy Martin, creator of theObama birther theory.
Martin explains that although Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaignreleased this photo of Obama wearing a turban while visitingKenya in 2006, there is no evidence that she alleged thatObama was born outside the United States.
Speculation that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim islinked to his father, Barack Obama Sr. (seen here), who himselfwas a Kenyan-born Muslim.
Martin contends that Obama’sreal father is American-bornFrank Marshall Davis.
A FAMILY AFFAIR (MIA OIKOGENEIAKI YPOTHESI)Three generations of the famed Xylouris family travel the world upholding the vibrant traditionof Cretan music. Best Documentary 2015, Hellenic Film Academy.AND I ALSO PASSED BY THERE… (PERASA KI’ EGO APO KI….)The centuries-old tradition of storytelling is vibrantly alive in this documentary, featuring villageelders telling stories they learned when they were children.AT HOME (STO SPITI)A housekeeper who considers herself a member of the family she has faithfully served foryears is forced to recognize her true status within the household.maria Callimani, Best Actress2015, Hellenic Film Academy.BENEATH THE OLIVE TREEThis documentary examines the long-suppressed story of women unjustly imprisoned in aconcentration camp during the tumultuous Greek civil war.NICOLETAA young boy tries to secure a better future for his baby sister.FOREVER (GIA PANTA)This story of two lonely people unfolds with stunning cinematography and minimum dialogue.will they manage to surrender to their need for love and break the loneliness that surroundsthem?IRENE AND MARIEOlympia Dukakis portrays a woman facing the harsh realities of growing old.LITTLE ENGLAND (MIKRA AGGLIA)The enthralling drama of two sisters of a shipping family in love with the same man makes areturn engagement to the NyCGFF, with screenings in Astoria and manhasset.LOVESTRUCK (APO EROTA)On the eve of his wedding, a firefighter must contend with the ghost of a former girlfrienddetermined to stop the proceedings from taking place. winner, Best Picture 2015, OTE Au-dience Award.MANAOver 50 years ago, six young girls, in defiance of their parents, joined a convent and foundeda shelter for abused children. “The fiercest girl gang in Greek Orthodox Church history” isstill at it, having taken more than 500 children so far into their unconventional family.SAN ROMA: WE ARE GYPSIESThis fascinating documentary visits gypsy settlements in Greece, crossing seemingly forbiddenborders to meet the Greek roma.PROMAKHOS: THE FIRST LINETwo Athenian attorneys wage a legal battle against the British museum to win the return ofthe Parthenon marbles to Greece.A LIFE, TAKENA New york City police detective discovers long-hidden demons from her past.RIVERBANKS (OHTHES)A mysterious soldier challenges his fate daily clearing a deadly minefield. when he falls inlove, his life gets even trickier.STRATOS (TO MIKRO PSARI)A hired killer seeks redemption in a world that has lost all sense of morality. Vangelis mourikis,Best Actor 20115, Hellenic Film Academy. Adults onlyWEDNESDAY 04:45 (TETARTI 04:45)when a gangster calls in his debts, a jazz club owner has 32 hours to save everything he hasworked to achieve over the years.OPENING NIGHT IN MANHATTAN—MON., OCTOBER 19, BOW TIE CHELSEA CINEMAFree admission made possible by a grant from Pan Gregorian7 pm LOVE, LIFE, HEARTBREAK: A program of short films ranging from the trivial tothe sublime.9 pm THREE FILMMAKERS TO WATCH: yianna Dellatolla, Nicolas kolovos, andSpriros Charalambous, three filmmakers about to take the next big step in their careers,present their short films.
Website: www.nycgreekfilmfestival.com • Tel: 212-629-6380
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HELLENIC AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCEONASSIS FOUNDATION (USA)
THE AGNES VARIS CHARITABLE TRUSTHELLENIC AMERICAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION
THE ΝΙΝΤΗ ANNUALNEW YORK CITY
GREEK FILM FESTIVALFRIDAY, OCTOBER 2–SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2015
2015: ANOTHER GREAT YEAR FOR GREEK FILMS!
MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE 35 Avenue at 37 Street, Astoria, NYFri OCT 2 7:30 pm A FAmily AFFAirSAT OCT 3 3:00 pm AT HOmESuN OCT 4 4:30 pm lOVESTruCkSuN OCT 4 7:00 pm STrATOSSuN OCT 11 3:00 pm liTTlE ENGlAND
BOW TIE CINEMA MANHASSET 430 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NYmON OCT 12 7:00 pm AT HOmEmON OCT 12 9:00 pm A FAmily AFFAirTuE OCT 13 7:00 pm lOVESTruCkTuE OCT 13 9:00 pm liTTlE ENGlAND
BOW TIE CHELSEA CINEMA260 West 23 Street, New York CitymON OCT 19 7:00 pm lOVE, liFE, HEArTBrEAk:
SHOrT FilmS / FrEE EVENTmON OCT 19 9:00 pm Filmmakers to watch / FrEE EVENTTuE OCT 20 7:00 pm AND i AlSO PASSED By THErE
AND HAD PAPEr SHOES TO wEArTuE OCT 20 9:00 pm riVErBANkSwED OCT 21 7:00 pm PrOmAkHOS: THE FirST liNE
and A liFE, TAkENwED OCT 21 9:15 pm mANA and SAm rOmA: wE ArE GyPSiES
NYIT AUDITORIUM1871 Broadway (between West 61 and West 62 Streets), NYCFri OCT 23 7:00 pm BENEATH THE OliVE TrEE and NiCOlETAFri OCT 23 9:00 pm STrATOSSAT OCT 24 7:00 pm A FAmily AFFAirSAT OCT 24 9:00 pm AT HOmESuN OCT 25 2:00 pm FOrEVEr and irENE AND mAriESuN OCT 25 4:30 pm lOVESTruCkSuN OCT 25 7:00 pm wEDNESDAy 04:45
FILM SCHEDULE
SOME FILMS LIFT OUR SPIRITS IN A TROUBLED WORLD. OTHERS DEAL WITH THAT TROUBLED WORLD.
ALL REFLECT THE ONGOING DYNAMICS OF LIVING GREEK CULTURE.
Substitution of any film may be made without notice. Films not in English will have English subtitles.
HOW TO BUY TICKETS• On-line at: www.nycgreekfilmfestival.com• Charge by phone (no service fee): 917-710-3027• For screenings at the museum of the moving image,
call 718-777-6800 or visit www.movingimage.us• remaining tickets will be sold at the box office at time
of screening
such as rock-paper-scissors, orit could model a nuclear conflictor an entire market. Nashshowed that any game may finditself in a stable state whosecharacteristics he specified. Thisstate is called Nash equilibriumin his honor. Following Nash’sinfluential theorem, mathemati-cians and economists alike havestrived to design algorithms forcalculating Nash equilibria, andtherefore predicting what hap-pens in conflicts. Nevertheless,all proposed algorithms arecomputationally inefficient.What is worse, this has castdoubt into whether Nash equi-libria may truly arise in practicalsituations. After all, if Nashequilibria are computationallyintractable, then how can theypossibly arise in practice? Moti-vated by this important questionand inspired by the lack ofprogress for fifty years, my col-laborators and I took a differentperspective, showing somethingquite unexpected. We provedthat there is no computationallyefficient algorithm for Nashequilibrium. That is, no matterhow much scientist try, they willnever be able to find such an al-gorithm, because it simply doesnot exist. The concept is inher-ently un-computable!TNH: When did you meet
Nash and what was your firstimpression of him?CD: I met John Nash in
Chicago during the 2008 Con-gress of the Game Theory Soci-ety. Christos Papadimitriou, PaulGoldberg and I were receivingan award for our work on thecomputational complexity of theNash equilibrium, and I was in-vited to present our result at thecongress. I was astounded to seeJohn Nash in my talk, and hadthe honor of presenting my PhD
research to the person who gavehis name to Nash Equilibrium.Afterwards I had a conversationwith him about the computa-tional intractability of Nash equi-libria. I was struck by his intelli-gence and clarity of mind. In thegroup of extremely smart andtalented people I am blessed tointeract with, John Nash offeredme one of the most intriguingconversations I have ever had.TNH: In 2012 you solved an-
other challenging social problemthat had been unresolved forthirty years. What was it about?CD: As a whole, my research
focuses on computational prob-lems at the interface of Com-puter Science and Economics,particularly those relating to thedesign and study of the Internet.In addition to being a remark-able computational system, theInternet is also a complex socio-economic system that lacks cen-tralized design or governance.To gain a better understandingof its operation, computer scien-tists are applying economic prin-ciples to its study. Through thisresearch, we hope to gain a bet-ter understanding of what ishappening in complex socio-eco-nomic environments and how todesign systems that have goodproperties when economic andcomputational phenomena takeplace at the same time. My mostrecent findings have to do withthe design of auctions. My stu-dents and I presented a new the-ory for the formerly elusiveproblem of selling multiple itemsunder differing market condi-tions to maximize revenue, aproblem left open by Myerson’scelebrated work on single-itemauctions in 1981. This problemalso has significant practical ap-plications in sponsored search,online ad exchanges, and spec-trum auctions.TNH: What are you currently
working on?CD: I’m working on problems
at the interface of Computer Sci-ence, Economics and Probability.Besides the problems we havealready discussed, I am fasci-nated by Machine Learning, thesubfield of Artificial Intelligenceexploring the design and analy-sis of algorithms that learn mod-els from data, in order to makereliable predictions. Automatedtranslation, and recommenda-tion systems, such as those em-ployed by Netflix, are good ex-ample applications. Within thisfield, I’m interested in problemsarising in Computational Biologyand the interface of Learningand Probability TheoryTNH: Do you like living in
the United States? How wouldyou compare it to life in Greece?CD: As far as my academic
life is concerned, I really lovebeing in the States. My studentsand colleagues at MIT are amaz-ing and I find it a great pleasureand privilege to interact withthem. On the other hand, I missmy homeland and some aspectsof the Greek lifestyle. WhileGreeks do work a lot (unlikesome stereotypes maintain),they also know how to enjoytheir life more. I find that youshould strive for balance in life,otherwise you may find yourselfliving only through your work.Work, I think, is too much of thefocus in the States. Of course,things get more complex for sci-entists like myself, since scienceis not just work, but a passion.TNH: Please describe a typi-
cal day in your life.CD: Well, one of the things
that I enjoy about academia isthat every single day is different.This is a blessing and a curse atthe same time. It is a blessingbecause you are mostly incharge of your own schedule,and a curse because you end up
accepting too many tasks. In ausual weekday, I’ll find myselfjuggling teaching, researchmeetings, and university com-mittees. When not doing all that,I love having a cup of coffee andthinking, catching up with myreading, or going to the movies.TNH: What’s your opinion
about the escalating politicaland economic turmoil inGreece? Have you ever consid-ered to get politically engagedin order to help with your ex-pertise?CD: I find the situation that
has been unfolding in Greecerather worrisome. It is quite un-fortunate that, despite the obvi-ous need for change, Greece hasnot been able to create an envi-ronment for exploiting well itsremarkable human capital andnatural resources. Instead of ad-mitting the economy’s structuralproblems, a large part of theGreek population is still tryingto find blame elsewhere, be itthe Europeans or the immi-grants. At the same time, Greekgovernments have been protect-ing economic interests and at-tacking the poor and the pen-sioners, creating a negativespiral that is shrinking the GDP.While Greece is perfectly capa-ble to turn a corner and has ahuge potential, some are work-ing hard to keep the country inmisery.
I have been asked to run forthe elections several times, but Iwould only consider it if I wereinspired that there is potentialfor real change. It would alsohave to be the case that my ex-pertise is useful, as I have no po-litical aspirations for the sake ofbeing a politician. For the timebeing, I prefer to offer my ser-vices to my homeland fromwhere I am, continuing my aca-demic career.TNH: Do you think that crisis
has affected Greek education aswell?CD: Let me say first that for
the size of our country it is quiteimpressive how much talent wehave, as witnessed by worldclass recognition in science, artand entrepreneurship. If Greececould exploit this remarkable tal-ent to its benefit, things wouldhave been very different. Unfor-tunately, Greek academic insti-tutions do not function the waythey are supposed to. Fundingis rather stingy. Classes are over-subscribed due to bad planningand corruption. Politics insidethe universities are quite disrup-tive. Faculty hiring is often ques-tionable. Research often doesnot meet international stan-dards. What is worse, the Greekgovernment is getting ready tobring changes that constitutenegative progress. Without re-search excellence, Greece isdoomed to lose its talented
youth to other countries, and be-ing a follower rather than aleader in innovation. Greece iscapable of having top notch, in-ternationally recognized acade-mic institutions around whichinnovation and entrepreneur-ship will take place. To do this,we need funding and changes ingovernance. This is a high-stakesgame for Greece and I hope thegovernment realizes this soon.If rumors are true about immi-nent changes to education, theyeither seem to have a completelydistorted image about what isneeded, or are working hard tokeep the country behind.TNH: Would you ever go
back to Greece ?CD: I miss my family, but as
things stand I will stay in theStates. I will continue to helpmy homeland from my currentposition.
MIT Prof. Constantinos Daskalakis Talks to TNH
COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015
lucrative, he replied, “That wassort of true with me.”
When he was growing up, hisfather encouraged education.“He saw through his father thateducation and technology couldbring great value to countriesand individuals,” but he did notwant his children to struggle theway he did.
The Yankopoulos family inAmerica was of humble means,but the parents overpushed, andtheir children’s academicachievements caused them tofear they would become highachievers with low incomes –“as my father put it: eggheads.”
But love and brains found away to reconcile the dreams offather and son.
“I was getting more andmore interested in science andhe was getting more desperate,”but when Yankopoulos wasabout 16 his father gave him anarticle from the paper – “He did-n’t read the American newspa-pers, he read The National Her-ald.”
It was about Dr. P. Roy Vage-los leaving Washington Univer-sity to join Merck as head ofR&D.
“If you are going to becomea scientist, at least become likeRoy Vagelos,” he said. “WeGreeks did not have many he-roes growing up, but he gaveme Roy as my role model.”
His father also gave him amantra for times when the pathto success got bumpy orcrooked. “’Why don’t you callRoy Vagelos. I’m sure he wouldhelp you out’ – it’s like telling a
kid in computers, call SteveJobs, he’ll help you out and Iwould tell him ‘you don’t under-stand’” how it works.
“Remarkably enough,”Yankopoulos said, father doesknow best, but he had to recruitSchleifer as an ally.
“In the early days my dadwas always coming to the com-pany and giving us grief, tellingboth of us what a bad job wewere doing, and he would tellus both: ‘call Roy Vagelos, he’lltell you how to really run a com-pany.’”
At a certain point, about fiveyears after its founding , thecompany was not doing well.“Schleifer was panicking, I was-n’t, but he said ‘George, maybeyou are not ready to be the nextRoy Vagelos yet, so maybe weshould call up the real one.’“
Schleifer did just that, andleft a message. “I never thoughthe would get a call back, butRoy called – I am sure it helpedthat a young Greek guy was in-volved that he established a fa-therly connection to – and heended up joining us. He hasbeen our chairman for the past20 years. I think he is just asproud off what he has helpedus do here as he is of what hedid at Merck.”
TNH asked him why hepoured his talent into science.“It’s a passion. You can’t con-vince a kid if they were reallyinterested in something, if that’swhat drives them and that’s thedirection they want to go, that‘swhere they are going to go.
“My dad, without reallyknowing it, lit the flames whenhe told me how great my grand-
father was, and essentially mygrandfather’s story was one ofscience – using science to bringelectricity to a country thatdidn’t have it – that’s pretty big.
“I will never forget sittingon his lap – he was a powerfulman with big arms – and hewould tell me how he fled Turk-ish slavery and went to Vienna,and when he saw electricity –the awe and inspiration of see-ing the lights – and with no ed-ucation, he knew he would de-vote his life to electricity.”
Yankopoulos also has vividmemories of going to theWorld’s Fair in 1964 and seeingthe exhibits that promised totransform the world through sci-ence.
“How could I not become fas-cinated and addicted to thepower of science, and the ideathat you could use science to dogood and better the human con-dition…our president told usthat…I was one of those,” hetold TNH. “And I still believe inthe power of science.”
And he knew it was part ofhis Greek heritage.
His father used to tell himthat all the time too, “theybrought enlightenment to theworld. There is nothing greaterfor the human condition…whatmakes us different as a speciesis that we build knowledge, andbuild on the foundation of thework of others.”
Yankopoulos likes to givetalks in that vein to school chil-dren.
The conversation shifted to
the situation in Greece. “It thinkabout it and talk to my childrenabout it a lot,” he said.
His daughter Ourania Sophia,who is studying internationalpolitics and statistics, is intern-ing at the Cypriot Embassy atthe UN and spent the summerin Greece. “She is committed, interms of her life, to this chal-lenge of helping Greece’s eco-nomic and business develop-ment,” her proud father said.
“What we talk about as afamily – I have four wonderfuland talented kids, Ourania,Damis George, Louca Achilles,and Demetra Alexis – is whatinspired my grandfather andme. I thought the most impor-tant science of our time was bi-ology, that fact that we canclone genes and cure diseaseand make a difference – I stillbelieve in that – but my threeyoungest talk about how the sci-ences of the future are the envi-ronmental sciences and new en-ergy sources. And wouldn’t it begreat to tie the next generationsciences to Greece and makeGreece a leader?”
Yankopoulos’ initial researchinterests at Regeneron was neu-ron regeneration– hence thename. The paths they pursueddid not lead to breakthroughsin that field, but the spectacularsuccesses of the company inother areas keeps him in the re-generation game.
“Once you are interested insomething, it is hard to give itup, so we are still very inter-ested and hoping we will makea difference fightingAlzheimer’s’, Parkinson’s, LouGehrig disease, and others.”
golid Regional Project, an ar-chaeological field survey inSouthern Greece. He has taughtat the University of Torontosince 2008.BUCKING CONVENTIONA classicist transforming the
understanding of prehistoricGreek society, Nakassis vast in-tellectual breadth comprisesphilology, archaeology, and con-temporary social and economictheory. That has equippedNakassis to challenge the long-held view that Late Bronze AgeMycenaean palatial society(1400–1200 BC) was a highly-centralized oligarchy, quite dis-tinct from the democratic city-states of Classical Greece.
Instead, Nakassis argues thatpower and resources were morebroadly shared. This thesis, de-veloped in the Pylos boo, is de-rived from a meticulous reinter-pretation of Pylos’ administrativeand accounting records (foundon clay tablets and written inthe early Greek script, Linear B).Standard interpretations of thetablets suppose a rigid politicalstructure, in which a small groupof palace elites controlled and
distributed all resources. Nakassis reexamined this
model using a traditionalmethod, prosopography, butthrough the lens of contempo-rary theoretical discussions ofagency and structure. He deter-mined that some recurrences of
a personal name refer to thesame individual playing multi-ple, sometimes competing, roles.This insight offers an alternativepicture of the Mycenaean worldas a more open society with adynamic and competitive eco-nomic structure that displays
some similarities to the democ-ratic polis of Classical Greece.
Nakassis is testing his hypoth-esis through an archaeologicalsurvey, the Western Argolid Re-gional Project, that will recon-struct the settlement history ofa core region of the Mycenaeanworld from prehistory to mod-ern times and clarify how Myce-naean states mobilized labor, in-corporated peripheralcommunities, and expressedpower over many centuries. Heis also codirecting a new studyof the Linear B tablets from Pylosthat includes the use of digitalimaging technologies (three-di-mensional scanning and Re-flectance Transformation Imag-ing, a kind of computationalphotography) to produce high-quality print and digital editionsof these important documentsfor the first time. Nakassis’ mul-tifaceted approach to the studyof Bronze Age Greece is redefin-ing the methodologies andframeworks of the field, and hisnuanced picture of political au-thority and modes of economicexchange in Mycenaean Greeceis illuminating the prehistoricunderpinnings of Western civi-lization.
THE GENIUS SPEAKSOver the past several months,
people have asked Nakassis whyhe likes archaeological survey.“My initial response is always in-tellectual,” he says. “I talk aboutthe importance of understandthe countryside, about the urbanbias of our texts and excava-tions, and so on.” But the ques-tioners want different answers,such as: “why did I like gettingup before dawn to wanderaround the Greek countrysidefor six hours or more for six-plusweeks?
“Strangely, that is a morecomplicated answer. As a stu-dent, I wasn’t immediatelydrawn to archaeological survey,although I was of course ex-posed to it as an undergraduateat the University of Michigan. Ifirst got seriously interested insurvey because of the senior the-sis that I wrote on settlementand state formation in MinoanCrete. I knew that I was inter-ested in state formation and Iknew that it was too big a topicfor an undergraduate thesis. So,I had spent the summer readingColin Renfrew’s The Emergenceof Civlisation (1972) – a book,incidentally, that convinced me
that I wanted to be an Aegeanprehistorian – and developed alist of areas that interested me.One of them was settlement,and that sealed my fate: I endedup writing my thesis on pub-lished survey data from Cretefrom the Bronze Age, with a fo-cus on the relationship betweensettlement data and state forma-tion.
So, my initial interest in sur-vey was based on thinking, notdoing,” Nakassis says. “I haddone survey for two weeks inTunisia on the Leptiminus pro-ject back in 1995, and I liked it,but it wasn’t immediately mypassion. But my intellectual in-terest in landscape and settle-ment led to me working on sur-vey projects as I enteredgraduate school, both on the Ik-laina Archaeological Project andespecially the Eastern KorinthiaArchaeological Survey.
“So that’s part of the story…but the way that I’ve told itmight suggest that I like surveyas an intellectual and analyticalactivity.” From a non-intellectualperspective, Nakassis adds: “theGreek landscape is really beau-tiful. I won’t ever get tired oflooking at it.”
Prof. Dimitri Nakassis among MacArthur’s 24 Genius Grant Recipients
Continued from page 1
MIT Prof. Constantinos Daskalakis, 2008 ACM Award Winner,Provides a novel algorithmic perspective on game theory.
Continued from page 1
Prof. Dimitri Nakassis of the University of Toronto is one of 24recipients of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grants.”
Regeneron co-Founder Yankopoulos’ Journey to Pharmaceutical Heights
George Yankopoulos gives a tour of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ labs. Legendary Merck CEO P.Roy Vangelos went from being Yankopoulos’ role model , to mentor, to Board Chairman.
Continued from page 1
National Herald. She said Anastasiou’s inter-
view basically threw her and therest of the Board “under the bus.I never picked up the phone(when TNH called for comment)because you all know how I feelabout the press, but I have tosay, Fr. George, your interviewwas not even close to the truth.I suggest you tell the Board thereal reason I stepped down.”
Viennas also stated in theemail that she and Anastasiouhad a heated argument, indeed,and demands a public apology.
Anastasiou, in turn, repliedto Viennas’ email – in which heprovided some details, thoughthey remain vague, about awaiver he attempted to generateon Viennas’ behalf to allow heras a city employee to do workfor the Church. Anastasioucopied the Parish Council mem-bers on the email. “I’m sorrythat we can’t see eye to eye onthis issue,” he began. “That be-ing said, I’ll again offer somefacts, which I hope might putthings in perspective.
“I spoke to you three times
after our conversation and Iapologized for raising my tone,even though you did the same.I also further reached out to youanother two times during theweek but you have not returnedmy calls and texts.
“As for the real reason youresigned: I received a call Fridayinquiring about article 16.1 and16.2 of the lease "conflict of in-terest" and was told to look intoit ASAP. I read the clause andcalled you so we can go to legaltogether. You told me you leftwork, so I went by myself sincethe chaplain office is right nextdoor to legal. I spoke to themabout getting you a waiver withgeneralities and they told methat a city employee in fact doesneed a waiver.
“ONLY at that point did I giveyour name because theypromised me it's no problem toget you a waiver because ac-cording to lease, you can't haveany involvement in this lease oreven be on the Board, for thatfact. It's not like I went to reportyou; I went to legal to get you awaiver to protect you and thecommunity.”
A few hours later, Viennas re-
sponded: “First of all, when youcalled me, not one time did youmention to me anything pertain-ing about the lease or my in-volvement. Again, distorting thetruth Father! Please give mesome credit here: after all, Ihave been a cop for eighteenyears to your one year as a chap-lain. I think I know the PatrolGuide better than you do.
“Again, you are misleadingthe Board as you misled me onSunday (Sept. 20). I did notwant to do this over an email,but here we go! You chose totell me in front of the Board thatyou saved my ---, my job, andmy pension. That was your wayof not wanting to upset me, Iguess. You said I would lose myjob, go to jail and pay a fine.That I should have never beeninvolved in the school talks.Wrong again, Father! This iswhy we hired a consulting firm,to which I fully disclosed that Iwas city employee.
“Also, you misinformed methat I shouldn't have evensigned the consultant’s or bro-ker’s contract and let me not putin an email how you recom-mended I deal with that. Youpainted such a tragic pictureand that you were my friendand you were going to take careof it. But if all this was true, youchose to wait 48 hours andwithheld this information forme only to scare me in front ofthe Board as if I had committedsomething illegal. That's the per-ception you gave everyone.
“After consulting with a PBAlawyer,” she added, “it was con-firmed that no misconduct tookplace here and I have every rightto represent the church. It is anonprofit organization and I ama volunteer.”
Viennas concluded: “your be-havior on Sunday was despica-ble. I wonder: would you speakto your wife in this manner?Sunday, I saw a side of you thatI never expected in a millionyears. I am flabbergasted.”
FEATURETHE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015 7
ipants.”Andreas Angelidakis, who
brings his architectural intuitionand training to exhibitions, cu-rated Narcissus Now’s artwork,which includes his “Mirrorsite.”
The first new element visitorswill encounter is The Art Wall,which will exhibit specially com-missioned works by contempo-rary artists.
Angelos Plessas, who re-cently won the prestigiousDESTE Prize 2015, created thefirst offering: “I AMness.” Guestswill be drawn to “The repeatingmandalas…[which] create vividand hallucinatory visual effectsthat attract and capture thegaze.”
YOU CAN’T JUST OPEN THE DOORS
When Gasparatos was inTroy, NY last year for a project,he received an email from Kos-metatou, who invited him to seethe facilities and help create theprogram for the reopening.
Inspired by the construction,Triple Echo ties together thethree spaces, reflecting the syn-thesis of spaces achieved by de-sign of the firm of Perkins East-man.
Guests will be enveloped byart and music as soon as theyarrive, beginning with a half-hour instrumental introductionthat “will evoke the sense of thebuilding itself waking up, butthose sounds will blend with anawakening voice – that of Echo,the nymph who tragically lovedNarcissus, who only had eyesfor himself – perhaps ametaphor for the many kinds ofself-absorption one encountersin social-media-saturated mod-ern Manhattan.
The live music that followsfor the next 1½ hours will beperformed by a classical percus-sionist in the lobby and the MattEvans quartet in the gallery –the recorded voice is SavinaYannato’s.
“It will be a conversation be-tween the building, the live mu-sicians, and the dancers,” – Hris-toula Harakas, Sara Procopio,and Mata Sakka – who willweave their way through all thespaces.CENTER’S DUAL SPIRITThe “NY” in The Onassis Cul-
tural Center NY is not just anindicator of a particular locus ofa global institution. The en-counter with Hellenic culture ofNew Yorkers is mediated bytheir life in their the city. It isno small thing that 9/11 intro-duced the lens of tragedy totheir experience of art.
When Angelidakis was askedby TNH how one of his worksreflected particular life experi-ences or events in the world, hecited 9/11. “I was living in NewYork. I learned about it througha phone call from Greece askingif we were ok.” He could see thesmoke from his Harlem home.
“It was a surreal, super-stressfulday.”
Asked how his work haschanged given the world has be-come even more chaotic, Angel-idakis told TNH, “I am also af-fected by what happened inGreece.”ART AMID MINDS AND
MUSICIn the 21st century art must
not merely stimulate endor-phins, it must provoke thought.Angelidakis has curated the dis-play of all works of art on viewin the gallery with all of theOnassis Center’s themes inmind, as well as 21st centuryrealities – and illusions. Today,more information does not nec-essarily equal more truth.
His “Mirrorsite” is an ongo-ing investigation into informa-tion overload.
It is a three-channel video –there are three projections, and“It’s about a place made out ofmirrors…a virtual space,” i.e.one that is not fully or reallyreal.
“I am imagining is a placewhere there is so much infor-mation that suddenly there isnothing left to reflect upon.There has been a crash andthere are only reflections of re-flections – data with no con-tent.”
But the quiet after the crashis not a place of refuge. “Themirrors and their reflections willeventually trap Narcissus withan illusion of infinite virtualspaces from which he will neverbe able to escape,” he said.
People, people everywhereand not a person to interest Nar-cissus.
Gasparatos is the anti-Narcis-sus. He pays attention.
“When you walk down thestreet in Manhattan, or in a for-est in Greece, does music ac-company everything you en-counter,” TNH asked. “Yes.
Completely.”He said, “Today I was having
breakfast in the West Villageand it came to mind how muchmusic I hear wherever I am, soI pressed record on my i-Phone
and said ‘why not make an al-bum with the sounds of randomplaces?’”
His inspiration for the musicfor the event came from theOlympic Tower itself, not as aninanimate object, but as a vessel
of humanity.“The first idea I had when I
walked into the space was thatthis was a building with somuch history, so many peoplehave walked through it, and Itry to capture moments andmemories.”
He was born and raised inPatras, and while his father’sroots are in the very musical Ke-falonia, Gasparatos is the onlymusician in a family of music
lovers, but what he heard athome – from Bach to ManosHadjidakis to Leonard Bernsteinto the Beatles - had a powerfulinfluence on him.
He also studied mechanicalengineering, but when he
moved to Athens he became in-volved in theater and cinema. Akey element in his transforma-tion was mentoring by com-poser Nikos Kypourgos.
Angelidakis’ creative life alsoexhibits fluidity, perhaps influ-enced by cultural diversity.
His father’s roots are nearIraklion and his mother is fromNorway. They met in Rhodes,where, ironically, they workedfor Voice of America and the
U.S. Embassy, respectively.Even when he was studying
architecture, most of his friendswere artists, so it was easy tomove towards fine arts afterschool.
His favorites places in Greeceinclude the island of Sifnos -“my cousin has a very nice tra-ditional house in Katavati – andPeloponessos – but I like every-where in Greece.
Gasparatos’ work has alsobeen impacted by the Greek cri-sis. A lengthy and thoughtfulconversation about it with TNHis summed up in a few words:“We Greeks have yet to realizethat great revolutions don’t be-gin with those we vote for, theystart with who we are, andwhen we recognize our mis-takes.”
Meritocracy is his prescrip-tion. “When I do something ofsubstance, I feel that I helpeveryone around me,” whichspeaks directly to the mission ofthe Center that presents the cre-ations of the Greek mindthrough time, including thework of contemporary artistswho prove that the best of Hel-lenism is not locked up in theworld’s museums – they are alsoin its youth, waiting to be born.
Fr. George Anastasiou of the Transfiguration Church in Coronainsists that he tried to work things out with Parish Council Pres-ident Penny Viennas, who abrupty resigned on Sept. 20. She, inturn, maintains that Anastasiou threw her "under the bus."
Transfiguration Turmoil: Corona Church TroublesContinued from page 1
The Eagerly-Awaited Reopening of New York City’s Onassis Cultural CenterContinued from page 1
Water cascades down the wall at Olympic Tower from the upper to lower atrium and collectsin a pool, a serene gateway to the art, music, and knowledge guests will encounter.
Foundation President Dr. Anthony Papadimitriou.
Andreas Angelidakis curated the artwork of "Narcissus Now:The Myth Reimagined," the first offering of the Onassis FestivalNY. His work “Mirrorsite” is also on display.
Stavros Gaspratos before The Art Wall, which will exhibit spe-cially-commissioned works by contemporary artists. The inau-gural work by Angelos Plessas is titled: “I AMness.”
a b
• Souvlaki & Gyro • Flea market • Greek Pastries • Games • Church Tours • loukoumades
St. NicholasGreek Orthodox Shrine Church196-10 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11358-Near Clearview Expressway
(718) 357-4200
GREEKFESTIVAL2015
RAFFLE DRAWING MONDAY, OCTOBER 12th FREE ADMISSION
44thANNUAL
FRIDAY October 9th • 6-10 p.m.SATURDAY October 10th • Noon - MidnightSUNDAY October 11th • Noon - MidnightMONDAY October 12th • Noon - 8 p.m.
OUR new Taverna offers DELICIOUS classic Greek Cuisine; ARNI STO FOURNO, GRECIAN LEMON CHICKEN,
KE BOB ME PILAFI OR LEMON POTATOE, AUTHENTIC GREEK HORIATIKI SALATA and much more.
Live music and dancing with George Rambos and his famous orchestra. Saturday night: Vaggelis Livanos (bouzouki-vocals), John Anastasopoulos (keyboards),
Giorgos Bezanis (clarinet), George Rambos (drums). Sunday night: Giannis Lignos will play his magic clarinet
Please join us at our FESTIVAL and enjoy the 60 year anniversary memorable evening from 6 PM on Fri., Sat. Sun. Oct. 9,10, and 11.
Celebrating
our 60th Anniversary
Wine, Dine και Γλέντι
in our new Greek Taverna
AHEPA Supreme President in NY for THI Gala, Visits TNH PublisherJohn W. Galanis, Supreme President of AHEPA, is greeted by Antonis H. Diamataris, Publisher-Editor of The National Herald at the newspaper’s headquarters in Long Island City. Their wide-ranging discussion touched on community affairs, Greece, and Cyprus.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS8 THE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015
DEATH NOTICES
n JOHNSON, NICK G.GREENBORO, NC (from theLexington Herald- Ledger, pub-lished on Sept. 25) – Nick G.,formerly of Lexington, diedpeacefully in Greensboro, NC,on Sept. 22, ending an extraor-dinary life that covered 95years. He is survived by the loveof his life, his wife Mary LeeJohnson of Greensboro; sonGeorge Johnson of Minneapolis,MN; daughter Maria Johnson,son-in-law Jeff Cruickshank andgrandsons John and TomCruickshank, all of Greensboro.Nick was born on August 7,1920, in the mountain villageof Lagadia, Greece. He came tothis country with his parents,
George and Maria Johnson(Yiannacopoulos), when he was9. The family lived in Louisville,KY, where his father owned adry cleaning store. Gifted withthe eye and hand of an artist,Nick attended art school as ateenager. He graduated summacum laude and Phi Beta Kappafrom the University of Louisvillewith a degree in civil engineer-ing in 1943. The day after hegraduated, he was summonedto the U.S. Naval Academy,where he completed officers'training. He served in the Pacificduring World War II, directingengine rooms aboard aircraftcarriers. One of his ships, theU.S.S. Marcus Island, partici-
pated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf,the biggest battle in modernnaval history. When the warended, Nick worked for the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers, de-signing flood control along theOhio River. He earned a master'sdegree in sanitary engineeringfrom the University of Michigan.For 30 years, Nick served theKentucky State Health Depart-ment. As the director of his di-vision, he oversaw the safety ofpublic water supplies. He estab-lished schools for water plantoperators. He testified beforeCongress in favor of the CleanWater Act of 1972. He won theGeorge Warren Fuller Award,the American Water Works As-
sociation's highest honor, fromthe state section in 1979. Aboveall, Nick was a devoted husbandand father. His family was thecenter of his life. He taughtthem to trust God, to value artand beauty, to safeguard theirhealth, to understand thatGreeks invented everythingthat's worthwhile, to never passup a cookie, and to tip gener-ously. In his final days, his fam-ily surrounded him and re-flected his immense love forthem. Nick and his family ap-preciate the sensitive and pro-fessional care they receivedfrom the Guilford County EMSand from the nurses and doctorsat Moses H. Cone Hospital, es-pecially the palliative care team.Nick's family will receive visitors1PM to 2PM on Saturday, Sept.26 at Forbis & Dick Funeral Ser-vice, 1118 N. Elm Street,Greensboro. A short service,open to visitors, will follow inthe Forbis & Dick chapel. Thefamily will attend a privategraveside service afterward. Ifyou'd like to make a donationin Nick's memory, please send itto Dormition of the TheotokosGreek Orthodox Church, 800Westridge Road, Greensboro,NC 27410.
n KALOMIRIS, CLARAFRESNO, CA (from the FresnoBee, published Sept. 23) – ClaraKalomiris, was born on Oct. 13,1929, in French Camp, CA,moving to Fresno in 1952, uponher marriage to Stavros "Nick"Kalomiris. She went to be withher Lord on Sunday, Sept. 20.Clara will be remembered forher devotion to her family,friends and church. She was fullof love, grace, courage and dig-nity, admired by all who knewher for her valiant fight againstoral cancer. Clara graduatedfrom Stockton High School in1946, at the age of 16. She wenton to graduate from StocktonJunior College in 1948. Claraworked at the VA Hospital untilhaving her first child in 1953.From then on, she devoted herlife to raising her children well,providing delicious meals andkeeping an immaculate home.Clara was very active in theclose-knit Greek community.She volunteered in many arenasboth inside and outside thechurch, including Scouts, PTA,Sunday School, Food Festivaland Special Olympics. She oftenserved as officer for the Daugh-ter's of Penelope and the Philop-tohos. Clara was honored as Dis-trict Penelope of the year in1975, and St. George's motherof the year in 1998. As a motherand grandmother, she has al-ways been loving and support-ive, willing to do anything forher children and grandchildren."She will be missed immenselyand held close in heart always."She was daughter of the lateStavros and Marigo Mitsanis ofStockton, CA, who immigratedfrom Greece. She was precededin death by her husbandStavros; sister Bella; and brotherAngelo. Clara is survived by hertwin sister, Dena Wolfe; chil-dren, Jim, Steve and Debbie;three grandsons; four grand-
daughters; and many belovednieces and nephews. Remem-brances may be made to St.George Greek Orthodox Church,2219 N. Orchard, Fresno, CA93703.
n KOUTSOS, JOHNAURORA, IL (from the Daily-Chronicle, published on Sept.24) – John P. (Koutsogiannis)Koutsos, 71, of Oswego, passedaway peacefully with his familyby his side on Friday, Sept. 18.He was born on May 29, 1944,in Rizes, Tripoli, Greece. Johnwas a successful restaurateur inOswego, North Aurora andPlano for over 35 years. Johnwas known best for owning andoperating Imperial Banquets atthe Fox Valley Country Club. Hissmile and enthusiasm will be re-membered by everyone whoknew him. We will miss him somuch and cherish the time wehad with him. John is survivedby his loving wife of 47 years,
Nancy (Stamatopoulos); hissons, Peter (Jenny) of Oswego,Angelo (Heather) of Arizona,George (Allison) of Elgin andTom (Chrissie) of Chicago; andwas a loving Papou to his eightgrandchildren, Evan, John,Sophia, Andrew, Lucas, Tessa,Leo and Alex; and loving uncleto his many nieces and nephews.He is also survived by his brotherand sister and many cousins andnieces in Sydney, Australia andGreece. He was preceded indeath by his parents, Peter andGeorgia Koutsogiannis. The fam-ily is eternally grateful for thelove and support of Dr. BessMetrou and Peter Metrou. Fu-neral services will be held onTuesday, Sept. 22, at 10:00AMat St. Athanasios Greek Ortho-dox Church in 1855 Fifth Ave.,Aurora, IL. In lieu of flowers, do-nations may be made to St.Athanasios Greek OrthodoxChurch in Aurora, IL or to theNational Parkinson Foundation.
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Announcements of deaths may be telephoned to the Classified Department of The National Herald at
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9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST or e-mailed to:
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By Fotis Papagermanos
NEW YORK – "Eternal be hismemory” of Dr. AntoineHarovas" said His EminenceArchbishop. Demetrios during aprayer service in Dr. AntoineHarovas’ memory. The wakewas held September 28 at theArchdiocesan Cathedral.
Demetrios – who had just re-turned from officiating at the fu-neral of John Tavlaridis, Deanof the St. Sophia Cathedral inWashington, DC – emphasizedall that Dr. Harovas did in life,what he created and offered,and that is the foundation tokeep his memory alive amongall who knew him.
As Demetrios chanted thememorial, his voice trembledwith emotion, as he turned tothe family and friends ofHarovas, who gathered to payhomage to husband, father,friend, and physician.
Demetrios also spoke of Har-voas’ round-the-clock availabil-ity and the work he did on theCathedral’s Board.
“He was an exemplary scien-tist and physician, but also awonderful servant of the GreekOrthodox Church.”
Though Harovas’ death wassudden, Demetrios noted, hedied in peace and with his fam-ily by his side.
Frs. Alex Karloutsos andJohn Vlahos, and Deacon Pan-
teleimon Papadopoulos assistedthe archbishop in the service.
Demetrios read a letter fromPatriarch Bartholomew, whowas a personal friend of the de-ceased.
Harvoas immigrated to theUnited States, coming from theVoio province in Western Mace-donia. He was one of the most
renowned cardiologists in NewYork City and worked at Roo-sevelt Hospital. He acquired hisspecialty at Columbia (now NewYork) Presbyterian Hospital. Hewas noted for his ethics, gen-erosity and compassion.
Dr. Harovas is survived by hiswife, Euterpe, children Annaand Michael Xylas, Lea and
John Bendo, and Stephanie andBryan Ferro, and grandchildrenAlexander, Evan, Alexa,Nicholas, Andrew, and Sophia.
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Date: 09/29/2015 I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes falseor misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject tocriminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).
Husband, Father, Friend, Physician: Dr. Harovas Bethought
Archbishop Demetrios presided over the service at the HolyTrinity Cathedral on Sept. 28 in memory of Dr. AntoineHarovas, whom he called "an exemplary physician, but also awonderful servant of the Church."
TO PlACE yOur ClASSiFiED AD, CAll:
(718) 784-5255, EXT. 106, E-mAil:
n THRU OCT. 11MANHATTAN – The ninth an-nual New York City Greek FilmFestival opens on Friday, Oct. 2at 7:30PM at the Museum ofthe Moving Image in Manhattan,with five new feature films thatreflect the current renaissancein Greek cinema. Films includeA Family Affair, winner of theBest Documentary Award by theHellenic Film Academy; LittleEngland, the award-winning pe-riod drama from famed directorPantelis Voulgaris; At Home, fea-turing a standout lead perfor-mance by actress Maria Kalli-mani; Lovestruck, winner of the2015 Audience Award by theHellenic Film Academy; andStratos: Little Fish, a Mediter-ranean film noir laced with un-dertones of the Greek financialcrisis. Other films screen on Oct.3, 4, and 11. Tickets at:www.movingimage.us or call718-777-6800. More informa-tion at www.nycgreekfilmfesti-val.com
n THRU OCT. 31CHICAGO, IL – The NationalHellenic Museum, 33 S HalstedSt., in Chicago, pays tribute tothe legendary actor and artistAnthony Quinn, who brought tolife one of the greatest and mostlife-affirming literary charactersof our time – Zorba the Greek.Visitors will see reflections ofQuinn’s life experiences and theimpact of his long friendshipwith the Greek people.
n THRU NOV. 30CHICAGO, IL – In partnershipfrom November 2015 to April2016, the National Hellenic Mu-seum and the Field Museum arepresenting a new exhibition en-titled “The Greeks-Agamemnonto Alexander the Great” at theField Museum, 1400 S. LakeShore Drive, in Chicago. Pre-sented at the 14th InternationalArchitecture Exhibition - La Bi-ennale di Venezia, “TourismLandscapes: Remaking Greece”presents examples of modernGreek architectural projects astools for the modernization ofthe country and the re-shapingof the Greek national identity.
n THRU DEC. 18FAIRFIELD, CT – Fairfield Uni-versity’s Bellarmine Museum ofArt presents its new exhibition,Hair in the Classical World, onview from Wednesday, Oct. 7,through Friday, Dec. 18. Anopening reception, free andopen to the public, will takeplace at the Bellarmine Museumof Art on Tuesday, October 6, 6-8PM. From antiquity to the pre-sent day, hair has seldom beenworn in its natural state.Whether cut, shorn, curled,straightened, braided, beaded,worn in an upsweep or down tothe knees, adorned with pins,combs, bows, garlands, exten-sions, and other accoutrements,hair has the power to reflect so-cietal norms. In ancient cultures,not only did hairstyles and theirdepictions signal wealth and so-cial status, or divine and mytho-logical iconography; they werealso tied to rites of passage andreligious rituals. As the first ex-hibition of its kind in the UnitedStates, Hair in the ClassicalWorld will take you on a culturaljourney through ancient Greece,Cyprus, and Rome, and will ex-amine the role of hair in eachthrough three thematic lenses:Arrangement and Adornment;Rituals and Rites of Passage; andDivine and Royal Iconography.
n OCTOBER 9BALTIMORE, MD ¬– The Mary-land Greek Independence DayParade Committee presents Dim-itris Bassis and Zoe Pa-padopoulou live in concert, Fri-day, Oct. 9. The concert will beheld at Greektown Square, 701South Ponca Street, Baltimore.The doors Open at 8:00 PM andthe concert begins at 9:00 PM.There will be complementarymezedakia and a cash bar. Allproceeds to benefit the Mary-land Greek Independence DayParade. Tickets are available forpurchase at DCGreeks.com.
OCTOBER 9WASHINGTON, DC – Come joinus at Saint Sophia Cathedral’s,36th and Massachusetts Ave NW,for their annual Greek Festival.The festival begins Oct. 9 at12PM and ends Oct. 11 at 7PM.Admission is free for everyone.There will be live music, food,raffles and lots more fun andgames. Live band and dancingwill start Sunday, at 1PM. Formore information call (202)333-4730.
n OCTOBER 9-11ST. AUGUSTINE, FL – Join us forthe 18th annual Greek festivalat Francis Field, 29 CastilloDrive, in St. Augustine. Festival
hours are Friday, Oct. 9 4-10PM;Saturday, Oct. 10 11AM-10PM;and Sunday, Oct. 11 11AM-5PM.Admission is $3 for adults andfree for children and active-dutymilitary and their immediatefamily. Our festival promisesthree days’ worth of engagingactivities, with a little somethingfor everyone, including: DanceTroupes - Adults and childrenpractice year around to performat the Greek Festival. Look herefor the scheduled dancing eventsand free lessons for our guests.Greek Food - Look for fooddemonstration times and loca-tions. Traditional and Contem-porary Live Music. For moreinfo, please contact 904-829-0504.
n OCTOBER 10MANHATTAN – The Greek-American Writers Association in-vites you to an evening of wine,fellowship and literary pleasuresfeaturing Yvette Manessis Cor-poron, Emmy Award winnerand Senior Producer on the syn-dicated entertainment newsshow, EXTRA. Corporon willtalk about and read from hercritically acclaimed novel,“When the Cypress Whispers.”Set on a Greek island, this mov-ing story celebrates the bond be-tween a Greek- Americanwoman and her grandmother.It’s romantic, involving, a page-turner. Robert Zaller, dynamicpoet, will zero in on his new“Speaking to Power,” a timely,cutting-edge collection. Zaller, acritic and historian, is Distin-guished University Professor ofHistory at Drexel University andthe author of five previous versecollections and chapbooks. Pene-lope Karageorge will offer selec-tions from her new poetry col-lection, “The Neon Suitcase.”Veronica Golos wrote: “NeonSuitcase is a subtle and not sosubtle thrill ride through whatpoetry can do. Her language isbreathless, imaginative, locomo-tive and in almost every poem,surprising.” Cornelia Street Café,29 Cornelia Street, BetweenBleecker and West 4th Streets,in Manhattan. Subways A, C, E,B, D, M to West 4th Street or 1to Christopher Street, 6-8 p.m..$8 admission includes a glass ofwine, beer, or soft drink.
n OCTOBER 11LOS ANGELES, CA – By populardemand, Peggy Zina is comingto Los Angeles for a special en-gagement. Peggy will be per-forming live at Club Nokia, 800West Olympic Blvd, in Los An-geles. Peggy has a career whichhas lasted over 20 years withmany hits going multi-platinum.We are excited to present heralong with her band directlyfrom Greece for the only westcoast performance! Peggy willbe here Sun, Oct. 11 at 7PM andMon, Oct. 12 at 12 Noon. To gettickets call (877) 639-9715.
n NOVEMBER 12ASTORIA – Save the date for Ac-cent & Image charity brunchevent featuring a wonderful ar-ray of speakers and vendorsalong with a fabulous a signa-ture brunch. The brunch willtake place at St. DemetriosCathedral, 30-11 30th Drive, As-toria, on Saturday, Nov. 14thfrom 12PM to 3PM. Tickets are$30 plus an item to donate toDress for Success, or you can paythe $40 regular admission. Reg-istration begins in September.www.facebook.com/events/865037286916618
n NOVEMBER 12-15WASHINGTON, DC – DC-Greeks.com, in association withlocal and national Hellenic or-ganizations, invites Greek-Amer-ican young adults from acrossthe country to our Nation's Cap-ital this November for the 7thedition of the one of the mostdiverse and inclusive Greekevents on the calendar! Pan-Hel-lenism Weekend 2015 will pro-vide Greek-American and Phil-hellene young adults 18 andover with an affordable, fun,classy, and quality event whichallows attendees from DC andover two dozen different statesthe opportunity to network in arelaxed and welcoming environ-ment while helping raise moneyfor over a dozen Greek Americannon-profit organizations andcharities. Since the first editionof Pan-Hellenism Weekend in2009, this weekend has raisedover $30,000, with over $7,500being donated over the last twoyears to the restoration of St.Nicholas National Shrine atGround Zero. Highlights of theweekend include Thursday andSaturday Happy Hours, Fridayand Sunday Night Greek Nights,and Saturday Late NightBouzoukia! For more detailsabout specific events and loca-tions, please visit dcgreeks.com.
GOINGS ON...
QUESTION OF THE WEEKDo you think Alexis Tsipras has the ability and the desire to
clean up Greece’s corruption this time around?Please email your response to
[email protected] We may publish some responses as Letters to the Editor in
a future issue.
TNH Staff
WASHINGTON, DC – KATHER-INE KALLINIS BERMAN and SO-PHIE KALLINIS LAMONTAGNEare Canadian-Greek rulers ofthe cupcake industry. In 2008,at the height of the recessionthey decided, to their mother’shorror, they were going to leavetheir jobs and open GEORGE-TOWN CUPCAKES. "Grand-mothers bake and mothersbake, not entrepreneurs!" That'swhat ELAINE KALLINIS remem-bers thinking when her daugh-ters first told her their plan toquit high-powered jobs, saysCNBC. Seven years later theyare bestselling authors ofSWEET CELEBRATIONS andTHE CUPCAKE and star in theshow DC CUPCAKES on TheLearning Channel.
The two sisters got their in-spiration from cooking withtheir grandmother. While sheloved passing on the family se-crets and recipes, Grandma hadno idea she was also inspiringthe two little girls to cook up aplan to one day open a gourmetbakery specializing in cupcakes,says CNBC. In February, 2008the sisters opened up the firstof six locations. The sisters evenship nationwide and have beenknown to serve celebrities likeRUSSELL CROWE, MARTHASTEWART, and STEVIE WON-DER.
TUSCALOOSA, AL – DR. ARIS-TOTLE TZIAMPIRIS is AssociateProfessor of International Rela-tions at the Department of In-ternational and European Stud-
ies of the UNIVERSITY of PI-RAEUS. His op-ed pieces haveappeared in various publicationsand websites, including, theHuffington Post, the New YorkTimes, the Washington Times,the National Interest, and theJerusalem Post. Dr. Tziampirisdoesn’t spend all his time writ-ing on Greek policy and eco-nomics; he also enjoys somegood ol’ fashion American
sports, especially football. Likemany other fans he traveled onSeptember 17 to Tuscaloosa, ALto watch the OLE MISS REBELSplay. However, Dr. Tziampiriswas the only one who traveled9,000 miles from ATHENS (asin Greece, not Georgia!). In arecent article for the HuffingtonPost, he wrote about the teamsfacility and focus on academics.“What caught my attention was
a huge billboard with a high de-finition photograph of threeplayers, designated as the stu-dents-athletes of the week, hav-ing achieved the greatest acad-emic improvement over theprevious seven days. The stereo-type is of course that academicsdon’t matter, that college foot-ball players are mere humanfodder for a huge cash-makingmachine. But right in front ofmy eyes was palpable encour-agement, acknowledgementand recognition of the impor-tance of studying and learningand not just dominating oppo-nents.”
NEW YORK, NY – This year’sNew York Film Festival broughtout some of the most interestingfilms to hit the big screen yet.Filmmaker YORGOS LANTHI-MOS warmly received THELOBSTER made its New Yorkdebut. The film has an all-starcast that includes COLIN FAR-RELL, RACHEL WEISZ, BENWHISHAW, JOHN C. REILLY,OLIVIA COLMAN and CANNESPALME D’OR winner LEA SEY-DOUX. In a dystopian near fu-ture, singletons are confined toa hotel and given 45 days to finda partner. If they fail at findinganother person they'll be trans-formed into animals of theirchoosing and released into thewoods. Lanthimos’ other film,DOGTOOTH, won Cannes’ UNCERTAIN REGARD prize, andeven an Academy Award nomi-nation. Lanthimos is headingthe emerging new wave of sur-realist Greek filmmakers.
ACROSS1 Good grief!4 Furthest back7 Before (prefix)10 Advertisements13 Aegean or Ionian14 Buck's mate15 American sign language16 Actress Lupino17 Energy Effic. Ratio (abbrev.)18 Consumed19 Featured21 Less than usual in size, power or character23 Bod24 Native ruler in Africa26 Unit. Polo Lge.29 Carter of Mets' glory days33 Time to eat fast food?34 "Born in the ___"36 Rapper Shakur37 Acress Swenson38 Saint honored on November 3040 Government agency41 "The Greatest"42 2nd Amendment grp. (abbrev.)43 Speak softly46 Beantown48 Doings52 Greek marketplace54 Movie 2001's talking computer55 Rout56 Abu Dhabi Stock Exchng.(abbrev.)57 Central daylight time59 Helen of ____60 Insect in a cocoon64 Love's razor's edge66 Newsman Ernie69 Morse code "T"70 NJ Shore destination (abbrev.)73 Scrape74 Chicken _ __ king - 2 words75 Chinese dictator76 Mauna ___ volcano77 Incorporated (abbr.)78 Bunny movement79 Drunkard80 Greek chocolate brand
DOWN1 Utilize2 Golly3 President Warren _______4 A Cartwright5 Greek-American Ranger6 Golf ball stand7 Go by someone8 Regional Signal Transmission Org. (RSTO)9 Kicker Jason of the Broncos10 Michael Jordan's nickname
11 Followed HST (init.)12 Unhappy20 Prego's competition22 Econ. Recovery Tax Act (abbrev.)24 Actor Wallach25 Males27 Penalize28 Acid30 Mimic31 Hip-Hop32 Young Christian Assn. (abbrev.)35 Gov. Schwartzenegger36 Defunct Int'l airline (abbrev.)38 Army Liaison Off. (abbrev.)39 Gray sea eagle41 Dr. J's league before NBA(abbrev.)43 Canadian Auto. Assn. (abbrev.)44 Open Gov't. Document45 Out of Serv. (abbrev.)47 Teaching Assts. Coalition48 Avg. Round Trip Time (abbrev.)49 Bocelli's teacher50 Also51 Pigpen53 Representatives58 Actor Penghilis61 Salt Lake City's state62 Sport played on horseback63 Rght. away! (abbrev.)65 "Cat on _ ___ Tin Roof" (2 words)66 Chrstina's tycoon dad67 Convent dweller68 "___ easy as 123"69 Docket Mgmt. System (abbrev.)71 Hiss72 Gillan of Deep Purple
Solution:
F D A E R E A B E E A R
T I N B A R P E T M A C
D E T R O I T E T A E A A
A N N A T S A R
A S A P I V Y D A R N
W H I T E T R I S L A B
E E G E D W A R D E D G E
L E E T I E
A B E L A L B U M S A L A
C O P Y V U E E B O N Y
P A S O H E Y E R I N
I N G A C A R L
P A L A N D A L I A S E S
A R O R E O S E C C A A
W B N O Y L A X E L T D
Solution to last week’s puzzle
THE HERALD SQUARETNH's Crossword Challenge
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20
21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40
41 42
43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
52 53 54 55
56 57 58 59
60 61 62 63 64 65
66 67 68 69 70 71 72
73 74 75 76
77 78 79 80
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
Cupcake queens Katherine Kallinis Berman (L) and her sisterSophie Kallinis LaMontagne.
HELLENIC HAPPENINGS FROM COAST TO COAST
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015 9
TNH Staff
NEW YORK – Greek-AmericanEmma Wolfe, the 36-year-oldDirector of IntergovernmentalAffairs for New York City MayorBill de Blasio has become the defacto conduit, bridging the com-munication gap between themayor and New York State Gov-ernor Andrew Cuomo, the WallStreet Journal writes.
She is in “regular contactwith the governor and his seniorstaffers, alternately arguing, al-laying or negotiating with them.She met with Mayor de Blasioat least 40 times both in Apriland May, according to schedulesfrom the mayor’s office, morethan any other person on hisstaff,” the Journal noted. Shehas spent much of the time in“damage-control mode from arange of fights and crises, andthe relationship betweenMessrs. Cuomo and de Blasio—which she is responsible for im-proving—continues to bestrained.”
Emma Wolfe, a longtime keymember of Bill de Blasio’s team,now bridges communicationsbetween the mayor and Albany.
Fellow Greek-American andNew York Democrat politician,NY State Senator Michael Gia-naris, told the Journal “I thinkshe has played her wild card aseffectively as she can, givenwhat the lay of the land is.”
Wolfe has already beganworking on de Blasio’s 2017 re-election campaign, trying tobuild deeper support for themayor by focusing on all fiveboroughs, the Journal notes.
She is known for her tem-pered voice, warning the mayorabout avoiding the use of aharsh tone, and serving as themediator in heated disputesamong staff members.
Wolf, who holds a degree inUrban Studies and Sociologyfrom Barnard College at Colum-bia University, was de Blasio’sChief of Staff when he was thecity’s Public Advocate (prior tobecoming mayor), and hasplayed a key role in numerousDemocratic campaigns through-out the state.
Emma WolfeBridges CityHall w/Gov.In Albany
Greek-American Emma Wolfeprovides an all-importantbridge between NYC MayorBill de Blasio and NY Gover-nor Andrew Cuomo.
FEATURE10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015
By Eleni Sakellis
As fall officially begins, appleand pear season is now in fullswing. Pies are the usual way touse up the extra apples accumu-lated on apple-picking trips tolocal farms. If you don’t feel likerolling out the dough for piecrust, here are two recipes fordelicious desserts you can makewith either apples or pears thatare easy to bake at home.
Apple Crisp
5 medium apples, peeled, coredand thinly sliced2 tablespoons flour2 tablespoons sugar1 teaspoon cinnamonPinch of cloves1/2 cup rolled oats1/2 cup brown sugar1/4 cup flour4 tablespoons butter1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350�.After peeling, coring and slic-
ing the apples, place them in alarge bowl. In a small bowl, stirtogether the 2 tablespoons flour,
2 tablespoons sugar, the cinna-mon and cloves. Add to the ap-ples and toss until all the slicesof apple are coated. Transfer theapple slices to a pie plate teninches in diameter and set asidewhile making the crumb top-ping. In a medium bowl, stir to-gether the oats, sugar and the1/4 cup flour. Cut in the butterto form coarse crumbs. Stir inthe walnuts and top the applesin the pie plate with the crumbtopping. Bake for 40 minutes toan hour or until the topping isnicely browned and the applesare tender and bubbling. Servewarm or at room temperaturewith ice cream. Store any left-overs tightly covered in the re-frigerator to enjoy the next day.
Pear Walnut Cake
5 medium pears, peeled, coredand thinly sliced1 tablespoon flour1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1 cup flour1 teaspoon baking powder1/2 cup brown sugar1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/2 teaspoon salt2 eggs
1/2 cup oil1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350�.In a large bowl, toss the pear
slices with the tablespoon offlour, tablespoon of sugar and
the cinnamon. Place the pearsin a baking pan or a ten inch di-ameter pie plate, reserving fiveto seven pear slices to decoratethe top of the cake, then setaside while making the cakebatter. For the cake, in a mixingbowl, whisk together the cup offlour, baking powder, brownsugar, cinnamon and salt. In aseparate bowl, beat the eggsand oil, then add to the flourmixture and stir together untiljust combined. Stir in the wal-nuts. Spoon the cake batter ontop of the pear slices in the bak-ing pan or pie plate, smooth outthe top with a rubber spatulaand decorate with the reservedpear slices. Bake until the cakeis golden brown about 40 min-utes to an hour depending onthe strength of your oven. Servewith ice cream or on its own.Store any leftovers tightly cov-ered in the refrigerator. Thiscake is a wonderful make aheadoption since it tastes just asgood the next day, right out ofthe refrigerator.
Welcoming the Fall Season with Fall Fruit: Recipes w/ Apples and Pears
GREEK GASTRONOMY
Mexico there are so few oppor-tunities to prosper, that they easyway” is to leave Mexico and goto the United States, “but I don’tthink that’s the government’sfault.”
But he agrees with Trumpthat the Mexican government iscorrupt and heavily influencedby drug cartels.
Mavridis explains that Mexicois a great place, with abundantnatural resources and wonderfulpeople, but unfortunately it istrapped in a drug culture.
As for a Trump presidency,Mavridis thinks that would notbe good for either Mexico or theU.S., because he conveys an in-accurate, negative image of theAmerican people. He also repre-sents using one’s own resourcesto perpetuate self-image and givehimself credit and fame, “andthat is a mistake.”
Another respondent, identi-fied as “SG” also heard both ver-sions of the story, and agreeswith Mavridis that the Mexicangovernment is not in fact sendingits bad people here. Moreover,SG disagrees that the Mexicangovernment is corrupt and runby druglords. Regarding Mexi-cans and their immigration jour-ney to the United States, SGsays: “As in all countries, thereare people looking for a betterlife for themselves and their fam-ilies. These are honest, hard-working people who know thatlife will be hard in the UnitedStates, but who risk their livesfor a chance to better their situ-ation. And the jobs that they take
are jobs that no American woulddo, nor least of which for thevery low salary they [the Mexi-cans] accept.”
As for Trump himself, SGthinks that he “represents the un-educated rednecks, those with-out culture who have never evenleft their hometowns. A Trumppresidency wouldn’t be good foreither Mexico or the UnitedStates because “he has absolutely
no modicum of diplomacy what-soever.”
Another respondent, KD,heard both versions of the storyand to some extent agrees thatthe Mexican government is in-volved with shady characters,but adds that “Trump, unfortu-nately, did not mention that alsothe U.S. government is also partof this corruption web.”
KD adds that “I love my coun-
try, its color, the food, the historyand the diversity that it contains.Mexico has embraced not onlyits own people, but also peoplefrom other countries. We arepeople open to learning fromother cultures. I love living inMexico” and hope that it willprovide equality to all of its resi-dents. But that is not only a jobfor the government, KD qualifies,it should start with a collective
consciousness among the people. KD, too, does not say any-
thing positive about Trump, butextends that criticism to politi-cians in general.
Alexandra Stamou acknowl-edges the difference betweenTrump’s two statements, but em-phasizes that even if he were re-ferring to the Mexican govern-ment, says “that doesn’t makebetter, does it?
“Not only is it not true,” thatMexico is sending its criminalshere, Stamou continues, but “itis an insult to the millions ofhardworking Mexican peoplewho have moved to the UnitedStates through the years, tryingto make a better living for themand their families. If Trump hadproof of this accusation, hewould have made it public, besure of that.”
To be sure, Stamou continues,“the Mexican government is cor-rupt. The drug cartels are verypowerful, and the country is notat its best at the moment. This,however, has nothing to do withimmigration.”
Stamou wonders why Trumpwould focus on attacking a
neighboring country, like Mexico,instead of focusing on problemsthe United States has. She thinksTrump would be a “disgrace” aspresident, and certainly not goodfor Mexico, the U.S., or the worldas a whole. She wonders: Howcan it be possible that in as edu-cated, rich, and prosperous coun-try like the United States thatthis is the best candidate it canproduce?”
Only one respondent, ER, wasnot overly critical of Trump, justanalytical, insofar as he wouldcontinue to be aggressive towardattempting to thwart illegal entryand stay in the United States.
But the only respondent’scomments toward Trump thatcan be deemed favorable were
from Elisa Lisandrou, who toldTNH that he is tapping into amessage of resentment thatAmericans feel toward Mexicansinsofar as the latter come to theUnited States to exploit its re-sources – but adds that his brashwords and personality to makethose points is unfortunate.
This is a serious issue, shesays, and it is being treated like“a circus.”
AN AMBASSADOR WEIGHS IN
Last but not least, TNH in-cludes the comments of XeniaStefanidou, who recently retiredas Greece’s Ambassador to Mex-ico.
To the extent that Mexico’sgovernment is corrupt, Amb. Ste-fanidou says “no, not at all.” Nei-ther does she think the Mexicangovernment is sending its unde-sirables across the border.
She adds: “I really do notknow what to think of Mr.Trump. I think that he is creatingmuch noise about himself forpromotional reasons. Anyhow,for the moment he seems to haveattracted the attention, not onlynationally but internationallytoo.
“As for me, I am grateful tothe Mexican people, the foreignservice of Mexico,” the ambas-sador says. “My colleagues fromthe different countries and espe-cially to the Greek community inMexico to have embraced meand made me feel at home. Ihave had an unforgettable timethere.”
Georgia Boutsianis is TNH’s cor-respondent in Mexico.
By Stavros T. Stavridis
During the second phase ofthe Lausanne Conference, heldbetween April 24 and July 241923, the issue of Greco-Turkishreparations jeopardized peacenegotiations and even raised thescepter of war between the twoformer combatants.
On April 19 the BritishCharge d’affaires in Athens,C.H.Bentinck, informed LordCurzon, the British Foreign Sec-retary, of Eleftherios Venizelos'firm determination to resistTurkish demands for the pay-ment of war reparations. Thischaracterized the Greek resolveon the reparations issue over thenext five weeks where the Greekarmy in Western Thrace stoodready to advance at short notice.
Neville Henderson, the Act-ing British High Commissionerin Constantinople, reported inearly May that Mustapha Kemal,the Turkish Nationalist leaderand first President of the TurkishRepublic October 1923-1938,wanted peace “at any price,” asthe condition of the Turkisharmy had deteriorated and ex-ternally Turkey “faced insecurityon four fronts [in] Syria, Kur-distan, the Caucasus andThrace.” There was growing dis-satisfaction by the intellectualelite and laboring class in Con-stantinople and the peasants inAnatolia due to the dramatic in-crease in the cost of living.
Eleftherios Venizelos, thechief Greek delegate at Lau-sanne, was instructed by theGreek government to press fora quick solution to the repara-tion question, otherwise thearmistice would be terminated.The Greek Cabinet sent ForeignMinister Apostolos Alexandris toLausanne for the purpose ofspeeding up the reparations set-tlement. The bad treatmentmeted out to Greek prisoners ofwar, seizure of Greek bank safes
at Smyrna and Constantinopleand “continual expulsion ofGreeks from Asia Minor” onlyserved to inflame Greek publicopinion against Turkey. On thisscore, the Greek governmentconsidered sending an ultima-tum to Turkey to refrain fromsuch measures but Venizelos ad-vised against it, as he desired tomeet Ismet, the chief Turkishnegotiator in Lausanne, to settlethe reparations issue.
In order to placate the Turks,Venizelos proposed to cedeKaragatch and a small triangleof territory between the Maritzaand Arda Rivers in return forTurkey waiving her demands forreparations against Greece.Venizelos thought this proposal“would give best means of per-sonal satisfaction to Ismet.” Onthe other hand, Venizelos wasprepared to refer it to arbitra-
tion should Ismet reject his pro-posal. However this concessionhad to be approved by the Greekgovernment.
Venizelos met Ismet on May14 to explain his nation's inca-pacity to pay an indemnity andrecognized Greek responsibilityfor damages done to Turkishproperty during the recent war.In return, he requested Ismet toask Angora to waive its de-mands for reparations fromGreece. Ismet told Rumbold thatVenizelos's proposal was unac-ceptable, but he would consideran alternative plan that pro-vided “something in lieu ofcash.” By May 18, the Greekgovernment approved the Kara-gatch proposal on the lines sug-gested by Venizelos. This was asfar as the Greek governmentwas prepared to go on this is-sue.
The concentration of Greekforces in Western Thracealarmed the Allied Generals atConstantinople to the point ofpreparing contingency plans toevacuate Allied forces to theStraits in the advent of Greekadvance on Eastern Thrace andConstantinople. They even con-sidered evacuating their ownnationals in the advent of re-newal of hostilities betweenGreece and Turkey. Curzon in-formed Bentinck on May 15 towarn the Greek government ofthe folly of launching a militaryattack. What concerned Politis,the Head of the Political Bureauof the Greek Foreign Ministry,was that Curzon's demarchewould encourage Ismet to adoptan uncompromising attitude onthe indemnity question andweaken the Greek bluff againstthe Turks. Politis assured
Bentinck that the Greek armywould not attack without theauthority of the Cabinet and theAllies. The Greeks became im-patient and even threatened towithdraw from Lausanne unlessthe reparations issue was settledquickly. Such a decision meantthe Greek government might re-nounce the armistice and com-mence hostilities.
By May 25, the Greco-Turk-ish reparations issue reached adangerous point where Ismetstill had not received an answerfor the Karagatch proposal fromAngora. Rumbold, the Britishdelegate at Lausanne, saw it wasimpossible to separate the twoquestions of Allied demands forcompensation from Turkey andGreco-Turkish reparations. TheBritish wanted to speed up theconference and finalize thepeace treaty with Turkey.
General Pelle, the French del-egate at Lausanne, received atelephone message on May 25from French Premier, RaymondPoincaré who agreed to re-nounce French reparationsagainst Turkey. NonethelessMontagna, the Italian delegateat Lausanne, did not receive hisinstructions from Rome untilMay 26. A few days earlier, Is-met had asked Pelle whether theAllies would drop their repara-tions against Turkey. Pellereplied that the two questionsof Allied reparations againstTurkey and Greco-Turkish repa-rations were totally uncon-nected. Rumbold thought if theFrench and Italians waived theirreparations against Turkey, thenthis would remove an impedi-ment in finding a solution to thisissue.
On May 24, Venizelos andAlexandris told Rumbold thatthey would leave Lausanne intwo days time, if the indemnityissue was not settled by then.Rumbold told the Greek dele-gates that if the Turks put up
unreasonable demands, thenthe Allies would seek an ad-journment. This put Venizelosin a difficult position andtelegraphed Athens for furtherinstructions.
The Greek government con-sented to a postponement of theindemnity question for a fewmore days so that Ismet couldhear from Angora. The Greeksbelieved that Angora was with-holding its reply in order to pro-long the discussions. A Greekarmy of 150,000 men with 300field and mountain guns wasready to advance at 24 hoursnotice.
Ismet experienced difficultiesover the Karagatch proposal. Heeven threatened to return to An-gora if this proposal was not ac-cepted. On May 24, Reouf Beyinformed Ismet that the claimfor reparations could not be re-nounced in return for Kara-gatch. Angora sought compen-sation “partly in cash, partly bysurrender of Greek property inConstantinople and partly inmerchant ships.” In reply, Ismeturged acceptance of the Kara-gatch solution as the only viableremedy. Mustapha Kemal sup-ported Ismet's position so longas the important issues of theOttoman Public Debt, the earlyevacuation of Turkey by the Al-lies and judicial formula weresettled in Turkey's favor.
Finally on May 26, a privatemeeting attended by Allied del-egates, Venizelos and Ismet wit-nessed the settlement of thereparations issue allowing theAllies to settle their outstandingquestions with Turkey. The Lau-sanne Treaty was finally signedon July 24, 1923 thus establish-ing peace between Greece andTurkey.
Stavros T. Stavridis is ahistorical author, history pro-fessor, and historical consul-tant.
Greek-Turkish Reparations, 1923: Lausanne Conference Near-Collapse
Lausanne Conference Attendees - 1923
Trump Has Talked about Mexicans; Now, Mexico Greeks Speak about HimContinued from page 1
If elected president, Donald Trump vows to build a wall alongthe U.S./Mexico border much better than the existing one,seen here, in Arizona.
Xenia (Polyxeni) Stefanidou, who recently retired as Greece’sAmbassador to Mexico, seen here in last year’s internationalfair organized by the Hellenic Community of Mexico.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras of Greece had atight schedule this week whenhe was in New York for theopening of the new session ofthe UN General Assembly, buthe genuinely seemed to enjoythe time he was able spend withleaders of the Greek-Americancommunity at the reception inhis honor on September 29.
Consul General George Il-iopoulos, welcomed the guestswho packed the reception hallof the Consulate where Tsiprasbegan his speech by saying“Greek-Americans are the bestambassadors of Hellenism inAmerica, a country that plays acrucial role in decisions that af-fect Greece.”
He added, “I know that dias-pora Greeks are more concernedabout Greece than we who livethere.”
After thanking the guestswhose presence demonstratedtheir desire to help, he made acommitment to greater coordi-nation between Greece and thediaspora in order to facilitatetheir efforts to communicatewith decision makers in theircountries in support of Greece.
After citing the triple crisesGreece is facing: economy,refugees, and regional instabil-ity, he noted Greece has foundmore support in Washingtonthan in Brussels.
Tsipras emphasized, how-ever, that the struggles also con-tinue regarding matters thatpreceded those crises and whichremain open, such as the Cyprusproblem.
The charismatic youngleader was a target of camerasbelonging to those who supportand oppose him alike.
Olga Alexakos, the founderand president of the Associationof Greek American ProfessionalWomen (AGAPW) told TNH shehad never seen a Prime Minstergreeted with so much love bymembers of the community.
Liana Theodoratou, Directorof the A.S. Onassis Program inHellenic Studies at NYU, said “Ibelieve it is very important thata young man with so many abil-ities and such love for his coun-try is back in power and I be-
lieve he will do much for Greeceand the diaspora.”
New York State Assembly-woman Nicole Malliotakis andRhode Island state legislator LeoRaptakis recently became mem-bers of the Board of World Hel-lenic Inter-Parliamentary Asso-ciation and have just returnedfrom Greece.
“As member of the Associa-tion we were very concernedabout some of the things we
heard and we are hoping…theywill turn the ship around andmove forward…the governmentshould do more to build the re-lationship with the diaspora, be-cause we certainly can be of ser-vice,” for example, in the effortto attract investors.”
Raptakis told TNH “PresidentObama and Treasury secretaryLew have been supportingGreece throughout the crisis.Now what must happen is the
Greek government, all parties,must work more closely with theUnited States”
Demetri Papacostas, whowas just elected president of theHellenic American Bankers As-sociation, said “we love Greecein a way that is fundamental toour very existence.” Asked whatadvice he would personally giveto Tsipras he told TNH “pursuetransparency, stability, and aneconomic environment whereinvestors know what to expectso we can create a conduit for
investments in Greece.” He saidthe most fundamental changeTsipras could make in Greek so-ciety, however, is to appoint peo-ple to government positionsbased on competence and ex-pertise, not political criteria,
Paul Kotrotsios, the founderof the Hermes Expo trade show,came from Philadelphia andsaid he would tell the PrimeMinister that “he hopes thespirit of cooperation betweenGreece and the diaspora can bestrengthened.”
Businessman and philan-thropist Nikos Mouyiaris said “itis a great joy for us to be here inthis Greek home with our primeminister…We hope he knowswhat Greece needs to do to at-tract foreign investment…the di-aspora can be a bridge to the fi-nancial community,” but headded Tripras “must return toGreece and put things in order,establish fairness and equal jus-tice under the law, and promotethe pursuit of excellence,” so thecountry can move forward.
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015 11
Re Greece, Tsipras Says U.S. is More Responsive than the Europeans
The first Radical LeftSYRIZA-led coalition was re-portedly advised behind thescenes by the United States inits contentious talks with inter-national lenders to avoid a clashwith Germany and to bend tothe demanded reforms whichled to capitulation.
That led to a July 13 agree-ment with the Quartet of theEuropean Union-InternationalMonetary Fund-European Cen-tral Bank-European StabilityMechanism (EU-IMF-ECB-ESM)and an 86-billion euro ($96.29billion) third bailout that PrimeMinister Alexis Tsipras swore he
would never seek nor accept butdid both.
But the harsh measures thatcame with it led to a split in hisparty and caused him to resignon Aug. 20 and call Sept. 20snap elections which he wonhandily over the New Democ-racy Conservatives after riddingSYRIZA of dissidents angry hereneged on anti-austerity cam-paign promises to get the deal.
A secret telegram sent toAthens by Greece’s Ambassadorto the US, Christos Panagopou-los, on July 16 detailed the re-lations between the countriesand the Americans’ strong handin pushing Greece.
A copy seen by Kathimerinishowed that Washington, withWall Street being affected byfears Greece could be pushedout of the Eurozone, wanted tomake sure it stayed in the finan-cial bloc.
That came at the same timethat President Barack Obamawas first openly taking sideswith Greece against GermanChancellor Angela Merkel,whose country has put up thebulk of the bailout monies, in-cluding the first two since 2010for 240 billion euros ($268.73)that kept the Greek economyafloat.
Obama said he wanted
Greece to stay in the Eurozonebut as the deal closed in, he,too, said the country wouldhave to accept tough reforms todo so. After Tsipras then re-neged on a July 5 referendumhe called in which Greeks sup-ported his call to hang toughagainst the lenders, the ECBsqueezed off liquidity to Greekbanks, which closed for severalweeks and as capital controlsstill in place were imposed.
That led Tsipras to cave in tokeep Greece in the Eurozone.The telegram showed the U.S.had deep involvement in tellinghim how to handle relationswith the Eurozone, especially asthen-Finance Minister YanisVaroufakis was antagonizing hispeers with constantly contradic-tory statements and a defiantattitude.
PLAY IT COOLThe United States told
Greece not to go on the open inverbal attacks against Germanyas a chorus of dissent was build-ing against Berlin including de-mands for WWII reparationsand other discord.
Instead, the US recom-mended Greece try to create analliance with other countries in-cluding the United Kingdom,France, Italy and Austria, whichfailed to materialize, leaving
Tsipras isolated in the EU. The U.S. made it clear that
the coalition would have to con-vince these countries that it wasserious about implementing re-forms if they were to then, inturn, offer their support.
Panagopoulos also said thatWashington’s strategy was tostress the geopolitical impor-tance of keeping Greece in thesingle currency and the need forthe Eurozone to agree a furtherreduction of Greek debt, accord-ing to the newspaper.
He also suggested that theUS government also encouragedthe IMF to support a call for theEU – not itself – to provide debtrelief for Greece which hasn’tcome and as Merkel has flatlyrejected a debt cut which couldforce taxpayers in the other 18Eurozone countries to pay thebill for generations of profligateGreek overspending and run-away patronage under NewDemocracy and the PASOK So-cialists.THE GEOPOLITICAL ANGLE
Sources also told Kathimerinithat it was Washington who em-phasized the geopolitical angleto the Greek issue throughNATO.
On June 19 NATO DeputySecretary General Alexander Ver-shbow said a Greek exit would
“indeed have repercussions” forthe alliance and told a securityconference in Bratislava thatNATO was “worried about” aGreek exit from the Eurozone asSYRIZA hardliners pushed forthe country to get out of the mil-itary alliance, too.
His comments came just afterGreece and Russia agreed apipeline deal and as Tsipras wascontinuing to court RussianPresident Vladimir Putin for as-sistance with Greece’s economiccrisis, worrying Washington thatGreece could step away fromwestern influence and NATO.
Panagopoulos describes inhis telegram that there was fre-quent and extensive contact be-tween Athens and Washington,including officials from the Trea-sury and the State Department,during the months of negotia-tions leading up to the signingof the third bailout and Greece’ssurrender.
Tsipras, in New York for theopening of the United NationsGeneral Assembly, told his newCabinet before he left to get inline fast and implement reformsand more austerity measures heonce opposed before he, too –as did New Democracy, PASOKand other players in previouscoalitions – bend to the will ofthe Quartet.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, left, participates in an interview with former PresidentBill Clinton, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015 at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
This week in 1828, on Octo-ber 7, French forces embarkedon a military campaign that lib-erated the City of Patras. Duringthe Greek War of Independence(1821-1832), Patras was stillknown as “Morea” and that bat-tle was known as the Morea Ex-pedition.
The French, inspired by theAge of Enlightenment, an era ofcultural and intellectual growthmost prevalent in the 1700s, ap-preciated the impact Greecemade on human civilization andaspired to help liberate Greecefrom its occupation by the Ot-toman Empire.
A decisive turn in the tidewas at the battle of Navarino
(now Pylos), which was foughtexclusively by ships, and in-cluded the Russian fleet onFrance’s side. Russia at the timesought to expand its globalreach and so it assisted in bat-tling the Ottomans.
The town of Koroni was lib-erated by French Generals Ho-race François Bastien Sébastianide La Porta and Nicholas Mai-son from the Egyptian forces ofIbrahim Pasha. Though Ibrahimhad been able to defeat theGreeks two years earlier in Mes-solonghi, he was thwarted byGreek naval vessels I the Morearegion, and was largely confinedto mobility between Rhodes andCrete.
This Week in Greek History:
French Forces Liberate Patras
AP PHOTO/mArk lENNiHAN
The United States was Secret Player Guiding Greece Bailout Talks all Along
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Cyprus PresidentNicos Anastasiades of Cypruscompleted his trip to New Yorkwith a press conference from hisManhattan hotel on September27. He briefed the media with anaccount of his contacts during hisvisit, which took place in the con-text of the opening of the newsession of the UN General Assem-bly.
His schedule was packed withimportant meetings given the on-going Cyprus negotiations andturmoil in the Middle East.
The president met with UNGeneral Secretary Ban Ki-moon,Greek Prime Minister AlexisTsipras, Vice President JohnBiden, Secretary of State JohnKerry, Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov, president of IndiaNarenda Modi, president ofEgypt Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, Pales-tine leader Mahmoud Abbas, andthe UN Security Council.
He also met with the Ameri-can Jewish Committee and DavidStover, the head of Noble Energy.
Following the briefing, he an-swered questions from journal-ists. As to whether he askedBiden to mediate with Turkey tohelp with the Cyprus talks, hesaid “certainly, and in particularregarding the role they can playwith certain issues of importance
to Greek-Cypriots, which are sen-sitive and constitute factors thatcould contribute to an acceptablesolution within the context wehave described repeatedly.”
Asked about the possibility oftechnical support from the IMFand the effects on the economy
of a possible Cyprus solution,Anastasiades said “efforts are be-ing made on all sides to havestudies on the economic aspectsof several issues involved in aCyprus solution.”
When asked if he was invitedto visit the White House, he men-
tioned his brief meeting withPresident Obama, whom hefound him quite informed on theCyprus issue, and said it will de-pend on a number of factors, andthat the important thing was thesincere interest demonstrated byboth the Secretary of State and
VP Biden to contribute with anyassistance.
Anastasiades was askedwhether he can convince Cypriotsto accept a solution similar to theAnnan plan. According to aBloomberg survey, the peoplemay be ready to accept any solu-tion that is better than the cur-rent situation: “We are at the ini-tial stages of negotiations and ina better climate regarding withagreements as well as disagree-ments,” than in the past, hereplied, and emphasized that “Ifind it quite premature for some-one to say whether the GreekCypriots will accept or reject asolution. It all depends on thecontent. If we manage to respondto the concerns of both Greekand Turkish Cypriots, it will haveto be an agreed solution mutuallyaccepted. My efforts, and I firmlybelieve Mustafa Akinci’s as well,will be to find a solution that an-swers the expectations and con-cerns [of the people and leadersto ] the creation of a modern Eu-ropean state ensuring theprospects and the future ofCypriot citizens.”
Left to Right : FCAO President Costas Tsentas, Cyprus PresidentNicos Anastasiades – standing before his birthday cake – SotiriaPotamitou, and Amb. Vasilios Philippou.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warmly greets Cyprus Pres-ident Nicos Anastasiades prior to their bilateral meeting at theNew York Palace hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Barack and Michelle Obama receive Greek PM Alexis Tsiprasand his companion Betty Bazania at the White House.
Cyprus President Anastasiades Gives Press Conference in Manhattan
NEW YORK – Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras, after a numberof meetings around the UnitedNations’ General Assemblyopening, said American officialsare more supportive of Greece’scall for debt relief than itslenders or European leaders.
Tsipras met briefly with Pres-ident Barack Obama on the side-lines of an event the Americanleader hosted for foreign digni-taries before the Greek chief hada session with Secretary of StateJohn Kerry.
“The Greek government has
found far more open ears [here]than in Brussels for the need forthere to be a fair resolution ofthe crisis and a necessary reduc-tion of the unbearable and un-sustainable public debt that hasaccumulated all those years,”Tsipras told reporters.
He was speaking on the fifthday of an official visit to theUnited States and followingmeetings with representatives ofthe Greek-American communityin New York who he describedas “the best ambassadors forHellenism in the United States,
a country which plays the mostsignificant role globally in allthe crucial decisions that relateto our country’s future.”
Tsipras said Greeks havebeen “the victim of choices thatled to the gradual erosion of thecountry’s national sovereigntyand to the need for borrowingwhich resulted in the enforce-ment of measures which have…weakened the production baseand the economy.”
He was speaking about theterms of an 86-billion euro($96.1 billion) third bailout he
signed with creditors, includingthe European Union, that camewith more reforms and harshausterity measures he vowed toreject before capitulating to de-mands to give in.
He has alternately said theprogram won’t work and that itwill save Greece. His commentsin the United States came a fewdays before envoys from theQuartet of the EU-InternationalMonetary Fund-European Cen-tral Bank-European StabilityMechanism (EU-IMF-ECB-ESM)are due back in Athens to check
the country’s books and push forimplementation of the mea-sures.
Getting ready for what hefaces on return, including a re-jection by the creditors of anoutright debt cut, Tsipras is re-organizing a new team he as-sembled after winning the Sept.20 second snap elections thisyear, this one that he called him-self to rid his Radical LeftSYRIZA of anti-austerity rebelswho said he betrayed them andvoters by reneging on hispromises.
In U.S., Tsipras Says Greek Debt Relief Call Heard
EDITORIALS LETTERS12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015
Daskalaki, Liveris, ShineAt Sept. 30 THI Gala
To the editor: At The Hellenic Initiative
(THI) Gala on Sept. 30, held atthe stunning 4 World Trade Cen-ter building, just a few stepsaway from the construction ofSt. Nicholas Church, there were
many dignitaries and successfulbusinesspersons present.
Among the dignitaries wasthe Greek Prime Minister AlexisTsipras, who promoted the in-teresting idea of investing inGreece. “Don't miss this oppor-tunity,” he said.
But it was two other speakerswho made the difference: Onewas Yianna Anggelopoulos-Daskalaki, who introducedTsipras warmly and the otherwas Andrew Liveris, a spectac-ular speaker who had the bestline of the night: “Why doGreeks need to go outside ofGreece to prove their worth, andnot in Greece?”
Eric ThaniotakisAstoria
From our website…Pope Has a GoodMessage, But…
The foreign media, but alsoour own Greek media forgets thatour patriarch was the first amongmajor hierarchs, to bring up theenvironment as a major concern.
That’s when the popes were
busy hiding themselves from thechild abuse scandals among theirpriests.
Yes, Pope Francis is good atpassing out messages, but, Ihaven’t seen him send any moneyfrom the vast coffers of theCatholic Church, to transport themigrants that are flooding Greecein a safe manner onto Germany.
The smugglers are becomingwealthy, while the Greek is-landers are bearing the burdenof having to process and helpthem, and also clean up afterthem.
Have you seen the refuse ofwater bottles and scattered trashthey produce?
Lambros Karpodinis
A Better Speech for TsiprasOn September 28, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke
before the United Nations in New York, covering a number ofissues pertaining to Greece’s ongoing economic challenges.
The prime minister spoke about the dire need to addressdebt restructuring, which he said must be part of the conversa-tion about global development, and reiterated how much debthas hurt the Greek economy and how debt relief is essential forgrowth.
While those notions are correct, we believe that a better,more effective, and farther-reaching speech for Mr. Tsipras tohave made would be the one contained herein.
But even as the September 28 opportunity has come andgone, the recently-reelected prime minister will have plenty ofother chances to make a similar speech in various forums.
To that end, we hope he pays heed to our advice, and,moving forward, adopts this speech instead:
What the Prime Minister Should Have Said
Mr. General Secretary, your excellences, ladies and gentle-men:
It has only been a week since my reelection. There are thosewho think I could have spent my time more productively had Istayed at home and dealt with the problems we have ratherthan coming here.
I beg to differ, if I may.I chose to be here – a city in which hundreds of thousands of
my fellow Greeks live, and who I am proud to say have distin-guished themselves in every aspect of life in this highly-com-petitive city – because this is the only opportunity I have to ad-dress such a select audience of 150 heads of state. I am alsoaware of the fact that following the events in my country, youwill most likely have questions, which I will try to answer now.
Dear friends, as you know, my country has been goingthrough a major crisis the last five years. A crisis of a magnitudethat makes even the Great Depression pale before it. Let megive you some numbers: unemployment among our youth ex-ceeds 49%. The GDP has shrunk by 25%. Poverty and suicidesfrom nearly nil have skyrocketed. Need I say more? Probablynot; you have a complete understanding of what’s going on.
Let me be clear. We do blame anyone for our problems asdoing so would serve no purpose. Would it make any differencehad we said that several people in Europe before the crisisbroke out looked the other way, obviously serving personalagendas, rather than confronting the actual condition of oureconomy? Or that even the banks followed the same self-servingpolicy? I think it would serve no purpose at all.
Therefore, we Greeks accept this responsibility. We havemade mistakes and we’ve been paying for these for the last fiveyears. We have paid a very heavy price, dear colleagues. We’vesuffered a lot, we’ve made tremendous sacrifices. We’ve in-creased taxes, we’ve slashed salaries and pension benefits; weshed tears, we got hurt.
We, the proud Greeks, a people with significant contributionsto the entire world, a people who always did their duty, whostood by what is right on every occasion, defended values,peace, and democracy, no matter what the cost.
We have been hurt, we have been humiliated, and we haveembittered our friends, our allies, and even our brothers abroad.
Our friends and allies in Europe attempted to stand by us inthe way they believed they should. The same holds for the IMF.Truth be told, they did lend us significant amounts of money,even if those loans were not under the terms we pursued, butunder their own.
Ladies and gentlemen, during these five years we learned alot, and were taught a lot.
We learned that we must change our economy. Implementreforms. Liberate our markets, as well as the job market. Combattax evasion and corruption.
And we do implement these, but slowly. Not at the rate we’dlike, but we do move forward.
Now, following my reelection, I assure you – no, make that,I guarantee you – that I will dedicate all my powers to imple-menting these necessary reforms, regardless of political conse-quences.
My dear friends, my generation has lent its ear to the call ofhistory. We assume the responsibility. We enter the battle in fullforce so that we can make Greece again worthy of its history,its people, its friends and allies, its brethren abroad.
However, for us to achieve this, we ask for your understand-ing. We request your solidarity. We ought to be treated in asimilar way as are several other countries, in Europe and else-where.
It is common knowledge that our debt is unmanageable.Don’t take my word for it, the IMF itself says so. Unless thedebt is reduced significantly, at least by half and right away, nomatter what we do will not be enough to take us out of thedead end in which we’re deadlocked. And that will result inhuge humanitarian and political consequences, which will affectour relations with our allies and elsewhere.
Debt reduction will give us the opportunity to invest the dif-ference in interest rates on infrastructure projects and othercritical investments that our country needs so badly, and thatwill provide jobs to the thousands of our unemployed fellowcitizens.
Moreover, countries that are friends and allies should notassess each other on the basis of numbers and percentagesalone. They should factor in other aspects like solidarity, thehelping hand that one extends to the other at times of need.Because, my dear ladies and gentlemen, nobody’s perfect.
At any rate, we shall continue with our solidarity, despiteour problems, to the hundreds of thousands of refugees reachingour islands and our coasts, by land or by sea.
We shall continue and be a source of stability and peace inthis critical geostrategic region.
We are ready and willing to solve our problem. I am certainthat with your help, we will be successful. Thank you.
LETTERS TO THE EDITORThe National Herald
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Observations By Antonis H. Diamataris
The Leader New Democracy Needs
Following its recent electoral defeat, NewDemocracy (ND) finds itself at a criticalcrossroad: will it evolve into a political partythat strongly claims power, or will it remainresigned to its bygone glory?
ND prime minister candidate EvangelosMeimarakis, undoubtedly and beyond allexpectations, managed a Herculean effortfor his beleaguered party: 27% of the vote.Nonetheless, he lost soundly to AlexisTsipras, an opponent who literally had de-nounced the right to be reelected. ButTsipras presumably won due to what hesupposedly and comparatively represents:youth and freshness.
But the question now is: how far canMeimarakis take ND? Can he win an elec-
tion against a young, charismatic opponentlike Tsipras?
This change goes beyond Tsipras himself.It is a change that permeates the economiccrisis and presents a challenge across theboard: can ND remain tied to its past andwin elections in this new era? I doubt it.
Meimarakis clearly is a product of the oldgeneration, and failing to realize it is evenworse, because it evinces that both he and agood portion of ND are unable to accept it.
Fair or not, that’s the reality. And thefaster ND realizes that, the better for itselfand for Greece – which, after all, should bethe ultimate goal.
Several ND members think the party’snew leader should be its own version ofTsipras.
I disagree.For Greece’s sake as well as its own, ND
needs a new leader who is not like Tsipras,but is markedly better than him. Moreknowledgeable, more experienced, andmore aware of the world outside of Greece.
If it expects to survive, ND must renewitself and choose a new leader. A leaderchosen on the merits, based on academicand professional accomplishments, and po-litical experience.
To select a leader with a mastery overeconomic issues both within and outside ofGreece, without any baggage, who canspeak the language of the markets, have aclear vision, who is bold enough to speakthe truth, and who can restore hope to anemotionally exhausted and dispirited na-tion, is a matter of survival of party andcountry.
Hopefully, ND will realize that soonenough.
AGORA – THE ORIGINAL MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
SCAROS PRESENTS HISPOINT OF VIEW
Dan, I would say we’ve talkeda great bit about Donald Trumpover the past few weeks but,then again, so has practicallyeveryone else in the media. Andjust as they continue to do so,so should we, I think, becausehis continued command of thisstretch of the election cycle ren-ders such discussions newswor-thy, not to mention entertaining.
I take strong exception to thestereotype that Trump support-ers are racists, nativists, andmisogynists. Sure, some are, butthe vast majority are not.
Take me, for instance.Though I wouldn’t pigeonholemyself as a “Trump supporter”just yet – I’ve been around thepolitical process long enough notto be surprised that I may souron him in a few days, weeks ormonths – I have also certainlynot ruled out the possibility ofvoting for him. And yet in noway am I any of those horriblethings. That I think a lot of whatTrump says has merit and is vitalto our national political discus-sion in no way means that I sup-port racism, xenophobia, ormisogyny. In fact, the basis ofmy argument in this Agora seg-ment is that I don’t think Trumpharbors any of those sentiments,either.
Let me focus on Trump’s sup-posed “anti-immigrant” position.I have heard Trump say – con-stantly – that “I love immigrants.I want immigrants to come tothis country through a big, beau-tiful door. But they need to comehere legally. And I want to builda wall to keep people from com-ing here illegally,” as well as todeport those who have – eventhough he would allow the vastmajority of them (i.e., the non-felons) to return very quickly.“And I promise to do this in avery humane manner,” he says,albeit not getting too specificwith the details. Exactly how isthat anti-immigrant? Sounds tome like it’s anti-lawlessness.
If someone were to condemnSpiro Agnew for having pleadedno contest to bribery chargeswhile governor or Maryland andas a result resigning the vicepresidency of the United States,should we label that person anti-Greek?
Moreover, is Trump “anti-im-migrant” because he would notallow Univision’s Jorge Ramosto speak out of turn at a pressconference, because at that pointRamos stopped being a journal-ist and became a heckler? Not
to mention that Trump letRamos back in and gave himmore floor time than he did toanyone else. “Go back to Univi-sion,” Trump told Ramos,prompting the Trump-bashers toinsist that his reference to aLatino television station wasclearly a racist remark. If it hadbeen MSNBC’s Hardball hostChris Matthews who was doingthe heckling, and Trump said tohim “go back to MSNBC,” wouldthat make Trump a racist againstIrish-Catholics (of whichMatthews is one)? And who re-ally thinks Trump wouldn’t havethrown out a zinger againstMSNBC, just like he did againstUnivision, though in neither caseanything having to do with eth-nicity?
Trump rails against politicalcorrectness, and he is so thin-skinned that when attacked, hewill zero in on the attacker’sweak spot, even if the commentmay hint of broader forbidden“isms.”
America has had populistcandidates for centuries. The lastone to gain traction to this sig-nificant level was Ross Perot in1992. Pat Buchanan alsomounted a strong challenge tothen-President George H.W.Bush. John Anderson madesome noise as an independentin 1980. George Wallace in1968… etc. None of those can-didates won the election.
Judging from history, then,populists are great for rousingthe masses, but over the longand grueling haul of a presiden-tial campaign just don’t havewhat it takes to finish first. Theodds are against Trump, there-fore, in that regard. But his cur-rent poll numbers suggest thathe has an advantage over theothers – he is currently the fron-trunner of one of America’s twomajor political parties.
As we continue to watchTrump, I hope that any criticismdirected his way is based onwhat he has actually said – notwhat has been wrongly twistedinto passing as his words. For in-stance, Trump never said: “Mex-icans are rapists and criminals.”Instead, he said: “Mexico sendsus its racists and criminals,”meaning that the Mexican gov-ernment, seeking to keep onlyits good people in its own coun-try, sends us the bad ones.
That is exactly the type ofstatement worth analyzing and,if applicable, refuting, disprov-ing, or otherwise criticizing. Andagain, that would not makeTrump anti-immigrant.
What do you think?
GEORGAKAS RESPONDS “The Donald” may or may
not be racist, xenophobic, or sex-ist. Many of his supporters areand have no qualms about sostating. He is a champion oftough talk that ignores thewhole of a policy’s impact toconcentrate on a single aspect,good or bad, of that policy. Hiseconomic proposals consist ofactions that have repeatedlyfailed. Finally, he is a corporate
executive, a class that contraryto most public opinion is notwell suited for public service.
Trump is extremely thin-skinned. He is also vindictive. asdemonstrated in his demeaningattack on the heroism of JohnMcCain and his adolescent stabregarding the attractiveness ofProject Runway’s Heide Klum.This shoot-from-the hip style isnot suitable for dealing withworld leaders, whether allies orfoes. What the world rememberswhen Trump indulges in abra-sive language is the crudenessof what was said rather than anyfollow-up clarification.
Trump’s proposal to build awall on the Mexican border re-minds me of the heinous wall Is-rael has built in Palestine. Heopposes the Iran agreementwithout offering any viable al-ternative or admitting our allieswill lift sanctions whether we doso or not. Like myopic politiciansof the late 1920s, the Donald be-lieves raising tariffs on importswill guarantee long-term Amer-ican prosperity. He also is underthe delusion that the power of
OPEC and manipulation of theChinese currency can be con-trolled through acts of the U.S.Congress.
Trump happens to be the sonof a millionaire, with little un-derstanding of the challengesfaced by people dependent onwages and salaries. This is clearby his reluctance to raise wageseven for the lowest paid workerswhen executive pay is at all-timehighs. He says he will create jobsby reducing corporate taxes tozero, which outdoes even Ch-eney/Bush’s economic blunders.
Trump has a poor record inurban development. Years ago,he and his colleagues assuredAtlantic City that if they allowedcasinos to open, there would bean economic boom that wouldre-establish the city as a majorvacation and convention center.No such revival has occurred.Moreover, one of Trump’s threecasinos has closed and a secondmay follow suite.
Like other corporate execu-tives, what Trump is good at do-ing has little to do with runninga government. Corporations areprofit-seeking enterprises; thegovernment is a service organi-zation. Corporate executivesseek to cut costs whatever waythey can and avoid paying taxeswhenever possible. They arepaid enormous sums to get asmuch work as possible out of asfew people as possible at thelowest cost possible. The modeis less about efficiency than per-sonal gain.
Governmental efficiency isnot measured by how muchprofit is generated but in keep-ing revenues and costs in bal-ance. Responsible politiciansstrive to regulate corporationswhose products might endangerhealth, public safety, and the en-vironment. Rather than trying tocreate winners in the capitalistcasino, responsible governmen-tal administrators strive to pro-vide an equal playing field forall citizens and regulate financialinstitutions to prevent outrightswindling and trickery. Their payis modest with no “golden para-chutes” when they move or re-tire. Unlike corporate executiveswho plan for the short run orfor as long as they will be em-ployed by a specific corporation,they plan for the long run.
Most Americans don’t con-sider many of our present polit-ical leaders as responsible.Trump’s statements attract them,but he is presenting old policiesas something new. He is morebark than bite.
Is Donald Trump Anti-Immigrant, or just Anti-Lawlessness?
By Dan Georgakas and Constantinos E. Scaros
From time to time, an issue emerges andinspires various minds to converge, often atodds with one another, to discuss it. Hopefully,collective enlightenment will result from suchconversations. The Ancient Greeks did that in
the Agora, the original marketplace of ideas,and we, their modern-day descendants, aspireto continue that tradition.
We respect one another’s opinion very much,but often times we will disagree on particularissues. We would never fabricate a differenceof opinion for the sake of writing an interestingcolumn.
Rest assured, anything we write here areour sincere, heartfelt thoughts.
We will share them with you every twoweeks. We hope you enjoy them, and we lookforward to your taking part in the discussionas well – by contributing letters to the editor inresponse, and/or commenting on our website:www.thenationalherald.com
Donald Trump may not beanti-immigrant or anti-womenafter all. But Georgakas andScaros disagree on how good– or bad – he’d be for thecountry.
VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015 13
When former TV sales pitch-man Adonis Georgiadis, he ofthe famous rants trying to lureyou to buy books about AncientGreece’s glory, jumped into therace to become the new leaderof the faded New DemocracyCapitalists, you could almosthear Judy Collins singing “Sendin the Clowns.”
The party, which along withthe now obscure PASOK Anti-Socialists, took turns ruiningGreece for four decades, hasbeen in a free fall since formerleader and reluctant premierCostas “The Invisible Man”Karamanlis’ governments from2004-09 lied so much about theeconomy, you would havethought Pinocchio was financeminister.
That prevarication led hissuccessor, then-PASOK leaderGeorge “The Money is There”Papandreou to go begging to in-ternational lenders for whatturned into three bailouts of 346billion euros ($387.9) billion –for a country with a Gross Do-mestic Product of 271.5 billioneuros, or $304.37 billion.
That’s like you earning$50,000 a year and borrowing$75,000 from the bank, termsonly a country can get becauseit just keeps taxing people todeath to pay for the same kindof incompetence, mismanage-ment and greed that is takingNew Democracy toward thedustbin of history too unless itcan rally around a leader withat least an ounce of charisma,smarts and who believe in aTimocracy.
From Karamanlis’ win in2004 with 3,359,058 votes tointerim leader EvangelosMeimarkis’ beating on Sept. 20when he garnered only1,526,205 votes in a thrashingat the hands of the Looney Left
SYRIZA, NewDemocracy lost1,832,853 votes, or54 percent of itsbase.
The only worsebeating was takenby PASOK, whichlost almost 90 per-cent of its voters –2,661,141 of themin the same period.That was, incrediblyskewed in its favorin the last electionwhen the equally-useless DemocraticLeft (DIMAR) joinedin an alliance of the unable.
New Democracy, as did PA-SOK, paid a heavy price foragreeing to impose harsh aus-terity measures in return for themoney needed to save Greecefrom the two parties who de-
stroyed it. The Conservatives’former leader, Antonis Samaras,waffled so much on austerity hisface could have been on a maplesyrup bottle. He shunted himselfaside in July after Greeks re-fused to listen to him advisingthem to go along with more ofthe conditions he had opposed,supported, opposed, supportedand opposed and supported.
He spun around so much aweathervane could have beennamed after him although itwouldn’t hold up well in astorm. Even he could see his day
was over, coincid-ing with NewD e m o c r a c y ’ sdemise into a per-petual also-ran.
That turned thereins temporarilyover to the 61-year-old formerp a r l i a m e n t a r ys p e a k e rMeimarakis, whohad to fend offcharges of wrong-doing at one pointbefore returning tothat job and sud-denly finding him-
self head of the party whenthen-Premier and SYRIZAleader Alexis, “The Reneger”Tsipras stepped down and calledthe September elections to ridhimself of rebels angry he liedto them and voters about apromise to reverse pay cuts, taxhikes, slashed pensions, workerfirings and privatizations.
Now New Democracy isholding a contest at the end ofOctober – just around the timeTsipras will whack Greece’smost vulnerable, the ones hevowed to protect, with more bigtax hikes and pension cuts.
The Conservatives will picka new leader in a crucial contestthat will determine whether itwants to stay tethered to a failedpast or present even a glimmerof hope and promise for what’sleft of its crumbling base of thedisenchanted, disillusioned anddisgusted.
It’s not a promising field. Pol-itics being what it is,Meimarakis will be seen as thefavorite because he was theleader for a few months beforeleading New Democracy to an-other butt kicking at the feet ofSYRIZA. Before the actual votein September he acquitted him-
self well before voters foundhim as dull as dishwater.
Not the guy you want lead-ing New Democracy and it wasunsure up to October 1, a daybefore the deadline for an-nouncing, if he would evenwant the thankless job of beingpushed around by Tsipras untilthe SYRIZA leader asks for afourth bailout and another snapelection in which he would askvoters for a third chance to getit right.
The short list also included –not including latecomers - theparty’s pit bull Georgiadis, rela-tively unknown Central Mace-donia Governor Apostolos Tz-itzikostas and the man who isthe only obvious choice, formerAdministrative Reform MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis.
He is the son of a formerPrime Minister ConstantinosMitsotakis and sister of partystalwart and former AthensMayor Dora Bakoyianni, whoshould have been party leaderbefore she pulled a Hillary Clin-ton and assumed the job washers, losing to Samaras.
Mitsotakis, 46, had an un-even performance in overseeingthe country’s bloated publicworkforce but is young, Har-vard-educated and has somepep and vision. He could be acentrist unifier and not a dividerand when you’re looking to thefuture, 46 is better than 61 rightoff the bat.
New Democracy by itself isn’tthe answer to saving Greece butneither is SYRIZA, so it’s up toMitsotakis to take over the partyand then define a dream that is-n’t in keeping with its past ofscandal, corruption and depriv-ing people of hope.
The last ten months havebeen a very confusing time forGreek-Americans who careabout Greece, even those whocan follow things closely. It wasnever clear whether the leftwingSYRIZA-led government thatemerged from the January 2015elections was putting up aheroic fight against the bad Eu-ropeans, or was simply adoptingbravado and dragging its feet.Puzzled Greek-Americans won-dered whether to back thehomeland to the hilt or toprotest its government’s clue-lessness.
Thanks to last month’s elec-tions Greece four years of gov-ernance by a SYRIZA-led admin-istration that has pledged itselfimplement the onerous bailoutrequirements and lead Greeceout of its crisis. The election re-sult may have been surprisingbut it represented a definitivevote of confidence in SYRIZAand a repudiation of the conser-vative and socialist parties thatdominated Greek politics overthe last forty years. SYRIZA ishere to stay, for a while at least.
“My-country-right-or-wrong”is not a helpful attitude towardsthe homeland but nor is the cat-egorical dismissal of a govern-ment because of its ideology.Ethnic Americans, Italians,Jews, or Greeks tend to be moreconservative than the elec-torates back home. WhileGreek-Americans should cer-tainly not suspend their judg-ment of SYRIZA over the nextfour years, they may want tomake sure they treat the gov-ernment fairly.
Greek America,its mainstream ver-sion at least, gener-ally does not dowell with left-wingadministrations inAthens, and hasharbored a some-what irrational fearof the Greek Left.This tendency tookon embarrassing di-mensions duringthe seven-yearcolonels’ junta es-tablished in 1967purportedly to pro-tect Greece fromwhat turned out to be a ficti-tious communist threat. All ma-jor community organizationslent the regime their support.Some eventually came round topublicly criticizing the regimealbeit late, as for example Arch-bishop Iakovos and this news-paper, but others supported ituntil the bitter end.
When Andreas Papandreou’ssocialists took over from theconservatives in 1981 the viewof the homeland from across theAtlantic became decidedlycooler. Iakovos met with An-dreas only after the Greek worldmobilized to protest Turkey’screation of a supposedly inde-pendent state in the occupiednorth of Cyprus. The next so-cialist administration, in officefrom 1996 to 2004 and led byCostas Simitis was more mod-erate and therefore more toler-able, despite its strained rela-tions with the Church of Greece.
There are of course someGreek-Americans who are
happy with the pre-sent SYRIZA-ledadminis t rat ion.This newspaper re-ported as much lastweek based on in-terviews with sev-eral Greek Ameri-cans living inAstoria. I wonder ifthat is true furtheraway from Greek-town, among thethird and fourthgeneration Greek-Americans. Evenmost Greek-Ameri-cans who vote for
the Democrats in the UnitedStates are surely to the right ofSYRIZA’s views.
Yet they and those further tothe right should avoid knee-jerkreactions this time round, andgive the present SYRIZA-led ad-ministration time to showwhether or not it is capable ofleading the country out of thecrisis. One of our major reasonsfor deciding whether or not tosupport administrations inAthens was their attitude to theUnited States. It is no longer afactor; it was one in the past.
The best example was theperemptory dismissal of the An-dreas Papandreou. According toProfessor Ted Couloumbis, theGreek lobby in Washington evenchanged course when Papan-dreou became prime minister.Instead of working towardsshaping U.S. policy towardsGreece it did a somersault andtried to persuade the Greek gov-ernment to get closer to theUnited States. He described this
Greek American pressure onAthens as “the reverse influencephenomenon.”
In the end Papandreou’s anti-Americanism turned out to bemore rhetoric than reality.
SYRIZA, notwithstanding itsradicalism, has not resorted toanti-Americanism. In fact wenow know that the U.S. govern-ment was working very closelywith the previous SYRIZA-ledadministration through July.The Obama administration wasactively helping Greece dealwith the Germans and forge al-liances with other major Euro-pean powers. This was all sum-marized in a report the GreekAmbassador in Washington sentto the Greek Ministry of ForeignAffairs. It was leaked to theAthens daily Kathimerini andappeared last week.
If the United States can offerits support, so should GreekAmerica. The SYRIZA-led gov-ernment could be around for thefull four-year term of the pre-sent parliament. There will beplenty of time to judge their per-formance based on facts, leavingbehind those irrational fears ofthe left.
Alexander Kitroeff is a historyprofessor at Haverford College.His expertise is on the past &present of the Greeks in theUnited States and he has alsocollaborated with directorMaria Iliou on three documen-tary films. He is currentlywriting a book on the history ofthe Greek OrthodoxArchdiocese of America.
Now that SYRIZA’s Back, How Will Greek-Ams React?
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LETTER FROM ATHENS
New Democracy Tries to Put itself Back Together Again
by ANDYDABILIS
Special to The National Herald
By Dr. Dimitra Kamarinou[Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue]
“Don’t publish this article,mom. It is too conservative. Itis the irrational hope of theweak that moves the societiesforth. Think of our Indepen-dence War.” Up to a point, he isright. But when I called myfriends in Greece during theGreek-EU negotiation, I foundmyself puzzled by their incom-prehensible optimism as muchas they were surprised by myfearful predictions. Such feel-ings reminded me of the unrea-sonable expectations before theAsia Minor expedition. In factthe processes in history are notlinear. History offers a varietyof examples, so that generaliza-tions are quite often too risky.Both realism and idealism havetheir share in shaping history.That is the reason why I findthere is a point in presentingthis part of Thucydides’ Meliandialogue. He sheds light into thepsychology of the weaker in anegotiation. He most clearlyoutlines how their despair canfeed irrational hopes and how
the feelings of dishonour canblind their political realism. Theimportant passages are quotedverbatim so that the readers canjudge for themselves similaritiesand differentiations from thecurrent political situation.
Thucydides unravels the is-sue by initially presenting howproudly and courageously theMelians oppose to the Athenianthreat – submit to our Leagueor be destroyed – that they willfight for their independence. In416 BC, when the negotiationbetween their envoys and theMelian commissioners was held,the Athenians had alreadylanded over 3000 men on theisland of Melos. The Athenianscounter that the debate is notabout courage but about self-preservation. “Not if you arewell advised, the contest not be-ing an equal one, with honouras the prize and shame as thepenalty, but a question of self-preservation and of not resistingthose who are far stronger thanyou are.”
The discussion goes on to thelikelihood of the Melians resist-ing successfully. The Meliancommissioners underline thatthe fortune of war is sometimesmore impartial than the dispro-portion of numbers might leadone to suppose. “To submit is togive ourselves over to despair,while action still preserves forus a hope that we may standerect.”
Delving into the weaker’spsychology Thucydides bril-liantly reveals their motives ina sub-rational level and exam-ines the nature of their hope.The Athenians raise the tone.“Hope, danger's comforter, maybe indulged in by those who
have abundant resources, if notwithout loss at all events with-out ruin; but its nature is to beextravagant, and those who goso far as to put their all uponthe venture see it in its truecolours only when they are ru-ined; but so long as the discov-ery would enable them to guardagainst it, it is never foundwanting. Let not this be the casewith you, who are weak andhang on a single turn of thescale; nor be like the vulgar,who, abandoning such securityas human means may still af-ford, when visible hopes failthem in extremity, turn to invis-ible, to prophecies and oracles,and other such inventions thatdelude men with hopes to theirdestruction.”
It seems that under such cir-cumstances the idea of disgraceemerges in people’s thoughts.The Athenians offer us an in-sightful concept’s analysis interms of political decision mak-ing. “You will surely not becaught by that idea of disgrace,which in dangers that are dis-graceful, and at the same timetoo plain to be mistaken, provesso fatal to mankind; since in toomany cases the very men thathave their eyes perfectly opento what they are rushing into,let the thing called disgrace, bythe mere influence of a seduc-tive name, lead them on to apoint at which they become soenslaved by the phrase as in factto fall wilfully into hopeless dis-aster, and incur disgrace moredisgraceful as the companion oferror, than when it comes as theresult of misfortune.” Reversingthe issue, they speak for thehonor of being an Athens’ ally.What the Athenians then focuson is not how the world shouldbe, but how the world is fornow. “It is certain that thosewho do not yield to their equals,who keep terms with their su-periors, and are moderate to-wards their inferiors, on thewhole succeed best.”
Politicians quite often try toground their decisions on exam-ples from the nation’s history.The Melians refer to their his-tory to support their decision toresist. “We will not in a momentdeprive of freedom a city thathas been inhabited these sevenhundred years; but we put ourtrust in the fortune by which thegods have preserved it untilnow, and in the help of men,that is, of the Lacedaemonians."
Two years later all men ofMelos were killed by the Athe-nians. All women and childrenwere drag into slavery. Atheni-ans send 500 settlers to inhabitthe ruined island. The same yearthe “Trojan Women” by Euripi-des, considered an intrepid com-mentary on the war’s defeated,was performed in Athens.
Dr. Dimitra Kamarinou, PhD,has studied philology and ar-chaeology at the University ofIoannina,Würzburg andBochum in Germany. She hasbeen honored with theAcademy of Athens Award inArchaeology and HomericPhilology.
The Weak in Negotiation:Courage, Irrational Hope...
Since the beginning of theModern Greek state in 1821, theGreeks have been trying to es-tablish a viable political system.Initially, many of the revolution-aries of 1821 fought for the es-tablishment of a liberal democ-racy. Inspired by the ideas of theFrench revolution and the riseof liberalism in early 19th cen-tury Europe, they propagatedthe notion of a constitutionaldemocratic system.
Others, particularly the Pha-nariot class, wanted an end toOttoman autocracy, but to alsomaintain the empire. Their wishlist included a sultanate thatwould evolve into an ecumeni-cal monarchy and afford equalrights to the empire’s elite. TheGreek War of Independence orrevolution ended any possibilityof a change in the Muslim sul-tanate.
Some Phanariots remainedwithin the Ottoman Empire andtook their chances with a venge-ful Muslim establishment, whileothers joined the rebels. The ar-rival of the Phanariots alongwith the presence of the PhilikiEteria – the Odessa based Greekmerchants who raised the
money for the rebellion – addedanother dimension to the Greekindependence movement.
The notion of liberalism, atleast as understood by some ofthe Greeks fighting the Ot-tomans, clashed with those whoheld the deep belief in the rightsof wealth and privilege. It led tocivil war within the war againstthe Ottomans and left an openfissure between the two camps.
Ultimately, the Great Powersat the time (Great Britain,France, and Russia) decided thatthe new Greek state must beruled by a monarchy and join,what had become, a conserva-tive Europe. Unhappily for theliberals in the rebel camp, theinheritors of the ideas of theFrench Revolution had suffered,along with Napoleon, defeat.The Great Powers of Europepost-Treaty of Vienna (1814-1815) were set against liberal-ism and change. The Greekswon their independence only byaccepting the imposition of a for-eign king.
The reign of Othon, the sec-ond son of King Ludwig ofBavaria, enabled the Phanariots,the landowners of the Pelopon-
nese, and the otherwell-established el-ements of Greek so-ciety to find stabil-ity and continuityin the new monar-chy. It did not last.
The expansionof Greece, particu-larly during theBalkan Wars,changed the politi-cal paradigm andcreated the impetusfor change. Regard-less of the mistakesof King ConstantineI, the stage was setfor the end, albeit a pause, ofmonarchy. The political schismof 1915 was more about sim-mering conflict between liberal-ism and conservatism than overto join the allies or remain neu-tral.
The followers of EleftheriosVenizelos believed in an Ententevictory more than desiring radi-cal constitutional change. Yet,the political turmoil they un-leashed peaked with the re-moval of Constantine in 1922and ebbed with the failure of theGreek Republic (1924-1936).
The MetaxasRegime of 1936was another inter-lude of what was,in effect, unfinishedbusiness from1821.
When the occu-pation came in1941, the followersof Venizelos contin-ued to viewGreece’s politicalfuture through theprism of monarchyversus Venzelism.Many of the conser-vatives followed
suit and both lost credibility withthe majority of the Greek people.The left wing resistance thatemerged during the occupationwas mass-based, but unfortu-nately under communist control.At the same time, it gave hun-dreds and thousands of peoplepolitical expression outside themonarchist-Venizelist dynamic.
The communists, as a result,misunderstood this and assumedthat they had the mass-base sup-port to establish a Soviet styleMarxist in postwar Greece. Theywere tragically wrong, and in
process of a civil war not onlylost and caused the death ofhundreds of thousands, but un-dermined the possibility of lib-eralism in postwar Greece.
Because of the 1946-1949Greek Civil War and the onsetof the Cold War, Greece emergedas a security state. In otherwords, a country governed byauthoritarian regimes that cul-minated in a military dictator-ship form 1967-1974. The pricewas political stagnation and cor-ruption. The election of PASOKwas the emergence of the sup-pressed liberalism, but it did notlast and sunk under the weightof corruption.
The debt crisis once againbrought the extreme left topower. The radical left and com-munist elements in SYRIZA, likethe communists of 1946, mis-understood the sentiments ofthe Greek people. The so-calledleft platform assumed that theGreeks wanted to leave Europeand reorganize Greece into adrachma based economy thatwould have resembled Albaniain the Cold War.
The election of the newSYRIZA underscores a critical
element in the Greek bodypolitic: Greeks want a moderatesocial-democratic government.Will Alexis Tsipras be able to de-liver?
He has made serious mis-takes, and his education hasbeen very expensive for theGreek state. But he is not lessable than his predecessors at theoffice of prime minister. Theyhad the education and experi-ence, but essentially failed to re-organize the Greek economy.Their role was essentially to doGermany’s bidding, which ledto the crisis.
The old SYRIZA made a badsituation worse, but Tsiprasbrought the country to edge ofthe precipice and held back. Itcould have cost him his politicalcareer, and it certainly lost himhis former partners in the radi-cal left, but he had the courageto rise above the silly world ofthe likes of Varoufakis and be-have like a leader.
André Gerolymatos is Directorof the Stavros Niarchos Founda-tion Centre for Hellenic Studiersat Simon Fraser University inVancouver.
Almost 200 Years Since 1821, Greece Has a Non-Revolution Revolution
by PROF. ALEXANDERKITROEFF
Special to The National Herald
by DR. ANDREGEROLYMATOS
Special to The National Herald
The Melians referto their history tosupport theirdecision to resist.
New Democracy isholding a contest,just as Tsipras isgetting ready to whack the mostvulnerable, withmore austerity.
14 THE NATIONAL HERALD, OCTOBER 3-9, 2015
