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The National Herald A WeekLY GReek AMeRicAN PUbLicATiON July 30 - August 5, 2011 www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 14, ISSUE 720 $1.50 c v Bringing the news to generations of Greek Americans O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 By Steve Frangos TNH Staff Writer As one of the most recog- nized Greek-American champi- ons of professional boxing one would think George Contas would, like famed wrestler Jim Londos, still be an acclaimed- member of Greek-American his- tory. As “KO” Brown, Contas boxed against nearly every top welterweight and middleweight in the United States and Aus- tralia. From 1911 until 1920, no one could knock him out or come close to it in nearly 200 professional fights. With such a stunning professional boxing record, Contas should be re- called by Greek Americans from sea to shining sea. But, alas, those few dozen men who were Greek American professional boxers are today only recalled by their families and by non- Greek fans of the history of American boxing. Contas was born in Sparta, Greece on Aug. 25, 1891. His father brought the 8-year-old George to Chicago in 1899. While vague reports exist in the published press that Contas’ original Greek name was very long I have as yet to discover his name before it was short- ened. He was placed in gram- mar school once he reached Chicago but proved too uncon- trollable for his teachers and was soon sent to a school of cor- rection in Woodstock, Illinois. The first time Contas ever pulled on a pair of boxing gloves was in the exercising room there. During his first boxing match, Contas punched out four teeth of his opponent. His father was immediately wired to come and take his by-then 12-year-old son away. Young Contas did not say long in Chicago, traveling to Kansas City to visit a cousin, most likely George Pepers, who owned a flower store and hired young Contas. Pepers had his own aspirations to be a boxer and had received some profes- sional training. It must have been Pepers because he’s always identified in news accounts as Contas’ cousin and a fellow pro- fessional prize fighter. Later newspaper accounts report that Contas had even tried his hand as a wrestler in his early years. Contas was a welterweight fighter who fluctuated between 145 and 155 pounds during his professional career. Weight did For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] George Contas: The Legendary Knockout Brown Packed A Really Big Punch By Theodore Kalmoukos TNH Staff Writer BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Bishop Andonios, Chancellor of the Greek-Orthodox Archdiocese of America, has asked parishioners at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church here to refrain from what he said was gossip over the res- ignation of their priest, Father Demetrios Recachinas, who they alleged was cruising truck stops for sex with men, and who An- donios said is now seeking pro- fessional evaluation. He also said that the scandal could give plea- sure to Satan. In a letter dated June 22 to the parish here, An- donios acknowledged difficulties surrounding Recachinas’ depar- ture, but said: “I once again urge all of you to refrain from gossip- ing or judging anyone, both of which are most detrimental and have always been considered un- acceptable behavior by the Church. The Archdiocese is con- tinuing its investigation of those Andonios Defends Fr. Recachinas WASHINGTON – New Greek Fi- nance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, in an address at the Peterson Institute for Interna- tional Economics here, said debt-crushed Greece is deter- mined to restore itself and that the government’s goal “is to re- turn to positive growth and cre- ate primary surpluses by 2012,” an ambitious benchmark many analysts said is impossible to reach. Greece, suffering under $460 billion in debt and a deficit of more than 10%, is relying on the so-called Troika of the Eu- ropean Union-International Monetary Fund-European Cen- tral Bank for rescue loans to stay afloat. The first series of loans, $155 billion, was begun last April, 2010 but has failed to suf- ficiently stem Greece’s slide to- ward bankruptcy and the coun- try now has asked for a second bail-out, this one for $229 bil- lion, which means it will be re- paying the loans for at least 15 years or more under new re- structuring terms and a selective default on its obligations. De- spite those dismal numbers, Venizelos, who recently re- placed the beleaguered Fin. Min. George Papaconstantinou as Greece was being besieged by protesters angry their salaries have been cut, taxes raised and pensions slashed while the rich and tax evaders have largely es- caped with impunity, spun an optimistic note to his audience, shortly after he met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Gei- thner, who is struggling to make sure the United States doesn’t default because of a budget im- passe between Democratic Pres- ident Barack Obama and Repub- licans, who control the House of Representatives. In his speech, The Greek Debt Crisis: Challenges and Op- portunities, Venizelos outlined Greece’s efforts to rein in its public spending and reduce its massive debt pile. The Athens newspaper Kathimerini reported that he was buoyed by his meet- ing with Geithner and IMF Man- aging Director Chirstine La- garde, which he described as “positive,” and said: “All of us together - the IMF, the IIF (an international banking agency,) the American government, the European Union, the European Central Bank - need to send a strong and clear message: We have a program, we trust in its implementation and its prospects, and we will collec- tively achieve our goals.” Venizelos provided no details about the meetings, but he ap- peared satisfied and suggested that both the US administration and the IMF are fully backing Athens in its effort to streamline Greece’s economy in the wake of an agreement by the Euro- zone, the group of 17 countries using the euro as their currency, to give Greece more time to pay back its loans at a lower interest rate. “The discussion I had today with US Treasury Secretary Gei- thner was very specific, very practical and very positive. The US administration supports the new program for Greece and will express its support to the markets and the international community. This is an act of sup- port for Greece and its citizens, who are making sacrifices in or- der for us to restructure our country... as we have a new op- portunity in our hands. We mustn’t relax, but we do have to grab this opportunity ahead of us,” he said, without elabo- rating. Following Venizelos’s ad- dress, Petros Christodoulou, head of the Athens-based Public Debt Management Agency, who appeared with the Greek Fi- nance Minister, said Greece has not requested additional finan- cial help from the IMF. “There has not been a request,” he told In Washington Trip, Venizelos Says Greece Coming Back Again By Marcus Walker Wall Street Journal ATHENS - As protesters battled police outside Parliament last month in a hail of rocks and tear gas, Greece’s beleaguered prime minister put his hopes in a se- cret phone call to an old friend. “Let us form a government of national salvation,” George Pa- pandreou, the Socialist Prime Minister, said to his chief rival, Antonis Samaras, head of Greece’s conservative opposition and a buddy since the two men were roommates at Amherst College in Massachusetts 40 years ago. The details of their secret mid-June talks reveal the degree to which two friends - each with far different prescrip- tions for economic salvation - hold the fate of Greece in their hands as the nation tries to get its nearly $500 billion in gov- ernment debt under control. Their success or failure weighs on the potential survival of Eu- rope’s shared currency, the euro, the crowning achievement of 60 years of European unification. On July 25, European bond markets fell after Moody’s In- vestors Service cut Greece’s credit rating three notches deeper into “junk” territory, warning that a bailout deal struck the previous week be- tween European governments and banks will almost certainly trigger a Greek default - the first by an advanced Western econ- omy in decades. Greece’s plight has terrorized European finan- cial markets for months. Moody’s said the €109 billion (about $157 billion) bailout gives Greece a shot at revival af- Frenemies Hold Greek Fate in Balance This Trip Not Ruined A group of Spanish university students from Seville pose for a photo next to a Roman-era funeral monument on Athens Philopappou Hill as the ancient Acropolis is seen in the background, on July 22. Greece is counting on tourism, it’s biggest industry, to pump in much needed revenues. Grossomanides Elected New AHEPA Leader By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – Many Greek American family histories begin with the story of a name. When people first encounter the name of the family of entrepreneurs named Poll, few guess that it is Greek. When James Poll – who said he regrets the de-Hellenisa- tion of his family name as a loss of his identity – tells you he once owned ships, restaurants and a nightclub, and that his sons op- erate some of the New York area’s finest establishments, you are pretty sure you are speaking to a Greek. But after exchanging some words with this sharp-wit- ted and dapper gentleman in his ninth decade, one wants to hear the full story. It begins of course, with a jour- ney, and an even earlier name change. James Poll’s father was named Angelos and his father’s family was named Voyagis, but when the grandfather became a priest, hewing to tradition, he changed it to Papadopoulos. Gentleman James Poll–Restaurateur and More By George P. Embiricos Special to The National Herald ASTORIA, N.Y. - A larger than life-sized statue of the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles has been completed and is awaiting installation in Athens Square Park on 30th Street and 30th Avenue here, waiting to be the newest addition to a pantheon of famous Greeks adorning the popular gathering spot. The life- like statue is currently standing in the Modern Art Foundry in Astoria, where it was cast. It will be installed in the park as soon as the necessary funds are raised, said George Stamatiadis, Treasurer of the Athens Square Committee. In an interview with The Na- tional Herald, Stamatiadis said that following a $64,000 dona- tion from TransCanada, there is “roughly another $90,000 to be raised.” The Committee has re- cently begun an advertising campaign in The National Her- ald, requesting that 300 Greek- Americans donate $300 each in the spirit of the ancient fighters led by King Leonidas of Sparta, who kept the Persian Army at bay in 490 B.C., stalling an in- vasion until the rest of the Greeks rallied. Stamatiadis men- tioned that the Committee will probably include a list of all do- nations made so far in order to spur further fundraising, adding, “It is our hope that throughout the United States, there are 300 Greek Americans that can support this project as a thank you to the country for the opportunities it has provided them.” Athens Square Park’s cre- ation was funded by New York City and the groundbreaking ceremony occurred in 1990. Ac- cording to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s website, the idea to reuse the then-run- down play space as a neighbor- hood gathering place originated with members of Astoria’s siz- able Greek-American popula- tion, many of whom had immi- grated to New York after the Greek civil war of 1945-49 and the relaxation of restrictive American immigration laws in 1962. The Athens Square Com- mittee promoted the Park’s ren- ovation, with Stamatios Lykos as the architect. With the inten- tion of creating “a little bit of Athens in Astoria,” the Park en- compassed three zones: a cen- tral court with amphitheater and sculpture, a recreational space, and a seating area along the perimeter. Further renova- tions in 1993 focused on new trees and plantings, benches and tables, a playground, and a basketball court. The seven-and-a-half foot statue will not be lonely. Already included in the Park is a bronze statue of the philosopher Socrates, designed by the artist Anthony Frudakis, and three Doric columns on a circular base, installed in 1996. In 1998, the city of Athens donated a Sophocles Waits to Stand in New York Park James Poll (L) has owned ships, restaurants and nighclubs in N.Y. His sons - that is Dean to his right - are the third generation of entrepreneurs. Jame’s father Angelos started the dynasty. Dennis Syntilas (R) with Chris Vilardi, sculptor of the statue of Sophocles that will soon grace Athens Square Park. By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – Greek America’s largest organization, AHEPA, put its continued dynamism on display at its 89th annual meet- ing, this one in Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau Hotel, naming Dr. John Grossomanides of Westerly, R.I. to replace two- term leader Nicholas Karacostas as Supreme President, the high- light of a week of work and recreation and the celebration of Hellenic heritage during AHEPA’s 89th Annual Supreme Convention. Grossomanides ran unopposed and will try to pick up on Kara- costas’ legacy, that the organi- zation’s recent program of out- reach and efforts to attract the Community’s youth. For Kara- costas it was a bittersweet mo- ment. He told The National Her- ald that the sad part was to see a period of accomplishment come to an end although he said what was sweet was the ac- knowledgement of Order’s achievements under his leader- ship. Karacostas said he was confi- dent about the future as he passed the torch to Grosso- manides, a man he has worked with for 27 years and “who has been a phenomenal Supreme Vice President.” He said he was also pleased to have been elected to AHEPA’s Board of Trustees, who then voted him Chairman, so that he can con- tinue to work toward his vision for the re-invigoration of the or- ganization. In his final address as Supreme President, Karacostas remarked how he could never have imag- ined as an 18-year-old Son of Pericles - who joined because he wanted to play softball - that he would be standing before a large New Officers Will Follow Karacostas’ Focus on Youth Continued on page 7 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 3 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 7 AP PhOTO/PeTROS GiANNAkOURiS Continued on page 3
Transcript of The National Herald › wp-content › uploads › ... · 2013-11-17 · The National Herald A...
The National HeraldA weekly Greek AmericAn PublicAtion
July 30 - August 5, 2011
www.thenationalherald.comVOL. 14, ISSUE 720 $1.50
c v
Bringing the newsto generations ofGreek Americans
o C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915
By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer
As one of the most recog-nized Greek-American champi-ons of professional boxing onewould think George Contaswould, like famed wrestler JimLondos, still be an acclaimed-
member of Greek-American his-tory. As “KO” Brown, Contasboxed against nearly every topwelterweight and middleweightin the United States and Aus-tralia. From 1911 until 1920, noone could knock him out orcome close to it in nearly 200professional fights. With such astunning professional boxingrecord, Contas should be re-called by Greek Americans fromsea to shining sea. But, alas,those few dozen men who wereGreek American professionalboxers are today only recalledby their families and by non-Greek fans of the history ofAmerican boxing.
Contas was born in Sparta,Greece on Aug. 25, 1891. Hisfather brought the 8-year-oldGeorge to Chicago in 1899.While vague reports exist in thepublished press that Contas’original Greek name was verylong I have as yet to discoverhis name before it was short-ened. He was placed in gram-mar school once he reachedChicago but proved too uncon-trollable for his teachers andwas soon sent to a school of cor-rection in Woodstock, Illinois.The first time Contas ever pulledon a pair of boxing gloves wasin the exercising room there.During his first boxing match,Contas punched out four teethof his opponent. His father wasimmediately wired to come andtake his by-then 12-year-old sonaway. Young Contas did not saylong in Chicago, traveling toKansas City to visit a cousin,most likely George Pepers, whoowned a flower store and hiredyoung Contas. Pepers had hisown aspirations to be a boxerand had received some profes-sional training. It must havebeen Pepers because he’s alwaysidentified in news accounts asContas’ cousin and a fellow pro-fessional prize fighter. Laternewspaper accounts report thatContas had even tried his handas a wrestler in his early years.
Contas was a welterweightfighter who fluctuated between145 and 155 pounds during hisprofessional career. Weight did
For subscription:
George Contas: TheLegendary Knockout BrownPacked A Really Big Punch
By Theodore KalmoukosTNH Staff Writer
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – BishopAndonios, Chancellor of theGreek-Orthodox Archdiocese ofAmerica, has asked parishionersat Holy Trinity Greek Orthodoxchurch here to refrain from whathe said was gossip over the res-ignation of their priest, FatherDemetrios Recachinas, who theyalleged was cruising truck stopsfor sex with men, and who An-donios said is now seeking pro-fessional evaluation. He also saidthat the scandal could give plea-sure to Satan. In a letter datedJune 22 to the parish here, An-donios acknowledged difficultiessurrounding Recachinas’ depar-ture, but said: “I once again urgeall of you to refrain from gossip-ing or judging anyone, both ofwhich are most detrimental andhave always been considered un-acceptable behavior by theChurch. The Archdiocese is con-tinuing its investigation of those
AndoniosDefends Fr.Recachinas
WASHINGTON – New Greek Fi-nance Minister EvangelosVenizelos, in an address at thePeterson Institute for Interna-tional Economics here, saiddebt-crushed Greece is deter-mined to restore itself and thatthe government’s goal “is to re-turn to positive growth and cre-ate primary surpluses by 2012,”an ambitious benchmark manyanalysts said is impossible toreach. Greece, suffering under$460 billion in debt and a deficitof more than 10%, is relying onthe so-called Troika of the Eu-ropean Union-InternationalMonetary Fund-European Cen-tral Bank for rescue loans to stayafloat. The first series of loans,$155 billion, was begun lastApril, 2010 but has failed to suf-ficiently stem Greece’s slide to-ward bankruptcy and the coun-try now has asked for a secondbail-out, this one for $229 bil-lion, which means it will be re-paying the loans for at least 15years or more under new re-structuring terms and a selectivedefault on its obligations. De-spite those dismal numbers,Venizelos, who recently re-placed the beleaguered Fin.Min. George Papaconstantinouas Greece was being besiegedby protesters angry their salarieshave been cut, taxes raised andpensions slashed while the richand tax evaders have largely es-caped with impunity, spun anoptimistic note to his audience,shortly after he met with U.S.Treasury Secretary Timothy Gei-thner, who is struggling to makesure the United States doesn’tdefault because of a budget im-passe between Democratic Pres-ident Barack Obama and Repub-licans, who control the Houseof Representatives.
In his speech, The GreekDebt Crisis: Challenges and Op-portunities, Venizelos outlinedGreece’s efforts to rein in itspublic spending and reduce itsmassive debt pile. The Athens
newspaper Kathimerini reportedthat he was buoyed by his meet-ing with Geithner and IMF Man-aging Director Chirstine La-garde, which he described as“positive,” and said: “All of ustogether - the IMF, the IIF (aninternational banking agency,)the American government, theEuropean Union, the EuropeanCentral Bank - need to send astrong and clear message: Wehave a program, we trust in itsimplementation and itsprospects, and we will collec-tively achieve our goals.”Venizelos provided no detailsabout the meetings, but he ap-peared satisfied and suggestedthat both the US administrationand the IMF are fully backingAthens in its effort to streamlineGreece’s economy in the wakeof an agreement by the Euro-zone, the group of 17 countriesusing the euro as their currency,to give Greece more time to payback its loans at a lower interestrate. “The discussion I had todaywith US Treasury Secretary Gei-thner was very specific, verypractical and very positive. TheUS administration supports thenew program for Greece andwill express its support to themarkets and the internationalcommunity. This is an act of sup-port for Greece and its citizens,who are making sacrifices in or-der for us to restructure ourcountry... as we have a new op-portunity in our hands. Wemustn’t relax, but we do haveto grab this opportunity aheadof us,” he said, without elabo-rating.
Following Venizelos’s ad-dress, Petros Christodoulou,head of the Athens-based PublicDebt Management Agency, whoappeared with the Greek Fi-nance Minister, said Greece hasnot requested additional finan-cial help from the IMF. “Therehas not been a request,” he told
In Washington Trip,Venizelos Says GreeceComing Back Again
By Marcus WalkerWall Street Journal
ATHENS - As protesters battledpolice outside Parliament lastmonth in a hail of rocks and teargas, Greece’s beleaguered primeminister put his hopes in a se-cret phone call to an old friend.“Let us form a government ofnational salvation,” George Pa-pandreou, the Socialist PrimeMinister, said to his chief rival,Antonis Samaras, head ofGreece’s conservative oppositionand a buddy since the two menwere roommates at Amherst
College in Massachusetts 40years ago. The details of theirsecret mid-June talks reveal thedegree to which two friends -each with far different prescrip-tions for economic salvation -hold the fate of Greece in theirhands as the nation tries to getits nearly $500 billion in gov-ernment debt under control.Their success or failure weighson the potential survival of Eu-rope’s shared currency, the euro,the crowning achievement of 60years of European unification.
On July 25, European bondmarkets fell after Moody’s In-
vestors Service cut Greece’scredit rating three notchesdeeper into “junk” territory,warning that a bailout dealstruck the previous week be-tween European governmentsand banks will almost certainlytrigger a Greek default - the firstby an advanced Western econ-omy in decades. Greece’s plighthas terrorized European finan-cial markets for months.
Moody’s said the €109 billion(about $157 billion) bailoutgives Greece a shot at revival af-
Frenemies Hold Greek Fate in Balance
This Trip Not RuinedA group of Spanish university students from Seville pose for a photo next to a Roman-era funeralmonument on Athens Philopappou Hill as the ancient Acropolis is seen in the background, onJuly 22. Greece is counting on tourism, it’s biggest industry, to pump in much needed revenues.
Grossomanides Elected New AHEPA Leader
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Many GreekAmerican family histories beginwith the story of a name. Whenpeople first encounter the nameof the family of entrepreneursnamed Poll, few guess that it isGreek. When James Poll – whosaid he regrets the de-Hellenisa-tion of his family name as a lossof his identity – tells you he onceowned ships, restaurants and anightclub, and that his sons op-erate some of the New Yorkarea’s finest establishments, youare pretty sure you are speakingto a Greek. But after exchangingsome words with this sharp-wit-ted and dapper gentleman in hisninth decade, one wants to hearthe full story. It begins of course, with a jour-ney, and an even earlier namechange. James Poll’s father wasnamed Angelos and his father’sfamily was named Voyagis, butwhen the grandfather became apriest, hewing to tradition, hechanged it to Papadopoulos.
Gentleman James Poll–Restaurateur and More
By George P. EmbiricosSpecial to The National Herald
ASTORIA, N.Y. - A larger thanlife-sized statue of the ancientGreek tragedian Sophocles hasbeen completed and is awaitinginstallation in Athens SquarePark on 30th Street and 30thAvenue here, waiting to be thenewest addition to a pantheonof famous Greeks adorning thepopular gathering spot. The life-like statue is currently standingin the Modern Art Foundry inAstoria, where it was cast. It willbe installed in the park as soonas the necessary funds areraised, said George Stamatiadis,Treasurer of the Athens SquareCommittee.
In an interview with The Na-tional Herald, Stamatiadis saidthat following a $64,000 dona-tion from TransCanada, there is“roughly another $90,000 to beraised.” The Committee has re-cently begun an advertisingcampaign in The National Her-
ald, requesting that 300 Greek-Americans donate $300 each inthe spirit of the ancient fighters
led by King Leonidas of Sparta,who kept the Persian Army atbay in 490 B.C., stalling an in-vasion until the rest of theGreeks rallied. Stamatiadis men-tioned that the Committee willprobably include a list of all do-nations made so far in order tospur further fundraising,adding, “It is our hope thatthroughout the United States,there are 300 Greek Americansthat can support this project asa thank you to the country forthe opportunities it has providedthem.”
Athens Square Park’s cre-ation was funded by New YorkCity and the groundbreakingceremony occurred in 1990. Ac-cording to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s website,the idea to reuse the then-run-down play space as a neighbor-hood gathering place originatedwith members of Astoria’s siz-able Greek-American popula-tion, many of whom had immi-grated to New York after the
Greek civil war of 1945-49 andthe relaxation of restrictiveAmerican immigration laws in1962. The Athens Square Com-mittee promoted the Park’s ren-ovation, with Stamatios Lykosas the architect. With the inten-tion of creating “a little bit ofAthens in Astoria,” the Park en-compassed three zones: a cen-tral court with amphitheaterand sculpture, a recreationalspace, and a seating area alongthe perimeter. Further renova-tions in 1993 focused on newtrees and plantings, benchesand tables, a playground, and abasketball court.
The seven-and-a-half footstatue will not be lonely. Alreadyincluded in the Park is a bronzestatue of the philosopherSocrates, designed by the artistAnthony Frudakis, and threeDoric columns on a circularbase, installed in 1996. In 1998,the city of Athens donated a
Sophocles Waits to Stand in New York Park
James Poll (L) has owned ships, restaurants and nighclubs in N.Y. His sons - that is Dean to hisright - are the third generation of entrepreneurs. Jame’s father Angelos started the dynasty.
Dennis Syntilas (R) with ChrisVilardi, sculptor of the statueof Sophocles that will soongrace Athens Square Park.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Greek America’slargest organization, AHEPA,put its continued dynamism ondisplay at its 89th annual meet-ing, this one in Miami Beach’sFontainebleau Hotel, namingDr. John Grossomanides ofWesterly, R.I. to replace two-term leader Nicholas Karacostasas Supreme President, the high-light of a week of work andrecreation and the celebrationof Hellenic heritage duringAHEPA’s 89th Annual SupremeConvention. Grossomanides ran unopposedand will try to pick up on Kara-costas’ legacy, that the organi-zation’s recent program of out-reach and efforts to attract theCommunity’s youth. For Kara-costas it was a bittersweet mo-ment. He told The National Her-ald that the sad part was to seea period of accomplishmentcome to an end although he saidwhat was sweet was the ac-knowledgement of Order’sachievements under his leader-ship. Karacostas said he was confi-dent about the future as hepassed the torch to Grosso-manides, a man he has workedwith for 27 years and “who hasbeen a phenomenal SupremeVice President.” He said he wasalso pleased to have beenelected to AHEPA’s Board ofTrustees, who then voted himChairman, so that he can con-tinue to work toward his visionfor the re-invigoration of the or-ganization. In his final address as SupremePresident, Karacostas remarkedhow he could never have imag-ined as an 18-year-old Son ofPericles - who joined because hewanted to play softball - that hewould be standing before a large
New Officers WillFollow Karacostas’Focus on Youth
Continued on page 7 Continued on page 5
Continued on page 3
Continued on page 5
Continued on page 4
Continued on page 7
AP Photo/Petros GiAnnAkouris
Continued on page 3
COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Vote on our website!You have the chance to express your opinion on our website
on an important question in the news. The results will be pub-lished in our printed edition next week along with the questionfor that week.
The question this week is: Will you still buy Diaspora bondsto help Greece?o Yeso Noo Maybe
The results for last week’s question: Should the Archdiocesefund Greek schools?58% voted "Yes"38% voted "No"4% voted "Maybe"
Please vote at: www.thenationalherald.com
n THROUGH AUGUST 5TARPON SPRINGS, Florida -Aegean Legacy, a solo exhibitionfeaturing the outstanding worksof artist Pantelis Klonaris, will beon display at the Tarpon SpringsCultural Center from June 10thru August 5. A native of Tar-pon Springs, Klonaris has spentthe last 30 years designing com-positions across a wide range ofmediums. His large, vivid, anddynamic canvases combine im-ages from ancient Greece and thenatural world. Klonaris believesthat his work advocates humansustainability, increased socialawareness, and improved qualityof life—conditions he considersessential to positive human de-velopment. He uses such variedsources as world history, technol-ogy, design, and business strate-gies to contextualize currentevents and shed light on thedominant factors that structureour society. Klonaris attributesmuch of his sense of social re-sponsibility to his Greek heritageand the role of ancient Greece increating western civilization. Yethe also believes that artists playan essential role in developingsociety and culture through theirvisionary abilities to think outsidethe box. Free admission. The Tar-pon Springs Cultural Center is lo-cated at 101 S. Pinellas Avenue.For more information, contactLisa Cobb at 727-942-5605.
n THROUGH AUGUST 7(WEEK LONG SESSIONSSTARTING EACH MONDAY)
BOSTON, Mass. – Greek Ortho-dox Metropolis of Boston pre-sents Summer Camp 2011 foryouths aged 8-18. The weeklongsummer camp sessions embracechildren from throughout theworld, and feature a dedicatedstaff of counselors, priests, andlay leaders. Activities includesports, swimming, arts and crafts,and Greek dancing. Children alsolearn more about their Greek Or-thodox faith and cultural her-itage. For more information onthe camp, please visit www.mb-camp.org or call 603-746-4400.
n AUGUST 6-13 NEW YORK, N.Y. Xoregos Per-forming Company presentsSophocles' stunning drama,Antigone for thirteen free perfor-mances in parks and libraries infour boroughs this summer. Thecompany continues its traditionof Greek classical productionswith this drama of the fate of �di-pus' four children, Polynices,Eteocles, Ismene and Antigone.When Antigone flouts Creon'slaw, is it rebellion or heroism?Should an individual's beliefs su-persede a King's edict? The pro-duction is directed and choreo-graphed by Shela Xoregos, witha mix of traditional and modernelements. Costumes are byRegina Cate, known for her in-novative designs for San Fran-cisco's Magic Theater. ComposerEdward RosenBerg III sets ChoralOdes to classical music andsounds the actors make in vari-ous ways. The classically trainedcast members have performed inmany New York productions ofplays by Shakespeare, Euripides,Chekhov and others. All perfor-mances are free to the public andare sixty-five minutes long. Forthe outdoor locations you are en-couraged to bring a blanket andpicnic. The schedule follows.Antigone starts on time. Satur-day, August 6 at 3:00 p.m.Queens Library at JacksonHeights , Queens; Monday, Au-gust 8 at 6:00 p.m. JeffersonMarket Library, Sixth Avenue at10 Street the Village, Manhattan;Tuesday, August 9 at 6:30 p.m.Central Park at 80 Street, on lawnfacing the Delcorte Theater, Man-hattan; Wednesday, August 10 at6:30 p.m. Yorkville Branch Li-brary, 222 East 79 Street, Man-hhattan; Saturday, August 13 at3:00 p.m. Queens Library at 40-20 Broadway, Long Island City,Queens. For more informationcall: 212-239-8405 or visit:www.xoregos.com
n AUGUST 18 – 21PORT JEFFERSON, N.Y. – As-sumption Greek OrthodoxChurch is pleased to present itsannual Greek Festival, a commu-nity event put together by thefamilies of The Assumption. Fea-turing culinary delights like gy-ros, pastitsio, moussaka, souvlaki,spanakopita, tyropita, and muchmore! Also traditional Greek pas-tries such as baklava, galakto-bouriko, among others. There
will also be a folk dancing exhi-bition, and continuous Greek mu-sic. Church tours will acquaintthe public with the rich symbol-ism that is inextricably linked toOrthodox Christian worship. Fi-nally, the Festival will feature themost successful raffle on the EastCoast, with a total of 270 prizes.Thursday, August 18 5 p.m. – 10p.m., Friday, August 19 5 p.m. –11 p.m., Saturday August 20 1p.m. – 11 p.m., Sunday August21 1 p.m. – 10 p.m. The Festivalis located at 430 Sheep PastureRoad. For more information, call631-473-0894, email [email protected], or visitwww.portjeffgreekfest.com.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio –Sts. Constantine and Helen GreekOrthodox Cathedral presents the38th annual Greek Festival 2011.Come for amazing Greek meals,such as souvlaki, saganaki, andcalamari, homemade pastries,live music and dancing. Authen-tic Greek music performed bythree Greek bands, includingOrion Express, and Hellenicdancers in traditional folk cos-tumes. Two tavernas offer Greekwine and beer. The Kid’s Corneroffers treats, two large bouncehouses, and face painting. Thurs-day, August 18 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.,Friday, August 19 3 p.m. – 11p.m., Saturday August 20 12 p.m.– 11 p.m., Sunday, August 21 12p.m. – 9 p.m. The Festival is lo-cated at 3352 Mayfield Road. Formore information, call 216-923-3300, or visit www.cleveland-greekfestival.com.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – St.George Orthodox Church pre-sents the 2nd annual AdirondackGreek Festival. Friday August 195 p.m. – 9 p.m. and Saturday, Au-gust 20 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. The Fes-tival is located at 55 Main Street.For more information, call 518-792-2359.
WINCHESTER, Virginia – Dormi-tion of the Virgin Mary Greek Or-thodox Church presents the Win-chester Greek Festival August20-21. Join us for live Greek mu-sic, delicious Greek food, andgreat fun for all. The Festival islocated at 1700 Amherst Street.For more information, call 540-667-1416.
n AUGUST 26 – 28ROCHESTER, Minn. – Holy Anar-gyroi Greek Orthodox Churchpresents 2011 GreekFest. Au-thentic Greek foods, live Greekmusic and dancers, bake sale fea-turing locally made Greek pas-tries, a carnival for children,silent auction, and Church tours.Free admission and parking. Fri-day, August 26 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.,Saturday, August 27 11 a.m. – 8p.m., Sunday, August 28 from 11a.m. – 6 p.m. The Church is lo-cated at 703 W. Center Street.For more information, call 507-282-1529.
CHICAGO, Ill. – Chicago Greek-town presents “Taste of Greece2011” August 27-28. Come forfood, fun, and dancing from 12pm – 11 pm. Located at 100-400S. Halsted Street. For more in-formation, call (847) 509-8050.
n SEPTEMBER 3 – 4LANCASTER, Calif. – Sts. Con-stantine and Helen Greek Ortho-dox Church presents the GreekFestival 2011, your ticket to thetastes, music, and celebrations ofGreece and the Greek isles. Therewill be live entertainment,dancers, Greek cooking demon-strations, Church tours, doorprizes, a raffle, and lots of Greekhospitality! Saturday from 11 am– 9 pm, Sunday from 12 pm – 9pm. The Festival is located at43404 30th Street West. Formore information, call (661)945-1212.
n SEPTEMBER 9 – 18STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – HolyTrinity – St. Nicholas Greek Or-thodox Church presents its an-nual Greek Festival on the twoweekends following Labor Day.All family, friends, and visitorsare welcome to attend and enjoythe delicious Greek food, livelymusic, fun, and philoxenia of theGreek community. Friday, Sep-tember 9 and 16 from 6 pm – 12am; Saturday, September 10 and17, from 2 pm – 12 am; Sunday,September 11 and 18 from 2 pm– 10 pm. The festival is locatedat 1641 Richmond Avenue. Formore information, call (718)494-0658.
GOINGS ON...
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Growing up inAthens didn’t necessarily pre-pare Irina Constantine Poulosfor her experience when she ar-rived in New York to studyChoreography at the TischSchool of the Arts of NYU, butbeing raised by an exceptionallyloving and supportive family,and a having a circle of extraor-dinary friends provided her withthe spiritual armor that is oftenrequired to “make it there,” inthe words of the famous songabout the Big Apple. After 17years of dance training, shemoved to New York in 2001with two 40-year-old suitcaseswith broken wheels that two ofher grandparents had usedwhen they had immigrated tothe States back in time. Uponarriving, she was abandoned bya non-English speaking taxi-dri-ver in the woods somewherenorth of New York. Strandedwith no one to ask for direc-tions, she told TNH: “I knewthen the journey had begun.”
TNH: What drew you to NewYork?
ICP: The dream I was chas-ing after was to study Choreog-raphy at the Tisch School of theArts, which in my opinion is theleading educational institutionin the performing arts.
TNH: New York is a toughplace for an artist. What did youdo after graduation?
ICP: After earning my MFAin Choreography and Perfor-mance, I founded two dancecompanies through which mycreative ideas would come tolife, and pursued the teachingof movement technique andchoreography classes in a vari-ety of educational and creativesettings. Simultaneously, Iwould work as anything imag-inable in an effort to feed thedream. I used to keep a writtenlist of my endeavors, which Iwould periodically send to myfamily jokingly adding: A life offinancial sacrifices is finally pay-ing off! The list included: beinga paralegal, lighting and cos-tume designer, theater electri-cian, bouncer, physical thera-pist, gymnastics teacher, Greeklanguage tutor, and insurancebroker, from which I moved onto interior designer and buildingmanager, where I was involvedin construction and plumbing.And there was the socializingwith the majority of the worldin New York, meaning the busi-ness part of it, just another formof performing really.
TNH: And your more recentendeavors?
ICP: I acted as the movementconsultant on a project at theSchool of Cinematic Arts at theUniversity of Southern Califor-nia, which involved choreogra-phy for body movement-basedsocial games for the rehabilita-tion of upper limb sensorimotorfunction of wheelchair confinedindividuals. To those letters, myfamily has always warmlysmiled and replied: We’re notworried, Bouboulina (my nick-name), we know if you were tobe thrown in the midst of thedeep ocean you’d still find a wayto swim your way out.
Well, as our good old Hera-clitus would say Panta Rei –Everything flows. I am now theArtistic Director and Choreog-rapher of Choreo Theatro(www.choreotheatro.org), anon-profit Greenpoint-basedperformance company, whichhas been making leaps of suc-cess over the past couple ofyears, all thanks to the talent,generosity of spirit and supportof a big circle of artists andfriends who believed in the ideawhich started years ago, duringa February meeting within twonon-heated, badly in need ofrenovation rooms at an indus-trial building facing Brooklyn’swaterfront. With the support ofthe Kennedy Foundation, those
rooms looking at Manhattan’sskyline from their 17 large win-dows have turned into a perfor-mance production studio, an in-spiring home to dancers,choreographers, costume, set,lighting, sound and interactiondesigners, painters, photogra-phers, composers, musicians,and writers — a space in whichimagination prevails by bringingto life what is deemed by manypeople as the impossible.
TNH: What was Choreo The-atro’s last production?
ICP: It was a collaborationwith The Readers of Homer,which put Odysseus’ adventuresonto the stage of the famous92nd Street Y. We are keepingour next one a secret until allpublicity material is ready, butwe promise that it will be a oncein a lifetime experience. In thiscontemporary multimedia man-ifestation, a unique collaborationof modern dance, original music,and never before utilized virtualreality technology provided bythe School of Cinematic Arts ofUSC will shape the timelessdilemma of an untold story.
TNH: What is required to bea good choreographer?
ICP: I sometimes relate beinga choreographer to my idea ofwhat genuine parenthood is; thelove one gives, whether that isto one’s students, collaborators,audiences, or art itself, comesback infinitely multiplied. Butin order to give, one first needsto understand how the “other”feels, thinks, and perceives theworld on its own. I call this thecareful study of the human spiritand its innate contradictions.People are breathing oxymora,and so it is part of human natureto struggle, strive, fail and thrive
again within life’s conjoined op-positions. With that always inmind I approach each person asa unique amalgam of thoughts,ways of sensing and interactingwith the world. I can then con-nect those into a form of expres-sion in dance. With its healingpower we can confront life,death, and everything in be-tween, through a poignant ex-pression but wordless language.
TNH: Has your life path beeninfluenced by your AncientGreek heritage?
ICP: Undoubtedly, though inmore abstract ways than per-haps expected. The Greek idealsI was taught as a young studentat Athens College were embed-ded in my being in spite of thefact that I was never able to re-cite them verbatim. Funnilyenough, it was not until after Icame of age that I felt the irre-sistible urge to go back and readour philosophers’ works, a sec-ond and a third time around,now truly being able to applytheir views to today’s world.
TNH: What’s the greatest les-son you've ever learned?
ICP: Two years ago my fathergot unexpectedly sick with ter-minal cancer that gave himthree months of life at the earlyage of 68. In an effort to prepareour mother, my little sister andmyself, he said certain “whys”do not have an answer. I lateron realized through reading thejournals he left for us that whathe truly meant, but was hard tosay aloud, was that certain ‘an-swers’ are as simple as learninghow to let go. We live in an erathat promotes a never-endingstruggle for success, which is agreat goal to have overall, but Ihave found that what we are al-most never told is that we arenot invisible, and that we arecertainly not infallible. And sowhen faced with those irrevo-cable turns of life, we remainnumbed, instead of gracefullyaccepting our loss and carvinga path towards a new future.
TNH: Do you have role mod-els?
ICP: Kipling’s poem “If” en-compasses all that I was raisedto strive for. I do think it rele-vant to our Greek ideals, andthe way our ancestors wantedus to lead our lives.
TNH: What’s your ultimategoal in life?
ICP: To live a full life. It iswhat brought me to New York,the inspiration behind foundingChoreo Theatro, the reason whyI laugh when faced with adver-sity.
In the Spotlight: Irina Constantine Poulos
Irina Constantine Poulos, consumate professional, has had alot of day jobs to feed her choreographers dream in New York.
Medea Shocks Audiences in New YorkEuripides’ Medea was presented by the American Thymele The-atre in with free admission at 3 venues, an Amphitheater above.Danijela Popovic as Medea pleads and gets a one day reprievefrom King Creon of Corinth, played by Zenon Zeleniuch. Littledid the nearby chorus know, that was just enough time for thesorceress to work her dark magic.
Greek Music and Dancing in AstoriaYiannis Papastefanou and his orchestra were the featured per-formers this week at the annual Greek Nights Under the Starsseries that drew a large crowd of onlookers and dancers to As-toria’s Athens Square Park. Hellenic music and culture will bepresented every Tuesday through September 13 by the AthensSquare, Inc. cultural and educational organization.
37th Year of Cyprus Tragedy Marked on July 20Cypriot organizations in NY organized events to mark the 37thyear of the Turkish invasion. Seated in the first row at a memo-rial service at St. Demetrios Cathedral are Costas Tsentas, Pan-icos Papanicolaou and Dimitrios Kaloidis. Cyprus’ Consul Gen-eral in NY Koula Sophianou and Greek Consul EvangelosKyriakopoulos were also present.
Young Professionals Summer Bash in NYThe Church of the Evangelismos hosted a networking party onthe Rooftop Lounge of the Empire Hotel in Manhattan on July18. All enjoyed the warm summer night outside and live jazzinside. This was the last reception before the fall, but theparish, led by pastor Nathanael Symeonides, is looking forwardto the annual softball game vs. the Hamptons church Aug. 20.
J
If you'd like to nominate a no-table member of the GreekAmerican community for “Inthe Spotlight”, please [email protected] with your suggestions.
tnh/costAs beJ
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COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011 3
allegations. Please know that wetake any allegation most seri-ously and will exercise appropri-ate action based on the resultsof our investigation.”
Recachinas, in a June 10 tele-phone interview with The Na-tional Herald would not explainwhy other than to say, “I am ona leave of absence for reasons ofhealth and for personal reasons.”He repeatedly refused to discusswhat either problem was, otherthan to say his health problemwas, “serious enough, but finally,thank God, I will overcome it.”He said only his problems “arepersonal issues and I would notwant to go into.” He saidwhether he serves in anotherparish “depends on the Archdio-cese when the time comes, nowI am on a leave of absence. Whenthe time comes the Archdiocesewill discuss the issue with meand it will be taken care of prop-erly as the Archdiocese sees it.”
On June 16, TNH reportedthat, “The priest of the Holy Trin-ity Greek Orthodox Church herewho resigned abruptly after 29years of service for ‘personal and
health reasons’ was caught bymany of his parishioners solicit-ing truck drivers for sex at restareas of an interstate highway,they have alleged.” FatherDemetrios Recachinas an-nounced his departure in Marchbut refused to provide details,nor did the Archdiocese or ParishCouncil President George Mour-izakis.
The parishioners whocharged Recachinas with whatthey called inappropriate con-duct unbecoming a priest toldTNH that many of them had seenhim in the rest stop areas of In-terstate highway Route I-95seeking truck drivers and othermen for sexual purposes. Theydid not want their names (TNHhas their names on file) used,but one said, “I have seen him inthe car doing the act with men…” and another said the priest un-wittingly tried to solicit him be-fore realizing who he was. Theysaid they hired a lawyer, HaroldPickerstein, who employed pri-vate investigators to follow Re-cachinas and that they had con-firmed he was cruising the areafor sex contacts. Pickerstein senta letter to Fr. Recachinas on Feb-
ruary 22 stating that: “Not onlyhave our clients observed theseactivities, but investigators, re-tained by this office, have inde-pendently verified your activi-ties.” The lawyer gave him oneweek to resign. On March 6, Fr.Recachinas, at the end of theLiturgy, suddenly announced hisresignation for “reasons ofhealth.” He is considered one ofthe most prominent and success-ful priests of the Archdiocese.
TNH is in a position to knowthat shortly after the newspaperbroke the story that Andonioscalled into a meeting at the Arch-dioceses some of the parishionerswho had spoken to the newspa-per on the record about the ac-tions of their priest. Andonios al-legedly attempted to blame theparishioners, saying that, “Youstultified your parish with yourstatements to TNH.” The parish-ioners told Andonios that, “Theparish has been ridiculed by theactions of the priest and your at-tempts who are trying to coverit up.” Antonios reportedly toldthe group of the parishionerswho made the revelations thatRecachinas was sent “for evalu-ation,” and if he (Andonios)
thinks that he is okay, he mightreassign him back to the sameparish.
Telephone messages to Ando-nios and Recachinas went unan-swered. TNH was unable to com-municate with the parishionerswho met with Bishop Andoniosbecause they had left on vaca-tion. Shortly after breaking thestory, TNH received a seriousthreatening message by e-mail,which was reported to the po-lice.
SEEKING HELP In his letter, Andonios also
wrote that, “Please know that inresponse to our directive, Fatherwillingly consented to see a pro-fessional for evaluation so thatwe can determine if there areany issues which have arisen atthis point in his life and whatneeds to be done to addressthem. Know that he is deeplypained by whatever has tran-spired and especially that the lifeof the community he served hasbeen gravely affected. I ask thatyou keep him, Presbytera andtheir beloved children in yourprayers, for as you can well ap-preciate, this is most painful anddifficult time for the family. We
fervently pray that the GoodLord will bestow upon all ofthem His healing grace andlove.” He added: “We are all es-pecially pained by, and are veryconcerned over the divisionswhich have been created withinthe community as a result ofwhat has transpired. We fer-vently ask that peace and har-mony be restored. While theremay never be agreement withinthe parish about what actuallytranspired and /or how the issueshould have been addressed bythose within the community, westrongly implore and ask that forthe “good of the community”,everyone focus their attentionand their energies on workingtogether to rebuild the unitywhich has been shaken, so thatyou may be perfectly joined to-gether.”
In another part of his letter,he added: “As members of aChristian Community, we cannotset our minds on earthly thingsand seek to satisfy personalagendas and selfish egos. Wemust always strive, to the bestof our ability, to rise above andever cognizant that we revealour true spiritual state by our re-
lationship with our fellow com-municants. Inappropriate andunacceptable behavior mani-fested in a desire to ostracizecertain groups of people fromthe parish, to seek revengeagainst individuals whether theybe in leadership positions or reg-ular parishioners, to boycottevents so as to undermine theparish’s financial stability, and topass judgment on others canonly result in worsening the an-imosities which threaten theunity of the parish.”
Andonios went on to state inhis letter that “continuing thisstate of affairs would give greatdelight to the Evil One whosemissions it is to sow dissensionand division within the Body ofChrist. His desire is to distancepeople from God and their Faithand certainly to undermine thework of the Church. Therefore,as people filled with the empow-ered by the Spirit of God, let usrise above the controversy andlet us all work towards restoringthe loving, spiritual communitywhich existed before this con-troversy “lest Satan should takeadvantage of us, for we are notignorant of his devices.”
Andonios Takes Allegations Seriously, Says Recachinas Shouldn’t Be Judged
statue of Athena, goddess of wis-dom and protectress of Athens,fashioned by Stavros Geor-gopoulos and Spiro Goggakis.The city of Chalkidiki donated astatue of the head and upperbody of the philosopher Aristotleto accompany them in 2008.
The original statue of Sopho-cles, cast in bronze, was sculptedby local artist Chris Vilardi, andincludes a two-foot base of gran-ite stone. Vilardi’s previousworks include 2 ½-times life-sized renditions of St. Ignatiusof Loyola, on display at bothFordham University and LincolnCenter. The sculptor spoke toThe Queens Gazette about hislatest work, saying, “By re-searching a historical figure I ambetter able to portray them in acompelling way. The many talesof Sophocles’ physical prowesswere an influence on my sculp-ture. True to my style, I haveadded movement to what wouldmost likely be a static subject.
Creating a classical sculpturewith a modern stylistic approachpays homage to the past whileanchoring it in the present. Inresearching garments of the pe-riod that Sophocles lived, I wasinspired by the more ornate at-tire that I imagine a man of hisstation would wear. The tragedymask, a prop in Greek theater,helps to cue the viewer as towho this figure was. I workedhard to have this sculpture betruly in the round and be visu-ally compelling from all angles.”Vilardi went on to state thatSophocles is considered by mostmodern scholars to be the great-est of the Greek tragedians.
The implementation of thestatue of Sophocles will rein-force Athens Square Park’sGreek roots in an increasinglydiversified neighborhood. Sta-matiadis commented, “(ThePark) has evolved into a multi-cultural center. We have all sortsof ethnic groups that performhere.” As frequently as everyweek, there will be nights de-
voted to different ethnic groups,such as Latin, Italian, and Irish.Stamatiadis also mentioned thatthe Park has become a popularspot for tourists over the pastfew years, and is especially at-tractive as a wedding backdrop.
Apart from the fundraisingcampaign, all steps towards thestatue project’s implementationare complete. Stamatiadis statedthat the Committee has alreadyelected to place the statue ofSophocles opposite that of Aris-totle’s and facing the figure ofSocrates, so that it appears thephilosophers are immersed in di-alogue. The only remaining hur-dle is acquiring the necessary fi-nancial support to transfer thebronze-cast figure to its finaldestination in Athens SquarePark, a move that the Committeehopes will be facilitated by theadvertising campaign aimed atGreek Americans nationwide.“Non-Hellenes have donated tothe Park many times in yearspast,” Stamatiadis said. “It’s timefor the Greeks to step up now.”
Sophocles Waits Funding to Stand in Athens Square Park in New York
The statues on display in the Park will soon have a new hellenic neighbor.
Continued from page 1
Continued from page 1
COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011
James’s father Angelos hailedfrom Adrianople in Thrace andcame to New York when he was21. His mother’s Makris familyroots are not too far away, inAgathoupolis on the Black Seacoast, near Constantinople.Katherine came to New York in1912, after the Bulgarians tookover her hometown in theBalkan wars. When the Greeksbeat the Bulgarians to the war’sreal prize, the great city of Thes-saloniki, the Bulgarians were fu-rious and drove Greeks fromtheir lands. Her family and thou-sands of refugees fled to Thessa-loniki, where they had to standon line for an hour to get a loafof bread. Her brothers were al-ready in New York and broughther over. They were among theGreek families who lived on 37thStreet in Midtown, between thelong-gone elevated trains thatbrought noise, and mid-daydarkness along with rapid transitconvenience to Manhattan’sSixth and Ninth avenues.
Angelos worked in Constan-tinople for a few years, where helearned to speak French andearned enough money to cometo New York. Among the first towrite the Greek American suc-
cess story, he worked hard forseven years and then bought adeli on 10th Avenue and 42ndstreet. The the area between 8thand 10th avenues was becomingNew York’s Greek Town. Jamesrecalled that in the 1930’s it wasfilled with coffee houses, one af-ter another, with names likeCafenio Nea Demokratia andCafenio Mytilene.
It is no surprise that a con-versation with James Poll is filledwith interesting histories andplaces. Geography and historyare his passions, probably trig-gered by a unique boat ridewhen he was eight years old. In1928 the Order of AHEPA heldits first excursion to Greece. Themembers and their families trav-eled on big ocean liner, the S.S.Sinaia, and James remembersthe AHEPAN’s practicing march-ing on the ship, drilled by WW Iveterans in preparation for theirceremonial March from OmoniaSquare to the Greek Parliament.That convention was a great mo-ment in the history of the GreekAmerican community, as it wasone of the first times that theGovernment of Greece recog-nized and honored its intrepidsons and daughters who becamesuccessful and influential in theNew World.
Angelos Poll was one of thosemen, and he was ready to leaphigher than most, with the help,as usual, of good luck and tim-ing, hard work, and people whobelieved in him. After runningthe deli a few years he was toldone was for sale on the east side,but wasn’t interested. The friendinsisted, saying the seller wantedsomeone special to take it overand that he was ideal. Poll wentreluctantly, “But when he saw ithe went out of his mind. He hadto have it, beg, borrow or steal.It was a gourmet shop and in1922 its patrons included manyfamous leaders of industry suchas the Vanderbilts and Morgans.
It was on Lexington Avenueand 81st Street. And although itwas an era marked by the inven-tion of the automobile, Poll re-members they often made deliv-eries with a horse and wagon.Poll’s father had to put himselfdeep into debt, and it becamenecessary to go into the cateringbusiness as well just to stayafloat. He said there were onlythree caterers in Manhattan inthose days: Robert Day, GeorgeCoker and his father. Since Pro-hibition was implemented, peo-ple didn’t have weddings in ho-tels anymore because there wasno drinking, so the receptions
were held in people’s homes onPark and Fifth Avenues and attheir estates in Long Island.
THANK YOU DR. POLLHis first job was for a Dr. Poll
who lived on Park Avenue. To bea caterer, he had to supply liquor,so bootlegging was unavoidable.When his father charged him forthe drinks, Dr. Poll refused to paysaying “It’s illegal to buy liquor,”Not in the business of giving giftsto rich strangers, he got even asonly a Greek could. He had al-ready thought Papadopoulos wastoo long for the fancy windowof the store, and he didn’t wantto be just another Poulos or Pap-pas in New York – in one of manyironies in his son’s life, he didn’tknow James would one day ownthe Pappas restaurant in Brook-lyn’s Sheepshead Bay. Angeloshad to be different, so he tookthe name that sounded a bit likePoulos and put the doctor’s nameon the window. the store, nowon 75th and Lexington still hasthe name, though it’s WilliamPoll, for Angelos’ brother whoeventually took it over. When theEast Side opportunity turned up,so did Angelos’ future wife. Atthat time there were very fewsingle Greek women in the U.S.– the men had to go back toGreece to find brides. The familyof James’ mother Katherinemoved to 65th Street near Cen-tral Park, in another concentra-tion of Greeks. His mother wasbeautiful and all the Greeksknew her.
Katherine’s brother eventuallycame to work for James’ fatherat the deli. When he met and fellin love with Katherine, hearranged for his existing partnerto leave the business and madehis future brother-in-law thepartner. Angelos and Katherinesoon were married in the Cathe-dral of the Holy Trinity, in it’s oldbuilding on 72nd Street. Theyhad three children: James, hiswidowed sister Kristalia, wholives in Dearborn, Michigan andGeorge, a retired chiropractor inNew York who was four monthsold when their father was killedwhen his car was hit by an on-coming Long Island Rail Roadtrain in the days before therewere proper safely devices.
James grew up for a few yearson Manhattan’s Upper East Side,but there were few children toplay with. He was often hailedas an alumnus of a rich boy’sschool. His father eventuallymoved the store to Lexingtonand 75th Street and the familyto Queens, where they becamestalwarts of the church of the
Transfiguration in Corona. Hewent to Greek school five days aweek. The Greek childrenwatched their friends go out toplay after school while they wenthome, partook of milk and crack-ers, and went marching off tolearn Greek. Asked about the ex-perience he said “Xilo! – beatings- from the teacher, and after hisfather was told: “more xilo!” Hiseducation continued at P.S. 69in Elmhurst then P.S. 19 inCorona, and at his father’s storeon Saturdays.
When he arrived there, nowin the blue truck that replacedthe horse and wagon, the storewas already opened by his fa-ther’s brother, whom he broughtover from Greece. In 1925 An-gelos paid to smuggle in Vasil-lios, soon to be William Poll,when he was 17. The $500 theypaid was a lot of money, but itwas a grueling journey. He wentfrom Greece to Havana wherehe waited for a steamer that op-erated between that city andNew York. He slept on the boilersand at 4 or 5 in the morning hewould be awakened up, taken torelieve himself and given somefood and water. When they gotto New York they told him to,“Walk off the boat and followus.” A taxi took him to the store,where he recognized his bene-factor, the brother he had notseen since he was two.
The store flourished despitethe Depression which took thebusinesses of many of the firstgeneration Greek entrepreneurs.Many were helped by groupssuch as the AHEPA and the Ma-sons. One night, his father tooka different turn when drivinghome after closing the deli andJames wondered where theywere going. The car turned intoCentral Park and he found him-self in the Boathouse restaurant.His father said to him, “We aregoing to meet a very nice man so
behave yourself.” They went intothe office of Pantelis Pappas, agiant of a man from Patras whoran it from 1915 to 1965. He no-ticed James was fascinated by theboats and asked him if he couldrow. “Yes,” he said, although he’dnever rowed, but there he was,in a boat on the lake at 10 o’clockat night, looking up at the stars,blissfully unaware that years laterhis middle son Dean would havea chance to become its operator.When Dean told his father hemade a bid for it, James said,“You’re gonna get it. That’s ourDean, it’s your destiny. You aregoing to get it.”
But when James was in histeens, such dreams were alien tohim. He enjoyed attending theHigh School of Commerce wherehe studied history and bookkeep-ing and he was studying at NYUprior to the outbreak of WW II.There were many Greeks there,members of the Delphi Society.One day he recognized someonefrom Greek events. “Ellinas esiise vre – Hey, you’re Greek?” heasked Poll, and they becamegood friends. When he began towork for a friend at a clothingstore he switched to nightclasses. The Greek ship ownersused to go there to buy suits andhe got to know them all. PearlHarbor interrupted his studies.He wanted to join the Navy, buthis brother-in-law told him aboutthe Coast Guard. His widowedmother was frightened shewould now lose her son, but awoman came and told her shehad a dream that James wouldnot leave New York. After bootcamp, he was assigned toSheepshead Bay in Brooklynwhere the Coast Guard trainedrecruits. That’s where he first en-countered the famous PappasRestaurant, never imagining therole it would later play in his life.“Pappas’s was very successful, “he told TNH, “packed on the
weekends, 250 seats.” SHIPPING DAYS
After the war his shippingfriendships netted James not justa job but owner status. He was apartner in a Greek-owned LibertyShip, and owned and an Ameri-can oil tanker when he workedfor the Kulukundis family, wherehe eventually became CEO. Andit was time to start a family. Pollhad an acquaintance throughAHEPA who knew he was look-ing for a bride, so he was invitedto visit his family at Christmas.James rang the bell and whenhis future wife opened the doorhe said, “Wow. Who are you?”and she said, “I’m Alexandra.”They were married in 1950. FirstGillis (Angelos) was born, thenDean five years later, and fiveyears after that George was born.By the early 1960’s, the shippingindustry was in trouble andJames began to look for a newcareer. With his experience in thefamily deli business, it madesense to look at restaurants, butit was tough going. “I got toknow every crook in New York.They will sell you something butit’s not they said they were sell-ing,” he told TNH.
Back in Brooklyn, the Pappasfamily sold their restaurant to in-vestors after WW II, who ran itfor 15 years, but by 1960 it washeaded for bankruptcy. A friendinformed James it was available,but he passed. Six months laterhe was visiting the wholesalebutcher Jason Chios, who ad-vised him, “Buy the Pappasrestaurant,” but when he in-quired once more with Pappas,who had taken it over again, hewas told it was not for sale. Polltold him Chios encouraged him,and when Pappas called the mu-tual friend he was told “give itto the kid. He’s an AHEPAN, aMason, kalo pedi,” etc. Pappassold him the restaurant but ad-vised him to do whatever he
could within a year to buy theland also. He couldn’t match anoffer later though.
CLUBBING NIGHTSWhen the owners of the fa-
mous Greek nightclub Dionysoson 54th Street and Second Av-enue - Takis Stambolis fromAlexandria, Egypt and the noto-rious Paul Sapounakis - decidedto open a Russian night club,they asked Poll to join them. Be-ing an owner of Casino Russe at125 East 54th Street in Manhat-tan turned out to be a fantasticcombination of extremely hardwork and alot of fun. Movie starsand notables of all kinds camein, including Henry Kissinger.The celebrities wanted to meetthe owner, which wasn’t the casein the restaurant business. Hetold TNH he had a great crushon actress Joan Fontaine foryears. One day a beautifulwoman came in when she waschecking her coat he said to herexcitedly, “My God you look likeJoan Fontaine,” and she replied,“I am.”
“I wouldn’t do it again, but itwas a great experience,” Jamessaid of running a night club. Thedown side was coming home atall hours of the morning, not be-ing able to spend time with hisfamily. The first month in thebusiness he lost 30 pounds, run-ning around all the time, con-suming mainly Coca Cola. Theclub was luxurious with tall ceil-ings in one big room. It was builtto be Sardi’s East, to complementthe great Theater District eatery.James said the story holds an im-portant lesson: “Never take ad-vice from your customers. Theybegged him to open a place onthe East Side, but they nevercame.”
The live music was terrific hesaid, including top singers fromEurope. Aristotle Onassis cametwice. On Halloween, around1973, James’ wife was all smilesbecause she planned to comedressed like a witch. He told hernot to because among the im-portant customers he expectedthat night was the Emir ofKuwait. He later relented andtold her that although he didn’tthink it was a good idea, shecould do what she thought wasright. He then learned Onassishad a reservation for 12 people.James saw that 10 had arrived,and then Onassis came alone.“He had a monster claw andwould frighten people by growl-ing at them. I was impressed heknew about Halloween.”
James said there were few in-cidents. There was one man, acultured Arab, who always camein with a beautiful woman. Atone point, he became angry andslapped her across the face.When Poll found out he said, “Ican’t have that.” Poll told himto never come again. He wouldcall and beg, but Poll stood firm.One night the man called andsaid he absolutely had to comethat night. He needed to impressa very important client. James atfirst said “I don’t care,” but whenthe man continued to beg, he re-lented.
When the party arrived theclient turned out to be a big hote-lier from Las Vegas – the ownerof the Sands, but they were ca-sually dressed and the Club re-quired a jacket and tie. Poll toldhim he was sorry but he was notdressed for the club. The guestapologized, saying, “If I hadknown I would have bought asuit.” Because he was a gentle-man about it, Poll said he wouldmake an exception for him, eventhough he just sent away anotherman for improper dress. Theman appreciated it very muchand said “this man” – the personPoll had previously banned – “isgoing to build us a fabulous ho-tel. He may be a nut but hebuilds great hotels. He’s one ofthe greatest architects in theworld.” The most frustrating mo-ments involved customers whotried to steal his candles or thefine sterling silver sugar bowlsSardi had left.
The biggest headache was asinger from Paris. He hated NewYork and everything about theclub. “Every night there was aproblem. He was a tall Polish fel-low but he sang the Russiansongs better than the Russians, ”James said. He had to leave atthe end of the year to sing at theFollies Bergere in Paris. Theproblems left with him, but sodid many customers.
After that he bought a shipand ran it for a year, but importquotas made it impossible tomake a good profit, so he wentback into the restaurant businesswith a three store operation inthe Time-Life Building in Rocke-feller Center that he ran until thatlease expired 10 years later. Littleby little he retired and his sonsgot into the business and rantheir own restaurants. Today thefamily holdings include Bryant &Cooper Steakhouse, Toku andCippolini in Long Island, whichare owned by Gillis and George.Dean owns the Riverbay SeafoodBar & Grill in Williston Park, NY,and, yes, he did win the conces-sion for the beautiful Boathousein Central Park.
Gentleman James Poll – Restaurateur, Raconteur, Family ManContinued from page 1
Above: Angelos Poll (R) in his Manhattan delicatessen. Thewell-stocked store with its attractive displays was a neighborh-good mainstay and a source of family pride. Below Left: Kather-ine and Angelos Poll pose on the deck of the S.S. Sinaia, which
carried members of the then-new Order of AHEPA, flush withtheir success in America, to Greece in 1928. Below: The S. S.Ramapo, an oil tanker, is one of serveral ships James Poll hasowned, and he was also a championship sailor.
Photo courtesy oF Poll FAmily
Photo courtesy oF Poll FAmily
The Poll brothers: (L-R) Dean, George and Gillis, who operate restaurants in Manhattan andLong Island. They learned from their dad how to keep their cool in a hectic business.
not seem to matter to Contas ashe would frequently concede 10to even 20 pounds, if the otherfighter agreed to an increase inthe number of rounds. As vari-ous newspaper accounts report,the young Greek felt that hecould physically outlast his op-ponent, if the other proved tobe a better boxer. As one sportswriter noted: “Brown is not con-sidered scientific; he is a ruggedfighter, who can take a lacing.His forte is body punching.”What Contas was counting inthese long matches was outscor-ing the other man since the ma-jority of boxing matches werenot won by clear cut knockoutsbut by how many points as de-termined by ring-side judgesone fighter had scored over theother. In the early 1900’s, giventhe conflicted nature of profes-sional boxing in American soci-ety, laws on professional boxingvaried not only from state tostate but county to county. Someboxing bouts were huge eventswhile others were held in localtheaters, music halls, and parks.As a case in point, in 1912, Con-tas fought Eddies McGoorty be-fore “A crowd of 3,500 boxingfans sat under a sweltering sunin the House of David baseballpark, which has been used forprofessional games all year,”The Chicago Tribune reportedon July 5 that year. The individ-ual fighters, managers, or otherbackers would often offer cashup-front just to secure a fightwith the winner taking all.Fighters also typically receiveda percentage of the overall ticketsales, simply called “the re-ceipts” in news accounts. Sidegambling, which was com-pletely and at all times illegal,also took place quite openly.
EARNING HIS NAMEIn the Feb. 25, 1912 edition
of the Chicago Tribune, Contas,stated that he was “the original‘Knockout Brown.’” He says that
he was in the game, fighting un-der that name before New YorkKnockout Brown, the light-weight, even started.” Much ofthe confusion and contradictionfound in the historical record to-day comes directly from the factthat many professional boxersclaimed to be KO Brown, KidKnockout Brown, George KOBrown,’ and so on. This overallissue of names and ethnic iden-tity did not escape the generalAmerican public. But as we hearin the Feb. 25, 1911 edition ofthe Muskogee Times-Democrat,even the most racist of White An-glo-Saxon Protestant (WAS)journalists had a particular ad-miration for Contas since hisopenness and insistence on hisGreek (and especially Spartan)identity was not typical in theprofessional world of Americanboxing in the early years of the1900’s. “The visit of KnockoutBrown to Muskogee brings tomind a queer turn of the cardsin the fighting game. Few laymenknow how many Greeks there
are fighting under ring nameswhich scream loudly of the Irish,or just plain American. However,when a man is as honest abouthis dealings as George Contas,otherwise Chicago K.O. Brown,we have nothing to criticize inthe matter,” it was reported.
By January 1911, Nate Lewis,a nationally recognized fightpromoter, was identified as Con-tas’ manager. “Manager Lewisthinks he has the greatest thingthat ever happened in the fight-ing game in Brown, and cameout last night with a statementthat ‘Knockout’ would meet anyman in the world at 145 pounds.If he cannot get bouts at thisweight, Lewis said his protégéwould give away ten pounds ifnecessary,” the Chicago Tribunereported. With so many contra-dictory or undocumentedclaims, we are forced to returnto the basic source material forall researchers: the reportsfound on the sports pages of theAmerican national press. Wellknown sports writer Ray C. Pear-son in his Feb. 25, 1912 syndi-cated column spoke to the na-tion on Contas’ career up to thatpoint. “They surely paid someattention when he scored thir-teen knockouts in a row. It wasthis string of victories that gavehim the ‘Knockout’ handle to hisname. He has fought everythingin the way of fighting stock thatcould be sent against him, andhe is willing to bet that a Spartanwill be the middleweight cham-pion of the world before long.”This means that Contas, who be-gan fighting professionally at theage of 16, had made this kind ofreputation for himself, within aperiod of just five years, by theage of 21.
MAN OF STEELContas was a bright star in
riding the cusp of 1911 on to1912. Here is the opening of thereport of Contas’ non-title NewYork City match against Ad Wol-gast that took place on March 3,1911: “Knockout Brown climbed
down the stairs from the ring atthe National Sporting club lastnight waving his hand to thethousands who cheered him forthe great work he had just doneagainst Wolgast, the light-weightchampion of the world. For thesecond time in a limited bout hehad routed the bear-cat and leftthe ring without a mark.” By Au-gust of 1911 Contas was claim-ing by virtue of his record boththe American national welter-weight and middleweight titles.But while the young Spartan hadcertainly beaten the title holders,it was in non-title matches. In anera before both radio and televi-sion, if you didn’t see the fightin person you had to read aboutit on the sports page. But wemust recall this was the goldenage of train travel. The nationwas not only linked by trains forcommercial reasons but for indi-vidual travel as well. As numer-ous newspaper accounts attesttowns such as Kenosha, Wiscon-sin, Peoria, Illinois, Oakland Cal-ifornia, Hammond, Indiana,Syracuse, New York, Benton Har-bor Michigan and elsewherecould regularly expect an influxof all manner of sports fans ar-riving by train should the athleticcontest be popular enough. Al-though public gambling was il-legal the news reports are veryopen about bets being placed byBrown’s “fellow countrymen” onhim during one fight or another.
In his heyday, Brown was anincredible fighter. His knockoutswere often all too real. On morethan one occasion Brownknocked his opponent out in thefirst round. In Sydney, Australiain 1915 Brown entered the ringagainst Sid Francis “and his firstpunch, a right to the ribs, putpoor Sid out of action for severalmonths; the blow having shiftedthe cartilage from his ribs,” theNew Zealand Truth reported.Other such injuries to otherfighters Contas met in the ringcould be noted.
The obvious respect Contas
earned had as much to do withthe way he lost as much as theway he won a fight: “Brown haslong been reputed to be a glut-ton for punishment. He provedlast night that he deserves what-ever honor may accrue fromsuch a reputation. Willie Beecherhooked, swung, jabbed, and up-percut him until Brown reeled,but try as he might, Beecher wasunable to land the final punch.As it was, a worse beaten man,barring a complete knock-out,never left the ring at the end ofa ten-round fight than Brownlast night,” it was reported.
But here we run into the con-tinual problem with judging thetrue nature of professional Greekathletes in North America…winning isn’t everything. Bytheir own accounts, Greek im-migrant athletes of the 1880-1920 wave of migration to NorthAmerica were definitely moreconcerned by how much moneythey made. Even the hardboiledsports writers of the early 1900’sknew that rough as Brown mightbe, he had earned his place as aprofessional boxer. As this briefaccount in the June 30, 1917edition of the New ZealandTablet attests: “Chicago Knock-out Brown loves to appear at hisfavorite haunts in the latest andmost fashionable attire. K.O.strolled into Chicago assistedthem in their task. “See theseshoes?” he remarked holding upone foot. “Well they set me back15 dollars. That hat—tenplunks. The suit, seventy-five.The overcoat—fifty-five.” K.O.Brown passed over a tough andtoilsome journey before he fi-nally reached the point wherehe can make some coin. Duringhis early days he was a wrestler,
and was handled roughly bysome of his opponents. Thosedays and during his early careeras a boxer, money didn’t streamin fast, and he couldn’t affordmany of the things he can easilyhave to-day. As a contrast tothose days kindly witness thefact he returned from Australiawith a neat automobile and sev-eral bills of a large denominationin his inside pocket.”
Much was made in the news-papers that Contas volunteeredfor World War I. His claims ofwanting to personally fight andknockout the Kaiser made head-lines. Still, after the war, whileContas continued in the profes-sional fight game, it is clear hisheadlining days with a steadystream of bouts was all but over.Sometime in the late 1920’s,Contas stopped fighting. Curi-ously, he never became a pro-moter or trainer of younger box-ers, as many other Greekimmigrants of his generationwere prone to do.
After his retirement Contasowned and operated a series ofgambling parlors. After this, lit-tle else is publicly available onhim. American references on thehistory of American professionalboxers always includes Contas’career. But as I was to learn bygoing back to the original news-paper accounts, much of his ca-reer statistics are missing fromthese public sources. Unfortu-nately, since ‘Contas’ was ashortened form of his legalname, we have no idea when hedied by searching publicrecords. As with all the fine pro-fessional Hellenic athletes inNorth America, Contas’ full-lifestory needs to be rescued fromthe pages of history.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011 5
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ALL HISTORY
Continued from page 1
audience completing his secondterm as its leader, and creditedall with whom he worked closelyduring his two terms.
Grossomanides is a seniorclinical pharmacist at AdvancedPharmacy Concepts, NorthKingstown, R.I., and a memberof AHEPA’s Rose of New EnglandChapter 110, in Norwich, Con-necticut. He said, “It is truly anhonor to be elected SupremePresident of AHEPA,” in a timeof great challenges for Hellenism,including the Greek crisis, theCyprus re-unification talks, andthe plight of the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate, but he added that “theneed for community service ismore in demand than ever.” Hetold TNH that these are excitingtimes for AHEPA after the Kara-costas tenure. He said AHEPAhad been successful in attractingyoung people, especially throughits athletic programs and Internetendevors. The Sons of Periclestripled their membership andchartered about 10 new chap-ters. He continued, “I look for-ward to working with our newSupreme Lodge and our mem-bership to overcome these chal-lenges, address new ones thatwill emerge, and keep AHEPA onthe steady path set forth by mypredecessors in a spirit true toour mission.”
Greek American ComedianBasile served as Master of Cere-monies, and the Keynote Ad-dress was offered by His Emi-nence Archbishop Demetrios,who conveyed the blessing ofHis All Holiness Ecumenical Pa-triarch Bartholomew with whomhe had just visited. Daughters ofPenelope Grand President Chris-tine Constantine, Sons of Peri-
cles Supreme President Spiro Ni-colopoulos, and Maids of AthenaGrand President Kiki Amanatidisrecapped their years and pro-vided emotional farewells. The2011-12 Supreme Lodge is com-prised of: Supreme Vice Presi-dent Anthony Kouzounis, Hous-ton; Canadian President GeorgeVassilas, Montreal; SupremeSecretary Phillip T. Frangos, EastLansing, Mich.; Supreme Trea-surer Andrew C. Zachariades,Brick, N.J.; Supreme CounselorGeorge Loucas, Brecksville,Ohio; and Supreme Athletic Di-rector Spiro Siaggas, Atlanta.The Order also elected eight newregional Supreme Governorsand a new Board of Trustees.
The Grand banquet was theoccasion for bestowing honorson numerous outstanding Hel-lenes. Congressman Gus M. Bili-rakis, of Florida, received theAHEPA Pericles Award. VassilisKaskarelis, Ambassador ofGreece to the U.S. and PavlosAnastasiades, Ambassador of the
Cyprus to the U.S. received theAHEPA Aristotle Award andPhilip Christopher, President ofPSEKA, received the AHEPAFreedom Award. Harry Lake ofDayton, Ohio received theAHEPA Lifetime Achievementand Nick Aroutzidis, the Presi-dent of AHEPA Canada, receivedthe AHEPA Meritorious ServiceAward. In accepting the AristotleAward, Ambassador VassilisKaskarelis said, “I will treasureit.” He pointed out that close-knit families, much like theAHEPA family, are the reason forthe endurance of Hellenic cul-ture. Cypriot Ambassador PavlosAnastasiades thanked AHEPA forits demonstration of longstand-ing solidarity and support theorganization has extended toCyprus over the years. He dedi-cated the award to the memoryof the 13 individuals who losttheir lives in the tragic munitionsexplosion in early July.
REACHING OUTAn emotional Gus Bilirakis
accepted the Pericles Award, say-ing it was a “privilege” to repre-sent the Greek American com-munity in Washington andemphasized the importance ofpreserving our Hellenic heritage.“It means everything to you andme,” said Bilirakis, who is anAHEPAN.
Grossomanides told TNH theconvention was one of the mostsuccessful and that rooms hadto be booked in a second andthen a third hotel to accommo-date all the guests. In additionto the organizational planningand work performed by themembers and officers of all theorganization of the AHEPA fam-ily, members and their familiesenjoyed a number of fun-filledand enlightening events, includ-ing the AHEPA Family BeachGlendi with its spirited volleyball competition and other ac-tivities. One of the great conven-tion traditions is the AthleticsLuncheon, where members wereso proud the young Greek Amer-icans excelling in athletics andin the classroom who were pre-sented with National AthleticAward and National Scholar-Athlete Awards and scholar-ships. Several accomplishedGreek Americans were also in-ducted into the AHEPA AthleticHall of Fame. The EducationalFoundation sponsored severalsymposia on interesting topics,including: Behind the Lens byPete Yalnis that focused on theParthenon Marbles; Future ofHellenism by Professor GeorgeA. Kourvetris, and The GreekLanguage in the 21st Century,by John Papaloizos.
AHEPA’s Executive DirectorBasil Mossaidis, a WW II historyenthusiast, said he was “espe-cially enthralled by the book pre-
sentation offered by George Bly-tas. His book, First Victory, su-perbly details the account of theBattle of Crete and Greece's con-tributions to the war effort.”
Among the beneficiaries ofAHEPA’s philanthropic activitiesis the St. Jude Children’s Re-search Hospital and the Archdio-cese’s Leadership 100, whose Ex-ecutive Director Paulette Poulosreceived the Order’s final pledgeinstallment. Nicky Stamoulis ofSeminole, Fla. was elected
Daughters of Penelope GrandPresident, Manolis Sfinarolakisof Woodbury, Conn. is the newSons of Pericles Supreme Presi-dent and Marianthe Kolokithasof Charleston, S.C., is the Maidsof Athena Grand President.
The Installation Ceremony ofnewly-elected officers officiallyconcluded the 89th AHEPASupreme Convention, which be-gan July 18.. The 2012Supreme Convention will con-vene in Las Vegas, Nevada, at
the Monte Carlo, but the nextyear will be dominated by theOrder’s 90th anniversary cele-bration which will culminatewith the special AHEPA FamilyWeekend in Atlanta.
Grossomanides said to TNHthat he and the rest of theSupreme Lodge have hit theground running to prepare forthe Order’s 90th anniversary andhe has already planned a WestCoast trip. AHEPA was estab-lished in Atlanta in 1922 by
eight visionary Greek Americansto protect individuals from big-otry, discrimination, and preju-dice. It has grown to becomethe largest membership-basedassociation for Greek Americansand Philhellenes in the world.For more information aboutAHEPA, or how to join, pleasecontact AHEPA Headquarters,202-232-6300, or visitwww.ahepa.org.
Grossomanides New AHEPA Leader, Will Continue Youth MovementContinued from page 1
After John Grossomanides Jr. was sworn in, his father JohnSr. presented him with the Supreme President’s Jewel as mem-bers of the AHEPA family applauded.
Supreme President Nicholas Karacostas administers the Oathof office to his successor, Dr. John Grossomanides, who standsnext to his fiancée Anna-Helene Panagakos.
ATHENS, Greece — Michael Ca-coyannis, the Cypriot born-film-maker and screenwriter who di-rected the 1964 film classicZorba the Greek, starring An-thony Quinn, died at an Athenshospital, reported to be Evange-lismos. He was 89. Officials saidCacoyannis died early July 25 ofcomplications from a heart at-tack and chronic respiratoryproblems. Cacoyannis won mul-tiple awards and worked withsuch well-known actors asMelina Mercouri, Irene Papas,Katharine Hepburn, VanessaRedgrave, and Candice Bergen.But he was best known interna-tionally for the Academy Award-winning Zorba the Greek - the1964 adaptation of NikosKazantzakis’ novel - joining upwith composer Mikis Theodor-akis, whose score for the movieremains an enduring Greek an-them.
In the black-and-white movie,a scholarly Englishman played byAlan Bates, travels to the Greekisland of Crete to visit a coal minehe inherited. Alexis Zorbas,played by Anthony Quinn, is hisgrizzled and larger-than-life cookand fixer. The movie won two
technical awards at the 1965 Os-cars, while Lila Kedrova won forbest supporting actress. But Ca-coyannis and Quinn both lost outto My Fair Lady, which was votedbest picture that year.
Cacoyannis was born in 1921in the Cypriot port of Limassol,when the Mediterranean islandwas still a British colony. He stud-ied law in London, but soon fol-lowed his interest in the arts,working for the BBC’s Greek ser-vice, studying drama, and even-tually getting acting parts in thetheater. After moving to Athens,Cacoyannis made his debut as adirector with Windfall in Athensin 1954. Two years later, he wona Golden Globe for best foreignlanguage film for Stella, starringMercouri.
“His movies received awardsat the most important film festi-vals in the world,” Culture Min-ister Pavlos Geroulanos said. “Hiswork became the vehicle thattook Greek culture to every cor-ner of the earth, and served as asource of inspiration for Greekand foreign artists.” Cacoyannishad no children and is survivedby his sister Giannoula. Funeralarrangements were not immedi-
ately known.He was nominated for an
Academy Award 5 times. He re-ceived Best Director, BestAdapted Screenplay and BestFilm Nominations for Zorba theGreek, and two nominations inthe Foreign Language Film cate-gory for Electra and Iphigenia.
Cacoyannis lived in London asa young man but he made hisfirst film, Kyriakatiko xypnima(Windfall in Athens), in theGreek capital in 1954. He fol-lowed this up the following yearwith Stella, a seminal movie forGreek cinema. Cacoyannis wroteit with Iakovos Kambanellis, whodied earlier this year, and itstarred the then-undiscoveredMelina Mercouri.
In recent years, Cacoyannis di-rected a number of theater pro-ductions. His foundation inaugu-rated new premises on PireosStreet in Tavros, southern Athens,in 2010. The foundation’spremises span four floors and in-clude an amphitheater with a ca-pacity of 330 seats, a cinema with120 seats, a black box hall for avariety of uses that seats 68, anexhibition hall, two cafe-bars, anoutdoor and an indoor restaurant
as well as a shop. Many of hisfilms played in Cannes competi-tion.
Other films included 1956’s AGirl In Black, 1987’s Sweet Coun-try and 1971’s The TrojanWomen; his last film was 1999’sThe Cherry Orchard. Cacoyanniswas also a theater veteran (heworked on the 1983 Broadwayrevival of the musical based onZorba.) Cacoyannis was awardedthe Order of the Golden Phoenix(Greece), the Commandeur desArts et des Lettres (France), theGrand Cross / Order of Makarios3rd (Cyprus) and the SpecialGrand Prix of the Americas(Montreal). He has been hon-oured by the Greek Academywith its highest award for na-tional services and with LifetimeAchievement Award by the Sa-lonica, Jerusalem and Cairo FilmFestivals, as well as the AmericanHellenic Institute in Washington.He has been declared an Hon-orary Citizen of Limassol, Mont-pellier and Dallas, and has re-ceived Honory Doctorates fromColumbia College (Chicago),Athens University, Cyprus Univer-sity, and the Aristotelio Universityof Salonica.
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DEATHS
n COSCORE, MYRASPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Re-publican reported that MyraCoscore, 88, passed away onJune 23 at the Baystate MedicalCenter. She was born on July 27,1922 in Greenfield, Mass., adaughter of the late Peter A. andTheone (Papulis) Fotopulos. Shebelonged to the Sts. Constantineand Helen Greek OrthodoxChurch in Chicopee. She was thepast treasurer and also a memberof the Greek Ladies PhiloptohosSociety. She graduated fromGreenfield High School, Class of1940. Later she worked for theformer Greenfield Tap and DieCompany and also as a clerk forMass Mutual in Springfield forseveral years before she retired.She was predeceased by her hus-band William Coscore, a formereducator and Superintendent ofChicopee schools, who died in2002 and to whom she was mar-ried for 54 years. They marriedon Dec. 21, 1947 February 15,2002. She leaves four sons,Charles W. Coscore and his wifeConnie of Wilbraham; Peter W.Coscore of Chicopee, Philip W.Coscore and his wife Linda ofWindsor Locks, Conn. andMichael W. Coscore of Chicopee;a brother Michael Fotopulos ofGreenfield; four grandchildren,Wyatt W. Coscore, AlexandriaCoscore, Lilah Coscore andWilliam Coscore; several niecesand nephews, grand nieces,grand nephews and cousins. Thefuneral was held in the Sts. Con-stantine and Helen Greek Ortho-dox Church in Chicopee.
n GAGE, MARIA ZICACORRY, PA. – The Erie Times-News reported that Maria ZicaStrobl Gage, 94, passed away onJuly 19. Mrs. Gage, the daughterof Georgios and Kalliopi RevithiZica, was born on the island ofPatmos, Greece, on Oct. 13,1915. She was raised on the is-land and was one of the very fewgirls educated at the School ofSt. John the Revelator there. Af-ter her marriage to Albin Stroblof Austria, she moved to her hus-band's homeland, where theirchildren Kathleen and Georgewere born. Mr. Strobl fell in Rus-sia during World War II. In 1947,Maria came to the USA with hertwo children to marry WendellE. Gage of Corry. Their son, JohnW. Gage, was born the followingyear. Mrs. Gage's entire life wasbased on her unwavering trust inGod. Her faith sustained herthroughout the years. Maria'sGreek Orthodox upbringing wasundeniable, a fact which en-hanced her understanding andappreciation of the mission of herbeloved church community, theFirst United Methodist Church ofCorry. Mrs. Gage is survived byher daughter Kathleen Neubauerand her husband Herbert ofLienz, Austria; her son John W.Gage and his wife Gayle of Corry;her daughter-in-law Terrie Gageof Corry, as well as her grand-children Marlo Gage with her sonKiall of Chino, California, JohnN. Gage of Phoenix, Arizona,Martin Neubauer of Vienna, Aus-tria and Matthias Neubauer withhis wife Astrid and son Henrik,also of Vienna, Austria.
n KAPLAN, DELORESGLENMONT, N.Y. – The AlbanyTimes Union reported that Do-lores (Pappas) Kaplan, 86, passedaway June 13 at Albany MedicalCenter, Albany, N.Y. She was bornJan. 25, 1925 in Wheeling, W.Va., daughter of the late Jon L.Pappas and Alexandria Pappas(Semergo-lou.) Delores residedin Syracuse, N.Y., for most of herlife, until moving to Glenmont in2001. Prior to retirement, Deloresdedicated 31 years of her life asthe medical assistant/office man-ager for the highly respectedphysician’s offices of Dr. Er-lebacher and the late Dr. Hayman
in Fayetteville, N.Y. Delores wasbaptized and raised in the GreekOrthodox Church. Dolores’ manyaccomplishments included win-ning a scholarship to Juilliard,singing Greek opera coast-to-coast on the Wheeling Steel radioprogram and recording an album.Even with such high vocal acco-lades, she always considered hergreatest accomplishment herbeautiful family. She loved listen-ing to Greek music, cooking deli-cious Greek food, and spendingtime and sharing stories with herbeloved family. Delores was pre-deceased by her husband, HarryKaplan, who she married on April8, 1956; and her sister, Angela.Surviving family members in-clude a daughter and son-in-law,Alexis and George Hatzis of PartRichey, Fla.; three sons anddaughters-in-law, Harry and Car-olyn Kaplan of Oneida, N.Y., Markand Teresa Kaplan of Glenmont,Greg and Sarah Kaplan of Way-nesboro, Va.; two sisters, MaryLou (Vince) Putrino and AthenaTsilimidos, both of California; sixnieces and nephews, Ricky,Methodie and Naomi Angel,Marie Tsilimidos, and Dino andDana Putrino; 10 grandchildren,and six great-grandchildren.
n NICHOLAS, MILDRED E.LOWELL, Mass. – The Lowell Sunreported that Mildred E. “Millie”(Wieczholek) Nicholas, 81, alongtime Lowell resident, passedaway July 19, 2011, at LowellGeneral Hospital surrounded byher loving family, following acourageous battle with diabetes.She was the beloved wife of thelate Charles G. Nicholas whopassed away in April of 1979.Millie was born in Manchester,NH, a daughter of the late Stan-ley Wieczholek and Mabel (Jer-vah) (Wieczholek) Marcouillier,and was also the step daughterof the late Ernest Marcouillier.She attended Manchester schoolsand was a graduate of Manches-ter Central High School. Millieworked in the mills in heryounger years, as a syntheticyarner. She married Charles anddevoted her career to raising herthree sons and her daughter. Shewas later employed by the De-Moulas Sign Shop in Lowell astheir sign maker where she silk-screened all the chains bannersand various store signage. Shealso worked at Wang Laborato-ries in Lowell as an electrical as-sembler up until her retirement.She was a longtime member ofthe Transfiguration Greek Ortho-dox Church in Lowell. Her sur-vivors include three sons, CharlesNicholas Jr., Thaddeus “Ted”Nicholas and his wife, MarthaSullivan, and Timothy Nicholas,all of Lowell; one daughter, Va-lerie Nicholas and her compan-ion, Dennis Jewett of Lowell; fourgrandchildren, Kathryn Nicholas,Timothy Nicholas Jr., JeremyNicholas, and Derek Nicholas;two great-grandchildren, Deme-tria Nicholas and AthenaNicholas; two sisters, ShirleyBerube of Lowell, and MabelChamberlain and her husband,Skip of Ashby, Mass.; a brother-in-law, Lee Turnbull; and a sis-ter-in-law, Dot Wieczholek, andmany nieces and nephews.
n PALLES, APHRODITEFLORENCE, S.C. – The Sun Newsreported that Aphrodite ChrisPalles, 89, passed away July 13,2011, at home after an illness.She was surrounded by her fam-ily. She was born in Florence onJan. 25, 1922, a daughter of thelate Chris Mitchell Palles andConstantina Vasilakos. She hadbeen employed by AgriculturalAAA, the Beacon Drive-In, Dr. In-verson Graham, the GangplankSeafood Restaurant, Francis Mar-ion College and with Dr. JoeNeely and the late Dr. Gary Han-son with Psychology Associates.Aphrodite was very faithful to her
church and her family. She was afounding member of the Trans-figuration of Our Savior GreekOrthodox Church, board mem-ber, choir director for 28 years,Sunday School Superintendent,Sunday School teacher, and acharter member of the GreekLadies Philoptochos Society. Shereceived the Archangel MichaelHonor Award in 2000. She alsowas involved in the Florence Lit-tle Theatre, a founding memberof the Quill Club, South CarolinaBicentennial Committee, Flo-rence Choral Society and theChopin Music Club. Surviving herare her sister, Pauline PallesCostas; nephews, John PeteCostas (Marti), Chris MitchellPalles (Donna), of Mt. Pleasant;nieces, Maria Costas (HobartRobbins), Tina Palles, Vicki C.Underwood (Al) of North MyrtleBeach, and Jo Ann Nance (Clyde,III). The funeral was held at theTransfiguration of Our SaviorGreek Orthodox Church.
n SOFRONAS, ANDREWSAUGUS, Mass. – The Saugus Ad-vertiser reported that AndrewSofronas, 72, of Saugus, diedJuly 10 at Massachusetts GeneralHospital, where he was taken af-ter suffering an accident at hishome. He was the husband ofCrysoula(Georgakopoulos)Sofronas, his wife of 44 years.Born and raised in KalamataGreece, he was the son of the lateSotirios and Angeliki Sofronas.He came to Lynn at the age of 15and had lived in Saugus since1977. Mr. Sofronas was theowner of several businesses inLynn and Saugus. He was a mem-ber of St. George Greek OrthodoxChurch, Lynn. In addition to hiswife, he is survived by two sons,Sotiris Steve Sofronas and hiswife Kelly and KonstantinosCharlie Sofronas and his wife An-gela, all of Wakefield, four grand-children Andreas, Nikolas, An-dreas, and Crysoula, two sistersAnna Mikedis and her husbandGeorge, of Saugus, and GeorgiaSklikas and her husband Panagi-otis, of Kalamata, Greece, hismother-in-law Evdokia Geor-gakopoulos, a brother-in-lawDimitrios Georga-kopoulos andhis wife Dina, and his sisters-in-law Sofia Kokkinos and her hus-band Panagiotis, Effie Zorbas,Vetta Manikas and her husbandDimitrios, all of Athens, Greece,four nieces and many nieces andnephews in Greece. The funeralwas held at St. George Greek Or-thodox, Lynn.
n VARTELAS, JEREMIAHDERBY, Conn. – The New HavenRegister reported that Jeremiah“Jerry” Vartelas, 87 of Stratford,beloved husband of HelenStavros Vartelas for 56 years,passed away on June 21 at Grif-
fin Hospital of Derby, followinga long illness. He was born atthe same hospital on Jan. 8,1924. His parents, Paraskevi andJohn Vartelas were Greek immi-grants who settled in Ansoniaand raised a large active familyliving on Franklin St. for manyyears. His father started the Fam-ily Food Grocery Store on MapleStreet until it was lost in theGreat Flood of 1955. Thanks toJerry’s efforts the site, nowknown as Vartelas Park displaysa historical marker commemo-rating the flood and the heroicsof valley residents during thetragedy. An excellent athlete,Jerry played basketball for An-sonia & Norwoods Athletic Clubteams as well as the collegiatelevel at Davis & Elkins and theUniversity of Connecticut, wherehe graduated in 1951. Prior tocollege Jerry served in the UnitedStates Army during World WarII, from 1943 to 1946, attainingthe rank of Sergeant. Whilebriefly stationed in Alabama, hemet his future wife Helen andwere married in 1955. After col-lege he embarked on a career ininsurance, joining The Mutual ofOmaha Companies. Jerry heldvarious marketing positions inOmaha, Bloomington, Indiana,Terre Haute, Indiana and Mar-blehead, Mass., before returningto the new Haven area in 1970.He retired in 1988 as RegionalVice President of marketing. Dur-ing his retirement, Jerry & Helentraveled several times to Europewith special stops to Greecewhere Jerry was able to trace theroots of his ancestry. Jerry wasvery active in local Valley com-munity activities. He served sev-eral years as the president of theDerby Historical Society andCouncil President of the HolyTrinity Greek Orthodox Churchin Ansonia, playing a leading rolein its transition and merger withSt. Barbara Greek OrthodoxChurch in Orange. Of all his pur-suits Jerry most loved spendingtime with his family. In additionto his wife Helen, he leaves twosons John (Helene) Vartelas andAllan Vartelas and grandchildrenKatherine and Geoffrey Vartelas,all of Cromwell, brothersTheodore (Ted) Vartelas ofWoodbridge and James Vartelasof Ansonia.
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Cyprus-born Michael Cacoyannis, one off the great Hellenic-filmmakers, is seen during an event in Athens, March 9, 2010.
Michael Cacoyannis, Famed Director of Zorba the Greek and Stella, Dies at 89
AP Photo/eurokinissi
ter the expected default, pro-vided the country can achieveeven more painful fiscal auster-ity. That, however, depends onpolitical stability in Athens - andon the outcome of the contestbetween Messrs. Papandreouand Samaras. If Mr. Papan-dreou’s slim hold on Parliamentfails, the whole bailout plancould fall apart.
June’s unorthodox effort byMessrs. Papandreou and Sama-ras to heal Greece’s divisions al-most led to a deal between thetwo men. In their June 15phone calls, Mr. Papandreoureasoned that a bipartisan pactcould create a firmer footing forthe painful austerity policiesneeded to keep the internationalrescue loans flowing.
Mr. Samaras demanded thatMr. Papandreou resign. The twomen nearly agreed, but theirtalks broke down, roiling mar-kets all over again by demon-strating the potential for politi-cal instability at the epicenterof the euro crisis. This accountof the relationship between thetwo men is based on interviewswith more than a dozen of theirclosest collaborators and long-time friends. Mr. Samaras wasinterviewed by The Wall StreetJournal; Mr. Papandreou de-clined.
Mild-mannered Mr. Papan-dreou, whose outlook was influ-enced by the American counter-culture of his youth, once toldhis brother Nick that if he couldtake time off from Greek poli-tics, he’d like to broker peace inan international crisis spot - orgo hitchhiking with a guitar onhis back. Instead, he finds him-self telling Greeks they must ac-cept toil, sweat and tears in theform of tax increases and spend-ing cuts to avoid national bank-ruptcy. That message has helpedspawn violent street protests.Mr. Samaras, an extrovertedconservative with a history ofnationalist rhetoric, insists theinternational bailout plan is ru-ining Greece. He says radical taxcuts will spur growth. His pro-posal is “unrealistic,” say the Eu-ropean Union and the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund. The showdown between the
two men could take place asearly as this fall if Mr. Samarasgets his way and new electionsare called. A political fight couldthwart the EU and IMF and putGreece’s austerity policies indoubt. For more than a year, Mr.Papandreou has been a pillar ofEurope’s strategy of fundingGreece while it closes its vastdeficit with higher taxes andspending cuts. But pain isspreading deep into Greek soci-ety. Unemployment has reached16%, double the pre-crisis level.Businesses are dying. Angry mid-dle-class citizens are joining thepreviously union-led protests inthe streets of Athens. The moodof despair is boosting support forMr. Samaras’s promise of a less-bitter medicine.
The two men are tempera-mental opposites yet closefriends. An aide to Mr. Samarasdescribed witnessing a chanceencounter between the two menoutside a movie theater. Theydidn’t greet each other, but sim-ply began talking as if alreadyin mid-conversation, the aide re-calls. Mr. Papandreou, 59 yearsold, and Mr. Samaras, 60, haveknown each other since child-hood at Athens College, a pri-vate school known for trainingGreece’s elite. Mr. Samarascomes from a family with a pa-triotic local history. At the heartof family lore: his great-grand-mother Penelope Delta, a fa-mous writer who committed sui-cide in 1941 on the day theinvading Germans raised theNazi swastika over the Acropolis.
THE OLD COLLEGE TRYMr. Papandreou, born in
Minnesota to an Americanmother, came from an illustriouspolitical dynasty. His grandfa-ther, also called George Papan-dreou, was a moderate states-man. His father, Andreas, aprominent economist, becamethe firebrand left-wing tribuneof Greece’s poor. In 1967, Greekarmy officers launched a coupto preempt an expected electionvictory by the Papandreous’party. The family went into exilein Sweden and North America.
Mr. Papandreou became a
liberal arts student at Amherstin the early 1970’s, where heformed close friendships with asmall group of Greek students,including Mr. Samaras. Thehighly-politicized environmentthat shaped them was charac-terized by “hippies, the Vietnamwar, revolution, Nixon, Water-gate, books that called forchange in every way,” Mr. Sama-ras said in a Journal interview.Mr. Samaras, conservative-minded and a staunch anti-Communist, was an outgoingstudent who regularly organizedtrips to parties with studentsfrom women’s colleges, saysStephen Manuelidis, a fellowGreek who also roomed withMr. Samaras.
Mr. Papandreou, who leanedleft like his father, was a quietstudent who strummed protestsongs on his guitar, friends fromthose days say. One of his fa-vorites was English rocker AlvinLee’s anthem to the dreams andconfusion of the era: “I’d loveto change the world/But I don’tknow what to do...” Years later,as Greek opposition leader, Mr.Papandreou had the song as hisiPhone ringtone, says a close ac-quaintance.
Messrs. Samaras and Papan-dreou already had their mindsset on Greek politics. “We willrule Greece together,” they pro-claimed one day in theirAmherst dorms, Mr. Manuelidisremembers. The boast was “be-tween serious and a joke,” giventhat Greece was ruled by a mil-itary junta, Mr. Manuelidis says.
When democracy returned toGreece, the two men enteredparliament. Mr. Papandreoulived in the shadow of his ebul-lient father, Andreas, who dom-inated Greek politics until hedied in 1996. Andreas greatlyexpanded Greece’s welfare state,bringing public services to themany rural poor for the firsttime. Greece became moreequal, but more indebted. Theparty founded by Andreas, thePanhellenic Socialist Movement,or PASOK, dominated govern-ment, while the conservativeNew Democracy was its main ri-val. Both parties built their po-litical bases by handing out
costly favors - including a vastnumber of government jobs - towin votes. A fiscal time bombbegan taking shape. In the early1990’s, Mr. Samaras built his na-tionalist reputation when, as ayouthful foreign minister, hetook an uncompromising posi-tion with a neighbor: The newlyindependent, ex-Yugoslav Re-public of Macedonia. Mr. Sama-ras’s fiery denunciations of thenew country’s name - ”Macedo-nia” has deep historical associa-tions within Greece itself - fueledvast street demonstrations inGreece in support of his stance.
“His method was confronta-tional. Europe remembers this,”says George Kyrtsos, a longtimeacquaintance and Atheniannewspaper publisher. Fired asforeign minister, he led a rebel-lion that brought down his owngovernment. A decade in the po-litical wilderness followed. “Ispent 11 years staring at thewalls of my house,” he says.
Mr. Papandreou became For-eign Minister himself and set adifferent tone with the neigh-bors. Taking office in 1999, hesought to bury the hatchet with
Greece’s archenemy, Turkey, firstby sending a Greek team to res-cue people buried in a devastat-ing 1999 earthquake there. Hewooed Turkish opinion with ide-alistic speeches, and notablyonce danced a Zorba-the-Greek-style dance with Turkey’s For-eign Minister.
NO LOYAL OPPOSITIONStill, Messrs. Papandreou and
Samaras remained close. As PA-SOK leader in 2004, Mr. Papan-dreou tried to bring free-marketthinkers into his party and,through an intermediary, en-quired whether Mr. Samaraswould like to join. Mr. Samarassaid he could never be a Social-ist. Mr. Papandreou campaignedin 2009’s elections as a modern-izer and was swept to power.The incumbent New Democracygovernment had gotten miredin corruption scandals. He in-herited a fiasco. The budgetdeficit for 2009 turned out tobe 15.5% of Gross DomesticProduct, far worse than the pre-vious government had dis-closed. In spring 2010, Greecesought an international rescue.Mr. Papandreou’s government
slashed pensions and public-sec-tor pay, and increased taxes.Unions went on strike. Anar-chists hurled Molotov cocktails.
Mr. Samaras was now oppo-sition leader. He supportedspending cuts but demanded taxcuts instead of increases.
Higher tax rates are hammer-ing the economy, Mr. Samarassays. In addition, he says, highrates backfire in Greek culture,where tax evasion is deeply in-grained thanks in part to a sus-picion of authority that datesback to centuries under Turkishrule. He favors a flat-rate tax of15% on business, arguing thatit “would change people’s men-tality, because it would give youno honor to evade taxes.”
The simple appeal of Mr.Samaras’s argument started toworry Greece’s internationalcreditors this spring, when thecurrent government’s strategyhit trouble. Austerity was deep-ening the recession. The deficitwasn’t shrinking enough. TheEU urged deeper budget cutsand Mr. Papandreou - reliant onEU-IMF aid - agreed. Streetprotests escalated. His ownparty, PASOK, verged on revolt.
On the afternoon of June 15,according to Mr. Samaras andseveral close advisers to bothleaders, Mr. Papandreou phonedhis friend and offered him a na-tional unity government. Thepremier, alone in his elegantneoclassical office, hadn’t con-sulted his cabinet. Mr. Samarasasked his friend to step down asPrime Minister. “I don’t want tohurt your feelings, but you can-not be Prime Minister of such agovernment,” Mr. Samaras said,stating that the premier had lostthe trust of the markets and thenation. “If you really think I amthe problem, I could go,” saidMr. Papandreou. If a successorcould carry on his agenda of re-forming Greece, he said: “I’mnot stuck to my seat.”
Mr. Samaras asked for timeto reflect, then called Mr. Pa-pandreou back. The pair agreedthey would appoint a nonparti-san Prime Minister, who wouldcut the budget deficit but alsonegotiate easier bailout termswith Europe and the IMF. Afterthat, they agreed, their coalitionwould give way to new elec-tions.
Mr. Papandreou asked fortime to consult his people. PA-SOK however, was in an uproar.A television station reportednews of the conversation, citinga high-level source inside Mr.Samaras’s party. Financial mar-kets gyrated. Greece wonderedwhether it had a government atall. The Prime M inister’s horri-fied advisers pressed him toscrap his scheme.
Mr. Papandreou was upsetthat his friend, or somebodyclose to him, had leaked thenews of their phone call, appar-ently to score partisan points bymaking the premier look weak.That evening, he phoned Mr.Samaras to call the whole thingoff. “This leak should not havehappened,” Mr. Papandreousaid, describing the adverse re-action within his party. “Are youtelling me that a decision ofsuch national importance isnipped in the bud because ofgossip?” Mr. Samaras said. Mr.Samaras is under huge pressurefrom European leaders to sup-port the austerity program andforget about tax cuts. He sayshe’s right, and Europe is wrong,and complains that Mr. Papan-dreou shouldn’t have ignoredhim earlier in the crisis. “Whenthe problem wasn’t so big, hedidn’t consult us,” he says. “Nowhe calls me up.”
Alkman Granitsas contributedto this article.
Frenemies: Greek Rivals, Once Roommates, Hold Nation’s Fate in Balance
They don’t look the same these days, of course, but that’s currentGreek Prime Minister George Papandreou at bottom left andNew Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, rear right, during theircollege days in 1973 at Amherst in 1973, the Vietnam War era.
a panel discussion after the Fi-nance Minister’s speech. Hetalked with Lagarde and otherIMF officials about the raft ofreforms Greece has been or-dered implement by itsmedium-term austerity plan,which includes sweeping reduc-tions in public sector spending,streamlining the civil serviceand an ambitious liberalizationprogram. “The important pointis the positive and constructiveposition of the staff, and first ofall, of Madame Lagarde,”Venizelos said following hismeeting.
After his meeting with theIMF’s new Managing Director,Venizelos said: “I have had avery interesting and lengthymeeting with Mrs Lagarde andher staff. We discussed all issues.The IMF’s attitude toward us isvery positive, but everything de-pends on us and our ability toimplement the program andregister specific results. If we dothat, then the IMF and the in-ternational community will con-tinue to support Greece until itregains its fiscal sovereignty andindependence, until it conquersthe position that reflects its his-tory and the abilities of theGreek nation. In this respect, the
meeting was full of optimismand support (for Greece.)”KUDOS FOR THE DIASPORA
Rating agency Moody’sdowngraded Greece’s debt rat-ing to just one notch above de-fault, though Venizelos down-
played the rating, saying, “Wehave this problem with the rat-ing agencies, but for the firsttime in two years, we have apositive signal from the part ofthe international financial com-munity.” Ending his speech on
a positive note, Venizelos ralliedthe support of the Greek Dias-pora and praised the people ofGreece. “Together we will suc-ceed in rebuilding our country,restoring its fiscal independenceand achieving the competitiveposition Greece deserves in theinternational market,” he said,adding, “This is the challengefor the Greek people, a proudpeople with many assets andskills.”
But Venizelos also saidGreece needs a “less expensivestate” and its privatization pro-gram is “very ambitious,” refer-ring to Troika orders the countrysell or lease its properties andstate-run entities to raise morethan $70 billion in cash. Beforeheading to Washington, he saidEurope’s new bailout agreementfor the nation, which includes20 billion euros ($28.7 billion)to recapitalize banks, will safe-guard lenders’ solvency.
“The Greek banking systemis perhaps now the most guar-anteed system in Europe, if notwider,” Venizelos said at a pressconference in Athens. “There isa very big umbrella of protec-tions.” The $229 billion secondbail-out, which includes includ-ing contributions from bond-holders, also includes $157 bil-lion from the Troika and $60.7
billion to back new Greek gov-ernment bonds issued as part ofthe private-sector involvementin the program, Venizelos said.“Our goal is not to nationalizethe bank system, but for its cap-ital to be strong,” Venizelos said.
Fitch Ratings said private-sector involvement in the newGreek package “constitutes anevent of ‘Restricted Default’” be-cause banks are being requiredto contribute $72.3 billion afteragreeing to a series of bond ex-changes and buybacks.
“An exchange that offers newsecurities with terms that areworse than the original contrac-tual terms of the existing debtand where the sovereign is sub-ject to financial distress consti-tutes a default event,” Fitchsaid. Greece’s insurance fundswill also participate in the pack-age, exchanging holdings ofgovernment bonds for new oneswith 30-year maturities guaran-teed by the euro-area rescuefund, the European FinancialStability Facility, Venizelos said.These bonds would have thesame face value as the originalholdings, he said.
“Pension funds don’t comeunder the same accounting rulesas the banking system, and don’tface a write down in the valueof their holdings,” he said.
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011 7
In Washington, Venizelos Says Greece Is Coming Back
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, (L) struggling toprevent a default over a budget impasse in Washington, metwith Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to talk aboutGreece's staggering economy and plans to rebound.
ATHENS – Prime MinisterGeorge Papandreou, fresh off ap-proval for a second bailout forhis debt-drowned country, a$157 billion package, said hisAdministration’s leadershipsealed the deal with interna-tional investors and took a shotat his major rival, ConservativeNew Democracy leader AntonisSamaras, his former collegeroommate in Massachusetts. Pa-pandreou, whose Socialist PA-SOK party is trying to weathersocial unrest over deep cuts inworkers pay and tax hikes andslashed pension benefits as acondition of getting the secondbailout – and lower interest ratesand an extension to 15 years onrepaying the first rescue packageof $155 billion from the Troikaof the European Union-Interna-tional Monetary Fund-EuropeanCentral Bank, told a meeting ofhis cabinet: “We have confirmedour participation at the core ofthe European Union,” a refer-ence to the Brussels deal.
Greece was seen by many an-alysts as gaining some breathingspace following a decision for asecond rescue package. Leadersof the Eurozone, the 17 countriesusing the euro as a currency,
agreed to the easier lendingterms and private investors willswap Greek bonds for longer ma-turities at lower interest rates,but will take a 21% percent loss,which ratings agency warnedthey would declare a selectivedefault. That didn’t deter Papan-
dreou’s optimism, although hehad said repeatedly the countrywould never restructure nor de-fault but did both at the sametime. “Armed with the tough de-cisions that we made and theconviction that we shall see themthrough, we accomplished every-
thing that the opposition accusedus of failing to negotiate, and infact more than that,” Papandreousaid in an attack on New Democ-racy which has repeatedly criti-cized the bailout strategy. Theconservative party is leading PA-SOK in the polls. The conserva-tive opposition, doggedly resist-ing calls for wider politicalconsensus and pressing for taxrelief to help the economyemerge from a deep recession,was quick to dismiss Papan-dreou’s triumphant return fromBrussels, Reuters reported. “Peo-ple are tired of Papandreou’sramblings. After leading thecountry to the brink of collapse,he is lying to save himself,” theNew Democracy party’sspokesman said in a statement.
Papandreou told his ministersit’s time to introduce all the ma-jor reforms that have been puton hold over the previousdecades. He said the main goalwas to create primary surplusesin order to stop the “deficit he-morrhage,” the Athens newspa-per Kathimerini reported.
Papandreou also said that thecheap rescue loans to Greece areequivalent to Euro bonds – amechanism opposed by Ger-
many, the EU’s biggest lender toGreece – while urging his minis-ters to speed up reforms de-manded by the Troika, includingprivatization and selling or leas-ing of state-run entities andproperties to raise $70 billion.The Finance Minister was taskedwith a quick reform of the taxsystem as a top priority to fighttax evasion and boost laggingstate revenues. Tax evaders arecosting the country nearly $40billion a year and, like the rich,have largely escaped sacrifices.
Papandreou, who has longpushed the launch of euro bondsto deal with the debt crisis trou-bling countries in the Eurozone’speriphery, said elements of therescue package had brought thebloc nearer to the idea.
“The decision of our Euro-pean partners to lend us at 3.5percent, an interest rate justabove the one at which Germanyitself is borrowing, is in essencetantamount to introducing a Eu-ropean bond,” Papandreou toldparty lawmakers. The Eurozonedeal for Greece includes a bondexchange by banks, insurers andother holders of its debt, to coverfunding needs until mid-2014and avoid default. The agree-
ment helps protect Greece fromhaving to borrow in the openmarket at prohibitive rates andgives the country time to rightitself economically and Papan-dreou said Europe had been slowto take decisions but was becom-ing more united. “The decisionswe took at the EU Council … arehistoric for Europe itself. Theyprove that even with delays anddisagreements, it can behave asa big economic and politicalpower, protect the credibility ofits member states and foremostthe credibility of the commoncurrency,” he said.
Moody’s cut Greece’s creditrating by three notches to Ca,just one notch above default, toreflect the expected loss impliedby the proposed debt exchange.Standard & Poor’s and Fitch cur-rently rate Greece CCC, broadlyin line with Moody’s rating. Bothhave said Greece will likely bein temporary default as a resultof the bond swap. A new andbigger restructuring of Greekdebt is likely within the next twoyears, an official from credit rat-ings agency Standard & Poor’ssaid, adding a further down-grade of Greece’s sovereign debtrating was “pretty certain.”
Papandreou Praises His Government, Blasts His Opponent Samaras
Protesting taxi drivers wave a Greek flag and chant slogansoutside the Greek Parliament in central Athens on Tuesday,July 26. Their demands got PM George Papandreou involved.
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AlexAnDer tsiArAs
AP Photo/Petros GiAnnAkouris
EDITORIALS LETTERS8 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011
Too Much Separation ofChurch and State?
To the Editor:The article written by Mr.
Theodore Kalmoukos "Three Hi-erarchs School Shuts Down"printed on July 21, 2011 shouldcome as no surprise. The attri-tion of Greek Orthodox familiesin parochial schools is a resultof the disconnect between whatGreeks in America expect froma private Greek school educa-tion and what the Archdioceseis delivering. The currentchanges to be implemented atthe Cathedral School of Man-hattan demonstrate this schism.As of next year under the lead-ership of Principal Mrs. SoniaCelestin and the School Boardthere will be separation of reli-gion classes for Greek Orthodoxvs. non-Greek Orthodox stu-dents. The following is takenverbatim from Cathedral Schoolwebsite regarding the Religionand Ethics Curriculum and ispublicly available for review.S e e :http://www.edline.net/pages/Cathedral_School/Programs/Cur-riculum/Lower_School_Overview
"Religion and Ethics is a two-track program where all thechildren of the school, irrespec-tive of their religious back-ground explore the meaning ofreligion and ethics. The twotracks are described below, andour students and their familieshave the choice of opting forone or the other of the ap-proaches that comprise the pro-gram. As is the case for theGreek Program described above,The Cathedral School’s Religionand Ethics Program evolvedfrom the school’s particular his-tory and identity. On the onehand, students and their fami-lies have the option of receiving
instruction in the rich historyand principles of the Greek Or-thodox Church, and its rele-vance to their own lives. Wewelcome students of all faithsin this track. We have also de-veloped a second track in whichstudents of all faiths are pro-vided with the moral and ethicalfoundation that we feel is partof our educational mission. Theapproach of this second track isnecessarily less focused on thehistory and principles of a par-ticular religion. The meaningand history of religion are stud-ied with a focus on their ethicaland spiritual components. Ourstudent body is remarkably di-verse and we seek to learn to-gether and from each otherabout our different cultural tra-ditions because we feel that thisis an essential component of aforward-looking education andessential for effective citizenshipin a diverse country and a glob-alized world."
My questions are the follow-ing: What is globalized religionand ethics encompassing diver-sity and who is defining thisamorphous curriculum for theNon-Greek Orthodox students?Is there a precedent for global-ized religion instruction in theprivate parochial school settingand is dichotomization done inany other Archdiocesan, Jewishor Catholic parochial School?Who will safeguard that global-ized religion properly representsthe ethics and spirituality of thefamilies of other faiths or non-faiths? Will the children also begiven an option to attend or notattend Feast Days? What is theimplication of this classroom di-vide for our children in the de-velopment of character andpride in their identity and faith?What is the position of theChurch Board who oversees andcontrols the financial and legal
management of the School? Fi-nally, is the Archdiocese andArchbishop Dimitrios aware andhave they approved this radicalchange or is the Principal andSchool Board flying solo?
In America we are blessedwith the right to practice, teachand pass on our faith and lan-guage to our children in privateschools. As Greeks have we lostour pride in our faith to thepoint that we are not able to de-fend our heritage even in aschool headed by the Archdio-cese and Archbishop Dimitrios?How can we as parents allow asupermarket mentality schoolmission which caters to all andopenly disrespects the doctrineand hierarchy of our faith? The
School Board and Principalshould not be allowed to exploitthe name and tradition of theCathedral school and run anfree for all International Schoolemphasizing the undefined val-ues of "diversity and globaliza-tion" in Private Greek OrthodoxChurch Property under GreekOrthodox Archdiocese leader-ship. Unless Archdiocesanschools focus on quality educa-tion in math, science and litera-ture, the Greek language andthe Greek Orthodox religion,there will be continued attrition,lack of support from familiesand the community and closureof more schools.
Stella Lymberis, MDNew York, N.Y.
The decisions of AugustAugust is a great month. It’s the month many of us get our va-
cation, a wonderful time even if it lasts just a few days. The plan isto be able to relax, to enjoy our families, to read a book longsitting on the night table, and not think about business at all. Aswith most plans, it doesn’t turn out as we imagined. The respiteusually lasts only for a few days. Then as we are sitting on thebeach we start thinking or talking about the things we left behind:the unfinished work, whatever that might be. We start planningagain.
In many ways, August is really the end of the year, a year wewere so lucky to have navigated through in good health, and thebeginning of a new one in the sense that rejuvenated, with freshideas, with enthusiasm, we return home with renewed determina-tion, ready tο take on the world again.
What worries us is that while we go through this process in ourindividual lives, when it comes to the business of the community,not many people are doing this kind of thinking and planning.And God knows how badly we need people to do that and comeback in September with ideas ready for implementation. Let’s hopesomebody is actually doing that this summer. Let’s hope so. Thecan has been kicked as far down the road as is possible.
Ouzo instead of champagneWe don’t wish to rain on the parade of the Greeks in Greece but
it’s necessary to put things into perspective given the panegyricstaking place in Athens these days. Panegyrics, which if they are al-lowed to lead to an easing of their efforts might spoil this newchance - perhaps the last one - for the country to shape up. Firstthe good news: Germany decided that it was in her interest tosafeguard the integrity of the euro. In order to do that she had tospend a bit of extra money. A slippery road, in most situations. Inany event, the agreement reached in Brussels a week and a halfago was not about saving Greece. It was about saving Spain andItaly, the third and fourth largest economies of the Eurozone. Butit came down to giving Greece another chance to put her house inorder. It’s called a breathing room, a bit more time. The rest is upto the Greeks themselves.
However, up to this point it’s still not clear what is really requiredof Greece, other than implementing the plan the Troika has put to-gether, and the one that the Greek Parliament has recently passed.What has leaked out is that the representatives of the Netherlandsand Finland wanted guarantees for the loans: land, enterprises,and buildings - was the Parthenon among them? “We are a sover-eign country, we are not a business,” replied a member of theGreek delegation according to the New York Times. Prime MinisterGeorge Papandreou said that if he were to accept what they wereasking him to the government would be toppled.
In short, the main problem with the second bailout of Greece isthat the savings on her debt is too small, just about 26 billion dollarsout of a total debt of close to a half a trillion dollars. In addition, ofthe 157 billion dollars that was decided to be given to Greece, only34 billion will reach Greece as a loan. The rest will go to the holdersof the debt, basically the banks, in one way or the other.
Had the Eurozone been more concerned about saving Greeceby making her debt load sustainable and placing her on a path togrowth path, they would have brought down the debt to about50% of the outstanding total. That would have made all the differ-ence. As things stand now, the more details about the agreementcome out, the less impressed are the markets. Nonetheless onething is certain: the country needs to act decisively and fast. Thisis no time to open the champagne bottle. Ouzo will do – but nottoo much.
Meanwhile...The Minister of Finance of Greece, Evaggelos Venizelos, flew to
Washington DC. last Sunday for meetings with Secretary of theTreasury Tim Geithner, the leadership of the IMF and other officials.He must have sensed a lack of trust in the government regardingthe implementation of the bailout plan because he made it thecentral theme in a speech he delivered at the prestigious Peter G.Peterson Institute for Internation Economics on Monday. Mean-while, back in Athens, the demonstrations of the taxi owners hadreached an all-time high pitch. But that should be expected. Whatshould not expected was the fury of the attacks on the Minister ofTransportation, Yiannis Raggousis. And not from the opposition,but by politicians of his own party.
You might wonder what his crime was. It was his decision toimplement the law, that is, to open up the taxi industry to compe-tition. That law was passed by the Parliament four months earlier,before Raggousis became Minister of Transportation. But his im-plementing the law created such an uproar that it turned a chunkof the government’s members of Parliament against him. In theend, the Prime Minister backed him by saying that the law wouldbe implemented. Otherwise the credibility of Greece would havetaken another big blow.
Celebrating DemocracyEver since 1974, the Greek elite gathers at the Presidential Palace
to celebrate the fall of the junta of the Colonels. Last week they didit again. What were they thinking? Have they lost all touch with re-ality not to see that it would be an affront to the people to see themin the elegant rooms of the palace, in their fancy clothes, when somany citizens are suffering? Did they not sense that they weresetting themselves even further away from the people?
Of course, we would still celebrate the momentous occasion ofthe return of Democracy to Greece, but in a different way this year:We would have held a symposium in Athens, a soul searching intowhat went wrong in the years since the restoration, and we wouldinvite speakers from abroad, including Greek Americans. The onlyway to truly celebrate Democracy is with action, every day, in thecontext of a system of laws that is respected, where all citizens areequal before the law, where there is political integrity so the ruledcan trust the rulers and the country can move forward. That is theonly way to celebrate Democracy. Gathering at the former Palace ofthe King in the middle of this crisis does not come close to it.
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ANTILOGOS
The National Herald’s web-site readers checked in with sup-port for the Greek Church,which is under pressure inGreece to come up with somemore revenues to help duringthe economic crisis, and savedtheir heat for Greek Members ofParliament who came under at-tack.
DEBT CRISIS TAXES COZYGREEK CHURCH-STATE TIES
• Intersting article. Much ofwhat is stated here is mistated.Since 1952, all revuenue fromevery congregation has been de-postited in accounts in the Na-tional Bank of Greece fromwhich the Government "pays"the congregation's priest's salary.So the salaries od the priests arepaid for by each congregation,not the government. In addition,the 1952 law permits the Greekstate to borrow any sum fromthese accounts automatically
without permission from eachcongregation. As a result, thegovernment has borrowed everydrachma and euro since 1952and not paid any of it back. Thisamount adds up to untold bil-lions of Euros over the almost60 years this has been going on.Meanwhile, almost every gov-ernment, military, aviation, mar-itime building or installation ison church land granted to thestate free of rental income to thechurch. The National Bank ofGreece itself was started withmoney given by the Church.Most of the social programs inthe country are established andpaid for by the church. So ontop of all this, they want thechurch to pay taxes!? How muchmoney can they take from thechurch and still allow it to func-tion properly? They've alreadytaken almost everything. I guessif they cripple the church eco-nomically, then the politicians
can have a freer reign in stealingfrom the Greek people and mak-ing big deposits in Switzerland.
- Dionysios Markopoulos
• Well put Dionysi. The Gov-ernment should keep theirhands off the Church! The Or-thodox church is the only thingfunctioning properly in Greece.The church preserved the Greeklanguage and culture during theTurkish occupation when itcould've been extinct. Thepriests blessed the soldiers andthe guns during the revolutionand inspired people to fight forGreece. The priests of Greeceare very patriotic people, al-though some just do it becauseits a steady income and i'm suretheirs corruption as well.
- Niko Seretis
TARGET OF ANGER • The Socialists deserve it
and I hope they start resigning
for safety fears as they get at-tacked. Actually all politiciansin Greece need to feel the wrathand anger of the people forwhat they've done to such abeautifull country. They reallyneed to go after that creep -wrote on Tzochazopoulos!
- Niko Seretis
• They'll never resign, Niko.They got a great thing going andthey know it. 10,000EUROS/month for DOINGNOTHING! I mean, what doesa Greek Legislator DO whenthey have no taxpayer money tospend??? This is the best paidjob in Europe when you con-sider they're doing absolutelynothing at the current time. Andthey get EXTRA PAY for attend-ing committee meetings, canhire family members as staff,travel allowance. Pretty goodgig if you can get it.
- Philip Vorgias
Leave the Church Alone But Press MP’s
COMMENTARY
By Louis WoodhillForbes
What do you do when youreconomy is in a power dive andthe ground is rushing up to meetyou? If you’re Greece, you turnon your austerity afterburners sothat you can blast out a biggerimpact crater when you crash.As this was written, the GreekParliament was doing anotherausterity rain dance, seeking toappease the bailout gods and ob-tain a few billion more euros toshovel into the unionized moneyincinerator that is the Greek pub-lic sector. No matter. The Greekeconomy is contracting so fastthat EU/IMF bailouts have ashorter half-life than Iodine 125.In modern economies, the effectsof government policies show upfirst and fastest in employment.Greece reports its monthly em-ployment numbers two monthsslower than the U.S., but the pat-tern is clear. The Greek economicsituation is deteriorating so fastthat reporters are writing sillythings like the following, whichwas published on June 8: Marchjobless rate hits 16.2%, newrecord. The European Union ex-pects it to average out at 14.6%this year and hit 14.8% in 2012.
Does no one think it odd thatthe E.U. expects Greek unem-ployment to average 14.6% forall of 2011 when it registered15.1% in January, 15.9% in Feb-ruary, and 16.2% in March? Asof March 2011, total employ-ment in Greece was down by9.3% from its October 2008peak, and was still falling. In con-trast, in the case of the U.S. re-cession, total employment fell by5.9% from its November 2007peak to its December 2009trough, and then rebounded1.5% by March 2011. Given that
not one worker in Greece’sbloated public sector has yet losthis job to “austerity,” the employ-ment numbers imply that theGreek private sector is meltingfaster than the Wicked Witch ofthe West in a hot tub. Becausethe Greek private sector has toboth support the huge Greekpublic sector and to service theGreek government’s debt, this isprobably not a good thing.
Here is a quote from anothernews story published on June 8:
The May 2010 agreement be-tween the IMF/EC/ECB and theGreek government projected aGDP drop of 4% in 2010, fol-lowed by a contraction of 2.6%in 2011. In reality, GDP droppedby 4.5% (in 2010), leading to arevised forecast for 2011 at -3%.So far, in Q1 2011, GDP hasdropped by 4.8% year-on-year,which makes the revised 3% con-traction for 2011 seem opti-mistic. Seem optimistic?
Greeks rioted in the streets asPrime Minister Papandreou strug-gled to push through yet another“austerity plan”, this one callingfor an additional 3.8 billion eurosin spending cuts. However, at therate that the Greek economy ap-pears to be contracting, thiswould offset falling revenues forless than a year. Then what? Noone seems to have noticed thatthe tax increases included in pre-vious austerity programs havepitched the Greek economy intoa violent contraction. The planbeing debated now includes evenmore tax hikes. Despite all of this,the EU’s financial projections as-sume that Greek GDP will shrinkby only 3% in 2011, and thenwill grow by 1.1% in 2012. If, in-stead, the Greek economy wereto continue to contract at a 4.8%rate, in 2012 real GDP would be7.6% smaller than the EU is ex-
pecting, and 11.5% less than itwas in 2009.
Social order in Greece willbreak down before GDP shrinksto 88.5% of its 2009 level. Ordi-nary people won’t accept self-in-flicted economic wounds of thisscale. Before the Greeks findthemselves going hungry, theymight try “going Hungary.” Inmid-2010, both Greece and Hun-gary were in financial troubleand were being pressured toadopt “austerity” measures in re-turn for bailout loans. WhileGreece chose to drink theIMF/EU tax-hike hemlock, Hun-gary declined the pact profferedby the IMF devil.
Greece raised taxes in thename of “austerity”, while Hun-gary embarked on a radical taxreform program that included a16% flat income tax and a 10%corporate income tax for smalland medium-sized companies.Let’s see which approach pro-duced better results. In 2010,Hungary’s GDP rose by 1.2%,while Greece’s GDP fell by 4.5%.While Greece’s economy is ex-pected (by the EU) to contractby 3.0% in 2011, Hungary’s isforecasted (by the IMF) to growby 2.8%. From January 2011 toMarch 2011, Greece’s unemploy-ment rate increased from 15.1%to 16.2%, while joblessness inHungary fell from 12.1% to11.6%.
The whole point of austerityis to improve a country’s abilityto pay its debts. However, all that
a year of austerity did for Greecewas to raise the market interestrate on its 10-year bonds from10.5% to 16.8%. In contrast, theinterest rate on Hungary’s 10-year bonds fell from 7.7% to7.4% over the same time period.Some economists say that thekey to getting the Greek econ-omy growing again would be toreplace the euro with a “newdrachma,” which could then bedevalued in order to improveGreek “competitiveness.” In thislight, it is interesting to note thatover the past year, Hungary’s cur-rency, the forint, has actuallyrisen by almost 6% against theeuro. Accordingly, Hungary’seconomic progress was not pro-duced by devaluing its currency.Of course, in mid-2010, Hungarywas in an economic/financial po-sition where it could refusebailout loans without defaultingon its debt. For Greece to trulyrecover, it must do now whateverit takes to get its economy grow-ing now. However, whatever elseit does, Greece must stick withthe euro. Without a credible cur-rency, an urbanized nation canquickly descend into chaos -andeven starvation. Broadly speak-ing, Greece needs to do the samethings that the U.S. needs to do.It must enforce the rule of law,expand economic freedom,maintain a stable currency, re-duce and simplify taxes, cut gov-ernment spending, open uptrade, and reform burdensomeregulations. This path would notbe (politically) easy for the U.S.,and it may or may not even bepossible for Greece. We shall see.(http://blogs.forbes.com)
Louis Woodhill is a mechanicalengineer, a software entrepre-neur and on the LeadershipCouncil of the Club for Growth.
Should Have Gone Hungary to Stop Greek Bankrupcty
f o t o g r a f f i t i
The Greek Panther Strikes Again French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters in Brusselsafter Greece got another bailout: “If Pap-ann-dray-ou asksfor anozza neek-el, I will perzonally strangle him! He’smore annoying than that idiot Inspector Clouseau!”
AP Photo/Geert winJGAert
No one seems to havenoticed that the taxincreases... have pitchedthe Greek economy into a violent contraction
VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011 9
By Thomas L. FriedmanNew York Times
ATHENS - Katerina Sokou, 37, aGreek financial journalist atKathimerini, a daily newspaper,told me this story: A group ofGerman members of the Bavar-ian Parliament came to Athensshortly after the economic crisiserupted here and met with someGreek politicians, academics,journalists and lawyers at a tav-erna to evaluate the Greek econ-omy. Sokou said her impressionwas that the Germans were try-ing to figure out whether theyshould be lending money toGreece for a bailout. It was likeone nation interviewing anotherfor a loan. “They were not hereas tourists; we were giving dataon how many hours we work,”recalled Sokou. “It really felt likewe had to persuade them aboutour values.” Sokou’s observationreminded me of a point made tome by Dov Seidman, the authorof the book “How” and theC.E.O. of LRN, which helps com-panies build ethical business cul-tures. The globalization of mar-kets and people has intensifiedto a new degree in the last fiveyears, with the emergence of so-cial networking, Skype, deriva-tives, fast wireless connectivity,cheap smartphones and cloudcomputing. “When the world isbound together this tightly,” ar-gued Seidman, “everyone’s val-ues and behavior matter morethan ever, because they impact
so many more people than ever....We’ve gone from connected tointerconnected to ethically inter-dependent.”
As it becomes harder to shieldyourself from the other guy’s ir-responsible behavior, added Sei-dman, both he and you had bet-ter behave more responsibly - oryou both will suffer the conse-quences, whether you did any-thing wrong or not. This is dou-bly true when two differentcountries share the same cur-rency but not the same govern-ment. That’s why this story is notjust about interest rates. It’sabout values. Germans are nowtelling Greeks: “We’ll loan youmore money, provided that youbehave like Germans in how yousave, how many hours a weekyou work, how long a vacationyou take, and how consistentlyyou pay your taxes.” Alas,though, these two countries areso culturally different. They re-mind you of a couple aboutwhom you ask after their di-vorce: “How did the two of themever think they could be mar-ried?”
Germany is the epitome of acountry that made itself rich bymaking stuff. Greece, alas, afterit joined the European Union in1981, actually became just an-other Middle East petro-state -only instead of an oil well, it hadBrussels, which steadily pumpedout subsidies, aid and euros withlow interest rates to Athens. Nat-ural resources create corruption,
as groups compete for who con-trols the tap. That is exactly whathappened in Greece when it gotaccess to huge Euro-loans andsubsidies. The natural entrepre-neurship of Greeks was chan-neled in the wrong direction - ina competition for governmentfunds and contracts. To be sure,it wasn’t all squandered. Greecehad a real modernization spurtin the 1990’s. But after 2002, itput its feet up, thinking it hadarrived, and too much “Euro-oil”from the European Union wentback to financing a corrupt, pat-rimonial system whereby politi-cians dispensed government jobsand projects to localities in re-turn for votes. This reinforced ahuge welfare state, where youngpeople dreamed of a cushy gov-ernment job and everyone fromcabdrivers to truckers to phar-macists to lawyers was allowedto erect barriers to entry that ar-tificially inflated prices.
European Union membership“was a big opportunity for de-velopment, and we wasted it,”explained Dimitris Bourantas, aProfessor of Management atAthens University. “We also didnot take advantage of the mar-kets of the (formerly) Socialistcountries around Greece. Andwe also did not take advantageof the growth of the global econ-omy. We lost them all becausethe political system was focusedon growing public administra-tion – not on (fostering) entre-preneurship, competition or in-
dustrial strategy or competitiveadvantages. We created a statewith big inefficiencies, corrup-tion and a very large bureau-cracy. We were the last Sovietcountry in Europe.” That is why,he added, that Greeks, whenthey move to the U.S., “unleashtheir skills and entrepreneurship”in ways that enable them tothrive in commerce. But here inGreece, the system encouragesjust the opposite. Investors heretell you that the red tape in-volved in starting a new businessis overwhelming. It’s crazy;Greece is the only country in theworld where Greeks don’t be-have like Greeks. Their welfarestate, financed by Euro-oil, hasbred it out of them. With the de-cline of Beirut and Dubai, Athensshould have become the servicecenter of the Eastern Mediter-ranean. Instead, Cyprus and Is-tanbul seized that role. Greecemust not waste this crisis. Whileit has instituted some reforms inthe last year, Prime MinisterGeorge Papandreou said to me,“What is most frustrating is theresistance in the system. How doyou produce a change in cul-ture?” It will take a cultural rev-olution. And that can happenonly if Greece’s two major partiescome together, hold hands, andcollectively force through a rad-ical change in the governing cul-ture from the top down. Withoutthat, Greece will never be ableto pay back its loans.
Can Greeks Become Germans? They’ll Have to Work
By Nikolaos A. Stavrou
The core point to be madehere is a sad one: Greece’s prob-lems will be of long duration asplanned by non-Greeks a longtime ago. The future of thecountry is being held hostage byAmerican and European fi-nanciers who are sitting on sev-eral trillion dollars stolen wealthplotting for profitable pleasantplaces to invest them. That goalis ruthlessly pursued by a paral-lel state that has rendered theactual state into its praetorianguard. At the dawn of disastercapitalism the only errors forwhich the Greek leaders are cul-pable are naiveté and manager-ial malfeasance, sugarcoated incorruption. During the weekendof June 25 the Greek govern-ment succeeded in squeezingthrough the parliament a seriesof Draconian, foreign-dictated,economic policies and worse im-plementation measures. In sodoing the PASOK government
opted to place Greece on an ir-reversible crisis escalator whichis leading to the transformationof governmental functions andthe demolition of national sov-ereignty. If carried to their pre-conceived end, the Troika-im-posed measures will certainlyreduce the Greek governmentto the status of tax collector,guarantor of the outflow of cap-ital, real estate broker and, ulti-mately, provider of security forthe soon to appear buyers ofGreek islands, sandy beaches,ports, airports, highways, utili-ties, and water systems.
In the aftermath of the on-going unstudied privatization,Greeks will enjoy bottled waterfrom Zagori and Koropi at dou-ble the price of milk. They willalso travel on highways and rail-ways at a cost set by foreign fi-nancial corporations. Theyshould also get used to lookingat walled-off beach or islandcommunities, protected by pri-vate guards that will be show-
pieces of development. More-over, as in times past hordes ofmultinational Bavarians will beflooding the country to assistBalkan brutes in how managecritical units of their economy.In the meantime, the mom-and-pop shops will be reduced toboutiques in super shoppingcenters and their owners willpay rent to foreign conglomer-ates. Ermou and StadiumStreets, with their boarded-upshops, will be treated as relicsof an “under developed, non-competitive economy.”
That picture may be calledextreme by some, but it’s realis-tic. Greece faces existential risksgreater than those in World WarII. Yet nothing has to be in-evitable; Greece still retains un-used leverage. Before risking anopinion as to what that leveragemight be, two assumptions mustbe stated: it is assumed theTroika will not abandon its goalof completely dismantling theGreek economic system and,
along with it, the values systemupon which it was based. Thethree institutions see the coun-try as a vast piece of real estate,available to the lowest bidderand the Greeks as reliable con-sumers with a credit card.
Second, the drama of theJune 25 weekend is sure to berepeated several times by “eco-nomic disciplinarians.” It willnot end unless the pain is deeplyfelt by every Greek, and the likesof George Soros and GoldmanSachs, pronounce the economyhas bottomed out. That unenvi-able status will be reached whenthe country looks like Russia ofthe 1990’s. While then RussianPrime Minister Boris Yeltsin wasin a vodka-induced stupor,Western financial institutionstransferred 85% of the country’sGross Domestic Product (GDP)to seven oligarchs and no onewas supposed to ask: “How didthey carry out the heights?”With such prospects on the hori-zon, Greece ought to undertake
critical steps to defend whateveris left of national sovereignty.
• A Commission of specialistsconsisting of non-partisan mem-bers must be created to preparefor an orderly default in casethe restoration of currency sov-ereignty becomes unavoidable.Besides Greek mismanagement,with expert advice, the fact isthat Greece was chosen as awedge to dismantle the Euroand pave the way for currencyspeculators to return to thegood old days of speculatingwith impunity. The error the fi-nanciers made was to assumethe Greek economy was toosmall to spread beyond the bor-ders. More than the Greek econ-omy will default and let us seewhether the wizards of WallStreet like those apples. As forthe Greeks, the worst thing tohappen will be a restoration ofdignity, eventual economic selfsufficiency, and once again, toserve as an example for otherpotential victims.
• A non-political Commis-sion with expanded judicial au-thority and multinational com-position must be created toinvestigate who, among Greeksand foreigners, are responsiblefor the predicament of the coun-try. The Greek people nevergave a license to anybody totreat the national treasure as apiggy bank for nepotism or hireGoldman Sachs to advise themhow to bluff their way into theEuro zone prematurely.
• Multi-national commis-sions must also be set up to in-vestigate - hopefully with insti-tutional legitimacy - the innerworkings of the three ratingfirms. As a preparation for itswork, this commission must seethe Oscar-winning documentary(about the 2008 financial col-lapse) Inside Job.
Dr. Nikolaos A. Stavrou is Pro-fessor of International Affairs,Emeritus, at Howard Universi-ty.
Greece is on the Crisis Escalator of Disaster Capitalism, and It’s Only Going Down
Europeans callsoccer – which theyterm football –“The beautifulgame,” supposedlybecause of thegraceful flow oflong kicks and run-ning men artfullyusing their feet in-stead of theirhands in a game ofnear perpetual-mo-tion, kind of like icehockey on grass.They never talkabout the uglyside: a ruling bodyeven more corrupt than theGreek government, match-fixingso prevalent it makes past collegebasketball fixing scandals in theU.S. look like someone tried torig a Little League game, theGreek Super League run by own-ers who’ve been arrested andcharged with using the game asa personal ATM, and hooliganismjust this side of the English insaneversion: hopped-up, unem-ployed, uneducated loser youngmen who couldn’t spell soccer,never mind play it, trying to killeach other because their teamlost a fixed match. Greek socceris as phony as professionalwrestling, but without the enter-tainment because this game is asexciting as watching grass grow.
It makes you wonder whyGreeks, who pride themselves onbeing clever, accept this sham,until you realize that, apart froma handful of knowledgeable peo-ple who love sports for what it is
and not who plays it, shout them-selves hoarse and throw every-thing short of hand grenades onthe field when their club falls be-hind.
Greece’s Super League is anodd name for a collection of near-amateur teams in a league wherethe two teams with the biggestrevenue base, Panathiniakos andOlympiakos - a kind of sportingHatfield and McCoy’s rivalry -take turns winning the champi-onship because no one else hasenough money to buy playerswho can kick and think at thesame time. They are as shamelessas Greek politicians and, afterseveral were arrested in an in-vestigation into match-fixing andother wrongdoing, were backrunning the league the next day,making as their only concessiona reluctant decision to suspendplay: during the off season whenthere aren’t any games, ratherlike Major League Baseball sayingit isn’t going to play from Decem-ber-February as penance for al-lowing steroids to render uselessthe game’s records. That’s a smallmatter to the owners as long asthey, like Greek soccer kings,make money off the sport fansidolize. For that, you are laughedat and considered suckers by theowners, and ridiculed by playerswho’d change uniforms duringthe game and join the other sideif they’d get paid more.
This year’s championshipgame, a rarity in that it didn’t in-volve Panathinaikos orOlympiakos, but AEK and theWashington Senators of Greeksoccer, Atromitos, ended prema-turely with AEK fans stormingthe field and attacking the otherteam’s players, fans and families.AEK was leading at the time but,instead of defaulting, wasawarded the victory, providingmore of an incentive for fans ofother teams to riot wheneverthey want because no one goesto jail in Greece except immi-
grants, soccer fanscan burn down a sta-dium and nothinghappens to anyone.Greek soccer is evenmore boring thanNASCAR because theplayers don’t care awhit about anythingexcept being paid.Dozens of people, in-cluding referees,owners and playershave been chargedwith wrongdoing,but that has causedlittle more than ayawn among fans
who don’t have enough grey mat-ter to understand what’s wrongwith their game, and wouldn’tcare if they did.
Olympiakos owner and Stu-por League President VangelisMarinakis was accused of collud-ing with a criminal gang and tak-ing part in bribery to fix the out-come of matches. That’s thePresident of your league so youcan bet, no pun intended, noth-ing’s going to happen to anyoneelse who’s been fixing matches,although it’s hard to tell whensoccer players take dives on thefield because when they’re fakinginjuries they go down faster thanParis Hilton or the French armyfaced with a single angry Ger-man. We’re not talking about agame or two being fixed, but ac-cording to police, at least 41.That’s just in Greece, not includ-ing the rest of Europe where soc-cer’s ruling body, UEFA, which isas incompetent as soccer’s rulingworld group FIFA is corrupt, likesto make sure the big moneyteams win. UEFA PresidentMichel Platini said he’s going tosend teams of investigators toAthens to help Greece reform itscorruption-soaked sport and stopfan violence, which is as unlikelyas the Faroe Islands winning theWorld Cup, unless they paid offenough people.
To make it seem like theycare, Platini met with Prime Min-ister George Papandreou, who’sgot a few other things on hismind, like the survival of Greece,and Culture Minister Pavlos Ger-oulanos, who’s in charge ofsports, allegedly. Geroulanos saidoutside investigators would pro-vide advice on dealing withmatch-fixing, doping, violenceand refereeing. That’s because noone in Greece is capable of it, butat least it was good for a laughwhen he said, “There is the willon both sides to put a stop to thecorruption and violence in Greekfootball.” If there really were awill, somebody would be in jailinstead of being allowed to goback and run a team and theleague. It’s so bad that the au-thorities have deemed Greek soc-cer a major crime organization.
That’s just another reasonwhy Americans can’t warm tothis game, along with how manyresults end in a tie, many of them0-0, or what the Europeans callNil-Nil. Americans don’t like ties.They like to win, in politics, busi-ness, war, and especially sports,where they think a tie is “likekissing your sister,” legal in manyEuropean countries and Al-abama. A goal in soccer is usuallyfollowed by the player whokeeked the ball into the net doinghandstands, back flips, runningaround like someone put cayennepepper in his jock, tearing off hisshirt, falling to the ground, rais-ing his arms into the sky and cry-ing in joy. Jim Brown, the bestrunning back of all time in Amer-ican football, scored 106 touch-downs and laid the ball downsoftly in the end zone because,he said, “I like to act like I’ve beenthere before.” Now, that’s a beau-tiful game.
The Ugly Sport of GreekSoccer: Nil-Nil
LETTER FROM ATHENS
“There is the will on bothsides to put a stop to thecorruption and violencein Greek football”
By Steve Frangos
Blaming the victim has a longtradition in our contemporaryEuro-American civilization. Withcomplete control over the massmedia, those in the highest strataof the American economic elitecan have any message theychoose heard over and over andover. Tim Shufelt’s recent article,Denying Reality in Greece, ACountry That Can’t Be Fixed,which originally appeared in theFinancial Post (and later here inthe pages of the National Her-ald), is a fine example of the tri-umph of power and privilegeover the Truth. The kernel pro-paganda point of Mr. Shufelt’srant is that Greece, and so allGreeks, are financially irrespon-sible. This essentially “CrazyGreek” argument has appearedso frequently in the past I neednot trace its roots for you here,only only offer some commenton this specific manifestation ofhate speech. Shufelt has ac-cepted his role as a cultural man-ager for the 1% wealthiestMoney Lords by battering awayat the “must restructure debt”tune. Here in carefully framedlanguage the victims of financialwrongdoing, in this instance theGreeks, must, according toShufelt, “bear responsibility fortheir own responsible financesand debt accumulation, fed, inpart, by an oversized public ser-vice, exorbitant wage scale, earlyretirement and an overly gener-ous entitlement regime.” Whatwe can learn from this commis-sar’s conscious concealment ofthe facts is how truths once un-derstood by everyone fade intoindividual memories. HowShufelt is re-shaping history intoan instrument of power to beused against the Greek people isvery instructive.
Let’s begin with a short re-view along with a citation ofsources. Who does not recall thatin or around 2008 and 2009 thatAmerican businessmen on WallStreet conspired to flood themarket with counterfeit stocks?That was the occasion for thehousing market crash and thedemise of Bear Stearns, LehmanBrothers and then a whole bunchof banks. Remember? In 2009,
Reuters, that raving journal ofthe elitist Left, ran an article: “45percent of the World’s WealthDestroyed: Blackstone CEO,”written by Megan Davies andWalden Siew who interviewedBlackstone CEO StephenSchwarzman who reported: “Be-tween 40 and 45 percent of theworld’s wealth has been de-stroyed in little less than a yearand a half. This is absolutely un-precedented in our lifetimes.”Toxic bank assets were to blame.Not individuals mind you, butthose bad assets. Then, we hada bailout of banks and other fa-vored companies considered toobig to fail. The implication wasif these companies were allowedto fail the United States wouldface utter destruction!
Well as we know now, thoseToo Big Banks (which were leftin the hands of the bankers whoruined them in the first place)are doing well but everyone’shouse or other property in theUnited States is now worth somuch less they are under water.This new phrase means thatproperty has been devalued sopeople have lost equity and arefaced with paying so much moreon their mortgages they maynever break even let alone makea profit. By profit let me just giveone example. Back in the 1980’s,empty nesters (who makes up allthese phrases?) a married couplewhose children have grown upand moved away, could sell theirhome whose mortgage had beenpaid off for some time. The mid-dle-class pattern for many wasto sell their larger home and withthose funds buy a smaller placeand still have money left over toput aside for their retirement.
Two articles by that natteringnabob, right-wing investigativereporter Matt Taibbi, addressesthis entangled complex of finan-cially related issues in WallStreet’s Naked Swindle on thecounterfeit stock fandango andthen Invasion of the HomeSnatchers with the subtitle: Howthe Courts are Helping BankersScrew Over Homeowners andGet Away with Fraud (RollingStone Oct. 15, 2009 and Nov. 25,2010). Taibbi does not accept theposition Wall Street businessmenare the Good Guys and asserts
that, “The great American mort-gage bubble of the 2000’s (is)perhaps the most complex Ponzischeme in human history - anepic mountain range of corpo-rate fraud in which Wall Streetmegabanks conspired first to col-lect huge numbers of sub-primemortgages, then to unload themon unsuspecting third parties likepensions, trade unions and in-surance companies (and, ulti-mately, you and me, as taxpay-ers) in the guise of AAA-ratedinvestments.”BANKERS DON’T GO TO JAIL
In the April 14, 2011, NewYork Times feature story, In Fi-nancial Crisis, No Prosecutionsof Top Figures, by Gretchen Mor-genson and Louise Story ask(like Taibbi before them) “Why,in the aftermath of a financialmess that generated hundreds ofbillions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disas-ter been prosecuted?” How doesall of this relate to those “irre-sponsible Greeks?” Rememberthose toxic assets? Well, the TooBig to Fail American (and reallyinternational) bankers have beenpassing those around from coun-try to country. RememberShufelt’s snarling remark thatGreek citizen’s must, “bear re-sponsibility for their own respon-sible finances and debt accumu-lation?” What about theAmerican (and other) bankerswho caused this international cri-sis in the first place? Why werethey bailed out in the first placeand not receive jail sentences?Given the trillions spent in thebail out an entirely new systemof banks (with new bankers)could have been put into placeto restore the old one.
According to Internal Rev-enue Service data, “The incomesof the top 400 American house-holds soared to a new recordhigh in dollars and as a share ofall income in 2007, while the in-come tax rates they paid fell to arecord low.” David Cay Johnston,on his www.tax.com websitenotes not only that but also that,“Since 1992, the bottom 90 per-cent of Americans have seentheir incomes rise by 13 percentin 2009 dollars, compared withan increase of 399 percent forthe top 400.” If all this sounds
like old news, that’s the point.Nothing is new in this story ofWall Street dumping toxic assets.I am also citing news stories be-cause when the civil disobedi-ence occurred in Wisconsin overGovernor Scott Walker’s attackon organized labor, every Greek-American I spoke with wasadamant that, “The unions areruining the country!” I askedhow they knew this and theynever could cite a single mediasource. Johnston, after readingthe labor agreements betweenthe state of Wisconsin and itsemployees reported that, “Noth-ing has been more troubling thanthe deeply flawed coverage ofthe Wisconsin state employees’fight over collective bargaining.”In Johnson’s Feb. 24 2011 essay,Really Bad Reporting in Wiscon-sin: Who “Contributes” to PublicWorkers Pensions? he demon-strates that, “Out of every dollarthat funds Wisconsin’s pensionand health insurance plans forstate workers, 100 cents comesfrom the state workers.” So, Gov-ernor Walker’s ongoing demandthat the state workers pay theirfair share was just another oftrepeated big lie. What is criticalto note is the common theme inboth Walker and Shufelt that thepoorest must bear the responsi-bility for the financial crimes ofthe wealthiest. Also rememberwhat Shufelt said about unionsand pensions, that they con-tributed to the overall debt-woesdue to “an oversized public ser-vice, exorbitant wage scale, earlyretirement and an overly gener-ous entitlement regime.”
You have never voted for for-eign policy. You have never votedon how the United States gov-ernment spends your tax dollars.You have never voted on theboard of a Fortune 500 company.So how, exactly are we collec-tively responsible for all this gov-ernment mismanagement andbig business malfeasance? I donot see either the Greek peopleor the people of Wisconsin ascrazed irresponsible rioters. Theyare citizens telling their servantgovernment in no uncertainterms just how far it can go be-fore they are ejected from office.
The Rich Spread the Big Lie That You Are to Blame
by ANDYDABILIS
Special to The National Herald
THE BACK PAGE10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2011
By Alexandros K. KyrouSpecial to The National Herald
CALLUM MACDONALD. TheLost Battle: Crete 1941. London:Pan Macmillan, 2002. Pp. 368.$49.50 (hardcover).
(First of two parts) May andJune 2011 marked the 70th an-niversary of the Battle of Crete,one of the most extraordinaryoperations of the Second WorldWar. The now legendary air-borne assault against Crete com-pleted the German campaign toconquer Greece and Yugoslaviain the spring of 1941, an inva-sion Hitler had not originally an-ticipated but was forced tolaunch because of Mussolini’sfailure to defeat the Greeks inthe fall of 1940. When the Ital-ians invaded Greece from posi-tions in Albania at the close ofOctober 1940, world opinionwas justified in expecting thatGreece would be quickly van-quished and occupied. The mod-estly armed, antiquated Greekarmy was greatly outnumbered.Conversely, the modern andwell-equipped Italian military en-joyed comparatively limitless re-serves of manpower and ma-teriel. Yet, the Greeks overcamethese staggering disadvantagesby effective concentration offorce, tactical deftness, and ex-traordinary will. In short, withstubborn determination theGreeks outmaneuvered and out-fought the Italians. Indeed, theGreek army stopped the Italianadvance, counterattacked, anddrove the invaders back deepinto Albania. To Mussolini’s dis-may, and the world’s surprise,within a few weeks, Rome’sGreek venture had turned into ahumiliating fiasco and the firstAxis military defeat in Europe.
In response to the Italian dis-aster, Hitler ordered the GermanGeneral Staff to prepare for aninvasion of Greece. AlthoughHitler did not want to go to waragainst Greece, he saw no meansof avoiding such action. Largerstrategic imperatives demandedthat Greece be neutralized. Hitlerconcluded that the success of hisimpending invasion of the SovietUnion would be jeopardized ifthe Axis Powers’ southern flankin the Balkans was not secure.He was especially determined todeny the British possession ofbases in Greece, from which theycould menace the Ploesti oilfieldsin Romania, an invaluable re-source which was essential to theGermans’ war effort. Greece’sdictator, Ioannis Metaxas, hadbeen careful to coordinateGreece’s defense with Britainwhile adroitly resisting pressurefrom London to accept a deploy-ment of British troops and grantthe Royal Air Force (RAF) basingconcessions in northern Greece,actions which Metaxas under-stood would openly provokeBerlin. However, following thedeath of Metaxas in January1941, Greece’s new Prime Min-ister, Alexandros Koryzis, provedto be less cautious than his pre-decessor in negotiating with theBritish. For his part, British PrimeMinister Winston Churchill con-cluded it was necessary to makesome demonstration of supportfor the only country outside theBritish Commonwealth whichwas resisting the Axis, and so heordered the dispatch of 60,000troops to Greece. Most of thecombined British and Common-wealth forces were deployed innorth-central Greece, as a strate-gic hinge linking the bulk of theGreek army, which was tieddown in the northwest fightingthe Italians in Albania, and theGreek forces deployed along the“Metaxas Line” of fortificationsin the northeast against a possi-ble attack from Axis Bulgaria. Al-though the British ExpeditionaryForce (BEF) was motorized, wellequipped, and backed with con-siderable armor, artillery, and airpower assets, it was inadequatein size to resist the impendingGerman attack.
THE DOGS OF WARThe Germans launched their
invasion of Greece, along with amassive attack against Yu-goslavia, on April 6, 1941. Ger-man armored formations, frompositions in Bulgaria, rapidly ad-vanced across southern Yu-
goslavia then turned south intoGreece near Florina, and pushedtowards Kozani, a maneuverwhich effectively outflanked theBEF concentrated along the Ali-akmon Line of defenses west ofThessaloniki, while it simultane-ously isolated the Greek army inAlbania. As the BEF fled from theadvancing Germans at breakneckspeed for ports and evacuationin southern Greece, Greek forcesand rearguard Commonwealthdetachments offered stiff, albeithopeless, resistance in the faceof overwhelming German mili-tary might. Impressed by thebravery and tenaciousness of theGreeks, Hitler ordered his Balkanfront commander, Field MarshalWilhelm List, to release fromcaptivity all Greek soldiers takenprisoner as soon as an armisticeshould be signed. Neither Greekbravery nor British arms could,however, stop the German ad-vance. Athens was occupied byGerman troops on April 27.
Meanwhile, the evacuation ofthe BEF from the Greek main-land had begun on April 24 andcontinued for six days. Althoughenormous amounts of heavyweapons and vehicles had to beabandoned during the Britishwithdrawal, the operation suc-ceeded in evacuating more than50,000 troops, most of whichwere transported to Crete. OnApril 25, Hitler ordered the in-vasion of Crete.PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE
In The Lost Battle: Crete1941, the late British militaryand diplomatic historian, CallumMacDonald, presents one of themost thorough, well-researched,and perceptive accounts of thebattle for Crete. First publishedin 1993, MacDonald’s book en-joys wide scholarly and popularacceptance as the definitivestudy of its subject. Although thiswork is not entirely flawless, itslimited shortcomings are miti-gated by the author’s sweepingnarrative, as well as his brilliantanalysis of the implications of thebattle for subsequent Allied andAxis military doctrines and forthe overall importance of Cretein the history of the SecondWorld War. In his extensive back-ground to the Battle of Crete,MacDonald makes it clear thateven before the outbreak of thewar, British and German militaryplanners had recognized thestrategic value of Crete. With theonset of the Desert War in Egyptand Libya the importance ofCrete was magnified. Crete’sstrategic potential was enor-mous, especially for the British.If the island’s three airfields weretransformed into full-fledged airbases and the port facilities of its
excellent natural harbors ex-panded and modernized, air andnaval units operating from awell-defended Crete could dom-inate the air over, and the sealanes throughout, the EasternMediterranean. Thus Hitler re-
solved to deny the British controlof Crete.
On April 30, the British-bornNew Zealand army general andlegendary hero of the First WorldWar, Bernard Freyberg, was ap-pointed commander of all Alliedforces on Crete. Freyberg’s forcecomprised roughly 15,000British, 10,000 Greek, 8,000New Zealand, and 7,000 Aus-tralian troops. Despite its not in-considerable size, Freyberg’sforce was plagued by serious
problems. The chaotic nature ofthe BEF’s retreat and evacuationfrom the Greek mainland had re-sulted in the loss of significantamounts of equipment and hadproduced disruptions of unit co-hesion.
As a result, more than 10,000of the Allied troops were withoutweapons. Although several unitswere intact and fit for combat,much of the overall force wasmade up of remnants from frac-tured formations, disorganizedand disheartened, hurriedlythrown together into ad hocunits. Most units lacked basicsupplies, heavy supportweapons, and adequate ammu-nition. Freyberg’s force lackedtransport vehicles and wasacutely handicapped by short-ages of armor and artillery - theAllied force had only six heavytanks, very limited artillery, andmerely 68 anti-aircraft guns,which were clearly insufficientto defend the 160-mile length of
Crete from east to west. Aboveall, the RAF had virtually nopresence on Crete. On May 1,the RAF had 35 operational air-craft on the island, half of whichwere obsolete biplanes. Throughthe first half of May, the RAF’sforce had been reduced to sevenplanes, all of which were with-drawn to Egypt on May 19, leav-ing the Allied ground forces withno air support whatsoever to facethe impending German assault.
The German attack on Crete,codenamed Operation Merkur(German for Mercury, the Latinname for the Greek messengerand trickster deity Hermes,
renowned for swift flight,) wasplanned by General Karl von Stu-dent, architect of the Luftwaffe’sairborne forces. Since the Britishenjoyed naval supremacy, Oper-ation Merkur called for an air-borne invasion. The SupremeCommander of the Luftwaffe,Herman Goering, saw in Stu-dent’s operational plan an op-portunity to rehabilitate the rep-utation of the German air forceafter its failure to defeat the RAFin the Battle of Britain, and en-thusiastically presented the pro-posal to Hitler on April 21. OnceHitler approved Merkur on April25, General Student, who wouldremain the driving force of theoperation, quickly assembled hisinvasion force in mainlandGreece. In all, 22,000 troopsmade-up the assault force. Thebrunt of the attack would be car-ried out by the Luftwaffe’s10,000-man 7th Airborne Divi-sion, consisting of four regiments(one assault and three parachute
regiments.) The air assets as-signed to Operation Merkur con-sisted of 600 troop transportplanes, 80 gliders, 280 mediumand heavy bombers, 150 Stukadive-bombers, and 200 fighterplanes.
Student’s plan was straight-forward and daring. Three of the7th Airborne Division’s four reg-iments would be dropped againstthe three respective towns on thenorth coast of Crete, from westto east, Maleme, Rethymno, andHeraklion, where airstrips werelocated. Once captured, theseairfields would be used for land-ing heavy equipment and 5,000
mountain troops. The AirborneDivision’s fourth regiment wouldbe dropped in the area of Chaniaand Suda in order to securethose two towns’ harbors inpreparation for the arrival of7,000 seaborne troops. The focalpoint of the attack would beMaleme, west of Chania, as-signed to the division’s vaunted1st Assault Regiment. AlthoughStudent expected that his initialstrike force would be outnum-bered by the defenders, he wasconfident that the combinationof the element of surprise, thehigh quality of his troops, andthe Luftwaffe’s total air superi-ority would produce victory.
ATTACK FROM THE SKYStarting at 5:30 on the morn-
ing of Tuesday, May 20, a violent,massive attack by Germanbombers degraded the Allies’ al-ready paltry air defenses andstruck troop concentrationsaround the island’s airfields. At8 a.m., the first wave of Germanairborne troops began to descendonto their targets. The Germanlosses in the first few hours ofthe attack were appalling. AtMaleme, the 1st Assault Regi-ment parachuted and glided intoa sector defended by the FifthNew Zealand Infantry Brigade,the First Greek Provisional Regi-ment, and the 300 cadets of theGreek Evelpidon Officers Acad-emy. The New Zealand andGreek troops laid waste the Ger-mans whose casualties were soheavy they were unable to makeany progress towards Maleme.The assault regiment lost half itsmen and achieved nothing. Thethree parachute regiments di-rected against Chania-Suda,Rethymno, and Herakleion alsosuffered tremendous casualtiesand failed to secure their objec-tives. No landing strips had beencaptured, Chania-Suda,Rethymno, and Herakleion re-mained in Allied hands, and theairborne troops in the Germans’four drop zones remained iso-lated and were unable to estab-lish contact with each other. Bymid-day, the key German attackat Maleme had stalled and theentire operation seemed to be onthe verge of collapse. However,the New Zealand commandersat Maleme failed to recognize theextent of their troops’ success,while General Freyberg at hisheadquarters in Chania lacked aclear picture of the situationwhich would have enabled himto react effectively as overallcommander. Because of poor as-sessments of the German forces’strengths and dispositions, andbecause of communication dis-ruptions caused by the Luft-waffe’s unrelenting bombing andstrafing, Freyberg was unable toprevent several of his subordi-nates from making a series oftactical blunders that turnednear victory for the Allied forcesinto disaster.
Everywhere on the island,Cretan civilians – men, women,children, priests, monks, andeven nuns, armed and otherwise– joined the battle with whateverweapons were at hand. In somecases, ancient matchlock rifleswhich had last been used againstthe Turks were dug up from theirhiding places and pressed intoaction. In other cases, civilianswent into action armed only withwhat they could gather fromtheir kitchens or barns, and sev-eral German parachutists wereknifed or clubbed to death in theolive groves that dotted the is-land. In one recorded case, anelderly Cretan clubbed a para-chutist to death with his walkingstick before the German coulddisentangle himself from hisparachute lines. In another, apriest and his son broke into thevillage museum and took two ri-fles from the era of the BalkanWars. While the priest shot aparatrooper with one, his son re-loaded the other. The Cretanssoon supplemented theirmakeshift weapons with cap-tured German small arms takenfrom the dead bodies of killedparatroops and glider troops.
Dr. Kyrou is Associate Professorof History at Salem State Univer-sity in Salem, Massa chu setts,where he teaches on theBalkans, Byzantium, and the Ot-toman Empire.
BIBLIA: A BOOK REVIEW COLUMN
The Lost Battle of Crete in WWII Started from the Skies
• The Battle of Crete was unprecedented in three re-spects: it was not only the first battle where the Fallschir-mjäger (parachute rangers) were used on a massive scale,but also the first mainly airborne invasion in military history;the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence fromthe deciphered German Enigma code; and the first time invadingGerman troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian pop-ulation. Because of the heavy casualties suffered by the para-troopers, Adolf Hitler forbade further large scale airborne opera-tions. However, the Allies were impressed by the potential ofparatroopers and started to build their own airborne divisions.
• Greek troops were armed with the Mannlicher-Schönauer6.5 mm mountain carbine or ex-Austrian 8 mm Steyr-MannlicherM1895 rifles, the latter part of post–World War I reparations.About one thousand Greeks carried the antique Gras rifle. Thegarrison had been stripped of its best crew-served weapons, whichwere sent to the mainland. There were 12 obsolescent Saint Eti-enne light machine guns and 40 other light machine guns of var-ious manufacture at the Greek troops' disposal. Many of the Greek
troops had less than thirty rounds of ammunition, and could notbe resupplied by the British, who had no stocks in the correct cal-ibers. This affected their placement in the battle; those with in-sufficient ammunition were posted to the island's eastern sector,where the Germans were not expected in force. The Greeks madeup for the lack of equipment with intensity of spirit and one his-torian reportedly described their fight as one of “…extremecourage and tenacity.”
• The Luftwaffe also lost heavily in the battle; 220 aircraftwere destroyed outright and another 64 were written off due todamage, for a total of 284 aircraft lost, with several hundredmore damaged to varying degrees. Some 311 Luftwaffe aircrewwere listed as killed or missing, and 127 more were wounded.These losses were later to impact negatively German attempts todefend Stalingrad.
• The Allies lost 3,500 soldiers: 1,751 dead, with anequal number wounded, as well as 12,254 Commonwealthand 5,255 Greek captured. There were also 1,828 dead and183 wounded among the Royal Navy. After the war, the Al-
lied graves from the four burial grounds that had been establishedby the German forces were moved to Suda Bay War Cemetery.
• A large number of civilians were killed in the crossfire ordied fighting as partisans. Many Cretans were shot by the Germansin reprisals, both during the battle and in the occupation that fol-lowed. The Germans claimed widespread mutilation of corpsesby Cretan partisans, but it was suggested that his was down tothe breakdown of dead bodies in the very high temperatures aswell as carrion birds. One Cretan source puts the number of Cre-tans killed by German action during the war at 6,593 men, 1,113women and 869 children. German records put the number ofCretans executed by firing squad as 3,474, and at least a further1,000 civilians were killed in massacres late in 1944.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Facts About the Battle of Crete
What the Battle of Crete looked like on the kind of map used by planners in those days. It showsthe size and disbursement of forces on the island deemed critical by both sides during the earlydays of the conflict, the 2-to-1 superiority of German forces, who faced fierce resistance.
Above: Captured German prisoners under British guard onCrete. The Germans suffered big losses early in their invasionby paratroopers. Top Right: German mountain troops gettingready for transfer to Crete. Right: Alexander Löhr and Wolframvon Richthofen (1942) below: British Lieutenant General Frey-berg gazes over the parapet, waiting for the enemy to arrive.
