The National Herald€¦ · Frixos Goussis: Physician, Philosopher LARNACA, Cyprus – He was...
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The National Herald A WEEKLY GREEK AMERICAN PUBLICATION July 17-23, 2010 www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 13, ISSUE 666 $1.50 c v Bringing the news to generations of Greek Americans O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 By Angelike Contis TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – Paul Anastas, or the Father of Green Chemistry, thinks globally. But environmen- talism began very locally - and early in life - for the chemist who was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Research and Development of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in January. Anastas, whose position di- rectly under the head of the EPA makes him the highest-ranking Greek American in the U.S. gov- ernment, explains that it was seeing the once-lush wetlands of Quincy, Massachusetts spoiled that stirred him into sci- ence. Of the Quincy of his child- hood he says, “It was gorgeous, with wildlife and just beautiful views. And bulldozers rolled in and turned it into a parking lot with banks and insurance com- panies.” His scientific father (whose parents hailed from Greece’s Naoussa) guided him to react in a constructive way. Anastas says: “I was devastated, and my father was a biology teacher who taught me that if you really care about something, if you re- ally love something, then you care enough to learn about it - so I became a scientist. I’ve al- ways thought that whatever I learned and know would be geared towards protecting the things I love.” Anastas, who calls himself an “environmental actionist,” was trained as a synthetic organic chemist. He has worked in both the public and private sector, teaching and writing extensively - including co-authoring with John Warner the seminal book Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice. He launched Yale’s Center Green Chemistry in 2007, which he directed until returning to the EPA. (While Anastas is on public service leave, his wife, Julie Zimmer- man, an assistant professor at Yale, currently directs the fledg- ling center.) What’s green chemistry? It’s the study of the design, manu- facture and use of minimally toxic products and processes. Anastas provides one pharma- ceutical example: “For instance, if historically you were to man- For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] To the EPA: Good Green Greek Chemistry from Eco-Innovator Anastas By Steve Frangos TNH Staff Writer CHICAGO- Georgia Drake (Tsarpalas) is the first woman of Greek descent to have hosted her own television program: The Georgia Drake Show. A lost moment in the Golden Age of American Television, to some perhaps, but for Greek American Studies her complex career is of special interest. For not only did she succeed in the early days of television, but she was to have a long international career which eventually led her head- lining at the Hilton in Athens for well over a decade. She was born March 21, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois. As with most Greeks in North America, she attributes her eventual successes to the values she was first taught and experienced at home. Georgia’s father, Demetrios Tsarpalas, hailed from the village of Kynegou near Pylos in the Messinia district of Georgia Drake’s Voice By Theodore Kalmoukos TNH Staff Writer BOSTON- With a massive ab- sence from the 40th Clergy – Laity Congress in Atlanta last week, the parishes of New Eng- land showed vividly the broader ecclesiastical problem that exists in the Boston Metropolis. Only 18 parishes out of the 63 that comprise the region participated in this pivotal ecclesial event. Not only medium and small size parishes were absent but also some of the major parishes such as St. George of Lynn, St. Vasil- ios of Peabody, Sts. Apostles Pe- ter and Paul of Haverhill and even the Annunciation Cathe- dral of Boston, the church’s cen- terpiece in the area. The no- shows of the New England parishes made Metropolitan Methodios so upset that the day after the event ended he sent off a letter blasting the priests and the parish councils of the communities. He wrote that, “The absence of many Priests and Communities of the Me- tropolis of Boston from the 40th Archdiocesan Clergy-Laity Con- gress in Atlanta, GA, was most disappointing.” On June 23, the Chancellor of the Metropolis of Boston who signed simply as “Fr. Ted” sent a letter to the priests on behalf of Metropoli- tan Methodios urging them to participate to the Clergy Laity Congress and, in case they were not planning to do so, to explain why. Fr. Ted in his letter stated that: “His Eminence asked me to contact you today to confirm if you will be attending the Clergy-Laity Congress in Atlanta in two weeks. We received a list of parishes that have registered at least one delegate thus far. As of today, only 18 parishes from the Metropolis of Boston have confirmed their participa- tion. Metropolitan Methodios strongly encourages every parish of our Metropolis to plan on participating in the Congress with at least the registration of the priest, and hopefully one or two lay leaders.” The National Herald learned that many priests simply ig- nored the letter, while in Atlanta the issue of the absentia of the New England parishes was dis- cussed widely among the priests and laity in their private con- versations along with the com- ments about Methodios and the state of the church in New Eng- land. Also discussed was Metho- dios’ announcement of the cel- ebration of the blessing of the waters and the throwing of the Cross into a lake at a summer camp. This celebration is re- served for Epiphany Day on Jan- uary 6th in commemoration of Christ’s baptism. WHY THEY STAYED AWAY The National Herald con- tacted many parishes, which did not participate in the Clergy – Laity Congress to ask why, and some revealed unhappiness with the structure of the event, and that it would have been too costly. Archimandrite Makarios Niakaros from the Sts. Peter and Paul parish in Haverhill Massa- chusetts said, “We had other obligations, baptisms.” When asked if the reason was also fi- nancial, he said, “No, no, I had a baptism on July 4”. Rev. Em- N.E.’s Metropolitan Methodios Angered by Clergy-Laity Bypass By Andy Dabilis TNH Staff Writer ATHENS- It was, aptly so, a Greek word – epiphany – which showed Ted Leonsis, freshly rich as a young man in 1983 with $22 million in his pocket what he wanted to do with his life. He even wrote it down, 101 goals. The son of working-class Greek parents from Lowell, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, he had seen what honest, hard work could bring and brought that to bear in his career after graduating the top in his class at Georgetown University, and the first culmination, the sale of a company he created when he was 26, only to realize riches didn’t matter when a plane he was on suffered engine trouble and he didn’t know if he’d land safely. Before he boarded, he told an audience in Washington, D.C. earlier this year, he wondered why his new wealth hadn’t brought joy. “I should have been unbelievably happy. But I felt like I had declared victory, like the game was over, but I was just starting and I didn’t feel happy. As luck would have it I got onto the wrong airplane … I had a reckoning … if you want humility, be on a plane that jet- tisons its fuel, and we had 35 minutes of kind of controlled terror … on the way down I was miserable … and all of the things that I was thinking about and would miss were none of the things that this victory had created for me … I promised if I lived I’ll give more than I take … one of my goals is that I will live the rest of my life without Leonsis' Moment of Live Reckoning Remembering Cyprus, 1974 Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias attends a memorial service at the Ayios Constantinos and Elenis cemetery in Nicosia, Cyprus, July 15, by the graves of Cypriot soldiers and police officers killed July 15, 1974, during a coup which was intended to overthrow Archbishop Makarios. The National Herald will commemorate the event with a Special Section in the July 31 issue. AP PHOTO/PETROS KARAdJIAS Did German Submarine Deal Torpedo Greece? By Stavros Marmarinos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK- There is an empty chair across from Dr. Frixos Goussis’ desk. Every so often, he glances up from his papers and looks at it. Goussis himself has pasted a paper along the front of the chair with a Greek couplet. Loosely translated, it reads: “Give the pedestrians a warm welcome when you saddle up, so that they too may greet you when you get off your horse.” Goussis explains that, “I found it in a store during one my trips to Greece, and I liked the hu- man quality of its message. It has a philosophy and a gospel of its own, so we can treat other people well.” Goussis was born in Lefkimi, Corfu. He is proud of his native island’s history, and is quick to point to the reference made in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, when he writes about the victory of that Corfu scored against the Corinthians during a naval bat- Frixos Goussis: Physician, Philosopher LARNACA, Cyprus – He was charged by the United States with being a Russian spy but somehow Robert Christopher Metsos, after being arrested and taken before a judge, was re- leased on $33,000 bail and then simply disappeared, leaving Cypriot police and American of- ficials red-faced and blaming each other for letting him just walk away, one of the pieces in the biggest spy saga since the Cold War ended. It read like a scene from a George LeCarre spy novel, except that it was real. Metsos’ vanishing act came as the US was rounding up 10 alleged spies before turning them over to Russia in exchange for four American spies in a quick turnkey operation. The questions at that point were all about Metsos, or if that was just the name he used similar to the aliases the Russian spies in the US used to cover their tracks for years as ordinary taxpaying cit- izens of suburbia who went to the mall and shopped and lived just like real Americans. Did he flee on his own? Get away with help from the Rus- sians? Trick local residents into unwittingly aiding an escape? Meet some other fate? The pub- lic doesn’t even know his true name. The alleged paymaster of the Russian spy ring was arrested June 29 in Cyprus on an Inter- pol warrant while trying to board a flight to Budapest, Hun- gary, two days after his 10 al- leged co-conspirators were ar- rested in the United States. His companion, a beautiful younger woman, was allowed to fly out. But the case dissolved into rumor-fueled confusion hours later when the suspect vanished after handing over a Canadian passport that claimed he was 54, enough to get him released on bail – before it was discov- ered he used the name of a dead Canadian boy. Police escorted him to a bank, where he took out $33,000 to pay the bail. Late that afternoon, he returned to a hotel and was never seen again. No one apparently blanched that a man who had been acting like a budget tourist during his 13-day stay in Larnaca had such easy access to thousands in cash. Metsos was Defendant No. 1 in the criminal complaint that also named Russian agents in the United States. “If this man is what they say he was, he will have had some safe passage or probably turn up in Russia at some point,” said Huw Dylan, a lecturer in intelligence at the Department of War Studies at King’s College in London. The brisk exchange of spies Friday at Vienna’s airport was the culmination of an idea hatched more than a month ago at the White House, weeks be- fore the Russian sleeper agents were even arrested June 27. No evidence has emerged that events surrounding the Metsos mystery were linked to plans for a spy swap. American The Cypriot Spy Who Walked out the Door Endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism specialist Dr. Frixos Goussis was born on Corfu island and made his mark in New York. He is a fellow of the American College of Endocrinology. Christopher Robert Metsos, an alleged member of a Russian spy ring. ATHENS - As Greek public sec- tor workers struggle with 10% pay cuts, slashed pension bene- fits and higher taxes - part of the austerity measures to keep the country from defaulting on its loans and to pay back Euro- pean Union and International Monetary Fund loans - the De- fense Ministry is forging ahead with plans to spend more than $1.25 billion on two submarines from Germany, which had de- manded cuts in other areas of public spending and got them from Prime Minister George Pa- pandreou. While the deal - whose cost could approach $3 billion euros - has been a decade in the making, the idea of spending money on submarines whose value defense analysts question threatens to under- mine Papandreou's hopes to convince Greeks they must sac- rifice for the common good, es- pecially because the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in an article writ- ten by Christopher Rhoads, re- ported that some leaders, in- cluding an Admiral who resigned over the expenditure he said wasn't needed, insisted on buying the submarines for political purposes and to keep Greek shipyard workers on the job, as part of the contract had them working on the sub- marines in the port of Piraeus. Besides the submarines, which have been shown to have laws in tests, Greece, which has the highest expenditure in de- fense as a ratio of Gross Domes- tic Product (GDP) in Europe and is fifth in the world, also is look- ing to buy six frigates and 15 search-and-rescue helicopters from France, which, with Ger- many, was the key to getting ap- proval for a combined $146 bil- lion three-year loan package to keep Greece from going under. In recent years, Greece has also Billions for Defense While Workers Do Without Raises TNH/COSTAS BEJ Continued on page 3 Continued on page 7 Community: Greek Scientist May Have Oil Spill Solution: Anybody Listening? Page 4. Community : It’s All in the Tsoukalas Family, But Andrea Knows The Law. Page 6. Theater: The Sun Sets, and Al- cestis Dies and Rises Again in Central Park. Page 4. Continued on page 9 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 9 AP PHOTO/CYPRUS POLICE) Continued on page 5
Transcript of The National Herald€¦ · Frixos Goussis: Physician, Philosopher LARNACA, Cyprus – He was...
The National HeraldA wEEKLY GREEK AmERICAN PUBLICATION
July 17-23, 2010
www.thenationalherald.comVOL. 13, ISSUE 666 $1.50
c v
Bringing the newsto generations ofGreek Americans
O C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915
By Angelike ContisTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Paul Anastas, orthe Father of Green Chemistry,thinks globally. But environmen-talism began very locally - andearly in life - for the chemist
who was appointed by PresidentBarack Obama as the AssistantAdministrator of the Office ofResearch and Development ofthe Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) in January.
Anastas, whose position di-rectly under the head of the EPAmakes him the highest-rankingGreek American in the U.S. gov-ernment, explains that it wasseeing the once-lush wetlandsof Quincy, Massachusettsspoiled that stirred him into sci-ence. Of the Quincy of his child-hood he says, “It was gorgeous,with wildlife and just beautifulviews. And bulldozers rolled inand turned it into a parking lotwith banks and insurance com-panies.”
His scientific father (whoseparents hailed from Greece’sNaoussa) guided him to react ina constructive way. Anastassays: “I was devastated, and myfather was a biology teacherwho taught me that if you reallycare about something, if you re-ally love something, then youcare enough to learn about it -so I became a scientist. I’ve al-ways thought that whatever Ilearned and know would begeared towards protecting thethings I love.”
Anastas, who calls himself an“environmental actionist,” wastrained as a synthetic organicchemist. He has worked in boththe public and private sector,teaching and writing extensively- including co-authoring withJohn Warner the seminal bookGreen Chemistry: Theory andPractice. He launched Yale’sCenter Green Chemistry in2007, which he directed untilreturning to the EPA. (WhileAnastas is on public serviceleave, his wife, Julie Zimmer-man, an assistant professor atYale, currently directs the fledg-ling center.)
What’s green chemistry? It’sthe study of the design, manu-facture and use of minimallytoxic products and processes.Anastas provides one pharma-ceutical example: “For instance,if historically you were to man-
For subscription:
To the EPA: Good GreenGreek Chemistry from Eco-Innovator Anastas
By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer
CHICAGO- Georgia Drake(Tsarpalas) is the first womanof Greek descent to have hostedher own television program:The Georgia Drake Show. A lostmoment in the Golden Age ofAmerican Television, to someperhaps, but for Greek AmericanStudies her complex career is ofspecial interest. For not only didshe succeed in the early days oftelevision, but she was to havea long international careerwhich eventually led her head-lining at the Hilton in Athensfor well over a decade. She wasborn March 21, 1937 inChicago, Illinois. As with mostGreeks in North America, sheattributes her eventual successesto the values she was firsttaught and experienced athome. Georgia’s father,Demetrios Tsarpalas, hailedfrom the village of Kynegou nearPylos in the Messinia district of
GeorgiaDrake’sVoice
By Theodore KalmoukosTNH Staff Writer
BOSTON- With a massive ab-sence from the 40th Clergy –Laity Congress in Atlanta lastweek, the parishes of New Eng-land showed vividly the broaderecclesiastical problem that existsin the Boston Metropolis. Only18 parishes out of the 63 thatcomprise the region participatedin this pivotal ecclesial event.Not only medium and small sizeparishes were absent but alsosome of the major parishes suchas St. George of Lynn, St. Vasil-ios of Peabody, Sts. Apostles Pe-ter and Paul of Haverhill andeven the Annunciation Cathe-dral of Boston, the church’s cen-terpiece in the area. The no-shows of the New Englandparishes made MetropolitanMethodios so upset that the dayafter the event ended he sentoff a letter blasting the priestsand the parish councils of thecommunities. He wrote that,“The absence of many Priestsand Communities of the Me-tropolis of Boston from the 40thArchdiocesan Clergy-Laity Con-gress in Atlanta, GA, was mostdisappointing.” On June 23, theChancellor of the Metropolis ofBoston who signed simply as“Fr. Ted” sent a letter to thepriests on behalf of Metropoli-tan Methodios urging them toparticipate to the Clergy LaityCongress and, in case they were
not planning to do so, to explainwhy. Fr. Ted in his letter statedthat: “His Eminence asked meto contact you today to confirmif you will be attending theClergy-Laity Congress in Atlantain two weeks. We received a listof parishes that have registeredat least one delegate thus far.As of today, only 18 parishesfrom the Metropolis of Bostonhave confirmed their participa-tion. Metropolitan Methodiosstrongly encourages everyparish of our Metropolis to planon participating in the Congresswith at least the registration ofthe priest, and hopefully one ortwo lay leaders.”
The National Herald learnedthat many priests simply ig-nored the letter, while in Atlantathe issue of the absentia of theNew England parishes was dis-cussed widely among the priestsand laity in their private con-versations along with the com-ments about Methodios and thestate of the church in New Eng-land. Also discussed was Metho-dios’ announcement of the cel-ebration of the blessing of thewaters and the throwing of theCross into a lake at a summercamp. This celebration is re-served for Epiphany Day on Jan-uary 6th in commemoration ofChrist’s baptism. WHY THEY STAYED AWAY
The National Herald con-tacted many parishes, which didnot participate in the Clergy –Laity Congress to ask why, andsome revealed unhappiness withthe structure of the event, andthat it would have been toocostly. Archimandrite MakariosNiakaros from the Sts. Peter andPaul parish in Haverhill Massa-chusetts said, “We had otherobligations, baptisms.” Whenasked if the reason was also fi-nancial, he said, “No, no, I hada baptism on July 4”. Rev. Em-
N.E.’s MetropolitanMethodios Angered byClergy-Laity Bypass
By Andy DabilisTNH Staff Writer
ATHENS- It was, aptly so, aGreek word – epiphany – whichshowed Ted Leonsis, freshly richas a young man in 1983 with$22 million in his pocket whathe wanted to do with his life.He even wrote it down, 101goals. The son of working-classGreek parents from Lowell,Massachusetts and Brooklyn, hehad seen what honest, hardwork could bring and broughtthat to bear in his career aftergraduating the top in his class
at Georgetown University, andthe first culmination, the sale ofa company he created when hewas 26, only to realize richesdidn’t matter when a plane hewas on suffered engine troubleand he didn’t know if he’d landsafely.
Before he boarded, he toldan audience in Washington, D.C.earlier this year, he wonderedwhy his new wealth hadn’tbrought joy. “I should have beenunbelievably happy. But I feltlike I had declared victory, likethe game was over, but I wasjust starting and I didn’t feel
happy. As luck would have it Igot onto the wrong airplane …I had a reckoning … if you wanthumility, be on a plane that jet-tisons its fuel, and we had 35minutes of kind of controlledterror … on the way down I wasmiserable … and all of thethings that I was thinking aboutand would miss were none ofthe things that this victory hadcreated for me … I promised ifI lived I’ll give more than I take… one of my goals is that I willlive the rest of my life without
Leonsis' Moment of Live Reckoning
Remembering Cyprus, 1974Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias attends a memorial service at the Ayios Constantinos andElenis cemetery in Nicosia, Cyprus, July 15, by the graves of Cypriot soldiers and police officerskilled July 15, 1974, during a coup which was intended to overthrow Archbishop Makarios. TheNational Herald will commemorate the event with a Special Section in the July 31 issue.
AP PHOTO/PETROS KARAdJIAS
Did German Submarine Deal Torpedo Greece?
By Stavros MarmarinosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK- There is an emptychair across from Dr. FrixosGoussis’ desk. Every so often, heglances up from his papers andlooks at it.
Goussis himself has pasted apaper along the front of thechair with a Greek couplet.Loosely translated, it reads:“Give the pedestrians a warmwelcome when you saddle up,so that they too may greet youwhen you get off your horse.”Goussis explains that, “I foundit in a store during one my tripsto Greece, and I liked the hu-man quality of its message. Ithas a philosophy and a gospelof its own, so we can treat otherpeople well.” Goussis was bornin Lefkimi, Corfu. He is proudof his native island’s history, andis quick to point to the referencemade in Thucydides’ History ofthe Peloponnesian War, when hewrites about the victory of thatCorfu scored against theCorinthians during a naval bat-
Frixos Goussis: Physician, Philosopher
LARNACA, Cyprus – He wascharged by the United Stateswith being a Russian spy butsomehow Robert ChristopherMetsos, after being arrested andtaken before a judge, was re-leased on $33,000 bail and thensimply disappeared, leavingCypriot police and American of-ficials red-faced and blamingeach other for letting him justwalk away, one of the pieces inthe biggest spy saga since theCold War ended. It read like ascene from a George LeCarrespy novel, except that it wasreal.
Metsos’ vanishing act cameas the US was rounding up 10alleged spies before turningthem over to Russia in exchangefor four American spies in aquick turnkey operation. Thequestions at that point were allabout Metsos, or if that was justthe name he used similar to thealiases the Russian spies in theUS used to cover their tracks foryears as ordinary taxpaying cit-
izens of suburbia who went tothe mall and shopped and livedjust like real Americans.
Did he flee on his own? Get
away with help from the Rus-sians? Trick local residents intounwittingly aiding an escape?Meet some other fate? The pub-lic doesn’t even know his truename.
The alleged paymaster of theRussian spy ring was arrestedJune 29 in Cyprus on an Inter-pol warrant while trying toboard a flight to Budapest, Hun-gary, two days after his 10 al-leged co-conspirators were ar-rested in the United States. Hiscompanion, a beautiful youngerwoman, was allowed to fly out.
But the case dissolved intorumor-fueled confusion hourslater when the suspect vanishedafter handing over a Canadianpassport that claimed he was54, enough to get him releasedon bail – before it was discov-ered he used the name of a deadCanadian boy. Police escortedhim to a bank, where he tookout $33,000 to pay the bail. Latethat afternoon, he returned to ahotel and was never seen again.
No one apparently blanchedthat a man who had been actinglike a budget tourist during his13-day stay in Larnaca had sucheasy access to thousands incash. Metsos was Defendant No.1 in the criminal complaint thatalso named Russian agents inthe United States. “If this manis what they say he was, he willhave had some safe passage orprobably turn up in Russia atsome point,” said Huw Dylan, alecturer in intelligence at theDepartment of War Studies atKing’s College in London.
The brisk exchange of spiesFriday at Vienna’s airport wasthe culmination of an ideahatched more than a month agoat the White House, weeks be-fore the Russian sleeper agentswere even arrested June 27.
No evidence has emergedthat events surrounding theMetsos mystery were linked toplans for a spy swap. American
The Cypriot Spy Who Walked out the Door
Endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism specialist Dr. Frixos Goussis was born on Corfu islandand made his mark in New York. He is a fellow of the American College of Endocrinology.
Christopher Robert Metsos, analleged member of a Russianspy ring.
ATHENS - As Greek public sec-tor workers struggle with 10%pay cuts, slashed pension bene-fits and higher taxes - part ofthe austerity measures to keepthe country from defaulting onits loans and to pay back Euro-pean Union and InternationalMonetary Fund loans - the De-fense Ministry is forging aheadwith plans to spend more than$1.25 billion on two submarinesfrom Germany, which had de-manded cuts in other areas ofpublic spending and got themfrom Prime Minister George Pa-pandreou. While the deal -whose cost could approach $3billion euros - has been a decadein the making, the idea ofspending money on submarineswhose value defense analystsquestion threatens to under-mine Papandreou's hopes toconvince Greeks they must sac-rifice for the common good, es-pecially because the Wall StreetJournal (WSJ) in an article writ-ten by Christopher Rhoads, re-ported that some leaders, in-cluding an Admiral whoresigned over the expenditurehe said wasn't needed, insistedon buying the submarines forpolitical purposes and to keepGreek shipyard workers on thejob, as part of the contract hadthem working on the sub-marines in the port of Piraeus.
Besides the submarines,which have been shown to havelaws in tests, Greece, which hasthe highest expenditure in de-fense as a ratio of Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP) in Europe andis fifth in the world, also is look-ing to buy six frigates and 15search-and-rescue helicoptersfrom France, which, with Ger-many, was the key to getting ap-proval for a combined $146 bil-lion three-year loan package tokeep Greece from going under.In recent years, Greece has also
Billions for DefenseWhile Workers DoWithout Raises
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
Continued on page 3
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Community: Greek ScientistMay Have Oil Spill Solution:Anybody Listening? Page 4.
Community : It’s All in theTsoukalas Family, But AndreaKnows The Law. Page 6.
Theater: The Sun Sets, and Al-cestis Dies and Rises Again inCentral Park. Page 4. Continued on page 9
Continued on page 4
Continued on page 5
Continued on page 9
AP PHOTO/CYPRUS POLICE)
Continued on page 5
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK- George Georgount-zos is a 40-year-old attorney whohas lived in the Boston area formost of his life, except for sixyears when he lived in Washing-ton, D.C., where he attendedgraduate school at George Wash-ington University and laterworked at the National Academyof Sciences. He returned toBoston in 1997 to attend lawschool, and since then has prac-ticed law as a litigator and, morerecently, as a real estate con-veyancer. He now lives in thetown of Stoneham and has hadhis own law office since 2004.George is married to Effie(Efthemia) Duros, and they havetwo children. Basil (Vasili) is fiveand Chryssa (Chrysovalantou) istwo years old, and a third childwas due imminently. He has re-cently launched a political careerand is running for MassachusettsState Representative.TNH: Has your life path been
influenced by your Ancientand/or Modern Greek heritage?GG: Being Greek American
has been an important identityfactor for me. My friends call meethnocentric but I certainly amnot embarrassed by that. I amproud of my heritage and con-sider my ethnic and religiousbackground to be an integral partof who I am. I was raised in the
church (Annunciation Greek Or-thodox Cathedral in Boston) andhave been involved in church ac-tivities my whole life, even whenliving in D.C. I was active at St.Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathe-dral in the YAL and other parishactivities. I think the Greek ethosof hard work, determination, loy-alty, and not asking or expectinganything from anyone are thevalues that have shaped my men-tality, and are the ones desper-ately needed today.TNH: Have you been looking
forward to running for office fora long time?GG: I have always enjoyed fol-
lowing politics, sort of the way asports fanatic follows his team.But, I never thought I would en-ter politics. Even up throughApril of this year, I had no plansto run for this seat. I had consid-ered an appointment to the Townof Stoneham’s Board of Appealsor Finance Committee just to getmore involved in my community,but these are not elected posi-tions. They are volunteer oppor-tunities to get more involved inlocal affairs. TNH: Why have you chosen
to jump into politics at this time?GG: A number of factors came
together that led me to the deci-
sion to run. Firstly, the electionof Republican Scott Brown to theU.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts(held so long by EdwardKennedy) was electrifying. Therewas a huge feeling of “a new timeis coming,” and in my town, Scottwon with 60% of the vote, andin Winchester, the other town inthe district for which I am run-ning, he took 52%. Winchesteris a very left-leaning town, too. Iwas recruited to run by a friendof mine who is active in Republi-can politics. My initial receptionby the voters has been positive.And, in the coming weeks andthroughout the summer and fallI will be knocking on the citizens’doors throughout Stoneham andWinchester getting people to rec-ognize me and my long Greeklast name. I know they can’t pro-nounce it, so I said just remem-ber my initials and think “GG forme.” That is my website’s ad-dress! www.ggforme.com. Ithink people will remember thatand, as they get to know me, giveme a chance to make govern-ment work for them.TNH: What has been your
greatest achievement so far? GG:Getting up every morning
is an achievement! Seriously, byfar, being a father and husbandis my most important role. Myother memorable achievement isbecoming a lawyer. I do not haveany special event that character-izes me in any special way that Ican think of.TNH:What’s the greatest les-
son you’ve ever learned? GG: The greatest lesson in life
has been shown to me by my par-ents. Work hard, stay honest,don’t cheat anyone. Follow thesesimple rules and you will succeedand no one will be able to stopyou. On a more personal note,another lesson I’ve learned overtime is to not let opportunitiesslip by.TNH: Do you have a role
model? GG: I don’t have any role
model that I idolize or seek tofollow. I look to my parents andtheir generation as models, folkswho came to the U.S. with nomoney, education, or contactsand in one generation their chil-dren all became educated andsuccessful in their careers. Notbad.TNH: What’s your ultimate
goal in life? GG:When I die, I want people
to say that “There was a goodguy. He never stole, he nevercheated, he stood by his princi-ples and did what he thought wasright.” If I can make that, thenwe have success. I hope to makemy parents, and more impor-tantly, my kids, proud of me inwhatever I do, be it work, law, orin this new arena I am gettinginvolved in, politics.TNH: If you could change
something about yourself, whatwould it be? GG: I would be quicker on my
feet with answers. I think we allfault ourselves as Monday morn-ing quarterbacks, second guess-ing ourselves with thoughts of “Ishould have said this” or “Ishould have done that.” With me,I do it too often. I wish I weremore sharp with points on thego. But, this is a self-criticism Iam told is unnecessary. I guessI’ve done all right for myself thusfar as a debater and as an advo-cate.TNH: What’s your most en-
joyable pastime? GG: There is nothing I enjoy
more than spending time withmy children. They are amazingand I cannot understand howthey get so smart so fast. Yester-day, my two-year-old daughteractually made a cogent sentencecommenting about something,and I was absolutely floored. TNH: Share with us some
words of wisdom. GG: Follow your passions and
goals, but do so with integrity,honesty, and an open heart. Noone will ever be able to criticizeyou or question your motives.The worst thing someone can sayabout you is to question yourcharacter. Don’t let anyone everdo that; they won’t be able to un-less you give them the chanceyourself.
COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010
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: Do you favor using English more
in church?o Yeso Noo MaybeThe results for last week’s question: Do the Clergy-Laity
Congresses have any real value as they are currently struc-tured?21% voted "Yes"79% voted "No"0% voted "Maybe"
Please vote at: www.thenationalherald.com
n JULY 15-18NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio – St.Paul’s Greek Orthodox Cathedralwill be hosting their annualGreek Festival July 15-18. Theywill be featuring a dining hallwith Grecian cuisine, an assort-ment of pastries, jewelry, a coffeeshop and a specialty basket silentauction. Music will be by Dimitrievery evening and by Al Dadason Saturday and Sunday after-noon. St. Paul Hellenic Dancerswill perform Thursday eveningat 8:00 p.m. and Friday, Saturdayand Sunday at 4:00, 6:00 and8:00 p.m. For further info visit:www.stpaulgoc.org/Festival.
n JULY 19NEW YORK, N.Y. - If you have apassion for news and want tohear how Soterios Johnson, localhost of Morning Edition onWNYC Radio, got started in radioand became the host of MorningEdition, come to the next GAMEevent on July 19 at the PerfectPint. Soterios will give a littlebackground on he got started inradio and pursued his desire toreport the news and welcomeeveryone before the event. Theevent will be held from 6:00p.m. – 9:00 p.m. The Perfect Pintis located at 203 East 45th Str.,between 2nd and 3rd Avenues,New York, NY 10017. For fur-ther info call: 212-867-8159 orRSVP to Dorie Klissas [email protected].
n JULY 20NEW YORK, NY - Sandra Nord-gren, Producing Artistic Director,presents a seminar “Has Direct-ing Become the Weak Link in theChain of Doing Theater? or EliaKazan - Where Are You WhenWe Need You?” by Stephan Mor-row. The event will be from7:00-10:00 p.m. at the Thir-teenth Street Repertory. Admis-sion is free and open to the pub-lic, but reservations are stronglysuggested. To RSVP, call: (212)675-6677 or email: [email protected] before the date.Google The Great American PlaySeries website and the currentSoul of the American Actor web-site for ‘Traveling to Theater’ byStephan Morrow. It gives goodbackground on the work thatwill be covered at the event.This seminar is for anyone in-terested in the process of theaterbut also for anyone who is in-terested in investigating whatdefines the independent artist,in theater or any of the arts. TheThirteenth Street Repertory islocated at: 50 West 13 St. (near6th Ave), New York, NY.
n JULY 25BURLINGTON, VT - The Dormi-tion of the Mother of God GreekOrthodox Church communitypresents its annual festival, withthe best Greek food served upin the Green Mountain State.Rain or shine! For more infor-mation: 802-862-2155.
n JULY 31 CHICAGO, Ill. – The NationalHellenic Museum is hosting theHeritage Ride for Hellenic Prideon July 31 at 10:00 a.m. “Wewill not say that Greeks ride likeheroes but that heroes ride likeGreeks.” The ride begins at theNational Hellenic Museum andends at the Harley-Davidson Mu-seum. Registration is $30 perrider, $45 with passenger. Reg-istration includes: T-shirts,breakfast, tour of the HarleyDavidson Museum, Tailgatelunch with burgers, brats andbeer, giveaways and more. Forfurther information, visit:www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/calendar/event/?id.
ELMHURST, Ill. - The Assump-tion Greek Orthodox Church ofChicago invites you to a Nightfor Hellenicare hosted at the StDemetrios Greek OrthodoxChurch in Elmhurst on July 31at 7:00-10:00 p.m. The pro-ceeds of the event will benefitHellenicare’s “Sister to Sister”Breast Cancer Screening Pro-gram in Mariupol, Ukraine.There will be special perfor-mances by both Ukrainian andGreek Dance Troupes. Ticketsare $20 for adults, $10 for chil-dren before the event and ticketspurchased at the door for adultsare $25. For further informa-tion, visit: www.hellenicare.org.To RSVP, call the AssumptionChurch at: (773) 626-3114 oremail your information to: hel-
[email protected]. TheAssumption Church is located at:893 N Church Road, Elmhurst,Ill.
n AUGUST 6-8TORONTO, CANADA – TheGreektown Taste of the Dan-forth sponsored by Pilaros is oneof Toronto’s signature eventsshowcasing the best of Hellenicfood, culture and music the cityhas to offer. There will be tra-ditional Greek foods rangingfrom souvlaki to an assortmentof mezedes, authentic Greekmusic and interactive children’sgames. The event will be heldfrom 12:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.each day. For further informa-tion, visit: www.tasteofthedan-forth.com/tasteofthedanforth.php.
n AUGUST 8MONTREAL, CANADA – TheHellenic Flame Festival in Mon-treal will be held on August 8through August 10 at the ParkJean Drapeau. The festival willbe held every day from 1 p.m.-11 p.m. The event is free andwill feature a variety of activitiesfor the entire family, includingfood, dance, music and culturalbooths representing artists’ andassociations from within theGreek Community. For furtherinformation, call: 514-738-2421(ext. 107) or visit: www.hcm-flame.com.
n THRU SEPTEMBER 4CHICAGO, Ill. – The NationalHellenic Museum will be host-ing the world-premiere exhibi-tion Percy Jackson and theOlympians: A Look inside theLightning Thief from Julythrough September 4, wherevisitors will get an up-close andpersonal look at some of theirfavorite props from the Fox2000 film. In partnership withTwentieth Century Fox, the Na-tional Hellenic Museum and Cu-rator Bethany Fleming createdthe exhibition. The film is thebig screen adaptation of authorRick Riordan’s #1 New YorkTimes bestseller, Percy Jackson& the Olympians: The LightningThief, the first of five books inRiordan’s series. Hours for theexhibition are: Tuesday throughFriday, 10 am - 4 pm; Saturday,11 am - 4 pm. Closed Sunday,Monday. Suggested general ad-mission: adults and seniors; $5,NHM members, children 12 andunder; Free. The National Hel-lenic Museum is located at: 801W. Adams Street, 4th floor, atthe corner of Adams and Hal-sted Streets, Chicago, IL 60607.For further information, call:312-655-1234 or visit: www.na-tionalhellenicmuseum.org.
n SEPTEMBER 10-12SOMERVILLE, Mass. - The Dor-mition of the Virgin Mary GreekOrthodox Church festival is onits way: September 10 from12:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.; Septem-ber 11 from 12:00-11:00 p.m.;and September 12 from 12:00p.m.-10:00 p.m. For further in-formation, visit: http://www.dor-mitionchurch.org.
n SEPTEMBER 10-11CARMEL, Ind. – The Holy TrinityGreek Orthodox Church is host-ing their 38th Annual Greek Fes-tival September 10-11 from 4:00p.m.-11:00 p.m. For further in-formation, visit: www.holytrini-tyindy.org.
n SEPTEMBER 10-12 LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The LosAngeles Greek Festival of theSaint Sophia Cathedral isaround the corner. For infor-mation, call: 323- 737-2424.
n SEPTEMBER 23-26MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – St. Johnthe Baptist Church will be host-ing their Annual Greek FestivalSeptember 23-26 from 11:00a.m. – 10:00 p.m. For further in-formation, visit: www.stjohn-mb.org/events/festival.htm.
n NOTE TO OUR READERSThis calendar of events sectionis a complimentary service to theGreek American community. Allparishes, organizations and in-stitutions are encouraged to e-mail their information regardingthe event 3-4 weeks ahead oftime, and no later than Mondayof the week before the event, [email protected].
GOINGS ON...
In the Spotlight: Vote for Georgountzos
A candidate for the Massachusetts Legislature, George Geor-gountzos, his wife Efthymia, and their children, Vassilis andChrysovalandou.
Bright Eyes and Smiles at St. George’s Summer CampThe children of the Summer camp program of Church of St.George in Trenton pose for a commemorative photo. The N.J.community is moving forward with plans to create a nurseryschool; its ultimate goal is to create an elementary school.
Christofias welcomes Cypriot American childrenCypriot American children were welcomed to Cyprus by presi-dent Christofias. He said that each of them are ambassadorsof Cyprus and encouraged them to be active in persuading theU.S. government to help end the Turkish occupation.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
TNH/KALmOUKOS
By Demetris TsakasTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK - The Greek Ortho-dox Church of St. George in Tren-ton, N.J. is moving ahead withthe establishment of a GreekAmerican day Kindergarten pro-gram, with the long term goalbeing the establishment of a dayschool. The community’s schoolboard and parish council havesubmitted all pertinent docu-ments to the Hamilton Board ofEducation, located in a suburb ofa Trenton, where the Greek Or-thodox community is based, andhave already received approvalto set up a daily Pre-K andKindergarten program, and theonly formality left is subsequentapproval from the state. St.George parish Council PresidentSpiros Spireas said he consideredstate approval a foregone conclu-sion, and noted that it was onlya matter of time. He also leftopen the possibility that final ap-proval would be given by the endof this year. “If we do not manageto open a Kindergarten programin September, then we will beginin January 2011, and each year,we plan on adding one additionalclass for each grade in elemen-tary school. A school is definitelya cornerstone and essential ele-ment in preserving and cultivat-ing Greek identity in our childrenand grandchildren. This invest-ment that we are making is notonly about the present, but alsohas to do with the future of theSt. George Church in Trenton,”
said Spireas, who is also the CEOof the pharmaceutical firmSigmapharm Laboratories.
School board chairperson Dr.George Triantafillou, a professorat Temple University, spoke toThe National Herald as well andsaid she was hopeful that thislongtime dream shared by gen-erations of Greek Americanswould soon be a reality. She alsonoted that the approval of the re-quest by the Hamilton Board ofEducation has created a buzz ofenthusiasm and sparked confi-dence among the communitymembers over the future estab-lishment of the school. “We willstart with a Kindergarten, andsubsequently proceed to set upan elementary day school, span-ning grades 1 to 6,” Dr. Triantafil-lou said.
When asked about the frame-work of the plan, she explainedthat the most important thingswas that funding has been se-cured, and that as soon as au-thorities give the community thegreen light, donors will supportthe entire undertaking.
“Our community is Greek andhas a proven interest in preserv-ing and teaching the Greek lan-guage. It’s no coincidence thatwe also have one of the finestGreek Afternoon Schools in NewJersey,” he said. The community’sGreek Afternoon School operatesfour days a week (Tuesdaythrough Friday) from 4:30 p.m.to 6:30 p.m., and runs fromgrades PK-6. “The Principal,Sophia Stavrakis, along with the
school’s three teachers and twoassistants, are working systemat-ically to teach the Greek lan-guage,” Dr. Triantafillou said. Shealso explained that the studentpopulation includes second, thirdand sometimes fourth-generationGreek Americans. “Althoughsome of them come from mixedmarriages, they neverthelessshow interest in school becausenon-Greek mothers care just asmuch – sometimes more – abouttheir children’s education,” shesaid. Tuition is $275 for the firstchild, $200 for the second, $140for the third, while any additionalchildren attend school tuitionfree.
SUMMER CAMPDuring the last week in June,
a Greek camp was set up for the5th straight year, with 46 chil-dren participating. “For the fifthyear in a row, children receivedinstruction in the Greek languageand history through a enjoyableprogram that included colorfulmaterials, and fun activities likemusic, mask-making, preparinga toga, baking cookies in theshape of Greek letters, learningabout mythology, listening tofairy tales, watching videos, play-ing soccer, etc. The camp is runentirely by volunteers fromwithin the community – espe-cially mothers. During these pastfive years, we have created aunique, rich, and very specific ed-ucational curriculum for ourcamp, while we also design ourown arts and crafts,” she ex-plained.
Triantafillou pointed out thatone of the essential pluses of theprogram is that it does not re-quire any particular special train-ing, and it can be implementedby anyone who speaks Greek.Otherwise, the activities, materi-als, and directions are predeter-mined for each grade and timeof the day.
“For the academic part of ourcamp, we divided the childrenages 5-12 into four groups basedon age and level, although manyof the activities were common foreveryone. For starters, we did notfollow the curriculum from someoutside book. The reasons for thiswere first because campshouldn’t resemble school, andsecond because the existingbooks do not exactly adhere toour educational outlook. Eachday was dedicated to a differenttheme, for example one3 day wasdedicated to foods, another dayto the parts of the body, other toanimals, etc. We also had chil-dren practice one of two particu-lar phrases per day. Take thetheme on animals for example.In order for the children to learnthe names of the different ani-mals, they must repeat them of-ten. The question is, how to dothis without having the childrengrow bored, get tired, or hatecoming to camp. And here iswhere we think we have donesomething unique, because wedesigned materials and activitiesthat repeat the same set of words,but are different each time,” sheadded.
“Just like last year, one of thechildren’s favorite activities thisyear was Greek music, becausethey were given a chance to
learn our beautiful songs, led byMs. Katerina Triantafillou-Vis-njic, Miss Greek Independence2009.
manuel Clapsis from the As-sumption of the Virgin Maryfrom Dracut Massachusetts said,“an extreme family emergencyoccurred and I had to depart ur-gently to Greece.”
Rev. John Govostes from theAssumption church in IpswichMassachusetts said, “I have myfestival today; I do not want totalk to you.” Rev. Peter Rizosfrom the Annunciation parish inWoburn, said, “It is a good ques-tion. It is rather a symptom ofthe different parishes that thereis somehow the sense that what-ever is going to be said is pre-pared in advance,” and headded: “There is the sense thatwe do not confront the realproblems of our communities.”Fr. Rizos also said, “Our com-munities need spiritual aware-ness,” and he added that, “I per-sonally was disappointed withMr. Jaharis’ comments that hethinks that more English willsave our Church. What ourChurch needs is repentance, asense of our heritage and dedi-cation to Christ. Besides, I thinkthere is enough English alreadyas it is today.” Fr. Rizos, who isa second generation Americanborn, visited Greece for the firsttime ever just a month ago saidthe reason he did not attend theClergy Laity Congress was notfinancial.
Fr. Nicholas Pelekoudas fromthe Holy Trinity parish in Low-ell, who has never participatedin a Clergy Laity Congress sincehis ordination a few years ago,said “Because the Metropolitantold us to make every effort to
attend, I brought it up to theparish council and they told methat presently we are experienc-ing serious financial problemsand if it is possible not to spendthat money for the Clergy-laityCongress, because we were toldthat the cost would be betweenthree and four thousand dol-lars.”
Demetris Photopoulos, Pres-
ident of the parish of the An-nunciation Cathedral of Bostonsaid, “We did not have any ur-gent issue to discuss and wewere busy with other activitiesand we couldn’t go. Our generalassembly which selects the rep-resentatives to the Clergy LaityCongress was delayed. It wasconvened on June 27th and bythen it was too late.”
Fr. Nicholas Kastanas fromSt. Athanasios parish in Arling-ton said, “We did not go for fir-nancial reasons because wehave big mortgages.”
Fr. Chistopher Foustoukosfrom St. Vasilios in Peabody
said, “Our finances are difficultthis year, the Archdiocese hasincreased the allocation and Icouldn’t spend three thousanddollars to go to the Clergy LaityCongress at this moment whenthe dome needs to be repaired.”
Fr. Harry Providakis from HolyTrinity in Fitchburg said, “Theparish did not have money tosend me to the Clergy-LaityCongress.”
He added: “I wished it to beless expensive.”
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010 3
N.E.’s Metropolitan Methodios Angered by Churches Clergy-Laity Bypass
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK - Greece was notplaying in the World cup finalon, July 11, and the game itself,a 1-0 affair won by Spain in over-time was not the most exiting,but spirits were high at theGreek-American Atlas SoccerClub on Astoria Boulevard inNew York City, driven by fellow-ship and decades-long friend-ships centered around the game.Even with a World Cup finalwhen most eyes were glued tothe screen to watch the Nether-lands and Spain, entering theclub was a quick trip to Greece.The hospitality hit you as soonas you walked through the door.No Olympic airlines stewardesseswere needed. In fact, there wereno women. The club is a bastionof brotherhood, a place wherefor decades, our pappous, thios,nonos and older brothers es-caped for a while the vasana oflife and the stress of long work-days, and relieved their some-times pained feelings of nostalgiafor the patrida, a Greece of theiryouth that is no more.
The club was established in1946, but its not just a cafe andcommunity gathering place,however, nice as it is, withfriends playing backgammonand cards over a beer and asmoke, and especially with itsback yard shaded with figs treesand grapevines. It is also thebrain trust of an association thathas had a remarkable success atpromoting soccer in particular.
The teams that they organizeand sent out to compete haveplayers from seven years of ageto over 50, and included four Na-tional Open Championshipteams. Those were not won inGreek leagues, but in all-Ameri-can national competition.
George Mellis, is currently atrustee, but for 22 years he wasthe club’s General Manger, over-seeing its operations. He told TheNational Herald that he has par-ticipated in the club ever since
he arrived from Greece in 1964.“We have friendships here thatgo back to those years.” The clubhas been at its current location,which it owns, since 1973. BasilMessados is the new President.As much as members love theirclub, he has big plans for it, say-ing “it’s not just a cafenio.” He isvery proud of their 14 teams, in-cluding a girl’s team and one forfor men over 40 years old, butsays they can all be improved.Nine of the teams are for the
youth, comprising 175 children,and the club has an ambitiousplan to establish a soccer acad-emy. They will work to recruitnew players and assistantcoaches to help develop the tal-ents of the players with the goalof elevating them to professionalleagues in Greece and America.Messados plans upgrades in staffand facilities. “We even have anambulance for those who thinkthey can play but are not fitenough, ” Messados said with a
smile. George Emexezidis is a 17-
year-old who plays on one of theclub’s teams, and he also playson the team of St. DemetriosHigh School. He said he lovessoccer, as he gave his analysis ofSunday’s final to TNH. His broth-ers and sisters are also athletic,but they are into kickboxing.Ambitious plans will requirefunds, and the club’s main socialand fundraising event is its din-ner dance, which is always heldthe first week of March. The af-fair honors three or four peoplefor their support of the club. Thisyear’s honorees were Kostas Sk-oufis, George Psaris, PanagiotisMelidis and Louis Perdikakis
As the current officers aim tobuild for the future and supportthe youth of the community, it isclear that the future will not re-semble the past. The glory dayswere a function of economic andpolitical conditions cannot be re-produced, most importantly thefact that since the 1970s soccer,though it was not fully caughton as a major American sport, isnow a big business with the MLS.
Paul Betzios is a long-timetrustee. He told The NationalHerald about the club’ originswhen a group of Greek immi-grants who arrived in New Yorkafter the end of WW II calledthemselves Ellines Neofermeni –Newly Arrived Greeks, andjoined a soccer league thatplayed in New York’s CentralPark. The league was higcompet-itive, and it became even moreso after a flood of refugees from
Hungary’s failed anti-Soviet up-rising in 1956. There was also astrong Ukrainian presence, so theGreek teams were not successfulat first. Over time, however, theGreeks became a national powerin American soccer as the clubbegan to recruit division 1-cal-iber players from Greece whocame to the U.S. to study, includ-ing the legendary coach andplayer Akis Panagoulias. Manyof the players supported them-selves and their families throughjobs provided by members of theclub.
Betzios explained that beforethe rise of big league soccer inthe U.S. and the New York Cos-mos with their star player, thegreat Pele in the 1970s, the club’steam was at the heart of pro soc-cer in the U.S.
Fueled by the final surge ofGreek immigrants to the U.S. inthe 1950s and 1960s, GreekAmerican soccer became an ath-letic and a social phenomenonas upwards of 3000 fans at-tended the matches. Over time,the phenomenon faded as Greekliving standards improved in therun up to European Union mem-bership in the 1970s, reducingU.S. immigration to a trickle andboosting soccer player’s salaries.So the club’s future will be dif-ferent, but perhaps still bright:its young players may arrive onthe scene just as American finallyfalls in love with pro soccer.
View the video at: www.then-ationalherald.com/video/[email protected]
Heads Up! Greek-American Soccer Club is Just A Corner Kick from Greece
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MetropolitanMethodios’ letter asfollows:
July 9, 2010To The Rev. Clergy and Mem-bers of the Parish Councils ofthe Metropolis of Boston
Beloved brethren,The absence of many Priests
and Communities of the Me-tropolis of Boston from the40th Archdiocesan Clergy-Laity Congress in Atlanta, GA,was most disappointing.
The Congress afforded youthe opportunity to familiarizeyourselves with the new andcreative programs of outreachdeveloped by the Archdiocesewhich would have assisted youin undertaking a successfulmissionary effort to bring ourbrethren home. Regrettably,many parishes decided not totake advantage of the manyopportunities available at theCongress to improve their min-istries.
At your Parish Councilmeetings, you are encouragedto ask yourselves whether yourcommunity has been successfulin its missionary outreach. Hasit extended an invitation tothose in our cities and towns
to “come and see”? Addition-ally, what do brethren experi-ence when they attend ourcommunities? Do they seeChrist? Do they feel wel-comed? Is the liturgical expe-rience uplifting? Is the sermoninspiring? Are the parish pro-grams imbued by the HolySpirit? Hopefully these andother questions will enable usto take a realistic look at ourparishes and their futures.Praying that you enjoy ablessed summer, transfiguredby the Lord through the inter-cession of His blessed Mother,I remain,
With Archpastoral concernMetropolitan Methodios
of Boston.
The Chancellor’s lettersigned as “Fr. Ted”
To the Reverend Clergy ofthe Metropolis of Boston
Dear brother,I pray that you are well. His
Eminence asked me to contactyou today to confirm if youwill be attending the Clergy-Laity Congress in Atlanta intwo weeks. We received a listof parishes that have registered
at least one delegate thus far.As of today, only 18 parishesfrom the Metropolis of Bostonhave confirmed their partici-pation. Metropolitan Method-ios strongly encourages everyparish of our Metropolis toplan on participating in theCongress with at least the reg-istration of the priest, andhopefully one or two lay lead-ers.
Please, confirm your partic-ipation and that of your parishwith me ASAP by replying tothis email. His Eminencewould like to know if you areplanning on attending the Con-gress, and if not, please com-municate with us as to whyyou are unable. If you need aletter to your parish council re-minding them of the UPR di-rective to underwrite the costof the clergy participation inthe Congress, please let meknow and we will be happy tosend a letter.
Extending the paternal loveand blessings of His Eminence,I remain,
With brotherly love,Father Ted
If you have not yet regis-tered please do so as soon aspossible. I have attached a Reg-istration Form for your conve-nience.
After the World Cup final match, the club partook of the lamb roasting in the back yard, here guardedby (L-R): Basil Messados, Antonis Drizis, George Mellis, George Nikopoulos and Sakis Ignatiadis.
Continued from page 1
Metropolitan Methodios of Boston (R) talking in a friendlymanner with Fr. Andreas Markopoulos who served for a num-ber of years at the Metropolis of Boston and now is on loan tothe Metropolis on New Jersey.
St. George Community in Trenton Plans to Open a Day School
COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010
By Angelike ContisTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK- When ProfessorGeorge Nicolaides showed hisCleanMag technology for clean-ing up oil spills at the Poseido-nia conference in Greece inJune, Prime Minister George Pa-pandreou was among those whoexpressed interest in it. It hasbeen significantly harder for theTechnological Education Insti-tute of Piraeus (TEI) Professorto get the ear of the U.S. Presi-dent Barack Obama or BP, theBritish oil company operatingthe Gulf of Mexico drilling rigthat blew on April 20, jeopar-dizing and destroying wildlifehabitats, fishing villages,tourism centers, beaches andkilling off fish along miles ofcoastline from Texas to Florida.
The U.S.-trained Nicolaidessent letters to Deepwater Hori-zon, the Governor of Louisiana,the White House and BP, tellingthem about his invention. “Iproposed a plan of immediateaction in order to protect theshorelines and the marshlands… but indeed there was no an-swer,” he said. He even traveledto the Gulf of Mexico to demon,strate his technology in lateMay. The only “encouraging” re-sponse, he says, was receivingEPA approval.
Now Nicolaides fears thattime is running out for the U.S.to benefit from an invention thathe is convinced can make a pos-itive difference in the cleanup.In every oil spill, no one evercollects 100% of the material,he explains, adding: “If 10-15%is collected, it is considered asuccess.” But CleanMag, he ar-gues, in tests, gathers 100% of
spills. “It was going to be a sub-stantial help,” he said.
JUST LIKE MAG-ICCleanMag was developed
through a decade-long, 2.5 mil-lion euros European Union Lifeprogram that concluded in2004. The invention consists ofsmall, magnetized plastic gran-ules that are dumped onto oilspills. The granules absorb theoil – taking in six to 10 timestheir weight in oil like a supersponge - before they are re-trieved from the water with apowerful magnet setup. Clean-Mag has received attention fromthe likes of the BBC and CNN
and received the 2nd Dubai In-ternational Maritime Award(2005). Its use was also demon-strated, in a limited cleanup, af-ter the Sea Diamond cruise shipsunk off of Santorini in 2007.Nicolaides counts his wife YannaAtanassova, also a TEI Piraeusprofessor, retired professorPanagiotis Skoutzos and stu-dents as key collaborators. Theinspiration for the invention,says Nicolaides, was the 1989Exxon Valdez oil spill. Heformed a CleanMag company in2007. As he wrote to Obama, alighter non-magnetic form ofCleanMag, retrieved by fishing
vessels, would be most effectivein the Gulf. He wrote: “I feelthat we would be able to protectmajor areas especially in shal-low waters and the result wouldbe rather outstanding. This ac-tion though it has to be takenimmediately because if the oilgoes into wetlands or on theshore line an percolates throughthe soil then the things wouldbe very difficult for any cleanup operation.”
CLOSE-UP DISASTERAfter the Deepwater Horizon
catastrophe began, Nicolaideswas invited to Florida by a com-pany professing interest in his
technology. Unfortunately, uponarrival, he realized that thefunding was not in place formass production of CleanMag.He said, of his visit: “I saw thepicture up close …. I realizedhow tragic it was.” Tragic too,in his view, was the inadequateresponse. Of the panic and alack of preparedness, he said:“It was a joke.” He added that“specialists, good and bad” andprofiteers abounded. Nicolaidessaid: “I realized the whole acci-dent has become a serious po-litical issue (having the Repub-lications hitting Obama everyday), but the U.S. governmentseems helpless since they do notdecide what to do and how todo it.”
Nicolaides said he is con-cerned with BP’s main solutions- using dispersants and burning.It’s the way “the molecularstructure of the oil changes dueto (dispersants)” that concernshim, as oil is broken down intosmall droplets resembling, in hiswords, “very bad MaxwellHouse Coffee.” A “slow poison-ing” of marine life results. Andin burning crude oil, said Nico-laides, surface light oils burn,while the heavier part of thesubstance (which requires 500degrees to incinerate) is left be-hind, but made denser. Nico-laides was astounded to hearsome of the homespun solutionsto the cleanup, such as calls forfeathers and hair to be used togather oil on boats.
NO RESPONSE The scientist, who said he re-
mains focused “100% on theGulf of Mexico” this summer,says he feels “up against a wall,”noting that CleanMag “has to beused as soon as possible,” as it
only works when oil is in liquidform, before forming tar balls.”But there is no word yet. Nico-laides said received a “nice let-ter” from the Governor ofLouisiana Bobby Jindal, but noreply from the White House.With regards to DeepwaterHorizon’s form letter, he says:“As a scientist, I am really in-sulted.” The letter told him thathis was among 80,000 such pro-posals- and that CleanMag wasdeemed “already in use … notfeasible … or impossible,” al-though he said it’s a proventechnology. He said: “It’s notabout the money. I was ready toask for permission from the uni-versity to take as long a leaveof absence as required … it wasnot going to guarantee a perfectperformance, but for sure, itwould be much better thanwhat has been done.”
He said that he was encour-aged at the Posidonia confer-ence, by Papandreou talking tohim for 15 minutes – and sug-gesting it be used in the U.S.disaster. “By chance, he hap-pened to know about it,” saidNicolaides, speculating if Papan-dreou had seen it on Youtube.But the scientist said he’s wor-ried about the approach of hur-ricane season and fears that theoil will embed itself on beachesand work its way – via the GulfStream – even to England or Ire-land. Closer to home, Nicolaidessaid hopes CleanMag will neverbe needed for an oil spill nearGreece. He added: “I hope itnever happens in the AegeanSea, because if it does, we’ll becrying for decades.” Oil, not wa-ter.
ufacture a drug, you would gen-erate a ton of waste for everypound produced.” Greenchemists – often unbeknownstto the public– are finding waysto get the same drug, but witha lot less damage to the planet.
It doesn’t take much of astretch of the imagination to re-alize that this can be cost effi-cient. Anastas underlines thatit’s not just nature that’s green,but dollar bills too. He lauds thenew EPA head, AdministratorLisa P. Jackson, for emphasizingthat the time is over for present-ing a “false choice” betweeneconomic growth and environ-mental protection. “How we fo-cus on sustainability and inno-vation is among the mostexciting work we are doingnow,” says the EPA’s AssistantAdministrator for the Office ofResearch and Development.
DEEP GREEN ROOTS Anastas is proud that the
term The Father of Green Chem-istry” was bestowed upon him– when he was a 29-year-oldEPA chemist- by his mentor atthe agency, Dr. Roger Garrett.
After an early career at the EPA,which led to University of Mass-achusetts- and Brandeis- trainedchemist to lead the agency’s U.S.Green Chemistry program, heworked (from 1999-2004) atthe White House’s Office of Sci-ence and Technology Policy.Then, he led the AmericanChemical Society’s Green Chem-istry Institute, before heading toYale. (He had also previouslyalso taught in the U.K.) Anastashas written 10 books on greenchemistry/engineering and sus-tainability. He says his new roleis exciting, as it merges the aca-demic, scientific, public officeand NGO work of his past. Hispersonal mission is to “make ac-tion happen as quickly and asurgently as the challenges de-mand.” He adds: “It’s reallyabout where the opportunitiesare to make the greatest im-pact…I’m rather pragmaticwhen it comes to just lookingfor the opportunities to movethe action forward.” He believesthat the Obama administrationhas injected new life into theEPA. “It’s a great time to be ascientist at the EPA,” he adds.That praise came, however, as
the Obama administration wasunder public criticism for itsslow reaction to the BP oil spill– and Anastas was traveling tothe Gulf of Mexico, a trip thathas become weekly in recentdays.
Evan Beach, of the Yale Cen-ter for Green Chemistry says ofAnastas, “What’s unique abouthis approach is that he’s not justtalking about the problems.” In-stead of the usual doom andgloom over ecological projects,Anastas is looking at “the toolsto fix it,” working within thepreexisting situations, proving“a more positive, optimistic ap-proach.” THINK SCIENTIFICALLY The EPA’s Research and De-
velopment office includes some2,000 federal employees, 13labs across the country andmany partners both in the U.S.and abroad. In his new capacity,Anastas is bringing his greenchemistry touch to projectsranging from air and waterquality to the evaluation of thetoxicity of substances we useeach day. Now is the time, hesays, for “a broader perspec-tive.” Anastas often speaks of
the need for specialists to thinkacross their narrow disciplines,with more systems thinking.
Communication is also a ma-jor priority for him. “Quitebluntly,” he says, “scientists andengineers are not usuallytrained in how to best commu-nicate and get the word out onthe work that’s going on.” Anas-tas said he believes that it’s es-sential that the public under-stand how the EPA’s researchrelates to their lives. Since as-suming his post, he has boostedhis office’s newsletter ScienceMatters, overseen the produc-tion of a more user-friendlywebsite and the use of commu-nication tools like Twitter.
Green chemistry has come along way, he indicates, but thereis still a lot of work ahead. Hesays: “The field has just growntremendously. It’s amazing thatwhen you take a look at greenchemistry, it has alreadytouched virtually every industrysector that I can list – agricul-ture to aeronautics to plastics topharmaceuticals to dyes andpesticides, you name it, elec-tronics and automobiles. It hastouched all these different con-
sumer and industrial products.The only thing that is more im-pressive in what has been ac-complished in green chemistryis the fact that all those accom-plishments represent a smallfraction of its power and poten-tial. For every one product thathas been reinvented using greenchemistry, perhaps 100 or 1,000haven’t yet been looked at. Thesame goes for manufacturingprocesses.”
“There is some great greenchemistry going on in Greece,”Anastas adds, pointing to thework of University of Athensprofessor Panayotis Siskos. InGreece, as elsewhere, the chal-lenge is how to make greenergoods and processes that are“more autocatalytic” –in otherwords, that are “driven by aneconomic and profitable dri-vers.” Among his many kudosare the Vice President’s HammerAward, the Joseph SeifterAward for Scientific Excellenceand a Greek Chemical SocietyAward. And it all began withbulldozers in Quincy, Massachu-setts.
To the EPA: Good Green Greek Chemistry from Eco-Innovator AnastasContinued from page 1
Paul Anastas, a.k.a the Fatherof Green Chemistry, is thenew Assistant Administratorof the Office of Research andDevelopment of the Environ-mental Protection Agency(EPA).
Greek Scientist May Have Oil Spill Solution: But is Anybody Listening?
TEI Piraeus Professor George Nicolaides (L) discusses his invention CleanMag's applicationswith Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou at the Poseidonia expo in Athens in June.
EPA PHOTO
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Euripides. DeadWhite Man. Why should we carewhat he wrote so long ago? Theanswer is that he is a genius. Pre-sent tense. The man and hisworks are immortal because theystill speak to us and even shakeus up 2500 years later. A man orwoman who can explore the hu-man condition on multiple levels,who is original, who has the gutsto explore a society’s sacred cowsand taboos has earned the label.Alcestis is one of Euripides’ earli-est dated plays and this year itwas presented on a hot summernight at the Naumberg bandshellin New York’s Central Park by theAmerica Thymele Theatre (ATT.)Most of the audience planned tobe there and made the night atheatrical picnic, but some werejust passing by and got roped inby the actors and the passionsbeing played out onstage.
The audience was welcomedby ATT’s founder and its Produc-ing/Artistic Director Stephen Di-acrussi, who also summarized theplot. He explained that theywould see a different Apollo. InAcelstis, the radiant Sun God waspunished by Zeus, who reducedhim to the role of humble servantto King Admetus. Alcestis is thewife of Admetus, who, by forget-ting to offer a sacrifice on hiswedding day, offended the god-dess Artemis, and was con-demned to an early death.Apollo, indebted to Admetus fortreating him kindly in his fallenstate, helps the King escape hisfate by persuading Thanatos(Death) to take a substitute.
Apparently even an audiencein democratic Athens would beshocked that no one would stepup and save the life of his king,and Admetus should not be
ashamed of expecting his elderlyfather to save him. He is amazedto hear his father, who cuts anunsympathetic figure onstage,say, “Life grows sweeter andmore precious as one grows old.”THE PRICE OF SACRIFICEOnly Alcestis, his beautiful
young wife, is willing to take theking’s place, shaking him up de-spite his gratitude. It is not clear- when the chorus proclaims Al-cestis “noble beyond all women”- whether she is being praised forher character alone, or becauseof her willingness to do the Greekversion of suttee, but Euripidesis known for being more sensitiveand appreciative of women thanmost Greek thinkers. He gave theplay tragicomic elements and anumber of characters have comicedges, including a drunken Her-cules, an uppity servant, andeven Thanatos, played by Fred-erick Mayer, who stalks onstagein pursuit of his quarry. Apollowill do anything to help hisfriend, so the first thing the au-dience sees is Apollo, with hismighty bow and arrows, chal-lenging Thanatos, who is armedwith a sword and is angry atApollo because he and the fatestricked him out of his prize, Ad-metus, who Thanatos reallywanted to take home to Hades.
One of the annual highlightsof ATT productions is the chorus,whose actions range from dra-matic declarations to clever hi-jinks, accented by rhythmicdance movements and originalmusic by Kostas Kouris, whichevoked ancient Greece and es-tablished a musical foundationfor the action and ideas of theplay. Euripides takes us into themind of Alecestis, who “wants tolook once more at the light of thesun.” She begins to rave asThanatos approaches, and theheart-rending scene climaxes
when her young son and daugh-ter run into her arms. It was timefor Denise Fiore, who played her,to seize the attention of audienceand passersby in the dying day-light as the sun finally sank belowthe trees of Central Park. Alcestiscries, “Children, you have nomother now.” There is no mo-ment more chilling.
Then she turns to her belovedand begs him not to marry again,not to ease the pain of her dyingego, but to spare her childrenfrom the proverbial unlovingstepmother. When he agrees, andshe says he must now be bothmother and father to them, shetells the children, “Goodbye, behappy both of you,” and Admetushails her saying, “You alone weretrue to me.”
As Alcestis sank into her bedamid mournful music, the soncried, “Mother, mother, do younot see me? Please open your
eyes, look at me: mother,mother!” Somehow, and theword genius again comes tomind, Euripides lifts the audiencefrom this darkness and heavinesswith the entry of Herakles, Ad-metus’ dear friend. A devastatedAdmetus will not allow mourningto overcome his duty as a hostand orders his servants not to tellHerakles of Alcestis’ death. Clue-less, Herakles gets drunk andboasts of his adventures, disturb-ing the household. In the greatplaywright’s hands, Herakles’scenes, played by actor HarryOram, are both poignant andcomic. When he learns the truth,overcome with shame, he setsout on one of his famous trips tothe underworld. THE AFTERMATH OF WRATH
Rage soon dominates as Ad-metus turns his grief into angerat his parents for not exiting lifeat a moment when they could
save him or his young wife. In-tergenerational conflict, pre-sented in our times as dry eco-nomic and political issues,explodes onstage as the con-frontation between Admetus,who has barely begun to enjoylife, and the father who has livedhis life to the fullest as the priorking. “Who do you think youare,” barks Zenon Zeleniuch asPheres, the father. “I do not countmyself as any child of yours,”roared back Christopher Ryan asAdmetus. “You killed her, andyou dare to call me coward,” saidthe son. “You murdered her andyou will bury her ... what willyou do? Every time you have todie, you will find another wife todie for you,” the father respondsas the terrified chorus cries, “ Osir, stop cursing your son.” Finallyan enraged Admetus shouts, “Go,and the woman who lives withyou!”
One is stunned at the thoughtthat such dialogue between achild and his parents could bepresented in ancient Greece,striking testimony to the impor-tance of theater and its relation-ship to the ideals of Greekdemocracy. Euripides effects hisfinal remarkable transition whenHerakles returns with a beautifulveiled woman in tow. He explainsthat she is another prize from oneof his adventures, but when theveil is lifted Admetus is over-whelmed with joy when he seesit is Alcestis returned from theland of the dead. The king thanksHerakles profusely, and thentakes Alcestis’ hand, declaring“We shall live our life again, andit shall be a better one,” the play’shappy ending marking it not asa tragedy, but as a fourth playpresented in 438 B.C. in place ofthe usual comic satyr play.
This is also one of those playsthat explains how Christian the-
ologians were able to make acase for the preservation of clas-sical learning, which zealots at-tacked as pagan. Notwithstand-ing that Euripides ischaracterized as a rationalist oreven an atheist, there were mo-ments that felt like Greek Ortho-dox Holy Week services: Apollo’sattacks on the figure of Death,“enemy of mankind...hated of thegods”; Apollo as humble servanton Earth, even as a shepherd; thejoy over Alcestis’ resurrection; thedeclaration about blood sacrificesthat “no healing comes fromevil”. Seeing the play, it is easy tosee how Greek intellectuals forwhom the Olympian deities losttheir lustre - and with minds sea-soned with some of the ideas ofPlato and Plotinus -could be opento Christian ideas.
Director Lorca Peress told TheNational Herald that the essenceof the play is how we handledeath and loss, of spouses, chil-dren, parents, and how the com-munity comes together to helpus overcome it. Euripides, writingat a time when Greece was tornasunder by the PeloponessianWar, also demonstrated how de-structive divisions can cutthrough all relationships, includ-ing parents and children, andraised questions of self-sacrificeand forgiveness that were centralto the Christian religion thateventually took the place of theOlympian gods in the lives of theGreeks. This year’s productionwas dedicated to the memory ofMary Diacrussi, who served asATT’s Costume Master from1993-2003. http://american-thymeletheatre.yolasite.com
See the TNH video about Amer-ican Thymele Theatre’s produc-tion of Alcestis at www.then-ationalherald.com/video/[email protected]
The Sun Sets, and Alcestis Dies and Rises Again in Central Park
The chorus represents the elders of the city of Pherae in Thes-saly. Some avert their eyes, others look on in horror as Alcestisdies in the arms of her husband and children.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
the Peloponnese. Demetrios wasthe second of 10 children. At theage of 19 he immigrated, firstto Boston, then to Chicago. Intime he brought four brothers.
Even by the harsh standardsof the period, DemetriosTsarpalas was an especially hardworker. By the time he married,Tsarpalas owned the Apollo Bak-ing Company, the largest whole-sale Greek-owned bakery inChicago. As if this were notenough, he owned three restau-rants, a billiard parlor, ashoeshine parlor, and threestreet-corner newsstands atClark, Diversey and Broadway.With all that to his credit,Tsarpalas was also fortunate inmarriage.
His wife, Athanasia Psiharis,was born in Chrysovitse in theArcadia district of the Pelopon-nese. Her brother Louis is cred-ited with bringing her toChicago. Louis Psiharis, with hisbrothers George and Peterowned the extremely popularAthenian Café at Dearborn andWacker Drive. Through variousbusiness and social connectionsAthanasia and Demetrios werebrought together.
All of these prominent busi-ness enterprises and social con-nections affected Athanasia in atotally unpredictable manner.She was gifted with a fantasticsinging voice. Such were hernatural talents that Athanasiawas often called upon at socialgatherings to render one or an-other of the fabled kleftika.These songs had special importfor the large Tsarpalas clan.
WAR STORIESDuring the War of Greek In-
dependence DemetriosTsarpalas’s grandfather was arecognized leader and closecompanion of TheodoreKolokotronis. It was Kolokotro-nis who dubbed his close friendYorgios Diakoumopoulos,Tsarpalas, or literally “Sword ofthe Czar.” It was by this honoredparatsoukli that the family wasforever after known. So, Athana-sia’s singing of kleftika was notmerely aesthetic enjoyment ornostalgia for home but alsospoke to the Tsarpalas family’srole in the history of Greece.
Her singing gained such ac-claim that she was offered, morethan once, a recording contract.But the propriety of the timesand the extended Tsarpalas-Psi-haris clan’s social standing, sim-ply would not allow Athanasiato accept. In any event, withthree children, a husband, ahome, and all her relatives andfriends, Athanasia’s life was re-ally too full to seriously considersuch offers. But, something,must have lingered. For all theencouragement and supportGeorgia received from hermother, while obviously an ex-pression of love, concern, andpride, may have also been fueledby the knowledge only immi-
grant mother’s of her time andplace possessed. That for all thelove, respect, and honor be-stowed upon Greek womenthere were also known and un-spoken, limitations on howproper women must conductthemselves.
EARLY CAREERGeorgia Tsarpalas majored in
Speech and minored in lan-guages at Chicago’s DePaul Uni-versity. At this same time shestudied voice at the ChicagoConservatory of Music underMaurice Scaffi. It was at DePaulUniversity that Georgia beganperforming in operettas and mu-sical comedies. As hard workingas any of the extended Tsarpalasclan Georgia was also perform-ing along side veteran radio per-former Jim Ameche in a host ofairwave dramas.
Georgia’s ultimate successwas not something handed toher. Rather Georgia’s early yearsare a casebook study of thepainstaking process all profes-sional entertainers must travel.After receiving her diplomaGeorgia taught 5th grade; recall-ing that she spent most of herday singing for her students. Ahectic schedule followed whereGeorgia juggled her teaching re-sponsibilities with radio record-ing schedules and her first fea-tured performances as aContinental Chanteuse at the ex-clusive Churchill Club onChicago’s Gold Coast.
These appearances led, whileshe was still performing at theChurchill Club, to an extendedengagement at the Sherman Ho-tel’s, College Club. Drake’s suc-cess at these premier nightclubsled to her performances on earlyChicago WGN-TV programs DialNine for Music and Spotlight onTalent in 1957. Drake soon at-tracted the attention of localABC television talent scouts. Ini-tially Drake entered the studiosimply to audition as a singer.When out of the blue, as she re-called the producers proposedinstead that there be a GeorgiaDrake Show. In 1957, duringwhat is now recognized as theGolden Age of Television, Drakefound herself the star hostess,principal vocalist, lead dancer,and sometimes even writer of ahalf-hour variety show. For rea-sons lost to history, a much-men-tioned aspect of the show’s for-mat was the fact that Drakewould be barefoot for the entireprogram. The Georgia DrakeShow first aired in Chicago onSunday, October 6, 1957. Thislive program was telecastthroughout the Midwest. Com-petition was brisk even by thisperiod’s standards. The GeorgiaDrake Show aired opposite TheBob Hope Show and two topdramatic programs: The EightO’Clock Theater and The CBSTheater.
The Golden Age of Television,which was between the late1940s and 1961, is especiallyrecognized as a “time when
many hour-long anthologydrama series received critical ac-claim … with … new teleplaysby Paddy Chayefsky, HortonFoote, Tad Mosel, Reginald Rose,Rod Serling, Gore Vidal and oth-ers. So the local Georgia DrakeShow faced considerable oppo-sition. As was typical for thisevolving media the programonly ran until May 1958.
While the show was can-celed, ABC executives clearlyrecognized Drake’s talents, sinceshe quickly found herself on yetanother television program.Polka-Go-Round, from June 23,1958 to September 28, 1959,was ABC’s second attempt at apolka program. Nationallybroadcast from Chicago, the pro-gram was hosted by BobLewandowski and included heramong its regular cast. Over thenext two years she was involvedin a dizzy array of guest perfor-mances on television programsin Chicago and New York City. Itmust be stressed that television,during this period, was per-formed live, and not pre-recorded. Drake’s confidentpresence was noted not simplyin singing or dancing but on quizshows, seemingly endless com-mercials, and as a guest hostessfor countless early televisionprograms. Wanting to focus onher singing, she left televisionfor a forum that would bestshowcase her talents.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTSDrake’s career is part of that
now lost world of Café Society.The international elite clubs
then found in the Hilton, Shera-ton, and Ritz-Carlton hotelchains were the perfect venuefor her talents. Her annual tourtook her to any combination ofclubs such as the Empire Roomat Chicago’s Hilton PalmerHouse; the LaSalle BonaventureClub in the Queen ElizabethHilton of Montreal; theTamanaco in Caracas,Venezuela; The Southern Clubof Hot Springs, Arkansas;Toronto’s Royal York Hotel; theSahara in Chicago; theL’Auberge de Quatre Chemins inQuebec City; the Puerto RicoSheraton in San Juan; theChateau Laurier of Ottawa;Boston’s Statler Hotel; theShamrock Hotel in Houston; LosAngeles’ Ambassador Hotel;Caesar’s Palace in Los Vegas; theRitz Carlton in Montreal; theFontainebleau of Miami Beach;and the Athens Hilton.
After touring the world, moreor less at random, Drake’s an-nual performance scheduleeventually took on an estab-lished pattern. A segment of theyear was devoted to touring theCaribbean, North and SouthAmerica. The remainder of theseason, based in her Athensapartment, she would performat the newly opened Hilton.Drake’s long-term appearancethere coincided with the phe-nomenal boom in Greek tourismof the 1960s into the 1970s.
As an artist, she found thisperiod in her career especiallyfulfilling. Aside from her nightlyperformances as a featuredsinger Georgia was also record-ing and appearing on Greek tele-vision. Chryso mou Asteri is per-haps her best-rememberedalbum, from this period. Un-questionably her most popular45rpm record featured Misirlouand Havah Nagilah on theHeartbeat label. During this pe-riod a reviewer dubbed her TheGreek Goddess of Song.
THE REVIEWSIt is not surprising that there
are countless reviews of Drake’sperformances. What is startlingis that they are in English,French, Spanish, and Greek. Cit-ing even short vignettes fromany of these accounts can im-mediately give one a clear senseof Georgia’s performances: InMay of 1965, Variety reported,“Georgia Drake, with naturalbeauty and gowned to matchher looks comes across withgreat effect … that hits the markon all counts … Miss Drake runsthe gamet of tunes from folk tofrisky, squeezing every phrasefor best impact, hitting everynote clean and teasing … MissDrake sells everything withplenty of skill and savvy, anddoesn’t waste a second of hertime on the floor. She comesacross well with When the WorldWas Young, also Never On Sun-day, in a mixture of Greek andEnglish lyrics. A My Fair Lady,medley brings in her Spanishversion, some French and He-brew standards with specialarrangements, and has to begoff. Georgia Drake entered theChateau Laurier spotlight wear-ing a simple black gown. No se-quins, no diamonds, no pearls.But she brought a big shiningjewel of a voice to dazzle the au-dience through a multi-hued 40minutes of listening pleasure.Her orchestra arrangementswere also simple and restrainedin happy contrast to the elabo-rate scores beloved of many clubsingers. Nothing distracting fromthat rich trained voice whichMiss Drake held back to apoignant crooning for songs likeThe Apple Trees, then uncorkedto tinkle the dinnerware for theexuberant Havah Nagilah. (The)highlight for me was her render-ing of a sultry Greek song, Misir-lou, which she sang in the ap-propriate language, one of thesix she uses. In all of them, shetranslates into good news forChateau-goers
LOST ROLE MODELToday, it is difficult to look at
a television program, featurefilm, or video without seeing aGreek performer, writer, direc-tor, producer or technician citedsomewhere in the credits. Aswith most things, Greeks inNorth America had to overcomeenormous obstacles. Curiously,many report that while their in-dividual family and friends sup-ported them they always as-sumed they were the first Greekperformers, writers and so on intheir respective field of art.Drake died October 19, 2007.She was from the second gener-ation of Greek performers inNorth America which includesParaskevi Antonopoulou, the An-drews Sisters, Betty George, EvaStyl, Leni Parteri, and MariaKalogeropoulos Calles amongothers. Even within this distin-guished collective, Drake’s ca-reer remains unique.
She was the first woman per-former of Greek descent to bothhost her own television programin North America and to appearon Greek television. While it isa recognized feature of Greek-American history that immigrantfemale vocalists such as MadameKoula (Antonopoulou) andMarika Papagika toured Greekdiaspora colonies, Drake is alsoamong the very first performersof the second generation to re-turn to Greece and successfullyestablish herself as an enter-tainer.
Greek-America has for far toolong ignored those who havemade significant achievementsin the arts. Aside from denyingaspiring artists a sense of the ac-complishments of truly success-ful entertainers of Greek descentwe lose the continuing inspira-tion recordings of performerssuch as Drake still convey. Learn-ing more about the life and ca-reer of Drake is a good start inthe recovery of the role of Greekperformers in the wider worldof arts and entertainment.
regret.” He’s met that one and79 others on his list so far, notbad for a kid who laughs that “Iwas the only person who wouldsummer in Lowell, Massachu-setts,” before his family movedthere his junior year in highschool. Lowell was also home tobeat writer hero Jack Kerouac,who was a close friend of Leon-sis’ uncle, Bill Koumentzelis.
Now, after a phenomenal ca-reer that took him from WangLabs in Lowell to his own com-munications company to Presi-dent of AOL to owning theWashington Capitals of the Na-tional Hockey League and Wash-ington Wizards of the NationalBasketball Association, he saidhe still remembers what got himthere, the near-accident on theplane but also his family and theGreek friends he made going tohigh school in Lowell, bastionof Hellenism in the UnitedStates, a city that in the 1930sand 40s had two dozenkafeneion, that he made friendsthat endure to this day. “Mostof my friends were Greek whenI was growing up and I knowthey’re my real friends becauseI knew them before I bought asports team and AOL. They weremy friends before I could doanything for them,” he said. He’sdone a lot for a lot of peoplethough, but said he remembersplaying basketball for Greekteams in Lowell and going tochurch.
“I even wrote a history of theHoly Trinity Church,” in Lowell,”he told The National Herald ina telephone interview from hisoffice in Washington, where asan NBA owner, he got to prac-tice one-one-one against NBAlegend Michael Jordan, whohad a stint with the Wizards.That gave Leonsis the chance tocheck off another goal on his
list. Leonsis is one of the mostsuccessful and richest businessexecutives in the country now,but also an author, philan-thropist, movie maker, Emmy-award winner, entrepreneur,and, he said, perhaps proudestof making sure his children areraised the same way his parents,a waiter and a secretary,brought him up. “Our parentswere humble and hard workingand that’s our role model andwhat you’ll hear about my chil-dren,” he said.
HOW HE GOT THERE “The Spartan heritage fuels
a lot of my competitive fires,”he said. “I grew up more Greekthan American … a Hellenicthread existed through my fam-ily.” His parents came from thePeloponnesus and, he said justa bit mischievously and proud:“They’re Maniati’s,” and if youknow anything about Greece it’sthat you don’t mess with Ma-niati’s or Cretans. While hedidn’t learn to speak Greek, hespent several summers inGreece, visiting his family anddiscovering his roots when hewas younger. In high school, hebagged groceries for Demoulassupermarkets, practically a rite-of-passage for Greek Americanyouths in that working-class citythat was home to the IndustrialRevolution in the United Statesand a famous textile center. Ithas spawned a number of fa-mous Greek Americans, such asthe late former U.S. SenatorPaul Tsongas, a mentor to Leon-sis, who worked as an intern inhis office, and who directed himtoward Georgetown. ActorsMichael Chiklis and OlympiaDukakis were born there too. Asan undergraduate scholar, Tedexcelled. “My mother and fathergave me the confidence to becompetitive…it was better toget all the A’s than deal with theexplanations to my parents,” hetold the National Herald in aninterview several years ago. Af-ter Georgetown, his first job wasat Wang Labs back in Lowell, atime when the computer com-pany was a rising power in thebusiness, only to fail. Shortly af-ter his 25th birthday, Leonsis heleft Wang and established acomputer publishing companycalled Leonsis Index for Soft-ware Technology, or LIST.
“You have to take risks, mostof the biggest things that I havegotten involved with haven’t
been analytical. The idea for myfirst publishing company cameto me as I was thinking about aTV guide for personal comput-ers,” he said. It paid off whenIBM came out with its first per-sonal computers and anothercompany bought LIST, givinghim his first millions – just be-fore the terror on the airplane.
Building on his keen abilityto understand computers and afascination with interactive me-dia, he went to Florida and be-gan Redgate Communications.“I saw the opportunity that me-dia would be digitized and po-sitioned Redgate at the epicen-ter of that.” In 1993 Redgatemerged with the then youngAOL company in Dulles, Virginiaand for the next six years Leon-sis helped build AOL into thelargest media company in theworld. That got him involved inthe world of Washington busi-ness and a chance to check offanother goal on his list, owninga professional sports franchise,although another item on thelist, winning a world champi-onship, hasn’t materialized de-spite a number of all-stars hebrought to the Capitals. DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY
In recent years, Leonsis hasstarted other venture, such asSnag Films, a website that dis-tributes full-length and shortfree documentaries via the In-ternet. They are movies Leonsissaid he hopes will drive peopleinto supporting the causes theyespouse, even as he has done inhis life, taking on charities suchas Hoop Dreams to mentor dis-advantaged adolescents throughbasketball. “My movies, I wantthem to right a wrong and acti-vate charitable giving and vol-unteerism,” he said. He alsostarted up a unique PIN-acti-vated credit card companycalled Revolution Money, whichhe sold to American Express for
$300 million. After reading thegripping book The Rape ofNanking, about the murders ofmore than 300,000 Chinese bythe Japanese military in WorldWar II – driven to it after he sawan obituary about its author, IrisChang, who killed herself at 36,Leonsis produced the awardwinning movie Nanking.
The low-key Leonsis is theantithesis of business leaders hesaid have it all wrong by beingoverly demanding, people hesaid relish making workers mis-erable and driving them. Hesaid his business model of posi-tive reinforcement works andhe’s even instilled the lessons ina book he wrote, The Businessof Happiness. “My book tries torepudiate things they teach youin business school … the com-panies doing well are those thatcan activate something in theircustomers and employees,” hetold radio talk show host LouDobbs. “They are on a mission,they’re looking at a higher call-ing, they understand they have
to do well with the numbers inthe business but there’s some-thing more, there’s a bigger rea-son for them to go to work,” hesaid. He knows the answers, andhe’s down to the last 21 on hislist, although some obviouslyhave to wait, such as havinggrandchildren, and he’ll have tobe lucky to catch a foul ball at abaseball game. But somewherein Leonsis there remains the kidwho bagged groceries at De-moulas and went to the Greekchurch in Lowell, who under-stood money wasn’t the mostimportant item on his check list,even as he moves toward the ul-timate goal of being a billion-aire, and giving $100 million tocharity. Leonsis said he remem-bers being on that plane. “Ipromised if I lived I’d give morethan I take … one of my goalsis that I will live the rest of mylife without regret,” he said herecalls vividly. He already has,and that wasn’t even on his list,the one that was even more im-portant than LIST.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010 5
A Moment of Reckoning Showed Leonsis How to Live
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Georgia Drake, Greek Goddess of Song, Knew How to Belt it OutContinued from page 1
Georgia Drake was dubbedThe Greek Goddess of Song.
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Ted Leonsis’ tips for success• Make dust or eat dust. Take risk. Be aggressive and gofast and make it big.
• It is the customer, stupid. Listen through all means: faceto face, e-mail, message boards and blogs. The communityspeaks clearly. Don’t be afraid.
• Surrender what is yours to the customer — it is theirproduct, their team, their service. Get buy in and belief;there is a wisdom in the crowd. If it is theirs, they willimprove it and sell it for you.
• Personally express — make it personal. It isn’t only busi-ness — people know whether you love your product andservice. Your personal stamp and pride in what you domust shine through. Lead — don’t manage.
• Find your higher calling. We don’t want to build a goodteam; we want to build a great team — a generationalteam — and immortality through winning Stanley Cups.
Ted Leonsis
COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010
By Demetris TsakasTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – AlexanderTsoukalas was born in Repanidi,Lemnos on May 4, 1949. Hegraduated from high school onhis native island of Lemnos andwent on to study at the Mer-chant Marine Academy in thenearby island of Chios. After-wards, he spent over three yearsas a marine engine mechanic onboard ships, and in 1974 hemarried his sweetheart,Markella Kontolios, whom hemet while studying at the Mer-chant Marine Academy in Chios.
“We were on our honeymoonwhen the war in Cyprus brokeout, and that’s when we decidedto come to America in search ofa better life. I came on a ship,while Markella received an in-vitation from her brother.” Theirdaughter Andrea was born inChios in 1975, and came to theUnited States when she was
eight months old. Her youngerbrother Nicholas was born in1980.
The Tsoukalases lived inFlushing when they first cameto the U.S., and later moved toCollege Point.
Recently, they relocated toWhitestone. Tsoukalas got hisfirst job working in the restau-rant business, where he stayedfor three years.
Afterwards, he got involvedin ship repairs, and in 1979Tsoukalas started up his owncompany. In 1987, he nextformed a construction companythat deals solely with offices,which is located in Manhattan.
Andrea learned Greek at theHoly Cross Greek AfternoonSchool in Whitestone. She grad-uated from Cardozo HighSchool in Bayside, N.Y. andwent on to attend college atHofstra University, where shegraduated with honors in 1997.She later was admitted to New
York Law School, where shegraduated in 2000.
She began her career as anattorney at Murphy & Lynch,where she worked for approxi-mately four years. In January2005, she was hired byForchelli, Curto, Deegan,Schwartz, Mineo, Cohn & Ter-rana LLP.
When asked what led her topursue a career as a real estatelawyer, she replied that her ex-periences working at her father’sconstruction company played akey role.
“I don’t deal with buying andselling homes, but with the pur-chase of lots and the construc-tion sector.” Her firm is primar-ily active in Nassau and Suffolkcounties, but does not necessar-ily pass up on cases involvingproperties in New York City ei-ther.
Andrea Tsoukalas is the soleGreek American attorney froma staff of 50 lawyers.
Responding to a question onwhether she has noticed achange in the construction sec-tor over the past decade, shenoted that construction hasslowed down in recent yearsdue to the economic crisis. Shecited the difficulties that manybusinessmen have in financingtheir projects as the reason forthis decline.
One of the biggest projectsthat she is working on right nowis a building complex featuring260 apartments for rent in Mi-neola, N.Y. Tsoukalas cited re-sistance from the neighborhoodin building this complex and dif-ficulties arising from the zoninglaws in each area as some of thebiggest challenges she is facing.“When things come to an im-passe, then we are forced to re-sort to the courts,” she ex-plained. In response to aquestion about the percentageof cases that she wins, Tsoukalaspointed out that her firm is oneof the strongest in the field andwill not take on a case if its at-torneys are not absolutely cer-tain that they will win. This isthe reason why her firm has oneof the top wins per cases ratio.
GOING TO TOWN Tsoukalas also noted that her
firm represents municipalities aswell as development corpora-tions. “When you are represent-ing the city, it is a lot easier towin a case, but things are moredifficult when your client is abusinessman. Even thoughcourts try to avoid breaking withcommunity boards and citycouncils, we still end up win-ning our cases.” WhenTsoukalas joined her firm, shewas the only female lawyer inthe office. Today, she has fourmore female colleagues. “All ofmy clients are men with grayhair between the ages of 50-60.I am fairly young looking, andthis is something I have to over-come in order to convince myclients that I am capable of gain-ing others’ trust.” Tsoukalas goesabout overcoming this rightfrom the first phone conversa-tion, and leaves a favorable im-pression on her clients regard-ing the law and how it appliesto their case.
“The circumstances in eachcase play a critical role. Youneed to demonstrate your abili-ties and talent in order for yourclients to trust you.” Thingswere difficult at first, but now,with over 10 years of experienceunder her belt, things are verydifferent. Clients trust Tsoukalasand rely on her fighting spirit,consistency, and skills. Whenasked why she chose law overmedicine, Tsoukalas says it’s be-cause she liked speaking in pub-lic ever since she was a younggirl. She was a good speakerand writer, and she liked to en-gage in dialogue, which is whyshe turned her attention to thestudy of law. Although it’s hardbeing both a mother and alawyer at the same time,Tsoukalas also says she consid-ers herself lucky to have her sonApostolos’ grandfathers helpingto care for him.
Tsoukalas also holds a degreein English Literature andworked as a teacher, but herlove for the legal profession pre-
vailed.With regards to the housing
market, Tsoukalas said she hasher contacts and that at the pre-sent time it is a buyers’ market.There are now a lot of fore-closed houses being sold on themarket which require downpayments from prospective buy-ers looking to invest. She notedthat there are opportunities outthere for people with money. Asit currently stands, the marketis being affected by the generalstate of the economy and thestock market. Tsoukalas saysthat the first signs that the econ-omy is stabilizing are beginningto show, but the road to recov-ery is a long one.
Her brother Nicholas is mar-ried to Maria Siderias of Chios.They live in New Jersey. “He’sbetter than me, and he hastaken over the family business.Ten years ago, I could not evenspare a week to go to Lemnos,but now I can go for twomonths,” Alexander Tsoukalassays.
By Bob NicolaidesTNH Staff Writer
RUNNEMEDE, N.J. - To say thatPhily is a more successful namefor a diner than Century can bedebated forever, because the dif-ference does not lie in the nameof the eatery but in its manage-ment. Take the Century eateryhere on Rte. 168. Century wasthe name of the diner when agroup of Hellene restaurateursdecided in 1981 to buy it andput it on the map, 24 hours aday, seven days a week. It wasjust a small food stop, of conve-nience nevertheless, that thelate John Balis of AdelphiaRestaurant fame, along withnephew Bill Balis, the currentco-owner of Adelphia, and PeterKontos a veteran restaurateur,decided could be a success be-cause of its good corner loca-tion.
The three partners operatedthe Century Diner as they hadbought it up until 1993, whenthey finally renamed it to PhilyDiner, adding a second diningroom and more seats. They gotlucky too when a diner a blockaway went bankrupt, givingthem a chance to get a liquor li-cense and more parking space.
It wasn’t, however, until Feb-ruary of 2008 that the majoroverhaul took place, and thePhily Sports Bar emerged nextto the diner. They are intercon-nected and have a common en-trance through the Disneyworld-themed diner’s entrance. Thedifference is that while the leftside occupied by the diner is aone-story structure, the SportsBar, with its large square panelglass facade and unusually long,rectangular bar on the groundfloor, is a two-story configura-tion. The set up allows for addi-tional table space outdoors onboth floors, the upstairs Veranda
accommodating 80, with a ban-quet space also available for upto 60 and the open air down-stairs. Both the upstairs anddownstairs alfresco dining areasfeature colorful umbrellas.
Each of the sides of theblock-long structures is de-signed to attract a different typeof customer. The diner side,with its liberal use of stainlesssteel, appeals to people whocrave good food in a milieu ofAmericana fantasy. The decorincludes items such as the flashy1960’s car, not parked, butbolted down by the entrance,the Mickey and Minni Mousefigurines greeting you as you areushered towards the diningroom, the butler figure in hisred uniform and sideburns andthe Elvis Presley mural andparaphernalia, all wrapped inan overall Art Deco flair that’sattractive and in good taste.
The dominating color here isred, and so are the blouses ofwaitresses and waiters. Thoughmany additions have beenmade, Kontos spends most of hisdays coordinating the operation,
including moving the dessertcase and has installed afrappe/latte counter – but theydon’t have Greek coffee in thismilieu. The front alcove whichonce housed booths and was theentrance when the diner wasoriginally built, is now a shrinefor Presley fans - with his like-ness represented as big as life,plus other memorabilia attestingto the King’s immortality. Man-agers such as Pete Katsimihas,responsible for the day-to-dayoperation of the diner section,and and the svelte Tara Liv-ingston are always around. Evenone of Kontos’ daughters, Maria,20, works there. Kontos has twoother children, Vicky 22, whostudies Business Administration,and Philip. They live inVoorhees, N.J. Balis and his wifeConnie have two children,Yianni 11, and Angelina, 8.
SPORTING FOOD ANDLOOKS
The newly constructed annexlies to the north of the old andis an environment that com-pletely contrasts the diner, bothinside and out, as a style andconcept. It begins with its pizzaoven and fryer area, where busypersonnel prepare minutedishes. The Sport Bar featuresits own kitchen in the back, in-dependent from the nook wherefrying equipments exists andwhere the pizza oven can befound. On the customer’s side,the nook is a service bar as wellas a take-out pick up location.The Sport Bar was designed byarchitect Jim Wilson, who cre-ated not only a showplace butalso a landmark. The work wasexecuted by Bill Kontos’ UnitedDiners, no relation to one of thediner’s owners.
Traffic on Route 168 cannothelp but stop and take a goodlook at what is featured. Eventhe roof of the Sport Bar iscrammed with eight 8X6tableaus depicting great mo-ments of all kinds of sports. An-other four are mounted on whatit looks like a water supply tankstanding on four stilts at thenorthernmost edge of the up-stairs veranda. Even as thesescenes take all the frontagespace on the roof, there is stillspace for about six flagpoleswith colorful banners and flags.Moving once again inside theSport Bar and its huge rectan-gular bar which serves guestson all its sides, provides all thoseimbibing, no matter on whatside of it they are seated, fullview of their favorite athleticgame via 35 large TV screens.Sometimes, Philadelphia Flyerhockey players drop by for avisit. Local radio station WYSPfeatures programs originatingthere, where host Jay Broneconducts triva shows. EvenESPN-TV has signed to transmitfootball shows from 6 to 8 pm
every Thursday evening. LICK YOUR CHOPS
The diner, which immortal-izes everyone from MarilynMonroe and Jimmy Dean, to theFonz and Elvis - plus vintagecars - features 10 varieties offull meal salads for $10.99, witheach dish being sculpted as if itcame from an upscale establish-ment’s haute cuisine. There aredeli-style, hot, cold, club, wrapsand hot spec sandwiches, fromthe Italian Quesadilla to theSouth Philly-style Roast Pork.And while the last is spelledwith two ‘l’s, the Phily CheeseSteak Variety, all six of them,are spelled with one, in defer-ence to the diner’s name. Thereare four varieties of french fries,including the Pizza Fries, butthere are also 30 choices in theEarly Bird Special Dinner menu.There are Italian classics, classicAmerican favorites, items fromthe broiler and from the deepsea, omelettes of every nation-ality and a vast array of dessertsin the display case.
Since Phily Diner is a 24-hour operation, its breakfastmenu is impressive as well, withvarieties of french toast, hotcakes, malted waffles, blintzesand bagels, all at very reason-able prices.
The Phily Sport Bar menuseems saturated with the drinksat the bar, since names such asTequila Shrimp, Bourbon Ched-dar Steak Burger and Fire-Roasted Jack Daniels PorkChops. Here Fried Macaroni &Cheese balls in Marinara saucecompete with Crab Bay Chesa-peake Fries seasoned with crabspices and sea salt and CedarPlank Salmon, fire-roasted,rubbed with Dijon mustard andglazed with a sweet orangebourbon sauce. There are adozen varieties of pizza, fireroasted in the brick oven, oneof which, the Mediterranean,
would qualify for a more Hel-lenic name, what with its olivesand feta cheese toppings.
There are 55 varieties ofbeer, including several Chinese,and one by the name of 3Philosophers, an ample sam-pling of bourbons and whiskeysincluding scotch, cognacs, winesas well as house wines offeredby the glass, and mixed drinkssuch as 10 varieties of martinis,(with names such as Foul Playand Penalty Shot,) mixed drinkssuch as RBI and back checking.Frozen margaritas range fromTouchdown Dance to Back-stroke and even one called theOlympics. Everyone scores here.
Whatever Way you Slice it, Phily Diner is One for (Record) Books
Diner Manager Petros Katsimihas is flanked from left with oneof Sport Bar’s managers (first from left) and and waitress,while to his right, two more waitresses seemed to be preparingfor a Kalamatiano dance.
It’s All in the Tsoukalas Family, But Andrea Knows The Law
Alexander Tsoukalas with his daughter Andrea and grandson Apostolos.
To the dead poetof obscurity(In honor of the dead unpub-lished poet)
Well done!You have won!You should not feel sorry.Your unpublished poems- always remember -have not been buried,haven't bentunder the strength of time.
Like goldinside the soilthey remain,they never melt.
They may be latebut they will be givento their peoplesomeday,to offer their sweet,eternal essence.
Dimitris P. Kraniotis
GREEK POETRY
Andrea Tsoukalas has found a way to balance being a lawyerand a mother. Her son’s grandparents help her strike a balance.
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View of old diner entrance with vintage Ford Fairlane by itsside, bring back memories of the 1950s and car hops.
FEATURETHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010 7
tle near Syvota, which is citedin Book 1, paragraph 30: “TheCorcyraeans set up a trophy onLeukimme, a headland of Cor-cyra…”
Goussis finished junior highand high school with honors,and was given the honor ofholding the Greek flag duringparades and other nationalevents – a privilege reserved forthe top student in the class. Af-ter graduation, he went on toattend the Athens MedicalSchool, where he finished on ascholarship, after being amongthe top 20 students admitted.The Goussis family has a tradi-tion in the medical field, pro-ducing doctors and pharmacists,as well as lawyers. His fatherwas a pharmacist. When Goussisgraduated, he did his specializa-tion in Internal Medicine at theLaiko Hospital. “When my num-ber was called and I became asalaried employee, jealousiesbegan to develop and some folks‘ratted on me’ for not havingdone my regional residency,” heexplained. “In the meantime,the demonstrations at theAthens Polytechnic Universitytook place, and I got involvedtogether with some of my col-leagues, since we were all op-posed to the junta. A little whilelater, I quickly got a three-month tourist visa and a tem-porary passport. I had spokento some friends from Cleveland,Ohio. I had received a scholar-ship back when I was a student.Back then, they used to sendstudents to various places allover the world for a three-month postgraduate class. I didmine at a small private hospitalin Cleveland. Afterwards, I re-turned to Athens, and when Ifinished my specialization I re-turned to the United States forgood in 1975. The journey to-wards Ithaca was long and hard,like Cavafy says in his poem.”LONG WAY FROM HOME It was an Odyssey. “The first
five years were very hard forme,” he said. He would stay upall night on call every other day.“There were many times whenI would sleep only twice aweek,” Goussis said. “The workwas intense, the pay was low,and much like everybody else, Ifelt like a stranger. In order tosurvive, I made it my goal to beabove average and perform bet-ter than everyone else.” He qual-ified for a program that sent himto work at a hospital in Balti-more. After specializing in In-ternal Medicine, Goussis wenton to receive a second special-ization in Endocrinology, Dia-betes and Metabolism.
He also continued his school-ing in Florida, and then Califor-nia. “I had my best experiencethere,” he noted. “I dedicatedmyself to research – not onlyclinical, but lab (bench) re-search as well – and I publishedoriginal work on the thyroid andneurotransmitters in the brain,which are biochemical sub-stances (neuro-peptides andhormones) that allow nervecells to communicate with eachother.” The endocrine and ner-vous systems regulate almost allof the metabolic and homeosta-tic activities of an organism, de-termine the pace of growth anddevelopment, influence manyforms of behavior, and controlreproduction.
Upon the advice of hisfriends and acquaintances,Goussis came to New York. Hestarted off by working as an as-sistant professor of clinical med-icine at Robert Wood Universityin New Jersey. Following persis-tence, proper training, and hardwork, he made it to the top ofthe medical hierarchy, whilealso climbing up the social lad-der.
“I have always been uncom-promising for ethical and scien-tific principles, despite the factthat I’ve been subject to manydifferent sorts of pressures,” hesaid. During the last 15 years,he has had a private practice inGreat Neck, N.Y., specializing inEndocrinology, Diabetes andMetabolism. He has also con-tributed to the publication of re-lated articles on this issue. Heis also the co-author of ThyroidGland Abnormalities, in the En-docrinology textbook of theAmerican Association of ClinicalEndocrinologists and The Amer-ican College of Endocrinology,1999. The ACE, which is the ed-ucational and research wing ofthe American Association ofClinical Endocrinologists(AACE), has recognized Goussisas a Fellow, which is a majorhonor. Goussis has also servedon the board of directors of theHellenic Medical Society of NewYork, while also being a memberof various other professional or-ganizations, including the Nas-sau County Medical Society, theNew York State Medical Society,the American Diabetes Associa-tion, Fellow of the AmericanCollege of Physicians and Sci-entific Member of the EndocrineSociety. In 2009, he was recog-nized by St. Francis Hospital foroutstanding performance andlasting contribution to glycemic
control. Goussis says he loveshis specialty very much. “If adoctor has the necessary knowl-edge, experience, and decisionmaking skills, he can correctlydiagnose and treat many ill-nesses. Diabetes has become amodern-day epidemic. It is esti-mated that there are presently254 million people all over theworld who suffer from diabetes.This number is estimated togrow to 366 million by 2030. InAmerica alone, there are 23 mil-lion people with diabetes,” hesays. He also adds, “There are40 million in the United Stateswho are in a state of pre-dia-betes. This is what is known asmetabolic syndrome, which hasalso become an epidemic. Andso, if there are an estimated 300million people living in America,over 60 million of them are dia-betics. That is approximatelyone out of every five people.”
EATING FOR HEALTH This is the plague of the 21st
Century and has been namedthe malignant family of cardio-vascular disorders, including: di-abetes, hypertension, dyslipi-demia and heart disease.
According to Goussis, “Thecornerstone of treating diabetesis a good diet, exercise, thenproper pharmaceutical treat-ment. If diet and exercise fail,we move on to the drug therapy.Pharmaceutical treatments caninclude one type of medicine, acombination of two or three, in-sulin, or a combination of all ofthe above.” His office is locatedat 1010 Northern Blvd., Suite100 in Great Neck and can bereached by phone at (516) 773-6301. The office is equippedwith a state-of-the-art en-docrinology laboratory that pro-duces reliable results. The lab isstate and federally certified andchecked every year by variousorganizations to ensure that itoperates according to code andits results are accurate.
TNH asked Dr. Goussis whatmedicine means to him. “I hearit being said over and over thata doctor must be a person too,”he replied immediately. “I saythat he must be a good person,but also a competent physiciansimultaneously. These two areinseparable. They are inter-twined and linked together. Youcan’t be a good lawyer, a jour-nalist, or other professional ifyou’re only a good person, butremain a mindless and incom-petent individual. The sameprinciple holds true for a doctor.Knowledge is above all. Ofcourse, medicine is not a pro-fession. It is a vocation first, anda profession second. Sure, wehave to make a living too, butmedicine is a vocation. For youto perform a vocation, you au-tomatically need to be a personfirst. There are no dogmas inscience. You cannot be close-minded and headstrong. Youneed to have a broad knowledgebase, which you will tap into asa person.”
Goussis said he believes thatthe majority of doctors combinebeing scientists with being peo-ple. “However, there are in-stances where some people getcaught up in their profession forone reason or another. But thisis not entirely the fault of doc-tors. The system, the insurancecompanies, and the state are allat fault as well … When theycut your pay from your patientvisits, or raise your insurancepremium, or when they are con-stantly on top of your head look-ing for the slightest mistake, orwhen expenses go up, a profes-sional has no choice but to in-crease the number of patientshe sees. And that’s when thingsstart going wrong… perhapssome people unconsciously raisethe number of patients theytreat and lower the quality oftheir services. We are people.We need time. You cannot treat100 patients – and I’ve seen thishappen before – in one day. Thisis impossible. Medicine is a sci-entific study. That’s why, person-ally, I have a limited number ofpatients. I don’t treat more than10 per day. You cannot do a
good job when you’re in a rush,and working quickly to get toyour next patient…”
ACTS OF KINDNESSThroughout his professional
career, Dr. Goussis has wit-nessed plenty of human dramaand come across people with allkinds of health problems. “Thehuman element must be presentin a doctor during these casesespecially,” he said. “There aretimes when a doctor has noth-ing more to give but a little bitof humanity, and show his pa-tient some support. Science goes
as far as it can, and there is notmuch more you can do.”
Goussis has offered his ser-vices and medication to needypeople free of charge in manyinstances in the past. Therewere many times when hewould take entire cases of med-ication with him on boardOlympic Airlines flights for sickpeople in Greece. Goussis sayshe will never forget a 15-year-old adolescent he treated sixmonths ago.
“He was suffering from afever, fatigue, asthenia and las-situde for days. Despite his pros-tration and debilitation, theyoung man remained fully con-scious with an intact intellect,and this antithesis caught myattention. His parents stood athis bedside worried and fright-ened, and they had so manyunanswered questions. I saw mychildren, and all the children ofthe world, in the face of this sickboy. I saw myself as a parent inthe face of all the parents in theworld with the presence of theseparents who were so concernedfor their child. I suppressed myemotions in order to remain ob-jective, because his conditionwas going to affect my judg-ment. I wanted to apply my fullknowledge to this case, leavingmy emotions on the side. I re-member that Hippocrates wrotesomewhere in his famous oaththat ‘Life is short, the art long,the decision is difficult, and theexperiment perilous.’ Followingan extensive examination, hoursof review of the relevant litera-ture regarding his symptoms,and conversations with col-leagues, we were able to diag-nose a viral infection that wasbenign and self-healing, butcould have been dangerous if
undiagnosed. I was very happyabout the results, and I wouldn’ttrade the moral satisfaction thatI felt for anything.”
During the recent electionsat the Federation of HellenicAmerican Societies of GreaterNew York, Goussis was electedto the new board of directors.He told TNH that he dreams ofa brighter and better GreekAmerican Community. “I am aGreek and I have been raisedwith Hellenic Christian ideals,”he said. “I have grown up withGreek thought and education,
which I received from my familyand from school. But I can alsosay that I became more Greekliving here abroad, living closeto the Greek American Commu-nity. My heart and soul alwaysyearned to contribute to Hel-lenism. Greece has not onlybeen suffering lately from theeconomic crisis. It has alwaysfaced difficult moments andneeded help.”
Goussis has repeatedly of-fered his help to the GreekAmerican Community and Hel-lenism, through his service invarious organizational positionsin the Greek American Commu-nity.
“Recently, I have become in-trigued by the Federation of Hel-lenic Societies of Greater NewYork, because I saw that it has alot of potential. This organiza-tion can play a leading role inthe Greek American Communityif there is an end to infighting,bad communication, and the ex-isting divisions. A lot of myfriends and acquaintances askme why I got involved with theFederation, which is in badshape. But my thinking is thatif I stay out, and if other note-worthy people stay out as well,then we will never make anyprogress. And so, I decided tomake one final effort to helpmake things better. If we cannotachieve something all together,then we are victims of our self-ishness and regress instead ofprogress. If there is good collab-oration and communication,and we manage to make even asmall contribution, then we canimprove the situation.”
A RUN FOR THE AGES In recent months, Goussis
served on the FHSGNY ParadeCommittee. During one of the
public meetings where he madean appeal to support the annualjournal, he compared the GreekParade on Fifth Avenue to a pa-tient that needs financial helpand has only limited time to re-ceive treatment. “We are Hel-lenes, and this is a cause we cancontribute to,” he said.
In light of his well-knownlove for Greek history, he alsospoke about the 2,500 year an-niversary of the Battle ofMarathon, which was the sub-ject of this year’s Parade Jour-nal. Goussis called it a historicbattle for the freedom of Europeand the preservation of westerncivilization, averting the adul-teration of European civiliza-tion.
Goussis said he hopes he canoffer his services to the GreekAmerican Community throughthe FHSGNY as much and asbest as possible. That’s why hesaid he was particularly upsetand concerned when he foundout about a recent altercation-between two board members ata pastry shop in Astoria, whichresulted in Federation’s Secre-tary General Petros Galatoulasending up in the hospital forfirst aid treatment. “We said wewanted to make efforts to ad-vance the Federation a step fur-ther, not bring it a step back,”he said. Still, Goussis is quick tourge young people in the GreekAmerican Community to get in-volved in public affairs andshow interest in politics. “TheGreek American Communityneeds renewal, but it also needsto make its voice heard from thepublic forums of the country weare living in. The Greek Ameri-
can Community has enormouspotential. Let’s not forget thatwe are playing a leading role inthe field of education and areamong the most financially ro-bust ethnic groups in America.It is important that our voice beheard in American public af-fairs, for the good of the GreekAmerican Community, Greece,and our society.”
During his many speeches atFHSGNY events, Goussis hasspoken with passion aboutGreece, as well as the ancientGreek culture and philosophy,citing ancient proverbs. “That’show I was raised,” he replies. “Iwas influenced by my family.The pharmacy operated by myfather and uncle was the cul-tural center of Lefkimmi, so tospeak, as well as the medicalcenter. One of my uncles wasmore of an intellectual andphilosopher, and he has writtenquite a bit of literature, which Iwould one day like to publishand write an introduction for.”
There are four small statuesnext to Goussis’ desk: Hermes,the goddess; Hygeia, Socrates,and Hippocrates. He especiallyenjoys reading books on historyand philosophy, and some of hisfavorite authors include Aristo-tle, Thucydides, Herodotus, and
Plutarch. Nikos Kazantzakis isamong his favorite modern writ-ers. When asked what the Greeklanguage means to him, Goussisquickly replied, “It’s a gem, atreasure, a source of wealth. TheGreek language is the quintes-sence of Greek philosophy. It’ssad that education in Greece hasbeen warped over the past 15-20 years, which has resulted inthe destruction of the Greek lan-guage. There are problems herein the Greek American Commu-nity as well, because we are notin sync, and there are divisions.It is not possible for every indi-vidual organization, everybishop, every church, etc. to tryand set policy for Greek educa-tion. There needs to be coordi-nation on behalf of the Churchand the leaders of the GreekAmerican Community. Unfortu-nately, it is widely known thatthe Greek American Communityis lacking any concerted leader-ship. Just like Demosthenes saidin his Olynthiac speech: “Thereis a need for money.”
A FAMILY MAN Goussis has three children of
his own, Alexander, 20, Sophia,18, and Alexia, 13. Their photossit atop his desk. All three chil-dren have been raised with in-fluential Hellenic Christianideals, and for this he is alsograteful to his wife, Mary. Everyso often, as he speaks, he looksover at them with pride and pa-ternal love. “They travel toGreece every summer. They loveit there, and can’t wait to goback,” he said. Goussis says heis worried about the future ofHellenism in America. “I amafraid that it will degenerate ifwe do not take the appropriatemeasures,” he said. “I knowfrom seeing my friends, thatmany of their children do notlearn the Greek language anddrift apart from their roots. Thisis a difficult problem. Greekfamilies are busy, and things arenot like they once were, wheneveryone would send their chil-dren to Greek school, or sendthem on frequent trips toGreece. A lot of children todayattend public school, and theydon’t have any Greek Americanfriends. Without a good incen-tive, the youth is going to driftaway.”
However, Goussis said he re-mains hopeful that things in theGreek American Communitycan get better. “It has a lot ofpotential,” he said. “But it’s amatter of desire, finding theright people to reach an under-standing and lead in a coordi-nated way.” He also added thatthe FHSGNY, which is thelargest such federation of itskind in the U.S., must open itselfup more, both to the greaterGreek American Communityand mainstream American soci-ety as well. Goussis said he con-siders it essential for “societiesto work together and support alarger organization, whether itis the Federation or some othergroup, which can lead the Com-munity together with theChurch.”
In spite of the fact thatGreece is going through difficulttimes due to the economic crisis,and the Greek American Com-munity is confused and worriedover the fate of Greek teachersdispatched by the Greek educa-tion ministry to serve at localschools, Goussis notes that thereaction in the Community hasbeen faint to non-existent. “Theanswer is that there is no orga-nization in the Community,there is no leadership and astrong voice,” he said.
“I insist that there needs tobe some form of leadership,whether it comes from the Fed-eration or some other entitycombined. If everyone sets asidetheir egos and focuses on thecommon good, there is a greatdeal that can be accomplished.Nikos Kazantzakis writes in hisbook Spiritual Exercises, thatwhen man manages to defeathis ego, it is then that he be-comes human and is set free.Freedom lies in defeating ourego.”
Frixos Goussis: Physician, Philosopher – A Man With No EgoContinued from page 1
Dr. Frixos and Mary Goussis are seen here together with their children Alexia, left, Sophia, andAlexander.
www.GreekKitchennyc.com
George Delis, LLCConsultant, Public Relations
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1-917-696-0975
Dr. Frixos Goussis is seen here together with his wife Mary and parents Spiros and Sophia.
bought more than two dozen F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. ata cost of more than $1.5 billion.
"It's one thing to build sub-marines in Greece and createjobs, but right now the countryis under incredible financialpressure and it needs otherthings much more importantthan submarines, especially sub-marines that don't work," saidAndre Gerolymatos, who servesas a national security advisor toCanada, a National Heraldcolumnist and a professor of Hel-lenic studies at Simon FraserUniversity in Vancouver. He saidGreece is "being had by the Ger-mans. The Germans are scream-ing bloody murder about theGreek spending ... but they areone of the biggest problems," hesaid, by insisting Greece makecuts in social spending but in-crease defense spending to helpGermany, whose $30 billion inloans is the highest given Greecein the European Union, butwhich must be repaid with in-terest, so the Germans will makemoney both ways, on the loanand by getting Greece to buysubmarines.
Germany stalled approval onthe EU loans for months whileGreece almost went under, andGerman Chancellor AngelaMerkel had been the biggestcritic of Greek spending, settingoff a running war of words be-tween the countries. She told theGreek government "to do itshomework" and learn how to re-duce debt on one hand, butwanted Greece to buy Germanmilitary equipment on the other.France, too, is benefiting fromGreece's history of profligatespending and again with the he-licopter deals looming. Greek de-fense spending is about 2% ofGDP, far higher than the EU av-erage of less than 1.5%, and oneof the major reasons why theeconomy tanked over the years,along with successive adminis-trations packing public payrollswith unneeded workers. Evenhuge grants from the EU overthe years haven't saved Greece
The WSJ reported that theGerman submarine deal, an-nounced in March as the countrylurched toward bankruptcy, hascast a spotlight on the Greek mil-itary budget and on the foreignvendors supplying the hardware.The deal includes a total of sixsubs in a complicated transac-tion that began a decade agowith German firms. The paperfurther reported that the armssales are drawing heat fromTurkey, Greece's neighbor andarchrival. "Even those countriestrying to help Greece at this timeof difficulty are offering to sellthem new military equipment,"Egemen Bagis, Turkey's top EUnegotiator, shortly after the subdeal was announced. "Greecedoesn't need new tanks or mis-siles or submarines or fighterplanes, neither does Turkey."Greece's Deputy Prime Minister,Theodore Pangalos, said duringan Athens visit in May by TurkishPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Er-dogan that he felt "forced to buyweapons we do not need," andthat the deals made him feel "na-tional shame." Other Europeanofficials have charged Franceand Germany with making theirmilitary dealings with Greece acondition of their participationin the country's huge financialrescue. French and German offi-cials deny the accusations.AN ADMIRAL BAILS OUT A spokesman for Merkel said
the submarine transaction wasthe culmination of an old con-tract signed long before Greece'sdebt crisis. In May, France's de-fense ministry said Greek author-ities have confirmed their will-ingness to pursue talks onseveral arm-procurement deals,the WSJ reported. In May,Greece's economic crimes unitbegan investigating all weaponsdeals of the past decade, totalingabout 16 billion euros to deter-mine if Greece overpaid orbought unnecessary hardware.The WSJ added that Germanprosecutors are investigatingwhether millions of euros inbribes were paid to Greek offi-cials in connection with the subdeal. In May, the chief executiveof one of the German companieshelping to build the submarines,called Ferrostaal AG, resignedamid the probe. The submarinedeal led Vice Admiral SteliosFenekos to quit in disgust in lateApril. He told the WSJ he did soto protest the Greek defenseminister's decision to purchasethe subs, as well as other deci-sions taken in recent months thatFenekos said he considers politi-cally motivated. "How can yousay to people we are buyingmore subs at the same time wewant you to cut your salaries andpensions?" said Fenekos, in hisfirst interview with a reporter.He was referring to the govern-ment's 5% cut in most pensionsand even deeper slashes to pub-lic sector wages enacted in re-sponse to the crisis. The GreekNavy, he said, cannot afford tomaintain the additional sub-marines. It currently has eightsubs. A spokesman for the GreekMinistry of Defense said Fenekos'resignation was accepted. Instepping down, "Mr. Fenekos didnot refer to the submarine deal,"he said. The National Heraldalso contacted the Defense Min-istry but did not receive a re-sponse.
Ever since the end of WorldWar II, where Greece was a
strong ally of the United Statesand England, defense spendinghas been an ideological battle-field, first during the Cold Warand now as it said it needs tokeep defense spending high be-cause of a perceived threat fromTurkey - a fellow NATO memberand signer of an agreement thatit would not attack anotherNATO country. "I'm not sure it'srealistic to talk about Turkey oranyone else invading Greece,"Daniel Keohane, a Senior Re-search Fellow at the Paris-basedEuropean Union Institute for Se-curity Studies told The NationalHerald. He said there's a greaterworry about cyber attacks andthat countries continuing tobuild up their armaments are-outmoded in their thinking inthe 21st Century. "This kind oftraditional warfare thinking isobsolete," and he said buyingsubmarines particularly is "oldfashioned." The US and Russiaand other major powers use sub-marines to cover the world'soceans, while Greece's are lim-ited to the small area of theAegean and are easily detectableusing current sub-hunting tech-nology.
Keohane also questioned thewisdom of defense spending ata time when Greece, as well asother EU members, are havingtrouble paying their workers. "Itsnatural that defense spendingwould take a bit hit and whatmakes this confusing (in Greece)is that I'm not sure you'd wantto cut public spending more ifyou're buying a couple of sub-marines. There has to be a bal-ance and surely defense has tobe cut more because it's such arelatively high part of the budgetand I'm not sure I'd make sub-marines a priority," he said.
Kostas Ifantis, an analyst withthe Hellenic Centre for EuropeanStudies in Athens, said the sub-marine deal "runs in the face ofeverything right now. It's not agood decision ... it would be acommunications disaster" to sell
to a public which has alreadytaken to the streets six times ingeneral strikes this year toprotest cuts in public spendingand their salaries. "The questionisn't whether we need them ornot, but whether we can affordthem," he said of the submarines.
OLD WAR THINKINGAs the WSJ reported, Greece
became the first battleground inthe Cold War, with the U.S. back-ing anti-Communists in theGreek civil war in the late-1940sagainst Communist insurgents.The conflict led U.S. PresidentHarry Truman, in 1947, topledge unlimited military sup-port for nations under Commu-nist threat, known as the TrumanDoctrine. While the rest of West-ern Europe used U.S. aid to re-build its economy from the Sec-ond World War, in Greece, theemphasis was on building up themilitary. "Greece became thefront line in the Cold War, andthat began, right then and there,the Greek economic crisis of to-day," Gerolymatos told the WSJ.
By the mid-1950s, the U.S.pulled back aid, much of whichhad been in the form of militaryhardware, shifting much of theburden for Greek military spend-ing to Athens. By this time,Greece's worsening relationswith Turkey led to yet more armsspending. Despite being fellowmembers of the North AtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO,) thetwo nations are bitter rivals. Thediscovery of oil in the northernAegean Sea and disagreementsover territorial waters and air-space became the source of nu-merous-and expensive-alterca-tions between the two countries.An incident in 1996, involving aTurkish ship running aground ona rocky, uninhabited Greek islet,almost led to war. Greece laterthat year announced a 10-yearmodernization program of itsarmed services, costing nearly$17 billion. The U.S. over theyears, in the name of maintain-ing a military balance betweenits two allies, catered to the twoNATO members under a 7:10 ra-tio, meaning for every $7 milliondollars of equipment it sold toGreece it sold $10 million to themore populous Turkey.
It was in that environmentthat Greece in 1998 went shop-ping for submarines. It decidedon three German-built class-214submarines, a state-of-the-artdiesel-electric powered vessel,with the option of buying afourth-for a total of 1.8 billioneuros. The first was to be builtat the Kiel headquarters ofHowaldtswerke-Deutsche WerftGmbH, with the others built atthe affiliated Hellenic ShipyardsSA, in Skaramangas, Greece. Thearrangement, called theArchimedes Program, would pre-serve thousands of jobs at theGreek shipyard. Greek officialsin 2002 expanded it to includethe modernization of three olderclass-209 submarines -work tobe done at the Skaramangasshipyard using materials andhelp from the Germans. The in-crease would cost another 985million euros, the WSJ reported.
The German side consisted ofa company owned by Germantruck maker MAN SE, called Fer-rostaal, and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, now owned byThyssenKrupp Marine SystemsAG. (MAN has since reduced itsstake in Ferrostaal to 30%.) Thetotal cost of the new and reno-vated subs is 2.84 billion euros. BACKDATING, DOUBLE
DEALING As the military expenditures
rose, Greece's two main politicalparties used them as a politicalfootball, each trying to make thebudget deficit figures look worsewhen the other was in charge,the WSJ said in an analyticalpiece. When Papandreou's PA-SOK party Socialist governmentfirst bought the submarines, itpost-dated the accounting forthem to the day when the vesselswere to be delivered, rather thanwhen they were purchased, thepaper stated. The government atthe time was struggling to meetbudget criteria for entry into theeuro zone, which it joined a yearbehind other members in 2001.Pushing back the expenses sad-dled the Socialists' successors,the conservative New Democ-racy party, which came to powerin March 2004, with the bill. NDthen used a similar tactic, byretroactively accounting for theexpenditures on the date of pur-chase. That inflated the budgetdeficits of the previous govern-ment-while making it easier forthe New Democracy governmentto meet its own deficit goals.Both accounting methods at thetime were allowed by the EU, al-though European officials latercharged that Greece disguised itsdebt and lied about its economicstatistics to get into the Eurozoneof countries using the euro astheir currency. The resultingmassive deficit revisions Greecemade in 2004 for the previousyears- 4.6% of gross domesticproduct versus 1.7% for 2003 -triggered an investigation in2004 by Eurostat, the EuropeanUnion's statistics agency, to un-derstand what caused the revi-sions but there were no penaltiesagainst Greece, nor any sanc-tions, and EU officials later saidthe crooked book keeping con-tinued up until Papandreou tookoffice in October of 2009 andsaid he discovered the massiveeconomic mess - which EU offi-cials also said had been perpet-uated under previous PASKOKadministrations, during whichPapandreou served as foreignminister.
Military spending accountedfor nearly a quarter of the dif-ference in the 2003 figures, andeven more in revisions made onthe deficits for preceding years.
After PASOK returned topower in October 2009, it madea similar maneuver: It an-nounced the federal deficit wasmuch worse than the outgoinggovernment had let on, mainlydue to public hospital debts, set-ting in motion the financial cri-sis. Meanwhile, not one of thesubs had been delivered. WhenGreek officials traveled to Kielto test the first sub, called thePapanikolis, they said that theyfound that in certain sea condi-tions the submarine listed to theright. "The Navy said we cannotaccept this sub," said Fenekos,the admiral who recently re-signed. "But the politicians didnot want to stop it because they
needed the production for theworkers in the shipyard here,"he told the WSJ.
ThyssenKrupp Marine Sys-tems said the criticism was base-less and was made to delay pay-ment.
By last fall, Greece had paid2.032 billion euros, about 70%of the total owed. With the dealat an impasse, the German com-panies cancelled the contract.
Finally, in March, the twosides announced they had begunnegotiating a new deal. Insteadof having three older subs mod-ernized, just one would be mod-ernized, and Greece would buytwo additional new ones, bring-ing the total to six new sub-marines, costing a total of 1.3 bil-lion euros. Abu Dhabi MAR LLC,a shipbuilding company in AbuDhabi, would buy 75.1% of theGreek shipyard, with the ex-panded submarine deal a condi-tion of the sale. The Greek gov-ernment finally accepted the sub,with the understanding it wouldimmediately resell it. No deal hasbeen finalized. Greece's DefenseMinister, Evangelos Venizelos,speaking to the Greek Parliamentin March, explained that the dealwas an attempt to end the mess,to "sever the Gordian knot" thatthe new government had inher-ited. With 1,200 shipyard jobs atstake, Germany demanding con-cessions on the complex deal,and Greece having already paidtwo billion euros without receiv-ing a single sub, the new arrange-ment was necessary, he said. Butin February, just as a solution ap-peared to be at hand, Germanprosecutors in Munich beganturning up evidence of unsavorydealings, according to records oftheir investigation.
Ferrostaal executives autho-rized payments worth millionsof euros to politicians to win theinitial deal in 2000, through aGreek company called MarineIndustrial Enterprises, accordingto the Munich prosecutor'srecords. To do this, Ferrostaalused sham consulting contracts,according to the records. Thatcompany then distributed pay-ments to "officials and decision-makers" in Greece, according tothe records. The investigation isongoing. No charges have beenfiled. WERE THERE PAYOFFS?Adamos Seraphides, chair-
man of MIE Group Limited, asuccessor company to a divisionof Marine Industrial Enterprises,said he doesn't believe that thecompany's prior leadership wasinvolved in bribery, according tothe WSJ. In March, policesearched Ferrostaal offices, in Es-sen, seeking evidence of bribepayments. In May, several exec-utives stepped down. "Ferrostaalwill continue to pursue the in-tensive dialogue with the stateprosecutor's office in Munich andhas pledged full and comprehen-sive support and cooperation,"said a Ferrostaal spokesman.
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010 9
Did German Submarine Deal Help Torpedo the Greek Economy?
When Greek officials traveled to Kiel to test the German-builtsub, called the Papanikolis, they said that they found that incertain sea conditions the submarine listed to the right. Lucra-tive military deals illustrate how Germany and other creditorshave in some ways benefited from Greece's profligacy, andhow that is coming back to haunt them.
TNH ARCHIVES
Continued from page 1
officials had said they were un-happy the Cypriots let him go,especially given the gravity ofthe charges. The Greek Cypriotgovernment, in turn, said U.S.officials were slow to providedocuments that would havemade clear the importance ofthe suspect in their grasp. TheInterpol warrant, based on in-formation from the UnitedStates, did not list espionage inthe charges against him. “Weare clearly disappointed,” StateDepartment spokesman PJCrowley said, adding that Met-sos had “unnecessarily” beengiven the chance to flee and“did so.” The US view was con-veyed to the Cypriot govern-ment, Crowley said.
Cypriot authorities confis-cated Metsos’ laptop and severalUSB memory sticks at the air-port and say they will turn themover to the United States if theycontain data pertinent to theU.S. charges, which includemoney laundering and acting asan unregistered agent of a for-eign government. “We are in theprocess of finding out what isin the laptop,” police spokesmanMichalis Katsounotoss said. Asfor the spy swap, he said it hadno impact on the Cypriot inves-tigation. “We are not interestedin the political side,” Katsouno-tos said.
HOW DID HE DO IT? If Metsos fled Cyprus, as was
believed by local authorities af-ter days of searching, the keyquestion is to what extent, ifany, he received assistance.Canada said Metsos was usingthe identity of a dead Canadianboy, a fact that suggests he couldhave had access to other falsedocuments enabling him toleave the country with ease.
Metsos is believed to have sev-eral aliases, and spoke English,Russian and Spanish, a securityofficial said, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity because hewas not allowed to speak to themedia. The alleged spy was lastseen in a hotel in downtownLarnaca, where he placed theDo not disturb sign on the door-knob. Hotel staff said he took ashower but did not sleep in thebed, had two suitcases that dis-appeared with him, and no onesaw him leave. Cyprus, an islandin the eastern Mediterranean, isloaded with possible interna-tional exit routes. Those includethe airport on the edge of Lar-naca; another airport in Paphos,
a coastal town 90 minutes’ driveto the west; Larnaca’s marina orseveral other ports along theGreek Cypriot southern coast,home to thousands of privateboats and ferries to Greece andother countries. One way to dis-appear would be to cross intothe diplomatically isolated Turk-ish Cypriot north, whose airportonly has direct air links withTurkey. The island’s long politi-cal division could offer a fugitivecertain advantages, includingthe absence of international ex-tradition treaties in the Turkish-controlled north. Cyprus hasbeen divided since Turkey in-vaded in 1974 to foil an Athens-backed Greek Cypriot coupseeking to unite the island withGreece. The Greek-allied gov-ernment in the south, whichjoined the European Union in2004, is internationally recog-nized, while Turkey is the solenation to recognize the northerngovernment.
A FUNNY GUYUnlike his alleged co-conspir-
ators, Metsos did not live in theU.S., according to the FBI. In-stead, he allegedly deliveredcash to agents there, meetingone many times in New YorkCity and, on one occasion, bury-ing a package believed to con-tain money north of the city thatwas retrieved by another agenttwo years later. The criminalcomplaint against Metsos and
the 10 Russian agents suggestshe had a wry sense of humor.On March 31, 2002, at a meet-ing recorded and videotaped bythe FBI, a Russian agent usingthe alias of Richard Murphy toldMetsos that he was frustratedwith his job. “Well, I’m so happyI’m not your handler,” Metsosallegedly said. The FBI believeshe gave $40,000 to Murphy atthat meeting.
Metsos flew into Cyprus fromVienna on June 17. Larnaca res-idents who met him describedhim as quiet and unremarkable,walking around the city inshorts with the woman withwhom he planned to fly to Hun-gary. Hungarian police told TheAssociated Press they have noinformation on her. In the1990s, Metsos once said he wasColombian, which backs upother reports that he speaksSpanish. He studied for a semes-ter in 1994 at Norwich Univer-sity in Northfield, Vermont, ap-parently giving them a falseaddress and false phone numberfrom Bogota. It is not knownwhere he has been living re-centl, but analysts widely be-lieve Russia was his final desti-nation. “He’s got nowhere elseto go,” said Pavel Felgenhauer,a military analyst in Moscow.“Perhaps he’s here already.”
(Material from the AssociatedPress was used in this report.)
The Cypriot Spy Who Walked Out The Door
After intense pressure fromthe Greek American community,singer-actor Jennifer Lopez’s de-cision to withdraw from ascheduled concert in the Turkishoccupied side of Cyprus hasbrought her threats of a possible$40 million suit from the hotel’sowners unless she changes hermind. Lopez withdrew becauseshe said she didn’t want to becaught in a political maelstrom,according to Agence-FrancePresse (AFP.) She was to per-form at the Cratos Premium ho-tel and casino complex in Turk-ish-occupied northern Cypruson July 24, an event that GreekCypriots have said would fur-ther polarize the country, whichhas been divided since the1970s and whose northern re-gion is recognized only byTurkey. The decision sparkedoutrage among fans whoclaimed her performance wouldhelp legitimize Turkey’s occupa-tion of the region. After an on-line campaign by angry GreekCypriot fans, including a Face-book page against the concert,the Love Don’t Cost A Thingsinger cancelled.
Lopez’s representatives saidlast week that she would notperform the concert, citing “sen-sitivity to the political realitiesof the region.” But Murat Bo-zoglu, Chief Executive of thecompany that runs Cratos Pre-mium, told AFP that Lopez’scontract for the show had notbeen canceled. “If she does notshow up for the concert, we willbegin a procedure in the courtsto claim $35 to $40 million indamages,” Mr. Bozoglu said.
According to the owners ofthe resort where Lopez was toperform, politics matter muchless than the fine print of thesinger’s contract. “The cancella-tion ... is not covered by anyclause in the contract she signedwith us,” insisted Bozoglu, CEOof the Istanbul-based company.
On July 24, Lopez was due tomark her 41st birthday with thegig at the hotel-casino. Whilethe $220 million resort seemedlike an attractive prospect,Lopez seems to have neglectedthe delicate geo-political situa-tion in Cyprus. Turkey has heldthe north of the island since a1974 invasion, displacing about200,000 Greek-Cypriots andunilaterally claiming sover-eignty for the region.
Earlier this month, protesterscalled on Lopez to cancel herconcert. “After a full review ofthe relevant circumstances inCyprus, it was the decision ofher advisers to withdraw fromthe appearance,” read the state-ment on Lopez’s website. “Jen-nifer Lopez would never know-ingly support any state, country,institution or regime that wasassociated with any form of hu-man rights abuse.” Feza Firat,PR spokesman for Cratos, saidthat Lopez has been misin-formed about the situation inCyprus. She has been “led to be-lieve there (is) a war going on,”Firat said.
Continued from page 1
The alleged spy was lastseen in a hotelin...Larnaca, where heplaced the Do not disturbsign on the doorknob.
Turkish Cypriots Tell J. LoTo Return, Face the Music
Jennifer LopezAP PHOTO
EDITORIALS LETTERS10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010
Don’t Move the PolisFrom Constantinople
To the Editor:Theodore Kalmoukos’ article
on a New Polis in America (TNH,June 12-18) advocated the re-location of the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate to America along withthe building of a new SaintSophia Cathedral and the trans-fer of Chalki seminary to Boston.Yet, in spite of its long standingproblems, the Patriarchate does-n’t belong in America, no morethan the papacy. Historically andlegally, the Patriarchate is tiedto Constantinople as the Arch-bishop of New Rome and as de-fined by the ancient EcumenicalCouncils that established the Pa-
triarchate’s privileges and au-thority. Subsequently, even theOttoman Sultans acknowledgedthe Patriarch’s position, and infact expanded it within the wideexpanse of the Ottoman empire.Moreover, a Patriarchal presencein America would prove divisive,as there is considerable dissatis-faction within the Greek Ortho-dox community with the Patri-archal micromanagement of theChurch of the Americas and theabrogation of the 1977 charter.
In retrospect, the Chalki sem-inary (closed since 1970) shouldhave been moved years ago, butnot to Boston. Even if it was re-opened, the seminary would behostage to another closing. Twohistorical locations (among oth-ers) are excellent alternatives:Thessaloniki and the Island of Pat-mos, with its ancient monastery(designated a sacred island) andwhere St. John the Evangelistwrote his Book of Revelation.
Furthermore, in a worst-casescenario, if the Patriarchate wereto move, Thessaloniki and Pat-mos would be atlernative suit-able centers, especially the latter,being a highly revered universalChristian symbol. Meanwhile, aPatriarchal tenens would func-tion in Constantinople, main-taining a legal and historic ad-dress.
All this, of course, is a theo-retical and unlikely scenario, asthe Patriarchate through patient
negotiation and the force of in-ternational diplomacy could ef-fectively administer world-wideOrthodoxy from Constantinople,especially in this age of moderncommunication. Yet, these an-cient Christian locations wereemphasized because OrthodoxChristianity’s roots are in theEast.
Insofar as building a newchurch of Saint Sophia in Amer-ica, it would be ultra-expensive,while “The Great Church” in theOrthodox mind is Saint Sophiain Constantinople. OrthodoxChristianity has functioned wellwithout a Patriarchal Cathedral.
The Byzantine Empire, itslegends of the past and future,are in the history books where
they belong. What matters nowis the re-vitalization of OrthodoxChristianity.
And the first challenge is re-pairing the internal divisionswithin the [Orthodox world]and the Greek Orthodox com-munity in the U.S. with the fullrestoration of the 1977 charter,thereby unifying the churchfaithful.
Thus, a galvanized influentialchurch community in Americaunder the jurisdiction of the Pa-triarch, along with advancedcommunication technology,would play a dynamic rolewithin Christianity and the in-ternational community.
Chris C. ParkasNew York, N.Y.
The submarine scandal:Is nothing sacred anymore?
The revelations by none other than the Wall Street Journal thatGreek politicians were bribed with “millions of Euros” by a Germancompany that was contracted to build three new submarines forthe Greek navy that amounted to 3 billion dollars makes us sick.
What more can one expect after this?This could be, after all, the largest Greek scandal in recent
decades.The article is very specific in its allegations:Writes the Journal: “Ferrostaal executives authorized payments
worth millions of euros to politicians to win the initial deal in2000, through a Greek company called Marine Industrial Enter-prises, according to the Munich prosecutor's records.”
Amazing. You would think that this sort of story in one of themost respectable papers in the world would create a thunderstormin the Greek Media.
Well, think again. As of now the story was pick up by only oneof the papers, and there it was so downplayed that you had to lookhard for it to find it.
What in the world is going on?Corruption is one of the worst crimes that can be perpetrated
because it weakens the moral fabric of a society, it distorts her val-ues and the work ethic and the character of a people.
When it reaches the point that people in high state positionsthat have the authority to bind the country with billions of dollarsare bribed to saddle the country with submarines or airplanes orany type of military procurement that either is not needed, notfunctioning well or that requires 70% of its construction price upfront, then you know there is nothing sacred, that the country is indeep trouble.
It is also deeply worrisome to us that navy officers went alongwith the signing of this 3 billion dollar, wasteful contract.
What they should have done instead is to resign their commis-sion and publicly denounce the contract so as to protect theirhonor and the security of their country.
Retired vice admiral Stelios Fenakis should be complimentedfor resigning over the renegotiation of the contract and for speakingto the WSJ about it. However we must express our disappointmentover the reasons he gave for his resignation.
The point of essence is that that bribery is morally wrong andwhen it affects the defense and security of the country, it becomescriminal, if not treasonous.
The contract for building the submarines was signed in 2000,when another PASOK government, one headed by Kostas Simitis,was in power.
The political ramifications of this scandal are of little interest tous. What is important is that high elected and other state officials,as per the WSJ, enriched themselves illegally, hurting the interestsof the State in the process.
The revelations of this scandal might also force the ruling PASOKparty, to drop some of the “holier than thou” attitude it has put onfor these past nine months since assuming power. After all, not allscandals or the bankruptcy of the country can be the work of a sin-gle man, Kostas Karamanlis.
Let’s hope that the country has a prosecutor who will be honestand tough enough to take on these criminals and put them wherethey belong: behind bars.
Meanwhile the name of Greece was drawn through the mud,once again.
The canary in the coal mine Greek Americans, more so than others, will be following the
state of affairs in Greece for a long time. Meanwhile while we waitfor our own recovery, having gone trough our own near melt down,we wonder what the Greek crisis suggests for the rest of the world,including us.
As the Greek crisis turned into the P.I.I.G.S. crisis, and then thealarms bells rang for the Euro and Europe as a whole, Greeceseems to have shifted in the world’s view from profligate to the ca-nary in the coal mine: a warning of the fiscal and economic disastersthat await all of us. As globalization has changed the world, havewe too been living beyond our means?
When a democratic country sees dangers ahead, it must asktwo questions: one, what actions must we take to avert disaster,and two, how to take action that is fair, where sacrifices are sharedand opportunities are preserved for all.
Since democracies operate through political rivalries, a spirit ofcompromise and cooperation is required among parties to emergefrom crises.
A long term view is needed based on patriotism and politicalcommon sense: it is inevitable that a party will lose elections sometime in the future, so unending attacks on the other party and re-fusual to compromise and cooperate lest the governing party getsmore credit is destructive.
The history books show that most states do not adjust, but thereare good reasons to believe American exceptionalism will serve usin these matters as well. America is still the world’s leading inno-vator and in theory, an innovative society can stay ahead of thelow-cost production wave. That means continuing to cultivate thebest and the brightest through investment and improvement inour education system and, as we wrote in last week’s editorial, byresolving our immigration issues because if your educational systemis not what it should be, especially in math and science, attractingscientists and engineers from abroad is a matter of economic lifeand death.
There is also a spiritual component to adjustment. Countriescan avoid a decline in living standards and social upheaval, butthey may have to modify the meaning of well-being. The affluentand the middle classes who ape them may have to redefine thegood life from maximizing the amount of goods they possess. Thatwould also solve some of our environmental problems.
Looking at the numbers, the only crystal ball we have, there isno substitute for compromise based on common sense. Lets makeit the new patriotism.
With astute policies born of compromise and cooperation, Amer-ican will ride out this period of modesty, and be prepared for thenext boom, which may well be the greatest of all.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ΛΟΓΟΣ
SANTA FE- “Freedom is just an-other word for nothing left tolose,” suggested the late JanisJoplin in song lyrics written byKris Kristofferson. I could notdisagree more. Having onceagain celebrated the 4th of Julyholiday should help, one wouldthink, to remind us that freedomis not something that should betaken for granted or about whichwe should ever become compla-cent. Indeed, for most people thevery prospect of losing our basicfreedoms in the United States isdifficult to imagine and wetherefore do tend to take themfor granted, don’t we? Whileknown as Independence Day, fol-lowing and honoring the Decla-ration of Independence, the 4thof July could as well be calledFreedom Day because that is re-ally what it is all about. Unfortu-nately, I’m not sure that mostAmericans truly appreciate andfully understand the signifi-cance—and, yes, the deepermeaning—of this special date inthis nation’s relatively short his-tory (especially when comparedto places like Greece.) Over theholiday weekend, I read,watched, and listened to manymedia reports, stories, memo-ries, and opinions about themeaning of July 4th. For themost part, I got the impressionthat the historic and societal sig-nificance of Independence Dayhas been overshadowed by su-perficial, and even materialistic,concerns. Besides fireworks andoutdoor barbecues, the 4th ofJuly for many, if not most, Amer-icans is about getting togetherwith family and friends for along weekend (and time awayfrom work.) Like Pavlov’s dog,Independence Day for many isnow just a recognized stimulusinvoking a habitual, conditionedresponse along with an excuse tohave a good time. The underly-ing rationale and real purposefor the celebration have gottenlost over time in the Sisyphean
quest for happinessover meaning in ourpostmodern world.And this is too bad,for as Sir WinstonChurchill wisely ob-served, “A nationthat forgets its pasthas no future.”Against this back-drop and as athoughtful re-minder, the intro-duction to theDeclaration of Inde-pendence containsthe followingwords: “We holdthese truths to be self-evident,that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by theirCreator with certain unalienableRights, that among these areLife, Liberty and the pursuit ofHappiness.” To be sure, these arepowerful and inspirationalwords for they help to establisha platform upon which all demo-cratic societies may be built(Thank you, Greece!) However,true freedom in a democracycannot be found in, nor can itrest solidly upon, a foundationcomprised only of inalienablerights, no matter how well in-tended or thoughtfully craftedand espoused. In the spirit of In-dependence, i.e., Freedom, Day,the world-renown Viennese psy-chiatrist and philosopher, ViktorFrankl, warned us years ago that“freedom threatens to degener-ate into mere license and arbi-trariness unless it is lived interms of responsibleness.” Truefreedom, in other words, is not“just another word for nothingleft to lose,” as Joplin andKristofferson once tried to haveus believe. On the contrary, theword freedom implies that wehave everything to lose, espe-cially if we don’t take our role ina democratic society seriously. Itis a fundamental value that mustbe cherished and protected byeach and every one of us at all
times. And this nec-essary pre-condi-tion of democracycan only—and willonly—exist if wehold ourselves andour fellow humanbeings responsible.And that responsi-bility includes re-membering andprotecting the truemeaning of Inde-pendence Dayevery July 4th andday in-between.
Even thoughFrankl, who had
experienced the horrific loss offreedom in the Nazi concentra-tion camps during World War II,enjoyed his time spent in Amer-ica and admired a great dealabout it, he was not shy aboutcriticizing the popular under-standing of some cherishedAmerican values, such as ournotion of freedom. He took ex-ception, for instance, to whatappeared to be a commonly ac-cepted view of equating free-dom with a license to dovirtually anything that onewants. On the contrary, toFrankl, freedom without re-sponsibility is an oxymoron.That is why he liked to say thatthe Statue of Liberty on the EastCoast should be supplementedby a Statue of Responsibility onthe West Coast.
And Frankl was by no meansalone in his penetrating analy-sis of what true freedom re-quires both to create andsustain it. Another well-knownfigure who is intimately famil-iar with the delicate balanceand causal relationship be-tween freedom and responsibil-ity is Nelson Mandela, thebeloved former president ofSouth Africa and winner of theNobel Peace Prize. Mandela,who was imprisoned for 27years on Robben Island, endshis autobiography, Long Walk
to Freedom, with the followingpowerful and meaningfulwords: “But I can rest only fora moment, for with freedomcome responsibilities, and Idare not linger, for my longwalk is not yet ended.” BothFrankl and Mandela certainlyare inspirational role modelsfor the rest of us. Each man’shonorable life and legacydemonstrates how the Greekvirtue of philotimo can beplayed out in real time. More-over, these are people whomanifest an authentic commit-ment to meaningful values andgoals of which true freedomwas paramount. The ancientGreek philosopher and mathe-matician, Pythagoras, who ar-gued that, “No one is free whois not a master of himself,”could well have been referringto Frankl and Mandela. In thisregard, it was Frankl, after en-during the unthinkable duringthe Holocaust, who penned thefollowing advice: “Everythingcan be taken from a man but…the last of the human free-doms—to choose one’s attitudein any given set of circum-stances, to choose one’s way.”
True freedom, including thatwhich comes from our choice ofattitude, requires responsibility.Now that Independence Day wasmarked, let’s remember to listento freedom’s cry and assume theresponsibilities, both individu-ally and collectively, that comewith it. And let’s remember thatfreedom is not just another wordfor nothing left to lose, or wecould lose everything.
Dr. Pattakos, author of Prisonersof Our Thoughts, is working ona business initiative and bookon how to live a happy, healthy,meaningful life inspired byGreek culture. Readers may con-tact him at: [email protected] or visit hisweb site: www.prisonersofour-thoughts.com.
Freedom is Not Just Another Word If You Lose it
COMMENTARY
By John Kanelis
I’ve noted this before, but it’sworth repeating. A great Amer-ican died 32 years ago today.How fitting it was that shewould leave this earth on theFourth of July, 1978. And, dareI say, it’s as fitting as the deathsof two other great Americans,Thomas Jefferson and JohnAdams, who died on the sameday, July 4, 1826, exactly 50years after ratifying the Decla-ration of Independence. But thegreat American who deservesmention today wasn’t famousthe way Jefferson and Adamswere famous. Yes, she wasknown by everyone who livedon her street in southeast Port-land, Ore., where she lived withher beloved husband, andwhere she reared three children- a daughter and two sons. Thisgreat American’s daughter wasmy mother. And I think daily ofmy grandmother, just as I recallmemories of my late parents.
Diamontoula Panesoy Filipuwasn’t the daughter of pioneer-ing Americans. She was an im-migrant, who came here in theearly 20th century. She floated
across the Atlantic Ocean on alarge boat, presenting her pa-pers to immigration agents atEllis Island, N.Y. She had about$100 in her purse. As she pre-pared to board a train, sheasked someone how long itwould take to get to Portland,forgetting, I guess, to clarifywhether it was one in the Maineor in Oregon. The stranger said“four hours.” Well, she steppedoff the train four days later. Butmy grandmother was nothing ifnot intrepid.
My grandmother, like all fourof my grandparents, was aproud Greek. She grew up inTurkey, but fell in love with amerchant sailor - my grandfa-ther - and decided to follow himfrom the land of her birth to theLand of Opportunity. And shenever - not once - looked back.Her grandchildren called her Yi-ayia, which is Greek for grand-mother. The neighbors - espe-cially the kids - all along herstreet called her that, too. Sodid the store clerks where sheshopped for groceries. Yes, shewas a proud Greek. But she wasa prouder American. She andmy grandfather became U.S. cit-
izens when my grandfather en-listed in the U.S. Army near theend of World War I. And I defyanyone to produce an Americanwho was prouder of her countrythan my grandmother. I cannotspeak for my grandfather, be-cause I didn’t know him; he diedwhen I was about three weeksold, but family members havetold me over many years thathe, too, loved this country evenmore than the country of hisbirth.
Yiayia loved to vote. Shecherished the electoral process.She was a staunch Democratwho revered FDR and JFK.We’re talking a lot these daysabout immigration. The debateis keyed, of course, on illegalimmigration. All of my grand-parents came here legally, so themeat of this debate isn’t aboutthem precisely. But as is oftenthe case, such debate about im-migration occasionally straystoo far. Narrow-minded nativistshave this habit of suggestingthat the United States of Amer-ica has enough immigrants. Let’sslam the door in the face ofeveryone who seeks a better life,they say.
Let’s apply that logic to thevery founding of this Republic.Every single one of the Founderswere the direct descendants ofimmigrants. Just where wouldwe be today without these bril-liant minds crafting a governingdocument that would be themodel for the world to follow?Yiayia did not achieve greatnessthe way we usually measure it.But she did fall instantly in lovewith this country and vowednever to return to the land sheleft. She was home.
My grandmother, and themillions of others who came tothese shores, deserve our eter-nal thanks for the choice theymade to come here. As mygrandmother’s story would at-test, those who risked every-thing to come here oftendemonstrate their patriotism inways that we “natural-born” cit-izens never can understand.Make no mistake: I am thinkingfondly of a great American onthis Fourth of July.
John Kanelis is editorial pageeditor for the Amarillo, TexasGlobe-News. Reprinted by per-mission.
Remembering a Great American – From Greece
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VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010 11
A recent debate in the elec-tronic edition of the Economistquestions whether a single ver-sion of English ought to bemade uniform among all of theworld’s English-speaking na-tions. But before that questioncan even be seriously addressed,one of those nations – theUnited States – needs to estab-lish English as the official lan-guage within its own borders.Some Americans and citizensround the world alike might besurprised to learn that althoughEnglish remains the world’smost widely-utilized tongue, atleast in terms of political andeconomic communication andtransaction, here in the UnitedStates it is merely the mostwidely-spoken, but certainly notour country’s official language.But it should be.
It is less important what lan-guage is the official one inAmerica, or in any country forthat matter, than that an officialone is actually designated. Forpractical and historic reasons, itmakes the most sense that if asingle language is chosen, Eng-lish ought to be the one. Inter-estingly, many of our FoundingFathers were fluent in Greekand Latin, and almost selectedGreek as the language in whichthe United States Constitution,and all laws and other docu-ments that flowed from it,would be written. In their effortsto establish a republic rooted indemocratic processes, theFounders sought to pay homageto democracy’s birthplace. Inany case, as English was themost widely-spoken language inthe American Colonies, and be-cause the Colonists were sub-jects of Great Britain until theywon their independence, Eng-lish became our nation’s preem-inent language.
That no official language hadbeen established in the UnitedStates was not a problem untila few decades ago, and theproblem has gotten worse eversince. Lack of an official lan-guage translates to lack of stan-dards and runs contrary to anysense of public order. It invitesthe substitution of any languagefor English in virtually any situ-ation. Taken to the extreme, itcould mean that one day, ourPresident and the 535 membersof Congress will each speak aseparate language, and wouldthereby be incapable of under-standing one another. Such ascenario would certainly give anentirely new meaning to theterm “gridlock.”
The desire to establish an of-
ficial language inthe United Statesis a very straight-forward matter.Simply put, for thesake of consis-tency, there oughtto be one commonlanguage thateveryone is ex-pected to read,write, and speak.Beyond that,Americans are freeto learn as manyother languages asthey can, and forthe sake of intel-lectual growth, ought to be en-couraged to do so. Unfortu-nately, there are folks who havepoliticized the English languageissue, labeling its proponentsracist and anti-immigrant. Theycounter with such accusationsparticularly when objections aremade to the standard telephonegreeting: “for English, press ‘1’;par Espanol, oprima numerodos (for Spanish, press ‘2’.)” Anysuggestion that governmentagencies should not use thatgreeting on their voicemail ismet with charges of anti-His-panic sentiment. Statistically,that may be true in some cases.
Some closet racistsand xenophobes,too cowardly to ad-mit their twistedrage toward anyonedifferent fromthemselves, mighttry to hide behindthe English lan-guage movement inorder to perpetuatetheir hidden beliefs.But none of thatshould detract fromwhy bilingual voice-mails at govern-ment offices is badfor America.
WHY CODDLE HISPANICS?First, it makes it convenient
for folks whose primary lan-guage is Spanish to obtain an-swers to their questions withouthaving to struggle with the Eng-lish option. The problem is, themore “press 2” situations thereare, the longer it will take themto learn English. After all, when-ever I buy a new gadget, I readthe instruction manual in Eng-lish, as opposed to trying to readit in Japanese with an English-Japanese dictionary by my side.And if I have to multiply 17,272by 936, I use a calculator. Ne-cessity is the mother of inven-
tion, whereas convenience is theenemy of enlightenment. Re-cently-immigrated Greeks, Ko-reans, Poles, and Slavs all haveto learn English more quicklythan their Hispanic counter-parts, because they don’t havethe option of pressing “2.” Why,then, should Hispanics be cod-dled, and thereby impeded intheir progress to assimilate lin-guistically.
Second, why choose Spanishas the “2” option on the voiceprompt? Why not French, Ger-man, Swahili, or Urdu? If thereis only one option, English, theneveryone is equal in that every-one must speak it. If conve-niences are allowed for the in-clusion of one foreign languageas opposed to others, doesn’tthat send a message of ethnic-based discrimination?
My father, who was born andraised in Greece, spoke Englishfar more correctly than the typ-ical native-born American, letalone transplanted immigrant.He didn’t learn his Englishthrough magic; he learned itthrough hard work. By stayingup reading night after nightstudying in his sister’s home,where he lived when he first ar-rived to this country, while sheher husband, and their childrenall slept. He read and read, andthen he read some more. Andhe mastered the English lan-guage. My dad was not the onewho taught me how to speakEnglish, however. He did notwant me to learn it from him,so as not pick up his foreign ac-cent. He preferred that I learnit from my American-bornteachers. “You’ll learn Englishin school,” he used to tell me.And I did. Bilingual programswere not an option for me,thank goodness. Accordingly, Iwas able to write this columnwithout the use of a dictionary.I believe that every American –whether natural born or other-wise – deserves the samechance. To make that possible,we need to stop treating our for-eign-born brethren with kidgloves, and realize that they aresmart enough and capableenough to learn our language.
Constantinos E. Scaros is a pub-lished author and expert inAmerican presidential history,with a background in AncientGreek history. He has taughthistory, political science, andlaw at New York University, andserved as an Academic Dean attwo other colleges in New York.He welcomes comments at hisblog at scaros.blogspot.com
Press 1 for English: Press 2 for English – Press 3 Too
In the UnitedStates, where thereactually is democ-racy, unlike placeswhere Americanpoliticians try to in-still it, such as Iragand Afghanistan, orin the countrywhich created it –Greece – the Presi-dent can try to ca-jole, berate, per-suade, harangue,threaten, intimi-date, or drop hintsabout the way hewants a member ofCongress to vote. Then he canbe told no, even by members ofhis own party and he can’t dosquat about it.
In Greece, if a Member ofParliament doesn’t vote in rub-berstamp, jackbooted lockstepwith the Prime Minister they arekicked out of the party beforeyou can say dictator. So makeno mistake: Prime MinisterGeorge Papandreou may speakin stage whispers and float likea butterfly, but he stings like abee if you cross him – just asdid all his predecessors, becauselawmakers in Greece arehostages to their parties andhave no say – none – in whathappens. They are just courtjesters knocking down big bucksfor keeping seats warm, if theybother to show up.
The last person to test thissystem was Dora Bakoyianni,once on the verge of becomingPrime Minister herself until she
learned complacency isn’t agood way to advance your po-litical career. While Papandreoukeeps the somnambulist Social-ists in line, New Democracy, theconservative party she handedover to Antonis Samaris by de-fault, operates under the samenon-principles, allowing noroom for free will. WhenBakoyianni, showing the samedeath wish as the party’s formerleader, Costas Karamanlis, votedagainst New Democracy’s oppo-sition to Papandreou’s guillotin-ing of workers salaries andrights, she was shown the doorby Samaris. That happened toa woman who served as a for-eign minister, is a daughter of aformer prime minister, wasmayor of Athens and on theForbe’s list of the World’s 100Most Powerful Women. You canimagine the fate of back-benchers in the Parliament,which is most of them, so theydo as they’re told and like it.Don’t think so? Two other NewDemocracy members who testedthis system by voting with herand against the party also wereejected faster than from an F-16 in free fall. Name them.
You can’t really ask people tovote their conscience if theydon’t have one. Papandreou waselected last October under theSocialist platform of helping thepoor and workers, blah, blah,blah, but once he figured outthat Karamanlis’ scandal-riddencrooks were cooking the booksand Greece was broke, he wenthat-in-hand to the EuropeanUnion and International Mone-tary Fund (IMF) for a handout.It was a mathematical necessity,and all he had to do was sell hisSocialist soul, which he didfaster than LeBron Jamesditched the Cleveland Cavaliersof the National Basketball Asso-ciation for money, which is allthat counts in the world of thepoliticians and rich. They arejust more ruthless than peoplewith consciences, but you can’tblame them too much becausethat part of their brain was miss-ing at birth.
Papandreou loves to give in-terviews to newspapers and me-dia who pat him on the back somuch he stopped doing it him-self, so he wasn’t about to looklike a weakling when it came tolosing his pension reform laws
that will requirepublic workers tostay in their posi-tions, mostly in asupine position,until they’re 65. It’snot a bad idea, ex-cept for certainprofessions, suchas teachers, whohave to put up withyour children andyou really can’t askthe babysitter tostay 40 years orthey’ll throw them-selves off cliffs likelemmings. Papan-
dreou doesn’t have the testicularfortitude to do what’s really nec-essary, getting rid of the dregsand driftwood, which is abouthalf the 1.2 million civil ser-vants, so he’s fining all of themby cutting their pay, alreadyamong the lowest in the Euro-pean Union, and chaining themto their desks. He said for everyfive that leave by attrition, suchas retirement, the governmentwill hire one. Here’s an idea:hire NONE until you bring thelevels down to where they be-long. He can’t sell that idea be-cause his PASOK party, alongwith New Democracy, use publicpatronage jobs as their own pay-off hiring service for supporters,so that leaves cutting their payand pensions, antithetical to So-cialism, but who cares? In atime when there’s 12% unem-ployment in the private sector,there’s near 0% unemploymentin the public sector because youcan’t fire someone unless they’recaught in bed with a live boyand a dead girl, although thatwouldn’t get a politician prose-cuted.
Six general strikes have donenothing except kill three inno-cent bank workers, and all 2.5million public and private work-ers in Greece could hold theirbreath until they turn blue orimmolate themselves, Buddhist-monk style, in front of the Par-liament where politicians hide,and it wouldn’t register on po-litical monitors. The govern-ment would prefer it actually,because that would leave fewerworkers to pay. But to make surehe got his way with the pensionreform, Papandreou had to reinin a couple of seeming rebels,including Economy MinisterLouka Katseli, said to be un-happy with how Draconian herparty has become toward work-ers. A few would-be followersin Parliament wouldn’t followher Spartacus act though, so all157 remaining PASOK lawmak-ers did as they were told andvoted for the bill they didn’t be-lieve in, more profiles incourage. Before the vote, oneSocialist member, PanayiotisKouroumplis, hinted he mightnot go along with the strong-arm tactics. “I expressed myvery strong reservations to anumber of articles. Criticism canbe helpful ... We are not livingunder colonial rule,” he said.Yes, we are. He voted for thebill he didn’t like. Figure outwhy. It starts with a capital P.
Not always, as the healthcare bill proved, but in theUnited States Congress, Repub-licans and Democrats occasion-ally cross the aisle to vote forsomething they believe in, evenif their party doesn’t. You can’tdo that in Greece because underthe seats in Parliament there’s asecret tank filled with sharks,and if you vote the wrong wayyou wind up seafood, whichgoes swell with ouzo though,and with a politician you don’thave to worry about pickingbackbones out of your teeth.
The Parliament did amendPapandreou’s Pension Act morethan 50 times, none of whichhelped workers. Just as he didwhen he said Greece had to fol-low the demands of the EU andIMF to make severe cuts forworkers, he said he had nochoice but to expel party mem-bers who didn’t do what he said,sounding a lot like former Russ-ian President Vladimir Putin,who didn’t actually have to saythat, because he just pointed inthe direction of Siberia. “The fu-ture of our country is at stake.This is no time for narrow-minded political games,” Papan-dreou said, hoisting himself onhis own petard because if youbelieve telling people not to votetheir conscience isn’t a politicalgame then change your nameto Ephialtes. “Voting in favor ofthe pension-reform bill is a voteof responsibility by all lawmak-ers toward Greek society andthe next generations,” which,mathematically speaking, wastrue, although by then therewon’t be anybody left in Greeceexcept reduced-benefit pension-ers because the young and thesmart are busy booking ticketsto elsewhere in Europe, and tothe US, where there’s opportu-nity – and democracy.
Democracy in Greece? Don’t Vote on It
LETTER FROM ATHENS
by ANDYDABILIS
Special to The National Herald
Most readers of this newspa-per, given the significant pro-portion of entrepreneurs in theirnumber, should agree that rely-ing on accountants will not helpan enterprise survive a crisis.The accounting profession onlyknows how to minimize costs.It lacks the tools to grow rev-enues. Unfortunately for Greece,the International MonetaryFund (IMF) and the EuropeanCentral Bank (ECB,) the insti-tutions that determine the rulesfor Athens to work its way outof the current crisis are run byaccountants, albeit with PhD’s.They demanded the Greek Gov-ernment slash public sector ex-penses primarily by drasticallyreducing the income of publicsector employees and pension-ers. We should not blame theaccountants because they lackthe culture and background todo anything else. Austerity de-mands cuts; accountants do notknow how to measure a regimethat aims to grow a productiveeconomy. In the Greek case,they justifiably would have re-fused to believe any promisesmade by a political system thathad cooked the books so sys-tematically since 1975.
Unfortunately, the reality inGreece is that public sector em-ployees are already the worstpaid in the Eurozone. Greecehas too many poorly paid publicsector employees. No wonderthat the Greek civil service hassupplemented its income fordecades through an intricateweb of corruption, obstruction-ism, and other multiple layersof obstacles designed to pro-duce, at the end of the process,a small envelope filled withcash. This process has not onlyinhibited the growth of new in-dustry and business but also de-stroyed the quality and prof-itability of existing industries.The corruption permeates everylevel of the Greek bureaucracyfrom political party leaders toMinisters of Defense throughdoctors in IKA hospitals to civilservice trade union leaders tothe lowly highway toll collector.The best solution, to fire theuseless half of the 1.2 millioncivil servants was legally impos-sible. Nor would it have beenpossible to formulate a programto make the remaining bureau-cracy business-friendly thatcould have been sold credibly
to the IMF andECB.
Unlike mostother countries indebt crisis today,Greece’s problemsstem almost en-tirely from a dys-functional govern-ment. The Greekprivate sector canarguably claim tobe among themost productiveon the face of theearth. Official in-ternational statis-tics put Greece atbetween 22nd and 28th in percapita national income world-wide. That, by the way, is basedon declared income and weknow that Greeks lie. A bankerclaims that only six Greeks de-clared more than a million Eurosincome last time anybodycounted and only another 85 de-clared more than half a million.No one believes that either.Greeks have one of the lowestratios of private debt in the de-veloped world: equal to just 61%of GDP, compared to Americanhousehold debt of 95.7% of GDP.
The top four Greek banks neverheld toxic assets and have morethan 165 billion euros on de-posit; this in a country wheremost Greeks keep most of theirmoney abroad. Without bela-boring the issue, Greece also hasextremely low corporate andbank debt relative to GDP and atotal debt to GDP ratio approxi-mately half that of the UK or theUS. Greece ranks low only on itssovereign debt/GDP ratio.
The question today is how toensure that Greece will not onlydig its way out of the sovereigndebt crisis but to do so in a waythat the Greek economy is puton a solid footing for the future.In other words, how do wechange Greece’s political cul-ture? The current Greek govern-ment surprised everyone bytackling the problem head-on.It announces new reform almostevery other hour. At the end of
June, the govern-ment pronouncedan end to publicguarantees on utili-ties' debt, thusputting an end tocontinuous salaryincreases demandedby the unions. PrimeMinister George Pa-pandreou’s SocialistPASOK has exhib-ited a heavy-handedapproach to tradeunions that eludedthe hapless “pro-business” CostasKaramanlis New
Democracy government. The taxauthorities descended on the of-fices of the main dockworkers'union - the union that has beencausing so much trouble at Pi-raeus harbor in the last sixmonths – to conduct an emer-gency tax audit. This is the firsttime the union has been tax au-dited and the audit has alreadyunearthed a nine million Europersonal bank account of a se-nior union official. Numerousother well-known personalitieshave been publicly shamed andindictments are pending againstscores of very rich tax evadersThe government has also pro-posed radical overhauls of thepension and health care systemsbut it can only succeed if it sat-isfies the public’s demand for re-venge on the fat cats.
So, things are moving at arecord pace. The question, ofcourse, is not passing legislationbut execution and implementa-tion. One factor, however, is stillmissing; how does the Greekgovernment encourage industri-alization and economic growth.In this case, it should take apage from the German book. Ittook a German coach to lead arather boring and lacklusterfootball team to win the Euro-pean cup in 2004. Why not aGerman coach for industry?
Greece’s industry resembledthe industrial set-up in Germanyuntil the mid-1970’s. A goodnumber of small but profitableestablishments produced a widevariety of consumer, industrialand military goods. However,Greek industry failed to copewith EU accession and global-ization while the Germans pros-pered. The Greeks took a pagefrom the American book, puttheir faith in an untrammeled
free market, gave priority toconsumerism and abjured gov-ernment intervention. It shouldnot surprise us that like theUnited States, Greece industrytanked.
The Germans, on the otherhand, developed a tight indus-trial-labor-governmental nexusthat made German industry apowerful competitor againstlower cost foreign competitors.Germany has evolved a systemof state support for a complexinstitutional infrastructurewhich helps a broad spectrumof companies respond to pres-sure from international compe-tition and the labor constraintsby providing them with theskills, financial and technologyresources needed to pursuequality-competitive strategies.This industrial policy reliesheavily on decentralized insti-tutions such as industry associ-ations and local chambers ofcommerce and banks, is partic-ularly important for Germany’shighly productive small industrysector (the so-called Mittel-stand,) which faced the samedisadvantages of scale vis-à-vislarger companies that con-fronted the corresponding sec-tor in Greece. The Germansproved that Big is not alwaysBetter. Ideologically inclinedAmerican economic pundits crit-icize the German model as stag-nant and uncompetitive becauseit protects workers. Yet there isno evidence that it has madeGerman industry uncompetitivewhile ensuring that Germanyhas a much smaller inequalityof incomes than the UnitedStates.
The Germans have relishedcastigating and demeaning theGreeks for the current crisis;they have not shown any will-ingness to accept that they ben-efited from Greece’s peccadil-loes. It would be sweet forGreeks to beat them at theirown game.
The Hon. Ambassador Theros ispresident of the U.S.-Qatar Busi-ness Council. He served in theU.S. Foreign Service for 36years, mostly in the Middle East,and was American Ambassadorto Qatar from 1995 to 1998. Healso directed the State Depart-ment’s Counter-Terrorism Of-fice, and holds numerous U.S.Government decorations.
Keep the Accountants in their Place, Don't Let Them Count
by CONSTANTINOS E.SCAROS
Special to The National Herald
by AMB. PATRICK N.THEROS
Special to The National Herald
Former foreign minister, for-mer New Democracy member,former politician with a fu-ture, Dora Bakoyianni
The Greek private sectorcan arguably claim to beamong the mostproductive on the face ofthe earth
A man protests against Arizona's immigration law outside ofAngels stadium before the All-Star baseball game July 13, 2010,in Anaheim, California. Like Arizona, the state of Californiahas many Spanish-speaking residents.
AP PHOTO/CHRIS CARLSON
SPORTS12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JULY 17-23, 2010
ATHENS- King Otto is gone,and, with him, many fans hope,the slow motion style of defend-ers kicking to each other, play-ing keep-away from opponentswhile the Greeks hoped for alucky opening at the other end.That was Greek football underGerman coach Otto Rehhagel,and while it worked in bringingGreece the 2004 Europeanchampionship, the strategy ofbackpedaling backfired in lateryears, when Greece didn’t qual-ify for the 2006 World Cup, gotbooted out in the first round ofthe Euro 2008 championshipsas the defending kings, andbarely won one game at thisyear’s World Cup. Just Greece’sluck to get the only Germanpacifist in football.
Enter Fernando Santos. Hewas named the new head coach
of the national team by the Hel-lenic Football Federation. Re-hhagel’s decision to resign,along with assistant YiannisTopalidis, saw eyes shift to San-tos and EPO president SofoklisPilavios soon after Greece’sgroup stage exit in South Africa.
Santos is well known inGreece, coaching Panathinaikos,AEK Athens, and, most recently,PAOK, and did well enough toearn the honor of coach of thedecade in Greek football for the2000-2010 period. Pilavios, saidthe country would always begrateful to Rehhagel. “I expressmy deepest gratitude to Otto Re-hhagel, who gave his life forGreek football, who led us toreach such success,” Pilaviossaid. “We thank him with all ourheart.”
Rehhagel, 71, was coach for
nine years, and despite his rela-tive successes, his on defensivetactics had many critics beggingfor a personnel change at themanager’s position because theGreek team had been called “themost boring on the planet,” andthe sight in 2008 at the Euro-pean championships of his de-fenders not even trying to ad-vance the ball at times had fansinfuriated, especially after theteam was routed. Santos, 55,said while national team had agood run under Rehhagel, “Oneera has come full circle and an-other one is now starting for theteam.” There is no denying thatSantos takes over the nationalteam in a much better state thanthe conditions the Galanoleukiwere in when Rehhagel took thejob in 2001. In three short years,the former Bundesliga managertook Greece to the top at EURO2004, trumping Portugal, twice,and knocking off holders Franceand the Czech Republic en routeto a golden night in Lisbon, butthat’s history now and Santossaid he has different ideas.
“I am not anxious because ofprevious successes... actually itmakes me feel good,” the Por-tuguese manager said. “I will doeverything possible to continuesuch success, so we have moremotivation and enthusiasm toaccomplish this.” He added: “Iknow the culture and peoplevery well and the players knowme, so this is good. We will cre-ate a group of very strong andcompetitive players with somenew elements different from mypredecessor.” Santos’ first gamein charge doesn’t come until Au-gust 11 when Greece visits Ser-bia in Belgrade for an interna-tional friendly between theBalkan sides ahead of the startof qualification for EURO 2012the following month.
KICK THE BALL!Santos had some fans breath-
ing a sigh of relief when he saidhis team would adopt a differentplaying style, signaling a depar-ture from the defensive tacticsemployed by Rehhagel.
“I have expressed my deeprespect for my predecessor, Mr.Rehhagel. Every coach has his
own way of thinking and men-tality — Mr. Rehhagel has hisway of coaching and I havemine,” Santos said. Santos hadbeen the coach of PAOK Thes-saloniki for the past three years,guiding the northern Greekteam into next season’s Cham-pions League qualifying rounds.“I’ve been working in Greece foreight years — that’s a lot,” San-tos said. “We need to be orga-nized and have a clear head —I know the Greek mentality andtheir passion for the game.”Asked about Rehhagel’s defen-sive style, Santos said: “We arelooking to build a strong andcompetitive team. This will beachieved in a different way thanmy predecessor.”
Santos said he is undauntedby the prospect of following inRehhagel’s footsteps and is con-fident he can lead Greece tomore triumphs. “I am not anx-ious because of previous suc-cesses... actually it makes mefeel good,” the former FC Porto
and Benfica coach said. “I willdo everything possible to con-tinue such success, so we havemore motivation and enthusi-asm to accomplish this.” He saidthat, “We will create a group ofvery strong and competitiveplayers with some new elementsdifferent from my predecessor.”
THE SANTOS RISESantos started his career as
a footballer in 1972, initiallyplaying for Benfica at the youthlevel, then Mar�timo and Esto-ril-Praia, where he ended hisprofessional career at just 30.
He earned a degree as anelectrical and telecommunica-tions technical engineer,awarded in 1977 by the Insti-tuto Superior de Engenharia deLisboa. In 1987, he decided toretire from football play and be-come a coach. He had workedbriefly as a maintenance tech-nician at a hotel. His first clubwas Estoril-Praia, where he re-mained until 1994. With Santosas a coach, Estoril-Praia climbed
up two categories and reachedPortugal’s top football division.
In 1994, he took over Estrelada Amadora, and in 1998, hemoved to FC Porto, winning thenational championship and Por-tuguese Super Cup in his firstseason. He was the last of thecoaches to win in Porto’s run offive consecutive championships,the longest ever in Portugueseclub history. For that, he isknown as “The Engineer of thePenta.” The next season, Portomissed the sixth title in the lastround to Sporting Clube de Por-tugal, but won the PortugueseCup and Super Cup, also reach-ing the UEFA ChampionsLeague quarter–finals. FIFA in2000 ranked him the ninth bestmanager in the world. In 2001,Santos took over AEK Athens,leading the club to the conquestof Greek Football Cup, losingthe championship to Olympia-cos only due to goal average.His next step was Panathinaikos,then taking over the reins ofhometown Sporting Clube dePortugal for 2003–04. The nextseason, he returned to AEKAthens and the team, based onyoung players, reached theGreek Cup semi-finals and fin-ished third (only three pointsbehind the first) in the league.
For the 2006-07 season Ben-fica finished third, missing theopportunity to be in the Cham-pions League directly, giving justone point to the second placeand two to the eventual winnersPorto. In the following season,he spent the whole pre-seasonwith Benfica, which lost the ser-vices of team captain and topgoalscorer Sim�o, who wastransferred to Spanish teamAtlético Madrid. Shortly after,Santos was sacked by Benfica’sboard. In September 2007, San-tos returned to Greece, signinga three-year contract for PAOKin the city Thessaloniki. Duringa press conference on May 19,PAOK said he would leave theclub, starting the speculation hewould succeed Rehhagel.
(Material from the AssociatedPress and www.greeksoccer.comwas used in this report)
Greek Football is in Santos’ Hands Now; He Plans to Go on the Attack
Greece’s new national soccer team coach Fernando Santos ofPortugal signed a two-year contract with the Greek FootballFederation.
By Stavros T.StavridisSpecial to The National Herald
This is dedicated to the greatGreek footballers who helped inthe development of professionalfootball in Greece during the past50 years. I had the pleasure ofseeing some of these players andcoaches grace football stadiumswhen they visited with their clubteam or with the Greek nationalteam or played for Greek spon-sored clubs in Australia. Theywere named at a gathering heldat the Athens Concert Hall orga-nized by the Greek Super Leaguein conjunction with SKAI-TV, tocelebrate the 50th anniversary ofthe Greek A-League (Alpha Eth-niki.) This event was attendedby former Greek football greatswho played in Greece’s top foot-ball competition over the past 50years.
The Golden team for eachdecade was voted by the publicusing the Internet. Nikolaos Pa-teras, the President of Greek Su-per League, told the audiencethat there was more to footballthan merely kicking a ball. Overa million Greeks watched thegame and believed that footballwas a unifying factor in Greeklife, he said, thanking the Presi-dent of SKAI, Ioannis Alafouzos,for taking the initiative in orga-nizing this important event.
Michel Platini, the Presidentof UEFA and former French in-ternational, could not attend butsent a congratulatory letter thatwas read out to the audience.Alafouzos stated that his rolewas a minor one and that hesimply wanted to honor theplayers. The final speech of thenight was made by the Presidentof the Hellenic Football Federa-tion, Sofoklis Palavios, whomentioned that many greatplayers and coaches had lefttheir mark on the sport. Theseindividuals dedicated their livesto a sport that gave Greeks lotsof pleasure and entertainment.
Thousands of young childrenplay football who try to imitatetheir favorite players. They wearthe jersey of their favorite teamwhen playing or attendingleague matches. Palavios said hebelieves that the Hellenic Foot-ball Federation has laid thegroundwork for the expansionand improvement of the sportin Greece. Special awards weregiven to Thomas Mavros, whoplayed for Panionios and AEKscoring 260 goals in 502 gamesduring the period 1970-71 to1990-91. Mimis Domazosplayed a record of 544 gamesfor Panathinaikos and AEK span-ning a 21-year period from1959-1980. He also scored 139goals in an illustrious footballcareer. Dusan Bajevic, formerAEK player 1977-81 and coachof AEK, Olympiakos, POAK and
Aris, was voted as the best coachand Kristof Warzycha as top for-eign player with most goals andplaying appearances. He scoredan incredible 273 goals in 390games for Panathinaikos from1989-2004. It should be notedthat Bajevic and Warzycha wereYugoslav and Polish internation-als.
Here are the Golden Teams,by decade:
The 1960s:Goalkeeper: TakisEconomopoulosDefenders: Giannis Gaitatzis,Aristidis Kamaras, TakisLoukanidis, Kostas Polychro-niou,Midfield: Nikos Gioutsos,Mimis Domazos, Andreas Pa-paemanouil, Thanasis Sar-avakosForwards: Kostas Nestoridis,Giorgios SiderisCaptain: Mimis DomazosCoach: Stefan Bobek
The 1970s:Goalkeeper: Panayiotis Kele-sidisDefenders: Giannis Gounaris,Kostas Iosifidis, Anthimos Kap-sis, Lakis NicolaouMidfield: Chris Ardizoglou,Giorgios Delikaris, GiorgiosKoudas, Mimis Papaioannou
Forwards: Thomas Mavros, Du-san BajevicCaptain: Giorgios KoudasCoach: Lakis Petropoulos
The 1980s:Goalkeeper: Nikos SarganisDefenders: Nikos Vamvak-oulas, Nikos Karoulias, GiannisKyrastas, Giorgios MitsibonasMidfield: Dinos Kouis, LakisPapaioannou, Juan RamonRocha, Vasilis HatzipanagisForwards:Nikos Anastasopou-los, Dimitris SaravakosCaptain: Vasilis HatzipanagisCoach: JacekGmoch
The 1990s:Goalkeeper: Jozef WandzikDefenders: Stratos Apostolakis,Grigoris Georgatos, GiannisKalitzakis, Stelios ManolasMidfield: Vasilis Karapialis,Savvas Kofidis, Tony Saveski,Vasilis TsiartasForwards: Kristof Warzycha,Alexis AlexandrisCaptain: Kristof WarzychaCoach: Dusan Bajevic
The 2000s:Goalkeeper: Antonis Nikopo-lidisDefenders: Paraskevas Antzas,Mihalos Kapsis, Nikos Dabizas,Rene Henriksen
Midfield: Theodoros Zagorakis,Giorgios Karagounis, Rivaldo,Prendrag GeorgovicForwards: Demis Nicolaidis,GiovaniCaptain: Theodoros ZagorakisCoach: Fernando Santos
Lakis Petropoulos was thecoach of the Royal Greek Airforce team that visited Australiain December 1962-January1963. They won all their gameson their Australia tour againstGreek sponsored clubs in Mel-bourne, Sydney and Adelaide.The Greek national team visitedAustralia three times in 1969,1978 and 2006. In 1969 MimisPapaioannou scored a fantasticgoal for Greece in Melbournewhich drove the Greek fanswild. He helped Western Sub-urbs FC (Pan Hellenic) a lowerdivision club in 1979 to win pro-motion to the Victorian PremierLeague with his brilliant footballskills. The Western Suburbs ex-ecutive committee thought thatthe money spent to lure Pa-paioannou to Melbourne fromGreece proved the right deci-sion.
In 1978, the Greek nationalteam visited Australia and thehopes of Greek fans seeingMavros and Koudas weredashed. However AnthimosKapsis and Giannis Kyrastasplayed in all three games
against Australia. Greece’s tourrecord was two wins and adraw.
In May 2006, Australia andGreece played a friendly gameat the Melbourne CricketGround (the official stadium ofthe 1956 Olympic Games) be-fore a crowd of almost 100,000fans. Nicopolidis, Zagorakis andKaragounis played in a losingGreek side. Australia defeatedGreece 1-0 in a very disappoint-ing game.
Atromitos Athens visited Aus-tralia in 1976 playing againstSouth Melbourne Hellas and acombined Hellas/Megas Alexan-dros. The inclusion of Mimis Do-mazos and Nikos Gioutsos asguest players in the Atromitossquad helped to boost crowd at-tendances.
In 1979, AEK Athens playedagainst a Victorian State Teamlosing 4-0 on a waterloggedground that was more suitablefor water polo than football. Ba-jevic and Domazos did their bestto lift AEK’s spirit to no avail.Victoria was the better team onthe day by adapting itself to theshocking ground conditions.
Iraklis FC visited Australia in1984, which included two starplayers Lakis Papaioannou andVasilis Hatzipanagis. The latterwas born in Tashkent and as aRussian international could notplay for Greece. His perfor-
mances on Australian footballgrounds were majestic and daz-zled the crowds with his bril-liant skills.
Five great Greek playersKostas Nestoridis, TakisLoukanidis, Andreas Papae-manouil, Thanasis Saravakosand Dinos Kouis from the listabove played for famous Greek-Australian football teams.Nestoridis played for South Mel-bourne Hellas in 1966-7 andLoukanidis for Sydney Olympic(formerly known as Pan Hel-lenic) in 1968. Both playerscame with big reputations toAustralia from Greece andhelped to attract large crowdsfor their respective teams.Nestoridis was player/coach ofHellas which won the Victorianpremier league in 1966. On thehand, Loukanidis almost single-handly won the New SouthWales first division title for Syd-ney Olympic who finished sec-ond in the competition table.
Papaemanouil was signed byCanterbury MarrickvilleOlympic to help it survive in theNSW first division for the 1969season. In fact, he played an im-portant role in helping Canter-bury to do much better thanmany had expected them to doso. They just missed out on thefinals. It should be noted thatCanterbury Marrickville (nowknown as West Sydney Berries)and Sydney Olympic have beentraditional rivals for more than40 years.
Saravakos played for Canter-bury in 1965 and 1966 whenthey played in the NSW seconddivision competition. Despite hisbrilliant skills, Canterbury didnot win promotion to the firstdivision. He was one of thehighest paid players in Sydney.There were times when Canter-bury attracted bigger crowds inthe second division than SydneyOlympic who played in the firstdivision.
Dinos Kouis played 10 gamesfor Megas Alexandros FC in Mel-bourne (now known as Heidel-berg United FC) in the old na-tional league in 1989.Alexandros was in last placewhen Kouis signed with them.During his short stint, Alexan-dros improved markedly but itwasn’t enough to avoid relega-tion to the Victorian premierleague. Hellas and Alexandrosare traditional rivals from theearly 1960s. During the period1960s-1980s, these two teamscould attract crowds of 15,000-20,000 when they playedagainst each other either in theVictorian premier league or for-mer national league.
Stavros T. Stavridis is an histo-rian and doctoral candidate atthe University of Notre Dame inFremantle, West Australia
Greek Golden Football Teams: 1960-2010, Golden Memories Too
Yes, they were methodical, or even boring to some purists.They were defensive and played the Beautiful Game in slow
motion, but the 2004 Greek National Football Team won theEuropean championship and set off a frenzy among fans
EUROKINISSI
So Long, Otto. He was all smiles here on May 25 during afriendly match with Austria, but now Otto Rehhagel is Greece’sformer national football teach coach, after a nine-year run thatincluded the European 2004 championship.
AP PHOTO/FRANK AUGSTEIN
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