The National HeraldThe National Herald A wEEKly GREEK-AmERICAN PUBlICATION May 25-31, 2013 VOL. 16,...
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The National Herald A WEEKlY GREEK-AMERICAN PUBlICATION May 25-31, 2013 www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 16, ISSUE 815 $1.50 c v Bringing the news to generations of Greek-Americans O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 NEWS By Eleni Kalogeras TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – There was some- thing of an academic air, of the loving spirit that pervades the lives of the chosen people of Lady Luck and blessed by God, the philanthropic fragrance of a couple well-known for their good and charitable works. It was a celebration of the educa- tor, artist, and philanthropist named Erika Wilhelmine Knick- mann Spyropoulos, the wife of the Chicago-based businessman and Coordinator of SAE (USA) Theodore Spyropoulos that was held on May 19 at the Greek- owned Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn. And how could these life enhancing elements not have dominated the day, since all these and even more are ex- pressions of the essence of Spy- ropoulos and her husband! The 2013 “Pallas Athena” Award Luncheon was co-orga- nized by the Federation of Hel- lenic American Educators, The Greek Teachers Association Erika Spyropoulos Honored as Friend of Paideia Βy Andrew Grossman Wall Street Journal NEW YORK – The contenders for New York City Mayor can be a predictable, cautious lot, stick- ing to familiar scripts at candi- date forums that take place night after night. Then there is billionaire busi- nessman John Catsimatidis, a Republican who has developed a habit of suggesting new, often off-beat policy proposals in re- sponse to questions. Some are made up on the spot. Some- times they leave the audience puzzled, booing or laughing. Others get a better reception. Mr. Catsimatidis has sug- gested that police ride tricycles to improve their mobility (his campaign later clarified to say he meant three-wheeled vehi- cles). He wants the city to con- sider allowing casinos in hotels and would like to launch a pro- gram to give free pet food to people who adopt homeless an- imals. He would like a police of- ficer in each of the city's public housing projects. "I'm a spontaneous guy sometimes," said Mr. Catsima- tidis, whose Red Apple Group owns the Gristedes supermarket chain, oil and gas businesses and convenience stores. "I don't sit there and plan. You know, I've been a CEO, I've been a boss, for 44 years." That spontaneity makes Mr. Catsimatidis a unique character in a field made up almost en- tirely of people who have spent large parts of their careers in government and are practiced at the art of talking a lot without suggesting new policies. When they do roll out new ideas, it is usually in planned speeches to a friendly audience, delivered after much vetting to avoid trou- ble. It also can cause problems for Mr. Catsimatidis and could be contributing to a perception in the city's political classes that he isn't a serious candidate. He has trailed former Rudy Giuliani aide Joe Lhota in recent polls of Catsimatidis is Not Lacking in Ideas Stella Kokolis, President of the Federation of Hellenic American Teachers (L) presents Erika Spyropoulos with a gift and a plaque acknowledging her devotion to education. John Catsimatidis ads pop to a dull field of candidates. TNH/COSTAS BEJ By Andy Dabilis TNH Staff Writer ATHENS – Returning from China with promises of invest- ment to help Greece’s struggling economy get out from under a staggering $390 billion debt, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has moved toward utilizing the energy industry to help boost a recovery he said will come slowly. He also got good news when the head of the Eurozone said that the country will get more time to meet fiscal targets as part of a second bailout of $173 billion that came with more at- tached austerity measures. The government also ap- peared satisfied that European Union leaders appeared to back Greece’s plans for gas and oil exploration in the Aegean. “The Commission intends to assess a more systematic re- course to on-shore and off-shore indigenous sources of energy with a view to their safe, sus- tainable and cost-effective ex- ploitation while respecting member states’ choices of en- ergy mix,” the EU leaders said. Greece believes that this gives it the backing it needs to move forward with plans to de- clare an exclusive economic zone in the Aegean and to search for oil and gas reserves. “For the first time there is a clear reference to the exploita- tion of internal energy reserves, which is an issue that interests Greece and Cyprus because there are strong indications that there are notable reserves in the Greek continental shelf, just as reserves have been discovered in the Cypriot continental shelf,” Samaras said. The newspaper Kathimerini reported that during the meet- ing Samaras made special ref- erence to the Greek islands when leaders reaffirmed their commitment to complete the in- ternal energy market by 2014 Greece Now Prepared for Slow-moving Recovery TNH Staff The election last year of 18 members of the far right Golden Dawn party to the Greek Parlia- ment has caused an increase in anti-Semitism in the country, the U.S. State Department said in a report on international religious freedom. The party's popularity is con- tinuing the soar the more it is criticized for its stance, which is also anti-immigrant, anti-gay, nationalist and ultra-religious, although it had pagan leanings. It has risen as high as 13-14 per- cent in some recent polls and now is the third biggest party in the country, surpassing the once dominant PASOK Socialists who U.S. Blames Golden Dawn For Hatred For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] By Aileen Jacobson The New York Times The photographs of proud Greek Jewish families in the early 1900s and the richly dec- orated artifacts from centuries past on display at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County reflect a vi- brant community. But images from the 1940s, of sobbing peo- ple on their way to Nazi death camps and of postwar commem- orations of the murdered, doc- ument a darker era. “Portraits of Our Past: The Sephardic Communities of Greece and the Holocaust,” on view through Aug. 15, is an ex- hibition about a little-known sector of the Holocaust that Beth Lilach, senior director of education and community af- fairs, said she had long wanted to bring to the center. “When most people think of the Holocaust, they think about Germany, Poland, Auschwitz, the camps,” she said. In Greece, however, 87 percent of the Jew- ish population perished, she said. That represented about 67,000 people, a relatively small share of the six million Jews killed throughout Europe during the Holocaust. The exhibition, Ms. Lilach said, emphasizes not only the Nazi horrors but also the long history of Jews in Greece and the large number of Greek Christians who risked their lives to save some of them. Many de- scendants of Greek Jews settled in Queens and Long Island, she added. The central section of the ex- Greece: Oft- Overlooked Victim of the Holocaust TARRYTOWN, N.Y. - The news that a new asthma drug being de- veloped by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals which may help patients whose condition is not well controlled by existing medi- cines was also the story of the partnership of two of the most prominent Greek-American mem- bers of the pharmaceutical indus- try. Pindar Roy Vagelos, who for- merly headed the giant drug com- pany Merck and was a legend in the business, and research chief Dr. George Yancopoulos teamed with Regeneron’s Chief Executive Leonard Schleifer to turn what had been a relatively unknown biotechnology com- pany based in sleepy Tarrytown, New York, into a player in the field. The Vagelos-Yancopoulos pair- ing is that of children of Greek immigrants. Vagelos, whose family has its roots in Asia Minor, was born in Westfield, New Jersey. His father ran a coffee shop and the young Pindar helped out. He was a bril- liant student at the University of Pennsylvania and at Columbia University, where he received his medical degree. He has made do- nations amounting to tens of mil- lions of dollars to those schools. In 1986 he became head of Merck & Co. which he led to new heights, and where he gained a reputation for being an outstand- ing leader. He resigned in 1994 – Merck has age limits – and was lured to Regeneron by Schleifer on the advice of Yancopoulos who doubted whether his compatriot would join them. Yancopoulos was born in Woodside, Queens, right next to Astoria, the great Greek enclave. His father was Damis George Yan- copoulos, an insurance man well- known in the community as a champion on the Macedonian is- sue, and who was also active with Kastorian organizations. Yancopoulos finished first in his class at the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, and then earned his doctor’s degree at Co- lumbia. They are from families of modest means, but rich in char- acter and Hellenic values. In a 2010 feature by the news agency Reuters, which outlined the company’s ambitious plans, the relationship between the Greek-Americans, and their team- ing with Schleifer showed the promise to come . In March 2003, when the company’s Axokine obesity treat- ment stumbled in clinical trials, Regeneron shares lost more than half their value. Undaunted, and knowing that most biotech companies were tak- ing their futures on only one or two drugs – with many going bust in the process – Regeneron planned to have as many as 40 drugs in trials by 2017 under its lucrative deal with Sanofi to test Regeneron antibodies against a wide range of diseases. In the 12-week study of the new asthma drug Dupilumab, which has propelled the com- pany’s fortunes, the number of Regeneron’s Success Has Been Led by the Team of Vangelos & Yancopoulos By Evan C. Lambrou Special to The National Herald NEW YORK – Cancer is ar- guably the world’s most dreaded disease. It takes on many forms. It starts in one place – the orig- inal location of the tumor typi- cally identifies the type of can- cer – and can then spread throughout the human body. Unregulated cell growth is the hallmark of the disease. Cancer cells divide and grow uncontrollably. Unchecked, they can then invade other parts of the body, so in many ways, it is the ultimate corruption of the flesh, ravaging thousands upon thousands of people week after week. American Cancer Society statistics report that, in 2012, more than 1.6 million people died of cancer in the United States alone. Yet hope remains. As medical and scientific research has con- tinued to advance in recent decades, some forms of cancer have become eminently curable (e.g., prostate cancer). Cures for other forms remain vexingly elusive, however (e.g., pancre- atic or ovarian cancer). So far, the main strategy to treat cancer has relied heavily on early detection of malignant tumors to prevent the disease from spreading beyond local- ized tumors. If a tumor is found before it starts to metastasize (i.e., hatch), there’s a good chance the disease can be neu- tralized. But while early detection re- mains key to preventing cancer from taking hold, early detec- tion is not always easily accom- plished. All too often, catching Rangos, Hopkins United against Cancer Samaras: Ireland Shows Greece Path Away from Austerity Greek P.M. Antonis Samaras and his Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, walk through the Acropolis Museum with its director, Dimitris Patermalis. Kenny said they discussed a banking union and youth unemployment in meetings during his visit to Athens. EUROKINISSI Archbishop Ieronymos Welcomed in the U.S. By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer NEW YORK – It was a more emotional Sunday Divine Liturgy than usual at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity this week, and the yearlong celebra- tion of the 100th anniversary of the Cathedral of Sts. Constantine and Helen in Brooklyn gained its highlight when Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and all Greece, invited by Archbishop Demetrios of America, breathed the presence of the people of Greece, with all their struggles and hopes, into the Greek-Amer- ican community. After the liturgies on May 19 in Manhattan and on May 21 – the latter marked the Brooklyn parish’s feast day – Ieronymos expressed thanks to the commu- nity for all its support through the years, and his appreciation for its solidarity during the cur- rent crisis. It was a moving coincidence that the first official visit of a pri- mate of the Church of Greece to the United States in more than 50 years occurred during the Paschal season, when choirs, chanters, clergy and congrega- tion continually chanted Christos Anesti. There were numerous refer- ences by clergy and congregation alike to the expected resurrection of Greece and a hoped-for Hel- lenic renaissance in Greece and the Diaspora. After the Divine Liturgy at Holy Trinity, in which the hier- archs, priests, and deacons from Greece that accompanied Ierony- mos participated, both archbish- ops addressed the congregation. Demetrios presented his Brother in Christ with a check for $100,000 for programs to benefit the children of Greece. After gratefully receiving the donation Athens Prelate Went To NYC Cathedral During Historic Visit Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Roy Vagelos, renowned scien- tist and industrialist. Continued on page 4 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 6
Transcript of The National HeraldThe National Herald A wEEKly GREEK-AmERICAN PUBlICATION May 25-31, 2013 VOL. 16,...
The National HeraldA wEEKly GREEK-AmERICAN PUBlICATION
May 25-31, 2013
www.thenationalherald.comVOL. 16, ISSUE 815 $1.50
c v
Bringing the newsto generations ofGreek-Americans
O C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915NEW
S
By Eleni KalogerasTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – There was some-thing of an academic air, of theloving spirit that pervades thelives of the chosen people ofLady Luck and blessed by God,the philanthropic fragrance of acouple well-known for theirgood and charitable works. Itwas a celebration of the educa-tor, artist, and philanthropistnamed Erika Wilhelmine Knick-mann Spyropoulos, the wife ofthe Chicago-based businessmanand Coordinator of SAE (USA)Theodore Spyropoulos that washeld on May 19 at the Greek-owned Grand Prospect Hall inBrooklyn. And how could theselife enhancing elements nothave dominated the day, sinceall these and even more are ex-pressions of the essence of Spy-ropoulos and her husband!
The 2013 “Pallas Athena”Award Luncheon was co-orga-nized by the Federation of Hel-lenic American Educators, TheGreek Teachers Association
Erika Spyropoulos Honored as Friend of Paideia
Βy Andrew GrossmanWall Street Journal
NEW YORK – The contendersfor New York City Mayor can bea predictable, cautious lot, stick-ing to familiar scripts at candi-date forums that take placenight after night.
Then there is billionaire busi-nessman John Catsimatidis, aRepublican who has developeda habit of suggesting new, oftenoff-beat policy proposals in re-sponse to questions. Some aremade up on the spot. Some-times they leave the audiencepuzzled, booing or laughing.Others get a better reception.
Mr. Catsimatidis has sug-gested that police ride tricyclesto improve their mobility (hiscampaign later clarified to sayhe meant three-wheeled vehi-cles). He wants the city to con-sider allowing casinos in hotelsand would like to launch a pro-gram to give free pet food topeople who adopt homeless an-
imals. He would like a police of-ficer in each of the city's publichousing projects.
"I'm a spontaneous guysometimes," said Mr. Catsima-
tidis, whose Red Apple Groupowns the Gristedes supermarketchain, oil and gas businessesand convenience stores. "I don'tsit there and plan. You know,I've been a CEO, I've been aboss, for 44 years."
That spontaneity makes Mr.Catsimatidis a unique characterin a field made up almost en-tirely of people who have spentlarge parts of their careers ingovernment and are practicedat the art of talking a lot withoutsuggesting new policies. Whenthey do roll out new ideas, it isusually in planned speeches toa friendly audience, deliveredafter much vetting to avoid trou-ble.
It also can cause problemsfor Mr. Catsimatidis and couldbe contributing to a perceptionin the city's political classes thathe isn't a serious candidate. Hehas trailed former Rudy Giulianiaide Joe Lhota in recent polls of
Catsimatidis is Not Lacking in Ideas
Stella Kokolis, President of the Federation of Hellenic American Teachers (L) presents ErikaSpyropoulos with a gift and a plaque acknowledging her devotion to education.
John Catsimatidis ads pop toa dull field of candidates.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
By Andy DabilisTNH Staff Writer
ATHENS – Returning fromChina with promises of invest-ment to help Greece’s strugglingeconomy get out from under astaggering $390 billion debt,Prime Minister Antonis Samarashas moved toward utilizing theenergy industry to help boost arecovery he said will comeslowly.
He also got good news whenthe head of the Eurozone saidthat the country will get moretime to meet fiscal targets aspart of a second bailout of $173billion that came with more at-tached austerity measures.
The government also ap-peared satisfied that EuropeanUnion leaders appeared to backGreece’s plans for gas and oilexploration in the Aegean.
“The Commission intends toassess a more systematic re-course to on-shore and off-shoreindigenous sources of energywith a view to their safe, sus-tainable and cost-effective ex-ploitation while respectingmember states’ choices of en-ergy mix,” the EU leaders said.
Greece believes that thisgives it the backing it needs tomove forward with plans to de-clare an exclusive economiczone in the Aegean and tosearch for oil and gas reserves.
“For the first time there is aclear reference to the exploita-tion of internal energy reserves,which is an issue that interestsGreece and Cyprus becausethere are strong indications thatthere are notable reserves in theGreek continental shelf, just asreserves have been discoveredin the Cypriot continental shelf,”Samaras said.
The newspaper Kathimerinireported that during the meet-ing Samaras made special ref-erence to the Greek islandswhen leaders reaffirmed theircommitment to complete the in-ternal energy market by 2014
Greece NowPrepared forSlow-movingRecovery
TNH Staff
The election last year of 18members of the far right GoldenDawn party to the Greek Parlia-ment has caused an increase inanti-Semitism in the country, theU.S. State Department said in areport on international religiousfreedom.
The party's popularity is con-tinuing the soar the more it iscriticized for its stance, which isalso anti-immigrant, anti-gay,nationalist and ultra-religious,although it had pagan leanings.It has risen as high as 13-14 per-cent in some recent polls andnow is the third biggest party inthe country, surpassing the oncedominant PASOK Socialists who
U.S. BlamesGolden DawnFor Hatred
For subscription:
By Aileen JacobsonThe New York Times
The photographs of proudGreek Jewish families in theearly 1900s and the richly dec-orated artifacts from centuriespast on display at the HolocaustMemorial and Tolerance Centerof Nassau County reflect a vi-brant community. But imagesfrom the 1940s, of sobbing peo-ple on their way to Nazi deathcamps and of postwar commem-orations of the murdered, doc-ument a darker era.
“Portraits of Our Past: TheSephardic Communities ofGreece and the Holocaust,” onview through Aug. 15, is an ex-hibition about a little-knownsector of the Holocaust thatBeth Lilach, senior director ofeducation and community af-fairs, said she had long wantedto bring to the center.
“When most people think ofthe Holocaust, they think aboutGermany, Poland, Auschwitz,the camps,” she said. In Greece,however, 87 percent of the Jew-ish population perished, shesaid. That represented about67,000 people, a relatively smallshare of the six million Jewskilled throughout Europe duringthe Holocaust.
The exhibition, Ms. Lilachsaid, emphasizes not only theNazi horrors but also the longhistory of Jews in Greece andthe large number of GreekChristians who risked their livesto save some of them. Many de-scendants of Greek Jews settledin Queens and Long Island, sheadded.
The central section of the ex-
Greece: Oft-OverlookedVictim of theHolocaust
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. - The newsthat a new asthma drug being de-veloped by Sanofi and RegeneronPharmaceuticals which may helppatients whose condition is notwell controlled by existing medi-cines was also the story of thepartnership of two of the mostprominent Greek-American mem-bers of the pharmaceutical indus-try.
Pindar Roy Vagelos, who for-merly headed the giant drug com-pany Merck and was a legend inthe business, and researchchief Dr. George Yancopoulosteamed with Regeneron’s ChiefExecutive Leonard Schleifer toturn what had been a relativelyunknown biotechnology com-pany based in sleepy Tarrytown,New York, into a player in thefield.
The Vagelos-Yancopoulos pair-ing is that of children of Greekimmigrants.
Vagelos, whose family has itsroots in Asia Minor, was born inWestfield, New Jersey. His fatherran a coffee shop and the youngPindar helped out. He was a bril-liant student at the University ofPennsylvania and at ColumbiaUniversity, where he received his
medical degree. He has made do-nations amounting to tens of mil-lions of dollars to those schools.
In 1986 he became head ofMerck & Co. which he led to newheights, and where he gained areputation for being an outstand-ing leader. He resigned in 1994 –Merck has age limits – and waslured to Regeneron by Schleiferon the advice of Yancopoulos whodoubted whether his compatriotwould join them.
Yancopoulos was born inWoodside, Queens, right next toAstoria, the great Greek enclave.His father was Damis George Yan-copoulos, an insurance man well-known in the community as achampion on the Macedonian is-sue, and who was also active withKastorian organizations.
Yancopoulos finished first inhis class at the prestigious BronxHigh School of Science, and thenearned his doctor’s degree at Co-lumbia. They are from families ofmodest means, but rich in char-acter and Hellenic values.
In a 2010 feature by the newsagency Reuters, which outlinedthe company’s ambitious plans,the relationship between theGreek-Americans, and their team-ing with Schleifer showed thepromise to come .
In March 2003, when thecompany’s Axokine obesity treat-ment stumbled in clinical trials,Regeneron shares lost more thanhalf their value.
Undaunted, and knowing thatmost biotech companies were tak-ing their futures on only one ortwo drugs – with many going bustin the process – Regeneronplanned to have as many as 40drugs in trials by 2017 under itslucrative deal with Sanofi to testRegeneron antibodies against awide range of diseases.
In the 12-week study of thenew asthma drug Dupilumab,which has propelled the com-pany’s fortunes, the number of
Regeneron’s Success HasBeen Led by the Team ofVangelos & Yancopoulos
By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald
NEW YORK – Cancer is ar-guably the world’s most dreadeddisease. It takes on many forms.It starts in one place – the orig-inal location of the tumor typi-cally identifies the type of can-cer – and can then spreadthroughout the human body.
Unregulated cell growth isthe hallmark of the disease.Cancer cells divide and growuncontrollably. Unchecked, theycan then invade other parts ofthe body, so in many ways, it is
the ultimate corruption of theflesh, ravaging thousands uponthousands of people week afterweek. American Cancer Societystatistics report that, in 2012,more than 1.6 million peopledied of cancer in the UnitedStates alone.
Yet hope remains. As medicaland scientific research has con-tinued to advance in recentdecades, some forms of cancerhave become eminently curable(e.g., prostate cancer). Cures forother forms remain vexinglyelusive, however (e.g., pancre-atic or ovarian cancer).
So far, the main strategy totreat cancer has relied heavilyon early detection of malignanttumors to prevent the diseasefrom spreading beyond local-ized tumors. If a tumor is foundbefore it starts to metastasize(i.e., hatch), there’s a goodchance the disease can be neu-tralized.
But while early detection re-mains key to preventing cancerfrom taking hold, early detec-tion is not always easily accom-plished. All too often, catching
Rangos, Hopkins United against Cancer
Samaras: Ireland Shows Greece Path Away from AusterityGreek P.M. Antonis Samaras and his Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, walk through theAcropolis Museum with its director, Dimitris Patermalis. Kenny said they discussed a bankingunion and youth unemployment in meetings during his visit to Athens.
EUROKINISSI
Archbishop Ieronymos Welcomed in the U.S.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – It was a moreemotional Sunday Divine Liturgythan usual at the ArchdiocesanCathedral of the Holy Trinity thisweek, and the yearlong celebra-tion of the 100th anniversary ofthe Cathedral of Sts. Constantineand Helen in Brooklyn gained itshighlight when ArchbishopIeronymos of Athens and allGreece, invited by ArchbishopDemetrios of America, breathedthe presence of the people ofGreece, with all their strugglesand hopes, into the Greek-Amer-ican community.
After the liturgies on May 19in Manhattan and on May 21 –the latter marked the Brooklynparish’s feast day – Ieronymosexpressed thanks to the commu-nity for all its support throughthe years, and his appreciationfor its solidarity during the cur-rent crisis.
It was a moving coincidencethat the first official visit of a pri-mate of the Church of Greece tothe United States in more than50 years occurred during thePaschal season, when choirs,chanters, clergy and congrega-tion continually chanted ChristosAnesti.
There were numerous refer-ences by clergy and congregationalike to the expected resurrectionof Greece and a hoped-for Hel-lenic renaissance in Greece andthe Diaspora.
After the Divine Liturgy atHoly Trinity, in which the hier-archs, priests, and deacons fromGreece that accompanied Ierony-mos participated, both archbish-ops addressed the congregation.Demetrios presented his Brotherin Christ with a check for$100,000 for programs to benefitthe children of Greece. Aftergratefully receiving the donation
Athens Prelate WentTo NYC CathedralDuring Historic Visit
Continued on page 10
Continued on page 10
Roy Vagelos, renowned scien-tist and industrialist. Continued on page 4
Continued on page 4
Continued on page 9
Continued on page 11
Continued on page 5
Continued on page 6
COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
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 think that ArchbishopIeronymos’ Visit to the U.S. was helpful to the image of theGreek Orthodox Church?o Yeso Noo Maybe
The results for last week’s question: Do you think the worstpart of the Greek crisis has already passed?16% voted "Yes"63% voted "No"21% voted "Maybe"
Please vote at: www.thenationalherald.com
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – The PontianGenocide is one of the mostpainful moments in Hellenic his-tory, yet for most of the past 100years knowledge of the catastro-phe has been locked up in thehearts of its victims and in darkarchives, sealed away both bygovernments motivated by ex-pediency and parents wishingto spare their children.
Events like the commemora-tion held under the auspices ofthe Consulate General of Greeceand organized by numerousPontian organizations in Man-hattan on May 17 have a dualpurpose: to draw away the veilof ignorance and to honor thememory of its victims.
Dimitris Molohides, greetedthe guests who filled the audi-torium of the Greek Press Officeand introduced the evening’sEmcee, Gus Tsilfides. The pro-gram included lectures and cul-tural presentations by the Pon-tian Youth Choir, musicians, andthe dance troupes of several or-ganizations consisting of chil-dren in impressive traditionalcostumes.
The Consul General ofGreece, George Iliopoulos beganthe tribute to the 350,000 vic-tims of successive Turkish gov-ernments between 1916 and1923. He said it is “our duty” tohonor their memories and makethe truth widely known so thatsuch a tragedy happens neveragain. He thanked the Pan-Pon-tian Federation of USA &Canada – Molohides is its presi-dent, and local Pontian societies“Komninoi” of New York, Pontosof Norwalk, Connecticut, andthe Holy Institution of PanagiaSoumela for their help with theevent.
Koula Sophianou also spokemovingly of a chapter in Hel-lenic history that foreshadowedthe suffering of the people ofCyprus that began in 1974 andcontinues to this day with 37percent of her country occupiedby the political and physical de-
scendants of the Ottomans,Young Turks and Kemalists.
Nikos Michailidis, a PhD can-didate in the Department of An-thropology at Princeton Univer-sity, provided a historicaloverview titled “The Hellenes inPontos: From historical presenceto oblivion.” Beginning with thestory of first Greek colonistsaround 3000 BC and continuingwith the achievements of a greatpeople, he concluded with thetale of their extermination andethnic cleansing.
He presented numerous pho-tographs, one of the most dev-astating of which showed therefugee tents set up besides theTemple of Hephaestos in theThision district of Athens.
After the Hellenes were re-moved, more was needed to fin-ish the job of the eradificationof a peoples. The Turkificationof 10,000 place names contin-ued through the 1980s.
After the Pontian Youth Choirtouched the hearts of all bysinging “I Romania Eparthen”
with lead singer AlexisParharidis, Thea Halo, therenowned author of “Not EvenMy Name,” which told the storyof the suffering, survival and tri-umph of her mother, 103-yearold Sana Halo, presented “Therole of memoir in the healingprocess.”
Her mother was a PontianGreek, her father an AssyrianChristian, the nations who alongwith the Armenians comprisedthe targets of the Asia Minorholocaust that consumed morethan 2.5 million lives.
Thea was left in the dark byher mother to protect her fromthe painful memories, but thetragedy gnawed at her never-theless. Studies have docu-mented that the effects of geno-cides last for generations.
She explained that she andher sister filled the vacuum byinventing an ancient Egyptianheritage, but eventually shelearned the truth, and when shefulfilled a lighthearted child-hood promise to her mother to
take her to her homeland, shehad the powerful realizationthat it was also her own jour-ney.
Halo read a harrowing pas-sage from her book, describingSana’s experience of the deathof her sister Anastasia where shewas “torn between the love forher, and the terror of holdingdeath in her arms.”
Halo stressed, however thatdespite the cruelty and suffer-ing, her mother never taughtthem to hate the Turks, and shebelieves the power of memoirwill prove healing not only forthe families of the victims, butfor the perpetrators and theirdescendants as well. She notedthat a favorable review of thebook has been published in amajor Turkish newspaper.
The event’s keynote speakerwas Dr. Robert Shenk, professorof English at New Orleans Uni-versity, who spoke on “TheUnited States Navy and Pontus1919-1923.”
He revealed the results of hisresearch, which examined U.S.Navy archives and drew on theofficial and personal logs ofnaval officers who were postedon more than 40 vessels thatwere present in the EasternMediterranean and the BlackSea between 1915 and 1925.Shenk showed that high Ameri-can officials were aware of thegenocidal actions of the Turksbut ordered the officers to ig-nore them, already anxious tobe on good terms with the Turksto insure access Middle East oil.
A theatrical performancebased on “Mauthausen” byMikis Theodorakis, made thepoint that if the world had ac-knowledged the Asia Minorgenocides, the Holocaust mayhave been prevented.
The commemoration fin-ished with closing remarks byMolohides, who expressedthanks to Iliopoulos, Greek Con-sul Evangelos Kyriakopoulos forthe invitation, and to Papacon-stantinou and his staff for theirhospitality and help with logis-tics.
Pontian Genocide via Music, Theater, Lectures
n MAY 29WASHINGTON, DC – The Kyre-nia Opera invites you to cele-brate the European Month ofCulture at a concert at TheKennedy Center Millenium Stagefeaturing Rebecca Davis, So-prano, Constantinos Yiannoudes,Baritone, and David Holkeboer,Piano. They will perform fa-vorites by Rossini, Puccini, Verdi,Tosti, Theodorakis, Hatzidakis,and Markopoulos, among others.
n MAY 30 MANHATTAN – The Officers andDirectors of The Hellenic Ameri-can Bankers Association Inviteyou to save the date for our 2013Executive of the Year Award Din-ner In honor of Mr. Brent Call-inicos Vice President, Treasurer& Chief Accountant, Google Inc.Thursday, May 30. 6PM Recep-tion, 7PM Dinner at the UnionLeague Club of New York at 38East 37th Street in Manhattan.Admission is by prepaid reserva-tion only. For additional infor-mation, please [email protected].
n MAY 30HEMPSTEAD, NY – St. Paul'sGreek Orthodox Cathedral inHempstead, Long Island invitesyou to our Famous Greek Festi-val, from Thursday, May 30 -Sunday, Jun. 2. This remarkablefestival includes a wide varietyof incredible Greek food and pas-tries, both Live and D J music,dancing, Greek Dance Perform-ers, rides, games, vendors, fleamarket, and tours of our gor-geous Byzantine Cathedral.
n MAY 31 – JUNE 22TARPON SPRINGS, FL – The Cityof Tarpon Springs/Center forGulf Coast Folklife is proud tohost Journey Stories. This Mu-seum on Main Street (MoMS)exhibition was created by theSmithsonian Institution Travel-ing Exhibition Service (SITES).The Smithsonian Institution hasmade the exhibition available toa limited number of communitiesstatewide. Journey Stories willbe featured at the City of TarponSprings’ Cultural Center fromApr. 11 through Jul. 5. Hoursare Monday through Friday, 9AM to 4 PM. Admission to theexhibit is free. Friday, May 31.Xenitia: Journey Songs of theGreek Diaspora. Songs aboutimmigration, its difficulties, andthe havoc it creates in the livesof those who leave and those leftbehind, are a staple of the Greekmusical repertoire. Local andnational musicians and vocalistswill take part. Saturday, Jun. 22–Journey Films. Many documen-tary and fictional films have ef-fectively examined the immi-grant or migrant journey. Wewill present, interpret, and dis-cuss films that deal with locallysignificant groups. What’s yourjourney story? For further infor-mation, please call Helene Mac-Neil at 727-942-5605 or Tina Bu-cuvalas at 727-937-1130.
n JUNE 1ASTORIA – The Ionian CulturalFederation, in cooperation withthe Federation of Hellenic Soci-eties of Greater New York, pre-sents an evening of Greek music:“Mia Angalia Tragoudia – A Mu-sical Hug,” on Jun. 1 at 8 PM atthe Stathakion Center, 21-5229th Street in Astoria. The per-formers include: Tassos Pa-paioannou, Eleni Andreou,Makaria Psiliteli, Ilias Makrinos,Costas Psarros, Glafkos Konte-meniotis, and GiorgosManiatis.Tickets: $25. For infor-mation call 347-678-3267.
TARPON SPRINGS, FL – The Cityof Tarpon Springs presents Nightin the Islands – a free event onthe Sponge Docks. Enjoy Greekmusic, dancing, and dining! Anhour of free Greek dance lessonswill be offered by the LevendiaDance Troupe from 6-7 PM ONJun. 1. It will also be offered Sat-urdays, July 13, Aug. 3, Sept. 7,Oct. 5, and Nov. 2.
MANHATTAN – ‘Movie Night atthe Annunciation’ presents theclassic conspiracy thriller “Z” bydirector Costa-Gavras. The Os-car-winning foreign film starsYves Montand, Irene Papas andJean-Louis Trintignant, and isbased on the true story of the as-sassination of a Greek politicianand the investigation into thegovernment cover-up (in French
with English subtitles). $15 sug-gested donation to support thephilanthropic work of the Philop-tochos Society. Refreshmentswill be served. Film starts at 7PMin Demas Hall, AnnunciationGreek Orthodox Church, 302West 91st Street & West End Ave.in Manhattan. 212-724-2070.
n JUNE 2ASTORIA – The Athens SquareCommittee Presents: AN AN-THOLOGY OF GREEK SONG, aunique sing along concert withthe best selections of Greek mu-sic and songs that have enduredthe test of time from the Asia Mi-nor tunes to the musical cre-ations of our contemporary com-posers. Featuring GrigorisManinakis and the MikrokosmosEnsemble and young guestsartist from the community. Sun-day, Jun. 2, 5:30 PM at theStathakion Center. All proceedwill go towards the funding ofthe statue of Sophocles, thenewest addition to AthensSquare. The day will be an op-portunity to support our historyand Hellenic cultural heritage.For more information call GeorgeKitsios at 646-263-0773.
n JUNE 4MANHATTAN – Hellenic Profes-sional Women Inc. (HPW) willhost an evening with Lori Ioan-nou on Jun. 4 6:30-9:30PM atMeli Restaurant, 1 East 35 St. inManhattan. The event is themed“Promoting the Professional Selfthrough Social Media”. Ms. Ioan-nou, is the former Executive Ed-itor of Custom Content at TimeInc.’s News and Sports Group.Admission is $35 for members,$45 for non-members. HorsD’oeuvres, Dessert and Coffeeare included with admission. ACash Bar. To register, [email protected], call (516) 216-5414 or visit www.HellenicPro-fessionalWomen.Org.
n JUNE 6MANHATTAN – Aktina Produc-tions, celebrating 20 years of ex-cellence, presents Greek MusicJourney 2013, a benefit concertfor Aktina FM featuring MelinaAslanidou and bouzouki soloistAndreas Karantinis at the KayePlayhouse at Hunter College(68th Street between Park andLexington Avenues) on Thurs-day, Jun. 6 at 8 PM. For infor-mation contact Aktina: 718-545-1151 or nexus at 718-606-9225.Charge your tickets by calling:718-545-1151. Tickets will besold exclusively by AKTINA andwill not be available at the The-ater. Doors open 7:30 PM, Per-formance: 8 PM. Tickets: $75,$60, $50, $25 & $40 for handi-capped.
n JUNE 8FLUSHING – The Pancyprian As-sociation of New York PresentsThe Pancyprian Choir: Music ofHellenes. Saturday, Jun. 8 at7:30 PM. Terrace on the Park,Flushing Meadows, New York.For tickets and information call917-821-0281.
n JUNE 13LAKE SUCCESS, NY - The St.Nicholas Greek Orthodox ShrineChurch of Flushing invite you tothe 9th annual gold outing at theNorth Shore Towers CountryClub on Thursday, Jun. 13 at11AM. All proceeds will benefitthe St. Nicholas Church. The golfpackage include green fees, cart,breakfast, lunch, and beveragesat the turn, and buffet dinner.Proper golf attire required. Forinformation contact: Bill Kak-oullis [email protected]; HarrisStathopulos 917-273-6494;Andy Tsiolas 516-286-2395.
n JUNE 15FLORAL PARK – The PancyprianAssociation, Inc. Dance Division– New York, cordially invites youto a Cypriot Night” on Saturday,Jun. 15 at Towers on the Green,272-48 Grand Central Parkwayin Floral Park. There will be LiveMusic and Traditional Folk Danc-ing from our Dance Groups.
n JUNE 15 (DEADLINE) NEW YORK - Kyrenia Opera isproud to announce the first an-nual Cyprus Vocal ScholarshipCompetition. The organizationoffers a one-time no-fee applica-tion until Jun. 15. Visit the web-site at www.kyreniaopera.org.
GOINGS ON...
The lectures about the Pontian Genocide at the Greek PressOffice illuminated the past – new information was revealed
about U.S. inaction - and the young dancers presaged a brightfuture for people of Pontian descent in America.
For more information contact: [email protected] or call: 718-784-5255, ext. 108
Every day you’ll find thought provoking editorials, columns and special insertsrelevant to the Greek-American, Greek and Cypriot communities.
For more information contact: [email protected] or call: 718-784-5255, ext. 108
www.thenationalherald.comThe National Herald
This summer, no matter where you go, take The National Herald with you!
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR ON-LINE EDITION AND STAY INFORMED!
Thea Halo, author of “Not Even My Name,” a moving, eloquenttestament to her mother’s courage, has inspired Pontians andother Greeks to learn about their suppressed history.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – The news aboutChristians in the Middle East inthe aftermath of the so-calledArab spring has been horrific, butthe longstanding struggle for re-ligious freedom for Greek Ortho-dox Christians in Turkey shouldalso be a major concern of theChristians in America.
The plight of Ecumenical Pa-triarch Bartholomew and hisflock is not a separate concern,according to experts. How theworld and especially the UnitedStates respond to the situationthere sends a powerful signal toArab regimes in the Middle East.Recent actions, including anotherfailure to pass the Armeniangenocide resolution and espe-cially, the annual report of theU.S. Commission on Interna-tional Religious Freedom (US-CIRF), are reasons for the com-munity to be concerned.
Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou wasa USCIRF commissioner from2004 to 2012, and its former ViceChair. The USCIRF had putTurkey on a watch list for severalyears during that period andthen, in 2012, Turkey’s egregiouspolicies finally prompted the US-CIRF to list it as a “Country ofParticular Concern [CPC].” Thisyear, Turkey and her friends pre-vailed: Ankara received an up-grade with an unprecedentedleap of two categories.
“The facts on the ground arewhat the commission is supposedto base its designation on, alongwith a designated country’sprogress in implementing the rec-ommendations from the Com-mission’s previous year’s annualreport. On both counts there isno empirical evidence to justifythe USCIRF’s two-tier upgradefor Turkey, Prodromou told TNH.
She said the action amountsto a pass for Turkey regarding its
violations of international reli-gious freedom. With no measur-able improvement, the reasonsfor the changed designation arepurely political.
Indeed, the American mediareported last year that the com-mission “came under seriouspressure from political ap-pointees in the State Departmentto reconsider the CPC designa-tion,” but the USCIRF stuck tothe CPC designation in 2012.
Prodromou believes this year’schange is “following throughfrom last year’s pressure… froma State Department that has beeninvested in Turkey being movedoff both the CPC and the WatchList. She noted that “the commis-sion was meant to be an inde-pendent United States govern-ment agency and it wasestablished that way in order toensure its effective operation asa watchdog for religious free-dom, free from any pressures bythe State Department, which hasits own Office of Religious Free-dom.”
She also believes the USIRF’supgrade of Turkey is extremelyshort sighted because “if theUnited States is committed tosome form of participatory poli-tics in the Middle East, givingTurkey a free pass with its found-ing history of genocide and itscontinued use of legalistic for-malisms to eradicate its minori-ties,” will only embolden otherhuman rights violators in neigh-boring countries in the region.
IS CONSTANTINOPLE’SAGHIA SOPHIA A TARGET?
Rather than religious freedomconditions improving in Turkey,Prodromou says things have ar-guably gotten worse.
“The disgracefulness of theimprovement of Turkey’s rankingdespite the absence of empiricalevidence was driven home lastweek” when the media revealedstill another plot, the second in
four years, on the life of Ecumeni-cal Patriarch Bartholomew.
Regarding the Turkish govern-ment’s decision to convert theChurch of the Aghia Sophia inTrapezounta-Trabzon into amosque, accompanied by populardemands that Aghia Sophia inConstantinople be next, Prodro-mou believes “everything is onthe table when it comes to theTurkish government and its con-tinued targeted abuse and perse-cution of the Ecumenical Patriar-chate and Greek OrthodoxChristians.”
She stressed the “Turkish po-litical system increasingly func-tions as if Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdo�an is the Sultan. “Allthe advances made in democraticdiscourse and even in individualone-off efforts to increase reli-gious freedom are being erodedby Erdogan’s moves to capturethe judiciary and other institu-tions that could exert a brake ona move like turning Aghia Sophiainto a mosque. Erdogan is play-ing to his conservative politicalbase when it comes to threats toactivate Aghia Sophia as aMosque,” she said.
Regarding the Greek Ortho-dox theological school Halki, Pro-dromou believes “the Turks haveabsolutely no intention of re-opening it under the conditionsof the Treaty of Lausanne.”
They have demonstrated for42 years since the School wasclosed that “they operate fromthe opposite of good will,” shesaid. Reopening Halki would bea win-win for the Turks. “Theywould demonstrate to the inter-national community that theyabide by human rights, withoutgiving away anything in terms ofsecularism and security, the is-sues that Ankara always raisesregarding Halki.” But she be-lieves Erdogan has no real inter-est in doing that, because she per-ceives that there have been no
penalties for Turkey in keepingHalki closed.
IS ANYONE PAYINGATTENTION?
With the human rights spot-light elsewhere, it was hardly no-ticed that on May 3 Erdo�an andJapanese Prime Minister ShinzoAbe signed a $22 billion deal forTurkey’s second nuclear powerplant. To put that into perspec-tive, Prodromou suggests thatPresident Obama’s warningsabout a nuclear Iran should also
apply to Turkey. Regarding thewider region, Prodromou said:“the facts on the ground speakvolumes,” about the plight ofChristians in the Middle East.“They are being cleansed out ofSyria just as they have beencleansed out of Iraq and Turkey.”
She criticized the fact that theUSCIRF “hadn’t seen fit to makea single statement condemningthe recent kidnapping of twoChristian leaders, the SyriacArchbishop of Aleppo, Yohanna
Ibrahim, and the Greek OrthodoxArchbishop of Aleppo, BoulosYazigi, by armed assailants be-lieved to be part of the oppositionfighting Syria’s Assad regime.
Interestingly, a very belatedUSCIRF statement was issuedonly days ago, weeks after thekidnappings and, also interest-ingly, after USCIRF’s silence hadbeen pointed out in the mediaand in a recent Congressionalbriefing in which Prodromou hadparticipated.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013 3
TNH Staff
NEW YORK – In a scene rightout of the TV mob show The So-pranos, one of the victims of alarge-scale gambling operationbroken by the FBI in New YorkCity was a Greek-American whohad to turn over his plumbingbusiness because he couldn’tcover $2 million in losses, theinvestigation allegedly showed.
Peter Skyllas, from theBronx, said to be the owner ofTitan Plumbing, lost it all whencaught up in a massive multi-million dollar betting ring. Oneof the alleged leaders, IllyaTrincher reportedly joked to an-other member of the group thatthey had just gotten “some freeplumbing work.”
Skyllas was no amateur. Heis a player on the World PokerTour under the name "Pete ThePlumber," but met his matchwith the mob. Authorities saidsome of the people who helpedorganize the operation, whichincluded poker games, were tak-ing in breathtaking wagers oncollege and professional sports,the New York Times reported.One man bet $300,000 on lastyear’s Super Bowl – and lost.Another placed a $1 million wa-ger on another sporting event.
The recordings, according tocourt papers, were made overthe last two years during an in-vestigation into what federalprosecutors in Manhattan havecharacterized as two relatedmultimillion-dollar money-laun-dering and gambling rings.
The description of the pokergames and the wagers wereamong the details found in hun-dreds of conversations and text
messages secretly captured bythe Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion, exposing the shadowy andillegal world of high-stakes gam-bling in New York City, theTimes said.
Skyllas, 51, was among 34people who were arrested lastmonth with charges of involve-ment in illegal gambling andbetting circuits. Investigatorssaid among the suspects wereinvolved in an offshore sportsbetting operation, were a Russ-ian organized crime operationthat included illegal, high-stakespoker games for the rich and fa-mous and threats of violence tomake sure customers paid theirdebts.
The newspaper said that all-night games were held in rar-efied settings like a suite at thePlaza Hotel. One pink chip wasworth $25,000. Masseuses wereon hand to help relieve the ten-sion, while the players were fu-eled by food and drink. And thestakes climbed into the stratos-phere, with as much as $2 mil-lion on the table to be lost orwon.
One of the gambling opera-tions, which prosecutors say wasled in part by the scion of a NewYork family that has wieldedenormous power in the art mar-ket, with one of the largest col-lections of Impressionist andModernist works in the world,was based in New York and LosAngeles, and served hedge fundtitans, real estate magnates,celebrities, and athletes.
The other, which prosecutorssaid was led by a Russian orga-nized crime figure, catered towealthy Russians living in Rus-sia, Ukraine and elsewhere.
The Times said that the scionof the New York family is HillelNahmad, 34, known as Helly,who was indicted in the case,along with 33 other people, onApril 16; he is charged withracketeering, gambling, andmoney laundering. He was re-leased on bail.
The course of the investiga-tion is detailed in hundreds ofpages of wiretap and search-warrant affidavits. Nahmad’s
lawyers, Benjamin Brafman andPaul Shechtman, say their clienthas done nothing wrong. Braf-man declined to discuss hisclient’s secretly-recorded con-versations, which included onein which he speaks of using thefamily’s art business as a coverto move around illicit money.
In it, Nahmad advises awoman to wire $150,000 to thebank account of his father,David (who was not charged),
suggesting she lie about the rea-son, saying, “You just be like,Oh yeah, I bought a, you know,Picasso drawing or something.”
Brafman said, “It is a mistaketo draw any negative inferenceor conclusion about a case or aparticular defendant based onisolated taped conversationstaken out of context.”
Among page after page ofmundane conversations aboutgambling and recordings ofNahmad taking bets over hiscellphone were glimpses of astrange world of greed, gam-blers and two classes of bettors:those who kept wagering andwho, it seemed, never ran outof money; and those who keptwagering, though it seemedthey had none.
Because several of the menaccused of operating the gam-bling rings are related — a fa-ther, Vadim Trincher, and histwo sons, Illya and Eugene —some of the wiretapped conver-sations have an oddly home-spun feel to them, even as oth-ers revealed the thuggery andthreats of violence some ringmembers used to pressure thosewho would not pay.
“Have the guy call my dadtmrw at 10 a.m. he will connecthim to the guy in Moscow,” Eu-gene Trincher tells another manin a text message. Another time,a defendant in the case sendsEugene a text about a moneypickup in Las Vegas: “Ur dadstill need me to pick up cash inlv?”
Another man wrote to Illyato tell him that his father wascleaning up at a poker game atthe Plaza in the early hours ofone January morning, saying
“Your dad is eating people up.”He added later: “Pops won a bigpot this past half, don’t forgetto remind him to tip the dealers,ha-ha!”
When Eugene Trincherpicked up approximately$500,000 in cash from someoneassociated with an online gam-bling Web site, he brought itback to the family’s apartmentin Trump Tower and his brother,speaking of the cash, later toldtheir father: “Dad, give it toMom for a couple of days soshe’ll give it to somebody else.”
The affidavits, which areused by prosecutors to persuadejudges to sign orders authoriz-ing wiretaps and searches, con-tain details of the investigationand excerpts from conversationsrecorded pursuant to earliereavesdropping orders.
When the New York Giantswon the Super Bowl in 2012, abettor identified in the affidavitsonly as “Tabor” won $600,000from the Nahmad-Trincher or-ganization. That set off a longseries of seemingly fumbling ex-changes about how to movesuch a large sum of money with-out tipping off the authorities.
The Times said that the affi-davits also revealed what ap-pears to be a grim cynicismamong the defendants, espe-cially when some unfortunatebettor’s life was collapsing un-der the weight of his gamblingdebts.
The affidavits also revealedwhat appears to be a grim cyni-cism among the defendants, es-pecially when some unfortunatebettor’s life was collapsing un-der the weight of his gamblingdebts.
World Poker Tour Player Pete The Plumber Skyllas Loses all to Gambling
HE WILL MAKE US ALL PROUD
A proud member of the Omogeneia and the FIRST Greek-American to ever run for
New York City’s mayoral seat.Together, we can make it happen!
For Mayor of New York, 2013JOHN CATSIMATIDIS
A NEW YORKER FOR ALL NEW YORKERS
www.cats2013.com
Hillel Nahmad, right, leaving court last month, is accused ofbeing part of a huge high stakes gambling ring.
ROBERT STOlARIK fOR THE NEw yORK TImES
With an Upgrade of Turkey, the USCIRF Outrages Human Rights Experts
TNH Staff
NEW YORK – One of the quali-ties of successful Greek- andCypriot-Americans that standsout is that they don’t forgetwhere they come from, whetherit is John Catsimitidis, who isrunning for mayor of New York,or George Tenet, who ran theCIA. Another standout quality isthat they know which side theirbread is buttered on.
The Hellenic Lawyers Asso-ciation (HLA) held its annualJudiciary Night cocktail recep-tion at The Bar at the DreamHotel hotel in Manhattan onMay 16. Every year they honorthe judges who are at the centerof their professional lives,Greeks and non-Greeks alike.
The HLA’s ebullient presi-dent, Elena Paraskevas-Thadani,said “we are always in awe ofyou when we appear before youon the bench, and it’s always apleasure to be able to drinkbooze with you.”
She began by recognizingbeloved federal judge NicholasTsoucalas of the Court of Inter-national Trade, one of the HLA’s
founders, and the acknowl-edged the attendance of JudgesBetsy Seidman, Nicholas Garau-fis, Leo Gordon, Peter Kelly, An-drew Peck, Maria Ressos, PamJackman, and Paraskevas-Thadani’s former boss and men-tor Hyman Rios, whom shethanked for sponsoring two ofhis interns and bringing themto the event.
She then thanked the event’ssponsors, including Alma Bank,which was represented by KirkKaravelas, the bank’s Chairman,and Sophia Valiotis, a memberof the board of Alma realty, bothHLA members.
The Consul General ofCyprus, Koula Sophianou at-tended, as did Greek ConsulEvangelos Kyriakopoulos, whoearned his law degree at theUniversity of Athens.
Antigone Curis, whosemother is from Megara and fa-ther from Sparta, is studying atQunnipiac law school in Con-necticut and plans on becominga criminal defense attorney. Sheis already a member of HLA andcame to see what it was allabout. “I’m busy networking
and having a good time,” shesaid.
Valiotis said to TNH that shelikes the event because “youhave a chance to speak to judgesand understand their perspec-tives and to mingle with otherattorneys.”
Karabelas told TNH it wasvery important to gather all theGreek and non-Greek judges,and he is very proud of the HLA.“What this organization hasgrown to become is excep-tional,” he said, and noted thatthey grant scholarships toyoung students and providecontinuing legal education pro-grams in addition to facilitatingnetworking among Greek attor-neys. He said “I applaud Elenaand all the members of theboard of directors for everythingthey do for the profession.”
Judge Ressos, whose rootsare near Komotini in southernThrace, was attending JudiciaryNight for the first time but shehas attended HLA’s annual gala.“It’s a great group of people. Notonly can you network, but youfeel that you are with your ex-tended family.”
Holding Court: HLA Has Judiciary Night Gala
COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
the disease in its nascent stagesis fortuitous. People need to betested, but many don’t visit theirdoctors regularly enough to takethe necessary tests, and sometests are more reliable than oth-ers, so doctors and patients of-ten find themselves combatingthe disease after metastasis,rather than before. And hereagain, a few forms of metastaticcancer can be successfully re-versed, but most remain highlyaggressive and resistant to ther-apy.
The trick then becomes howto cure cancer in metastasis. Buttreating metastatic cancer hasnot been a primary oncologic fo-cus – until last year, that is,when Greek American industri-alist and philanthropist John G.Rangos encouraged physiciansand researchers at Johns Hop-kins University School of Medi-cine, the country’s premier med-ical institution.
Rangos has gotten directlyinvolved with efforts to findcures for metastatic cancer atJohns Hopkins Medicine thru anannual competition that bearshis name: the John G. RangosSr. Awards for Creativity in Can-cer Discovery, known more com-monly among the Johns Hop-kins community as the RangosAwards.
Rangos’ relationship withJohns Hopkins Medicine is long-standing. He has given millionsto the institution, endowingJHM’s Rangos Professorship ofAdult Medicine for IntestinalCancer and funding construc-tion of its Rangos Life SciencesBuilding, a 278,000-square-footfacility which now providesstate-of-the art space for ad-vanced research companies.
He sponsored the competi-tion for the first time in January2012. Considerable planningwent into staging the event, andwhen it was held, it became al-most an instant success. Rangoshas since pledged to continuesponsoring it thru the RangosFamily Foundation each year.The second annual competitionwas held recently in Baltimore.Finalists received $50,000 in to-tal cash prizes, with $25,000 forfirst place.
The main idea behind theRangos Awards is to attract thebest and brightest young mindsacross the entire Johns Hopkinsspectrum (graduates, postgrad-
uates and undergraduatesalike), so that those minds canfind innovative new ways totreat cancer when the disease isin metastasis. The five cashprizes are offered as incentiveto enter the competition, duringwhich five finalists, selectedfrom a pool of dozens, are af-forded an opportunity to pre-sent original proposals to apanel of judges who, in turn,are accomplished physiciansand researchers.
The now-annual competitionis meant to provide prospectiveyoung researchers with an av-enue to test their own ideas andfreely offer their own proposalsabout how to best combat vari-ous forms of metastatic cancer.It thus offers a way to avoid (atleast temporarily) the custom-ary constraints of establishmentprocedures, which can frustrateyoung scientists who normallyneed to go through the “properchannels” before their ideas getany sort of green light.
It’s an eminently sensible ap-proach, and people are nowscratching their heads wonder-ing why it took so long. Butsometimes, a sensible approachrequires vision, drive and re-sources in order to begin.
That’s where Rangos comesin. He brainstormed with sev-eral well-known physicians atJohns Hopkins in the fall of
2011 – Donald Coffey, HorstSchirmer and Theodore De-Weese – and suggested such acompetition as a way to providethe brightest young minds atJohns Hopkins with a forum topresent their own ideas.
Last year’s event was so suc-cessful, it drew more than 250people to JHM’s historic HurdHall, as 44 students submittedapplications to enter the com-petition, which was held beforea panel of 12 judges, to includeChristopher Logothetis, a highlyrespected oncologist at M.D. An-derson Cancer Center in Hous-ton. Vassilis Kaskarelis, then am-bassador of Greece to the UnitedStates, also attended.
This year’s event was held atJHM’s newer, but less central-ized, Armstrong EducationBuilding on April 3. More than150 people attended – to in-clude Ben Carson, who emceedthis year’s event – and was cov-ered extensively by the local me-dia in Baltimore, as 55 applica-tions were submitted.
“We had more applications
this year. This event is only go-ing to continue to grow as timemarches on, and I can’t tell youhow moving it is for me person-ally that such tremendous inter-est has flourished among stu-dents and researchers atHopkins,” Rangos told TNH.
“What you become, you al-ready are. These young peopleare not simply tomorrow’s sci-entists. They’re today’s scien-tists, and they deserve an op-portunity to put their minds towork outside of their extremelybusy routines. They deserve aforum to present their ideas. It’sthose ideas that will eventuallylead to great new discoveries,which will eventually help doc-tors and scientists at Johns Hop-kins find and develop the nec-essary cures for metastaticcancer,” he said.
“All I’m doing is providingsome incentive and structure tohelp them do that,” he added.
But that’s not all Rangosdoes, according to Dr. TheodoreDeWeese, professor and chair-man of Radiation Oncology andMolecular Radiation Services atJohns Hopkins Sidney KimmelComprehensive Cancer Centerand chief faculty sponsor of theRangos Awards, who got evenmore squarely behind the Ran-gos Awards competition thisyear.
“The most important thingwe can do is foster new ideas.And where do those new ideascome from? The best ideas oftencome from people who haven’talready been molded a certainway. And who are they? They’reusually our youngest people,”DeWeese told TNH.
“During last year’s competi-tion, we saw more intriguingideas about how to approachmetastatic cancer, in ways I hadnever contemplated before –and I’ve been at this for 20 years– so I thought, what better thingto do than get involved with aprogram that fosters youngminds, and help give them theimpetus they need to maximizetheir potential; to reaffirm their
value to this institution, and tomedicine,” he said. “Cancer isthe world’s most problematichealth issue. People forget thatby the year 2020 – less than tenyears from now – cancer will bethe number-one killer in the en-tire world. So we’d better comeup with some new ideas, andthat’s why the Rangos Awardsare so important,” he said.
“The likelihood of someonefinding a cure because of pro-posals made during this compe-tition is honestly just as good asthat of senior investigators atJohns Hopkins. But it takes freshideas to look at what’s knownversus what’s not own, and thenfind a way to exploit those twothings. This year, we heard fivedifferent ways to attack thisproblem, several of which wereabsolutely novel. The credibilityof their ideas is extremely high,and that was validated by apanel of very accomplished pan-elists, representing several dis-ciplines, who gave them veryhigh scores for their creativity,”he said.
“And Rangos deserves somuch credit for getting this pro-gram off the ground. He’s a veryforward-thinking person with aninnovative mind. That’s why heachieved so much in the busi-ness sector, and that’s the kindof innovation he’s helping to en-hance here at Hopkins. It was anatural fit for him to help uslaunch a program like this,which has so much potential forgood,” said DeWeese, addingthat part of the aim is to expandthe program by including stu-dents and faculty from other in-stitutions.
“We’re very excited about fu-ture inter-institutional collabo-ration. We could gradually rollthis out to students from otherinstitutions, and we would in-clude leading researchers fromother institutions – like we didwith Dr. Logothetis last year –although the Rangos Competi-tion and Award ceremonywould still be held at JohnsHopkins,” he said.
If Jason D. Howard, a post-doctoral fellow with the Head& Neck Cancer TherapeuticsProgram in JHM’s Departmentof Oncology and winner of thisyear’s Rangos Awards, is any in-dication, the Rangos AwardsCompetition is already bearingconsiderable fruit.
Dr. Howard was one of lastyear’s applicants for the RangosAwards, but he didn’t make itto the final round. Undaunted,he decided to go for it again thisyear. One of his main points wasthat mortality increases dramat-ically in people after age 45, andthat the immune system plays aclear role in individual people’srespective abilities to cope withcancer.
“My proposal this year waskind of jumping off last year’smodel. There’s been a lot ofprogress with juvenile cancers,so the question is, what can welearn from these cancers that wecan apply to the ones we’re notdoing a very good job with? Ireworked my proposal from lastyear with new data, and thejudges were more impressedthis time,” he told TNH, addingthat support for programs likethe Rangos Awards is critical tofuture discoveries leading tomore effective treatments andactual cures.
“As government funding isshrinking, private funding isshifting from desired to essen-tial. The government’s lack ofsupport is killing creativity. Themilitary has its high-risk/high-reward program – DARPA (De-fense Advanced Research Pro-jects Agency) – but we don’thave anything like that, wheresomeone comes along and says,‘Here’s some incentive for you.Go and think of something noone has ever thought of before.’Given enough time, somethingreally good can come out ofthat, and a place like Hopkinsoffers the right kind of environ-ment for good things to hap-pen,” he said.
“We don’t have a lot of sparetime here, so if you’re going to
spend your spare time on some-thing outside of your work, ithad better be worth it becausea lot of people die of cancerevery single day. And whenyou’re laser-focused on whatyou’re doing – trying to comeup with new and better ways tocombat this illness – it’s goingto take a little extra motivationto bring you out of the box andthink about something else. TheRangos Awards program pro-vides that incentive, and it couldeasily be a model for philan-thropy across the country,”Howard added.
After the competition, a pri-vate reception was held in Ran-gos’ honor at the Four Seasonsby Baltimore’s harbor. Some 100people attended, to include U.S.Ambassador John D. Negro-ponte, the country’s first direc-tor of national intelligence, andMajor-General Thomas L. Wilk-erson.
During the reception, Venet-ian Maestro Gianni Torso,whose family has been steepedin the Murano glass blowing tra-dition for seven centuries, wascommissioned by JHM’s Depart-ment of Medicine to presentRangos with an extraordinarychess set commemorating twoancient cultures, Greek andJewish. “I want to thank thisfine gentleman for the opportu-nity to make this piece. It cameto my mind, which two schoolsof thought gave to most to hu-mankind, and those were theschool of Athens and the schoolof Jerusalem. God bless you,John Rangos,” Toso said.
Visibly moved, Rangos saidhe felt very touched and hum-bled by the gesture: “I’m speech-less. I really don’t know what tosay, except thank you. This isone of the most beautiful thingsI’ve ever seen,” he said.
Myron Weisfeldt, chairmanof JHM’s Department of Medi-cine, further elaborated on thesignificance not only of Rangos’commitment to Johns Hopkins,but also to his patriotism andcontributions to this country,highlighting his Greek heritage.
“I want to personally thankJohn Rangos for what he hasdone not only for Johns Hop-kins, but also for what he hasdone for America. Somebodystimulated Mr. Rangos a fewyears ago about what we dohere. He has stepped into thebatter’s box time after time withhis creative vision. He has com-bined industry with biomedicalresearch, and tremendous pro-grams have been generated asa result of the Rangos Building.His rich Greek tradition has alsogenerated tremendous respectfor all that Greece, its peopleand culture have meant to thiscountry, and all those of us whocome from minority groupsshould be inspired by his exam-ple,” he said.
“John, you help make JohnsHopkins the special place thatit is, and now we know that thenext generation of Rangoses willalso be part of the Hopkins fam-ily,” Dr. Weisfeldt added.
Indeed, Rangos’ sons, Johnand Alex, and his grandson Nickwere also on-hand, standingproudly with their family patri-arch the whole time.
John Rangos, Johns Hopkins Medicine Unite to Combat Metastatic Cancer
(L-R) Nick Rangos, Dr. Ted DeWeese, John G. Rangos Sr., and Ambassador John Negroponteduring a reception at Baltimore’s Four Seasons after the second annual Rangos Awards compe-tition at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Continued from page 1
BOB STOCKfIElD/COURTESy Of JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITy
BOB STOCKfIElD/COURTESy Of JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITy
John G. Rangos Sr., left, thanks Venetian Master Glass ArtistGianni Toso, right, for the chess set depicting the Greek andJewish cultures while Dr. Myron Weisfeldt, chairman of JohnsHopkins Department of Medicine, looks on.
the Republican primary. Mr. Cat-simatidis rejected the notionthat his ideas would hurt him.
"Everybody has counted meout for the last 40 years in everycategory. And guess who thewinner is?" he said in an inter-view. "I know what I'm saying,and I know what I'm doing, andI have the courage to say it."
The potential perils of Mr.Catsimatidis's approach were ondisplay earlier this month whenhe brought up his ideas fortweaking, but not abolishing,the Central Park carriage-horseindustry in front of a crowd ofanimal-rights activists at a fo-rum sponsored by the groupleading the charge to eliminateit.
"When those horses areready to retire, you know whatI'd like to do? Build a small sta-ble and have them as part of thezoo," he said, before beingdrowned out by loud jeers. Oneaudience member yelled, "Oh,my God!"
Mr. Catsimatidis seemedtaken aback. "It's only a sugges-tion," he said. "That's the way Ifeel personally. Because I loveanimals and I think they shouldbe well treated."
In an interview later, he saidhe "didn't really mean the zoo"and instead wanted to keep theretired horses in barns that hewould build in the park.
In March, audience membersat a forum on public safety inQueens laughed at Mr. Catsima-tidis after he said that "a copwalking around that can't coverenough ground doesn't do usany good. You've got to putthem either on a bicycle or tri-
cycle." Comptroller John Liushouted a suggestion: "ATV!"
Later, Mr. Catsimatidis saidhe wasn't referring to tricycleswith pedals, but the three-wheeled scooters the police al-ready use. "You know my prob-lem?" he said in the interview."I joke around a little bit andsome people want to, you know,shoot me for it."
Mr. Catsimatidis has since re-peated the idea, coupling it witha proposal to link the emergencyresponse system to global-posi-tioning-system trackers that po-lice would carry to improve re-sponse times.
Ester Fuchs, a public affairsprofessor at Columbia Univer-sity who has advised MayorMichael Bloomberg on policy,said Mr. Catsimatidis at least de-serves credit for suggestingideas, something the rest of thefield has shied away from.
"He is much more interestingand creative than most peoplerealize," she said. "You wouldnot necessarily want to imple-ment everything he says, buthas anyone else made proposalsin those forums that are originalor memorable?"
Larry Sabato, a professor ofpolitical science at the Univer-
sity of Virginia, said wealthycandidates are accustomed tohaving their ideas taken seri-ously by underlings. But votersdon't behave the same way."They certainly spice up a race,"he said. "A lot of very wealthypeople have crashed andburned. They tend to crash andburn in primaries."
Mr. Catsimatidis has basedhis campaign in part on dreamyideas, kicking it off with apromise to bring the World's Fairto New York for a third time in2014. Mr. Catsimatidis said hehas a group of 100 leaders invarious fields with whom hemeets with regularly to talkabout policy. He declined toname them.
At the forums, he said hesometimes comes up with ideasas he sits onstage. One was aproposal he floated earlier thismonth to give 90 days of freepet food to people who adoptanimals that would otherwisebe in shelters or euthanized.
"I just think of, 'OK, how do Isell more cats," he said. "Youknow how you sell more cats?You buy this cat right here infront of you, you get 90 daysfree food. And you put a signup. Guess what's going to hap-pen? Somebody's going to say,'That's a great cat.'"
Mr. Catsimatidis pointed toan example from his experiencerunning Gristedes. When roast-chicken restaurant Boston Mar-ket started expanding its BostonChicken shops in the city, he hadGristedes start advertisingPhiladelphia Chicken and sellingit at a lower price. "I've been asalesman all my life," he said. "Iknow how to market New YorkCity."
John Catsimatidis’ “only in America” story resonates widely ina city of immigrants and inspires community youth.
Continued from page 1
Catsimatidis Not Lacking in Ideas for New York
Prometheus, and the HellenicAmerican Women’s Council(HAWC) Tri-State Region, ledrespectively, by Stella Kokolis,Vassiliki Filiotis, and AliceHalkias.
On a day dedicated to thecommunity’s teachers, theygathered with their membersand Spyropoulos’ friends andfamily who traveled from acrossthe country to be with her onher special day.
The students of the PlatoSchool, directed by their princi-pal, Eleftheria Ikouta, mountedthe stage of the Grand ProspectHall, which was transformedinto the decks of the ship"Alexander the Great." It was theset for the play "Oi Nifes – TheBrides" a fictional tale about theGreek women of the early 20thcentury who traveled fromSamothrace to their new livesin Chicago to get married.
Chicago is also the placewhere the couple flourished af-ter fleeing the ashes of WorldWar II, which Erica experiencedin Stroebitz, near Berlin, andTheodore in Kalavryta.
From their original homesthey first passed through Stock-holm where the meeting com-menced that has lasted "20,134days," and which began withTed’s “single glance at Erica. Itwas a vision which kindled hislove and enthusiasm for life,” ashe writes in his letter that wasprinted in the event’s commem-orative journal. When Ted fin-ished his studies in political sci-ence at Stockholm they returnedto Scaramanga in Greece in or-der for him to fulfill his militaryservice.
Spyropoulos, painter, fashiondesigner, and teacher of the Ger-man language, was destined tofall in love with the land of herhusband’s birth, with its lemonand other fruit trees, the lan-guage of the people, their mythsand history, and the art inspiredby them.
There was one more stop onthe journey whose ultimate des-tination was America, Germany,where Ted was able to experi-ence his wife’s land and its cul-ture. Finally, they arrived as im-migrants in hospitable Chicago,“where they built their nest."
In that nest, along with theirdaughter Mariyana, who is apolitician in Chicago today,buoyed by the entrepreneurialsuccess of her husband, Spy-ropoulos became established asa painter of works that gracemajor collections from Americato Australia and course, Greece.
Typical of her art is the muralof “The Spirit of 1776" whichwas awarded the prestigious Bi-centennial Art Award by thetown of Melrose Park. Chicago’sMayor Richard Daley has pre-sented her with an award forone of her landscape paintings,and her painting “The Apoka-lypse” was used on the cover ofthe famous book about theburning of Smyrna, The Blightof Asia, by George Horton.
The couple launched the"Plant Your Roots in Greece" en-deavor through their moral andfinancial support.
Her community activity,whether in Chicago, other partsof the Diaspora, or Greece,traces back to the Turkish inva-sion of Cyprus, when she battledalongside her husband and to-gether become major donors tothe political campaigns ofGreek-Americans and philhel-lenes.
Spyropoulos’ sensitivity re-garding Greek language educa-tion in America has promptedher to provide scholarships tostudents, to fund university pro-grams, and student exchangeswith Greece. She has also do-nated her paintings to the Amer-
ican Hellenic Institute Founda-tion for its fundraising auctions.
These are but a portion ofher contributions to the worldof art and Greek Paideia. HerGerman origins notwithstand-ing, she is passionately devotedto Greek letters, for which, asKokolis declared, she was hon-ored that day.
Seated at her table in the or-nate banquet hall, Spyropoulosbecame crowded by the giftsthat were bestowed upon her byfriends and dignitaries alike af-ter each one paid tribute to herand her husband from the
podium. Kokolis, Filiotis, andHalkias, Eleni Karageorgiou ofEducation Division of the Em-bassy of Greece, Litsa Dia-mataris, wife of TNH PublisherAntonis Diamataris, MariaMacedon, representing theArchdiocese of America, eachtook their turn and greeted thehonoree.
The journal included greet-ings from U.S. Senator CharlesSchumer, Jesse White, New YorkState senators Michael Gianarisand Marty Golden, Rhode IslandState Senator Leo Raptakis,Congresswoman Carolyn Mal-
oney, and New York State As-semblywomen Aravella Simotasand Nicole Malliotakis.
New York City’s MayorMichael Bloomberg, Governorof Illinois Pat Quinn, BrooklynBorough Marty Markowitz, andVincent G. Gentile, a member ofNew York’s City Council also is-sued messages.
MP Dora Bakoyannis sent thefollowing greetings fromGreece: “Erika and TheodoreSpyropoulos: Common vision: asociety more humane, morejust, and more harmonious withnature!"
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013 5
Text of speech delivered byErika Spyropoulos at the 2013“Pallas Athena” Award Luncheonat the Grand Prospect Hall inBrooklyn.
Thank you very much forthat kind introduction.
Ladies and gentlemen. Thankyou all for joining us for this de-lightful extravaganza.
Dear ladies of the Federationof Hellenic American Educators,The Greek Teachers AssociationPrometheus, and ladies of theHellenic American Women’sCouncil. Thank you for yourvote and for this exquisiteaward.
I am deeply humbled and
honored. I tried hiring Obama’sspeech writer but he acceptedan offer from Hollywood. Therewas a writer called Lamartinewho said: ‘There is a woman atthe beginning of all greatthings’.
I agree that keeping a 53-year marriage alive and institches, besides having raised asmart and wonderful daughterare two of my greatest achieve-ments. We do not always seeeye to eye, but I guess thatkeeps relationships, sometimeson edge but vibrant.
And here I am, in the autumnof my years, that scared littlegirl during blackouts inter-rupted by bright bursts fromAmerican planes across the tree-tops in WWII, sharing the plightof millions my age across everywar torn nation. Meals were of-ten a point of great stress. Manya moonlit night was spent infields with neighbors, filling anything on wheels with potatoesand beets. Survival oriented andclever, mother turned cast-offscraps from GIs into functionalmatching outfits for her two lit-tle girls. Father and his friends,drafted into this senseless war,never returned home. Aftergraduating the Meisterschulefur Mode in Hamburg, Germanywanderlust set in. I joinedfriends in Stockholm Swedenearning a living teaching Ger-man.
Then, one enchanted
evening, being in the right placeat the right time, as fate wouldhave it, friends and I were at-tending our favored club. Eyemeets eye across a crowdeddance floor and the rest is his-tory.
Ted, my gift of God, and Imoved to Germany, tied theknot in a simple ceremony andoff to Greece we ventured. Tedentered the Navy in Scara-manga. As for me, culturalshock set in. Ted’s kind familycame to the rescue. Introducingme to under the stars theaters,taught me card games like Kun-kan and how to squeeze citrusfruit for proper plumpness incolorful neighborhood markets.I started appreciating avgole-mono- horis sachari parakalo(without sugar thank you).
Again I found several teach-ing positions. Part of the pro-ceeds supported Ted’s hobby,smoking, which was consideredmasculine chic in those days.Returning to Germany and withthe birth of our baby girl, wedecided to pack all our dreamsinto one bag and accept an in-vitation to America.
From humble beginningswhen T.G.S. Epsilon consistedof two people: my husband andI. We have grown through hardwork and determination into amulti million dollar companywith many employees. We al-ways tried living an “its paybacktime,” life, supporting countlesscharities, scholarships, andcauses close to our hearts likeour “ fitepse tis rizes sou stinEllada – Plant your roots inGreece.” We try to love and helpothers in the hope we will findthose who love and serve us inreturn.
We have come a long way,ladies. From that little girl, thatused to huddle outside thehouse during air raids, to ahappy, fulfilling life in America.I thank my mother who passedon all her artistic talents to me.
I would like to conclude withanother one of my favoritequotes by Eleanor Roosevelt:“Yesterday is history, tomorrowis a mystery, and today is a giftthat is why we call it the pre-sent.” So let us celebrate thisgift from a woman to a womanevery day and don’t forget tosmell the roses along the waythrough life.
Thank you again. Stella, youalways have a special place inour hearts. Efharisto. I love youall
Bless you and thank you,America.
Erika Spyropoulos Lauded as Paideia Advocate
Great Food - Live MusicGreek Foods & Delicacies
Souvlaki Pit • Taverna
Colossal Flea Market
Loukoumades • Wine & Cheese
Cypriot Grill • Greek Pastry Cafe
New Rides, Games & Prizes
Grecian Arts Gift Shop
Giant Agora (Marketplace)
with a wide variety of Vendors
Greek Dance Performers
Guided Church Tours
Free Admission & EXTRA PARKING!
The Hellenic Council YSEE of AmericaInvites you
on Saturday June 8th 2013 at 6pm
at the Stathakion Center
federation of Hellenic Societies
22-51 29th Street Astoria Ny 11105
for a lecture titled
“Placing Plato above Aristotle: The Case of Plethon Gemistos”
by
Dr. Christos EvangeliouProfessor of Philosophy at Towson University, mD
Litsa Diamataris, one of the speakers at the event, in her brief remarks called the Spyropouloscouple remarkable and an inspiration. Stella Kokolis and Dorie Klissas look on.
A snapshot captures Ted and Erika Spyropoulos as they strollthrough Grand Prospect Hall near downtown Brooklyn.
Text of Speech Delivered byHonoree Erika Spyropoulos
“We have grown into a multimillion-dollar company...[but we]…tried living an ‘it’s payback time’ life,supporting…causes close to our hearts.”
Continued from page 1
The ornate grand ballroom of the Grand Prospect hall was filled with friends and admirers ofErika and Ted Spyropoulos, and with champions of Greek education in America.
and offering thanks, Ieronymosmarked his first visit to theCathedral by presenting a goldencross to the parish, which wasgratefully received by Demetriosand given to the Dean, Fr. Anas-tasios Gounaris.
Ieronymos said he takes greatpride in the Greek and Cypriot-American community he met, es-pecially its youth, “who givehope and optimism to us on ourjourney.” He praised the commu-nity’s efforts to preserve its faithand heritage, and urged them onsaying “we recognize you as fam-ily, we are brothers and sisters.”
He sermonized on the day’sGospel reading by placing it inthe context of the distress of thepeople of Greece and noted theimportance of them not losingfaith, in God and in themselves.He compared their feelings to thedistress felt by Jesus’s disciplesafter the crucifixion, when theyfelt alone and abandoned muchas Greeks to day feel today aboutthe crisis and their leaders.
However, just as the discipleswho came upon the empty tombwere cheered by the angel whodeclared “But go, tell His disci-ples and Peter that He is goingbefore you into Galilee; thereyou will see Him as He said to
you,” The archbishop said Greeceis the new Galilee and the Lordis with His people.
He bases his hope for a NewGreece both on the diachronicstrengths of the Greek characterand his faith that they will over-come concomitant weaknessesand tendencies like egoism anddisunity.
“United, we will become anexample for all mankind and es-pecially for all Greeks… therewill be a resurrection, broughtabout by all through their talentsand abilities.”
Present at the Cathedral wereGreece’s Ambassador to Greece,Christos P. Panagopoulos,Nicholas Emiliou, Cyprus’ am-bassador to the UN, the ConsulsGeneral of Greece and Cyprusrespectively, George Iliopoulosand Koula Sophianou, amongother members of the diplomaticcorps.
Demetrios also acknowledgedthe presence of Elias Tsekerides,President of the Federation ofHellenic Societies of GreaterNew York, and the leaders of sev-eral community organizations.
At Sts. Constantine and He-len, Sandra Chapman, thedeputy Borough President ofBrooklyn, presented Ieronymoswith a replica of the BrooklynBridge, which Demetrios saidsymbolized ties that connect Hel-lenes in Greece and America.
The latter wondered out loud tothe congregation, “Could the pi-oneers who established thechurch imagine that 100 yearslater they would be welcomingthe Archbishop of Greece?”
He acknowledged the workof his brother in Christ in over-seeing the feeding of 15,000 peo-ple per day in Greece, and parishcouncil President Elias Seremetisinformed the press that theparish gave the ArchbishopIeronymos a check for $10,000in support of his charitable ef-forts.
Ieronymos again thankedDemetrios and the communityfor their support and declaredthat “Greece has faced and hasovercome many crises in its his-tory and it will overcome again,”and added “we will convey theenergy and enthusiasm we en-countered her when we returnhome.”
On the personal level, he saidit was “a joy to see our school-children speaking, reciting,singing in Greek, and performingtraditional Greek dances. Twostudents, 8th grader ConstantineAthanitis of the parish’s A. FantisSchool, which is celebrating itsown 50th anniversary, and ayounger student from the Dim-itrios and Georgia Kaloidis Dayschool of the Church of the Holy
Cross, offered impressivespeeches in flawless Greek beforea standing room only congrega-tion.
During her brief remarks atthe luncheon in the hall of St.Constantine and Helen that fol-lowed the Liturgy, Cyprus’ Con-sul General Koula Sophianou ex-pressed her love for the parishthat was the first one she visitedwhen she arrived in New York.Greek Consul Evangelos Kyri-akopoulos also addressed thegathering.
Demetrios explained to theGreek delegation that Americanparishes are distinguished by thesanctuaries above and their hallsbelow, which served as socialcenters and classrooms, “en-abling the parish to be preserversand incubators of both Ortho-doxy and Hellenism.”
Fr. John Roams, the pastor ofthe parish of St. Nicholas atGround Zero which has madethe Downtown Brooklyn churchits temporary home since 2001,participated in the Liturgy. Helater led a pilgrimage to the siteof the old St. Nicholas, and thefuture location of the new one,which, along with the FreedomTower, will represent the tri-umph of good and light over theforces of darkness that struck on9/11.
COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
Athens Archbishop Ieronymos is Welcomed to the U.S.
Top left photo marking the visit of Archbishop Ieronymos toSt. Demetrios is sure to inspire the citizens of Greece with itstestimony of the enduring power of Hellenism in the Diaspora.
The auditorium is filled with students from the Cathedral’sschools, seen dancing below right. Above right: ArchbishopIeronymos lights a candle in a quiet moment.
Continued from page 1
Left: Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece is about to enter the altar of the Cathedralof St. Constantine and Helen. Right: Parishioners fill the Brooklyn Cathedral that is celebratingits 100th anniversary; its famed A. Fantis Parochial School is 50 years old.
Above: Archbishop Ieronymos, who was visibly moved by the Hellenic spirit he encountered inAstoria, signs the guest book at St. Demetrios Cathedral. Below left: THN Publisher-Editor An-tonis H. Diamataris(L), greets His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos (R). Below right: ArchbishopIeronymos presents Archbishop Demetrios with a gift of a pectoral cross and engolpion icon atthe famed Carlyle Hotel during a luncheon in honor of the Greek Prelate.
PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ
My dear children in the Lord,We come from afar and may
not be the most competent tospeak to you of the affairs of theland where you live and work.
I hope, nonetheless, that youwill allow me to share with yousome thoughts and preoccupa-tions which transcend nationalor local frontiers.
So what does it mean to be apriest or a theologian today?
At this point of transition inyour lives, where the calling totake up an active and responsi-ble part in the life of the Churchand of the world in which youlive peals joyously and dynami-cally, you are invited to respondto God’s precept that it may nolonger be you who live butChrist who lives in you1. You areinvited to serve the Church inthe awareness that we, its mem-bers, exist and fare in the worldand in history but we are not ofthis world2. Even so, we havethe duty and the responsibilityto receive this world and totransform it; to overthrow it cre-atively and with our love so thatthe world may be Church3.
In this struggle the dangerhas cut both ways through thecenturies. At times, taking sideswith an ideological or politicalchoice against another wouldlead to secularization. At othertimes, obsessing or getting en-gaged in individual truths at theexpense of the whole would bethe danger; in other tems, devi-ation from the agreement of theFathers (consensus patrum), afact which would lead toschisms and heretical depar-tures from the wholeness of thetruth, which we are constantlyinvited to revisit4. We should notforget that the truth we arecalled to witness to and the waywe ought to indicate to peopleis not some abstract religious orideological proposal but Christhimself, because He is “the way,the truth, and the life” 5.
Our duty as clergy and laityis to witness, in word and indeed, to the fact that the Churchexists by uniting mankind, evenat the price of our own sweattoo becoming “like great dropsof blood”6, if need be; and tothe fact that Christ came to HisPassion voluntarily so that allmen “may be one”7. It is thisunity that we are called to pro-mote, not with grandiloquenceor theorizing but with sacrificesof an ethos worthy of the Cross,illuminated by the unsettinglight of Resurrection.
The parish is the place, andparish life is the way where,through Holy Communion, wor-ship and partaking of the mys-tical Body of Christ, survival istransformed into life and deathis defeated.
Wherever each faithful lives,the parish is his or her greaterfamily and the priest is the fa-ther. And what parent whowishes a holy and virtuous lifefor his or her child will ever re-main indifferent if he or she seesthat child sick or starving or tak-ing the wrong way?
Similarly, in our ministrationtoo we should never lose thebalance between the sanctifyingwork and charity. Personally, Ido not know of a single saint ofour Church who was not chari-table or who remained indiffer-ent to human suffering.
Worship is the driving forcewhich cultivates and nourishes
love; which makes us turn toour fellow human being andgenerates charity. It is thereforeof vital importance that the lifeof worship, our charitable and,more widely, cultural and socialworks should exude an ecclesi-astical ethos and Orthodox spir-ituality. Let me insist on thispoint, because some of you havebeen born and grown up withinenvironments of other religioustraditions and must now, as Or-thodox clergymen and theolo-gians, constantly cultivate theawareness of the Orthodoxidentity and self-consciousnessand of the uniqueness of the Or-thodox theological tradition.
Modern reality is highly de-manding and divisive, and ex-treme phenomena of this kindare a superfluous luxury, to saythe least. In the spiritual desertof modern life it is a fundamen-tal priority that there should begenuine, living Orthodoxparishes, so that the young, inparticular, may enjoy a small oa-sis; that young couples may finda refuge; that today’s afflictedfamily may find a quiet corner;that “all ye that labour and areheavy laden” may have a warmnest; a hearth, where the fire ofspiritual quest will be burningceaselessly; an altar whence allwill begin and where all willend.
The greatest offer of theChurch to the modern world isIts constant care so that theremay be living parishes andmonasteries everywhere, whereit may be manifest in every waythat Christ has risen; that deathhas been defeated. And this iswhy we can still bring our livesto the Eucharist and there tofind joy, hope, consolation,meaning, and lead our falleneveryday lives in the certaintythat, beyond and above anypain and any grief, life will inthe end defeat death; because“Christ is risen, and life reigns”8.
May I emphasise that what Ihave said thus far does notsolely regard the clergy but also
the pleroma of the Church. It isobvious that those who will notbecome clergymen are alsocalled to labor in the Lord’s vine-yard as lay theologians. Nothingof what I mentioned earlier canbe put into practice by thebishop or the priests without thesacrificial presence of the laystaff of pastoral work, wheretheologians should have a lead-ing part. Today, maybe morethan ever before, activities suchas catechism, the study of theo-logical literature, the staffing ofpastoral activities and the pres-ence of the Church in every as-pect of social life, at school, inhospitals, in charitable works,but also in arts and culture morebroadly, create high require-ments and the adequatelytrained representatives and la-borers of the Church are notonly more than valuable but ab-solutely indispensable.
Certainly, the Orthodox peo-ple respects and honors its clergyvery highly. Not because the lat-ter hold some kind of adminis-trative power but because thepeople recognizes them as hav-ing accepted God’s and theirbrethren’s calling to minister tothe Altar and to the people ofGod in place and as a type ofChrist. The bishop is in chargeof a local Church not as a reli-gious monarch or a secular gov-ernor but as president of the Eu-charistic Synaxis in place and asa type of Christ. By extension,Presbyters preside over theparochial Eucharistic Synaxis inplace and as a type of theirbishop. In this manner, the Or-thodox clergyman does notstand for a power as a represen-tative of God on Earth but servesthe Church as a representativeof his flock to God.
The Orthodox clergyman is aleading figure and the first in theconsciousness of the faithful be-cause, as minister to the Church,he is “last of all”. He is glorifiedby ministering to and by mani-festing the ethos of the sacrificeon the Cross and is respected not
solely as a man per se but asman’s sacrifice in the service ofhis brethren. It is such clergy-men, it is theologians of this kindof ethos that the Church needsurgently today, so that these maybe living models of life and holi-ness and authentic examples ofecclesiastic mentality.
All this may seem difficultand it is only natural that weshould wonder how we shall
succeed. Nonetheless, there is noreason for us not to be opti-mistic. “Divine grace, which al-ways heals what is infirm andcompletes what is lacking” 9 willsee to it.
Notes: 1 Cf. Gal. 2,20: “I am crucifiedwith Christ: nevertheless I live;yet not I, but Christ li-veth inme”.
2 Cf. John 15,18-19: “If theworld hate you, ye know that ithated me before it hated you. Ifye were of the world, the worldwould love his own: but be-cause ye are not of the world,but I have chosen you out ofthe world, therefore the worldhateth you”.3 Cf. Ad Diognetum (Epistle toDiognetus), in Sources Chréti-ennes, vol. 33, H. I. Mar-rou(ed.), Paris 1965, pp. 52-84:“Christians are confined in theworld as in a prison, and yetthey are the preservers of theworld”, p. 66.4 Cf. Gregory the Theologian,Oration XXX, PG 36, 125: “ourbest Theologian is he who has,not indeed discovered thewhole, for our present chaindoes not allow of our seeingthe whole, but conceived ofHim to a greater extent thananother, and gathered in him-self more of the Likeness or ad-umbration of the Truth, orwhatever we may call it”.5 Cf. John 14,5-6: “Lord, weknow not whither thou goest;and how can we know theway? Jesus saith unto him, Iam the way, the truth, and thelife: no man cometh unto theFather, but by me”.6 Cf. Luke 22,44: “and being inan agony he prayed moreearnestly: and his sweat was asit were great drops of bloodfalling down to the ground”. 7 John 17,11.8 Catechetical Sermon of St.John Chrysostom.9 “Order for the Ordination ofa Presbyter”, in P. Trebelas,Small Prayerbook, “The Sav-iour” Fraternity of Theologians,Athens 1988, p. 231 (=Archier-atikon, Apostolic Diakonia,Athens, s.d., p. 84).
By Theodore Kalmoukos
BOSTON, MA – The Holy CrossGreek Orthodox School of The-ology conferred on an honorarydegree of Doctor of Divinity,Honoris Causa, to His BeatitudeArchbishop Ieronymos II ofAthens and All Greece on May18 during its 71st graduationceremony.
Archbishop Demetrios ofAmerica conferred the honorarytitle to the Primate of the Auto-cephalous Orthodox Church ofGreece following the citation bythe President of Hellenic CollegeHoly Cross, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Tri-antafilou.
In the citation, Triantafilouportrayed Ieronymos as a Hier-arch, a Shepherd, and a Leader,and in recognition of his excep-tional intellectual, pastoral, andecclesiastical achievements ingeneral asked the recipient for“the singular privilege of hon-oring you and joining yourname with that of our sacred in-stitution.”
Ieronymos delivered thecommencement address to thegraduates. He said that “thisSchool is indeed a jewel of ourChurch; a lighthouse of Ortho-doxy in the vast Western Chris-tian and multicultural world.”
A total of 63 graduated, 20from Hellenic College and 43from the Holy Cross School ofTheology: 6 with a Master ofTheology degree, 8 with Masterof Theological Studies, and 29with a Master of Divinity, thedegree that leads to the HolyPriesthood.
National Philoptochos Presi-dent Aphrodite Skeadas pre-sented checks to Triantafillou to-taling 102,600 for scholarships.
Greece was represented bynewly-appointed Consul Gen-eral in Boston, Iphigenia Ka-nara.
Sophia Kon was the valedic-torian from Hellenic College andChristina Andressen from HolyCross Theological School.
Greetings were offered byTriantafilou; Tomas Lelon, vice-chairman Board of Trustees;Demetrios Katos, Dean, HellenicCollege; and Rev. ThomasFitzGerald, Dean, Holy Cross.
Shortly after the ceremony,
Ieronymos told TNH that he wasimpressed: “Where should Istart? From the beautiful cam-pus, the teachings, the chanting,the students who study here.”
Demetrios told TNH that “thevisit of His Beatitude ArchbishopIeronymos was a historic oneand very productive one.”
The ceremony was attendedby the members of Ieronymos’entourage MetropolitanChrysostomos of Messinia,Bishop Gabriel of Diavleia, Rev.Adamantios Avgoustidis, Rev.Stephanos Avramidis, Archdea-con Epiphanios Arvanitis, Met-ropolitan Methodios of Boston,Metropolitan Gerasimos of San
Francisco, Bishop Demetrios ofXanthos, Paulette Poulos, Exec-utive Director of Leadership100, about 7 priests from NewEngland, and approximately500 others.
In the morning Demetrios of-ficiated at the Divine Liturgy. OnFriday evening, ArchbishopIeronymos officiated at theGreat Vespers at Holy CrossChapel and bestowed the crossupon the members of the grad-uating classes.
In his theological and eccle-siocentric keynote speech,Ieronymos said, among otherthings: “What does it mean tobe an Orthodox clergyman or
an engaged theologian in ourtimes? What does it entail andwhat does it take to serve theChurch and Theology in modernAmerica? And even if youchoose a way other than that ofpriesthood or of ministration totheology, what does that choicemean? How is it binding on youand what does being a graduateof this blessed and thriving The-ology School entail?
These are crucial and essen-tial questions, no longer mereideas or theoretical problemat-ics, and are indeed such that di-rectly concern your very lives.They are challenges not con-fined to the limits of personalconcerns but primarily pertain-ing to the shared responsibilityand to the personal participa-tion in the developments andthe shaping of tomorrow’s Ecu-menical Orthodox Church and,also, of the future of the Dias-pora Hellenism.
“We come from afar and maynot be the most competent tospeak to you of the affairs of theland where you live and work. Ihope, nonetheless, that you willallow me to share with yousome thoughts and preoccupa-tions which transcend nationalor local frontiers.
So what does it mean to be apriest or a theologian today?
“At this point of transition inyour lives, where the calling totake up an active and responsi-ble part in the life of the Churchand of the world in which youlive peals joyously and dynami-cally, you are invited to respondto God’s precept that it may no
longer be you who live butChrist who lives in you. You areinvited to serve the Church inthe awareness that we, its mem-bers, exist and fare in the worldand in history but we are not ofthis world. Even so, we have theduty and the responsibility toreceive this world and to trans-form it; to overthrow it cre-atively and with our love so thatthe world may be Church.
“In this struggle the dangerhas cut both ways through thecenturies. At times, taking sideswith an ideological or politicalchoice against another wouldlead to secularization. At othertimes, obsessing or getting en-gaged in individual truths at theexpense of the whole would bethe danger; in other terms, de-viation from the agreement ofthe Fathers (consensus patrum),a fact which would lead toschisms and heretical depar-tures from the wholeness of thetruth, which we are constantlyinvited to revisit. We should notforget that the truth we arecalled to witness to and the waywe ought to indicate to peopleis not some abstract religious orideological proposal but Christhimself, because He is “the way,the truth, and the life.”
The speech of Ieronymos ispublished in its entirety in otherpages of this edition.
In concluding the ceremony,Demetrios summarized Ierony-mos’ key qualities, noting “hisuncompromising faith, his un-conditional dedication to theChurch and his high sensitivityto people who suffer.”
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013 7
Prelate of Greece Receives Honorary Doctorate from Holy Cross School
Archbishop Demetrios grants an exclusive interview to TNH Religious Editor TheodoreKalmoukos about the historic visit of Archbishop Ierotheos of Athens and all Greece.
Excerpts from Archbishop Ieronymos' Speech at Holy Cross Graduation
Archbishop Ieronymos, addressing the graduates of HellenicCollege/Holy Cross School of Theology in Brookline, MA, begins
his presentation with the compelling question ”So what doesit mean to be a priest or a theologian today?”
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n ARAKELIAN, KAYANEFRESNO, CA (From the FresnoBee, published on May 1) –Kayane Arakelian passed awaypeacefully on Sunday, April 28,at the age of 100. As a survivorof the Armenian Genocide,Kayane's life is a testament tothe strength of the human spirit.She is survived by three chil-dren, Kevork Hadjinlian, AnahidPaboojian and Arous Shahenian;six grandchildren; and ninegreat-grandchildren. Kayanewas born to Vahan and ZarouhieArakelian in the town of Mag-nesia of the Ottoman Empire. In1922 she and surviving mem-bers of her family fled to theharbor of Smyrna to seek refugefrom the atrocities perpetratedby the Turks and relocated toThessaloniki, Greece. Kayanestudied at the Anatolian Collegeand was fluent in Armenian,Greek, Turkish and English. In1963 she immigrated to Fresno,Ca. and was very active in theArmenian Relief Society, HolyTrinity Armenian ApostolicChurch and helped many immi-grant Armenian families inFresno. In a life that spannedWorld War I, the ArmenianGenocide, refugee relocation,World War II, the Greek CivilWar and immigration to Amer-ica, Kayane had the heart of asurvivor. She represented a gen-eration that experienced hard-ship few could imagine, but leda life few would have had thestrength for and a legacy manywould wish to have had. Shewill be missed but our memoriesof her are eternal. A MemorialService will be held on Thurs-day, May 2 at 11:00 AM at HolyTrinity Armenian ApostolicChurch, 2226 Ventura Ave., inFresno. Remembrances may bemade to Holy Trinity ArmenianApostolic Church.
n COZANITIS, ELEASEXTON, PA (From the SouthernChester County, published onMay 11) – Eleas A. Cozanitis,formerly of Kennett SquareEleas A. "Lee" Cozanitis, 75, ofExton, passed away on Sunday,April 7, at the Hospital of theUniversity of Pennsylvania fol-lowing heart valve replacementsurgery. Funeral services wereheld at St. Luke Greek OrthodoxChurch in Broomall, on Friday,April 12, with interment imme-diately thereafter at Union HillCemetery in Kennett Square. Hewas buried next to his fatherand mother. Lee was born inPhiladelphia and grew up inKennett Square. His father,Alexander D. Cozanitis, was theowner/operator of the KennettKandy Kitchen from 1923 untilhis death in 1962. Thereafter,Lee's mother, Elizabeth A.Cozanitis, continued to operatethe Kandy Kitchen until 1970.Lee attended the Kennett Con-solidated School. In 1955 he en-tered The Citadel, Charleston,S.C., and graduated with a BAon June 6, 1959. Lee had a dis-tinguished 27-year career in theU.S. Army. He served in manystateside locations and alsoserved overseas in Vietnam(twice) and Korea. He retiredfrom the Army as a Colonel in
1987. He then joined the de-fense industry as a contractor,and, in 1991, he was hired bythe Science Applications Inter-national Corporation (SAIC).While with SAIC, Lee workedseveral years in McLean, Va. In1997 he was transferred to Hon-olulu, Hawaii, and worked therefor five years; he then workedfor one year in Athens, Greece;and then he returned to Hon-olulu for another four years be-fore retiring in 2008. After hisretirement, Lee joined the Eleft-heria Post 6633, Veterans of For-eign Wars, and worked on acommittee which is putting to-gether the Post's history book(now near completion). He alsoserved as the Post's ScholarshipChairman for several years.Lee's favorite pastime was base-ball and he was a life-long Bal-timore Orioles fan and seasonticket holder. Lee is survived byhis wife and best friend, Ros-alind, and his daughter, Eliza-beth of Beaufort, S.C. He is alsosurvived by three sisters, HelenShaiko, of Ardmore, DespinaZerdes, of Drexel Hill, andMaria Bosworth, of Cary, N.C.;one brother, Demetrios A., ofAthens, Greece; and many lov-ing nephews and nieces. Con-tributions in his memory maybe made to the "MemorialScholarship Fund," EleftheriaPost 6633, Veterans of ForeignWars, P. O. Box 1045, Haver-town, PA 19083.
n FLOCAS, DOROTHEASAN FRANCISCO (From the SanFrancisco Chronicle, publishedon May 3) – Dorothea (Dora)Flocas 85, was born in Kefalo-nia, Greece on March 25th,1928. She passed away at homeafter a short battle with MultipleMyeloma on Tuesday, April30th. Loving and devoted wifeto the late Constantinos Flocas.Proud mother of Paul and AlexFlocas. Beloved Mother-in-lawof Kathy and Maria Flocas.Proud Yiayia of Constantinos,Niki, Michael, Lena and NikoFlocas. Loving sister of Costa(Eleni) and Metaxa (Anna)Courcoumelis. Dora immigratedto America in 1953 shortly afterthe Kefalonian earthquake andmet and married the man of herdreams , Costa Flocas. She wasa devoted wife and mother andalways thought of others beforeherself. She deeply enjoyed gar-dening and was a fantastic cook.Some of Dora's specialties wereScordalia, Pastitsio, Crab Dipand her Amigdalota cookies.Her greatest happiness was herfamily and spending time withher grandchildren. She will bedeeply missed and never forgot-ten. Friends may visit from 6-7PM on Monday, May 6 and areinvited to attend a TrisagionService starting at 7:00 p.m. atSNEIDER & SULLIVAN & O'-CONNELL'S FUNERAL HOME at977 S El Camino Real in SanMateo, CA 94403. Funeral ser-vices will be held on Tuesday,May 7th, 10:30 AM at HolyCross Greek Orthodox Church,900 Alameda de las Pulgas, Bel-mont CA, 94403. Reception tofollow. Interment, Greek Ortho-dox Memorial Park, Colma. Inlieu of flowers, please make do-nations to Holy Cross Greek Or-thodox Church.
n GALANOS, JAMES POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (From thePoughkeepsie Journal, pub-lished on May 3) – James (Dim-
itrios) Galanos, 85 years old andan area resident since 1952,died on Tuesday, Apr. 30 at Vas-sar Brothers Medical Center. Hewas born on August 22nd, 1927in Messaria, Greece and was theson of the late Leonidas and Vi-ola Krimizis Galanos. Jamesworked in the punch press de-partment of the Schatz FederalBearings Company for manyyears until his retirement in1991. He also worked part-timewith his two sons at their com-pany; Paramount Amusementand Vending Co. He was a lov-ing family man and will besurely be missed by all whoknew him. He enjoyed traveling,the outdoors, and workingaround his house. He was amember of the Kimisis GreekOrthodox Church; Poughkeep-sie, New York 12601. He is sur-vived by his loving wife, KleoManolakes Galanos, who sur-vives at home. James is also sur-vived by his two beloved sons;Louis and his wife, Suzanne ofHyde Park, Nicholas of PleasantValley, a brother Paleologos, asister, Marica Drimocropoulas,both of Messaria, Greece, hischerished grandchildren; LouisJr. and Nicole, and many othernieces, nephews, and familyfriends. In keeping with hiswishes, there will be no callinghours. There will be a gravesideservice at 1:00 PM on May 6,2013 at the Poughkeepsie RuralCemetery, 342 South Avenue,Poughkeepsie, New York 12601.The Rev. Gregory S. Patsis willbe officiating. Arrangements areunder the direction of Parmele,Auchmoody & Schoonmaker Fu-neral Home Poughkeepsie, NY.Donations can be made to Kimi-sis Greek Orthodox Church, 140South Grand Ave., Poughkeep-sie, NY 12603. To sign the on-line guest book or for directionsplease visit www.hudsonvalley-funeralhomes.com
n GIANNOPOULOS, ANGELONEW HAVEN, CT (From TheNew Haven Register, publishedon Apr. 20) – Angelo N. Gi-annopoulos, 85, of New Haven,died peacefully April 18, 2013in the Hospital of St. Raphaelsurrounded by his loving family.He was the husband of EuthimiaPapadopoulos Giannopoulos.Born in Makrisia, Greece onOct.17, 1927 he was the son ofthe late Nikolaos and FotiniProudzopoulos Giannopoulos.He came to the US in 1966 andworked in the original Georgeand Harry's Restaurant. Later heworked in the food service de-partment for St. Raphael's andmany will remember him fromthe Colony Inn. Besides his wifehe is survived by a son, Nikolaos(Dionisia) Giannopoulos;daughters, Angeliki Giannopou-los and Frances (Stephen)Sacco; a brother, Spyros N. Gi-annopoulos; a sister-in-lawChristoula Giannopoulos;grandchildren, Efthymia (Eleas)Vlahos, Vassiliki and Angelos N.Giannopoulos, Alexi and AllegraSacco; great grandchildren Peterand Gabriella, and severalnieces and nephews. Mr. Gi-annopoulos was predeceased bybrothers Vasilis and Elias andsisters Ioanna, Georgia, andAlexandra. Friends may call atThe Celentano Funeral Home,424 Elm St. (Cor. Dwight) NewHaven Sunday from 5-8 PM andinvited to attend funeral ser-vices at St. Barbara Greek Or-thodox Church Monday at
10:30 AM. Interment will followin Beaverdale Memorial Park.To leave a condolence messages,please visitwww.celentanofuner-alhome.com
n JANAKOPOULOS,DESPINA
(From Fosters, published onMay 8) – Despina Janakopoulos,70, of Strafford Road, passedaway on Monday, May 6, 2013at her residence with her familyby her side, after a brief illnesswith pancreatic cancer. Despinawas born on Aug. 4, 1942 inKalamata, Greece; the daughterof Pandelis and Stavrianthi(Slakeli) Demopoulos. De-spinawas very devoted to hergrandchildren, whom sheadored. She loved gardening,needlework and crocheting. De-spina loved to travel to herhome country of Greece; shealso loved to cook and bake foreveryone. Despina had workedfor many years at Davidson Rub-ber. Despina was a long timemember of the Alkistis LadiesSociety. Despina is survived byher husband, Costas Janakopou-los of Dover; her daughter,Paula Cannon and her husbandScott of Dover; her brothers,George Dimopoulos and hiswife, Vaso of Whitestone, N.Y.,Kosta Demopoulos of Kalamata,Greece, and John Demopoulosand his wife Despina of WestRoxbury, Mass.; her sister,Thano Koboholis and her hus-band, Dimitrikie of Kalamata,Greece; her beloved grandchil-dren, Andrew, Madeline andGenevieve; and many nieces,nephews and cousins whom sheloved. Besides her parents shewas predeceased by her son, Pe-ter Janakopoulos of Dover.Memorial donations may be inDespina's name to the Annunci-ation Greek Orthodox Church,93 Locust Street, Dover, N.H.03820. Friends and family maycall from 5-7 PM on Thursdayevening, May 9 with a TrisagionService starting at 5 p.m. atWiggin-Purdy-McCooey-DionFuneral Home, 655 CentralAve., Dover, N.H. A funeral masswill be held at 10 a.m. on Friday,May 10 at the AnnunciationGreek Orthodox Church, 93 Lo-cust Street, Dover, N.H. withRev. Dr. Costin Popescu, offici-ating. Interment will follow atthe Greek Cemetery, Spur Road,Dover, N.H. To sign our onlineguest book, please go towww.purdyfuneralservice.com.Visit www.fosters.com/obits foran online guest book.
n KALAMARAS, THEODOREPARLIN, NJ (From the HomeNews Tribune, published onMay 1) – Theodore "Teddy"Kalamaras 76, of Parlin, passedpeacefully, with his loving fam-ily at his side, on Monday, Apr.29 at the Bayshore CommunityHospital in Holmdel. He wasborn in Anavriti, Greece, immi-grated to the U.S. as a youngboy, settling in Perth Amboy,with his family and has residedin Parlin for the last 40 years.He was a retired chef, and amember of St. Demetrios GreekOrthodox Church in Perth Am-boy. He enjoyed traveling toGreece and Atlantic City and hispassion was spending qualitytime with his beloved grandchil-dren and family. He was prede-ceased by his 2 brothers, Jimmyand Nick Kalamaras and his son-in-law, Tom Zangas who died in2011. Teddy leaves behind his
beloved wife, Maria (Griva)Kalamaras; his two devoteddaughters, Grace Robas and herhusband, Peter of Bridgewaterand Connie Diller and her hus-band Roger, of Old Bridge; histwo dear sons, Peter T. Kalama-ras and his wife Christine ofApache Junction, AZ andEmanuel Kalamaras of NewYork City; his five belovedgrandchildren, Alexandra andChristina Robas and Teddy, An-gela and Christopher Kalama-ras; his brother, George Kalama-ras in Greece, and his sisters,Georgia Chahalis of Marylandand Nicoletta Duval of Massa-chusetts, and many nieces andnephews. Funeral Services willbe held on Thursday, May 2 at1:30 PM from the Flynn & SonFuneral Home, 23 Ford Ave.Fords, NJ 08863 followed by a2 p.m. Service of Divine Liturgyat St. Demetrios Greek Ortho-dox Church, Perth Amboy, inter-ment will follow in AlpineCemetery. Visitation will be onWednesday, May 1 from 5 to 9PM with a Trisagion Service at6:30 PM In lieu of flowers, do-nations may be made in hismemory to St. Demetrios GreekOrthodox Church, 41-47 Wiste-ria St., Perth Amboy, NJ 08861.For directions or to send condo-lences, visitwww.flynnfuneral.com.
n NOUSIOPOULOS,KALIANTHI
WATERFORD , CT (From TheDay, published on Apr. 16) –Kalianthi Nousiopoulos, 86, for-merly of 20 Robin Hill Road,Waterford, died on April 14, inBride Brook Rehabilitation Cen-ter, Niantic, after a long illness.She was born Feb. 15, 1927, inthe village of Korifi, Province ofKozani, Greece, the daughter ofthe late Evangelos and VasilikiPapadimouli. She was united inmarriage to Ilias Nousiopouloson Apr. 23, 1952, in Korifi, andthey were married for 56 years.Mr. Nousiopoulos predeceasedher. Kalianthi and her husbandleft their small village to workin Loundensburg, Germany inmanufacturing at MercedesBenz. In 1967, they came to theUnited States and worked at theAmerican Thread Mill in Willi-mantic. In 1969, Ilias startedOlympic Pizza at 372 West MainSt., Norwich. Their businessgrew from three tables to a 60-seat restaurant in 1974. Withtheir goals in sight, they slowlystarted purchasing the sevenhouses bordering his business.In 1982, they started the threestory office building called"Westside Complex". It was thenew home for Olympic PizzaRestaurant. With seating for170, it offered a full lounge anda 100-seat banquet facility. Inher retirement, she enjoyed gar-dening, knitting, cooking, andspending time with her grand-children. At times she would goin early at Fat Cat Grill and Bar(her son's restaurant) to helpwith the daily prep of the family
recipes. She was a member ofSt. Sophia Hellenic OrthodoxChurch and St. Demitri Societyof Korifi, the oldest establishedGreek society in the U.S. She issurvived by a son and daugh-ter-in-law, Stephan and DebraNousiopoulos of New London;a son-in-law, Thomas Hronis ofNew London; five grandchil-dren, Joanna Krikonis andWilliam Hronis, Nikoletta,Tiffany, and Elias Nousiopoulos;three great-grandchildren,Alexa, John, and Sophia; a god-daughter, AlexandraIgoumenos; a brother, PanagiotiPapadimouli; and several niecesand nephews in Greece. Shewas predeceased by her beloveddaughter, Stavroula Hronis, whodied June 12, 2002. Her familywill receive relatives and friendsfrom 5 to 8 p.m. today, April 16,at the Impellitteri-Malia FuneralHome, 84 Montauk Ave., NewLondon. Guests are asked togather at 11 a.m. on Wednesdayfor a funeral service in St.Sophia Church. Interment willfollow in Cedar Grove Cemetery.Donations may be made in hermemory to St. Sophia Greek Or-thodox Church, 200 HempsteadSt., New London, CT 06320.
n PETRULAKIS, PETESALT LAKE CITY, UT (From theSalt Lake Tribune from May 5)– Pete George PetrulakisOur Beloved Husband, Daddy,Opa, Son and Brother PeteGeorge Petrulakis passed awayon April 28. Pete was born inthe coal mining town of Hi-awatha, Utah, Jan. 3rd 1934.He grew up in Hiawatha withall his friends with whom hehad breakfast twice a month un-til he moved to St. George. Heplayed football for Carbon Highand they took the Championshipin 1951. The Families moved toSalt Lake City in 1950, when hebegan his studies at the Univer-sity of Utah for 4 years. Heserved in the Army in 1955 inFrance. Pete worked for 35years for the Utah Departmentof Transportation. He retired inMay 1994 as the AdministrativeManager of Project Develop-ment. He married UrsulaDoebbeling Hill on February 14,1970. They lived in Sandy for31 years, moved to St. Georgein 2003. He is survived by hiswife Ursula of 43 years, 2daughters, Leslie and Tia.Granddaughters; Ashley (Jake),Stephanie (Chad), Grandson;Andrew; six Great-grandchil-dren; Brother, Dean (Judy); Sis-ter-in-law, Anna; 3 Nephews,George (Karna), Nick (Karen),Dean (Laura); 1 Great nephew,4 Great nieces; Cousins in theUSA and Greece, and our longtime friend Bonnie D'Grazio.Preceded in death by his parentsGeorge and Elizabeth Petrulakis,his brother Anthony GeorgePetrulakis, his sister SylviaPetrulakis, brother-in-laws, Di-eter Doebbeling (Germany) andRolf Doebbeling, and mother-in-law, Elfriede Doebbeling. Fu-neral services will be heldWednesday, May 8 at 11:00 AMat Holy Trinity Creek OrthodoxChurch, 279 South 300 West.Friends may call at Larkin Mor-tuary, 260 East South Temple,from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. Trisagioservice at 7:00 PM.Burial at Mt.Olivet Cemetery. In lieu of flow-ers, please send contributions toholy Trinity Greek OrthodoxChurch. May his memory beeternal.
OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS8 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
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Arts of Organization 88 Crystal St., LLC filedw/Sec of State NY (SSNY) on 12/19/12. OffLoc Kings County. SSNY designated as agentfor service of process against LLC and shallmail copy to Witman Stadtmauer PA 26 Co-lumbia Tpke, Florham Park NJ 07932.Purpose: any lawful activity. Princ bus add4775 Collins Ave Apt 1608 Miami Beach Fl33140.
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NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABIL-ITY COMPANY. NAME: 939 METROPOLITANAVE. LLC. Articles of Organization were filedwith the Secretary of State of New York(SSNY) on 02/27/13. Office location: KingsCounty. SSNY has been designated as agent ofthe LLC upon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail a copy of process tothe LLC, 97 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn,New York 11222. Purpose: For any lawful pur-pose.
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272718/18596
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By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer
CHICAGO- There is much moreto the history of Greek musicthan the bouzouki. Greekrecords, when examined as his-torical documents, offer us an al-most day-to-day outline of thelives of Greek immigrants inNorth America. Furthermore, onthese very same records, we caneven hear what Greeks in Greecethought of Greeks living in Amer-ica. The history available for allto hear on these extremely pop-ular commercial records oftendoes not agree with academic ac-counts.
Greek immigrants have attimes been presented as passivepawns in the face of a monolithdominant culture, when this hasnot been the case. In fact, Greeksthat arrived in the various mas-sive waves of immigration havedirectly influenced the Americancultural landscape. Document af-ter document clearly reveals, es-pecially in terms of popular en-tertainment, that Greekimmigrants, as both promotersand performers, have played asignificant role in the nation’s his-tory.
In an effort to set the historicalrecord straight on a number ofmusical issues, this all too briefsurvey will offer a selection fromthe broader field of Greek musicproduced in North America.
The perils of immigrant life inNorth America were dealt within song after song. So large arethe collections of songs based oncertain ills befalling the immi-grants, that in recent years, theyhave been collected into compi-
lation volumes. Tuberculosis wasan especially feared illness byGreeks as we hear in Yiorgos Kat-saros,’ Mana Mou EimaiFthisikos, first record in 1935 forColumbia Records.Mana mou eimai fthisikos,mana mou exo ftisi(Mother, I am consumptive,mother I’ve got consumption)Fila ton allo mou adelfo manamou na mi’ kolisi(Take care of my brotherMother so he doesn’t catch it)S’arahniasmeno spilaio tha’ pa‘na katoikiso(In a cobwebbed cave I will goand live)Osotou na ’lthei e stigmamana na xepsihiso(Until the moment comes,Mother, to die)Poles manades klapsane asklapsei k’e diki mou(Many mothers have cried letmine cry too)Stis Arizonas ta vourna as thap-sei to kormi mou(In the mountains of Arizona lether bury my body(
The first instance of bouzoukimusic recorded anywhere on theplanet was in New York City in1932 and 1933. Yiannis Halikias,also known as Jack Gregory onthe record’s label, recorded foursongs with his bouzouki. Bothrecords became not only imme-diate hits but enduring favoritesas well: To Mysterio and MinoreTou Deke both with SophoclesMikelies on guitar in January1932, and then Raste ton Dekeand Mourmoriko in 1933. Thefamed Greek musician YiannisPapaioannou asserted that uponhearing these two records by Ha-likias, he gave up the guitar and
took up the bouzouki. Greek immigrant musicians
also influenced other musiciansamong whom they lived. One ofthe early American dance genresfirst heard during the 1900s wasthe Oriental Foxtrot. Rumorsabound that this genre camefrom American musicians listen-ing toGreek
musi-cians in
performance. Be-tween roughly 1890 and 1930, abrand of music known as “Ori-ental” was extremely popular butit was not a musical form drawnfrom any one cultural tradition.In fact the music presented as“Oriental” was most often a west-ern musician’s notion of musicthat individual composer be-lieved sounded Oriental. Thewhole idea of “the Orient” itselfis vague but essentially meant allthe lands east of Italy to the Pa-cific Ocean. The Paul WhitemanOrchestra released an OrientalFox Trot instrumental on the Vic-tor Talking Machine Company la-bel on June 16, 1922, which hasnothing whatsoever to do withGreek music and everything todo with Western fantasies of their
imaginary Orient. The Americanrevival band The New LeviathanOriental Fox-Trot Orchestra,while it plays White-man-style pieces, withtheir tonguesfirmly int h e i r
c h e e k sare also
about exploringthis genre in all its
manifestations and influ-ences. And this borrowingof music was not all one-
way. Greek commercial record-
ings of a la franka, or Euro-pean music as performed by
Greek musicians, exists the fromthe moment field agents for themajor international recordingcompanies arrived in the portcities of Greece and Asia Minor.Many musical genres familiar toGreeks such as kantades, tangos,and others were extremely pop-ular. This is highly significant forthe history of Greek musical tra-ditions in North America becausethe assumption that Greeks weremerely playing and recordingWestern music genres as yet an-other example of their assimila-tion into the dominant Americanculture is clearly incorrect. Notonly did traditional Greek musi-cians in Greek lands have a longestablished tradition of playingand interpreting a la franka mu-sic but clearly we must now ex-tend our attention to the creativ-ity and influences of Greekmusicians in an American setting.
While the cross-culturalstrands of the fox trot, as an in-ternational music and dance
c r a z e ,are still
the subject of research anddebate researchers into
Greek music produced in NorthAmerica need to attend to musi-cians such as Efthimios Keros andhis Hawaiian Orchestra. Ellinika-Ellinikon Fox Trot with the flip-side tango Modistroula (Dress-maker), which were two of Keros’orchestra’s most popular releaseshere in the United States.
The significance of Greek fra-ternal organizations in NorthAmerica are fundamental to anyhistorical account, their anthemshave remained obscure. From1900 to 1940 the two largest na-tional organizations were theAmerican Educational and Pro-gressive Association (AHEPA)and the Greek American Progres-sive Association (GAPA). Both or-ganizations, as well as manyother Greek fraternal groups, hadtheir own songs. For AHEPA andGAPA we find Ahepa Emvatiriou(Ahepa March) by the LoukianosCavadias Orchestra and Hymnoseis tin Gapa with Tetos Demetri-ades as principal vocalist andcredited co-composer.
Unexpectedly, commercialrecords also document the ten-sions between the Greek Ameri-can fraternal organizations andGreeks back in Greece. We needcite only three imported songs.In Den ton thelo ton Ahepa, ahasapiko, Korinas Thessalonikiasand K. Roukounas sing about theAhepans who come to Greece ontheir periodic excursions tours ofthe 1930s. As the title suggeststhe two lambast the visiting
Ahepans, they do not praisethem.
Mas Elthan e Ahepedes, witha male vocalist only identified asKoulouriotos, does however,speak well of the visiting Greek-Americans. As does the song onthe B-side of this record Elli-noamerikanides stin Ellada thistime with vocal credits to An-gelopoulou as well as Koulouri-otos. In the positive sentimentsheard in these two songs we getthe other side, as it were, of theGreek response to their friendsand relatives visiting from Amer-ica.
Topics, instruments, and ideasnot now attributed to Greeks any-where in the world are to befound on commercial records be-ginning in 1896 and continuingright up to the present. Readilyavailable Greek American com-mercial recordings report on anamazing number of pressing so-cial questions of the day. The ten-sions between not just Greeksand Americans but within theGreek community itself can allbe heard. Where we must beginto direct our attention is towardthe continued creativity of Greekmusicians within an Americanenvironment. Coupled with sucha project should be one wherethe question of how Greek musicand musicians influenced othersin the general American societyis considered serious. As this alltoo brief survey reveals there isnothing short of a treasure troveof historical and aesthetic infor-mation yet to be heard in Greek-American family record collec-tions.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013 9
Setting the Record Straight
By Phylis (Kiki) SembosSpecial to The National Herald
“You’re going to Greece,Yiannis?” asked a puzzled,George, who wondered who ‘spaying for his ticket. “What’s sosurprising about that?”squawked Yiannis, adding thecoffee that spilled into thesaucer. “Vacation with Areti andBarbara?” asked John. “NO! Abusiness trip. I wrote to themayor of my town and told himI must speak to him about some-thing very important – some-thing that the U.S. governmentapproves of.” All eyes stretchedopen. Confounded, Dimos askedhim to explain. He lowered hisvoice, conspiratorially, “I’ve writ-ten to the mayor about thename of the village –Marou-sanakislaki – that it’s too longand that’s why no tourists gothere. I impressed upon himthat if the name is changed –so, too, will the fortunes of theplace. Look at Crete! Mikonos!Athens! Paros! Always filled
with people. Why? Because peo-ple can pronounce them! By thetime a tourist says the name –the boat sails away.” But,George’s suspicions wouldn’tbuy it! The motive was finaglingfor a free vacation. “Did themayor accept your ideas?” Yian-nis stirred his coffee, noncha-lantly. “He hasn’t replied yet! Ilisted all the advantages of thetourist trade. They’d see moremoney, more business, and...”
“What name did you have inmind?” Dimos asked, taking adonut. Head tilted, Yiannis said,“I thought about, ‘Heaven’sGateway.’” Kipreos, in a thought-ful mood, said, “They sound likea cemetery. I wouldn’t want togo to a place with that name.”Annoyed, Yiannis ignored him.John asked, “Do you think themayor will think, seriously, onyour agenda?”
“I wrote a strong letter thatthe U.S. government meantbusiness and if he doesn’t com-ply with their requests they’llsend over someone who’ll con-
vince him that ...” George wavedhis hand, “That’s right, Yiannis!The U.S. can invade! They’llsend over 100 Marines – armedto the teeth - storm the place –if they can find it. That mayorwill be arrested until fake elec-tions and they find an Americansympathizer to take over. Goodshow, Yiannis!” Yiannis recog-nized George’s sarcasm andturned away, sipping his coffeewith calm contemplation,dreaming of his great successand free, glorious vacationsevery summer. Maybe, hethought, he could fix his pater-nal house and turn it into a ho-tel. Heavenly Hotel. Hmmm!
“Why would you want yourvillage to get tourists?” askedKipreos. “Why not? Cypress getstons of tourists! You see how ithas benefited them. My little vil-lage is poor and desolate. I wantto put them on the map! I wantto bring prosperity to every vil-lager. I want to be the greatbenefactor for...ahh, Heaven’sGateway.” He sat back. His
imagination floated away to hisvillage where, now, a statue hadbeen erected for him by a grate-ful village. He had hinted abouta statue in his letter - even hada location in mind – by the giantPlane tree in the center of thevillage.
Sunday, George enteredDixon, grinning from ear to ear.Dimos asked, impatiently,“You’ve got news, George, wecan see that! Let’s have it!” Johnlooked speculatively at him,“Did Yiannis get a response fromthe mayor?” George, stirring hiscoffee as if churning butter, en-joyed the suspense. “Is Yiannisgoing to Greece?” Kipreos wasintent.
“Oh, he got a reply, alright.Areti told my wife that after heread the mayor’s letter Yiannisreached for the Ouzo bottle –kept only for company – anddowned a big one. But, it gotworse!” Everyone bent closer,nearly upsetting the coffee cups.“The mayor told him he didn’tappreciate his arrogant letter
threatening Marousanakislaki’sresidents with military actions.With that, Yiannis took anotherswig of Ouzo. And, continuedthe mayor, if he ever showed hisface there the Plane Tree wouldnot have his statue there –they’d have the original hangingfrom it.” Yiannis entered. Afterthe usual salutations Dimosasked if there was any news
from the mayor of his village.Yiannis replied, meekly, “I’vethought about it! I decided Idon’t want to go to Marou-sanakislaki. What for? Barbaraand Areti would miss me. Be-sides, Kipreos is right! Whywould we want to bring noisy,messy, arrogant tourists to thequiet, sleepy little village, any-way?” End of story.
Heaven can wait
ALL HISTORY
GREEK AMERICAN STORIES
asthma attacks or other outbreaksof symptoms decreased by 87 per-cent in those getting the drugcompared with those getting aplacebo.
Other measures of lung func-tion and disease control also im-proved, according to the study re-sults, which were publishedonline May 21 in The New Eng-land Journal of Medicine and pre-sented at the annual meeting ofthe American Thoracic Society inPhiladelphia.
Dupilumab blocks the actionof interleukin-4 and interleukin-13, two inflammatory chemicalsmade by the body that are be-lieved to contribute to asthma.Sanofi and Regeneron say thereare also preliminary signsdupilumab works against the skincondition atopic dermatitis, sug-gesting it can be blocking a bio-logical pathway that contributesto multiple allergic conditions.
THE MERCK MODELBesides persistence, Regen-
eron had Vagelos. The companywas started in 1988 by Schleifer,an assistant professor of neurol-ogy at Cornell University MedicalCollege. He planned to discovernerve-growth proteins that couldcure some of the grimmest neu-rological scourges by regenerat-ing neurons, which are nervecells. Thus the name Regeneron.
“The original idea, which youcan find in the original businessplan, was that we would discoverthem and then spritz them onpeople who needed them. Wewould cure a couple of diseasessuch as Lou Gehrig’s disease,maybe Parkinson’s disease andAlzheimer’s disease, and sail offinto the sunset,” Schleifer toldReuters.
Schleifer, a native of New YorkCity’s borough of Queens with a
gift of gab to match his scientificenthusiasm, attracted a scientificadvisory board that included sev-eral Nobel laureates and obtaineda $1 million stake from a venturecapital unit of Merrill Lynch.
He set out to recruit a stableof scientists, most notably Yan-copoulos, a molecular immunol-ogist who had just won a kind ofgenius award for his research atColumbia Medical School.
The company moved to Tar-rytown in 1989 and began pick-ing up more seed and researchmonies from investors, includingJapan, who thought they sawsomething good in what was go-ing on. It paid off as the com-pany’s R & D began to produce.
At the time, only one proteininvolved in the growth and sur-vival of neurons - or neurotrophicfactor - had been discovered:Nerve Growth Factor. But withinweeks after Regeneron’s lab
opened, Yancopoulos discovereda second one that became knownas Brain-Derived NeurotrophicFactor (BDNF).
“Literally within a week afterthat, we cloned another onecalled Neurotrophin 3 (NT3) andthen a third one called CiliaryNeurotrophic Factor (CNTF),”Yancopoulos told Reuters.
Yancopoulos became one ofthe world’s most-cited neurolo-gists due to his rapid-fire discov-eries. The attention led to a $100million partnership in 1990 withAmgen, an up-and-coming newbiotech, that involved trials ofBDNF against Lou Gehrig’s dis-ease and of NT3 for nerve pain indiabetics.
Regeneron also began testingCNTF against Lou Gehrig’s dis-ease and signed a $135 milliondeal in 1997 with Procter & Gam-ble Co to develop a number ofRegeneron drugs, including using
CNTF to treat obesity.But none of the drugs ulti-
mately panned out in clinical tri-als during a 10-year period. “Inmany ways you could look at thatas a lost decade because the ulti-mate prize eluded us in terms ofapplying our first discoveries,”Yancopoulos said. “These neuro-logical diseases were really chal-lenging and we recognizedmaybe we weren’t as smart as wethought we were and didn’t havethe experience that maybe weneeded.”
Schleifer and Yancopoulosconsidered remodeling the com-pany after Merck, the U.S. drug-maker nicknamed “the house thatresearch built” under the leader-ship of Vagelos.
“Vagelos had always been ahero of mine because I’m also theson of a Greek immigrant,” Yan-copoulos said. “My father cut outa Greek-language newspaper ar-ticle for me in the 1970’s whenRoy became head of research atMerck and said: ‘If you’re goingto become a scientist instead of adoctor,’ which was always hisdream for me, ‘at least becomelike this scientist.’”
Yancopoulos said he andSchleifer “always talked aboutRoy. And we thought just like heand Merck followed the scienceas a foundation, we could do thatas well.”
Schleifer startled Yancopoulosone day with a suggestion thatthey hire Vagelos instead of justemulating him. “At that time, Royhad been a top CEO in Americafor a half dozen years in a row,so I told Len: ‘Roy is not even go-ing to answer your phone calls!’”Yancopoulos said. “But Len calledup Roy, and Roy answered. Andhe was planning to step down atMerck and wanted to do some-thing different, to get into thisbiotech-type stuff. And Len con-
vinced him to come visit Regen-eron for a couple of days, for meto give him a total overview ofthe company.”
Vagelos became chairman ofRegeneron’s board in 1995 andmade a deep impression. Heurged the company to study otherdiseases and to exploit its under-standing of cell receptors - pro-teins on the surface of cells thatset into motion biological reac-tions within the cell.
Likewise, Vagelos stressed thecompany’s other strong suit de-veloped during its years of neu-roscience research - its expertisein cell signaling, communicationamong cells and how errors inthat process can lead to disease.
Vagelos remains a totally in-volved company Chairman. “Hecomes to every one of our scien-tific advisory meetings and talkson a daily basis to me and Len,”Yancopoulos said.
Regeneron Rises under Leadership of Roy Vangelos, George Yancopoulos
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Continued from page 1
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc’s Head of Research GeorgeYancopoulos, Chief Executive Leonard Schleifer and Chairmanof the Board of Directors Roy Vagelos (L-R) at the company’slaboratories in Tarrytown, New York, in this undated handoutphoto made available May 12, 2010.
PHOTO: REUTERS/HANDOUT)
have fallen to as low as 5 per-cent for supporting austeritymeasures that Golden Dawn op-poses.
The report identifies GoldenDawn as “a political partyopenly espousing anti-Semitismand racism and linked to violentattacks against individuals per-ceived to be immigrants, wereelected to Parliament.”
Golden Dawn also has beenaccused of assaults on immi-grants, which it denies, andsends out vigilante patrols intohigh-crime areas to search forillegal immigrants it blames forthe trouble.
The Greek government pub-licly condemned some anti-Se-mitic and racist incidents, statesthe report, though “observerscalled on the authorities to domore to counter hate speechand the violent actions ofGolden Dawn members.” PrimeMinister Antonis Samaras hasbeen reluctant to after the partyas he also wants all illegal im-
migrants out of the country andan anti-racism bill has beenstalled in Parliament over de-bate whether it would makemartyrs out of Golden Dawn.
There were also reports of“harassment and increasingly vi-olent physical attacks against in-dividuals perceived to be immi-grants and refugees, many ofwhom were Muslim,” states thereport, while “expressions ofanti-Semitism increased aftervoters elected members ofGolden Dawn to Parliament.”
"[Golden Dawn's] officialnewspaper attacked the teachingof the Holocaust in schools and,on the occasion of a visit by theexecutive director of the Ameri-can Jewish Committee, statedthat the Jewish lobby and Zion-ism conspired against Greekwealth,” notes the report, addingthat some members of the GreekOrthodox clergy condemned vi-olent attacks against immi-grants, while others expressedtheir support for Golden Dawn.
The report further notes thatthe Greek Orthodox Church ex-
ercised considerable influence,while some non-Orthodox citi-zens complained of beingtreated with suspicion whenthey spoke of their religious af-filiations.
“Members of non-Orthodoxreligious groups reported inci-dents of societal discrimination.Members of the Muslim minor-ity in Thrace were underrepre-sented in public sector employ-ment, and no Muslim militarypersonnel advanced to officerranks,” says the report.
The report further notes thatplanning for a government-funded mosque in the Greekcapital continued, while someMuslim leaders had expressedtheir concern with regard to thelack of an Islamic cemetery inAthens, prompting members ofthe Muslim communities in theGreek capital and other cities totravel to Thrace for Islamic bur-ial of deceased relatives or havethe remains repatriated.
U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry presented the reportwhich indicates a sharp rise in
displays of anti-Semitism world-wide. Special mention is givento Golden Dawn leader NikosMichaloliakos who “had publiclyand repeatedly denied the Holo-caust, while he had made Nazisalute to greet his supporters inmany occasions in the past”.
The report also notes thathuman rights organizations,such as Human Rights Watch,criticize Greek Police for making“little effort” to scale downGolden Dawn’s violent actions.The Greek government has con-demned the anti-Semitic andracist attacks. However, inter-national observers have askedGreece to be more “active” in itsdealing with Golden Dawn’s vi-olent attacks.
The State Department’s re-port finally mentions that theAmerican ambassador in Athensand American officials heldmeetings with their Greek coun-terparts and asked from theGreek government to publiclyand strongly disapprove ofGolden Dawn and its anti-Se-mitic actions.
U.S. State Department Blames Golden Dawn for the Anti-Semitism in Greece
GREECE CYPRUS10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
TNH Staff
ATHENS – Uncertain how todeal with the rising popularityof the extreme rightwing GoldenDawn Party that has 18 seats inParliament and has stepped upits rhetoric against immigrantsand the government, Prime Min-ister Antonis Samaras’ coalitionhas split over whether to passan anti-racism bill.
Samaras, the New Democ-racy Conservative leader, is re-portedly worried that a clamp-down on Golden Dawn – as theEuropean Union’s human rightschief said there is enough evi-dence for the party to be out-lawed – would backfire andwind up giving it more supportfrom supporters who feel it’s be-ing persecuted.
His coalition partners, thePASOK Socialists and tiny De-mocratic Left (DIMAR) want thebill pushed through Parliamentand Justice Minister AntonisRoupakiotis appeared set to re-sign if the legislation he pro-posed is diluted for political ex-pediency.
With growing incidents of as-saults on immigrants, some ofwhich have been tied to the ex-tremists, the bill’s aim is to im-pose tougher penalties for indi-viduals or groups inciting racialhatred.
Its real goal, political leadershave privately acknowledged, istrying to corral growing supportfor Golden Dawn. The newspa-per Kathimerini said Samaras istrying to avert growing tensionover the legislation but wantschanges to avoid a clash withthe Greek Orthodox Church, fol-lowing complaints by BishopAmvrosios of Kalavryta that thebill would “muzzle” the churchand grant “impunity” to immi-grants, as well as with thearmed forces.
New Democracy also wantsto ensure that the bill would notbring into question Greece’s po-
sition on sensitive national issuessuch as the recognition as geno-cide of the persecution sufferedby Black Sea Greeks, Armeniansand Greeks of Asia Minor.
Government spokesmanSimos Kedikoglou sought to playdown the rift, saying that thebill will be submitted to Parlia-ment in the coming weeks. Themajor opposition Coalition ofthe Radical Left (SYRIZA) partysaid the delays show that Sama-ras, who has an openly anti-im-migrant stance, has ideologicalties to Golden Dawn.
EXTREMISM ANDTERRORISM
Under fire in Greece for itsanti-immigrant and anti-Semiticstance, the neo-Nazi GoldenDawn party is looking to the ter-rorist group Hezbollah as an ex-ample of how to gain power,one of its leading members said.
Ilias Panagiotaros, one of 18of the group’s Members of Par-liament, told Australian televi-sion that the far-right partywould like to resemble theLebanon-based Islamic militantgroup that wars with neighbor-ing Israel. The group gets fund-ing from Syria and Iran.
Speaking to the SBS Datelineprogram, the lawmaker said:“Golden Dawn wants to be-come, and will become, likeHezbollah in Lebanon, which isin effect a second governmentthat helps even the last of itspoor citizens.”
He said: “As time passes,Golden Dawn will do more forour fellow citizens,” he added.
Panagiotaros was speakingon May 2, when Golden Dawnwas prevented from handingout food at Syntagma Squareand another of the party’s law-makers, Giorgos Germenis, at-tempted to attack Athens MayorGiorgos Kaminis.
Germenis was stopped byKaminis’s bodyguards, who alsodeterred the MP from drawinga firearm he was carrying.
In the Australian program,Panagiotaros was also filmedwith a sidearm. He said it wasto protect himself againstthreats from “anarchists and ter-rorists”.
After reports that anotherGolden Dawn MP refused to putaway a sidearm as he drove intothe Parliament parking lot, andfear by those from other partiesthat the extremists were takingguns into the chamber, Parlia-ment President EvangelosMeimarakis said that lawmakerswould have to pass throughmetal detectors to enter the
House and would not be al-lowed to bring in guns.
In the SBS program, Pana-giotaros also suggests that de-spondent people who are killingthemselves over austerity mea-sures have another option: hesaid that they should “kill thoseresponsible” for the crisis. Whenquestioned who he is talkingabout, the Golden Dawn MPsays: “bankers.”
The party has been indoctri-nating high school students andin March said it wanted to reachdown further and begin to teachnursery school students about
their positions that been char-acterized as hate-filled by criticsand human rights groups.
The European Union’s hu-man rights chief, after a visit toGreece to investigate rising hatecrimes and assaults against im-migrants, said the governmenthad enough evidence to ban theparty, which has risen from ob-scurity in 2009 to win nearly al-most 7 percent of the vote lastyear and now has almost dou-bled that in some polls.
The election last year of 18Golden Dawn members to theGreek Parliament has caused an
increase in anti-Semitism in thecountry, the U.S. State Depart-ment said in a report on inter-national religious freedom.
The party’s popularity is con-tinuing the soar the more it iscriticized for its stance, which isalso anti-immigrant, anti-Gay,nationalist and ultra-religious,although it had pagan leanings.
The report identifies GoldenDawn as “a political partyopenly espousing anti-Semitismand racism and linked to violentattacks against individuals per-ceived to be immigrants, wereelected to Parliament.”
Golden Dawn also has beenaccused of assaults on immi-grants, which it denies, andsends out vigilante patrols intohigh-crime areas to search forillegal immigrants it blames forthe trouble.
The Greek government pub-licly condemned some anti-Se-mitic and racist incidents, statesthe report, though “observerscalled on the authorities to domore to counter hate speechand the violent actions ofGolden Dawn members.”
There were also reports of“harassment and increasingly vi-olent physical attacks against in-dividuals perceived to be immi-grants and refugees, many ofwhom were Muslim,” states thereport, while “expressions ofanti-Semitism increased aftervoters elected members ofGolden Dawn to parliament.”
“[Golden Dawn’s] officialnewspaper attacked the teach-ing of the Holocaust in schoolsand, on the occasion of a visitby the executive director of theAmerican Jewish Committee,stated that the Jewish lobby andZionism conspired againstGreek wealth,” notes the report,adding that some members ofthe Greek Orthodox clergy con-demned violent attacks againstimmigrants, while others ex-pressed their support for GoldenDawn.
hibition is largely about theSephardic Jews who came toGreece from Spain and Portugalin the 15th century and contin-ued to speak Ladino, a languagethat is based on 15th-centurySpanish and is written using He-brew characters. Another sec-tion focuses on the RomanioteJews, who arrived in Greecemore than 2,000 years ago —the oldest Jewish community inEurope — and had different cus-toms from the larger Sephardicpopulation. Altogether, some 60photographs and 14 artifacts areon display.
A third element in the showis “Greece and the Holocaust,”a DVD produced by the Holo-caust center and shown on amonitor. It includes archival ma-
terial, music and personal testi-mony by Beni Elias, who livedin Long Beach until his death in2010, Ms. Lilach said. His cousinMartin Elias, who lives inBrookville, underwrote the ex-hibition.
On the DVD, Beni Elias spokeabout his experiences in a con-centration camp, where Jewsnot strong enough to work weretaken immediately to a crema-torium. He described the deathof his brother, whose spine wasbroken by a Nazi guard. Defyingthe rules, Mr. Elias crept intothe barracks where his brotherlay dying and crawled into hisbed. In the morning, he said, hedid not see his brother: “Mybrother was dead.”
The DVD also tells the storiesof several of the 307 Greek Or-thodox who are counted among
the “righteous” Christians whohelped to save Jews. Amongthem were the archbishop ofGreece and the police chief ofAthens, who together saved 560Jews by claiming they wereChristians and giving them falseidentification papers.
“Many courageous peopledid the right thing, and theyshould be acknowledged,” saidMarcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos,museum director of Kehila Ke-dosha Janina Synagogue andMuseum in Manhattan, whichrepresents the Romaniote com-munity and has lent artifactsand photographs to the exhibi-tion. The artifacts include a pairof unusual platform shoes, withtwo heels on each shoe, thatwomen wore to a ritual batharound 1870; two pillow coversand a jacket embroidered withreal gold; a handmade illus-trated prayer book from around1900; and a silver containermade in the 1850s to hold ascroll telling the biblical story of
Esther. The photographs include a
particularly moving image of ayoung woman crying in anguishas she and others from her townof Ioannina are being deportedon March 25, 1944, toAuschwitz-Birkenau. “That pho-tograph just spoke volumes,”said Ms. Ikonomopoulos, wholives in Huntington. The mu-seum put the photo on its Website, she said, and the youngwoman was identified as FaniHaim by a member of her fam-ily, who said she was 15 or 16at the time. Of 1,960 Jews de-ported from Ioannina, only 110survived, and Ms. Haim wasamong them. She settled inAthens, had a family and diedin 2008.
Another striking photo showsGracia Samuel, also of Ioannina,in 1940, a diminutive girl withlarge dark eyes standing at at-tention for her formal portraitwith a small smile on her face.“She was about 4 in the photo,”
Ms. Ikonomopoulos said. “Shewas 8 when she perished inAuschwitz, along with her fam-ily.”
The core exhibition aboutSephardic Jews is on loan fromthe Foundation for the Advance-ment of Sephardic Studies andCulture and was produced byRobert Bedford of Leonia, N.J.,the foundation’s executive di-rector; Stuart Fishelson ofBrooklyn; and Dr. Joe Halio, ageriatrician who practices inGreat Neck and lives in Manhas-set.
Dr. Halio, the foundation’spresident, said his mother’s fa-ther, Albert Torres, came toAmerica from Salonika in 1911and published newspapers inLadino from then until 1948.His grandfather’s mother, whoseportrait is in the exhibition, hesaid, had stayed in Greece anddied during deportation. Manyof the photographs, he said,were collected at a Sephardicsynagogue in Forest Hills. Thereare also Sephardic congrega-tions in Cedarhurst, he said, andin Brooklyn, where he grew up.
From the time of their arrivalin Greece, the Sephardic Jews“struggled to remain an unas-similated minority, preservingtheir language, culture and her-itage,” Mr. Bedford wrote in anexhibition-related booklet. TheRomaniote community wasmore assimilated, at least interms of clothing, as suggestedin a portrait of two womenwearing elaborately patterneddresses in the town of Chalcis,on the island of Euboea, inabout 1910.
Photos from the 1940s showmen being rounded up for
forced labor and women carry-ing bundles of their possessionsas they are being deported. Aphoto taken around 1946, ayear after the liberation ofAuschwitz, shows Leo Mallah,formerly of Salonika, posinggrimly on a street in Germany.He still wears a striped campuniform, perhaps his only cloth-ing at the time.
“Portraits of Our Past: TheSephardic Communities ofGreece and the Holocaust,”through Aug. 15 at theHolocaust Memorial and Toler-ance Center of Nassau County,Welwyn Preserve, 100 CrescentBeach Road, Glen Cove. Infor-mation: (516) 571-8040; holo-caust-nassau.org.
Greece is Yet Another, and Often-Forgotten Casualty of the Holocaust
Continued from page 1
The U.S. State Department stated in a report on internationalreligions that the presence of Golden Dawn in Parliament hascaused an increase in anti-Semitism in Greece.
Continued from page 1
A prayer book (circa 1900) and a silver Torah pointer (1870s.)
A circa 1890 jacket made inGreece, near portraits ofGreek Jewish victims of theNazis.
As Golden Dawn’s Popularity Persists, PM Considers Anti-Racism Bill
Panagiotis Iliopoulos, a deputy for the far-right Golden Dawn party, centre top, gestures as heshouts insults at other lawmakers with his colleague in the same party at the Greek Parliamentin Athens, Friday, May 17, 2013. The ultra-right deputy has been expelled from a debate in par-liament after mocking the country’s opposition leader. The 46-year-old lawmaker shouted “Youare goats. You are jokers” before the leaving the chamber.
AP PHOTO/fOSPHOTOS, PANAyIOTIS TzAmAROS
Northport Middle School students at the exhibition in Glen Cove.
PHOTOS: KATHy KmONICEK fOR THE NEw yORK TImES
TNH Staff
ATHENS – Outgoing U.S. Am-bassador to Greece Daniel Ben-nett Smith and philanthropistIsabella Arvaniti, who has builtshelters for needy children andis known for her charitableworks, received this year’s Hel-lenic Heritage Achievementawards from the American Hel-lenic Institute (AHI) before apacked audience in the capitalcity.
This year’s event was char-acterized by optimism forGreece in contrast to the lasttwo years as the country con-tinues to undergo a crushingeconomic crisis and would stayin the Eurozone. Smith is set tobe transferred after spendingthree years in Greece as thecountry was suffering a crushingeconomic crisis and oversaw as-sistance for Greeks as well.
Arvaniti arranged for the ren-ovation of a building complexand fully equipped it to offerhospital to 50 children for theSmile of the Child agency whichworks to help abused childrenand combat exploitation andwork in the campaign to findchildren who go missing.
Arvaniti is active in affairs inthe city of Aigio, and where sheconstructed four buildings tohouse children from Smile ofthe Child in memory of her par-ents. She accepted the awardwithout a speech but withthanks. She avoids publicity, asspeakers noted, but was per-suaded to attend only to set anexample for others.
Smith was honored for re-sponding to his duties amidst
the crisis and promoted the em-bassy’s charitable work and en-couraged business entrepre-neurship with conventions andinitiatives.
AHI President Nick Larigakis,with characteristic humor, saidSmith’s tenure was so successfuland low profile that in his threeyears in his office in Athens noone criticized him.
Smith, talking to EthnikosKirix about how everyone is bid-ding him farewell with humor,said, “everyone’s saying it in ahurry but I’m delaying it, I’m notleaving immediately.”
Asked by the media to talkabout his tenure he said that“they were very difficult yearsfor Greece and I felt for the sac-
rifices and pain of the Greeks.”With unemployment at a record27 percent and 64 percent forthose under 25, he noted themajor consequences of the deeprecession in which the countryfinds itself.
He added that “the determi-nation and solidarity haschanged things. Surely it’s notan easy path but if Greece insistson reforms I think the privatesector can free powers and thefuture of the country will bebright.”
When asked if as an individ-ual and not as a diplomat if theGreek society might explode hesaid, “Surely, of course.” Headded: “every person was wor-ried about an incident that
could ignite trouble. But theyunderestimated the power ofthe people’s opinion. Greeks gotsupport from their traditionsand family. But we have to rec-ognize the maturity that is oftennot recognized by others.”
He continued that “so manypeople predicted that Greecewould leave the Eurozone. Somany predicted that Greecewould not do what it is doingnow but they underestimatedGreeks and their power. I’m notsaying they are happy under theconditions in which they are liv-ing – nobody can be – but I be-lieve they are determined tostay in the Euro, rebuild theireconomy and have a better fu-ture for their children.”
Larigakis told Ethnikos Kirixthat this year’s function was asuccess. “Besides, every year wetry to improve it.” This year, hesaid, by awarding Arvaniti, thatAHI was showing that not onlya business spirit is noted butalso that societal endeavorsshould be noted, along with themodesty she displays.
He was asked if he saw moreoptimism in Greece than lastyear when the climate wasdarker and said that sincerelyhis view was that he’s found apsychologically better atmos-phere. “If this also responds toreality, I don’t know. But at leastit is positive. People believethere is light in the tunnel andwe are ready to see it at thebend.”
The President of the GreekParliament, EvangelosMeimarakis, also attended theevent and saluted AHI’s work.He stressed that his presencewas designed to send a messagethat AHI is a remarkable andpositive voice of Hellenism inthe United States.
The President of AHI-Greece,Elias Malevitis, referring to thehonorees, did not hesitate topoint out in the presence ofSmith that Greece has alwaysbeen a faithful friend of theUnited States, in contrast toTurkey, which refused to standwith the Americans in the Iraqwar and demanded much in re-turn. He also complained thatthe abilities and support of theGreeks of the Diaspora were notutilized by the Greek govern-ment
Larigakis, in his speech,
noted AHI’s work and the pastyear, referring to interventionsgoing on in the U.S. Congressin favor of Greek and Cypriot is-sues while he emphasized theyoung generation as well. Hepointed to the students the in-stitute sends to Greece and thescholarships it gives to trainGreeks in centers of authorityin Washington, D.C.
Also attending from AHIwere its secretary, lawyerNicholas Karabelas, Leon An-dris, George Tsetsekos, GusAndy, and Georgia Polyzou.
While Smith has been partic-ularly low-key, he has spokenout about the Greek economiccrisis. At an American-HellenicChamber of Commerce invest-ment seminar in Dec. 2012, hesaid that, “I have noticed oftenduring this economic crisis inGreece that there is a tendencyin the public debate to confusefiscal austerity with true reform.The two are not the same.”
He suggested that PrimeMinister Antonis Samaras findways to help Greece grow outof the crisis and not rely solelyon pay cuts, tax hikes andslashed pensions ordered by in-ternational lenders in return forbailouts.
“One can impose fiscal aus-terity measures without imple-menting meaningful reformsand without changing the un-derlying structural problemsthat inhibit the growth of theeconomy. In the long run, how-ever, reforms are necessary notonly to improve the competitive-ness of the economy but also toprevent a recurring pattern offiscal crises,” he said.
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013 11
American Hellenic Institute Honors Amb. Smith, Philanthropist Arvaniti
TNH Staff
NICOSIA – Despite incoming 10billion euros ($13 billion) in in-ternational loans to prop upstate banks, the Cypriot econ-omy will remain shaky and anexpected recession will bedeeper and last longer thanthought, Central bank chief Pan-icos Demetriades said.
President Nicos Anastasiadesagreed to a bailout deal with theTroika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that includedconfiscating up to 80 percent ofbank accounts over 100,000 eu-ros ($130,000) and imposingother austerity measures thatwill put a 13 billion euros ($17billion) burden on Cypriots anddepositors.
Demetriades said the islandcountry, which nearly went bustin March before the bailout dealwas set, faces “unusually high”macroeconomic and bankingsector risks, according to his pre-pared remarks, which were de-livered to a Nicosia conferenceby a senior manager of the cen-tral bank.
Demetriades warned aboutthe potential impact of a resolu-tion process for two large banksand losses forced on big deposi-tors under the island's bailout
deal, which has also entailed theimposition of capital controls.
The “recession could bedeeper than anticipated withnegative feedback loops on pub-lic finances, including govern-ment debt,” he said. Even withthe aid, the country’s Gross Do-mestic Product (GDP) of 17.5billion euros ($22.5 billion) isexpected to shrink 8.7 percentthis year.
Conditions of the rescuepackage include the closure ofCyprus's second-largest bank,Popular, and imposing losses onuninsured savings in its biggestlender, Bank of Cyprus, to re-capitalize both after huge losseson lending to Greece.
Capital controls will have tobe eased gradually, Demetriadeswarned, as eliminating themabruptly could trigger rapid out-flows from the banking sectorand liquidity problems.
The government is still limit-ing individuals to a daily limitof 300 euros ($390) from ATM’sbut has somewhat eased howmuch businesses can take out sothat they can operate. The con-trols were supposed to be short-lived but seem set to last muchlonger than announced.
The country’s crisis wascaused by its state banks over-exposure to Greek bonds thatwere devalued by 74 percent as
Greece wrote down its crushingdebt during an even worse crisisthat is still lingering, and by badloans to Greek businesses whichwent belly-up.
The former presidents ofBank of Cyprus and of CyprusPopular Bank (Laiki), AndreasArtemis and Andreas Filippouearlier said that they had notsigned the agreement for theconcession of the two lenders’Greek branches to Piraeus Bank,considering it a bad deal.
In his deposition at the Insti-tutions Committee of the CypriotParliament in Nicosia, Artemissaid that the agreement con-tained provisions for Piraeus toproceed to a check after the ac-quisition of the Greek networksof the Cypriot lenders and askfor compensation for loans.
He added that the deal leftout any obligations Bank ofCyprus may have in Greece,which were not transferred toPiraeus Bank, meaning that inthe future the Bank of Cypruscould lose even more money.
Former Finance MinisterMichalis Sarris, who last Marchnegotiated the Cypriot bailoutagreement with the Eurozone,told the same Parliamentarycommittee on Tuesday that Laikiin Greece issued “odd” loansamounting to 4 billion euros($5.15) billion, without explain-
ing if they were non-performingloans not being paid back or towhom they were given. He isalso a former president of Popu-lar Bank.
OUTLOOK NOT GOODThe IMF said that substantial
risks still loom for the Cyprioteconomy even after the bailout.An IMF report predicted a deeprecession in Cyprus this year and
next and said there is a dangerthat the downturn could be evenmore severe if authorities do notadhere strictly to conditions im-posed as part of the deal.
EU officials involved in therescue have insisted that theplan, especially the confiscationof private accounts, won't set aprecedent but critics said it haspaved the way for governments
to raid depositors’ accounts. The IMF said there are sub-
stantial risks that the negativeeffects of the crisis could be evenworse than what is currently an-ticipated. It said the impact ofthe banking crisis on economicgrowth is “highly uncertain” andan economic slump could resultin a “vicious cycle” of bankrupt-cies, drops in real estate prices,bank losses, and unemployment.If that happens it “could alsolead to a deeper recession thananticipated,” the report said.
It also raised the risk that acrisis of confidence could driveaway investments by foreignbanks and large depositors, fur-ther weakening the already im-periled banking system as de-positors and investors lose trustand fear their money could alsobe seized.
The IMF report projected thatthe Cypriot economy wouldshrink by 9 percent this year andanother 4 percent in 2014 withunemployment forecast to peakaround 17 percent in 2014.However, it said there is a riskthis contraction could be evendeeper.
The IMF said the bailout was“intended to stabilize the coun-try's financial system ... and sup-port the recovery of economicactivity,” but ironically mighthave the opposite effect instead.
Cyprus Central Bank Chief Demetriades Says Nation’s Economy Still at Risk
and ensuring all member statesare connected to gas and elec-tricity networks. Greece is hop-ing to obtain EU funding to con-nect its islands to the grid,which could save the govern-ment 400 million euros ($515.3million) a year.
Samaras insisted that attract-ing foreign investment to Greecewas the country’s best hope ofovercoming its devastating un-employment problem, as he metwith officials from Russian giantGazprom, which is in pole posi-tion to acquire the country’s soleretail gas distributor, DEPA.
Ahead of his meeting withGazprom CEO Alexey Miller inAthens, Samaras briefed Presi-dent Karolos Papoulias on hisrecent visit to China and Azer-baijan.
Samaras told Papoulias thatthe government’s strategy of re-gaining investors’ confidenceand attracting foreign capitalwas the correct one for resusci-tating the country’s economy.
“We stabilized the country’sposition in Europe and now weare stabilizing it on the worldmap,” said Samaras. “Opportu-nities to be outward-looking andto attract investment are theonly way to fight and beat un-employment, which is our coun-try’s biggest problem.”
THE RUSSIAN CARDThe prime minister then met
with Miller and other Gazpromofficials to discuss the sale ofDEPA. This was Miller’s thirdvisit to Athens in just over twomonths. The CEO of Greece’sprivatization agency, YiannisEmiris, also took part in thetalks.
Binding bids for DEPA aredue to be submitted by May 29and it appears that the two sidessettled a couple of concerns thatGazprom had about the deal.Sources said that Samarasagreed that the Russian firmshould have to deposit 10 per-cent rather than 20 percent ofthe purchase price as a guaran-tee before the sale gets Euro-pean Union approval.
The Greek side committed togradually paying off the public
sector’s debts to DEPA. Therewas also a discussion aboutGazprom reducing its supplyprices once its current contractwith DEPA expires in 2016.
“The parties highly praisedthe Russian-Greek cooperationin the gas sector and expressedtheir mutual interest to continuethe fruitful partnership,”Gazprom said in a statement.
There was also a discussionabout Gazprom reducing its sup-ply prices once its current con-
tract with DEPA expires in 2016.“The parties highly praised theRussian-Greek cooperation inthe gas sector and expressedtheir mutual interest to continuethe fruitful partnership,”Gazprom said in a statement.
Those talks came after Sama-ras made a sidestop on the wayback from China to Azerbaijanto talk with President IlhamAliyev. One of the main topicsof conversation during themeeting was the Trans Adriatic
Pipeline (TAP), which will nat-ural gas from Azerbaijan towestern Europe via Greece andItaly.
The economic think-tankIOBE estimates that the pipelinecould bring 340 million euros($439.6 million) of added valueto the Greek economy each year.Azerbaijan’s state oil companySOCAR is also one of the lead-ing contenders for the purchaseof Greece’s natural gas networkoperator, DESFA.
POLITICAL RESPITEUnlike his predecessor, for-
mer PASOK Socialist leader andprevious premier George Papan-dreou, who was hounded out ofoffice after two years of relent-less protests, strikes and riotsagainst austerity measures heimposed on the orders of inter-national lenders, Samaras haslargely escaped social unrest.
Strikes and protests againstmore pay cuts, tax hikes andslashed pensions have fizzled asthe first in a series of more res-cue loans are pouring intoGreece and as the governmentis trying to pay off creditors torestore credibility.
Samaras said he even thinksGreece could return to the mar-kets sometime in 2014 after be-ing locked out when former fi-nance minister EvangelosVenizelos, now PASOK’s leader,imposed 74 percent losses oninvestors and bondholders towrite down the country’s debt.
The government, by follow-ing orders of the EuropeanUnion-International MonetaryFund-European Central Bank(EU-IMF-ECB) Troika, haslargely restored stability with itslenders, gaining more confi-dence that a recovery could
come, even if it would be slow.Samaras said he’s most anx-
ious now about trying to getpeople back to work as the aus-terity measures have created arecord 27 percent unemploy-ment rate, some 64 percent forthose under 25.
Eurozone chief Jeroen Dijs-selbloem told Kathimerini thatthe bloc’s financial chiefs areeasing up on Greece and willgive Samaras more time to helpGreece turn the corner.
“The Commission’s approachregarding fiscal consolidation ismore flexible, giving certaincountries more time to meettheir targets. I believe that thiswill be the case for Greece ifneeded,” he said.
Greece’s European partnersagreed last year to extend thematurities and reduce the inter-est on the nation’s bailout fundsto help cut its debt mountain toa more sustainable level of 124percent of GDP in 2020, froman estimated 173 percent thisyear.
They promised more debt re-lief might follow if Greece hitsits fiscal targets and posts a bal-anced budget in 2013. Dijssel-bloem said Greece’s fiscalprogress had been satisfactoryso far, adding Eurozone financeministers would assess whetherGreece deserves further debt re-lief in 2014.
“We will meet at some pointin 2014 to see what moreGreece will need on the condi-tion it has met the set targets,”he said in the interview. “Wehave not made any decisions onwhat form this debt relief willtake and whether it will includeerasing part of the bilateralloans.”
Greece Prepares for its Future, Likely to Be a Slow Economic Recovery
U.S. Ambassador to Greece Daniel Bennett Smith (5th from L) and philanthropist Isabella Ar-vaniti, who has built shelters for needy children, (6th from left, next to AHI President Nick Lar-igakis) received this year’s AHI Hellenic Heritage Achievement awards.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, right,and Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis address the media,during their meeting, at the European Commission headquar-ters in Brussels, Thursday, May 23.
AP PHOTO/yVES lOGGHE
Continued from page 1
Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, left and his Irish counterpart Enda Kenny wave tothe media prior to their meeting at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Thursday, May 23, 2013.Samaras said that Greece would follow the “same successful model” as Ireland both of the EUpresidency and to exit the crisis. Ireland’s EU presidency will finish in the end of June. Greeceis scheduled to take over the EU's rotating six-month presidency in January 2014.
AP PHOTO/THANASSIS STAVRAKIS
TNH STAff PHOTO
EDITORIALS LETTERS12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
A Hellene RemainsYoung at Heart at 83
To the Editor:Keep up your superb journal-
ism. I am the youngest of fivebrothers. Our parents emigratedfrom Peloponnesos, both Arca-dians. They took us there forfour months in 1934.
Even in those long-past days,I remember my parents readingthe Ethnikos Kirix.
Now at 83 I am making anew and long run in life. Stilldownhill skiing in Colorado,running on the beach in Florida,working out daily, and followinga diet to prevent and reverseheart disease. As the first personof Greek ancestry to be ap-
pointed by a president to be aFederal Judge, I believe that ourheritage, which gave the worlda new beginning, needs yournewspaper to continue inspiringnew beginnings for our world’sgovernments and each individ-ual, both young in years andyoung at heart.
Thank you for your commit-ment.
Tom LambrosAshtabula, OH
Tom Lambros was appointed tothe U.S. District Court forNorthern Ohio by PresidentLyndon Johnson in 1967, wherehe served until 1995.
NYC Has Term Limits, ButAlbany Needs Them, Too
To the Editor:We need term limits in Al-
bany, just like we have here inNew York City. With all of therecent investigations of ourState Senators and leaders, ithas become obvious that ourstate government cannot func-tion without graft.
One of the main reasons whyAlbany is so corrupt is becausemany of those politicians havebeen in office too long. Theyhave become arrogant, comfort-able, and self-serving. They for-get that they were elected toserve their community. Rather,they look to make money andpromote themselves or their lawpractices and businesses.
Term limits in Albany, evenif only for the next 12 years,would force a cleanup of corruptofficials and allow new leadersto be elected that are honest andwilling to serve their communi-ties for the limited two terms,or eight years. They will nothave the time to be able to de-velop corrupt relationships withtheir patrons. I applaud the FBI
and law enforcement officialsfor keeping an eye on them. Ifit weren’t for their oversight, wewould be like some Europeancounties, bankrupt because ofcorruption.
George DelisAstoria
George Delis is a former Com-munity Board 1 Queens DistrictManager
Two Brilliant ScientistsTwenty-five million Americans – and many more millions around
the world – suffer from asthma.A pharmaceutical company named Regeneron, however, appears
to have discovered a drug that can be beneficial for patients nothelped by existing drugs.
The discovery itself would not fall into the area of our com-mentaries.
What compels us to write about it, though, is the fact that atleast two key people in the company are Greek-Americans.
The first is P. (Pindar) Roy Vangelos, who is chairman of theBoard, and the second is Dr. George D. Yancopoulos, its chief sci-entific officer.
We do not have the requisite scientific knowledge to express anopinion on the effectiveness of this drug, but judging by thepositive market reaction, always a valid measure (its stock rose by$10 to reach $ 271 Wednesday morning, after the announcement)then it has to be a promising discovery.
Who, then, are these two great Greek-Americans? Vangelos, whose family has its roots in Asia Minor, was born in
Westfield, NJ. His father ran a coffee shop at which the young Pin-dar helped. He was a brilliant student at the University of Pennsyl-vania and at Columbia University, where he earned a medical de-gree.
In 1986, he became president of the pharmaceutical giant Merck& Company, which he led to new heights, and where he gained areputation for being an outstanding leader.
He became chairman of the Board of Directors of Regeneron IN1994.
Yancopoulos was born in Woodside, right next to Astoria, thegreat Greek enclave. His father was Damis George Yancopoulos,an insurance man well-known in the community as a champion onthe Macedonian issue, and active with Kastorian organizations.
George finished first in his class at the prestigious Bronx HighSchool of Science, and then earned a doctorate at Columbia.
Two children, then, from families of modest means, but rich incharacter and Hellenic values, thrived in our meritocratic country.
Not Even the Greek Flag?It might appear to be an innocent omission. It is not. Not only it
is an important issue in itself, it reveals that the Church in Americais on the wrong course.
TNH revealed last week in its Greek edition that the Archdioce-san Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York no longer displaysthe Greek flag.
The American flag and the flag of the Patriarchate fly above themain entrance, and we have no problem with that at all. “We haveno money to buy a Greek flag,” said the Dean of the Cathedral toTNH.
One gains nothings by exclaiming, “Shame on you!” We do not be-lieve that the Archbishop agrees with the change, or that he has evenseen it. Others have walked through entrance and not noticed it.
The question is not, as tempting as it is, how we got to thispoint, but what to do from here. Our Church continues, if we arenot mistaken, to be called the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese ofAmerica.
It is understood that it uses, to some extent, the basic elementsof the Greek Orthodox identity, such as the language, its religioustraditions, the flag etc. Are these merely picturesque and senti-mental things? Do they discredit us in the eyes of others, isolateus, make us less American, open us to ridicule?
Rather, respect for our homeland and the place of our ecclesias-tical origins strengthens our Church, and makes her even more re-spected. It is no small thing for our Church to have roots and ref-erences in the history of Hellenism and Orthodoxy and in theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Otherwise what is it? Just one of those churches springing uphere and there every day from various charlatans who exploit in-nocent people? Or maybe we are a charming exception among mi-norities?
It bothers us, and rightly so, that third parties sometimes donot treat us with the respect we deserve. But why should this sur-prise us when we do not respect ourselves? When we do not ap-preciate the treasure of Hellenism and Orthodoxy that we have inour hands?
Is it really progress to cut ourselves off from our roots, to re-nounce our ancestors, the pioneer immigrants who built thesechurches? Are we not actually renouncing ourselves?
(Note: Since the printing, in Greek, of this message, the flaghas been put back in its place.)
Government's Slippery SlopeThe Obama Administration has recently taken two steps on a
slippery slope that involves some of America’s cherished principlesand its Constitution. There is no indication whatsoever that thePresident had knowledge or involvement in them, but as Presidenthe certainly bears full responsibility.
We refer, first, to the targeting of conservative organizations bythe IRS, and secondly, to the violation of the confidentiality oftelephone communications of journalists working for the AssociatedPress (AP).
The smooth functioning of the state depends to a great degreeon its ability to collect taxes, and for the IRS to do its job it musthave a reputation for justice by staying out of politics, by being im-partial, and by being blind in its application of the tax codes, en-suring that all citizens are treated equally.
The other issue concerns an unprecedented violation of theFirst Amendment of the Constitution that protects freedom of thepress: the interception of telephone conversations of AP journaliststo discover the sources of leaks involving terrorism investigations.We note that TNH is an AP subscriber.
The violation of the rights of the press is an even more outra-geous issue because of the deeply embedded respect for the role ofthe press in American society, which is protected by the FirstAmendment.
The Administration invoked national security reasons – the waron terrorism – for the actions it took regarding the AP.
If we let this pass once, then what would prevent the governmentfrom invoking them all the time?
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GEORGE SARAfOGlOU / SPECIAl TO THE NATIONAl HERAlD
COMMENTARY
By Dr. John CollisSpecial to The National Herald
Many Christian bibles havethe words spoken by Jesusprinted in red. That is desig-nated as “red lettering.” The redimmediately, almost automati-cally, prepares the reader to ap-preciate the message from Jesusbetter. I suggest that red, or per-haps purple, be used for thewords of God.
Red lettering for the words
of Jesus appeared in the KingJames Bible in 1899 by LouisKlopsch, editor of The ChristianHerald. Red is used only for thewords of Jesus. That color hasbeen used for no one other thanJesus, thus far.
Red makes the words of Je-sus immediately come alive. Ifeel close to Jesus when I merelyhold a bible. I feel closer to Je-sus when I see the red lettering.Having become accustomed tothe red, I find the words of Jesuswith the red lettering to be far
more inspiring.The Old Testament, called
“Scriptures” by Jesus, is longerand more complicated than theNew Testament. Identifying thewords of God with color couldbring His message to us morequickly and perhaps more mean-ingfully. I suggest purple oughtto be used for the words of God.
That could stimulate moreinterest in bible reading. Thisproposal is not meant to changeeither the words or the interpre-tation of the bible. There is no
intention to advance any literalor metaphorical ideology. Thegoal is simply to increase theease by which the bible couldbe read, thereby promotingmore interest in bible reading.
A “reader friendly” bible willprobably be read more fre-quently.
The author is presently a 30year member of the Archdioce-san Council, teaches SundaySchool and practices neuro-surgery in Cleveland, Ohio.
Bible Revision Idea: Jesus’ Words in Red, God’s in Purple
By George BeresSpecial to The National Herald
When you get to be 80, thebattle for survival depends onstaying well and mobile, physi-cally and mentally. How do youdo it? Being feisty and outspo-ken is one way, even if it riskshaving bricks thrown at you. Re-tire we must. But we don't haveto be retiring.
As a fictional figure of myculture, Zorba the Greek, pro-claimed: "Stay young by chal-lenging life!" He reminded meof how meaningful history al-ways has been for me, increas-ingly so as I've put more of mypast behind me. When my 80thbirthday arrived this spring, Ibegan to think more about thatlast day when I become "his-tory."
What if my doctor were totell me: "You have just two moredays to go."
I would challenge him be-cause I am convinced I have atleast 10 more years ahead of meon this always new, beautiful,and long-suffering earth. Thenagain, he knows his business,and can assess the condition ofmy arteries better than I can.
So in a panic I would start fig-uring what to do with those clos-ing 48 hours. Just as quickly, I'dsay to myself: "Slow down. Rush-ing won't delay the inevitable."Then I'd start considering, manyyears too late, what it is thatcauses me to cling to breath onthis increasingly polluted, but stillsweet-tasting planet.
First would be the people. Itis not saying goodbye to themso much as the realization thatthere will be no more helloswith:
* A Greek partner that hasshared and made happy mylater decades.
* Three grandchildren,which even at this early stage
are able to charm and startle mein every updated video of themsent me by their parents, manymiles to the east.
* Editors willing to take risks,sometimes publishing strongopinions I put on paper.
* Friends, the new and espe-cially the old, which I have fortoo long taken for granted.
Beginning a ninth decade, Ihave already said goodbye tomany family and friends whohave left this vale of life that al-ways, for all, is a blend of tearsand laughter. One cannot getaccustomed to those farewells,but they help prepare me for mybig transition – that ultimatechange that comes to all of us.
Some of life's elements Iwould miss are the essence ofliving, just like friends taken forgranted:
* The strum of a Greekbouzouki.
* Coo of mourning doves on
the roof of my childhood homein Pekin, IL.
* Bouncing flutter of butter-fly wings.
* Golden song of the red-winged cardinal.
* Raucous but welcomevoices of frogs greeting earlysigns of spring.
* Calming sound of a land-locked foghorn from a far-offtrain passing in the night.
Two days would not be timeenough to mention what all ofus share: many more of thosefree things that make living ablessing we too seldom ac-knowledge.
If I have another decade tonavigate, I would be motivatedby the image of Zorba, whoswore he not only would be upto facing life's challenges to thelast-- he would challenge life tothe end. To do that, one mustbe alert to and choose to fightwhatever it is that at the present
time diminishes free expressionof a good life:
* Choice of murderous warover diplomacy between na-tions.
* Selfishness that widens thegulf between the very wealthywho are catered-to and the poorwhose vital needs are ignored.
* Folly of faith that labelssome "chosen" and others "lost."
* Shallow democracy servingonly those who can buy privi-lege.
Some may claim these areeccentric views of a Pappoupassing that 80th year. They arewrong. These are views of allgrandparents. They relate to thekind of world grandchildren willinherit if we refuse to speak outagainst unfairness of the self-serving that delude us.
There can be confidence inknowing there are many moregrandparents than political de-luders.
Be Like Zorba the Greek: Stay Young by Challenging Life
VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013 13
Every so often you comeacross a man who’s so arrogant– Bobby Bonds being the posterboy as well as a lying cheat –that Mother Theresa would kickhim where it hurts and Quakerswould line up to slap somesense into him.
These types feel entitled,have no sense of shame or de-cency, expect subordinates to beobedient acolytes and are al-ways stunned when they take afall, which isn’t often enoughbecause, life being unfair, theyusually get what they wantwhile good people don’t.
Google Jamie Dimon forstarters, a Greek-American whowishes he was an Old MoneyYankee instead and who rose tohead JPMorgan Chase, one ofAmerica’s biggest banks, whichpreyed on customers unscrupu-lously and just lost $6.2 billionon his watch while he defendedpaychecks like his $20 million ayear for bank sharks.
Since some consider thatHillary “Iceberg” Clinton is re-ally a man, you can lump her inhere too, especially after hercold-blooded remarks after thedeath of four Americans in Libyaon Sept. 11, 2013 – includingthe U.S. Ambassador while shewas Secretary of State that -“What difference at this pointdoes it make?” She’d feel differ-ently if her husband was one ofthem but took no blame for notproviding security in a powderkeg country.
And yet none of them in thisAll-Star Lineup of Hubrismatches the King of Self, formerdefense minister Akis Tsochat-zopoulos, whose ego wasmatched only by a perpetual
shameless smirkand air of conde-scension to every-one he thinks isn’this equal, which iseveryone.
A stalwart in thePASOK Anti-Social-ist that defined cor-ruption, even theycouldn’t stand himand booted him af-ter evidenceemerged from pros-ecutors that he wasallegedly stealinghundreds of mil-lions of dollars fromdefense contracts,
He enriched and put in dan-ger the lives of people servingin the Greek military when italso turned out the submarineshe ordered had screen doors.What did it matter to him? Hegot his, and without having tobe in a submarine or fly dog-fights against Turkish fighter jetpilots who routinely violatedGreek air space on his watch.
Prosecutors say he used hisill-gotten gains to form a mobof greed around him, peoplewho helped him put together anelaborate scheme to hide Greektaxpayers’ money in secret bankaccounts and offshore institu-tions where he thought itwouldn’t be found.
No one knows the amountfor sure yet, but it looks like ithas passed the magic billion dol-lar mark, which would put himin the Hall of Fame for masterthieves. Believing himself abovethe law, Tsochatzopoulos almostlost his Mr. Sardonicus lookwhen police in April 2012showed up at his $2 million
mansion under theAcropolis and tookhim away.
The house wasfinally seized bythe Greek govern-ment, whichshows you howbad this guy wasbecause Greekpoliticians have alicense to steal butapparently hepassed even theirceiling of disre-spectability.
While he’s beencooling his heels in
the hoosegow, prosecutors havebeen building a case against himon an array of charges. Theynailed him on the most obviousone – failing to disclose his as-sets as required by law. He musthave forgotten to check off thebox that says: How much haveyou stolen? A) $10 million B)$100 million C) Who’s count-ing?
All the while, he’s beenthreatening to “name names,”to reveal who else is corrupt andcrooked and shady, but he musthave forgotten their names be-cause he hasn’t done so yet,even after he got an eight-yearjail term for the declaration ofwealth conviction, itself a rarityin a country where politicianshide billions in secret bank ac-counts in places like Switzer-land, Luxembourg, Lichtensteinand London.
What makes his case espe-cially ugly is that it’s not unique.He’s the highest profile politi-cian to be tried since formerPrime Minister Andreas Papan-dreou, by a single vote, survived
a corruption scandal more twodecades before. They were com-rades in building PASOK, whichtells how rotten the party reallyis.
Tsochatzopoulos representsall that avarice wrought inGreece, which helped create acrushing economic crisis thatbrought about pay cuts, taxhikes and slashed pensions, cre-ated a record 27 percent unem-ployment rate and pushed 20percent of people into poverty– none of them politicians whowould drink wine out of theskulls of the dead if they could.
The small bands of good anddecent people in Greece – theones he stepped over – are fight-ing a losing battle against hiskind even if he goes to jail forgood because there’s a lot morejust like him lining up to feed atthe public trough while peopleare going without thanks to theruinous policies these criminalscreated.
Tsochatzopoulos and hisyoung wife, who had a high-spending wedding in Paris over-looking the Eiffel Tower, arewhere they deserve to be, andif there’s any justice they’ll havecellmates just like them.
Tsochatzopoulos interruptedhis trial on May 17, shouting ob-jections to testimony from a for-mer financial crimes squad chiefuntil the prosecuting attorneytold him to sit. “I understandyour frustration but please keepyour cool,” the lawyer said.“Your life and freedom are atstake.” We can’t take the former,but we sure can take the latterfrom him.
May 19 was designated by theGreek Parliament in 1994 as aday of commemoration of thegenocide of the Greeks of the re-gion of the Pontus in Asia Minor.The elimination of the ChristianPontians from the region they in-habited probably for millennia,was part of a broader, deliber-ately planned campaign thataimed to eliminate the Christiansfrom the geographic space thatbecame modern Turkey. Thecampaign, which took place be-tween 1912 and 1923, was initi-ated by a late Ottoman rulinggroup known as the Committeefor Union and Progress and wascompleted under Mustafa Kemal(Ataturk, “father of the Turks”),who founded Turkish Republic.It is not an exaggeration to note,as was done by the recently de-ceased Neoklis Sarris, Greece’sforemost Turcologist, that Mod-ern Turkey was built on a foun-dation of genocide.
In fact, a number of datesand events punctuate a decadeof deliberate and planned geno-cidal violence: the mass killings(crudely executed compared tothe industrialized murder ofJews and others during WorldWar II), the destruction of ma-terial evidence of the millennialexistence of the various Christ-ian groups (churches, schools,cemeteries etc.), the massivetheft of homes and properties ofthe victims, and expulsion of theremaining populations: April 24has become a day of remem-brance of the Armenian Geno-cide, while September 14 com-memorates the destruction ofthe bustling city of Smyrna. TheChristian victim groups includedthe Armenians, the Assyrians,an ancient people many ofwhom still speak a form of Ara-maic — the language spoken byJesus, and the Greeks, Pontian,Anatolian, and Ionian.
The shock of uprooting, de-struction, and massive loss of lifein Asia Minor was so greatamong the victim peoples thatthe disciplined that scholarlystudy of events took decades tobegin. One set of numbers illus-trates the magnitude of thiscrime: Demographers and histo-rians estimate that in 1912 theChristian population in Asia Mi-nor and Thrace ranged between4-5 million, while the Muslimsnumbered about 7-7.5 million;in 1923 the Christians numberedless than 300,000, while the
number of Muslimremained the sameor slightly higher.
The last 20years have seen agreat amount ofwork having beendone to documentthe genocide of theChristians of AsiaMinor, which wasin fact recognizedas such by the In-ternational Associ-ation of GenocideScholars (IAGS) in2007. Most of theserious scholarshiphas been on the exterminationof the Armenians and some workalso has been taking place on thedestruction of the Assyrian com-munity. It appears that some-where between 1.2 and 1.5 mil-lion Armenians perished, whileapproximately 300,000 Assyri-ans also were killed.
A handful of scholars have fo-cused on aspects of the genocideof the Greeks of Asia Minor, in-cluding Constantinos Fotiadisand Vlassis Agtzides, who havefocused on the Pontos and TessaHofmann and her collaborators,who have taken a broader view.It is too early in the research toestablish anything but a verygeneral number of victims (prob-ably over one million or morekilled and a like number “ex-changed” based on the Treaty ofLausanne) while much work re-mains to be done.
One significant aspect of thelate Ottoman and Kemalist geno-cide that is often ignored is thedestruction that aimed eliminatethe physical evidence of the pres-ence of Christian peoples: Thou-
sands of publicbuildings (many ofthese schools) wereseized or destroyedand sacred spaces(mostly churches)were desecrated.Hundreds of to-ponyms and geo-graphical featureswere systematicallyrenamed in order toexpunge the re-minders of the exis-tence of the peopleswho lived there formillennia and whowere murdered or
expelled. As if to punctuate thisaspect of deliberate uprooting ofpeoples and the evidence of theirexistence, it was common evento eliminate cemeteries, by de-stroying the gravestones diggingup and the remains.
In order to visualize such ter-ror and destruction one needonly refer to the Turkish militaryinvasion of Cyprus in 1974 andthe subsequent occupation.There was no need to commitgenocide since the Turks terror-ized the 200,000 Greek inhabi-tants into leaving (violence waslimited to some thousands ofrapes and a similar number ofmurders). Once established theoccupying forces gave the spacea new physical and geographicalidentity; the names werechanged, buildings were seizedand properties stolen, virtuallyall of the churches were system-atically desecrated. In short,Cyprus represents in miniaturewhat happened is Asia Minordecades earlier, thus helping usunderstand that destructive,genocidal dynamic that appar-
ently is inherent in Turkic-Is-lamic culture.
Lest the above be deemedranting, it should be noted thatthe Polish-Jewish lawyer RaphaelLemkin, who coined the veryterm “genocide,” studied theevents relating to the deliberateextermination and expulsion ofthe Christian peoples in Asia Mi-nor. Lemkin observed the delib-erate and planned nature ofTurkish violence that aimed toeliminate the Christian popula-tion, ironically a decade beforehis own people became targetedfor extinction. In fact, it was as aresult of these studies thathelped Lemkin formulate thesection of international law thatrefers to genocide, and on thebasis of which the National So-cialist war criminals were triedin Nuremberg.
One last note about the de-nial of the genocide of the AsiaMinor Greeks among certain cir-cles in Athens: strangely, thereexists a group in Greece that de-nies that a genocide took place,even in the face of the most di-rect evidence. When the GreekParliament voted in 1994 on thedate of commemoration of thePontian genocide the leftistnewspaper Avgi, mouthpiece oftoday’s main opposition SYRIZAcoalition, ranged itself againstit. Lest this be seen as a politicalstatement, and for the sake ofbalance, Thanos Veremis, aprominent center-rightist pro-fessor, also (publicly) deniedthat a genocide took place, ac-cusing the Greeks fighting forthe freedom in 1821 of slaugh-tering the Muslims of Tripolitza.
Veremis has been joined bya motley crew of academic revi-sionists, who have tried to rela-tivize the actions of the Greekswith those of the Turks, presum-ably in the name of tempering“nationalism;” the most note-worthy of this latter lot being acertain Maria Repousi, who, ina sixth-grade schoolbook shecoauthored, described theevents of August 1922 inSmyrna as “Greeks crowding inthe port,” unclear as to whetherthey were escaping mass mur-der or perhaps going off to va-cation.
Aristide D. Caratzas, a trainedhistorian, is an academic pub-lisher and international policyconsultant based in Athens,Nicosia, and New York.
Reflections on the Genocide of the Asia Minor Christians
GUEST EDITORIALS
The National Herald welcomes manuscripts representing a variety ofviews for publication in its View Points page. They should includethe writer’s name, address, telephone number and be addressed tothe View Points Editor, The National Herald, 37-10 30th St., lIC, Ny11101. They can also be e-mailed to english.edition@thenational -herald.com. Due to considerations of space we enforce a strict 850-word upper limit. we reserve the right to edit.
LETTER FROM ATHENS
Akis Tsochatzopoulos: Arrogant Face of Modern Greece
by ANDYDABILIS
Special to The National Herald
On the Sundayof Pascha, a deputyfrom Greece’s mainopposition partycaught some justifi-able flak for a tweeton May 5th com-paring Christ’s Res-urrection withMarx’s birthday. Inaddition to provingthat the main oppo-sition’s biggest ob-stacle to governingis itself and itsdownright disdainfor just about any-thing popular (a big problem fora supposed party of the people),it also proved that politiciansare probably the last people thatanyone should listen to when itcomes to talking about reallyseminal things in society (i.e.,whether or not death can betrampled down by death). It’snot the first time that a politi-cian has bent and twisted themeaning behind the feast ofPascha to suit their own agen-das, and it surely won’t be thelast.
The following excerpts fromSotiris Mitralexis’ article “Pen-talepti Metohi se Anastasi,”(Five Minutes of Participation inthe Resurrection), translatedinto English for the purposes ofthis column, provide a muchmore fitting Paschal perspectivethan the musings of Greek MPson Twitter. Besides, by the timethey figure out that communismand capitalism are two sides ofthe same Western-minted mate-rialistic coin, it’ll be time for theSecond Coming.
“During an age that is con-fused enough to begin with,where everyone pretty much ar-gues on behalf of everything andopinions change every week,with the help of the Internet…the most important thing seemsto be whether or not some par-ticipates or does not participate.The superficial words that some-one will chose to address this islikely ancillary, since what some-one lives and experiences comesfirst – especially at a time whenpeople change their ‘beliefs’ likethey do their shirts and ecclesi-astical creeds sometimes turninto yet another ideology…However, the confusion with to-day’s modern day Tower of Ba-bel holds one truly deadly con-sequence, which is trying tomake everything relative. Wedon’t shirk from reproducing allsorts of verbiage about the Res-urrection, such as that ‘it offersus hope,’ or ‘that it is a celebra-tion of love,’ (where the word‘love’ refers to all sorts of inde-terminate feelings of joy), or that‘it symbolizes springtime, theResurrection of nature.’ How-ever, this Feast has no symbolicmeaning. It means exactly thatto which it refers: the Resurrec-tion of God Incarnate. But thereal story here is not the ‘super-natural’ resurrection of a deadperson: the Gospels speak ofmany different Resurrections,like that of Lazarus, or that ofmass resurrections (‘and thegraves were opened; and manybodies of the saints who had
fallen asleep wereraised; and comingout of the gravesafter His resurrec-tion, they wentinto the holy cityand appeared tomany;’ Matthew27:52-53). InChrist’s case, Hisown exit from astate of death iswitnessed, and Hepersonally tri-umphs over death.The promise ofChrist and the
Church is the resurrection of thebody in a new earth and newheavens… A new body, but nota foreign one: the same one thatwe knew, but renewed in a stateof incorruptibility, like Christ’sbody after the Resurrection,when He consumed food beforeHis disciples to emphasize hisphysical presence. And accord-ing to the testimony of theChurch, persons who havestrived during life to exist ac-cording to the Trinitarian modewill take on this new mode ofincorruptibility and love as heav-enly glory and communion withtheir loved ones, but for all thosewho rejected this mode of loveand communion during theirlives and sealed themselves offinto individualism – the modeof corruption and death – thisloving embrace cannot help butbe experienced as a form of tor-ture, a true punishment.Whether or not all of this has ashred of truth to it or is simply‘an opium of the people’ cannotbe dissected by an exchange oftheories filled with hot air, buttangibly discovered within theecclesiastical community,through participation in thebody of the Church, wheresomeone can come face to facewith this problem existentially.For all those who know how totaste and can perhaps experi-ence a foretaste of the Kingdomof Heaven during the DivineLiturgy, they will be overcomeby a mysterious mania: uponmeeting someone over the nextcouple of dozen days, they willbe unable to utter a word beforean outpouring of joy overtakesthem and exits their lips withthe phrase: ‘Christos Anesti!’ andif they happen to hear this greet-ing first, they will affirm it withthe response: ‘Alithos Anesti oKyrios!’ And if this foretastecomes from participation in abody and community, and ismanifested by actualizing thecongregation of the church intosuch, then this begs the ques-tion: what is the point of so-called ‘piety’ today, if it is indi-vidualistic or centered aroundthe individual? If it is, as we un-derstand the term today, emo-tional?... And yet, even a five-minute participation in theResurrection service might forsome people, at least, representthe tiniest of grafts – often un-conscious or involuntary – intothe body of the Church, whichtestifies to the Resurrection insong. Is this annual appearancea nod to the common wellspringof hope? Yes, no matter how onemight try to deny it in conversa-tions, or the indifference andnon-participation with whichone might chose to drown it out,they are there at that critical mo-ment to testify along with every-one else that ‘Christ is risen fromthe dead, trampling down deathby death, and to those in thetombs granting everlasting life.’”
If only Greek pols wouldspend less time tweeting andmaking TV appearances andmore time “listening” to the peo-ple and participating in sociallife, the crisis would have beensolved already.
Follow Me on Twitter atCTripoulas
Politicians Often UnderstandEaster’s Meaning the Least
by ChristopherTRIPOULAS
Special to The National Herald
Sotiris Mitralexis
by ARISTIDE D.CARATZAS
Special to The National Herald
Greek civilians mourn their dead relatives, Smyrna massacre,1922.
VIEWPOINTS14 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MAY 25-31, 2013
ANALYSISBy Constantinos E. Scaros
In a recent and rare televisioninterview, former PresidentGeorge W. Bush told Charlie Rosethat he will maintain his pledgeto stay out of the public eyerather than defend the decisionshe made during his administra-tion. Unlike others who held thenation’s highest or second-high-est office, most recently and no-tably former President JimmyCarter and former Vice PresidentsAl Gore and Dick Cheney, theyounger Bush, much like his fa-ther, has not proceeded in pub-licly bashing his successor. Butsave for his 2010 memoir, Deci-sion Points, Bush has not at-tempted to make a case aboutwhy he took the steps he did aspresident, actions that often re-sulted in the pettiest of descrip-tions: “he was the worst presi-dent ever!” (I imagine theutterers of that statement, afterconsiderable scholarly analysis,have examined the presidenciesof, say, Millard Fillmore orFranklin Pierce, among others,and concluded that they wereclearly superior to Bush – not.)
Thankfully, Bush’s recordmight not have to depend onBush itself to defend it, becausehistory, as it often does, tends totreat a president more objectivelyas time passes. The pendulumusually swings wildly from oneextreme to the other, but slowlybegins to settle somewhere in be-tween. A look at historians’ as-sessments of Thomas Jeffersonand Andrew Jackson, more re-cently Franklin Roosevelt andRonald Reagan, and even seem-ingly iconic presidents GeorgeWashington and Abraham Lin-coln, underscore all of those lead-ers’ imperfect and sometimes in-
consistent, albeit largely-heraldedrecords.
Those who railed againstRichard Nixon during Watergate,those who lost every penny theyhad during the Great Depressionduring Herbert Hoover’s watch,those who call the Trail of Tearsunder Andrew Jackson’s ordersthe most savage act the UnitedStates has ever committed, andthose who impeached AndrewJohnson for trying to undo every-thing the recently-assassinatedLincoln had accomplished, mighttake exception to “worst ever” be-ing used to described Bush. “Howdare you say that my most-hatedpresident is not the worst ever,”they might protest. And let usnot forget today’s bunch – theones that think that BarackObama is not only the “worstpresident ever,” but a Secret So-cialist Kenyan Christian Libera-tion Theologist Muslim spy, toboot. (How one can be all thosethings at the same time escapesme.)
But enough about how presi-dents are wrongfully malignedmuch of the time. Let’s examineBush’s presidency in particular:fittingly, 10 years after he startedthe Iraq War, which was the cen-terpiece of his political downfall.Here are the facts in a nutshell,some of them conveniently over-looked by his detractors.
1. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hus-sein invaded the oil-rich countryof Kuwait in 1991. The worldfeared that Hussein would havecrippled the world economy bycontrolling the price of oil.
2. The first President (GeorgeH.W.) Bush mobilized an inter-national coalition to remove Hus-sein’s forces from Kuwait.
3. After successfully liberatingKuwait, the elder Bush resistedin overthrowing Hussein from
power altogether, explaining thatdoing so would have caused an-other dangerous Middle Easternnation, Iran, to gain more powerand become more of a threat tothe United States in the long run.Many in the United States criti-cized Bush severely for not re-moving Hussein from power.
4. After the elder Bush lost hisreelection bid to Bill Clinton –mostly because of a recession butto some extent because of his fail-ure to dislodge Hussein – Clintonindulged Hussein in a cat-and-mouse game for practically eightyears: Hussein routinely violatedthe United Nations resolutionsthat were part of his conditionsto remain in power, namely,which required him to allow UNinspectors into Iraq to ensure thathe was not trying to developWeapons of Mass Destruction(WMDs). It is undisputed thatHussein had WMDs in the past,and had used them.
5. When Hussein would oustthe inspectors, Clinton would or-der strategic military airstrikes onIraq. Hussein would then relentand allow the inspectors to re-turn. Then, he would removethem again, and Clinton wouldbomb again, etc., etc.
6. Eight months after the in-auguration of Clinton’s successor,George W. Bush, a terrorist plotmasterminded by Osama binLaden resulted in the destructionof the World Trade Center’s TwinTowers, damage to the Pentagon,and were it not for the coura-geous and life-costing measurestaken by passengers on anotherflight that had been hijacked byterrorists, another possible attackmight have resulted – as thatplane was believed to have beenbound for the U.S. Capitol or theWhite House. The collectiveevents, which took place on Sep-
tember 11, 2001 are known, ofcourse, as “9/11.”
7. About a year earlier duringthe 2000 presidential race be-tween Bush and Al Gore, debatemoderator Jim Lehrer brought upHussein and WMDs. Both candi-dates – yes, that means Gore aswell – expressed little if anydoubt that Hussein either alreadyhad such weapons in his arsenalor was very close to that goal.Clinton, too, long before Bushever got elected, made similarstatements, as did his wife,Hillary, as well as 2004 Democ-ratic presidential candidate John
Kerry, and longstanding liberalDemocratic icon Ted Kennedy.
8. In early 2003, British intel-ligence sources declared thatHussein had purchased uraniumfrom Niger. Uranium is essentialto making WMDs.
9. Although the report had notbeen confirmed, Bush, and othersin his administration, wonderedwhy Hussein would kick out theUN inspectors if he had nothingto hide. Why would he risk givingup his palaces, his fortune, hisdownright regal existence, to gocrawl into a dirthole like a cor-nered rat, unless he had some-thing to hide? Given the devas-tating 9/11 attacks which at thatpoint were a painfully freshmemory, Bush figured that if hehad gambled on Hussein not hav-ing WMDs but Hussein did in facthave them, the consequenceswould be far more catastrophicthan 9/11, Pearl Harbor, andevery previous war in the history
of the world combined. That wasa chance he was not about totake.
10. After Bush made one last-ditch effort to compel Hussein toallow the UN inspectors back intoIraq, Hussein once again refused.Why would he have relented ifhe had nothing to hide? Surelyhe did not think he could defeatthe United States in war – andespecially if he had no WMDs!Accordingly, Bush mobilized anAmerican-led multinationalforce, which invaded Iraq.
11. Hussein was swiftly re-moved from power and a newpro-U.S. Iraqi government wasinstalled – eventually, democraticelections were held in Iraq, to theunspeakable delight of its citi-zens.
12. Not everything went aswell as expected, though. VP Ch-eney’s proclamation that the U.S.“would be greeted as liberators”turned out to be far too lofty andpremature a prediction. Instead,a bloody and nearly decade-longinsurgency, fueled by rival ex-tremist Muslim factions, saw adifferent kind of war continue –a war of terror that includedmany thousands of casualties, in-cluding thousands of Americantroops.
13. One by one, America’s al-lies began to leave the interna-tional coalition, and Americansgrew weary of the war. True tohis aversion to public relationsspin, Bush did not order the typesof pro-administration propa-ganda films often distributed dur-ing wartime to rally the public.Instead, when no WMDs werefound, many Americans calledBush a “war criminal,” insistedthat he “lied” about the war “forthe oil.” A contention purportedat a time when gas prices hadbeen climbing through the roof,
mind you.14. Accordingly, Bush the fa-
ther was chided for not removingHussein from power – and hisson was lambasted for doingwhat the people had clamoredfor in the first place: removingHussein from power. Go figure.
Lastly, consider this passagewritten during the war: “Hetricked us into supporting asenseless war that has claimedthe lives of thousands of ourtroops. He is a war criminal whoshould be impeached and con-victed. He failed at every careerbefore becoming president, andnow those failures continue. His-tory will confirm what a terriblepresident he is.”
Was that written about Bushduring the Iraq War? No, it waswritten about Abraham Lincolnduring the American Civil War.Specifically, during the early por-tion of the war, when the Unionwas losing to the Confederacy.The North won the war, of course,and eventually, Lincoln was ele-vated by history to elite status.But the statement is very reveal-ing, particularly when examinedwithin the greater context of thepublic’s reaction to war.
Granted, there is always apocket of genuine pacifists thatwill oppose virtually any war.
But don’t let the majority ofthe American public fool you: it’snot that they’re against war, theyjust don’t like losing. And the op-posing politicians are like vul-tures, ready to pounce upon thecarcass of the unlucky presidentthat happens to be at the helmat the time. Oh, and the media?There are the precious few withintegrity. Then, there are the rest:divided between those with anunyielding ideological agenda toimpose, and those that will sayanything for ratings.
10 Years Later: Putting the Iraq War, and George W. Bush’s Presidency, in Perspective
By Megan GreeneBloomberg News
Judging from the markets andEnglish-speaking news media thisweek, Greece’s damaged econ-omy has finally turned the corner.I doubt it.
The Financial Times and WallStreet Journal ran prominentpieces about bullish investorsplowing back into Greek markets.On May 15, the Greek govern-ment’s borrowing costs on 10-year bonds fell by one percentagepoint, to the lowest level in threeyears.
Against this euphoria, theGreek statistics agency Elstat saysthe Greek economy contracted5.3 percent in the first quarter of2013 compared with a year ear-lier. This is the 19th consecutivequarter in which it has shrunk.
There will be a recovery some-day, so is this it? Certainly, therehave been positive signs. Earlylast week, the euro area’s financeministers agreed to release 7.5billion euros ($9.6 billion) ofbailout funds to Greece -- 4.2 bil-lion euros at the weekend, andthe remaining 3.3 billion eurosin June, provided that Greecefirst completes a number of mea-sures.
The following day, Fitch Rat-
ings upgraded Greece to B- fromCCC. That is still six levels belowinvestment grade, yet the im-provement inspired one of thebiggest sovereign-bond marketrallies we have seen in Greecesince the beginning of the crisis.Prime Minister Antonis Samaraseven said Greece plans to re-en-ter the bond markets in the firsthalf of next year.
INVESTMENT FLURRYThere has also been a flurry
of recent investment activity inGreece. After years of procrasti-nation, the government on May1 accepted a tender to privatizeOpap SA, the gambling companythat is the country’s most prof-itable state-owned enterprise.You have to try pretty hard toread this as a success story,though. Opap is the jewel inGreece’s crown, yet the govern-ment received only two bids fora 33 percent stake in the com-pany, and the final price of 652million euros was at the low endof expectations. The state’s nat-ural-gas company, Depa SA, is thenext big privatization expected.
There has also been some in-vestor interest in Greek banksand corporations. According tothe Financial Times, a group ofhedge funds has agreed to par-ticipate in the recapitalization of
Alpha Bank SA in June. TwoGreek companies -- refrigerator-parts maker Frigoglass SA andrefinery company Hellenic Petro-leum SA -- succeeded in issuingcorporate bonds with yields ofabout 8 percent in recent weeks.While these yields are high,Greek companies were com-pletely shut out of the bond mar-kets in 2012.
Another glimmer of hope isthat the price of Greek gross-do-mestic-product warrants has in-creased significantly. These wereissued as a sweetener to private-sector bondholders who partici-pated in the restructuring of pri-vately held Greek sovereign debtin March 2012. They pay out ina number of years, if Greecereaches certain GDP-growth tar-gets. A year ago, they were pricedat about 0.2 euro cent. Last week,they broke through the 1 euro-cent mark, a price increase thatindicates investors are bettingGreece is on a path to sustainablegrowth.
This is all hard to square withsome of Greece’s economic fun-damentals. According to Elstat,Greece’s economy is now smallerthan it was in 2005, havingshrunk a cumulative 28 percentsince mid-2008. The EuropeanCommission forecasts a further
contraction of 4.2 percent in2013, which will be difficult toachieve given that the decline inthe first quarter was so muchlarger.
TARGET PIPEDREAMThe nature of economic activ-
ity in Greece also suggests thatthe European Commission’sgrowth target is a pipe dream.Although hedge funds have beenactive in buying Greek sovereigndebt and made a killing doing so,the number of investments in theprivate sector can be counted onone hand. In addition to corpo-rate-debt sales -- amounting to$2 billion so far this year, accord-ing to the consulting firmDealogic -- Third Point LLC an-nounced a 60 million-euro invest-ment in Greece’s Energean Oil &Gas SA last week. These are verysmall numbers, insufficient tostimulate growth across the econ-omy.
Furthermore, any lending tobig companies in Greece isn’t be-ing matched by loans to smallcompanies or households. Bor-rowing costs for small- andmedium-sized enterprises inGreece remain far higher than forthose in the other peripheralcountries, let alone in GermanyorFrance. According to the Greekcentral bank, credit to the private
sector continued to contract inMarch, the latest month forwhich there are data.
While Greek banks will be re-capitalized soon, they face a longroad before they have healthybalance sheets and are willingand able to lend. Furthermore,the business operating environ-ment in Greece remains unattrac-tive because of high levels of redtape, an unstable regulatory en-vironment, an opaque legal sys-tem, and a slow and often cor-rupt judiciary.
These grim prospects for eco-nomic growth are accompaniedby extreme social strain (unem-ployment reached a record 27percent in February). Greek jour-nalist Nick Malkoutzis quantifiedthis strife in a recent article.There are, he wrote, “1.3 millionGreeks that are out of work,some 400,000 families that havenobody earning an income, about300,000 workers whose employ-ers have not paid them formonths, hundreds of thousandswho have work but are finding itdifficult to make ends meet andnumerous young people who seetheir future away from Greece.”The political situation is precari-ous as a result, with the govern-ing coalition holding togetherthrough a survival instinct.
The delicate economic, socialand political balance that Greecehas maintained over the past sixmonths could be tested later thisyear, when the government mustdeliver a 2014 budget and amedium-term economic pro-gram.
According to a report releasedlast week by the European Com-mission, Greece is on track toreach its fiscal targets in 2013-14, but it will probably need toraise an additional 4 billion eurosto achieve those for 2015-16. Ifthe “troika” -- the European Cen-tral Bank, the European Com-mission and the InternationalMonetary Fund -- demands thatthe Greek government imple-ment yet more austerity to fillthe gap, this could prove toomuch for Greece.
It is undeniable that there aresigns of hope coming out ofGreece today, where there werenone six months ago. There is al-ways the chance that Greece canfake it until it makes it, capitaliz-ing on these small pieces of goodnews to instill confidence in in-vestors and households, until areal recovery takes hold. Under-mining the confidence fairies,however, are economic funda-mentals that indicate the recenteuphoria is a bit overdone.
Despite all of the Rosy Economic Projections, Greece is Not Really Turning the Corner
Late last year I wrote that weanticipate precious metals to suf-fer losses in 2013. We would notbe surprised if this lasts morethan a year. In one of the com-mentaries late last year, I was alsowondering if this year would becrowned as a year of vindicationfor central bankers. The arch-en-emies of the latter are inflation(and whatever threatens pricestability) and gold (since the lat-ter defies fiat money and exem-plifies fears of financial instabil-ity). In this week’s commentary, Iwould like to outline some of thereasons why I believe that in theforeseeable future precious met-als will follow a downward tra-jectory, and relate that to the pro-claimed “recovery” in Euroland.
Let’s start with precious met-als. Here are some facts:
• The extreme monetary mea-sures taken over the last threeyears have started bearing “fruits”in terms of lowering the fear pre-mium, hence threats of disorderlydisintegration are reduced sub-stantially, and thus equities mar-kets experience gains.
• As the fear premium de-clines, risk appetite rises, andtherefore the safe haven that pre-cious metals offer might be notneeded after all.
• As risk appetite rises, lend-ing increases, and thus the mon-etary reserves are partially (butin a limited way) converted intomoney supply, allowing the re-versal of the money multiplier.
• As the above takes place,trade rises and with that the roleof the dollar, which in turn ignitesthe old negative correlation withprecious metals.
• The fact that there is a col-
lateral gap between $5.7-$11.2trillion in the balance sheets ofbanks (see last week’s commen-tary), forces the latter to look forways to create capital in order toclose that gap. This capital searchreinforces lending directives inorder to cover part of the fundinggap. (The gap most probably can-not be bridged, thus the call for abreakup of the large banks.)
• Naked short positions by in-stitutional players could possiblymean a balance sheet earthquakethat could make them shake inabnormal ways. Therefore, vestedinterests may have to gain if pre-cious metal prices decline.
• Bullion banks are reportedto be facing a shortage requiredto satisfy customers’ demands forthe bullion as well as futures’ con-tracts. Such shortages could havedevastating effects (let’s not for-get the reported failure of ABN-AMRO to deliver physical goldwhen asked about two monthsago), and thus it is very beneficialif precious metal prices declineand sales of gold and other pre-cious metals take place to coverthose shortages.
• The collateral hole in com-bination with the time-bomb
called derivativescreates a de facto un-stable financial envi-ronment that threat-ens the global realeconomy. Ultimately,gold preserveswealth and is realmoney. Institutionsin their search forcollateral and secu-rity for a possible dayof reckoning find op-portunities to buybullion at lowerprices.
• The open dis-cussions by centralbanks to directly buy equitiesand/or lend to companies in as-sociation with the decision madeto bail-in depositors in the nextround of bank capitalizations dur-ing a crisis, encourage the spiritof party-making, especially nowthat inflation has been defeated,and “stability” seems to be return-ing in the markets.
• What all these mean for theinvestment outlook for the restof the year? Precious metals arestill projected to decline, the eq-uities party is anticipated to con-tinue, but prudent investors buy
bullion.What then
should we sayabout the pro-claimed “successstories” from Spain,to Greece, and Por-tugal, and the re-vived confidence inthe Euroland? Thegraphs below showthe declining yieldsof Spanish andGreek bonds. Thisis indicative we aretold of the “successturnaround story”,and if that is even
perceived as true, we should notbe surprised to see precious met-als to experience lower prices.
There are reported stories offunds that desire to invest in pe-ripheral and Southern Europe,and expectations are being ele-vated that now that “Grexit” ishistory, Greece will be welcomedback in the markets within a yearwith a ten-year note whose yieldwill be than 6%.
Very briefly we could say thefollowing: If the hope is aboutmore debt issuance and other pa-per assets, those countries did not
learn the lesson of putting theirhouses in order. They did notlearn that success is not the abil-ity to issue debt but rather theability to produce real things, toinnovate, to create capital andwealth, to wake up dormant as-sets, to cut waste, to advancehard asset holdings and to en-hance competitive advantages.That fascination with debt is-suance is lethal. In an environ-ment of financial instability, abond in the balance sheet is athird party liability and that’s howit should be treated and will betreated when the music stopsagain.
Ratings upgrades are good.Bond rallies are nice. Rumorsabout hedge funds investing inlocal businesses are wonderful.My question is: Where is the sub-stance? Did GDP go up? Did un-employment go down? Was a fac-tory built? Is liquidity increasing?Is poverty and misery down? Arewe serious when celebratingbanks’ recapitalization when 90%of the capitalization needs is pro-vided by government borrowing?Is the Greek Euro the same as theG e r m a nEuro? (i.e.
could Greek companies borrowat about the same rate as the Ger-man ones?) Are incomes higher?Are we celebrating too soon forthings that do not touch theshrinking middle class? Is thereany concern that we may be ableto stop the hemorrhage but un-able to recover the patient?
The truth of the matter is thatthe divergence between assetsand the real economy is growing(as shown below) and as the gapincreases the possibility of col-lapse rises too.
Why am I questioning the“progress” made? In a world thathas lost its direction, its priorities,its anchors, and its heroes andwhich is accustomed to beamused to death via infliction ofplacebo pleasure treatments, Ithought that it may be better in-stead of providing answers toquestion the answers provided.
Dr. Charalambakis is ChiefEconomist, Blacksummit Finan-cial Group Inc.,and Adjunct Pro-fessor of Economics, PattersonSchool of Diplomacy, Universityof Kentucky.
On Gold: Proclaimed Success Stories and the Placebo Effect, but is there Substance?
by JOHNCHARALAMBAKIS
Special to The National Herald
Many Americans aretot against war perse. What they areagainst is losing.
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