The National Heraldphoto.ekirikas.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/906.pdf · The National Herald ......
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The National Herald A WEEKLY GREEK-AMERICAN PUBLICATION February 21-27, 2015 www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 18, ISSUE 906 $1.50 c v Bringing the news to generations of Greek-Americans O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 NEWS For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] TNH Staff BRUSSELS, Belgium – Greek Fi- nance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is playing down the breakdown of talks with the country’s Euro- pean creditors. Varoufakis said that, “We know in Europe how to deliber- ate in such a way as to create a very good solution, an honorable solution out of initial disagree- ment.” His comments come after a meeting of the 19 finance minis- ters of the Eurozone over how to make Greece’s debts sustain- able broke down in seeming ac- rimony after barely more than three hours. European creditors issued Greece with an ultimatum, say- ing it must accept a key condi- tion in bailout talks by Feb. 20 or face having to meet its debt commitments on its own. Many in the financial markets think that scenario would leave Greece little option but to leave the euro. Prime Minister and Radical Left SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras and Varoufakis were staking their bets on the belief that it would be the Eurozone, fearing a ripple effect in the other 18 countries, that would blink, back down and give Greece debt relief but it hasn’t happened yet so far. Varoufakis said he had ini- tially been given the text of a possible deal from European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici that Greece would have accepted but that the terms were changed so he would not. ULTIMATUM LAID DOWN Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said if Athens does- n’t accept an extension to what’s left of 240 billion euros ($272 billion) in two bailouts from the Troika of the European Union- International Monetary Fund-Eu- ropean Central Bank (EU-IMF- ECB) that Greece would be on its own. “Then, that’s it,” he said. “The general feeling in the Eurogroup is still that the best way forward would be for the Greek authorities to seek an ex- tension of the program,” he told a joint press conference with Moscovici and IMF chief Chris- tine Lagarde. Tsipras – who said he wouldn’t talk to the Troika nor recognize its authority but now has – also said he would not ac- cept an extension although Varo- ufakis proposed a “bridge agree- ment” which technically is the same but using a different term. If a request for an extension Varoufakis Envisions “Honorable Solution” From Disagreement On February 13 the Utah Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Constandi- nos (Deno) Himonas to the Utah Supreme Court, the highest ju- ridical body in the state. The confirmation of Himonas as a Utah Supreme Court Justice is historically significant not only to the Greek-American community, but also to Utah’s history as he, a Greek Orthodox, becomes the only non-Mormon on the state’s high court. At his confirmation hearing, Himonas told the Senate: "I am deeply, deeply committed to a textual approach to legislation that comes out of this body and the House, and an originalist ap- proach to both the constitution of this state and the Constitution of the United States,” the Salt Lake City Tribune reported. Himonas worked as a trial judge in Salt Lake City since 2004 and prior to that practiced law privately for 15 years, the Deseret News reported. He re- places Ronald Nehring, the court’s Associate Chief Justice on the Supreme Court. The Court is comprised of five jus- tices: the Chief Justice, the As- sociate Chief Justice, and three other Justices. Himonas is now one of our non-Chief Justices until among them, a new Asso- ciate Chief Justice is chosen. State Senator Scott Jenkins, Chairman of the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee, told the News that the committee "spent a great deal of time" ex- amining Himonas' qualifications and "found him to be a wonder- Himonas is Justice on Supreme Ct. of Utah Greek Orthodox Becomes Only Non- Mormon on Bench NEW YORK – They may not all have been sports fans, but the Hellenes who attended the re- ception at the Greek Consulate in New York in honor of Greek players in the NBA were brim- ming with pride on February 12. The event was presented by the Hellenic Basketball Federa- tion and Yanna Darilis, president of New Greek TV (NGTV) was the emcee and event organizer was Yanna Darilis. Amb. George Iliopoulos, the Consul General of Greece, told The National Herald, “we are happily hosting this event. Bas- ketball is a sport that every Greek has dear to his heart, not only because we now have a long tra- dition, but because they excel at it.” The honorees included Kostas Papanikolaou, Giannis Antetok- ounmpo, Kosta Koufos and Nick Calathes. Papanikolaou and An- tetokounmpo were present in New York because they were se- lected for the NBA All Star Game. Koufos and Calathes had to re- main with their teams and could not travel to New York but Ante- tokounmpo was forced to miss the event at the last moment be- cause of a previously unsched- uled practice. Each will receive a plaque, however. Papanikolaou, who was given his by Matina Kolokotronis, President for Business Operations of the Sacramento Kings, said "This plaque is the least I take with me form here. I can feel only joy and strong emotions…It's a rare opportunity for us to find ourselves in a place with so many Greeks. Maybe it does not seem important for some, but it is very big thing for us to receive this love." The guests were also thrilled at the chance to meet the legends of international Greek basketball like Panagiotis Fasoulas, Nikos Katsikaris, Nikos Philippou and the former star of PAOK and the Sacramento Kings, Peja Sto- jakovic. Honorary plaques were also presented to Amb. Iliopoulos, to the Archdiocese of America for operating Greek-American youth basketball leagues – it was re- ceived by Stavros Papagermanos, the Archdiocese’s press officer – and to NGTV, received by Darilis, for its contribution to the event. Also present were Fox NEWS star anchors Ernie Anastos and Nicole Petalides, representatives of the New York fan clubs of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, Brooklyn Nets executive, Abner Neufeld, and Greek-American Greeks in the NBA Honored at New York Consulate Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (R) welcomes conservative for- mer Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos at the Maximos Mansion in Athens on Feb. 17. Pavlopoulos, 64, a law profes- sor, must be approved by Parliament in a special process. By Aris Papadopoulos TNH Staff Writer ATHENS – Through the gener- ous support of diaspora organi- zation like The Hellenic Initia- tive (THI) and individual Greek-Americans abroad, Doc- tors of the World – Greece have been able to continue and ex- pand their work, offering relief to families that have been harmed by the Greek crisis. Through this assistance dur- ing the last two years many Greek children were provided with pediatric and dental care and with vaccinations. Specifically, Doctors of the World, with the valuable sup- port of THI, has implemented a dental check program for pri- mary and secondary children and dental care for adults. Doctors of the World Supported TNH Staff Greek-American John Podesta, who recently stepped down as Counselor to President Obama and served as Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, is rumored to be an early fa- vorite to become chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presiden- tial campaign, Politico reported. The 66 year-old Chicago na- tive, whose father John, Sr. was of Italian descent and whose mother, Mary (nee Kokoris) was a Greek-American, has long- standing ties to the Clinton fam- ily. Hillary wanted him on her 2008 campaign team, Politico reported. Unquestionably a veteran of Washington Politics, Podesta is also an outspoken progressive, whose political viewpoints often veer to the left of both President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Politico sees Podesta’s heading Hillary’s campaign as an oppor- tunity for her to connect with the progressive wing of the De- mocratic Party, a voting bloc with which she has had a rocky relationship in the past. Con- versely, Podesta’s presence might deter swing voters who are not committed to voting Re- publican in every circumstance, but would hesitate to pull the lever for a Democrat who is too liberal. According to the Times, Re- publicans are delighted at the prospect of Podesta heading Clinton’s campaign. “You’ve got to admire someone willing to move from one sinking ship to another that’s taking on water before it’s even left port,” Re- publican National Committee spokesperson Michael Short told the Times. “Voters overwhelm- ingly don’t want a third term for President Obama’s liberal agenda, but it’s clear that’s what Hillary Clinton and John Podesta intend to give them.” Founder of the Center for American Progress (CAP), Podesta is an impassioned envi- ronmentalist, for whom the greener the politicians he serves can be, the better. Described by the New York Times as the Democrats “marathon man” – literally and figuratively, he is an avid runner – Podesta is credited by the newspaper as “saving” Bill Clin- ton’s presidency from scan- dalous ruin and Obama’s presi- dency from fading into irrelevance. Long intrigued by Unidenti- fied Flying Objects (UFOs), Podesta regretted, the Washing- ton Post reported last week, that Podesta Poised to Head “Hillary 2016” AP PHOTO/EUROKINISSI, GIORGOS KONTARINIS Despite the Impasse, Greece Foresees Debt Deal Happening Continued on page 4 By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff Writer ST. LOUIS, MO – Dr. Diane Touliatos is an internationally- renowned scholar in the areas of Ancient Greek music, Me- dieval Byzantine and Western music, and women composers. The University of Missouri-Saint Louis professor recently cele- brated her retirement after 35 years of teaching, but her work, a labor of love combining music and history, continues. It is a passion that extends deep into her childhood. “I had to cry and cry for a piano…my mom gave my dad the ultima- tum and he got me a piano and that got me involved in music… and to this day I still play my piano.” She earned degrees in piano performance in addition to mu- sicology, and choosing among three job offers after her studies, she picked St. Louis for its cul- tural riches, to which she added with her piano performances. She also enriched the educa- tional experience of more than 4,000 students. As a research scholar well known to some of the world’s great libraries she has written over 60 scholarly research arti- cles and six books. She is fa- mous for the discovery of the earliest female musical compo- sitions that have been musically Prof. Diane Touliatos Retires Continued on page 11 Utah Supreme Court Justice Constandinos Himonas. By Constantine S. Sirigos TNH Staff NEW YORK – The Hellenic- American Cultural Foundation presented a lecture by Margalit Fox, the award-winning New York Times senior writer. Fox fas- cinated the guests who filled the auditorium of the Rubin Mu- seum of Art on February 12 for a lecture on her book, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code. Fox’s book “recounts the half- century-long quest to decipher Linear B, a mysterious script from the Aegean Bronze Age, un- earthed on clay tablets at Knos- sos in 1900…this thrilling intel- lectual detective story also brings to light the forgotten history of Alice Kober the obsessive, over- looked American scholar whose work made the decipherment possible,” according to the pro- gram notes. Fox emphasized that previous histories focused on Michael Ven- tris, the Englishman – his name only sounds Greek – who ulti- Cultural Foundation’s “Riddle of the Labyrinth” (L-R) Ed and Diana Regan, Aris Christodoulou, Marilena Christodoulou, member of the Board of the Hellenic-American Cultural Foundation and director of finance and administration of the Rubin Museum and Nicholas Kourides, chairman of the board of the Foundation. TNH/COSTAS BEJ Continued on page 3 By Steve Frangos TNH Staff Writer CHICAGO- Little is known about the full spectrum of civil- ian programs supported by Greek immigrants during World War II. Some accounts do report on the Greek War Relief efforts and the singular role of Greeks in the war bond drives. Still, that is not the full scope, by any means, of Greek immigrant war work. Why such sustained and diverse patriotic activities should escape general notice speaks more about those who write history than any other set of enduring factors. Complicating this set of cir- In Retrospect: Greek Mothers Of WW Two Continued on page 7 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 4
Transcript of The National Heraldphoto.ekirikas.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/906.pdf · The National Herald ......
The National HeraldA wEEkly GrEEk-AmEriCAN PuBliCATiON
February 21-27, 2015
www.thenationalherald.comVOL. 18, ISSUE 906 $1.50
c v
Bringing the newsto generations ofGreek-Americans
O C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915NEW
S
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TNH Staff
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Greek Fi-nance Minister Yanis Varoufakisis playing down the breakdownof talks with the country’s Euro-pean creditors.
Varoufakis said that, “Weknow in Europe how to deliber-ate in such a way as to create avery good solution, an honorablesolution out of initial disagree-ment.”
His comments come after ameeting of the 19 finance minis-ters of the Eurozone over howto make Greece’s debts sustain-able broke down in seeming ac-rimony after barely more thanthree hours.
European creditors issuedGreece with an ultimatum, say-ing it must accept a key condi-tion in bailout talks by Feb. 20or face having to meet its debtcommitments on its own.
Many in the financial marketsthink that scenario would leaveGreece little option but to leavethe euro.
Prime Minister and RadicalLeft SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsiprasand Varoufakis were stakingtheir bets on the belief that itwould be the Eurozone, fearinga ripple effect in the other 18countries, that would blink, backdown and give Greece debt reliefbut it hasn’t happened yet so far.
Varoufakis said he had ini-tially been given the text of apossible deal from EuropeanEconomic and Monetary AffairsCommissioner Pierre Moscovicithat Greece would have acceptedbut that the terms were changedso he would not.ULTIMATUM LAID DOWNEurogroup President Jeroen
Dijsselbloem said if Athens does-n’t accept an extension to what’sleft of 240 billion euros ($272billion) in two bailouts from theTroika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-Eu-ropean Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that Greece would be onits own. “Then, that’s it,” he said.
“The general feeling in theEurogroup is still that the bestway forward would be for theGreek authorities to seek an ex-tension of the program,” he tolda joint press conference withMoscovici and IMF chief Chris-tine Lagarde.
Tsipras – who said hewouldn’t talk to the Troika norrecognize its authority but nowhas – also said he would not ac-cept an extension although Varo-ufakis proposed a “bridge agree-ment” which technically is thesame but using a different term.
If a request for an extension
Varoufakis Envisions“Honorable Solution”From Disagreement
On February 13 the UtahSenate unanimously confirmedthe appointment of Constandi-nos (Deno) Himonas to the UtahSupreme Court, the highest ju-ridical body in the state.
The confirmation of Himonasas a Utah Supreme Court Justiceis historically significant notonly to the Greek-Americancommunity, but also to Utah’shistory as he, a Greek Orthodox,becomes the only non-Mormonon the state’s high court.
At his confirmation hearing,Himonas told the Senate: "I amdeeply, deeply committed to atextual approach to legislationthat comes out of this body andthe House, and an originalist ap-proach to both the constitutionof this state and the Constitutionof the United States,” the SaltLake City Tribune reported.
Himonas worked as a trialjudge in Salt Lake City since2004 and prior to that practicedlaw privately for 15 years, theDeseret News reported. He re-places Ronald Nehring, thecourt’s Associate Chief Justiceon the Supreme Court. TheCourt is comprised of five jus-tices: the Chief Justice, the As-sociate Chief Justice, and three
other Justices. Himonas is nowone of our non-Chief Justicesuntil among them, a new Asso-ciate Chief Justice is chosen.
State Senator Scott Jenkins,Chairman of the Senate JudicialConfirmation Committee, toldthe News that the committee"spent a great deal of time" ex-amining Himonas' qualificationsand "found him to be a wonder-
Himonas isJustice onSupremeCt. of UtahGreek OrthodoxBecomes Only Non-Mormon on Bench
NEW YORK – They may not allhave been sports fans, but theHellenes who attended the re-ception at the Greek Consulatein New York in honor of Greekplayers in the NBA were brim-ming with pride on February 12.
The event was presented bythe Hellenic Basketball Federa-tion and Yanna Darilis, presidentof New Greek TV (NGTV) wasthe emcee and event organizerwas Yanna Darilis.
Amb. George Iliopoulos, theConsul General of Greece, toldThe National Herald, “we arehappily hosting this event. Bas-ketball is a sport that every Greekhas dear to his heart, not only
because we now have a long tra-dition, but because they excel atit.”
The honorees included KostasPapanikolaou, Giannis Antetok-ounmpo, Kosta Koufos and NickCalathes. Papanikolaou and An-tetokounmpo were present inNew York because they were se-lected for the NBA All Star Game.Koufos and Calathes had to re-main with their teams and couldnot travel to New York but Ante-tokounmpo was forced to missthe event at the last moment be-cause of a previously unsched-uled practice.
Each will receive a plaque,however. Papanikolaou, who was
given his by Matina Kolokotronis,President for Business Operationsof the Sacramento Kings, said
"This plaque is the least I takewith me form here. I can feel onlyjoy and strong emotions…It's arare opportunity for us to findourselves in a place with so manyGreeks. Maybe it does not seemimportant for some, but it is verybig thing for us to receive thislove."
The guests were also thrilledat the chance to meet the legendsof international Greek basketballlike Panagiotis Fasoulas, NikosKatsikaris, Nikos Philippou andthe former star of PAOK and theSacramento Kings, Peja Sto-
jakovic.Honorary plaques were also
presented to Amb. Iliopoulos, tothe Archdiocese of America foroperating Greek-American youthbasketball leagues – it was re-ceived by Stavros Papagermanos,the Archdiocese’s press officer –and to NGTV, received by Darilis,for its contribution to the event.
Also present were Fox NEWSstar anchors Ernie Anastos andNicole Petalides, representativesof the New York fan clubs ofOlympiacos and Panathinaikos,Brooklyn Nets executive, AbnerNeufeld, and Greek-American
Greeks in the NBA Honored at New York Consulate
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (R) welcomes conservative for-mer Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos at the Maximos
Mansion in Athens on Feb. 17. Pavlopoulos, 64, a law profes-sor, must be approved by Parliament in a special process.
By Aris PapadopoulosTNH Staff Writer
ATHENS – Through the gener-ous support of diaspora organi-zation like The Hellenic Initia-tive (THI) and individualGreek-Americans abroad, Doc-tors of the World – Greece havebeen able to continue and ex-pand their work, offering reliefto families that have beenharmed by the Greek crisis.
Through this assistance dur-ing the last two years manyGreek children were providedwith pediatric and dental careand with vaccinations.
Specifically, Doctors of theWorld, with the valuable sup-port of THI, has implemented adental check program for pri-mary and secondary childrenand dental care for adults.
Doctors ofthe WorldSupported
TNH Staff
Greek-American JohnPodesta, who recently steppeddown as Counselor to PresidentObama and served as Chief ofStaff to President Bill Clinton,is rumored to be an early fa-vorite to become chairman ofHillary Clinton’s 2016 presiden-tial campaign, Politico reported.
The 66 year-old Chicago na-tive, whose father John, Sr. wasof Italian descent and whosemother, Mary (nee Kokoris) wasa Greek-American, has long-standing ties to the Clinton fam-ily. Hillary wanted him on her2008 campaign team, Politicoreported.
Unquestionably a veteran ofWashington Politics, Podesta isalso an outspoken progressive,whose political viewpoints oftenveer to the left of both PresidentObama and Hillary Clinton.
Politico sees Podesta’s headingHillary’s campaign as an oppor-tunity for her to connect withthe progressive wing of the De-mocratic Party, a voting blocwith which she has had a rockyrelationship in the past. Con-versely, Podesta’s presencemight deter swing voters whoare not committed to voting Re-publican in every circumstance,but would hesitate to pull thelever for a Democrat who is tooliberal.
According to the Times, Re-publicans are delighted at theprospect of Podesta headingClinton’s campaign. “You’ve gotto admire someone willing tomove from one sinking ship toanother that’s taking on waterbefore it’s even left port,” Re-publican National Committeespokesperson Michael Short toldthe Times. “Voters overwhelm-ingly don’t want a third term for
President Obama’s liberalagenda, but it’s clear that’s whatHillary Clinton and JohnPodesta intend to give them.”
Founder of the Center forAmerican Progress (CAP),Podesta is an impassioned envi-ronmentalist, for whom thegreener the politicians he servescan be, the better.
Described by the New YorkTimes as the Democrats“marathon man” – literally andfiguratively, he is an avid runner– Podesta is credited by thenewspaper as “saving” Bill Clin-ton’s presidency from scan-dalous ruin and Obama’s presi-dency from fading intoirrelevance.
Long intrigued by Unidenti-fied Flying Objects (UFOs),Podesta regretted, the Washing-ton Post reported last week, that
Podesta Poised to Head “Hillary 2016”
AP PHOTO/EurOkiNiSSi, GiOrGOS kONTAriNiS
Despite the Impasse, Greece Foresees Debt Deal Happening
Continued on page 4
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
ST. LOUIS, MO – Dr. DianeTouliatos is an internationally-renowned scholar in the areasof Ancient Greek music, Me-dieval Byzantine and Westernmusic, and women composers.The University of Missouri-SaintLouis professor recently cele-brated her retirement after 35years of teaching, but her work,a labor of love combining musicand history, continues.
It is a passion that extendsdeep into her childhood. “I hadto cry and cry for a piano…mymom gave my dad the ultima-tum and he got me a piano andthat got me involved in music…and to this day I still play mypiano.”
She earned degrees in pianoperformance in addition to mu-sicology, and choosing amongthree job offers after her studies,she picked St. Louis for its cul-tural riches, to which she addedwith her piano performances.She also enriched the educa-tional experience of more than4,000 students.
As a research scholar wellknown to some of the world’sgreat libraries she has writtenover 60 scholarly research arti-cles and six books. She is fa-mous for the discovery of theearliest female musical compo-sitions that have been musically
Prof. DianeTouliatosRetires
Continued on page 11
Utah Supreme Court JusticeConstandinos Himonas.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff
NEW YORK – The Hellenic-American Cultural Foundationpresented a lecture by MargalitFox, the award-winning NewYork Times senior writer. Fox fas-cinated the guests who filled theauditorium of the Rubin Mu-seum of Art on February 12 for alecture on her book, The Riddleof the Labyrinth: The Quest toCrack an Ancient Code.
Fox’s book “recounts the half-century-long quest to decipherLinear B, a mysterious scriptfrom the Aegean Bronze Age, un-earthed on clay tablets at Knos-sos in 1900…this thrilling intel-lectual detective story also bringsto light the forgotten history ofAlice Kober the obsessive, over-looked American scholar whosework made the deciphermentpossible,” according to the pro-gram notes.
Fox emphasized that previoushistories focused on Michael Ven-tris, the Englishman – his nameonly sounds Greek – who ulti-
Cultural Foundation’s “Riddle of the Labyrinth”
(L-R) Ed and Diana Regan, Aris Christodoulou, Marilena Christodoulou, member of the Boardof the Hellenic-American Cultural Foundation and director of finance and administration ofthe Rubin Museum and Nicholas Kourides, chairman of the board of the Foundation.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
Continued on page 3
By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer
CHICAGO- Little is knownabout the full spectrum of civil-ian programs supported byGreek immigrants during WorldWar II. Some accounts do reporton the Greek War Relief effortsand the singular role of Greeksin the war bond drives. Still,that is not the full scope, by anymeans, of Greek immigrant warwork. Why such sustained anddiverse patriotic activitiesshould escape general noticespeaks more about those whowrite history than any other setof enduring factors.
Complicating this set of cir-
In Retrospect:Greek MothersOf WW Two
Continued on page 7 Continued on page 5
Continued on page 5
Continued on page 4
Continued on page 4
By Dr. ConstantinaMichalos
HOUSTON, TX – Every year, forseveral weeks extending fromthe end of February into March,Houston, the fourth largest cityin America – diverse, cosmopoli-tan international (not least ofall, home to a thriving Greekcommunity) Houston trans-forms itself into the back lot ofa John Wayne western. Regularpeople, i.e., transplants fromNew York, wear boots and jeansand fringes and hats that rivalany ugly Christmas sweater con-test. And this stuff isn’t cheap!
The Houston Livestock Showand Rodeo is a very big deal inthe city that is now more asso-ciated with oil and gas, medicaladvances, and space explorationthan the wild West. The rodeois, in fact, “a Section 501(c)(3)charity that benefits youth, sup-ports education, and facilitatesbetter agricultural practicesthrough exhibitions and presen-tation. Since its beginning in1932, the Houston LivestockShow and Rodeo has committednearly $375 million to scholar-ships, research, endowments,calf scramble participants, ju-nior show exhibitors, School Artparticipants, and other educa-tional youth programs”(http://www.rodeohouston.com/AboutUs/WhoWeAre.aspx).
Weeks before the actualrodeo, the trail rides begin.Recreating the cattle drives ofthe old West, riders head towardHouston from as close as Ander-son, TX (69 miles) and as far asReynosa, Mexico (386 miles).Los Vaqueros Rio Grande Trailride leaves Reynosa on February7th. Try to imagine Houston dri-vers, not the friendliest or mostcompetent drivers in America,as they negotiate daily trafficcomplicated by horses and cov-ered wagons! Try to imagineopening your front door to re-trieve the morning paper, onlyto be greeted by a wagon trainwending its way through yourneighborhood on its way to therodeo! It definitely takes somegetting used to. By Friday, the27th, 13 trail rides arrive andcamp out in Memorial Park. Thenext morning, everyone con-venes downtown for the annualRodeo Parade: colorful floats,marching bands, horses, wag-ons, and more horses. But be-fore the parade, there’s theConocoPhilips Rodeo Run. Lastyear, more than 13,000 runners,walkers and wheel-chair partic-ipants contributed $400,000 inregistration fees to the rodeoEducational Fund. Since 1988,ConocoPhilips has contributedmore than $4 million.
While the cowboys are ridingtoward Houston, the cowboywannabes are getting ready.Area “Go Texan” days begin onJanuary 30th and seem to con-tinue well beyond the departureof the last trail riders. Denimand diamonds, fringes and for-mals, spangles and spurs –choose an alliterative oxymoronto describe the myriad auctionsand galas that help to fund therodeo charities. You know howpeople decorate their cars withreindeer antlers and red pom-poms to simulate Rudolph’snose? That’s nothing comparedto the longhorns that people at-tach to the grills of their cars for
rodeo. Try walking past one ofthose suckers in a crowdedparking lot without impalingyourself!
A rodeo wouldn’t be a rodeowithout some bar – b – cue. Forthree days, more than 250teams compete in brisket, ribs,chicken and Dutch-oven dessertcategories. Teams also vie to usethe most unique pit, be the mostcolorful, and present the mostentertaining skit. I really appre-ciate that they are also recog-nized for having the cleanestcooking area and recycling themost. And, of course, they raisemoney for scholarships.
So now that everyone isdressed and juiced, what hap-pens?
The rodeo begins with aGrand Entry into NRG Arena ofhorses, buggies, carriages, haywagons and fire trucks carryingShow officials, dignitaries, spon-sors, volunteers and specialguests (the Astrodome, the 8thwonder of the world and origi-nal home of rodeo, stands pa-thetically nearby awaiting itsfate at the hands of unsentimen-tal Houstonians with a limitedsense of architectural history).The American flag is carriedaround the arena by a profes-sional trick rider as a localcelebrity sings the national an-them, rousing the crowd to apatriotic frenzy. “Nowhere Elsebut Texas” is more than a Cham-ber of Commerce slogan aroundthese parts. The competitions in-clude tie-down roping, barebackriding, team roping, saddlebronc riding, steer wrestling,barrel racing, bull riding, chuckwagon races, calf scramble andmutton bustin’. For the mostpart, these events are self-ex-planatory: professional cowboysride, ‘restle and rope horses andbulls.
In the calf scramble, youngTexas 4-H and FFA memberschase and attempt to catch 15calves that are released into thearena. Each student whocatches a calf is awarded a$1,500 certificate to purchase aregistered beef heifer or marketsteer to show at the Livestock
Show the following year. Thestudent then shows in a specialcompetition and receives a $250bonus if program requirementsare fulfilled. More than $10.3million has been awarded incertificates and awards to ap-proximately 20,240 studentssince 1942, underscoring therodeo mission to support Texasyouth and encourage agricul-tural enterprise.
Participants in the muttonbustin’ competition must be be-tween five and six and notweigh more than 55 pounds.They spring out of a chute cling-ing onto a sheep or mutton. Allcontestants are winners in mut-ton bustin’, but the rider whoholds on the longest receives achampion belt buckle and brag-gin’ rights.
Meanwhile, back at theranch – really just another spacein the NRG complex – the Live-stock Show is going on. Pick ananimal, even some you wouldn’texpect in Texas, like alpacas,and there’s a competition. Lastyear, more than 29,000 juniorand adult livestock and horseshow entries were recorded, andauction totals exceeded $14 mil-lion. Remember that the nexttime you bite into a steak!
Schoolchildren can also par-ticipate in one of five categoriesin the rodeo School Art Compe-tition: colored drawing, mixedmedia, monochromatic draw-ing, painting and 3-D. Each en-try receives a red, white or blueribbon. From the blue ribbonwinners, the Best of Show, GoldMedal and Special Merit awardsare selected in each class: ele-mentary, middle and highschool. All work by high schoolparticipants is eligible for theShow's School Art Auction. Lastyear’s Grand Champion sold herpainting for $210,000, and theReserve Grand Champion soldhers for $196,000. My youngerdaughter won the Best in Showpurple ribbon with a coloreddrawing of a Native Americanwhen she was in middle school.She got dinner at her favoriterestaurant and all the ice creamshe could eat.
If, at any time, you’ve hadenough ridin’, ropin’ and‘restlin’, there are plenty of con-certs to keep you entertained.This year’s performers, at pricesfar more reasonable than in tra-ditional venues, include: EricChurch, Hunter Hayes, MirandaLambert, John Legend, AlanJackson, Fall Out Boys, JustinMoore, Tim McGraw, BrantleyGilbert, Zac Brown Band, PitBull, Billy Currington, La Arrol-ladora Banda El Limon, LaMaquinaria Nortena, DierksBentley, Ariana Grande, FloridaGeorgia Line, Blake Shelton,The Band Perry, Brad Paisley,and Luke Bryan. Years ago,when I was seven months preg-nant and before he got fat, wesaw Elvis Presley. He rodearound the arena floor in a hugepink Cadillac, glowing and glis-tening in his white satin jump-suit. Those eyes! That voice! Ijumped so much with excite-ment, it’s a miracle I didn’t gointo labor right then!
What self-respecting Live-stock Show doesn’t have enoughcarnival food to clog the arteriesof Rhode Island? Besides thebar-b-cue, there are funnelcakes, cotton candy, hot dogs (Iuse the term loosely) toppedwith anything and everything,corn in a cup (in case eatingcorn on the cob in public isgauche) pulled pork, stuffedbaked potatoes, younameit ona-stick, and, of course, fried what-ever – Snickers, Twinkies,Oreos, Nutter Butters, choco-late-covered bacon. I’m makingmyself sick just writing this.
I’ve lived in Houston for over40 years. I’ve watched it growinto a major metropolitan area,albeit with no public transporta-tion to speak of. God forbid Tex-ans should give up their cars! Ihate the endless summers, but Idon’t miss the blizzards. I havefound New York-style pizzafrom two brothers from RegoPark, but I would kill for aSabrett. And I have rodeo – big-ger, better and badder than anycelebration ever. Except for theMacy’s Thanksgiving Day Pa-rade.
Houston Rodeo: Yahoo! Yippie Kai Yo Kai Yay!
Aah, Houston, often Greek, diverse, and cosmopolitan. But sometimes, just ride ‘em cowboy.
n FEBRUARY 20MANHATTAN – You are cor-dially invited to our annual Hel-lenic Medical NY Mardi Grascelebration on Friday, Feb. 20 at7PM at the Cathedral CulturalCenter at 337 E. 74th Street inManhattan. This year again intraditional Greek Carnival fash-ion, "Apokries" with live musicby Apollo Orchestras, traditionalGreek meats and wine, apokri-atika songs and other surprises.Make sure to make your tablereservations since there is lim-ited space and availability. Welook forward to a pleasantevening to warm up the winterchill of February before we headinto Lent. Bring your masks orcostumes, smiles and dancingshoes. Contact the Apokriesevent Chairs Stella Lymberis,MD (917) 622-9269, and RoulaLambrakis (917) 865-1682.Tickets and table reservationsEvangelia Tsavaris [email protected], Tel (718)298-2440.
n FEBRUARY 21MANHATTAN – Join us for a ro-mantic drama by Director/ Ac-tor Christoforos Papakaliatis setin modern Athens against thebackdrop of the economic crisis.“ ‘An’/What if...” shows two op-posing perspectives in juxtapo-sition - one of a lonely bachelor,Demetri, the other of a couplein love…. and a decision thatmay have Demetri unwittinglystanding on the precipice of alife-changing decision. In Greekwith English subtitles. A sug-gested donation of $15 supportsthe philanthropic work of ourPhiloptochos, sponsor of“Movies@ the Annunciation”.Refreshments. February 21st at6:30 pm, Annunciation GreekOrthodox Church, 302 W. 91stStreet, (at West End Ave.) inManhattan. 212-724-2070.
n FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 27
FAIRFIELD, CT – Under the Aus-pices of the Consul General ofGreece in New York, the exhibi-tion, “Photographs of the Cary-atid Hairstyling Project,” will beon view February 25 throughMarch 27, Monday-Friday 9AM-2:30PM, at Fairfield University,1073 North Benson Road inFairfield. The project began asan experiment in 2009, led byDr. Katherine Schwab, Professorof Art History at Fairfield Uni-versity, to find out if the eleganthairstyles worn by the famousCaryatids from the Erechtheionon the Athenian Acropolis werecreative idealizations or basedin reality. Student models fromFairfield University had theirhair arranged by a professionalhairstylist and the results provedthat these ancient hairstyleswere based in reality. A shortfilm of the project has beenscreened in Athens severaltimes, as well as in numerouscities in the United States. Thisexhibition, which is free andopen to the public, has been or-ganized by the Art History Pro-gram at Fairfield University. Forfurther information about theproject, please visit www.fair-field.edu/caryatid.
n MARCH 12MANHATTAN – In Celebrationof Women’s History Month, TheOfficers and Directors of The As-sociation of Greek AmericanProfessional Women (AGAPW)request the Pleasure of YourCompany at Our Signature An-nual Greek American Woman ofthe Year Award Gala HonoringMs. Paulette Poulos, ExecutiveDirector Leadership 100. An Ex-cellence Tuition Scholarship willbe Awarded in Honor of Ms.Poulos. Thursday, Mar. 12, 7-9PM, 3 West Club, The LoungeRoom 3 West 51st Street inManhattan. Keynote speaker, Dr.Eleni Panzoures Andreopoulou,MD. Emcee, Ms. Anthoula Kat-simatides. Wine and hors d’oeu-vres reception. Please RSVP. Pre-registration is required byMarch 5th, 2015. Minimum sug-
gested donation $150. For fur-ther info, contact Dr. Olga Alex-akos at [email protected] 917-405-6833.
n MARCH 13-15SUN VALLEY, ID – The Greek In-vitational Ski Race and SocialWeekend will take place Fridaythrough Sunday, March 13-15 atSun Valley, ID Sponsored byAHEPA, Seattle Chapter #177.Enjoy skiing on Bald Mountain,walking around Historic Sun Val-ley Village, Ice Skate, Cross-Coun-try Ski, Shop, Dine! Please seewww.eventbrite.com/e/greek-in-vitational-tickets for more details,or call the Sun Valley Inn 208-786-8259.
n MARCH 22ASTORIA – The Athenians' So-ciety of New York is organizingthe Second Book Exposition onSunday, Mar. 22, 3-7PM at thePetros G. Patrides Cultural Cen-ter at The Saint DemetriosCathedral of Astoria, 30-03 30thDrive in Astoria. For more in-formation, please call TassosMouzakis at (917) 859-5881 oremail: [email protected]
n MARCH 29MANHATTAN – The Federationof Hellenic Societies of GreaterNew York is proud to presentthe 2015 Greek Parade, cele-brating the 194th anniversaryof Hellenic Independence, onSunday, Mar. 29 at 1:45PM onFifth Avenue between 64th and79th Streets in Manhattan. Pre-parade events include: TheGrand Marshal Gala is held onthe Saturday before the paradein one of the great ManhattanHotels. At the Gala the Federa-tion honors the Grand Marshalsof the parade and the Grandbenefactors. The Pre-ParadeGala is held the Saturday aweek before the Parade at theTerrace on the Park in Queens.At the Pre-Parade Gala the Fed-eration honors all the volunteersof the parade. The BowlingGreen Flag raising ceremony isheld the Friday before the Pa-rade at the Bowling Green Parkin Lower Manhattan. The DanceExhibition is held the Saturdaybefore the Parade. All dancegroups are welcome. As the Pa-rade nears, more informationwill become available, so pleasecontinue to check in for addi-tional details. For informationregarding the Parade and Pa-rade-related events, please con-tact hellenicsocieties.org.Phone: 1-718-204-6500.
n MARCH 31CONCORDVILLE, PA – PaulKotrotsios, founder of HermesExpo International, has invitedDelaware County and GreaterPhiladelphia businesses special-izing and or targeting in healthcare and the hospitality industriesto participate in this year’s Her-mes Expo, a trade show provid-ing exceptional networking op-portunities for businesses in theDelaware County, BrandywineValley and the Greater Philadel-phia area. It will be held Tuesday,Mar. 31 in The Best Western Ho-tel, 675 Conchester Highway inConcordville, 9:30AM-5:30PM,and is open to Trade and Publicand with no admission fee. (Justbring your business card). TheExpo enables regional businessowners to make connections withtheir counterparts from theGreater Philadelphia Area, NorthAmerica, Southeastern Europeand the Eastern Mediterranean.This year will mark the launchingof The Ted Spyropoulos SeminarSeries. Mr. Spyropoulos was aninspirational leader in the GreekAmerican community who be-lieved that if we worked together,we could move mountains. Forfurther info, visit the Expo’s web-site at www.hermesexpo.com. Ifyour business has specific needs,the Hermes Expo team can cus-tomize a sponsorship package tomeet them. Contact Paul Kotrot-sios at 484-843-4984 or 610-202-4465 or e-mail: [email protected].
GOINGS ON...
QUESTION OF THE WEEKIf Greece strengthens its ties with Russia, what is more im-
portant to you – whether that is good for Greece, or harmfulto the United States?Please email your response to
[email protected] We may publish some responses as Letters to the Editor in
a future issue.
GREEKS AROUND THE US
COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
Pontian SocietyKomninoiCelebrates 50th Anniversary
Children in traditionalcostumes delightedthe members andfriends of the PontianSociety Komninoi,who filled the AstoriaWorld Manor cateringhall in Astoria for thesociety’s 50thanniversary dinner-dance. In addition tothe children’sdancing, guests alsoenjoyed performancesby musicians fromGreece and theSociety.
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mately deciphered the script in1952.
She makes clear, however,that is was Kober who “meticu-lously and brilliantly brought thedecipherment to the brink offruition,” the notes indicate, “be-fore her untimely death in1950.”
Some people become disap-pointed when they learn that thetablets are mainly accountingrecords, but Fox said, “They arestill the records of how flesh andblood people lived.”
The last chapter of the bookis a reconstruction of Mycenaeanlife based on the tablets.
The third member of the teamwas John Chadwick. The threemade use of sophisticated statis-tical techniques. Today the workof linguists is greatly assisted bycomputers, but Kober said “Ihave no use for IBM machines.”
Fox said the meticulousscholar was just right for hertime, however. For a long timethere was no data to be fed intoa computer. “It took 50 years toeven determine the characterset.” Among the challenges wasto study enough tablets to enablethem to determine whethersome letters were the same ordifferent.
Finding the truth sometimesrequires very sophisticated prac-tices and Fox clarified a numberof issues non-experts need to un-derstand what the work entails.
Acting on the thought that“this feels Greek” is problematicand deciphering ancient texts il-lustrates the limits of intuition.If a hunch steers scholars wrongin the beginning, it leads to yearswasted driving towards deadends as their ingenuity findsways to demonstrate to their sat-isfaction that their intuition isright Fox said.
Premature reports that LinearA is also Greek illustrate the chal-lenges. When Fox was asked whyLinear A has yet to be deci-phered, she explained that theresimply are not enough text to ex-amine.
That Linear B was decipheredis partly due to the good luck ofus moderns, but the misfortuneof the ancient writers: the firesthat burned down the palacesbaked the clay tablets for us.
Nevertheless, years of hardwork were required and Fox ex-plained how some the toolswork.
She said decipherers look forlinguistic survivals of other lan-guages and noted that Koberpaid attention to pre-Greek ele-ments in Homer, such as wordsending in “ynth” – like Labyrinth,and “inthos.”
Fox also pointed out that thescholars were fortunate to havetablets from Pylos, on the Greekmainland, which were written200 years after the Cretan mate-rials.
Ventris saw that certainnames appeared only in the Cre-tan texts and he correctlyguessed that they were thenames of cities on Crete – like
Cnossos.He eventually determined
that Linear B was Greek afteryears of believing that was notthe case.
Fox said that Kober, who wasborn in Manhattan’s Upper EastSide Yorkville neighborhood toHungarian immigrants, “washungry to see the Pylos tablets”but never did because WWIIcaused them to be locked up inthe vaults of the Bank of Greece.
Although Ventris made greatprogress, Fox said he panickedat one point because he couldnot find the word “the” in thetext. Chadwick calmed himdown by noting that even inHomeric Greek, “the” was rarelyused.
The lecture, which was fol-lowed by an enthusiastic Q & A,was the first cultural event of theyear for the Hellenic-AmericanCultural Foundation. NicholasKourides, Chairman of the boardof the Foundation, welcomedeveryone and introduced Fox,who holds degrees in both jour-nalism and linguistics.
Asked how the Foundationcame to invite her, Kourides toldTNH “We read the book andwere fascinated by it… we lookat all aspects of culture and thiswas an aspect we hadn’t pursed.”
Coming up for the Founda-tion is the third installment ofthe Peter T. Kourides Lecture Se-ries featuring a fireside chat be-tween former CIA DirectorGeorge Tenet and MikeEmanuel, the chief political cor-respondent for Fox TV in Wash-ington, DC on April 29 at theUniversity Club. In June JoanMertens, the curator of Greekand Roman art at the Metropol-itan Museum, will present theessence of her book How to ReadGreek Vases.
In October the Foundationwill again co-sponsor the NewYork Greek Film Festival andthey also plan a recital by ayoung trio at Merkin Hall in No-vember.
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – The Greek Cul-tural Center (KEP) presented so-prano Anna Paidoussi, pianistAreti Giovanou, and guitarist/vo-calist Serafim Lazos in a concertof “Songs of Love and Struggle”at the headquarters of the KefalosSociety of America on February15.
The guests who have waiteda long time to hear Paidoussi singagain were richly rewarded, buteveryone who braved bitter coldto fill the hall built by theCephalonians of Astoria shareda heartwarming experience.
The opening songs set thetone for a night of music that ex-pressed the great Greek passionfor Eros and Justice.
As the lights dimmed Gio-vanou played the bass openingnotes that accompany the lyrics(in Greek) “Ask me to tell you…about an old wound that stillbleeds, ” by the Greek composerAttik.
Paidoussi then sang twopieces from “Epitafios. ” Withgreat tenderness she told of amother cradling the head of herbloodied son, a victim of the la-bor demonstrations of 1936 inThessaloniki.
The guests appreciatedPaidoussi’s occasional commen-tary on the songs and their cre-ator and enjoyed her humorousbanter.
She explained the back-
ground of Epitafios, which waswritten by Yannis Ritsos and in-troduced “The Ballad of Mau-thausen” by Iacovos Kambanellis.The latter is about a young manwhose beloved perished inHitler’s gas chambers. “Girls ofAuschwitz, Bergen-Belsen,Dachau…have you seen mylove? Nobody knew how beauti-ful she was.” Both pieces wereset to music by Mikis Theodor-akis.
Each of the performers wasexceptional. Giovanou’s fine ac-companiment often felt like a pi-ano recital, but without obtrud-ing on the singing. Lazos’ guitarvirtually sang along with him,and Paidoussi’s pieces were asmuch dramatic readings as won-derful renditions of songs fromthe audience’s youth.
The audience was also de-lighted by the mix of Englishsongs that also reflected the
themes. Paidoussi’s sultry yetpoignant “We’ll Meet Again,”which comforted millions in thedarkest days of WWII sung byVery Lynn, was followed by“Kane kouragio Ellada mou –Have courage my Greece,” whichwas sung by that country’s warangel, Sophia Vembo. Paidoussi’smoving rendition of the belovedsong was punctuated by ap-plause for both its performanceand its meaning.
When she finished her first setand invited Lazos to the stage,she thanked him for being “thefirst foolish man to give me a jobsinging Greek music.”
Lazos began with “ΑsteriMou, Feggari Mou” with wordsand music by John and MikiTheodorakis respectively.
The lyrics of Lazos’ final songwere written by Paidoussi’smother, Eleni, which he set tomusic. It was the tragic tale of aboy who left Mitiline when hewas 19 for America. Rather thanthrive, he was among the manywho were devoured by the im-migrant experience and who arenot heard from.
Paidoussi began the third partof the program with Cool river,with it lyrics “Cool river brushmy tears away to the sea, to thesea,” proving her voice thrills onoperatic, jazzy and bluesy pieces.
The lyrical “Aspro mou Rodo– Μy White Rose” which fol-lowed, once again demonstratedhow her Greek repertoire shines.One guest said “I can’t wait tohear her sing rebetika.”
Paidoussi paused before thefinal four songs to explain theywere all about a parent’s love forher children – “I can’t decide ifthey are about love or struggle…children are about fervent loveand our most difficult decisions.”
John Lennon’s “Beautifulboy,” Abba’s “Slipping throughMy Fingers” and especially BillyJoel’s “Lullaby,” with its sweetlyrics “good night my angel,”
brought tears to the eyes of manyparents after announcing she wasnot sure if she could get throughthem herself without crying.
Paidousi brought the programto a dramatic end in a similarvein with Kate McGarrigle’s Pros-erpina, a lament by goddess theDemeter over the loss of herdaughter Persephone.
The delighted crowd calledback all three performers for anencore.
Eleftheria Tourtoulis, KEP’ssecretary, presented the artistswith flowers and invited theguests to remain for sweets andfellowship. Iraklis Kremmidas,KEP’s president thanked every-one for attending and Kefalos forhosting the event.
“It was superb. Awesome,”said Anna Mallis, whose familyis from Samos and Milos. “I’veknown Anna from the 1908s. Sheis extremely talented, and so washer mother. I remember her inthe Greek nightclub playing hertambourine and singing withGrigoris Maninakis,” she said.
Eleni Kalogeras said she likedthe children’s songs the most.”They reminded me of my yearsas a young mother singing lulla-bies to them.”
Terry Delis agreed “It wasphenomenal. It brought me backto the 1970s when all this greatmusic was being played and wewere in the spirit of liberatingGreece from the dictatorship.We’ve come full circle – we needanother liberation.”
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015 3
Greek Cultural Center Presents “Songs of Love and Struggle” in Astoria
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK – Imagination andresourcefulness have character-ized the Greeks in the face ofchallenges for 4000 years, en-abling them to survive – and tocreate art even in times of trou-bles. That spirit lives on KostasKoutsoliotas, the director of thefilm O Xeimonas – The Winter,produced by his wife ElizabethE. Schuch, who was also its artdirector.
Of course, challenges areharder if you are not sure theyare real.
In the movie Niko, an aspiringwriter and Greek expatriate inEngland, loses his job after thefinancial crash and is having ahard time getting his act together.
His focus turns to memoriesof his late father, who died mys-teriously and whose own issuescaused Niko’s mother to divorcehim.
The father planted ideas in theson that in addition to ghosts,there was some kind of treasurein their ancestral home.
Without telling anyone, in-cluding his worrisome mother, hereturned to the centuries-oldhouse in the dead of winter – tofind himself, and to seek – Godknows what.
“Surrounded by the ghosts ofthe past, Niko must uncover themystery of his father's death andretain his grasp on reality.”
Koutsoliotas and Schuch wereborn in their countries’ Northernregions – he in Larissa and she inChicago – and they shared a fas-cination with ghost stories andfantasy.
They took a class in 3-D ani-mation at the Glasgow School ofArt in Scotland and soon workedtogether on school projects. Ayear later they were married.
Schuch’s path to film makingbegan in theater design and hisin psychology, and the film wasborn of a blend of topics that in-terested them and practical con-cerns.
The idea came to them duringa visit to Koutsoliotas’s parents’
house in mountainous Siatista inNorthern Greece.
Koutsoliotas and his father re-galed her with the family ghoststories, but the house also im-posed its will.
Beyond being a cheap loca-tion, Schuch realized “This placeneeds to be filmed – it’s dying tohave a story told about it,” shethought. “We began to developwhat kind of character would gothere and what would happenand we wrote the script to-gether.”
Koutsoliotas heard the ghoststories all his life, but he is a skep-tic, with a complex relationshipwith religion. His musing informsThe Winter: “When there are nopeople around, what is fantasy,what is reality – how can youjudge? And even with peoplearound, who is to say who is rightand who is wrong…”
Asked if skeptics in his familywould tell the storytellers thatthey were talking nonsense, hesaid “of course – but then theywould tell their own ghost sto-ries!”
Schuch became intrigued bythe contrast between the wayAmericans and Greeks wouldshare supernatural experiences.In the Midwest, stories are aboutwild over-the-top experiences,while in rural Greece, “the ghostswere part of the natural fabric of
village life –tales of that granniestell…reading coffee cups, exor-cisms and ‘the mati’ are woveninto one’s experience” and inter-pretations of everyday life.
The end result is a thought-provoking movie that exploresthe nature and perceptions of re-ality, but it delves even deeper,into questions about evil – is itman made, a product of imagi-nation, or elemental? Who canhelp us understand it? Is it rootedin man’s nature but mediatedthrough corrupt or decayed in-stitutions that are not up to itschallenges, like the Church?
The Winter also poses a prac-tical question to viewers: arethere two murders, or one (ornone)?
The director used all his tools,most of all wonderful cinematog-raphy, to keep the borderlines be-tween different worlds andworldviews blurry – but com-pelling.
Schuch told TNH “Kosta isamazing at the effects. He has afantasy oriented mind,” condi-tioned by the graphics of novelsby his favorite writers like H.P.Lovecraft and Edgar Alan Poe…That kind of visual poetry andimagery had an effect on thefilm.”
His favorite films includeBrazil and Dark City, “that getinto your head,” he said.
The Winter is a low budget,self-funded film, shot in 18 daysin Greece, and few days in Lon-don. “Our crew consisted of goodfriends and industry contactsfrom Greece, England, the USA,and Poland and INKAS is the pro-duction company that assisted uswith casting and advice,” Schuchsaid.
They feel fortunate to havefound artists like first-time actorTheo Albanis, who fell in lovewith the script, and establishedGreek indie actor VaggelisMourikis.
“We were also lucky to havethe music of Active Member…Mihalis Mytakidis music was asecond layer of characters …Themusic is beautiful and comple-ments the story line. It gives youan insight into the soul of Niko,who is often seen alone with histhoughts in the house.”
Koutsoliotas, who worked ondigital composition for 300, wasVFX supervisor for The Winter.
The film opened at the Thes-saloniki Film Festival and theNew York Greek Film Festival in2014 and it will soon open inGreece. After that, it will eitherbe made available online or dis-tributed as a DVD. The trailer canbe seen at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Ob0w1wtg4#action=share.
“Winter” from Greece, Imagination, Great Beyond
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(L-R) Serafim Lazos, Anna Paidoussi and Areti Giovanou received flowers from the GreekCultural Center after their concert at the Kefalos Society’s headquarters in Astoria.
The Cultural Foundation’s “Riddle of the Labyrinth”Continued from page 1
Scholars need toaddress hunchescautiously: a wrongturn could lead to flawed hypotheses.
To whom – or what – is Niko, portrayed by Theo Albanis, talking to in the 500 year-old housefilled with memories in the film “The Winter” directed by Kostas Koutsoliotas?
businessmen and journalists fromGreece, the diaspora and theAmerican news media.
Fasoulas was very satisfiedwith the event. He told TNH,“This is an important night be-cause among the elements ofcontemporary Greek history isthe story of Greek basketball…Greek basketball has been a markof excellence in Greece for manyyears.”
He added, “we are thrilled tohave four men in the NBA…Andwe hope that the 40-50 Greekswho play basketball on scholar-ship at American universities willalso make their way to the NBA.”
He is also part of a not-for-profit organization that will pro-vide those student athletes withadvice and guidance on all mat-ters of importance to them in theUnited States.
“They come to a foreign coun-try at the age of 17 or 18 and of-ten they don’t know who to turnto for assistance. I experience thatmyself and as father and I amconcerned about my own daugh-ter who will attend Boston Col-lege on scholarship next year,”Fasoulas said.
Gus Costalas, the CFO ofLenox Hill Hospital, was pleasedto attend and express his appre-ciation for “the Consulate, whichhas done a great job workingwith Lenox Hill…and we arehere to support this wonderfulevent, which nog only makes meproud as a Greek-American butis also great for our presence herein this country.”
“I am proud Greek-Americanher to celebrate other Greeks andtonight shows the breadth of thesuccess the Greeks have in everyindustry and every place,” she
said, adding that she is a basket-ball fan. “I also played for GOYAand the Maids of Athena when Iwas in college. My kids also playand this is the one event theycame to without complaints.”
Coach Kostas Katsikaris toldTNH “This is my first time in NewYork but it is also special for meto meet and talk to Greeks whohave been born and raised inAmerica…and basketball is oneof the things that connects us.Greek basketball has brought joyto people all over the world.Tonight’s event is a beautifulthing and I am glad to be here.”
By Constantine S. Sirigos
ful, delightful individual" whopossesses the traits that exem-plify a Justice.
Significantly, close to 60% ofUtahans are Mormon – mem-bers of the Church of Latter-daySaints – the only state in the na-tion with such a high concen-tration from that denomination.In stark contrast, OrthodoxChristians (Greeks included) inUtah comprise less than 1/2 of1 percent (.005) of the popula-tion.
That Himonas now occupiessuch an influential seat andbreaks the Mormon unanimityon the bench is a significantturning point in Utah’s history.
THE PEOPLE REACTAn array of interesting com-
ments followed the News’ storyonline, by readers, most of An-
glo ancestry – which is Utah’slargest ethnic demographic.Some blasted the news for re-ferring to Himonas as a “Greek-American,” emphasizing that“we are all Americans, I don’tcall myself a Welsh-American,”etc., while others praised Hi-monas specifically, and also ap-plauded the advancement of a“Greek-American” to the state’shigh court.
Comments by Tribune read-ers were equally impassioned.One Greek-American wrote thatshe was “extremely offended”that Himonas’ ethnicity waseven mentioned, and that hismerits alone should be the topicof discussion. But anotherreader, emphasizing the Mor-mon Church’s dominance inUtah politics, replied: “I thinkit’s a miracle in our theocracy,so it is worth reporting.”
COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
The New York ConsulateHonors Greek of the NBA
ATHENS (Press Release)– Theeducational benefits of musicallearning and the integration ofmusical art into school programsare well established and recog-nized internationally. In GreeceMusic Schools cultivate and pro-mote musical education andtrain students within a special-ized educational framework thatrecognizes and promotes the tal-ent and music inclination of stu-dents. In light of the importantrole of public Music Schools andtheir significance in promotingcreativity the Stavros NiarchosFoundation (www.SNF.org) an-nounced a new initiative aimingat providing direct support to allmusic schools in the country.
Specifically, the Foundationapproved a €940,000 grant tosupport all 43 Music Schools ofGreece. With this grant, the SNFseeks to cover the increasedneeds of these schools in musicalinstruments. It will offer 1,201high-quality musical instrumentsof 54 different types, such asclassical guitar, violin, saxo-phone, tambouras, bouzouki,mandolin. Many will be hand-made by experienced Greek in-strument makers. The tradi-tional percussion instrumentswill be crafted by the membersof the workshop of traditionalmusical instruments KETHEAPAREMVASI under the guidanceof professional instrument mak-ers.
The grant is expected to sig-
nificantly enhance both the workof the teachers as well as the9,200 students currently en-rolled in these music schools—anumber which is expected to in-crease over the followingyears—in order for them to cul-tivate their musical skills, to ob-tain new educational and cul-tural stimuli and to deepen theirknowledge in European andGreek traditional music.
The idea for this grantemerged after a Music Schoolvisit to the Visitors Center of theStavros Niarchos FoundationCultural Center (SNFCC) andthe initiative of a student to con-tact the Foundation and sharehis thoughts regarding theSNFCC and the future of musiceducation in Greece.
In order to ensure the in-tegrity of the design and the ef-fective implementation of thegrant, the Foundation thor-oughly researched, documentedand examined the needs of eachMusic School; a process thatlasted 7 months (June 2014 –January 2015). Over this period,the Foundation contacted theadministration and staff of the43 music schools and made visitsto their premises in order to gaina complete picture of their indi-vidual needs. At the same time,the SNF collaborated closelywith the Ministry of Education’sArtistic Committee in an effortto better understand the opera-tional issues of the Music
Schools. For the procurement of the
musical instruments, an exten-sive research of the domesticmarket of professional instru-ment makers took place. This isa small sophisticated industrywhich is particularly active inbuilding high-quality, export ori-ented musical instruments, andwho welcomed our initiativewith great enthusiasm. Further,our collaboration with expertmusicians ensured the necessarytechnical and quality control ofall musical instruments, beforedelivery to schools and students.
“Greece is strong in integrat-ing music learning into sec-ondary education in publicschools which have both com-mitted teachers with a visionand students with great poten-tial”, said Elina Klaridopoulou,program officer at the StavrosNiarchos Foundation. “It is ourhope that this new initiative willenhance the efficiency of themusic schools, wider the offeringfor students and benefit thewider community. Further, withthis grant there is a small com-munity of young instrumentmakers which we wish to sup-port and bring it closer to thestudent, the end user of the mu-sical instruments”.
“This is a significant grantboth for the support it offers tothe Greek Music Schools andtheir students and also for theway it was designed and ap-
proached”, said Andreas Dra-copoulos, co-President of theStavros Niarchos Foundation.“Before today’s announcement,there was a systematic and care-ful mapping of the landscape ofmusic schools and their needswhich lasted seven months andwas conducted in close collabo-ration with the Music Schoolsand their designated Governingbody. The manner in which thisgrant was implemented ad-dresses the actual needs of themusic schools, as these were
identified by the schools them-selves. Furthermore, this partic-ular grant directly illustrates theeffectiveness of proper coopera-tion between the Public and Pri-vate sector”.
It is noted that the Founda-tion’s new grant to support mu-sic schools across the countrycomplements the School Sup-port Program which the Foun-dation has been implementingfrom 2007 until today, havingprovided support in technologi-cal equipment and educationalmaterials to a total of 309 publicschools throughout Greece.
This latest grant is part of theFoundation’s three-year Initia-tive Against the Greek Crisis,which was recently completed.
The online version of OutHere, a documentary about theInitiative Against the Greek Cri-sis, will become available Feb-ruary 25. ABOUT THE FOUNDATION
The Stavros Niarchos Foun-dation (SNF) (www.SNF.org) isone of the world’s leading inter-national philanthropic organiza-tions, making grants in the areasof arts and culture, education,health and sports, and socialwelfare. The Foundation fundsorganizations and projects thatexhibit strong leadership andsound management and are ex-pected to achieve a broad, last-ing and positive social impact.The Foundation also seeks ac-tively to support projects that fa-
cilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as effectivemeans for serving public wel-fare.
From 1996 until today, theStavros Niarchos Foundation hasapproved grant commitments of$1.57 billion / €1.20 billion,through 2,816 grants to non-profit organizations in 110 na-tions around the world
In 2012 and 2013, the Foun-dation announced two new ini-tiatives of €100,000,000 ($130million) each, to help the effortsto address the crisis in Greece.While the initiative in 2012,which has almost been com-pleted, aimed to provide imme-diate relief against the adverseeffects of the deepening crisis,the one in 2013 aims to addressthe high percentage of youth un-employment, seeking to createbetter employment prospectsand new opportunities for theyoung..
The Foundation’s largest sin-gle gift ($796 million / €566million) is the Stavros NiarchosFoundation Cultural Center(SNFCC) in Athens, which is ex-pected to be completed in 2016.The project includes the new fa-cilities of the National Library ofGreece, and of the Greek Na-tional Opera, as well as theStavros Niarchos Park. TheSNFCC is a testament and acommitment to the country’s fu-ture. It is also an engine of short-to mid-term economic stimulus.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s Support of Greece’s Music Schools
the White House has not beentransparent enough in disclos-ing its UFO investigations to thepublic.
Amid all of the speculation,few are mentioning the fact thatHillary Clinton has yet to de-clare her candidacy – though allfactors indicate that she will runindeed. She has about a 40-point lead over the next-highestcontender, and very well maybe the most crucial candidate toa major party in decades. Can-
didate Hillary Clinton remainsthe odds-on favorite to win theelection, over every conceivableRepublican. Conversely, anyother Democrat would be theunderdog against most GOPcontenders.
John’s older brother, Tony,also has a long and distin-guished career in politics, andis at least as left-leaning as hisbrother. Tony has worked on thepolitical campaigns of liberalstandard-bearers George Mc-Govern, Edward Kennedy, andMichael Dukakis.
TNH Staff
NEW YORK – John Catsimatidis– the Greek-American self-madebillionaire, 2013 NYC Mayoralcandidate, and host of CatsRoundtable on New York’s 970AM Radio – told Bloombergnews that the people of Greecesupport their “new, strange gov-ernment.”
When Bloomberg’s “In theLoop” host Betty Liu pointed outthat the likelihood of Greeceleaving the Euro has surpassed50 percent and is trending up-ward, the veteran businessmanreplied: “it’s all about negotia-tion, I think they’re going towork it out [and remain].”
“Greeks are very emotionalpeople,” Catsimatidis said, whoraise the issue that they neverreceived reparations for Naziatrocities during World War IIfrom Germany, which is nowtaking a hard line in negotia-tions.
“They’re going to work it outbecause they can’t afford tobreak up the Eurozone,” Catsi-matidis said. “Next will be Por-tugal and Spain,” which is whyhe thinks that Greece’s toughstance at the moment is to makea point. “If you jump up anddown enough, they believe thatyou’re serious.”
So the Greek people are be-hind the new government, Liuasks, but does that include Cat-
simatidis himself? “Look, I’m anAmerican,” he responded. “I ambehind the Greek people as awhole.”
FINANCES AT HOMESpeaking of the United
States, then, should we raise in-terest rates, Liu asked? No, hereplied. “We’re not doing thatwell,” Catsimatidis said, com-paring the United States to Eu-rope, “maybe the Europeans aredoing worse,” but it doesn’t
mean we’re doing well enoughto raise interest rates.
Catsimatidis also believesthat “as long as PresidentObama is president,” the FederalReserve will hold the line onraising rates.
What does it have to do withwho is president? “I’ve spokento a lot of Republicans,” Catsi-matidis says, “and they think theright thing to do is to trend[rates] up.” Notably, he added:
“and I’m not sure that’s the rightthing to do.”
“Are you saying the Fed[reralReserve] is politicized?” Liuasked. “Nobody wants to thinkthat,” Catsimatidis responded,but the Fed Chair “is a presiden-tial appointment” and so theperson in that seat tends to gowith the trend. “It’s not sup-posed to be politicized, but it ismore so than not.”
Andreas Dracopoulos, co-Pres-ident of the Stavros NiarchosFoundation.
Catsimatidis Says Greeks Support New Government
John Catsimatidis says Greeks are backing the new government. He believes that all the talk isa negotiating tactic and “they’re going to work it out.”
Utah Supreme Ct: MostlyMormons, and a Greek
The Utah Supreme Court was comprised entirely of Mormonsuntil Constandinos Himonas, a Greek-Orthodox, was appointedto replace retiring Justice Ronald Nehring.
Continued from page 1
A recent New York Times article credits Greek-American JohnPodesta for saving the Clinton and Obama presidencies. Canhe do the same for Hillary’s presidential aspirations?
Podesta may Head “Hillary 2016”Continued from page 1
Continued from page 1
Emcee Yanna Darilis, Coach Kostas Katsikaris, unidentifiedman, Kostas Papanikolaou of the Houston Rockets, Amb.George Iliopoulos, Consul General Yannis Kostalas, Stavros
Papagermanos, Coach Panagiotis Fasoulas, Peja Stojakovic andManos Koubarakis, Greek Consul.
A Greek flag is held on thecourt before Milwaukee Bucks'Giannis Antetokounmpo, ofGreece, competed in the NBAAll-Star Slam Dunk contest onFebruary 14 at MadisonSquare Garden.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015 5
By Constantinos E. Scaros
BROOKLYN – The George PolkAwards, established in 1949 byLong Island University (LIU) tocommemorate George Polk, an-nounced their 66th annualaward recipients in a press re-lease on February 15.
Dan Gillmor of PBS famouslywrote in 2010, in his rebuke offluff media awards that arebased on cronyism and otherquestionable criteria, that thePolk is “one of only a couple ofjournalism prizes that meansanything.” Ironically, the Polkwinners mentioned herein arefar more familiar to the publicthan the man for whom theaward was created in 1948:
George Polk.Polk was an American jour-
nalist who worked for CBS Newand was in Greece in 1948 cov-ering the Civil War there, whichstarted in 1946 between the con-servative Greek government’sarmy, which was backed by theUnited States, and the commu-nist rebels. Concluded in 1949with the government’s forcesthwarting the rebellion, theGreek Civil War is widely con-sidered the first significant post-WWII battle that was a portendto the decades-long Cold Warthat ensued. Polk was founddead – shot at point blank range– on May 16, 1948, and to thisday there is great controversyabout who killed him.
A few months followingPolk’s death, the Polk Award wasestablished in his honor, and 65years later continues to be pre-sented by the Polk Awards Cen-ter of Long Island University.
The National Herald wrotean extensive piece on Polk lastyear (George Polk Awards: a
Legacy of the Reporter Mur-dered in Greece,” Feb. 22,2014).
This year’s awards went to“reporters who risked their livesin 2014 to cover the Ebola epi-demic, traced the rise of the Is-lamic State, and revealed secretransoms paid for the release ofhostages,” the press releasestated. “Additional honorees in-clude reporters who uncovered
systemic failure in two federalagencies, the Secret Service andthe Veterans Administration, aswell as journalists who exposedbrutal treatment of prison andjail inmates.”
The winners include CarolLeonnig of the Washington Postfor National Reporting, RukminiCallimachi of the New YorkTimes for International Report-ing, and Rania Abouzeid for For-eign Reporting on the IslamicState, published in Politico. NewYork Times journalists AdamNossiter, Norimitsu Onishi, BenSolomon, Dr. Sheri Fink, HeleneCooper, and Daniel Berehulakshared the award for Health Re-porting, covering the Ebola out-break in West Africa.
The Times was also well-rep-resented for Justice Reporting,with two of its journalists,Michael Schwirtz and MichaelWinerip, along with the MiamiHerald’s Julie K. Brown sharingthe award for their exposure of
abuse of prison inmates.The award for Commentary
will go to Ta-Nehisi Coates ofthe Atlantic.
The Awards Ceremony willtake place at the Roosevelt Hotelin New York City on April 10.
LIU Announces George Polk Award Winners
A stamp in honor of George Polk, the U.S. journalist whose mur-der while covering the Greek Civil War remains a mystery. Theprestigious Polk Awards for journalism are named after him.
www.GreekKitchennyc.com
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notated, written by Casia(known among Greeks asKasiane).
Touliatos was born in Mem-phis, TN. She is the only childof Greek immigrant parents.“That’s why I am married to mybooks and music, and to mysweet husband, Gus Miles.”They met when he became en-thralled with a presentation shemade at a conference in Floridaand he interviewed her for hisradio program. They have anadopted daughter who is pur-suing a business career.
Her father, Nikos, followedthe many Touliatoses fromCephalonia that settled in Mem-phis and her mother was fromPatras.
“I didn’t learn English until Iwent to first grade, but it was awonderful place to be. I got agreat education including goingto Greek school…I used thatGreek later on.”
She didn’t think she would,but when she got involved inthe musicology of Byzantium, ithelped her ease into studies ofByzantine Greek.
When she was searching fora specialization that was uniqueshe reached out to distinguishedByzantinists like Milos Ve-ramirovich, who pointed her inthe direction of the 118th (119)psalm, the longest in the Bible.
Among the places she trav-elled to study manuscripts wasthe Patriarchal Institute for Pa-tristic Studies in Thessaloniki.“They had microfilms from Mt.Athos, where as a female I couldnot set foot,” she said.
Her dissertation on the 118thpsalm was very well received.Among the notable aspects ofthat work was studying themore than 40 composers whoset one phrase or another to mu-sic through the centuries.
Her magnum opus is A De-scriptive Catalogue of the Musi-cal Manuscript Collection of theNational Library of Greece:Byzantine Chant and Other Mu-sic Repertory Recovered, 660
pages which included commen-taries in Greek and English onthe importance of each manu-script.
That work contributed to herreceiving the award she is mostproud of, the Rigas Feraiosmedallion she was presented in2007 by Greek President Karo-los Papoulias and the presidentsof all the other Balkan countries.She was honored for pioneeringwork in Byzantine musicology.“It was totally unexpected and Iam still in awe,” she told TNH.
For the past five years shehas been working on her bookon Casia. “I have found 53 ofher compositions and each oneis unique – the woman was bril-liant, far ahead of her time. Ca-sia used musical techniques thathad never been done, she said.“Her poety was almost Shake-spearean and her text alwaysblended with the music… withdescriptive coloring: if there isa reference to going down tohell, the musical notes de-scend…the text becomes a pic-torial of the music.”
Some of the texts are associ-ated with other names, like theMonk Germanos, but Touliatossaid we know the writing is Ca-sia’s “because she was devotedto defended women.”
Musicians can’t wait to re-ceive her work so they canrecord the hymns.
Among the people sheworked with was the late histo-rian Eva Topping. “She was likea mother to me.” Topping fo-cused on the poetry and Tou-liatos on the music.
Her studies often migrateinto areas of historical rivalry asGreeks and Latins claim priorityin certain practices and cre-ations. “While I am there work-ing in the Vatican libraries Ikeep my mouth shut,” she said.“I stay out of the politicalarena.”
Touliatos noted that manypractices were improvised andthus not written down, givingrise to controversy. She si amongthose who believe that he useoff the ison – the drone note –by chanters long preceded tex-tual evidence for it.
Touliatos has served as Di-rector of the Center for the Hu-manities at the University ofMissouri-St. Louis since 1995,and she is proud that she andher husband spearheaded thefundraising that led to the cre-ation of the Endowed Professor-ship for Greek Studies at theUniversity of Missouri-St. Louis.
The drive culminated with agenerous gift from NicholasKarakas of the Karakas FamilyFoundation.
By Kathy BoulukosSpecial to The National Herald
HEMPSTEAD, NY – More than200 scouts, leaders, dignitaries,and friends were present for thecelebration of the 55th anniver-sary of Troop 568 at the Cathe-dral of St. Paul in Hempstead,NY.
The recognition began withthe formal observance of the an-nual National Boy Scout Sundayceremony held within theCathedral. Awards were pre-sented to the various Scouts fortheir individual achievements.This was followed by a formalluncheon given at the Rev.Nicholas J. Magoulias CathedralCenter.
The 55th Anniversary cele-bration was given to recognizethe accomplishments of this re-markable troop, which has athriving Cub Scout and BoyScout unit. It was chartered in1960 and since its inception, 64boys became Eagle Scouts.
Many of these Eagle Scoutswere present to participate inthis program, which made it agreat reunion since many camefrom a great distance to attend.
Guests remarked that the55th Anniversary event was anexcellent tribute to the dedica-
tion of the past and presentleaders, parents and clergy forworking together to includescouting as a viable part of theparish youth program.
Some of the speakers in-cluded several of the past Scout-masters, including Peter Xan-thos, whose father-in-law wasone of the founders of the troopin l960.
Terry Perperis, Chris Co-mack, who spoke in memory ofhis father, and the current scout-master, Peter Paris.
Each anecdote contained fas-cinating insights into the pro-gram that continues to stimulateand enhance each boy and howscouting impacts each boy as hematures into manhood.
One of the guest speakerswas George Boulukos, the headof the Eastern Orthodox Com-mittee on Scouting, who is alifelong scout, and a recipientof the highest BSA award, theSilver Buffalo. He reiterated theimportance of having scoutingbe an integral part of the youthprograms nationally for ourparishes. He thanked all the in-dividuals, past and present, fortheir ongoing support of theScouting program. “A programlike this one cannot functionwithout their dedication.”
The dental care was madeavailable to vulnerable groupsof young people and adultsthrough the Open Polyclinic ofAthens and Perama, which arerun by Doctors of the World, butalso through schools in variouslocations.
The provision of vaccines isof crucial importance and THIprovided vaccinations for chil-dren who do not have access tothe National Health System.
Vaccinations were conductedthrough the pediatric depart-ment of Open Polyclinics inAthens, Perama, Thessaloniki,Patras, and Chania, as well asother various locations betweenFebruary 2014 and 2015.
The endeavor has also re-ceived vital funds from the Ja-haris Family Foundation. TheFoundation demonstrated thatmembers of the Diaspora appre-ciate the importance of socialsolidarity with the people ofGreece and do not hesitate toshow it in practice.
Specifically, during 2013 and2014, the Foundation providedimportant financial support tothe Open Polyclinics.
As a result of this support,there was an increase in thenumber of beneficiaries in poly-clinics of Athens and Thessa-loniki and in Northern Greecethrough an increase in medicalvisits by mobile units.
The principal beneficiaries ofthe Foundation's aid where fam-ilies with children who have ex-perienced social marginaliza-tion.
Doctors of the World directedfunding to provide primarymedical care and vaccinationsfor children.
The organization has also ac-quired a solid network of coop-erating pediatricians.
Doctors of the World has aslo
received funding from theStavros Niarchos Foundation(SNF) for the purpose of creat-ing its first Mobile Eye Unit,which will provide free eye ex-ams in remote locations. Themobile units are self-containedand equipped with modernmedical equipment. Their staffperforms preventive and diag-nostic services for adults andchildren.
SNF aslo provided fundingover the past two years to theOpen Polyclinic of Patras.
Doctors of the World has alsofocused on the elderly. In 2014medicine was given to 313 el-derly people and 1,500 receivedfree medical consultations.
2015 will mark 25 years ofcontinuous service by Doctors
of the World, which has beenrecognized globally as a reliableand effective organization. Hel-lenes have come to know it asan organization that promotesand supports the principles ofsolidarity in Greek society.
The organization, originallyactive in third world countries,mainly in Africa, became activein Greece when crisis began toaffect an explosive percentageof the population. Its Greekmembers turned their attentionto the people at home and theycontinue to stand beside theirfellow citizens who have beenweakened by the humanitariancrisis.
Greece is in its seventh con-secutive year of recession asausterity measures coupled with
a drastic reduction of the statebudget for social services andbenefits have led to a collapseof the health system.
It has been reported, for ex-ample, that ii 2013, the totalnumber of uninsured in Greecereached 3,000,000 people, ofwhom 250,000 are children(See: Greek Crisis Review,“More than 3 million Greekshave no access to public healthcare system”.)
The impact of the crisis onthe social fabric of the countryis magnified when taking thehuge numbers of unemployedwho are without insurance. InJuly, unemployment stood at26.4 percent for the generalpopulation and 50.7 percent forpeople under 25 years of age.
Diaspora’s Support of the Doctors of the WorldContinued from page 1
Dr. Liana Maili, a pediatrician with Doctors of the World, Greece, checks the weight of seven-month old Panagiota at the free Open Polyclinic in Perama, near Pireaus. St. Paul’s Boy Scouts #568
Celebrate 55th Anniversary
Boy Scout Troop 568, which is based in the St. Paul’s Cathedralcommunity, celebrated in 55th anniversary in the sanctuaryand with a luncheon which followed the Divine Liturgy.
Renowned Professor Diane Touliatos Has RetiredContinued from page 1
Dr. Diane Touliatos, author of six books and 60 articles, at ascholarly conference, above, and holding an award, left. In2007 she was awarded the Rigas Feraios medallion.
TNH Staff
NEW YORK – Dr. NicholasKaloudis, a Long Island endocri-nologist, was arrested on Feb-ruary 12 on charges of engaging“in an interstate distributionscheme involving more than onethousand oxycodone tablets ob-tained through medically unnec-essary prescriptions over a two-year period,” according to aDepartment of Justice press re-lease.
“Oxycodone can result in ad-diction similar to an addictionto codeine or morphine, andthere is an illegal market foroxycodone, as a substitute for –or adjunct to – other illegal nar-cotics, such as heroin,” the pressrelease noted.
The National Herald was in-formed by the office of the U.S.Attorney’s office that Dr.Kaloudis was arrested on themorning of February 12 and waspresented before U.S. Magis-trate Judge Michael H. Dolingerthat afternoon, when he was re-leased upon surrendering hispassport.
The evidence againstKaloudis includes FBI video that
captures a confidential sourceasking him "what can you writeme for today?" referring to pre-scriptions. Kaloudis replied"whatever you want."
The announcement of theunsealing of the complaint wasmade by Preet Bharara, theUnited States Attorney for theSouthern District of New Yorkand Diego Rodriguez, AssistantDirector-in-Charge of the NewYork Office of the Federal Bu-reau of Investigation.
Bharara has been in the newsrecently in cases related to po-litical corruption in Albany, in-cluding the arrest of formerNew York State AssemblySpeaker Sheldon Silver.
According to the press re-lease: “Starting in approxi-mately 2013 and continuingthrough February 2015,Kaloudis operated out of med-ical clinics in Long Island, whereKaloudis, a Board certified, statelicensed doctor, wrote medicallyunnecessary prescriptions formore than one thousand oxy-codone pills in exchange forcash payments. On multiple oc-casions over the course of thistwo-year period, Kaloudis
charged hundreds or thousandsof dollars in cash for “patientvisits” that involved little, if any,actual examination and resultedin the issuance of a prescriptionfor a large quantity of oxy-codone, typically 30-milligramtablets. Some of the oxycodoneillegally prescribed by Kaloudiswas subsequently resold, includ-ing in Virginia, resulting in theunlawful interstate distributionof thousands of oxycodonetablets.”
“The defendant is chargedwith one count of conspiracy todistribute and possess with in-tent to distribute oxycodone,which carries a maximum sen-tence of 20 years in prison. Thestatutory maximum sentence isprescribed by Congress and isprovided here for informationalpurposes only, as any sentencingof the defendant would be de-termined by the judge.”WHATEVER YOU WANTThe Dept. of Justice made
available to the press the officialcomplaint, which included tes-timony by Bruce Wayne, FBISpecial Agent, who revealed in-formation obtained through aconfidential source, identified
as “CS-1”Wayne said “In or about
2013, CS-1, who was not coop-erating with law enforcement atthe time, was introduced toNicholas Kaloudis, the defen-dant, by a co-conspirator not
named as a defendant herein("CC-1"). CC-1 had previouslyassisted CS-1 with efforts to il-legally obtain oxycodone…Onor about February 4, 2015, nowacting at the direction and un-der the supervision of law en-
forcement, CS-1 made a consen-sual video and audio recordingof a meeting with NicholasKaloudis, the defendant, at Of-fice-1,” the defendant’s office inManhasset.
“During this meeting, CS-1paid Kaloudis $5,000, providedto CS-1 for this purpose by lawenforcement, in exchange forprescriptions for CS-1 and an-other individual for the follow-ing controlled substances: i)Two prescriptions for 150 countoxycodone 30 mg, one in thename of CS-1 and one in thename of another individual; ii)One prescription for 120 countoxycodone/ acetaminophen("Percocet") 5/325 mg, in thename of CS-1; and iii) One pre-scription for 90 count of Adder-all 10 mg, in the name of an-other individual,” during thismeeting.
Community members whospoke to TNH were disturbedbut not shocked by the news.One person said “he attendedthe Church of the Holy Cross inWhitestone, NY regularly,” whileothers acknowledged that hewas wrestling with some innerdemons.
Dr. Nicholas Kaloudis was arrested on February 12 after anFBI and U.S. Attorney’s office investigation of allegation thathe was involved in illegal distribution of pain killers.
By Theodore Kalmoukos
The case of Fr. James Dokos, former presiding priest of the An-nunciation Parish in Milwaukee, WI has brought to light once againa lack of leadership in the Greek Orthodox Church, on the Arch-diocesan and Metropolis levels. The Milwaukee DA has chargedDokos with theft of trust funds, and Bishop Demetrios of Mokissoswith attempt to interfere with the judicial process.
First of all Fr. Dokos should not have been involved with finan-cial issues involving his parishioners including assuming the roleof caretaker of the trust established by the Franczak family.
Undoubtedly, this entire unholy incident could have been dealtwith from the very beginning some three years ago when it wasfirst made public, if there had been true leadership.
The official charge by the authorities against Fr. Dokos provesvery clearly that in this great country of law and order, nobody isabove the law – not even priests.
Certainly, we all should keep in mind that a charge of a crimedoes not necessarily equate guilt. The accused, after all, are con-sidered innocent until proven otherwise.
Nonetheless, when a priest who is the “steward of the mysteriesof God” is being accused for theft, I think it should concern thewhole Church and especially those who hold official administrativepositions and responsibilities.
It is well-known that there are priests who, unfortunately, fromtime to time approach old and lonely parishioners, showing themconcern and pastoral care, in return for cash, cars, and even realproperty, as did Margaret Franczak, who transferred her Floridahome and car to Fr. Dokos. There are also cases that priests spenthours and hours day and night in the hospitals at the bedside ofold and childless individuals and become under shady conditionsexecutors of their Wills and Trusts or, worse yet, beneficiaries.
It seems strange as to how and why Bishop Demetrios ofMokissos using his authority as chancellor of the Metropolis ofChicago transferred Dokos from the Annunciation parish of Mil-waukee after 22 years of pastorship there to the parish of SaintsPeter and Paul in Glenview, IL, in turn compelling Fr. AngeloArtemas to be transferred from Saints Peter and Paul to the An-nunciation. It seems even more strange that Dokos gave money toBishop Demetrios from Franczak’s Trust since he is in a direct wayhis ecclesiastical superior. Dokos also gave monies to MetropolitansTarasios of Buenos Aires and Nikitas of Daranellia, Director of theAthenagoras Institute of Orthodox Theology in California.
If there was Archbishopric leadership in the Archdiocese, thisissue should have been alarming. Once again, ecclesiological andcanonically speaking, there is only one ruling Bishop in this Arch-diocese, Archbishop Demetrios of America, Exarch of the Ecumeni-cal Patriarchate, simply because there only one EcclesiasticalEparchy, the Archdiocese. The rest of the Metropolitans are astrange mixture between Titular Metropolitans and Auxiliary Bish-ops. We are talking about an “ecclesiological travesty” here becausethe Metropolitans are commemorated in the Liturgy and in otherSacred Services as “shepherds” (Poimenarches) from Monday toSaturday, but when Archbishop Demetrios visits a Metropolis on aSunday morning, only he is commemorating as “shepherd” andthe local Bishop simply as “hierarch.” The Metropolises are not au-tonomous and self-sustained Metropolises having their referencedirectly to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, although they commemo-rate the Patriarch’s name in the Eucharist and in the Sacred Servicesbecause if they commemorated the Archbishop’s name the Arch-diocese automatically would have been Autonomous.
Proposals: 1) The archbishop should issue an order to prohibitall priests in getting involved in the finances of their parishionerssuch as wills, trusts, etc.
2) The archbishop should recall immediately Bishop Demetriosfrom the Chicago Metropolis to the Archdiocese in New York be-cause in reality and canonically Bishop Demetrios is ArchbishopDemetrios’ auxiliary Bishop.
3) The archbishop should place Bishop Demetrios on Liturgicalsuspension until this whole scandalous issue is resolved in thecourts.
4) The archbishop should direct Bishop Demetrios, and interveneto Patriarch Bartholomew to the other two, Tarasios and Nikitas,to return the money because essentially, it belongs to the Annunci-ation parish.
5) The archbishop should invite Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicagoto retire due to his age, now with dignity before things get furtherout of control. Certainly other Metropolitans should leave for rea-sons of age as well, and also because they have really destroyedtheir Metropolises and have paralyzed many parishes.
ANALYSIS
Alas, if Only There WereLeadership in the Church
Federal Probe Leads to Arrest of Dr. Nicholas Kaloudis for Drug Dealing
By Grigoris Maninakis
Perhaps there is no bettertime to write an article aboutVasilis Tsitsanis, the composerand lyricist of “SynnefiasmeniKyriaki,” the song most Greeksrefer to as the “National An-them” of Greek music, than thecentennial year of his birth. Yet,in attempting to write this arti-cle, I have a humbling, prevail-ing question, in my mind: couldI pay him a tribute, worthy ofhis legacy and could I bring outinteresting, non-routine, anec-dotal facts about the man, thatpeople do not already know? Af-ter all Tsitsanis, having com-posed more than 500 songs, isthe most prolific and very likely,musically speaking, the most in-fluential Greek composer of alltime, a fact that has been ac-knowledged and frequentlystated by everyone who wroteabout him, no less so, by ourtwo most respected worldrenowned Greek composers:Mikis Theodorakis and ManosHadjidakis. Finally I have de-cided to put aside any fears andproceed with a somewhat dif-ferent “Tsitsanis Story”.
A couple of years ago, a long-time friend and colleague,aware of my long term involve-ment with Greek music, and inparticular with rebetika, calledup and said that in his recent
trip to Greece he bought EliasPetropoulos’ book, RebetikaSongs, which he graciously of-fered to me to browse through.The book, now in its 10th edi-tion, while occasionally a sub-ject of controversy, is a 700-pageclassic of its kind. It was firstpublished in the late 1960s, andvery likely it represents the mostelaborate and thorough researchwrite-up, on the history of re-betika, to date. It has nearly 500pages of historical text about re-betika, including interviews andcommentaries by other writersand researchers, followed by areal treasure of more than 200pages of original, rare photosand hand written notes by mostof the protagonists, ending witha 12-page index. It was on page273 of the book, that I cameacross a section headed by thetitle: “S. Gauntlett: An interviewwith Tsitsanis.” This interviewwas first published, in theSpring and Summer of 1975, bythe Hellenic Society of Mel-bourne, Australia
After reading through it, Ihad all the reasons I needed toproceed with writing this com-mentary about Tsitsanis.
While Tsitsanis has given agreat many interviews through
his life, there is somethingunique about this particular in-terview as he (Tsitsanis) insistedthat he will only answer in writ-ing, a set of written questions,as he was “frustrated and tired”of having his words twistedfrom his many verbal inter-
views. It is thus reasonable toassume that this unique inter-view brings out Tsitsanis’ preciseviews on the various questions.
According to Mr. S.Gauntlett, the interviewer, ittook Tsitsanis six months to an-swer the questions, as they weregiven to him in March and hecompleted the answers them inSeptember. Naturally, my inten-tion is not to list every questionand answer of this unique inter-view, but rather to selectively,bring out and highlight some ofthe least known aspects of hislife, views and personality. As acase in point, it was quite inter-esting and rather surprising,reading his experiences andopinions about traditional folksongs, byzantine music and re-betika, as well as his non-criticalopinion of the State’s censorshipon some songs during the pre-war years by the Metaxas dicta-torship. Here are some of thequestions and answers, interest-ing and telling in my opinion,translated from the Greek to thebest of my ability:
Q: I know you were born andraised in Trikala (Thessaly).Could we conclude that youwere significantly influenced byGreek folk (demotic) songs ?
A: I was neither influencednor impressed by the Greek de-motic songs. In fact, I could saythat I rather disliked them andpaid no attention to them.
Q: With what other tradi-tional music styles you had con-tact with during that time?
Byzantine, Eastern, Euro-pean, Rebetika?
A: I had no clue what Byzan-tine or (Middle) Eastern musicwas all about. I had a verystrong dislike and distaste for“amanedes” (Middle Easternsong vocal improvisations). Ofthe rebetika I was listening toat the time I liked very-very few.
Q: When did you first cometo Athens and how did you man-age at the beginning?
A: I came at the beginning of1937. (Tsitsanis was just 22years old then). I left my hometown after I had graduated fromhigh school. Poor and hungry, Ihad with me 35 songs and sev-eral instrumental compositions.As it was impossible for me tocontinue my education (i.e.:University studies), due to lackof money, I was making therounds at various tavernas alongwith a guitarist, entertainingcustomers and getting by col-lecting tips.
Q: Many of your best songswere written during the yearsof the Nazi occupation. It seemsthat the occupation played amajor role in forming your artis-tic personality.
A: The occupation was forme an inexhaustible source ofinspiration. It was the greatbridge on which the Greek pop-ular song stepped on and tookoff. It was the period when therewere no differences and distinc-tions and everyone, rich andpoor, arms together, weresinging my songs. Even “Syn-nefiasmeni Kyriaki,” which I ac-tually recorded in 1949, was an
inspiration during and from theoccupation.
Q: How did you manage withthe censorship that was period-ically imposed (on songs) inGreece?
A: During the Metaxas era,government censorship cut offall the hashish songs. (Hasik-lidika).
For many ways I can say thatthis had a beneficial effect, as“amanedes” and “crying-like-musical notes” were all rejected.(He is referring here to the AsiaMinor middle eastern heavilymodal melodies.)
As a result of this practice ourpopular song was more “Hel-lenic-befitting” and in good taste.
Actually during the occupa-tion the censorship was a non-issue or functional, for therewere no recordings . The Ger-mans and the Italians had occu-pied the premises of the recordproducing factory building andhad destroyed all recordingequipment. That is why the firstsong records came out at least18 months after our liberation.
Q: As far as the way you cre-ate your songs do you first comeup with the lyrics and the musicnext?
A: Usually, I first write themusic and then I try to come upwith the proper lyrics to fit thecolor and the climate created bythe music. This type of song cre-ation is the more difficult one.
Vasilis Tsitsanis, was born inTrikala, Thessaly on January 18,1915 and passed away at theRoyal Brompton Hospital inLondon on the day of his 69thbirthday, January 18, 1984.There is no doubt his memoryand his legacy will be eternal.
Grigoris Maninakis, a vocalist,is Professor of EngineeringTechnology at the State Univer-sity of New York – Farmingdale.
Vasilis Tsitsanis: Different Perspective of a Legend
Legend Vasilis Tsitsanis, who wrote "Synnefiasmeni Kyriaki," Greece's virtual "National Anthem."
Greek AmericanMothers of New YorkHost Valentines PartyFotini Voulgaris washonored by the GreekAmerican Mothers of NY attheir Valentine’s Party andRiccardo’s Catering inAstoria. (L-R) Seated:Fotini Voulgaris and AngieKorakis. Standing: TouulaPepelias, EleniTentolouris, MariaSpentzouris, EvangeliaKatsouras, Koula Pappas,Aglaia Panagiotakos,Fotini Toras, Eleni Gorasand Ekaterini Tsartsalis.
COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
cumstances one degree furtheris that unexpectedly, those in-volved in these war time pro-grams came to enjoy their publicservice. How they expandedupon their war duties is yet an-other untold tale. What followsis an all too brief case study ofone such organization and it’sunder reported contributions toaid local and national life.
On August 29, 1943, in Gary,IN the St. Konstantine parishchapter of the Greek Phalanx ofWorld War I called a meeting.These local Greek-American vet-erans of World War I calledupon the mothers of those whohad volunteered or been draftedto serve in the new war to at-tend. The purpose of the meet-ing ‘was to establish an organi-zation of these mothers to aidveterans and their families andto promote the serviceman’sgeneral welfare whenever pos-sible.’ It was unanimously de-cided to take steps in this direc-tion. At that time temporaryofficers for this new organiza-tion were elected: Christina Har-belis, was elected president;Mary Anogianakis, 1st vice-pres-ident; Jennie Georgiadis, 2ndvice-president; recording secre-tary Katherine Glicofridis andtreasurer Mary Apostolou.
On September 17, 1943,through the efforts of DemitriosGlicofridis, Gus Vasilatos, andSpiros Vlahos the mothers wentthrough the procedures of ap-plying for membership, throughthe stat e of Indiana, to the Na-tional Chapter of Mothers ofWorld War II, Incorporated. OnDecember 3, 1943, their requestwas granted and authorized byNational President, GrettaRoush, as Unit 109 within thatorganization.
At their first official meeting25 mothers became membersand elected permanent officersChristina Harbelis, was electedpresident; Mary Anogianakis,1st vice-president; Jennie Geor-giadis, 2nd vice-president;recording secretary KatherineGlicofridis and treasurer MaryApostolou; color guards andcolor bearers Sirmo Spaliaras,Georgia Maimonis, Helen Ko-takis and Efthymia Georgiou;sergeant at arms, Stella Kaponis;chaplin Angeline Coveris and fi-nancial secretary Mary Pappas.While most certainly this gath-ering of ladies knew their ownminds and the types of local andnational service they could pro-
vide they were not shy, in theearly days of their organization,to call upon the advice and con-sul of local individuals such asLouis H. George, Nick Coverisand Dan Drakos.
On Mother’s Day 1944, thenew Gary, IN Mothers of WorldWar II Unit 109 (hereafter Unit109) held a banquet to intro-duce itself to the community atlarge. The proceeds were usedto send various items of foodand clothing to servicemen inthe United States and overseas.Hospitals in northeast Indianaquickly heard of the new Unit109 and requested (and even-tually obtained from this group)supplies and equipment for hos-pitalized veterans.
Unit 109 engaged in numer-ous activities throughout thewar. Some of their activities in-cluded the donation of food andclothing to needy servicemenand their families. Holidayswere a special time of activitysuch that Easter, Christmas,New Year’s, and so on providedtimes when these Greek-Ameri-can mothers sent food, clothing,money, cigarettes and other sup-plies to servicemen overseas.Never forgetting the servicemenstationed in area camps theladies were careful to see thatthese men received their atten-tion as well.
So service men passing
through Gary were met withendless dinners and temporaryhousing. In time, given the in-creased traffic due to the warUnit 109 made sure housingwas always available to service-men at the local YMCA.
Unit 109 participated in nu-merous benefits for hospitalizedveterans such as, but not limitedto, furnishing crutches, wheelchairs, food, clothing and otherbadly needed supplies andequipment requested by thehospitals. Aid was also given tothe children of hospitalized vet-erans. An undated clipping froma scrapbook gives us specific de-tails on just such a donation:
“The Greek Mothers of WorldWar II, unit 109, at their recentmonthly meeting completedplans for sending a gift to theBillings hospital in Indianapolisand since have made this dona-tion as well as a gift of sevenand one-half pounds of rayon,silk and nylon hose to the vet-erans’ administration in Marion.Serving a dinner recently at theservice center was another partof the contribution to the wareffort.
The addition made toBillings’ hospital supplies in-cluded 14 bed sheets, 5 linenhandkerchiefs, and 8 dozen traynapkins.”
Unit 109 was so active in itswar efforts it is difficult to pre-
sent all that they accomplishedwithout reducing their efforts toa long list. During Christmasholidays Unit 109 memberswere known far and wide forsending as much as 150 poundsof chocolates at a time to ser-vicemen overseas. Among theirongoing donations to hospitalsUnit 109 provided monies ex-pressly for new books. Asidefrom what we have described sofar Unit 109 assisted with thewar bond drives by sponsoringa local booth. And in typicalstyle such were their collectiveefforts that the unit received acitation from the Secretary ofthe Treasury Fred M. Vinsoncommending their accomplish-ments in selling victory bonds.
Before we go any further itmust be stated that some of thewomen in Unit 109 wantedsomething for themselves for alltheir sustained efforts. And theyweren’t afraid to let others knowabout it or to petition for itopenly. From an undated news-paper clipping we read the fol-lowing: “Request for the grant-ing of citizenship to 12 Garymothers of World War II veter-ans is on its way to the housejudiciary committee today,thanks to the help of Gary’s In-ternational Institute. All thewomen are of Greek descentand members of chapter 109,Mothers of World War II. To
date their efforts to get citizen-ship papers have been to noavail.
“Some of the women areblocked because they can nei-ther speak nor write the Englishlanguage. Others, although theyhave filed for citizenship papersseveral times, have been heldup by red tape and parliamen-tary delay.” In time thesewomen received “the prize” theyhad more than earned, Ameri-can citizenship.
At the end of the war Unit109 planned and hosted a galavictory dance in honor of the re-turning servicemen at the HotelGary ballroom. One would thinkthat this event would have alsosignaled the triumphant end ofUnit 109 but that was far fromthe case. Unit 109 did not dis-band but continued in its workto aid local hospitals as well asother worthwhile projects notjust nationally but around theworld.
A few of the projects towhich Unit 109 offered its aidincluded, but was certainly notlimited to, were donations madeannually to Queen Frederika’sfund for the orphaned childrenin Athens. Contributions weremade to Patras, Greece for theexpress purchase of books andschool supplies for these or-phaned children. Donationswere made annually to blind
servicemen in Greece. Ever alert to the complex po-
litical circumstances caused bytotal war Unit 109 members en-listed the assistance of Garymayor Eugene Schwartz (1950-1951) to come to the aid of thechildren displaced by the GreekCivil War.
Unit 109 was as active in lo-cal and national programs asthey ever were during the war.One newspaper clipping datedsimply as 1953 quickly itemizedsome of the Unit’s programingfor that year: “they includedcontributions to the Red Cross,the Cancer Fund, the LakeCounty Crippled Children’s So-ciety the Polio Drive, the Com-munity Chest and SS Constan-tine and Helen’s Church. Giftswere sent to Parramore Sanitar-ium and to seven state veterans’hospitals; to veterans overseasand stationed in this country,and veterans’ orphans were as-sisted.” Unit 109 always seemedto keep up with the changingtimes as their gift of a televisionset to the Billings hospital at-tests.
Every Memorial Day Unit109 also held services each yearfor the four soldiers killed in ac-tion that came from their com-munity: Jim Logan, GeorgePanagiotopoulos, FranklinSaetes and George Cralis byplacing a wreath of flowers atthe veteran’s monument in thechurch yard.
The Mothers of World War II,Unit 109 celebrated both theirtwentieth and twentieth-fifthanniversaries in typical style;they gave a banquet for otherseach time. I do not know whenor even if Unit 109 ever dis-banded. Unidentified news clip-pings report that the Unit nevernumbered more than 64.
It is worth noting that thephrase ‘The Greatest Genera-tion,’ coined by journalist TomBrokaw, describes “the genera-tion who grew up in the UnitedStates during the deprivation ofthe Great Depression, and thenwent on to fight in World WarII, as well as those whose pro-ductivity within the war's homefront made a decisive materialcontribution to the war effort.”The activities of Unit 109 doescredit not only to their commu-nity but to all other Greek-Americans across the nation.More deserves to be knownabout them and their dedicatedservice.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015 7
In Retrospect: the Greek Mothers of World War II, Unit 109 Incorporated
June 1943 photo of the Gary, IN Greek Mothers of World WarII taken inside the Sts. Constantine and Helen Church there.
On the back wall are photos of then-President Franklin Roo-sevelt, and Greek-American WWI Hero George Dilboy.
By Phylis (Kiki) SembosSpecial to The National Herald
Yiannis entered Dixon’swearing a peculiar grin, his red-dish hair combed forward on hisforehead, and a colorful kerchiefround his neck.
“Going somewhere?” askedDimos, eying his particularswagger. “Not ‘going some-where’, Dimos; but, goingplaces.” John asked, “Whatplaces is that?”
Leaning back, coffee in hand,he told them about a womanwho approached him two daysago. “She handed me her cardand said, ‘you look like a goodcandidate for T.V commercials.’”The card he passed around,read: GOLDIE MALDOON, AS-SISTANT ADVERTISEMENTSAGENT, CBS Building, NewYork, N.Y. Suite 302.
George said, “And, theywanted YOU? What kind ofcommercials? Not Securities, Ihope!” Yiannis told his contraryfriend it didn’t matter what kindof advertisements.
“I’d be making two hundreddollars for reading a couple oflines. If they like me, I’d be do-ing more. Hey! I could becomefamous. People will notice meon the street and say, ‘There heis! The guy on T.V.’ and make
money, too!” He rubbed hishands together, greedily. “Infact, I’m to report to the studiotomorrow.”
John, dubious, pointed out,“What if you don’t like whatyou’ll be representing – likesome pill with more side effectsthan a cure?” Yiannis laughed.“So what! I don’t have to use it.All I have to do is read a coupleof lines printed on a chart. I’mto say, ‘My name is Yiannis Pap-pas. And I believe this producthas helped me, tremendously. Iadvise you to use it becauseyou’ll find it as effective as Ihave. That’s a promise! Thankyou!’Then, collect my check.Two hundred dollars!”
George, who knew that forthat kind of money he’d eat aroach, regarded him cautiously.“You’d be famous, alright. Re-member that advertisements ap-pear in every state in the U.S.”Smiling broadly, Yiannis toldhim, “It’s O.K. with me. I couldbe as famous as Mr. Clean. Or,those guys that sell new cars.Maybe, get a bonus – Perks!”Kipreos warned, “Maybe, youshould have an agent represent-ing you, Yiannis. They’d protectyour interests.”
Yiannis waved his hand.“Nah! They’d want 15 %. I earnit! I take it!” They all wished
him well. Next Sunday, theyawaited their celebrity friendwho made his appearance late.But, minus the swagger. “Well?How’s show business?” askedDimos, grinning. Somberly,Yiannis said, “It’s...not..what I...expected. They put make up onmy face, stood me before a cam-era.” A long pause followed.Kipreos asked, “What kind of adwas it?” Yiannis preferred stuff-ing his mouth with a donut.“When will it appear?” askedJohn. “It’s already appearing, Ithink.” Dimos asked him if hegot paid. “I got paid, alright.But, I changed my mind. But,they said I couldn’t back out. Ipocketed the money before Iwent on,” he sighed, “So, the adhas to be aired,” Clearly, theyall knew there was somethingYiannis was finding it difficultto admit. Hesitatingly, Yiannisconfessed, “It’s that...I...don’tlike talking about ...bodily prob-lems.” George, suppressing agrin, asked, “None of us toldthem about your bodily prob-lems. Right, guys?” Yiannis, notfeeling humorous, told him toshut up. John patted his shoul-der, “Don’t worry! People don’tpay attention to ads. I don’t!”Kipreos said, “I do!” They gavehim a scornful stare. Georgeshrugged. “Why do you care if
it’s only an advertisement?”Yiannis’ voice got raspy. “Be-cause I told the whole world myname! That’s why!” Curiositydeepening, they tried guessingat what the ad could have beenabout. “Halitosis?” John sug-gested. Yiannis shook his head.“Acid Reflux,” ventured Kipreos.“I don’t want to talk about It,”whispered Yiannis. George, sup-
pressing a smirk, said, “I know!It’s your exhaust pipe.” Yiannisignored him.
Dimos, recalling that Yianniswas 20 years older than Areti,approached him with cautioussensitivity, “Not...not about....amale...a manly... dysfunction!”His silence continued, wishingthe entire subject would die anatural death and be forgotten.
But, just then, a little boy withhis mother entered the cafeteria,heading for a table, when helooked up and noticed Yiannis,recognizing him, immediately.He pointed at Yiannis, excitedly,and said, in a voice heardaround the room, “Look Ma!There’s Yiannis Pappas! Theman with the painful hemor-rhoids.”
Becoming Famous
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OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS8 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
DEATH NOTICES
n ACHI, DIMITRA GIA-COUMOPOULOSPALMER TOWNSHIP, PA – (Fromthe Express Times, published onJan. 26) – Dimitra N. Gia-coumopoulos Achi, 33, of PalmerTwp., PA, passed away on Satur-day, January 24, 2015 in herhome. Dimitra was born in Eas-ton, PA, a daughter of Nick andSusan (Karam) Giacoumopoulosof Bethlehem, PA. Personal: Dim-itra was married to Elie "Ray-mond" Achi. She received herBachelor's Degree in History andEducation from Moravian Col-lege. She was known for her gen-erosity, compassion, and kind-ness. Most importantly she wasa loving mother of two beautifulyoung girls, her pride and joy.Memberships: Dimitra was amember of Our Lady of LebanonMaronite Catholic Church andHellenic Orthodox AnnunciationChurch of Wilson Boro. Sur-vivors: In addition to her parentsand her husband, Dimitra is sur-vived by her daughters AyaSophia Achi, and Houda Achi,both at home; a sister AnastasiaGiacoumopoulos of Philadelphia,PA. She is also survived by uncles,aunts, and cousins in the UnitedStates, Lebanon, Greece and Aus-tralia. Services: Calling hours willbe held on Wednesday from 6:00pm - 8:00 pm with Prayer of theIncense at 7:45 pm. An addi-tional calling hour will be heldon Thursday from 9:30 am -10:30 am in Our Lady ofLebanon Maronite CatholicChurch, 4th & Ferry Streets, Eas-ton, PA, followed by a DivineLiturgy on Thursday at 10:30 amin the church. Interment will bein Gethsemane Cemetery, PalmerTwp. Funeral arrangements areunder the direction of MorelloFuneral Home, Inc., 3720Nicholas Street, Easton, PA(Palmer Twp). Memorial Contri-butions: In lieu of flowers, con-tributions in Dimitra's memorymay be made to Our Lady ofLebanon Catholic Church, 55South 4th Street, Easton, PA18042, or to Hellenic OrthodoxAnnunciation Church, 319 S.20th Street, Easton, PA 18042.Online condolences may be of-fered at www.morellofuneral-home.com.
n ANDRIANOPOULOS,PETER A.
WILMINGTON, DE (From theNews Journal, published on Feb.4) – Peter A. Andrianopoulos July12, 1930-January 30, 2015. PeterA. Andrianopoulos - father,brother, grandfather, uncle, bar-tender extraordinaire, veteran,and great friend - passed awaypeacefully on January 30, 2015.The youngest of three children,he was born in Chicago, IL, toEffie (Danos) Andrianopoulosand Alex Andrianopoulos. Afterthe family moved east to theChester/Eddystone area, Petergraduated from Eddystone HighSchool and enrolled in classes atthe Wharton School of Businessat the University of Pennsylvania.He served in radio communica-tions during the Korean War as amember of the United States AirForce. Peter married Faith Prassasin 1965. Together, they had twochildren - Alexis and Anthony. Pe-ter's kids were his pride and joy.For 25 years, Peter owned andoperated the Brandywine VillagePub, a small but popular bar inthe Brandywine Village sectionof Wilmington. Known to all asPete's, the bar attracted youngprofessionals from downtown, lo-cal politicians, and scores of lawstudents from the nearbyDelaware Law School. Peterasked each patron to bring in apennant from their college, all ofwhich he proudly hung. Knownfor its overstuffed sandwiches atlunch and Peter's killer BloodyMary recipe, Pete's was called"yuppie" when the term was firstcoined in the early 80s. With nosigns advertising it and picturewindows filled with beautifulplants, Pete's was often mistakenfor a florist instead of a pub. AfterPete's closed in 1985, Petertended and managed bars atother local establishments includ-ing the Greenery Too andCromwell's. Many of his loyal pa-trons from Pete's followed him,and he also had the opportunityto meet new customers and makenew friends. Peter's customers be-came like family to him, and heoften spent holidays with friendshe had met through tending bar.At Cromwell's, Peter was knownfor his daily sports trivia question,a testament to his vast knowl-edge and love of sports. In fact,Peter's love of sports was so well-known and he was so loved atCromwell's that his employeenumber was retired and a bannerin his honor was hung on thewall behind the bar when he re-tired from employment. While heloved all sports, his favorites werecollege football and college bas-ketball, especially the Universityof Delaware. In 1985, Peter hadthe opportunity to fulfill a life-long dream and go to the Big
Dance - the NCAA Final Four -with his son Anthony. He trav-elled throughout the region manyadditional times for the Big EastTournament and Eastern Re-gional Tournament, even makingit back to the Final Four one moretime when it was played at TheMeadowlands. Closer to home,Peter also was a regular fan atHaverford College volleyballgames - especially the awaygames, where he was oftenHaverford's only fan - to watchhis daughter Alexis play in themid-80s. Afterward, he fre-quently drove Alexis and a fewteammates back to campus, witha detour for ice cream or othertreats on the way. In addition tosports, Peter loved Greek music,especially singer George Dalaras(whom he called the BruceSpringsteen of Greece). A truenight owl, Peter travelledthroughout the region to seeDalaras perform live and alwaysmanaged to find out where theband was dining after the show.Alexis and Anthony would findthemselves eating a second din-ner at 1 a.m. at a table conve-niently located next to Dalarasand his bandmates. Peter was agreat consumer of news. His tele-vision was always set to a newsor sports station, and he read sev-eral newspapers daily. He alsoloved brain-teasers like cross-word puzzles, cryptograms, su-doku, and word find and woulddo all the puzzles in each day'snewspaper. In addition to his par-ents, Peter was preceded in deathby his sisters, Theone Frangosand Constance Kakaroukas. Heis survived by his children Alexis(Dave Gross) of Wilmington andAnthony (Debra) of New York,his granddaughter Ella, nephewNick Kakaroukas (Suzanne), for-mer wife and current friend FaithAndrianopoulos, dozens ofcousins around the country, andfriends dating all the way backto Eddystone High School. Wewill miss his sense of adventure,delicious cooking, unique senseof humor, late night escapades,and pop quizzes about sports andmusic trivia. Friends may callWednesday, February 4 from 6-8p.m. at the Doherty FuneralHome, 1900 Delaware Ave.,Wilmington.. Services will beheld Thursday, February 5, at 11a.m. at Holy Trinity Greek Ortho-dox Church, 808 N. Broom Streetin Wilmington. Buriel will be inSilverbrook Cemetery. The familywould like to thank the caringstaffs at Shipley Manor, Wilming-ton Hospital, and CompassionateCare Hospice at St. Francis Hos-pital.
n MANTzIARIS, IRAKLISHARTFORD, CT (From the Hart-ford Courant, published on Jan.25) – Iraklis Mantziaris, 84,beloved husband of Aristoula(Tzickas) Mantziaris died peace-fully on Friday, January 23rd sur-rounded by his loving family.Born in Kaloni Grevena, Greecehe was the son of Christos andPanagiota Mantziaris. He grewup in Kaloni and moved toLarissa before immigrating to theU.S. with his family in 1968 andsettling in Hartford, CT. Iraklisspent his life in the U.S. workingas a mason. Religion was a majorpart of his life and he was a longtime parishioner of St. GeorgeGreek Orthodox Cathedral. Oneof his proudest accomplishmentsin life was building the Three Hi-erarchs Greek Orthodox Churchat the University of Connecticutwith his son Chris. He was also along time member of the com-munity's Macedonian society. Intheir 57 year marriage, Iraklisand Aristoula enjoyed many trav-els and adventures, with espe-cially fond memories of their tripsto Greece. He also enjoyed hisweekly fishing trips always withhis wife by his side. A loving anddevoted husband, father, andpappou, Iraklis is survived by hiswife of 57 years AristoulaMantziaris, his daughter Pana-giota Anagnostopoulos, and herhusband Nikos of Alpine, NJ, andhis son Chris Mantziaris and hiswife Marilyn of Wethersfield, CT,six beloved grandchildren whohe adored Apostolos and his wifePanagiota, Iraklis, Stavroula,Iraklis and Yianni. He is also sur-vived by his sister-in-laws, Geor-gia Giannakopoulos and her hus-band Theofilos and EfstathiaTzickas and many cousins,nieces, and nephews both hereand in Greece. The funeral willbe Tuesday January 27, 2015,11:00 am at St. George Greek Or-thodox Cathedral, 433 FairfieldAve. Hartford. Contributions inhis memory may be made to: St.George Greek Orthodox Cathe-dral, 433 Fairfield Avenue, Hart-ford, CT 06114. To share a mem-ory with the family, please visit,www.dillonbaxter.com.
n MIKOS, ATHANASIAMARION, IN (From theCourier Press, published on Feb.1) – Athanasia (Sia) MichosMarion, Ind. Athanasia (Sia) Mi-chos, 100, mother of Mary Ben-nett, Newburgh, grandmother ofNikki Presley, Evansville, andChad Bennett, Newburgh, passedaway January 28, 2015. Sia wasborn in Kalion, Doridos, GreeceJune 15, 1914 to Demetrius andZoitsa Papandreou. As a new
bride, she came to the UnitedStates in 1931 with her husband,Nickolas. They settled in Gheen,Minnesota, a very small commu-nity of about 50 families in north-ern Minnesota where her hus-band worked as a sectionforeman for the railroad. Shespoke no English, so the localladies in the town would haveher come to their weekly sewingcircle to listen to them as theychatted. This was her Englishclass. In 1936, they moved toMarion, Indiana with their youngdaughters, where Nick joined hisbrother, John, and cousin,George, in the restaurant busi-ness. In later years she and Nickopened their own restaurant,Nick's Chile Bowl, which was avery popular place in Marion.Nick passed away in 1961. Siaoperated the restaurant for ashort time after that before retir-ing. Other survivors includegreat-grandchildren, Alicia Pres-ley and Donovan McNeal ofEvansville, Ashton Bennett andJackson Bennett of Newburgh, adaughter, Zoe Smith, Indianapo-lis, grandson, Jay Smith, Indi-anapolis, granddaughter, LisaGeorge, Indianapolis, great-grandchildren, Jillian Smith,Nickolas Hargrove and JakeSmith of Indianapolis, and 4great-great-grandchildren ofEvansville.She was a member of Holy Trin-ity Greek Orthodox Church in In-dianapolis. Visitation will be from10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday Feb-ruary 2, 2015 at Raven FuneralHome in Marion, Indiana withservice time at 11 a.m. Fr.William Bartz from Holy Trinityis officiating. Memorial contribu-tions may be made to Holy Trin-ity Greek Orthodox Church, 3500W 106th, Carmel, IN 46032.
n NACKOS, NICKHURRICANE, UT (From theSpectrum & Daily News, pub-lished on Jan. 22) – Nick C.Nackos, beloved and respectedgentleman, community icon, andAmerican Patriot passed awaySaturday, January 17, 2015 inSt. George in the loving embraceof Laura, his wife of 73 years.Nick was born April 27, 1921 inSalt Lake City, Utah. He went toGreece when he was an infantand attended grade school inAthens. He returned to the USand attend some school in Bing-ham, Utah where he knew onlyGreek. By the time he attendedWest High School in Salt LakeCity, he was fluent in both Greekand English, and "Determined tospeak perfect English with notrace of an accent," he would telllater. Nick married the love ofhis life, Laura Edrie Dalton Jan-uary 31, 1942 in Ely, Nevada. Af-ter becoming members of theLDS Church, they were sealed inthe temple in Alberta, Canada.Nick served valiantly in the USArmy, surviving two historicalbattles that changed the tides to-ward victory in World War II. Re-turning again, he would serve asan MP in the Korean War. He washighly decorated, earned two sil-ver stars and four bronze stars.In WWII he was a member of Ecompany, 26th Infantry Regi-ment, who in Normandystormed ashore on "Omaha"Beach on "D-Day", 6 June 1944.The "Big Red One" pushed Ger-many eastward, Nick led his menthrough Battle of the Bulge, 16December 1944 through 25 Jan-uary 1945. Finally, leading aprominent role as Staff Sergeant,he and his men cleared housesin bitter urban fighting inAachen. He was woundedshortly thereafter, in the Battleof Hurtgen Forest, tripping a Ger-man booby-trap that caused anexplosion which wounded himand resulted in the Purple Heart.Nick was an accomplished busi-nessman and entrepreneur. Afterthe war he strategically devel-oped and launched what wouldbecome a large supermarket dis-tribution company in SouthernCalifornia. He sold this businessto move to Utah so Laura couldbe by her mom and started over,eventually working up to the po-sition of Vice President of PublicRelations for Zions Bank in St.George. Nick was involved inmany community organizationsincluding Director of the Cham-ber of Commerce for St. Georgeand Hurricane, President of theWashington County AmericanCancer Society and was on theboard of directors of the StateAmerican Institute of Banking.He was in high demand as a mo-tivational trainer/speaker, deliv-ering Key Note appearances fornumerous business and educa-tional organizations across thecountry. He was also once chosenthe "Total Citizen for the Stateof Utah.” Nick served in threedifferent bishoprics for theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and has the honor ofbeing the first person of Greekdescent to be called to the officeof bishop. Nick also cherishedserving as a counselor in theSouthern California MissionPresidency. One of the most trea-sured times of his life was asBishop of the Buena Park Wardin California. He would recallmany times throughout his lifethe relationships, experiencesand friendships that were main-
tained and retold up to the dayhe passed. Bowling was amongthe most enjoyable activities ofhis golden years. The leaguesthey played in and the resultingfriendships have been a sourceof great joy to both he and Laura.His family thanks Dixie Bowl andSunset Bowl for the loving careover the years. Nick is survivedby his adored sweetheart andwife, Laura Dalton Nackos andhis five children: Lila Nackos ofFlower Mound, TX; LorraineNackos of Las Vegas, NV; Chuck& wife Brenda Nackos of Enoch,UT; Kelly & wife Patti Nackos ofDraper, UT; and Scott & wifeJulie Nackos of Windsor, CO. Heis also survived by brother GustNackos of Redondo Beach, CA,Sister Mary & husband Tony Ca-puto of Salt lake City, UT; sisterHelen & husband AristophaniDelphos of Stanton island, NY;and Sister-in-law MargaretNackos of North Hollywood, CA.He is proceeded in death by hisfather & mother Isadore and El-leni Nackos of Greece, SisterPeggy Nackos of Greece, his old-est brother Jim Nackos ofSpringville, UT; brother HarryNackos of North Hollywood, CA.
n PIHIOU, RITSACANONSBURG, PA (From theObserver-Reporter, published onFeb. 4) – Ritsa K. Pihiou, 74, ofCanonsburg, died Friday, January30, 2015, in Allegheny GeneralHospital, Pittsburgh. She wasborn February 26, 1940, inRhodes, Greece, a daughter ofthe late George and Victoria Fo-taras Kentros. Prior to her retire-ment, Mrs. Pihiou worked as amaster seamstress. She was amember of All Saints Greek Or-thodox Church, where she wasactive with Philoptochos, thechoir and the Pan Rhodian Soci-ety. Mrs. Pihiou enjoyed design-ing dresses, gardening, bakingand cooking.On July 30, 1961, she marriedher husband, Andrew J. Pihiou,who survives.Also surviving are two sons,James A. Pihiou and his wife Tri-cia of Canton, Mich., and GeorgeA. Pihiou and his wife Dia ofCanonsburg; brother MichaelKentros and wife Lana of McMur-ray; two sisters, Audrey Scoumisand husband Petro of Canons-burg and Gigi Kavalieros andhusband Michael of Rhodes; andseveral nieces and nephews.Deceased are brother Gus Ken-tros and granddaughter Stella Pi-hiou. Friends will be receivedfrom 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Tues-day and 10 to 11 a.m., the timeof services, Wednesday, February4, in All Saints Greek OrthodoxChurch, 601 West McMurrayRoad, Canonsburg, PA 15317,with Father George L. Livanos of-ficiating. Burial will follow in OakSpring Cemetery, Canonsburg.Trisagion services will be held at7 p.m. Tuesday. Arrangementsare entrusted to Sollon FuneralHome Ltd., 30 East CollegeStreet, Canonsburg, J. David Sol-lon, supervisor, Phillip L. Sollon,director, 724-746-1000. The fam-ily kindly suggests memorial con-tributions be made to All SaintsGreek Orthodox Church. Pleasevisit www.sollon.com to leavecondolences.
n SAVOPOULOS, ANTONIAATLANTA, GA (From the AtlantaJournal-Constitution, publishedon Feb. 1) – SAVOPOULOS, An-tonia Antonia "Toni" ZachosSavopoulos of Charles Town,West Virginia, passed away onJanuary 28, 2015 at the age of80. Mrs. Savopoulos was a longtime resident of Atlanta movingto West Virginia in November of2014 to live with her daughterand son-in-law. Born in 1934 inMavromati, Greece to Michaeland Eleni Vlassis Zaharogiannis,Antonia immigrated with herfamily to the United States in1954 and married Savas "Sam"Costantinou Savopoulos in1957. Toni proudly became a cit-izen of the United States on July4, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia andtraveled to Greece most recentlyin 2010. Since her move to WestViginia, Toni became a footballfan. She cheered for whateverteam her son-in-law Jim sup-ported. She loved watching oldmovies, her soap opera "TheYoung & The Restless", and mostof all cooking Greek food for herfamily. Antonia is survived byher daughter: Sophia Tallant ofCharles Town, West Virginia,son: Costa Savopoulos ofWinder, Georgia, daughter-in-law, Marsha Savopoulos,brother: Harry Zachos of Kenne-saw, Georgia, grandson: GrantSavopoulos, nieces: Lisa Pierce,Elaine Taylor, Eleni Ware, HelenOakley, Sherri Adams and EleniZachos, nephews: Dr. Obie Pow-ell, Stavros "Shane" Zachos,Michael Zachos, Paul Zachos,Costa Zachos, Christo Zachosand Michael Zaharogiannis. An-tonia is also survived by numer-ous great nieces and nephews,in-laws along with many friendsall of whom she loved dearly.Mrs. Savopoulos is preceeded indeath by her husband Savas"Sam" Costantinou Savopoulos,brothers: George, Paul "Pete", Pe-ter "Gus" and sister: Angela. Fu-neral services will be held Tues-day, February 3, 2015 at 11:00
a.m. at The Greek Cathedral ofthe Annunciation, Atlanta, Geor-gia.
n SEKOULOPOULOS,ALExANDRA
LORAIN, OH (From the MorningJournal, published on Jan. 31) –Alexandra Sekoulopoulos (neeEpitropoulos), 88, of Lorain, fellasleep in the Lord Thursday, Jan-uary 29 surrounded by her familyfollowing a sudden illness. Shewas born May 27, 1926 in AgiosGermanos, Macedonia, Greece.She immigrated to Lorain in Julyof 1960. Shortly after arriving inthe US. Mrs. Sekoulopoulosworked for John Christ Winery,Avon Lake, along with other im-migrate women from her village.Mrs. Sekoulopoulos retired fromThe May Company, SheffieldCenter after 20 years of service.
Alexandra was a member ofSaints Cyril and Methodius Or-thodox Church of Lorain. Shealso attended St. Nicholas GreekOrthodox Church of Lorain.Alexandra and her late husbandenjoyed traveling. Most of all sheloved spending time with herchildren and grandchildren, theywere the love of her life. She willbe deeply missed by her daugh-ters Asimenia (Dan) Eichler ofElyria Township, Dorothea(Todd) Redilla of Oberlin; sonAthanasios (Linda) Sekoulopou-los of Amherst; grandsons,Daniel, Philip, Chad, Shawn,Corey, Nikolas and Stephen andone great grandson, Landon;brother, Periklis (Maria)Epitropoulos of Lorain; sister-in-law Vasaliki Epitropoulos ofToronto Canada and many niecesand nephews. Alexandra waspreceded in death by her hus-band of 54 years, Petros Sek-oulopoulos in 2007; her parentsSotirios and Neda (Genilandras)Epitropoulos; sister Zoe (John)Seculopoulos and a brother ChrisEpitropoulos. Her family suggestsmemorial contributions to SaintsCyril and Methodius OrthodoxChurch, 3056 Reeves Ave, Lorain,OH 44052 or Saint NicholasGreek Orthodox Church, 2000Tower Blvd, Lorain, OH 44053.
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Notice of Formation of Sterling Sports, LLC.Art. of Org. filed Sec'y of State (SSNY)5/20/14. Principal Office: 105 Stewart AveNY, Nassau County. SSNY designated asprocess agent. Process Service address: 105Stewart Avenue, Garden City, NY. Purpose:Any lawful activity.
274261/19386
Notice of formation of GLIFN MEDIA LLC, a(DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filedwith the Secretary of State of New York(SSNY) on 11/05/2014. Office location:Kings County. SSNY is designated as agentupon whom process against the LLC may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to: LegalincCorporate Services Inc., 90 State Street,Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207. Purpose:Any Lawful Purpose.
274264/19390
Notice of formation of 17LEFT, LLC a(DOM. LLC). Articles of Organizationfiled with the Secretary of State of NewYork (SSNY) on 01/09/2015. Office loca-tion: Kings County. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process against the LLCmay be served. SSNY shall mail processto: Abigail Kramer, 242 Leferts Ave #1,Brooklyn, NY 11225. Purpose: AnyLawful Purpose.
274256/19383
Notice of formation of INTERNATIONAL MIXARTIST GROUP ENTITY, LLC a (DOM. LLC).Articles of Organization filed with the Secre-tary of State of New York (SSNY) on07/31/2014. Office location: Kings County.SSNY is designated as agent upon whomprocess against the LLC may be served. SSNYshall mail process to: c/o United States Corpo-ration Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Avnue,Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any LawfulPurpose.
274257/19384
Notice of formation of RIO GOODIE LLC.Articles of organization filed with the Secre-tary of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on 10/27/14.Office location: Nassau County. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent of the LLC uponwhom process against it may be served.SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 979 PortWashington Blvd., Port Washington, NY11050. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
274245/19196
Notice of formation of THE MACSTERNGROUP, LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of orga-nization filed with the Secretary of State ofN.Y. (SSNY) on 1/07/2015. Office location:Kings County. SSNY has been designated asagent of the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: Kristin MacQuarrie, 39 E 2ndStr., Brooklyn, NY 11218. Purpose: Anylawful activity.
274244/19368
Notice of formation of COCONUTCOCONUT AND COCONUT, LLC. (DOM.LLC). Articles of organization filed withthe Secretary of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on1/02/2015. Office location: Kings County.SSNY has been designated as agent of theLLC upon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to: Yair Ty-giel, 315 Seigel St., Loft 310, Brooklyn, NY11206. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
274242/19364
Notice of formation of 216 PPW REALTYLLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of organizationfiled with the Secretary of State of N.Y.(SSNY) on 1/05/2015. Office location:Kings County. SSNY has been designated asagent of the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: Robert Panza / 216 PPW REALTYLLC, 205 Rumson Road, Rumson, NJ07760. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
274240/19363
VIRTUALIZE, LLC. Art. of Org. filed w/NY Sec. of State (SSNY) on 8/12/14.Office in Kings Co. SSNY designatedagent for service of process. SSNY shallmail process to Reg. Agent: U.S. Corpo-ration Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave. Ste.202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Anylawful activity.
274233/18796
YOURMBR LLC. Art. of Org. filed w/ NYSec. of State (SSNY) on 1/20/15. Officein Kings Co. SSNY designated agent forservice of process. SSNY shall mailprocess to: Karina Mikhli, 1338 E15 St,Apt. 3, Brooklyn, NY 11230. Purpose: Anylawful activity.
274232/18796
OSTMANGROUP LLC, a domestic LLC,filed with the SSNY on 12/11/14. Officelocation: Kings County. SSNY isdesignated as agent upon whom processagainst the LLC may be served. SSNY shallmail process to The LLC, 251 Lee Ave.,Brooklyn, NY 11206. General Purposes.
274209/10709
274200/10709
Notice of Formation of BONOMO DESIGN &ILLUSTRATION, LLC a (DOM. LLC). Articles ofOrganization filed with the Secretary of Stateof New York, (SSNY) on 12/16/2014. Officelocation: Kings County. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process against the LLC maybe served. SSNY shall mail process to:The LLC,61 Broadway, Suite #1405, New York, NY10006. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.
274229/19351
MARY HOWARD STUDIO, LLC, Arts. of Org.filed with the SSNY on 11/04/2014, filedwith an exist date of: 01/01/2015. Office lo-cation: Kings County. SSNY has been desig-nated as agent upon whom process againstthe LLC may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: 505 Carroll St., Brooklyn, NY11215. Reg Agent: Mary Howard, 505Carroll St., Brooklyn, NY 11215. Purpose:Any Lawful Purpose.
274226/16818
BARRLAND HOLDINGS LLC Articles of Org.filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 2/20/2014.Office in Kings Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLCupon whom process may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to 359 16th St.,Brooklyn, NY 11215, which is also the prin-cipal business location. Purpose: Any lawfulpurpose.
274221/19138
Notice of Formation of TRI-LOXMILLWORKS, LLC a (DOM LLC). Articles ofOrganization filed with the Secretary ofState of New York, (SSNY) on 12/03/2014.Office location: Kings County. SSNY is desig-nated as agent upon whom process againstthe LLC may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: The LLC, 125 Jericho Turnpike,Jericho, NY 11753. Purpose: Any LawfulPurpose.
274218/19339
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[Tekmon Geomatics is a landsurveying consultancy based inIoannina. Its team shares thelatest land development projectstaking place across Greece withthe Greek Diaspora. Tekmonprovided the following interviewto TNH, which it conducted withDr. Costas Tzimeas. For morearticles on Land Development inGreece visithttp://www.tekmon.eu/monthlycolumnseries.]
In an attempt to boost thecountry’s Oil and Gas Explo-ration and Production (E&P) in-dustry, in 2012 the Greek Gov-ernment approved its LicenceAgreement for hydrocarbon ex-ploration and exploitation onthe Ioannina block located inNorth-Western Greece - a fewmiles away from the Albanianborder. This region, althoughchallenging in terms of mor-phology holds significant poten-tial according to the companywhose assignment is to researchthe region for what may be aforefront discovery.
We spoke with Dr. Costas Tz-imeas from Energean Oil & Gas,a private E&P company with astrong track record of over 30years in the field. In 2014, En-ergean was granted the licenseto explore the Ioannina blockfor potential hydrocarbon dis-coveries.
TG: Tell us about Energeanand its main activities.
CT: Our main activity is toexplore and produce hydrocar-bons. Energean was establishedin 2007 but our affiliate com-pany is Kavala Oil, which hasbeen producing oil from the Pri-nos block in Northern Greecefor over thirty years now. Cur-rently, we’re actively involved inE&P in Greece, Israel and Egyptand we’re always on the lookoutfor new collaborations. We par-ticipate in public tenders incountries like Montenegro andSouth-East Europe has becomea strong area of interest for us.We’re optimistic about the fu-ture in this region.
TG: For those of us who don’tknow, what are hydrocarbons?
CT: Hydrocarbons is essen-tially what we call ‘fossil fuel.’In other words, hydrocarbonsare combustible organic mate-rials that we burn for energy.Those in liquid form are knownas crude oil and those in gasform are known as natural gas.From a geological perspectiveit’s taken millions of years toproduce hydrocarbons. The pri-mary material is always organicmatter which stems from the re-mains of animals or plants.When adding exceptional cli-matic circumstances and under-ground temperatures and pres-sures, these decayed organicremains are converted to hydro-carbons that subsequently areexpelled from the rocks theywere initially buried in and mi-grate into porous rock forma-tions. Hydrocarbons are even-tually locked in these porousrock formations and hydrocar-bon reservoirs are formed. As awhole, we first need rocks richin organic material also knownas source rock, the right tem-perature-pressure circumstancesand migration to a porous rockformation that can trap hydro-carbons. All these factors haveto co-exist in order to offer evi-dence of existing hydrocarbons.Hydrocarbons are then pro-duced and processed in refiner-ies.
In terms of the Ioanninablock, exploration will be a chal-
lenge because of its geologicaland tectonic settings. There aremany risks because commonlyused geophysical and non-geo-physical methods have provedto be relatively unsuccessful insimilar environments.
TG: Despite the challengesdue to the area’s land morphol-ogy, what opportunities did youforesee that prompted you tobid for the block’s exploration?
CT: Exploration in Ioanninaisn’t new. The Italians made anattempt at shallow drilling afterthe Second World War. Follow-ing that, a consortium betweenthe Greek and French govern-ments also drilled in the areaand most recently (in the late1990s early 2000s) there wasEnterprise, a Canadian companylater absorbed by Shell, whichhad also made an attempt butto no avail. So the area is wellknown in terms of hydrocarbonpotential. There is even surfaceevidence of hydrocarbons nearriver beds and elsewhere. So,there is no doubt that hydrocar-bons exist. The challenge it todiscover the correct subsurfacestructures, find the right de-posits, in sufficiently large quan-tities and all this within budgetto make it worthwhile.
TG: How did Energean gainexploration permission?
CT: The Ministry of Environ-ment, Energy and ClimateChange put forward an Explo-ration and Production tender forthe Ioannina block in 2012. Thebidding round, proposal assess-ments, Greek Parliament ap-proval and granting of all per-mits took a little under 3 years.Since October 2014, Energeanis the block’s official sponsor. Itwasn’t quick but it’s been almost20 years since the area was lastexplored so the Ministry tookadditional precaution, especiallyin terms of environmental pro-tection measures. Right now,we’re at the stage of implement-ing our technical and financialwork programme precisely asstated in our bid.
TG: Tell us about your workprogramme?
CT: Our work programmewill last 7 years and will include3 exploration phases. Phase 1 isresearch only. At the beginningof phase 1 we have to submitan environmental baseline re-port which will outline how wewill preserve and protect the en-vironment. If drilling were totake place, this would inevitablyhappen in Phase 2.
The plot we’re exploring is4,200 square kilometers. We’vetrekked the entire plot. I can tellyou that the terrain is quite
dense with a rough relief. Now,it’s obvious that we will not ex-plore every inch of the plot be-cause this isn’t financially viable.Our research will show whichareas are worth exploring.Phase 1 will allow us to focuson the areas we deem of interestin other words, where we findevidence of trapped hydrocar-bons. By the end of 2015 we’llhave a better idea of worthwhilelocations for later seismic sur-veys that will point us to theright reserves.
TG: How will the local areabenefit?
CT: If we discover and are ina position to exploit deposits,the community will benefit fromadditional income stemmingfrom taxation and royalties,while new jobs will be created.25% tax on profits is standardnational tax, among which 5%goes to the local community.During the exploration phaseswe will require the services oflocal businesses and labour,therefore, creating work oppor-tunities for the local community.It is estimated that, for each newjob that is directly created, threemore are created in the widereconomy. In turn, a new projectbuilds new skills in the localworkforce and local staff willbenefit from professional train-ing, while there is also thechance of discovering and pro-ducing natural gas in an areawhich is not approached byGreece’s National TransmissionSystem. We also foresee En-ergean sponsoring local eventsand community projects. Welook forward to long term col-laborations with local authori-
ties and the local community. More importantly, we want
to reassure the local communitythat out work programme willnot have any consequences onthe natural environment. At En-ergean, we take environmentalissues very seriously. Our base-line environmental report andimpact assessments are ex-tremely important to us and wetake every measure possible toavoid conflict with the localcommunities. We have an excel-lent track record as shown withour exemplary Prinos blockwhere we haven’t had any prob-lems for almost 35 years of oiland gas production. We’ve re-cruited local companies and in-dividuals and have taken allmeasures to build a sound rep-utation. It’s all in good manage-ment and it’s entirely our re-sponsibility to raise awarenessand inform the local area of anypossible risks to put their con-cerns at ease.
TG: Is the plot your exploringprivate or public ownership?
CT: It could be both. Thegovernment has leased the plotto us for exploration purposes.We don’t own the land thatwe’re exploring. We pay rent persquare meter per year for per-mission to explore. There is leg-islation that will entitle landowners compensation for theirland if deemed fruitful. Butwe’re talking about minute sizedareas, perhaps a few acres.
TG: What quantities do you
foresee in terms of oil and nat-ural gas deposits?
CT: It is really early to say,but we are encouraged from thefact that in neighbouring areasproven or even producing oilfields exist, i.e. the Patos Mar-inza field in Albania, from
which the Canadian firm,Bankers Petroleum, producescirca 20,000 bbls daily. Our ob-jective is to discover carbonaterocks, such as limestones knownas a ‘reservoir rock’ that containshydrocarbons. Granted, that isan additional challenge becausethe tectonics of fold-and-thrustbelt regimes such as in Ioan-nina, and Epirus in general, isn’tquite as straightforward. Similarlandscapes exist in theCarpathian region of Romaniaand in the Middle East such asIraq. It’s very difficult to reachour desired goal but deposits,as demonstrated in the afore-mentioned regions, may be sosignificant that they’ll rewardthe effort many times over.There is still a long way ahead.
TG: Upon discovery of Oiland Gas, how do you plan onmaking it commercial?
CT: As long as we pay ourdues to the Greek governmenton production, as we have beendoing for the last 30 years withthe Prinos block, the companyis at liberty to market the prod-uct as it wishes - within or out-side the country’s borders orboth. For example, we havesigned a 6-year off-take agree-ment with BP for the entire pro-duction from Prinos. Of course,it all depends on daily produc-tion. The Oil and Gas industryin Greece is heavily regulated.Our production is strictly moni-tored by the relevant authoritiesso that all royalties incurred are
paid to the state as agreed inour contract’s terms and agree-ments. It makes sense; theGreek government has to re-ceive a piece of the pie, throughtaxation and disbursement ofroyalties. Otherwise wewouldn’t be able to produce.
That’s the agreement. We aremonitored on production only.Hence we pay tax and royaltieson production.
TG: Today the price of oil hasreached historically low levels.How will this affect Energean’sactivities?
CT: There is an impact. How-ever this will not affect our workprogramme for the Ioanninablock. Low prices hit our profits.In terms of the Ioannina block,we’re still at the explorationphase. If we were to drill, itwould be no less than threeyears from now. At that point,it’s difficult to predict whatprices will look like. Oil priceshave a cycle of 6-7 years. Forthe Ioannina block, the currentdrop in oil prices may be a ben-efit because we’re still exploring.For our other blocks, wherewe’re producing, we’ve been af-fected.
TG: The morphology ofEpirus is not exactly flat. Howdo you plan on building wellsite locations?
CT: There are solutions, ex-pensive ones, but they exist. Ifwe have to drill on a roughtopographic landscape we maydrill from further afield, so at adistance. Drilling isn’t only ver-tical; it can be done horizontallyas well, especially when we’redealing with challenging topog-raphy.
There are strict environmen-tal laws around drilling and sothe drilling itself does not leaveany footprints. The only footprint that may exist, and that isif we reach a production stage,will be on the few acres wherewe’ll have to install facilities.The foot print is minimal. Ofcourse, the company’s main re-sponsibility is to keep the publicwell informed on all drillingtechniques and their impact,however minor, on the environ-ment. That is assuming we evenreach that stage.
TG: Would hydraulic fractur-ing, also known as fracking,used religiously in the U.S., bepracticed?
CT: There is no legislation re-garding the use of hydraulicfracturing in Greece. We will useconventional methods.
TG: Are you optimistic?CT: Yes. If you’re not opti-
mistic about a project of suchmagnitude then it would be bestnot to get involved. There is ev-idence of deposits so we’re notgoing on a hunch. The questionwe need to answer is the oneposed by the Ministry: Will de-posits be significant enough toprove that the area is worth in-vesting in? That’s our assign-ment.
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015 9
Hydrocarbons: Oil & Gas Exploration and Production, Case on Ioannina
By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer
NEW YORK –According toeconomist Marina TheodotouCyprus has finally seen the lightafter failing to appreciate theentrepreneurial potential of ittalented youth.
Theodotou told TNH thatduring the past three years anentrepreneurship community –an ecosystem – has been grow-ing in Cyprus. It now consists ofactual startups and various ini-tiatives by individuals and or-ganizations and is accompaniedby the elusive Hellenic unicorn:a change in people’s mindsets.
“The young have begun toshift away from the notion thatthe government must take thelead in everything and take careof us,” she said, and they nowreject their parent’s hopes forthem to obtain “paper-pushingjobs with the government.”
Since habits die hard, how-ever, some took their tender en-trepreneurial aspirations to thegovernment, and were disap-pointed.
Three things are requiredTheodoratou told TNH “youneed people with brains, moneyand guts – and a legal infra-structure,” and some of thoseelements – funding and struc-tural programs, and certainly
tax code changes, pointed to-ward government doors.
They brought their energyand ideas but found that thedoors were open for the well-connected but not for them.
Groups like Cypriot Enter-prise Link (CEL) and the Cyprus’Junior Achievement chapter
Theodotou helped found in2010 had projects “that we sub-mitted to organizations like theResearch Promotion Founda-tion, which receives EU fundingthey are supposed to direct toprograms around the country,but it would only go to the few‘usual suspects,’ over and over
again.”“Nobody would listen…they
said we were too young and in-experienced, that we didn’t havethe necessary gravitas,” she said.
The media also dismissedthem.
“So we looked beyondGreece…and we decided tobuild around the closed doors,”she said. “I decided look and seewhat is happening around theworld and see what such ecosys-tems need in order to thrive.”
She authored as studyfunded by KP&G about Cyprus’entrepreneurial ecosystem thatfocuses on several sectorsbenchmarked with best prac-tices in Denmark, Israel, Estoniaand Ireland that includes aseven-year road map.
She gave tourism as an ex-ample. “The whole industryneeds more customer and ser-vice-quality focused.” Young ITgeniuses can help by developingaps that can be deployed aroundthe world. Paphos TreasureHunt is already driving peopleto Cyprus.IDEAS + HOPE = WOWThey also created TedX
Nicosia in 2011. “That broke thepattern. We created a new plat-form and proved we didn’t needthe local media.”
TED (Technology, Entertain-ment, Design) is set of confer-
ences run by the private non-profitSapling Foundation, underthe slogan "Ideas Worth Spread-ing" that helps promote ideasand generate support for worth-while endeavors.
“We opened a window” forthe world to look at what youngCypriots, are doing. People saidto me ‘TED came to Cyprus?Wow!’”
They selected speakers fromthe community “to show that allaround us there are ordinarypeople doing extraordinarythings.”
“We proved,” she said, “thatwe can create something out ofnothing. We produced the TEDxevent with in-kind contributionsand help from small startupsand money from a few key peo-ple.”
Some of the participantshave already branched off intotheir own entrepreneurial orpublishing initiatives.
Theodotou helped create astart-up accelerator for cleantechnology endeavors. One ofthem, Chrysalis LEAP, “did sowell that the EU selected themto lead clean tech efforts inCyprus and Greece throughmentoring and training and di-recting them to EU-wide com-petitions.”WE WILL SEE YOU NOWAnd the government is fi-
nally paying attention. Officialsare examining Theodotou’sKP&G study. Progress includesbeing able to register a businessin three days. “That is good, butit’s not enough. You need excel-lent IT and wifi on the onehand, and a modernized legaland tax system on the other.
For example “Israel has anangel law, a tax break for in-vestors in start-ups,” she said,“and in late 2012, based on arecommendation we made, thegovernment tax department re-viewed Israeli and EU law…Iam now proud to say thatCyprus amended its investmentlaw last July.”
The government also re-cently announced a 9 millioneuro fund for women entrepre-neurs and a youth program for23 million.
Theodotou, who is a refugeefrom occupied Kyrenia, has aMaster’s in economics from theUniversity of South Carolina.
She has worked for Bank ofAmerica and when she returnedto Cyprus she established a con-sulting firm and helped buildthe Cyprus Investment Promo-tion Agency as its COO from2007-2009.
She is now a portfolio man-ager in New York for the presti-gious American ManagementAssociation.
Young Cypriot Entrepreneurs Show the Way, Change People’s Mindsets
Economist Marina Theodotou and her friends have been fo-cused on creating an entrepreneurship ecosystem on Cyprus.
ATHENS – Former Prime Minis-ter Antonis Samaras is under agrowing assault by lawmakersin his contentious New Democ-racy Conservatives who blamehim for the party’s election lossto the Radical left SYRIZA.
Ex-Foreign Minister DoraBakoyannis joined other partyofficials in lambasting him andthe European People’s Party fora statement that Europe’s Con-servatives put out calling onGreece to accede to demands tointernational lenders as Samarasdid.
Bakoyianni had been an out-cast from the party and formedher own before Samaras let herback in. Her brother, Samaras’former Administrative Reform
Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, issaid to be interested in takingover the party from him.
Greece’s new coalition, led bythe Radical Left SYRIZA leaderand Prime Minister Alexis Tsipraswho unseated Samaras is lockedin tough talks with the Eurozoneover restructuring a debt dealand trying to wiggle out fromunder the austerity measures theformer Premier imposed.
The EPP, and Samaras, saidin the statement that Tsiprasshould “respect all commitmentsmade by the previous Greek gov-ernment” and not to be an “ob-stacle.”
“What a shame for the EPP,”Bakoyianni tweeted. “They un-derestimate that in a national ne-
gotiation, we are above allGreeks.” She didn’t mention thatwhile serving Samaras, she fol-lowed his orders on how to voteand supported the conditions heimplemented.
Bakoyannis’s comment cameafter sharp criticism from ex-In-terior Minister YiannisMichelakis and ex-governmentspokesman Evangelos An-tonaros, who accused the EPP ofsuggesting that Athens shouldnot negotiate with its lenders butgive in, as Samaras did.
Former Education MinisterMarietta Giannakou joined in thebandwagon attacks on Samarasand ripped his leadership afterSYRIZA walked all over the partyin the Jan. 25 elections after
Samaras did the bidding of thelenders and imposed big paycuts, tax hikes, slashed pensionsand worker firings. Giannakoucontinued her attack on Samaras’leadership of New Democracy.
“New Democracy must be aEuropean, democratic party,” shetold Real FM. She, too, didn’tspeak up before when servingSamaras who is now under siegeby the people who once followedhim loyally.
“It cannot be a party wherethe decisions are taken by twoor three people. A small team ofpeople cannot decide to take theparty in one direction or theother,” she said in a shot atSamaras who is facing a leader-ship challenge.
Samaras is under Siege by New Democracy Dissidents
FEATURE10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
By Anthe Mitrakos
A friend and I wanted to takea trip outside Athens but sincewe had separately been to somany nearby mainland Greecedestinations, where we wouldhead exactly was a rather diffi-cult choice to make. After givingit (too) much thought and hear-ing a little advice from somefriends, we decided on Pelion.Pelion is a mountain in CentralGreece, in close proximity to theport of Volos.
In Greek Mythology, themountain, named afterAchilles’s father King Peleus, issaid to have been inhabited bythe half-man half-horse crea-tures called centaurs. The mostfamous of these mysterious
beasts is Chiron the Centaurwho coached and mentoredgreat heroes like Hercules, Ja-son, Achilles, and Theseus.
For those longing for a bit ofadventure, (we went for somesnow but it had pretty muchmelted into an icy slush) Pelionis covered in rich forest, scat-tered with traditional villagesand filled with stone paths andtrails that lead to fresh-watersprings. In the wintertime, it’shost to a ski resort that was notopen when we visited, sadly, asthe prospect of skiing in Greecesounded rather exciting to me.
Anyway…we decided tohead to the traditional villageof Makrinitsa. Zooming throughmountainous terrain and count-less trees, we arrived at the foot
of the village where we weregreeted by a closed-for-the-sea-son café. Having been to thatcafé before (but in the summer-time), I was much looking for-ward to visiting again as it is sit-uated among trees, vines, andrunning stream water.
In any case, we moved on tostone-paved paths intoMakrinitsa. Left and right werelittle shops all selling prettymuch the same things: classicsouvenirs (the donkeys, mag-nets, and kompologia), tradi-tional pottery for home cooking,locally-grown herbs, tsipouro(the area’s trademark liquor)and an array of colorful translu-cent spoon sweets, marmalades,and preserves in shiny glass jars.
Soon enough, we reached
the village center where wefound a unique bazaar, the 18thcentury church of St. John theBaptist, and a very old treewhose history I don’t know, butyou can walk through it. Imag-ine a large tree trunk about 2.5meters wide at the base com-pletely empty to its core. It ac-tually feels like you’re enteringa cave when you walk inside.I’m not sure how this tree hassurvived in that form, but it issurely one of nature’s moreunique miracles!
I also noticed that Makrinitsais filled with scattered fountainswith fresh running water. I don’tknow about you, but every timeI see one of these I simply musttouch the crisp ice-cold liquid(especially in the summertime),if not drink it as well. So I did!
Moving on, we were greetedby some friendly long-fur fe-lines. Their coat was perfect forthe weather, which was justchilly that day, nothing too coldto bear. After flipping a coin todecide which of the two nearbyrestaurants with a view wewould dine at, we decided to goto the one that the coin sug-gested we skip, and it was in-deed a great choice.
I am not one to suggestrestaurants unless the experi-ence is a worthy one, and at tra-ditional tavern “Apolausi,” wehad a mix of cozy atmosphere(we chose to dine inside), withhome-style and well-prepareddelicious dishes, and super cleanwashrooms (a must). I had thelamb with lemon-flavored pota-toes and my friend had thekokora (rooster) with tomatosauce and hilopites. Combineda colorful season salad, drinks,and a wonderful view, our din-ing experience was one of ourtrip’s highlights.
We decided to do just a littlemore sightseeing in Makrinitsa,which is famed for its traditionalhomes built with a grey slateroof. Further down the road wasa bench situated before a com-memorative statue of a woman.If you’re visiting Makrinitsa,take at least a moment to sitdown and enjoy the truly re-markable panoramic view fromhere. It is now clear to me whyMakrinitsa is known as the “Bal-cony of Pelion.”
We didn’t know any locals,so when we finished eating andtaking a few photos, we hit theroad for some more exploring.Though we did not see theseclose up, there is a famous cafécalled Theofilos which featuresartwork by renowned Greek fineartist Theofilos Hatzimichail, as
well as the Pelion Museum ofFolklore and History where youcan see over 1,500 artifacts fromeveryday Makrinitsian life in-cluding weapons, jewelry, art-work, and more.
VOLOSOn our journey, we passed
by a flourmill and the atmos-phere smelled of, well, flour.When driving through apple or-chards near Volos, the air wassuddenly filled with apple-juicesmell. Olive groves smelled offresh-pressed olives, and atsome point we smelled chips. Ilooked left and right and no-ticed a Chipita facility. At thatpoint, we laughed. I don’t re-member having experienced so
many distinct (pleasant) smellson one journey before…that’swhy I was so amused.
Anyway, after visiting the tra-ditional village of Makrinitsawith its grey slate roof housesand stone-paved paths, weheaded to Zagora. Accompany-ing us on our way there throughthick forest and what was leftof previous snowfall was aZagorin Hellas company truckprobably on its way to pick upsome apples. Zagora is appar-ently known for its apples,though we didn’t get to tasteany during our visit – which wasvery short. The sun was aboutto start setting soon and we did-n’t spend much time at all inthis village.
We turned back around andheaded to Volos, though wemust have missed some turnover conversation and ended uptaking a much longer routeback. I got dizzy on the waydown because this road seemedendless and had many turns.Viewing a map the next day Irealized we look the road less
travelled. It was a truly windingroad all the way downhill!
In any case, we had alreadystopped in Volos for a quickwalk before heading toMakrinitsa and we didn’t caremuch to go back for a nightvisit. Volos has a pretty lengthywaterfront lined with cafes andrestaurants from one end to theother. The place makes for anice stroll during any time ofthe day and from what I recallduring a past visit, the nightlifehere is not too lively. In the sum-mertime, bars and mini clubskeep their music on the downlow and close their doors to fur-ther block out the sound whenit gets late.
Having visited Volos a sum-mer some three years ago aftera trip to the more buzzingNorthern Sporades (mainlySkiathos), I noticed the contrastin nightlife immediately. Andthere is something strangeabout the place. The waterfrontseems quaint, filled with sail-boats and smaller yachts. Andsince no cars are allowed accessthere, the stretch is perfect forwalking and biking around, orto sit and enjoy your favoritedrink with a calming view,whatever be the season. On thestreet just behind all that, how-ever, the place takes on a dustycity look. With gas stations, fastfood joints, neon lights, cement,trash bins, and cars…you getthe essence you’re in an urbanenvironment. The stark differ-ence from one street to the nextstartled me the first time I ex-perienced it and I cannot say Idid not like it, for whatever rea-son. But this time was my thirdtime in Volos and I did not havemuch interest in staying evenfor coffee. Maybe next time!
Taking Time to Smell the Apples: a Visit to Mount Pelion in the Winter
A winter visit to Mt. Pelion is living proof why Greece isn’t just for summertime travel.
ACROSS1 Baby's "ball"5 Capital of Bangladesh10 Gas burner14 Kiln15 Abraham's son16 Learn17 Jewelry metal18 Speedy Andretti19 Doings20 Blasphemed22 Deflect24 Garden tool25 Swedish citizen27 White vegetable29 Greek prefix pertaining to stars32 Saint honored on July 2035 Taxis38 Type of meat39 Award40 Expression of surprise41 Tablet43 Univ. in Armidale, Australia (abbrev.)44 Against46 Fuel47 Antes48 Fire remains49 Perfume51 Famous fabler54 Fate57 Cntr. for Investigative Reprtng. (abbrev.)59 _____ Gay62 Barack64 Opera solo66 Saber68 Epochs69 Without70 Uncanny71 Ms. Minelli72 After awhile73 Braid74 Scallion
DOWN1 Swamps2 Expresses3 Nether4 A Papandreou5 Not brightly lit6 Rght. away! (abbrev.)7 Famous Irene?8 Egypt's capital9 Oak nut
10 Baseball stat. (abbrev.)11 Manner12 North Atlantic Treaty Organization13 Abu Dhabi Stock Exchng. (abbrev.)21 Asner and Sullivan23 Concede26 Basic beliefs28 Johnny ___ of the Godfather, Pt. 230 Rodent31 "Ultimate" wristwatch brand?33 Relative34 Meets35 Stone age abode36 Excuse me!37 A Sweathog39 Greek Socialist Party (init.)41 Hospital worker42 Standard or average45 Visualize47 Muscle builder50 Chinese dictator52 Beginning53 Authority55 The Osmond Brothers' sister56 Take by surprise57 House, to Fernando58 Persia60 Traditional knowledge61 Greek soccer team63 American Studies Assn. of Korea (abbrev.)65 American Society for Nutrition67 Dept. of Education and Science (abbrev.)
Solution:
J I F A I D S O N C E
A R O B L E W W A I V E
C A R M E L L A E N R I C O
K N E E L H E R A T O N
F E E H I S V A N E
S O R T M I L E A G E
I P O U A P I D A R + E N
Z E N I T H S B A R B A R A
E N T R E E G A M Y N I P
S P R A I N S E T N A
U C L A D M S D A H
N R A S N O B E R O D E
E U B O E A E M M A N U E L
X E B E C L A I R S E A
L I M B S O D S A D M
Solution to last week’s puzzle
THE HERALD SQUARETNH's Crossword Challenge
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16
17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28
29 30 31 32 33 34
35 36 37 38 39
40 41 42 43
44 45 46 47
48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56
57 58 59 60 61 62 63
64 65 66 67 68
69 70 71
72 73 74
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
1 Baby's "ball"
5 Capital of Bangladesh
10 Gas burner
14 Kiln
15 Abraham's son
16 Learn
17 Jewelry metal
18 Speedy Andretti
19 Doings
20 Blasphemed
22 Deflect
24 Garden tool
25 Swedish citizen
27 White vegetable
29 Greek prefix pertaining to
stars
32 Saint honored on July 20
35 Taxis
38 Type of meat
39 Award
40 Expression of surprise
41 Tablet
43 Univ. in Armidale,
Australia (abbrev.)
44 Against
46 Fuel
47 Antes
48 Fire remains
49 Perfume
51 Famous fabler
54 Fate
57 Cntr. for Investigative
Reprtng. (abbrev.)
59 _____ Gay
62 Barack
64 Opera solo
66 Saber
68 Epochs
69 Without
70 Uncanny
71 Ms. Minelli
72 After awhile
73 Braid
74 Scallion
DOWN
1 Swamps
2 Expresses
3 Nether
4 A Papandreou
5 Not brightly lit
6 Rght. away! (abbrev.)
7 Famous Irene?
8 Egypt's capital
9 Oak nut
10 Baseball stat. (abbrev.)
11 Manner
12 North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
13 Abu Dhabi Stock Exchng.
(abbrev.)
21 Asner and Sullivan
23 Concede
26 Basic beliefs
28 Johnny ___ of the
Godfather, Pt. 2
30 Rodent
31 "Ultimate" wristwatch
brand?
33 Relative
34 Meets
35 Stone age abode
36 Excuse me!
37 A Sweathog
39 Greek Socialist Party
(init.)
41 Hospital worker
42 Standard or average
45 Visualize
47 Muscle builder
50 Chinese dictator
52 Beginning
53 Authority
55 The Osmond Brothers'
sister
56 Take by surprise
57 House, to Fernando
58 Persia
60 Traditional knowledge
61 Greek soccer team
63 American Studies Assn.
of Korea (abbrev.)
65 American Society for
Nutrition
67 Dept. of Education and
Science (abbrev.)
TNH Staff
This week in 1983, on Feb-ruary 17, boxer Marios Kapero-nis was born in Patras. After ex-celling in bouts throughoutGreece, Kaperonis achieved in-ternational fame as an amateur,and competed in the 2004Olympics in his home country.The 21 year-old lighteweightwas beaten, though, by AmirKahn of Britain, who went onto become one of the most suc-cessful boxers of our time, hav-ing won an world championshipas a lightweight and then mov-ing up to the welterweight divi-sion, where he currently holdsa world title.
Kaperonis did not turn pro,and now, at age 31, is a boxingcoach, teaching the “sweet sci-ence” to the next generation.
He recently spoke in hishometown of Patras, explainingthat he has no regrets and thathe considers boxing a goodsport for today’s youth. He saysthe physical contact is boxing is“cleaner” than in other sports,and so there is less of a chanceof injury.
This Week in Greek History:
Boxer Marios Kaperonis is Born
From our Website’s Travel Section
We took time out to smell the apples. Not these specific ones, but the abundant apple orchardsnear Volos – filled the air with the sweet and pleasant aroma of apple juice.
ATHENS – A side-effect of therise of the Radical Left SYRIZA’sto Greece’s Premiership has beenthat it – not the ultranationalistsof Golden Dawn – has madeGreeks proud again after nearlyfive years under the boot heelsof international lenders.
They might be in the Greekequivalent of the Alamo – or likeKing Leonidas faced the Persianmight at Thermopylae in 490 BC– but Greeks are echoing his cryto demands and SYRIZA’s an-swer that they throw down theirweapons: Molon Labe. Comeand take them.
Since 2010, a succession ofGreek governments controlledessentially by the once-dominanttwin powers of the New Democ-racy Conservatives and the PA-SOK Socialists, together and incoalition, had ceded the coun-try’s sovereignty in return for240 billion euros ($272 billion)in two rescue packages from theTroika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB).
The lenders demanded, andgot, humiliating austerity mea-sures that created record unem-ployment and deep poverty andmade many Greeks feel like beg-gars dependent on foreigners fortheir survival.
SYRIZA, under its leader andnow Prime Minister AlexisTsipras, had fought ferociouslyagainst the big pay cuts, taxhikes, slashed pensions, andworker firings and got rewardedwith a thumping victory in earlynational elections on Jan. 25.
While SYRIZA is locked in astruggle with the lenders overunfinished reforms, and Tsiprasis backtracking on some of hispromises to better social bene-
fits, for now at least a lot ofGreeks feel like someone isstanding up to banks and foreignpoliticians.
In an analytical feature, theReuters news agency pointedout the stark difference, even ifwarnings that the country willgo bankrupt unless it bucklescome true.
“The message of impendingdoom appears to have gonelargely unnoticed on the streetsof Athens, where a mood ofhope and optimism bordering oneuphoria reigns as Greeks seethemselves finally shaking offforeign shackles to shape theirown destiny,” it reported.
“Bankrupt but free” pro-claimed a banner at a pro-gov-ernment demonstration thatdrew thousands while hardlinermotorcycle-riding Finance Min-ister Yanis Varoufakis - comparedto Bruce Willis in Die Hard - isdrawing rave reviews from fansas he stands up to the lenders,particularly Germany, the biggestcontributor to the loans and thedemander of austerity.
“For the first time in years Ifeel proud to be Greek,” saidLena Dousiou, a 32-year-oldwho worked in a printing shopbefore being laid off two yearsago. “We went to the Europeanswith our head held high and told
them ‘Enough is enough!’”Another TV feature on Varo-
ufakis had the pop hit “Can’ttake my eyes off you” in thebackground while women fromSpain to Germany swooned forhis rebellious stance and toughguy talk even though he hasn’tmaterialized a deal.
Two polls showed that overthree-quarters of Greeks supportTsipras line-in-the-sand positionagainst the Troika and Eurozoneeven if it alarmed markets.
An opinion poll showed 79percent of Greeks backedTsipras’s policies and 74 percentbelieved his negotiating strategywill succeed, even though
Greece has so far found not asingle ally among the other 18Eurozone countries.
It’s a far cry from the panic,despair and Jimmy Carter-likemalaise that dominated underformer PASOK Socialist PremierGeorge Papandreou, houndedout of office by relentlessprotests, strikes and riots, andNew Democracy ConservativePrime Minister Antonis Samaras’submission to the Troika.
Greeks felt since many hadnothing, they had nothing tolose, and were enraged thatpoliticians, the rich and taxcheats escaped austerity andprospered while workers, pen-sioners and the poor were pun-ished and forced to bear the bur-den of generations of wildspending and runaway patron-age by New Democracy and PA-SOK.
“We’d hit rock bottom,”MinasKontogeorgopoulos, 59, whoworks in a key-cutting shop in adimly lit arcade in central Athenswhere some shops are boardedup and others bear For Sale signstold Reuters.
“The Europeans have humil-iated us. I don’t know if Tsipraswill succeed but someone hadto tell them enough is enough.”
PRIDE AND DIGNITYIn an emotional first speech
to Parliament as prime minister,Tsipras mentioned the word“dignity” 11 times, a wordburied since the Troika came todown and essentially orderedaround Greek leaders who hadto bow and curtsy, as Papan-dreou did when he first went tothem hat-in-hand asking formoney after he told voters therewas plenty.
A skilled orator with a keensense of the public mood, Tsipras
has made restoring Greek prideafter four years of “national hu-miliation” at the hands of whathe paints as dogmatic foreigntechnocrats a cornerstone of hisrhetoric.
“We declare categorically thatwe will not negotiate our his-tory,” Tsipras thundered in par-liament to rapturous applause.
“We will not negotiate thepride and dignity of this people.”It was uplifting stuff to peoplewho’d been forced to their kneesby their leaders.
Greeks have long harboredconspiracy theories that foreigninterests want to control thecountry, and particularly pecu-liar beliefs that the United Statesis lurking behind a curtain andtrying to victimize Greeks.
It’s a sense that goes backhundreds of years to being oc-cupied by the Ottomans and abevy of other foreigners, rightup to the Nazis and, more re-cently, the Troika, seen as aneconomic occupier.
Many senior SYRIZA officialshave spent years portrayingGreece as a victim of foreign in-terests. New Foreign MinisterNikos Kotzias published a booka year ago titled Greece: DebtColony. European Autocracy andGerman Primacy - and he stud-ied and lived in Germany andspeaks German.
“They are the only ones stick-ing up for the people,” NikosBaltopoulos, a 47-year-old engi-neer told Reuters. “I didn’t votefor Tsipras because he seemedtoo radical, but maybe this iswhat we need. Austerity hadnumbed us all these years, westarted accepting whatever wewere told.”
It may not last, but it feelsgood.
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015 11
SYRIZA’s Molon Labe to Troika Restores National Pride of the Hellenes
A Greek flag for sale waves as people walk in Syntagma square Monday, Feb. 16, 2015.
is made, Greece can present al-ternative measures but not rollback previous reforms or take“unilateral steps,” Dijsselbloemsaid, noting that Greece’s de-mand for a “bridge” agreementwas essentially “just anotherword” for an extension.
The Eurogroup chief under-lined the need to “rebuild trust.”He suggested that a new pro-gram would not differ greatlyfrom the previous one. “The rulesand regulations talk about strictconditionalities. It would still beabout fiscal sustainability,” hesaid.
Varoufakis insisted that hewas prepared to sign the text hewas shown by Moscovici “thereand then” but didn’t know whythe wording was changed
He still said he believed a dealwould be struck before what’sleft of the rescue packages runsout on Feb. 28 and that Athensis confident of a four-month ex-tension he said isn’t an extensionan that the government was will-ing to relent on some conditionsit had opposed.
“I have no doubt that withinthe next 48 hours Europe is go-ing to come together and weshall find the phrasing that isnecessary so that we can submitit and move on to do the realwork that is necessary,” he said.
Moscovici, however, stressedthat there is “no alternative tothe extension of the current pro-gram.”
He called on the Greek gov-ernment to request an extension,adding that there would be “flex-ibility over the short term.” “Dur-ing the extension, we will havetime to work on details,” he said.“We have to be logical, not ideo-logical.”
Moscovici said the Greek side
had put forth vague ideas duringearlier talks with Troika envoys,leaving the lenders and the Eu-rozone flummoxed about justwhat Tsipras and Varoufakiswant as the SYRIZA team keepsan eye on the electorate itpromised relief from harsh aus-terity measures imposed by ear-lier governments on Troika or-ders.
Varoufakis, who had said thatGreece would reject the Troikamemoranda outright now said itwill accept 70 percent of it butthe lenders want it all or said itwill be they, not Greece, who willwalk.
European Commission Presi-dent Jean-Claude Juncker madea last-ditch effort at a compro-mise but Varoufakis said it wastorpedoed by Eurozone financechiefs playing hardball withGreece.
Varoufakis said it was Dijssel-bloem who changed the terms
and demanded that Greece stickto the deal that SYRIZA hadflatly rejected while campaigningand as soon as it took office afterthe Jan. 25 elections.
“The next step has to comefrom the Greek authorities,” Di-jsselbloem told reporters. “Theyhave to make up their mindswhether they will ask for an ex-tension.”
Varoufakis said Greece had nochoice but to refuse the state-ment on offer. “In the history ofthe European Union nothinggood has ever come out of ulti-matum,” he told reporters afterthe meeting.
Greece is willing to extend thecurrent aid program as long it’sdone on the right terms, Varo-ufakis said.
A cornerstone of Syriza’s elec-tion victory was there would beno extension. In return for bil-lions of rescue money, successivegovernments have had to impose
a series of economic reforms andspending cuts, which the Greekgovernment blames in large partfor the country’s ills.
“It would be an act of sub-terfuge to promise we will com-plete a program we were electedto challenge,” said Varoufakis.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the headof the so-called Eurogroup, saidthe program should be extendedto get more time to agree on alasting solution. “My strong pref-erence still is to get an extensionof the program, and I think it isstill feasible,” he told a press con-ference after the talks ended.
Malta’s finance minister, Ed-ward Scicluna, worried about theimplications of a failure byAthens to request an extension:“Then we won’t meet. Therewon’t be anything. It will be adisaster.”
(Material from the AssociatedPress was used in this report)
Bank of Cyprus Car BurnsA man and a woman stand by a burnt vehicle in Strovolos, asuburb of Cyprus’ capital Nicosia, Tuesday, Feb. 17. Police areinvestigating the fire that destroyed a vehicle belonging to theBank of Cyprus, the country’s largest lender. The car wasparked in a cul-de-sac, near the home of Bank of Cyprus CEOJohn Patrick Hourican who is currently out of the country.
TNH Staff
ATHENS – Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras, the Radical LeftSYRIZA leader, put forth thename of New Democracy Con-servative lawmaker ProkopisPavlopoulos to be the country’ssymbolic President.
Pavlopoulos served his partyleader and former Premier An-tonis Samaras and occassionallybarked about some of the harshausterity measures that camewith international bailouts butsupported them.
Pavlopoulos, 64, is a lawyerwho was a former Minister ofthe Interior and Public Orderand served his party leader andformer Premier Antonis Sama-ras and occasionally barkedabout some of the harsh auster-ity measures that came with in-ternational bailouts but sup-ported them.
Pavlopoulos will need to get180 votes in the 300-memberParliament in voting which be-gins on Feb. 17. SYRIZA and itscoalition partner, the Indepen-dent Greeks, (ANEL) have 162and the choice of a lawmaker
from the Leftist's bitter politicalrival could be a hard sell tosome die-hard far-leftists inSYRIZA.
Traditionally, a Premier picksa compromise candidate fromanother party for the job butSamaras brought his downfall
as Prime Minister by trying topush through his party's Vice-President Stavros Dimas for theposition but lost that battle,leading to early national elec-tions which elevated SYRIZA.
Tsipras had to pick a candi-date to replace Karolos Papou-lias, whose term is expiring anduntil Pavlopoulos was namedthe frontrunner was anotherNew Democracy stalwart andthe country's European Commis-soner and former Athens Mayor,Dimitris Avramopoulos.
But Avramopoulos didn'tback have the backing of ANELleader Panos Kammenos, nowDefense Minister, who brokefrom New Democracy in a bitterdispute and has been a fiercecritic of the party and Samaras.
Speaking to SYRIZA's parlia-mentary group, Tsipras said thedecision to nominate the formerconservative Interior Ministerreflected the need for politicaland social consensus eventhough it meant he had to nom-inate someone whose politicalpositions are anathema to him.
ANEL had liked New Democ-racy lawmaker Dora Bakoyian-
nis, who also had been an out-cast for a while from the Con-servatives and formed her ownparty, only to be invited back inbefore turning on Samaras afterhe lost.
Kathimerini said that SYRIZAofficials told Tsipras the onlyconservative candidates theparty could accept werePavlopoulos, as he has been crit-ical of the bailout agreements,and former Education MinisterMarietta Giannakou who hasbeen snapping hard at Samarasfor the party’s defeat.
The nomination is a defeatfor some forces in SYRIZAthough who wanted a moreLeftist-oriented choice, such asauthor Ioanna Karystiani, film-maker Costa Gavras, and formerFinance Minister Manolis Dret-takis, who left PASOK in 1984and later joined SynaspismosLeft Coalition, the precursor toSYRIZA.
“The will of the Greek peoplehas to be completely satisfiedand this will come if the Presi-dent is from the left,” saidSYRIZA veteran and MEP Mano-lis Glezos, a WWII hero.
Despite Impasse, Greece Sees Debt Deal Coming
AP PHOTO/PETrOS GiANNAkOuriS
AP PHOTO/PETrOS kArADJiAS
NICOSIA – With President NicosAnastasiades saying Cyprus ison the road to recovery, in-vestors are showing keen inter-est in pouring money into thecountry, while the country isworking on a gas pipeline dealwith Egypt and easing moneytransfers abroad.
Fund managers from compa-nies such as Goldman Sachs, theBank of America, Societe Gen-erale, HSBC and at least 15funds from the Arab world, lis-tened to officials during thetwo-day Cyprus Investors Sum-mit, trying to persuade themabout stability and a loomingcomeback.
Antenna TV reported thathigh on the list was the Mall ofCyprus in Nicosia and the LimniBay Resort, both operated by theShacolas Group, the Venus Rockresort in Paphos, the NicosiaCity Mall in Lakatamia, as wellas other mostly property relatedprojects.
The investors MohammedElqeheisi from Saudi Arabia andColin Wright from the BuenaVista Group.
Other projects presented in-cluded the Makronisos Marina,Lord Byron Tower, SandarosaTower, Neapolis Eco City in Pa-phos, Vasa Gold Resort, Mace-donitissa States, Pafilia Towerand Limassol Landmark, St Eliz-abeth Gold Resort, Elea Estates,Pavilion Business Center and theDelmar in Limassol.
The Cyprus Investment Pro-motion Agency (CIPA) pre-sented 18 major projects and Fi-nance Minister Haris Georgiadesand Privatisations Commis-sioner Constantinos Herodotoutalked about the government’splan to sell state-owned compa-nies.
Cyprus and Egypt have tight-ened their energy cooperationwith an agreement to sort outthe technical details of laying anundersea pipeline that would
carry offshore natural gas toEgyptian processing facilities.
Egyptian Petroleum MinisterSherif Ismail and Cypriot EnergyMinister Yiorgos Lakkotrypisagreed in Cairo on Feb. 16 tofind a way to transport gas froma field off Cyprus that is esti-mated to hold 3.6 trillion to 6trillion cubic feet of the fossilfuel.
A statement said details willbe examined with other compa-nies involved in gas transportand processing and a deal is ex-pected to be hammered outwithin six months.
Ismail said in November thathis country is looking to importCypriot gas both for domesticuse and for possible re-exportto other countries.
Meanwhile, coming up ontwo years since Cyprus askedthe Troika of the EuropeanUnion-International MonetaryFund-European Central Bank(EU-IMF-ECB) for a 10 billioneuro bailout that came with at-tached harsh measures, the gov-ernment is letting up even morecapital controls that had beenput into place to prevent a runon the banks.
In a further easing of restric-tions on moneytransfers,Cyprus’ Finance Min-istry says it has raised theamount of money individualscan now take out of the countryat any one time to 50,000 euros($57,000).
The Finance Ministry an-nounced the increase from theprevious limit of 20,000 euros.Cyprus imposed the restrictionsamid concerns over bank runswhen it required a bailout pack-age in 2013 that hit its financialsector hard. The limits are beinglifted gradually.
Last month, Cyprus scrappeda 2-million-euro limit on theamount of money businessescan take out of the country.
Cyprus Showing Signsof Looming Rebound
Tsipras Nominates ND’s Pavlopoulos For President
Prokopis Pavlopoulos
Continued from page 1
Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, right, greets Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakisduring a meeting of EU finance ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels on Tuesday.
EDITORIALS LETTERS12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
From our Website
Greek Orthodox ChurchDeserves to Go Broke
To the Editor:In response to “Priest Blows
Whistle On Bishop, Says HeFears Retaliation For Talking,”by Theodore Kalmoukos:
You are preaching to thechoir. This clown should notonly resign but he should be de-
frocked by the archbishop, butyou know that won’t happen.
If Parishioners start tighten-ing their wallets, then the arch-diocese will see insolvency com-ing fast unless the clowns at thetop who live a lavish lifestyleare removed or resign. I am notgiving a red cent to these clownsanymore. I will send my moneyto wonderful programs like St.Jude’s Hospital for children,which does tremendous work.
HIs Eminence must retireand Bishop Demetrios must re-sign. I am no longer going togive monies to the church untilthey weed out the criminal em-bezzling types. In the non-eccle-siastical United States, theseguys would be on trial for em-bezzlement and racketeering.The priestly vestments do notgive them free pass. I am donegiving to the Greek OrthodoxChurch. Let them go under: theyearned it.
trianjo
“Hello, I’m Alexis,Welcome to Walmart”
In response to “Is AlexisTsipras the New WalmartGreeter of Greece?” by Constan-
tinos E. Scaros:I truly enjoyed this column
because your analogies wereperfect.
I don’t understand that trans-fer of power either. Maybe Mr.Tsipras is a” brilliant” individual,with street smarts, and has fig-ured everything out. This is thereason why after WWII Greecehas never had a governmentthat its people could benefitfrom and trust.
That is why just like my par-
ents, my husband, and millionsof Greeks, I abandoned Greece,and never looked back aftermany years.
Another fact that I don’t un-derstand is why Greece needsto have almost as many legisla-tors (Parliament) as we have(Congress), and if I’m not mis-taken, about forty political par-ties.
Hence the old saying, “toomany cooks…”
pkoutsa7
Greeks and GermansFirst, Play Chicken…
The question is, who will blink first, Greece or Germany?Most reasonable people would say that depends on who has
the greatest need. And that is not Germany. The clock is ticking.Greece must reach an agreement within a few days. If that doesnot happen, Pandora's Box will open and what emerges will hitthe people of Greece and the Tsipras government very hard.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says that time is the mostvaluable commodity. It is an unrenewable resource. But thequestion remains, how much time is left?
It is crystal clear by now that Prime Minister Tsipras, understrenuous time constraints, is looking for a lifeline. Thus, hehas begun his attempts to fool the people. For example, thetroika has been re-Christened "the representatives of the insti-tutions." Yet, a critical issue looms: to what extent can politiciansdeceive voters before elections and what price will they paywhen the people figure out the fraud?
In the Greek context, the current government appears to befighting to keep its promises to the people, but is confrontedwith a different reality in Europe. It would certainly be a thou-sand times better to tell the truth: “O fellow Greeks, we fought,we struggled, but in the end we did not get the desired results.So, instead of leading the country into adventures, we consid-ered it our patriotic duty to retreat.” The people surely wouldshow more understanding if they were spoken to in that manner,rather than with a spirit of deception.
Germany has the support of all the other Eurozone countries,each for its own reasons.
The consensus is that changing the rules midstream forGreece would destroy the Eurozone’s credibility. Why make anexception in Greece and not, say, in Spain?
And if a compromise is not reached, the consequences wouldbe terrible. The logic of “don’t press us or we will jump of thecliff and take you all with us" doesn’t work. The Germans havetaken precautions. They will have to deal with real economicturmoil and pain, but that will be temporary. What they arenot prepared to do is to continue to deal every now and thenwith the effects of the ongoing Greek crisis. Simply put, theyare tired of that game.
…then, Kick the CanIt would surprise us if current negotiations do not result in a
compromise ensuring that Greece, at least for the time being,will remain in the Eurozone.
No thanks to Yanis Varoufakis’ Game Theory, which deliveredno miracle. None either to the Germans being emotionally movedby the solidarity the Greek people have shown in backing theirnew leader, Alexis Tsipras. They weren’t.
Moreover, a compromise will not materialize because Euro-pean Central Bank President Mario Draghi would lose any sleepif Greece was out of the Eurozone. He wouldn’t.
The reason is none of the above: it is because of the role theUnited States is playing, albeit for its own geopolitical interests,in advocating for Greece’s cause. We remind that is why PresidentObama specifically pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkelabout Greece in their recent joint press conference. And that heencouraged her to develop a strategy for the Greek economywithin the Eurozone.
The United States continues to lobby intensely for Greece.Treasury Secretary Jack Lew spoke directly with Tsipras, insteadof his Greek counterpart Varoufakis, while Secretary of StateJohn Kerry spoke with his own counterpart in the Greek govern-ment, Nikos Kotzias.
We can easily surmise that similar phone calls were made bythe Americans to Germany, and elsewhere. What did they talkabout? It is not difficult to imagine.
Essentially, that in a tumultuous world from the dangerouscrisis in Ukraine, to a Middle East fast approaching the brink ofdisaster – with a looming threat over Israel about a potentiallynuclear Iran – and an unpredictable Turkey under Recep Erdo-gan’s leadership, the last thing the United States would need isthe destabilization of Greece and increasing influence by Moscowspreading in Athens and Cyprus.
America’s strong support of Greece after World War II, as evi-denced by the Truman Doctrine, was not for naught. Certainly,the United States would not let those efforts go to waste andallow Greece to fall into Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s clutches,over a few billion euros.
That is why we believe that, even as the Germans will continueto insist upon the agreed-upon conditions, the Eurozone’s princi-ples and values, and the need for reforms, in the end they willagree on a formula that will simply kick the can down the road,for now. A formula that both Tsipras and Merkel can present totheir respective nations as a “win-win.” Until the next crisis.
The Way it Is“That’s the way it is” was the motto of Walter Cronkite, the
legendary anchorman who was touted “the most trusted personin America.” More so than with anyone else, Americans feltconfident that if Cronkite said it, it must be true.
That is why we agree with NBC News’ decision to suspendwithout pay its popular and successful chief anchor, BrianWilliams, for not telling the truth.
Williams significantly embellished a story: while in Iraq in2003, he said his helicopter was hit by a grenade and wasforced to land. Turns out, Williams was in a helicopter aboutan hour behind.
Though it is unfortunate that Williams’ career might be de-stroyed because of a “fish tale,” by suspending Williams NBCsent a clear message: integrity trumps ratings. It is a sad dayfor Williams, but a great day for journalism.
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Observations By Antonis H. Diamataris
Tsipras through Diaspora’s Lens
Developments in Greece are once againmonopolizing the Diaspora’s attention.
How will the situation develop under thenew government? Will Greece remain inthe Eurozone or not? Those are the usualquestions.
But first, let us look at how the Greeksof Greece see it: the euphoria there withthe election of Alexis Tsipras and the patri-otic tone of his Parliament address haverekindled interest, but not one of great mag-nitude.
As for Greek-Americans, the majority ofthem care about substance, not rhetoric. InAmerica, actions speak louder than words.
Accordingly, they are worried whetherthe new government will be able to addressthe major challenges facing the country.They worry that some top SYRIZA officialsare ideologically trapped in failed theories
of the past.What is certain is that the business world
– among them Greeks and non-Greeks alike–including those who have invested or wereplanning to invest in Greece, are expressingdisappointment in what they are seeing.They believe it is essential not only to con-tinue with the reforms enacted so far, butto accelerate them.
If this unquestionably negative climateis not reversed soon, it will further compli-cate the situation in Greece.
As to whether Greece will remain in theEurozone, I see a shift and a change of tone:from "not under any circumstances" to"there is no alternative, no matter howeverpainful it might be in the short and midterm."
And most are expressing this view notin whispers, as they did before. Neither dothey consider valid the presumption that aGrexit would demolish both the country andthe continent.
The majority of experts with whom Ihave recently spoken believe it was wrongfor Greece not to leave the Eurozone in2010. But once Greece decided to remain,they say, it had to endure any political sac-rifice that was necessary in order to imple-ment the most serious and complex reformswith vigor and expeditiousness.
But since Greece did not do so, the coun-try is not competitive, and any accommo-dations now have little significance. More-over, given that the current governmentpresents an anti-reforms image – see themost recent statements of ReconstructionMinister Panagiotis Lafazanis – that makesthings even worse.
Regardless of what unfolds with the Eu-ropeans, even if the government achieves agreat “victory,” it will not be long beforethe country will need to ask for more help– that is to say, a new memorandum.
But how many times can this be re-peated?
AGORA – THE ORIGINAL MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
GEORGAKAS PRESENTS HISPOINT OF VIEW
Dino, I am wary when Presi-dent Obama, Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell, Gold-man Sachs, House Speaker JohnBoehner, and the Bank of Amer-ica all agree that an internationaleconomic agreement is just whatthe financial doctor ordered. Myskepticism is further roused bythe insistence this should be “fasttrack” legislation. That mass me-dia is virtually ignoring the issuealso is troubling. I am referringto the Trans-Pacific Partnershipagreement soon to be acted onby the Congress.
The Trans-Pacific Partnershipagreement would be the largesttrade agreement in history. It in-volves most of the countries bor-dering the Pacific Ocean (Chinaexcluded). These nations havesome eight hundred million citi-zens and account for 40% of theworld’s economy. Some of thewealthiest companies in Japan,the United States, and South Ko-rea would be direct beneficiariesof an agreement that essentiallyfrees corporations from nationalregulation.
The agreement is touted asprotecting intellectual propertyrights and allowing free enter-prise to flourish. An example ofwhat this means in reality is thatdrug firms will be allowed tohold exclusive rights to a drugfor a longer period thanpresently which would preventlow-priced generic drugs frombeing manufactured. Additional“protections” of patents will in-crease the costs of producinggeneric drugs even after they areauthorized. Another aspect of in-tellectual property rights involvesthe complex issues surroundingInternet access and control.
A particularly outrageous as-pect of the Trans-Pacific Agree-ment is that disputes will not behandled at a governmental levelbut by an International Tribunalof private attorneys immunefrom any nation’s legal system.This Tribunal would be man-dated to protect corporationsfrom “unfair” national legislationif it harms their profits. Gettingpast moralistic linguistics, thismeans that laws regarding envi-ronmental protection, workplacesafety, and human rights couldbe deemed “unfair.” The corpo-
rations then could do as theypleased. American laws wouldbe compromised.
I am reminded of thedecades-long struggle by Ver-monters to close a malfunction-ing nuclear reactor. Even afterVermont’s governor and legisla-ture voted to close the facility,the federal government delayedthe process for years under therationale that it would harm theprovider’s balance sheet andmight result in insufficient en-ergy. When the reactor was fi-nally closed, no power shortagesfollowed and the utility remainsprofitable. An International Tri-bunal of producers could easilythwart such citizen initiatives.
The International Tribunalalso would decide on any dam-ages to be paid due to oil spells,harmful products, personal in-juries, and other legal claimsagainst corporations. Other pro-visions are so hostile to standardlabor regulations in America thatthe swishing sound you will hearis that of more American jobs go-ing overseas just when Americanmanufacturing is starting to re-vive.
Of equal concern is thatObama wants this legislationpassed by what is called fasttracking. If that procedure it ac-cepted, Congress would cede tothe President its constitutionalobligation to debate and modifytrade laws. Although the Con-gress would still have to ratifyany agreements a President ne-gotiates, it could not make anychanges in them. Moreover, Con-gress would be forced to approveor disapprove any agreement
within 90 days. One can easilyimagine the economic handoutsthat would be embedded in thedetails of such agreements.
I believe the Trans-PacificPartnership agreement will bevery profitable for the 1% ofAmerica’s superrich and harmfulfor the rest of us. Moreover, fast-tracking blurs the difference be-tween the executive and legisla-tives branches of government. Iam wondering how you perceivethe Trans-Pacific Partnershipagreement proposal and the de-sire to enact it via the fast trackapproach.
SCAROS RESPONDSDan, it is a good thing that
you raised this issue because, asyou say, it has hardly been men-tioned in the mainstream media.
You will notice that I am lesscommitted to this issue one wayor the other than is usually thecase with our exchanges, andpart of that is certainly becauseas these Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP) negotiations continue insecrecy, I am just as in the darkabout what’s going on as mosteveryone else.
Granted, I am not a conspir-acy theorist, and when virtuallythe only websites that appear ina TPP Google search are thesame ones that usually purportthat 9/11 was an inside job,Washington DC is an elaborateMasonic labyrinth, etc., I tend tothink there’s no real issue here.
That said, however, I am leeryof free trade in general, fast-tracklegislation specifically, and anytype of secret negotiations thatdo not involve national security.
I must admit – the notion ofany deal that does not involveChina or Russia sounds sweet.Moreover, if even more nationsjoin the venture, I have read thatthe United States might enjoy anadditional quarter trillion dollarsin income every year, which mayput the country on a whole otherfast track…to a balanced budget.
Nonetheless, at the end of theday these statistics are meaning-less if they do not translate to abetter quality of life for Ameri-cans. I am less concerned abouta record-setting stock marketthan I am about the continuedwealth gap. And something tellsme more free trade will lead tofewer American jobs, and morecorporate fat cats getting richerby using cheap labor overseas.
Even as I respond to you here,I have good reasons to supportTPP and equally good ones tooppose it. Certainly more atten-tion ought to be paid to this issueby the U.S. and international me-dia. That will help shape the de-bate an alert a largely unawareworld to it.
I have defended PresidentObama often on the whole, buthis is probably the most secretiveadministration since RichardNixon’s. I am happy that youchose this topic for this week’sAgora, Dan, because at the veryleast, this article will now appearin future Google searches aboutthe Trans-Pacific Partnership, andhopefully it will convey the mes-sage that people ought to de-mand transparency from theirgovernment.
WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Government is Keeping Mum
By Dan Georgakas and Constantinos E. Scaros
From time to time, an issue emerges andinspires various minds to converge, often atodds with one another, to discuss it. Hopefully,collective enlightenment will result from suchconversations. The Ancient Greeks did that in
the Agora, the original marketplace of ideas,and we, their modern-day descendants, aspireto continue that tradition.
We respect one another’s opinion very much,but often times we will disagree on particularissues. We would never fabricate a differenceof opinion for the sake of writing an interestingcolumn.
Rest assured, anything we write here areour sincere, heartfelt thoughts.
We will share them with you every twoweeks. We hope you enjoy them, and we lookforward to your taking part in the discussionas well – by contributing letters to the editor inresponse, and/or commenting on our website:www.thenationalherald.com
President Obama and nine other TPP nation leaders. Why are both major parties, huge Americanbanks, and a dozen countries trying to pass this deal on the fast-track, while the media haskept mum about it? Scaros and Georgakas both call for more trasparency in government.
VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015 13
There’s an old axiom that youcan tell politicians are lyingwhen their lips are moving, soPrime Minister and Looney LeftSYRIZA leader Alexis “Che”Tsipras can drizzle all the honeyon his BS Baklava he wants andtry to sell it to Greeks as pastrybut it’s still the same old productthey swallowed under the PA-SOK Anti-Socialists and the NewDemocracy Capitalists.
The only difference betweenTsipras and his predecessors, for-mer PASOK leader George “TheMoney is There” Papandreou andNew Democracy’s maybe-to-be-ousted Antonis “Mr. BeanCounter” Samaras is that the for-mer Premiers didn’t even pre-tend they cared about workers,pensioners, and the poor theyhammered with harsh austeritymeasures on orders of interna-tional lenders.
Papandreou and Samarassigned memoranda with theTroika of the European Union-In-ternational Monetary Fund-Euro-pean Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB)imposing big pay cuts, tax hikes,slashed pensions, and worker fir-ings in return for 240 billion euros
($272 billion) in two rescue pack-ages, a big chunk of which theyturned over to their banker bud-dies who still can’t balance thebooks.
Tsipras, sensing a good kill inthe making, opposed those termsbecause while he hasn’t had muchof way of a real job, he can addand figured a majority of peopledidn’t like being brutalized whilepoliticians, the rich and tax cheatsskated, leaving the rest of Greekson thin ice hoping they’d fallthrough and leave more for them.
During his relentless onslaughtagainst austerity, Tsipras vowed,swore, promised, and pledged hewould refuse to negotiate withthe Troika nor recognize the sov-ereignty they seized from Greece;that he would walk away from abig chunk of the unsustainabledebt unless the lenders promisedrelief; that he would restore theminimum wage, and that hewould halt and reverse privatiza-tions he characterized as the pil-laging of Greece at bargain base-ment sales that he said was beingdone to benefit private profiteers.
Apparently none of voterswho backed him, nor the SYRIZA
zealots, a cuckoomix of Communists,Anarchists, Ni-hilists, Maoists,Stalinists, Radical-ists, Activists, andpeople who’d like tohave all Greeksearning the samepay and driving1957 Chevies, no-ticed his lips weremoving when herolled out that im-possible laundry listbecause he’s usingmore euphemismsto explain why hecan’t do it than the CIA trying toexplain why assassination is justtermination with extreme preju-dice.
At least Tsipras is smartenough to have bought himselfa pit bull pet, the talk-the-talk-but-not-walk-the-walk econo-mist/blogger Yanis Varoufakis asFinance Minister. He’s in chargeof using different language todisguise why SYRIZA will haveto go along with at least 70 per-cent of what the Troika de-manded from Papandreou and
Samaras.Tsipras said
Greece would neveraccept an extensionof the bailouts.Varoufakis said thegovernment would,however, accept a“bridging agree-ment,” which is anextension under an-other name no mat-ter how muchwrapping you puton that package.
Putting moreperfume on thecrap they’re ped-
dling, where Tsipras said hewould never negotiate with norrecognize the Troika cross-his-heart-and-hope-to-die, it tookless than two weeks for him toauthorize Varoufakis to do justthat, but say it was just talking,not negotiating. Yes, and vigorishisn’t interest, it’s just repaymentof a promise.
Tsipras said he would restorethe minimum wage but, chang-ing his tune, said that couldn’thappen all at once, but that itwould take time, the same kind
of words used by Papandreouand Samaras and every otherpolitician no matter what allegedideology they espouse becausein the end they’re all the same.
There’s a lot of SYRIZAspielmeisters, including partyspokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis,who bent himself into a wordpretzel to explain why if Greekgets a bridging agreement (ex-tension) after talking (negotiat-ing) with the Troika SYRIZAdoesn’t recognize that it won’treally be what it is, which takesthe Marx Brothers to translate.
Greece is committed to notcontinuing an internationalbailout similar to the ones agreedwith the Troika by previous gov-ernments, Sakellaridis said, hop-ing you wouldn’t notice that it’simplicit in that sentence thatthere will be a bailout extensionunder a different name.
And that it will come withsome of the conditions candidateTsipras repudiated before he be-came Prime Minister Tsipras andpulled a Samaras, an acrobatictrick named for the man who op-posed austerity then accepted it,then opposed it, a perfect 10 ex-
cept for the 3.8 from the EastGerman judge named Merkel.
"(Greece) will not continuewith a program which has thecharacteristics of the programsof previous governments,” Sakel-laridis told Greek TV. Translationfor people who don’t speak Re-alpolitik: Greece will continuewith a program which has someof the characteristics of previousgovernments.
Sakellaridis also said thatGreece has agreed with its Euro-pean partners that there needsto be a “national reform plan” todeal with decades-long issues ofthe economy. We’re looking thatone up on the Political Dictionarybut so far it means SYRIZA, justlike PASOK and New Democracy,will have to abide by some un-pleasant measures and will not,as Tsipras vowed, walk the walkand act unilaterally.
Sakellaridis said that the newgovernment would not clashwith the public based on ordersfrom outside so the Troika willhave to slip Tsipras an envelopegiving him his marching orders.
By Nicos A. Rolandis*Special to The National Herald
Nicos Anastasiades took overthe helm of Cyprus, after an ad-venturous and destructive courseof 50 years (1963-2013).
So, where is Cyprus today?How do the powerful players ofthe Cyprus chessboard view twoof the pivotal issues, the Cyprusproblem and natural gas? Are wehovering somewhere in theMediterranean Sea, or do we, inreality, sail lost in space?
1. For the United States ofAmerica, the perennial positionexpressed by former Secretary ofState Henry Kissinger in his bookWorld Order applies: “Americamust play a leadership role to pre-serve world order – not as a mor-alizing global policeman, but asa hard-nosed great power…tomaintain equilibrium and keepthe threat of war within tolerablelimits.” So, despite the goodwillof Vice President Joe Biden,Cyprus is in reality a small pawnin the maelstrom of Americanstrategic, political and economicinterests.
2. Europe focuses its attentionmuch more on opening up itsgates to Turkey and to the largeTurkish market than on humanrights in Cyprus. The economy(GDP) of Turkey amounts to $815billion compared to $16 billion ofCyprus. Furthermore, Turkey is astrategic partner of Europe in oneof the hotbeds of the world. Itshould also be remembered thatEurope is not on the same pagewith us on a number of aspectsof the Cyprus problem and on thehydrocarbons. This is why we aretaken aback on many occasionsby the decisions in Brussels.
3. For the United Nations,Cyprus is one of the dozens ofproblems in its agenda, smallerthan the very large issues it hasto address nowadays. Further-more, it is obvious that the UN is“tired” of us. We may believe thatjustice is totally on our side, thetruth however is (and the inter-national community is well awareof this) that we are not sinless.
4. Russia is a good friend ofCyprus, but a good friend ofTurkey, too, who will never dis-regard its huge interests (strate-gic, financial etc.) with its neigh-bor. Among many otherconsiderations, the TurkishStream, which was announced byRussian President Vladimir Putinrecently and which will replacethe South Stream, will transportfrom Russia to Europe via Turkey2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas an-nually, of a value of approxi-
mately $25 billion.5. Greece, the mother-country,
is extremely weak financially.From a military and defense pointof view, Greece did not manageto be of help in the past and can-not be of help today, either.
6. The neighboring countries,Egypt, Israel, Jordan, andLebanon: They are all friends ofCyprus and there may be goodcooperation with them in certainfields. It is obvious and natural,however, that none of these coun-tries would be prepared to go towar for our sake.
7. Finally, Turkey and her lead-ership. This is how Turkey’s dailyToday’s Zaman presents Turkeyin an article of the 3rd February2015 by Robert Ellis: “The rise ofthe Turkish empire: Totalitarianleaders of the 20th century wereknown variously as Der Fuhrer(Germany), Il Duce (Italy), Gen-eralissimo (Spain) and El MaximoLider (Cuba), and now neo-ot-toman Turkey has its Reis(Leader) Recep Tayyip Erdogan”.The tenant of the palace of morethan 1000 rooms appears to bepowerful, obstinate, and unpre-dictable.”
In the context of the above,Cyprus reminds me of a poem byGreek writer Zacharias Papanto-niou: “Where do you sail smallboat, in such a stormy weather
The sea is violently hittingyou, are you not scared?”
Things are really extremelydifficult. What makes the situa-tion though even more intractableis that, in the negative atmos-phere of the collapse of the econ-
omy and the incredible incidentsof corruption, the problem ofCyprus and that of the hydrocar-bons are stagnant. And it seemsthat there is no way to break thedeadlock.
We say:• There will be no talks unless
the Turkish Navtex is withdrawnand also Barbaros and the Turkishwarships depart from our Exclu-sive Economic Zone.
• Turkey refuses to comply,unless the drilling for oil and gasceases. This is not accepted by us.
• Furthermore, the TurkishCypriots refuse to come back tothe talks unless the drilling is dis-continued.
• Turkey states in a very clearlanguage it will bring its own rigto pump the hydrocarbons ofCyprus and will not allow the ex-ploitation of the wealth in the seaby the “Greek-Cypriot adminis-tration.”
Based on my experience I be-lieve that Turkey will not give in.After all, if it retreats from theabove positions taken personallyby Erdogan, it will destroy hishegemonic image. So, are wemoving to the direction of a head-on collision?
The impasse entails manyquestions and many risks:
1. Shall we manage to sell thegas in block 12 (Aphrodite) toe.g. Egypt? How shall we find aninvestor for the undersea pipeline(cost approximately $2 billion),once the investor will know thatTurkey objects to such a sale andthat before the pumping of thegas commences Turkey may ar-bitrarily intervene and stop it?
2. What will happen if an in-vestor for the pipeline is foundand at the end of the day Turkeyintervenes and stops the process?
3. How will Turkey react, notnecessarily now, but at the stagewhen the collection of funds fromthe sale of hydrocarbons isreached? Will it remain idle? Willit threaten? Will it intervene mil-itarily?
4. Who will stop Turkey frompumping, through its own rig thehydrocarbons of Cyprus?
It should be remembered thatthe Turkish argument about theprotection of Turkish-Cypriot in-terests is in general terms adoptedby the UN and Europe.
In a number of articles in re-cent years, I underscored all theabove. And I proposed, whenMehmet Ali Talat was “president,”the following solution: We con-tinue the process of drilling. Wedeposit a just and fair percentageto be agreed, of all net collectionsfrom the sale of oil and gas, in an
escrow account in favor of theTurkish Cypriots. This amountwill become payable either whenthe Cyprus problem is resolved orafter a period of, say, 15 years,whichever happens earlier. Theabove arrangement was viewedpositively by the Turkish Cypriots;our side did not even react. Wethought, in a naïve way as usual,that we would be able to use nat-ural gas as a trump card. Weacted in exactly the same mannerin the 1960s, again in a naïveway, when our leaders thoughtthat the Turkish Cypriots “wouldeventually boil in their own juice.”As a result we finally lost 37% ofthe territory of Cyprus in 1974.Nowadays, we risk losing the hy-drocarbons. And nobody will ex-tend a helping hand, as nobodydid in 1974. None of our many“friends” showed up. None….
Unfortunately, we do not fol-low Greece’s example, which forthe past 40 years has been cau-tious in the Aegean Sea.
If we want to stop history fromrepeating itself – and I have nodoubt that history will be re-peated if we are not cautious – Iwould propose the followingPlan, if it is not already too late:
1. Commence Proximity Talks.In this case the two sides wouldbe talking to the United Nationsand not to each other. Conse-quently the position “I do not talkunless…” is circumvented. (Suchtalks were carried out successfullyin the second half of 1984. Finallywe scuttled the whole process inJanuary 1985.)
2. The Cyprus problem andthe hydrocarbons would be dis-cussed at the Proximity Talks.
3. Barbaros would depart, thedrilling would continue and theinterests of the Turkish Cypriotswould be protected through theescrow account described above.
The Proximity Talks mayprove to be a solution of a sort.Maybe….
Otherwise, the small boat ofpoet Papantoniou will continueits voyage, lost in space, expecting– I do not know what is left any-more – probably a divine inter-vention, as the poem goes…
“The Christ touches my helm..And Virgin Mary stands at my
bow.”
Mr. Rolandis was the CypriotGovernment’s Foreign Minister(1978-83) and Minister ofCommerce, Industry &Tourism (1998-2003). He wasalso a member of the CyprusHouse of Representatives(1991-96) and chairman of theLiberal Party (1986-98).
Lost in Space: Proposals for Cyprus Hydrocarbons Policy
LETTER FROM ATHENS
What’s in a Name? Whatever You Call Them, Greeks Live with Legacy of Austerity
by ANDYDABILIS
Special to The National Herald
At a conclave Ihad the luck to at-tend last week,about a dozen ormore of the mostd i s t i n g u i s h e dnames in Americanand internationalfinance discussedthe current Greekcrisis. The discus-sants divided them-selves into threeroughly equalgroups. One thirdtook the positionthat Greece con-tracted its debtsand had no choice but to paythem off; to allow otherwisewould encourage the other dead-beats in the world to welch ontheir debts. Forgiving Greek debtwould open the floodgates of“moral hazard.” Former PrimeMinister Antonis Samaras, theyasserted, was on the right track,Greece had achieved a re-spectable primary surplus, priva-tization was well underway, andits GDP on the macroeconomiclevel had registered the best im-provement in the EU. (For therecord, one can say Greece looksgood only because the rest of theEU looks so dismal.) Anotherthird argued with equal passionthat the whole world knows thatGerman-imposed austerity hasfailed in Greece and no possiblescenario would allow Greece toeven lower its debt-to-GDP ratio,let alone pay it off. They arguedthat Mrs. Merkel’s policies repre-sented the real “moral hazard”because they threatened the in-tegrity and cohesion of the Euro-zone and even the EU, so thatshe could continue to win elec-tions. The third cohort had amore interesting take on the sit-uation. They argued that severalsimple and easily-applied solu-tions were available and knownto the protagonists on both sides.(In the interests of brevity, wecan summarize the solutions asextending loan periods and lim-iting interest repayment to asmall percentage of surplus GDP,while giving the Greek Govern-ment both breathing space andmeeting tough macroeconomiccriteria to implement its new pro-grams, such as cracking down ontax evasion.) They generallyagreed that domestic politics fu-eled by ugly bilateral rhetoric(e.g., lazy Greeks and Nazi Ger-mans) made it politically impos-sible for either Mrs. Merkel orMr. Tsipras to accept such a com-promise.
I recounted the events to aclose friend whom I shall callNick. He remarked that Merkelhas enlisted the support of somevery unhappy allies (Spain,France, Portugal) in staring downthe Greeks. She no doubt argued,that if Tsipras succeeds, the pop-ulist anti-austerity parties in theirown countries will probablysweep them out of office and, ashas occurred in Greece, into thedustbin of history. Tsipras mustfail or European voters across theentire continent will understandthat all their current politiciansare themselves a bunch of no-good lazy bums.
Nick noted that perhaps Mrs.Merkel does understand that aus-terity has failed, even in Ger-many, and its continuation doesin fact threaten the entire Euro-pean project. However, she hasso demonized the Greeks as aworthless and parasitical lot as akey part of her electoral strategythat she dare not show any flexi-bility in dealing with the hatednation. Furthermore, Mrs. Merkelprobably hates Greece andGreeks on a personal level asdemonstrated by her arguably
emotional but ill-considered decisionto undermine Sama-ras on the eve of theelections by limitingthe extension of thebailout to twomonths instead ofsix.
We should notunderestimate Mrs.Merkel. She mustknow that she can-not continue herpresent austeritypolicies but needs aface-saving way out.Nick argues that she
could easily take a page out ofthe way the Americans managedthe 2008 crisis. In early Septem-ber of that year, Lehman Broth-ers, one of the most importantWall Street institutions, effec-tively went broke. The US Trea-sury Secretary and the FederalReserve Chairman decided aftera series of all-nighters (not unlikethe current Varoufakis-EU nego-tiations) to let Lehman Brothersgo under. Although Lehman’s col-lapse did indeed threaten tobring down the rest of the Amer-ican financial system, it alsoscared the pants off all the fiscalconservatives (whose fiscal con-servatism includes protectingtheir own personal fortunes) infinance and politics. The Lehmancollapse provided excellent polit-ical cover for the GOP to find away to temporarily suspend itsfree-market rhetoric and openedthe door to TARP and other fi-nancial sector rescue schemesthat would have been politicallyimpossible a few weeks earlier.
The United States halted con-tagion by reversing course imme-diately after making an exampleof Lehman Brothers. Mrs. Merkelhas one dramatic option open toher to save both her political for-tunes and the overall Germanand EU economies. Hold the lineon Greece, force it into bank-ruptcy and do whatever possibleto publicly punish it for its insult-ing behavior, thus satisfying a do-mestic voter base screaming forGreek blood. Then, with enoughsafety measures in place to giveher a few weeks before the per-nicious effects of Greek defaultand a “Grexit” spread across theEU, she can pivot dramaticallyand announce that she will saveEurope and the Euro by takingstrong emergency measures.Within a few weeks she can bringausterity to an end, reflate theGerman economy and tell herminions on the troika to relax re-strictions on the other sinful Eu-ropeans. Taking this action, shewould probably have a willingally in Christine Lagarde, theManaging Director of the IMF.Ms. Lagarde has made no secretof her belief that the EU austerityprograms, based on flawed as-sumptions, have failed and needreversal. Nor has she ever at-tempted to disguise her contemptfor the Greeks. If this works, andit certainly has a fair chance ofworking, Mrs. Merkel could rompto electoral victory at home andbask in the glory of the savior ofEurope. As a final bonus, shewould satisfy her personal ani-mus by dancing on the grave ofGreece. The Greek negotiatorsneed to prepare for this scenario.
The Hon. Ambassador Therosis president of the U.S.-QatarBusiness Council. He served inthe U.S. Foreign Service for 36years, mostly in the Middle East,and was American Ambassadorto Qatar from 1995 to 1998. Healso directed the State Depart-ment’s Counter-Terrorism Office,and holds numerous U.S. Gov-ernment decorations.
Is Merkel about to Pull theOld Bait and Switch Routine?
by AMB. PATRICK N.THEROS
Special to The National Herald
ANALYSIS
A recent Washington Postpiece titled “Why is Ted CruzDoing So Poorly in the 2016Pre-Race?” reminded me of anadvanced political sciencecourse I used to teach at NewYork University a few years ago,in the years between the 2004and 2012 elections. One of theclassroom activities was for thestudents to predict who wouldbe the Democratic and Republi-can nominees – first in 2008,and after that election, in 2012.The students – who semester in,semester out were the most po-litically astute I’ve ever had inover 20 years of teaching collegeand university courses – didn’teven come close to the mark. Infact, each new crop of studentswould chuckle at the predictionstheir immediate predecessorsmade, about candidates who ei-ther dropped out early, fizzledright away, or didn’t even enter
the race.The point is, it’s
always fun to makepredictions, but it isfar too early at thispoint to take themseriously.
The post cites aNewport UniversityPoll featuring 11presidential hope-fuls – 8 Republicansand 3 Democrats –and asks how favor-ably or unfavorablythey are perceived.
Only 1 of the 11candidates, formerU.S. Senator from Virginia(where the poll was taken) JimWebb finished with a higher fa-vorable rating than unfavorable,and that was by a single digit:35 to 34 percent. Every othercandidate was perceived moreunfavorably than favorably,
which apparentlymeans the votersdon’t like anyone.Except for Webb,who has as muchchance of leapfrog-ging ElizabethWarren and top-pling Hillary Clin-ton for the Democ-ratic nomination asDick Cheney does.
As for Ted Cruz,a Republican U.S.Senator from Texas,he is not doing anymore poorly thanmost – it is just that
he is down in a crowded pack ofcontenders, all of who are gazingup at current frontrunner JebBush – the former governor ofFlorida and father/brother to twopresidents – and Wisconsin Gov-ernor Scott Walker, the GOP’s fla-vor of the month.
Besides, Iowa has not exactlyserved as an accurate barometerfor winning one’s party nomi-nation, especially if that partyis the Republicans. Last timearound, Rick Santorum beateventual nominee Mitt Romney,and in 2008, nominee John Mc-Cain finished fourth. Perhapsmost notably, far and away themost popular Republican of ourtime, Ronald Reagan, lost the1980 Iowa Caucus to GeorgeH.W. Bush.
At this point, poll responsesreflect the old adage: ask a sillyquestion, get a silly answer.
Constantinos E. Scaros’ latestbook, about the 2016 presiden-tial race, will be published thissummer. It is titled Grumpy OldParty: 20 Tips on How the Re-publicans Can Shed their Anger,Reclaim their Respectability,and Win Back the White House.
Precisionless Polls: Why the Pundits Haven’t Got a Clue
by CONSTANTINOS E.SCAROS
Special to The National Herald
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, thetenant of the palace of morethan 1000 rooms, appears tobe powerful, obstinate, andunpredictable.”
14 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2015
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