By Christopher TripoulasSpecial to The National Herald

Queens College’s Byzantine andModern Greek Studies Center firstopened its doors in 1974, and hassince established itself as the “old-est and largest Greek studies cen-ter” in the United States, accordingto its Director, Dr. Christos P. Ioan-nides.

“It is no coincidence that our

Greek program at Queens Collegeoffers the only BA in Byzantine andModern Greek Studies among U.S.universities,” he noted.

“The Center came along at atime when the Greek AmericanCommunity had matured. The in-vasion of Cyprus had just occurred,and it was the first time that we be-came politicized,” Prof. Ioannidesnoted.

Along with a political awaken-ing, Greeks in America were experi-encing a cultural awakening asAmerican society shifted from as-similation to multiculturalism.

“Also, second generation GreekAmericans were coming of age. Alarge number of the professionalsin the local Greek American Com-munity got their start at QueensCollege,” Prof. Ioannides ex-plained. Since 1974, it is estimatedthat over 14,000 students havepassed through the Center – an un-precedented achievement for aGreek Studies program in America.

Today, in addition to GreekAmerica’s desire to gain increasedpolitical prominence, the Centerplays an important role in preserv-ing Greek identity in the U.S.

Queens College has by far thegreatest number of students ofGreek ancestry among all Americanuniversities – 1,500 in all. The ma-jority of these students are secondand third-generation Greeks, whilethe rest come from Greece andCyprus.

Professor Ioannides considersthe maintenance of the Greek lan-guage to be one the Center’s toppriorities.

“First, allow me to commend theNational Herald for the dedicationwith which it covers the most criti-cal matter of education in our com-munity – especially at the universitylevel, where Greek Studies belong.This is a great service to our Com-munity because we need an ongo-ing dialogue on Greek 'paideia' inAmerica. The question of Greek'paideia' is inextricably linked to thefuture of our community andwhether it will maintain its Greekidentity, to what extent and throughwhich modalities,” Dr. Ioannidessaid. “No ethnicity can preserve itsidentity without preserving its lan-

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June 13, 2009

By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK – While European vot-ers demonstrated more confidencein center-right parties in EuropeanParliamentary elections last week-end, Greece bucked a European-wide trend and gave its main oppo-sition socialists the green light,electing PASOK candidates by amargin of 4.36 percent over theirconservative opponents, during anelection characterized by voter ap-athy.

As the center-right tightened itsgrip on the European Union’s 736-seat Parliament by taking 267seats, the European-wide voterturnout was only 43 percent, arecord low.

Center-left parties took 159seats, with the remaining 310 seatsdistributed among Liberal Democ-rats, Greens, far-right forces andother fringe parties.

Jubilant PASOK supportersdrove through Athens honkingtheir horns and waving party flags,as Greece’s socialists won their firstEP election in 15 years with 36.65percent (1.9 million votes), defeat-ing New Democracy, which trailedwith 32.29 percent (1.7 millionvotes), although each party electedeight MP’s to capture 16 out ofGreece’s 22 seats, a net gain of oneseat for PASOK, and a net loss ofone seat for New Democracy.

Greek voters showed their dis-content not only with the govern-ment, but also with the whole polit-ical system, by choosing smallerparties or abstaining.

The Communist Party KKE took8.35 percent (428,209 votes, twoseats); Popular Orthodox RallyLAOS, 7.15 percent (366,562votes, two seats); Coalition of theRadical Left SYRIZA, 4.7 percent(240,865 votes, one seat); and theEcologist Greens 3.49 percent(178,952 votes, one seat). Thehighest percentage among thesmaller parties in Greece was

achieved by the Pan-Elliniο Make-doniko Metopo (Pan-HellenicMacedonian Front), with 1.27 per-cent.

While the results coming dealt ablow to Prime Minister CostasKaramanlis’ conservative govern-ment, they also indicated voter ap-athy on a scale never seen before inGreece, where many voters headedfor the beach instead of the polls,generating a voter abstention rateof nearly 47.4 percent, stayingaway even though voting is manda-tory in Greece. The previous recordlow was set in 2004, when 36.8percent of the Greek electorate ab-stained.

“I cast a blank ballot because Idon’t trust anyone. They’vebrought Greece to such a sad state,”said Iordanis Sideropoulos, 71-year-old retiree. “We should allhave abstained.”

Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyan-ni was the first conservative heavy-weight to comment on the out-come: “Almost one in two voters

PASOK Takes EuropeanParliament Vote by 4.36%Greek Socialists Gain a Seat, ConservativesLose a Seat after Record-Low Voter Turnout

By Christopher TripoulasSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK - Two historic dayschools in the Greek American Com-munity of New York, St. DemetriosGreek American School in Astoria,NY – the first and only Greek Ameri-can high school in the United States -and St. Demetrios Day School of Ja-maica.held their graduation cere-monies on Friday night June 5, 2009.

For many of St. Demetrios HighSchool’s 43 graduating seniors, theevening was the culmination of ajourney that began back in 1997,when they first walked through theschool’s gates as Kindergartners. Themessage of continuity was clear, asthis year’s graduates were accompa-

nied down the center aisle of the Pet-ros G. Patrides Cultural Center by thisyear’s Kindergarten students whowill be the class of 2021.

Class of 2009 Valedictorian PaulSpyropoulos touched the hearts ofmany when he displayed his Kinder-garten graduation cap and Class of2009 banner, which he kept in hisroom throughout his years at St.Demetrios. “The year of high schoolgraduation, 2009, seemed so faraway. Yet the class of 2009 bannerhung in my bedroom at the ‘iconos-tasi’ [icon table],” he noted, and thebig day finally arrived.

Many prominent figures from theGreek Community were on hand forthe ceremony, including ArchbishopDemetrios of America, Interim Exec-

utive Director of “Leadership 100”Paulette Poulos, Consul General ofCyprus in New York Andreas Pana-giotou, Stavros Niarchos FoundationChairman Andreas Dracopoulos, TheNational Herald’s Publisher and Ex-ecutive Editor Antonis H. Diamatarisand political representatives.

Salutatorian Christina Markesinisthanked her teachers for the patiencethey showed their students, for theknowledge they gave them, and formaking them better people. “We arenow ready to face the challenges oftoday’s society,” she noted, while alsothanking the graduates’ parents for“offering us the language and cultureof our Greek homeland through thisschool.” She closed by thanking herparents, and noted that although her

mother is not of Greek origin, hermother’s love for the language andGreek culture inspired her. Ms.Markesinis was one of four graduatesto receive the Excellence in GreekLanguage Award, along with AlexiaMakrigiannis, Elleana Maidiotis, andAnna Neophytou.

Archbishop Demetrios told stu-dents that they represent “the pre-sent,” and asked them not to be con-tent to postpone their dreams for thefuture. He called on them to play anincreasingly active role in communityaffairs, and urged them to “lay claimto their rights.”

Speaking about young people’srelation with their parish, he noted

Commencement 2009: A Coming of Age for Students

Archbishop Demetrios of America, center, was on hand for the gradu-ation ceremony at St. Demetrios Greek American High School inAstoria, on Friday, June 5, 2009. Also seen in the photo are Fr. George

Anastasiou (left) and Pastor Fr. Apostolos Koufallakis, far right.School Principal Anastasios Koularmanis is seen, third from left. Thisyear, 43 seniors graduated from St. Demetrios High School.

Cathedral Honors Catsimatidis with Holy Trinity Award for Philanthropy

John Catsimatidis (left) and wife Margo Catsimatidis (right) seen holding The Holy Trinity Award, be-stowed to them for their philanthropic endeavors by the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity June7 at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. In the background, Cathedral Dean Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos (left) andFox 5 news anchor Ernie Anastos (right) presented the couple with the award. See related story on page 4.

Queens College Celebrates35 Years of Greek Studies

By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK – Dean Skelos hadbeen deputy majority leader of theNew York State Senate since 1995,and then finally became majorityleader last year after Joe Bruno re-tired. But the Rockville Centre Re-publican’s tenure as majority leaderwas short-lived, as Democrats re-gained control of the State Senatefor the first time in four decadeslast November.

But Senator Skelos now findshimself suddenly back in the lime-light – in the middle of a powergrab in Albany – after two Democ-rats defected to form a coalitionwith the minority party, handing ef-fective control back to Mr. Skelosand the GOP this past Monday,

June 8, just a couple of weeks be-fore the State Legislature couldpass a $131.8 billion budget andconclude its session.

Billionaire business executiveTom Golisano of Rochester, himselfa three-time independent candi-date for governor, helped broker adeal whereby Senators Hiram Mon-serrate of Queens and Pedro Espa-da of the Bronx gave Senate Repub-licans the 32 votes they needed toresume control, thereby endingSenator Malcolm Smith’s leader-ship after just six months.

North Country Public Radio re-ported that both Mr. Monserrateand Mr. Espada are “socially con-servative” Dems who “bristled” un-der Mr. Smith.

But the now-former majorityleader from Queens apparently did

himself no favors this past March,when Mr. Golisano, the founder ofPaychex, the second largest payrollprocessing company in the country,went to Albany to meet with Sena-tor Smith about balancing the statebudget without raising taxes on thewealthy.

Mr. Golisano, who is also co-owner of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres(once owned by disgraced formercable company mogul John Rigas),had spent heavily to help Mr. Smithand other Democrats win the Sen-ate in the November election. Heexpected an audience befitting amajor financial patron.

Instead, he said, Senator Smithplayed with his BlackBerry andbarely listened: “I said, ‘I’m talking

Dean Skelos Back in Albany Spotlight

By Theodore KalmoukosSpecial to The National Herald

BOSTON - “Faith”, the EndowmentFund for Orthodoxy and Hellenism,has announced that it has increasedfunding for some of its scholarshipprograms. “Faith” provides acade-mic scholarships and travel fellow-ships for young people throughoutthe Greek Orthodox Archdiocese ofAmerica.

In 2007, Faith launched one ofits most prominent funding initia-tives by underwriting several mer-it-based scholarship awards offeredby the Archdiocese to the graduat-ing valedictorians and salutatori-ans of its Greek Parochial Schools.This year, Faith increased its fund-ing for the scholarship programs toinclude Greek Orthodox valedicto-rians of any public or private highschool in the United States.

The Faith Scholarships for Acad-

“Faith”IncreasesScholarships

Continued on page 9

By Paul PapadeasSpecial to The National Herald

The latest film from Tom Hanks-backed Playtone Productions is theNia Vardalos project “My Life in Ru-ins”. After the international smashhit “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”Vardalos has found it difficult to at-tain a similar level of success. Since2004, Vardalos has kept a low pro-file by teaching screenwriting atUSC, writing for Playtone Produc-tions and adopting a three year oldgirl with her husband, actor IanGomez.

Vardalos’ fans have waited pa-tiently after “My Big Fat Greek Wed-ding”, hoping her slump wouldwhen she found a project suitablefor her excellent comedic talentsand populist persona, which is sucha refreshing deviation from the stan-dard Hollywood faux glamour.

So her second act was to come byway of a script from a differentwriter named Mike Reiss (“TheSimpsons”). Vardalos read it andquickly fell in love with the idea of awoman traveling back to Greece tofind her Mojo, or what the Greekscall Kefi. This marks the first timeVardalos is acting without a writingcredit.

The film’s story is about Georgia(Nia Vardalos), a Greek Americanhistory professor who can’t find ajob or love in America and comes toGreece to find herself. During herstay she signs up as a professionaltour guide in hopes of finding an ea-ger audience to listen to her exten-sive knowledge of ancient Greece.Instead, the travelers grow boredand yearn to hit the beaches or shop.This makes her the least populartour guide at Pangloss Tours. AfterGeorgia refuses to change her pro-gram to suit the needs of the cus-tomers, her boss (Bernice Stegerschanneling a weak Russian versionof Melina Mercouri) cuts a deal withanother tour guide named Nico (Al-istair McGowan) to make her quit.Georgia is stuck with a motley crewof sterotypes, including a recentwidower named Irv (Richard Drey-fus) who has a penchant for telling

Nia Vardalos Stars in “MyLife in Ruins”

Continued on page 6Continued on page 4Continued on page 3

Continued on page 4

TNH/COSTAS BEJ

TNH/COSTAS BEJ

Greek PM Costas Karamanlis

Continued on page 2

EUROKINISSI

emic Excellence are merit-basedscholarships designated for educa-tional purposes and underscore thecommitment to excellence in edu-cation throughout the Archdiocese.

In addition to its academicscholarships Faith once again fund-ed several Archdiocese travel schol-arships for students to participatein the Ionian Village summer pro-gram in Greece this summer. Theseneed-based scholarships areawarded by the Archdiocese to stu-dents who demonstrate financial

need, and cover the tuition andtravel fees for the program. In2009, there were approximately 34recipients of Faith Ionian VillageTravel Scholarships. The IonianVillage is located in Greece and isoperated by the Archdiocese underthe spiritual guidance of Archbish-op Demetrios. Established in 1970,Ionian Village offers its participantsa unique opportunity to travelacross Greece. Participants under-take religious pilgrimages to placeswhere they may venerate the relicsof saints, walk in the footsteps ofthe Apostles and visit significantsites of Greek history and culture.

Mr. Peter T. Kikis, the presidentand one of the original founders ofFaith, remarked on last year’sscholarship recipients, “We are veryproud to be able to support theArchdiocese scholarship programs.The past recipients of the FaithScholarships for Academic Excel-lence are truly outstanding candi-dates…they not only excelled acad-emically but they are also theyoung leaders in our community bycommendably donating their timeand effort to volunteering and ac-tively building our communitythrough their extracurricular activ-ities.”

Cathy Papoulias-Sakellaris fromBoston, a founder of Faith and alsoan alumna of the Ionian Villagestated, “We (the Founders of Faith)are happy to support young peoplewishing to participate in Ionian Vil-lage, which is a truly transforma-tive experience – one can see the in-tellectual, spiritual and emotionalgrowth that takes place for youngpeople attending the summercamp.”

Faith is committed to continuingtheir support of these vital educa-tional programs as well as to work-ing with the Archdiocese to developnew programs related to its missionthat will support the enrichmentand enlightenment of communitymembers and future leaders.

According to Faith’s news releas-es, “its core mission is to promoteHellenism and an understanding ofthe Greek Orthodox Faith througha series of high quality innovativeeducational programs and culturalinitiatives under the auspices of theGreek Orthodox Archdiocese ofAmerica. Founded by a group ofGreek American leaders represent-ing a diversity of professional fieldsand philanthropic values, our firstpriority is to fund the developmentand expansion of educational andcultural programs that focus on ourOrthodox and Hellenic heritageand cultural legacy.”

The academic scholarship appli-cation deadline is June 26, 2009.For more information about theArchdiocese scholarship programs,those interested may contact theArchdiocese office of Administra-tion at 212-774-0566 or adminis-tration@goarch.org. For applica-tion guidelines and forms, those in-terested may visit: www.faithen-dowment.org.

COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Vote on our website!

You have the chance to express your opinion on our website on animportant question in the news. The results will be published in ourprinted edition next week along with the question for that week.

The question this week is: Greek Americans Nia Vardalis and ZachGalifianakis are currently starring in two feature films. They are to becommended, and comedy performs an important social function, es-pecially in trying times like ours, but many Greek Americans yearn forfeature films about serious Hellenic topics. Should affluent GreekAmericans and their fellow Hellenes in Hollywood try to bring togeth-er investors to produce films with Greek themes?❏ Yes❏ No❏ Maybe

The results for last week’s question: The New Acropolis Musuem fi-nally opens in Athens this month. The battle between Greece and theBritish Museum over the Parthenon Marbles will now reach a feverpitch. Neither side is willing to budge on total possession. Some sug-gest a compromise. Is it a good idea for the British Museum to sharethe marbles now in England, by sending them by ship to Greece forfive years every five years?44% voted “Yes”53% voted “No”3% voted “Maybe”

Please vote at: www.thenationalherald.com

■ JUNE 11 - 14BALTIMORE, MD. - The 2009 St.Nicholas Church Folk Festival, fea-tures American Idol Finalist & Star ofBroadway's “Rock of Ages” Constan-tine Maroulis on Thursday night,June 11, free on the outdoor concertstage! The festival will run from June11 to 14. Apollonia will play liveThursday through Sunday. Fridaywill feature an After Hours DJ Partyand Saturday is Bouzouki Night withDionysos. 520 Ponca Street Balti-more, MD. Plenty of Free parking.For information 410-633-5020;www.stnicholasmd.org.

DANBURY, Conn. - The Church of theAssumption invites you to “TheGreek Experience Festival” June 12to 14, featuring Greek food, musicand dancing. 30 Clapboard RidgeRoad (Rte 39). Danbury. Exit 5 I-84(follow the signs). Additional park-ing at Danbury High School with freeshuttle Bus. Visit www.agoc.us formore details.

RANDOLPH, N.J. - The Church ofSaint Andrew invites you to the “Ex-perience a Taste of Greece” festivalFriday June 12 to Sunday June 14 at1447 Sussex Turnpike, Randolph,N.J. (across from Casa de Pasta).Featuring authentic Greek food, LiveGreek music, DJ & dancing and tradi-tional Greek folk dancers. Free park-ing; visa/mastercard; ATM onpremises. For info. tel 973.584.0388;fax 973.584.3573; internet: Big-GreekFestival.com.

YONKERS, N.Y. - The Church of theProphet Elias invites you to its Annu-al Greek Festival, Friday, June 12thto Sunday, June 14. There will be tra-ditional Greek food and pastries,Greek dancing, live music, games forthe children, nightly raffles and afabulous Flea Market. For more in-formation, call the Church office at914-963-3638

■ JUNE 14STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Peter Papani-colaou, Philip Christopher and NikosMouyiaris invite you to a receptionhonoring Congressman Michael E.McMahon who represents Staten Is-land and Brooklyn, Sunday, June 14.B.B.Q. Reception Begins at 2: 00 p.m.at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Pa-panicolaou, 171 85 Street; Brooklyn,N.Y. Minimum Contribution: $250.RSVP: Sophia Cotzia 718-545-7202;Peter Papanicolaou 718-946-2700;peter.papanicolaou@verizon.net; orpsekausa@aol.com; Despina Axio-takis 201-444-8237; cyprusfedera-tion@aol.com.

■ JUNE 14-20DUNLAP, Calif. – The ByzantineChant Institute convenes its work-shop at St. Nicholas Ranch in Dunlapon June 14-20 featuring “leadingByzantine cantors, guest scholars, in-timate instructional sessions and anidyllic ranch setting.” Set in therolling hills of California’s CentralValley near King’s Canyon NationalPark, St. Nicholas Ranch & RetreatCenter (www.stnicholasranch.org) ishome to the Monastery of the Life-Giving Spring. The Saint John Kouk-ouzelis Institute for Liturgical Artspresents an intensive workshop inByzantine Chant and Liturgy to takeplace at St. Nicholas Ranch & RetreatCenter in Dunlap. Registration feescovering tuition, materials, mealsand lodging for six days and fivenights range from $575 to $625 perperson, depending on accommoda-tions. Space is limited, so register to-day. Registration forms are availableat www.koukouzelis.org. For moreinformation, contact Mr. Boyer at510-717-1248, or e-mail to protop-saltis@koukouzelis.org.

ATHENS, Greece - The AmericanHellenic Institute and the AHI –Athens Chapter present the 5th An-nual Athens Hellenic HeritageAchievement and National PublicService Awards Dinner on Wednes-day, June 17, at the Hotel Grand Bre-tagne, Athens, Greece, in honor ofJoanna Despotopoulou and Dr.Lavrentis Lavrentiades with specialgreetings from Daniel Speckhard,Ambassador of the United States toGreece. Reception 8:30 p.m. Dinner9:30 p.m. For further informationvisit ahiworld.org.

■ JUNE 21-22FLEMINGTON, N.J. - The Greek Or-thodox Parish of Hunterdon Countywill host its 5th annual food and cul-tural festival, “Opa! Big, “Fat” GreekFestival, A Taste of Greece in Hunter-don County”, at Razberry’s BanquetCenter on Route 12 in Flemington onSaturday, June 20th (12-10 p.m.)and Sunday, June 21st (12-8 p.m.).Free admission and parking. Featur-ing: Delicious Greek Food (withmenu overseen by author of Made inGreece: A Guided Tour of GreekCooking); door prizes; raffles anddance contests and more! Patronscan “Treat Dad like a Greek God forFather’s Day!” For more informationcall the parish office at 908-782-9741.

■ JUNE 25-28LOS ANGELES, CA, – The 3rd annu-al Los Angeles Greek Film Festivalannounces Christos Georgiou's“Small Crime” as the festival’s Open-ing Night Gala presentation andAlexis Kardaras' “Guinness” starringAntonis Kafetzopoulos, as its ClosingNight Gala presentation. The festivalruns June 25 through June 28, andwill feature 7 feature films, 7 docu-mentaries and 8 shorts, with 15 filmsenjoying their U.S. premieres. Thefour-day festival highlights include:Opening Night Ceremonies; a tributeto director Penelope Spheeris. Thescreenings will take place at theEgyptian Theatre, 6712 HollywoodBlvd in Hollywood, CA. For more in-formation please visit www.lagreek-filmfestival.org.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - 11th annual NewYork Family Arts Festival Greek Cul-tural Village will be presented on Sat-urday, June 27, 2009 at 2- 8 p.m. TheHellenic Dancers of N.J. will presentmusic, dance and other traditions ofGreek culture. The program is free,but RSVP is required for the GreekCrafts Workshop and the eveningperformances. Please contact theRiverside Theatre for more informa-tion: Phone: 212.870.6784. TheRiverside Theatre is located in thehistoric Riverside Church: 91 Clare-mont Ave at 120th Str, NYC.

LOS ANGELES, CA - A reading of theromantic comedy “Drinking the Sun”will be staged at the Pan-AndreasTheater Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m at5125 Melrose Ave. in Hollywood,CA. Athan Karas directs the readingof Penelope Karageorge’s play which“explodes the Greek tourist islandcliches to take you inside a realworld,” beyond “Mama Mia”. A re-ception follows. Reading is by invita-tion only due to limited seating.Contact kerry@indieproducer.net orMs. Karageorge 212-661-8026.

■ NOTE TO OUR READERSThis calendar of events section is acomplimentary service to the GreekAmerican community. All parishes,organizations and institutions areencouraged to e-mail their informa-tion 3-4 weeks ahead of time, and nolater than Monday of the week be-fore the event, toenglish.edition@thenationalherald.com

GOINGS ON...

By Eleni KostopoulosSpecial to The National Herald

TNH: Briefly tell us who you areand what you do.

KT: My name is Katerina Tri-antafillou and I’m 25 year-old Ph.D.student at Princeton University inphysics, with my focus in cosmology.My research group at Princeton isbuilding a telescope which will probethe farthest reaches of the visible uni-verse in an attempt to understand theorigins of the universe. Thus we aretrying to answer the questions thatwere first asked by our ancients,“where do we come from”, funda-mentally philosophical questionswhich have only recently entered therealm of science. When I finish mystudies, I would like to become a uni-versity professor, perhaps in Greece,where I can continue the search andalso teach and inspire promisingyoung students.

TNH: Has your life path been in-fluenced by your Ancient and Mod-ern Greek heritage?

KT: I have been greatly influencedby both my Ancient and ModernGreek heritage. My mother used toput us to sleep with stories about theLabors of Hercules and the travels ofOdysseus. We would pass the timeduring long car rides by singing Mod-ern Greek folk songs like ‘H Gerakina’and ‘Ta Kavourakia’, and we woulddance Kalamatiano and Tsamiko inour living room.

I have gone to Greece every yearof my life, mainly to Athens and mymother’s village Sperhiada, but Ihave also spent time in Crete andhave traveled all over the main landand some islands. What I love aboutGreece is the warmth and hospitalityof the people, the beautiful moun-tains and the deep-blue sea, the tasty

food, and the fact that it presents awonderful cross-section of historystarting from thousands of years ago.As an undergraduate at Harvard Uni-versity, I served as vice-president ofthe Harvard Hellenic Society. I tookthree semesters of Ancient Greek lan-guage at Harvard, and spent timestudying Plato's Republic in Cam-bridge University during my studyabroad. I believe that the wisdom ofthe ancients is relevant even today,and they discovered fundamentalthings about human nature and soci-ety. I have spent hours discussingthese ideas with Vanya (my brother),who is an expert, and I have learned alot and grown from these.

TNH: What has been your great-est achievement so far?

KT: I believe that my greatestachievement is maintaining a bal-ance in my life. I have managed tofollow a serious academic path aswell as artistic and cultural pursuits.

TNH: What’s the greatest lessonyou've ever learned?

To give people the benefit of thedoubt and realizing that there ismore in the individual than meets theeye.

TNH: Do you have a role model?KT: Leonardo DaVinci: I admire

his creativity and curiosity exempli-fied in his broad interests, and his ex-cellence in everything he pursued. Iwould also like to be a modern ver-sion of a Renaissance Woman.

TNH: What’s your ultimate goalin life?

KT: To carry forth the flickeringcandle of wisdom and knowledgethat's continually being threatenedby the storm of materialism and in-difference.

TNH: If you could change some-thing about yourself, what would itbe?

KT: I wouldn't mind getting rid ofmy tendency to procrastinate.

TNH: What’s your most enjoyablepastime?

Music, in all shapes and forms. Ihave been playing classical piano mywhole life, and a few years ago I de-cided to focus on traditional musicfrom Greece and Serbia. I startedplaying accordion and singing, andmy first performance was at the con-cert that I organized at Harvard forNovember 17, 2005. Since then Ihave studied with masters in Bel-grade, and I have performed in con-certs at Orthodox churches in NewYork, Philadelphia, Trenton andBoston. These experiences inspired

me to move to Belgrade for sixmonths and immerse myself in themusical culture. While there I sangtwice a week at a traditional Serbianrestaurant in the Bohemian quarterof the city, I appeared four times onpublic TV where I also played someGreek songs, and they wrote an arti-cle about me in the newspaper “Poli-tika.”

I love dancing “dimotika” andhave been doing that my whole life.Recently, I started dance Argentinetango as well.

TNH: You were recently crownedMiss Greek Independence for 2009.What was that experience like?

KT: I’m very happy that I chose toparticipate in the pageant. It has beenrewarding meeting the other lovelyladies who participated. We werevery supportive of each other back-stage during the pageant, and whilethe judges were making the final de-cision, instead of biting our nails wejust started dancing together! Myreign so far as Miss Greek Indepen-dence has been very exciting. I at-tended many events with officialsfrom Greece and here, and I evensang the American and Greek Na-tional anthems at the Hilton GalaCelebration, as well as the song “StoPerigiali to Kryfo”. These grandioseevents were certainly fun to attend,but the most rewarding experiencehas definitely been meeting otheryoung, motivated Greek Americanswho feel a strong tie to Greece. I hopethat together we can help promoteand preserve Greek culture an oceanaway from the motherland.

TNH: Share with us some wordsof wisdom.

KT: The two most important say-ing from our Ancient Greek heritage:“Know thyself” and “Nothing in ex-cess,” both on the temple of Delphi.

In the Spotlight: Katerina Triantafillou Visnjic

Katerina Triantafillou

“Faith” IncreasesFunding of ScholarshipsContinued from page 1

Archbishop Demetrios of America and Michael Jaharis, Vice Chair-man of the Archdiocesan Council and a founding member of “Faith”.

Olga Diyamandoglu Needs Blood & PlateletsOlga Diyamandoglu is a patient at Memorial Sloan-Kettering CancerCenter. Her treatment for Leukemia and a Bone Marrow Transplantrequires regular blood and platelet transfusions. Olga and her fami-ly would deeply appreciate your donation of blood and/or plateletsand hopes you will ask others you know to donate. Designated do-nations for Olga Diyamandoglu must be made in the Blood DonorRoom of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Visitwww.mskcc.org/blooddonations for more information. To schedulean appointment contact: Joe Licata @ 212-639-8177licataj@mskcc.org or The Blood Donor Room 212-639-7648. Ap-pointments are necessary. All blood types are acceptable. 1250 FirstAvenue (between 67th/68th Streets) NYC - Schwartz Building lobby.

The NationalHerald Blog...

wwwwww..tthheennaattiioonnaallhheerraalldd..ccoomm

guage,” he continued.Prof. Ioannides stressed the irony

that the Greek language was able tosurvive the dark ages of Ottomanrule, but is threatened by the open-ness in today's global village. “Thegreatest difficulty we face is assimi-lation and absorbing the globalizedculture around us uncritically. Thetask at hand is not about avoidingall things non-Greek, but about howto absorb these elements critically,within the context of the GreekAmerican experience.”

In spite of its challenges, global-ization has afforded unprecedentedmeans with which Hellenism can bepreserved and propagated. “The'communication revolution' has giv-en us the Internet and access toGreek programming and media thatwould have been unimaginable 15years ago. Coupled with the easeand frequency with which we travelto Greece, we have some reallymeaningful ways to engage the newgeneration of Greek Americans,”Prof. Ioannides said.

Dr. Ioannides called studyabroad programs in Greece “essen-tial” to the advancement of Greekeducation. “I've never met a youngperson – Greek or American – whohasn't visited Greece and fallen inlove with the country. VisitingGreece gives young people a pro-found sense of their roots.”

Discussing the Center's efforts inthis area, he noted that Queens Col-lege has teamed up with the Univer-sity of Indianapolis to offer studyabroad courses in Greece, coveringsubjects like Greek culture, mythol-ogy, language and philosophy. “Thispractice is also a great way to createPhilhellenes among the Americanstudent population, and in thissense, we are killing two birds withone stone,” he commented.

“This July, Queens College stu-dents will take a course on ancientdrama in Athens and perform thetragedy "Oedipus at Colonus" at theColonus theater in Athens. I wish toexpress my deep appreciation to theConsul General of Greece Aghi Baltafor her overall support to the Centerand especially for her help in mak-ing the Oedipus project possible,”Prof. Ioannides said.

Citing the role that Queens Col-lege plays in the propagation of Hel-lenism, Prof. Ioannides describedthe Center’s courses. “We cover themajor areas of the Hellenic phenom-enon: History, Culture, Language,the Arts, Greece's neighboring re-gion and Community Affairs. I wantto stress the last subject area in par-ticular, because it is important for usto study our history. We cannot planour future if we do not know ourpast.” Prof. Ioannides teaches theCenter's courses on Greek Americanstudies.

Dr. Ioannides spoke highly of theCenter's Assistant Director and Pro-gram Coordinator Effie Lekas, aswell his colleagues Elena Frankakis-Syrett, who teaches Modern GreekHistory; Vasileios Marinis; whoteaches Byzantine History and Art;Gerasimus Katsan, who teachesGreek Literature; John Zikoudis,who teaches Modern Greek lan-guage, Nicos Alexiou; who teachesSociology, Art, and Culture; andDan Georgakas, who also coversGreek American issues. “Our suc-cess is a collective effort, and ourstrength lies in teamwork. We areproud of where we are today, and Iam grateful to my colleagues fortheir hard work and dedication,”Prof. Ioannides said.

“I would also be remiss if I didnot acknowledge the visionary spiritand tremendous contribution of mypredecessor Dr. Harry Psomiades,who first established the Center in

1974. Our program and the entireCommunity owe him a great deal ofgratitude,” Prof. Ioannides added.

Prof. Ioannides also referred tothe increasingly important role ofGreek American artists in Americanculture. He credited the OnassisFoundation for sponsoring relevantprojects, and noted that the eventsorganized by the Onassis CulturalCenter in Manhattan have becomemajor attractions. “I would like tothank the Onassis Foundation, itsExecutive Director AmbassadorLoucas Tsilas and the Director of itsUniversity Seminars Program MariaSereti for the instrumental role theyplay in bringing over scholars andprominent personalities fromGreece.”

Prof. Ioannides called for a coor-dinated effort to address Greek edu-cation in the U.S., in cooperationwith Greece. He suggested thatGreek studies programs all acrossthe country could become thebreeding ground for a new genera-tion of teachers, equipped with theskills and knowledge to keep theGreek language alive in the 21stcentury. He also explained thatGreece’s government and institu-tions can play an integral part in thiseffort by providing valuable educa-tional materials.

Addressing the bigger picture of

Hellenic studies in American soci-ety, Prof. Ioannides cited the wordsof guest speaker Congressman JohnSarbanes at the 31st annual QueensCollege Center for Byzantine andModern Greek Studies graduationceremony held two weeks ago.“Congressman Sarbanes called onthe Greek American community torise to its potential. He asked us tobranch out and undertake our socialresponsibility within the frameworkof our broader mission to the com-munity.” Prof. Ioannides said thatthe Congressman's suggestion to es-tablish a Greek university healthcenter, for instance, is a project thatwould make the Greek Communitymore influential. “Through diversi-fication, through participation onthe boards of various institutions,etc., we can reach out to more peo-ple.”

Prof. Ioannides also thankedArchbishop Demetrios of Americafor attending the graduation andimparting his words of wisdom up-on those present. “The Archbishopspoke not only as Primate of ourGreek Orthodox Church, but also asa scholar, professor and philosopher- which he really is.”

Prof. Ioannides noted that thereare currently over 1,000 students atQueens College taking courses re-lated to Hellenic studies – including

classics. He said that Greek Studiesprograms are also beneficial for thepromotion of Greek national issuesto the American Government. “18 ofthe nation's top 20 Greek studiesprograms were established after theTurkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.”

Prof. Ioannides also added thatacademia plays a substantial role inthe shaping of American foreignpolicy. “Every new administrationbrings with it a core of scholars whoprovide key advice to the nation'stop decision makers. HenryKissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski,Madeline Albright and CondoleezaRice were all university professorsbefore taking government posts.”

Based on this pattern, Prof. Ioan-nides called it sensible for GreekAmericans to study their own issues.“Issues like Cyprus, the Aegean, theEcumenical Patriarchate, FYROM,the Greek minority in NorthernEpirus, and above all how to dealwith Turkey, must be studied and re-

viewed within a broader frame-work, or linked to larger issues likehuman rights, the environment, etc.The recent letter signed by 200scholars upholding the Greek iden-tity of Macedonia is a basis for thiscourse of action,” he said.

Prof. Ioannides commented thatthe Center will offer a class duringthe Fall semester on the History ofCyprus from 1878 to the present.“In this regard, I wish to thank theConsul General of Cyprus AndreasPanayiotou for his support of ourCenter, especially in the domain ofarts and culture.”

He also extended his apprecia-tion to the Kallinikeion Foundationand its Chairman Emmanuel Demosfor funding the Center's ByzantineStudies program.

As the Center enters its 35thyear of operation, it continuallystrives to preserve and enhance itsprogram, while adjusting to thechanging needs of the Greek Amer-

ican community. “We are constant-ly examining how to provide alearning environment that bringsstudents closer to us,” Dr. Ioan-nides said. He cited efforts to teachthe works of modern Greek literarygreats like Nikos Kazantzakis, Con-stantine Cavafy and Alexandros Pa-padiamantis in English. “Althoughour core remains Greek, we arelooking to attract non-Greek stu-dents as well. We are also lookingto utilize new technologies, travelopportunities, and to explore insti-tutional ways of developing closercooperation with Greek education-al and cultural agencies.

Professor Ioannides sees the his-tory of the United States, what hecalls “the ongoing American experi-ment” entering a new phase. “Bytaking advantage of the rich oppor-tunities that present themselves, theGreek American Community canrepresent the spirit of an enlight-ened Hellenism in America.”

By Theodore KalmoukosSpecial to The National Herald

BOSTON - The Alpha OmegaCouncil is a prominent GreekAmerican organization of Bostonwhich was established to recognizethe achievements of individuals orgroups who excel in their profes-sions or fields of endeavor, and toestablish, maintain and support re-ligious, charitable, scientific, liter-ary and educational activities in theGreek American community.

The Council’s 21st Annual Life-time Achievement Award Banquetwas held on June 6 at Boston’sWestin Waterfront Hotel. Peter Kar-manos Jr. of Detroit, Michigan wasthe 2009 recipient of the award.Mr. Karmanos, a highly successfulbusinessman, is currently the CEOof Compuware Corporation, and healso owns the Carolina Hurricanesof the National Hockey League.

Greece was represented at thebanquet, which was organized byMr. Drake Behrakis, by its CounsulGeneral in Boston, ConstantinosOrphanides.

Thalia Assuras of CBS News wasthe master of ceremonies and anestimated 400 hundred gusts weregathered at the testimonial dinnerin honor of Mr. Karmanos, who wasnot able to stay for the entire event:his second wife was expectingtwins “any minute.”

Speaking to The National Her-ald shortly after receiving theaward, Mr. Karmanos said “I feelfortunate… it’s very, very reward-

ing to have fellow Greeks recognizeyour achievement.” He treasureshis Greek heritage, saying how in-spiring it is, “To go back six – sevenhundred years of your family histo-ry in Greece, and to understandwhat a rich background that is. Ilike to spend a lot of time inGreece.”

Alpha Omega’s president, Timo-thy Marken, praised Karamanos inan interview with The NationalHerald. He said the reason the or-ganization honored Karmanos, “issimple, he is very philanthropic, heis passionate about his faith, he is atrue leader and he embodies all ofthe things the Alpha Omega standsfor.”

Mr. Karmanos’ first wife diedfrom breast cancer and he has giv-en more than 50 million dollars toestablish and support the BarbaraAnn Karmanos Cancer Institute inDetroit.

His philanthropy is founded ontraditional Greek values and the re-markable success of his business.Mr. Karmanos started Compuwarein 1973 as he sat in his dining roomwith two friends. The stakes werehigher than he could have imag-ined at the time, because with3,000 dollars each had received intax-return money, he and hisfriends established Compuware, acompany that would become aworldwide leader in delivering in-formation technology value to cus-tomers. Mr. Karmanos, along withthe late Thomas Thewes and Allen

Cutting Jr., wanted to build a 20 to25 person company where it“would be a fun to work.” Todaythe company earns 1.8 billion dol-lars in annual sales and employs sixthousand people.

For Mr. Karmanos, the secret ofsuccess at Compuware was to de-liver value through technology thatallowed customers to focus on

what they do best, from selling carsto selling widgets. This goal al-lowed Karmanos and his world-wide teams to see past the obvioustrends and fads “to build real solu-tions that customers needed andwanted. Compuware continues tohelp people to do valuable thingswith their computers.”

Mr. Karmanos is also an athlete

and a sports fan, which led him intoco-ownesrhip of three hockeyteams – the Carolina Hurricanes(National Hockey League) the Ply-mouth Whalers (Ontario HockeyLeague) and the Florida Everblades(East Coast Hockey League), anddrove him to create youth hockeyprograms for the children of South-east Michigan.

As he accepted the award Mr. Kar-manos remembered his immigrantparents and told stories of growingup as a Greek boy working at theirrestaurant from the age of 12.

He shared a story about his fa-ther, who once told the youngPanagiotis (Peter) Karmanos,“Panagioti there are three kinds ofpeople in this world: there are peo-ple who learn things the easy way,there are people who learn thingsthe hard way, and there are peoplewho never learn at all. I am tryingto figure out which of the last twogroups you belong to.” Karmanossaid, “I kept very quiet, also tryingto figure out which of the last twogroups I belonged to.”

Mr. Karmanos said “there areprinciples you learn [as a GreekAmerican] and they seem simple.Alpha Omega and its proud sup-porters truly embrace them - thingslike hard work, patriotism, pride inyour ethnic background, charity,who can argue about these impor-tant things?”

The Alpha Omega Council alsogranted six scholarships in memoryof Peter Agris, the founder of theHellenic Chronicle and of the Alpha

Omega Council. They were award-ed to six young Greek Americanswho study journalism across theU.S. They are: Alexis Chionis-Rom-rell, Anna Dolianitis, Angeliki Foti-ades, Steven Miller, Jack Nikas IIand Stephanie Psyllos.

Mr. Marken is very pleased withthe state of the Council. “We are avery solid organization. We havecontributed almost 1.4 million dol-lars in less than thirty years and wewill continue to do so.” Mr. Markenis a second generation Greek Amer-ican. He said, “my mother’s familycame from Lamia and my father’sfrom Megalopolis.” Asked how hefelt about his Greek heritage, hesaid “it is everything to me, it iswho I am.”

Businessman George Behrakisalso shared his thoughts about theevening. He told The National Her-ald that, “when you get Greeks to-gether you have a success,” but, headded, “the more we do things likethis all over the United States, themore organized, powerful and wellrespected we will be, if we becomea cohesive unit by working as ateam, not just as individuals.”

Dr. George Canellos, seniorphysician at the Dana-Farber Can-cer Institute and at the Brighamand Women’s Hospital of Boston,highlighted the importance of phil-anthropic activity when he spokeabout current medical research. Hepraised Mr. Karmanos for his dona-tions, emphasizing that “the re-search is possible mostly due tophilanthropic contributions.”

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009 3

Queens College Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies Celebrates 35 Years Continued from page 1

The Alpha Omega Council Honors Peter Karmanos for Achievement and Philanthropy

Mr. Peter Karmanos with Alpha Omega President Timothy Marken atAlpha Omega Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award Banquet.

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Dr. Christos Ioannides, Director of the Byzantine and Modern GreekStudies Center at Queens College at the National Herald’s offices.

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that there was a statistic that appliedto all denominations suggesting thatyoung people are closest to theirchurch from the time of their birthuntil early adolescence. Subsequent-ly, during the age range 17-35, thisconnection diminishes. The Arch-bishop asked the graduates not to be-come part of this statistic, and to re-main involved in their parish andcommunity life.

Citing one of the graduate’sspeeches, he said he would changeher statement from “Astoria is littlepiece of Greece in the heart of NewYork,” to “Astoria is a great part ofGreece in New York.” As he congratu-lated the students, ArchbishopDemetrios said “Greece is here, Or-thodoxy is here.”

In closing, he called on the stu-dents to keep their faith in Christ in-tact, reminding them of Christ’swords that whoever believes in Himshall do the things that He does, andeven greater things.

St. Demetrios High School Princi-pal Anastasios Koularmanis personal-ly thanked the Archbishop for help-ing strengthen his own faith, and not-ed that they both share a commonanniversary. Archbishop Demetrios iscelebrating 10 years at the head ofthe Archdiocese of America, whileMr. Koularmanis is celebrating his10-year-anniversary as Principal.

Parish Council President CostasEliades, Esq. offered the graduateshis words of advice, and noted thathe too was in their shoes not too longago. Mr. Eliades, a St. Demetriosalumnus, went on to law school.

School Board President Nick An-driotis commented that the St.Demetrios family takes immensepride in their school, and thankedAndreas Dracopoulos for his financial

backing. “Mr. Dracopoulos is ourschool’s great supporter,” he said,while also thanking Mr. Diamatarisfor his continuous encouragement.

Guest speaker Paulette Poulos,who has been affiliated with theArchdiocese of America since 1965and served as a top aide to the lateArchbishop Iakovos up until hisdeath cited one of the prelate’s fa-vorite sayings: “If you have faith youcan achieve anything set before you.”In her address, she pointed out thatthis belief is actively lived out in theSt. Demetrios community of Astoria,which always leads the way at everyethnic event in the community. Sheencouraged the graduates to remainfaithful to their Greek roots, andurged them “not to be strangers tothe Church.”

She also expressed her happinessthat one of the graduates, Fotis Pa-piris, would be continuing his studiesat Hellenic College/Holy Cross inBrookline, Mass. in pursuit of hisdream of joining the clergy. “I hope toone day return to St. Demetrios toserve my community as a priest,” hesaid.

The Consul General of Cyprus An-dreas Panagiotou congratulated theparents on hand for recognizing theimportance of Hellenism and Ortho-doxy in their children’s lives andsending them to a Greek Americanschool. “St. Demetrios is no ordinaryhigh school. The curriculum here ispeople-centered and based on ecu-menical values that allow students tolead their lives as Greek OrthodoxChristians in the United States.” Cit-ing a famous saying by Alexander theGreat, who noted that he owed hislife to his parents, but the fact that helived well to his teachers, Mr. Pana-giotou hailed the efforts of the previ-ous generations of Greek Americansto set up schools.

One of the most touching mo-ments in the ceremony occurredwhen Archbishop Demetrios handedgraduate Apostolis Gouvakis his highschool diploma. Mr. Gouvakis was se-riously injured in an accident severalyears ago which almost cost him hislife. Following a remarkable recovery,young Apostolis graduated on time,capturing the hearts of classmatesand teachers.

During her farewell address,Maria Daskalakis summed up the ca-maraderie that exists between herand her classmates. “Many of us havebeen together since Kindergarten.

Let these images imprint themselvesin your minds and ensure you alwayshave a place for them as you carrythem with you wherever your pathmay lead you.”

The Saint Demetrios Chorus andits Director Evangelos Chazirogloualso earned congratulations fromArchbishop Demetrios, who admiredtheir skillful performance of wellknown Greek songs from composerslike Giorgos Hatzinasios, StavrosKouyioumtzis, Giorgos Katsaros andManos Loizos.

George Paralemos and Irene Vasi-latos were on hand representing the

State Comptroller’s Office and As-semblyman Michael Gianaris, respec-tively, to hand out awards.

Maria Makedon, Director of theEducation Department for the Direct

Archdiocesan District handed out theThree Hierarchs Award for Excel-lence in Modern Greek to AlexiaMakrigiannis, while Paul Spyropou-los received an Award for Excellencein Ancient Greek.

The 43 graduates of St. DemetriosHigh School Class of 2009 are Mari-am Amanollahi, Matthew Bata,Spiros Aris Botos, Anstasios Daglas,Maria Daskalakis, AndronikosDiomis, George Galatoulas, Konstan-tinos Gamvrias, Anna Gioulos, Apos-tolis Gouvakis, Kalliope Hirakis,George Kalaitzidis, EmmanuellaKarantenislis, Theodore Karantinidis,Lazaros Karapanagiotidis, NicolasKatakalides, Vincent Kavellieratos,Anthony Kouridakis, George Ksinos,Elleana Maidiotis, Alexia Makrigian-nis, Vasiliki Mantzoutsos, ChristinaMarkesinis, Angela Mastorakis, AnnaNeophytou, Ioannis Nicolaou, FotisPapiris, Panagiotis Paxinos, AristidisSantis, Alexandra Savvas, John Skar-ica, Harriet Skevis, Panagiotis Sota,Paul Spyropoulos, Mixail Strouraitis,Thomas Rothopi, Ioannis Tolis, Geor-gia Tsoumas, Alfonso Villa Jr., EvanVlastos, Theodosis Vouniseas, Joan-na Zois and Kristi Zoto.

The Jamaica Day School St.Demetrios, which held its graduationceremony on the same night, sent of13 of its eighth-grade seniors to someof the top high schools in New YorkCity, including Stuyvesant andTownsend Harris.

The keynote speaker at the eventwas Dr. Theodora Pinou, AssistantProfessor of Biological and Environ-mental Sciences at Western Con-necticut State University.

The School’s Principal, Dr. GeorgeMelikokis, also addressed the stu-dents one last time before they set offon their journey to high school. “Theterm ‘commencement ceremony’seems somewhat strange consideringtonight’s event marks the end of yourstudies at our school, not the begin-ning. And yet, the term is most appro-priate, because after tonight, you willall be embarking on something new,”he noted, while stressing that the St.Demetios School has equipped themwith all the knowledge and skill theyneed to handle the challenges thatthe future holds.

Dr. Melikokis also urged the stu-dents to hold on to the Greek tradi-tions and ideals that they learnedduring their course of studies in Ja-maica. In closing, he bid the graduat-ing seniors farewell with the proverb,“may the wind be always at yourback and the sun shine warmly uponyour face.”

Following the graduation ceremo-ny, the school’s PTA hosted a dinnerfor the graduates and their parents.

The 13 graduates of the St.Demetrios School in Jamaica areAshadaine Cole, Ashley Edwards,Simran Gupta, Manoli Hirakis, ElenaKatis, Sabrina Khan, Andrew Kour-saris, Labar Mobley, Joshua Morancy,Jayeda Newaz, Sterio Nika,Oladeimeji Olateju, and RavinderSingh.

By Eleni KostopoulosSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK- Hundreds dined anddanced the night away at the lav-ish, newly-renovated Plaza Hotel inNew York City last Sunday, June 7for the 74th Annual Gala of theArchdiocesan Cathedral of the HolyTrinity, honoring John and MargoCatsimatidis.

Under the auspices of His Emi-nence Archbishop Demetrios andthe Board of Trustees of the HolyTrinity Cathedral, the black-tie af-fair welcomed Fox 5 news anchorErnie Anastos, who served as theevening’s master of ceremonies, theconsuls general of Greece andCyprus, Aghi Balta and AndreasPanayiotou, respectively, as well asother distinguished guests andhonorable clergy.

Mr. and Mrs. Catsimatidis werethis year’s recipients of the HolyTrinity Award, which was present-ed to them by Rev. Frank Marangos,Mr. Nicholas Koutsomitis, Presi-dent of the Board of Trustees, Dr.Antoine Harovas and Mrs. OuraniaSoumas, chairs of the event.

His Eminence ArchbishopDemetrios commended Mr. andMrs. Catsimatidis as well as theCathedral for their extensive effortsin promoting the Orthodox Church,the Greek language and learning ingeneral. After dissecting the wordbenefactor, which has its origins inthe Greek language, the Archbish-op distinguished its meaning fromthat of a philanthropist.

“A benefactor is a person whocontributes to public functions, andusually there’s a strong politicalconnection to these functions. Aphilanthropist addresses the spe-cial needs of the people and caresfor the poor or needy. [John andMargo Catsimatidis] are both bene-factors and philanthropists,” Arch-bishop Demetrios said and he en-couraged others to be inspired bythe efforts of the Catsimatidis fami-ly and the Church.

Dr. Harovas praised the hon-orees for their humanitarian effortsin both the Greek American com-munity in and civic organizationsthroughout the United States,working and volunteering for vari-ous causes.

The Catsimatidis' charitable in-volvement is primarily associated

with Greek-related efforts, like theHellenic Times Scholarship Foun-dation and the Greek OrthodoxChurch, where Mr. Catsimatidisserved as President of the Arch-diocesan Council. The couple hasmade significant donations to the

G&P Foundation for Cancer Re-search and to the Juvenile Dia-betes', Alzheimer's and Parkinson'sresearch foundations. They haveraised more than $1,000,000 forthe Diabetes and Alzheimer's Foun-dations. Additionally, Mr. Catsima-

tidis has been on the Board of Di-rectors of New York's Police AthleticLeague (PAL), since the 1980s, andon the Board of Directors of theDrum Major Institute since 2002.

Fr. Marangos referred to a re-cent article from The New York En-

terprise report which called Mr.Catsimatidis, a “John of all trades”for his magnate status in the gro-cery, oil, real estate and aviation in-dustries and applauded him for hisdesire to see others succeed.

“They are not driven by the need

to make money, but by the need tomake dreams a reality,” he said.“They are noble creators becausethey do all they can to improve thegreater community- by supportingmedical research, immigrants andelderly people, faith-based organi-zations. They are an example ofleadership, love and philanthropy.”

Mrs. Catsimatidis expressed thepersonal significance of both theCathedral and the event’s venue.

“More than 20 years ago, wewere in this ballroom [at the Plaza]when John [Catsimatidis] pro-posed to me in front of 400 people,”she said. “The Cathedral is wherewe were married and where bothour children were baptized. Godhas been good to us and He hasbeen good to the Cathedral.”

Mr. Catsimatidis thanked all theleaders of the community andthose whom helped him stay con-nected to the Church despite a briefseparation in his 20s; throughouthis earlier years, he was a memberat both the Church of Annunciationand Zoodohos Peghi.

“One thing my parents taughtme is if you give a dollar to theChurch, God will give you two,” Mr.Catsimatidis said.

Mr. Anastos said he has knownthe Catsimatidis family for morethan 30 years.

“There are many changes tak-ing place in the world and it is diffi-cult to find people that are genuine.John [Catsimatidis] is a genuineguy, who loves to laugh and alwayswants people to enjoy themselves.”He referred to the couple as, “twoshining stars in a world that needsa lot of light.”

He said, “I predict one day, JohnCatsimatidis will be New YorkCity’s first Greek American mayor.”

June 7 also marked the Cathe-dral’s name day, Holy Trinity Sun-day. This year, the Cathedral cele-brates its first anniversary since theinauguration of the Forum on Or-thodox Spirituality (FOS), a min-istry geared toward New York areaprofessionals with the aim of bring-ing them into a deeper understand-ing of Orthodox Christian worshipin the context of Orthodoxy’s mysti-cal theology, while also promotingcommunity matters and relation-ships. The Cathedral School recent-ly celebrated 60 years since its be-ginnings.

Cathedral Honors Catsimatidis with Holy Trinity Award for Philanthropy

COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009

to a wall here,’ ” Mr. Golisano toldthe New York Times this past Tues-day, June 9.

So Mr. Golisano helped arrangea meeting between Mr. Skelos, thetwo Democratic dissidents – whohave demonstrated a willingness towork with their GOP counterpartsin the past – and two key SenateRepublicans, and convinced Sena-tors Monserrate and Espada to boltfrom the Democratic majority un-der Mr. Smith.

Both men have legal troubles.Earlier this year, State Republicanswere calling on Mr. Monserrate toresign after being indicted onfelony charges that he stabbed hiscompanion with broken glass,while Mr. Espada has been finedtens of thousands over severalyears for flouting state law by not

disclosing political contributions.Highlighting the often-elastic

nature of ethics and alliances in Al-bany, however, Republicans arenow welcoming them as part oftheir power-sharing coalition.

Asked about the GOP reversal,Mr. Skelos told the New York Timesthe two men are elected membersof the State Senate, “and reformsare more important.”

Senator Skelos is already goingabout Republican business, tellingNewsday on Tuesday he wouldbring property tax relief to home-owners by restoring STAR rebatechecks and reducing mandates onlocal governments, although work-ing with Governor David Patersonand Assembly Speaker Sheldon Sil-ver, Albany’s two top Democrats, inthe wake of a dramatic Democraticcollapse in the State Senate mayprove to be difficult.

From left: President of the Board of Trustees Nickolas Kousomitis,Eleni Nikozisi, Consul General of Greece Aghi Balta, His EminenceArchbishop Demetrios, Mary and Mike Jaharis, Presvytera Heidi andRev. Fr. Frank Marangos, John Catsimatidis.

Standing, from left to right: Antonis H. Diamataris, publisher of TheNational Herald, Dennis and Karen Michael, Spiros Milonas and Ariand Spiros Boutsinas. Sitting, from left to right: Litsa Diamataris, An-tonia Milonas, Corina Kotovou, Nicole Kotovou, Christina Kafe.

LEFT: The Plaza’s ballroom flooded with guests who danced to Greekand American music at the Cathedral’s 74th Annual ArchdiocesanGala. RIGHT: John and Margo Catsimatidis (center) are awarded the

Holy Trinity Award for their benevolent efforts by Nick Koutsomitis(far left), Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, Fox 5 Anchor Ernie Anastos andHis Eminence Archbishop Demetrios (far right).

Commencement 2009: A Coming of Age for Students at St. Demetrios HighContinued from page 1

Family and friends fill the Petros G. Patrides Cultural Center for thegraduation ceremony at St. Demetrios Greek American High School inAstoria, New York on Friday, June 5, 2009. Many of the 43 graduatesbegan their studies there in Kindergarten in 1997.

GOP’s Skelos Back in Charge of NYS Senate after Two Democrats DefectContinued from page 1

NYS Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, left, during a news conference in Albany this past Monday,June 8, after two dissident Democrats overthrew their fledgling Democratic majority in the State Senate.Also pictured (L-R) are billionaire Tom Golisano and State Senators Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada.

AP/MIKE GROLL

PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ

PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ

By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK – AHEPA’s 87th annualSupreme Convention is just aroundthe corner, and is shaping up to be apremier event, with Greek ForeignMinister Dora Bakoyanni and severalmembers of the United States Con-gress expected to participate.

This year’s Convention will beheld from Monday, June 29 to Sun-day, June 5 at the Hyatt Regency inSan Francisco.

In addition to Ms. Bakoyanni,Congresswoman Carolyn Maloneyof New York and Congressman GusBilirakis of Florida, the Democraticand Republican co-chairs of theHouse Hellenic Caucus, have also in-dicated they plan to attend, AHEPAofficials said.

“We’re expecting a lot of people toshow up. I think we’re going to haveanother very successful SupremeConvention,” AHEPA President IkeGulas told the National Herald.

“We’re excited to return to theWest Coast. San Francisco is also apoignant location for the Daughtersof Penelope (AHEPA’s women’s aux-iliary), which was founded there 80years ago. This is the Daughters’80th anniversary year. We have awonderful program that everyonewill enjoy,” he said.

But rooms are already starting torun out, according to AHEPA Execu-tive Director Basil Mossaidis.

“We’re almost out of rooms forMonday and Tuesday (June 29-30).We still have some left for Wednes-day, Thursday and Friday (July 1-3).With Foreign Minister Bakoyanni at-tending, we expect a capacity crowdat the Grand Banquet, so we’re urg-ing people to make their arrange-ments right away. Once the roomsare sold out, headquarters will notbe able to secure additional rooms,”Mr. Mossaidis told the Herald.

Mr. Mossaidis said he expectssome 650 registrants and 250-300delegates, plus family and friends,with 2500-3000 attendees overall.

“Potential delegates – people whoactually vote – number 600. We usu-ally get 50-60 percent of them com-ing. We had 242 in Greece last year,but if we get 300 here, that’s an over-whelming success. We normallyhave around 650 registrants – peo-ple who buy the packages and partic-ipate – and we normally get 2500 to3000 attendees from across the

country – friends, family and guests.I think we’ll hit that again this year,”Mr. Mossaidis said.

In addition to Ms. Bakoyanni,who will be receiving AHEPA’s Peri-cles Award, this year’s honorees alsoinclude California real estate mag-nate George Marcus, who will be re-ceiving the Archbishop Iakovos Hu-manitarian Award, and comedianBasile Z. Katsikis, who will receivethe Aristotle Award. Actor MichaelPapajohn will serve as the GrandBanquet’s Master of Ceremonies.

Mr. Gulas told the Herald that Ms.Bakoyanni’s decision to attend theConvention in San Francisco is im-portant for several reasons.

“Number one, she couldn’t bewith us in Greece last year becauseshe was busy traveling abroad, meet-ing with other foreign ministers, so Ithink she felt she wanted to comeand be with us this year, in part, tomake up for last year, which is a tes-tament to AHEPA’s vitality. I think westill have a little clout left (chuck-les),” he said.

“She’ll be with us for a couple ofdays, which will give her an opportu-nity to express herself to the Omo-geneia. But it’s also an opportunityfor AHEPA – and the Greek Americancommunity, in general – to meet withthe foreign minister of Greece anddiscuss Hellenism and Hellenic is-sues from Greece’s perspective,” headded.

AHEPA has been working jointlywith Greece on a number of issuesfor many years, Mr. Gulas said, andthe Greek Government wants tokeep the relationship going strong.

One of the issues AHEPA haspushed under Mr. Gulas’ administra-tion is Greece’s prospective inclusionin the U.S. Visa Waiver Program,something which – to Mr. Gulas’ re-gret – has not yet come to pass.

Greece had fulfilled most of thecriteria for VWP admission, but theBush Administration decided againstGreece’s inclusion last year becauseGreece vetoed FYROM’s bid to joinNATO. AHEPA protested the BushAdministration’s decision, and hasmade efforts to get the issue on theObama Administration’s radar, butprogress has been slow.

“The Visa Waiver is no furtheralong than it was prior to the Novem-ber 2008 election. A bill was intro-duced a couple of weeks ago tryingto push that issue forward again. Un-fortunately, it’s probably not going to

happen before I complete my secondterm,” Mr. Gulas said.

“It seemed like a certainty when Ifirst took office two years ago, so I’mdisappointed that it probably won’thappen while I’m still president. ButI’ll be very happy when it does hap-pen, and I do look forward to dis-cussing the issue with MinisterBakoyanni when she’s in San Fran-cisco. It’ll be good to find out whereshe thinks Greece is in the process,”he said.

Asked what he thought theholdup was, Mr. Gulas reluctantlyspeculated that it was largely due tothe economic crisis.

“I’m not 100-percent sure. But theeconomic crisis has clearly been thiscountry’s over-arching domestic con-cern, so getting Greece into the VisaWaiver Program is just not a priorityfor policymakers in Washingtonwhen billion-dollar corporations arefiling for bankruptcy every day,” hesaid.

UNITY FORUMMr. Gulas’ disappointment with

the VWP issue aside, he also hopes tohost a unity forum, a summit for theleaders of the community’s largestorganizations, at the upcoming Con-vention, with Saturday, July 4, as thetarget date.

The American Hellenic Institute,World Council of Hellenes Abroad(SAE), PSEKA (International Coordi-

nating Committee – Justice forCyprus), UHAC (United HellenicAmerican Congress), Hellenic Amer-ican National Council (HANC) andCoordinated Effort of Hellenes; theGreek Orthodox Archdiocese ofAmerica; as well as the Pan-Mace-donian, Pan-Epirotic, Pan-Pontian,Pan-Arcadian, Pan-Cretan, Pan-Ikari-an and Pan-Pontian Associations,and the Federation of Hellenic Soci-eties of Greater New York are all be-ing invited to attend, and some havealready received official invitations.

Some of the organizations’ lead-ers have agreed to come, Mr. Gulassaid, but some will not be sendingtheir presidents because their annualconventions are taking place inGreece about the same time (e.g.,the Pan-Macedonian and Pan-CretanAssociations), “but we hope they stillsend surrogates, so that all the majororganizations have some representa-tion.”

The endeavor is to foster unity;act on unity; come from the stand-point of unity; and to create a cohe-sive and coherent message which allHellenic organizations can share, hesaid. Some can take a lead on nar-rower issues, he added, whatevertheir natural interests and strengthshappen to be (e.g., the Pan-Macedo-nians can take the lead on the FY-ROM issue, and the Archdiocese cando the same for the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate), but also keep in line withthe larger vision for, and approachto, all issues underneath the largerHellenic umbrella.

Greek minorities in southern Al-bania is one issue, and how to appro-priately and effectively lobby Con-gress is another, Mr. Gulas ex-plained. The Pan-Epirotes are obvi-ously well suited to take the lead onthe former, he said, while AHEPAand AHI have a little more experi-ence with the latter.

“These are tremendous issues, aswell as obstacles to overcome. Here’smy thinking on it: Instead of having12 small events on Capitol Hill, forexample, why not have one or twolarger events, where we all partici-pate? I’m very proud of the dinnerAHEPA co-hosted with AHI andHANC for Ambassador (Alexandros)Mallias’ farewell dinner a couple ofweeks ago,” he said.

“Three pretty big entities came to-gether and shared the spotlight forthat event, and we all did somethingthat benefited the entire communityby calling the Ambassador’s serviceto the community’s attention. Thatwas a great event, and it proves whatwe can do if we work together,” saidMr. Gulas, who was unable to attendthat particular event due to his fa-ther’s health issues.

“Unfortunately, some of the orga-nizations won’t be sending theirleaders to San Francisco because

their own conventions are in Greeceright around the same time. But I’vebeen in dialogue with most of thepresidents, and they all agree it’stime we have some kind of summitor forum where we can discuss howto work more effectively with eachother and unify our positions on Hel-lenic issues,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to Ted Spyropoulosof SAE. He told me he plans to bethere. Phil Christopher of PSEKA saidhe’s going to try and be there, too. Iplan on speaking with Andy Athens(UHAC). Mr. Athens is a great Ahep-an himself, and someone I deeply re-spect. And I have no problem withAndy Manatos (CEH) being there,”he said.

“I can’t imagine anyone thinkingthis is not a good idea. And as the

largest grassroots organization inour community, I think it’s up toAHEPA to put our foot forward andhelp lead the way for constructive di-alogue and cooperation down theroad,” he added.

Mr. Gulas, who is wrapping up hissecond one-year term as president ofAHEPA, said the need to formulate aunified strategy and approach toHellenic issues is more urgent nowthan ever.

“What I’ve seen as president ofAHEPA for the last two years, andhaving been involved at the nationallevel for several years before that, isa message that’s really compro-mised. When you have so many or-ganizations and so many differentpeople spreading a message, it’s al-most like chatter. But you don’tachieve a unified message with chat-ter,” he said.

“Some in our community aremore interested in who the messen-ger is, as opposed to the message it-

self, and what the message shouldbe. And the message for any issueshould be fine-tuned enough so thatany community leader can recite itverbatim. It’s all about consistencyand staying on-point. That’s howpeople win political races. They stayon-message,” he said.

“Really and truly, that’s my per-ception of our problem (with ad-vancing Hellenic issues more effec-tively). We’re too concerned aboutwho the messenger is, instead ofwhat the message should be, andwhat impact the message can make.The end goal has to be achievingsomething collectively – not individ-ually, or as a club. The right attitudeis, ‘Let’s effect a policy, or pass a law.’And that’s why I think this unity fo-rum is important,” he added.

The unity forum’s primary objec-tive is for the leaders of various Hel-lenic organizations to get togetherand have a frank discussion aboutHellenic issues in order to help cre-ate a cohesive and coherent agendaand a unified message which can beconveyed effectively to policymakersin Washington, and agenda and mes-sage for each organization to adoptand adhere to, Mr. Gulas said.

But there is a cliquish mentalityprevailing in the Greek Americancommunity which prevents unity, hesaid, and that mentality has been themain impediment to having suchsummits in the past.

“Cliquishness is the mark of divi-sion. It definitely hinders our abilityto have any kind of strength in ourmessage. And that’s a shame be-cause, having traveled across thecountry for the last two years andgetting the opportunity to breakbread with individuals at the locallevel, I’ve met many civic-mindedpeople with exceptional reputationswho make an impact on GreekAmerica in their own way simply bydoing what they do best: being goodAmerican citizens. They do it for allthe right reasons – not for the gloryor for photo-ops – and those are thepeople AHEPA represents,” he said.

The unity forum has not beeneasy to organize, Mr. Gulas noted,but he hopes his effort bears fruit.

“It’s harder to do something likethis on a holiday weekend in thesummer (Independence Day). A lotof people are on vacation. They’ve al-ready made plans, and other organi-zations have their events scheduled,too. But the foreign minister ofGreece will be at the Supreme Con-vention, so that should provide in-centive. And if anything I’ve done aspresident of AHEPA has given hopeto leaders of other organizations inour community, then let that facili-tate a coming together so we can allmove forward with one voice andone heart, and try to continue havingsuch talks in the future,” he said.

By Theodore KalmoukosSpecial to The National Herald

BOSTON – Greek American Attor-ney Jason Panos is launching a cam-paign to be a member of the Gover-nor’s Council of the Commonwealthof Massachusetts. The council’s pri-mary responsibility is to confirmjudges on every level of Common-wealth government.

In an interview with The Nation-al Herald Mr. Panos said “we are atthe beginning, we have just estab-lished the official exploratory com-mittee for the campaign whichmeans we are making the prepara-tions to run next September in thedemocratic primary. Our main pur-pose now is to organize our volun-teers and to raise money.”

Mr. Panos explained that, “thegovernor appoints judges and oncehe makes that appointment the can-didate comes before the Governor’sCouncil for confirmation…and theygive advice to the governor on issuespertaining to the approval of certainstate contracts.”

The Governor’s Council has eightmembers and the Lieutenant Gover-nor usually presides. It is an impor-

tant committee of the state govern-ment but, as Mr. Panos said, “it islow key; no one knows what theydo. It is unknown, it is obscure, butquite important.” He added thatpeople are working to make its workbetter known.

Democrats and Independentswill be able to vote for Mr. Panos inthe primary. The campaign will re-quire tens of thousands, perhapshundreds of thousands of dollarsthat Mr. Panos will need to raise. Hefeels comfortable that there will notbe any problem getting financialsupport because “the District is quitelarge. It is comprised of five senatedistricts composed of 39 communi-ties, from Dracut down to Melrose,including Wilmington and Tewks-bury.”

Asked what attracted him to thatparticular public office, Mr. Panossaid “the role of the Governor’sCouncil office is critical and impor-tant for the functioning of ourdemocracy…I want to take this of-fice from obscurity to openness, andI want people to have the ability toparticipate in the process more thanthey had before. There is legislationpending at the State House.” Mr.

Panos explained that the legislationactually does three things: “It makesthe hearings of the Governor’sCouncil for judicial nominees sub-ject to open meetings, which meansanyone will be able to attend thehearings and participate by askingquestions directly of the candidates.The second part of the legislation re-quires that the Governor’s Councilmaintain a web site that makesavailable to citizens informationthat is the same or similar to infor-mation the Council uses to maketheir decisions, so when you as a cit-izen want to attend a hearing youcan do so armed with the informa-tion you need to be able to ask intel-ligent questions. The third compo-nent requires that the Council reportannually to the Governor and to theLegislature so that its past activitiescan be examined in order to makethings better in the future, to createnew processes going forward, and tomake the process more open, moretransparent to the citizens.”

Mr. Panos noted the position pro-vides “a modest stipend I think of$26,000.” His legal expertise is inland use and commercial real estatedevelopment, and he works at the“Devine Millimet Law Offices”, aManchester New Hampshire LawFirm with an Andover Massachu-setts Office.

Mr. Panos expounded on whatdrew him to the legal profession.“When I was younger I had ambi-tions to become a public servant, notnecessarily in politics but to work insome capacity in the public realm,and I thought the best way to ac-complish my goals was to go to lawschool. He added that “law schooleducation gives you a broad back-ground; it trains your mind in a waythat many other disciplines do notand I like to debate a lot.”

Mr. Panos is a one-and-one-halfgeneration Greek American. His fa-ther was born in the U.S. and hismother in Arcadia, Greece. His fa-ther’s father came from Alatsata,outside of Smyrna in Asia Minor.

Mr. Panos is extremely proud ofhis Greek American identity andheritage. He said, “it is what hasshaped my personality. I wasbrought up as a Greek,” and headded “the culture has shaped theway I think about things and theworld.” He said “I treasure the cul-ture and the tradition.” He spokevery highly of his parents and espe-cially of his mother, saying “shecame to this country when she wasvery young and she has instilled inme basically a better way of life thanshe had.”

He visits Greece every year. “Istay in our home in Ano Glyfada,and I have relatives in Athens in Ki-fissia and in Megalopolis, Arcadia.”

He also said “I intend to earn thesupport of Greek Americans and Iwant to be someone that they can beproud off not only because of myheritage but of what I stand for.”

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009 5

Ike Gulas Calls for Unity Forum as AHEPA Prepares for its Annual Convention

Jason Panos Launches his Campaign

AHEPA President Ike Gulas callsfor summit of Hellenic Americanorganizations’ leaders.

California businessman GeorgeMarcus to be honored by AHEPA.

a b

The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation would like to extend their deep appreciation

and thanks to all who attended the

CABARET NIGHT & TALENT SHOWon May 30th, 2009

In particular to acknowledge all those who donated their time

talent and treasures to ensure the success of the

CABARET NIGHT & TALENT SHOWFather James Moskovites, Presvytera Diana Moskovites

Anstasios (Staz) Tsiavos, Jimmy Santis George Mastrogiorgis, Eleni Palmos, Tom Simitzes, Liz PsarosConstantine Klostri, Lou Chugranis, Athnasios (Tom) Arianas

Andrew Yiannakos, Xenophon Theophall Rodothea (Dorothy) Poli, George Veikos, Scot Wilson

Leni Cohen, Emilee Floor, Yanni PapastefanouVangelis Alkimos, Will Schailder, Andrew Kratsios

Phillip Posner, Felix Koronek, Christina Andreou DeaverAnastasia (Stacy) Nicholas, Christopher Mose

Vivienne Papadatos

Special thanks to Kellari Hospitality Group

and Wonderful Ethnic Wines for their support

GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCHOF ANNUNCIATION EVANGELISMOS302 West 91st Street, New York, NY 10024 - Tel.: (212) 724-2070

By John RileyNewsday

A wealthy Glen Head developerwho is already serving an 8-yearsentence for his role in a 2007 con-gressional corruption scandal wascharged Thursday in federal courtin Brooklyn with masterminding a$90-million mortgage scam.

Thomas Kontogiannis, 60, whois in federal prison for launderingbribes paid to former Rep. Randy"Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), wasaccused of using straw buyers,staged sales and phony appraisalsto fraudulently get financing formultiunit housing subdivisions inBrooklyn and Queens from Wash-ington Mutual Bank and DLJ Capi-tal Inc.

In court, prosecutor JonathanGreen called it "one of the biggestmortgage frauds ever uncovered."

The scheme unfolded between2001 and 2003, Green said. Konto-giannis and eight other defendants,including seven from Long Island,were indicted on charges includingconspiracy to commit bank fraud,which carries a maximum of 30years in prison.

Kontogiannis, in prison at FortDevens medical center in Massa-chusetts until 2014, was not pre-sent, but his lawyer said he wouldplead not guilty. He also pleaded

guilty in 2002 to bribery and bid-rigging involving school computercontracts in Queens.

Also charged were his nephewJohn Michael, 38, of Massapequa;Elias Apergis, 32, of Old Brook-field; Steven Martini, 56, of Sear-ingtown; Stefan Deligiannis, 35, ofEast Northport; Ted Doumazios,40, of Plainview; architect EdwardHogan, 60, of Massapequa; engi-neer Jonathan Rubin, 43, of Rem-senburg; and Nadia Konstanti-nadou, 45, of the Bronx.

Those eight were arraigned infederal court in Brooklyn Thursdayafternoon and were released onbail packages ranging from$500,000 to $4 million after plead-ing not guilty.

Michael's lawyer said he cooper-ated with California prosecutors af-ter being charged in the Cunning-ham case, helping to bring the Kon-togiannis mortgage fraud case tolight and receiving probation as aresult of his assistance. Other de-fense lawyers said their clientswere innocent dupes of Kontogian-nis' development enterprise.

"It's going to be a case where alot of unsuspecting employees wereduped into believing it was a legiti-mate company and now find them-selves indicted," said ThomasEouanou, the lawyer for Konstanti-nadou.

Greek American DeveloperCharged in Mortgage Scam

FEATURE6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009

By Alexandros K. KyrouSpecial to The National Herald

LIONEL CASSON. Libraries inthe Ancient World. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press, 2002. Pp. xii,177. $12.95 (paperback).

It is not surprising that the Greeks,the first to produce philosophy, dra-ma, history, systematic science, andthe other intellectual achievementsthat formed the foundations of west-ern literary tradition and civilization,were also the originators of a by-product of their creative accomplish-ments—the library. Although thevastness in volume, scope and diver-sity of studies on what the ancientGreeks wrote and read is virtually in-finite, there is, ironically, an acutedearth of scholarship on the physicalaspects of Greek writing and its con-temporary preservation.

Since the nineteenth century, asteadily growing, but still compara-tively small, numbers of archaeolo-gists and historians have producedimportant works on the evolution ofwriting technology in antiquity.These studies have emphasized theevolution of writing from its originsas elemental cuneiform markings onclay tablets in Mesopotamia, to morecomplex hieroglyphic and otherscript recordings on papyrus inEgypt, to sophisticated and abstracttexts written with a comprehensivealphabet on papyrus rolls in Greece,and, finally, to the technological in-novation known as the codex. Per-fected ultimately by Christian schol-ar-theologians in the early ByzantineEmpire, the parchment codex wastruly the first “book,” as we under-stand books by their modern shape,design and lay-out.

The scholarly progress on the his-tory of the technology of writing hasnot been matched by research on li-braries, the chief repositories of writ-ten work, in the ancient, especiallyGreek, world. This deficiency hasbeen addressed by the publication ofLionel Casson’s original and highlyinformative work, Libraries in the An-cient World. Lionel Casson is Profes-sor Emeritus of Classics at New YorkUniversity and the renowned authorof more than a dozen books on vari-ous aspects of life and culture in theancient Mediterranean. Originallypublished in hardback in 2001, Cas-son’s Libraries in the Ancient World isthe first book-length, full-scale studyof its subject. The fascinating text,supplemented by two maps and 30 il-lustrations, is written in an engagingand lively prose. Intended for bothgeneral readers and scholars, re-searchers will benefit considerablyfrom Casson’s extensive notes andthorough documentation.

In this book’s introductory chap-ter, Casson reviews the emergence of“libraries” in the ancient Near East.Readers can glean from the author’sdiscussion that these early reposito-ries of documentary records of gov-ernment activity and religious mate-rials linked to individual templeswere more akin to rudimentary stateand institutional archives than actuallibraries. Moreover, the unsystemat-ic, haphazard collections of utilitari-an writings gathered by, and limitedto the use of, monarchs and highpriests in Assyria, Egypt, the HittiteEmpire, and Mesopotamia had noappreciable influence on outside cul-tures and did not provide any modelsor foundations of libraries for subse-quent civilizations to emulate orbuild on. Making this point clear, theauthor writes that “in sum, Near East-ern collections were of a specific na-ture that answered to the needs ofthe civilization of which they werepart. They ceased to exist when thecivilization came to an end; theywere not the seed which engenderedthe libraries with their far wider hori-zons that were to rise in the world ofGreece and Rome” (p. 15).

According to the author, the li-brary was created by the Greeks. Pro-fessor Casson posits that, “the li-braries of the Near East, of limitedscope and purpose, were a far cryfrom the library as we know it, withshelves full of books on all subjectsand doors open to readers with inter-ests in all subjects. Such a library hadto await the coming of the Greeks.For they were a people endowed withwhat was needed to bring it into exis-tence—a high level of literacy and anabiding interest in intellectual en-deavor.” (p. 17).

Although the Greeks’ invention ofthe library owed little to other cul-tures, it was the Egyptians who pio-neered the manufacture of papyrus,the earliest form of paper and a com-

modity obviously crucial to the pro-duction of written material. As earlyas approximately 3,000 B.C., theEgyptians developed the process forproducing a writing surface from aplant abundant in the marshes of theNile River Delta the local populationcalled wadj and tjufy. The Greeksknew the plant as papyros, fromwhich the Latin word papyrus and,subsequently, the English word paperboth originate. The word Bible, andultimately, book, is also a derivativeof the Greek word byblios or biblionand, likewise, connected to papyrus.Precisely because the first papyrusrolls to enter Greece were exportedfrom the Egyptian-controlled Phoeni-cian port of Byblos, the town andproduct became synonymous to theGreeks.

This book provides considerabledetail outlining the economics andmanufacturing of papyrus. Accord-ing to the author, the Egyptians en-joyed a monopoly over the produc-tion of papyrus, which they exportedin massive and steadily increasingquantities to the Greeks, their chiefbuyers. Once they had perfected theprocess, the making of papyrus wasrelatively simple for Egyptian crafts-men. Long thin strips from freshlyharvested papyrus plant stalks wereset vertically side by side and uponthese was placed a second layer ofstrips running horizontally. Thisprocess created a sheet that was putinto a press and, thanks to the adhe-sive quality of the natural juice of the

papyrus plant, the two layers of stripswere firmly cemented together toform an excellent writing materialthat was smooth, flexible, and light incolor. With pasting, the individualsheets were made up into a long roll.The long piece that resulted - typical-ly around 10 feet in length, but some-times longer than 20 feet—was keptrolled up for ease in handling andstoring.

The demand for Egyptian papyrusin Greece exploded during the fifthcentury B.C. This development wascaused by a significant occurrence -the emergence of the world’s firstpublishing and bookselling indus-tries. In short, a burgeoning marketfor books developed that reflectedand was inexorably linked to the un-precedented creative, intellectual,and literary output of Greek societyduring this period. As a result, theselling of books had become a flour-ishing industry throughout much ofthe Greek world. Book dealers, whoemployed scribes that made copies oforiginal writings in private shops(scriptoria), were a well establishedpresence in Greek commerce. InAthens, for example, by the time ofSocrates, the part of the Agora (themain public square where goods ofall sort were sold) known as the or-chestra was occupied almost entirelyby booksellers’ stands. Furthermore,in response to an ever more sophisti-cated readership and marketplace,book dealers were also involved inshipping works from one city to an-other, promoting widespread interestand trade in Greek literature of allsorts.

Casson concludes that these de-velopments in Classical Greece werecrucial to the origin of libraries. In-deed, “by the latter part of the fourthcentury B.C., the prerequisites for thecreation of the public library hadbeen met. Works on a wide variety ofsubjects were available. Scriptoriahad come into existence for turningout multiple copies, and there weredealers to sell them. With books eas-ily acquired, people had begun to col-

lect them—and become aware ofhow useful book collections could be.All this implies a steady increase inthe number of those who were notmerely literate but read for pleasureand profit.” (p. 28).

These larger developments in theGreek world coincided with two spe-cific events that would also be criticalto the creation of the library in antiq-uity. The first event was the estab-lishment by Aristotle of a large per-sonal library. Plato’s most reveredstudent, head of his native Macedo-nia’s royal academy, founder of theLyceum in Athens, and one ofGreece’s most prolific philosophers,Aristotle was the most influentialthinker in the Greek world. Throughdecades of study, teaching, and writ-ing, Aristotle had amassed an enor-mous collection of books, a massivepersonal library. In fact, its size anddiversity was such as to require a sys-tem of organization. The structurethat Aristotle put into place for hispersonal library would serve as thebasic model for the organization of li-braries in the future.

The second event crucial to thehistory of libraries was the conquestof the Persian Empire by Aristotle’sformer student, Alexander the Great,and the consequent establishment ofGreek states and the diffusion anddominance of Greek language andculture throughout the Near East.Egypt, one of the several successorstates carved out of Alexander’s em-pire by his generals following hisdeath in 323 B.C., was acquired byAlexander’s confidant since child-hood, Ptolemy. Ptolemy I, whoreigned until his death in 283 B.C.,established a Greek kingdom and dy-nasty that would rule over Egypt un-til Rome’s conquest of the country in30 B.C.

The influx of Greek populationsand the depth of Greek influence inHellenistic -as the period of largeGreek empires in the Near East isknown - Egypt was nowhere morepronounced than in the port city ofAlexandria. Founded by Alexanderthe Great in 332 B.C., Alexandria, lo-cated on the Mediterranean astridethe western edge of the Nile Delta,was intended as the chief link be-tween Greece and Egypt. Within acentury, Alexandria had become theworld’s largest city and for severalcenturies more was second only toRome. Peopled by more than onehalf million Greeks from many differ-ent cities and backgrounds, as well ashundreds of thousands of Egyptians,Jews, and other peoples, HellenisticAlexandria was the world’s first trulymulticultural and cosmopolitan, ifnot always harmonious, urban cen-ter.

As their capital and the center ofHellenism in Egypt, Ptolemy I and hissuccessors sought to make Alexan-dria the epicenter of the Greek world.With the vast wealth and resources ofEgypt at their disposal, the Ptolemiesundertook a program of architecturalgrandeur, epitomized by the con-struction of the famous Lighthouse ofAlexandria (400 to 650 feet in heightand containing at least 25 floors, itwas the world’s first skyscraper). Ap-plying the same grandiose vision toculture, the Ptolemies were dedicat-ed to making Alexandria the seat ofGreek intellectual refinement andcivilizational prowess. This goalsoon led the Greeks of Egypt to pro-duce their most celebrated cre-ation—the Library of Alexandria.

In seeking to attract intellectualsto Alexandria, Ptolemy I establishedthe renowned Mouseion, or Muse-um, a figurative temple for the mus-es, a place for cultivating the arts.Casson informs the reader that theAlexandrian Museum, “was an an-cient version of a think-tank: themembers, consisting of noted writ-ers, poets, scientists, and scholars,were appointed by the Ptolemies forlife and enjoyed a handsome salary,tax exemption, free lodging, andfood…On top of their personal bene-fits, this pampered group had at theirdisposal a priceless intellectual re-source: it was for them that thePtolemies founded the Library ofAlexandria” (pp. 33-34).

Casson asserts that Aristotle’s li-brary was the inspiration behind thedecision of Ptolemy I to create the Li-brary of Alexandria around 300 B.C.Demetrios of Phaleron, a disciple ofAristotle, who was familiar with hismentor’s book collection, was a closeadvisor to Ptolemy I and suggestedthe creation of an enhanced versionof the great philosopher’s library forAlexandria. Toward this end, thePtolemies dispatched well-fundedagents to every market and center of

Greek book production and distribu-tion. “The policy was to acquireeverything, from exalted epic poetryto humdrum cookbooks: thePtolemies aimed to make the collec-tion a comprehensive repository ofGreek writings as well as a tool for re-search. The best-known example isthe Septuagint, the Greek version ofthe Old Testament…Its prime pur-pose was to serve the Jewish commu-nity, many of whom spoke only Greekand could no longer understand theoriginal Hebrew or Aramaic” (pp. 35-36). Promoted in particular by Ptole-my II, this translation project wouldhave enormous implications for theeventual development of Christiani-ty.

By the time of Ptolemy III, whosereign began in 246 B.C., there weretwo libraries comprising the collec-tive Library of Alexandria. Accordingto Casson, the rolls in the main li-brary totaled 490,000, while thesmaller library held 43,000 rolls. Themajor library was located in thePtolemies’ palace complex to directlyserve the members of the Museum.The minor, “daughter library,” was lo-cated near the Ptolemies’ palace inthe Serapeion, a sanctuary of the Hel-lenistic-Egyptian god, Serapis. Un-like the Museum’s library, the Ser-apeion’s library was open for more orless unrestricted access to the city’sgeneral population, making it theworld’s first large-scale public, lend-ing library.

At the head of the Library ofAlexandria’s large staff of profession-al librarians, checkers, clerks, copy-ists, pages, repairers, sorters, andothers, was a Library Director. Thefirst to hold the post was Zenodotusof Ephesus, an intellectual luminaryand Homeric scholar, who served thefirst two Ptolemies. Zenedotus put inplace the Library’s initial organiza-tion. Adapting the principles used inAristotle’s private collection to thenew, gigantic library in Alexandria,Zenodotus pioneered library science.First, he established the system forsorting and shelving the Library’srolls according to the nature of theircontent. Then, he distributed hold-ings to rooms or parts of rooms thatcorresponded to specific categories ofwritings. Finally, Zenedotusarranged all works on the shelves byauthor in alphabetical order. The in-novation of alphabetical order as amode of organization represented anenormous leap forward and a monu-mental contribution to the develop-ment of libraries.

The next major advance in the Li-brary of Alexandria’s organizationwas undertaken by Zenedotus’ suc-cessor, the highly gifted scholar-writer, Callimachus of Cyrene. Ap-pointed Library Director by PtolemyIII, Callimachus took up the immensetask of cataloging the ever-increasingmountain of material accruing in theLibrary. Beginning around 245 B.C.,he embarked on his Pinakes (“Lists”).Once completed, this mammothwork, comprising 120 books, was acomprehensive survey of all thebooks held in the Library of Alexan-dria, along with biographical andbibliographical details of the au-thors—in short, Pinakes was a guideto all known Greek literature up tothe time of its compilation. Expand-ing on Zenedotus efforts, Calli-machus also introduced the notion ofa classification system—the forerun-ner of the modern Dewey decimaland Library of Congress systems—based on disciplines or fields of writ-ing and scholarship.

Although the author devotes con-siderable attention to the growth oflibraries throughout the Greek worldand the Roman Empire, Casson’s em-phasis rests squarely with the Libraryof Alexandria. Prominent librarieswere eventually established in Anti-

och, Athens, Carthage, Ephesus,Halicarnassus, Miletus, Pergamum,Rome, and Rhodes. Other librariesalso developed, especially in theGreek-speaking eastern portion ofthe Roman Empire, where literacywas more pervasive than in the Latinwest. Nonetheless, only the massiveLibrary of Pergamum in Asia Minorwas a rival, and yet a considerablysmaller one, to Alexandria. More-over, although the Romans eventual-ly introduce some new features to thedesign of libraries, the conceptualfoundations and organizationalstructures replicated in all ancient,and eventually modern, librarieswere first established by the Alexan-drian Greeks. The great Library ofAlexandria became the model for allother libraries in the Greco-Romanworld. Indeed, Professor Cassonmakes it clear that the Library ofAlexandria was the first of its kind,and throughout antiquity remainedthe greatest of its kind.

Although the importance of theLibrary of Alexandria is well known,the history of the Library’s demise,like the fate of its most famous relicoccupant—the sarcophagus contain-ing the body of Alexander theGreat—is very clouded. Despite theconsiderable confusion among thesources about the Library’s fortunes,it is increasingly clear that the Librarywas steadily eroded by several trau-mas over multiple centuries ratherthan by a single cataclysmic event, aslegend often holds. All the same, agreat disaster did befall the Library,one from which it never fully recov-ered.

In 48 B.C., Julius Caesar burneddown much of the Library of Alexan-dria. During fighting between Ro-man and Ptolemaic forces—when anEgyptian dynastic conflict and a Ro-man civil war became interwoven—Caesar set ablaze either ships an-chored in the harbor of Alexandria ora part of the city itself. Flames fromthe fire started by Roman soldierssoon engulfed the dockyards, carriedto surrounding buildings, and spreadto the Library.

Caesar had not intended to burnthe Library. Nonetheless, the dam-age, according to most accounts, wasenormous. Although the Serapeion’slibrary apparently escaped the blaze,the massive library attached to the

Museum suffered considerable de-struction and a significant loss of itscollection. While some sources re-port that 40,000 papyrus rolls werelost in the fire, other histories suggestas many as 400,000 books may havebeen destroyed. In the final analysis,although the fire of 48 B.C. was notthe end of the Library of Alexandria,the great library would never recoverits former importance.

According to Casson, the disasterthe Museum library suffered in 48B.C. was followed by a final, crushingblow three centuries later. The au-thor informs the reader that the endof the Museum’s library came in 270A.D., when the Roman emperor Au-relian, in the course of suppressing asecessionist insurgency, engaged inintensive, brutal fighting in Alexan-dria. During the struggle for the con-trol of the city, Alexandria’s palacearea was laid waste, including theMuseum library.

Many historians argue that after270 A.D., the surviving AlexandrianLibrary—reduced to only the Ser-apeion library—was itself progres-sively damaged by a succession of vi-olent disasters that spanned severalcenturies. In fact, many scholars, in-

cluding Casson, assert that the Li-brary may have survived until theArab conquest of Alexandria in 642A.D. when, according to multiplenarratives, the Library was complete-ly destroyed and its contents wereburned by Egypt’s new Muslin rulers.

Despite the Muslim Arabs’ eventu-al embrace, reverence, and preserva-tion of Greek literature and learning,the initial burst of Arab conquest inthe seventh century produced con-siderable destruction of, among oth-er things, libraries and their holdingsin parts of the Near East. This factmay perhaps lend credibility to thepopular story found in Arab sourcesdealing with the capture of Alexan-dria and the fate of the city’s Library.According to such accounts, the con-quering Arab Caliph Omar remarkedon the disposition of the Library that“‘If these writings of the Greeks agreewith the book of God, they are use-less and need not be preserved; ifthey disagree, they are perniciousand ought to be destroyed.’ And de-stroyed they were, by being handedover to the city’s baths for fuel, and,the story specifies, they sufficed tofeed the furnaces of all four thousandof them for six months.” (p. 138).

Regardless of its accuracy or inac-curacy, the tale of Caliph Omar is use-ful because it underscores the intan-gible, and not merely material, influ-ence and historical importance of theLibrary of Alexandria. From this per-spective, whether the Library still ex-isted at the time of the Arab conquestof Egypt is not as significant as thefact that the Arabs understood andappreciated the Library’s symbolismas the great repository of the Greeks’civilization and millennium-old cul-tural hegemony in the Near East. In-deed, the actual historical record is ir-relevant to the intended function ofthe original Arab chronicles. Thesenarratives were written to justify andaffirm the Muslim Arabs’ own senseof righteousness and purpose as con-querors invested with a divine mis-sion to supplant other civilizationsand ways of understanding with anew universal creed and awareness.

The narrative, mythic or real, ofthe destruction of the Library ofAlexandria was important to theArabs because it provided them witha powerful, convenient image tomark the end of the Greeks’ cultural

supremacy in the Near East. It repre-sented the turning over of a historicworld order predicated upon andconditioned by the power of theGreeks’ ideas, language, and history,all preserved in the treasure of theirgreat Library. Therefore, the annihi-lation of the symbol of the Greeks’veritable intellectual empire—theAlexandrian Library—was meant tosignal the triumph and establishmentof a new Arab and Islamic empire,one that would take the place of theGreeks’ cultural dominion. This pop-ular Arab story is instructive becauseit makes clear the fact that nearly athousand years after its founding, theLibrary of Alexandria, even as a shad-ow of its former self, or perhaps asonly a memory, still resonated suchmight that it continued to draw theworld’s awe and imagination—a fact,like the importance of the Library’shistorical legacy, that has grown onlygreater over time.

Alexandros K. Kyrou is AssociateProfessor of History at Salem StateCollege in Salem, Massachusetts,where he teaches on the Balkans,Byzantium, and the Ottoman Em-pire.

BIBLIA: A BOOK REVIEW COLUMN

The Birth and Death of the Great Library of Alexandria

Artistic rendering of the Light-house of Alexandria.

Drawing of "The Great Library of Alexandria" by O. Von Corven.

weak jokes. Georgia is stuck with a dilapidat-

ed tour bus driven by a hairy andmute bus driver by the name of Pro-copi “Poupi” Kakas (Alex Geor-goulis). She must endure low quali-ty hotels and various pranks by Nicowho attempts to turn Georgia’sgroup against her. Disillusioned anddepressed, she decides to quit herjob and leave Greece. But beforethis happens, Georgia is taught byIrv and Poupi to let go of her intel-lectualism and critical thinking skills

and to enjoy the pure, raw beauty ofthe people and the landscape.

In interviews and in the pressnotes, Vardalos and others state thatthe characters were purposelydrawn as stereotypes because this ishow Georgia sees them in the begin-ning, but as the trip proceeds and asshe lets down her defenses, shestarts to realize that they are all realpeople with depth.

As admirable as all of this maysound, the film’s execution tells an-other story, although Vardalosworks hard to make Georgia sympa-thetic.

Veteran director Donald Petrie(How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days,Miss Congeniality) never spendsenough time on any of the other sto-ry lines to really bring out the hu-manity in these caricatures.

Notwithstanding Richard Drey-fus’ character Irv, who from the startis introduced as a strong character,the rest of the film depicts Georgiafinally giving up and joining the id-iocy. And her reward? An affair withPoupi, who after a good shave is re-ally a Greek hunk who is enamoredby her love of ancient Greek culture,though he is also cognizant that she

takes life too seriously. And whatdoes Poupi do? Of course, he haslong Fabio hair and plays anacoustic guitar. He is mysterious,pensive, introspective, sipping wineat the dock while contemplatinghow ridiculously superficial every-thing is – as if he’s above it all. Hisprofoundly simplistic and confidentlife lessons uttered in broken Eng-lish but with a sexy Greek accent,gave me visions of a Romance novelcharacter. I yearned for thirty moreminutes and for Poupi to whiskGeorgia away to expose her to thereal aspects of Greek life.

The cinematography by Jose LuisAlcaine (Volver) is voluptuous, col-orful and wonderfully accentuatesthe ruins and the scenery, but his tal-ents are criminally underused in thisproduction.

Overall, from a critical vantagepoint, the film offers little to no in-sights about people, love, tourism ormodern Greece for that matter. Ifanything, this is an expensive ninetyminute tourist commercial featuringGreece and its ruins and discos as aviable destination. The film nevertranscends its superficial veneer,which in retrospect is a shame. It is

such a missed opportunity.But in all fairness, “My Life In Ru-

ins” is not striving for high art, nor isit really attempting to say anythingnew. Simply put, it is a standard,cookie cutter romantic comedy. It’s asummer movie that might hit theright notes with people looking foran escape from the current malaiseof our times. Although early criticalreception of the film has been nega-tive, I don’t think this will hurtVardalos at all. And a solid P.R. cam-paign pushed by Fox SearchlightPictures might help get people intothe seats.

Nia Vardalos’ Comeback Film “My Life In Ruins” is a Greek ShipwreckContinued from page 1

FEATURETHE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009 7

ALL HISTORY

By Steve Frangos Special to The National Herald

PART THREEAt least five Greek-Americans

are now internationally recognizedAmerican Folk and/or Outsiderartists. To date these individualsare Helen Contis, Peter Contis,John W. Perates, Tom Stefopoulos,and Drossos P. Skyllas. There maybe additional Greek Americanartists that should be included intheir number. In classic Greek stylethese five artists have crossed orblurred all the boundaries betweenAmerican folk and Outsider art.With each passing year these GreekAmerican artists are receiving evergreater critical distinction in Amer-ican art circles. Yet just as theseartists are gaining in prestige andoverall recognition among art col-lectors and museum curators theworld over, so in near equal mea-sure are they all but forgottenamong the modern Greeks every-where.

Peter and Helen Contis are forthe moment, the only Greek-Ameri-can Outsider artists who have had abook length study devoted to theirwork and lives. Aside from DavidLewis’ ‘Byzantine Butterflies: theFolk Paintings of Peter Contis andHelen Contis Greek Immigrants inAmerica’ (Woodstock, New York:Overlook Press, 1995) no academicor art critic is writing about any ofthe other artists; aside from thestray gallery folder entry, review orencyclopedia entry.

Not unexpectedly, much of thispublished material tends to repeatitself, as it is based on previoustexts rather than new investigativeresearch. Yet even Lewis’ finelywritten and beautifully illustratedvolume never considers that theremight be other Greek AmericanOutsider artists.

Most unexpected of all, perhaps,is the fact that Peter and HelenContis, noted artists today, led livesvery similar to most other Greekimmigrants of their generation. OnMay 28, 1890, Panagiotis Athana-sios Kontogiannis was born in thevillage of Vlahokerasia in the Arca-dia region of the Peloponnesus.Vlahokerasia is approximately anhour south of Tripoli by car andabout six miles into the windingfoothills of the Parnon from Sparta.In 1910, as with so many of his gen-eration, poverty and family obliga-tions drove young Panagiotis towork abroad. Following relatives to

Pittsburgh, Panagiotis was preced-ed by at least one elder relative andthree of his brothers: Eustratios,Kristos, and Giorgios. Once inAmerica the Kontogiannis brothersanglicized their names to Jack,Chris, George, and Peter Contis.

In time the Contis brothersopened The Buffalo restaurant onSmithfield Street. Then, Peter andhis brother George opened TheChicago restaurant on Penn Avenuewhich eventually drew all the Con-tis brothers together, again, includ-ing two others, Dino and John.

In late 1926, Peter left for a re-turn visit to Greece upon hearinghis mother was in failing health. Pe-ter spent the year of 1927 in Vla-hokerasia working in his parent’solive groves and generally improv-ing their overall holdings. As withso many others of his generationPeter sought and found a Greekmaiden to marry, the twenty-oneyear old Helen Georgiou Stam-atopoulou from Kollinas, a villagehigh in the Parnon Mountains.Married in Kollinas, the Contisesspent several months in Greece be-fore returning to Pittsburg.

Upon his return in 1928, PeterContis had been gone for a yearand a half. Working long hardhours Peter and his brothers hadThe Chicago on a sound financialfooting when the Wall Street Crash

of October 29, 1929 brought all toruin. Peter Contis and his brotherslost everything. Peter was lucky. Heimmediately found a job washingdishes. Not all was gloom anddoom for the Contis couple even inthese difficult times. On February17, 1930, the Contis’ first sonAthanacios (Art) was born.

Undaunted, Peter tried on threeseparate occasions to start anotherrestaurant--to do avail. Then, withhis brother Dino as a cosigner, Peteropened The Neon Grill on the cor-ner of Penn Avenue and Euclid. AsPeter Contis reestablished himself,in July 1933, a second son Georgewas born and then in September1935, a daughter, Artemis Cristina.

During the Depression the Con-tis family moved to the Oaklandneighborhood of Pittsburgh, as hadin fact several other Greek families.Unquestionably a main attractionfor these Greek immigrants wasthat the Greek community had pur-chased a Baptist church on ForbesAvenue, near the university, wherethey established the St. NicholasGreek Orthodox church. The St.Nicholas parish, which is now acathedral, soon became the centerof the city’s Greek community.

The Neon Grill, was not ‘a GreekFamily Restaurant’ as we under-stand such an establishment todaybut as David Lewis describes it,

rather a place that consistentlyserved ‘generous portions of Ameri-can cooking at low prices andserved with impeccable cleanli-ness.”

As times changed, Peter Contissought and received a liquor licenseand the restaurant also featured abar. As a restaurant/bar there wereregular customers who ate thereeveryday, sometimes three times aday. Here, once again, is DavidLewis’ concise thumbnail sketch ofthis community institution:

“Most of Nick’s suppliers wereGreek. ‘He bought meats from oneof his second cousins who owned abutcher’s shop; he brought coffeefrom Mr. Katsafanas who ran awholesale supply operation forrestaurants and who came fromVlahokerasia. At The Neon Grill Pe-ter also created a strong interper-sonal network. He not only maderoom for Jack and John (his broth-ers), but he employed Helen’s firstcousin, Nikolas Goumenis, as acook, and Tony Zachos from Vla-hokerasia as his bartender. Jack al-so worked at the bar, but only parttime, as his health began to fail.Tony was full of fun, and kneweverybody. In a touchingly humansense, the employees at The NeonGrill were Peter’s extended family.They bonded, partly because eachone was lonely; in his or her ownway, they needed this tie.

Peter’s two waitresses, Isabel andMargaret, were Polish. Working inthe kitchen with Nick was AbrahamLincoln Neal, an African Americanwho was lame as a result of polio.Perhaps, because he would ‘lurchlike a drunken sailor’ he had an in-fectious sense of the absurd; but hehad a college degree in music, andthe church choir he conducted wasthe first black choir to sing in Consti-tution Hall in Washington. AnotherAfrican American in The Neon Grillkitchen was Slim, an enormous manwho baked the pies and acted as abouncer if there was a rowdy cus-tomer at the bar who Tony couldn’thandle. They all worked for Peterfrom the 1930s until The Neon Grillwas demolished in 1962; andthrough all those years everyonewould come to Linden Avenue for atraditional family sit-down Sundaydinner, and for Thanksgiving andChristmas (1995: 78).”

Does all this sound strangely fa-miliar? Don’t just think about yourpersonal experiences, your family’sor those you know from your com-munity. There is a wider and large-

ly unexamined social pattern atplay. If you read through Dan Geor-gakas’ memoir ‘My Detroit: Grow-ing Up Greek and American in Mo-tor City’ or George Pelecanos’ novel‘Turnabout’ you’ll find this samekind of complex and very personalsmall restaurant ‘business struc-ture’ described.

In 1962, with what was to becalled by politicians across the na-tion, ‘Urban Renewal’ The NeonGrill was swept away and PeterContis finally decided to retire. It isno exaggeration to say that PeterContis, always a dynamic worker,was at a loss when he retired.Knowing his father had always en-joyed writing the menu signs for hisrestaurants George Contis, on awhim, bought his father a paint setfor a Christmas present. Over thenext ten years of his life Peter paint-ed. Then in 1974, a year after hisdeath, Helen began to paint.

Admittedly I have not spent anytime here discussing the paintingsthe Contis couple came to create.You can see them all for yourself. AsDavid Lewis says at great length inhis book’s descriptions, Peter Con-tis’ paintings are not representa-tional but mergers of buildings andlocations from different parts ofPittsburgh, and frequently, fromGreece. Helen’s work is more clear-ly devoted to memories of her per-sonal past. Since David Lewis wrotean oversize 160 page book filledwith illustrations, photographs and

colored plates all on the work andlives of Peter and Helen Contis,even to the extent of traveling toGreece to see where they were bornand raised, if you are interestedenough in this couple you owe it toyourself to find and read this book.

Anyone can buy a copy of‘Byzantine Butterflies: the FolkPaintings of Peter Contis and HelenContis Greek Immigrants in Ameri-ca’. New and used copies are ad-vertised all over the Internet. Ileave it to you to locate your owncopy, should you wish to buy one.As in any commercial venture beaware that prices on this specificbook vary greatly. For those of youwho would like to simply look atthis volume just go to your neigh-borhood library and ask for the ref-erence librarian. Show that personthe author’s name and title of thisbook and they should be able tohave an inter-library loan copy

made available for you. The simple and colorful paint-

ings of Peter and Helen Contis gainin prestige and value with eachpassing year. Yet how their art hascaptured the interest and attentionof other artists, curators, and artcritics the world over is a subjectyet to be even recognized by thevast majority of Hellenes anywhereon the planet.

Readers interested in contactingMr. Frangos are welcome to e-mailhim at grecianmon@yahoo.com

The Greek Outsiders: Artists Lost to Hellenism – Chicago’s Peter and Helen Contis

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By Eleni KostopoulosSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK- Last Friday afternoon,on June 5, tuxedo-clad gentlemenpaced up and down long stairwells,tidied up décor and wiped downfreshly-washed dishes until theysparkled at 253 Prospect Avenue.June is often one of the busiestmonths for The Grand Prospect Halland last Friday was a prime exampleof ultimate prom-prepping beforehundreds of soon-to-be high schoolgraduates celebrated one of the mostimportant occasions of their youth.But proms aren’t the only grandevents that take over one of the 5ballrooms or 10 cocktail rooms on adaily basis.

Since Michael Halkias purchasedthe building in 1981, making him itsthird owner, countless weddings,meetings, cultural affairs, gatheringsfor corporate and non-profit organi-zations and destination events havetaken place at the luxurious hall.

“Russians, Israelis, Palestinians,Poles, host big weddings here; We’veaccommodated so many differentnationalities and are able to under-stand their specific traditions andneeds,” said Mr. Halkias. Mr. Halkiasalso made his mark in the GreekAmerican community by donatingspace for various festivities through-out the years.

“On many occasions, the GreekNational Guard has come here.When Dukakis ran for president, hehosted fundraisers at the hall andGreeks from all over New York cameto campaign. Whenever there areopportunities to serve the Greek

community, we’ve done all we couldto help, like giving rooms to GreekOrthodox churches at a very lowprice to assist in their fund-raising ef-forts and we’ve offered the venue tohelp various causes, social and eth-nic issues. We are very supportive ofthe Greek American community andalways open to doing more businesswith them,” he said.

One of the most memorableGreek American wedding incidents,Mr. Halkias said, was when someoneshot a gun in the hall as part of a Cre-tan marriage tradition - a humorousyet startling situation to deal with,considering the millions of dollarsspent in the hall’s renovationsthroughout a period of more thantwo decades.

Mr. Halkias’ wife, Alice, saidmany popular music artists and tele-vision productions have used thevenue for filming.

“We have the night club whereThe Cotton Club (Richard Gere, Gre-gory Hines) was filmed,” she said ofone of the ballrooms, adorned withthe original phone booth from the1940s. “Most recently, scenes fromthe TV shows Gossip Girl and 30Rock were filmed here. Vogue Maga-zine held a photo shoot here.[Scenes from] the movie RoyalTenenbaums (Gene Hackman, Anjel-ica Huston) were filmed here.” TonyDanza boxed there, hip-hop starsEve and Foxy Brown filmed a musicvideo and part of President Obama’stelemarketing campaign took placeat the hall as well. It has also servedas a venue for ballroom dance com-petitions, anniversaries and semi-nars.

Mr. Halkias added, “A very up-scale gathering was when [750] Ger-man businessmen from Colonia In-surance Company in Cologne, Ger-many visited the New York area andwanted to end their stay with a bigbang. They traveled by subway andwe had a bus pick them up and drivethem here for a great banquet to endtheir trip in a major way.”

The list of impressive celebrity

appearances is fitting for the diverse,spacious room options and luxuriousdécor. Once an opera house, the Vic-torian Grand Ballroom is the biggestof the available rooms, set up to ac-commodate up to 2,000 guests. Theoriginal theatrical stage is still intactand the Halkias’ recently installedspecial effects lighting throughoutthe room, which is topped by over-head balconies. Original artworkadorns the brightly-colored walls inthe Grand Ballroom and throughoutthe building. The bright colors bal-ance the tones of some of the moresubtle, intimate settings like the OakRoom Lounge and Speakeasy Bar.

Mr. Halkias’ extensive resume pri-or to obtaining Prospect Hall servedhim well in event-planning. He hadhumble beginnings before movingback to the United States after livingin Greece for 16 years, after which hereunited with his mother and sister.He was a painter, worked at a Greeknewspaper and owned his own trav-el business, with three agencies; heeven hosted a weekly radio program.

At the turn of the century,Prospect Hall was the tallest buildingin Brooklyn and the first in the bor-ough to have electricity. It oftenserved as a town center meant fornetworking and exchanging of cur-rent events. Rich in history, it was in-ducted into the National Register ofHistoric Places in the late 1990s. To-day, it continues to serve as a histori-cal structure in Brooklyn’s ProspectPark as Mr. and Mrs. Halkias contin-ue to help create memories for thosecelebrating milestones to be remem-bered for the rest of their lives- in thegrandest of ways.

Brooklyn’s Grand Prospect Hall Gleams with History

Peter A. Contis in 1973, aged 83. When the restaurateur retired in1962, his son bought him a paint set, and a new life began.

Aghia Sophia. Peter A. Contis. 22 1/2” x 28”. In 1974, a year after Pe-ter died, Helen, his wife of 44 years began to paint.

Prospect Hall's immense GrandBallroom, seen above, is adornedwith chandeliers, 45-foot highceilings, and two tiers of bal-conies, making it a demandablevenue for weddings, galas andother special events. Left: A brideand groom pose on the luxuriousstaircase leading up to the ball-room, fit to accommodate up to2,000 guests.

Greece rejects

loan of Parthenon

Marbles from UKATHENS, Greece (AP) -Greece's Culture Minister sayshe has rejected an offer fromthe British Museum to return asection of the Parthenon Mar-bles on a three-month loan.

Antonis Samaras says thedeal would have meant re-nouncing any Greek claim tothe 2,500-year-old sculptures,which have been in London fornearly two centuries.

Greece hopes one day to dis-play the British Museum'sParthenon collection beside itsown surviving sections in a newmuseum that will open nextweekend.

In a statement Thursday,Samaras said he was preparedto discuss lending Greek antiq-uities to the British Museum,"to fill the gap left when the(Parthenon) Marbles finally re-turn to the place they belong."

The works originally deco-rated the Parthenon temple onthe Acropolis of Athens.

■ FARLEKAS, MARY FAIRFIELD, Conn. - The Connecti-cut Post reported that Mary V. K.Farlekas, 93, the daughter of thelate Peter and Elli Kiamos and wifeof the late John S. Farlekas Sr.,passed away May 30 at St. Vincent'sMedical Center. Born in New York,she moved to Connecticut and wasa lifelong Fairfield resident. Marywas a very loving mother and agreat friend to all who knew her.She enjoyed dancing and going tothe beach. As a young woman, sheworked with her father in his busi-ness, Kiamos Florist, which dealt inboth wholesale and retail sales. To-gether with her husband, sheowned and operated Fairfield Con-fectionery and Crown Grocery. Shewas a devoted member of HolyTrinity Church. Predeceased by herbrothers Gus, Leo and Nick and hersister Sophie, Mary is survived byher son, John S. Farlekas, Jr.(Lori),daughter Beatrice, sister Elli Ki-amos and several nieces andnephews. The family receivedfriends June 2 at the Fairfield Fu-neral Home of Edmund W. Dougiel-lo, 36 South Pine Creek Road andat Holy Trinity Church in Bridge-port.

■ KARAGIAS, AMANDATOMS RIVER, N.J. - The AsburyPark Press reported that AmandaKaragias, 93, of Toms River, passedaway May 29 at Community Med-ical Center. Born in North Carolina,Amanda moved to New Jersey in1948. She was predeceased by herbeloved husband, George Karagias.Together they had owned and oper-ated Captain Courageous Restau-rant and Motel. After retiring, theytraveled the world and made manyfriends. In the final years of her life,Amanda was lovingly cared for byAnnaliza Borja. Amanda was a de-voted member of the St. BarbaraChurch community. She is survivedby her sister, Janet Mamalis, herdaughter, Angela Koch, two grand-children; and her nieces andnephews. A church service washeld June 2 at St. Barbara Church.In lieu of flowers, donations can bemade to St. Barbara Church, 2200Church Road, Toms River, NJ.08753. Silverton Memorial FuneralHome, Toms River, is in charge ofarrangements.

■ KOMONDOREA, WILLIAMNEWBURGH, N.Y. - The Times Her-ald-Leader reported that WilliamKomondorea, 79, passed away onJune 1 at St. Luke's Cornwall Hos-pital, Newburgh Campus. Williamwas born in his Brooklyn home onDecember 12, 1929. In his earlyyears, he was a member of theNewburgh Glee Club and ScoutMaster for the Boy Scouts. He lovedthe Mets and golf. Mr. and Mrs.Komondorea owned a lun-cheonette on Water St. eventuallymoving uptown and establishing"Callie and Bill's Diner." They madethose who came in feel like part of afamily, not just a customer. He willbe remembered for his singing inthe kitchen in an operatic tone en-tertaining the customers and beingthe brunt of their jokes as they tookup collections for singing lessons.His best known recipes are for hismuffins and pancakes in whichpeople still ask the family for. Hewas predeceased by his wife, Cal-liope Komondorea, brothers,Thomas and Leon and sister, VickieShebb; and daughter-in-law, Don-na Komondorea. He leaves behinda daughter, Stacey Websdell; twosons, Dean and Basil Komondorea;son-in-law, Bill Websdell; twodaughters-in-law, Audiene and Bar-bara Komondorea; and eightgrandchildren. Visitation was heldJune 3 at Brooks Funeral Home,481 Gidney Ave. A Trisagion ser-vice was held on June 4 at St.Nicholas Church, Newburgh. Arrangements by Brooks FuneralHome. To send a personal condo-lence or for directions, please visitBrooksFH.com or call 845-561-8300.

■ LOUKSOS, KATHERINE LEXINGTON, KY - The LexingtonHerald-Leader reported thatKatherine Handris Louskos, 83,widow of Chris Louskos, passedaway June 3 at Hospice Care Cen-ter. Born in Duluth, MN, she wasthe daughter of the late Chris andKyriaki Handris. She was a home-maker and a member of the PangiaPantovasilissa Church. She was anaccomplished singer and artist. Sheattended the Chicago Art Instituteand the Walker Art School in Min-neapolis. She was a member ofRedwood City Concert Association

Board of Directors, a soloist withthe Peninsula Singers, member ofWest Bay Opera Company, directorof music for the Camp Fire Girls inCalifornia and served on the CampFire Girls Board of Directors in Lex-ington. She was a member of theCranbrook Episcopal Church choirin Bloomfield Hills, MI. She waspast president of the NewcomersClub of Lexington. Katherineworked for the UK School of Musicand sang with the UK's CollegiumMusicum. Katherine also was a do-cent for the University of KentuckyArt Museum from 1985 to 1995. Alifelong artist, her favorite mediumwas watercolor and her works wereexhibited at various galleries inLexington. She is survived by threechildren, Theani (Tim), Ross(Suzanne) and Elene; two grand-children, Kasia and Brannon; sister,Angie Boosalis, brother, GeorgeHandris and one sister-in-law, AnnRouman; two nieces, Margo Morrisand Ellen Avignone and twonephews, Chris Morris and TerryAllen-Rouman. Visitation was heldat Kerr Brothers Funeral Home.Contributions are suggested to theAmerican Cancer Society, 1504College Way, Lexington, KY 40502.

■ MEANCHOS, BILLTORONTO, Canada - The TorontoStar reported that Bill Meanchos,77, passed away peacefully on May29 at his home. Bill was a lovingand devoted husband of 50 years toKaty, cherished father to Penny(Chris) and Francie (Ian). Bill willbe sadly missed by his dear broth-ers Chris (Dete) and George (Ann).Bill is reunited in heaven with hisloving father Evangelos (Gelo) andmother Fana. Bill's devotion to hisfamily was and will always be ever-lasting. Visitation was held at theJerrett Funeral Home, 660Kennedy Road, Scarborough onMay 31. The funeral service washeld on June 2 at St. DemetriosChurch, 30 Thorncliffe Park Drive.Online condolences may be sent tothe family at www.mem.com."Family love is timeless”.

■ MINAS, CHRISTOPHER JOHNNEPTUNE, N.J. - The Asbury ParkPress reported that ChristopherJohn Minas, MD, 59, of Neptune,NJ, died May 29 at Jersey ShoreUniversity Medical Center. Born inElizabeth, he lived in Linden beforemoving to Neptune many yearsago. Dr. Minas was a board certi-fied physician of internal and emer-gency medicine. He was one of thefounding members of the AmericanAcademy of Emergency Medicine;member of the Union County Med-ical Society of NJ; and a member ofNJ Physicians. Dr. Minas was anemergency room physician in NewYork and New Jersey metropolitanarea hospitals prior to owning andoperating The Urgent Care Center -Belmar Medical Offices, Inc. in Bel-mar, NJ. He was an avid lover of na-ture and animals. In his youngeryears, he was a proud member ofBoy Scout Troop 34 - Linden. He issurvived by his beloved mother, An-na (Pappagelis) Minas who was theformer owner with her husband,the late Jack Minas, of The PlazaRestaurant on No. Wood Avenue inLinden; loving brothers and sister,George J., Nicholas (Grace) and Pa-tricia I. Minas (Georgiann Vojir).Relatives and friends were invitedto attend the funeral at The WersonFuneral Home, 635 No. Wood Ave.,Linden, on June 2 and the DivineLiturgy in Holy Trinity Church inWestfield. To send online condo-lence, please visit www.wersonfu-neralhome.com.

■ PAPPAS, WILLIAMMASON CITY, Iowa - The Globe-Gazette reported that William A.Pappas, 91, of Mason City, diedMay 23 at the Muse Norris HospiceInpatient Unit. William was bornAugust 8, 1917, the son of Antonioand Angeleke (Facklis) Pappageor-giou in Mason City. He served at aU.S. Army-Hospital Unit duringWorld War II. He married BessieVasilakos at St. Demetrios Churchin Chicago on June 22, 1952 andhad two sons Anthony W. Pappasand Nicholas Pappas. William wasemployed at Northwestern StatesPortland Cement Co. as a chemistfor 49 years. He was a longtimemember and board member of theHoly Transfiguration of Our LordChurch in Mason City. He was alsoa member of AHEPA since 1946,where he was a district officerwhile also serving as secretary andtreasurer during many of his yearsof service. He is survived by hiswife, Bessie, sons Anthony and

Nicholas, sister-in-law, KatherineDagres and many nieces andnephews. William was preceded indeath his sister, Harriet Mastores. Afuneral service was held on May 27at the Holy Transfiguration Church,Father Joseph Mirowski officiating.Burial with full military honors wasconducted by members of the Ma-son City Veterans Memorial Associ-ation. Visitation was held May 26 atHogan-Bremer-Moore ColonialChapel, 126 Third St. N.E., MasonCity; 641-423-2372; www.colo-nialchapels.com, where a Trisagionservice was also held. A prayer ser-vice was also held by members ofAHEPA. Memorials may be directedto the Holy Transfiguration of OurLord Church or the William A. Pap-pas Memorial Fund.

■ RODETIS, DENNISNORTHPORT, N.Y. - Newsday re-ported that Dennis Rodetis, passedaway in Northport May 31. Denniswas a lover of life, a loving fiancéeof Mary Smith, devoted father ofBryan and Stephanie, beloved sonof Lola, dear brother of James Jr.and Gary. Visitation was held atNolan & Taylor-Howe FuneralHome, 5 Laurel Ave., Northport.Funeral service was held at St.Paraskevi Church in Greenlawn, NYwith Father Dimitrios Moraitis offi-ciating. Donations to The Lust-garten Foundation for PancreaticCancer Research, 1111 StewartAve., Bethpage, NY 11714 in hismemory would be appreciated.

■ SARAFIDIS, MARIOTORONTO, Canada - The TorontoStar reported that Mario Sarafidis,73, passed away at Victoria Hospi-tal in London on May 29. Loving fa-ther of Katia (Andreas) Kollias. Pa-pou of Konstantina and Jenna. A fu-neral service was held at St.Demetrios Church, 30 ThorncliffePark Dr. on June 2.

■ STAPPAS, DENOLDAPROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Provi-dence Journal reported that Denol-da “Denny” Stappas of PawtucketAve. passed away May 30 at Ever-green House Health Center. Shewas the wife of the late WilliamStappas. She was born inWoonsocket, a daughter of the lateJohn and Helen (Chabukcos)Roody. Denny was a supervisor forAnn & Hope in Seekonk before re-tiring. She was a member of the As-sumption Philoptochos Society, theEast Providence Recreation Depart-ment and had a strong passion forarts & crafts. She was the lovingmother of John W. Stappas and thelate Melody E. Stappas. She waspredeceased by five sisters and onebrother. A memorial liturgy will becelebrated on July 12 in the As-sumption of the Virgin MaryChurch, 97 Walcott Street, Paw-tucket. Arrangements will be madeby the Perry-McStay Funeral Home.

■ STRULES, FRANKLOWELL, Mass. -The Lowell Sun re-ported that Frank Strules, 87, ofNew Bedford, formerly of Lowell,passed away on May 24 at St.Luke's Hospital after suffering astroke. He was survived by his wifeStella (Xifaras) Strules of 62 years.Born in Lowell on October 6, 1921,he was the son of the late Georgeand Vasiliki Tsirovasilis Strules whoimmigrated from Greece at the turnof the century along with his pater-nal grandfather. In 1959, he andhis wife opened the downtownCameo Beauty Salon. He was also arealtor and stock broker. His son,the late George Frank Strules pre-deceased him in 1994 and he wasalso the father of Carolyn (Strules)Dlouhy and Jo-Ann (Strules) Fer-reira, and the father-in-law of thelate William Ferreira. He was thegrandfather of Joseph Dlouhy,Nicolas Jason Ferreira, and Alexan-der Frank Ferreira, and the great-grandfather of Loren Jenna andMadison Nicole Dlouhy. His funeralservice was held on May 28 in St.George Church in the Waring-Sulli-van Home of Memorial Tribute atDartmouth, 230 Russells Mills Rd.,Dartmouth. In lieu of flowers, do-nations in his memory may bemade to the St. George ChurchBuilding Fund, 87 Ashley Blvd.,New Bedford, MA 02746. For on-line tributes and directions:www.waring-sullivan.com

■ TELEGADIS, VASILIOSMELVILLE, N.Y. – Newsday report-ed that Vasilios E. Telegadis, 74,passed away on May 24. Alsoknown as Billy, Vasilios was a Re-tired Command Sergeant Major ofthe NYANG, a beloved father, pa-

pou, brother, uncle and friend. Billywas loved by all who knew him andhe will be deeply missed. His amaz-ing spirit lives on through hisdaughters Karen(Don) and Deb-bie(Mike), his grandchildren Caro-line and Zachary, his sister Penny,his niece Aspasia(Terry) andthrough all the countless lives hetouched. Friends and family gath-ered to celebrate his memory onMay 27 and May 28 at the FredrickFuneral Home, 192-15 NorthernBlvd in Flushing. A funeral servicewas held at St. Nicholas Church inFlushing on May 29. Memorial con-tributions are encouraged to theAmerican Legion Aux. Dept. of NYWarrior's Family Assistance Pro-gram, 112 State St., Albany, NY11207.

■ VALAURI, PIPINANEWARK, N.J. - The Newark Star-Ledger reported that Pipina "Pen-ny" N. Valauri, 95, died May 31 af-ter a brief illness. Born in Washing-ton, D.C., Mrs. Valauri lived inCaldwell for the past 30 years. Shewas a lifelong member and Sundayschool teacher at St. NicholasChurch in Newark. She was devot-ed to her family as a homemakerand was a frequent church volun-teer. Pipina was the devoted wifefor 50 years of the late NicholasJohn Valauri. She is survived by herdaughter, Kay (Honorable Thomas"Tim" McCormack, JCS), her cher-ished grandchildren, Melissa andMichael, and her loving sister,Louise L. Vasilow. She was prede-ceased by another sister, Mary Pan-telis. Funeral service was held at St.Nicholas, Constantine & HelenChurch, 510 Linden Pl., Orange, onJune2. Visiting was welcomed atthe Farmer Funeral Home, 45 Rose-land Ave. Roseland. In lieu of flow-ers, donations would be appreciat-ed to The Crohns & Colitis Founda-tion, NJ Chapter, 45 Wilson Ave.,Manalapan, N.J. 07726.

■ VLAHOS, STRATOSDAYTON, Ohio - The Dayton DailyNews reported that Stratos GeorgeVlahos, 82, of Oakwood passedaway on May 27. Stratos was a re-tired civil servant having worked atWright-Patterson AFB as a flightline heavy mobile equipment me-chanic. He and his family immigrat-ed from Greece and came to theUnited States in 1966, in order toprovide his children a better lifeand a greater opportunity at educa-tion. Stratos was born EfstratiosGeorge Vlahos in the village of Pa-leochori, Arcadia, Greece. He wasraised in Greece during a time greatnational turmoil, having livedthrough the occupation by Ger-many, as well as the Greek CivilWar. One of the most difficult timesof his life came when he served asan infantryman during the GreekCivil War because he fought againsthis own countrymen. While thiswas difficult for him, he firmly be-lieved in the fight for Democracyagainst Communism that threat-ened to overtake Greece at thattime. He enjoyed meeting newfriends and could hold a conversa-tion with anyone. Stratos had apassion for cooking and dancing;his Greek recipes rivaled the best.Stratos was also owner of the Apol-lo Restaurant, which he foundednear the Oregon District in the mid70s. Stratos was preceded in deathby his parents, George and Asimo,his brother Pete and his sister Yota.He is survived by his wife of 53years, Vasiliki, brother John(Soula), his sons Pete (Jane),George (Suzanne), daughter StellaFranchina(Joe), granddaughtersAlexia, Vasiliki (Leah) and Helenand numerous nephews, nieces,and friends. The funeral was heldJune 1 at the Annunciation Churchwith Father Mark Emroll officiat-ing. The family received friendsMay 31 and Trisagion prayers wereoffered at the Routsong FuneralHome, 2100 E. Stroop Rd, Ketter-ing. Condolences may be sent tothe family at www.routsong.com.

OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS8 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009

By Trevor JensenChicago Tribune reporter

CHICAGO, Ill. - Arthur A. Gouvis'detailed architectural drawings,meticulously penciled at a draftingtable in his longtime office in Chica-go's Beverly neighborhood, weresuitable for framing.

Mr. Gouvis drew plans forchurches, schools, office parks andfor the restoration of old buildings.His projects included a 133-year-oldItalianate mansion in the SouthLoop that he helped transform froma crumbling hulk to a posh bed-and-breakfast.

Mr. Gouvis, 85, died of cancer

Monday, June 1, in hospice care atHines VA Hospital, said his daughterAngela Collins.

Mr. Gouvis received his bache-lor's degree in architecture from theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949 and immediate-ly started his own practice, whichcontinued to operate until he be-came ill late last year.

Employing as many as five archi-tects, he turned out a steady streamof projects, most garnered by word-of-mouth advertising, his daughtersaid. He never adapted to comput-ers, preferring a pen or pencil andslide rules at one of six drafting ta-bles crammed together in a poorly

lighted work space on West 95thStreet.

His designs ranged from the for-mer O'Hareport Hotel (now a retire-ment home and assisted-living facil-ity) off the Tri-State Tollway inNorthlake to restorations of two-and three-flats in Lincoln Park asthat neighborhood gentrified. Formany years, Illinois Bell was asteady client.

In the late 1990s, builder DebraSeger was impressed when she sawthe level of detail in Mr. Gouvis'drawings for a La Grange homerestoration being done by a friend. "Icould not believe someone woulddraw by hand the details - the toilet

paper holder with the toilet paperon it," Seger said.

She asked him to help her restorethe Wheeler Mansion, a decrepit butonce grand home at 2020 S.Calumet Ave. He was at first takenaback by how much needed to bedone but quickly signed on to helpremake the place. "He was so pas-sionate about historic details," Segersaid. "You could just see his eyeslight up [to meet] someone wholiked history and old things like hedid."

He drew exacting cross-sectionsof moldings and wainscoting, speci-fied in his renderings where towelracks, paintings and mirrors should

be hung, and otherwise guided theway for the carpenters, craftsmenand interior designers who rebuiltthe mansion. "He had a lot of convic-tion on how to do it right," Segersaid. "Arthur was my ticket for mak-ing something so complex under-standable and easy to implement."The Wheeler Mansion opened as abed-and-breakfast in 1999 to ac-claim from restoration experts.

Mr. Gouvis' parents were Greekimmigrants who settled on theSouth Side, where his father workedas a train engineer for Pullman.

He was inspired to go into archi-tecture by a teacher at Fenger HighSchool, and he had started his stud-

ies at the U. of I. before World War IIinterrupted. Serving with the ArmyAir Forces, Mr. Gouvis was stationedin the South Pacific.

He painted in watercolors as ayounger man and continued tosketch throughout his life, and wasnever seen on the job in anythingbut a suit, often accented by a fedoraand a scarf in the winter.

"He had some great spunk,"Seger said.

Mr. Gouvis is also survived by hiswife of 57 years, Marion; a brother,Nicholas; and four grandchildren.The funeral was held at St. NicholasGreek Orthodox Church in OakLawn.

Arthur A. Gouvis, 1924-2009: Architect and Master Draughtsman Made Beautiful Drawings

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NEW YORK - Barbara Papigiotis,who was known to the Greek Amer-ican Community of the UnitedStates and especially in the NewYork and New Jersey area for herstrong advocacy of Hellenic issues,passed away June 8 at the age of 56in her in her Fort Lee, New Jerseyhome. She was especially active re-garding the issue of FYROM andthe name Macedonia.

Her death touched deeply theGreek American Community andespecially the officials and themembers of the Pamacedonian As-sociation of America. She hadserved as secretary general andtreasurer of the organization andshe was also a co-founder of theMacedonian Studies Center inWhitestone New York.

Her brother in law, Mr.Demetrios Nikolaides, told The Na-tional Herald that “Barbara hadbeen facing some health problemsthe last few years.” Mr. Nikolaidessaid that “Monday evening Barbarahad gone home from work and mywife Haritini called her around 8p.m. but there was no answer. Be-cause we live near Barbara’shome…she went [there], whereshe met the maintenance woman ofthe apartment building. She put up

a ladder and she saw through Bar-bara’s window that the televisionwas on and she was lying on herbed. She realized that somethingwas wrong. She entered the apart-ment, then she called Haritini in aswell and they called 911.”

Barbara’s viewing took place onWednesday evening at the HuntStellato Funeral Home in Fort LeeNew Jersey and her funeral servicewas held June 11at the St. John theTheologian Cathedral in Tenafly,New Jersey.

Barbara Papigiotis Will BeMissed By the Community

By Helen P. Panarites. Special to The National Herald

To showcase the cultural historyof Greece in the era of Alexanderthe Great, the Embassy of Greecerecently held a special event, “Fol-lowing the Footsteps of Alexanderthe Great in Afghanistan.” Theevent held on May 5 was a fundrais-ing dinner-reception in collabora-tion with the Nooristan Foundationand the Embassy of Afghanistan.

The Nooristan Foundation is avolunteer, non-profit organizationestablished in 1999. It’s mission isto provide humanitarian, medicaland educational support for the rur-al areas in Afganistan. Mrs. MarieKux, Nooristan Foundation’s Presi-dent, shared information on pro-jects that would be supported by theevent. Mrs. Shamim Jawad, thewife of the Afghan Ambassador tothe United States, Said TayebJawad, expressed her gratitude forthe Foundation and the Greek gov-ernment’s support for developmentin Afghanistan.

The importance of the culturaland philanthropic bonds betweenHellenes and the people of Afgan-istan was re-affirmed byAfghanistan’s Deputy Minister ofCulture, Omar Sultan who spoke tothe guests in Greek. He was a for-mer student of the Greek ManolisAndricos, the distinguished arche-

ologist who brought to light theroyal Macedonian tombs atVergina, Greece in 1977.

The evening at the Embassy ofGreece was the last major culturalevent for outgoing Greek Ambas-sador Alexander P. Mallias, whospoke about the ancient and con-temporary bonds between Greeceand Afganistan. He outlinedGreece’s contributions to the re-building of Afghanistan, includingfinancial support for the NationalMuseum of Kabul and the construc-tion of schools and hospitals. TheHellenic Armed Forces have donat-ed power generators and water pu-rification equipment.

Ambassador Mallias also dis-cussed the peacekeeping missionsled by the Greek Army since 2002.On the security front, at the NATOForeign Ministers Conference inBrussels, Greece pledged to donatebattle tank components and lightweaponry. As a Framework Nation,Greece is contributing an Opera-tional Battalion to the recently es-tablished Afghan Capital Division.

One of the evening’s highlightswas the screening of excepts fromthe BBC documentary, “In the Foot-steps of Alexander the Great to Hin-du Kush”, by Dr. Fredrik Hiebert, anarcheologist with The National Ge-ographic and curator of the exhibi-tion, “Afganistan, Hidden Treasuresfrom the National Museum, Kabul”,

which will travel to New York’s Met-ropolitan Museum in June 2009.Dr. Hiebert referred to the archeo-logical treasures from the excava-tions from the site of the formerGreek city of Khanum.

GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009 9

Hidden Greece will present pictures of the country that tourists don't see, the main streets but also theback streets and balconies and the way of life of people outside the normal spotlight: workers, the home-less, ordinary citizens and some more celebrated, and the places they live and work and define modernGreece, as well as its legacy.

HIDDEN GREECE

School, Not Jail

Tourists to Greece see all the wonders, but if you take some time to walk through the neighborhoodswhere people live and work, you'll be rewarded with sights like these, children in school, and they're notcamera shy

TNH/ANDY DABILIS

did not cast their ballot. Thisshould concern all of us,” she said,adding that it was also an opportu-nity for the ruling party to respondto the Greek electorate, particularlyto those voters who typically sup-port the conservatives.

“We will sit down and analyzethe results and adapt our policiesaccordingly. We will redirect our-selves toward angry and disap-pointed New Democracy support-ers,” she said.

In a nationally televised post-election address last Sunday, June7, Mr. Karamanlis told the Greekpeople he got the message, sayinghe would make the necessary ad-justments and change his govern-ment’s policies, and vowing a re-newed sense of commitment in thewake of the Euro Election loss.

The Premier said New Democra-cy’s inadequate showing onlystrengthened his resolve to pushforward “on the path towards re-sponsibility,” citing the unprece-dented voter abstention as a mes-sage of general dissatisfaction dur-ing troubling economic times.

Greek citizens are clearly de-manding more effective manage-ment of the ongoing economic cri-sis, “and this is the primary respon-sibility of the Government,” Mr.Karamanlis added.

“Of course the election resultsdo not please us. It is clear that asignificant portion of New Democ-racy voters chose to air their protestand send us a message, mainly byabstaining. But the results of theEuro Elections have a wider signifi-cance,” he said, adding that the

main opposition’s euphoric re-sponse does not portray the wayaverage citizens really feel.

“Whatever cheering is far fromthe citizenry’s message. Citizensprimarily demand one thing: thehighest possible effectiveness indealing with the repercussions ofthe economic crisis,” he added.

New Democracy swept to powerin 2004 vowing to end decades ofsocialist corruption, but was hit bya series of inherited scandals, andhas been under relentless attack bythe opposition-leaning Greek me-dia establishment.

The global economic crisis hasnot helped Mr. Karamanlis, either.Public spending cuts, tax hikes andreforms needed to cope with risingunemployment have proven to bedifficult to implement.

Saddled with knee-jerk opposi-tion, a hostile domestic media, alimping economy, huge debt anderoding public finances, Mr. Kara-manlis’ government has little roomto maneuver and offer more reliefto the poor.

Last weekend’s EP election wasPASOK’s first Euro poll victory since1994, and the results have provideda perception boost for PASOK Chair-man George Papandreou, whoseleadership abilities have come intoquestion many times since he tookthe helm of his party in 2004, givinghim a potential platform to win thenext national election.

Last Sunday evening, Mr. Pa-pandreou referred to his party’sperformance as “hope for a bettertomorrow,” and said the EP elec-tion outcome was “the first majorstep towards turning a page for thecountry.”

The main opposition leader alsoreferred to the Euro Election as the“overturning of the country’s politi-cal situation,” adding that “every-thing starts from today.”

There were no winners or losersamong Greece’s citizenry, he said,underscoring that what was defeat-ed in the EP elections were “poli-cies that must be overturned.”

“The people have spoken, and

our victory is great. Greeks voted todemand a radical change in ourcountry. Our victory is a victory ofprogressive forces. It opens the wayfor a major change, one that thecountry needs,” he said, addingthat his party has been asking fornational elections for some timenow.

“This demand has now becomea popular demand. The Prime Min-

ister can no longer prevent Greekcitizens from changing the course,”Mr. Papandreou said.

Mr. Karamanlis’ party currentlyenjoys a 1-seat majority in the Hel-lenic Parliament, prompting someobservers to argue that his govern-ment is on shaky ground.

Although PASOK has only 102seats of its own in the Hellenic Par-liament, its success in last Sunday’s

European elections bolstered so-cialist calls for early national elec-tions. Some analysts say last Sun-day’s EP vote indicate eroding pub-lic support for New Democracy, andpredict that it may force snap elec-tions earlier than expected.

Mr. Karamanlis has said he willnot call for elections this fall. TheGovernment’s term officially endsin 2011, but a vote for president ofthe Hellenic Republic next March isviewed as the limit.

In Cyprus, unlike Greece, the EPelection reflected what happenedin most of Europe, as oppositionconservatives secured more votesthan the governing party by a nar-row margin, but lost one of theirthree seats in Brussels.

Official results last Sunday givethe DISY party 35.65 percent of thevote, just 0.75 percent more thanAKEL, Republic of Cyprus PresidentDemetris Christofias’ party. WhileDISY came out marginally ahead, itemerged with that same number ofseats as AKEL, with each party re-ceiving two out of Cyprus’ six seatsin parliament. AKEL’s junior part-ners in the coalition government,center-right DIKO and socialistEDEK, each received one seat.

Voter turnout in Cyprus was59.4 percent, quite low for Cypriotstandards and far lower than the72.5 percent Cyprus enjoyed in theprevious E.U. election, but still con-siderably higher than Greece andthe rest of Europe.

The above incorporates informa-tion from reports posted byKathimerini, Associated Press,Reuters, Athens News Agencyand «Εθνικός Κήρυξ».

PASOK Takes Euro Election, New Democracy Loses a Seat after Low TurnoutContinued from page 1

PASOK Chairman George Papandreou and his wife Anta celebrate after the Euro Election in Greece lastSunday, June 7. The socialists gained a seat, evening up their presence with New Democracy in Brussels.

She Has NotCome

The lampdims again and gutters out:

the flamewithin – the lust,the longing – burnsbright and hard.I cannot sleep.

That she would comeshe swore

and swore againin Love’s name:Her perjured tongue

sparesman nor god.

Paulos Silentarius. 6th century.Noted for his Ekphrasis on AghiaSophia. Translated by AndrewMiller.

GREEK POETRY

By Konstantin TestoridesAnd Elena BecatorosAssociated Press

SKOPJE (AP) – As an exercise innation-building, FYROM’s latest ef-fort is pretty audacious – an eight-story-high statue of Alexander theGreat on horseback, in the center ofthe capital.

Astride his rearing horse,Alexander will soon raise his handhigh above the main square inSkopje on a giant statue which hasenraged Greece.

Shrouded in secrecy, the ambi-tious but deeply controversial pro-ject has seen few details emergeother than that it will cost the im-poverished little Balkan state mil-lions.

“The works are in the finalphase,” said Vladimir Todorovic,the mayor of Skopje’s downtownCentar district, where the 22-meter(72-foot) marble monument, astructure which will dwarf mostbuildings around MakedonijaSquare, will stand in proud defi-ance of its southern neighbor.

Some are aghast, saying theplanned statue will ruin Skopje’sskyline; cost more than this poorcountry can afford; anger a morepowerful neighbor; even revivecommunal tensions in a countrywhich suffered an insurgency bymilitants among the ethnic Alban-ian minority eight years ago.

The ripples spill across the bor-der into Greece, which lays histori-cal claim to the ancient warrior andempire-builder, and even refuses tolet FYROM (a.k.a., Skopia) call it-self Macedonia. It sees the statue asthe latest in a series of Skopian na-tionalist taunts.

The European Union has alsoweighed in, calling the project “nothelpful.”

For Skopia, one of seven inde-pendent countries born from thewreckage of Yugoslavia, the fuss

over the statue goes to the heart ofits larger predicament.

The tiny Balkan country feelsthat its identity has been under at-tack from all sides since its inde-pendence in 1991: Not just fromGreece, but also from Bulgaria,which considers its language littlemore than a dialect of its own; andfrom Serbia, which disputes the in-dependence of Skopia’s OrthodoxChristian Church.

Most of Skopia’s 2 million peo-

ple are Slavs, while one-quarter areethnically Albanian, many of whomfeel discriminated against.

Skopia’s toughest adversary isGreece, which has forced its neigh-bor to go by the cumbersome offi-cial name of Former Yugoslav Re-public of Macedonia – FYROM, forshort.

United Nations-led negotiationson the 18-year-old row haveproved fruitless, with Athens veto-ing Skopian membership in NATO,

and threatening to derail its inte-gration to the E.U.

Greece worries that Skopia hasirredentist designs on the northernGreek province of Macedonia, andis increasingly suspicious of itspropensity for renaming airportsand highways after Alexander. Thestatue is the latest insult, provokingthe Greek Foreign Ministry toridicule it as “inversely proportionalto seriousness and historical truth.”

Underscoring their tie to Alexan-

der, Greeks voting by Internet lastmonth elected Alexander as thegreatest Greek of all. The yearlongpoll organized by the television sta-tion, SKAI, gave the conqueror127,011 of the 700,000 votes cast.George Papanicolaou, who inventedthe Pap smear test for cervical can-cer, was the runner-up with103,661 votes.

Thessaloniki, capital of Macedo-nia, has long had a statue of Alexan-der, and in January, the Greek andIraqi governments agreed to put upa statue of the conqueror near theIraqi port city of Mosul, at the bat-tlefield where he crushed the Per-sian army in 331 BC.

Meanwhile, Skopia’s prime min-ister, 38-year-old Nikola Gruevski, ispushing ahead with his plans tohonor Alexander astride his horse,Bucephalos. The bronze statue is be-ing molded in Florence, and will beerected in 2010. Along with achurch and another dozen statues ofhistorical figures, the bill will total?10 million ($14 million), all in acountry where monthly wages aver-age $440 and unemployment runsat 35 percent.

Many Macedonians fear the pro-ject will stoke ethnic tension. Someethnic Albanians are saying any newchurch in the square should bematched by a mosque.

“The divisions are as deep as acanyon,” said Radmila Sekerinska,former leader of the Social Democ-ratic opposition. This is no time, shesays, for “Alexander-mania.”

Few have forgotten the extremenationalist fervor during the dyingdays of Yugoslavia back in the early1990’s, leading to wars in Croatia,Bosnia and later Kosovo.

Gruevski’s VMRO party doesn’tjust claim Alexander; in a pre-elec-tion ad aired on state television, itsaid the white race emerged fromMacedonians and spread from thereacross the globe.

Alexander was born in Pella in

northern Greece in 356 BC. By thetime he died at age 33, he had con-quered much of the known world,reaching as far as India. But can ei-ther Greeks or Skopians claim di-rect descent from him?

British scholars say it can go bothways – or neither – and continue re-ferring to Skopia as Macedonia, andto Skopians as Macedonians.

“In terms of ethnicity, I think it’sextremely difficult to say anythingat all because there’s been so muchpopulation movement in subse-quent centuries,” said Dr. HughBowden, senior lecturer in ancienthistory at King’s College in London.

“But Macedonia was part ofAlexander’s territory, and theytherefore have as much right to astatue of Alexander as Athens does,”he added.

British archaeologist Iain Shear-er, a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Soci-ety, says neither side has any realgrounds for claiming Alexander.

“For modern Greece to say thatAlexander was Greek is as absurd asMacedonians who claim thatAlexander was Macedonian,” hesaid. “The terms don’t mean any-thing. The only real commonality tothe situation is accidents of geogra-phy and history.”

Skopian authorities don’t seemto mind the propaganda, and seemquite willing to provoke Greece.

Todorovic earlier suggested theproject was motivated by the dead-lock in talks with Greece to resolvethe dispute over the former Yu-goslav republic’s name.

“When such negotiations last forabout two years without any con-cessions from the Greek side, thenperhaps this government’s decisionto build a monument that angersthem is a wise gesture,” he said in aTV interview.

The above also incorporates in-formation from reports posted byAFP (The French Press Agency).

72-foot Alexander the Great Statue in Skopje Stirs Balkan Passions

Greece, Afganistan and Alexander the Great

In this photo taken this past May 19, people pass next to a statue with Alexander the Great and his horseBucefphalos in cental Thessaloniki. A 72-foot statue of Alexander will soon dominate Skopje’s mainsquare, dwarfing any other construction in downtown Skopje and outraging neighboring Greece, wherethe ancient warrior king was recently voted the greatest Greek of all time.

AP PHOTO/ NIKOLAS GIAKOUMIDIS

EUROKINISSI

EDITORIALS LETTERS10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009

Awards for Hilary Clinton NotJustified by the Facts

To the Editor:An award is bestowed to an indi-

vidual who has accomplished anact worthy of the award.

Other than just rhetoric andphoto-ops, could someone pleasetell me what Hillary Clinton – aself-expressed Turkophile – has “ac-complished” for Cyprus, theAegean, Macedonia, the Ecumeni-cal Patriarchate and Hellenism ingeneral, to “deserve” the awardpresented to her by His EminenceArchbishop Demetrios of Americaon behalf of the so-called “Coordi-nated Effort of Hellenes.” The oldsage again raises his voice in sad-ness: “We have found the enemyand it is us.”

Dean C. Lomis, Ph.D.Newark, Delaware

Where Abortion is Concerned,Morality Part of the Equation

To the Editor:In his June 6 column, “The

Abortion Agenda Should Be AllAbout the Baby,” ConstantineScaros writes that morality is thefoundation of our country’s laws,but that neither morality nor femi-nism should be relevant to abortionlaws.

If abortion laws are not based onmorality, then there is nothingwrong with killing a fetus, even if it

is recognized as a person. As GreekOrthodox Christians, our moralityshould influence every decision wemake, including our decisions andviews about abortion.

Also, Mr. Scaros makes it soundas though there are time limits onabortion. Roe vs. Wade’s lesser-

known partner, Doe vs. Bolton,states that a woman may have anabortion at any time during thepregnancy (even through the ninthmonth), for any reason.

There is a great field of scholar-ship about whether a fetus is a per-son or not. I will play the game and

pretend that I’m not sure if a fetusis a person. If I’m uncertain, Iwould rather err on the side of po-tentially NOT murdering a person.

Nikolia RallisArlington Heights, Illinois

President, Northwestern Students for Life

More hopeful than everLongtime readers of this newspaper would remember our optimistic

comments about our Greek school graduates, and this year is no different.If anything, we are more hopeful than ever.

Take the graduating class of Saint Demetrios School in Astoria, for ex-ample: 43 young men and women, dressed in their blue and white uni-forms inside a large hall full of proud parents and grandparents, werehanded their diplomas by the Archbishop. There was a sense of commit-ment and determination in their words and voices, and in their whole de-meanor – unlike that which one finds in most other schools.

The graduates were grateful to their school; they felt very close to oneanother; they undertood that learning the Greek language is a useful toolwhich sets them apart; they know it will come in handy.

The speakers made solemn vows to never forget their school andchurch; that they will someday somehow repay the great debt they owe.

The president of St. Demetrios’ community, Constantine Eliades, didjust that: Himself a graduate of the school, he went onto become an attor-ney, but never forgot his school and community, and in due time, he cameback to serve them both.

And this is the crucial role our shools can play: providing leadership thecommunity needs. That’s why a curriculum to prepare our graduates as fu-ture community leaders needs to be developed. It’s absolutely crucial.

As for the schools themselves, the key is to offer a program which isconstantly improving. Thanks to a number of great benefactors, St.Demetrios is now amassing a good size fund that will allow them to reachhigh – provided that they also aim high.

This is a historic opportunity. Previous generations were more popu-lous, but circumstances are dramatically different today than they were amere 20 years ago. The means of communication are immeasurably betterfor facilitating the preservation of our cultural identity, including the lan-guage. We are just that far from making history.

The Absentee PartyWhether it’s for the local school board, President of the United States,

general elections in Greece or Cyprus, or for the European Parliament,elections are always important because they take stock of the sovereignwill of the people at that particular point in time.

They are also important because the people’s will is translated into amandate for a particular party leader to run a country. And as history tellsus, who runs a country matters a great deal.

Thus, the Euro Elections which took place in Greece last Sunday, June7, carry their significance for the people of Greece, as well as for Greeks inother parts of the world. We may not live in Greece, but the truth is, nomatter where we live, Greece touches us in so many ways.

What, then, was the mood of the Greek people, and what the messagedid they send to their political class last week?

The Greeks elevated PASOK, the main opposition party founded by thelate Andreas Papandreou, to the rank of the number-one party represent-ing Greece in Brussels for the first time in 14 years.

Technically, PASOK and New Democracy now share the same numberof EP seats (eight and eight), but the outcome still gave a substantial boostto the leadership of George Papandreou, who has been sternly challengedin the past few years, and for whom another defeat would have opened anew round of recriminations – even possibly his ouster from the leadershipof his late father’s party.

Greek voters also punished the governing New Democracy party ofPrime Minister Costas Karamanlis, putting it in second place by (forGreece) a large margin with 4.4 percent less of the vote. In doing so, theysent Mr. Karamanlis a stinging message:

They want him to change course; accelerate reforms; and show moredecisiveness as he tackles the country’s many built-in problems.

But the party which actually ended up with the most votes was the “ab-sentee party,” since 45 percent of the people didn’t even bother going tothe polls. This was the pattern in almost all countries in the EuropeanUnion, but it does not mitigate the fact that this year’s voter apathy indi-cates an alarming degree of dissolution and dissatisfaction ragingthroughout Europe in general and Greece in particular.

People are fed up with scandals; they are fed up by the lack of account-ability and punishment of those who have betrayed the public trust; by thecrushing bureaucracy; as well as the lack of educational and professionalopportunities for youth.

And their decision not to vote – albeit misguided – was their way ofprotesting against the course they feel their country has taken.

The largest percentage of the those who did not cast their ballots areNew Democracy supporters who decided to punish their own party with-out overthrowing it. It was perhaps a loud and final warning before thenext general election, which can be called at almost any time.

And that’s the most important message: People are turned off by poli-tics as usual. They want to see some improvement for a better quality oflife.

The global financial meltdown played a major role in how people vot-ed, of course. Those in power tend to be blamed, even if it isn’t their fault.Yet the rest of Europe went to the political right – except for Greece, whichswung somewhat to the left. And it’s indeed remarkable that, in this dayand age, almost 500,000 Greeks voted for the communist party ratherthan for PASOK.

Whatever the case may be, Greece needs political stability if she is toconfront and overcome her most serious internal issues. And the leaderwho is best equipped to steer the Greek ship with a steady hand is stillCostas Karamanlis.

It’s not funny, at allIt could be seen as comical, even hilarious, but it really isn’t. It’s just an-

other telling sign pointing in the wrong direction.The government in FYROM is erecting an eight-story-high statue of

Alexander the Great on horseback – right in the heart of its capital, Skopje– as a way of proving the little Balkan country’s “Macedonian” roots; as ameans to claim a false national identity.

It’s not funny, at all, because this small, poverty-stricken country cansomeday – under circumstances currently difficult to see – become a desta-bilizing force for its neighbors, especially Greece. At least this is the histor-ical pattern in that part of the world.

The people of FYROM, indoctrinated as they have been for decades in-to believing they are the descendents of the ancient Macedonians, and as-sisted financially by their compatriots abroad – obstinately refuse to stopmaking their absurd revisionist claims.

Up until now, all the international community cared about was protect-ing that country from disintegrating into a state of civil war among its var-ious ethnic and religious groups, ignoring the nonsensical propagandacoming out of it.

A closer look is necessary to expose the consistently recalcitrant and in-transigent path FYROM is pursuing, a path which will inevitably lead tomore trouble in an already tortured region in the world.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

COMMENTARY

Approximately thirty non-Mus-lim candidates were on the ballot ofmajor parties in the municipal elec-tions held in Turkey this pastMarch. These parties includedPrime Minister Erdogan’s IslamicJustice and Development Party(AKP) and the Kemalist RepublicanPeople’s Party (CHP). This devel-opment seemed to call into ques-tion the latest EU report on possibleTurkish membership that expressedconcern over “persistent hostilityand violence against minorities.”

As is often the case in accountsof Turkish reforms, there was muchless to the ballot options than wasimmediately apparent. Nonethe-less, international media wasaflood with reports of the democra-tic reforms the election supposedlyrepresented. In the United States,National Public Radio was particu-larly enthusiastic about minoritycandidates running for office inTurkey.

Perhaps the most spectacularexample of a non-Muslim candi-date was Karun Kovan, an Armen-ian dentist, running for the rulingAKP. But the reason Kovan, a Chris-tian, was running for the IslamicAKP was that Canan Artiman, ahighly-placed parliamentarian ofthe Kemalist CHP had tried tosmear Abdullah Gul, the currentPresident of Turkey, by saying hewas unfit to serve because he wasthe son of an Armenian mother!When Gul protested this was notso, Artiman had asked for DNA evi-dence.

Kovan found Artiman’s attitudeso profoundly racist that he decid-ed to run for a council seat for the

AKP. His voting districtis composed of nine is-lands located in theSea of Marmara. Theserustic venues, whichare popular tourist des-tinations in the sum-mer, only allow horse-drawn carriages fortransport. Althoughthey are a cool retreatin the blistering days ofJuly and August, the is-lands are virtually de-serted during the ice-cold winter. An unusu-al characteristic of theislands is that the ma-jority of their permanent popula-tion consists of a mixture of Arme-nians and Jews. Voting as a unitedblock, the minorities could easilyelect the local mayor and councilmember.

Etyen Mahcupyan, publisher ofthe influential Argos, an Armenianweekly, also endorsed the AKP. Henoted that most Armenians havebeen voting for Erdogan’s AKP be-cause they feel it is the best vehiclefor getting Turkey into the EU. Un-spoken was that such membershipwould provide new protections forTurkey’s ethnic and religious mi-norities. The Armenians also be-lieve the Islamic AKP actually hashad a better record than the Kemal-ist CHP on civil liberties.

Another non-Muslim runningfrom the Princes’ Islands was YusufBahar. Even though he only men-tions his religious when asked, thethirty-seven-year-old businessmanis a Jew. In a very defensive mood,he told Germany’s Der Spiegel that

being Jewish in Turkeyis irrelevant, “Myname sounds Turkish.I look Turkish. My peo-ple have been here fivehundred years.” Hereadily admitted thatthe Jewish communityusually votes over-whelmingly for Mus-lim candidates as theyfeel it is best not to callundue attention totheir presence. Hechose to run for mayorof the islands for theDemocratic Party (DP)and was considered

the frontrunner.Striking a similar note to Bahar

was Raffi Hermon, an Armenianwho ran for a council seat for theKemalist CHP. The approval of hiscandidacy by the CHP implied dis-association and disapproval of Arti-man’s implication that an Armenianheritage automatically disqualifieda person from higher office. Afterasserting that the Armenian “bour-geoisie no longer exists,” Hermontold the international press, “We arenot a threat to the Turkish state, sonow it can flirt with us. Armeniansin politics—that’s good, isn’t it?” Healso thought the CHP candidate formayor of Istanbul was by far themost liberal and progressive option.In any case, he believed that theAKP needed competition after sev-en years of local power.

What none of the candidatesdared speak of directly was theelectoral history of the Republic ofTurkey. For many years after the of-ficial founding of the state in 1923,

non-Muslims were barred fromeven the most humble governmentjobs, much less elected office.Ataturk’s slogan of Turkey for theTurks was literal not figurative.Non-Muslims could be citizens but,a Turk had to be a Sunni Muslim.

A non-Muslim mayor of even asmall district of Istanbul would be afirst in that nation’s entire history,as would the election of councilmembers in Istanbul. Speaking witha Turkish colleague about thesematters, another egalitarian issueemerged. She informed me that nowoman had ever been elected to amayorship anywhere in Turkey. Inthis particular round of local elec-tions, the number of women candi-dates on the slates of major partieshad actually decreased.

On the eve of the election, Baharstruck a democratic note by citingBarack Obama as an internationalrole model. He asserted, “Turksshould be proud when someonewith a minority background can bea political success here. That wouldbe a true test of the democraticprocess in our country. ”

That the Islamic AKP and Ke-malist CHP ran non-Muslims ascandidates is commendable. Theminority candidates, however,proved to be mere window dressingwhen it came to actual voting. RaffiHermon, Yusuf Bahar, and KarunKovan were all defeated by theirMuslim adversaries.

Prof. Georgakas is Director of theGreek American Studies Projectat Queens College – CUNY andConsulting Editor of CINEASTEmagazine.

The Mirage of Electoral Reform in Turkey

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CHRYSANTHI LIRISTIS / SPECIAL TO THE NATIONAL HERALD

ΛΟΓΟΣ

Many people describe some kindof existential angst or concern about“midlife.” What is midlife and whyshould we be concerned about it? If Iask for a word that comes to mindwhen I say midlife, “crisis” usuallypops up first. And when we describepeople who appear to be experienc-ing a “midlife crisis,” we usually don’tdescribe them in very healthy or flat-tering terms. In some way, they seemto be lost, empty and may look—andeven behave—like they are regress-ing in order to capture time gone by.Let’s face it, they are not a pretty sightand regrettably, often become a bur-den on others.

So, again, what do we mean bymidlife and how is it related to a lifecrisis? From what I can discern,midlife transition is a natural stagethat happens to most of us at somepoint in our lives. Exactly when thispoint occurs is open to debate, al-though there appears to be agree-ment that it occurs usually at aboutage 40, give or take 20 years (how'sthat for precision)!

Defining midlife, better known asmidlife transition, is easier to do bydescribing the symptoms that havebeen found to be associated with it.These symptoms include:

• Discontentment or boredomwith life or with one’s lifestyle (in-cluding people and things) that,more than likely, have provided ful-fillment for a long time.

• Feeling restless and wanting todo something completely different.

• Questioning decisions madeyears earlier.

• Questions about the meaning oflife, including “is that all there is?”

• Confusion aboutwho you are, i.e., self-doubt, and/or whereyour life is going (for ex-ample, “Am I a fail-ure?”).

• Yearning for anearlier time in one’s lifeand/or a desire to re-turn to/take back one’syouth and the thingsthat it represents inmind, body and spirit.

• Sadness, depres-sion, irritability, unex-pected anger and ag-gression.

Midlife is also a timewhen many adults take on new jobresponsibilities and, therefore, oftenfeel a need to reassess where they areand make changes while they feelthey still have time. In this regard, itwas a psychologist, Elliot Jaques,who coined the term “midlife crisis”in a 1965 article in which he referredto a time when adults begin to realizetheir own mortality and reflect uponhow much time they may have left intheir lives.

But midlife is not only a time forreassessing our lives in the face of ourown mortality. This transitional stageis also a time when our bodies under-go physical and hormonal changes.Coupled with the emotional changesthat occur during this transition, lifeat midlife can be quite challengingeven if it does not reach the level ofcrisis per se. Likewise, even thoughthese symptoms at midlife can occurnaturally, they also could result fromsome significant loss or change—such as divorce, loss of a job, the

death of a parent, hav-ing to care for agingparents, or childrenleaving the nest. Com-ing to terms with suchloss or change, whichoften comprises a realcrisis of its own, can bedifficult enough, butwhen it is complicatedby midlife transition,the process can feel be-wildering and over-whelming.

It is especially atmidlife when we en-counter a critical cross-roads on the path to

meaning. Rather than having a so-called midlife crisis, writes Mark Ger-zon in his book, Coming Into OurOwn: Understanding the Adult Meta-morphosis, we can, during this peri-od, begin a search for deeper love,purpose, and meaning that becomespossible in life’s “second” half. In oth-er words, envisioning life as a questrather than a crisis, during and aftermidlife, presents an opportunity thatholds great potency for all. Indeed,with increases in life expectancy,which is influencing how we definemidlife, more people of all ages arebeginning to view life’s second half asa meaningful pathway to unlimitedpossibilities. Retirement at laterstages of life demands attention toquestions of meaning. Why is it, forinstance, that some people seem to“retire” from life while others simplytransform or redesign themselves fornew and meaningful challenges inliving and work? The post-midlifeyears of Viktor Frankl, author of the

classic bestseller, Man’s Search forMeaning, who had not retired at over90 years of age, provides a windowfor us to see how important thesearch for meaning can actually bethroughout our lifetime.

Not too long ago I came across agentleman, R. Waldo McBurney, whohad been recognized as “America'sOldest Worker” in 2006. At the time,Mr. McBurney was only 104 yearsyoung! Among his many accomplish-ments since passing through midlife,Waldo also became a published au-thor (at the age of 102 years, I shouldadd!). But what is truly remarkableabout his work is his attitude and per-spective towards life itself. Waldo'sview of life is reflected in the title ofhis book, which I proudly display inmy library: My First 100 Years! Nowhow is that for exercising the free-dom to choose your attitude andviewing life as an opportunity? More-over, when you read about Waldo'slife, you learn right away that his is alife with meaning. Finding the “Wal-do” in ourselves is a meaningfulquest, don’t you think?

Dr. Pattakos is the author of the in-ternational bestselling book, Pris-oners of Our Thoughts: ViktorFrankl's Principles for DiscoveringMeaning in Life and Work, and thefounder of the Center for Meaning,based in Santa Fe, New Mexico,USA. His column will be publishedweekly in The National Herald.Readers interested in contactinghim with questions, comments,and/or suggestions for topics cansend emails to: alex@prisonerso-fourthoughts.com.

The Search for Meaning at “Midlife”: Beyond the Cliches

by Dr. ALEX

PATTAKOS

Special to The National Herald

by PROF. DAN

GEORGAKAS

Special to The National Herald

Watch President Barack Obamain action. He has just embarked onan unprecedented campaign toachieve peace between the Pales-tinians and Israelis by striking atone of the fundamental issues –stopping, once and for all, Israelisettlement expansion. PreviousPresidents from Richard Nixon onhave tried the same without suc-cess. Nixon and Carter, and evenIsrael’s champion, Henry Kissingerdeemed the settlements “illegal”and a violation of the Geneva Con-vention; all were ignored. The ar-dently pro-Israeli Ronald Reagandestroyed the Soviet Union butcould not cajole Israel into stoppingsettlements. Bush the 41st battledCongress for his one brief success ofdenying direct U.S. funding of set-tlement expansion. Bill Clintontook them on and withdrew, chas-tened. George ‘42’ tried to tradegiving the Israelis a free hand onsettlements in return for Israel co-operation on his “road map” forMiddle East peace and recognition

of a “two-state solution; he alsofailed.

Now President Obama has re-opened the campaign. Whilepledging his commitment to Israelisecurity, the President rebuffed Is-raeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’sattempt to defer a settlement onPalestine by keeping the conversa-tion on (disastrously) attackingIran.

Obama has made it clear to theIsraelis that settlement activitymust stop and stop now before theArabs and Palestinians are asked tomake any more concessions.

What truly amazes this old for-eign policy practitioner, is how wellObama stays on message, and thengets that message reinforced by adisciplined Administration and al-lied third parties. His message ofstrong friendship with Israel, tiedto strong medicine, is being echoedby many in an American Jewishcommunity that have grown wearyof right-wing Israeli obfuscation.

So far, Netanyahu, trying to

keep the support of hisextreme right-wing hy-per nationalist coali-tion, has hung tough.But he seems to havereal difficulty copingwith the first reallytough American Presi-dent since 1956. (Ne-tanyahu and his alliesseem to be hoping thatthey can string this outuntil the 2010 off-yearelections.)

If Obama’s planworks, it will mark asignificant develop-ment in American for-eign policy and reestablish, afterfifty years, the ascendancy of Amer-ican diplomacy.

Some Greek-Americans havenoticed this development and havebegun to wish that Obama can dothe same with Turkey. We shouldbe careful what we wish for. Oba-ma’s campaign against settlementshas been based on the recommen-

dations and intelli-gence amassed overhalf a century by acore of Americandiplomats and foreignpolicy professionals. Ican personally attestto the fact that hun-dreds of my col-leagues have long be-lieved that Americanpolicy towards Israelharms not only U.S.interests but will, ifnot changed, ulti-mately endanger thevery survival of Israel.

We are not readyto have Barack Obama turn his at-tention to the Greek-Turkish andCyprus disputes for a very simplereason: almost the entire Americanforeign policy establishment andmost of my colleagues in the For-eign Service have developed aTurkish-centric view of the EasternMediterranean informed mostly bya highly skilled Turkish diplomatic

service and their highly paid advi-sors in the American think tankworld. The Greek side of the storyhas no traction or resonance in theAdministration, as opposed to Con-gress, because we have not expend-ed any real energy in persuadingthe foreign policy professionalsthat supporting the Turkish posi-tion is not in the U.S. interest.

To illustrate the surreal successof Turkish information efforts, theDefense Department web site car-ries remarks by Admiral MikeMullen, chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff, at a Conference onU.S.-Turkish Relations that “Turkeyfought on the allied side with theUnited States during World War II.”

Before the Obama Administra-tion acts forcefully on our issues,we must convince it and the thinktanks in Washington that support-ing the approach of Cyprus Presi-dent Christofias is more than sim-ply moral and just; it is the smartway to go.

If Obama were to act today, he

must take that message to Ankara,rather than let the professionalshelp Ankara foist another ‘AnnanPlan’ style intervention on us.

Barack Obama is shaping up tobe a very effective Chief Executive.It looks like he can accomplish al-most anything he puts his mind to.Until we are capable of putting ournarrative in front of him and his topadvisers with intellectually and po-litically persuasive arguments thatwill convince him that forcing a set-tlement on largely Turkish terms isnot in the U.S. interest, we are bet-ter off with the status quo.

The Hon. Ambassador Theros ispresident of the U.S.-Qatar Busi-ness Council. He served in theU.S. Foreign Service for 36 years,mostly in the Middle East, andwas American Ambassador toQatar from 1995 to 1998. He alsodirected the State Department’sCounter-Terrorism Office, andholds numerous U.S. Govern-ment decorations.

VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009 11

As the D Day celebrations of2009 are consigned to memory,many Greeks around the worldmay wonder why have the sacri-fices of Greece have been ignoredand forgotten by the victorious al-lies. Greece played a significantrole in the Second World War andthe Greeks paid dearly for standingby their allies in the darkest yearsof the global conflict. This yearshould be the time to recall thepain, sorrow and supreme sacrificethat hundreds of thousands ofGreeks paid in order to defeat theAxis powers. Perhaps, this may en-able the Western powers, particu-larly the US to appreciate why his-tory is such a pathos with the Greekpeople and that the allies should al-so honor the memory of those whohad so little and gave so much inthe crucial years between 1940-1944.

A brutal civil war was the pricethat the Greeks had to pay for massand organized resistance againstthe Axis. The forces that spiraledthe country into fratricide duringand after the occupation resultedfrom the convergence of severalfactors, each of which played havocwith Greek society. First, the de-mobilization of the Greek armedforces by the German occupiersprovided a large pool of trainedmen for guerrilla war. Second, theBritish strategy of instigating massresistance, sabotage and subver-sion prompted the newly estab-lished SOE to sponsor republicanand left-wing clandestine networksin Greek cities and towns as well asguerrilla bands in the mountains.In sharp contrast, the British SecretIntelligence Service and the For-eign Office continued to supportthe royalist cause in Greece. Final-ly, the famine in 1941 brutalizedthe urban population and shatteredany illusions that the Greeks mayhave had about their security andsurvival under Axis rule. The fail-ure of the Axis to prevent, or eventry to address, the disastrous af-fects of the famine fuelled resent-ment and swelled the ranks of theresistance organizations.

The vast majorityof the Greek popula-tion during the latesummer of 1941 wasstill recovering fromthe shock of defeatand the anxiety andfear of life under for-eign occupation.Greek society was in astate of reshuffling,and almost the entirecountry was on themove. Anxious peopleyearned for the securi-ty of familial sur-roundings and soughtcomfort in old neigh-borhoods or found a way out of thecities. The fortunate ones could re-turn to ancestral villages and is-lands to weather the storm, but agreat many, especially parents,spouses and children of soldiers,had to stay put, waiting with appre-hension for the return of the menwho fought in the war. The postalnetwork between Albania andGreece was practically non-existentand the few pre-war telephone andtelegraph lines had disintegratedduring the course of the fighting.The tens of thousands of demobi-lized soldiers (the future resistancefighters) were slowly making thearduous trek home and had noready means of communicatingwith their families. Long columnsof bone weary men - some wound-ed, all gaunt - snaked around thefew mountain roads in southern Al-bania as they headed back towardsthe Greek frontier.

For almost a year, they hadfought with grim determination,relentlessly hounding the ItalianArmy out of Greece and forcing itback to the bleak mountains ofSouthern Albania. In the winter of1941, the fighting was bitter andwaged under the harsh mountainconditions of Northern Greece andSouthern Albania. Greek soldiers,suffering from frostbite and un-at-tended wounds, were tormented bylice, worn down with fatigue andhandicapped by dwindling criticalsupplies. Cold and hungry, they

mounted bayonetcharges in blizzardsand fought hand-to-hand when they ranout of ammunition, butall to no avail. In thespring, a German armyof mechanized and ar-mored divisionspoured over the north-ern-western frontier torescue Hitler’s van-quished ally.

It was over in lessthan three weeks. TheGreek soldiers in Alba-nia were outflankedwhen the British Expe-

ditionary force fell back from theGerman onslaught and for the sec-ond time in the war had to be res-cued by the Royal Navy. Mussolini,with the false bravado of a cheat,insisted on a final Italian offensivein Albania, to take advantage of theGerman victory only to face yet an-other failure. The Greek lines heldbecause the Greek Army refused toconcede defeat to a vanquished foe.In the early summer of 1941, theheroes of the Albanian campaignwere just anxious to go home andprotect their families from the un-certainty of occupation. The Ger-mans, in a rare gesture of compas-sion, did not intern the GreekArmy; the soldiers were simply giv-en indefinite leave and sent home.Tragically, the arrival of thousandsof hungry men further aggravatedthe critical shortage of food sup-plies and accelerated the progressof mass starvation.

The famine remains as the dark-est legacy of the occupation andwas the incubator of hatred that in-spired mass resistance against theAxis. Starvation pervaded everycity and town in Greece, consum-ing its victims at an alarming rate.Thousands succumbed to the debil-itating affects of malnutrition ordied from the onset of disease trig-gered by the famine. More than100,000 died of starvation and as-sociated diseases in Athens alone,and thousands more in other citiesand towns. For many, survival

hinged on the drudgery of waitingin long lines to collect a bowl of wa-tery soup delivered daily by theGreek Red Cross. People soughtevery means possible to survive.They sold what ever they had ofvalue to purchase a loaf of bread, acouple of eggs or any form of veg-etable. Cats and dogs became arare delicacy and when these werenot available, rodents had to suf-fice.

Every morning vans collected afresh crop of the famine’s victimsand headed to the outskirts ofAthens, disgorging their grizzly car-go into open pits that served asmakeshift graves. Soon lack of fu-el curtailed these grim convoys andthe backlog of decaying bodiesposed a new hazard for the belea-guered Athenians. For many sur-vivors, images of emaciated chil-dren standing vigil over a dead par-ent and small piles of corpsesstacked on street corners exemplifysome of their haunting memories ofthe famine.

Mass starvation was inevitable,the Germans had descended like lo-custs upon Greece consuming orconscripting everything of valueand paying for it with useless occu-pation currency. The Nazis award-ed Macedonia and Thrace to theirBulgarian allies who promptlyseized the wheat fields and deniedany supplies to Greece, which exac-erbated the critical food shortage.Today it is no wonder that Greekshave such intense feelings aboutMacedonia. In addition to the his-torical injustice and cultural homi-cide being attempted by Skopje, ag-gression from the north has re-mained within Hellenic historicalmemory. Macedonia is Greek notout of whim or caprice, but becauseit is a confluence of history, memo-ry and cultural identity.

Dr. Gerolymatos is chair ofHellenic Studies at Simon FraserUniversity in Vancouver, BritishColumbia and the author of "RedAcropolis, Black Terror: TheGreek Civil War and the Originsof Soviet-American Rivalry."

Grim Vignettes from a Forgotten Past: WWII Greece

To most Greek voters, last Sun-day’s election of deputies for the Eu-ropean Parliament had nothing todo with the European Union and itssomewhat cosmetic legislature.

For many weeks prior to the elec-tion, the two major political parties,the governing party of New Democ-racy (N.D.) and the major opposi-tion PASOK were telling their fol-lowers that they should go to thepolls to register their support forthem. (The smaller parties did thesame for themselves).

Shortly before the election, somepublic opinion polls showed PASOKahead by five or even six points. Theelection was expected to be the offi-cial gauge of public support.

PASOK was hoping that if its per-centage of votes exceeded by five orsix points the percentage receivedby the New Democracy, PASOKwould then be able to pressure theN. D. government of Costas Kara-manlis to call an early election. Onits side, the New Democracy partyexpected PASOK to be ahead buthoped that the difference betweenthe two parties would be much morenarrow, making an early electionunwarranted.

The final result did no live up toPASOK’s expectations, still itshowed PASOK to be ahead of N.D.by four percentage points.

George Papandreou and otherPASOK leaders are now pressing foran early election. On its side Kara-manlis’ N.D. which continues tohave a slim majority in the Greeklegislature (Vouli), rejects at the mo-ment an early election.

Even more ominous for the polit-ical elite of both parties is the highpercentage of abstention. Almost 50percent of the registered votersstayed away from the polls, spend-ing their time instead at the beaches.This is an unusually high percentageof voter abstention for Greece. It did

not signify indifferencefor the European Par-liament which, for theGreek voters, was notthe issue. Everyoneknew that this electionwas on a questionwhich was not evenmentioned on the bal-lot: Should there be anearly election with thestrong possibility thatPASOK might return topower? Fifty percent ofthe voters indicated bytheir absence that theydon’t care. Worse, theabstention of the votersimplied that in their judgment bothparties are equally incapable, equal-ly corrupt, and equally irrelevant.This should be a very disturbingmessage.

Of those 50 percent that went tothe polls, 36.7 percent voted for PA-SOK and 32.3 percent for N.D. Thatmeans that from the total number ofregistered voters only 18.35 percentcared enough to vote for PASOK andonly 16.15 percent for N.D. Theleaders of both parties can ignorethose glaring statistics at their ownperil.

What now?Technically Karamanlis can stay

in power until next February when aPresident of the Republic must beelected. Such an election requires atwo-thirds majority in the Vouli, or200 votes. Unless both major partiesagree to support together the samecandidate, the country will have togo to a parliamentary election.

The current President of the Re-public, Karolos Papoulias, a highlyrespected PASOK personality, waselected with the votes of both PA-SOK and N.D. However, if nextspring the opinion polls show PA-SOK to be well ahead of N.D. thePASOK leaders may refuse to sup-

port Papoulias therebyforcing the Karamanlisgovernment to hold aparliamentary electionbefore it has completedits four year term.

Under the circum-stances, N.D. has onlyanother eight monthsto regain public sup-port and go to the pollswith a realistic expec-tation to win.

On his own initia-tive Karamanlis mayopt for an early elec-tion in September orOctober. However,

with PASOK being now ahead evenby only four points, such an electionwill be foolhardy unless in the nextthree or four months Karamanlis ini-tiates bold and impressive reformsthat will turn public opinion in hisfavor.

N.D. has been in power for morethan five years. It has initiated re-forms but in a rather cautious andtimid fashion, always keeping inmind the notorious “political cost,”meaning the possibility that a cer-tain measure will alienate one groupor other of potential voters and re-duce the chances of winning thenext election.

This political cost is the yardstickboth parties use in deciding howbold they may dare to be.

There is, however, another kindof “political cost.” The political costof inaction. In the elections of lastSunday this different kind of politi-cal cost showed up with avengeance: In the hefty abstentionand in the small percentages of vot-ers who gave their support the twomajor parties.

Karamanlis, if he wants his partyto stay in power or to be re-elected,will have to move resolutely, ignor-ing the political cost of bold actions

but facing squarely the even moredamaging political cost of inaction.

Dealing boldly with the maskedhoodlums (koukouloforoi) will be agood beginning to restore themorale and the efficiency of a de-moralized police.

Practical steps to eliminate de-lays and irritating procrastinationsand petty corruption in the publicbureaucracy will be another way ofrestoring the ordinary citizen’s con-fidence in government. Dealingwith immigration from third worldcountries is another. Reining in theexorbitant powers (largely misused)of the labor unions will be anothercourageous step to restore somesense of sanity to the work stop-pages every other week for one oranother reason. Continuing theelimination of “public enterprises”which devour taxpayers’ money willbe another bold step.

Obviously this is a full plate ontop of the economic downturn andnot all such reforms can be imple-mented in the short time remaining.But if the people feel a fresh airblowing, a new spirit of determina-tion and boldness, a sign of genuinepolitical will to initiate neededchanges, the deficit of four or fivepercentage points may be reversed.

Moreover, since under the pre-sent circumstances the chances ofthe N.D. to win the next election arenot very strong, a bold finish, even iffollowed by an electoral defeat, willleave a legacy for Karamanlis andthe New Democracy which will be aprecious asset for their future.

Dr. Kousoulas is ProfessorEmeritus of Political Science atHoward University inWashington, DC. He is the authorof several books, notably "The Lifeand Times of Constantine theGreat (1999)," and numerousscholarly articles.

Greece: People Are Tuning Out – Leaders Better Wise Up

Vasillis Vosaitis,who has run a carrental company on thepopular island of Za-kynthos since 1985and had plenty of trou-blemaking tourists,thought he had seen itall, until the night hesaw a man walkingdown the neon-lit mainstrip of Laganas, nudeand drunk as a skunk.“And then, the othernight I saw this couplehaving sex right infront of me in a car. Icouldn’t believe it,” Vo-saitis told the British newspaper TheGuardian. That’s not news inGreece, which continues to put upwith the shameless shenanigans ofsex-crazed skirt-chasing booze-hounds from England, who makethat country’s ranks of soccer hooli-gans, themselves world class unem-ployed young male layabouts, seemlike nuns. Wrong comparison, be-cause last month 17 British menwere hauled in front of a Greekcourt in Crete dressed as “sexy” nunsin thongs after a party. They, ofcourse, were members of a soccerteam.

Some were 18, which is probablyokay if you like that sort of thing, butsome were 65, an age at which thecombination of male-sexy nun-thong is enough to make you lookfor one of those vomit bags the air-lines hand out. They were chargedwith “causing a scandal by provoca-tive acts and misrepresenting a uni-form,” which, given the way Eng-

land plays on the world stage, couldapply to its national soccer team.The holiday town of Malia on Creteis a frequent destination for thesesilly rapscallions, so the townspeo-ple are used to something scan-dalous happening, and put up withit because a drunken Brit and hismoney are soon parted. “Theyscream, they sing, they fall down,they take their clothes off, theycross-dress, they vomit,” Malia’sMayor, Konstantinos Lagoudakis,told the New York Times. “It is onlythe British people — not the Ger-mans or the French,” perhaps be-cause the Germans have fun beatingeach other at home and the Frenchhave had so much sex that by thetime they get to Greece they need abreak, and they drink so much winethey can’t get drunk.”

While some dismiss the antics asmen being men, they also involveBritish women, some of whom aremore shameless than Paris Hilton,the Queen of the Internet when itcomes to displaying her attributesinstead of her shortcomings. A bevyof young British women on Zakyn-thos last year were charged withprostitution after taking part in anopen-air sex competition, recordedand put on the Internet. Six Britishmen and six Greeks, two of whomowned the bar where the low-lifeevent took place, were charged with“encouraging obscene behavior,”saying a lot in a country which al-lows just about anyone to wearSpeedos on public beaches.

This being Greece, which allowsinventive excuses for illicit behavior,

they could have saidjust about anything andthe winner should havedeclared herself be-cause she’d be rich andfamous now. This sortof activity was toomuch even for Greeksand led a Member ofParliament, DimitriosVarvarigos, to tell TheGuardian that he want-ed to make public ex-amples of Britons whocommit gross public in-decency in Greece. Nota good idea, becausethese women like per-

forming in public, unlike Greekpoliticians who do their dealings inthe dark. Varvarigos said, “YoungBritons have been shown in pho-tographs engaging in acts that arenot only low-life but, frankly, crimi-nal,” which goes to show you cansteal in Greece, but not fornicate inthe open, even if the Brits were onlydoing to each other what the Greekgovernment does to its citizens.

Zakynthos can be dangerous. ABritish teenager died there after adrinking binge and at least one waskilled, but the island is a lively spotfor tourists, as is Mykonos, wherethey party-hardy and where lastyear an Australian man was beatento death by bouncers, who knowsbetter than to take on an drunkenEnglish soccer team. The Brits havemade Greece, particularly the is-lands, their favorite spot for the kindof bacchanalia that in England is re-served for politicians who are badboys and need a spanking from theirnanny because they have to subju-gate pent-up sexual desires in a soci-ety where pleasure is frowned upon.

Some Greeks think that’s theproblem. “In their country, they arelike prisoners and they want to feelfree,” Niki Pirovolaki, who works in abakery on Malia’s main street andencounters addled Britons headingback to their hotels, if they can re-member where they are staying, toldthe Times, while David Familton, aBriton who works in a club there,said it was a question of emotionalcomfort. “It’s because of British cul-ture — no one can relax, so they be-come inebriated to be the peoplethey want to be,” he said. A reportfrom the British Foreign Office saidin the one-year period from 2006-07, 602 Britons were hospitalisedand 28 raped in Greece, but Greekssaid it’s often the Brits who are onthe offensive, attacking citizens andclub owners and smashing up bars asthey pub-hop, often on low-cost he-donistic tours arranged by Britishtravel companies for Greece, whichis viewed as the place where they canrelieve themselves in public, think-ing anything goes in Greece if you’rea Brit. The Greeks bear some blame,because bars entice customers withdrinking deals no self-disrespectingEnglishman could pass up, even ifthey can’t handle it. They shouldleave the drinking to the Irish, whojust get sullen and write great poetrywhen they’re inebriated, or takedrinking lessons from the Greeks,who sit back in the summer with anouzo and some octopus and cherishlife, not disgrace it.

Mr. Dabilis was the New Englandeditor for United Press Interna-tional in Boston, and a staff writerand assistant metropolitan editorat the Boston Globe for 17 yearsbefore relocating to Greece. Hiscolumn is published weekly in theNational Herald. Readers interest-ed in contacting him can send e-mails to andydabilis@gmail.com.

GUEST EDITORIALS: The National Herald welcomes manuscripts repre-senting a variety of views for publication in its View Points page. They shouldinclude the writer’s name, address, telephone # and be addressed to theView Points Editor, The National Herald, 37-10 30th St., LIC, NY 11101. Theycan also be e-mailed to english.edition@thenationalherald.com. Due to con-siderations of space we enforce a strict 850-word upper limit. We reserve theright to edit.

Dear England: We MissShirley Valentine

LETTER FROM ATHENS

by ANDY

DABILIS

Special to The National Herald

This sort of activity was

too much even for

Greeks...MP Dimitrios

Varvarigos...wanted to

make public examples

of the Britons

by DR. ANDRE

GEROLYMATOS

Special to The National Herald

by AMB. PATRICK N.

THEROS

Special to The National Herald

Greek Americans: Be Careful What You Wish For If You’re Not Prepared

by DR. D.G.

KOUSOULAS

Special to The National Herald

12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, JUNE 13, 2009