The National Herald. a weekly greek-american PublicaTion. February 20-26, 2016

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1 NEWS o C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ VOL. 19, ISSUE 958 The National Herald a weekly greek-american PublicaTion February 20-26, 2016 c v 100 th anniversary $1.50 Four Distinguished MIT Professors Enunciate Their Words of Wisdom Michael Jaharis, a Great Benefactor, Dies at 87 With Wife Mary, a Lifetime of Support For the Community By Aria Socratous WITH THIS ISSUE Founded in 1861 in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), replete with an array of alumni Nobel Laureates, National Medal of Science Winners, and Rhodes Scholars, among other accolades, consistently in the U.S. News & World Report s Top-10 Rankings, is universally recognized as one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the world. Four distinguished Greek professors at MIT who are among the highest achievers in their respective fields spoke with The National Herald about their academic and scientific accomplishments, which are internationally acclaimed: Ioannis Yannas, Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering, recognized for inventing the first regeneration template, a collagen scaffold that induces regeneration of skin; Constantinos Daskalakis, Associate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, a 2012 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and has solved a problem arising from John Nash s work that had remained unresolved for 60 years; Gregory Stephanopoulos, Professor in Chemical Engineering and also Director of the Bioinformatics and Metabolic Engineering; and Sabine Iatridou, Professor of Linguistics, Syntax and Semantics, who has served as Director of the MIT Linguistics PhD Program for many years. PROF. YANNAS TNH: In May you were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame as one of the highest achievers in your field recognized for inventing artificial skin. Please tell us about that honor. IY: I feel very privileged that my work is being recognized. The term artificial skin was used in the late 1970s and early 1980s to describe a fundamentally new treatment for burned patients. However, the Hall of Fame citation correctly identified the true nature of our discovery: We had discovered a method for growing back (regenerating) an organ. Since these early days, both skin and peripheral nerves, as well as the conjunctiva (eye), have been regenerated. Our work has described the first treatment in the new field of medicine, referred to these days as regenerative medicine. TNH: Your resume is full of publications, awards, and honors. In 1987 you became a Member of the Institute of Medicine of National Academy of Sciences, in 1988 you received the Doolittle Award of the American Chemical Society and Continued on page 6 Michael Jaharis brought passion and class to every endeavor, whether it was endowing museums, helping feed the hungry in Greece, or as Vice Chairman of the Archdiocesan Council. Iordanou Pancyprians Man of Year By Constantine S. Sirigos Writer NEW YORK When the Pancyprian Association presents the Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual gala at the New York Hilton on March 9 to Constantinos Dinos Iordanou it will he honoring a man who has soared high but has not forgotten his roots. Iordanou is the Chairman, President, CEO, and one of the founders of Bermuda-based Arch Capital. While he praises that island nation as a terrific place for doing business, his thoughts often turn to the island nation of his birth, and to his friends and family in New York. When TNH asked Iordanou how he sees Cyprus economic situation given recent reports that it is making more progress than Greece, he began my noting that Arch has expressed its confidence by investing in Cyprus through the establishment of a back office in Nicosia in January. There are currently ten people there doing actuarial and financial work. We plan to have people there by the end of 2017, Iordanou said. I believe they are moving in the right direction, he noted but more importantly we are finding that there are a lot of capable people there, which gives us a competitive advantage. The quality of the personnel we have hired in Cyprus is exceptional. Iordanou and the people he just hired are testaments to the country s educational system and the determination of its people. He came to America from Cyprus in 1969 to study at NYU Continued on page 4 By Theodore Kalmoukos NEW YORK Michael Jaharis, a man of deep faith, family, integrity, philanthropy, and love for Hellenism and Orthodoxy, passed away on February 17. An entrepreneur, philanthropist, humanitarian and distinguished member of the Greek Orthodox community died in his home with his family by his side. He was 87 years old. Jaharis became a model of how to offer time, energy, intelligence, love, and wealth in making the world a better place. He took after his is generous father, who landed in Boston as a penniless Greek immigrant in Cherishing faith, family, education, and hard work, the man known affectionately within the family as Pappou set about to rise and prosper. The seed was planted in Michael s heart. The son took his father s example to heart and built on its abiding spirit to achieve even greater things for the betterment of human health and intellectual and spiritual well-being. Michael Jaharis was a genuine person, unique and certainly successful in every way. His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, who was very close friends with Jaharis and a colleague Jaharis was Vice-Chairman of the Archdiocesan Council proclaimed in a written statement attached to the official announcement issued by the Archdiocese that Archon Michael Jaharis was an extraordinary human being endowed by God with inexhaustible energy, amazing creativity and impressive care and love for the people, especially those in sickness, distress and suffering. He was a person fully dedicated to the Church and its Continued on page 8 Moulinos is Child Star In Soccer NEW YORK Peter Moulinos could not be any more excited and proud of his 12-year-old son Christoforos, who will be participating in the 2015 Mundialito International Cup soccer tournament in Portugal in March, where he will be playing against the youth academy teams of Europe s top pro teams. He has the skills and the mindset to take it in stride, as if he were still scrimmaging with his older brother, 15-year-old Stefanos, who led him into the beautiful game, as it is known. I had no interest in soccer, Continued on page 4 For subscription: subscriptions@thenationalherald.com IMF s Thomsen Discusses Bailout and Reforms Poul M. Thomsen, Director of the International Monetary Fund s (IMF) European Department, who is in charge of the IMF s program in Greece and Portugal, recently wrote an update on the IMF s blog regarding ongoing discussions by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Europe, and the IMF, for the purpose of clearing up any misperceptions. Excerpts from the piece, found in its entirety at imf.org, follow. IT MUST ADD UP It is argued that the IMF has made its participation dependent on socially draconian reforms, especially of the pension system. This is not the case. Ultimately a program must add up: the combination of reforms plus debt relief must give us and the international community reasonable assurances that by the end of Greece s next program, after almost a decade of dependence on European and IMF assistance, Greece will finally be able to stand on its own. This implies an inverse trade-off between ambition of reforms and strength of debt re- Continued on page 11 Sergey Ponomarev for The new york TimeS, world PreSS PhoTo via ap Haunting Refugee Images Dominate 2016 World Press Photo Contest In this image released by World Press Photo titled "Reporting Europe's Refugee Crisis" by photographer Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times which won the first prize in the General News Stories category shows refugees arriving by boat near the village of Skala on Lesbos, Greece, 16 November J. Rangos Given Hon. Doctorate By Evan C. Lambrou Special to The National Herald CRESTWOOD, NY St. Vladimir s Orthodox Theological Seminary awarded John G. Rangos with an honorary doctorate during a private ceremony this past February 7 at the retired industrialist s home in Florida, where he was bestowed with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree in full regalia for his philanthropy and service to humanity. Founded in 1938, St. Vladimir s is now under the omophorion of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) which, in turn, began with a handful of Russian Orthodox missionaries in Alaska back at the turn of the 19th Century. Rangos, some of whose ancestors were Greeks from Russia, has been a longtime supporter of St. Vladimir s. He has made a number of substantial contributions to the Seminary Continued on page 3 The NYCB Family of Banks is comprised of New York Community Bank and its divisions: Queens County Savings Bank, Roslyn Savings Bank, Richmond County Savings Bank, Roosevelt Savings Bank, Garden State Community Bank, Ohio Savings Bank and AmTrust Bank, as well as New York Commercial Bank and its Atlantic Bank division. Bank is not responsible for typographical errors. All services not available at all locations. Equal Opportunity Lender

2 2 COMMUNITY THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 Baltazanis and Company s Musical Cure at Blue Note in New York City NEW YORK Greek musicians and composers first made their mark at New York s famed jazz venues long ago, but Costas Baltazanis presentation of music from his CD End of Seas at the Blue Note on February 12 was the latest exclamation point on their musical statements. Perhaps the Aegean Sea, which can greet you with turmoil or a hint of catastrophe and suddenly, like a forgiving lover, show you a serenity you have never known accounts for Hellenic contributions to the genre, or maybe the passion that infuses most Greek music especially rebetika is the inspiration. Each of the nine pieces from the CD evoked vivid scenes on Friday night after midnight, and that was no accident. When I compose I take a cinematic approach like creating a soundtrack, reflecting different scenes like forests or social situations - said Baltazanis, who in 2002 composed the music for the movie Paradise is a Personal Affair and created the music for the LaMaMa production of Agamemnon that opens February 18 in New York. His website notes that End of Seas is inspired by his New York experiences. In the West Village on the 12th, the show had an ethereal By Constantine S. Sirigos Writer NEW YORK The intimate performance space of the Cornelia Street Café crackled with music, poetry, and politics at the bimonthly gathering of the Greek- American Writers Association on February 13. Poet/actress Lili Bita read from her book Flesh Fire, a collection of erotic love poems, TNH Executive Editor Dino Scaros proposed tough love to the Republican Party, and pianist Dr. Louis Davaleris offered a passionate Mozart Sonata. Writer and journalist Penelope Karageorge praised the guests for braving the bitter cold and introduced the presenters who warmed them up. beginning with After the Fight the Sea or the lover had calmed down. Dan Brantigan s flugelhorn began smooth and silky before turning wild. Addam Klipple fired off crystalline notes from the piano before turning the music from thrilling to intoxicating with this arpeggios. Baltazanis liquid guitar blended with Dan Brantigan s flugelhorn fluidity, contributing to a cocktail that would make the excellent Blue Note bartenders envious had they too not been drunk on the music. And that was just the beginning. Later Petro Klampanis played the double bass like no one had heard before with an exotic technique and just a hint of the mysteries from the East from the depths of the millenniaold joys and suffering of Asia Minor perhaps. And there were times when Shlomi Cohen on sax jumped in like the rare subway preacher who earns his welcome among weary commuters by blowing their minds with ideas they never considered and taking them to unexpected places. Drummer Keita Ogawa grounded the melodies and harmonies with rhythm and the entire ensemble never gave a hint that there was very little rehearsal time. Except for Brantigan, none of them performed on the CD but The evening began with Mozart s K. 570, a Sonata for Piano in B-flat, with a violin part that appeared mysteriously after his death. Dr. Dalaveris, who is an ophthalmologist raised in Reading, PA with roots in Mytilene, was joined on violin by Filip Pogady. The intimate space beneath the café s main dining rooms with its fine sound system made the guests feel like they were enjoying a private concert in their living room with friends and both musicians had their shining moments. In her introduction of Bita, Karageorge declared that although she grew up on Zakynthos, she really discovered herself in the Unites States. Nevertheless, Bita insists Greek Live at the Blue Note with music from Costas Baltazanis CD End of Seas. Left to right: Baltazanis, Keita Ogawa, Dan Brantigan, Petros Klampanis. Not seen: Shlomi Cohen on saxophone. Baltazanis was thrilled they joined him. He explained how it isn t necessary that they play together regularly, first, because he always plays with the top New York musicians, and second because of what he asks of his performers. I don t tell them they must play something exactly as I want it, and he tells them not to be shy about presenting their own personalities. He loves it because culture remains her strength and her inspiration. The effervescent Bita bookended her delightful reading of Fleshfire, a collection of erotic love poems that was just reissued by Somerset Hall Press, with impassioned messages to the guests: First I want to tell you I love you all and May Eros be your guide forever. Bita does not merely read, she gives a dramatic performance, the words receiving their fullest expression only when accompanied by energy generated by the flesh. Indeed Anais Nin said of Bita of Bita, "her words are strong, body and soul in balance." Bita is the author of 11 poety collections and two memoirs. Her website is every time it s different. DEEP LOVE OF MUSIC My father played a little guitar. That s how I met the instrument, growing up in Athens. His family has roots in very musical places Baltazanis father Thano s are in Constantinople and his mother Stephania s in Kefalonia. It s in the genes too because his sister Fay, who is an executive with Proctor & Gamble in Greece, is not a professional Her publisher, Dean Papademetriou, made a special trip from Boston and Dr. Robert Valler, who is Bita s translator and spouse, also presented a poem. FROM SUBLIME TO EROTIC TO The guests traveled from high culture to the media circus that American politics has become. Scaros book could be an antidote, however. The author of Grumpy Old Party, 20 Tips On How the Republicans Can Shed Their Anger and Win Back the White House, in addition to his work at TNH, is an educator, presidential historian, political analyst, and attorney. But it was Scaros as concerned citizen who was motivated to write it. I wanted write this book because as soon and the Republicans nominated Mitt Romney I knew there was no way in the world they would win the election in 2012 just as I knew Mc- Cain would not win in It was obvious to me, but I was baffled how Republican leaders and pundits were so convinced Romney would win. On election night in 2012 they showed they had no clue what it takes to win an election. The book offers the GOP 20 tips and number one is It s Likability, Stupid. It means that at the very least your base, your party and voters are excited about you. They want to vote for you because they like you, not merely because you have the best chance of defeating the other party s candidate, whom they can t stand, he told TNH. That likeability is not about nice is starkly illustrated by a comparison between Romney and Donald Trump. The former is a nicer guy but Trump s supporters like him because his challenges to the status quo excite them. Trump s candidacy also shows that some of the tips, in this case Lose the Angry Tone are conditional. In this year of anger against politicians and the establishment across the political spectrum, Trump s tough talk resonates with many voters. Scaros clarified that I think it s okay to be angry about the way things are. By lose the anger I mean the name-calling and having an obsession with tearing down your political opponents. Another reason Trump has been successful is that his likely opponent on the Democrat side Hillary Clinton is even less likeable, and that helps him to the extent that he is abrasive, Scaros noted. He also said that Hillary and Romney ooze inauthenticity. George W. Bush, notwithstanding how he is now perceived, won because he showed genuineness and likability. Scaros, who has forecast the election of the last 10 presidents though he humbly notes they were not early predictions knew that George W. Bush would beat Al Gore, which was the case, he says, based on all official (and almost all unofficial) counts and recounts. To likability, Scaros pointed to Bush having won the first candidate you would like to have a beer with contest. AND THE WINNER IS Who does Scaros think will win this time? Though he hasn t made an official prediction yet, he thinks Trump has to be the favorite at this point and knew that as early as August 6, the night of the first Republican debate. Most political junkies feed directly off their parents attitudes, but that s not the case with Scaros. My mother has an aversion to politicians in general, but he did inherit his father s love of political history. I think I musician, but she plays guitar too. He came to America to study jazz guitar performance and composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was here for seven years and then returned to Athens where he participated in the city s Jazz scene. Baltazanis is also an educator, serving as director at the Nakas Conservatory in Athens and publishing books on music education. He told TNH that after exhausting what he could accomplished in Greece, he came to New York in Asked about his teaching philosophy and how he approaches children he said I encourage them to play what they love to listen to and perform, and believes learning music is like a game for children, but that even adults should find it enjoyable. He is against the traditional, sterile approach of sitting down students and having them practice their scales for two hours. It should be a joy, that is how to motivate children he says. I give them songs I think they like, but I tell them if it s something you don t enjoy let me know, we ll change it right away. He also plays bass guitar, but he said with excitement that the instrument we would also like to have played is the sax. He loves the way saxophone players can express themselves on their instruments. He is an honorary sax player. I don t play the guitar like a guitar player, he told TNH. I think like a horn player. I always have a horn or a voice in mind when I play. The final piece was Iasis The Cure but by then Baltazanis and his friends and the bartenders had everyone feeling no pain. A Night of Music, Passion, and Politics on Cornelia Street in the Village Michael Dukakis endorsement of Constantinos E. Scaros latest book, Grumpy Old Party. DON T MISS OUR ANNUAL INSERT: The 50 wealthiest greeks in america Left to right: Dr. Louis Dalaveris, Lili Bita, Filip Pogady, and Penelope Karageorge at the famed Cornelia Street Café before the Greek-American Writers Association presentation. gained my interest in presidents through him, but my aunts and uncles were very political and I would be entertained by them talking about American politics for hours in a loud, Greek comical way. His parents were both born on Nisyros. When his late father Emmanuel was 36, he followed most of his other siblings to America. He was a professor in Athens and then in New York. He didn t know his future wife, Anthousa, in his youth, but they met through family. Their only child, Scaros was born in Manhattan. Scaros has written five other books, but those were textbooks. This is the first time he has an opportunity to publicly promote the book, Grumpy Old Party, and is having fun at the cafes and Barnes & Nobles he visits. Personal gain aside, Scaros also believes the book is a must for the 2016 election for Republicans and Democrats alike even Michael Dukakis endorsed the book. Having interviewed the former governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee for TNH s 100th Anniversary commemorative compendium, Scaros said Dukakis is a great guy. Dukakis quote about the book appears with other endorsements on the back cover: Though I do not agree with everything in this book, I think it should be required reading for all Republicans. March 5, 2016 To advertise please contact us at: , ext. 101 or info@ekirikas.com THE NATIONAL HERALD The National Herald Cypriot Young Professionals (CYP) Host Leadership Dinner in NY Cypriot Young Professionals (CYP) of the Cyprus-U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently hosted their 3rd Leadership Dinner with Bareburger co-founder and COO Jimmy Pelekanos (center). He offered frank advice like, "Leave your ego at the door," and shared the story of Bareburgers' beginning an unlikely venture born among friends and family at the start of a recession that is 20 restaurants strong and growing, soon to be in Santa Monica and Tokyo.

3 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 COMMUNITY 3 Russian Patriarch Kirll and Pope Francis Have Historic Cuba Meeting By Theodore Kalmoukos HAVANA, CUBA His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Pope Francis of Rome on February 12, in a lounge at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport in Cuba. The two prelates embraced and exchange the kiss of love and peace three times. Pope Francis said to Patriarch Kirill we are brothers. It was the first between a pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in some 500 years. That the media widely reported it as the first meeting in 1000 years, since the occurrence of the East-West Schism is historically out of context as there was no Moscow Patriarchate at the time; Moscow was a small diocese, part of the Kiev Metropolis which, in turn, was part of the Church of Constantinople. The Ecumenical Patriarchate granted Moscow autocephaly and raised it to patriarchate status 427 years ago. In 1438, the head Kiev Metropolis Isidoros, while a member of the entourage of the Ecumenical Patriarch Joseph II the met Pope Eugene II at the Synod of Florencia-Ferrara. That Synod His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia embraced with Pope Francis of Rome in Havana Cuba. was rejected by consciences of the Orthodox Church. At the end of the February 12 meeting between Kirill and Francis, the two signed a joint declaration in which they express their hope that the meeting may contribute to the reestablishment of [the] unity willed by God, for which Christ prayed. May our meeting inspire Christians throughout the world to pray to the Lord with renewed fervor for the full unity of all His disciples. In a world that yearns not only for our words but also for tangible gestures, may this meeting be a sign of hope for all people of goodwill! the declaration reads. Kirill was overheard telling the pope, "Things are easier now." "It is clearer that this is God's will," Pope Francis told him. The meeting took months of negotiations and more than two decades to be arranged. Cuban President Raul Castro hosted. Kirill was paying a pastoral visit to the Russian Orthodox communities in Cuba while Francis was on his way on a pastoral visit to Mexico and the stop in Havana was announced just a week prior to the meeting. In the common declaration that Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill signed, they emphasized the things and concerns the two Churches have in common. Commenting about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, they said that "whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated." They called on the international community "to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion" of Christians, to end violence and terrorism, and to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid reach the victims of violence. They also said that "in raising our voice in defense of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist violence. "Attempts to justify criminal acts with religious slogans are altogether unacceptable. No crime may be committed in God's name." They called those who have died "martyrs of our times" and said they helped unite various Churches "by their shared suffering." They spoke of the need to be vigilant against European integration that is "devoid of respect for religious identities." They also spoke of extreme poverty, the "millions of migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations," and consumerism. They also touched upon issues of abortion, euthanasia, new reproductive technologies, and threats against the churches' view of marriage. Patriarch Kirill said they had a two-hour, "open discussion with full awareness of the responsibility we have for our people, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization itself. It was a conversation filled with content that gave us the opportunity to understand and hear the position of the other. And the results of the conversation allow me to assure that currently both churches can cooperate together to defend Christians around the world; with full responsibility to work together so that there may be no war; so that human life can be respected in the entire world; so that the foundations of human, family and social morality may be strengthened through the participation of the church in the life of human modern society." Pope Francis said: "We spoke as brothers, we share the same baptism, we are bishops, we spoke about our churches. We agreed that unity is done walking (together). We spoke clearly without mincing words. I confess that I felt the consolation of the Spirit in this dialogue. I am grateful for the humility of His Holiness, his fraternal humility and his good wishes for unity. We left with a series of initiatives that I believe are viable and can be done." John G. Rangos Receives Honorary Doctorate from Saint Vladimir s Seminary Continued from page 1 over the years, including the lead gift to a $20 million capital campaign drive back in 1998 which led to, inter alia, construction of a new library at St. Vladimir s current campus in Crestwood. The library is housed in what is now the John G. Rangos Family Building, a 27,000 squarefoot facility that was dedicated in 2002 and cost roughly $9 million to build. Since then, the St. Vladimir s library has expanded by almost 65,000 volumes (from 121,675 to 186,429), according to St. Vladimir s Librarian Eleana Silk. None of that would have been possible without Mr. Rangos generosity, Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, chancellor and chief executive officer of St. Vladimir s, told the National Herald. Rangos generosity and philanthropy are well-known not only within the Greek-American community, but also nationwide. Whether personally or thru the Rangos Family Foundation, he has given millions to major universities and hospitals e.g., Duquesne University, Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Children s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and he strongly supports the nation s veterans. A decorated veteran of the Korean War himself, Rangos founded the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, which actively supports the CMOH Society which, in turn, recognized him with its prestigious National Patriot Award in To honor his support for Medal of Honor recipients and his dedication to advancing their legacy of courage and sacrifice, the CMOH Foundation unanimously elected him its Chairman Emeritus during the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg on September 18-22, Just last summer, Rangos kick-started Pittsburgh Hires Veterans, a new program designed to help unemployed or underemployed veterans in Western Pennsylvania find work and receive special training they might need to take advantage of new employment opportunities. He also founded International Orthodox Christian Charities back in 1992, which is one of the main reasons reason behind St. Vladimir s decision to confer an honorary doctorate on him. When I first came to St. Vlad s from Alaska, we looked at the handful of people who have made incredibly significant donations to this institution; who have supported their own church; who have made great contributions to their society ST. vladimir s orthodox Theological Seminary The Rangos Family Building at the St. Vladimir s Seminary campus in Crestwood, NY. The building now houses the Seminary s new library. ST. vladimir s orthodox Theological Seminary Holding his honorary doctorate from St. Vladimir s Seminary, John G. Rangos is flanked by Alex Machaskee (L) and Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield (R) during a private ceremony held at the retired industrialist s home this past February 7. and community, and to their country; and who have thereby adhered to the tradition and sacred objectives of the Church. And Mr. Rangos name jumped out immediately, Rev. Hatfield said. He s very patriotic. He cares passionately about military veterans. And he has given very generously to hospitals, schools, programs and charity. For Orthodox Christians, his longstanding commitment to IOCC comes chiefly to mind. When he gave his gift to St. Vlad s almost 20 years ago, he requested that everyone present make sure we all do everything we can to support IOCC, which is now one of the world s finest philanthropic agencies, he pointed out. Since its inception, IOCC s good work has reached thousands upon thousands of people in need all over the globe in literally dozens of countries and everyone knows Mr. Rangos was instrumental in helping IOCC become the successful organization it is today. His support has been absolutely critical to IOCC s success. That alone merits an honorary doctorate from an Orthodox Christian theological school, he said. And IOCC is just one of the many noble causes Mr. Rangos supports. So as a way of thanking him for everything he s done for the Church; for the entire Orthodox Christian world; and even beyond Orthodoxy, with all his support for veterans, hospitals and medical research. For all those reasons, we felt it was appropriate to give him an honorary doctorate, Rev. Hatfield added. TRULY AN ICON Alex Machaskee, executive chairman of the St. Vladimir s Seminary board of directors and former publisher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, echoed those sentiments: No one deserves to be honored more than John Rangos. I m personally well aware of his many contributions to the environment, veterans, education and healthcare, as well as to IOCC and the Church, not only with his material treasure, but also with his compassion and his ideas, he told TNH. He s truly an icon in the Orthodox Christian world, and a very good person who has helped so many people. The wide scope and range of his philanthropic contributions in general, and specifically in his capacity as a founder and chairman of IOCC, made our decision to give him an honorary doctorate very easy, he said. As a past chairman of IOCC myself, I witnessed firsthand all the great work IOCC does in so many different places Greece, Kosovo, Bosnia, Ethiopia and Haiti, just to name a few and so much of that is due to the early years of Mr. Rangos involvement and devotion to this great agency, which plays such a crucial role in putting the Gospel into actual practice, thereby elevating the Orthodox Church s profile worldwide, he said, adding that Rangos also has a strong Pan-Orthodox consciousness and cherishes his Greek heritage. I think it s fair to say that Mr. Rangos is encouraged by all the good work we ve done at St. Vlad s; all the books we ve turned out over the years; and how inspirational that has been to so many people. We have the largest English-language Orthodox Christian press in the world, and that has played a central role in helping us spread Orthodox Christian teaching to our Orthodox and non-orthodox brethren alike, Machaskee said. And Mr. Rangos never forgets his roots. He deeply loves his Greek Orthodox community, as well as the broader Orthodox Christian community. And that love has helped nurture and foster Pan-Orthodox relations, he said, citing the close cooperation St. Vladimir s has enjoyed with Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology over the years. Professors from both schools have taught and continue to teach at each institution, and three Greek Orthodox bishops have served on the St. Vladimir s Seminary board of directors: Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh, his predecessor Metropolitan Maximos, and the late Archbishop Iakovos of North & South America. But Rangos public service is not limited to his patriotism or the many philanthropic causes he and his family support. It also includes his storied career in solid waste management, during which he helped pioneer many standard environmental practices people take for granted today. As such, the Church is immensely grateful not only for his generosity to institutions of healing and higher learning, but also for his service to the Earth itself as a good steward of God s Creation, Hatfield told TNH. Rangos founded Chambers Development in 1971, and operated Chambers until 1995, when it merged with USA Waste. He continued serving on USA Waste s board of directors, and presided over its merger with Waste Management Inc., the country s largest solid waste management firm, in He retired from the industry after that. By then, his companies had helped remove millions of tons of industrial and toxic wastes then peppering the country s landscape; forge environmentally sound practices at both the federal and state levels; and create thousands of jobs across the Eastern Seaboard. I remember the green and yellow Waste Management trucks on Kodiak Island very well. And because Mr. Rangos career had so much to do with keeping the environment clean for future generations, our Go Green Initiative naturally made me think of Mr. Rangos, Hatfield said. First undertaken in 2007, he explained, the Seminary s Go Green Initiative sparked an ongoing effort to install solar panels onto the rooftops of every building at Saint Vladimir s: Meyendorff Hall and the campus chapel are now both under solar panels. Oddly enough, the Rangos Building isn t yet, but we re hoping to place solar panels on all our buildings eventually. It s a gradual process, but it s a process that will bring St. Vlad s in line with the energy needs of the 21st Century, so it s on our to-do list, he said. Mr. Rangos career certainly exemplifies genuine commitment to the environment, and being environmentally responsible is also part of the Church s universal mission. Humankind is charged with, among other things, taking care of the Earth, so we need to try and make such efforts whenever and wherever we can, Hatfield added. For his part, Rangos told TNH he felt very humbled that St. Vladimir s wanted to recognize his contributions to the church and other philanthropic causes, as well as his professional efforts in the field of environmental management: God gives you only so much time. I always felt it was important to use that time to help my community, my church and my country. I m just glad He has given me an opportunity to give back, and to try to do something good. It s very important to help others in constructive ways, and to support good causes as much as you can. I m happy St. Vladimir s Seminary is doing so well, and I m very pleased that IOCC has come as far as it has. IOCC brings all Orthodox Christians together in a very tangible way, and has strengthened our Church and faith, he said. The William Spyropoulos Greek-American Day School of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church St., Flushing, NY (718) Fax: (718) KINDERGARTEN O P E N H O U S E FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016 at 12:30 p.m. Visit our school Learn about our programs Get to know our educators Visit our classrooms Give your children the most valuable gift of their lives: A Greek-American Education with cutting edge technology and with a foundation in our Hellenic Orthodox ideals, values, and principles

4 4 COMMUNITY THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 Soccer Prodigy Christoforos Moulinos Formula: Focus, Family, and Fun Continued from page 1 their father, attorney Peter Moulinos told TNH. I grew up in New York and Astoria and back then it was all baseball and basketball he was a pitcher in baseball and a guard in basketball but my kids started watching soccer and I started getting worn down by baseball games that lasted 3 ½ hours so we started watching soccer together. It was great. He is a dad, however, not an impresario. Christoforos was recently invited to two tournaments and his wife warned Moulinos against wearing him out. We try to make sure that doesn t happen, but when some parents of Christoforos teammates alerted Moulinos about the international tournament the family was all in. The boys got into soccer from school and Moulinos said it was fun watching them grow up playing together, but early on he knew there was something special happening with Christoforos. We would go to games for the oldest one and the little one, who was three years old, would be on the sidelines kicking a ball around, kicking the ball against the fence the whole game, said Moulinos. The little one got better playing with his older brother and his friends so when he reached five we put him in a league he would score 20 goals a game and the coach had to take him out to give the other kids a chance. He is a striker and in 2014 he joined the Pre-Academy of the Red Bulls. Christoforos has also trained with the Montreal Impact. He made their elite camp last year and trained in Montreal, said his father. His raw ability begins with speed. He is the fastest child in his class, telling his father no one can catch me in races. He also has the highest vertical leap although he is fairly short. In addition to his genes, the foundation of Christoforos promise is his ability to focus. He wanted to be like his brother that s what got him focused Sometimes the coaches say he s too serious, Moulinos said, but that is part of the formula. He said it s from obvious watching games that some kids just have it. Some just have a drive and others just want to hang out and eat ice cream and watch them game, and part of Melissa Thodos Celebrates Ethnic Roots in Chicago CHICAGO, IL Greek-American artist and impresario Melissa Thodos studied classical and contemporary dance technique at Skidmore College, then performed for eight years with the Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble. In 1992 she poured her passion and experience into founding Thodos Dance Chicago as a place where Company Members they can develop their own artistic identity. In the company s new production, "Chicago Revealed," she and her colleagues examine their ethnic identities, however. They go home to Greece as the great Greek Ad Man George Lois would say and other places. The production being presented at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie began on Feb. 20 and the performers express the joys and challenges in the lives of People from around the world who have made their homes in the great and diverse metropolis. "I think it's a very rich place creatively and to live Revealing Chicago through dance seemed like a very logical thing based on my background and the company's history in Chicago," said Thodos, and Evanston, IL native, to the Chicago Tribune. The African- and Japanese- American experiences are among those explored, but Thodos also explores her own background with the piece "Thio Kosmos," which draws upon the choreography and music from her 2007 work, "Anasa." The Tribune wrote that The original piece was inspired by a fire in Greece that year and dedicated to its victims, using the disaster as a lens for a historical look at the country and the rise and fall of civilizations. "You grow up in a Greek household, but you go out into the world and it's a completely different world, but you're informed by this deep cultural past [Thio Kosmos] addresses the nuances of what it means to be culturally Greek and living in America," she said. Thodos was also inspired in discussions with other members of the community. "I interviewed many Greek- Americans to get their perspective on what it means to be a Greek American, what it means to be American, how life in Greece currently has affected them," she said. Thodos hopes "Chicago Revealed" will strengthen her neighbors respect for their city. "Having grown up here and lived in different places in the country and the world I think it's one of the richest cities in terms of culture, in terms of art, she said. Iordanou is the eldest child policeman from occupied Kyrenia and a stay-at-home mom. I had five brothers and one sister, he said. One brother died young, two are physicians, one is in the restaurant business and his sister works in a hospital. His mother is from near Nicosia in Free Cyprus. Iordanou was an engineering major and he always liked engineering he became an aerospace engineer. One of his cousins was an electrical engineer who became the head of the electrical authority of Cyprus. Perhaps math is the link between his love of engineering and the insurance business. It was my best subject and I had phenomenal teachers in Cyprus in public school. When it s time to get away he comes to New York, spending his summers in Long Island with friends and family. When he arrived in America lived in Astoria. There are things he misses about it his daughter still lives there but he doesn t like the city congestion. He was active with the Pancyprians since the beginning, helping to found the association in 1975, and he is one of their lifetime trustees, continuing to be active. His brother Michael is the head of its athletic division and his brother George is the vice president of the soccer club. I played for their soccer team when I was young, he added with pride. After graduating from NYU he worked for Pratt & Whitney aircraft and then went to AIG, beginning in their engineering department where he did engineering surveys of risks. There were limits to high he could rise in the company. Because he was foreign born, it was difficult to receive top security clearance, so he moved to financial services, where he was identified as a young high-potential individual. That landed him in the fast track management program and he loved learning about all aspects of the insurance business. My career was going so well, I had no reason to look back to engineering, he told TNH. Iordanou was at AIG for 10 years, and he was still very young when he became a C.V. Star Partner C.V.stands for the legendary Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Founder of AIG. They put you in the top 40 executives in the group when you become a partner, he explained. GET ADVICE, BUT YOU DECIDE Iordanou left in 1987 and joined Berkshire Hathaway, running Warren Buffett s commercial insurance cooperation in New York five years. He met with the legendary financier about once a month and got a lot of good advice from him during the five years he was there. He taught me how to be an LUXURY TRAVEL ECOTOURISM WINE TASTING RELIGIOUS PILGRIMAGE ARCHAEOLOGY CULTURE MEDICAL SPA GASTRONOMY TOURISM Let s go to Greece this summer! Don t miss this unique opportunity to advertise your business in our special tribute to Greek Tourism, to appear in our greek weekly publication, Periodiko. Deadline: February 29th, 2016 For information on advertising rates contact: NEW YORK: Veta Diamataris: (718) ext advertising@ekirikas.com ATHENS: Chrysoula Karamitrou: , office hours: 2-9 pm production@ekirikas.com THE NATIONAL HERALD The National Herald Christoforos Moulinos, 12- years old, with a trainer at the Montreal Impact s elite camp where he was voted best by the coaches. His brother Stefanos, who introduced him to soccer, now is an aspiring entrepreneur, but maybe he will be his little brother s agent. it is a natural instinct they are just born with and some kids have more mental stamina are more focused on the game. They are alert and smart nothing distracts them. ROOTS, ATHLETIC AND HELLENIC Moulinos wife Peggy is Greek-Canadian but with no athletes in the family. His older sister is a teacher and she is not athletic either, so Christoforos is sports miracle. He got it from somewhere, I m not sure where, Moulinos said. Somewhere in Kefallonia, no doubt. Moulinos and his wife visited the island every other year, but the wrong years. They would always hear about the other, however, and one year they were invited to the same wedding. After a challenging long distance relationship, they were married. Moulinos mother came from Kefallonia with her family when she was 15 after the earthquake of 1953 and settled on Orchard Street in Manhattan. My dad came over when he was around 20 to go find my mother. He jumped ship and went to go find her. True love, he told TNH. Moulinos never ceases to be amazed with what he sees his son do. This past week I said wow look at that move! Christoforos had the ball passed to him when he had his back to goal, next and he just spun around like a top and fired a shot. Asked whether soccer has finally taken root in the United States, he told TNH it s happening, but it depends on what you re looking for. From a player development point of you, the United States is still a different planet from Europe, where they will identify kids they believe will be pros at 13, sign and set them up living full time at a training facility where they go to school and are trained for soccer all week long. In the U.S. the goals is for kids to get a college scholarship. No one is really training to become a pro, he said. Dinos Iordanou Began in Aerospace, Soars in Insurance Continued from page 1 Dinos Iordanou. By Constantine S. Sirigos Writer NEW YORK Flanked by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark- Viverito and Nisha Agarwal, Commissioner of the Mayor s Office of Immigrant Affairs, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio greeted the representatives of New York s ethnic media that packed the Blue Room in City Hall. De Blasio said, We understand the community s ethic media reach a huge percentage of the people of this city and have the ability to help people understand where help is available to them and allows people the maximum opportunity to participate in our democratic process. We are the ultimate city of immigrants, he continued. We need to communicate with people not only in their language but in a way they trust people feel a special trust for the media they know looks out for their interest and speaks their language. He declared his administration honors that fact, by wanting to engage in a deeper way than has been done in the past. The gathering was a first step in attempting to change perceptions and build new relationships through the officials presentations of the City s plans and the lively Q&A that followed. Among the first achievements independent thinker, which he said means making your own decisions. You can t allow yourself to be influenced by the mass, Iordanou said, but he clarified that Buffett encourages you to seek collaboration and to get all the advice you can, but at the end of the day you can t rely on the advice. You have to make the decision and you have to be comfortable with the decisions you make. He also learned from Buffett to worry about the down side, not the up side of things. I made it a principle for the rest of my career: If you take care of the down side the up side will take care of itself. After his Berkshire Hathaway tenure he became CEO of Zurich Financial Services in North America, and then it was time to go out on his own. It was after September 11 and some senior executives and I, including Paul Ingrey and the late Robert Clements, raised the capital to establish an insurance company in Bermuda in January Ingrey ran the insurance operations and Iordanou ran the holding company which owned insurance and reinsurance firms, and Clements was the chairman. Iordanou explained that reinsurance entails the insuring of the insurance companies. Reinsurance gives them the ability to share risks but it also enables them to manage their capital better. When an insurance firm issues a policy for a building for $500 million, it doesn t want to take 100 per cent of the risk. They syndicate it and reinsurance companies take portions of that risk. He noted that insurance companies have relationships with the primary clients while reinsurance firms deal with other insurance companies and added that Arch also writes mortgage insurance. TNH also asked Iordanou about the situation in Greece. They have a lot of structural issues, began. Their tax system is a mess and at the end of the day they lack investment capital. A lot of people don t want to invest there because of the prevailing socialist attitude. It order to attract capital you have to embrace capitalism, he said, but he agrees that the new investment laws being prepared by the coalition are an opportunity for Greece to present a new face to the financial world. Unless you give confidence to people who want to invest funds, Greece won t attract investors, he insisted. You can t expect a lot of investments in a high tax environment. Capital is fungible and it will go where it is more effective and efficient for shareholders and where it is welcome. He pointed out that the United States faces a similar challenge. It is a very high tax place and companies choose to go elsewhere. De Blasio Hosts New York s Ethnic Media at City Hall of the initiative is the creation of a media directory that lists 240 media outlets, and a shift of media spending from mainstream media. An objective index of the movement from words to deeds is the rise in the budget for advertising in various city initiatives and benefit programs from $2.4 million in 2014 to $4.7 million, and in 2016 it will reach more than $9 million. We will increase that number because there are so many things we have to talk to the people about initiatives like pre-k, after school programs and affordable housing work to the degree that we get the word out, the mayor said. Addressing the needs of the media outlets themselves both the mayor and the speaker were working journalists earlier in their careers de Blasio has mandated that three seats be allocated to ethnic media at press conferences and promised to work on getting them more and better quality translations of documents and releases. Mark-Viverito echoed the mayor s words, saying I understand the importance of the role you play in our communication and there is a genuine interest in deepening that relationship we are clearly in new territory and we need feedback from you.

5 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 COMMUNITY 5 George Venizelos Brings His Security Experience to the Private Sector By Constantine S. Sirigos Writer NEW YORK George Venizelos, vice president and chief security officer of New York Racing Association and formerly the Assistant Director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York Division, has resigned his position and will leave the week of February 15. In a conversation with TNH, Venizelos said Leaving NYRA was tough because I became attached to many people, but he could not ignore a good opportunity that gets him back into Manhattan at the Authority he spent most of his time in the field, mainly at Aqueduct racetrack. This week Venizelos began to work as Senior Vice President running operations for Quality Protective Services, the sister company of Quality Building Services, which is seeking to expand. Venizelos s FBI and NYRA experience will enable him to take the company to take it to the next level. The FBI s New York Division is the largest of the bureau's 56 MANCHESTER, NH Having recently won a fourth term in office as mayor of New Hampshire s largest city, Manchester, Ted Gatsas announced that he is seriously considering running for governor in this year s election, the New Hampshire Union Leader Reported. I have been approached by a number of people asking if I would run, said Gatsas, the Leader reported. I plan on taking a vacation next week, and we plan on having some serious discussions about it. Gatsas, who is a Republican, said he does not plan to decide whether or not he will enter the race until at least late March. He says that suggestions that he ought to run have come from many corners, including friends, family, and well-wishers around the city, the Leader reported. Everywhere I go it comes up, and I m flattered. As the Leader reported: Gatsas emerged victorious from a mayoral showdown last fall against Ward 1 Alderman Joyce Craig, winning re-election by 64 George Venizelos, seen speaking above at Police Athletic League event, believes his new job would allow him to do more public speaking and mentoring of youth, which he enjoys. votes to secure a fourth term in office. Following a recount, certified election results show Gatsas won with 10,085 votes to 10,021 for Craig. Executive Councilor Chris Sununu of Newfields and state Rep. Frank Edelblut, R-Wilton, are running for governor, while on the Democratic side Mark Connolly, the former New Hampshire deputy secretary of state and director of securities regulation, and Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern are both in the running. Portsmouth City Councilor Stefany Shaheen is considering a possible campaign. Gatsas is a lifelong resident of the Queen City, and a product of its public schools. A graduate of Smyth Road Elementary School and Manchester High School Central, he earned a bachelor s degree from the University of New Hampshire. Gatsas first took elective office in 2000 as Ward 2 alderman and served five terms from 2000 to He was elected to the New Hampshire Senate and represented District 16 from 2000 to 2009, serving concurrently as alderman and state senator. He served as senate president from 2005 to Gatsas was elected as Manchester s 47th mayor on Nov. 3, He has been re-elected three times, in 2011, 2013 and Upon winning reelection last year, Gatsas spoke with The National Herald in January (Jan. 16 edition) at his swearing-in ceremony. I am certainly excited about two more years moving down the path we can get things done, he told TNH, regarding his reelection. Getting the heroin epidemic that we have under control is his biggest priority, for the city, the state, and the country. When people can no longer obtain prescription drugs, he said, they turn to heroin, and that is something that is truly killing them, he said. Gatsas said the Manchester economy is doing well. Businesses are moving in and business as a whole is growing. Proud of his Greek heritage, which is very important to me, as is my Lebanese side (his mother s), Gatsas wishes the Greek-American community a field offices. Venizelos had responsibility for all FBI operations and personnel in New York City and eight counties in New York State, as well as those La Guardia and John F. Kennedy International airports. NYRA, which operates Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course, is a quasi-state agency currently under control of the state. John Durso Jr., NYRA s director of communications is also leaving NYRA and like Venizelos, is moving to the private-sector. Venizelos was hired by NYRA to direct its uniformed and investigative security force in activities related to the protection, conservation, and security of company assets, employees, and guests, NYRA said at the time he began there. His brief tenure was rewarding on numerous levels. I loved NYRA. There were great people and I great experience. I witness a Triple Crown winner at Belmont Park. They had a great year at NYRA, a record-breaking season at Saratoga. It was noted that Belmont Stakes is an international event 2016 filled with prosperity and health. After the oath of office was administered by Manchester Chief of Police Nick Willard during a ceremony at the Palace that terrorists could target. That was one of the reasons they brought be there. They had a problem with disorganization the previous year and people told me it was the smoothest in years and for me it was a great day. It is the largest sporting event ion the New York Metropolitan Area as no stadium holds more than the 90,000 people who attended the race. Sporting events with a lot of people in a small area is like a soft target for terrorists, and even at Saratoga there are races that attract big crowds. Venizelos implemented security screenings there for the first time last year. Now he is ready for what he called a unique challenge. The sky is the limit he said, and he likes the idea of joining a family business. He learned about the company when he was introduced to the owner, Mirjana Mirjanik who came to America when she was 21. Venizelos was very impressed with her and the story of her company, which she founded 15 years ago and has become the third largest cleaning company in Manhattan. The security function began as an add on service and now there are security operations in about 40 buildings, which he says is a good foundation to build on. The company is not at the level of the big firms with international presences, but they plan to grow in Manhattan and are considering moving into Florida where they have cleaning contracts. At this time the company provides physical security, but Venizelos says we have a five year plan. We will take things one step at a time and them provide more protective functions like investigation and cyber security. Venizelos is also happy because he believes he can get more involved with the community. With the racetrack I was pretty bogged down but I want to be more active with the Archons and other Church activities. He is very excited about the rebuilding of St. Nicholas and likes the idea of providing any security advice they might need. Manchester NH Mayor Ted Gatsas is Considering Running for Governor Ted Gatsas upon being sworn in to his third term as Mayor of Manchester, NH in Now that he s won a fourth term, he s considering a run for governor. Theatre, Gatsas encouraged the attendees to believe in the possibility of tomorrow being better than today. The citizens of Manchester want solutions. They want to live in a community where they can inspire and be inspired. We have proved it can happen and I am committed to making sure it never stops. Titled Inspiration, his inaugural address identified four areas where Manchester has made significant progress the last six years: infrastructure, public safety, economic development, and city services. He vowed to dispatch more resources over the next 60 days to advance those initiatives. Focusing on the heroin epidemic and public safety, Gatsas said when it comes to public safety, our emergency responders are on the front lines and they are doing their very best. However, if we are to end the epidemic, we must work to make our emergency responders our last line of defense, and we do this by making treatment and rehabilitation easily accessible and readily available. Long Island Univ. Announces 67th Annual George Polk Journalism Awards BROOKLYN Long Island University (LIU) announced the winners of the 67th annual George Polk Awards in Journalism today, honoring reporters who advanced vital national conversations on race and gender relations with their masterful investigative reporting in The George Polk Awards are conferred annually to honor special achievement in journalism. The awards place a premium on investigative and enterprising reporting that gains attention and achieves results. They were established in 1949 by Long Island University to commemorate George Polk, a CBS correspondent murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek civil war. "We received a record 580 nominations from news organizations," said John Darnton, curator of the George Polk Awards. "Many were about police killings and police misconduct across the board." Darnton also noted, "Another striking element common to several of the winners was that the story they came up with was not the one they set out to find. Simeon Booker, who reported on the U. S. Civil Rights movement for more than half a century for Jet Magazine, will be the 34th recipient of the George Polk Career Award. Often masking his identity as a journalist in the segregated South, he covered the 1955 murder of 14- year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi and the subsequent trial clearing young Till's presumed killers, as well as the 1961 Freedom Rides to Birmingham and Selma and the 1963 March on Washington. Winners of the 2015 awards will be honored at a luncheon ceremony at The Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan on April 8. The journalist and author Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who will read the award citations, will also moderate this year's David J. Steinberg Seminar of the George Polk Awards, "Reporting on Race in America," Thursday evening, April 7 at LIU Brooklyn's Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts. The seminar, which starts at 6:30, is free and open to the public. Below are the winners of the 2015 George Polk Awards: A stamp commemorating the life of George Polk, heroic CBS reporter, issued by the US Postal Service. Polk was related to residents James Knox Polk and Andrew Jackson. The award for Foreign Reporting will be shared by a team of four reporters from the Associated Press, Margie Mason, Robin McDowell, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan and the award for National Reporting will go to The Washington Post for an exhaustive study of killings by police officers. Jamie Kalven of Invisible Institute will be honored with the award for Local Reporting for "Sixteen Shots," published online by Slate Magazine last February. Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post will be recognized with the award for Regional Reporting for his series of reports from Maryland and Virginia on companies operating in the shadows of the financial industry that buy the rights to courtordered compensation from unsophisticated victims for a fraction of their value. The award for Financial Reporting will go to John Carreyrou of The Wall Street Journal whose investigation of Theranos, Inc. The award for Education Reporting will recognize Cara Fitzpatrick, Lisa Gartner, and Michael LaForgia of the Tampa Bay Times for "Failure Factories. Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project and T. Christian Miller of ProPublica will receive the award for Justice Reporting for an unusual joint effort, "An Unbelievable Story of Rape." Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Michael Corkery, and Robert Gebeloff of The New York Times will be honored with the award for Legal Reporting for "Beware the Fine Print," a series of articles on how corporations evade legal responsibility by adding arbitration clauses to tens of millions of consumer and employee contracts. Reporting for The New York Times, Nicholas Kulish, Christopher Drew, Mark Mazzetti, Matthew Rosenberg, Serge F. Kovaleski, Sean D. Naylor, and John Ismay will receive the Polk award for Military Reporting for an investigation showing that elite U.S. Navy SEAL teams took on far broader roles than ever publicly acknowledged and often operated with little accountability, even after verifiable accusations of battlefield abuses. Jason Cherkis of the Huffington Post will be honored with the award for Medical Reporting for "Dying to Be Free," an eightpart 21,000-word article revealing that many publicly-funded centers were forbidden from prescribing effective medicationassisted therapy for heroin addiction because of pressure from 12-step programs that consider patients who use medicine to help free them of heroin as less than truly recovered. The award for Magazine Reporting will go to reporters Noreen Malone and Jen Kirby and photographer Amanda Demme, working under Jody Quon, photography director, of New York Magazine for "Cosby: The Women, An Unwelcome Sisterhood. Andrew Quilty of Foreign Policy Magazine will receive the award for Photography for "The Man on the Operating Table," the third and final part of a series documenting the devastating effect of an errant U.S. airstrike that destroyed the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan in October, killing 42 people. The award for Radio Reporting will go to Nikole Hannah- Jones for "The Problem We All Live With" broadcast on This American Life. Correspondent Jim Axelrod and producer Emily Rand of CBS News will be presented with the award for Television Reporting for "Compounding Pharmacy Fraud. Cartel Land is being presented with the award for Documentary Film. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. *apy is annual Percentage yield, effective as of february 8, To qualify for the promotions, $1,000 minimum balance is required to open the account and obtain the apy. $500,000 maximum. other restrictions apply. early withdrawal fees may apply. offers are subject to change without prior notice. for more information, visit your nearest branch or contact

6 6 FEATURE THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 Four Distinguished MIT Professors Disseminate Their Words of Wisdom Continued from page 1 in 1992 the Clemson Award for Applied Science and Engineering, Society for Biomaterials. What is the secret of your success besides research and study? IY: Luck, number one; my very competent research students, number two; and my determination to stick with just one important research goal for my professional life. TNH: Have Greek culture and education contributed to your success? IY: My family taught me to rely on myself to solve the problems in my life. My early school education in Athens taught me to compete with my classmates but also to trust the rules of the game. When I arrived in the United States as a young man of 19 years, I had no idea how important these simple, basic rules would be in my effort to adapt to the culture of this country without losing my individuality as a Greek. TNH: For years, some scientists did not understand the impact that their discovery would have. Was it the same in your case as well? IY: Our discovery of a method of organ regeneration still remains to be fully appreciated by the larger medical community. You see, regeneration of an organ can do so much for people who have to live with diseased and dysfunctional organs, not only for organs that have been badly injured. These applications appear to emerge somewhere in the future; I wish they here with us today. Many problems that cannot be handled by organ transplantation (there are very few donors of organs) could be solved by regeneration treatments. TNH: Describe an ordinary day for you. IY: After having breakfast, I drive to the garage of my university, swim for half an hour, and then have meetings with research students and giving my classes. At the end of the day I am ready for some opera or the Boston Symphony. TNH: Have you ever thought about going back to Greece in order to lend your expertise? IY: A lot of nostalgic imagery comes to mind when I think about working in Greece. In reality, I am very happy with my life in the United States. PROF. DASKALAKIS TNH: You were able to solve a problem that arose from Nash s work, which stood unresolved since Many economists had been trying to find a solution, but with no results. What was the secret of your success? CD: The contribution of my work was to characterize the computational complexity of Nash equilibrium, a concept defined by John Nash in The purpose of Nash Equilibrium is to predict what may occur in a non-cooperative game. A game is a mathematical abstraction of a strategic conflict between people. This may be a representation of some recreational game such as rock-paper-scissors, or it could model a nuclear conflict or an entire market. Nash showed that any game may find itself in a stable state whose characteristics he specified. This state is called Nash Equilibrium in his honor. Following Nash s influential theorem, mathematicians and economists alike have strived to design algorithms for calculating Nash equilibria, and therefore predicting what happens in conflicts. Nevertheless, all proposed algorithms are computationally inefficient. What is worse, this has cast doubt into whether Nash equilibria may truly arise in practical Prof. Ioannis Yannas situations. After all, if Nash equilibria are computationally intractable, then how can they possibly arise in practice? Motivated by this important question and inspired by the lack of progress for fifty years, my collaborators and I took a different perspective, showing something quite unexpected. We proved that there is no computationally efficient algorithm for Nash Prof. Constantinos Daskalakis Equilibrium. That is, no matter how much scientist try, they will never be able to find such an algorithm, because it simply does not exist. The concept is inherently incomputable! TNH: How can it be proved that a mathematical problem is unsolvable? CD: Intuitively speaking, we should be able to solve any mathematical problem as long as we try hard enough, right? As it turns out this is not the case! Some mathematical problems are inherently unsolvable! Maybe the most prominent example is squaring the circle, a problem that bedeviled mathematicians since at least Anaxagoras, but was shown unsolvable in the 19th century. After several important problems were shown unsolvable in the 19th century, mathematicians aesthetic has changed to incorporate tools for establishing the insolvability of problems. Such mathematical machinery has been sharpened in the 20th century, and has trickled down into Computer Science, which is a child of Mathematical Logic. For our proof we develop the appropriate computational machinery to show the impossibility of computing Nash equilibrium. TNH: When did you meet John Nash and what was your first impression of him during that meeting? CD: I met John Nash in Chicago during the 2008 Congress of the Game Theory Society. Christos Papadimitriou, Paul Goldberg and I were receiving an award for our work on the computational complexity of the Nash equilibrium, and I was invited to present our result at the congress. I was astounded to see John Nash in my talk, and had the honor of presenting my doctoral research to the person who gave his name to Nash Equilibrium. Afterwards I had a conversation with him about the computational intractability of Nash equilibria. I was struck by his intelligence and clarity of mind. In the group of extremely smart and talented people I am blessed to interact with, John Nash offered me one of the most intriguing conversations I have ever had. TNH: In 2012 you solved another challenging problem that had been unsolved for thirty years. What was that about? CD: As a whole, my research focuses on computational problems at the interface of Computer Science and Economics, particularly those relating to the design and study of the Internet. In addition to being a remarkable computational system, the Internet is also a complex socioeconomic system that lacks centralized design or governance. To gain a better understanding of its operation, computer scientists are applying economic principles to its study. Through this research, we hope to gain a better understanding of what is happening in complex socioeconomic environments and how to design systems that have good properties when economic and computational phenomena take place at the same time. My most recent findings have to do with the design of auctions. My students and I presented a new theory for the formerly elusive problem of selling multiple items under differing market conditions to maximize revenue, a problem left open by Myerson s celebrated work on single-item auctions in This problem also has significant practical applications in sponsored search, online ad exchanges, and spectrum auctions. The difficulty of identifying optimal multi-item auctions stems from the fact that the design space has such a large complexity that it seems infeasible to search over. And even if one could search over this space, the optimal auction may just be too complex to be implementable. To maximize revenue, the auctioneer might have to agree to sell an item at some fraction of the highest bid, a fraction that could depend on a host of factors: the difference between the top two bids, the final price of the previous item on the docket, the populations from which the bidders are drawn, etc. We show how to overcome this apparent complexity barrier by viewing auction design as a geometric problem. We leverage our geometric understanding to identify optimal auctions that are relatively simple for the auctioneer and the bidders to keep track of. TNH: What are you currently working on? CD: I am working on problems at the interface of Computer Science, Economics and Probability. Besides the problems we have already discussed, I am fascinated by Machine Learning, the subfield of Artificial Intelligence exploring the design and analysis of algorithms that learn models from data, in order to make reliable predictions. Automated translation, and recommendation systems, such as those employed by Netflix, are good example applications. Within this field, I m interested in problems arising in Computational Biology and the interface of Learning and Probability Theory. TNH: Do you like the American lifestyle? How would you compare it to Greece? CD: As far as my academic life is concerned, I really love being in the States. My students and colleagues at MIT are amazing and I find it a great pleasure and privilege to interact with them. On the other hand, I miss my homeland and some aspects of the Greek lifestyle. While Greeks do work a lot (unlike some stereotypes maintain), they also know how to enjoy their life more. I find that you should strive for balance in life, otherwise you may find yourself living only through your work. Work, I think, is too much of the focus in the States. Of course, things get more complex for scientists like myself, since science is not just work, but a passion. TNH: What is your typical National Herald Εthnikos Kirix Foundation Our newspaper has for more than a century upheld and supported the Greek-American community s principles, values, and need for reliable information. We are pleased to announce the formation of the National Herald Foundation, a non- profit organization with the aim of contributing to the continuation, improvement, and further expansion of our language, culture, civilization, and traditions. This mission is in keeping with the long history and service of our Greek and English print and online editions. We shall specifically focus on the following impact areas. To contribute meaningfully toward the preservation, improvement, and expansion of Greek-American education. To offer scholarships to students on the basis of character, capability, and dedication to the Greek language, principles, and traditions. To offer scholarships in the field of journalism to students attending colleges in the United States, provided they dedicate at least two years to serving the Greek-American community upon graduation by working in some segment of Greek-American media. To offer scholarships to Greek and Greek-Cypriot students majoring in journalism or related disciplines at colleges in the United States, with the condition that they return to their country to practice their craft. To aid Greek-Americans who are in particular need of urgent financial assistance. The National Herald Foundation will acquire funds through advertising, events, and other contributions, among other standard non-profit means in order to fulfill these and other appropriate and mission-aligned goals. In the spirit of accountability and transparency, and as required by law, the National Herald Foundation will disclose financials and impact reporting regularly. Overhead will be kept at a minimum, with initial office space and pro bono staff support from the National Herald offices and team. Founders a b Chairman: Antonis H. Diamataris, Publisher/ Editor of Ethnikos Kirix and The National Herald Eric Hatzimemos, Chairman & CEO of Hatzimemos Partners, Managing Partner of Giuliani Partners Demetrios Gerolymatos, Financial Director of The National Herald The National Herald/ Ethnikos Kirix Foundation th Street, Long Island City, NY T: (718)

7 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 FEATURE 7 day like? CD: Well, one of the things that I enjoy about academia is that every single day is different. This is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It is a blessing because you are mostly in charge of your own schedule, and a curse because you end up accepting too many tasks. In a usual weekday, I ll find myself juggling teaching, research meetings, and university committees. When not doing all that, I love having a cup of coffee and thinking, catching up with my reading, or going to the movies. TNH: What s your opinion about the escalating political and economic turmoil in Greece? Have you ever considered to get politically engaged in order to help with your expertise? CD: I find the situation that has been unfolding in Greece rather worrisome. It is quite unfortunate that, despite the obvious need for change, Greece has not been able to create an environment for exploiting well its remarkable human capital and natural resources. Instead of admitting the economy s structural problems, a large part of the Greek population is still trying to find blame elsewhere, be it the Europeans or the immigrants. At the same time, Greek governments have been protecting economic interests and attacking the poor and the pensioners, creating a negative spiral that is shrinking the GDP. While Greece is perfectly capable to turn a corner and has a huge potential, some are working hard to keep the country in misery. I have been asked to run for public office several times, but I would only consider it if I were inspired that there is potential for real change. It would also have to be the case that my expertise is useful, as I have no political aspirations for the sake of being a politician. For the time being, I prefer to offer my services to my homeland from where I am, continuing my academic career. TNH: Do you think that the crisis has affected Greek education as well? CD: Let me say first that for the size of our country it is quite impressive how much talent we have, as witnessed by world class recognition in science, art and entrepreneurship. If Greece could exploit this remarkable talent to its benefit, things would have been very different. Unfortunately, Greek academic institutions do not function the way they are supposed to. Funding is rather stingy. Classes are oversubscribed due to bad planning and corruption. Politics inside the universities are quite disruptive. Faculty hiring is often questionable. Research often does not meet international standards. What is worse, the Greek government is getting ready to bring changes that constitute negative progress. Without research excellence, Greece is doomed to lose its talented youth to other countries, and being a follower rather than a leader in innovation. Greece is capable of having top notch, internationally recognized academic institutions around which innovation and entrepreneurship will take place. To do this, we need funding and changes in governance. This is a highstakes game for Greece and I hope the government realizes this soon. If rumors are true about imminent changes to education, they either seem to have a completely distorted image about what is needed, or are working hard to keep the country behind. TNH: Would you ever go back to Greece? CD: I miss my family, but as things stand I will stay in the States. I will continue to help my homeland in my current capacity. PROF. STEPHANOPOULOS TNH: Where were you raised and how did you become so successful and noteworthy? GS: I was born in Kalamata, I went to a public school there until the third grade of Gymnasium (9th grade in the U.S.), when my family moved to Athens. My older brother George had succeeded in the Panhellenic University entrance Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos exams (ranked first) for the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He was a great role model for me and my generation. So, three years later I also succeeded in the entrance examinations and matriculated in the same department. I graduated five years later, came to the United States for graduate studies, then to Caltech as Assistant Professor. I stayed in Pasadena, where Caltech was located, until 1985 when I received an offer for a full professorship from MIT, which I accepted, and I have been at this institution ever since. I did well at both Caltech and MIT. I think the reason was excellent role models (in family and society), strong family support and encouragement for pursuing excellence and distinguishing oneself, and, really, not serious viable alternatives (Plan B) in case my professional aspirations did not materialize. TNH: A research initiative in the Chemical Engineering Department led by you examines a number of current and exciting topics in the area of Metabolic Engineering and its industrial and medical applications. Can you tell us more about it? GS: Metabolic engineering is actually the engineering of the metabolism of microbes to convert them into little chemical factories that can synthesize numerous chemical and pharmaceutical products. They do so very efficiently, so that they can replace current chemical processes employed in the production of many chemical products we use in everyday life, such as biopolymers, biodiesel, oils and lipids, detergents, cosmetics, biopolymers and many, many others. These microbes can also synthesize complex pharmaceutical molecules more efficiently than by using traditional chemistry. As such, metabolic engineering is an enabling technology that can transform the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the 21st century. TNH: What are you currently working on? GS: We do a lot of work in the area of biofuels, converting carbohydrate renewable feedstocks into lipids for biodiesel production. Also, we engineer microbes to synthesize natural products that are used as pharmaceuticals. One such example is to engineer the metabolic pathway that synthesizes the anticancer drug taxol. A large number of compounds (actually, more than 50,000) can be made by the same metabolic pathway and many of these compounds have important pharmaceutical properties. As such, our work aims at discovering such compounds and also providing an efficient method for their costeffective manufacturing via fermentation. Other examples include compounds that are presently used for the production of packaging materials, antifreeze, components of the plastic bottles we use for water and soft drinks, and others. The major advantage for making these products using microorganisms and fermentation as opposed to fossil fuels is that their production is not associated with the release of greenhouse gases. In that sense they are truly green products that do not burden the environment with their production. TNH: You are the Director of the Bioinformatics and Metabolic Engineering at MIT, which focuses on diverse challenges in the fields of Metabolic Engineering and Bioinformatics. Could you elaborate on that? GS: As I mentioned previously, we are developing a number of methods for the production of biofuels, chemicals and pharmaceuticals using microorganisms. This entails the engineering of microbes using tools from modern molecular biology. In this form, we change the genetic makeup of these microbes in a targeted manner that modulates their genes and gene expression. It is these genetic changes that transform a microbe like a bacterium to a little chemical factory capable of producing the antifreeze compound ethylene glycol; or convert baker s yeast to a different chemical factory that produces a pharmaceutical product, or specialized compounds that are useful as flavors and fragrances, just to name a few examples. TNH: What is a typical day in your life like? GS: There is, really, no such a thing as a typical day. There are so many things happening, some planned but many others totally unexpected. You can plan a visit, some meetings, regular lectures or faculty meetings: But there is no way you can anticipate developments in the lab, exciting and disappointing, MIT's Building 10 and Great Dome overlooking Killian Court. news from other groups, funding agencies, journals where we publish our work or the personal lives of students and postdocs. They all make for an exciting life where there is hardly a dull moment! All of the above, sometimes in an orderly manner, sometimes randomly and unexpectedly, are the items that fill the life of an academic researcher/educator and make it incredibly exciting and very fulfilling. TNH: Do you believe that institutions that are researchbased are absolutely necessary in order for Greece to be a leader and not a follower in innovation, or can it be accomplished without it? GS: There is no question that Greece needs advanced research and the innovation that results from it in order to maintain the high standard of living that our compatriots have come to expect. It has been proven over and over again that funds spent on research provide handsome returns unmatched by any other type of investment. Also, I cannot think of an advanced country with high standard of living that is not supported by robust academic institutions that serve as economic engines of their development. Greece s most important asset is her highly educated and skilled professionals. They have proven over and again that they are capable of the highest achievements and distinctions when given the opportunity, mainly outside Greece. I do not see a reason that this model cannot be emulated in Greece proper to fuel the future economic development of the country. People will just have to set high standards and high expectations for students and professors, create a reward system that recognizes excellence and high achievement and show zero tolerance to attempts to dilute honest efforts aspiring to achieve high goals. PROF. IATRIDOU TNH: Please tell us about your early years and how you arrived at this point in your life. SI: I was born in Thessaloniki but spent my childhood in Holland, before going back to Greece and finishing highschool and college there. I did not like what I was studying (dentistry), and I was constantly looking for other things that I might find exciting and inspiring. I did not want to quit my studies, though, because I felt I would always have to explain that I could have, but did not want to finish. After I graduated Follow us on Facebook: Eθνικός Κήρυξ / The National Herald with a DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) degree, I left for the University of Chicago to study anthropology. After a little over a year there, I saw a job advertised for a Research Assistant at an National Science Foundation project on Creole Languages at the University of Hawaii. Having been raised in Europe, I had not realized that Hawaii is mostly a vacation resort and I thought that I would find all sorts of adventures there. I did not find any adventures but I did discover linguistics. While I found anthropology, the study of cultures, interesting, I preferred the scientific methodology of linguistics, its formulation of working hypotheses, falsifiability, predictive power. The possibility of making language the object of scientific inquiry spoke to me. I found the notion of Universal Grammar in particular intriguing. This is the hypothesis that humans are born with an innate capacity for language and that languages are not consciously learned, the way we learn chess, for example. Universal Grammar in combination with exposure to the linguistic environment in which a child is raised together develop to the final language state that we call the child s native language. Universal Grammar is responsible for the many deep commonalities between languages and also determines the space of possible languages. The specialization of linguistics called theoretical linguistics aims to explore, model, and understand Universal Grammar, as well as the parameters along which languages can differ. So, finally it seemed that I had found what I was looking for as a profession. After 2 years in Hawaii, I worked for a year at the University of Amsterdam, again as research assistant, and then went to MIT to do a PhD in Linguistics. After earning my PhD in 1991, I got my first job, which was as Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Pennsylvania. This was an excellent department but when I was offered the position at MIT, the pull to go back to my alma mater was irresistible and I came to back, as faculty this time, in January of I have been here ever since. TNH: You served as Director of the MIT Linguistics PhD Program for many years and you are the author and co-author of innovative papers that have opened up whole new domains of research for the field. Is hard work the only secret key to your success? SI: Well, I guess linguistics is like many things in life, in that it requires a combination of hard work and talent. What is not like that? But the secret to what you call my success, and it is actually not a secret at all, a b is that I am in one of the top linguistic programs in the world. My colleagues are the very best in their specializations. As a result, if I need to learn something, I have the opportunity to learn from the very best. If my colleagues were not what they are, or if I were in a smaller department, or isolated somewhere and forced to work on my own, my work would have been much, much poorer. So the short answer is that I have benefitted tremendously from the constant access I have to the top people in the field. We interact a lot, co-teach a lot, and co-author a lot. Also, our students (and when I say students, I mean our PhD students) are also among the best. They keep us on our toes and just the very fact that we are supposed to help them with their papers and theses and work overall, pushes us facilitates us to get better. So in short, the answer to your question is: the people around me and the interactive atmosphere in the department. TNH: Please describe a typical day in your life. SI: I go to MIT between 8 and 9 in the morning, get home around 6pm for family dinner and then work in the evening at home. This semester I teach six hours a week, in four intervals of one and a half hours each. Each class takes many hours to prepare, which I mostly do at home in the evenings: During the day, at MIT, I am mostly in appointments with our PhD students, about five hours a day, one hour per student. Sometimes, I go to a colleague s class or a talk. I also have certain administrative duties as program director but they can vary a lot, depending on the time of the semester. The rest of the time, is devoted to my research. TNH: What is your biggest aspiration? SI: My biggest aspiration is not work-related! I hope for a better world with social justice, equal opportunities for everybody, no wars, and no unhappiness. POCKET-LESS PITA BREAD Kontos Foods Prof. Sabine Iatridou Scalia s Fascinating Life Included Greek Letters & Spice Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia NEW YORK Among the articles providing tribute and criticism of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia some include both for the complex, brilliant, and dedicated jurist are some that simply tell the tale of his rise from humble origins in Queens, where his family moved when he was six. His life experience also has some Hellenic flavor. In high school he studied Ancient Greek in addition to Latin which served him well in his future studies and he had Greek neighbors and classmates at Public School 13 in Elmhurst. There are no blacks in the class, and there really weren t any in our neighborhood, but other than that it was, my goodness, polyglot: There were Greeks one of the girls in the class was named Eurydice, the New York Times wrote in We didn t even know how to say it; we called her you rea-dice. There were Irish, German, Jewish, Italian It was the face of New York City, Scalia said. He spent much of his childhood in a red brick home in Elmhurst, a neighborhood of Queens that is now largely Asian and Latino. Ask him where he was from Queens. What was his team? The Yankees. What else would I be? he told the Times of a childhood that preceded the arrival of the Mets. Noting the stronger affinity among people from Brooklyn and Queens that that between either of those boroughs and Manhattan, the Times wrote Justice Scalia knew enough to not let politics get in the way of a good New York friendship. His closest friend on the Supreme Court was the liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Brooklyn. 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8 8 OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 AHEPA, All of Greek Community, Mourn Chris Economides CHARLOTTE, NC The Order of AHEPA is mourning the passing of Chris Economides, who served in numerous positions and is especially remembered for his support for the Sons of Pericles young adult division, having served as their National Advisor for more than 20 years. AHEPA s Executive Director Basil Mossaides sent the sad notice to the Order s members on February 14: I have the sad duty to inform you that our dear brother Chris Economides passed away today about 30 minutes ago in Charlotte, NC. He was a life member of Ahepa who served in many elected positions but was best remembered as THE champion of the Sons of Pericles having been the national advisor for nearly 20 years. He was a father figure to many and he will be missed. Economides was born on September 6, 1931 in Charlotte where he remained a loyal native until his passing. He was the first child of the late Chris Economides Sr. and Mary Economides. Chris Junior s father moved to Charlotte in 1921 becoming one of the original Greek families to immigrate to that city. In 1949, he graduated from Central High School in Charlotte and then attended the Citadel in Charleston, SC until the U.S. Army drafted him in He served in the United States Army during the Korean War, and on the 51st Anniversary of the Korean War, Economides was honored with the Korean Service Medal with a Bronze Service Star and the U.N. Service Medallion Defense Service Medal. Chris returned to Charlotte where he began his career in the automotive industry. He spent several years working for Thomas Cadillac and Charlotte Chrysler Plymouth. Economides s automotive sales experience provided him the opportunity to start his own automotive dealership in 1968, Chris Auto Sales. Seeking future opportunities, he extended his talents to the printing industry when he opened Speedee Prints in For over 45 years, Economides successfully served the Charlotte community until his retirement in Economides Greek Orthodox religion and Greek heritage were always extremely important facets of his life. A longstanding member of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Economides held numerous offices to include serving as vice president, member of the board of trustees, and chairman of various committees. His greatest passion was his dedication to AHEPA, having been inducted at the age of 14, he strongly believed in impressing upon the youth the religious and moral values that AHEPA represents. Economides was lovingly bestowed the title The Godfather for his longstanding commitment to AHEPA and its youth. He was also presented the National Salute to Youth award as well as being the first Ahepan inducted into its Hall of Honor. In 2009, Economides received the distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award which he felt was, after his family, his greatest accomplishment. Married to the love of his life, Patricia for over 54 years, Economides was a devoted and loving family man. He was an outgoing, charismatic, and determined man whom many would say never met a stranger. Commonly known as Mr. E, Economides was never without kind a word, joke or coin trick. His faith, family, and friends were at the center of his life. Economides is also survived by his son, Chris Economides III and wife Mitzi; of Charlotte; daughter, Constance Economides of Charlotte, her fiancé, Chad Howard of Cornelius, NC; and daughter Marian Leclerc and husband, Chris of Charlotte; five grandchildren: Robert Brendle, Isabella Brendle, Zoe Economides, Avery Leclerc and Evan Leclerc all of Charlotte, sacred work, an ardent American patriot and a passionate promoter of Hellenism and its universal values. Certainly, he set a brilliant example of a genuine Greek Orthodox Christian stewardship to be followed by as many as possible. May his memory be eternal. His Eminence offered a Trisagion Service for the repose of Jaharis soul. He also notified by phone His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who made an official announcement at the Holy Synod and offered a Trisagion at the Phanar. Jaharis is survived by his wife, Mary, his son, Dr. Steven Jaharis and wife Elaine, his daughter Kathryn, and five grandchildren as well as by the millions of people whose lives he positively impacted. The funeral service was scheduled to take place at the New York Archdiocesan Cathedral on February 20. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church or the Cancer Programs at Columbia University Medical Center. Jaharis was born and raised in Evanston, IL. The son of Michael and Katerina Jaharis, from the village of Aghia Paraskevi on Lesbos. After attending Evanston Township Public High School, Jaharis briefly attended North Park University and then earned a bachelor s degree from Carroll College (now Carroll University) in Wisconsin. Shortly after his college graduation in June, 1950, Jaharis served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was eventually deployed to Zell am See, Austria to help run the medical and pharmaceutical supply. After his military service, Jaharis joined Miles Laboratories as a sales representative in the Ethical Drug Division (Prescription Drug), covering the area north of Chicago s Loop up to the Wisconsin border. While working full time, he earned a Juris Doctorate as an evening student DePaul University s law school. Jaharis rose through the ranks at Miles to become Vice President and Executive Legal Counsel for Food and Drug Law, where he also became involved in marketing for the company. In 1972, according to his official biography, Jaharis became president and CEO of Key Pharmaceuticals, which at the time of acquisition was essentially an insolvent company known for its sustained action technology and some cold/cough remedies. As CEO and president, he transformed the company by leading his team to develop pharmaceutical breakthroughs with drugs such as sustained-release Theo- Dur, which became the nation s bestselling asthma remedy, and Nitro-Dur, the first transdermal sustained-release product to release nitroglycerin through the skin. Key Pharmaceuticals was sold to Schering Plough in In 1988, Michael founded Kos Pharmaceuticals, where he led his team to pioneer innovative drug therapies to treat cardiovascular disease. In 1997, Kos introduced its first product, Niaspan, which raised HDL levels and improved the lives of millions of people. Kos Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in After selling Kos, Jaharis cofounded Vatera Healthcare Partners LLC, a New York City-based investment group focused on taking active positions in healthcare companies that develop innovative products for unmet and underserved medical needs in a broad range of therapeutic areas, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Pearl Therapeutics), cardio-metabolic diseases and cancer (Arisaph Pharmaceuticals), antibiotic resistant bacterial infections (Melinta Therapeutics), and celiac disease (ImmusanT). Aside from working hard to improve the lives of millions through pharmaceutical products, Jaharis and Mary worked tirelessly and gave generously through their public service and philanthropic endeavors. In 1986, they founded the Jaharis Family Foundation, Inc. Valuing the importance of education, Jaharis was an active board member for several prominent non-profit and educational institutions, including Trustee Emeritus of Tufts University in Boston, MA, Chairman of the Board of Overseers for the School of Medicine, Tufts University, Member of the Columbia University Medical Center Board of Visitors, and Member of the Board of Overseers of the Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences. He also served as a Director of The Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) and was a member of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. and a sister, Betty Yianitsas, of Houston, TX. Messages from those who knew him and appreciated Economides contributions to the Greek-American community began appearing on the internet immediately, The Chapter Theseus SHJ- 02 of the Sons of Pericles mourns the loss of the longtime National Advisor Chris Economides, better known as "Mr. E. Mr. E was a champion of the Sons of Pericles and helped our organization grow to where it is today. He will be remembered fondly by the entire AHEPA Family. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time. May his memory be eternal, we will miss you Mr. E. The Sons of Pericles mourns the loss of our longtime National Advisor Chris Economides, better known as "Mr. E". Mr. E was a champion of the Sons of Pericles and helped our organization grow to where it is today. He will be remembered fondly by the entire AHEPA Family. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time. May his memory be eternal, we will miss you Mr. E. The Funeral Service was scheduled for February 18 at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, with committal in Evergreen Cemetery. Donations to the National project of the Sons of Pericles are encouraged in lieu of flowers. The project is the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero. Send to AHEPA Headquarters 1909 Q. St, NW, Washington, DC Michael Jaharis, Great Hellenic Benefactor, 87 Continued from page 1 At the Holy Trinity Cathedral in NY, Archbishop Demetrios is about to pass the Light of the Resurrection to Michael Jaharis, his dear friend and colleague in the vineyards of the Lord. Michael and Mary Jaharis were deeply devoted to each other, which was the foundation of their many contributions to philanthropy, culture, Hellenism, and the Orthodox faith. Together with Mary, Jaharis was a Benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera. They also gave generously as Scholarship Sponsors of DePaul University College of Law in Chicago and supported the development of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Center for Health Law at DePaul University. At Tufts University School of Medicine, they endowed the Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Sciences, the Jaharis Family Chair in Family Medicine, and multiple Scholarship Funds. Through The Jaharis Family Foundation, he was also a Benefactor of Columbia University Medical College and Weill Cornell Medical College. Tufts University bestowed upon Michael an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree in May In December, Columbia University Medical College presented the Jaharises with a Crown Award for their service and support to the School. As a tribute to his beloved parents, Jaharis supported the establishment of the Jaharis Home for the Elderly in Aghia Paraskevi. Through two generous gifts to Hellenic College Holy Cross Theological Seminary, the Jaharises endowed the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in New Testament Studies. They also supported the establishment of an endowed professorship, The Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture at Fordham University. Proud of his Greek ancestry and Greek Orthodox faith, Jaharis civic affiliations included Vice Chairman of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Council, Founding Member and Director of Faith Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism, and Founding Member and Executive Committee Member of the Greek Orthodox Leadership 100 Endowment Foundation. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America made Jaharis an Archon Exarchos of the Order of St. Andrew the HELP WANTED (GREECE) Live-in au pair/nanny opportunity in Greece. Looking for a 21+ college girl to spend timeoff in Athens, Greece, living with a single mother and 2 children (boy 5, girl 6) learning Greek while speaking English. Required nanny experience, references. Start date March Duration 9-24 months. Contact info: mkgres@otenet.gr, A/A03/02-20 Notice of formation TAN PUPPY HOLD- INGS, LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 03/31/2015. Office located in Nassau County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: Arpana Agneshwar, 120 Bethpage Rd., Suite 304, Hicksville, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19829 Notice of formation of KIRBY S IMPROVE- MENTS, LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 01/11/2016. Office location: Kings County. SSNY. has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: c/o United States Corporation Agents, Inc., th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19868 Notice of Formation of BUCK HILL CO, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SS- NY) on 02/03/16. Office location: Kings County. Princ. office of LLC: 52 Diamond St., Brooklyn, NY SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. 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SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: 218 Summit Developments LLC, 601 Bothner Street, Oceanside, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19859 Notice of formation of CRAIC BROWNIES, LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 09/23/2015. Office located in Nassau County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: c/o United States Corporation Agents, Inc., Suite 202, th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19845 Notice of formation of TOP RANK REALTY LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on October 09, Office located in Kings County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: Salvatore Ruffo, 1663 Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19843 Notice of Qualification of FRONTLINE PERFORMANCE GROUP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/14/16. Office location: Kings County. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 04/24/15. Princ. office of LLC: None. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the FL addr. of LLC, 1075 W. Morse Blvd., Winter Park, FL Cert. of Form. filed with Ken Detzner, Secy. of State, FL Dept. of State, RA Gray Bldg., 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL Purpose: Any lawful activity /17976 CLASSIFIEDS Notice of formation of The Roaming Rack, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York SSNY on 12/1/15. Office located in Nassau. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC 877 Crestview Ave., N. Woodmere, NY Purpose: any lawful purpose /19844 Notice of formation of TOP RANK REALTY II LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on October 09, Office located in Kings County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: Salvatore Ruffo, 1663 Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19843 Notice of formation of Aunt Carmens Scratch Made Dough, LLC, Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on September 1, Office located in Nassau County, N.Y. has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: 627 Spuhler Place, Uniondale, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19832 Notice of formation of YAN PAINTING LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 01/04/2016. Office located in Kings County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: Abraham Danielyan, 6309 Bay Parkway, Apt. D14, Brooklyn, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19831 Notice of formation of RANDALL PETROLEUM, LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 12/02/2015. Office located in Nassau County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: RANDALL PETROLEUM, LLC, 120 Bethpage Road, Suite 304, Hicksville, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19829 Notice of formation of EXCEL FOOD MART, LLC. (DOM. LLC). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 12/02/2015. Office located in Nassau County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: EXCELL FOOD MART, LLC, 120 Bethpage Road, Suite 304, Hicksville, NY Purpose: Any lawful activity /19829 Notice of formation of Simpson Behavioral Consulting Licensed Behavior Analyst, PLLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York, SSNY on 12/31/2015. Office located in Nassau County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the PLLC to Registered Agent: c/o United States Corporation Agents, Inc., th Avenue, Ste. 202, Brooklyn, NY Purpose: Behavior intervention services to families afftected by disabilities. FUNERAL HOMES /19830 APOSTOLOPOULOS Apostle Family - Gregory, Nicholas, Andrew - Funeral Directors of RIVERDALE FUNERAL HOME Inc Broadway New York, NY (212) Toll Free GAPOSTLE CONSTANTINIDES FUNERAL PARLOR Co. (718) Services in all localities - Low cost shipping to Greece ANTONOPOULOS FUNERAL HOME, INC. Konstantinos Antonopoulos - Funeral Director Ditmars Blvd., Astoria, New York (718) Not affiliated with any other funeral home. To Place your classified ad, call: (718) , ext. 106, classifieds@ thenationalherald.com Apostle, one of the highest honors bestowed upon laity on behalf of Patriarch Bartholomew. He was also awarded an Honorary Degree from Hellenic College Holy Cross. Most recently, the Jaharises directed their philanthropic efforts to supporting humanitarian initiatives to provide food, medical care, and education to children and elderly living in Greece during the ongoing financial crisis. In addition, the family gave generously to organizations working to support the thousands of refugee families fleeing to Greece from Syria and the Middle East. No matter how busy Jaharis professional and philanthropic commitments kept him, he always made time for his family and friends. He cherished his family and extensive network of personal and professional friendships above all else. His genuine love of people was evident in the fact that he always focused each person s positive attributes and had a unique ability to bring out the best in everyone within any context. Equally unparalleled was his excellent sense of humor. At the beginning or end of each day, Jaharis made a point of stopping by the desk of each person in his office to say hello, catch up, and share an idea or some advice. He not only knew the names of everyone in the office but also the details of people s families and interests and always personally expressed his gratitude for each person s contribution on a project. If the opportunity for a quick break between meetings and calls would arise, one would often find Jaharis in his office catching a quick glimpse of a Chicago Bears, Bulls, or Cubs game (depending on the season). Jaharis always credited two inspirations for his success: his parents commitment to family, faith, education and hard work as setting the foundation upon which he built everything upon; and the love and support of his wife and family.

9 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 COMMUNITY 9 By Dr. Dimitra Kamarinou Gender in Greek is a grammatical category and is not identical with sex. Usually, however, words that refer to living beings of the male sex are of masculine gender, and those which refer to living beings of female sex are of feminine gender. Nouns, which in English are neuter, i.e., those referring to non-living things without regard to biological sex, are in Greek of the masculine, feminine or neuter grammatical gender. Thus, γύρος (=gyro) is of masculine gender, πατάτα (=potato) is of feminine gender and σουβλάκι (=souvlaki) is of neuter gender. In the vocabulary lists the gender is indicated by the appropriate form of the definite article: ο for masculine nouns, η for feminine nouns and το for neuter nouns. While memorizing the vocabulary, it helps to learn each word s gender and article. Can we guess the gender of a Greek noun? USEFUL TIP In most cases we can guess the gender from the ending of the noun. Each Greek noun is divided into two parts: a stem, which shows the dictionary meaning of the word, and an ending, which shows the noun s number and case. i.e., ο γύρ-ος, η πατάτ-α, το σουβλάκ-ι. The table below will help you guess the gender and the correct article from the ending of the word. These are the most common endings of the masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns. GENDER ARTICLE ENDING Masculine gender ο -ος, -ης, -ας, -ες Feminine gender η -α, -η, -ω Neuter gender το -ι, -ο Let s apply the above rule in the names of the twelve Ancient Greek gods. You probably know their names in English. This is how they are written in Greek. ARTICLE GREEK NAME PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH NAME o Δί-ας or Ζεύς DEEas or ZEfs Zeus o Ποσειδών-ας posidonas Poseidon o Απόλλων-ας apolonas Apollo o Ερμ-ής ermees Hermes o Άρ-ης Aris Ares o Ήφαιστ-ος EEfestos Hephaestus η Ήρ-α EEra Hera η Αθην-ά athina Athena η Δήμητρ-α DEEmitra Dimitra η Εστί-α esteea Hestia η Άρτεμ-η Artemis Artemis η Αφροδίτ-η afrodeeti Aphrodite OUR EVERYDAY GREEK Masculine and Feminine Nouns: It is Not about Gender The gender of the Ancient Greek god names can be easily guessed by their sex. Yet, the endings rule in defining the gender still applies. You can always refer to an example of a god name, if you want to remember which are the appropriate endings that define the masculine or the feminine gender. Thus words ending in ας like: Δί-ας, Ποσειδών-ας, Απόλλων-ας, in ης like: Ερμ-ής, Άρης, and in ος like: Ήφαιστος are of masculine gender and take the article ο. Words ending in α like: Ήρ-α, Αθην-ά, Δήμητρ-α and in η like: Άρτεμ-η, Αφροδίτ-η are of feminine gender and take the article η. Let s add some more well known ancient Greek names. Remember that Greek feminine names can end in ω. ARTICLE GREEK NAME PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH NAME o Αχιλλέ-ας ahileas Achilles ο Οδυσσέ-ας odiseas Odysseus ο Πλάτων-ας PLAtonas Plato ο Όμηρ-ος Omiros Homer ο Σωκράτ-ης socratis Socrates ο Αριστοτέλ-ης aristotelis Aristotle ο Περικλ-ής periklees Pericles η Πανδώρ-α pandora Pandora η Κλυταιμνήστρ-α klitemneestra Clytemnestra η Αντιγόν-η antiyoni Antigone η Πηνελόπ-η pinelopi Penelope η Σαπφ-ώ sapfo Sappho η Καλυψ-ώ kalipso Calypso EXERCISE Separate the stem from the ending in the below Greek names and add the correct article. ARTICLE NAME PRONUNCIATION STEM-ENDING Μαρία mareea Ελένη eleni Δημήτρης dimeetris Γιώργος yiorgos Πέτρος PEtros Κατερίνα katereena Χρήστος HREEstos Βασίλης vaseelis Σταύρος STAvros Νίκη NEEki Σπύρος SPEEros Αντώνης antonis Κώστας KOstas Γιάννης yianis Αγγελική agelikee Βάσω VAso Βασιλική vasilikee PRONUNCIATION KEY i (idiom), ee (needle), e (energy), o (organism), oo (boot), y (yes), h (helium), th (theory), d (the). The capitalized syllables are accented. Dimitra Kamarinou, PhD, has studied philology and archaeology at the University of Ioannina,Würzburg and Bochum in Germany. She has been honored with the Academy of Athens Award in Archaeology and Homeric Philology. Oven-Roasted Pork Chops And Pligouri (Bulgar Wheat) By Eleni Sakellis Traditional everyday Greek cuisine highlights vegetables more often than meat, though pork is a popular choice for roasts and souvlaki especially. Grilled pork chops are quick and easy to prepare for outdoor cooking in the warmer months. In winter, braising and oven roasting are great ways to prepare pork chops. Serve your pork with a side dish of pligouri (bulgur wheat), a healthy fiber and protein packed whole grain available in fine, medium or coarse grind. As simple to cook as rice or pasta, bulgur is full of vitamins and minerals, and has a lower glycemic index than white rice for those watching their sugar levels. Here are the recipes for tasty pork chops and bulgur wheat to enjoy. GREEK GASTRONOMY and a salad. Pligouri (Bulgur Wheat) 3 cups medium ground bulgur 3 to 3 and 1/2 cups water Salt to taste 1 tablespoon butter (optional) In a saucepan over medium high heat, bring the water to a boil, add the bulgur and salt to taste. If desired, you may also add a tablespoon of butter at this point. Allow the pot to return to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the water is absorbed and the bulgur is tender. Serve warm with pork LITERATURE Some Works of World-Renowned Poet Dimitris Lyacos By Eleni Sakellis Dimitris Lyacos is a Greek writer you ve probably never heard of, even though he is internationally renowned. His work has been published in Greek and in translation and has appeared in literary journals. The Poena Damni trilogy, an avant-garde work, blends poetry and prose, and has inspired artists in various media with its inventiveness, transcending modern poetry with a profound and complicated artistry. Beginning in 1992, Lyacos took twenty years to complete his Poena Damni trilogy. The intellectual weight of all those years is evident throughout the narrative. The third book of the trilogy, O Protos Thanatos, The First Death, was the first to be published in Greek in The second book appeared in 2001 with the title Nyctivoe and has since been updated and published in English under the title With the People from the Bridge (2014). The first book of the trilogy, Z213: Exit was the third installment to be published in Greek in The English translation appeared in At times frightening and haunted, the unsettled and unsettling aspects of the work are not for the faint of heart. The author challenges the reader, and the adventurous poetry fans among us will appreciate this unique poetic vision. The trilogy itself is a literary achievement and a testament to the dedication of the poet to his art. Translated into English by Shorsha Sullivan, the poems retain their strength and impact. Lyacos work has also been translated into German, Italian, and Spanish. Elemental themes of life and death, loss and the resurrection of the dead along with the figure of the revenant of Greek and Balkan folklore appear, provoking images of vampires within this postmodernist, genre-defying work influenced by ancient and modern religion, the epic poetry of Homer and Dante, and the plays of Aeschylus. The surreal, nightmarish feeling of dislocation in the work is Kafkaesque while also recalling the work of James Joyce. The theatricality of the piece, especially in the second installment of the trilogy, With the People from the Bridge, which centers on a play within the poem, adds a remarkable layer of meaning to this extraordinary work. The fragmentation in the work, seemingly typical of modernist and postmodernist art also recalls the fragments of classical antiquity that have trickled down through history to the present day. The spiritual journey brings to mind the Bible and other religious texts, both ancient and modern. Some of the international artists inspired by the work of Dimitris Lyacos include Austrian artist Sylvie Proidl who created a series of paintings displayed in Vienna in Sculptor Fritz Unegg created Nyctivoe, a sound and sculpture installation staged in London in From 2006 to 2009, the Myia dance company in Greece performed a contemporary dance also based on the second part of the trilogy. Born and raised in Athens, Dimitris Lyacos studied law, following in the footsteps of his lawyer father. He spent years living abroad first in Venice, Italy, and then London. Lyacos currently divides his time between Athens and Berlin and travels often for readings of his work. He is a Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Lyacos will be featured in the Spring 2016 issue of the literary magazine Bitter Oleander. The works of Dimitris Lyacos are available online. Pork Chops 4-6 pork chops, 1-2 inches thick, bone in 2-3 garlic cloves 1-2 lemons, depending on the size Olive oil Salt Pepper Season the pork chops with salt and freshly ground pepper on both sides. Sear the pork chops in a large preheated pan, preferably a cast iron skillet, though any heavy bottom pan will work, until the pork chops are golden brown. Using tongs, turn the pork chops to caramelize the other side. Make sure the pork chops are patted dry with paper towels before seasoning and searing since any water will prevent the surface of the pork from caramelizing properly. Sear in batches to avoid crowding the pan which can inhibit the caramelizing process as well. Set the seared pork chops in a large baking pan and add the garlic cloves and lemon juice. Roast in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes, turning the pork chops about 20 minutes through the roasting. Add water to the pan if it seems to be drying out too quickly. Tent with foil and allow to rest after roasting for about 15 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired, bulgur wheat chops. If preferred, add cooked chick peas to your bulgur and serve. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, and serve as a stir in to your traditional chick pea soup (revithia). The combination of revithia and pligouri is a classic in Greek cuisine. Bulgur Salad 2 cups cooked bulgur, cooled slightly 1 cup cooked chick peas or garbanzo beans 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 small to medium-sized cucumber, chopped 1 medium tomato, chopped 1 small to medium-sized red onion, chopped 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint 2-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste In a mixing bowl, stir together the bulgur, chick peas, chopped red bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, red onion, parsley, and mint. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper, then drizzle with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Serve as a side dish or as a main dish salad. Becoming a Millionaire GREEK AMERICAN STORIES By Phylis (Kiki) Sembos Special to The National Herald I ve got an idea! Yiannis announced, stirring his coffee. Getting rich can t be so hard. All you need is brains and guts. George, reaching for a donut, said, We can vouch for your guts, Ignoring him, Yiannis continued. Look at Onassis, Rockefeller, Ford! They all had one thing in common. Kipreos looked up. That s right! They re all dead. Dimos asked, What do you have in mind, Yiannis? Turning serious, he explained that everyone starts out small. Most people have a sweet tooth. So, I thought of making Dipless and selling them. Then, with enough capital I ll open a store front window. John asked, You mean, deep frying them and selling them like hot dogs or pretzels? Yiannis nodded. John reminded, You ll need equipment, ingredients, oil... Waving his hand, Yiannis said, I know! I know! I ll have all that. George narrowing his eyes, asked, Who ll make the dough, do the frying - as if I didn t know. Furrowing his brows Yiannis shrugged, Areti, of course! She s a prize confection maker. Why not? She gets home at five, makes dinner, and then has all evening to sit around. George grew serious, You sit around longer than anyone. Dimos asked, What ll you do while she s frying? Pausing, Yiannis said, I ll be cashier, of course. Of course! chorused the others. Kipreos put in, You ll have to get a permit, a license for a stand. Then,... I ll get all that! Yiannis spouted, annoyed. What about capital? Yiannis cheeks got a nervous tic. I have everything even the money. Remember when Barbara had a lemonade stand last summer and she amassed a few dollars nearly thirty dollars. I ll use that money and... John was surprised. You mean you took Barbara s lemonade money? Of course! Women can t be trusted with money. George imagined Yiannis as a huge Dipla, frying in deep oil. She works part-time as cashier at a diner after school, and then hides her money. But, I have money to put out for this venture. I ll set it up, make sales and then close before eight enough time for Barbara to do her homework and get ready for school next day. They were all doubtful. George spoke his own thoughts. That s a good idea, Yiannis! But, what about when someone reports getting sick from one of them? There s always a trouble-maker who ll pretend your stuff caused them serious illness. Yiannis looked doubtful. That doesn t happen! Dimos said, I have a clean diner and it happens. That s why I have a lawyer. He takes care of everything for me. Yiannis, still determined on his venture, asked, What do I do when that happens? Grinning, George told him, Flee to Kurdistan. As planned Yiannis opened his stand on a corner near the subway entrance and Areti and Barbara fried and stacked Dipless on a tray while Yiannis sold to nosh -hungry customers just surfacing from the train station. An hour later, dough depleted, oil running low, a weary Areti and a tired Barbara, were ordered to run home to prepare more dough. Two hours later, when that dough was depleted, a frenzied Yiannis ordered Areti to run home, again and make more dough, And, hurry! After having delivered the fourth batch of dough both women, frazzled and exhausted, went home, as ordered by a tyrannical Yiannis, to prepare the fifth batch of dough while handing Barbara the money made, telling her to take it home and put it in a safe place. It grew dark as Yiannis, standing restlessly at the corner, awaited the next dough shipment that never came. He strutted around in the partial dark, like a prowling lion, searching for them. But, neither dough nor wife nor daughter seemed to be coming. Grumbling and muttering to himself, he packed it up and headed for home to investigate why they didn t return as ordered. Holding a large, oily pot, folding table, cinnamon dispenser and his temper, he banged on the door. No one answered. But, on the door he noticed a note that read, Went to dinner and a movie. Don t wait up for us. Love and kisses, Barbara and Mom. Next Sunday, he was eagerly awaited at Dixon s. But, George had already filled them in on what happened, Areti having told his wife. Well? Did you make your first million, Yiannis? Nervously stirring his coffee Yiannis told them that, I was well on the way until... Dimos, trying to look serious, asked, Until? I had trouble with the help! That s what! John asked, You mean Barbara and Areti? Yiannis nodded, stirring his coffee like it was syrup. AND? chorused the others. I told you women can t be trusted with money!

10 10 FEATURE THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 HELLENIC HAPPENINGS FROM COAST TO COAST NAPLES, FL The CHRISTIAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM INSTI- TUTE is holding its Annual Symposium March at the ST. KATHERINE S GREEK ORTHO- DOX CHURCH in Naples. DR. ANDREW EKONOMOU, who serves as Senior Counsel to both the AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE (ACLJ) in Washington, DC and the EURO- PEAN CENTRE FOR LAW AND JUSTICE in Strasbourg, France, and who holds a PhD in Medieval and Byzantine history his dissertation is titled BYZAN- TINE ROME AND THE GREEK POPES, will present a lecture titled: Emperors, Sultans and Patriarchs: Observations on the Survival of the ECUMENICAL PA- TRIARCHATE during the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. DR. TIMOTHY PATITSAS, an Assistant Professor at HOLY CROSS GREEK ORTHODOX SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, directs and leads its study abroad program, will present a lecture titled: Ethical Justification for Christian Rights and Freedom. The keynote speaker is JAY SEKULOW, ESQ, who is ACLJ s Founder and Chief Counsel. He was instrumental in the release of American pastor SAEED ABE- DINI, an American citizen who was imprisoned in Iran for over three years. ACROSS 1 matter 5 Island 10 Famous TV maker of old (abbrev.) 13 Suspect 15 Recognized 16 Multinational Ins. Org. 17 Glowing 18 Gay 19 Trgt. Nomination List (abbrev.) 20 The Catcher in the 21 Director Kazan 23 Chute 25 Actor Alda 26 City of Tigers and Lions, but not Bears 28 Vitamin deficiency disease 31 Capital of Vietnam 32 Learner 33 Totals 34 David's Meet the Press predecessor 37 Mined metals 38 Taboos 40 Walk through water 41 High-school club 42 Baby 43 Moses' brother 44 Give back all of the money 45 Gov. Schwartzenegger 46 Engage beforehand 49 Alphabet's first four 50 Objects 51 Capital of Western Samoa 52 and Feathers 55 Flanked by F and J 56 Gardner's nemesis 59 Waste matter 61 Org. of American States (abbrev.) 62 Got up 63 Square root of sixty-four 64 Train Network Mgmt. (abbrev.) 65 Lefts or rights on a graph 66 Condiment DOWN 1 6th month (Jewish calendar) 2 Greek suffix meaning the study of 3 Very slow horse 4 Blood type group 5 Bundle of yarn 6 Saint honored on December 9 7 Cow sound 8 Wise tree dweller? 9 Newsman Ernie 10 2:1, for example PHILADELPHIA, PA MILO YIANNOPOULOS, an Associate Editor at the the conservative media outlet Breitbart, has stirred controversy with his PRIVILEGE GRANT, which he co-founded last month, and which promises to give 50 $2500 scholarships to white men, whom he says are disadvantaged in today s politically correct world, as compared to their female, homosexual, and ethnic minority classmates. Yiannopoulos also took aim at the social medial forum TWITTER, stating that it is on the verge of collapse and that it will attempt to influence the upcoming presidential election in favor of the Democratic nominee, whomever that may be, CBS News Philly reported. QUESTION OF THE WEEK Do you think people not born in the United States should be eligible to run for president if they have become U.S. citizens? Please your response to scaros@thenationalherald.com We may publish some responses as Letters to the Editor in a future issue. THE HERALD SQUARE TNH's Crossword Challenge He told 1210WPHT Radio that Twitter s management is obsessed with silencing conservative ideas in social media, and indicated that a number of people in prominent positions at Twitter used to work for PRESI- DENT OBAMA and HILLARY CLINTON. Twitter, as a company, is dying, he said, CBS News Philly reported. The share price is collapsing. They now have finally begun to admit that even their Milo Yiannopoulos 11 Ms. Lauper 12 Metal tip on the end of a lance 14 Square root of Rest 24 Long Range Init. 25 Greek god of war 26 Pedestal part 27 Ceases 28 Quit 29 Heal 30 Miners' Coll. (abbrev.) 31 Sold Oliver Douglas his farm in Hooterville 34 Tropical edible root 35 Graven image 36 Fix 38 Valley - wine region 39 Baseball card company 40 Scepter 42 Honeycomb structure 43 Where video games are kept 44 Revolutions per minute 45 American Bankruptcy Institute (init.) 46 Zealot 47 Vermont Founder Allen 48 Tremor 49 Niches 51 Abu Dhabi Stock Exchng. (abbrev.) 52 Roman garments 53 Ashen 54 Regional Signal Transmission Org. (RSTO) 57 Baseball stat. (abbrev.) 58 Extactable Org. Halogen (abbrev.) 60 Perimeter Solution to last week s puzzle F E E P A N T S J O W L S O R R A C O R N E A S E L I T I T H A A O S T A R E N A C B I A M B U S C O D E C L N I A F I B U L A D E C R E E C A R S E R E R A T L A S H U E S S Y N O D T I R E I N N E R A D O R E A T E A E G E A N P A R I S H O T B B E A C P S S E A M E N N W B N A L I B I B A T E S R E O B E G U N C L A S P I L L S A N T A S I S S Y T A O active users [are] going down. On every metric that investors care about, the company is tanking and there s going to be a fire sale within in the next 6 months They re all political operatives for the Democrats. Anyway, this company is now tanking. I think what s happening is a lot of the employees are saying, we re going down, but why don t we just become the most effective liberal attack vector we can as long as we still exist? MILWAUKEE, WI The MIL- WAUKEE BUCKS National Basketball Association (NBA) team is having a terrible season, as they possess one of the worst records in the league. Apparently, every player is at risk of being traded, ESPN reported, except one: the team s superstar, GIANNIS THE GREEK FREAK ANTEKOKOUNMPO, the Athenian-born 21-year-old who at nearly 7 feet tall towers over most of the competition. Antetokounmpo is considered off limits because of his seemingly limitless potential, the Inquisitir reported. He is called the Greek Freak because n FEBRUARY 19 CAMPBELL, OH The Archangel Michael Greek Orthodox Church, th Street (at Porter Avenue) in Campbell, invites you to its Greek Festival 2016 on Friday, Feb. 19, 3-9PM, Saturday and Sunday (Feb ) 12Noon-9PM. Come and enjoy the best Greek food in town! Authentic Gyros, Souvlakia. & Lamb. Authentic Greek Folk Dancers Performing Daily. Traditional Greek Foods & Pastries, Cafe, Indoor dining. Auction, Games for the kids, Art Religious Items, Jewelry, CDs. Daily Food Specials. Fun for the entire family. Also, visit the rich history of our church and our city. Campbell is called the City of Churches. Even for its small population size of now under nine thousand residents, it boasts of several different churches. Other than St. Michael, established in 1955, there are: Marion Heights United Methodist Church (1835), First Baptist Church (1908), St. John the Baptist Slovak Roman Catholic Church (1916), St. John the Baptist Eastern Orthodox Church (1917), St. Joseph the Provider Roman Catholic Church (1919), St. Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church (1922), St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church (1922), Gospel Temple Baptist Church (1923), St. Lucy Roman Catholic Church (1937), Greater Liberty Baptist Church (1946), Assembly of God Pentecostal Church (1947), Bible Baptist Temple (1957), Spanish Seventh Day Adventist Church (1962), Full Gospel Church of God (1968), and Kingdom Hall/Jehovah s Witnesses (1970). n FEBRUARY 21 MANHATTAN The Nicholas Roerich Museum, 319 W. 107th Street in Manhattan, is proud to present Lofty Visions: an Evening of Scriabin and Grieg, featuring acclaimed pianist Eleni Traganas, on Sunday Feb. 21 at 5PM. Eleni Traganas is the true Renaissance Woman of her generation. An acclaimed concert pianist, author, visual artist and This Week in Greek History: Dr. George Pap Smear Papanicolaou Dies GOINGS ON... composer, her varied award-winning activities have amassed accolades from the international press and are listed in Who s Who in America and other biographical publications. Born and raised in New York City, Ms. Traganas entered the legendary School of Performing Arts at the age of 13, and went on to study under scholarship at The Juilliard School. With postgraduate studies undertaken at the Volkwang Musikhochschule in Essen, Germany, and Switzerland s Lucerne Conservatory, her mentors have included such performing luminaries as Paul Badura- Skoda, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Nadia Reisenberg, Beveridge Webster, and Eugene List. Her deep affinity for the Romantic repertoire has led to innumerable appearances in all-chopin and all-russian recitals and lectures in Carnegie Recital Hall, a concert which the New York Times applauded for its volatile temperament, intensity, and impressive dramatic impetus, New York s Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, London s Wigmore Hall ( An impressively assured performance, the Financial Times), Berlin ( Ethereal clarity exuberant brilliance, Berliner Morgenpost), Athens, and many of the major music capitals of Europe, where she also performed under the aegis of the U.S. State Department. PRINCETON, NJ The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies and Orange Pan-Hellenic Association Present: A Benefit Concert for the Syrian Refugees Searching for a Homeland: Songs of Exile and Displacement. Sunday, Feb. 21, 4PM at the Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall, Princeton University, Washington Road, in Princeton. The performance will feature traditional and contemporary music of Greece, Turkey, the United States, and Western Europe. Free will donations will be collected at the door for the International Rescue Committee's Syrian Refugee Relief efforts. Supported by the Council of the Humanities Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace This week in 1962, on February 19, Dr. George Papanicolaou, inventor of the Pap smear passed away in Miami, FL at age 78. He was the discoverer of the Papanicolaou Test better known as the Pap Smear, which can detect cervical cancer and other reproductive diseases. Born in Kymi on Euboea in 1883, Papanicolaou earned his medical degree from the University of Athens in 1904, followed by a PhD at the University of Munich in Germany six years later. He immigrated to the United States in 1913 and began working at New York Hospital, and began his research about early cancer detection in the 1920s, which culminated in the publication of Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear, with Herbert Frederick Traut, in He died soon after moving to Miami to oversee the creation of the Papanicolaou Cancer Research Institute at the University of Miami. Giannis Antetokounmpo of his outstanding athletic abilities. At just 21 years old, many in the NBA wonder what his body will eventually transform into. The belief is that Antetokounmpo may become someone that is impossible to defend, so it makes sense for the Milwaukee Bucks to want to keep him around. and Justice Davis International Center, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. For more event inform a t i o n : /02/05/searching-for-a-homeland. n FEBRUARY 25 SEATTLE, WA The Hellenic Studies Program at the University of Washington Presents Greece 2016: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, by Markos Kounalakis on Thursday, Feb. 25 at the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church Community Hall, East 2100 Boyer Avenue, in Seattle. Kounalakis is a print and network broadcast journalist and author who covered wars and revolutions, both civil and technological. He reported the overthrow of communism for Newsweek in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria and the outbreak of ethnic strife and war in Yugoslavia. He was based in Rome and Vienna and later ran the magazine s Prague satellite bureau for more than a year. Currently Kounalakis is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; a senior fellow at the Center for Media and Communication Studies at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and President and publisher emeritus of the Washington Monthly. This event is free and open to the public. n FEBRUARY 27 MANHATTAN The Kyrenia Opera and Orpheus Foundation present Stavros Siolas performing the songs of Manos Hadzidakis, Yannis Markopoulos, Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarhakos in Saturday, Feb. 27 at 7:30PM at the Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 West 67th Street, in Manhattan. The Kyrenia Opera Orchestra and Chorus is directed by Constantinos Yiannoudes. Tickets: $35 - $55 - $85. Box Office: (212) For more information, contact Polys Kyriacou at Dr. Papanicolaou received countless honors throughout his life and beyond it. His likeness appeared on a 10,000 Greek drachma banknote, from , at which point the drachma was replaced by the euro. The U.S. Post office in 1978 issued a stamp in his honor. In its December 25, 2014 issue, The National Herald featured Papanicolaou among the All Time Highly-Influential Greek-Americans.

11 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 GREECE CYPRUS 11 As Tractors Range, and the EU Rages, New Democracy Soaring in Poll ATHENS As Greece s coalition government struggles with farmers disrupting its transportation system, abuse from its EU partners over the refugee and migration crisis, and more disturbing signs of instability in a Turkey led by the unpredictable Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo an, the New Democracy Party (ND) has surged ahead of the SYRIZA party in the latest poll. The survey by MRB published on February 18 has ND leading SYRIZA by 3.3 percent. The conservative party polled 26.9 percent versus 23.2 percent for the leftists. EU complaints about Greece s handling of refugees and migrants was tempered by supportive words from Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who declared this week that Greece has made progress in the implementation of the reform program demanded by the third memorandum when he addressed the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Nevertheless, challenges remain he added. Regarding the first program review that is taking place at this time, ANA/MPA noted that Dijsselbloem said that the discussions are rather constructive and underlined that the main concern of the institutions is to eurokinissi This farmer seems to be enjoying himself as he mans one of the blockades set up all over Greece protesting pension reforms. The fallout includes SYRIZA trailing ND in the polls. ensure the quality of the reforms to be implemented. He added that the first evaluation includes important reforms on the social security system and fiscal figures, the operation of the privatizations fund, the modernization of public administration, the combating of tax evasion and others. He admitted that some reforms are politically and socially difficult, but stressed the importance of Greece meeting its commitments based on the 2015 agreement. Dijsselbloem also spoke about the condition of the Greek banks and pointed out that that 5.4 billion euros was needed for their recapitalization - much less than the amount initially estimated. "This is also good news for the sustainability of the debt," he added. DUELING TRACTORS Greek authorities say more than 2,800 vehicles are trapped at crossings on the Greek-Bulgarian border, following road blockades by protesting Greek farmers and counterprotests by angry Bulgarian truckers. Police say about 1,300 lorries and cars were stuck on the Greek side of the main Promahonas-Kulata crossing Thursday, and about 1,500 in Bulgaria. Scores more are waiting at another three border crossings. Greek farmers have been manning highway blockades across Greece for weeks to protest a government-planned pension reform that will drastically increase their pension contributions. Farmers had been allowing cars and buses through, and had been occasionally opening the border to lorries. But the Bulgarian truckers say farmers broke an agreement to occasionally let trucks through, and have been blocking their side since Wednesday. While the Greek press is reporting divisions among protesting farmers Kathimerini notes some have approached the government for talks on tax and pension reforms many roads were still blocked in different parts of Greece on February 17. Roads were blocked at the norther border crossings of Promachonas and Kipoi, at Tempe in central Greece and at the Corinth Canal. Up to 100 blockages are still place Wednesday, causing worry about their growing economic impact. However, splits are appearing among the protesting groups. Not all farmers took part in Friday s protests in Athens and it emerged Wednesday that three groups have sent proposals to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on how the dispute over pension and tax reforms could be resolved. This has provided encouragement to the government that a solution might be found. TENSION YIELDS FALLOUT The protests that have continued for almost a month have claimed their first political victim. On February 17 Deputy Transport Minister Panayiotis Sgouridis resigned. He seemed to hint in a radio interview that the Prime Minister had deliberately lied to farmers. Unfortunately, politicians are not judged on what they do but what they say If you don t make promises, they don t vote for you, Sgouridis told Maximum FM in Alexandroupolis. Sgouridis is a member of the Independent Greeks (ANEL) party. SYRIZA s coalition partner. According to Kathimerini he later Issued a statement saying he did not intend to give the impression that Tsipras had lied. However, his comments are thought to have angered ANEL leader and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos. The MRB poll, which surveyed 2000 people in different parts of Greece, placed the Greek Communist Party (KKE) in third place with 6.6 percent, and Golden Dawn (6.5 percent) in fourth, followed by the PA- SOK-Democratic Left coalition (5.7 percent), the Union of Centrists (4.1 percent), Independent Greeks (3 percent), To Potami (2.6 percent), Popular Unity (2.4 percent) and ANTARSYA (1.9 percent). Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Car Bomb in Ankara Kills 28, Injures 61, Pres. Erdogan Accuses the Kurds ANKARA A car bomb went off in the Turkish capital Wednesday near vehicles carrying military personnel, killing at least 28 people and wounding 61 others, officials said. The explosion occurred during evening rush hour in the heart of Ankara, in an area close to parliament and armed forces headquarters and lodgings. Buses carrying military personnel were targeted while waiting at traffic lights at an intersection, the Turkish military said while condemning the "contemptible and dastardly" attack. Turkey's leaders on Thursday blamed top enemies, including Kurdish militant groups in Turkey and in Syria as well as the Syrian government, for the suicide bombing in Ankara and vowed strong retaliation against the perpetrators, threatening to further complicate the Syria conflict. In Ankara at least two military vehicles caught fire and dozens of ambulances were sent to the scene. Dark smoke could be seen billowing from a distance. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kurtulmus pledged that authorities would find those behind the bombing. He said the government had appointed seven prosecutors to investigate the attack, which he described as being lief we can certainly support a program with less ambitious reforms, but this will inevitably involve more debt relief. This said, no amount of pension reforms will make Greece s debt sustainable without debt relief, and no amount of debt relief will make Greece s pension system sustainable without pension reforms. Both need to come about. There is no doubt that both Greece and its European partners will face politically difficult decisions in the coming months to arrive at a program that is viable one that adds up. ACT NOW Such difficult decisions cannot be kicked down the road through unrealistic assumptions. While there is much scope for increasing productivity through reforms, the past six years have shown that the scope and pace of reforms acceptable to the Greek society is not commensurate with an early improvement of productivity and sustained high growth. Thus, assuming that Greece can simply grow out of its debt problem without debt relief by rapidly transitioning from the lowest to the highest productivity growth within the euro zone is not credible. Similarly, the very limited success in combating Greece s notorious tax evasion to make the well-off pay their fair share means that pension reforms cannot be avoided by simply assuming higher tax collections in the future. FOCUS ON PENSIONS Why the focus on pension reforms? Despite the pension reforms of 2010 and 2012, Greece s pension system remains unaffordably generous. For instance, the standard pensions in nominal Euro terms are broadly similar in Greece and Germany, even though Germany measured by the average wage is twice as rich as Greece. Add to this that Greeks still retire much earlier than Germans and that Germany is much better at collecting social security contributions. The result is that the Greek budget needs to transfer some 10 percent of GDP to cover the gaping hole in the pension system, compared to a European average of some 2½ percent. Clearly, this is unsustainable. But can t Greece protect pensioners by cutting somewhere else or increasing tax rates? There is some scope for those measures, but it is very limited. Most other spending has already "well-planned." Kurdish rebels, the Islamic State group and a leftist extremist group have carried out attacks in the country recently. In October, suicide bombings blamed on ISIS targeted a peace rally outside the main train station in Ankara, killing 102 people in Turkey's deadliest attack in years. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the bombing saying it exceeds all "moral and humane boundaries." Turkey is determined to fight those who carried out the attack been cut to the bone in an effort to protect pensions and social payments, while the failure to broaden the base and improve compliance has already caused too much reliance on high tax rates. To reach its ambitious medium-term target for the primary surplus of 3½ percent of GDP, Greece will need to take measures in the order of some 4-5 percent of GDP. We cannot see how Greece can do so without major savings on pensions. Pension reforms will of course be socially challenging for the Greek people, which have seen exceptional hardship in recent years. In fact, social pressures have already forced reversals of course under both the previous and the current government and Greece is unfortunately much further away from its medium-term goals than it was in mid-2014, before a major fiscal relaxation erased what proved to be only a temporary primary surplus. In this regard, the government is right to point out that pensions in Greece have a broader social function. But using pensions in this way is not a durable solution. What is needed and what the IMF has argued for is a modern social safety net that is sustainable over the medium term. Could a primary surplus target well below 3½ percent of GDP make the necessary pension reform less demanding? Perhaps, but that would necessitate more debt relief. This is understandably controversial among Greece s European partners, in part because several of them are required to run similarly high surpluses to preserve debt sustainability, and in part because some of the countries that would be in effect paying as well as the "forces" behind the assailants, he said. "Our determination to retaliate to attacks that aim against our unity and future grows stronger with every action," Erdogan said. "It must be known that Turkey will not refrain from using its right to self-defense at all times." IMF s Thomsen Discusses Bailouts, Reforms Continued from page 1 ap PhoTo/mahmuT bozarslan Members of Turkish forces gather around a bus that was destroyed in an explosion on the road linking the cities of Diyarbakir and Bingol, in southeastern Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 18, The IMF s Poul Thomsen says reforms and debt relief are both necessary. for debt relief to Greece are poorer than Greece, paying much less generous pensions to their own people. With the euro zone still far from being a political union, a compromise will need to reflect such political constraints. The IMF is willing to work with the combination of reforms and debt relief on which Greece and its European partners can agree. But again, it needs to add up. IMF IS NOT DRACONIAN The IMF does not want Greece to implement draconian fiscal adjustment in an already severely depressed economy. In fact, we have time and again been the ones arguing for a fiscal adjustment path that is more supportive of recovery in the near term and more realistic in the medium term. We have yet to see a credible plan for how Greece will reach the very ambitious medium-term surplus target that is key to the government s plans for restoring debt sustainability. This emphasis on credibility is crucial for generating the investor confidence that is critical to Greece s revival. A plan built on over-optimistic assumptions will soon cause Grexit fears to resurface once again and stifle the investment climate. The overriding objective of the IMF s engagement with Greece is to help the country put itself back on a path of sustainable growth that benefits the Greek people. The IMF will support the Greek authorities and their European partners in developing a program of reforms and debt relief that adds up. There are difficult choices to be made, but it is important to make them so that Greece s efforts over the last six years are not wasted. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the explosion and "hopes the perpetrators of this terrorist attack will be swiftly brought to justice," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Wednesday's attack comes at a tense time when the Turkish government is facing an array of challenges. A fragile peace process with Kurdish rebels collapsed in the summer and renewed fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Turkey has also been helping efforts led by the United States to combat the Islamic State group in neighboring Syria, and has faced several deadly bombings in the last year that were blamed on ISIS. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" and offered his condolences to the families of the victims. Stoltenberg said there can be no justification "for such horrific acts" and that "NATO Allies stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism." NICOSIA The future of the Republic of Cyprus is being addressed on a number of fronts this week as gas exploration moves forward and the European Commission has placed the `Task Force for the Turkish Cypriot Community` under the direct management of Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and Vice-President Dombrovskis, according to CNA. With the UN talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots at the community leader level as a background, the Technical Committee on Criminal Affairs this week organized a bicommunal seminar titled Policing a federal country: challenges and benefits in which four experts from the USA, Britain and Australia, participated according to statements to CNA by the Greek Cypriot co-chair of the Commission, Andros Kapardis. Kapardis informed that two of the experts are American, one from Britain and one from Australia. They made presentations based on their experience with the members of the Technical Committee and the staff of the Contact Office in the UN-controlled buffer zone of Nicosia, where the seminar was held. The EU Commission s decision takes immediate effect and is considered an indication of its support for the peace process. The Task Force is the Commission`s team in charge of the application of the EU Aid Programme for the Turkish Cypriot Community and of assisting the Turkish Cypriot to prepare for the reunification of Cyprus, to the Secretariat General`s Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) which will coordinate all the Commission`s efforts in facilitating the process for the reunification of Cyprus, CNA noted. On the energy front, Cyprus' German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "In the battle against those responsible for these inhuman acts we are on the side of Turkey." Washington also condemned the attack, according to a statement by Mark Toner, deputy spokesman of the U.S. State Department. "We reaffirm our strong partnership with our NATO Ally Turkey in combatting the shared threat of terrorism," Toner said. After the attack, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu canceled a visit to Brussels Wednesday evening and attended a security meeting with Erdogan and other officials. Erdogan postponed a trip to Azerbaijan planned for Thursday. The government meanwhile, imposed a gag order which bans media organizations from broadcasting or printing graphic images of the dead or injured from the scene of the explosion and also banned reporting on any details of the investigation. Turkey has imposed similar bans after previous attacks. European Union President Juncker Takes Control of Turkish-Cypriot Task Force government announced that the third licensing round to search for potential natural gas deposits off the country s southern shores will move forward. Nicos Christodoulides, the Government spokesman, said on February 16 the process will start as quickly as possible, but no details were presented. Noble Energy, an American company that received an exploration license in 2007, discovered a field around 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Cyprus. It is believe that it contains more than four trillion cubic feet of gas. France's Total and Italy's Eni along with its South Korean partner KOGAS received licenses during a second round in 2012 which have been extended by two years. Last year Eni last year discovered what it declared to be the largest gas deposit ever found in the Mediterranean in Egypt s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) TOURISM IS UP Meanwhile, more and more tourists are discovering the island nation, continuing to cushion its economy as it tries to exit its economic crisis. The Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO) announced figures for arrivals in Cyprus for November 2015 to January The results show again that seasonality in the tourist industry is on track, CTO noted in a press release, adding that it is encouraging that during the period from November to January, an increasing flow of tourist arrivals was recorded. According to the CTO, tourist arrivals during November January 2014 reached 177 thousand, they increased from November 2014 January 2015 by 1, CAN reported. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

12 12 EDITORIALS LETTERS THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 The National Herald LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A weekly publication of the NATIONAL HERALD, INC. (ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ), reporting the news and addressing the issues of paramount interest to the Greek-American community of the United States of America. Publisher-Editor Antonis H. Diamataris Assistant to the Publisher, Advertising Veta H. Diamataris Papadopoulos Executive Editor Constantinos E. Scaros Religion Editor Theodore Kalmoukos Senior Writer Constantine S. Sirigos Production Manager Chrysoula Karametros Praise for TNH s Forum For Diverse Opinions To the Editor: Regarding the paid advertisement "The Myth and Truth about Atmospheric Pollution" by Dr. Anastassios Kassapidis (Jan. 23) and the subsequent rebuttal by George Vasilios Stotis Kassapidis Comments Draw Sharp Criticism (Letter to the Editor, Feb. 6) I thank you for allowing all points of view to be printed in the paper. It is unbelievable that even with all the facts and data presented by many scientists that the issue of climate change cannot be accepted by a few. Dr. Takey Crist Jacksonville, NC. tralia? Australia is the lucky country. Australia has not seen any invaders in its territories. It has abundant resources, which it exports to China and has grown rich from them. Australia was not destroyed by the Nazis and then ravaged by civil war, and was not a pawn of the great powers during the cold war. In contrast, Greece has no resources to sell to China. Its territory is much, much smaller than Australia s. The deprivations of the past six years were not caused by the Greek mentality alone, but by the avarice of the big banks and the irresponsible lending they were practicing. Lambros Karpodinis The National Herald (USPS ) is published weekly by The National Herald Inc. at th Street, LIC, NY Tel: (718) , Fax: (718) , english.edition@thenationalherald.com Democritou 1 and Academias Sts, Athens, 10671, Greece Tel: , Fax: , athens@ekirikas.com Periodical postage paid at L.I.C., N.Y. and additional mailing offices. Postmaster send change of address to: THE NATIONAL HERALD, th Street, LIC, NY Thank You, Mr. Jaharis The passing of Michael Jaharis at age 87 on the morning of February 17 is a milestone in the life of our community perhaps a turning point. For several decades, he touched the lives of so many, was instrumental in preserving so much, and made countless contributions matched by few others in our community s history. He reached a level of greatness, and he did in style, but in an unassuming, almost humble way. But Michael Jaharis did not act alone. Whatever he did, he did it with his wife, Mary. They were that kind of couple. And they did so much. They showed extraordinary generosity to great museums, like the Met and the Art Institute of Chicago, and to great universities, like Tufts. But he also supported so many community events, projects, and people. As you read his biography, it will be clear that nothing in his humble beginnings could foretell the great success and respect in life he achieved. He ascribed his great success to being inspired by his parents commitment to family, faith, education, and hard work. He made it the foundation for everything he built, which was reinforced by the love and support of his wife and family. Michael Jaharis became a household name in our community not because he set out to become one, but because he was larger than life. He took it upon himself to preserve what there was, and along with few others to build upon it; new foundations upon which he hoped the continuity of the community could be based. It seemed as if it were personal to him. As if he were paying back all that his immigrant parents did for him. And more. He might have felt that if not he, then who? We all should feel that way. His hard work and generosity at the Archdiocesan level might not be surpassed. But it was not only there. He supported so many small and large causes and projects in the community that the names Mary and Michael Jaharis were on almost all of the community s lists of contributors. In the best traditions of our community and of Hellenism, the Jaharises have set a lofty example for others to follow. We hope that the seeds they planted will bear fruit. In any event, he did his duty. And that is all one can ask from anyone. May his memory be eternal. Bravo, Bush Brothers Jeb Bush is fighting for his political life. If he does not mount a respectable showing in February 20 s South Carolina primary, it will be a struggle for him to continue his presidential campaign. And if the polls are any indication, the news is not very encouraging. Donald Trump leads the field by double the votes of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Bush comes in at fourth or fifth, depending on the poll. Things were expected to be different for Jeb, touted as the smarter Bush son, expected to follow in his father s footsteps as president. But it was George W., the black sheep of the family whose wild youth and unremarkable professional portfolio rendered it a surprise when he was elected president and twice, in fact. From the start of Jeb s campaign, the word dynasty was thrown around, unfavorably. Dynasties, after all, are associated with Europe, not with the United States. Yet, on the other side of the political aisle, the Democrats were poised to nominate Hillary Clinton, the wife of President Bill. Why, then, not Jeb? Unfortunately, Jeb stumbled from the onset. The energy and aura of confidence were missing. He spoke slowly, with nervous gestures, and without eloquence. But it was evident that he was the most suitable candidate of the bunch. Well-versed on the issues, with measured reason and courage of opinion, and appropriately collegial and congenial manner; a proper upbringing. Who could have predicted the Trump phenomenon? The frontrunner practically monopolized media attention ever since last summer with his often-outrageous comments against individuals and groups of people, including Jeb and his family, with whom there were old scores to settle. In the last debate, Trump s attack caused Bush to lose his composure. With his poll numbers rising but still far behind, Jeb enlisted brother George from his self-imposed post-presidential political exile to reenter the fray and lend a helping hand in a state where he remains very popular. It was a touching scene to see the Brothers Bush, side-byside on the podium, with wide, affectionate smiles to one another, communicating warmly with their eyes. In a recent interview with both of them, Sean Hannity asked the former president why after seven disciplined years of vowing to stay out of politics he reemerged. Brother asked, and I love him dearly, was the answer. And if they are not identical to John and Bobby Kennedy, as president and attorney general, working side-by-side during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bush Brothers are similar. Bravo, well done. Indecent Eulogies Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away last week unexpectedly. The Court s longest-serving justice and the nation s leading authority on the judicial philosophy of originalism, which is committed to strict adherence of constitutional language over the past 30 years, wrote some of the Court s most forceful opinions. As expected, he was lionized by conservatives and assailed by progressives. Though most journalists of all ideological stripes were respectful in commenting on Justice Scalia s death, others like Rolling Stone s David Erlich and the New Yorker s Silvia Killingsworth tweeted, respectively, how long must we wait to not appear sad, and that Scalia is now in hell. Whatever one s right to tweet in bad taste might be, journalists owe it to their profession to hold themselves to a higher standard. It would behoove them to take a lesson from Scalia s colleague, outspoken progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who despite their ideological differences called Scalia her best friend on the Court. TO OUR READERS The national herald welcomes letters from its readers intended for publication. They should include the writer s name, address, and telephone number and be addressed to: The editor, The national herald, th Street, long island city, ny letters can also be faxed to (718) or ed to scaros@thenationalherald.com. we reserve the right to edit letters for publication and regret that we are unable to acknowledge or return those left unpublished. By Dan Georgakas and Constantinos E. Scaros From our website Reader: Dabilis Is at it Again From time to time, an issue emerges and inspires various minds to converge, often at odds with one another, to discuss it. Hopefully, collective enlightenment will result from such conversations. The Ancient Greeks did that in SCAROS PRESENTS HIS POINT OF VIEW Dan, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has built his campaign on multiple themes, but the two most prevalent ones have to do with national security (namely, defeat ISIS), and immigration (deport illegal aliens and build a wall to keep everyone out except those permitted to enter legally). Although his appeal extends beyond those two issues (he is also self-funding and thus in no one s pocket, he rails against political correctness, and he promises to bring jobs back to the United States), national security and immigration are at the core of his message. That he is the frontrunner makes sense, then, when looking at how high national security ranks among Republican voters most important issues. Paradoxically, though, immigration ranks among the lowest. Do the voters not realize the nexus between these two issues, or am I missing something? All of immigration s advantages notwithstanding, there are three main drawbacks: 1) an influx of illegal aliens who potentially would be on the public dole; 2) an influx of legal aliens who would complete with American workers not to mention that both legal and illegal aliens add more bodies to our alreadycongested cities; and 3) the possibility of terrorists sneaking in through our porous borders from Canada, Mexico, our airports, and our ports, pretending to be displaced refugees or mild-mannered migrants seeking a better life in the Land of Opportunity. Granted, the first two categories do not really affect national security, but the third one most certainly does. Why are the voters the same voters who are so concerned about national security so apathetic when it comes to immigration? President Obama recently admonished not only Trump but several of his Republican cohorts for denouncing the acceptance of Syrian refugees into the United States, pointing out that there is just as much danger of a terrorist sneaking in through the hordes that arrive daily, courtesy of visaless travel. He is absolutely Cruz-Rubio Comunalidad During the February 13 Republican debate in South Carolina, Ted Cruz accused Marco Rubio of saying one thing about amnesty on the Spanish television channel Univision and another at the debate. The Texas senator was addressing mainly white, English-speaking Republican voters, and implied that the Florida senator says things behind their backs. Rubio did not deny the accusation, instead countering with: Well first of all I don t know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn t speak Spanish. Cruz immediate and unexpected response came in reportedly heavily-accented, Spanish: "That's how you want it Right now, say it in Spanish, if you want." Though fierce combatants for their party s presidential nomination, Cruz and Rubio have a comunalidad (commonalty). In response to Aesthetic Lessons for Greece from Australia s Public Spaces: (Feb. 13) by Andy Dabilis, I thought Dabilis was off his raving for a while. Sure, Greece has a lot to envy in how public space is well kept in Australia. It would be great if parks were as well kept as other places. Greece could be cleaner, graffiti could have been less invasive, and traffic could flow better. But, why are we comparing Greece with Aus- AGORA THE ORIGINAL MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS the Agora, the original marketplace of ideas, and we, their modern-day descendants, aspire to continue that tradition. We respect one another s opinion very much, but often times we will disagree on particular issues. We would never fabricate a difference of opinion for the sake of writing an interesting column. Isn t there an Immigration/National Security Nexus? right, yet it is shocking that given that realization, he does not consider reforming the visaless travel process. That s like saying: why bother locking the front door of the house, if the side door is broken and burglars can get in from there anyway? There are multitudes of Americans who deem all of this reaction to ISIS as mass hysteria. They point out statistics along A fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Voters rank national security high on the list of most important issues. Why, then, is immigration ranked so low? the lines of: the chances are higher you d slip in the bathtub and crack your head wide open than being beheaded by ISIS, and so they simply consider deadly terrorism a hazard of life. After all, if you go to a ballgame and get hit in the head by a line drive foul ball, it might kill you but the chances are so slim, right? For those folks, I can see placing immigration so low on the list, because they seem to think our days of worrying about national security are over. Russia is our enemy from the 1980s, they mock, and it s time we stop meddling in other countries business, lay down our arms, and come home. No one will bother us if we do that, they tell each other reassuringly. Fine. They would rank both illegal immigration and national security quite low on the priority list. Makes perfect sense. But for those who place national security at the top of the list, followed by Obamacare, the economy, taxes, jobs, education, Second Amendment, defunding Planned Parenthood, the Defense of Marriage Act, eminent domain, and a host of other issues before they finally rank immigration number 15 or so I just don t get it. Can you make any sense of it? GEORGAKAS RESPONDS Much of what you say about immigration hysteria is on the money. At the same time, the immigration issue is a manifestation of an incredibly inept foreign policy begun by George W. Bush and continued through Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. As Bernie Sanders has noted, the invasion of Iraq was the greatest foreign policy blunder in American history. It has disrupted the lives of millions, killed unknown numbers, and cost Americans trillions of dollars. Sanders saw it coming. Clinton did not. Jeb Bush has surrounded himself with the same foreign policy advisors used by Bush. Today s refugees are the direct result of the invasion of Iraq and our follies in Syria. Obama, strongly supported by Clinton, has taken stronger aim at Syria s Assad, a wretched dictator to be sure, than with ISIS. During their tenure, ISIS went from being a cult to a mini-state with an army of tens of thousands and income in the multimillions. The support of anti-assad forces led to retaliatory actions that have generated the flow of refugees that had previously been mainly Iraqis and Afghans. Russia, which has vital naval and air bases in Syria, supports Assad. Only Sanders and Trump among presidential hopefuls have stated working with Russia against ISIS has a much higher priority that ousting Assad. Carpet bombing as advocated by Cruz would be highly counterproductive and Rubio s desire to deploy American ground troops would continue the endless war that Sanders terms a quagmire. In regard to refugees, if you break dishes in an antique shop, you pay up. We are the prime cause for the number of refugees. We do not demand Turkey stop its conveyor belt Observations By Antonis H. Diamataris Both Cruz and Rubio are children of Cuban immigrants. The difference is that Cruz was born in Canada and raised in Texas, whereas Rubio was born in South Florida, where Spanish is far more prevalent, and in some areas, is the primary language (over English). It was a historic moment for someone to speak a foreign language, considering that doing so, or speaking English with a heavy foreign accent, was considered unpatriotic or inferior in the not-too-distant past. That kind of mentality has placed the United States far behind other countries in surveys of adults who speak another language at a time when it has been shown conclusively that learning a second language has beneficial effects on the human brain. The Cruz-Rubio dialogue in front of millions of viewers is particularly relevant for us Greek-Americans. It was no accident that it was in the South, in Atlanta, that AHEPA george Sarafoglou / SPecial To The national herald Rest assured, anything we write here are our sincere, heartfelt thoughts. We will share them with you every two weeks. We hope you enjoy them, and we look forward to your taking part in the discussion as well by contributing letters to the editor in response, and/or commenting on our website: refugee strategy designed to get money and concession from the EU. We do nothing to aid an already beleaguered Greece deal with this problem. We expect an economically distressed EU to take care of refugees. You note that refugees in America could end up on the public dole. Worse yet would be the formation of unstable ghettos such as those seen in Europe. These scenarios are not inevitable if the government takes time to shape a transitory program. Such programs would cost far less than military actions or uprisings in hostile ethnic ghettos. Refugees would certainly take American jobs and would work for lower wages. The positive economic impact of any mass immigration usually takes at least a decade to materialize and is not inevitable. ISIS would definitely plant moles among the refugees. That s a challenge for our security officials who have proven inept at handling visa issues and others means of retaining residence in the United States. All that said, the United States has a moral obligation to deal with the refugee crisis it helped create. A humanistic but practical entry program would set an enviable moral standard for others to emulate. That challenge appears unlikely to be met. Dino, your reference to those who plea that we stop meddling in so many nations and clearly define our national interest is well taken. Refraining from gunho militarism and schemes for regime change is not isolationism as often charged. It simply means seeing foreign intrigues as risky bets with a very low chance of longtime rewards worthy of the risks. Regarding campaign financing, I prefer the Sanders way to that of Trump. Sanders depends on a very large public sending relatively small sums in response to programs. Trump s a one-man show accountable to no one but himself. Clinton s courtship of big money is like that of the other candidates. Recently she stated that a $675,000 lecture fee from Goldman Sachs just happened to be what they were offering. WHAT S YOUR OPINION? was founded with the aim of fostering the Americanization of Greek immigrants and defending them against prejudice. Those conditions, however, largely belong to the past. If two Republican candidates for the presidency competed to demonstrate their knowledge and devotion to the language of their parents as a way of preserving their identity and as a useful tool in life, the same should certainly apply in our community. Let the community leaders be good examples for the new generations by speaking the Greek language and infusing it into all who have the will to learn. Let us build a firm foundation of Greek language education for tomorrow's generations. We Americans certainly have the right to speak another language. Let's make the most of it. You never know when and under what circumstances knowing how to speak Greek (perhaps onstage at a presidential debate?) will come in handy.

13 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 VIEWPOINTS 13 The New Cold War and the Post-Modern World Order The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 created a small window of opportunity to establish a balanced and to a degree, a non-confrontational world order at least for the two former Cold War adversaries. The temptation by the Americans to believe that the fall of the USSR meant the end of Russia as a superpower was too strong, and the United States chose to act as if they were the only superpower left, with little regard for Moscow s interests. A more benevolent policy in Washington would have left the former Soviet Union intact and helped men such as Gorbachev transition a corrupt communist system to a liberal democracy in gradual stages. The White House, Congress, and the policy establishment, however, wanted instant change and to grasp opportunities created by the Soviet collapse to humble the Russians. An Ancient Greek saying warns, Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they grant them all their wishes. In a different warning, a Soviet official in 1991 told his American counterpart we re going to do a terrible thing to you; we re going to deprive you of your enemy. The Bush and Clinton Administrations squandered a rare historic opportunity to transform or reduce NATO in response to the collapse of the USSR, save billions of dollars, as well as alleviate Russian fears of future American aggression. Indeed, when considering NATO, the viewpoint from Moscow was, and still is, strategically claustrophobic. The defense and maintenance of Russian borders has always been a geographic and logistical concern. Hemmed in from the north by cold and ice with limited access to the sea leaves little strategic opportunity. The eastern borders have proven vulnerable from the time the Mongols invaded Russia and occupied the country from the 13th to the 15th centuries. The Poles, French, and Germans have all attacked from the west, inflicting considerable destruction and loss of life. A major consideration of Soviet strategy, in addition to the spread of communism, was to secure the frontiers of the USSR and establish considerable defensive depth on its eastern, southern and western frontiers. In the aftermath of the Allied victory in 1945, the United States assumed that Stalin was committed to Soviet expansion. It is through this prism that Washington interpreted the Greek Civil War from 1946 to1949 and gave great attention to the so-called Domino Theory of a cascade of countries falling under the control of what the US perceived to be an expanding communist bloc. Instead, Stalin was facing the reality of a country devastated by war and the death of nearly thirty million, aggressive expansion was not a realistic or viable policy under those conditions. Although Stalin was prepared to seize any opportunity, defense was the Soviet dictator s first priority. Stalin s successors followed same strategic paradigm, particularly since they knew that the Soviet economy was weak and proving weaker in each passing decade until it finally collapsed. Indeed, the focus each White House has had since the end of GUEST EDITORIALS the Second World War was to contain the Soviets, achieved by maintaining an overwhelming military supremacy, underpinned by a flourishing economy. Toward this end, NATO was a key part of the mechanism and policy of containment. During the period of the Cold War, the policy makers in Washington addressed each crisis and general grand strategy from the standpoint of undermining and checking Soviet expansion in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Consequently, Washington interpreted each uprising, civil war, and act of political violence in the world within the context of the Soviet- U.S. struggle. NATO was a critical element in America s security strategy as well as the means by which to protect Europe. NATO, however, was not only a military entity, but also the means by which Washington could influence Europe. On a practical level all the NATO armies use the same equipment all American made. An end to NATO would be a major blow to the U.S. military-industrial complex. Collective security has given Americans considerable influence over the Europeans a sudden end to the alliance would terminate that influence and with the world economy no longer dependent on Wall Street, the United States would be reduced to being one of many several great powers. These are some of the considerations that have influenced the continuing existence of NATO, but they do not necessitate the undermining of Russia. NATO bases recently established in the Baltics, Central Europe, and the Balkans have served little purpose in defending the West. Modern warplanes and missiles have the range to strike at the Russians from NATO s previously existing Cold War bases. Indeed, in exchange for giving the Baltic states a psychological sense of security, the new NATO bases have only added to the Russian fear of being hemmed in and vulnerable to invasion. American intervention in Ukraine and opposition to the Russian takeover of the Crimean Peninsula set the stage for the drift towards a new Cold War. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, as has been the case for the Crimean Peninsula. Indeed, during the course of the crisis, the United States had no intention of military intervention, which left the country exposed, furthermore alienating the Russians, thus allowing little measure for a diplomatic solution. The Russians have, as a result, intervened in Syria both to secure their only naval base in the Mediterranean and to restore their country as a worldclass power. In effect they have succeeded. Russia s ally, Bashar al-assad and his murderous regime in what is left of Syria are winning the civil war. Sadly, America s half-hearted attempts at intervention and poor choice of local allies have contributed to the emergence of Russia as a vibrant and successful player in the Middle East, and no doubt internationally. by DR. ANDRE GEROLYMATOS Special to The National Herald Andre Gerolymatos is Director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver The national herald welcomes manuscripts representing a variety of views for publication. They should include the writer s name, address, and telephone number, and be addressed to the editor, The national herald, th St., long island city, ny They may also be ed to scaros@thenationalherald.com. we reserve the right to edit any manuscripts that we publish, and we do not return or otherwise acknowledge unpublished ones. due to considerations of space we enforce a strict 850-word upper limit. Political Establishment Has No One but Itself to Blame One of the toughest parts of leaving Sydney, a serene city of green and sanity and law-andorder after an extended vacation and returning to Athens, is going back to the Insanityland that it has been made by politicians, especially Prime Minister Alexis Che Tsipras, and trying to deal with his temple of lies and deceit again. With talk that there could be a third snap election in little more than a year if Greece continues to unravel, the Looney Left leader has a chance to snooker Greeks yet again, and don t bet it wouldn t work given how gullible the voters are, since that twice they ve already lined up to be a hot lunch for the SYRIZA sharks. What else can you say when he s broken virtually every promise and still has his lemmings ready to follow him off a cliff? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, send me to the insane asylum. Tsipras has, in no particular order, reneged on vows to restore pay, cut taxes, hike pensions, stop privatizations, raise the minimum wage back to what it was, re-implement collective bargaining, not to talk to the country s creditors and to start a revolution that would sweep across Europe before it stopped outside his door. None of it happened and the crime is that he knew that s how it would play out but like all politicians including New Democracy s Antonis Samaras and PASOK s George Papandreou before him didn t care A hilarious cartoon by Matt Davies in the Washington Post sums it all up. Two portly gentlemen sipping martinis stand on a balcony marked Political Establishment overlooking a massive demonstration carrying banners supporting Trump and Sanders. One says to the other What part of unelectable don t these vast crowds of voters understand? The same opinions page carries several other equally funny and equally accurate cartoons. Look it up, the Post of St. Valentines Day Eve. Where have these gentlemen been? What reality do they occupy? Over the last two decades the political establishment of both parties has grown increasingly distant from the people they govern. In fairness, we were all mesmerized by business as usual and never saw the warning signs. It looks like the people noticed, however. We have seen a perfect storm, a confluence, of political corruption. Gerrymandering ensures 90% of congressmen get reelected. A politicized Supreme Court rules that corporations have more rights than humans. The press predicts elections according to how much money candidates get from rich people. Bankers commit crimes that destroy the middle class and no one goes to jail. Accountability does not apply to the upper circles of power. General Petreaus got a slap on the wrist (he didn t even lose his pension) for passing secrets to keep his girlfriend happy while John Kyriakou went to jail for blowing the whistle on torture. The GOP told its constituents that big government and high taxes destroyed working class jobs while the big shots who finance the party grew obscenely wealthy under the same onerous system they decry. They tell us Social Security and Medicare will go broke. Their solution is to turn those two programs, the safety net for so many Americans, into cash cows for Wall Street brokers. Most viciously, they gather votes by blaming the Other: the immigrants, the blacks, the liberals (whoever they might be), the homosexuals, the abortionists, the gun control activists, as if any of these have any relationship to jobs. They vilify a president who does not want to send somebody else s kids overseas to make America great again. Of course, when those same kids came back from the last imbecilic adventure in body bags or permanently crippled, they forgot they voted to send them. Not to let the Democrats off the hook. They also voted overwhelmingly to send our troops to Iraq in order to game the 2004 elections. The Democrats are the real conservatives if you understand that a classic conservative is someone who will change nothing even as the world changes around him but will double down on the same outdated policies. Bill Clinton s famed triangulation was aimed more at winning votes rather than improving the lot of the majority. Any Wall Streeter who opposes Hillary Clinton is an ingrate. The Democrats helped make the rich richer by joining the GOP to open the floodgates to the banking shenanigans that led to the worst economic crisis since the great Depression. Now some liberals have added to political dysfunction by telling coddled youth that they can demand safe spaces, the mindless insistence that university students should be protected from hearing anything that offends them, which is truly political correctness run amok. as long as he could get elected and have some relative months building an empire of dirt. It s different covering and writing about the crisis than just watching it from afar when you get a new perspective on really how crazy these people really are, and the pity you feel for the acolytes who d be swell candidates to be suicide bombers because they can be convinced to do and believe anything. It s really just so pathetic to watch these shenanigans being played out, especially when it s by amateurs. As bad as the governments were before SYRIZA and its partner, the far-right Dependent Greeks took over, at least Greece seemed to be heading toward the edge of the road of the highway to recovery, albeit on the backs of workers, pensioners and the poor, while the rich, politicians and tax cheats escaped as they always have and always will. This SYRIZA thing is what will finally bring down Greece, a once-proud country with the world s greatest heritage, now forced to its knees by its own people and alleged leaders. Tsipras at the helm is asleep at the wheel and you know this ship is going to sink because it s a mathematical certainty. Most people have given up, of course, with the September, 2015 snap elections drawing by AMB. PATRICK N. THEROS Special to The National Herald LETTER FROM ATHENS This not only provides a target-rich environment to the GOP but also ensures that university students will segregate themselves into echo chambers and learn nothing. The bottom line: the GOP beginning with Ronald Reagan discovered that nurturing resentment and envy creates political power and the Democrats never woke up to what was happening. We have all allowed ourselves to give the same unthinking loyalty to our political parties that we give to our football teams. We have substituted demonizing people who disagree with us for discussion. Hitler discovered that this was a good way to win elections eighty years ago, and you know what, it still works! Of course, our country is nowhere near as bad off as our politicians say we are. Although many weaknesses persist, we have more economic growth and less unemployment than almost any other advanced country. However, both polls and experience indicate that we have convinced ourselves that we are hell bent for destruction and grasp at demagogues. Honestly, I have no idea how the elections will go. Sanders has seized the imagination of the youth despite the unreality only 55 percent of the voters, and a poll by the Pro Rata research company in December found that SYRIZA s popularity had shrunk to only 20 percent still enough to win in Greece s fractured political landscape where half a dozen or more parties can get into Parliament and sit there and get paid for doing nothing. Tsipras and his lackeys have perpetrated a fraud on Greece and gotten away with it. He used the chicanery of calling for an anti-austerity referendum in July 2015, asking people to back him in negotiations with the country s creditors, only to stab them in the back like he does everyone. Just ask the dissidents in his party who are no longer there. Now he s supporting strikes against him and his government because, he said you got it that strengthens his hand in negotiations with the country s creditors, and there are still scores of thousands of Greeks ready to swallow that swill. More SYRIZA officials are gagging on it though. A year on, the SYRIZA Party is faithfully implementing the austerity policies that it once decried, one of its Members of Parliament, Costas Lapavitsas wrote in the British newspaper The Guardian in January, marking a of what he preaches. Trump has seized the imagination of older people who hate the imaginary Other who destroyed the imaginary America they remember. Between them the two populists may well represent more than half the electorate. The political establishment knows that Trump is no more a conservative than Sanders; they are both two sides of the same coin appealing to the angry people who see themselves not only betrayed but also ignored (which is much worse) by people whom they voted into office over and over again. Both represent the Frankenstein s Monster of unresponsive politics. The establishment politicians may yet succeed in manipulating their respective systems to deny the nomination to their respective populists but it will come at great cost to their parties. In particular, I am confident that the GOP will have self-immolated in the cauldron of its own lies and contradictions by Nor should the Democrat establishment sleep easy at night. The Hon. Ambassador Theros is president of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 36 years, mostly in the Middle East, and was American Ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to He also directed the State Department s Counter- Terrorism Office, and holds numerous U.S. Government decorations. The Hillary vs. Jeb race, perpetuating the Clinton-Bush dynasties, probably won t materialize. The establishment counted their chickens before they hatched. So, How s That SYRIZA Thing Working out for Greece? by ANDY DABILIS Special to The National Herald year since his party of rank amateurs took over. In a kind of mea culpa for his party, he said it actually believed it could make the lenders blink and reverse austerity which should have had someone checking to see what they were smoking. Tsipras sold false promises of hope, the cruelest kind of scam for people buried with pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and broken dreams. At a souvlaki restaurant in the Sydney neighborhood of Newtown, Australia s version of Brooklyn Williamsburg hipsterdom, the talk one night in Greek was evident those at the table were young people who had fled Greece, the kind that propelled SYRIZA and Tsipras to power. They weren t even embittered, just disillusioned in the way Che Guevara supporters would have been if he had sold them out as Tsipras did his believers. He instead closed banks and instituted capital controls that are still in place and now is ready to cut pensions, crossing another fake Red Line he drew and that he was the first one to step over, like a captain leaving a sinking ship first. That s how SYRIZA works. Confronted with the catastrophic results of his strategy, he surrendered abjectly to the lenders, Lapavitsas said of the leader in which he no longer believes himself and with more anti-austerity riots likely. Looks like Game Over, Man. adabilis@thenationalherald.com

14 14 VIEWPOINTS THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 20-26, 2016 Call for Establishing One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic American Orthodox Church By George E. Matsoukas Year 2016 is a momentous historic time for Orthodoxy throughout the world. After 1,200 years, Orthodox Christianity is on the verge of a seminal event, a meeting of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, to be held in Crete, Greece, during the week of Pentecost this June. This event will provide a pivotal opportunity for hierarchs to officially recognize a unified American Orthodox Church that selects its own hierarchs. It is an idea whose time has come. Moreover, it is properly based on the canonical precedents of the Church. Indeed, it is a clarion call for action-a firm declaration-for the appropriate hierarchs to make sure that the subject of unity in the United States is on the official agenda of the forthcoming Holy Council. There is an urgency to reach a pragmatic consensus among the church leaders, for the world is changing rapidly, with dire consequences to traditional faith and Christian virtues. The necessity for ecclesiastical teamwork was made explicitly clear when Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew addressed the American Assembly of Bishops in Dallas, TX in His video message unmistakably sounded the call for unity among them: move beyond words to actions. We know much better than what we actually do. We are called to put our theory and theology into policy and practice. We are By Fr. John E. Artemas called to move beyond what is mine and what is yours to what is ours. From now on, this is how we should conceive and conduct all of our ministries and resources, all of our departments and initiatives. Otherwise, we do not practice what we preach. It is really up to us to accept the challenge or to refuse the call. This important and insightful statement by the First among Equals Patriarch resonates historically since the Holy and Great Council will be meeting soon in Crete. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The forthcoming Council is enormously significant and consequential. The historic importance of this event needs to be understood in chronological context. This will be the first such Council in the Church s long history. All seven ancient Ecumenical Councils ( ) were meetings of bishops of the single unified Christian Church that included Rome, hundreds of years before the Great Schism between East and West in Over 300 Church representatives are expected to attend from the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, and the autonomous and autocephalous Churches of Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Albania the Czech lands, and Slovakia. It is not widely known that attempts to unify the Church have been an integral component of the 2000 year history of Orthodoxy. After the tragic and decisive An ex-priest Marries a Man? It s Theologically Impossible Regarding Ex-Priest Heropoulos Marries Man (Jan. 23), no! He didn't get married. I don't care what the courts say. The secular world has given in to militant homosexual pressures. But Nature itself, and Nature's Creator, continue to define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. As our Western World, more and more, is rejecting God's authority, and even human "common sense," it is necessary to continue proclaiming the Truth, as God has established and revealed it to us. The Modern World may try to ignore God, but God will not allow Himself to be ignored, and He will hold us accountable. With much sadness, I read the article about ex-priest, John Heropoulos. I am not writing these comments to condemn him. I came to know him, years ago, for a short time, and I admired his competence and priestly devotion. I sincerely commend him, and I believe him, that he "was faithful to his vow of celibacy" while he was a priest. I also commend him for having the integrity and courage to leave the priesthood, when he felt he could no longer honor that vow. I will continue to pray for him. I wish him well. But I cannot and do not congratulate him. He has surrendered to the pressures and temptations of our "fallen human nature." Loneliness is a terrible thing, and love is a beautiful Godgiven gift. But two people, any two people, can share love and companionship in a relationship of "friendship." This does not require or allow a sexual relationship. For a faithful Christian homosexual, this is a cross, and a lifelong struggle. Marriage, true marriage, as it has been instituted by God and defined for thousands of years in every culture, continues to be a relationship of a man and a woman, with at least the potential of procreation. John Heropoulos has struggled, and continues to struggle, with a moral dilemma: How to live an active homosexual way of life, while remaining an active and faithful Orthodox Christian. He did the right thing in leaving the priesthood. But, if it is wrong to be a priest and live an active homosexual life style, it continues to be wrong, even if you are a layman. This observation does not apply only to homosexuals. Adultery, murder, and any other sin, is wrong, whether you are a priest or not. He says he goes to church and allows himself to receive Communion. Has he gone to Confession? Does a responsible Orthodox Confessor allow him to be an avowed and active homosexual, and still receive Communion? What does the Bible say, and what has the Church taught through the centuries? Do we respect the commandments that God has given us? Do we acknowledge and feel sorrow for our moral weaknesses? Do we repent with contrition of heart? Do we struggle against "the flesh," as St. Paul would say, and entreat God's mercy and forgiveness? It is a good thing for John's family and friends to love him and wish him well; I love him, too. But we should all stop short of congratulating him and thus validating, and even glamorizing, the homosexual lifestyle. There is an old Greek adage: "Plato is beloved; but truth is more beloved." I'm also starting to be concerned about The National Herald. It seems to me that this, our beloved newspaper, is siding more and more with the politically correct (and corrupt) secular and humanistic culture: "God doesn't fit in the picture any more. If the courts say so, or the majority of people accept something, then it is ok. We humans make the rules, we can change them." I appeal to the National Herald: Yes, give us the news, but don't favor or glamorize behavior or trends that are contrary to our Greek Orthodox Christian Heritage. Years ago I wrote: "Hellenism and Orthodox Christianity is a marriage made in Heaven. There will never be a divorce." True, Hellenism is "married" to our Orthodox Christian Faith. It cannot and must not espouse secular humanism, or any behavior or trends, contrary to our Christian Faith. If it does, it is no longer authentic Hellenism. Or, to put it another way, it is committing "spiritual and cultural adultery." If TNH is to continue faithfully serving our Greek Orthodox Community, it must continue to favor and promote our Orthodox Christian Faith, inseparably with our Hellenic culture. Because the issue of homosexuality vis a vis the Church is so important, I, too, respectfully and publically request of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios that he prepare a detailed encyclical on the topic, and send it to all the parishes of our Archdiocese, to be shared with all our communicants. The world is rapidly changing in so many ways, many of them not good. We need to remind our people that "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). To add an important word of warning: "If Hellenism chooses to be divorced from Orthodox Christianity, Hellenism will die; Orthodox Christianity will live on." But, whether you are a priest or a "laikos," if you have surrendered yourself to an active homosexual lifestyle, and do not at least struggle against it. Years ago in a lecture I said that "we are all dysfunctional in various ways, and will be saved only by the Grace of God; but we do need to struggle to be faithful to our Christian values and God's commandments." Fr. John E. Artemas, is Protopresbyter of the St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Dekalb, IL. By Dennis Menos Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew No amount of sugar coating can conceal the fact that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is facing hard times. Its endeavor to resolve the major issues confronting the Church in the modern era by hosting a Holy and Great Council, is beginning to stall; and an old rival, the Patriarchate of Moscow, with designs of its own is challenging the existing order in the Orthodox East. The recent Synaxis of the 14 Primates of the Orthodox Church, held at Chambesy in Switzerland, provides ample proof of the difficulties that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is experiencing. Convened by Patriarch Bartholomew to finalize the preparations for the Holy and Great Council, scheduled for Pentecost 2016, the Synaxis regrettably did not rise to the occasion. Of the ten major issues that ultimately will be considered by the Council, it only reviewed and approved the easiest five. Contentious issues, such as the rules for Autocephaly, the rank order of the Orthodox Churches, the need for a common Calendar, and the future of Orthodoxy in the Diaspora, were deferred. Regrettably, convening the Synaxis surfaced also disputes between individual Orthodox Primates, resulting in 3 out of the 14 not attending the proceedings. In an era when the Church is confronted by a multitude of threats, the absences of the Patriarch of Antioch and the Archbishop of Greece from the major Church conclave is extremely difficult to rationalize. The setback in Chambesy was clearly attributable to two factors: the parochialism that afflicts many of the 14 Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, and the opposition on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate to the plans and modus operandi for the proposed Council submitted by Constantinople. The opposition should not come as a surprise; the challenge by the Moscow Patriarchate to the primacy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is hardly new. It has its origins in the Ottoman and Tsarist days, and though dormant during the years of communist rule, seems to have returned with renewed potency since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ascendance to power of President Vladimir Putin, and of his loyal religious leader, Kirill, the Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia. It would be unfair to attribute to our Ecumenical Patriarch responsibility for the current difficulties with Russia. Throughout the months prior to the convening of the Synaxis and during its course, Patriarch Bartholomew made repeated efforts to accommodate the desires of his Russian colleague, and in the process eliminate future areas of contention. He agreed, for instance, to the change of the venue of the Holy and Great Council from Constantinople to Chania, Crete, to accommodate Patriarch Kirill s claim that travelling to Turkey would be unsafe for the Russian delegation. The argument was of course only partly true. Holding the Council at the Church events of (1054, 1204 and 1453), the Orthodox world became increasingly under the captivity of Islamic rule. When Islamic rule ended, Communist control enslaved the Church in Russia and nations of Eastern Europe until the last few decades. These far-reaching and profound political occurrences had horrific impact on the Patriarchates and national Churches in the Old World. After such traumatic upheavals, they found themselves weary but freer to resume their legitimate functions which were interrupted over a millennium of Islamic and Communist oppression. Some Orthodox centers continue to tragically struggle to survive. During the same epic time, newly formed Church communities became a central link for the wave of immigrants that immigrated to the New World. Finally by 1960, after years of deliberations, a framework to achieve a unified Orthodox Church in the United States was established. The Pan-Orthodox jurisdictions were called SCOBA (The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas). SCOBA was replaced in 2010, at the direction of the Mother Churches, as the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the United States of America. The importance of singularity of purpose became the mandate of the Assembly of Bishops, by the firm directive from a 2009 meeting in Chambesy, Switzerland. All Orthodox Patriarchs were represented. The meeting was called and presided by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew after 20 years of contemplative activity by these mother churches. At Chambesy, the Patriarchs signed protocols establishing Assemblies of Bishops throughout the world in order to restore canonical order. The largest group was in the United States with 54 bishops. In response to the Chambesy protocol, the United States bishops have been meeting for six years as a group and in committees. They recognize that the existing parochial arrangements are impractical, counterproductive and uncanonical with loss of members, fragmentation and overlapping of functions. The convener of the Assembly is Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. He has been a driving force in asserting his leadership in favor of Orthodox unity, reflecting the vision of the Chambesy Protocols. He continues to face the challenge of hastening the Assembly s deliberate but uneven progress. A few jurisdictions, for a variety of reasons, believe it is better to delay the unification of Orthodoxy in America for 10 or more years. However, their reluctance in overcoming obstacles does not reflect the urgent commitment toward unity and collegiality as expressed in Protocols official statements. ETHNIC AND CULTURAL FACTORS The American Orthodox Church s ethnic and cultural diversity reflects global Orthodoxy in microcosm. Its essence is a doctrinal church of diversity with local ethnic and cultural variations. The cardinal principle of decentralization has allowed the Church to adapt to the culture of its local people on a selective basis, including the liturgical language and traditions. In the past 60 years, there has been extensive ethnic research which offers valuable insight on the complexity of assimilation within a culturally pluralistic society. For the preservation of ethnic/cultural practices to survive, there needs to be ongoing modifications among identifiable community institutions, especially the church affiliation. Studies also concur that there is a lessening of ethnic bonds with each successive generation, especially past the sixth generation. Unlike the misinformation of some, no organization is asking for an eventual abandonment of one s heritage and ethnic identity. Just the opposite is true! Other reports show when American-born offspring of immigrants completely abandon their original church affiliation, their ethnic identity is quickly diminished. Compelling statistical data of Orthodoxy in America reveal a serious decline of active and marginal supporters in recent decades. With the present church structure Orthodox authenticity is weakened and confusing, especially for converts. One of the causes of confusion is due to the varying waves of early, and then later immigration to the New World which resulted in multiple ethnic jurisdictions, with different assimilation rates. Today, there are 14 jurisdictions, with the majority of bishops located in a few big cities. A few jurisdictions have one bishop for all 50 states. of Saint Irene in Constantinople, as originally planned, would have greatly enhanced the image of the Ecumenical Patriarch as the first among equals, a role that Patriarch Kirill is known to contest. Several other compromises were also agreed to by the Ecumenical Patriarch to allow the Synaxis and the Holy and Great Council to go forth. He agreed, for instance, that all decisions at the Council would be by consensus, a position insisted upon by Moscow, which in effect gives a veto power to any Primate bent on defeating an agenda item not to his liking. On a positive note, the Russian Patriarch responded to the Patriarchal overtures in kind, by attending the Synaxis and also agreeing to the convening of the Council in Crete. One condition, however, that is nonnegotiable as far as Patriarch Kirill is concerned, is his insistence that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that reports to the Moscow Patriarchate is recognized by all branches of Orthodoxy as the only canonical Orthodox Church on the territory of the Ukraine. A power play of sorts, attesting to the Russian Patriarch s rising stature came days only after the conclusion of the Chambesy Synaxis, with the announcement of a pending meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, in Havana, Cuba. The announcement was greeted by the Orthodox clergy and laity alike with several as yet unanswered questions. Did the planned meeting, possibly relate to the work of the Synaxis? Had Ecumenical Patriarch Some bishops live and work a few blocks apart with limited interaction. The transition toward an administratively united Church would strengthen Christian outreach. Imagine the effectiveness of a unified Orthodox Church actively embracing internal and worldwide evangelism; in unified rather than competing parishes in small towns; and in raising a single bold voice at the highest levels of government and media to decry the prosecution of Orthodox brethren! Adaptation, modification and infusion of cultural distinctiveness are essential characteristics for Orthodox viability in America. One way to describe the similarity of common ideals that bind people together is America s motto of national unity: E Pluribus Unum from many one. PROCLAMATION FOR LEADERSHIP Amid a rapidly changing interconnected world, Year 2016 is at an enormous crossroad for Orthodoxy everywhere. It necessitates a call to action a proclamation for leadership among the Orthodox prelates in order to resolve the canonical issue of unity. As stated earlier, the subject needs to be on the Holy Council s agenda in Crete. Furthermore, the Assembly of Bishops from the United States is in a unique position to take concrete steps to transform the call for unity into reality. The laity must be enlisted to assist in the implementation of a workable blueprint. It can become the best of times for Orthodoxy. Without a unified Orthodox Church in the United States, the consequences are regressive for Church survival and sustainable growth. A healthy viable Church guarantees a multicultural adaptation and appreciation for continued customs and traditions; not the other way around. It is a decisive mission and monumental moment whose time has come. Pray that the bishops attending the Holy and Great Council capture the Spirit of hope and courage and take bold action now. Above all, it can become a landmark legacy for the future of Orthodoxy in America. Amen! George E. Matsoukas is Executive Director of Orthodox Christian Laity, and author of A Church in Captivity: The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Last month s Synaxis in Chambesy was supposed to finalize preparations for the Holy and Great Council, but did not rise to the occasion. Needed: Greater Orthodox Unity, Fewer Power Plays Bartholomew be kept informed? If reconciliation with Rome (a priority goal of both East and West) was to be the purpose of the encounter, why was it being conducted by one of the 14 Orthodox Primates and not by the first among equals? The last question became even more worrisome when the joint declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill was published, which referred to the readiness of the two leaders to take all measures necessary to overcome their historical differences. By undertaking to convene the Great and Holy Council of the Church, and in the process strengthen his hand for the future and much anticipated dialogue with Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch is attempting the near impossible. The opposition that he is encountering from his fellow Orthodox Primates and especially Russian Patriarch Kirill, was to be expected. Under the present structure of the Church, getting unanimity by 14 autonomous and independent religious leaders is extremely difficult. It will only be possible when the Orthodox Church modernizes its structure and removes the obstacles that make change difficult. In the process, hopefully, it will also find a way to speak with one voice. Dennis Menos is the author of The Justinian Diaries, a historical novel that focuses on Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. He can be reached at DMenos@msn.com.