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DOING BUSINESS WITH FILOTIMO ON WALL STREET: MICHAEL PSAROS OF KPS CAPITAL PARTNERS
January 2015
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From The Editor
Christmas past, present, and future by Dimitri C. Michalakis
41 SENATE FOREIGN
24 DOING BUSINESS WITH
FILOTIMO ON WALL STREET: MICHAEL PSAROS OF KPS CAPITAL PARTNERS
8 Outstanding Speakers
and Entertainment at the 24th Leadership 100 Conference
36 The Liar and the Lady,
66 Years later
RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN BOB MENENDEZ BLASTS TURKEY'S TREATMENT OF CYPRUS ON US SENATE FLOOR periXscope
42 OPHTHALMIC SOCIETY
HONORS DR. PETROS KONOFAOS
Reason’s Greetings by Demetrios Rhompotis
52 THE MANATOSES
ATTEND HOLIDAY PARTY AT THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE
64 FAITH ANNOUNCES
SUMMER 2015 FINANCIAL AID TRAVEL GRANTS TO IONIAN VILLAGE
strategy/στρατηγική
Universal Human Rights by Endy Zemenides
medical world
How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain by Dr. Nicholas Kaloudis
hellenes without borders 37 Harry Mark Petrakis:
A retrospective at 91
78 Soprano Eleni Calenos
Returns to the Palm Beach Opera
The Eloquence of Humble Architecture: Homes Lost …and Refuge Gained by Alexander Billinis
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Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ and new hope in the world and it's also a time to spend time with family and see kids rejoice not only in their presents but in the warmth of their family. Our cover story on manufacturer and investor nonpareil Michael Psaros is heartwarming not for the profits his firm steadily brings to its investors but for his sense of family and the values he learned from them that motivates so much of his business thinking. “What I owe to my family, and the All Saints community, is that they taught me filotimo. And if you run that parallel directly to my business at KPS, we are firm that has a value system. We are firm that understands we have obligations, and there's nothing more important to our firm than our professional reputation—to onoma mas.” He still has a house in his old hometown of Weirton, West Virginia and he still has a connection with his old church of All Saints where his cousin Nick Latousakis is parish president and he still refers to what his Papou Mike and Yiayia Evgenia taught him about life. It was heartwarming to me because this holiday season we are cleaning out my parent's old home before we get ready to sell it. It was the house they lived in for nearly forty years and where all their memories—and our memories—are stored. I went with my daughter Ashlyn, I spent the day with my nephew Nick and his wife JoAnn, who did such a great job of sorting out and preserving everything for the rest of us to see and decide what we wanted to keep. I wanted
to keep most of everything and when Ashlyn said in my dad's old office, “Maybe you want to keep the whole office?” I literally wanted to keep the whole office—his desk, his chair, his bookcases, his Greek and English Royal typewriters, his boxes of carbon paper, even his extra-large worry beads and the tooth of some grandchild that he kept in one of the desk drawers in a Baggies. I can't, however, our own home doesn't have the space, and I wonder if creating a shrine to my father's memory (he passed away three years ago; my mother at 87 is being cared for heroically by my sister Helen)—if creating a shrine really does make us feel better or reminds us poignantly of how they're gone and the life we knew with them is gone and the world they knew is gone forever. My father collected Time and Life and Look magazines religiously like they were scrolls of history and among a trove of other things some mysterious receipts kept in consecutive order in little envelopes that date back to 1952 and once had some importance but are now lost to history. Life is a series of losses to history but Christmas does remind us that there is always new hope in the world and new beginnings through the power of our faith and the embrace of our famlily. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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COVER PHOTO: ANASTASIOS MENTIS
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Outstanding Speakers and Entertainment at the 24th Leadership 100 Conference companies across a diverse range of manufacturing industries. KPS portfolio companies have aggregate annual revenues of over $8.6 billion, operate 104 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries, and employ approximately 40,000 associates, directly and through joint ventures worldwide.
The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes The 24th Annual Leadership 100 Conference will take place February 12-15, 2015 at The RitzCarlton Orlando, Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida and it will feature outstanding speakers and members, Michael Psaros, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of KPS Capital Partners, LP, and Dr. Eleni Andreopoulou, an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center in New York, who will join the faculty at the Weill Cornell Medical College/New York-Presbyterian Hospital in January of 2015. The Opening Forum will present Constantine M. Triantafilou, Executive Director and CEO of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), a recipient of Leadership 100 grants, who will describe the ongoing work of the organization’s charitable outreach in America and around the world. At the Grand Banquet on Saturday evening, special tribute will be paid to the internationally renowned Greek academician, artist and designer, Ilias Lalaounis, who passed away in December of 2013, with the posthumous presentation of the Archbishop lakovos Leadership 100 Award for Excellence, to be received by his wife, Lila.
Institute, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. She has published several peer review articles, reviews, editorials and book chapters, and has given multiple lectures at International and National Breast Cancer conferences.
Psaros received a BSBA from Georgetown University in 1989 and attended Sofia University in Tokyo, Japan. He and his wife, Robin, created The Robin and Michael Psaros Endowed Chair in Business Administration at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he presently serves as Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of Advisors. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Georgetown University Center for Financial Markets and Policy. He is a frequent speaker on turnarounds and
Michael Psaros
Dr. Eleni Andreopoulou
Constantine M. Triantafilou
Peter Tiboris
In addition to the Welcome Reception and Glendi, the program will include a special event this year, a “Symphony at Sunset” with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the renowned Maestro Peter Tiboris, also a member of Leadership 100, and featuring his wife, Eilana Lappalainen, the celebrated international operatic soprano. Dr. Eleni Andreopoulou was previously a member of the faculty in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center where she held the title of Attending Physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine. In addition to her active clinical practice, her academic interests include innovations in drug development of personalized molecular therapies to effectively treat breast cancer as well as multidisciplinary research strategies in collaboration with laboratories to interrogate cancer biology and elucidate mechanisms of drug sensitivity and resistance. She also leads several investigator initiated clinical trials sponsored by both the Cancer Therapy Evaluation program at the National Cancer 18
JANUARY 2015
NEWS & NOTES
Michael Psaros, a member of Leadership 100, is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of KPS Capital Partners, LP, and a member of its Investment Committee. Named 2014 Executive of the Year by The Hellenic American Bankers Association (HABA) on May 1, 2014, he was invested as an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on October 19, 2014. He is also the manager of KPS Special Situations Funds, a family of private equity limited partnerships with over $6 billion of assets under management focused on making controlling equity investments in
manufacturing, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Buyouts, Private Equity International, M&A Magazine, CNBC and numerous other business and financial publications. The deadline for registration is January 6, 2015. “The Annual Conference will offer an outstanding program and welcome many new members and acknowledge the members who have fulfilled their commitments,” according to George S. Tsandikos, Leadership 100 Chairman.
PHOTO: ANASTASIOS MENTIS
“There is nothing more important than your reputation—to onoma,” says Michael Psaros, 47, co-founder and managing partner of KPS Capital Partners in New York City, but in his heart still a kid from Weirton, West Virginia and the All Saints parish. “What I owe to my family, and the All Saints community, is that they taught me filotimo. And if you run that parallel directly to my business at KPS, we are a firm that has a value system. We are a firm that understands we have obligations, and there's nothing more important to our firm than our professional reputation—to onoma mas.” In fact, he had a baby at home and a computer next to the crib where he typed up the mission statement of the fledgling firm to “invest in industrial and manufacturing companies for purposes of turning them around and doing it in a constructive and positive sense and in the right way versus the wrong way.” “We are truly a unique firm,” says Psaros, speaking with the precise diction he says his Yiayia Evgenia taught him standing in front of the “icebox” back in Weirton. “We are first and foremost manufacturers that happen to have a very large pool of capital that allows us to do what we do.”
DOING BUSINESS WITH FILOTIMO ON WALL STREET: MICHAEL PSAROS OF KPS CAPITAL PARTNERS by Dimitri C. Michalakis
It took a young Greek of the old school to make filotimo a business model and a kid brought up in the steel mills of West Virginia to co-found a Wall Street private equity firm that has resurrected over 50 manufacturing companies ranging from the glamorous ( Waterford Wedgwood) to the essential (Chassis Brakes International) and in the process saved nearly forty thousand jobs and the communities dependent on them.
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COVER STORY
What KPS has done for over twenty years with spot-on success is invest me to mati in troubled manufacturers both here and abroad and then work in partnership--and not at loggerheads--with unions to turn the companies around and produce what he calls a “win-win-win” of companies being given a fresh start instead of shutting down, towns being given fresh hope instead of losing jobs and their tax base, and investors seeing record profits so the clamor to join the KPS capital pool keeps growing (the company put out a $3 billion fund and got nearly $10 billion in orders in only 10 weeks). “I am a long-term bull on manufacturing in the United States,” says Psaros. “As evidenced by our fundraising success, investing in manufacturing is better than investing in consumer products, investing in telecom, investing in the technology sector.” He claims that the Rust Belt is no longer rusting but in fact “re-industrializing” and that America is becoming a “hydrocarbon superpower.” “Prior to the recent collapse in oil prices, America was on track this year to pump more oil than Saudi Arabia,” he says. “And America has been blessed with natural gas resources that are resident in very few places of the world. One of the most important components of manufacturing is energy costs and there is nowhere else where energy costs, labor, and technology come together better than in the United States.” And from its track record no firm is better at putting together the “win-win-win” scenario than KPS—which not only has the capital and street cred to fashion a deal, but the filotimo to earn the trust of all the parties involved, including the unions with the jobs of their members on the line.
PHOTO: ANASTASIOS MENTIS
The KPS Partners: From left, Michael Psaros, Jay Bernstein, Raquel Palmer and David Shapiro “The unions trust us and believe us because we have always told the truth,” says Psaros. “We treat them as parties with standing and we treat them with respect and that's why we have the credentials that no other private equity firm in the world has in working with the large unions.” In the numbers game on Wall Street the firm has cred because the returns it brings to investors are often epic. Most recently one of its holdings, Global Brass and Copper located in Schaumburg, Illinois and acquired by KPS in the recession of 2007, has seen a $650 million return to investors since 2010, including over $500 million in profit. The deal for Waupaca Foundry that KPS managing partner David Shapiro engineered brought in over $1.15 billion, including a $900 million profit, in only 27 months. Which is why KPS has the unheard-of luxury for a private equity firm of having more suitors than it wants. “I think it's important for you to understand that we have turned down more capital than we closed on,” says Psaros. “We're very conservative and we are real professional investors--we are not asset managers. And that makes us stand apart. If you think about it, we have essentially closed, through the four funds we have, on $6 billion. But we have walked away from, or turned down, more than another $6 billion. That is very unusual for a Wall Street firm to do.” He credits the firm's success in typical Psaros fashion to his “family” of partners, starting with Eugene Keilin (who engineered the rescue of Weirton Steel that inspired Psaros to get into the business), and currently includes Shapiro (“our 24th year together”), Raquel Palmer (“our 20th year together”), and Jay Bernstein (“our 16th year together”): “They are like family. It is not a professional collaboration. It's something far more familiar, far more personal that we have. We've been together for more than two decades and everything about us is about making money by making businesses better. And it comes from our collective experience and our collective judgment and our collective confidence in our ability to execute. We have what we would say in Greek to mati—the eye for value.” And sometimes you get to work with another Greek who has to mati: a business legend in his own right named George Thanopoulous, who Psaros met in 2005 at the Detroit Auto Show during a bone-cold Midwestern winter.
“You had to be there when I told my wife, Robin, a New York girl, that we were going to the Detroit Auto Show in January for a black-tie affair and she had to wear a gown,” Psaros remembers. “But it was one of the great days of my life.”
sold, resulting in a $870 million cash distribution to stockholders representing over an $800 million profit. We saved 3,000 premium manufacturing jobs in the United States. We saved 15 plants in the 15 communities that needed those plants. We worked in partnership with the United Steelworkers and United Auto Workers and the union UNITE. And our management team is now independently wealthy and our investors are obviously very happy. But through this journey you had two Greeks speaking a common language, you had a common culture, you had a trust between two men that could finish each other's sentences, and it's so beautiful how my team at KPS, my guys, that work with us, were able to witness the magic of this partnership.”
In front of a Jeep Liberty, he got to meet Thanopoulos, the “Michelangelo of the auto parts business on the metal side,” who became not only a business partner but, says Psaros, “my adelfo in every sense of the word--my brother.” Thanopoulos, roughly the same age as Psaros and an immigrant from Crete, was already a phenom in the business and Psaros invited him to New York for dinner and some brainstorming at the New York restaurant Avra. “And George said, look, you have the capital, the turnaround experience, the union relationships, and I'm the best guy in automotive parts,” Psaros recalls. “He said we're not going to do a deal. We are going to transform and consolidate an entire industry in North America. At the time, we were a $400 million dollar firm and all the big funds wanted to work with him. But his parents, immigrants, metanestes, who don't speak English very well, and I love them, they said to him, Na pas me ton Elina.” So together the two Greeks in six years accomplished what the trade publication Private Equity International called “the turnaround of the year globally in private equity.” “What we did is we acquired five companies primarily in the automotive forging industry,” Psaros explains. “Four of the five were in bankruptcy, four of the five would have liquidated, four of the five were cash-flow negative, not just unprofitable, four of the five either didn't have management, or had terrible management. And we bought the first business at or near liquidation value. We turned that business around basically in the year; we then bought the next business at or below liquidation value, turned it around, and integrated it with the first; and we did this five times.” The result was a groundbreaking win-win-win. “It was a win for labor and working people. It was a win for the communities where we operated. It was a win for our management team. And it was a win for our investors. To this day George and I refer to ourselves as, Dio horiates—thafmasou ti kaname! ( Two hicks —imagine what we accomplished!) We created a company that we
Michael Psaros with his wife, Robin Except Thanopoulos' parents were not convinced when it came time to sell the company. “George tells his parents that we're now going to sell the company. He tells his parents that he's going to become an independently-wealthy man from selling the company. And you know what they ask him? Are you going to have a job? And he said yes I am. I am going to continue to run the company after we sell it. And they said we want to talk to Mike. And I get on the phone with them, because now they're worried about me. And they said to me—Ma eheis spiti? (Do you have a house?) They're worried: What's Mike going to do? Now my parents are not immigrants: my parents between them have five college degrees, okay? So I tell them the story about how we sold the company and made a $800 million profit and George will become a wealthy man. And you know what they say to me? That's nice, but is he going to have a job?” The concern is a Greek immigrant thing, and Psaros witnessed it firsthand himself being born and raised in a steel town mostly made up of ethnics relying on the local plant for their living. “Here's the math: there are 20,000 people in the town and 10,000 people worked in the mill. Our town was an immigrant town: Greeks, Italians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Russians, Ukrainians. Hardworking people, immigrant people, and it was our home. It's still my home: I'm a very proud member, very proud member, of the All Saints Church. My cousin Nick Latousakis is the parish council president and he's an amazing guy. I've been in New York for 25 years, I lived in West Virginia for 18, but my soul, my heart, will always be in West Virginia; and the Greek church was the center of our world. All Saints is a spectacular COVER STORY
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Byzantine jewel with a deeply-committed community and we are currently building an annex to enlarge the church. In this church, this church–I get choked up when I talk about this church–from my earliest years at that community I was made to understand what it meant to be an American of Hellenic descent. I knew exactly where I came from and having a sense of place is very powerful. I was raised with the traditions and the respect found in every Greek family, along with the accompanying obligations and expectations. And I carry that value system with me every day because I understand that what I do reflects not only on me and my family but also on the entire Hellenic community. There is nothing more important than your reputation—to onoma.”
At his investiture as Archon It was a lesson taught by his parents—his father George was an executive at Weirton Steel: “I never knew anybody who worked as hard as my dad—coping with the dirt, the heat, the hours, the responsibility.” And by his mother Mary Ann, who was a teacher: “Much like her mother, she's the most selfless person I know. She gets up every day and thinks what can she do for somebody else?”
profound appreciation of history and politics and of the world. And the other thing is he taught me how to be a man. He was a man's man in every sense of the word. He taught me respect: he didn't teach me respect, he demanded respect.” His Yiayia Evgenia, an immigrant from Olympi, Chios, one of the fabled mastic villages, got pulled out of school in the third grade when she lost the family goat but also remained a voracious reader enamored of the Greek heroic poems. “If she had been born in the United States today she would've been at a major university, a major published author, a poet,” her grandson says proudly. “My grandfather taught me history and she taught me the beauty of the written and spoken word. A lot of people ask me how can you stand up and speak extemporaneously in front of five or 10,000 people without any fear and the answer is very simple: my grandmother had a refrigerator, which was an International Harvester--that's how old it was--she would refer to it as the 'icebox'—and she would make me stand in front of it and practice over and over and over again my diction--enunciation, elocution, breathing, posture—prosfora. The impact on me between the two of them and the love was amazing.” Psaros met his wife Robin in New York and with typical enthusiasm decided on a first date that she was the woman he would marry. Only she wore a “swing coat” without buttons in the middle of winter. And when he told the family back home about it, Papou Mike was stumped: “Let me get this straight: you, my grandson, want to marry a girl that was wearing a winter coat that didn't have buttons?”
But it was also a lesson taught through word and deed by those larger-than-life figures in his life: his grandfather Mike, who worked until he was 86, and his grandmother Evgenia. “My papou was and is the giant of my life–and I'm just looking at his picture right now,” says Psaros. “He was a refugee from the Great Catastrophe in Asia Minor.”
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Addressing the Hellenic American Bankers Association's annual event where he was honored with the Executive of the Year Award
Marina. “She is my inspiration,” says Psaros. “She brought poetry and eloquence into my life.” Robin's maiden name was Goldberg and Psaros says the wedding was epic: “You have two cultures that are both 5,000 years old, and that put family and tradition above all, and where men dance with each other and it's okay. It was the greatest wedding ever.” His brother Harry and sister-in-law Michelle still live in Pennsylvania with their sons Gus and Maximos only minutes from Weirton, and Psaros still has a home there and in Purchase, New York, where the family is active in the Church of Our Savior in Rye, NY, and Psaros himself is a member of the Leadership 100 and a guest speaker this year at the Leadership conference. He also considers it “an incredible and rare honor and achievement” to be inducted an Archon. At the Hellenic Times Scholarship Fund Gala where he received the Humanitarian Award
“I was deeply humbled by that,” he says. “Leadership 100 does extraordinary things for Orthodoxy and the Hellenic community. I look forward to the conference in Orlando: my parents will be there, my brother's family will be there, and to be recognized by an organization that does so much good is just humbling. But it's not just recognizing me: it's recognizing my family, the church in Rye, the church back home in West Virginia, my whole family. I'm just very excited.” And in what he calls one of the proudest moments of his life, “a transcendent moment,” he was at the consecration of the new St. Nicholas Church at Ground Zero.
In his legendary wanderings like Sinbad, Papou Mike was orphaned at four or five and made it to the island of Kos, before he followed a brother to Marseilles, before he joined the British merchant marine during World War I and was assigned to a hospital ship that made him see the world, before he followed another brother to America “and he literally jumped into Baltimore harbor and swam to America: he always used to tell me the first thing he did was go to the post office to register to become a legal alien.”
Two years later he brought her home to seal the deal: “You have to picture this: my parents have a split-level home. The lower floor has a hallway that's 90 feet long. And every member of my family is lined up waiting to meet this girl and my papou is right up front. And so the door opens and this poor girl looks in on 90 feet of Greeks, most of whom are crying.”
“Being one of the 20 or 24 parties that have the privilege of laying one of the cornerstones was the most extraordinary, transcendent, and humbling experiences,” he says. “This church when constructed, New York City estimates, will have over 10 million visitors a year. It is the biggest thing that's happened in Orthodoxy in my lifetime. And to be a participant--forget about any of these deals that we discussed--this is what matters. It was one of the biggest moments of my life, it really was.”
“I saw the world through his eyes,” says Psaros. “And though my papou wasn't educated, he was a voracious reader and I would sit there as a child and he would lecture me, and really he gave me a
She got a hug and a blessing from Papou Mike (and all the relatives down the receiving line) and the couple have now been married twenty years and have three children: Alexandra, Leonidas, and
Papou Mike and Yiayia Evgenia would certainly be proud.
JANUARY 2015
COVER STORY
hellenes without borders by Alexander Billinis
The Eloquence of Humble Architecture: Homes Lost …and Refuge Gained Stone by stone we built, A poor corner. Our lives we enclosed, in Kokkinia (Pireaus) . . . . . . But the evening, when it came, It brought the dreams. It brought us to Pergamum [again], And to the [Sea of] Marmara. -Giorgos Dalaras, “Petra-Petra” from the Mikra Asia album, lyrics by Pythagoras It only really struck me when I moved to Greece, that the legacy of the population exchange, and the scar of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, is everywhere in Greece. Its legacy and wounds are simply inescapable. Its presence is either utterly obvious, or, more likely, hidden in plain sight, in the homes they built, and those left behind. I had some personal frame of reference of the Asia Minor legacy in Greece before we moved there, perhaps more than most Greek Americans. My sister is married to a Pontic Greek born in Kavala; my father grew up in 1930s/40s Pireaus, where several districts of the city, such as the abovementioned Kokkinia were home to Asia Minor refugees. However, it was my wife, a Serbian-American architect, who really brought the architectural wound of the refugee era to my attention. We lived in Maroussi, right next to Nea Ionia, in Athens. She quickly realized that a “Nea” implied a lost homeland, usually in Asia Minor but also from Bulgaria or Turkish Thrace. Athens was full of Neas: Nea Smyrni, Nea Philadelphia, Nea Chaldikonia. While Athens is anyway a city planner's nightmare, these districts were particularly haphazard. Winding streets, tiny lots where the one story refugee homes, maybe two rooms with a tiny garden and outhouse, gave way in the 1970s and 1980s to vertical concrete taking every bit of living space and often steps or illegal but tolerated additions into the street. I remember sometimes walking from my Maroussi home, on Kapodistriou Street, past ruins of the Roman Aqueduct, to Nea Ionia. Here the streets curved and narrowed, and one way streets were necessary because the lanes were not built for cars. Concrete blocks with the awnings and balconies rise vertically, almost blocking out sunlight, and obscuring those few homes that have remained from the refugee era. In Macedonia, the legacy of the exchange is even more obvious, the Ano Polis of Thessaloniki and its Ottoman homes both ornate and shabby, were emptied of their Turkish inhabitants to make room for incoming Asia Minor Greeks, even as suburbs and brand new villages sprouted in the environs or the hinterland, often as not sporting a “Nea” in their names. The same thing on a smaller 30
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HELLENISM
scale occurred in Kavala, where the upper town was emptied of Ottomans and refugee suburbs rose almost overnight to accommodate the massive tide of penniless refugees. This too was repeated in all of the “Neas”; this tiny plot of land was often all the refugees, who often came from sophisticated and wealthy backgrounds possessed, and they went vertical, providing for their offspring and descendants. In this, they were often assisted by relatives abroad, economic migrants who continued the uprooted existence, sending need deutschmarks or dollars, US, Australian, or Canadian. Having seen the legacy of expulsion and refugees architecturally in Greece, the interest followed me to Serbia, to my wife's home province of Vojvodina, where Serbs from the mountains of Bosnia and Croatia moved into the expelled Germans' sturdy farmhouses and townhouses after World War Two. Yugoslavia deported its ethnic Germans en masse after the war as collective punishment. Then, after the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, this same province received hundreds of thousands of Serbian refugees, again from Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Again, the architecture, either of the expelled Germans' homesteads, or the refugees' hardscrabble attempts to restore their hearths in Vojvodina villages after being uprooted, mute though they were, nonetheless possessed a tragic eloquence. The homes the refugees lived in, and the ones they lost, speak louder to those who will listen than great and known civic monuments.
Picture of Kavala's Upper town. Author's son, John Billinis, in the foreground. Further north from our Serbian home, in the vast plains of Hungary, within sight of the Danube River, I caught up with refugee architecture again, specifically Greek, in the village of Beloiannisz (Beloyannis). Greek communist refugees built the village from scratch in the early 1950s, the hamlet resembles a military base with a grid-like streets, but the homes, oh how they reminded me of a more northerly, climate-appropriate version of the refugee houses I saw in Kavala or those remaining in the canyons of a more vertical, concrete Athens. I also figured that many of the residents in Beloiannisz had been refugees twice.
Alexander Billinis is a writer and banker currently living in Serbia. His book "The Eagle has Two Faces: Journeys through Byzantine Europe," is available on amazon.com
Expelled, often enough from comfortable homes in Asia Minor or Turkish Thrace, they may have grown up in the refugee housing I saw in Kavala, Drama or Nea Ionia, and then ended their days as refugees in the same type of dwelling a thousand kilometers to the north. Having seen where the Asia Minor refugees ended up, in Greece and elsewhere, I also had the opportunity to visit parts of Turkey, the lands from which these hapless yet hardy and resourceful refugees had fled. In particular, I spent time wandering through the villages around Smyrna, such as Urla ( Vourla), birthplace of one of Greece greatest bards, George Seferis (Seferiades). Here, and in the village of Foca (Phocea), on the other side of the breathtakingly beautiful Bay of Izmir, I found stately Greek houses, and occasionally the faint traces of Greek letters or a cross on the marble door lintel. On a quiet Fall day, with the Aegean sun obligingly and benignly bright, the shadows cast could easily be those of its former Greek inhabitants. Not that the current inhabitants look much different, as many of them descend from Turkish refugees from Greece, including the Greek speaking Valaades Muslims of Macedonia or the proudly Cretan Muslims of the Izmir area, many of whom speak a Greek even in the third generation sounding hauntingly like the Cretan I heard while growing up in my Salt Lake City hometown. The Turks have their own stories of expulsion and refugees, as I realized in Smyrna and in Istanbul, where the train from the Attaturk Airport to Taksim Square announced a stop in the suburb of Yeni Bosna (New Bosnia). Turkey may have been the primary agent of expulsion and genocide, and the seismic effects of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian disintegration the source of the Serbian refugee saga I saw in its human and architectural form, but the real lesson is that wars create refugees, and being a refugee is a terrible tragedy. “The land and its buildings never forget” a Serbian once told me, in the midst of one of the rakija fueled afternoon chat. He referred to the expulsion of the Germans from northern Yugoslavia, but the same could be said for the Serbs' lost homes in Kosovo or Croatia, whether a charred ruin, empty, like the ghost villages of Asia Minor or crumbling ex-Greek houses in the Phanar District of Constantinople, or ex-Greek houses now Turkish for three generations. All possess a story. Some spectral or aural feeling remains. The same is there, if we care to find it, in the elegant Turkish homes of Thessaloniki's Ano Poli or the baroque German homesteads of Vojvodina. But the deepest nostalgia lies in the humbler hamlets of the refugees, wherever they are. These structures in plain sight, hide the human history of a rough yet beautiful neighborhood, and though silent, are among the best cautionary tales against conflict.
Medical World
How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
By Dr. Nicholas Kaloudis We all will attend parties and office gatherings to share a few festive moments with family, friends, colleagues and lots and lots of food. But when the holiday season is finally over, the scale reveals that we’ve gained some weight again! Research studies show most adults gain some weight over the holidays. But don’t despair because this year can be different! I recommend to my patients that they just try to keep their current weight, as opposed to focusing on losing weight. So what's the harm in a little holiday weight gain, especially if it's just a pound or two? According to researchers at the National Institutes of Health, most people never lose the weight they gain during the winter holidays. The pounds add up year after year, making holiday weight gain an important factor in adult obesity. But you don't have to fall into this trap. It is possible to enjoy holiday goodies without putting on a single pound. Portion control is the key, I don't believe you can't eat food that you like -even indulgences -- but it is the amount you eat. Of course, it's not easy to go on portion patrol when the temptations are endless!
Even though it’s hard to resist all the food around you, there are simple steps you can take that can keep the extra holiday pounds off!!!
parties. It's not just about calories, but about control. If you drink a lot, you won't have as much control over what you eat.
1. Never Arrive Hungry
6. Be Choosy About Sweets
Don't go to a party when you're starving. Try to have a nutritious snack beforehand. If you do arrive hungry, drink some water to fill up before filling your plate. 2. Divert Your Attention Many people forget that there's more to a holiday party than food. Don't look at the party as just a food event. Enjoy your friends' company or dancing. Focus on something other than food. 3. Pace Yourself Have you ever tried telling yourself you'll only eat during the first half hour of a party? This strategy is a mistake. If you cram in as much as you can in half an hour, you chew faster. Chewing more slowly will fill you up with less food. To munch at a leisurely pace, I recommend putting your fork down between every bite. This puts you in control.
When it comes to dessert, be very selective. Limit your indulgences to small portions and only what is very sensual to you.If you know you're the type who can't stop at one bite, you're better off taking a small portion of a single dessert than piling your plate with several treats you plan to try.
4. Outsmart the Buffet When dinner is served buffet-style, use the smallest plate available and don't stack your food; limit your helpings to a single story. Go for the simplest foods on the buffet. Fresh fruit and vegetables and shrimp cocktail are good choices. Watch out for sauces and dips. 5. Limit Alcohol
7. Limit 'Tastes' While Cooking If you do a lot of cooking during the holidays, crack down on all those "tastes." People lose their appetites when they've been cooking, because they've been eating the whole time. Instead of tasting mindlessly every few minutes, limit yourself to two small bites of each item pre- and post-seasoning. Just put the spoon in and taste a little bit. 8. Walk It Off Make a new holiday tradition: the family walk. Besides burning some extra calories, this will get everyone away from the food for awhile. Get people off the couch and move. Go out for a walk as a family before or after the meal. Walking not only benefits you physically, but also puts you in a mindset to be more careful about what you eat. There's something about activity that puts you in control. Have a very Merry Christmas, and a Blessed and Healthy New Year!!!
Avoid drinking too much alcohol at holiday About Author
Dr. Nicholas Kaloudis is a highly regarded, board certified endocrinologist. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and owner of EndoHealthMD, in Manhasset, NY. His center provides comprehensive specialty care using current evidence-based practices, and the latest advances in medical aesthetics. He holds an appointment as Associate Clinical Professor at North Shore University in Manhasset. He has received numerous awards, and he has published articles in the field of Endocrinology. For more information and a listing of services provided call: 516 365 1150.
by Harry Mark Petrakis
On Sept. 30 of this year, my wife Diana and I had been married for 69 years. In the third grade of our Greek parish school, she remembers me trying to convince my teacher I had lost my homework using a phrase she was hearing for the first time, “on my word of honor.” I remember her as a skinny girl with large dark eyes that seemed to overpower her face. When we met again in our teens, I was stunned at how she had bloomed. She had become shapely and taller, her face adorned by her great black eyes, her raven-black hair tumbling from her temples across her shoulders. We began to date, casual evenings sipping chocolate phosphates at Reader’s Drug Store near the University of Chicago. We also spent hours talking aimlessly on the telephone. After completing several business courses, Diana went to work as a hostess in a restaurant and, as I feared, began attracting other suitors. The most dangerous was a young clone of Robert Redford, with tousled blond hair and six feet of imposing height. Studying my own face in the mirror gave me little reason for reassurance. My nose and jaw fought one another for prominence. My oversized ears, one lobe half inch longer than the other, gave my head a lopsided appearance. Desperate to find a playing field on which to compete, I drew upon the fertility of my imagination. A visit to a grocery became an Odyssey with my inventing various colorful characters I described to Diana. In 1940, Europe at war, I had been taking fencing lessons at an academy in Woodlawn. One student was a youth of German origin named Helmut. We had fenced one another with the customary rubber-tipped foils. I made the match more ferocious to Diana, who worried that Helmut might wish to harm me. Trapped in my own exaggerations, to keep the drama mounting, I told Diana that after a violent argument Helmut challenged me to a duel with bare blades. Diana pleaded with me to refuse the challenge. I told her honor demanded I accept. The duel was set for the following evening after the academy had closed. My preference was to claim I had mortally wounded Helmut, but that posed a problem in how I had disposed of the body. I moved reluctantly to a more benign conclusion. 36
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The morning after the fictional duel, I taped a piece of gauze to my chest and stained the edge of the gauze with iodine to simulate blood. I phoned Diana and told her the duel had ended in a draw after Helmut and I had inflicted minor cuts on one another. She insisted I come see her at once. I shamefully savored her tear-stained face as I showed her my bloody bandage. We were married in the autumn of 1945. For the first year we lived with my parents and then moved to a third-floor studio apartment. Our windows looked out on a huge courtyard that in summer resonated with tongues like the Tower of Babel. In 1948 our first son, Mark, was born. In the following years I worked in the steel mills, on the railway express, on a beer truck, pressing clothes for a cleaner, selling real estate. All this time, haphazardly, with fitful starts and finishes, I was writing. Year after year, my manuscripts were returned, first with printed rejection slips then with a few scrawled words of encouragement. But I sold nothing. My father died and a second son, John, was born. These were hard years for our family. Bills piled up. There were sometimes bitter accusations about my failure as a provider, my inability to hold a job for more than a few months. We talked of separation. In December of 1956 I sold my first story to the Atlantic Monthly. About that time, we moved to Pittsburgh to a job as a speechwriter for U.S. Steel. A third son, Dean, was born in Pittsburgh and my first novel was published. Elated and overconfident, ignoring the warnings of others, I moved back to Chicago to write full time. Our income my first year as a freelancer was $1,600 and the second year $2,400. Our family survived on the generosity of our nephews, Leo, Frank and Steve Manta, who renovated an old house their father owned in South Shore where we lived rent-free. We also ate two to three times a week with my wife’s parents or other relatives. In the mid-1960s, my third novel, A Dream of Kings, became a best seller, a Book Club selection and was translated into a dozen foreign editions. We sold the movie rights and moved to California where I wrote the screenplay. As with so many writers who had gone to Hollywood, the experience wasn’t a happy one.
Once again choosing novels and stories, I moved my family back to the Midwest. In the following years, I wrote and published additional stories and books. A single stroke of good fortune in writing does not last forever. Through the 1970s and 1980s, we lived precariously on my lecturing as well as writing. We were helped by two years I served as writer-in-residence for the Chicago Public Library, and then two years as writer-in-residence for the Chicago Board of Education. In 2006 Diana suffered a stroke. While making a handy recovery, she remained frail, with only a fraction of her previous energy and strength. Both of us aware that none but the early dead are spared the ravages of aging; we limped through our 80s together. In these last years I have done much of what she once did for me, but she would have responded the same way. Meanwhile we try to retain our sense of humor. At times when I have coaxed her through a stern regimen of therapy she finds painful, she refers to me as “Caligula,” the brutal Roman Caesar who murdered numerous relatives. We laugh then, and I am reminded of the lines from Yeats, “Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes, their ancient eyes are gay.” In old age, everyone becomes a historian. Looking back, I mark that our life has been a shared journey. Diana cared for our family during those hours I spent at the typewriter and the computer. We celebrated the growth of our sons, grieved the death of our parents, and had the fulfillment of holding my published books, the bindings that held the fragrance of fresh paper and ink. I understand how much she influenced and enriched my stories. Many women characters I created are facets of Diana, whether chaste as the biblical Ruth or sensual as Bathsheba. Wherever I traveled, she was the lodestone that drew me home. Many other couples linked together a long time have conflicts and resolutions equally as dramatic. But in the way that no fingerprint or snowflake is the same, each love story is unique. Diana and I have now lived together so long and loved one another so well; the name of one can never be uttered without, in the same breath, speaking the name of the other. Reprinted from the Chicago Sun-Times
Harry Mark Petrakis: A retrospective at 91 by Tina Sfondeles
At 91, Greek-American author Harry Mark Petrakis still lives and breathes Chicago. It’s the city’s South Side where he watched his father, a Greek-Orthodox priest, help immigrants find faith while struggling to start a life and make ends meet in America. And in the South Loop, where he opened a short-lived restaurant that inspired his creative nature. The faces he saw, the struggles of immigrants and the stories he heard inspired the characters he’d create in short stories and novels in a career that has spanned decades. “We had as many as a dozen hobos who would sit and tell marvelous stories. I’d be sitting and listening to their stories,” Petrakis said. “I suspect some were great liars. The girl whose boyfriend had left her and she was on her way to Chicago to kill him and his girlfriend. I didn’t believe her, but these were wonderful stories, and I learned from them.” Petrakis speaks the way he writes, full of colorful and eloquent words, like he’s writing the story of his life. Earlier this month, he traveled from his home in Chesterton, Indiana, to Chicago’s National Hellenic Museum to receive the Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. His son John, a screenwriting teacher at the School of the Art Institute and the University of Chicago, introduced him. Petrakis became so overcome with emotion by his son’s words that he had to pause before beginning his speech.
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PROFILE
“Many families have credos, words they live by, such as ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going,’ or ‘every journey begins with the first step.’ The Petrakis family credo, my father once said, is ‘Nobody suffers in silence.’ How could we possibly be mute when there are so many wonderful words out there to describe the way that life has thrown us curves, brushed us back or plunked us right in the back,” his son said. ‘When I began to write about Greeks … that’s the story that sold’ Petrakis was raised in what he calls a Greek-Jewish-Italian immigrant community in the South Side Washington Park neighborhood, then moved to Woodlawn and finally to South Shore. “The church [Sts. Constantine and Helen] was full of immigrants. They were thrown in between two worlds. I admired them and at the same time feared them. I reviled them for the prejudice even I could see at a young age. Prejudice wasn’t justice. A Greek boy on our block married a Jewish girl and his father put his clothes out in the back and burned them,” Petrakis said. He first tried to write about things he didn’t know, then found what stuck. “I wrote of gangsters I knew nothing about. I wrote of cowboys I knew nothing about. But when I began to write about Greeks in the community — the story called “Pericles on 35th Street” about an old Greek hot dog vendor imbued with a sense of the greatness of the Greek past — that’s the story that sold.”
Author Harry Mark Petrakis at his home in Chesterton, Indiana. Michael Gard/For Sun-Times Media
He wrote the novel “The Odyssey of Kostas Volakis” in 1963, telling the story of a Greek man in a new world. Other stories inspired by the plight of Greeks included his bestselling “A Dream of Kings” and “Nick the Greek.” “I never thought of myself as an ethnic writer because when you write about that which you know, there is your beginning where you cross a certain threshold and you enter the areas of love, sadness, sorrow, anger, revulsion. These are universal. You take which is yours as the beginning and you move into the universal areas,” Petrakis said. Petrakis remembers the first public critique of his writing, at a broadcasting class at Columbia College Chicago. His assignment was to write a one-page story, the theme being Christmas. His classmates praised and critiqued each student after the story was read. Petrakis’ tale was about a waiter, and he remembers it as if it just happened. “He comes home on Christmas Eve and his wife is gone. He knows where she is. She’s hanging out at a nearby bar. He goes out and gets there. She’s sitting at a bar with men, drinking. He takes her home. He slaps her out of anger, then feeling remorseful, he washes her up and puts her to bed, takes out the Christmas tree. It’s a small one he brought home knowing in the morning, she would be sober and they’d decorate the tree.”
“I read that one-page story and in the end, instead of the class chiming in, nobody spoke. I thought ‘It must be god-awful. Nobody wants to say anything.’ ” The teacher egged on her class asking why no one had spoken. “One boy said ‘I can’t talk to this story. It’s so obviously written from real experience,’ ” Petrakis said. “They wouldn’t believe that I wasn’t the waiter with the drunken wife.” It was snowing, and Petrakis took a walk though Grant Park. He realized he had something in that story: “Writing is what I should be doing,” he said. From there came a mix of acceptance and rejections from various publications. It took him three years to get published. His father, the Rev. Mark Petrakis, encouraged his writing. “He died [in 1951] before I sold anything, but he kept a manuscript of my early story in his desk,” Petrakis said. “The secretary there was a wonderful lady named Bessie Spirides. When I came to the office to visit, she pulled out that story. He would tell people ‘My son wrote this. He’s going to be a good writer someday.’ That’s based not on my story. It was based on love.”
Reprinted from the Chicago Sun-Times
strategy στρατηγική
Endy Zemenides is the Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), a national advocacy organization for the Greek American community. To learn more about HALC, visit www.hellenicleaders.com emenide by Endy Z
s
UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS On Tuesday, December 16th, Senator Robert Menendez gave a rousing speech on the floor of the Senate about the violation of international law and human rights on the island nation of Cyprus. Just one day later, as President Obama announced a shift in U.S. policy in Cuba, Senator Menendez had to once again be the voice speaking in favor of human rights, this time in Cuba. In our community, we have long taken for granted the advocacy of Senator Menendez and CubanAmericans like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario DiazBalart, and Albio Sires on Hellenic issues. Maybe we’ve assumed that large Greek-American constituencies or significant fundraisers made them our advocates. While over their careers they ’ve built relationships with such constituencies and benefited from such fundraisers, that is not what initially drew them to our issues. It was empathy. When Tasos Zambas started talking to then Congressman Robert Menendez about Cyprus, it wasn’t a promise of fundraising or votes that got his attention. It was how the human rights violations in Cyprus and the pain of Greek-Cypriot refugees reminded him of the plight of Cubans and Cuban exiles here in America. He has made Cyprus a personal priority for the two decades since that conversation. He brought along the Diaz-Balart brothers (Republicans) and his successor in the House, Albio Sires (a Democrat) with that same appeal to empathy. And there has been no more solid block of advocates for all Hellenic issues than our Cuban American friends. And that is why – as a matter of loyalty and friendship, and to show that we too have empathy – the Greek-American community must raise its voice in favor of the human rights of the Cuban people. We were given all kinds of reasons why U.S. policy on Cuba had to be changed – it galvanized anti-American sentiment in Latin America, it hadn’t worked (in as far as removing the Castros or establishing democracy in Cuba), it gave the Castros yet another reason to repress the Cuban people (as if dictators need a reason), it robbed American businesses of another market. What we didn’t hear was an expectation of how the human rights situation in Cuba is going to improve. Only this from President Obama: “Change is going to come to Cuba,” he said. “It has to.” Uh, really? Weren’t we told the same thing about China two decades ago when the U.S. renewed Most Favored Nation Status? Maybe the progress in China can shape our expectations in Cuba: 40
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STRATEGY
Freedom House rankings in 1990’s (when President Clinton renewed Most Favored Nation Status) Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.5 (7 = worst)
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 7
Freedom House rankings in 2001 (when China entered the WTO): Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.5 (7 = worst)
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 7
Freedom House ranking in 2014: Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.5 (7 = worst)
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 7
Maybe Freedom House has a certain bone to pick with China. I’m sure here in the U.S. – where we convinced ourselves that the situation in China would get better because it has to – we would find some area of progress; maybe something as mundane and non-threatening as religious freedom. Let’s look at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2014 report: Ooops, China is STILL on the list of worst religious rights violators in the world. How about Vietnam, which was cited in many of the analyses on Cuba? Two decades of economic ties, no improvement in human rights. Perhaps the relationship that threatens to expose engagement as a canard is the one between the West and Turkey. The Republic of Turkey has enjoyed nearly a century of engagement with the West. A century after the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides, nearly six decades after beginning a policy of religious persecution against its Christian minorities, forty years after invading and occupying Cyprus, Turkey has not only failed to make progress on any of these fronts, but it continues it human rights rollback on all fronts. The Obama Administration went “all-in” with Erdogan’s Turkey, and this is its reward: a Western “ally” that helped bring about the Islamic State, the world’s leading jailer of journalists, a one-time example of Muslim democracy working overtime to extinguish the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and an occupier of an EU country (Cyprus). Interestingly enough, on the very same day as the announced change in Cuba policy, a State Department official responded to a public question on Twitter. Here is the stunning exchange:
Q: You don’t think Cypriots are entitled to same human rights and freedoms as Americans? A: Realization of rights & freedoms affected by circumstances – history, geography, etc. All different here from USA. Wow. Unfortunately, that is the general feeling about human rights out of our professional foreign policy establishment. I can go on and on. But let’s get back to the Cuban people. One of the more reprehensible forms of repression in Cuba is Article 73 of its Criminal Code – the so called “dangerousness” law. Human Rights Watch has called this the most “Orwellian of Cuba’s laws”, and it remains one that hasn’t abated during Raul Castro’s reign. Among the violations that constitute “dangerousness” (and have landed Cubans in jail)? Handing out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A former President of Cyprus once spoke of friendship between Cyprus and Cuba. The friendship should be between Hellenes and the people of Cuba – people fighting for democracy and universal human rights. Let’s not be fooled, no amount of commerce, Cuban cigars or tourism will bring human rights in Cuba unless we keep demanding these rights. So let’s prove our friendship to Senator Menendez and speak up for human rights in Cuba the way he speaks up for them in Cyprus or for the religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As former Congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart once told PSEKA conference attendees: “For our enemies, JUSTICE. For our friends . . .everything.”
SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN BLASTS TURKEY'S TREATMENT OF CYPRUS ON US SENATE FLOOR
BOB MENENDEZ
On December 16, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, longtime friend of Cyprus and Greece, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), blasted Turkey’s blatant violations of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone speaking on the floor of the United States Senate. Following is the full text of these remarks: "This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Turkish invasion. We hoped that it would have brought a fair settlement to the Cyprus question, that it would have brought an end to 40 year long occupation and division of the island by Turkey. There is always cause for optimism and room for faith that the realization of a reunified Cyprus is in the near future. Global and regional dynamics have made the reunification of Cyprus a priority driven, in part, by Cyprus' newly found energy resources. This is particularly true in light of Russia's Machiavellian-like power plays in central Europe that have placed Cyprus and Israel at the forefront of the discussion of European energy security. The natural resources that have been discovered this year in the Eastern Mediterranean offer both Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike a powerful incentive to reach an agreement - and if an agreement could be reached, Cyprus could play a pivotal role in regional energy security. But the dynamics have again changed - which is why I rise today to express my grave concern over the Republic of Turkey's incursion into Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). On October 20th, Turkey sent a research vessel, the Barbaros, into Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zone - to stop the government of Cyprus from exercising its lawful and sovereign right to explore the natural gas within its Exclusive Economic Zone. In the days following, Turkey dispatched warships to support the Barbaros in its illegal activities, where they remain to this day. This incident is merely the latest in a long series of violations on the part of Turkey against Cyprus' sovereign right to explore and exploit its natural resources within its own Exclusive Economic Zone. Turkey, of course, also illegally occupies with 40,000 Turkish troops the northern portion of the island and has for forty
years prevented any meaningful reconciliation efforts.This map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the position of the Turkish ships in red. They are sitting between the island of Cyprus and its own ships in its own EEZ. Mr. President, there is no doubt in my mind that Turkey's actions have endangered peace talks between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots that began in February with a joint-communique issued by the two communities. That communique committed to finding a durable solution based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality. But, because of Turkey's bullying tactics, peace talks are now on hold. For peace talks to resume, Turkey must immediately withdraw its ships operating in and around Cyprus. The international community has been abundantly clear in supporting Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in recognizing Cyprus's right to explore the resources within its Economic Zone and in condemning Turkey for this blatant violation. On November 13, The European Parliament adopted a resolution strongly condemning Turkey's "illegal and provocative actions" in Cyprus, stressing that "the Republic of Cyprus has the full and sovereign right to explore the natural resources within its EEZ." Turkey's recent actions in Cyprus are only one instance of its belligerent and bellicose rhetoric and backsliding on peace and democracy. In recent weeks, President Erdo an and his cabinet have used unusually belligerent and anti-Western rhetoric to attack the West. He actually said - and, Mr. President, I am amazed at this rhetoric:
"Americans look like friends but they want us dead - they like seeing our children die." He also said: "Women are not equal to men. Our religion has defined a position for women: motherhood," Erdo an, said at a summit in Istanbul on justice for women. He went on to say: "Some people can understand this, while others can't. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don't accept the concept of motherhood." He even went so far as to say that Muslims discovered America not Columbus. He has vowed to make lessons in the Arabic-alphabet Ottoman language compulsory in high schools - a highly symbolic move which enraged secularists who claim he is pursuing an increasingly extremist agenda. These statements along with Turkey's illegal actions in Cyprus's Exclusive Economic Zone - are a dramatic escalation of Turkey shifting away from democracy and its partners in the West. And - in my view - it requires an immediate and forceful response. The Cypriot people need a strong voice on this issue. They need us to urge President Erdo an to immediately withdraw from Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone so reunification talks can resume. Cyprus' leaders deserve credit for trying to change dynamics and return to talks. They also deserve credit for being an ally and advocate of American interests. Cyprus' active role in supporting counter-terrorism efforts, terror financing, and in the removal of chemical weapons from Syria have not gone unnoticed. Cyprus is clearly positioning itself as a part of the western security architecture and is a resource, advocate, and an ally for our interests. These developments have led the White House to play an active role on behalf of Cyprus. And I was very pleased by my former colleague, Vice President Biden's visit in May and his commitment to resolving the Cyprus question. I share his support for the confidence building measures in Famagusta that would benefit both sides and accelerate progress towards a final settlement where Cypriots control their destiny, and their territory - and where, at the end of the day, any settlement is from the people of Cyprus, by the people of Cyprus, for the people of Cyprus and Cyprus alone. To that end, I recently sent a letter to President Obama urging his continued engagement on the issue of reunification of the island and the restoration of human rights for all its citizens. I also wrote to Ambassador Power - urging her active involvement in the extension of the island's UN Peacekeeping operation - and I was pleased when the extension was formalized at the end of July. I hope that President Erdo an now that his election is behind him, will use this opportunity to play a renewed role in finding a fair settlement. We all appreciate that any progress will depend on a true commitment by the Turks to the peace process. Today, I assure you, as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, that the United States is committed to supporting Cyprus as a friend and ally. So, as we mark the 40th year of a divided Cyprus, let us hope and pray that a fair and mutually beneficial settlement will be reached very soon and that, once again, the island will be united. Thank you very much." NEWS & NOTES
JANUARY 2015
23
Ophthalmic Society Honors Dr. Petros Konofaos The American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has presented its 2014 Lester Jones Surgical Anatomy Award to Dr. Petros Konofaos for his outstanding contributions to ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery. He is a plastic surgeon at UT Medical Group Inc. and an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). The award recognized Konofaos for his work as lead author and researcher on the paper, “Supratrochlear and Supraorbital Nerves: An Anatomical Study and Applications in the Head and Neck Area.� Published in Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the paper explained how direct corneal neurotization, or nerve transfer, restores visual function and appearance in patients who have eyelid paralysis due to facial palsy.
UT Medical Group is a private group practice affiliated with the UTHSC College of Medicine faculty. A not-for-profit, non-tax-supported group practice, UTMG is dedicated to quality patient care, medical education, and medical research. For more information, their website is utmedicalgroup.com
The Manatoses with the Vice President’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens. From left, Mike & Laura Manatos, Valerie Biden Owens, Tina & Andy Manatos
Laura Manatos outside the Vice President’s residence
Laura Manatos with the Vice President’s Social Secretary and Residence Manager Carlos Elizondo
The Manatoses Attend Holiday Party at the Vice Presidential Residence On December 15, Andy and Mike Manatos, and their wives Tina and Laura, attended a holiday party at the Vice Presidential residence, as they have in previous years. Vice President Joe Biden and Second Lady Jill Biden host a number of such parties each year. The Manatoses say they are honored to have been invited to attend the Biden friends and family party each year, which also includes many of the Vice President’s senior staff. Andy Manatos and Vice President Biden have known each other since Biden became a US Senator at age 30 and they worked on the same floor in the US Senate. Mike Manatos is also longtime friends with the Vice President’s sons Beau and Hunter, with whom he served as a US Senate page at age 17. Laura Manatos has recently been involved with Second Lady Jill Biden in a number of breast cancer events.
Another special this season for the Manatoses: The world-renowned hotel in Washington, DC frequented by American and other world leaders the Ritz Carlton - is featuring this year in its holiday decorations a four-foot high gingerbread replica of the office building of the Washington public policy company of Manatos & Manatos.
The Ritz Carlton noted that this gingerbread house was inspired by and modeled after, "one of the most iconic buildings in the West End neighborhood of Washington, DC...the visually stunning townhouse that houses the public policy company of Manatos & Manatos...it took two months, and a total of 200 hours of planning and execution...made from scratch by our awardwinning pastry team."
Mike and Andy Manatos with Ritz Carlton's four-foot high gingerbread replica of the office building of their Washington public policy company (right)
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NEWS & NOTES
Manatoses have been involved in high-level American policymaking for one third of the history of the United States. Mike Manatos began working in Washington, DC in 1936 and rose to become the first Greek-American to serve in a senior position in the White House, as a top assistant of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Mike's son, Andy Manatos, who served as the youngest Assistant Secretary in the Carter Administration, and Andy' son, Mike Manatos, run Manatos & Manatos today. Recently, Mike's brother and Andy's son, Tom Manatos, who is also involved in the field of American public policy, was featured on the front page of one of America's top newspapers, the Washington Post. The other Manatos brothers, Nicholas and George are a successful software businessman and filmmaker, respectively.
Reinventing the Diner
& s a m t ! s r i r a e h C New Y y r r e M appy H
Open all day everyday, for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner!
/ 7 2 4
R N E I D
72-12 NORTHERN BLVD., Jax Diner presents itself in the heart of Queens with a sleek JACKSON HEIGHTS, NY 11372 retro modern design. We pride ourselves on our famous pancakes, TEL: (718) 476-1240 hearty burgers, unique lunch & dinner specials. In addition to our extensive WWW.JAXINNDINER.COM menu we offer a scrumptious selection of homemade pastries to satisfy all palates 24/7. Extensive cocktail & variety of imported beers available as well. We look forward to serving your next dining experience.
A. GIANNOPOULOS Architects, PLLC
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EXO WORKS, Inc.
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by Petros Georgiadis
SERAFIMownFERDEKLIS er of B Z Gr il l Every neighborhood has a secret gem. A place that locals go and take their friends when visit from other areas, or just the local meeting point. Occasionally, some of these places are making their reputation out of the borders of their local neighborhood. Rarely we see one to be so famous and holding such a good reputation like our own Greek Bz Grill, known for the best gyros in NY. We are sure that the reputation of this place is way beyond the NY borders. We know people coming every weekend for their shopping in Astoria and make sure they pass by their favorite gyro place. We also know people traveling from different parts of the country passing by NY to make the extra mile to check out the well reputed place and see what it’s all about. Customers are always happy and satisfied by the quality and consistency of Bz Grill. People always leave with the best impression. So here we come to ask the owner and creator of this amazing place, Serafim Ferdeklis, to explain us what it’s all about, where they are standing now and what are the plans of the future.
Tell us a bit about yourself… I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. I grew up on the Island of Rhodes where my parents originate from (holding routes from Minor Asia). It was always a desire of mine to get involved in my family’s business in restaurants and hospitality. Immediately after I finished my studies, I did just that. How did you get involved in the business of selling g yros? I understand your family had a similar business? The market in the 90’s was experiencing a shift in customer demand. The businesses we ran at the time were on the higher scale of the spectrum from restaurants and bars. As tourism
quality changed, the market lacked more affordable food options. We decided to fill that gap with restaurants that served traditional gyros. What brought you back to the United States? In the early 2000’s, I had an opportunity to disengage myself from the family business parting at a time where the market was at its peak. This gave me free time and the chance to follow my sister to New York for the completion of her studies. Did you open BZ Grill as soon as you arrived in the United States? Although I brought with me tremendous experience from Rhodes through my involvement with restaurants and hospitality, I preferred to work for a few years in NY so I can understand how the market and its clientele worked here. When the time came for me to make my move, I was stronger and more prepared than ever. So where are you at now? Currently we’re running a successful restaurant with a positive reputation. We’ve been given outstanding reviews by The New York Times newspaper and have made it our priority to maintain this reputation. Quality and consistence is our flagship. I’ve also launched a wholesale company, which we produce and sell our own gyros (pork and chicken) as well as a full range of products that cater to the needs of new places similar to ours.
WHEN THE TIME CAME FOR ME TO MAKE MY OWN MOVE I WAS STRONGER AND BETTER THAN EVER
PHOTO: YOSHIO ITAGAKI
What if someone wants to open a place of their own. Do you help them? Of course I help others open their own restaurants. I’ve done it already – even out of state. Recently, I helped open a place in Sacramento, California. We offer a full line of services including set-up of the place, layout and design of menu etc. You seem very sure and proud of your product. Does this mean a franchise is on the horizon for BZ Grill? Currently, I am focused in the growth of the wholesale business. There are no immediate plans for a second BZ Grill. There’s a possibility of opening four or five locations with an accompanying production facility to support all the locations. However, if someone would be interested in a franchise opportunity, that would not be ruled out either. Coming from Greece, how do you feel about the Hellenism in the United States? It was evident to me that the Greeks excelled in business overseas. By venturing out on my own in the United States, I found it to be completely true. How do you feel about the current situation in Greece? I’d like to believe that we are going to see a stronger, more democratic and meritocratic Greece in the future. It will take time and it will not be easy. Courage, innovation and the overall will to get out of our comfort zone in order to build a better future for us and the coming generations.
Serafim Ferdeklis with wife Evgenia and their daughter Celine
Are you an optimistic person? I am not a pessimist. I believe in determination, hard work and completion of goals. Coming from an island surrounded by vast ocean I’ve learned to plot my trip before I leave my harbor.
FAITH Announces Summer 2015 Financial Aid Travel Grants to Ionian Village
Continuing for the ninth consecutive year, “FAITH: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism” will once again sponsor a series of financial aid travel grants this summer to campers participating in the Ionian Village Summer Camp program. FAITH provides full and partial financial aid grants to those participants that qualify for need-based financial aid. Each year, Ionian Village participants travel across Greece, venerating the relics of the Saints, walking in the footsteps of the Apostles, and visiting significant sites of Greek history and culture. At the end of each program, the campers, staff and clergy return home with strengthened faith, lifelong friendships based on Christian love, and an expanded appreciation for the Orthodox Church and Greek culture. Mrs. Elaine Jaharis, a Founder of the Faith Endowment, Ionian Village Alumna and Chair of the Committee spoke on behalf of the Founders: “We are proud to support young people wishing to participate in Ionian Village. The Camp, provides a truly transformative and enriching experience for intellectual and spiritual growth as well as forming lifelong friendships as these young people connect to their Hellenic roots. For over 40 years, Ionian Village has been and still is the premiere program for the young Greek Americans to understand their Hellenic heritage and identity and we are very pleased to offer this financial aid opportunity through our program.” In 2014, FAITH underwrote 42 full and partial financial aid travel grants for young people to attend the Ionian Village Summer Camp. Each year, it funds a series of several scholarship programs including many meritbased scholarships for the FAITH Academic Excellence Scholarships to high school students graduating from public, parochial and private high schools across the country. FAITH – Ionian Village Travel Grant applications are NOW available for participants of Session One and Session Two, ages 14-18: www.faithendowment.org. Completed applications must be received by January 30, 2015. Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism supports the development of innovative educational, cultural, and scholarship programs for young people that promote an understanding of the Orthodox faith, Hellenism, and the relationship of the two to America’s history and multicultural landscape. For more information, their phone number is (212) 644-6960. 64
JANUARY 2015
NEWS & NOTES
Mentis Estate Olive Oil A Taste of Greece The exquisite olive oil produced by Mentis Estate is hand picked and pressed carefully by local artisans. To preserve the integrity of this extra virgin olive oil, only limited quantities are available. A pure unblended olive oil, with an acidity of less than 0.5%, the Mentis Estate produces an aromatic and fruity nectar. Well-balanced characteristics described as pine, floral, nutty, buttery and pungent with a hint of artichoke make up this extra virgin oil. The Mentis Estate olive trees are located in Neapolis, Laconia which is a microclimate offering fertile soil and perfect Mediterranean weather. Mentis Estate has produced olive oil for three generations harvesting the Athenolia olive variety. In mythology, the goddess Athena offered the gift of olives to the Athenians from the region of Laconia giving the name Athenolia to this variety of olives. For over 5000 years, olive oil has been used medicinally and its health benefits includes: boosting the immune system, preventing heart disease, cancer, and strokes and helping to lower blood pressure. The Mediterranean Diet is renowned throughout the world for its vital role in healthy living. According to numerous studies, olive oil should be incorporated in every meal. Rich in history, Laconia formed part of the Byzantine Empire in medieval times and in ancient Greece it was the principal region of Sparta.
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ElenisCreations.com
EYDAP STANDING BY THE SOCIETY By Xanthianna Gerasimidou Product Manager Communications & Corporate Affairs Division of EYDAP
Respect towards society, human and natural environment and sustainable development is a priority for EYDAP. With central driven social welfare and for long-term and sustainable business activity, EYDAP wants to offer the most to the community as it believes that social awareness and conscientiousness are the basis of every successful company. Considering and respecting the prevailing difficult economic conditions and the daily difficulties that are confronted by our fellow citizens, EYDAP desires to remain socially active. In this perspective, EYDAP promotes actions and social and environmental programs that aim to offer to the community, as well as to achieve and maintain an interactive relationship with society. EYDAP always exhibits a purely social nature and operates by setting people and the environment at the center of its attention. Its aim is to establish a special billing invoice while continuously “relieving” the financially weaker groups through social actions and initiatives. EYDAP has designed the program of social policy, based on the demographic data indicating the socially vulnerable groups of Attica. Within the framework of this social policy, which has been implemented for yet another year, the program provides rebates on water bills of large families (3 + children) and single parents with three children and elderly people over 75 years old with low income. Large families fall under the special tariff category, which offers deductibility from 10% to 60%, and a total of 17,858 families fall within this category. Of these, 96.2% of benefits relates to 17,182 families consisting of 4 to 6 financial supporting members, while 3.8% of the benefit relates to 676 families consisting of 7 to 13 financial supporting members. In simple terms, the total return to society is estimated at 267.437 annually. Furthermore, regarding the care of persons over 75 years, EYDAP provides a special discount rate fixed at 30%, provided that applicants fulfill the following criteria: • Senior citizens over 75 who live alone and are not hosted • Income less than or equal to 8.000 • Annual Bill of water - sewage should not exceed 150 The benefits from the prolongation of EYDAP’s social policy program for yet another year, are multiple and aim at strengthening social consistency and to highlight the humanitarian profile of EYDAP and the continuous effort that it is making to offer to the community.
periXscope
s ’ n o s a e R s g n i t e e Gr This holiday season is good if it makes us focus on the much and many that we have in our lives and gives us some time off to feel grateful and thankful for everybody and everything, even those, perhaps especially those, who occasionally shutter our “peace” and remind us that we are really alive. In this spirit, let me wish you all, friends and foes alike, Merry Christmas and a Beautiful New Year, full of creative challenges and truth, whatever that means. Without you I wouldn’t have been who I am (I guess I would have been different ...)! Last, but not least, I want to thank NEO’s friends for showing up in such impressive numbers to once more support this special New Year’s issue and this effort in general. I feel especially grateful to those who have been with us since day one (nine years ago, let me remind you), when some other “friends” would have us last no more than that Christmas. I would also like to welcome the newcomers and wish them a ...nice stay. On behalf of the NEO team, many and big thanks, and may this Holiday Season & New Year be tailored according to each and everyone’s wishes!
by Demetrios Rhompotis
dondemetrio@neomagazine.com
Malaccan:
The number ONE Greek Export! (Forget about Metaxa and Kalamata olives...)
Salute this Holiday Season with the …Malaccan: a Thighland Single Schmaltz Greek Whisky, which like everything else Hellenic is at least 5,000 years old! Allow yourself to indulge in something quintessentially-Greek and human while losing weight and perhaps your mind at the same time! E n j o y r e s p o n s i b l y. Malaccan overdose might affect your ability to control yourself and the way you operate anything, least of all your vehicle. If you experience prolonged pain in your right hand and it’s not due to computer mouse overuse, refrain from entering your favorite Internet sites until condition improves...
the potential. It was almost twelve years ago when I made the decision to sing opera and came to the US to start from scratch, since in a way I first had to learn a new craft, and then start a new career.” Since she made the change to opera, Calenos has performed in more than 20 roles, some of them multiple times. For instance, she has played her favorite role, Cio-Cio San from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, in five different productions. “It’s one of the most challenging and demanding roles for the soprano repertoire since the character is on stage singing almost all the time,” she adds. However, despite her success, Calenos admits that becoming an opera singer isn’t as easy as she makes it look. “The business aspect of my profession is essential, but at the same time very stressful…Opera singing is not a conventional profession. Security is not a sense that comes with the territory. There is a lot of competition, subjectivity, lack of meritocracy many times, and politics. On top of that, times are not favorable for opera and art in general. The challenges are many and the stakes are high.” As Mimi in "La Bohème"
by Cindy Klimek For some, music is a hobby. For others, it is a calling. Opera singer (soprano) Eleni Calenos definitely falls into the latter category. “No one in my family was a professional or even a trained musician or singer, but music was integral in our everyday life during my upbringing,” she says. “Music is the story of my life. When I was an infant there was always a radio in my crib playing mainly classical music and also quality Greek music in my ear. I started studying music, violoncello and piano, at the age of seven and this has been my world ever since.” As Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni"
This will be Calenos’s second stint with the Floridabased Palm Beach Opera. Last spring, she played the role of Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. When asked why returned to Palm Beach, Calenos says,
As Pamina in "The Magic Flute" “Palm Beach Opera has high quality standards and always brings people of great caliber/talent together in their productions. This, combined with an excellent first experience I had with the company last season, are enough reasons to attract me to this upcoming La Bohème production and any future production with the company.” Though always musical, Thessaloniki-born Calenos says, “Opera came to me after I had started a career as
Beginning January 17, 2015, Calenos will be starring as Mimi in the Palm Beach Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. “I have performed this role in four other productions, and it never grows old. Its story is timeless and always gripping, and it’s very hard not to cry at the end. Even though it focuses on the love story between Rodolfo and Mimi, it’s also about a bunch of young people who stand by their dreams and ideology. They want to change the world and make it a better place with poetry, art music, and philosophy, and they want to set an example with their lives’ struggles and love stories in times of adversity and poverty,” she says. 74
JANUARY 2015
NEWS & NOTES
As Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni" a cellist and also as a singer of Greek music. At the time, I felt the urge to train and study vocal technique in order to avoid developing harmful habits, but soon after the first few lessons I realized
Nevertheless, Calenos is clearly deeply passionate about her art form. When asked what her favorite part of opera singing, she quotes a poem called Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy: “Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for. But do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, So you are old by the time you reach the island, Wealthy with all that you have gained on the way, Not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.” She explains, “The most thrilling part for me is the preparation for the role and the rehearsal period, the time when I find myself exploring music and character, the moments I experiment with all kinds of musical and dramatic nuances. It’s when artistic growth takes place that pure joy rises.” In other words, Calenos isn’t ready to slow down any time soon. And, as for her future, she sees herself moving onward and upward. “My ultimate goal in life is to come to a position to do as much good as possible, to be able to touch other people’s lives and also be equal to the opportunities life presents to me. I envision myself making music on the highest possible level wherever I am, and singing all over the world in traditionally established and historical international opera houses. Also, sharing my experience and knowledge with singers of younger generations,” she says. “Being able to do what I love is a gift. Having a sense of contribution and fulfillment by offering myself through music and by touching people’s hearts, does not compare to anything.” To learn more about Eleni Calenos, her website is www.elenicalenos.com. For tickets and more info on the Palm Beach Opera’s production of La Bohème, you can visit http://pbopera.org/event/la-boheme/.