Perspective
Q & A with military historian Peter Giakoumis
Written by Dimitris Polymenopoulos
Peter Giakoumis is a Greek-American military Historian with a master's of arts degree in Political Science. He is a former Captain in the New York State Guard-Army Division, a 20-year Federal employee and a living history practitioner.
PORTLAND, 05/12/2013 (AP)—U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe describes a scene out of a Rockwell painting: With Washington crippled by a blizzard, President Barack Obama worked the week before Christmas with a fire roaring in the fireplace in the Oval Office. Outside the window, his daughters played in the snow with their dog. Inside, Snowe writes in a new book, she delivered sad news to the president, whom she described as gracious.
Receiving the Holy Fire in a Palestinian Village
Written by Maria C. Khoury, Ed.D.
“O Gladsome Light, of the Holy glory of the Immortal Father, heavenly Holy, blessed Jesus Christ!” (Holy Saturday Morning Prayers)
This is one of my most favorite days in the village. We have just celebrated the Miracle of the Holy Fire in Taybeh at the outskirts of our village approximately after 5 pm in the late afternoon on this Great and Holy Saturday while waiting since 2:10 pm local time when this great miracle occurred once again in Jerusalem.
Even in desert retreat, monks feel Egypt’s turmoil
Written by Hamza Hendawi
ST. ANTHONY’S MONASTERY, Egypt (AP)— In a cave here high in the desert mountains of eastern Egypt, the man said to be the father of monasticism took refuge from the temptations of the world some 17 centuries ago. At the foot of the mountain, the monks at the St. Anthony’s Monastery bearing his name continue the ascetic tradition.
Greece, Germany bicker over war reparations issue
Written by Elena Becatoros
ATHENS, Greece (AP)—A long-standing debate over whether Germany still owes Greece war reparations stemming from the Nazi occupation erupted anew Thursday in a spat between Greece’s foreign minister and Germany’s finance minister.
Bailing out Cyprus: a minute with Kostas Kourtikakis
Written by Craig Chamberlain
Editor’s note: Political scientist Kostas Kourtikakis, a native of Greece and lecturer at the University of Illinois, is an expert on the EU and its institutions, as well as on the politics of southern Europe. Kourtikakis was interviewed by News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain.
The bailout proposal calls for drawing as much as 60 percent from large bank accounts, but an earlier version called for even small depositors to feel the pinch. What is the rationale for this? Who’s getting hurt, and what was the alternative?
Banks in Cyprus suffered stark losses recently. They own scores of Greek bonds, the value of which was severely reduced, mainly as part of Greece’s own bailout deal in 2012. Now the government of Cyprus needs about 16 billion euros to prop up its banking sector. Failure to do so will result in a collapse of the country’s financial industry, which is one of its economic lifelines. Cyprus’ lenders in the European Union and the International Monetary Fund agreed to supply 10 billion euros. The question then became, where will the remaining 6 billion come from?
Turkish Cypriots: Solidarity tinged with relief
Written by Elena Becatoros
NICOSIA (AP)—Barbed wire-topped walls stretch across the narrow, twisted streets of Nicosia's walled medieval city, where abandoned buildings extend across a no-man's land. On the other side, Turkish Cypriots have been watching with fascination—and consternation—as the economy of their long prosperous southern neighbors implodes.
While a nostalgic Diaspora is watching popular Greek shows, old reruns and classic Greek movies, the TV map in Greece has been changed radically by the introduction of Turkish soaps. In separate articles over the span of two weeks, two Greek professors analyzed the Turkish soap phenomenon, from different standpoints.
It was May 8, 2012, two days after the first Greek election, with political fists flying and spring uncertainty hanging in the air thicker than the darkest ethylene Athenian winter smog. In a newspaper interview, Dimitris Stratoulis, hardline leftist SYRIZA MP described how Greece will nullify the Memorandums of Understanding between Greece and the Troika yet still avoid plunging Greece into a destructive economic free-fall.
The crowded streets of heaven made room for one more angel as Andy Athens passed away last Thursday morning.
