Bulletin No. 108
THE HELLENIC LINK, Inc.
Member Update- BULLETIN
Editorial Committee: Ahilleas Adamantiades, Alex Economides, Dean C. Lomis, Katherine Efthymiatou-Stabile, Contributing Editor: Evangelos Calamitsis, Acting Editor: Costas Efthymiou
No. 108, April – May, 2013
Focus: The Greek/Cypriot Economic Crises
Following the presentation “Is there Hope for a Recovery of the Greek Economy?” by Dr. Evangelos A.
Calamitsis (Bulletin #106, February 2013), we received an extensive list of links referring to various aspects of the economic recession from Dr. Nicholas Economides, Professor at the Stern School of Business, New York University and Visiting Professor at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. In the links, Prof. Economides offers enlightening comments on specific problems associated with the recession. His commentaries have appeared in a wide array of public and social media.
We take the liberty to reprint them in this Bulletin in order to update our readers. At the same time, we thank Prof. Economides for his care to keep the community, including our Hellenic Link “family”, informed about the state of the economy, a topic of universal concern nowadays. We warmly welcome this opportunity to include in the columns of this Bulletin presentation and discussion of vital economic issues by experts, afforded by the written contributions of Drs. Calamitsis and Economides. This editorial innovation, if continued, we believe would offer much needed enlightenment and render a great service to the Omogeneia as well as to our members and readers. Indeed, it would be highly desirable, if it were to be imitated by experts in other disciplines and for issues of high interest and concern to the Greek American public. We do hope that the idea will motivate our colleagues in additional fields of endeavor to respond positively by submitting articles of such interest for publication to our readership.
The links on the issues of the economy follow, as provided by Prof. Economides:
“I attach links of recent appearances on the EU crisis:
· Presentation on the Greek crisis for non-economists, March 15, 2013
· FMVoice.gr, Athens, Greek Crisis, April 8, 2013
· BBC World News TV, Cyprus banking crisis, March 23, 2013
· SBC TV, Athens, Cyprus and EU crisis, March 22, 2013
· Voice of America, Cyprus banking crisis after parliament rejects EU plan, March 19, 2013
· Voice of America, Cyprus banking crisis (audio), March 19, 2013
· Bloomberg News TV, Will Cyprus have to leave the euro, March 19, 2013
· Bloomberg News TV, Bank run in Europe a possibility, March 18, 2013
· BBC World News TV, Cyprus Crisis, March 18, 2013
· BBC World News TV, Cyprus banking crisis, March 16, 2013
· BBC World News TV, EU bankers’ bonus limits, February 28, 2013
· Salon, Greece puts itself up for sale, January 19, 2013
· Voice of America, Reforms in Greece, January 17, 2013
· Kathimerini, The US Fiscal Cliff, January 5, 2013 (in Greek)
· Kathimerini, The US Fiscal Cliff, January 5, 2013 (in English)
Also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/Nick.Economidesattach links of recent appearances on the EU crisis:
I attach links of recent appearances on the EU crisis and on the Internet sales tax:
· TheFresh Outlook, Internet Sales Tax, May 11, 2013
· Voice of America, Structural changes in Greek economy, April 30, 2013
· American Hellenic Professional Society, Sacramento, Greek and EU crisis, April 26, 2013
Also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/Nick.Economides .
I attach a link of a recent appearance on “Greek recovery”:
· Central Chinese TV (CCTV), Greek recovery, May 17, 2013
available also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/Nick.Economides
Prof. Economides can be reached at the following addresses: Prof. Nicholas Economides
Stern School of Business, NYU,44 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012-1126
tel. (917) 776-8777 , (212) 998-0864
mailto:ECONOMIDES@stern.nyu.edu
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/cvnoref.html
and Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Executive Director, NET Institute
http://www.NETinst.org/
http://www.facebook.com/NET.inst
Selected works and sign up for notification of my new work:
http://works.bepress.com/economides “
CJE
An Outstanding Celebration of March 25, 1821 in New York City
The Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce and the Holy Trinity Cathedral , under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece presented a panel discussion of the topic “ Up from the Ashes – March 25, 1821: We All Are Greeks” in commemoration of the start of the revolutionary struggle. The event was held at the Holy Trinity Center, exactly on the anniversary date, March 25, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
.There were three Panelists on the Program who respectively covered a particular aspect of the Greek War of Independence:
· Dr. Christos P. Ioannides, Director of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Queens College, CUNY, who spoke on “ Regas Feraios – The Apostle of Revolution”,
· Dr. Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou, St. John’s University & CUNY, who presented
“The Impact in the United States of the Greek War of Independence 1821-1829”, and
· Robert G. Shaw, Past President – Chairman, Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, who described in picturesque detail “ The Battle of Navarino: A Precedent for Inernational Peacekeeping”
The Panel Discussion was introduced and moderated by Louis Katsos, President, Jekmar Associates and Adjunct Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union.
All presentations captivated the overflowing audience with their freshness and original style. They were well documented with historical data, some of which were presented for the first time. They also covered the individual topics succinctly and comprehensively; they drew very laudatory comments by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, who addressed the celebrants at the conclusion of the Program.
Members of the Hellenic Link who attended this extraordinary event were happy to recognize two of the participating panelists, Drs. Ioannides and Hatzidimitriou, as esteemed Members of the Advisory Council on Hellenic Education of our Association.
We have been informed that the texts of the presentations will be published by the Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.
Advisory Council Adds New Members
We are pleased to inform the Hellenic Link members that two scholars of the American academic community have joined the Advisory Council on Hellenic Education of our Association. Professor Dan Georgakas, Director of the Greek American Studies Project, Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Queens College, City University of New York and noted author and film critic has accepted the invitation of the Council to join it as a Member-at-large. Dr. John P. Angelidis. Professor and Chairman, Department of Management, St. John’s University, N.Y., was similarly appointed to the Council as regular Member.
Along with our warm welcome extended to these esteemed colleagues, we congratulate them for their willingness to contribute to the fulfillment of the Mission of the Council and we express the wish that their tenure may be long, meaningful and eminently productive.
Fordham University Projects Theme of Hellenic-Christian Culture
We gladly bring to the attention of interested readers the following Announcement – Invitation we received from the University:
The Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham Universityinvites you toThe Third Solon and Marianna PattersonTriennial Conference on Orthodox/Catholic RelationsCHRISTIANITY, DEMOCRACY,AND THE SHADOW OF CONSTANTINE Tuesday, June 11–Thursday, June 13, 2013ROSE HILL CAMPUS | FORDHAM UNIVERSITY | BRONX, N.Y.Perhaps the two most enduring legacies of Hellenism are Platonic philosophy and democracy. Yet the two are seemingly antithetical—Plato denied that democracy could lead a population to truth and, consequently, rejected the notion that democracy was good for the state.This conference explores the modern relationship between Christianity—with its Platonic roots—and democracy, and the extent to which it was shaped by the Constantinian revolution.SPEAKERS Timothy Barnes, Edinburgh School of Divinity Luke Bretherton, Duke University Michael Budde, DePaul University *Father Emmanuel Clapsis, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology Mary Doak, University of San Diego Eric Gregory, Princeton University Perry Hamalis, North Central College Pascal Hämmerli, University of Fribourg*Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University*Father J. Bryan Hehir, Harvard University Peter Kaufman, University of Richmond Holger Klein, Columbia University James Skedros, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of TheologyKristina Stoeckl, University of Vienna Nathaniel Wood, Fordham University * Keynote speakers The conference is funded by grants received from the Patterson Triennial Conference Endowed Fund, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair in Orthodox Theology and Culture at Fordham University, the Kallinikeion Foundation, The Virginia H. Farah Foundation, and members of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center Advisory Council.The conference is co-sponsored by the Michael G. and Anastasia Cantonis Chair in Byzantine Studies and Early Christianity and the Center for Hellenic Studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.The Orthodox Christian Studies Center provides a space within a university setting for engagement with Orthodox Christianity by undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, alumni, and members of the community. Aristotle Papanikolaou and George Demacopoulos are co-founding directors.www.fordham.edu/orthodoxy
The Church: Vigilant over the Environment
Climate Change and the Duty of Orthodox Christians
(The contents of this article were presented, in a modified form, at the Prayer Breakfast organized by the National Religious Coalition for Creation Care (NRCCC) on Monday, 20-May-2013 in Washington, D.C. The presentation was given by the Rev. Dimitrios Antokas, Presiding Priest of the St. George Parish of Bethesda, Maryland. It was co-authored by the Rev. Dimitrios Antokas and Dr. Achilles G. Adamantiades).
Religious organizations are increasingly feeling the obligation to speak up on behalf of the environment. This stems from the moral imperative to contribute actively to preserving the earth’s integrity and to exhort their faithful people to become engaged in this endeavor. Religious leaders are taking the initiative to not only speak to their flocks but also to approach political figures who make important policy decisions. It is to this effect that a national prayer breakfast, in a practice established some time ago in Washington, D.C., was organized by the National Religious Coalition for Creation Care (NRCCC) on Monday, 20-May-2013.
It is not a secret, and is becoming increasingly clear, that human activity of various kinds is causing harm to the environment in more ways than we can count. For example, the release of noxious substances on land, pollution of lakes, rivers and oceans, and emissions into the atmosphere affect our health and endanger our future. At the same time, they place at risk biological species, for example, species of fish on which much of mankind depends for its food. Deforestation, expansion of human settlements, agricultural run-off and other sources of pollution cause significant loss of biodiversity by threatening with extinction a large number of animals and plants, whose loss will not only be a loss of beauty but also a loss of substantial sources of food for many populations. As an example, one should consider what is happening to the Chesapeake Bay, so near the nation’s capital, which is dying from pollution and overfishing. Even excessive noise affects negatively a person’s physical and mental health. The emission of greenhouse gases into the air in now the most critical concern as it is projected to cause, as it has already done, global warming. This issue has come into sharp focus on Thursday, May 9, 2013. On that day, at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main actor among greenhouse gases, recorded levels above 400 parts per million, a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years. It is the overwhelming consensus of scientists, bolstered by elaborate measurements, that this increase is due to human activity that started with the industrial revolution of the 19th century. Again, the great majority of analyses of hundreds of independent scientists all over the world have concluded that the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases is the cause of climate warming. Climate forecasts indicate that this warming is expected to accelerate in the future unless drastic measures are taken to stabilize and decrease carbon emissions.
Scientists have also examined thoroughly what the dramatic changes of climate change might bring. Without going into details, which do not fit in a short article, we need to note that they could be very significant and could affect agriculture, human health, population movements, weather conditions, biodiversity, polar ice melting, and rising sea level. We can see some of these changes ourselves in daily newscasts, especially as they refer to extreme weather conditions that have become far more frequent and more severe in recent years (the year 2012 was proclaimed, based on NASA observations, the hottest year in the contiguous Unites States since records have been taken). The recently appointed President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a medical doctor by profession and ex-President of Dartmouth College, has even stated that “the future earth would be unrecognizable (owing to climate change).” It is important for us to take note that the predicted impacts of climate change would affect disproportionately poor and disadvantaged populations of the world, namely those who would be ill prepared to cope – the moral imperatives of this prediction are clear, especially for religious leaders and policy makers.
To be sure, the temperature predictions of climate change effects are subject to uncertainties. We need to note, however, that actual measurements to date have exceeded predictions. These predictions have tended to under-predict temperature rises and effects. But even if we accept that the uncertainties are large, it should be clear that policy makers have an obligation to consider worst-case scenarios and take appropriate measures to prevent it or mitigate its effects; we do the same when we purchase insurance for auto accidents, floods, and fires. More so, when we admit that the root cause of possible future calamities is human activity. With due respect to the skeptics and critics, we can ill-afford to ignore the warnings of science coming from our best institutions like MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and the University of Colorado, just to mention a few, and from giant and credible scientific U.S. agencies such as NOAA and NASA.
In confronting these issues, the Orthodox Church has long ago adopted the biblical concept of “stewardship,” a principle going back thousands of years. The fundamental principle lies in Moses’ assertion that “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness” (Exodus 32:6), repeated by St. Paul in 1 Co 10:26. The earth, with all its marvels, land, water, air, plants, and all kind of animal, is not our possession for us to use (and abuse); rather, we are its “custodians” or “stewards,” charged by the Creator with its care and preservation so that we can bequeath it wholesome to future generations. The Church believes that the core of our malaise, environmental and otherwise, is greed, corruption, and egocentrism, spiritual ills that lead to overconsumption; therefore, their therapy is also spiritual.
We, in America, are, unfortunately, not in a good position to preach to others on this score. In fact, the problem of the world is that people of every nation want to become “American,” namely, to consume more and even to reach the American level of consumption. How are the developing countries of this world to accept our advice and meet our requests when our per-capita greenhouse emissions are about three times those of China and ten times those of India? It is this huge disparity in incomes, material consumption, and emissions that prevents the world from reaching binding agreements on limiting emissions. As the New Testament says in the case of the sinful woman, “he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7). We will continue to be in poor standing among nations until we make progress in mending our ways in our own home and in showing that we take seriously the command of the Lord to be good stewards.
We take great pride and satisfaction that our spiritual father, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, has taken a leading role in the preservation of the environment and, more specifically, in mitigating climate change – for this reason, he has been accorded the surname “the Green Patriarch.” He, with his brother hierarchs of the Patriarchate and in collaboration with other spiritual leaders of the world, has made many pronouncements and organized eight international conferences (in the period 1995-2009) to highlight the plight of the earth and urge persons of all faiths to take an active part in its preservation. This can be accomplished, first, by changing one’s own life style and, second, by pressing public policy-makers to take appropriate measures. His actions and pronouncements are too many to even outline in this brief article but can be read in papers produced by the Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration of Santa Rosa, CA, the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops of America (SCOBA) and the Archdiocesan Advisory Committee on Science and Technology of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
The latter takes pride in the creation, in 2000, of the Archdiocesan Advisory Committee on Science and Technology (AACST), of which the Subcommittee on Energy, Environment and Economics focuses (among other topics) on Climate Change. The Committee has prepared several papers on environmental issues that are posted on the Archdiocese web site. The Committee has organized seminars, panel discussions, and lectures in many parishes of the Archdiocese and in almost all biennial Clergy-Laity Congresses since 2000, including the last one in Phoenix Arizona, in July of 2012. Some of the Committee members are honored to be advising the Ecumenical Patriarch in his environmental campaigns. Following the Patriarch’s urging and advice, parishes of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America are organizing committees to “Green the Parish” using also the excellent and very helpful volume produced by Mr. Fred Krueger.
As His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch has affirmed, “offending nature and despoiling the environment is tantamount to sin,” and we also know that “the wages of sin is death” as the Apostle Paul writes to the Romans (Rm. 6:23). All of us who are engaged in this struggle need to give the good example by practicing repentance which, in the Greek terminology (metanoia), means a change of mind, a new way of thinking – and acting. We need to convey the message to everyone that our consumption-driven economic model is unsustainable – this is now clear beyond doubt. Only if we adopt a truly Christian way of life and resolve to practice ascesis, living with less, practice a life of simplicity and frugality, and renounce greed which, according to St. Paul, is tantamount to idolatry (Col 3:5) can we approach others to ask them to change their lives as well, and thus save the world and the Earth. In the words of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, “the crisis lies not in the environment but in the human heart” – this is the point on which the coalition of religious organizations should focus its attention. It is a high order but it is imperative and can be done, with the Grace of God.
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On-Line Course in Modern Greek Offered Free
In cooperation with the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP)/
“Athena” Research Center, the Hellenic Link, Inc. is offering as a service to the community a series of Greek language lessons on its Web site: http://www.helleniclink.org ( on a 24/7 schedule)
On the home page of the site, upper left corner, click on “Learning Greek,”
to be introduced to a series of fifteen lessons of the filoglossia+ courseware.
Please inform anyone who would be interested in learning Greek of this service.
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