GreekNewsBlog: johnmetaxas.com

ARCHIVES
Vol. 1, #11
April 24-28, 2006

FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2006

ANGELIDES COUNTING ON GREEK AMERICANS IN GOVERNOR'S RACE

With a population of 36 million, the state of California is bigger than most countries, and its political campaigns are waged on a grand scale. As delegates gather today in the state capital, Sacramento, for the state's annual Democratic Party Convention, the Governor's race is turning into a contest about money. And State Treasurer Phil Angelides, trailing both his Democratic opponent Steve Westly and incumbent Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in personal wealth, is turning to the Greek-American community to help make up the difference in his campaign's funding.

Early on, Angelides, had garnered dozens of endorsements and was considered the favorite to win the Democratic nomination to take on Schwarzenegger in the general election. But Westly, the state Controller, jumped into the Democratic primary, pumping more than $23 million dollars of his $200+ million dollar fortune into the campaign.

Even though Westly has been accused of trying to buy the election, his money apparently has made a difference. Westly has taken the lead in the most recent polls. Angelides is wealthy in his own right, but his resources are dwarfed by Westly and by Schwarzenegger, who has raised about $100 million dollars from special interests, even though he once boasted he was rich enough fund his own campaign.

With the pundits now asking whether Angelides can turn things around, he is counting on Greek-American support. Sacramento real estate developer (and former Angelides mentor and partner) Angelo Tsakopoulos has pumped $3.75 million dollars into an independent TV ad for Angelides. Tsakopoulos's daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis has spent an additional $1.25 million, making the total of $5 million, the largest contribution ever to an independent committee plugging a candidate.

Dukakis: "Contribute today and make
your donation count DOUBLE!"

Angelides is also counting on help from former Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, who has penned an email solicitation promising that a group of contributors will match donations to Angelides over a 48-hour period on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

With five weeks until the primary, Angelides needs a good showing at the convention and a reversal of Westly's momentum in the weeks ahead if he is to take the nomination.

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2006

CONDOLEEZA RICE VISITS ATHENS
Urges Cyprus to smooth Turkey's entry into EU
Refuses to press Turkey on allowing Cypriot flights

In reading the ANA account of Secretary of State Rice's visit to Athens this week, one is struck by the contrast between two of her comments in particular.

The ANA reported:

"Asked whether Ankara can continue its European course without opening its ports and airports to the Republic of Cyprus, Rice said that 'I would like to examine both here and in Turkey whether indeed there is a basis, and if yes what it is composed of, for a new effort to settle the issue of Cyprus. We must indeed see whether there is a basis. I do not think that we want to enter a process again of a coordinated and intensive international effort which will be led (again) to failure.' "

In effect, Rice seemed unwilling to hold the Turks to any obligation to facilitate trade with an EU member -- a requirement of Turkey's European course. In contrast, she seemed eager to impose requirements on Cyprus that in effect would curtail Cyprus's rights as an EU member.

The ANA reported:

"Rice also expressed the hope that the Greek Cypriots "who are, in any case, full members of the EU will use this participation of theirs to help in smoothing the accession of Turkey and not to block it. And this is so because a basic concern, when Cyprus was accepted at the European Union as a divided island, was that it would try to use this 'platform' to make Turkish accession difficult. Cyprus had always said that this was not the policy it would follow and, therefore, it must act today in precisely this direction."

While Rice made other comments that tried to be evenhanded, the contrast between these two quotes is plain to see. It's as if Rice was saying, "Let's not pressure the Turks to open their airports to Cypriot flights, but let's expect the Cypriots to smooth the Turks' entry into the EU no matter what." If that indeed represents the essence of U.S. policy, it is a very disappointing development. -- John Metaxas

****

Greek opposition leaders picked up immediately on Rice's use of the term "northern Cyprus." The ANA reports PASOK's defense chief Christos Papoutsis said that Rice's "reference to 'northern Cyprus' is unacceptable to say the least" and noted that "unfortunately, it went without any comment and reaction by Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis who was present."

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2006

AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH SAVAS TSIVICOS, FORMER PRESIDENT, CYPRUS FEDERATION OF AMERICA

Cypriot-American leaders are hoping their meeting in Washington earlier this month with Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Freed will prove an important milestone towards solving the Cyprus problem.

Philip Christopher, the President of the International Coordinating Committee of the Cypriot Struggle (PSEKA), termed it as the "best, most substantive and most open we have ever had with American officials."

Read the account of this meeting in greeknewsonline.com

and

listen!

LISTEN TO MY INTERVIEW WITH SAVAS TSIVICOS, former President of the Cyprus Federation of America. The interview runs just under ten minutes, and the file may take more than a minute to load on your computer. If you have problems listening to this interview, please e-mail me by clicking on the "CONTACT" tab above and let me know.

Others at the meeting included: Andrew A. Athens, CEH Chairman, SAE World President and UHAC National Chairman; Andrew E. Manatos, CEH President, UHAC board member and PSEKA board member; Panicos Papanicolaou, CEH Board Member and Cyprus Federation of America Supreme President; Costas Tsentas, Cyprus Federation of America Vice President; and Mike Manatos, CEH Executive Director.

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006

AMERICAN WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION OF GREECE

One of our readers, Cathy Staroyanis, writes from Athens to tell us about the American Women's Organization of Greece. "AWOG" has existed in Greece for sixty years. It is a non-profit cultural and philanthropic organization with approximately 500 members. Eighty percent of these members hold American passports, the other twenty percent are affiliate members of all nationalities.

Cathy suggests any visitors to Greece or those moving temporarily or permanently should take a look at the group's website, www.awog.gr. The website lists the dozens of Greek philanthropic organizations that AWOG supports and provides important emergency and service links for people living in Greece.

Cathy has also passed on a review, of the book ''The Empty Cradle of Democracy" by Alexandra Halkias, which deals with the loaded issues of sexuality, abortion and Greek national identity.

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006

CHRISTOS ANESTI!

ORTHODOX EASTER IN THE MEDIA

We hope all of our readers had a happy Easter holiday. At this time of year, my thoughts often turn to the presence of Orthodox Easter in the media. This year, as is often the case, the Orthodox church celebrated Easter a week after the western churches. The reasons for the different schedule are well-known to Orthodox Christians and we have discussed them in this space. But it is obvious to anyone who grows up in the United States that Orthodox Easter does not get the same level of attention in news accounts as the celebration of Easter by the western churches.

I was fortunate to have our Easter Sunday off from work. But last Sunday, (Palm Sunday for us and Easter for the west), I had to fill in as an anchor at WCBS Newsradio for a colleague who had the holiday off. I found myself writing and reporting stories about Pope Benedict's first Easter celebration as Pope and about the homily of Cardinal Egan of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which he delivered at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. The CBS radio network ran stories about the Latin Cardinal of Jerusalem and services at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We also did a story about New York's famed Easter Parade, with the display of colorful Easter hats along Fifth Avenue.

In the midst of all this reportage about Easter, I felt it important to insert a quick two-sentence report saying that a different tradition was being also celebrated that day: for Eastern Orthodox Christians, the day was Palm Sunday, with Easter coming a week later after the Jewish Passover would pass. I felt it was important to report this story, not out of a sense of promotion for the Orthodox faith, but rather as a newsworthy event in itself. It was a story that would tell our listeners, many of whom are Roman Catholic and Jewish, something they may not have known.

Yesterday, as usual, reporting about the Orthodox faith was muted in our western media. But one fortunate aspect of the internet age is that we now have access to sources of news that did not exist years ago. I was able to make a quick search of the web and come up with this interesting A.P. report on Orthodox Easter at CNN.com. You can also click on a fascinating video of the Easter fireworks display in Chios known as the "rocket war of Vrondados."

Related link: In November I spoke at an AHI conference at Columbia University on the subject of "Engaging the American Media."

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