GreekNewsBlog: johnmetaxas.com

ARCHIVES
Vol. 1, #14
May 15-12, 2006

Friday, May 19, 2006

Changes to Greek News Blog:

Google ads being removed
Letters to the Editor page added
Volunteers requested to help screen ads

Those of you who have been reading our Greek News Blog in the seven weeks that we have been publishing on a daily basis may have noticed changes to the look of our pages throughout that period as we have attempted to find the best format for this new kind of publication. Today we are making another change, beginning the process of removing the Google ads from our main pages. Google ads from our archive pages will be removed in the coming days as well, as quickly as can be accomplished.

This is a step we have been debating internally over the past weeks because of the nature of some of the ads, which we feel are inappropriate for our site. Specifically, we have attempted to prevent Google from electronically serving ads to our site that advertise the sale of illegally-seized properties in the Turkish-occupied region of Cyprus. But those ads keep popping up, much to our chagrin.

Google's ad system is a brilliant innovation. It electronically reads the words on a website's pages and automatically serves ads to the site that its computer program has determined are related to the content on the site. But one problem with computers is that they cannot think independently and do not have judgment. Every time we write an article that mentions the occupation of the northern third of Cyprus by Turkey, Google's system reads those words and ends up serving the offensive ads.

Google's solution to this is an automated program known as a "competitive ad filter." We signed up for this program some time ago, but have found it ineffective for our purposes. The competitive ad filter requires that a site's webmaster sign on to scan the ads on a site at any given moment. The program identifies the url's or domain names behind the ads and allows the webmaster to exclude those ads in the future.

Every morning in recent weeks we have diligently scanned our site and blocked ads from all sorts of advertisers, from the real estate broker Re-Max, which sells properties in the north of Cyprus, to a law firm in Kyrenia that does real estate closings there. To our knowledge these particular ads have been successfully blocked. In all, we have blocked several dozen offensive ads, but each time we block one, another seems to pop up to take its place.

One added difficulty is that we see only the ads that are served to our geographic region. As we understand it, people in other parts of the world see totally different ads that are not visible to us. Also, the ads keep cycling. If we screen ads at any given moment, different ads can appear within seconds. Consequently these ads are a moving target. So we feel it is best, for now at least, to remove the Google ads from our site.

Still, we would like help from our readers in identifying these ads. We plan on keeping one page with ads active, but in a hidden location not accessible to the public. We will continue to apply the ad filter to that page on a daily basis to see if we can successfully eliminate the offensive ads. We would like any readers from around the world who would like to help in this effort to contact us. We will send you the private url and ask that you inform us what ads are served to the page in your region. Anyone who is interested in this venture may contact us at mail@johnmetaxas.com .

More importantly, we would like to know your opinion of whether we are doing the right thing in removing the Google ads. Today we are inaugurating a Letters to the Editor page to give you a voice on the issues we cover and the progress of our blog. Just click on the "CONTACT/LETTERS" link above and let us know what you think.

Thank you for your support and loyalty over the past weeks. -- John Metaxas

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Commentary:
Controversy over Muslim Candidate

Last week we told you about PASOK's decision to nominate a member of Greece's Muslim minority, 28-year-old lawyer karahasan

Gulbeyaz Karahasan, as a candidate in October's local elections in the the Drama-Xanthi-Kavala supraprefecture. We concluded with the comment, "Lets see how this plays with Greek voters." Well, the voters have not yet had their say, but comments by politicians and churchmen have caused some controversy in Greece. (Prefect hopeful sparks wrangle)

Kathimerini reports Macedonia-Thrace Minister Giorgos Kalatzis "seemed to question Karahasan’s loyalty to Greece ... (when) he queried whether Karahasan would stand next to him during the March 25 celebrations which mark the beginning of the Greek war of independence from Turkish rule." And "then former PASOK minister Stelios Papathemelis, now an independent deputy, expressed the view that the candidate was being primed by the Turkish Consulate in Xanthi." Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki also criticized the PASOK choice, saying, “Inside me, I cannot accept this.”

While anyone who knows Greek history might understand where these comments are coming from, they are wrong.

When Greece and Turkey exchanged populations in 1923, two communities were exempted -- the Greek Orthodox Christian community of Constantinople and the Muslim community of Western Thrace. Both were given special rights by international treaty, and as citizens of their respective countries, were supposed to be protected.

While the Muslim community in Greece still exists and thrives, the Greek Orthodox community of Constantinople, now Istanbul, is nearly extinct, by some measures dwindling from its original 200,000 to fewer than 2,000 mostly elderly people today, including the members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Professor Speros Vryonis has catalogued the destruction of that community in Istanbul in his landmark study of the 1955 pogrom which spurred an exodus of Greek Christians. ("The Mechanism of Catastrophe") Today that community still faces extreme discrimination and expropriation of property and lives in the knowledge that it is not wanted in Turkey.

While Greeks can rightfully be resentful that Turkey has overseen the decimation of its Christian community, they should not take out that resentment on Ms. Karahasan. Rather they should celebrate her candidacy. The fact that a Muslim woman can grow up in Greece and stand for election to public office is a milestone in Greek history and evidence of the maturity of its democratic system.

Ms. Karahasan's candidacy should be celebrated. With her nomination, Greece can be said to be engaged in putting its past resentments behind it and moving towards a better future. The same must be demanded of Turkey if it is to take a place in the Western world as part of the European Union. -- John Metaxas

Related links:
New Statements on Karahasan's Nomination
Surprise move blurs PASOK image more

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Odysseus Unbound

I had the great pleasure of meeting yesterday a British-born author who is engaged in a remarkable quest to discover the true birthplace of the ancient Bittlestone

Greek king Odysseus. Robert Bittlestone grew up studying the classics but was baffled by Homer's description of ancient Ithaca in a manner that was inconsistent with the modern geography of the island. Bittlestone eventually came to the conclusion that Homer did not get his facts wrong but rather that the geography has changed due to a shifting of tectonic plates in the geologically active zone beneath the Ionian islands. According to the thesis Bittlestone has proposed in his book "Odysseus Unbound," the character Odysseus actually hailed from the western peninsula of the neighboring island of Cephalonia (on which my father was born, by the way). In fact in the Iliad, Homer writes:

Odysseus led the gallant Cephallenians,
From Ithaca and leaf-quivering Neriton,

Iliad 2.631-2

CLICK HERE to listen to my interview with Bittlestone (7:15)

Learn more at: http://www.odysseus-unbound.org/index.html

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Guest Commentary:
Safire's Tautophrases, Tropism in the White House & the Greek Chorus

by Dr. Christos P. Ioannides
Director of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, CUNY

In last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine (May 7, 2006), William Safire had another piece in the weekly series of his articles “On Language.” It was titled, 'Tautophrases.' Safire goes on to explain the meaning of the word as follows: ..Tautophrase, a coinage bottomed on tautology, from the Greek “redundant.” The veteran columnist has been using his “On Language” to “educate” public officials, politicians, pundits, authors, fellow journalists, and the American public at large on the proper use of language in the public discourse. He has been doing so by pointing out the misuse and abuse of the English language. CLICK TO CONTINUE ARTICLE.

Monday, May 16, 2006

Church of Greece slams 'Da Vinci Code'
Listen to U.S. views from Fr. Marangos and Levine

Father Marangos

Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, director of communications at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, says Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown misleads the reader to believe the events portrayed in the book are based on historical facts. He says Orthodox Christians are mature enough to decide for themselves where to spend their money. He urges parishioners to go back to their churches and reexamine Christian teachings. He says an honest debate is a good thing for the church. CLICK HERE TO listen!

Hollywood media expert and author, Michael Levine, says the controversy over the movie will help it at the box office. He says opponents of The Da Vinci Code, by criticizing the movie, will give it billions of dollars of free publicity and will help to make it a big hit. CLICK HERE TO listen!

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece last week joined other ecclesiastical bodies in criticizing the upcoming movie, "The Da Vinci Code," which will be released this week. The church strongly took issue with author Dan Brown's premise that Jesus Christ was not crucified, but rather lived to marry Mary Magdalene and raise children, and with his portrayal of Christ as an imperfect man with weaknesses. The church labeled the film "completely untrue" and said it "insults" religious sensibilities. However, the ANA reports, "the Holy Synod underlined that it will not issue any recommendation on whether the faithful should or should not see the movie or read the novel."

In some ways the controversy echoes the one over Martin Scorsese's 1988 film "The Last Temptation of Christ," based on the 1955 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, jurisdictionally separate from Greece's Autocephalous church, likewise seems eager use the release of "The Da Vinci Code" to launch into a didactic response, with both articles and upcoming podcasts by Archbishop Demetrius to be published on its website. One article states: "Although the novel is sold as fiction, many readers consider it truth, and the high profile of the movie will further confuse the public." ("An Orthodox Response to the Da VInci Code")

The movie, "The Da Vinci Code," stars Tom Hanks who is married to Rita Wilson, herself a half-Greek who produced the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." (My Big Fat Greek Column)

Related links:

Kathimerini: Church reply to ‘Da Vinci’

Celebrate the Da Vinci Code

Gnosticism comes to forefront in debate over film

Ioannides: Greek Orthodox and Western Views of the Passion and Easter