Newly appointed Deputy Foreign Minister for Overseas Greeks Antonis Diamataris said he would do whatever possible to further strengthen relations between Greece and expatriate Greeks, whom he served as an owner and publisher of the National Herald newspaper in the United States.
In the handover from former Minister Terens Quick, Diamataris said, “I served the Greeks of America for 40 full years from the position of publisher and manager of the National Herald, a daily paper founded in 1915,” and noted he had focused on conveying information to Greeks abroad so they could retain their national identity.
Mr. Diamataris, Publisher-Editor of the National Herald since 1979, is from the village of Thanos on Lemnos and lived with his family in New York.
Reviewing his tenure, Quick said that in 2 years and 8 months he tried to visit the Greek diaspora in the world. “There were Greek communities that saw a minister from their Greek homeland visit them for the first time, or a government representative for the first time in 48 years,” the former minister said, “especially in Sub-Saharan countries, where Greeks are very dynamic in business acumen if not in numbers, and where we are beginning to build again bilateral diplomatic and political relations.”
He also noted he never involved party politics in his visits and he presented Diamataris with the draft bill for a new Council of Greeks Abroad, which includes “two significant parameters, its self-organisation and its self-funding.”
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 2019 National Basketball Association most valuable player, sued a Pennsylvania man on Monday for allegedly selling “Greek Freak” t-shirts and other clothing without permission.
Antetokounmpo accused Jinder Bhogal, who sells clothing inspired by NBA players on his website, of trying to piggyback off his “Greek Freak” trademark, which was registered last year, and profit from the Bucks star’s success.
According to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Bhogal acted in bad faith “with the purpose of confusing and misleading consumers into believing that they are purchasing products associated with or endorsed by Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of the most successful and popular NBA players.”
Antetokounmpo also said Bhogal did not respond to his May 3 “cease and desist” letter to stop selling infringing products, including hoodies.
A call to a number listed for Bhogal in Reading, Pennsylvania seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Antetokounmpo is seeking at least $2 million of damages, including unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and an injunction against further infringements.
The lawsuit included an illustration in which Bhogal allegedly put Antetokounmpo’s face on a body with antlers, and offered Bucks fans 10% off for deciding to “get your Greek Freak tee for the next round of the playoffs!”
Bhogal’s website also offers clothing featuring depictions of former NBA MVPs Stephen Curry and James Harden. Antetokounmpo, 24, was born in Greece to Nigerian immigrants and raised there. He has played for the Bucks since 2013, and averaged 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game in the 2018-19 season. The case is Antetokounmpo v. Bhogal, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-06304.
On Tuesday the 2nd of July 2019, The Hellenic women of Sydney held a successful fundraising dinner at Beta Bar, Hellenic Club. The event aimed to raise money for the purchase of a special bus for the Hellenic Society for the Protection and Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (ELEPAP) in Chania.
The “Hellenic Women of Sydney” was founded in 2012. A group of women, of different Greek Women’s Associations who have combined together to raise funds for orphans and disabled children in Greece. Their aim is to ensure that ALL monies raised directly go towards the supplies that are needed. Their motto is “We Collect, we Buy, we Deliver” – no money is given and aligns with their belief that that those who are fortunate should help and support those in need.
According to the official tally, with over three-fourths of the ballots counted, Golden Dawn is sitting at 2.97 percent and will not elect a representative to Greek Parliament.
The demise of the neo-Nazi party follows a trend already set a few weeks ago, when it lost more than 50 percent of its electoral base during the European and local elections that took place in late May.
Turnout in the election was about 57% – one of the lowest figures in decades.
A total of six parties will enter parliament based on this result and without the presence of far-right Golden Dawn.
A breakdown of each party’s percentage of the vote and seats in parliament is as follows:
New Democracy – 39.78 pct and 158 seats
SYRIZA – 31.56 pct and 86 seats
ΚΙΝΑL – 7.97 pct and 22 seats
Communist Party of Greece (ΚΚΕ) – 5.34 pct and 15 seats
Εlliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) – 3.74 pct and 10 seats
MeRA25 – 3.47 pct and 9 seats
Strong fire-fighting forces were deployed on Sunday afternoon to put out a fire that broke out in the Agios Kyprianos area of Eastern Mani, Lakonia.
Lakonia’s deputy governor Adamantia Tzanetea advised beach-goers and the residents of one home to evacuate as a precaution as the fire approached the shoreline.
The fire has now passed from the Agios Kyprianos area and is heading toward a neighbouring settlement, burning farm and forest land.
A force of 30 fire fighters and 13 fire-engines, assisted by fire-fighting aircraft, is currently battling to get the blaze under control.
A fire also broke out in an area of forest and farm land in Stamata, Attica on Sunday but according to the fire brigade there are no houses nearby and there is little risk of the fire spreading. Twelve fire fighters, four fire engines and one helicopter were sent to put out the flames.
Just over 4 years ago, before the 5 July 2015 referendum, Alexis Tsipras stepped on to a podium in Syntagma Square in Athens. In his trademark open-necked white shirt, his sleeves rolled up, he punched the air.
I call on you to say a big ‘no’ to ultimatums, ‘no’ to blackmail,” he cried. “Turn your back on those who would terrorise you.
Thousands on the street showed their support. The referendum results reflected his lead and 61% voted “No”. Supporters of the “No” vote danced for joy in the streets of the Greek capital. Tsipras refused to join the celebrations, and suddenly took a surprising choice.
Despite the result of the referendum, the government of Tsipras reached an agreement on 13 July 2015 with the European authorities for a three-year-bailout with even harsher austerity conditions as the ones rejected by the voters. This represented a “drastic turnaround” for Prime Minister Tsipras position as he had been elected in an anti-austerity platform.
At the time, Tsipras advised parliament, they had a choice: “A deal we largely disagree with , or a chaotic default’.
Perhaps Tsipras chose what he thought was the better of the two options, but many believe this was his first betrayal to the people of Greece, and the beginning of his end. Tomorrow will tell.
Days before the Logies, the humble, funny, intelligent, and a lover of the garden, Costa Georgiadis, talked to The Greek Herald about simple things to do to engage the kids with the outdoors, what makes him proud to be a Greek Australian, and what he will do with his Logies.
Congratulations!!
Thanks, it’s a wonderful awesome opportunity to put gardening really in the headlights of a lot more people, we know that as Greeks, the whole κήπο is a valuable and important part of growing up and our family world. Being able to put the κήπο into the spot light of the nation is a wonderful progression. Gardening Australia has been doing it along time, and it’s great that we are being recognised in the same space as drama categories and TV in general.
What will you do with your Logie?
Send it around the country to community centers, so people can touch it and feel it. It aligns with his passion of travelling and gardening. After 12 months time, it may not be in perfect condition but it would have had a great journey and well lived.
What advice do you give families to grow a garden, particularly to someone like me with young kids who doesn’t know the first thing about gardening?
Just because gardening has been in families, doesn’t mean the thread will stay, it can skip generations if someone is in a different situation, or if they are living in a space with no garden, or are busy.
First thing is to connect with people who are gardening as a way of starting to build traction and an outlet to see more things and mimic what others are doing. Community gardens, local garden centers and council initiatives and workshops.
A great way to turn up and do a little home work, and walk down the street. Your mentor could be 1 or 2 doors from where you live, the only difference being they may have a garden and you don’t. You may know someone or family who has a garden, and ask to bring the kids over and extend the garden bed, or help them plant part of the garden.
Anything where you engage the kids is a priceless opportunity to not only build and understand but to deflect any feelings of inexperience because it’s not about being inexperienced, it’s about being active.
Just get out and get your hands dirty! Whether you get a massive harvest or not, the experience and the fun is in the action of growing a garden. Particularly as a family. Its to get the kids outside and teaching them to build patience, in slowly watching a snow pea get its first flower, then the first flower becomes a small snow pea, and to allow kids to eat it on the spot. It’s not about how big the harvest itself.
Where is the easiest place to bring children into gardening?
One of the most obvious places to start gardening is in the kitchen, with your food scraps and starting a worm farm or compost bin. There you grow soil, and if you grow soil, you understand the value in growing good plants.
You then start a process to benchmark the year through the seasons, not through the work week cycle or monthly cycle but rather the seasons, where you say, ‘right, now is the time for this to plant, or now, these are in harvest and look at the abundance. What do we do with all this harvest? We need to preserve it through jelly or pickle or juice or store them.
Call on γιαγιά, παππού or your θεία who preserve specialists, you can then turn it into the next step and you store this food into the jars, and memories . You are not only storing food, but rather you store patience, effort and reward is one of those things that changes the paradigm of likes and unlike of this world.. And every time you open the jar, you are opening the memories, and storing these things for kids.
What makes you proud to be Greek Australian?
I’ve got heritage in my blood and bones that keeps me connected to where my grandparents and great grandparents came from, and what I’m proud of is that it taught me the importance of communication, and when you understand another language you can communicate, and when you can communicate you can understand the culture and the basis behind behind the culture is how people eat, share and connect .
I grew up in a world where food was highly valued, not highly priced. So the value about food was not about the price, but the role of the food in the day to day, and what you were eating was one of the most important aspects of the day.
When you unpack that you realise that it is about health, and the importance of knowing your food and knowing where it’s come from because as “horiates”, they grew their own food, and they trusted themselves, not in a big multinational system that couldn’t deliver. Its about the absolute consciousness of food that brings everyone in from kids to γιαγιά and παππού.
What inspired you to turn your love and leisure for gardening into a TV show?
I suppose when you grow up around something, you don’t have to think about it. It just is. And when the opportunity knows its door and someone says to do a show it quickly became clear that I was suddenly at the doorstep of bringing together the 3 things that I love which is plants, people and travel. They went to gether like a lab experiment that exploded and the energy exchange took off like I rocket, and and I’m enjoying what the next day brings, because the best part of being connected to nature and the thing I love most is getting a more and more understanding as how natures systems operate without too much of our left brain, but there is another side of it all.
There is no website or phone number that will bring you to nature. You have to make certain actions to create a habitat and environment, and you need to build it. Its not about money, power and prestige. It’s about patience and persistence.
The more you get into nature you realise there are the parts, and then the sum of the parts and an operating system that takes it to another level.
Costa, from all of us at The Greek Herald, Congratulations!
Fraport Greece will invest 25 million euros to build a new airport on Mykonos, based on the traditional architecture and character of the Cyclades islands.
Presenting its plans, Fraport Greece said the new airport will serve two million passengers in 2026, from around 1.3 million currently, and noted that the new airport will be completed in 2021.
It will cover an area of 12,000 square metres, from 10,000 square metres currently, with 16 check-in desks and seven boarding gates. The new airport will have new commercial areas (700 square metres) and a restaurant area (1,000 square metres), new infrastructure and car parking.
A Greek Cypriot army captain was sentenced to seven life imprisonment terms on Monday after pleading guilty to killing five women and two children in a three-year murder spree in which he preyed on his victims online.
The case, involving the worst peace-time atrocities against women in Cyprus in memory, has triggered outrage and horror on an island where serious crime is relatively rare, and forced the resignation of the justice minister and sacking of the police chief.
Nicos Metaxas, 35, pleaded guilty to 12 charges relating to the premeditated murder and abduction of the seven – who came from the Philippines, Romania and Nepal – between September 2016 and July 2018. The two children, aged six and eight, were daughters of two of the women.
The sentence passed down by the Assizes (Criminal) Court is the toughest ever imposed by the Cypriot justice system.
Metaxas was taken under heavy security on Monday to a courthouse in the capital Nicosia wearing a bullet-proof vest, and appeared without a lawyer. He broke down in tears as police read the indictment against him. “I have committed abhorrent crimes,” he said, expressing condolences to the families of the victims.
Police say the accused, a divorced father of two, met the women online. The victims were mostly employed as housekeepers on the island and disappeared between September 2016 and August 2018.
The police chief was sacked and the justice minister resigned following accounts of bungled investigations by police who did not take the disappearances seriously because the women were foreign.
The first victim was found dead by tourists taking pictures at a mining shaft in late April, unravelling the macabre killing spree. The last victim discovered, the six-year-old child, was found in a lake on July 12.
Cypriot tennis champion Marcos Baghdatis announced that Wimbledon will be his last tournament as a professional.
The 34-year-old, has enjoyed a 15-year career, reaching the Australian Open final in 2006 and the semi-finals at Wimbledon later that year, which saw him rise to a career-high number eight in the world rankings.
The Limassolian will hang up his racket after amassing nearly $9 million in prize money.
Between 2006 and 2010, the Cypriot won four ATP singles titles in Beijing, Zagreb, Stockholm and Sydney.
In a statement he said:
“I wanted to take the time to write to you all and let you know that this upcoming Wimbledon will be my last tournament as a tennis professional.”
“I am extremely grateful to the AELTC for granting me a Main Draw Wild-Card at the All England Club, and giving me a chance to say goodbye to the sport that I love so much and has been such a big part of my life for the last 30+ years.”
“This decision was not an easy one. It has proven tough for me, especially physically, to come back to where I feel like I belong.”
“Even though my mind wants to do it, the limits of my body have prevented me to maintain and play at a consistent high level as I expect from myself. Especially the last two years have been very difficult for me with recurring injuries and pain.”
“Besides that, I have a beautiful wife, two young daughters, and a third child on the way and I could not be more excited to spend more time with all of them at home.”
“Although I am sad to say goodbye to the sport as an active player, I am very excited for the next chapter of my life – I am going to be staying heavily involved in tennis in a number of capacities, so you will continue to see me on the tour.”
“Lastly, there are so many people to thank who have been a part of this incredible journey with me, starting with my family first and for all. To all the people that have helped me become the person and tennis player I am today, I say thank you, especially to my Mum and Dad who supported me since the age of 3 to play tennis.”
“Thank you for always believing in me and pushing me to become better. My team, my close friends, but especially the fans around the world. You made me feel welcome in each and every city and country I have ever been to, and your love, support, and energy is something I will truly miss.”
“Thank you for this amazing run, I can’t wait to give it my all one last time in London! All the best, Marcos”
