Program Speaker & Presentatiion

George J. Pappas

Presents

"Special Warfare Crafts"

Brother George Pappas will be presenting a video underlining many of the most significant small ships presently operating in the modern U.S,Navy. Many of the items and events that will be presented will absolutely amaze you. Mark your calendar, and do not miss, this most interesting and informative presentation. There will be an opportunity for questions and answers provided for your information.

Editorial...

By the time you read this article, you hopefully will have witnessed the excellent presentation depicting the heroic adventures of Laskarina Bouboulina at our fabulous March 25^th Celebration. The performance of "Under Her Command" featured during the recent festivities at the Del Mar Hilton Hotel on March 25, 2001 was a labor of love masterminded by Brother Michael Merica. For those of you that missed this spectacular event, Brother Michael authored, produced and directed the play, which featured many of our own Ahepa Family members. The cast worked feverishly for several months to rehearse and perfect the unique exploits of the heroine, Bouboulina and her role in the Greek revolution against the tyranny of the Ottoman Empire.

Let us also commend Mrs. Myrtali Anagnostopoulos for her outstanding direction of the Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek School students in their presentation of the Independence Day poetry and songs, inspired by the celebrated heroic period. We are very proud of the efforts put forth by so many of our Ahepa Family members!

Your efforts have also translated into very significant opportunities for Ahepa Scholarship recipients. These sums assist deserving students in accomplishing their academic goals. Since this year's application deadline is April 16, 2001, time is running out! Should you know of any interested students who wish to apply, please contact the Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, Brother George Pappas at (760) 745-9758 or TA NEA at (858) 273-2868.

As the year 2001 quickly moves forward, as do our efforts for Chapter 505's Annual Golf Tournament, currently scheduled for Monday, May 7, 2001. This will be our Chapter's 10th Tourney and our friends at the Carmel Mountain Ranch Country Club are looking forward to our attendance again this year. The Chairman of this year's event is Brother Costa Brown and he, along with his committee, are looking for sponsors (individual and commercial). More information about the tournament will be provided in the coming issues of TA NEA.

Wishing you a peaceful lenten season and upcomming Pascha, - D.A. George

Best Wishes and CRONIA POLLA to the following Brothers who are celebrating birthdays:

Minas Savvas 04/02

George Varvarousis 04/04

George Karetas 04/10

Steve Williams 04/16

Paul Anest 04/21

Johnny Generales 04/22

Pete Fellios 04/23

Ted Kyriakou 04/24

Gary Kaprielian 04/28

Jim Cappos 04/28

John Pipinos 04/29

George Dramby 04/30

Happy Anniversary!!! to the following Brothers and their lovely brides who are celebrating wedding anniversaries:

Cleo & Penelope Generales 04/12

Meeting Agenda - The following is the meeting agenda for the next Social/General Chapter Meeting, being held at SS. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church's Senior Citizen Center, Tuesday, April 3, 2001:

Program Presentation

March 25th Celebration Committee Report

Scholarship Committee Report

Old Business

New Business

Good of the Order

General Business Meetings - General Business Meetings are held every third Thursday of the month. The next meeting will be Thursday, April 19, 2001, at Sts. Constantine and Helen Senior Citizen Center at 7:00 p.m. All Officers and appointed officers are expected to attend. Any interested members may attend. Come and see your administrative board at work planning and coordinating for better functions and best events for the membership.

What You Missed! - If you didn't attend last month's meeting, you missed a spectacular presentation by our favorite Brother Marinos Garbis, with a talk concerning business negotiations in China. It proved that when negotiating with those folks it's all together different than any negotions being done in business here in the United States.

Tribute To A Brother - The Escondido Community Health Center and the California Center for the Arts, Escondido invite you all to say farewell and send "Dr. Nick" Ypantides off on his Great American Baseball Tour.

All Brothers are invited to join the fun on Tuesday, March 27th from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. at the Conference Center, California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 North Escondido Boulevard, Escondido, CA. Featuring: A Greek feast prepared by The Center's Chef Demetrio, A Roast, and a Baseball Auction. Tickets: $50 per person. Proceeds will benefit medical care and culture and arts education programs in Escondido.

For additional information and resevations call The Escondido Community Health Center, Tel: (760) 737-2030, FAX: (760) 737-2024 or The California Center for the Arts, Escondido, Tel: (760) 839-4138, FAX: (760) 739-0205.

A New Valentine Baby! - Please join me in Congratulating Sherri and Peter Mellos in the birth of their baby Daughter, Kaila Stavroula Mellos, on February 14, 2001.

Chapter Scholarship Applications - Scholarship Applications are now available. You may contact any Chapter Officer, Brothers George J. Pappas, Committee Chairman, (858) 674-6960 or gpappas@email.com, and D. A. George, Chapter Secretary, (858) 273-2868. All applications must be submitted for evaluation firmly on or before April 16, 2001.

Speedy Recovery! - Please join me in wishing Brother Marinos Drakos a speedy recovery. Brother Marinos suffered two falls this last January wlth the last causing a fractured vertebrae. He is presently in convalescence at home and mending slowly. We wish him well, and we miss him at the meetings. "Perastika Sou!"

News from Brother Nick - Brother Nick Zambus and Sister Margarita Zambus are sending their greetings and best wishes to the members of the chapter. They regret that they will be unable to join us for the March 25th celebration. They are visiting with friends in Toronto Canada, while Bro. Nick is waiting to be operated for his hernia at the Toronto Shouldice Hospital, a world renowned private hospital which among other areas, specializes in hernia surgery.

Please Notify Us - Should you know of any Brother recovering from illness or surgery, or known to be hospitalized, please notify Brother Alex L. Rigopoulos at (619) 233-7158 or (619) 469-9239.

Newsletter Entries - Please direct all newsletter announcements for "TA NEA" to the editor: Brother D. A. George, (858) 273-2868, FAX (858) 273-0416 or e-mail: dageo@att.net. All entries must be received by the 20th of each month.

More barbs about the 2004 Athens Olympics, and this time from Australia. In a round-table discussion, which also included guests from Greece, journalist Mark Corcoran who had just visited Greece commented that "The conditions, as it concerns the preparations, is chaotic, but let us not forget that chaos is a Greek word." With feeble rebuttals from the Greeks present, Mr. Corcoran added that "from here on, the road to the Olympics will be full of difficulties for Greece." A note of negativity was also inserted in the discussion when the former, resigned president of the Olympics, Stratis Stratigis, accused Yanna Angelopoulou, the current Olympics president, as one who is aiming to fulfill her own, self-centered ambitions. 'We must not use the Olympics for political reasons," said an embittered Stratigis. He also said that he had received several threatening phone calls when he was president and that he is certain that Ms. Angelopoulou must be on the 17^th November's hit list and should be taking serious precautions. TIME's recent issue, concurrently, speculates that IOC president Antonio Samaranch would like to have the 2004 Olympics in Seoul so that, by calling for a unified Korea, he can be a strong contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since he will be retiring in July, says the article, "terrorist bombs that rock the Greek capital, plus delays in the preparations, could give him an excuse" to move the Olympics from Athens to Seoul.

Have you heard the tale of the Greek phantom-fisherman-poet? If not, read on: the story begins with a party in the Greek embassy in Ottawa honoring a masterpiece of a book called "Saracen Island: The Poetry of Andreas Karavis." Though it was announced that the poet could not attend, he finally did. A rugged man who spoke island Greek with a fisherman's cap dropped by for a few minutes. Then the questions arose about the Cycladic bard's mysterious identity. Canada's Globe and Mail headlined: KARAVIS: GREEK GOD OF POETRY OR LITERARY HOAX? Finally, it was revealed that David Solway, an essayist and a sometime poet known for his pranks, had invented the Greek poet, and that the man who had posed as Karavis at the party was Solway's family dentist. Both Canadian and American literati were embarrassed and taken by surprise. The review "Books in Canada" in its October 1999 issue had lavishly praised Karavis as "Greece's Modern Homer," and it ran a rare interview with the poet, along with an encomiastic essay by the "translator" Solway. A biographical concoction of Solway, had Karavis born in Crete in 1932, a seaman who later moved to Serifos, and who sold his poems along with his fish. Fred Reed, a Hellenist and author, never suspected the false identity of Karavis but wrote to accuse him of chicanery. Karavis' poems, said Reed, were simply plagiarized pieces of Canadian expatriate writers. Solway even bamboozled the Greek poet Yorghos Chouliaras, who wrote to Solway to congratulate him for his efforts to advance Karavis' promising career as poet. A Karavis poem was even published in The Atlantic Monthly, and, according to LINGUA FRANCA, there were even plans to hold Karavis conferences at the University of Thessaloniki and the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

Over 50 Greek names can be found in a list of those who had accounts in Swiss banks and fell victims to the Nazis. The List was published on the Internet by the Union of Swiss Banks and in case anyone, Jew or Christian, who may have had such a relative, consult their web address: www.dormantaccounts.ch. Some $1.25 billion dollars are awaiting descendants who can certify relationship.

Thirty eight years after his death, Nazim Hikmet, Turkey's finest modern poet, has again become the subject of controversy in his country. Almost a half century ago, the Turkish dictatorship, after imprisoning him for several years, deprived him of his passport, accusing him and his verse of Communist sentiments. Hikmet exiled himself to Moscow where he died in 1973. Now that it has been proposed in the Turkish parliament to restore Hikmet's citizenship, the sparks over the poet's politics and poetry have been ignited again. While many parliamentarians wish to reclaim Hikmet as a Turk, there are the ubiquitous nationalist detractors. "A traitor to our nation," said Abdulhalouk Cay, "the Russians used him as a propaganda tool." Similarly, Enis Oksuz, the Minister of Transportation reminded the Turkish parliamentarians that Hikmet never asked to get back his citizenship, so why honor him with it now? We will never be sure how the poet would have received the dispute but it is instructive to recall few lines from his poem "Autobiography":

I've slept in prisons and in grand hotels

I've known hunger and hunger strikes

And there's almost no food that I haven't tasted,

At thirty they wanted to hang me

At forty to give me the Nobel Peace Prize.

Or, as a response to his parliamentarian critics, some lines from his poem on Don Quixote,

A world of silly and arrogant giants

....they'll pull you down from your horse

and beat you up,

but you, the unbeatable knight,

will continue to glow behind the iron visor.

The artist Stephanos Lazaridis was nominated in England for three different "Laurence Olivier" theatre awards. His theatrical scenic designs in opera have established Lazaridis as one of the best scenic designers in the world.

A Web page that frequently satirizes the Turkish armed forces and includes many complaints of Turkish soldiers has come to the attention of the General Command of the Turkish armed forces, according to the daily "Milyet." The address is given as www.subay.net and it is suspected that in charge of the page is an officer, according to the paper. Subay.net includes an open forum entitled "Free Firing," where members of the armed forces exchange experiences and anecdotes related to the higher echelon.

The tireless and prolific Christopher Hitchens (when will AHEPA or similar groups honor him for what he has done for Greek causes?) in a series of articles in Harper's Magazine accuses Henry Kissinger as a war criminal who should be tried by an international court, and illustrates his charges with impressive data.

The crimes of the former Secretary of State, Hitchens contends, occurred in Vietnam, Chile and Cyprus. Hitchens, who has already written a book on Cyprus, believes that Kissinger was, in fact, aware of the assassination attempt in July 1974 on the life of Archbishop Makarios and that he is responsible for stopping the British from intervening when the Turks were invading the island. Furthermore, Hitchens reveals that Nikos Sampson, the right-wing nationalist who triggered the Turkish aggression, was receiving funds from the CIA, in collusion with Savvas Konstantopoulos another right-wing editor of the now-defunct Greek daily Eleftheros Kosmos.

The European Commission on Languages has determined that 44.6% of Greeks can speak passable English. 9% can speak French, 8% German and 5% Italian. Of all Europeans, 1 out of 21 claim to speak Greek as a second or a third language.

The doctors forgot to remove a 2-inch square piece of gauze after they operated on the spine of Eleni Tzereme and the poor 54-year old woman endured horrible pain for four years and was even in danger of losing her life. "I went for surgery because of back pains, but two months after the operation I couldn't even sit on a chair," she explained. "I went back to see the surgeons and they kept telling me that I am fine." When Ms. Tzereme went to another hospital, they detected the foreign object on her spine. Because of the gross error, two doctors and two nurses received 10 months imprisonment each.

(Re-printed here by permission of The GreekAmerican).

AHEPA has always set high standards for every member of its Sons of Pericles and Maids of Athena junior divisions to devote their collective efforts to help the community. While in the past they have been involved with such efforts as blood, food, and clothing drives, the two organizations have recently set out to take on a more responsible and targeted project to help young people deal with their most difficult problems.

This year, they have gone a step forward by organizing peer counseling as an addition to their community projects. They call it "Making a Difference."

Maids of Athena Grand President, Karen Polyzos came up with the idea to start the project in an effort to help establish a level of cooperation between junior AHEPA and the church. The younger members feel a need to communicate more effectively with their local parishes and have set out to actively integrate religion and meaningful relationships with clergy into the counseling project. To realize this endeavor, Polyzos asked junior chapters to reach out to members of their church and organize workshops about issues that their peers are dealing with.

The program's objective is to organize various groups of the same age to communicate with one another on an informal, confidential and comfortable level about such concerns as drugs, alcohol, AIDS, peer pressure, eating disorders, sex, abuse, birth control, abortion, and other health concerns.

Since most of the participants have no formal training in counseling, Polyzos researched and compiled information on subjects ranging from eating disorders to breast cancer, creating a reference guide that junior- chapter presidents can use to counsel individuals their age. She also provides information about methods used in such counseling, and the program encourages all the volunteers to seek out formal education in the form of lectures or courses in order to equip themselves with as much information as possible.

Although this project is headed and implemented by the junior chapters, there is a network established between the Sons and Daughters and the greater AHEPA organization that enables the younger members to consult with the older ones in the event that crises or cases that require professional help occur.

One of the several chapters that have started to implement this program in their community is Maids of Athena Hera Chapter 203 in Toms River, N.J. Along with District 5 Sons of Pericles, they have participated in the Make a Difference Day at a local college, where they spoke with hundreds of children dealing with cancer.

In addition, the chapter uses each meeting as an opportunity for peer counseling among themselves on subjects such as smoking, drinking, and drugs. They recently invited a health professional to talk about breast cancer and teach the young women how to conduct self examinations as an important step of early prediction.

The members have been using their bonds of friendship to further establish discussions and influence one another in positive ways. They hope this will help create the foundation for a powerful social support network that will be available to provide assistance to any young member of the community and the originating group at large. "If we can make a difference in just one person's life. then we have succeeded," says Polyzos.

On January 26, 2001, Brother Stephen Stubberud was honored for his service as the 2000 Chairman for the San Diego Section of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The San Diego Section of the IEEE consists of over 4400 engineers in San Diego County and has fourteen technical chapters which cover a wide range of different technologies. During his year as chairman, the local membership grew over ten percent and large increase in the members' participation in local activities was noted. Stephen has been participating in the San Diego Section's leadership for seven years and has been asked to serve as a committee chairman for educational activities at the regional level which includes most of the western states including Alaska and Hawaii.

The banquet on the 26^th of January was held to honor Stephen and his committee members that made the 2000 year a success as well as to install the new officers for the coming year. The keynote speaker was Professor Nicolaos Alexopoulos, who is the Dean of the Henry Sameuli School of Engineering at the UC Irvine. He spoke on the first research university in the world the Great Library of Alexandria and the Hellenic influence on discovery from Alexander to the invasion of Islam.

Replying to a question from Senator Paul Sarbanes during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Secretary of State in the new Bush administration, Colin Powell, affirmed that Cyprus will be a very important foreign policy priority of the new administration. The U.S., he said, will continue to be involved in efforts to resolve the issue and to support the unconditional resumption of talks based on the resolutions of the United Nations.

"I think," Mr. Powell continued, "it is very important. The problem has been lingering, a festering sore in that region and an irritation between those two countries most concerned, Greece and Turkey. And so we will remain engaged. We will support the U.N. Secretary-General's actions. We will encourage both parties to come to these proximity talks...(and) to encourage Mr. Denktash to engage as soon as he possibly can."

(From the Embassy of Greece, Press & Information Office).

The two biggest sellers in any bookstore are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it.

-Andy Rooney

Italy and Greece are neighbors, sharing a great deal of history and culture. The two countries were central parts of the great Greek and Roman civilizations, which found their Christian medieval synthesis in the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines held parts of Italy, in addition to the Balkans and Asia Minor, for much of their history. Venice and other Italian city-states held parts of Greece for centuries. The effect of this contact, good and bad, is readable on the landscapes of the two countries, and on the faces of its peoples.

Two regions of today's Italy are home to Greek-speaking populations, living legacies of the constant contact between the two countries, Calabria (the toe of Italy) and Salento (Italy's heel). I had the opportunity to visit the Greek-speaking population of Salento (known as "Grecia Salentina") this summer and will relate my visit there.

Grecia Salentina today is a collection of nine towns in the center of Italy's heel. The area is a dry Mediterranean coastal plain, dominated by olive groves. The towns of Grecia Salentina are well-kept, whitewashed communities dominated by local cathedrals and fortresses, indistinguishable from neighboring towns, except that some of their inhabitants have preserved a dialect of Greek (known as Griko or Grecanic) as a local language.

The origins of this Greek-speaking population are not altogether clear. Salento, like much of Southern Italy, was heavily colonizedby the ancient Greeks. The Byzantine Empire, which was primarily Greek linguistically and culturally, also held much of Southern Italy for over 500 years. The last Byzantine outpost in Italy, Bari, fell to the Normans in 1071. As such, much of the local population is of Greek stock, and it is fairly certain that Greek was spoken in Salento (and in a much wider area than today) for several centuries after the end of Byzantine rule in the area. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Turks in the fifteenth century, many Greeks, Albanians, and Greco-Albanians (Arvanites) fled Turkish rule to the Italian peninsula. Many Greeks gravitated to Salento and Calabria, where settled Greek-speaking populations already lived. This demographic infusion helped to bolster the Greek-speaking element, which, despite living side by side with Italian speakers, has remained to this day. The Greek Salentines' religious affiliation until the late 1700s was Greek Rite Catholic (Orthodox in liturgy and union with the Papacy). Today there are virtually no Greek Catholics or Orthodox in Salento, though some Greek-speakers and Albanian-speakers in Calabria remain Uniates.

Many, perhaps a majority, of the local Greek Salentine inhabitants today have a basic knowledge of the Griko language, but Italian is used for nearly all communication. The Griko language is written in the Latin alphabet and contains a large percentage of Italian words. Its grammar is simpler than Greek and lacks the Turkish and Slavic linguistic infusions in modern demotic Greek. That said, a Greek-speaker readily understands the local dialect.

The population of Grecia Salentina is proud of its Greek-speaking culture and maintains several "Cultural Circles" dedicated to fostering and nurturing the local Greek culture. These cultural groups, in particular singing groups, travel widely in Italy, Greece, and other countries. These people are highly artistic and poetic, and adhere to a code of hospitality largely absent from the modern world. While the Greek Salentines are a living link between Greece and Italy, they are not a Greek minority in Italy; they are mainstream Catholic Italians with a distinct local culture which links them with Greece. This difference is not semantic, it is important. Unlike Greek speaking minorities elsewhere (Russia or Albania) or diaspora Greeks (Australia, United States, Germany), the "Salentine Greeks" are neither Orthodox in religion nor "Greek" in an ethnic or national sense. Perhaps this is their most important function--they are a cultural bridge, a locally rooted tradition in complete harmony with their national surroundings.

H FWNH THS FILIAS

(The Voice Of Philia)

DAUGHTERS OF PENELOPE

PHILIA, CHAPTER #380

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear Sisters,

Our next meeting is April 3, 2001 at the Senior Citizen Center of Sts. Constantine and Helen Church. We are urging all the ladies to make an effort to attend the meeting. There will be a very interesting presentation by Mr. George J. Pappas and later we will meet to discuss the Daughter's business concerning the activities during the Lenten period, Easter and the Easter Picnic. We really need your input.

It is very important that all your dues are paid up for both 2000 and 2001. We are attempting to have all members bring themselves current on their dues. If you require any information regarding you status, please call me at 858-792-5167.

We will see you all at the meeting.

Yours always in Theta Pi,

Joanna Pathe

Spinach is the green that comes from Persia and is abundant all year round, distinguished by its rare characteristics. The best and most tender kind can be found in the winter and spnng. In addition to its high iron content. spinach is rich in minerals and vitamins. In order for spinach to keep its vitamins, it must be boiled on a very lowflame in an open pot without any water (spinach releases water and juices on its own).

16 cleaned shrimp 2½ pounds of spinach

3 onions 2 cloves of garlic

4 tbsp grams of butter 6 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dill and parsley salt and pepper

Wash the shrimp and dry them with an absorbent kitchen towel. Clean and wash the spinach and put it in a pot without water on low heat, salting it once it wilts and draining it.

Follow by squeezing all the liquids out with your hands, a little at a time. Peel the onions and the garlic and chop them up into small pieces. Saute them in 2 tbsp of butter until they brown.

Add the spinach slowly as you add salt and pepper. Once the mixture is ready place it in an oven pan. Lightly fry the shrimp in the oil and follow by placing them on top of the spinach.

Mix the dill and parsley with the remaining butter and layer over the shrimp. Place the pan in the oven for 3-4 minutes.

FRESH LEMON JUICE

When a recipe calls for lemon juice, you can

get more fresh squeezed juice if you halve a

tip: lemon and microwave at HIGH (100%) for 30

to 40 seconds before squeezing out the juice.

"The most ambitious public works project in Greek history and one of the largest underway in Europe" is how Catherine Collins describes the new Athens "$ 1.8 billion state-of-the-art" metro system, writing a December 25 column in the Chicago Tribune.

Ms. Collins notes that the new metro is a "resounding success," meeting its ridership goal of 450,000 passengers daily and helping to reduce polluting motor vehicle traffic by 15 percent. The metro is also "the single largest archeological excavation" ever undertaken in Athens, involving an "occasionally tumultuous marriage between engineers and archeologists," since five of the 21 new subway stations are within the boundaries of ancient Athens-one of them in the shadow of the Acropolis itself.

The article describes how the boring machines, excavating 33 feet of soil 65 feet below the surface daily, would be halted whenever the watching archeologists saw something of interest, which they would then extract with tiny picks and brushes. "Time is not their concern," the engineer in charge is quoted as saying. "They believe that slower is better. You should see these people working with toothbrushes."

Dimitris Plantzos, curator of the Museum of Cycladic Art where 500 of the 10,000 unearthed artifacts are displayed in an exhibit titled "The City Beneath the City," is quoted as saying that the discoveries give an overview of the city from the 17^th century BC to the 8^th century AD. In some instances, they confirm what we know of the history of Athens from ancient authors, such as the stone slab which, in naming the dead in battles of the Peloponnesian War, corresponds accurately with the account of the war by Thucydides, the 5^th century BC Greek historian.

Ms. Collins writes that the display at the "spectacular Acropolis station" includes replicas of the Parthenon Marbles-the so-called "Elgin Marbles removed by Lord Byron are in the British Museum in London. Efforts by Greece to secure the return of the classical-age sculptures for display in a new Acropolis Museum-efforts supported by the majority of the British people and by scholars and archeologist around the world-have so far failed. "Even as copies," Ms. Collins concludes, "the subway statues shimmer with life, and make a compelling protest."

(From the Embassy of Greece, Press & Information Office).