On TV, we would see a never-ending series comprised of the interchangeable reels of CNBC commentators making jokes about paying back debts in drachmas, young unemployed Greeks throwing Molotov cocktails at the Greek police, and European politicians talking about resolving the crisis by announcing half-measures one after the other.

Unfortunately, we know that there are no fairytale scenarios for Greece. The bill has finally come due for the ever-expanding twin deficits the country had run since the 1980s and the de-facto economic expansion via massive sovereign borrowing. I am not sure what 2012 is going to bring but after the European Summit of Dec. 9, it seems that Greece and the rest of the peripheral European countries have two choices: a) sacrifice national sovereignty in exchange for continued support from European Institutions (i.e. Germany) or b) abandon the euro, declare bankruptcy, devalue the currency, and enter a prolonged period of self-imposed self-sufficiency, banned from global financial and debt markets, ala Argentina 2001.

Now, one could argue that the latter option would be better for Greece, if only one had faith that the political and economic elite of the country could successfully lead the country into a new era. However, I am afraid that the last 37 years are live testimony to a remarkable combination of incompetence and corruption that this very elite has shown. There is no catalyst to make me believe that any of this will change if Greece were to return to the drachma.

Greece is therefore obliged to choose the former of the two difficult options. Make no mistake about it: that option comes with 5-10 years of internal devaluation and a lower standard of living for all Greeks. It comes hand in hand with constant EU and IMF supervision, never-ending austerity measures, persistently high unemployment, potential social unrest, and (as the Dec. 9 summit made clear) a surrender of national sovereignty.

Thus, the question we have to ask is how much national sovereignty shall Greece need to sacrifice in exchange for the next installment of the bailout package? What is the price that Greece’s creditor nations will ask in exchange for keeping it solvent while it is getting its fiscal house in order?

We don’t know the answer to that question but we do know that both the Greek government and the Greek diaspora will need to work toward the goal of preventing any territorial or other national security compromise that Greece might need to make in order to remain solvent.

2011 was clearly the year in which the national security interest of Greece became very tightly linked to its failed economic model and the irresponsible policies of the past. 2012 should be the year in which there is better communication between the Greek-American community and the Greek government.

On the one hand, the Greek government should listen to the concerns and ideas of the Greek-American community and take them seriously. The attraction of capable people should not stop in flying Prime Minister Lucas Papademos from Harvard to “Megaro Maximou.” There is a lot of talent that fled Greece and came to the United States during the last 30 years due to the political and bureaucratic institutions that literally strangled the most productive elements of society and left them no choice but to seek safe harbors elsewhere. Greece can use and should tap the knowledge, connections, and advice of that very talent, directly or indirectly. There should finally be an honest and consistent effort on behalf of the Greek government to collaborate with its own diaspora within a long-term win-win framework, Israel-style (or even China-style). This collaboration can result in a faster turnaround of the economic situation in Greece and therefore fewer compromises for the living standards and national interests of the country.

On the other hand, the Greek-American community should re-focus its efforts to reflect the new reality for Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Lobbying for the religious freedoms of Christians in Turkey, calling for justice in Cyprus, and other efforts should continue. However, we, as Greek-Americans, need to realize that military and political stability in the region cannot be achieved without a strong Greece, internally. With Turkey growing economically in leaps and bounds and the rest of the Balkan nations following in its footsteps, the balance of the power equation is shifting dramatically. Greece, at the mercy of creditors, might be forced sooner or later to make a diplomatic compromise that those very creditors have been trying to achieve and would not otherwise do so if Greece were not under their financial yoke. The Greek-American community should realize that the best way to protect both Cyprus and the Ecumenical Patriarchate is to strengthen Greece itself and that should be the number one priority for the community’s lobbying efforts in 2012 and beyond.

*Alex Mizan is the director of the  American Hellenic Council

Can you sense the sarcasm in my voice? Don’t get me wrong I have lived the whole “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” story with my father working at four different Greek diners and my mother telling me every day of my life to find “a nice Greek boy to marry.” But I don’t think, I can say that every Greek-American reading this believes the same thing, that this is not the way to promote Greece. The person responsible for this brilliant idea is the deputy minister of tourism and culture Mr. George Nikitiadis. His idea goes as follows, to grab a bunch of Greek artists put their work on these placemats, which as well know that these very same placemats get crumbled, doodle and wipe off everybody’s spills and leftover food daily. The sad part is not just the idea but that commercial sponsors from Greece, like ΟΠΑΠ and the restaurant association are giving money for this idea to blossom and come alive.

About 6 million euro’s are being given for 7 million throwaway placemats to be printed and distributed to diners across America. It doesn’t end here also plastic throwaway cups are going to be given to the customers of these diners as well. What happened to posters, art exhibits with various Greek or Greek-American artists, concerts and dance festivals to raise money to promote Greece? You can just shoot a commercial in Astoria, Queens in New York City and you have your promotion right there.

I might be the only one angry and annoyed about this “awesome”, “brilliant”, “extraordinary”, and “wonderful” tourism idea but I believe Greece deserves better than throwaway placemats and plastic cups, especially in the times that we are in now.

On Dec. 6 Christians celebrate the life of Saint Nicholas, a wealthy Greek bishop who lived in Myra, Lycia, and was known to help others. At a moment of history when the rich are perceived as evil by the masses because they don’t share their wealth, St Nicholas’ life shows that the one percent can make a difference and sometimes produce Saints.

St. Nicholas’ charity work was made possible thanks to the wealth of his parents which he inherited at a young age when they died. Eugene Peterson in an essay titled “God with us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas” summarizes the story of “the Saint of the One Percent.”

Today we remember Saint Nicholas, who was the Bishop of Myra in the province of Lycia during the fourth century. Very little is known about his life, but he is remembered as a man of great faith and compassion. He was also a fierce advocate for those who had been unjustly condemned. But he left behind no writings: the legends surrounding his life are all we have. Nicholas is most well known in the West as the beloved patron saint of children and gift-giving. His connection to the American character of Santa Claus is faint, but it can be traced. According to tradition, Nicholas’ parents died when he was young, leaving him a large sum of money. With his inheritance, Nicholas practiced charity, helping those in need.

Connection to Santa Claus:
One legend in particular illustrates his generosity: a family in his community was desperate; the father had lost all of his money and had been unable to find husbands for his three daughters. The daughters were in danger of being given over to prostitution or another form of degradation when, one night, Nicholas appeared at their home. He tossed three bags of gold into the open window (or down the chimney, in some versions)—thereby saving them from a terrible fate. This tale is probably the source of his eventual connection to the tradition of gift giving at Christmas. The custom of giving gifts on Saint Nicholas’ feast day probably originated in Europe among Protestants. The Reformation had led many Protestants to all but abandon the remembrance of the saints. But Saint Nicholas remained a popular figure, especially among children, who received gifts in his name on December 6. The custom spread with immigration to North America when Dutch children told their English-speaking friends about “Sinter Klaas,” the bishop in red vestments who brought them surprises on his feast day.

The American History of mispronunciation—Santa Claus—eventually took on a life of its own. This jolly Saint Nick also delivered gifts through the chimney, but on Christmas rather than the saint’s day. He wore a red suit rather than liturgical vestments, though he still vaguely resembled the old depictions of Nicholas, which showed him with bald head and full beard.

Aside from the obvious disparities between Saint Nicholas and the secular Santa Claus, perhaps the most poignant difference between them can be seen in the nature of the gifts they give. While Santa has his bundle of toys, the gift that Saint Nicholas gives is nothing short of freedom from poverty and desperation.

The life of Saint Nicholas is an example of faith made flesh in actions of true charity.
(From Eugene Peterson, “Feast of Saint Nicholas, December 6,” GOD WITH US: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe)

*By Nick Larigakis

Less than a year from now Americans will be going to the polls to vote. Up for election are the office of President, the entire House of Representatives, and about one-third of the Senate. This provides an opportunity for the Greek American community to become actively involved in securing support for issues affecting U.S. relations with Greece and Cyprus.

President Obama swept into victory three years ago proclaiming: “The time for change is now!” I will leave it up to the readers to decide how any of the changes incorporated by President Obama have affected them personally. However, as it relates to the issues of importance to the Greek American community there is one thing for sure—nothing has changed significantly. In some instances one can claim the community’s issues have even digressed. One example is the recent increase in provocative actions and extremely belligerent rhetoric directed at Cyprus by Turkey.

A quick review of our issues since President Barack Obama came to office shows the following:

• The illegal occupation of Cyprus, now in its 37^th year, by more than 40,000 Turkish troops, continues;
• Provocations in the Aegean Sea continue as Turkish military aircraft violate Greek national airspace with frequency. The Turkish threat of war (casus belli) if Greece exercises its legal rights in the Aegean Sea under the Law of the Sea Treaty and international law remains in effect. Turkey continues to claim sovereign rights in the Aegean Sea which are unfounded and devoid of any legal basis;
• The Halki Patriarchal School of Theology remains closed and the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s rights, freedoms, and security continue to be threatened in violation of the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act; and
• The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) continues with its intransigent and provocative actions against Greece refusing to negotiate in good faith to resolve the name issue.

Yes, we have seen slight progress on certain issues, and I want to properly acknowledge them. In March 2010, Greece entered the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. Turkey did return an illegally confiscated orphanage as ordered by the European Court of Human Rights and granted citizenship to a number of Orthodox clerics that will help to address concerns about sustaining a line of succession for the Ecumenical Patriarch. With respect to the latter two developments, the question of how influential of a role the Obama administration played is debatable.

In 2008, Presidential Candidate Obama’s campaign statements on the community’s issues were frankly the most favorable ones that we have seen in quite some time from a presidential candidate. However, the community must remind the president that his campaign statements have largely gone unfulfilled during his first term.

And the opportunities for Obama administration to fulfill them have been there!

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have visited Turkey. There, they did make some important gestures, including the president’s visible meeting with His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and in the case of Secretary Clinton, a meeting with His All Holiness at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Unfortunately, public statements calling for the immediate re-opening of the Halki Seminary and full recognition, support, and protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate were absent. At separate venues during press conferences in Turkey opportunities to call for the “immediate” removal of all Turkish occupying troops in Cyprus or to call for an end to provocative acts by Turkey against Greece in the Aegean were missed. Will Vice President Joe Biden’s December visit to Turkey be different?

While it seems President Obama finds it difficult to express public support for the Ecumenical Patriarchate or allies Greece and Cyprus, The Los Angeles Times reported in October that President Obama has placed more calls to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan than to any other world leader this year next to British Prime Minister David Cameron, prompting former New York Times İstanbul bureau chief Stephen Kinzer to jokingly refer to Prime Minister Erdogan “Obama’s second best friend.” In addition, at the recent G20 Summit the president supposedly reserved the “biggest hug” for the Turkish prime minister. In my opinion, this would indicate the president is not willing to press Turkey on issues of concern to the Greek American community. Whether or not the closeness of their relationship will be an asset or liability for the president in 2012 is uncertain.

Turkey’s aggressive behavior in the region is well-documented, ranging from airspace violations of Greece, it’s continuing occupation of Cyprus, its saber-rattling rhetoric as Cyprus and Israel explore for gas and oil, its support of Iran in the UN Security Council, and its dispute with Israel, to name a few.

Yet, the Obama Administration is presently pushing for a $111 million arms sale to Turkey during a time when she is acting increasingly belligerently in the eastern Mediterranean and threatening U.S. allies. Frankly, this is unacceptable, irresponsible, and disappointing.

Our community needs to send a strong message. One way to convey a strong message will be through our wallets as election season kicks in.

In a tough political environment, fundraising will be at a premium and every candidate will be looking to outreach to as many ethnic groups as possible to gain an edge. Let’s be smart with our contributions. Let’s make sure we get a candidate’s commitment so we can make our contribution count. If we don’t like what we hear, let’s support the candidate that will.

This message is especially important for those who will be running for president. In the case of President Obama we need to hold him accountable to his campaign statements.

Can we count on President Obama to communicate a hard-hitting message to Ankara over her continuous irresponsible and destabilizing actions? After all, if the United States can’t feel secure and confident enough to candidly express to a fellow NATO ally with whom “… our bonds are sound, our friendship is sure, and our alliance is strong,” and, “Our partnership is rooted in our long history and very long list of mutual interests, but most importantly, it is rooted on our common democratic values,” as stated by Secretary Clinton on her visit to Turkey in July, then to whom can we say it?

President Obama has another year to show us if he is willing to send that message.

__________________

*Nick Larigakis is President of the American Hellenic Institute

Back in the 1980s, marrying a Greek-American was important to me.  I attended Greek cultural events, sang the liturgy on Sunday mornings, danced a mean Kalamatiano at weddings and Easter picnics and wondered which dark-haired boy might someday claim me. My parents had me convinced that I could not possibly be happy unless I married within my hyphenated culture, and for a good, long while, I gave Greek boys the old ‘college try.’

As my biological clock began to tick (in those days it ticked loudly at a much younger age) I began to widen my horizons to consider getting to know men from other ethnic groups that might ‘blend’ with my own. This included Russian Americans, Lithuanian Americans, and Armenian Americans, to name a few. I figured that if they could identify with their own ethnic backgrounds, all of which didn’t seem too far-afield from my own, they could at least begin to understand and might even embrace the connection I had to my ‘Greekness.’

By the time I was 30, all my close friends had married or were already engaged and I felt like the last girl standing – almost like the character played by Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Okay, my father would never have said the mean things to me that the father in the story said to his daughter about being old, but I know he thought me much too opinionated and outspoken to ever attract a husband.

Then I met an Italian-American man who was devastatingly attractive. He made me laugh, he talked about his future (I loved that) and he handled my crazy family admirably. And just nine days short of my 31st birthday, I circled an altar table with him doing a different dance –the Dance of Isaiah.

At first, all seemed well. We were in love, we had moved to a new city in the early days of our marriage and our daughter came along much more quickly than we had anticipated, forcing us to go from big kids to adults nearly overnight.  But as the years went by and we became confronted with the burdens many marriages face – questionable finances, divergent co-parenting styles, different dates for religious holidays, etc., the differences between our upbringing and belief systems began to pile up. My husband’s diminishing willingness to respect me for who I was and see common ground between us grew in direct proportion to my feelings that I had thoughtlessly left a part of me behind when I married him. And that part of me was vital to my persona.

Hellenic Communication Service’s Peter Moskos, in his article, The Future of Greek America, writes, “Since 1980, over sixty percent of Church marriages involved a non-Orthodox. But even this figure understates the real number of intermarriages as we can safely assume that virtually all those who marry outside the Church – a large if unknown number – are marrying non-Greeks. At one time, Greek parents hoped their children would marry Greeks, now they hope their children will marry within the Greek Orthodox Church.”

Despite that statistic, marrying within the Orthodox tradition was important enough to many Greek-Americans that we could never have pictured ourselves making that commitment on a windswept hillside, with sand between our toes on a beach, or in someone’s backyard. I came to find that attending church together or apart, frequently or infrequently, however, made no impact on how successful our marriage was. When the serious issues between my long-term husband and I showed no signs nor hope of resolution, I finally called it quits. Our daughter was old enough to understand and even support me in my decision, but it led to some emotionally draining times, as most divorces/church dissolutions do.

Shortly after my return to my hometown following the divorce, I was to run into the brother of my koumbara, a well-regarded, gregarious man who had remained single all the years since he acted had as a groomsman at my wedding some 20 years before. To my surprise, he expressed an interest in me that evidently went back for several decades, unbeknownst to me. We shared the bond not only of being Greek and having known one another’s families for years; we were also caring for health-challenged aging parents and could readily understand the loyalty and loving obligation that existed in care-taking them.  The reality of the two of us being together after having known one another for more than two decades felt something akin to a miracle. And after a few years I was to reprise my Isaiah trek around the altar table with the Greek husband I had always hoped to have — as our parents no doubt gave nods of approval from above.

So aside from being with someone who has a Greek name, what makes this union so much easier?  Okay, there’s always that 20/20 hindsight ‘with-age-comes-wisdom’ element which would accompany me into any subsequent relationship at midlife. But what is most striking to me are the number of things that remain unspoken yet understood between us. We share a delight in our thousands-year-old culture, along with the music, the language, the food, the faith, the dances and a love for the ‘old country’ that has existed in us since childhood. Our biggest conflicts arise over politics (which we handle with kid gloves), whose pastitsio is the best, which Greek words are the most appropriate to describe something, and whose relatives we will visit first when we travel to Greece.  It is, therefore, a no-brainer in many ways to be married to a fellow Hellene.

With all the challenges facing marriage on a daily basis, I salute those couples of mixed ethnicity able to hold things together, raise children and continue to respect and honor one another’s traditions and cultural idiosyncrasies.  But for some of us, ‘Greekness’ means knowing that our partner understands the ethnic part of us without having to describe it all in words. It’s going to the same cemetery and paying our respects to those family members who came before us. It’s unwittingly hunting for Greek names in scrolling movie credits and saying them out loud, just as our parents did. And it’s listening to the priest chanting the ancient liturgy heard by our ancestors long before our families immigrated to America.

I guess you could say that I fell in love with a man who happened to be Greek, and that has made all the difference.

Journalist and author Dena Kouremetis now offers her new eBook, ‘Climbing St. Friday’, a coming-of-age memoir set in Greece during the military junta. It is available through Smashwords.com, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

If you awoke today in Athens – and before you went to bed last night – one of your first duties would be to check the Strike Report so you’d know who’s working and who’s not, what’s open and what’s not. There are so many work stoppages that most TV stations have taken to listing the daily strikes. At one time or another, growing numbers of Greeks angry at austerity measures they say have hit workers and left politicians, tax evaders and the country’s rich elite alone have walked off their jobs – to no avail.

Prime Minister George Papandreou, following the orders of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank which is loaning the country $152 billion in rescue loans to stave off bankruptcy, has repeatedly cut the pay of workers, raised taxes for everyone (except tax evaders who don’t pay any) slashed pensions, and – after constant denials he would never do so, has begun the layoff and eventual firing of as many as 120,000 municipal employees.

It was a brewing cauldron of volatile elements. A new wave of tax hikes and pay cuts, bringing the pay of teachers with 30 years tenure below $20,000, has fomented social unrest, demonstrations, protests, and riots, all of which have failed, so desperate workers worried about their jobs and futures have been striking across most sectors. That’s included tax inspectors, taxi drivers, customs officers, air traffic controllers, civil servants, lawyers, pharmacists, transportation workers (closing the Metro, buses, trams, trolleys and trains) hospital workers, prison guards, teachers, garbage collectors and self-employed professionals, making life difficult for everyone as there was no way to get around the city as rubbish piled up. Coupled with news that the poor, those making $6,700 a year will be taxed and the minimum wage of $700 a month net will be scrapped, it was too much for the workers to take. It was all they could stands and they couldn’t stands no more,  so they took a stand.

They are getting little sympathy though because of their reputation as lazy, inefficient lifers in decent-paying no-heavy lifting jobs stamping papers and waiting for an early retirement, but the fat in Greece is marbled in, not layered, so the many decent, hard working civil employees are first in line to be laid off unless they have political backing. Working against everyone is the math: Greece has been spending more than it takes in and the bill has come due for packing payrolls with patronage hires for generations: someone has to go and everyone’s pay had to be cut – unless Greece collected the $40 billion a year it cedes to tax evaders. That won’t happen because they include most Members of Parliament and politicians so they aren’t going to prosecute themselves nor pay up, even while they make everyone else do so and beat their jingoistic breasts.

The best among the strikers say what they want is justice and fairness and are willing to sacrifice for the common good, but are not willing to give their lives, jobs and money to people who abscond with all of it and, as the saying goes, drink wine from their skulls. Their chief enemies are the Troika who control Greece, and Papandreou, who they believe has dismantled the principles of his PASOK Socialist party, although the Prime Minister’s retort is that he is saving Greece from them and for them. But the new focal point of anger is Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who has become Papandreou’s pit bull in administering the Draconian measures (why are they never Solonian measures?) In the country which created democracy, built on the right to dissent, Venizelos wants none of that and has attacked the strikers as unpatriotic and undemocratic.

“The picture we have seen over recent days is one of lawlessness,” Venizelos told lawmakers in Parliament in Athens, in comments televised live on state-run Vouli TV. “Some believe that occupations, strikes, blackmail, pressure can lead to the satisfaction of vested interests to the detriment of the national interest.” The problem with that is that Venizelos and his cohorts ARE the vested interests, and the strikers believe what they’re doing is in their best interest, although many among them just want to keep their sinecures, including some very highly paid positions indeed, such as railway and petroleum workers making five to six times the salaries of most municipal employees because they are employed in state-run entities. But with nearly a million public workers in a country of 11 million people, something had to give. Even workers at the Finance Ministry walked out – and then promptly walked back in and occupied the building in protest.

Could this happen in the United States? What would life be like if it did? Because Greece is a small country in population and geographical size, the laws of the land spread fast and wide, as does lawlessness, so it’s unlikely you’d get transportation workers in 50 states in the U.S. to strike no matter how angry they were because there’s no central authority affecting all their pay simultaneously. There is one example though of when it did. In 1981, air traffic controllers at Washington Dulles airport called an illegal strike and were joined by 11,000 others around the country. President Ronald Reagan, who had been in office less than a year – and who had been endorsed by the controllers’ union – fired all of them after getting the sympathy of Americans.

There are no real parallels for nationwide strikes in the U.S. as in Greece, and you won’t see air traffic controllers going on strike again in America. Ditto for customs inspectors and airport security workers who’d be fired in an eye blink if they stopped working. Likewise, it’s inconceivable that all of the country’s pharmacists would strike at the same time and there’s just too many franchises and chain stores to imagine that happening. Taxis are regulated by every separate city and town in which they are located and, unlike Greece, which sets conditions and even fee schedules for closed professions such as lawyers, architects, pharmacists and engineers, guaranteeing them a big profit margin and no competition in the monopolies they enjoy, American professionals set their own fees and services.

Each state has its own version of Civil Service requirements dictating standards for who will be hired, unlike Greece where a phone call from a politician or influential banker or business executive gets someone a job. Amtrak, the national railway system, last year carried more than 30 million people, a record, but Americans can drive, fly or take buses and could get alone just fine if there were a railway strike. Likewise, teachers get no respect in America nor in Greece, but try standing on your feet six hours a day trying to educate students who often are out of reach, do lesson plans, grade papers and prepare classes and see how long you’d last. Still, when American teachers strike, their students parents usually side with management and the teachers know it so they’re unlikely to walk off the job, especially after last year’s experience in Central Falls, R.I. when all the high school’s striking teachers were fired.

In Greece, strikers may or may not be paid under a whimsical system, although teachers always have their pay docked. Other striking workers were getting paid under a loophole that allowed it if they declared their strike a “symbolic protest.” Why didn’t American workers think of that? It’s one Greek export that would be sure to sell.

Us Greeks should be well aware that it is our job to produce, maintain and help tragedy develop to its full capacity. If people aren’t swearing at each other on crudely presented late night reality shows, we are nowhere near fullfilling our role as Greeks in the universe.

Other cultures, such the Anglosaxon culture for example, keep calm. It is what it is. We’ll do the best we can. We shall take one step at a time. There may be some exception, but in general, people don’t drive like madmen ready to blow their heads into a million pieces because the country is in financial turmoil. Americans aren’t happy about the financial crisis in the US either. The news, however, focus mostly on consumer confidence and gas prices. Channels do not pick the most tragic title for their ‘news at ten’ ad and they do not repeat this herrendously tragic and fear infusing headline throughout the day just to intimidate the ones that aren’t yet terrified by means of incessant repetition.

Embracing fear brings a familiar tragedy back for us Greeks considering that the German occupation of World War 2 wasn’t that far back. Suffering and striving and struggling and fighting is familiar territory for the Greek psyche of recent times. Ladies in their 50s and 60s are almost happy to be complaining about the crisis, cursing politicians and showcasing the suffering that is either taking place or is about to take place. ‘I am cooking simpler things these days because of the crisis’ ‘In this crisis we should all be taking the bus’. Everything we didn’t feel like doing because it required too much energy, too much work or we just didn’t feel like doing,  all of a sudden turns to a fashionably ‘out’ activity. There’s a crisis. Noone should be doing it anyway. Let us all stay home and moan or gather someplace and moan collectivelly. This way the tragedy will be lived out, felt and somehow dealt with in a masochistic yet agressive and bold manner. It’s not the most efficient way to deal with a problem, it’s not polite and seam-free, it is incessantly crude if not downright barbaric, but it’s as extreme as it gets; and tragedy needs extreme states of being to play out right. Hopefully, the much-needed catharsis, will come in a form that includes a little less passionate moaning and groaning and a lot more cold and calculated action…

Thomas Belesis

By Thomas Belesis

Since Barack Obama took office, $38 billion in new major regulations have been introduced, imposing an unprecedented burden on businesses, according to last month’s report by the Heritage Foundation.

An overly regulated environment is creating uncertainty — and uncertainty is perhaps the greatest obstacle for investing and hiring.  The administration hastily introduced the 2,300 page Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in the depths of the recession without fully understanding and studying the potential consequences of such unprecedented legislation.

To put the Dodd Frank bill in perspective, it is ten times the length of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (66 pages) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (145 pages) combined.  While a moderate level of regulation is necessary in large and vital sectors of the economy such as finance, housing, and healthcare, regulation is not the solution to the current economic problems that face the United States.

The administration must stop demonizing banks — as if they are not vital to the growth of credit and new business formation — and consider a moratorium on new regulations, an idea made popular by Presidential candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Liberal democrats have suggested that such a moratorium would lead to anarchy and a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. Implicit in such a claim is the belief that the federal government is able to foresee, predict and mitigate the risks of the next financial catastrophe. However, the Dodd Frank bill overreaches in its scope and is a catch-all for the specific and unique circumstances that led to our subprime mortgage-related financial crisis. This knee-jerk overreaction by the current administration, coupled with its anti-business rhetoric and its position on taxes, is creating the uncertainty in the financial sector and business community, which is hampering our economic recovery.

Furthermore, Perry’s call-to-action has been misconstrued by the liberal left as a proposal for an absolute repeal of all current regulation. Such irrational fear-mongering is unnecessary; Perry and like-minded conservatives are simply asking for an overdue hiatus on introducing new regulations.

For example, last month a bill was introduced by Republican Senator Ron Johnson that called for a moratorium on burdensome regulation until the unemployment rate falls below 7.7%, or the rate at which it stood before Obama took office.

The bill, co-sponsored by 19 Republican senators, makes an example of the EPA’s MACT rule that could cost $20.7 billion and threaten 338,000 jobs.

At a time when we need businesses to allocate their capital towards hiring people and investing in new facilities and technologies, they are spending their budgets on figuring out how the new regulations will affect their business.

There is no sound argument for anarchy and for no regulation. But for a liberal party that prides itself on fact-based arguments, calm-headed thinking, and most importantly science, their blind support of overregulation seems negligent and irresponsible and is killing our country.

Thomas Belesis is CEO of John Thomas Financial.   He is Co-Chairman of the New York State Republican Finance Committee and a member of the Executive Board of the World Energy Forum at the United Nations. He is a frequent contributor on the FOX Business network.  The views expressed in this article are only the opinions of Thomas Belesis and are not necessarily the views of John Thomas Financial.

*This article was originally published by Fox Business and was republished with the author’s permission.

Greeks who never left Greece -other than on a shopping trip to London, Paris, Munich or Milan where cousin Maria or best friend from High School, Spyros, was studying- however, think differently. 

Taking Greece for granted is a problem for modern Greeks who never left Greece. It creates two contrasting Greek identities. That of Palamas, where Greece is an ideal of a country, and that of Seferis, who wrote: ‘No matter where I travel, Greece hurts me’. Seferis’ view of Greece was powered by the same pain felt by a lot of internationally renowned Greeks once Greece acts like a spoiled child towards them. The most current example of this highly disfunctional behavior is no other than the way the Lyric Opera House treated the internationally recognized Verdi soprano Dimitra Theodossiou.

Prime ministers around the world bring Ms Theodossiou flowers, crowds of fans gather outside the Scala in Milan just to catch a glimpse of her walking by, groups of opera fanatics travel through continents to avoid missing one single premiere of hers -and mind you, there’s a great big deal of those these days- international joyrnalists and opera critics name her the new Maria Callas, but the Lyric opera house in Greece just decided she shouldn’t sing Nabucco at Herodium theatre this year because she’s ‘too expensive’. Nope, us Greeks who live in Greece prefer people who are able to sing (or perform in any way) at a moment’s notice,  make no plans and have no life or serious carreer. We prefer mediocrity cause this makes us feel safe, unchallenged, idle and on the sidelines of things, life, the world.

Is this really where we want to be, though? Greece gave birth to philosophy, art, science, architecture, medicine,  just to name a few, do we really want to stay on the sidelines and just drag ourselves behind others?

CNN channel presented a new report by Jeff Stein, “With Crisis at Home, Greek-Americans to Economic Rescue”, which implies the difficulties in Greece and the immediate reaction of the Greek-Americans who responded to this situation and took the decision to help their home country.

Larissa Antypa, actress and casting director resolved to change her plans and fly to Greece instead of having a cruise in Karibik as was her first plan.

According to the report, Antypa rescheduled her vacation so as to help Greece, her homeland. She decided to spend her money in Greece to contribute to the nation. Many Greek-Americans sharing the same thoughts and feelings and are doing the same.

Theodore Spyropoulos, Coordinator/Advisor of Diaspora Hellenism noted that the number of Greek- Americans visiting Greece this year is expected to increase to 20-30% compared to 2010.