June is well under way and I don’t know why every year I feel that summer has come so early; it seems to me that I can’t control time anymore (as if I ever could)! Well, nobody won the race against time, except, perhaps, for some great civilization, like ours, but again, who knows what will happen in another 2,000 years; maybe our modern civilization will make it to the top and be viewed the same way we now look at Classical Athens with awe.
Speaking of which, it hurts when friends view modern Athens with awe, not as the cradle of civilization, but as a cradle of instability and fear. When even American Greeks ask if it’s safe to go there this summer, I realize the country’s image has been damaged more than I thought, the result of an onslaught of negative images parading daily in the major media. Unfortunately, Greece and her government don’t seem to be in a position to do damage control, which by default can only do more harm. The baton passes to the private sector: companies and the average Greeks that once more will have to do the job in spite of the government’s inability to react. Thus, it is absolutely inspiring to hear that a Greek medical doctor, Demosthenes Bouros, doing research at a remote city in northern Greece (University of Thrace in Alexandroupolis), came up with a new treatment by which a incurable pulmonary decease can be treated effectively by cultivating stem cells from the patient’s own body! Yes, this is a Greek first and about a month ago, Dr. Bouros revealed the results of his treatment on real people at an international conference in New Orleans. This breakthrough could lead to the reinforcement of other vital organs, such as the pancreas or liver, using stem cells not from previously frozen embryos, but from the patients themselves!
A couple of days ago, I visited the famous ABC store in the City, where you can find state of the art, innovative things for your home. Well, I wasn’t in a shopping spree mood, nor I was looking for an art nouveau chaise lounge chair to enjoy the nice summer days, hopefully to come, with my frappe coffee (another Greek invention, despite the French name) on one hand and my Dominican handmade cigar on the other (this one too has a Greek connection, since the company is founded and owned by our own Stanley Papas, based in Denver). Back to reality, I was invited by Mr. Emmanuel Stefanakis, a Greek American from Boston who’s the Director of Operations in Coco-Mat, the renown (in more than 10 countries) Greek mattress company that promises to make you feel like you’re sleeping with nature, making believe that nothing is underneath or on top of you (the presence of an exotic figure, perhaps from the same place my cigar came from, only enhances the feeling, but I won’t go to that area now). Coco-Mat, founded by an American in Greece 20 years ago, has revolutionized the way people sleep. Only natural ingredients, such as seaweed, horse hair, wood, absolutely real cotton etc., are used in order to avoid any artificial or chemically infected products. As a result the mattress, actually the whole bed, breathes, a real salvation during the humid New York summers, where sweating profusely cannot be avoided even with the most effective air conditioning.
It’s been only a few weeks that Coco-Mat has come to the US and people at ABC (Broadway and 19th Street) have afforded the company a huge gallery space to display its products. Asked about how this negative image of Greece nowadays could affect sales, Mr. Stefanakis said that judging from his interaction with customers so far, the opposite is true. The country still evinces such positive energy that besides the negative media barrage, Greece can still stand on her feet proudly. And that should be our message to the world: Greece is much more than what we’ve been hearing in the news the last nine months and it’s up to us, Hellenes and Philhellenes, to undertake the task of rescuing the Western world’s motherland. Visiting Greece and inviting our non Greek friends there is one way, trying to buy or repair property is another, but even easier is to defend her in our day to day interaction with the rest of the Americans. The best way to do that is by – forget about ancient history – promoting and supporting the not-few and great and innovative things that come out of there (including perhaps the advanced tax evasion techniques that sooner or later we will need here)!
Last but not least,: those of you who live in the tri-State area are mostly invited by my friends Nick Katopodis and John Frankis to a fundraiser in support of NEO magazine, Monday, June 21st, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. at Roselyn’s absolutely fantastic Limani Restaurant ((1043 Northern Boulevard Roslyn, NY 11576, tel. 516 869-8989). Minimum contribution per person is $200.00, a fair amount that will help this magazine to sustain growth, especially now that we have expanded distribution to include Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose, in the West Coast, Chicago in Mid West and soon other parts of the country. Those of you who can afford this pledge please show up and give us your vote of confidence. Unlike other community media, we have no backstage financial supporters and we don’t promote anybody’s particular agenda. We are independent thanks to all of you and our allegiance goes only to you.
For reservations or additional info on the fund raiser,
please call (718) 554-0308. If you can’t make it, please mail your checks payable to NEO magazine, to PO Box 560105, College Point, NY 11356.
See you there!
Greece still alive and kicking (hopefully in Wolrd Cup too)!