AHEPA e-News! August 29, 2018

Supreme President Prepares for Visit to Attica; Renews Call to Chapters As the 2018-19 administrative year gets underway, and AHEPA chapters return to regularly-scheduled meetings in September, Supreme President George E. Loucas has issued a renewed appeal for chapters to donate to the Greece wildfires relief drive.  Supreme President Loucas and Canadian President Christos Argiriou will survey the devastated areas of Attica and will review options to deliver aid with local and federal officials, along with community groups and NGOs, during an upcoming visit to Greece, September 3 to 10.  Ahepans in Greece already have met with regional and local Greek government officials to lay the groundwork for the upcoming visit. Take Action! Donate Now! Program Announcement | 2018 National Golf Invitational Tournament The 2018 AHEPA National Invitational Tournament will be hosted at the fabulous Westin Stonebriar Hotel & Golf Club, Frisco, Texas -- just outside of Dallas!  This beautiful property has a signature 18-hole golf course designed by none other than Tom Fazio, who has be en recognized three times as the "Best Modern Day Golf Course Architect."  The deadline to secure the hotel room rate is October 8. Download: Informational flyer Study Shows How Austerity Devastated Greece's Health  A new study by a School of Dentistry faculty member and dozens of other researchers from the University of Washington and around the world has found that Greece's population health declined markedly and death rates rose sharply after harsh austerity measures were imposed on Greece by the European Union and the International Money Fund in 2010.  "The researchers noted that Greece's reduced health spending, required as part of the austerity measures, had been criticized for omitting measures to protect the country's National Health System," the University of Washington School of Dentistry's announcement stated. Supreme President George E. Loucas said, "This is why AHEPA proudly partners with International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) to deliver medical supplies to hospitals in Greece."  AHEPA has worked in cooperation with IOCC since 2012 to deliver nearly $10 million in medical supplies to nine hospitals in Greece -- with two more deliveries scheduled for the fall as part of the Greece wildfires relief drive.  AHEPA on Twitter | Senator John McCain Remembered Congressional Hellenic Caucus Membership is 126.   Help It Grow.    Although Congress is heading into the homestretch of the 115th Congress, there is still plenty of time to increase the membership of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues. AHEPA asks for your help, especially with U.S. representatives spending August in their congressional districts. The Hellenic Caucus has been an active, bipartisan group in Congress since its founding in 1995.  It is co-chaired by U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and its co-founder, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). Membership in the Hellenic Caucus stands at 126.   Is your U.S. representative a member?  Click here to find out. Download & Share: Action Alert to help you outreach to your U.S. representative Don't forget to follow AHEPA on social media:                                          Upcoming Events & Deadlines September 3 - 10 | Supreme President visits Greece 21 - 23 | 2018 Governors Conference, Washington, D.C. October - November 29 - 3 |  2018 AHEPA National Golf Invitational, Frisco, Texas Join AHEPA Today! In Our Own Words. What AHEPA means to us. Join AHEPA Now Greek American News Digest Editor's Note: Editorials, Commentaries, and Opinion pieces are shared for information purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the Order of AHEPA, its affiliated organizations, and members.   One month on, Greek wildfire victims face long road to normality Ekathimerini (Aug. 24) Standing in the burnt-out shell of what used to be his home and business, Theodoros Kouris waits for Greek government inspectors to decide the building's fate.  It has been one month since Greece's deadliest wildfire ravaged the now deserted seaside town of Mati, killing 96 people, and life here is still far from normal.  Funeral notices are plastered on electricity poles.  read more     Mapping The Dominance Of Airbnb On Athens Medium (Aug. 23)  To understand the impact of Airbnb on housing in Athens, I downloaded and analysed a dataset compiled by the independent, non-commercial monitoring service Inside Airbnb, which tracks the flow of ads on the online platform. The data covers the city centre of the Athens urban area, the largest in Greece and one of the most populated urban areas in Europe, sprawling across the central plain of Attica.  read more Commentary | Greece's "Bailout" Was a Disaster for Greece Barron's (Aug. 24) Some bailout that turned out to be.  The European Stability Mechanism disbursed its final tranche of loans to the Greek government on Aug. 6. On Aug. 20, the program officially ended, although the loans are not expected to be fully repaid for another half-century. If their purpose was to support the Greek economy, the emergency loans must be considered a failure.  read more The Future Of Athens, Greece: A New Four Seasons Astir Palace And More Forbes (Aug. 23) Day trips in Athens may be a thing of the past considering the huge increase of luxury hotel options and a booming tourist economy. Despite the recent tragic fires that claimed at least 96 lives East of Athens, travelers have not canceled or changed their plans, and the country is breaking records for new tourism. The Ministry of Tourism is actually projecting 33 million visitors to Greece for 2018, as arrivals by land and sea are on an upward climb.  read more Tsongas May Be Leaving, But Work on Sexual Assault Is Never Done  Roll Call (Aug. 24) Eleven years ago, the #MeToo movement wasn't trending and sexual assault was a taboo subject. Yet Rep. Niki Tsongas was confronted with it twice during her first weeks in Congress. The first was at an Armed Services Committee hearing, in which generals outlined the Pentagon's efforts to combat sexual assault. "I have to say I was completely taken aback that it was such an issue that we had generals up there seriously trying to deal with it," Tsongas said.  read more Athens city guide: what to see plus the best bars, hotels and restaurants The Guardian (Aug. 27) The revival of Europe's classical capital has attracted plenty of artists, curators and digital nomads. But it's entrepreneurial young Athenians who are opening pop-up restaurants, design collectives and guesthouses, regenerating derelict buildings in rough-around-the-edges areas such as Pangrati, Kypseli and Keramikos. Messy and unpredictable, Athens fizzes with an intense energy that burns bright into the night.  read more Leo Thalassites, Oldest Cop in U.S. Dead at 92  The National Herald (Aug. 27) Leo Thalassites, the longest serving active police officer in the U.S., died August 18, at age 92.  "As America's oldest serving law enforcement officer, Leonidas Thalassites is an excellent role model for the law enforcement community," said FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen, in 2016, when Thalassites was inducted into the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's inaugural Law Enforcement Officers' Hall of Fame. "His dedication to serving others began at the age of 14 when he joined the Marine Corps and continues today as a reserve police officer for Hialeah Police Department."  read more