Why we are proud to be Greek

[Tsontos]

Originally Posted by Elliniko DJ Nate

Yes. Just like how all Bulgarians speak German.

I obviously meant that Greece would be German-speaking had Germany won the war which could have been a real possibility if Greece had been with the Axis and Hitler would have been at Stalingrad 3 months earlier!

I guess I just assumed you meant Greece would have been better off if we had sided with the Germans and they had actually won!

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

More or less accurate. Actually, much more, than less. Good comment Megale.

[akritas_gs]

Originally Posted by Elliniko DJ Nate

I hate that Churchill quote; I'd rather he say we are w*nkers but come good on Cyprus like he promised.

ahh.. If only Greece sided with the Nazis.

If we sided with the Nazis then God , Europe and the world would have been very different today. But as Hellenes we went against the unfair and the fascists. We are very proud of that and we did the right thing.



In mid March of 1944, Leni Riefenstahl, artist, actor, photographer, but most widely known as the film director who achieved controversial fame as the director of Olympia -- the classic account of the 1936 Berlin Olympics -- received an invitation to visit Hitler at the Berghof on the 30th of that month. During the meeting, Hitler said that he had made an " 'unforgivable mistake of esteeming Italy as highly as he did the Duce.' " He then went on to complain in a highly agitated way -- as if the memory were too painful to bear --
about the lack of valor on the part of the Balkan nations, the one exception being " 'the courageous Greeks.' " He continued: " 'If the Italians hadn't attacked Greece and needed our help, the war would have taken a different course. We could have anticipated the Russian cold by weeks and conquered Leningrad and Moscow. There would have been no Stalingrad.' "




Hitler: "For the sake of historical truth I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest
disregard of death.. "




BOth from some interviews of Hitler .

[macedoniangun]

HAHAH First of all look at the subject people - how great are we the Greeks - hahaha - and than Hitler??? all the greeks did is wait for the brits to come and save your asses...o yeah and name your country. never heard so much bullshit.

[zefs]

napavalleyregister.com
Greece sets the stage for wine
Friday, April 18, 2008 Share Email Print Comment
By Ed Schwartz
“Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.”

— Aristophanes
Professor Peter Charanis was Greek to his very soul and an eminent Greek historian. He was not happy having to teach us freshmen a broadly ranging Western Civilization course, but he made the best of it. He began his first lecture thus: “In this course we will cover the history of western man in 30 weeks; here is how we will do it. The first two weeks we will cover Cro-Magnon man to the beginning of Greek civilization. The next 26 weeks we will cover the rise of the great Greek civilization to its fall. The last two weeks we will cover the rise of the Roman Empire to the end of World War II. We will do it this way because the Greeks were very interesting people.”

We knew what we were in for. Also, as a matter of national pride, Dr. Charanis refused to lose his Greek accent. “Greek,” came out “Grrrick,”rolling the “r” and rhyming with click. “People” became “pipple.”
Dr. Charanis was extremely proud of his heritage. He believed that the height of the Greek civilization (450 BC to 320 BC or so) was the high point in human history. And, by Zeus, he convinced us. Even the Greeks of that time knew they had something great going — in art, philosophy, architecture, mathematics, geometry, logic, science, literature, medicine and, did I forget wine? Oh, yes. Wine. The wine culture that we enjoy today was developed by those over-achieving Greeks, not by the city state of Napa as some of us think.

Even in the Homeric era, when King Nestor realized that Ulysses’ son, Telemachus, has come to visit him, he ordered the servants to bring forth “the good wine, the wine aged for 11 years.” The hospitable Nestor will not question his guest until he has finished this good wine and food. Wine is mentioned as well in Homer’s references to “the wine dark sea.” Homer also notes that Ulysses had a cellar of old, sweet tasting wines packed in neat rows in his castle.
Competition then, as now, encouraged the Greeks to reach ever higher. Through open discussion and the art of refined argument, politics led to democracy; games turned into the Olympics; rational theories turned into science, and the love of wine turned into an advanced wine culture that led to symposia, international wine trade and wine snobbery.

Wine was often enjoyed at special gatherings called symposia where men would assemble in a special room where food was served with wine (oh, no, not wine and food pairings). The master of the evening made sure that the wine was diluted correctly and that wine drinking didn’t get out of hand. Drinking in moderation was very important to the Greeks, for if you drank too much, or drank undiluted wine, you were a barbarian. Barbarians drank wine and beer but not in the sophisticated manner of the Greeks. So in addition to all the good things the Greeks invented, wine snobbery was another and it has come down to haunt us today.

The Greeks even had a special god for their wine. Dionysus, who, according to legend, fled Mesopotamia, where most of the people drank merely beer, to establish himself and his vine culture in Greece, where the “Big D” was really appreciated.

The Greek islands and mainland were ideal for growing different kinds of wine grapes. Wine was enjoyed by many. There was a great surplus of wine so that wine became a very important factor in Greek international trade. Adventuresome Greek merchants shipped wine to all points of the known world. Greek vintners began planting vines in neat rows instead of on trees. Wines were made in a wide variety of different styles and put in different style amphorae so that wine consumers would be sure that they were buying the right wine from the right region. Marketing and labeling wines were also Greek inventions.

Special wines from Macedonia, Thrace and the islands of Lobos, Chaos and Thaos were highly regarded by wine lovers. From the Greek colony in what is now Marseille, the Greeks shipped the equivalent of a million cases of wine a year just to the Celts in Gaul. In a single ship wreck, divers found 10,000 amphorae, the equivalent to 333,000 wine bottles.

The Greeks even invented sealing an imporant agreement with wine, often drunk from a shield. They were, indeed, very interesting people.

[zefs]

Posted: April 23, 2008 at 08:26 AM EST (13:26 PM GMT)

FARMINGTON -- State Rep. Demetrios Giannaros presided as deputy speaker over the state House of Representatives for the first time earlier this month, making him the first foreign-born person to do so.
Giannaros was promoted to the position in February by House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, and Majority Leader Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden.

"We have a lot of talent on our House Democratic team," Amann said. "The challenge is how to utilize those talents. Demetrios has considerable experience within our caucus. As an economist, he will be a tremendous plus to our leadership team, particularly on financial matters as we craft a budget that meets the needs of our state."

Giannaros, who is also the first state deputy speaker of Greek heritage, called his appointment "the thrill of his life."

"I will do my best to serve the people of Connecticut as deputy speaker and will never forget that as an immigrant I have been given a great opportunity in this great country of ours," he said.

Giannaros, 58, immigrated to the U.S. from Greece at 14 with his parents and four brothers and sisters in 1964. His family was "literally penniless" he said, having had to borrow the money for the boat ride that brought them here.

"I've worked very hard -- two jobs all my life. I knew all along that this is a country where you can prove yourself," he said.

Academics came naturally to Giannaros, and after earning a doctorate in economics from Boston University, he became a professor at the University of Hartford in 1980. While there, he developed an urge to give back and entered public service.

In 1992, he was elected to Farmington's board of education. After two years, he ran for the state legislature and has served as representative of Farmington's 21st District since 1994.

Giannaros serves on the finance, revenue and bonding committee and the higher education employment advancement committee. He has held past leadership positions as deputy majority leader, House chair of the education committee and the energy and technology committee, and vice chair of the finance, revenue and bonding committee.

He continues to teach economics, public finance and public policy at the University of Hartford.

"It is almost unbelievable to me how far I have come when I flash back to that snowy day in March when I first arrived [in the U.S.]," he said.

Source: The Hartford Courant




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