Valia Kalda is a major treasure of a forest for Greece, and its inclusion on the map of the IMFN will be a boost to its sustainable management.

Grevena municipality fulfills all the conditions required for designation as a Model Forest, given that the forest covers 45 percent of the municipality’s expanse, is easily accessible from the Egnatia motorway, and contains the National Forest and the Vassilitsa ski center, while it also has a developed forestry, produces non-forest products such as the region’s famed mushrooms, organic farming and animal breeding, and numerous tourist resorts, as stated by forester Dimitris Tsimplinas.

Valia Kalda is an isolated mountainous area in the northeastern part of the Pindos mountain range. Established as a national park in 1966 and considered one of the most important protected areas for the maintenance of mountainous biodiversity and ecosystem integrity at national level, the park’s core zone covers the greatest part of the Valia Kalda valley and the slopes of the surrounding peaks.

With an elevation range from 1,076 to 2,177 meters, the National Park is characterised by dense forests of European black pine (Pinus nigra) and common beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees (in the park’s lower and middle altitudes) — some of which are more than 700 years old — rocky ridges, several peaks over 2,000 meters altitude, rapid streams and mountain lakes. At higher altitudes, Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) woodland is dominant.

A total of 415 plant types and mushroom species have been recorded in the area. A number of local flower types are considered endemic to the Balkans, such as Dianthus deltoides and Allium breviradum, while many endemic plants of central and northern Greece also grow in the park, such as Centaurea vlachorum, as well as rare species such as Minuartia baldaci, Bornmuellera tymphaea, Viola dukadjinica and Silene pindicola.

The area belongs to the wider Pindos Mountains mixed forests ecoregion, which belongs to the Natura 2000 ecological network of protected areas, and is one of the three places in Greece that hosts a population of Eurasian brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos), which is a conservation priority species; the region itself is called “bear park”.

Other mammals that live in the park are lynxes, deer and wild cats, while wolves, beech martens, wild boars and red squirrels are also found in the area all year round. Additionally, the Balkan Chamois, a Balkan endemic species, is found on the steep and rocky parts of the park and in the beech forests.

The three small rivers crossing the area of the park have very clear water and are the well conserved habitat of the otter, while up to five types of bat have been reported, the most common being niktovatis (Nyctalys noctula).

The forest further provides shelter for more than 80 species of birds, including 10 types of rare bird species such as the Eastern imperial eagle, the Golden eagle, the Levant sparrohawk and the Lanner falcon, indicating the ornithological importance of the area. Other rare birds found in the park are the shore lark (Eremophilla alpestris) and the Lanius excubitor, which migrates from Africa in the summer.

Finally, the dense and mature forests host eight types of woodpecker, including the White-backed Woodpecker, the Middle Spotted Woodpecker, the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and the Black Woodpecker.

IMFN is a voluntary association of partners from around the world working toward a common goal – the sustainable management of forest-based landscapes and natural resources. It is comprised of all member Model Forests.

Model Forests don’t just come about by themselves. The IMFN aims to inform and assist the various stakeholders and support interactions among potential partners. It is a global community of practice that converts the collective experience and lessons learned from member Model Forests into services that help new ventures begin and existing ones grow.

The IMFN’s vision is to support, through Model Forests, the management of the world’s forest resources in a sustainable manner, reflecting environmental and socio-economic issues from the perspective of local needs and global concerns. The primary goal of the IMFN is to establish a global network of Model Forests that will represent most of the major forest ecosystems of the world. We also strive to ensure that all partners, regardless of political or economic status, can contribute to, and share in, the benefits of the Network as they work toward the sustainable management of forest-based landscapes.

It’s three key objectives are: To foster international cooperation and exchange of ideas relating to the working concept of sustainable forest management; To support international cooperation in critical aspects of forest science and social science that underlie the search for new models of forest management; and To support ongoing international discussions on the criteria and principles of sustainable development.amna

As a long-term goal, the Network will serve as a foundation for international cooperation on the sustainable development of forest landscapes and natural resources all over the globe. Participating Model Forests will share their knowledge and encourage large parts of the world’s forested areas to undertake management and conservation methods that ensure their continuous benefits for humanity.

(Source: ANA – MPA)

Described by The New York Times as a composer whose “music speaks simply, often combining Greek modes… with an attractive quality of ritual mystery,”  Constantinides has written over 250 compositions, several of which have been recorded for Centaur records and performed throughout the US, Europe and Asia by ensembles including the American Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Athens State Orchestra and China’s Shenzhen Symphony, among others.

Currently Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University – as well as head of Composition and Music Director of the Louisiana Sinfonietta – Constantinides brings along an array of superb faculty soloists from LSU, including pianist Michael Gurt, violinist Yova Milanova, saxophonist Griffin Campbell, percussionist Brett William Dietz, along with the LSU Percussion Group, Hamiruge.

Himself a violinist with the State Orchestra of Athens in Greece for over 10 years, as well as with the Indianapolis and Baton Rouge Symphonies, Constantinides premiered his Patterns for Violin and Piano (1989 and 2003), here performed by Yova Milanova along with the lyrical Sonata for Solo Violin No 1 (1968). Milanova is joined by Griffin Campbell on saxophone, and pianist Michael Gurt for Trio No. 3 (1998), based on a folk-like modal tune that highlights the Greek heritage of the composer.

Campbell also performs two solo works: the Zodiac-themed Celestial Musings for Alto Saxophone Alone (2010) and Transformations for Saxophone Alone (1990), inspired by events from the composer’s youth, heard here in its New York premiere. Campbell is joined by percussionist Brett William Dietz for the tone poem, Legend II for Alto Saxophone and Percussion (1988-1993).

Michael Gurt performs the charming Suite for a Young Man for Solo Piano (1980), which takes a journey through adolescence (“Proud and Solemn – First Kiss – Beginning Dancing”), illness (“Clusteritis”), and the elaborate and joyful “Cotillion”. Closing the varied program, the Hamiruge ensemble (Chris Hoefer, Daniel Heagney, Samuel Trevathan) performs the Percussion Quartet (2007), which combines twelve-tone in style and conception, colorful percussion effects, and Greek modal dance tunes.

Now in its 5th season, DCINY offers spectacular opportunities to emerging and established artists, bringing them to New York’s legendary venues. Recently, the Distinguished Concerts Artist Series has featured baritone Thomas Florio, composer David Templeton, and Diandian Wu, performing on piano and traditional Chinese instruments.

Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org or 212-247-7800 or in person at the Carnegie Hall Box Office.

Entitled Cultural Intervals, the exhibition is organised with the assistance of the Cyprus Photographic Society and will only be on display at the Melina Mercouri Hall until Saturday, leaving visitors just a precious few days to get a look.

When it comes to exhibitions, ambassadors usually have the honour of opening them, but in this case Papaioannou is the artist behind the lens.

Few things inspire both mind and spirit like a great travel photo.

Photography proves to be a special means of both informing and expressing the true and noble feelings of the photographer himself, and in this case it’s an esteemed diplomat.

The ambassador presents photos from his travels, opening windows on fascinating, faraway places many of us would like to visit.

The son of a priest, Beirut-born and raised, Papaioannou lived in Lebanon until 1967. In the aftermath of the six-day war, the family repatriated to Athens.

A few years later, he went to Toulouse for his studies in political sociology and anthropology. That’s where he met Ellada, his wife, whose parents are both Paphos-born Cypriots who had emigrated to Congo, Africa.

During the course of his long and distinguished career he worked for three years in an investment bank. He was involved in investment promotion, exercising sociology and anthropology skills.

Since then he has served as a diplomat all around the world, including Damascus, before taking over the Nicosia embassy in February 2009.

While the diplomat is an avid photographer, he also loves painting as well as reading literature.

Cultural Intervals
Photography exhibition by the Ambassador of Greece Vassilis Papaioannou. Until February 4. Melina Merkouri Hall, Famagusta Gate. Open daily: 10am-1pm & 4pm-7pm. Tel: 22-797650

(Source:Cyprus Mail)

This will be his second visit after performing 11 concerts in August 2011 in the Tohuku area for the disaster victims. He is planning to visit the area again in March, which will be one year exactly since the devastation.

Sponsors of the concert are the Japan-Greece Society, the Japan-British Society and the Japan Emergency NPO (JEN).

The music to be performed includes composer Hadjidakis’ “Three Greek Pieces” (from “For a little white seashell”), Say’s “Black Earth” (“Kara Tropak”), Takemitsu’s “A Song of Love” (from Uninterrupted Rest) and Chopin’s “Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op. 52”.

The Greek residents in Japan, as well as all Japanese, are kindly invited to this charity concert of March aiming at offering some help to those in need.

Doors open at 18:30 on Friday, March 16. Ouji Hall is located on Ginza 4-7-5 Chuo-ku (for more information visit www.ojihall.jp) and the fee is 4,000 yen (free seating). For early reservations made in February the fee will have a discount of 500 yen.

Further information is posted on “Greeks of Japan”, a community website created to unite the Greeks and people interested in Greece who live in Japan.

For those interested please contact Fay Savaidis on faysavaidis@ever.ocn.ne.jp by the latest on February 29, 2012, or visit http://www.greeksofjapan.com/.

The author points out a number of facts that apparently were kept as sealed secrets for decades by the Turkish regime. Some of  the most poignant are:

“Compatriots, stop already all the festivities about the Fall, we have given Anatolia enough violence as it is…

If there was to be a convention in Athens about: ‘we will take back Constantinople…’

If the Greeks were to depict Agia Sophia with a cross on it…how would we feel about that?

We would not like it at all, in fact we would provoke a diplomatic incident.

So, why do you keep on with the festivities every year?

Is that not a way of making a clear declaration: ‘these grounds were not ours, we have conquered them using violence.’

All of Anatolia is conquered with the use of  violence.

Instead of being proud of the cities we have conquered, let us be proud of those that we have founded, if any… But there are not.’’

The danger of collapse has caused unrest among the citizens and the bodies responsible for preserving the 14th century AD monument of the city.

Initially the municipality had decided to proceed with the immediate construction of a retention wall and a watershed channel, while mayor Costas Mamoulakis had constant communication with the Head of the 13th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, in order to speed up the procedures of updating the existing restoration study.

The church of Virgin Mary Keras was at first a monastery. Several evidence remains from the monks’ cells and the main temple of the monastery dedicated to the worship of Virgin Mary.

Greece's interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has a lonely task, trying to convince his coalition government to accept more of the austerity killing his country

ATHENS – Just as Greece is seeking a second bailout to keep its economy from failing and defaulting on its loans under the weight of a staggering $460 billion debt – $41,818 for every man, woman and child in the country – coalition government officials said they are nearing an agreement on a deal to write down as much as 70 percent of what it owes private investor, but now want a second forgiveness from European Union countries footing much of the rescue package bill.

The first phase, a so-called Private Sector Involvement (PSI) negotiation with banks and other lenders who are loaning Greece money is said to nearly concluded, officials said, and would help write off $171 billion in loans the government said it can’t pay back, although $39.5 billion would be given back in sweeteners on condition the lenders accept the deal. The Troika of the EU-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank is providing Greece $152 billion in a first bailout and offering a second for $169 billion, but Greek officials now want the other 16 countries of the Eurozone using the euro as a currency putting up rescue money to accept losses too, a so-called Official Sector Involvement (OSI.)

Interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who is heading a coalition government formed on Nov. 11, 2011 when Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou resigned after nearly two months of protests, riots and strikes against austerity measures he imposed on orders of the Troika in return for the loans, said: “We are in the final phase of this very critical process to shape a new financing program for Greece and to complete the loan agreement which will lighten the burden of public debt and ensure funding for years to come,” Papademos said in a statement. He added the plan would “restore fiscal stability, improve competitiveness, revive the economy and increase employment,” although pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pension and layoffs have created a deep recession with more than 19.2 percent unemployment and lead to the closing of more than 100,000 businesses and the Troika wants more job-killing cuts.

Greece is in a fifth year of recession caused by alternating Administrations of PASOK Socialists and their bitter rival conservative New Democracy party packing public payrolls with political hires in return for votes, creating a hugely-bloated workforce in which offices are stuffed with people sitting around smoking and drinking coffee with little to do except collect paychecks.

Troika officials are concerned that Greece’s uncompetitive economy has doomed the country to a fate in which it can’t recover. “Greece is in deep trouble,” Holger Schmieding of Berenberg Bank in London said in a Jan. 30 report. “The current Greek adjustment program is failing. Excessive austerity, a lack of supply-side reforms, administrative incompetence and political deadlock have pushed the Greek economy into an apparent death spiral. More of the same will not work.” Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, who is negotiating on behalf of banks through the Institute of International Finance (IIF,) said he expected a deal “in the coming weeks, maybe days,” although the same prediction has been given by the lenders and government officials repeatedly and never materialized.

Meanwhile, worry is growing among lenders that Greece can’t be saved no matter how much money is poured into the country. “We can’t pay into a bottomless pit,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. “Greece needs a new program, there’s no question about that, but Greece must create the conditions for it.” Papademos is being squeezed to impose more of the austerity that drove Papandreou from office and deal with a recalcitrant group of ministers in the temporary tri-partite government of holdover PASOK ministers, along with New Democracy and the far Right-Wing LAOS party. He also is being told to open closed professions that enjoy monopolies and speed privatization of state-run-and-owned entities, although the investment uncertainty has created a complete shutdown of interest in acquiring Greek assets.

The tension has reached such a level that Papademos’ spokesman, Pantelis Kapsis, denied reports that the Premier would resign unless his coalition agrees with the reforms and Troika demands, even as labor unions are girding to resist demands that private sector wages and benefits be cut drastically as well to make the country more competitive.  Adding to the apprehension was a letter from the country’s leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, who said austerity is killing the country and putting people on the streets because they are homeless, while hundreds of thousands of workers can’t afford an avalanche of tax hikes as their wages have been cut nearly 30 percent. A key stumbling block to consensus is the private sector wage reductions of 25 percent and elimination of the $988 per month minimum wage, a condition fought for by  labor unions to insure people have enough money to live on, but which the Troika said is too expensive.

Greeks have seen their property and income taxes double, other taxes skyrocketing while their pay has been cut an average of 30 percent as the country’s leaders, now headed by a coalition government, are desperately trying to save Greece from failing, which most analysts say is probably impossible given its staggering $460 billion debt.

The austerity measures have created a recession now in its fifth year, with 19.2 percent unemployment, the closing of more than 100,000 businesses with another 50,000 expected to shut this year, the fastest rate of increase in suicides and homelessness in Europe, and scenes of despair in Athens and other cities with thousands of people sleeping in the streets. The nation’s electric company even shut off the power to people in frozen villages in northern Greece for some time because they hadn’t been able to pay a doubling in property taxes. The power was restored after an outcry, but the government said people who won’t – or can’t pay – will have their electricity turned off.

Greece is surviving on rescue loans from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank which ordered the austerity measures to insure investors and banks would be paid back. Greece is suffering the pains of generations of packing public payrolls with political hires in return for votes, which has technically bankrupted the country, although the privileged rich and elite have gone largely untouched and are profiting.

In his letter, Ieronymos suggested that Greece should not agree to more austerity in return for a second bailout of $169 billion – which analysts now say could be at least $20 billion short of enough to save the country. The Archbishop pointed to the growing numbers of suicides and homelessness, with formerly middle-class citizens and those who had jobs now finding themselves on the streets, and said desperation was growing.

“Greeks’ unprecedented patience is running out, fear is giving way to rage and the danger of a social explosion cannot be ignored any more, neither by those who give orders nor by those who execute their deadly recipes,” he wrote. Greeks have protested, gone on strike and rioted for nearly two years, to no avail, as the government keeps administering punishing austerity measures on the orders of the Troika.

Ieronymos said he was encouraged by the way that people had pulled together and the extent of the help that Greeks are offering to those who are worse off, but he said he was anxious that the situation would worsen if more austerity was piled on, as the Troika has demanded. The lenders now want Greece to eliminate the minimum wage of $988 a month and eliminate the two months annual bonus private sector workers get, although the head of the Troika’s task force in Athens said he doubts whether Greeks can survive any more pay cuts or tax hikes. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who wants to be the candidate for Prime Minister for the PASOK Socialist party that was chased out of office more than two months ago, has been the prime engineer of tax hikes, including making people earning as little as $6,700 a year pay taxes while 4,152 people on a list of those who owe more than 150,000 euros each to the government have not yet paid.

As Germany has suggested the EU appoint a budget czar to oversee Greece’s finances – which Greeks fear would be a German – the Archbishop said the country should not give up its sovereignty, even in return for rescue loans that have nearly destroyed the country instead of saving it.

Greece's Archbishop Ieronymos says austerity is a "deadly medicine"

“It seems clear now that our homeland’s drama will not finish here but may take on new, uncontrollable, dimensions,” he wrote. “There are, at the moment, demands for even tougher, more painful and even more unfair measures along the same ineffective and unsuccessful lines as in our recent past. There are demands for even bigger doses of a medicine which is proving deadly. There are demands for commitments that do not solve the problem but only put off temporarily the foretold death of our economy. Meanwhile, they put our national sovereignty up for collateral. They mortgage our wealth but also the wealth we could obtain from our land and seas. They mortgage freedom, democracy and national dignity.” The newspaper Kathimerini said it was almost unprecedented for an Archbishop to intervene so forcefully in political and economic issues, especially Ieronymos, who has a reputation for not speaking out, especially on non-religious issues.

Aleco Haralampides

As the former President of the American-Hellenic Institute, Miami lawyer Aleco Haralambides had a stake in promoting Hellenism, but says his biggest hope now for his heritage is saving its beloved language, and promoting it not just to fellow Greeks, but Philhellenes and the rest of the world. There are some 50,000 words in English derived in some way or another from Greek, and Haralambides said he wants to make sure their rich history and place are preserved. He helped do it at Archimedean Academy in Miami, a charter school that has Greek as a mandatory subject, and now said he wants to find supporters to start an international foundation to showcase the Greek language and keep it alive outside of Greece.

The formula is working at Archimedean, which now teaches through the high school level and is rated one of Florida’s top schools and successful enough that there’s a waiting list of more than 1,000 students – most not of Greek heritage. Besides instilling self-discipline in students, Archimedean requires them to take classes 2 ½ hours a day in Greek – not just Greek, but other subjects, and it’s a wonderment to see students not from Greek American households conversing in Greek in the corridors and classrooms, and coming to school on Saturdays to participate in projects, a role model for schools around the country. As a charter school,  Archimedean doesn’t charge tuition but receives state assistance as a public school open to students who can get in. On Jan. 30, it was rated Florida’s best middle school and praised for using Greek and mathematics – and teaching math in Greek – as one of the reasons for its achievements.

The Archimedian Acadamy in Miami, FL

When Archimedean students took a proficiency exam in Greek from Thessaloniki University, 44 of 45 passed, he said. Not one was Greek or Greek American. The school has only 70 students with Greek heritage out of an enrollment of 950. “Using the Archimedean model is a proven way to perpetuate the Greek language,” he said in an interview with Greek Reporter. “When you see native speakers talking Greek to these kids who have no background in Greek and they are processing difficult problems and answering in Greek, there just isn’t anybody else out there doing this,” he said. It’s even more astonishing when you realize the students have had no background at all in Greek or Hellenism.

Now, he said, he hopes to get the word out that the model can work in an international foundation, although he knows how tough it is to get Greek Americans together and behind programs. Still, he said, “Once it’s started and promoted you’d have a lot of non-Greeks supporting this and there’s a potential for partnerships with classics programs,” he said, adding he’d like to see the Archimedean model repeated in other charter schools in Florida and across the country, where children could learn Greek – once a stable of great schools such as Boston Latin Academy, and others where Greek and classics were intertwined. “Our goal is not to have a Greek school necessarily, but to have a great school,” he said.

“They aren’t going to come just to learn Greek. They want it to be a very good school academically,” he said. Some parents are not happy with the rigid format, he acknowledged, but said they were a minority.

Haralambides said with a declining birth rate among Greeks, Greek Americans and those in the Diaspora, the need to save Greek is becoming critical because the language is being spoken less. “It’s a mathematical certainty that if we don’t stop that, that it will disappear,” he said. “One way to promote the Greek language and Hellenism is to open charter schools,” he said. Archimedean is applying from further accreditation and said, if granted, “That will allow us to be accredited as a district, which means if we open a school in Alabama, it will be accredited and recognized by colleges.

Like many Greeks of the United States and Disapora, his passion comes from his heritage. “My grandparents were forced to leave Asian Minor because they wanted to maintain their identity as Greeks and Greek Orthodox Christians. They were willing to give up their entire livelihood to maintain their identity. The least we can do is make an effort to preserve it,” he said.

The school’s Chief Executive Business Officer Dimitri Bardoutsos, said the school will admit another 150 students in the next academic year and there is a clamor to attend because he said parents know the students will get a good education beyond Greek too. The school’s charter is with the Miami Dade County public school administration, to which it reports. Classes begin at kindergarten to groom students young. “Our goal is not just to graduate students but those who can enter colleges at the Ivy League level,” he said. “We pay attention to every individual student. We work with parents and students. This is a school of choice. Parents have to offer 300 volunteer hours a year and are part of the school and the process, and they are working together to improve education.”

The school’s President, Founder, and Chairman of the Board, George Kafkoulis, said, “The reason for the success of the school is the commitment to excellence. The school is based on two very important ideas of Greek civilization: language and the dedication to excellence, the rigorous teaching of mathematics and philosophy.” He said many parents weren’t initially interested in Greek, but wanted their children to have the benefit of a good education, but discovered the benefits of the students learning the language. He said the model can work for other schools to emulate. “This can be replicated … it’s a recipe that works in every environment,” he said. Even the Greek Ministry of Education, he said, is studying Archimedean to see how its methods can be used to teach Greek and other courses.

Haralambides said he’s gotten calls from people in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco, among other areas, who want to open an Archimedean-style academy that prepares students for college and teaches them Greek as well. “We need someone to spearhead it and is committed to spending the time to do it.” Sounds like he may be the best candidate for this.

During the presentation AtaTravel Ltd and Le Grand signed a cooperation agreement. Speaking at the event, AtaTravel’s director Vusal Aliyev emphasized: “AtaTravel was established in 2011 by AtaHolding OJSC and offers numerous services for organizing tours in all corners of the world, provides clients with services on booking hotels, air tickets, tours, transfers, insurance and visa support.

According to the agreement signed today, AtaTravel has become Le Grand’s official partner in Azerbaijan. We’ll organize trips and tours of Azerbaijani tourists to Greece. Besides which, in the future, taking advantage of tourist company Le Grand, we’ll begin to invite Greek tourists in our country”.

During his turn, Mr. Konhidis spoke regarding the beginning of cooperation with the Azerbaijani company: “Greece has an ancient history. Beautiful nature, recreational sites and antiquities of Greece attract the attention of tourists. Every year the number of inbound tourists to Greece from around the world increases. Our country has created on tourist sites all sorts of conditions for reception and full rest of tourists, including the future tourists from Azerbaijan”.

Le Grand was founded in Heraklion Crete in 1985. The Company offers high-level trips for visitors to all corners of Greece, including Crete, Rhodes, Kish, Santorini and other islands. The company annually takes approximately 200,000-215,000 tourists. Its guaranteed hotel fund is 2,000 rooms. The Company prefers not to accommodate its clients in different hotels and book all the seats at selected hotels for them.

(Source: ABC.AZ)