Greece this month february 2015

Greece

Greece This month - February 2015

This month

In this issue:

• Eurozone approves Greek reform proposals.

• The Customs of the Greek Carnival ‘Clean Monday’ • Rebetiko Carnival: The story behind the scenes • PoWer Community & Desmos: The Importance of Volunteering • Greek food entrepreneurship in London • ‘Greek scent’ in the Oscars 2015

Eurozone approves Greek reform proposals Tax evasion and corruption top governmental priorities

After intensive negotiations in Brussels last week and following the deal reached in the last Eurogroup of February 20, the eurozone’s 19 finance ministers have approved on February 24, a six-page list of reforms submitted Monday night by the Greek government, clearing one of the last hurdles to extending its €172bn bailout for another four months.

The approval, which came in a teleconference between the ministers and representatives of the three institutions that monitor Greece’s rescue programme, shifts the debate of the Greek programme to national capitals, where several eurozone parliaments must approve the extension before week’s end.

“We call on the Greek authorities to 1

further develop and broaden the list of reform measure,” the eurozone said in a statement.

So far, the reform list “is sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point,” EU Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici stated, adding that : “We are encouraged by the commitment to combat tax evasion and corruption ... as well as to pursue reforms to modernize the public administration.”

In its list of reforms, the Greek government says it will combat tax evasion and corruption, reduce bureaucracy, review public spending, modernize the pension system, reform the judicial system and

address rising poverty through measures that have “no fiscal effect.” It says authorities will “turn the fight against corruption into a national priority.”

According to the British newspaper Financial Times, the most crucial approval will come in the German Bundestag, where there remains strong scepticism about the new Greek government’s ability to meet the programme’s reform requirements.The prospect of the approval had sent Greek stocks surging earlier on Tuesday, with the ASE Index up 8.4 per cent, as FT reports.

Meanwhile, good news for the Greek economy as the European Commission released its economic forecast Thursday,

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February 19, stating that Greek economic growth rate is expected to reach 1.0 pct in 2014, rising to 2.5 pct in 2015 and 3.6 pct in 2016. The Commission, however, noted that these forecasts were based on the condition of fully implementing commitments included in an economic adjustment program.

Economic growth in the Eurozone is projected to reach 0.8 pct in 2014, 1.3 pct in 2015 and 1.9 pct in 2016, while for the EU is projected economic growth rates of 1.3 pct in 2014, 1.7 pct in 2015 and 2.1 pct in 2016.

The unemployment rate is expected to fall from 26.6 pct in 2014 to 25 pct in 2015 and 22 pct in 2016 in Greece, while in the Eurozone the unemployment rate is projected to fall from 11.6 pct in 2014 to 11.2 pct this year and 10.6 pct in 2016.

Greece’s fiscal deficit is projected at -2.5 pct of GDP in 2014 and to return to surplus of 1.1 pct in 2015 and 1.6 pct in 2016. The country’s public debt is expected to fall from 176.3 pct of GDP in 2014 to 170.2 pct this year and to 159.2 pct in 2015, while the inflation rate is projected to ease from -1.4 pct in 2014 to -0.3 pct this year and to return to positive ground (0.7 pct) in 2016.

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Greece This month - February 2015

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“Clean Monday” & The Customs of the Greek Carnival Carnival is one of the most enjoyable periods of the year taking place in February(this year on 22nd). There are plenty of traditions that differ from region to region all around Greece. Among them, the wellknown Carnivals of Patras and Xanthis are those that traditionally make the difference, where the preparations start one year earlier.

But which are the origins of the word ‘carnival’? Many versions exist, but the dominant one is that the word owes its roots from the Latin name “carne vale” which means “end of the meat”, as according to the Greek Or-

thodox tradition and religion, the day of the Carnival is the day that the clergy stops eating meat and the 40 days Lent ,till the Easter, begins.

In Greece, these events are closely connected to the ancient pagan rituals, honoring the Greek God of wine, Dionysus.

According to the Greek mythology and tradition, the celebrations were dedicated to the return and the regeneration of spring also known as “Dionysia”. During these festivities Dionysus’ followers were dressed up as satyrs (the goat-like companion of Dionysus) and run screaming through the city were other celebrations were happening, a custom that exists till today.

The next day of the Sunday Carnival is called ‘Kathara Deutera’, translated in English as ‘Clean Monday’, as it is regarded as the day for the “cleaning” of the body and soul (celebrated this year on February 23).

Concisely, Lent has a strong religious character for the Christian calendar and

the Christians all over the world. This first day of the Lent is famous for the nutritional vegan (non-dairy) habits.

It is also a bank holiday for Greece, where people organize excursions and open-door picnics with the mainly meat-free Greek deli ingredients like Olives, ‘tarama’, halvah, fruit and salads, shellfish and a special bread, called “lagana”, which is produced specially for this time of the year, something like the Italian focaccia in size but without adding oil.

The flying kites complete this traditional open- door landscape, highlighting the coming of spring. “Every year it’s better because last year we celebrated with sleet.

So I’m certain next year we’ll have sunshine,” the mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis stated, who visited the Philopappos Hill for the Clean Monday celebrations.

“There’s a message of optimism in every neighbourhood of Athens where celebrations were organised. This is a great message of hope, optimism and love for the people,” he added.

For all those reasons, Greeks, all over the world, are trying to keep alive all these habits and customs that form the Greek tradition and culture. In London, the Hellenic Centre organizes special events and festivities for that day of the year, such as masquerade dance parties and traditional vegetarian lunches for the celebration of ‘Clean Monday’.

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Greece This month - February 2015

Rebetiko Carnival

The story behind the scenes

Last summer in London was more special than usual not only because of the unprecedented high temperatures but also for an unprecedented music festival. For the first time in London, a group of Greek musicians organized a festival dedicated to the Rebetiko music, Rebetiko Carnival was on the map.

In a small music stage at Camden Town the Greek music band Plastikes Karekles after their usual monthly gig made a big thought. Pavlos Carvalho, the leader of the group suggested: “ What if we organize not only a gig per month dedicated to Rebetiko, but a whole month ?” . The idea at that point was pretty much crazy and unrealizable. But day by day this idea grew bigger and bigger with more inputs and bigger expectations and finally, last June 2014 the whole month was dedicated to Rebetiko music and modern composers 5

as well as all those influenced by Rebetiko music such as Mikis Theodorakis. The band performed the ‘Epitaph’, one of Mikis Theodorakis’ biggest opus, in Royal Academy of Music!

Pavlos Carvalho a half Greek and half Brazilian classical cellist and bouzouki player, Sarah Dubost-Hautefeuille a French classical cellist, and guitar player as well, Manolis Taouxis a bouzouki player who moved to London to work as a Food Scientist, Marina Deligianni an also Greek vocalist who continued her career in London from Athens the last 2 years, Maria Tsirodimitri the main guitarist of the group and a graphic designer and Stelios Katsatsidis (!) the accordionist of the group who left back his music career in Athens for studying “Alexander Technique” in London.

This is the core of the Plastikes Karekles with occasional changes in the band, depending on the needs. One of the group’s bouzouki players Manolis Taouxis mentions “We are so different people and musicians with different backgrounds and origins, but with one common destination: we share the same passion and love for good music and our belief that Greek music is something deeper than the touristic versions that we will easily come across when we live abroad. We believe that Rebetiko music is a small sample of our tradition and culture which is coming from far in years and will travel even further”.

The inaugural concert was dedicated of course to the ‘patriarch’ of Rebetiko, Markos Vambakaris, with a lecture for

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the history of the Rebetiko by the luthier Christos Spourdalakis the first guest of the Carnival who also offered his instruments for a proper traditional Greek musical instruments exhibition before the concert.

The following days passed with music from Smyrna with London based violinist Michalis Kouloumis and his band Meltem Trio. Asia Minor singing workshops, violin master classes with one of the best in his kind and second guest coming from Greece the violinist Kyriakos Gouventas in SOAS University, theater of shadows (Karagiozis) with one of the last muppet maker of the traditional Greek Shadow theater, Athos Danelis.

A performance which was escorted by live music with Kyriakos Kouventas leading the violin. The last two concerts of the festival were the most breath taking, the Epitaph of Mikis Theodorakis at the Royal Academy of Music, in a classical arrangement with Plastikes Karekles and soprano Marina Theodoropoulou and the baritone Anastasios Michalis. The closing concert of the festival was a huge party within the small venue in Camden, full of people and the touching performance of Marina Deligianni in Rebetiko by Stavros Ksarchakos making a unique and rare atmosphere 6

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with all the spectators being in one big fellowship singing all together.

Rebetiko Festival was not only concerts and gigs but also had an offering and a charity aspect. In the framework of the Rebetiko Carnival Pavlos Carvalho and Plastikes Karekles lead a series of workshops with small students from English Schools from ages 6-17 teaching them Greek Traditional rhythms and creating a huge child choir singing Greek traditional tunes along with professional musicians.

According to Pavlos Carvalho new concerts have been already booked for 2015, in several venues among them the famous ‘King Place’. The prospects of the Carnival is to expand and share the important pieces of Greek culture and music tradition in a festival that will be established as London event.

For more info please visit rebetikocarnival.co.uk.

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PoWer Community and the NGO Desmos The Importance of Volunteering

PoWEr is a volunteering community, run by Greek and Cypriot students of the University of Leeds. Their actions have included so far fun activities such as pillow fights for good cause or charity football tournaments and music events. Each event provides a hand up to support charity institutions mainly across Greece and Cyprus, but also at the local community of Yorkshire. The team of Greece This Month

organization Desmos, which is based in Greece.

What are the aims of PoWEr? The aims of PoWEr is to organize fun and unique charity and volunteering events, so as people, and especially young people understand that “giving” is a very easy thing and fun doing! We have to include “volunteering” and “giving” in our everyday lives.

How many volunteers are in the PoWEr community?

At the moment we are 38 members and more than 180 volunteers from all over the world.

What does their decision to participate in humanitarian actions mean in practical terms? had the pleasure to meet Kyriakos KyriaThis is the third year that we are orgakopoulos, member of the non- profit orga- nizing charity events. In the past we have nization Desmos and one of the members organized a charity football tournament, a of the volunteering community PoWEr, live music night, a large pillow fight for a and to discuss about their achievements good cause, theme parties and this year a and their future ambitions as well as the mini festival of Greek music and a PoWEr social importance of volunteering in order Charity Challenge, which is going to be a to helps to em-poWEr our personalities. multi-activity event based on football.

Up to now we have provided heating fuel, What inspired Greek and Cypriot students food, pillows, clothes, basic every day in Leeds to run “PoWEr” volunteering products and this year medicine and medcommunity? ical equipment, all in cooperation with the The financial and social situation at our non profit organization Desmos. home country started creating discussions between us with ideas and ways of How do you handle difficult situations and changing things and help people in need. how easy is to get support for your projPoWEr is just the implementation of these ects? ideas in order to offer as much help as we At the first projects it was hard to percan, in cooperation with the non profit suade big companies and corporations 7

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to support some young students that are planning very big events. The success of the past years has brought more and more supporters and now things are relatively easier, although we would like more companies to support and donate some of their goods.

What has being the highlight of your volunteering action?

To be honest each event was very important for us. It’s like a chain, one brings the other, so all of them are important. There are plenty of people working for those

events and plenty of organizations and individuals supporting us. If we had to choose our highlights would be when we received 3 awards for our first event in 2013 and it was something very rewarding for all volunteers and participants. Another highlight is when companies and individuals call us when they want to help, volunteer and generally support but they don’t know how so they get our advice.

That means a lot to us as they appreciate our efforts.

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What are poWEr’s future plans and actions?

This year we have two big events. The first one is on February 25, which is a mini Greek music festival with 5 music groups.

The second one is on March 8, and it’s a huge football tournament of men and women, the “PoWEr Charity Challenge”.

In parallel there will be lots of events, competitions, games and activities for young and older people.All the money will be used in order to provide medicine and medical equipment to welfare institutions in Greece, in cooperation with the non profit organization Desmos. In addition, companies will donate 1kg or 1 package of their products to charities for each goal that is going to be scored in the tournament. Finally we are going to help and support the local community of Leeds and Yorkshire.

How can someone get involved?

They could simply send us an email at powerleeds@gmail.com or visit our facebook page https://www.facebook. com/poWEr.Official.Page and our facebook event https://www.facebook.com/ events/1547928402146524

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Greek Food Entrepreneurship in London

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in Greek cuisine all around London; partly not only thanks to the importance of the Greek tourist sector, regarding the incredible figures of international tourist arrivals in Greece during the two past years (confirming that the country remains a world class destination on the international tourism map) but also thanks to the rising scientific research about the Mediterranean diet and its connection to Greek cuisine.

Another reason is that all the Greek restaurants and tavernas in London have evolved from the dish-smashing customs of the past and in Hollywood films, and now offer a dining experience that combines the traditional values of Greek hospitality with some modern twists in food styling. For all those reasons, and many more, Greek cuisine is now the talk of the town in the British capital.

Specifically in 2014, four new restaurants

have opened in London, two in Soho and the other two at King’s Cross and Marylebone, a fact that has resulted in declaring the Greek as an eating trend of 2014 by the British magazine Time Out London. With these new additions, the total number of Greek and Greek-Cypriot restaurants exceeds 100.

The majority of the Greek businessmen are young people, who have studied in the UK, in other scientific fields, but with a great passion about Greek cuisine, who have managed to develop a cuisine that is both traditional and gourmet, underlying, at the same time, that the Greek spirit of entrepreneurship is present and alive in London.

The above Greek initiates are one part of the dynamic aspect that lies beneath the Greek entrepreneurship and spirit in the UK. In many supermarkets in London one can find several Greek labels, regard10

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ing not only the famous ‘feta cheese’ and Greek yogurt, but also the Greek olive oil, pasta and pastries and even soft drinks. These Greek delis have raised the country’s exports, making them available to the wider public, an inconceivable fact five years ago.

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‘A scent’ of Greece in the Oscars 2015

Either by the plentiful restaurants and tavernas or by the supply of Greek products, it seems that Greek cuisine is not a passing fancy, but rather a durable trend. It has passed successfully the test of time, and it continues its bright future, applying to the needs not only of the large, vibrant Greek community in London, but to any British or other foreign national who want to taste authentic Greek cuisine away from its motherland. Without a doubt, the Greek food entrepreneurship in London has still a lot to offer to everyone interested.

According to reviews posted in TripAdvisor, Exodus is the best Greek restaurant in London, while Mazi in Notting Hill is considered the best by TimeOut London. Other Greek restaurants in London are Andy’s Taverna in Camden, Carob Tree in Highgate Road, and Opso in Marylebone. The list includes also Lemonia in Primrose Hill, and Greek Affair in Notting Hill Gate. Three of the best delis in London are The Life Goddess in Bloomsbury and Soho, Ergon in Marylebone, and Carpo near Piccadilly Circus.

The 87th Academy Awards held on February 22, are traditionally the biggest night of the year in Hollywood, boasting a guestlist that reads like a who’s who in the entertainment business - and the 2015 ceremony did not disappoint. This time, the ceremony had a ‘Greek scent’ as two of the Oscar winners are somehow related to Greece.

The Greek-French composer of the soundtrack for the film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, Alexandre Desplat won the Oscar for the Best Original Score, who during his speech, he thanked. amongst others, his Greek mother for introducing him to Greek music.

Last but not least, the American actor and this year’s Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor for the film ‘Birdman’ is playing one of the key roles in the forthcoming film “Worlds Apart”, which is now under filming process in Greece, directed by the well- known director and actor, Christophoros Papakaliatis.

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