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This week in Greece > Show and Conferences October 8, 2007

Posted by grhomeboy in Shows & Conferences.
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Monday

  • The first Panhellenic congress on Tourism Quality begins at 10 a.m. in Siatista, Kozani prefecture. To Wednesday. For information call 2310 282682.

Tuesday

  • The Greek-German Chamber of Commerce hosts a conference on «The Greek Banking System as a Lever of Economic Development,» with keynote speaker EFG Eurobank head Nikos Nanopoulos. At 8 p.m. at the Grande Bretagne Hotel. For information call 210 6419000 or visit > www.german-chamber.gr

Thursday

  • The Hellenic Chamber’s Transport Association (EESYM) hosts a conference on «Island and Offshore Transport: Perspectives and Challenges,» at the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry. For details visit > www.eesym.gr
  • The fourth international conference on «Non-Destructive Testing: Skills-Applications-Innovations-Industrial Manufacturing-Aerospace-Marine,» begins at the Center of Mediterranean Architecture (CAM) in Hania, Crete. To Sunday. For details visit > www.hsnt.gr
  • The third Regional Electronic Security Forum on «Telecommunications Networks & Systems Security,» begins at the Nikopolis Hotel in Thessaloniki. The forum is hosted by the Southeastern Europe Telecommunication and Informatics Research Institute (INA). To tomorrow. For information call 2310 489386 or visit > www.esecurityforum.org

Friday

  • The second international exhibition of factory equipment FETEC 2007 opens its doors at the Mediterranean Exhibition Center (M.E.C.) in Peania. To Monday. For details visit > www.fetec.gr
  • The Nuclear Marketing conference begins at 9 a.m. at the Dais cultural center in Maroussi. For information call 210 8002866 or visit > www.emigroup.gr

Re-enactment of Battle of Lepanto held October 8, 2007

Posted by grhomeboy in Arts EventsGreece, Greek Culture Heritage.
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A scene from the re-enactment of the 1571 Battle of Lepanto at the medieval fortress of the coastal town of Nafpaktos, in southwest Greece, on Sunday, October 7, 2007.

lepanto_battle.jpg  A massive and multi-national re-enactment of the 1571 sea battle of Lepanto, which dashed hopes for Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean once and for all, occurred in the coastal town of Nafpaktos over the weekend, as October 7 marked the 436th anniversary of the decisive battle.

Delegations from Venice, Malta, Croatia and Austria, many of whose members were decked out in uniforms and regalia reminiscent of the era, participated in a variety of anniversary events. Among others, a 14-metre-long gondola, replete with knights aboard, along with choirs and various civic groups filled the fortress town, in southwestern Greece on the Patras Gulf, with their presence and performances.

“Within the new prospect of cooperation and peaceful cohabitation in the European Union, Nafpaktos Municipality establishes the multicultural character of these anniversary’s events, ones aimed at an alliance of peoples. Our aim is for the anniversary events to extend beyond Greece’s borders and to become a product of cooperation between the citizens and the cultural associations of the nations which took part in this naval battle,” Nafpaktos Mayor Thanassis Papathanassis stressed.

Italian ambassador to Greece, Gianpaolo Scarante, himself a native of Venice, announced that the Mayor of Nafpaktos will be invited next May to Venice’s well-known “Marriage to the Sea” (Festa della Sensa) festival. Ambassador Scarante also noted that the Venice regional authority will promote a programme, in cooperation with Greece, Spain Malta and Austria, for the collection of data to preserve the historical memory of the Battle of Lepanto.

The battle marked a significant victory for an allied Christian fleet, the Holy League, a coalition made up of the Republic of Venice, the Papacy, Spain, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Malta-based Knights Hospitaller and others, which thoroughly defeated a fleet of Ottoman war galleys.

Athina Onassis heiress caused Greek controversy October 8, 2007

Posted by grhomeboy in Sports & Games.
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The heiress Athina Onassis de Miranda has caused huge controversy in Athens by failing to attend a press conference, pronounce a word in Greek or even hand out cups to the winners of an equestrian event held in her mother’s memory.

Making her second visit to Athens in five years, the last surviving member of the shipping dynasty has been criticised for being herself: low-key and media-shy. Few Greeks could understand how the 22-year-old could spend nearly a week in Greece without visiting Skorpios, the Ionian island where her mother Christina was buried after her death in 1988. The heiress’s failure to appear in public to publicise an international horse show in Christina’s memory that she has backed was greeted with disbelief.

“From the day she arrived we had our first surprise,” wrote the local Sunday Espresso. “While many expected her to accompany her husband, the Brazilian equestrian Alvaro Alfonso de Miranda Neto, to the press conference, she shone through her failure to even be there.”

Athina Onassis de Miranda, who was raised by Lake Geneva with her three half-siblings, has avoided Greece since her mother’s death in Buenos Aires. Years of legal tussles between her father, Thierry Roussel, and the Onasssis Foundation, the Athenian trustees of her estate are believed to have estranged her further. At the age of 10, she revealed in a handwritten will that she intended to give her entire fortune away. But when she came into her $1.3 billion inheritance at the age of 21, Greeks had hoped she would change. In 2004, there was speculation that the talented equestrian would represent Greece in the Athens Olympics.

Far from embracing the country of her forefathers, however, Athina Onassis de Miranda has shunned it in favour of a cloistered life with her husband, hopscotching between Brussels and Sao Paolo.

“In the last five years she has spent precisely two days in Greece,” Alexis Mantheakis, the family’s former spokesman said. “Holding an event here in memory of her mother is nice, but what would make the Greek people happy is if she went to Skorpios every now and then and lit a candle for her mother, grandfather and other relatives who are buried there.”

Despite retaining servants on the island, where her grandfather Aristotle married Jackie Kennedy, the heiress has not visited the once fabled get-away since 1998. This year Athina shocked Greeks by failing to attend the funeral of Kalliroe Patronicola, her favourite aunt and last surviving sister of Aristotle Onassis, in Athens. Later she sold her mother’s Swiss chalet in St Moritz for €20 million and placed an ad in Greek newspapers for the sale of the Athenian site where the House of Onassis had once lived in splendour.

“Her whole attitude is very strange and very sad,” said one old family friend, requesting anonymity. “It is as if she wants nothing to do with her past and Greece.”

Greece’s President of Special Olympics interview in China October 8, 2007

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Shanghai impresses the world with its greatness and magnitude, and it gives a lot of pressure to Greece, the host country of 2011 Special Olympic World Summer Games, says Joanna Despotopoulou, President of Special Olympics Greece.

Joanna praised Shanghai’s organization of Special Olympics in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, “Shanghai has done a good job and the Chinese people are very hospitable. We are deeply impressed by the opening ceremony, and all the sport venues are beautiful and very well maintained.”

The on-going event has drawn more than 10,000 athletes and coaches, which makes it the biggest edition in the Games’ history. Shanghai has 40,000 volunteers from all walks of life serving the Special Olympics.

“We are amazed by the amount of volunteers. They are dedicated and efficient. Whenever we want them to find a solution for us, they can do it. Moreover, they can speak all languages including Greek, which makes our life here much easier,” she said.

Greece has sent a 145-member delegation including 15 observers to Shanghai, making it one of the biggest delegations to the event. However, Joanna noticed Shanghai’s traffic flow was hassled by the approaching typhoon Krosa and the ending of long holidays.

“Last week the traffic was smooth because it was holiday, but today we have some problems with the transportation. But we understand that every host country have slight problems, and with good will we’ll solve every problem, because our main purpose is to make athletes happy,” Joanna said.

The 10-day sport gala for people with intellectual disabilities will end on October 11, when the Special Olympic flag is expected to be handed over to Athens, Greece.

Greece’s Thanou possible 2000 Olympics 100m champion October 8, 2007

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Greek sprinter Ekaterini Thanou, involved in a doping controversy ahead of the 2004 Olympics, could retrospectively take the 100m gold medal for the Sydney 2000 Olympics after the winner, American sprinter Marion Jones, admitted to doping, AFP reports.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Monday it is awaiting the decision of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) before deciding on whether to strip Jones of her five Sydney 2000 Olympic medals.

“If the disciplinary body of the IAAF finds that she was not eligible for Sydney then the disciplinary commission of the IOC will take up the case,” said an IOC spokesman, adding the American could lose her gold medals for the 100m, 200m and 4×400m and bronze in both the 4×100m and the long jump.

If Jones is stripped of her 100m gold medal then logically the runner up Thanou should take the medal. However Thanou and her compatriot sprinter Kostas Kenteris were at the centre of doping controversy just before the Athens Olympics which resulted in a two-year suspension after they missed three doping tests. A Greek court on September 24 deferred until next June the perjury trial of Thanou and Kenteris over the mysterious motorcycle accident which led them to miss doping tests.

On Friday after months of denials, Jones pleaded guilty in court to lying to a federal agent about her use of banned steroids between September 2000 and July 2001. The Sydney Olympics were held on September 15. US Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth on Friday welcomed Jones’s “overdue” confession, and called on her to return her Olympic medals without waiting for sports officials to take them away.

Jones also faces being stripped by IAAF of her world championship medals comprising the 200m gold and the 100m silver in 2001. For this last event it is again Thanou who will benefit. The anti-doping regulations prescribe an eight-year limit after an offence for disciplinary proceeding to be launched which would be September 2008 for the Sydney Olympics.

Ancient Elephas Cypriotes and Phanourios Minutis fount in Cyprus October 8, 2007

Posted by grhomeboy in Archaeology Cyprus, Science.
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Cyprus > once home to the dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos > An excavation in the Famagusta [Ammochostos] district has unearthed animal remains including tiny elephants and hippopotamuses dating back some 250,000 years.

The recent findings in an area close to Ayia Napa revealed the skeletal remains of dwarf elephants (Elephas Cypriotes) and pygmy hippos (Phanourios Minutis) as well as remains of ancient rats and bats. Other remains include fossilised flesh of animals and remains of now extinct birds. Similar remains have also been discovered in other Mediterranean islands such as Sardinia and Crete.

In the past, similar findings from the Epipalaeolithic age were made with the most intriguing remains unearthed in areas close to Pentadaktylos and Xylotymbou. This is the fourth such dig to take place in six years with the first dig taking place in October 2001, the second between May and June 2002 and the third in October 2002.

According to scientists, Cyprus was not settled in the Old Stone Age, which led to the survival of numerous dwarf forms, such as the dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos. These animals are thought to have arrived on the island as a result of being swept out to sea while swimming off the coast of what is now Egypt. During the Epipalaeolithic age, it is believed that Cyprus was far closer to Egypt, with some estimating the distance as no more than 30 kilometres.

The extinction of the pygmy hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of Homo sapiens on the island. Piles of burned bones discovered in the caves of the first humans in Cyprus is further evidence that the first Cypriots may simply have gobbled them up. The caves were discovered on the southern coasts of the island.

The pygmy hippo, which measured 1.5 metres in length and 0.75 metres in height, became extinct between 11,000 and 9,000 years ago. The dwarf elephants were around one metre tall.

The reason behind the dwarfing of many animals in Cyprus came about through the process of insular dwarfism which is caused by gene pools limited to a small environment.
The skeletal remains discovered at the recent dig in Xylotymbou have been sent to the Geology and Paleontology Department, which operates under the wing of the University of Athens.