HELADA Monthly Meeting  

7 PM, Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous St, Mets

Read about some of our past events

HELADA Monthly Meeting  

7 PM, Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous St., Mets

13 people, not bad considering the number of members currently out of town. Karen Lee chaired and tried to forge ahead to the program, but there was interest in and some discussion of:

PROGRAM We had another VERY informative presentation, this time by the head of KAPE (CRES) on wind energy generation, in Greece and EU. Chris Woodfin will be sending more detailed notes on the content shortly.

OLD BUSINESS . John Lewis noted that the showing of An Inconvenient Truth on the 17thit did not have the turnout we'd hoped for, due to several reasons, not the least of which was the late date the distributor finally gave us (and co-sponsors, DAGR) and the welter of other showings by Goulandris and EcoWeek. There is still some interest in letting Gore know the state of play here. Alicia noted that the film has been playing since release in commercial cinemas all over Europe, and ergo reaching a much larger audience. We agreed that the AIT organizing committee will get our facts and speculations sorted out, and decide on a letter to Gore at the next meeting. Alicia will rough up her observations for the committee to flesh out. John also pointed out the need for more efficient communication facilities for 'busy' projects such as this one.

There seems to be consensus that meeting through the summer is a good idea, so we can get a leg up on autumn, when projects need to be well in progerss, and when pre-primary activity for 2008 will be in full swing.

The meeting adjourned to taverna as usual, with some excited talk about supporting renewable energy development, and maybe even investing in it, as we left.

Click here for Map to Athens Centre

HELADA Monthly Meeting  and Pita Cutting

Tuesday at 7 PM, Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous St., Mets

Taverna afterwards, just down the street!

Ergo Politon is a government-sponsored organization for promoting volunteerism in Greece. They are building an on-line data base of donors and volunteer organizations, at which HELADA can register.

We also discussed education reform in Greece, an issue triggered by the December 15, 2006 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/chronicle/). An article reports that the University of Indianapolis campus in Greece has improperly promoted deferments of military service. Various HELADA members would like to encourage the liberalization of higher education in Greece, including a strong role for U.S. universities. Brady volunteered to collect more information on this and send it to interested parties.

HELADA Monthly Meeting 

  Helada convened on November 8 at 7pm at the Athens Center to review results of the U.S. midterm elections. There was much cheering for the Democratic sweep of the House and firm hopes for control of the Senate (final results delayed in Virginia and Montana). Cheers also on news of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. Dan Jianu gave us a fine Powerpoint on the mid-term election results. Half-way through, phones started going off with the news of Rumsfeld's resignation. We watched bits of GWB's press conference on streaming video. 
We assessed interest in taking part in a valonia oak replanting project. Fifteen came to the taverna dinner afterwards.

HELADA Monthly Meeting 

Tuesday at 7 PM, Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous St., Mets

HELADA Monthly Meeting 

 Twenty-three participants, chaired by Alicia Coriolano. 

Introductions - Stateside Reports Ellen R., led off with a report on New Hampshire, noting the state, once 'red' seems to have a good opportunity to go blue over the next 2 elections. Nicolas P. reported on Florida where the senatorial campaign of the infamous secretary of state Katharine Harris seems to be floundering. Matthew J. described the efforts of progressive voters to replace Senator Lieberman, while other members raised current concerns that Lieberman might then run as GOP or, worse, as an independent. Vivian noted that another Republican had narrowly won the special election to replace jailed California Republican congressman Duke Cunningham. Karen Lee predicted that Dems would take the two principal races in Ohio -- US senator and governor -- due to rolling scandal revelations all involving GOPs. 

Vote Integrity - Karen Lee presented the main points on vote integrity in the US and as it concerns AmCits abroad: Purging of voter rolls; strong-arming vulnerable voters; disallowing provisional ballots; discouraging voting w/ long lines, waits; confusing machines, instructions; hacking touch-screens, no VVPAT o Hacking scanner/counter programs o Failing to count absentee ballots Because of pressure to buy new voting machines -- to eliminate problems seen in Florida in 2000 -- counties have ordered touchscreen machines. There are many delays, software flaws and bad security. But in order to get the state and federal money for purchase, counties have forged ahead.

Many state Dem parties are mounting efforts to recruit poll watchers and to counter local efforts to suppress the vote. It was recommended that members see what's going on in their home states and offer to help. If you're in the US later this summer/fall, volunteer. If you're abroad, contact your county Board of Elections and ask them to make sure you're registered, your ballot has been sent/received/counted. Let them know you're keeping an eye on them.

Voter Registration Drive - Progress Report Brady Kiesling shared the 'Myths of Voting' news release he's prepared, based on a release we got through Dems Abroad. This was translated by Vanya C, and late additions were quickly edited on-site by John L. More 'how to register' cards were passed out for members to take with them to outlying holiday destinations. If you need more cards, the file for printing on card stock is on the website.

Website-Blog - Update Cassi reported on the blog facility. The goal is to link blog-type software to the HELADA website, ideally replacing the current yahoo list as an integrated tool for member communication. We are currently working out the wrinkles to provide privacy, control of who can read/post, and to solve other 'preference' issues, such as the ability to continue accessing the communication site via email. (Some members prefer to read online; others like to read via email.) All these preferences need to be addressed. The facility should be ready within the next month.

Event Planning - Film: An Inconvenient Truth Anna Haughton, Alicia Coriolano and Ellen Rocco are looking into the possibility of getting an Athens showing of Al Gore's important film on environmental degradation. This is in early-stage planning but hopefully will end up as a co-sponsor with a local cinema and, possibly, with DAG.

Secretary and Press Secretary - Needed Alicia asked for volunteers to help with two roles in the group. 

HELADA Monthly Meeting 

 Twenty-one participants. Had a sometimes impassioned discussion of impeachment of President Bush, led by Karen Lee with spirited assistance from a number of participants. Brady asked what the impact of an aggressive impeachment campaign would have on HELADA's profile in Greece.

We all accepted gratefully the following formulation by one of the wise lawyers present:

"We believe President Bush and members of his Administration have committed impeachable offenses, and therefore thorough investigation by Congress is warranted."

We then went off to the taverna.

A stimulating lecture to a full house at the main HAU auditorium, very tough on the U.S. media for tamely supporting (or worse) U.S. government policies. 

We were about 26 people all told, including newcomers.  We began with a slide show of photos from the Mt. Hymettus clean-up (thank you Danish Institute for the projector).

Community announcements included an update by Cassi Moghan on her human rights/migrant blog "THISISNOTMYCOUNTRY" at  http://deviousdiva.wordpress.com/. Reminder of Animal Rights organization SOZO's annual bazaar in Kolonaki Square this Saturday, April 15, 10 AM till 5 PM. Lots of good plants and other things.  

Distinguished poet Craig Arnold reads his work at Athens Centre Thursday, April 13 at 7:30 PM.

Many of us had read and been horrified by the New Yorker piece by Sy Hersh, according to which President Bush believes he has a personal duty to prevent Iran from developing the capacity to build nuclear weapons, including by preemptive U.S. use of nuclear weapons against Iraqi nuclear facilities. If Hersh is correct, the U.S. government is on the verge of imposing a nightmare, one that cannot possibly work in the real world.

Karen Lee did a snazzy PowerPoint presentation on prospecting for voters.  We'll put our bilingual fliers on the web site shortly (Brady passed around some two-sided business cards Judy Blish and he had designed). Meanwhile, Chris Woodfin volunteered to do some e-prospecting, and Aliki Ammerman to translate our voter outreach press release. Mimi Ninos Torre and other volunteered to plug voter registration for the ACS Spring Fair and at Tasis. Please call Beth Hondros at 693 666 6462 to volunteer for DAG's voter registration kickoff May 5-7.  

John Psaropoulos, editor of the Athens News, made a cameo appearance to solicit community input on how to improve his worthy weekly. We congratulated him on his efforts to broaden AN's utility to the community.

Mt. Hymettus Cleanup:

It was a wonderful day on the mountain, with 45 or so volunteers and a ton of garbage (click here for details and pictures).  After picking up trash for ninety minutes we had a fine picnic at Kaisariani monastery.

 (and see pictures from Rhamnous last year)

HELADA Meeting Notes, MARCH 13, 2006

We were a big crowd at Athens Centre, 27 people in all. Thank you Kristin and Karen for finding more wine! Yvette did a great briefing on Habitat for Humanity. Fliers are almost ready for our register-to-vote drive. Sentiment on impeachment was evenly divided. Brady briefed on wiretapping scandal. And then lively dinner at Vyrinis. Please spread the word to all your friends on Habitat and Hymettus. 

Friends of Habitat for Humanity, Greater Athens 

Athens City Council Member Yvette Jarvis and Habitat for Humanity Office Manager Angela Kousouli gave us an inspirational briefing on the work of Habitat for Humanity in Greece. Their primary mission is to help the homeless and ill-housed in Greece, but after Hurricane Katrina they mobilized for a charity concert that raised $80,000 for New Orleans reconstruction. Projects in Greece now include refurbishing a building for Smile of the Child, helping a day-care center for migrants in Patision, and working with stranded infants at the Alexandra Hospital opposite the U.S. Embassy. The obstacles are many, including slow, complex bureaucracy, but they've already transformed some buildings and lives. Our members offered various suggestions.

Friends of Habitat for Humanity is looking for volunteers of all kinds, including unskilled people willing to scrape paint. A gift from heaven would be a trained engineer to help them evaluate old buildings, and masons, plumbers and electricians. Donations, of course, are vital. President is Dr. Connie Burke. Their office is at Stratigou Eindou 14, 18536 Piraeus, telephone 210 418 2251, e-mail hfhgr@hol.gr. Angela runs the office M-F, 10 AM until 4 PM. A web site is in the works. Donations through Hellenic Bank, IBAN No GR71 0320 0010 0000 0000 0683 029

Hymettus Clean-up 

There was an inspiring show of hands for participation in the April 2 Hymettus clean-up. John Lewis of Biotrek offered sacks and Girl Scouts. Regina Tassitano, Rosemary Donnelly, and Caroline Littell have volunteered to coordinate the picnic. Judy Blish is working on tee shirt designs. Recruit your friends, and send Brady a quick email at brady@helada.org.

Get Out the Vote - Registration drive 

We are reaching out to the thousands of Greek-Americans, scattered throughout Greece, who do not vote in U.S. elections. Judy Blish has designed a fine get-out-the-vote flier. Once it's approved, we'll e-mail it to all of you with a request that you post it in places where Americans hang out, pass it on to U.S. absentee voters and potential voters, and work with Greek local media, governments, businesses, and organizations to make sure every U.S. citizen in Greece understands how easy and necessary it is to vote in the November 2006 Congressional elections. Sofia Sianis pointed out the important role of the Greek-American organizations, such as her own Pan-Arcadians. 

Impeachment Resolution 

There wasn't enough time remaining to do justice to this major U.S. political question. Brady introduced the arguments for lending HELADA's name to the impeachment campaign against President Bush. John Lewis argued strongly that impeachment is a lousy way to run a democracy. Karen Lee had multiple counterarguments that might have shifted some votes, but the chairman cut off the debate and passed around paper ballots asking a yes or no on impeachment. A near-perfect deadlock ensued, 12 to 12 with one blank, one not voting, one "not yet" and one "censure but not impeach." We will raise the issue again with better preparation and a specific text to discuss. 

Issue Reports: 

Judy Blish reported briefly on the lack of progress of migrants in getting legal residence in Greece. There is a new move to recruit 50,000 temporary agricultural workers, but it sounds unworkable. Kristin highlighted the cuts in higher education funding in the U.S. Brady gave his interpretation of the Vodafone wiretapping scandal and what it all meant. He noted the ongoing scandal about warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens in the U.S. It looks as if the Senate plans not to investigate but rather to accept a White House idea of toothless Congressional oversight of the illegal program in exchange for making it retroactively legal.

 Twenty of us then walked off to dinner at Vyrinis.

HELADA Monthly Meeting 

Monday at 7 PM, Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous St., Mets

 Harolynne Bobis gave a presentation on Overseas Vote Foundation and its nifty new voter registration software. Kristin Zissis gave a brief talk on Bush administration educational program cuts and their disastrous impact.  We agreed that the next volunteer event will be a Mt. Hymettus clean-up event on April 2, 2006, with picnic and archaeological/environmental talks.

Democrats Abroad Meeting 

PM, University of Indianopolis Cultural Center, Markou Avriliou 5, Plaka (beside Tower of the Winds)

Former U.S. diplomat Brady Kiesling spoke on U.S. foreign policy after the Iraq War to an audience of 25 stalwarts who braved the freezing cold and snow.  Democrats Abroad is gearing up for its 2006 Voter registration process, and needs volunteers.

HELADA Monthly Meeting and New Year Pita Cutting 

Monday at 7 PM, Athens Centre, 48 Archimidous St., Mets

Eighteen of us met, cut our vasilopita (flouri found by Ellen Rocco), had a lively conversation on the agenda:

Primary Season opens in March:  Voter Registration, Absentee Ballot Requests

Helada's web site glitch (Geoffrey has a web-literate friend)

Alito - Send letters, faxes, calls NOW!

Enviro project ideas (beach cleanup or something more ambitious

Dems Abroad France is calling for Bush's impeachment. Should we join ? 

We repaired afterwards for dinner at our local taverna.

HELADA Monthly Meeting - 

HELADA Thanksgiving Potluck 
29 of us, embodying a remarkable amount of experience as volunteers, students, lawyers, journalists, engineers, teachers, businesspersons, and miscellaneous, gathered at the house of Mandi Veil in Kifisia for a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner and some wonderful conversation about politics and everything else. 

See pictures by clicking here.

HELADA Monthly Meeting - 

At the Athens Centre we were 18 stalwarts, including newcomers Joanna Trilivas and Kristin Zissis, and visiting Canadian friend Roy Gaetz.  Roy gave a fascinating brief account of the issues a corporate lawyer faces negotiating big energy deals in poor African countries.  Exxon-Mobil searches for political stability, but oil wealth is inherently destabilizing in a corrupt, divided state.

The U.S.-wide Democratic National Committee house parties was the springboard for a lively discussion of the problems of the Democratic Party.

Judy Blish alerted us to upcoming events of the Migrants Forum (www.migrant.gr)

  Planning proceeded for the November 26 HELADA Thanksgiving potluck (see above).  Then a cheerful dinner at Virinis Taverna in Mets.

HELADA Monthly Meeting - Monday

We were 21 attendees, including guests.   After the usual glass of wine and a brief discussion of burning political issues in the U.S., Judy Blish made a brief presentation on the Greek Forum of Migrants.  Each of the main nationalities represented in the Athens migrant community has an organization to represent the interests of its members with the Greek state, not always very successfully.  The U.S. community, however, has no such representation.  With Judy and Karen Lee at work, HELADA is a natural organization to speak out for U.S. citizens.  We will explore this further.

We reminded all of the Habitat for Humanity Greece efforts at Katrina Relief Fund-Raising Efforts, particularly the concerts on 19 October and 2 November.

We welcomed Greek farmer Panayiotis Manikis and his three Japanese visitors.  Panayiotis gave a presentation on his efforts to spread his natural, non-anthropocentric ideas about reseeding the deforested Greek landscape.  His philosophy, which draws deeply from Taoist doctrine and the work of Japanese farmer-sage Manasobu Fukuoka, insists on leaving the final voice to nature.  We hope that the autumn rains cause the clay balls of seeds we helped scatter on Pendeli to sprout and flourish.  He hopes to do a large-scale reseeding project in Kenya in the coming months, the first major experiment with the method. 

Demetres Karavellas, the Director of  World Wildlife Fund Greece, backed by Fundraising Director Emily Kern, gave a brilliantly well-organized 15 minute presentation on the ambitious programs of WWF Greece.  With 37 full-time staff and some 300 volunteers among 18,000 Greek supporters, WWF does environmental field work in sensitive ecosystems, environmental education/awareness programs in schools, policy/legislative work.  WWF Greece is looking for skilled volunteers, and clearly has the organization capacity to make use even of volunteers who do not speak Greek.  Their telephone is 210 331 4893, website www.wwf.gr

SEED THE FUTURE -- HELADA PLANTING ON PENDELI 

Seven stalwart HELADA volunteers joined three charming young Japanese women and a group of Greek volunteers to scatter clay pellets full of seeds on a blighted hillside of Mt. Pendeli, in the Athens suburb of Anthousa.   Sponsor of the effort was Panayiotis Manikis, using a natural planting method developed by Manasobu Fukuoka. The mayor of Anthousa treated us all to bread and cheese afterwards.  E-mail Alicia Coriolano at alicor@odara.net for additional information. Follow this link for map and more details. 

HELADA Monthly Meeting - 

We were 22 strong at the Athens Centre.  After the meeting, 20 of us continued conversation at a local taverna until midnight.

Click here for minutes.

Coffee with eminent Environmental Law Professor Dan Esty at 2 pm at the Athens Hilton.

Flag Day: Take back the Flag!

The image of the US flag has been expropriated by the neo-conservative movement as a sign of extreme patriotism. We believe that the flag has the power to represent a different image of America and American beliefs. On Saturday, June 11^th a dozen of us met at Diane Katsiaficas’ house in Kokkino Limanaki, Rafina to create new images and meanings of the US flag. See our online exhibit of our work. Coordinators: Christine Counelis and Karen Lee 

Outing to see the play "Pure"
Twenty-six HELADA members and friends assembled at the Athinais cultural complex in Votanikos to watch Shireen Maanian in a remarkable one-woman play based on the life of a famous Bahai martyr.  We had drinks afterwards with Shireen and her husband Socrates, play director Judy Boyle, and composer Karen Solomon.

Earth Day HELADA Beach Cleanup

On 17 April, over 50 HELADA members and friends turned out to clean the beach at Rhamnous. It was a fantastic day! Besides cleaning the beach, we had a fantastic picnic lunch and visited the archeological site of Rhamnous. Click here for the full report!

Counter-Inauguration Poetry Reading