Author: Athanasios Koutoupas

Donald Trump Appoints Greek-American George Gigicos Deputy Assistant to the President

U.S. President elect Donald Trump on Thursday appointed Greek-American George Gigicos Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Advance.

Gigicos, a prominent member of the Greek-American community, was one of the first people to sign on with Trump’s presidential campaign, originally serving as the only member of the campaign’s advance team. He organized campaign events and rallies across the country, eventually managing around 100 staff members to help coordinate the rallies.

Gigicos studied at Birmingham-Southern College and began working in event planning and advance planning for political campaigns while still in school. According to Bloomberg, as a college student Gigicos worked in advance planning for the Treasury Department in the administration of George H.W. Bush. After graduating in 1990, Gigicos worked in advance and as an event planner for the Orange County Convention Center in Florida.

In 1999, Gigicos started the Telion Corporation, a communications firm specializing in event design, organization, and advance operations. As head of Telion, Gigicos worked in advance planning for President George W. Bush’s administration, his 2004 presidential campaign, and the presidential campaigns of John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

Reportedly, Gigicos, whose ancestors are from Kalamata, has in every Trump appearance tried to convince the Greek community that the new president shows an interest in Greece and the intention to promote the settlement of the Greek debt and the Cyprus issue.

(usa.greekreporter.com)

January 10, 2017
Computer science reimagines Hagia Sophia’s acoustics, offers journey back in time

An impressive figure of the architectural beauty hailing from the Byzantine-era, the Hagia Sophia at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square is still inspiring new studies, like the “Icons of Sound” project from Stanford University.

Having served as a cathedral, the mosque and now a museum over its 1,500-year-long lifespan, the Hagia Sophia is now the subject of a study from Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) and its art history department.

Focusing on the interior of the Hagia Sophia, the study digitally imprints the museum’s resonating acoustics accompanied by visuals to create an immersive experience. The “Icons of Sound” project employs thorough musicological research and reveals the Hagia Sophia’s mystical acoustic character. “The Hagia Sophia challenges our contemporary expectation of the intelligibility of language. The wet acoustics of the Hagia Sophia blur the intelligibility of the message, making words sound like emanation, emerging from the depth of the sea. Not surprisingly, much of the ritual at the Hagia Sophia involved chanting and not recitative speech,” said the team on the project’s official website.

The team applies a method by using balloon pops that identify the space’s acoustic parameters, allowing them to introduce a computer model. This brings the experience that makes it seem as if listeners were in the Hagia Sophia. For the study, the research team has collaborated with chamber choir Cappella Romana, which has performed Early Music including Byzantine, Slavonic, and Gregorian chants by applying the computational model. The choir has already given a series of concert performances and continues to make listeners feel as if they were in the Hagia Sophia.

Built in the sixth century, the Hagia Sophia, which means “Holy Wisdom” in Greek, was converted to a mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul, in what was then called Constantinople. In 1935 it was transformed into a museum. The masterpiece features an immense dome supported by huge pillars,its walls sheathed with marble and decorated with mosaics.

(en.protothema.gr)

January 10, 2017
How ‘Careem’ Hopes to Unite Egyptians After Cairo Cathedral Terror Attack

As a wave of sorrow and despair overtook the nation last week after a bomb was set off inside the St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, many were wondering how they can help. Unfortunately, many of these thoughts were ultimately ephemeral. However, for Wael Fakharany, Managing Director of the car service application Careem, the thought of helping actually materialized into something real.

Fakharany set up an urgent meeting with the highest ranking Coptic figure in Egypt: Pope Tawadros II. According to an article written by Fakharany himself, Careem is launching a very simple initiative. The transportation network company is going to donate one Egyptian Pound from every Careem ride in the entirety of Egypt to a collective fund aimed at aiding the families of those who were injured or deceased as a result of the attack.

The latest initiative by Careem comes after it had decided to offer free rides to anyone travelling to a hospital to donate blood for the victims of the deadly terrorist attack.

For Careem, free rides for blood donation, which Uber also provided afterwards, was not enough.

“We felt we were in a position to do more. We felt like we had access to tools that would enable us to do more than just give our blood,” explains Fakharany in his blog post on Medium, adding that he managed to set up a one-on-one meeting with the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

“We wanted to use the tool we had at our disposal — Careem — in order to provide an umbrella and a banner under which Egyptians could unite and come together as one nation to help out,” explains Fakharany, continuing that the simple act could raise millions of Egyptian Pounds.

“Pope Tawadros II blessed my proposition and told me that we had his full support to go forward with what I had proposed to him,” writes Fakharany.

“I want every Egyptian to help us in this very simple way. Just ride a Careem between now and December 31st.”

Now as much as this initiative raises the question of whether the Fakharany-led Careem is launching this initiative to increase ridership and profits or not, we must acknowledge one thing: Fakharany and Careem are using the platform they have to make a difference. This initiative, regardless of all other aspects, epitomizes a company using the tools at its disposal to give back to the community and to encourage unity in a time of disunity; this initiative is what corporate social responsibility means.

Regardless of Careem and its initiative, the private sector in Egypt has the power to make a difference. This is especially the case when one takes into consideration that Egypt is a developing country that is, without a doubt, in need of all the social benefits that the private sector can provide the community with.

In a time of political, economic and social distress, will the private sector follow in Careem’s footsteps and make use of its platform to help our country, or not?

(www.crpme.gr)

January 5, 2017
Egypt’s FM discusses regional issues with EU High Representative Mogherini

Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry met on Tuesday with High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini in Cairo where they discussed a number of international issues, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

A statement by the ministry’s spokesperson said that Shoukry and Mogherini discussed Egyptian-EU relations as well as coordination between Egypt and the EU in facing various regional crises.

Shoukry also spoke with Mogherini about Egypt’s economic reform programme as well as the fight against terrorism and the regional migrant crisis.

Federica Mogherini relayed to Shoukry the EU’s stance on the situation in Syria and expressed the EU’s support of Egypt’s efforts in fighting radicalism.

The meeting came on the sidelines of the fourth joint meeting between Arab foreign ministers and their European counterparts, which took place at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

(english.ahram.org.eg)

December 24, 2016