Greek Community of Alexandria

Category: GREEK DIASPORA

News about Greeks around the world

  • Greek Doctor Afksendiyos Kalangos has saved the life of over 15,000 children

    Greek Doctor Afksendiyos Kalangos has saved the life of over 15,000 children

    ΚαλάνγκοςThis amazing Greek defines humanity and filotimo. He has received various awards and has been named the “Modern Missionary of Medicine”. However, he is not interested in titles, awards, or money. Dr. Afksendiyos Kalangos loves to save lives and restore the smiles of desperate poor children with heart problems. Dr. Kalangos has performed over 15.000 surgeries in the last decade to poor children all over the world for FREE. He is the Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital of Geneva.

    In 1998, Dr. Afksendiyos Kalangos founded the charity institution «Coeurs pour tous» (Hearts for All), and  since then he is surrounded by a group of surgeons with common ideals, offering valuable medical services to people in need around the world.

    He graduated in 1984 at the age 23, from the American Medical Faculty of Istanbul, he specialized himself in surgery in London and then he spent five additional years of study in order to be devoted to heart surgery for children and babies in Paris and  in the U.S. Eventually he became a professor at the University of Geneva at his early 40s.

    He loves the smell of cinnamon and he always has a bottle of it in his office. He says that cinnamon regenerates him, but it also reminds him of the place of his origin Constantinople.

    As a son of a doctor, his father was a physician, head physician of the paediatric hospital in Istanbul Baloukli, he followed his father’s words, to make his life’s goal the works and not the money. It’s no wonder that a road in Istanbul has been named after his father, who died in 2004, having completed 65 years of devotion to patients. “A man, who could cure any disease” as the Turks say even today.

    As a son of a doctor, his father was a physician, head physician of the paediatric hospital in Istanbul Baloukli, he followed his father’s words, to make his life’s goal the work and not the money. It’s no wonder that a road to Istanbul has been named after his father, who died in 2004, having completed 65 years of devotion to patients. “A man, who could cure any disease” as the Turks say even today!

    (www.greekgateway.com)

  • Greek Embassy Reopens in Tripoli, Libya

    Greek Embassy Reopens in Tripoli, Libya

    ΓενικάDiplomatic missions suspended their activities at the Embassy in Tripoli on July 31, 2014, with the evacuation of a total of 186 Greek and foreign citizens. Now, Greece is planning to normalize ties with Libya again say diplomatic sources. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias’ visit to Tripoli on November 29 is a precursor to the reopening of the embassy in the war-torn country.

    Having deemed the area where the former embassy had been housed as unsafe, Greek authorities are currently looking at other embassy facilities in the city where previous diplomatic operations of other countries had operated. The return of Greek diplomatic representation to Libya merely reaffirms the close partnership that both countries have always enjoyed with numerous bilateral agreements.

    In the past, Greece has assisted Libya on both a political and humanitarian level. Since the start of the revolution in 2011, Greek hospitals have treated a number of injured Libyans.

    (world.greekreporter.com)

  • Mary Katrantzou Returns to Her Greek Roots with Classical Goddesses and Minoan Princesses in Spring 2017 Collection

    Mary Katrantzou Returns to Her Greek Roots with Classical Goddesses and Minoan Princesses in Spring 2017 Collection

    Μόδα“It’s funny, I never wanted to use classical Greek art, because being from there, it seemed too obvious,” she said with a shrug after her show to a journalist from Vogue. “But this time, I thought, ‘Why not?’”

    And with the “Why not?” acclaimed fashion designer Mary Katrantzou has presented one of her boldest ever collections featuring obvious hints of her Greek heritage and roots.

    She recalled a childhood visit to the ancient palace of Knossos, on Crete, the center of the Minoan civilization, which was a matriarchal society.

    This was one of Katrantzou’s angles, the profiles of Minoan priestesses or goddesses, which appear in Cretan murals and the silhouetted paintings on Greek vases and plates, which she transposed onto the bodices of dresses, and, in a couple of cases, printed onto shimmery chain-mail tunics.

    Katrantzou said she was also triggered by the words of a girlfriend who happened to remark, “Your work is so psychedelic!” She’d not seen her many-layered digital compositions that way before, but it led her to search out the trippy graphics of late-’60s and early-’70s music posters. So it went: Swirly prog-rock patterns met the symbols of the ancient Greek world in flared trousers and stretch T-shirts, layered under lots of the embellished dresses that have become Katrantzou’s signature.

    Kantrantzou is one of Greece’s most successful exports in the field of fashion. Now London based, the designer’s clothes have adorned some of pop culture’s biggest celebrities. Rihanna counts as one of her biggest fans as do Sara Jessica Parker and Angie Harmon.

    (www.pappaspost.com)

  • Greek consulates around the world to issue official documents

    Greek consulates around the world to issue official documents

    ΟμογένειαThe ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs on Friday launched an initiative that will allow Greeks living abroad to apply for official certificates and documents from the country’s consular services around the world.

    The new scheme will operate in pilot mode for a week at the Greek Consulate in Dusseldorf, which is home to hundreds of Greeks who can benefit from the new service. Titled “Proxenos” (Consul), it will allow Greeks all over the world to get hold of birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as other documents within minutes from their nearest consulate, which will have access to central public records databases.

    Also on Friday, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias announced plans to digitize the ministry’s history archive and to improve its translation service.

    (www.ekathimerini.com)