Tag: Diaspora

Engaging Greek Diaspora to Highlight Greek Talent & Entrepreneurship

At least 300,000 Greeks have abandoned their country during the last seven years of recession. Adding up to the thousands of well-educated and multilingual Greek expats that left before the crisis broke out, they are part of an unprecedented global mobility of skilled employees and entrepreneurs. What binds these people together is a collective identity, which can only be revealed and redefined within the context of an all-embracing community.

LoveGreece.com and Greek Travel Pages (GTP) have joined forces to showcase the entrepreneurial spirit of the Greeks to the world. The collaboration foresees a LoveGreece weekly column on the GTP Headlines news site which will include a video interview of a Greek entrepreneur that stands out for his/her creative thinking in the business world. Through the exchange of important news on Greek tourism and stories of the individuals hosted on LoveGreece.com, the two sites aim to maximize the recipients of their message. They both agree that Greece’s entrepreneurs and professionals, with their ethos and vision, are an important aspect of the country which is worth highlighting to the world.

This year, Greek Travel Pages (GTP) marks 40 years of continuous and creative presence in support of Greek tourism and industry professionals. GTP, along with Tornos News, constitutes the main source of information for Greek tourism for both professionals and final consumers in Greece and abroad. Through its networks and national and international partnerships, it aims to promote and facilitate networking among the sector’s enterprises.

Inspired by the dynamism and creativity of the Greek entrepreneurial spirit, LoveGreece was founded in 2013 as an initiative to boost and promote the country’s image abroad by profiling talented and successful Greeks. Powered by Gina Mamidaki, LoveGreece is an interactive forum showcasing talented Greeks with an outward-looking mentality and potential. It focuses on exceptional entrepreneurs and successful figures from the worlds of research and innovation, arts and culture, education and social responsibility. The aim is to raise people’s interest and help boost demand for Greek products and services. Love Greece ambassadors include artist Lydia Venieri and Spanish Writer and Hellenist Pedro Olalla.

Love Greece has also joined forces with New Diaspora to communicate the productivity of Greek people both within and outside the borders of their country. Scientists, new startupers, artists, entrepreneurs and businesspeople compose a bloomy and fruitful environment, which the representatives of the two organizations are promoting by creating and exchanging videos, articles and interviews for their respective sites.

Also launched in 2013, New Diaspora started out as a digital storytelling platform focusing on the new generation of Greeks living abroad during the financial crisis. It has since evolved into a participatory media channel whose aim is to tell the complex story of a migration wave in real time and at the same time engage, connect and inspire democratic dialogue and the prolific interaction of ideas, uncovering the common pulse of a ‘nation without borders’.

In its effort to empower Greek ‘neo-migrants’, its actions include the production and distribution of news stories, interviews and other forms of audiovisual and interactive content, the production of web documentaries, as well as the organization of live-streamed conferences, film screenings and networking events.

Within this framework, New Diaspora crosses the line that conventionally separates content providers from consumers. Users turn into participants, eventually becoming co-authors of their collective narrative. “Not only do we tell our story together, but we are also writing the script of the story we want to tell together. We become the story. By making it a story worth told, we can also become the change”.

(www.greeknewsagenda.gr)

February 21, 2016
New Greek Diaspora: The Changing Face of Emigration

A report titled “The Changing Face of Emigration: Harnessing the Potential of the New Greek Diaspora” by Jennifer Cavounidis – Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Planning and Economic Research in Greece (KEPE) – was recently published by the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. The author, whose research interests are human resources and migration, examines Greek emigration and its economic implications, before exploring policy directions to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits of this mobility. She discusses institutional reforms that can create more and better opportunities in Greece, thereby stemming outflows and rendering return an attractive option, and then turns her attention to Diaspora engagement policies to harness the assets, skills and knowledge of Greeks abroad to enhance development at home.

As pointed out in the report, for nearly a century, Greece was a traditional migrant-sending country; it transformed into a receiving country only in the 1970s, with a booming economy that allowed the government to introduce repatriation incentives, such as reductions in taxes and import duties. In the wake of the devastating economic crisis that began in 2008, Greece is once again experiencing emigration. But unlike the two periods of large-scale emigration over the course of the 20th century (with primarily low-skilled, low-educated workers seeking unskilled or semi-skilled jobs abroad) – this time, emigrants are mostly highly-educated young people escaping extremely high youth unemployment levels.

The so called “brain-drain” has become a hot topic in the public debate, considering the dire consequences of the exodus of human capital for the development prospects of Greece and the brain waste incurred by the unemployment and underemployment of educated youth. Even though current concerns about the impact of emigration on the Greek economy have not yet resulted in specific policies to stem outflows or explicitly encourage return, the Greek government has made sincere efforts to this direction by introducing various structural reforms – both in the regulatory framework for businesses and in the labor market – that aim to boost entrepreneurship, investment and employment, while it has utilized EU funds to implement programs that serve the same aim. A noteworthy example of progress made in this sphere is that Greece improved its overall ranking, between 2013 and 2014, in the World Bank’s index on ease of doing business (moving from number 72 to 60 among 189 countries). Such initiatives may help curtail outflows and may eventually induce the return of some emigrants.

The report looks into a number of government and civil-society initiatives to connect with the Greek Diaspora and encourage their contributions—financial, entrepreneurial, and academic—to their country of heritage. For example, the Greek government’s General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad (GSGA) is identifying the needs of new emigrants in various destination countries. However, despite its efforts to map the Diaspora, the Greek government’s tools may be out of tune with new segments of its target population. GSGA outreach to its newest diaspora members rests on the premise that the traditional focal points of Greek communities abroad (such as the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek cultural activities) appeal to current emigrants. While this might be the perception of older, established emigrants, it is doubtful whether new emigrants approach such organizations to the same degree as their predecessors. The typical young Greek emigrant is highly educated, is an avid user of information technologies, and is likely to identify as a cosmopolitan participating in a global society. Therefore, GSGA needs to rethink its mission and seek alternate sources of information about the new Diaspora other than traditional Diaspora organizations, and explore new ways of staying in touch with today’s wave of emigrants, taking into consideration their huge potential to further national goals, not only in the realm of foreign policy but also in economic development. However, given the current economic climate, Greece may be best served by encouraging Diaspora involvement in Greek economic development from overseas rather than encouraging return at present.

(greeknewsagenda.gr)

February 21, 2016
Rethinking Greece: Ares Kalandides on rebuilding the country’s reputation

Ares Kalandides is a Berlin-based urban planner and consultant in place branding. He is the founder and CEO of INPOLIS a Place Management & Spatial Planning consultancy that offers services to cities, neighbourhoods and regions. He has been a consultant to Berlin Partner (the city’s marketing organization) since 1996 and has consulted various districts, cities, and regions in Germany and worldwide.

Kalandides is a director of the Institute of Place Management(Manchester) and editorial member of the Journal of Place Management and Development. He is currently a professor in Metropolitan Studies at NYU Berlin and the editor of the blog Places.

Ares Kalandides spoke to Rethinking Greece about the Greek-German connection, the current crisis narratives, and how to rebuild Greece’s reputation.

Read the full interview here.

February 21, 2016
Martin Luther King’s Great Greek Friend and Supporter

Archbishop Iakovos is known in the U.S. as the committed and caring pastor who put the Greek Orthodox Faith on the map for Americans and beyond. He is also known as the first Greek Archbishop in 350 years to officially confer with a pope, leaving behind a tremendous body of work as the primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in North and South America for 37 years.

However, Iakovos was also a champion of civil and human rights who showed his support to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. not only with his words, but also with his actions. He was one of the first powerful people to embrace the ideas of Dr. King and march hand in hand with him in 1965 in Selma, Ala.

“He had received threats if he would dare to walk with Dr. King, but he never thought twice of his decision,” says a close aid and friend of the Archbishop.

This historic moment for America was captured on the cover of LIFE Magazine on March 26, 1965. (The entire magazine is online and can be read here.)

The New York Times reported, “The striking cover of Time magazine that showed Dr. King side by side with the black-garbed Archbishop Iakovos marked a new presence of Greek Americans and the Greek Orthodox church in American life.”

Iakovos vigorously supported the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights legislation, exclaiming when the first bill was passed:

GLORY TO THE MOST HIGH! MAY THIS MARK THE BEGINNING OF A NEW AGE FOR ALL HUMANKIND, AN ERA WHEN THE WORD OF GOD CHARTS AND GUIDES OUR LIVES.”

Known throughout the world as a dynamic participant in the contemporary ecumenical movement for Christian Unity, Archbishop Iakovos served for nine years as president of the World Council of Churches, established dialogues with Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Southern Baptists and Black Church leaders and initiated Orthodox Dialogue with Judaism. In a successful effort to promote closer ties among Orthodox jurisdictions, he founded the Standing conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) in 1960. He was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civilian honor, bestowed by President Jimmy Carter on June 9, 1980.

Iakovos’ decision to support Dr. King, and the publicity his action received, brought Greek-Americans and African-Americans much closer, resulting in a friendship that the two communities celebrate until this day!

(usa.greekreporter.com)

January 24, 2016
Greece Among Countries With Most Citizens Living Overseas

OECD ranked its country members based on the number of people living overseas. Ireland came first, with the highest number of citizens living in countries overseas, even though the country is quickly recovering from the devastating impact of an economic crisis.

There are approximately 35,300 Irish migrants living overseas. These people fled the country between April 2014 and April 2015.

A graph published by Forbes shows the top ten countries in the list, including New Zealand, Portugal, Mexico, Luxembourg and Iceland.

Greece was ranked 11th, with 6.6% of the native-born population living abroad in 2014.

Countries with large populations, such as Brazil, Japan, the US and China are among the countries with the smaller number of native born people living overseas.

(greece.greekreporter.com)

January 24, 2016
Ted Sarandos Talks Netflix Boom and Greek Heritage

We caught up with Netflix’s content mastermind, Ted Sarandos, to discuss the online network’s rapid expansion as well as his company’s nine Golden Globe nominations.

Ted Sarandos, a Greek-American whose family hails from the Greek island of Samos, has been credited as the visionary executive who reshaped how, when, and where we watch entertainment.

Sarandos’ strategy for Netflix over the past years included a push to create original content on the streaming service, which has since led to many critically and commercially successful shows as well as expand the company’s presence around the globe.

The Greek-American has been in charge of Netflix’s content acquisition since 2000.

(hollywood.greekreporter.com)

January 24, 2016
3 Greeks among the brightest young entrepreneurs in the world

Forbes magazine published the list “30 under 30” for 2016, featuring 600 of the brightest young entrepreneurs, breakout talents and change agents in 20 different sectors. They were chosen from over 15,000 nominees overall. Forbes is clearly good at the guessing game of who’s about to be increasingly important each year. 3 Greeks are among the list in 3 different categories: Art-Style, Marketing & Advertising and manufacturing-industry.

See below who are the 3 Greeks features in the best “30 under 30”:

1. Athena Papadopoulos – 27 years old

Athena Papadopoulos is in the 23rd place in the list of the 30 brightest talents in the category Art & Style. She is an artist and sculptor. She was included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries, received considerable attention for a show installed in a hotel room during Frieze London in 2014, and landed a solo exhibition at the Zabludowicz Collection in London this past January.

2. Nick Cromydas – 29 years old

He is in the 6th place in the category Marketing & Advertising. Cromydas is the founder of New Coast Ventures, an Illinois-based digital innovation company.

3. Jeff Stefanis – 25 years old

Jeff Stefanis is in the 27th place in the category Manufacturing-industry. He is the cofounder of Riide. The electric bike, Riide, is specifically designed for “city-proud” millennials. The company recently won backing from the district’s Digital DC Tech Fund.

(www.ellines.com)

January 12, 2016
GOCMV offering new summer course on Hellenism

Transterritorial Hellenism is the next course being offered this summer at the Greek Community of Melbourne’s Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture.

Run in association with the School of Languages and Linguistics of La Trobe University, the course will explore issues in the modern construction of ethno national, civic, multiple and other identities.

The concept of Hellenism specifically is said to have evolved through various parts of the modern world, including Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, London, Nicosia, New York, and Melbourne.

The course will also explore the life of Greeks under Ottoman rule, and as students and scholars, victims of genocide, political exiles, guest workers, Europeans, and citizens of multi-cultural states, while also dissecting the influence of the Greek Orthodox Church, Greek irredentism, political conflict and modernisation on the formation of Greek identity.

Set to be an interesting six weeks, Transterrirtorial Hellenism will involve six hours of classes per week and is open to all.

Transterritorial Hellenism commences on 12 January, 2016 and ends 11 February, 2016 at the Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture, 168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne, VIC.

For more information, contact Dimitris Gonis via email [email protected]

(Πηγή: http://neoskosmos.com)

December 19, 2015
Beware of Greeks building smart cars

George Parthimos presents his plan for an innovation centre linking Melbourne and Detroit, to develop applications for internet-connected vehicles.

Read more at neoskosmos.com

December 14, 2015