The first book on contemporary Greece ever published in China was presented in Beijing last Friday. The book is written in Chinese and depicts various aspects of contemporary Greece such as its history, its political system, economy, culture and tourism.
The book is prefaced by Minister of State and Government Spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos, and contains a message by Greek Ambassador to Beijing Michalis Kambanis.
DF: This comes at a time when China is getting ready to welcome the 2008 Beijing games and as the country celebrates a cultural year honoring Athens. Great job on getting this book out in time for the games.
grpressbejing
posted on Tuesday, January 22
More and more Greek students are taking post graduate courses in Greece. In the last five years the number has risen from 12,000 in 2002 to about 25,000 today. The number of courses offered to these students also increased from 233 to 435.
The Education ministry is proposing new laws that will help universities cope with the increase, by allowing for more flexible schedules for the growing number of graduate students, and partnerships with international universities and organizations.
DF: Have a sense of adventure? A new post graduate program in Byzantine and Modern Greek studies is being offered at the University of Grenada titled “Middle Age and contemporary Greece: Studies in language, literature, history and culture”.
cebnch
posted on Friday, July 20
For the past 50 years, Neos Cosmos Greek Australian newspaper has been at the forefront of Greek Australian diaspora and has provided an invaluable and priceless means of staying connected with the latest happenings of Greece and in Greek Melbourne. “Neos Cosmos” is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, with four special issues. The first was published last week on the occasion of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ visit to the Victorian capital city.
The special issues contain articles, analysis, reportage and other items dealing with the activities and news of Greeks living in Australia.
The first issue also began with a letter to Mr Costas Karamanlis.
Κύριε πρωθυπουργέ,
Καλώς ορίσατε και στη Μελβούρνη, την "τρίτη ελληνόφωνη πόλη στον κόσμο"
DF: For the rest of the letter click below.
NeosKosmos
A contract for the creation of the new International University of Greece has been signed. The signing of the contract in essence paves the way for the beginning of the University's construction.
The first facilities are expected to operate in 2010 or 2011. Until the buildings are ready, the university will begin operating out of a temporary location starting in early 2008.
posted on Wednesday, May 23
In a rather suprising move, the classic novel "Zorba the Greek" as well as books by Czech author Milan Kundera were censored at an upcoming book festival in Egypt. Egypt's 10-day annual book fair is the largest in the region.
Censorship in Egypt is carried out by two separate bodies with local publishers subject to the Ministry of Culture and all foreign publications, whether books or media, passing through the Ministry of Information's censorship department.
Lebanese publisher Dar al-Adab had planned to bring "Zorba" to the book festival but were met with some surprises. "They didn't tell us directly about the banning but when we arrived at the fair, certain boxes containing these important titles didn't arrive," said Nabil Nofal, a member of the sales team of Dar al-Adab.
DF: According to authorities works are usually censored for issues of sex, religion and politics. Zorba the Greek contains both sex and religion and was therefore eligible for censorship. Give us a break.
posted on Friday, February 2
Yet another book has been written in memory of one of the many different Greek communities of the United States. The book titled: “Remembering Newark's Greeks: An American Odyssey,†is the work of Angelique Lampros, a former educator and administrator in the South Orange/Maplewood school district and a Newark native.
Her book, 192 pages with more than 300 photographs and excerpts from interviews with dozens of people, will be on sale for $40 through the Newark Public Library and all proceeds will benefit the Library's Hellenic Heritage Fund.The fund was endowed to collect the material exhibited in 2002. Its continued endowment will ensure the material is preserved forever at the Newark Public Library.
DF: Make sure to meet Ms. Lampros at 6 p.m., on Thursday, Nov. 30 at Snuffy's Patagis Renaissance, 250 Park Avenue, (off Route 22) in Scotch Plains.
Fun fact: Although the Greek community of Newark reached only about 8,000, they dominated the restaurant market in the city from the 1920s - 1960s; owning 65% of all the eating establishments.
[Buy]
posted on Monday, November 27
That was the topic discussed recently in Germany by the director of the Deutsche Welle Greek Program, Spiros Moskovos.
Moskovos' looked back at the 2001 Frankfurt International Book Exhibition, which had Greece as their honored country. Tens of books were translated into the German language for the general public to use, however the effort went largely unnoticed. Many Greek books had never been translated into German before and were not to be found on most bookshops. Even more diasppointing was that there were almost no reviews on any of the books, giving little or no publicity to great authors and novels.
What did the Greeks learn from this experiment? Moskovos belives that maybe some markets are not able to absorb foreign content as rapidly as others. (For example Balkan markets absorb Greek products and literature much faster than they do in northern Europe.) Also the quality of literature translation from both the publishing houses and individuals has to be improved substantially for the masses to join the band wagon.
posted on Tuesday, October 3
Last month the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and The New York Public Library hosted a conference, "The Future Public Library." The conference examined trends in technology and communications and their implications for public libraries, patterns of current and future library use, and physical and electronic collections.
Approximately one hundred participants attended this international, invitation-only conference. The invitees represented leaders from a wide range of fields, including the library, technology, communications, architecture and urban planning sectors. In addition, there were invitees from major foundations and from cultural institutions.
The conference took place at an especially relevant time, given that many of the world's oldest and greatest libraries, such as the New York Public Library, are in the process of scanning as many of their books as possible into digital format. The many implications of digitizing books, such as the cost of digitization technology, copyright issues, and the new function of the traditional library and the future function of the digital one, among others, were examined at the conference.
DF: When was the last time you went to the library? Almost an antiquated concept, isn't it? Kudos to the Niarchos Foundation for contributing to the debate and hopefully being a part of the solution.
posted on Thursday, June 15
Author Eleni Gage recently kicked off a U.S. promotional book tour at the Hellenic Museumin Chicago to promote the release of the paperback version of herodyssey to the homeland, North of Ithaca. The book was initiallyreleased in Holland in March 2004, and the U.K. in July2004. Next came Australia (September 2004), New Zealand, South Africaand theU.S. (May 2005).
We had the chance to catch up with Eleni recently and talk alittle
Daily Frappe catches up with Eleni Gage.
bit about the book and her experiences living in America but with strong ties ties back "home." Be sure to check ourDailyFrappe "5 minutes with" interview!
Eleni is part of a rich fabric of "hyphenated Greeks" around the world thatfind themselves crossing borders, straddling traditions, andultimately, going on journey's to find out more about themselves andwhere they come from. Eleni's family history is quite heart wrenchingbut she always manages to find a way to stay positive --eloquently stating thather heart is perhaps "a heart more open, for having been split in two."
Best of luck Eleni!
A friend told us about the book and it is definitely a worthwhile read. It explores both modern and historical Greek societal views on the subject. For her research on the book, the author interviewed 120 women who had proior abortions and the findings were quite interesting. Most Greek women found birth control methods too invasive and prefer abortion as a more "natural" way of prevention, despite Greek Orthodox beliefs that abortion is murder.
DF: Although written in 2004, Halkias' provocative book is relavent today.
Or, maybe we just ran out of
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