ENGAGEMENT : ANGELATOS-WESTERMAN
George and Donna Angelatos of Langley, BC are pleased to announce the engagement of their son, Antonios George Angelatos to Erin Elizabeth Westerman, youngest daughter of Grant and Helen Westerman of Langley, BC. The wedding is scheduled to take place on May 21st, 2011 at St. Nicholas and Dimitrios Greek Orthodox Church in Vancouver, BC.
Antonios is the nephew of Patrides Western Bureau representative Dimitrios Angelatos of Surrey. He is one of the more than 20 grandchildren of Antonios Angelatos (deceased) of Kephalonia, Greece. While Papou Antonios had seven sons and one daughter, his children presented him with mostly granddaughters. Of the four grandsons who carry the Angelatos name Antonios will be the second one to get married.
Antonios Angelatos and Erin Westerman celebrate their recent engagement.
ONASSIS FOUNDATION SPONSORS BC LECTURES
The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, in cooperation with Hellenic Studies and the Department of History at Simon Fraser University, and the Winston Churchill Society presented a series of lectures by Dr. Denis Smyth.
Dr. Denis Smyth has been a Professor in the Department of History and the International Relations Program at the University of Toronto since 1985. He studied for his Ph.D in History at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Sir Harry Hinsley, official historian of British Intelligence in the Second World War. He holds Fellowships from the Royal Historical Society (United Kingdom) and Trinity College, University of Toronto. He has edited thirty-five volumes of the British Foreign Office’s Confidential Print, some with Professor Andre Gerolymatos, SFU as co-editor.
Two lectures took place on November 9th at the Burnaby Campus of Simon Fraser University. The first “A ‘Washing Blow’: The Military and Political Significance of the Attack on the Asopos Viaduct in June 1943” was held at 11:30 am, followed by the second lecture “Assessing Strategic Deception: The Evidence from Greece and the Mediterranean in 1943” at 1;00PM. The third lecture took place on November 11th, at 5:00pm at the Vancouver Harbour Centre Campus of Simon Fraser University. The subject of that lecture was “From Swan Song to Siren Song:British Deception, Greek Resistance and the Destruction of the Axis in 1943”, based on his latest book “Deadly Deception”. He spoke on the British Intelligence Service’s plan to deceive the German High Command into thinking that the Allies would be attacking Greece, instead of the actual target, Sicily. The operation “Mincemeat” had many hurdles to overcome before the corpse of a homeless labourer who died on June 26th, 1943 by poison suicide was turned into the fictional Royal Marine Major William Martin, a British courier who supposedly died by drowning off the coast of Greece. British Intelligence monitored the airwaves to find that the bait had been taken. This operation was immortalized in the 1956 Hollywood film The Man Who Never Was.
ATHENS DIALOGUES AND HELLENIC STUDIES-SFU
The Athens Dialogues; an international conference on Greek culture and its role in modern society has been organized by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation in collaboration with eight leading world class academic institutions from November 24th to 27th. Simon Fraser University is one of those institutions taking part in the conference. Hellenic Studies at SFU will be presenting segments of the conference, LIVE for free at the SFU’s Segal Graduate School of Business in downtown Vancouver.
MAGNA CARTA VISITS MANITOBA
While on a visit to family in Manitoba recently Patrides Dimitrios and Katerina Angelatos had the occasion to visit the location in Winnipeg where they met in 1967, during Canada Centennial celebrations, in the park across from the Manitoba Legislative Building. So of course this trip down memory included a visit to the Legislative Building as well. It just so happened that they were just in time to see the Magna Carta (1217) on its last day of display in the Legislative Building. It had been brought to Canada on the occasion of the visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Winnipeg on July 3, 2010. It has now been returned to its home at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
The Great Charter -Magna Carta- is one of the world’s great symbols of freedom, agreed to by King John and his barons at Runnymede near Windsor, England on June 15, 1215. It’s declaration that no free man should be imprisoned without due process lead to the development of common law in England. While no master-prototype has survived from the original ceremony at Runnymede, official engrossment were sent out by the royal chancery to county courts across England in 1215 and official reissues another five times before 1300. Seventeen such originals still survive, four from the first issue of 1215, one of 1216, four of 1217, four of 1225, none of 1265 and four of 1297. One of the 1297 reissues is on permanent display in the United States, at the National Archives. The Parliament House of Australia at Canberra also has one of the 1297 examples on display. The remaining fifteen all belong to eight institutions in England. The University of Oxford has four, three of which are issues of 1217. The one that had been displayed in Winnipeg was one of those, issued in November of 1217 in the name of King Henry III, then just ten years old but carried the seals of his guardians William Marshall the elder and the papal legate, Cardinal Guala. The cardinal’s seal still survives although Marshall’s has been lost.
The Magna Carta was fittingly displayed in the Manitoba legislative building as the government of Canada and also that of its provinces is based on the British system. The Manitoba legislative building also is an example of how the influence of Greece, the birthplace of democracy is felt throughout the world. Architectural aspects of ancient Greece such as Doric and Corinthian columns, marble steps and floors, inlaid with the Greek Key are throughout the building. Combine this with the main building material, the Manitoba quarried tyndall stone, a limestone rich in fossil remains dating back 450 million years and you have a magnificent building indeed.
GREEK ELECTION FUNDRAISER
Port Moody businessman Michael Savvis held a fund raising event at his restaurant-Rodos Kuzina on Sunday evening, October 24th. He was raising funds to help his brother, Manolis Savvis who was running for election in Greece. Manolis was a mayoral and council candidate for the Island of Rhodos.
The restaurant was packed with friends and business associates of Michael. Most of the people in attendance had never even met Manolis but they came out to support Michael who is well known in the Tri-City area (Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam). Among the guests were local politicians. One of them, Lou Sekora, a former mayor of Coquitlam, a former member of parliament and currently on Coquitlam City Council was master of ceremonies for the evening. The evening consisted of dinner, door prizes, silent auction, raffles, entertainment and dancing. A good time was had by all. Michael Savvis was able to send his brother six thousand dollars to help with Manolis’ election campaign expenses.
Manolis Savvis had been mayor of South Rhodos Island previously. However a major restructuring of the electoral districts happened in Greece. So now there will be only one mayor for the whole island. When Patrides last spoke to Michael Savvis election results were not clear. Apparently Manolis Savvis placed fourth out of a field of two hundred candidates. One of his running mates won fist place, thus the mayoral chair but it is not yet known what position Manolis Savvis will have.
With the economic situation being grim in Greece presently it is surprising that so many, two hundred people, signed up to run (and often against their own family members) for mayor of Rhodos Island. Perhaps some thought they could “also get their fingers into the pie”? Perhaps some of them would be interested in taking a stab at becoming premier of British Columbia? There don’t seem to be very many people here interested in taking up that position right now.
HELLENIC COMMUNITY – VANCOUVER FOOD FESTIVAL
The Hellenic Community of Vancouver held its annual food festival from October 15th to 17th at the community center on Arbutus Street. It is the only one of the Greek communities in the greater Vancouver area that hosts an indoor festival rather than an outdoor one. That way at least they do not have to worry about what the weather will be like for the event. The crowds the last few years have not been as big as they used to be years ago so of course the money raised also have fallen off. Maybe the message is not getting out to the Greeks of Vancouver and the surrounding cities and municipalities. The event also does not draw in other Canadians as much as it used to either. Perhaps this is due to a lack of advertising and entertainment. The last few years the entertainment has been very sparse so there is little to encourage people to come back. If nothing is done in the next few years to draw in the crowds again this event will be little more than a local bake sale.
