How the world sees Greece
A memorial service has been held in Canada for the three-year-old boy who was found dead on a Turkish beach last week. Aylan Kurdi died alongside his five-year old brother Galip and their mother Rehanna while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. They were hoping to eventually reach Canada to live with family there but, instead, his little body was discovered on the beach of Bodrum and photographs were shown around the world.
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Two-month-old baby's death reported as islands struggle to cope with arrival of thousands from Turkey on flimsy boats.
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SACRAMENTO – Georgia Dariotis, died on August 20 at her family home in Sacramento at the age of 91. Dariotis and her brother Guss Dussin were the children of Greek immigrants and restaurateurs. Dussin founded the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant in Portland, OR in 1969. After working there for a few years, Dariotis and her husband Michael […] The post California Community Mourns Georgia Dariotis appeared first on The National Herald.
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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Aylan, three, his brother Galip, five, and mother Rehan died when their dinghy capsized as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos in the dead of night.
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“Rest in peace Aylan Kurdi. May God forgive us for failing you.” Those were the words that concluded a heartbreaking tribute published in an Australian newspaper on Friday, memorializing the 3-year-old Syrian child whose death sent ripples of shock and grief around the world this week. On Wednesday, photos of Aylan’s body, dressed in a red T-shirt and lying limp in the damp sand of a Turkish beach, made the rounds on the Internet, sparking discussions about the enormity -- and the staggering human cost -- of Europe’s migrant crisis. Aylan, it later emerged, had been attempting to travel from conflict-torn Syria to Canada with his Kurdish family when their smuggler’s boat capsized. The child, his 5-year-old brother Galip and their mother, Rehen, all drowned. “I don't want anything else from this world,” their father, Abdullah, who tried to save his family, told CNN. “Everything I was dreaming of is gone. I want to bury my children and sit beside them until I die.” In an interview with HuffPost Arabi, Abdullah described the harrowing last moments with his wife and sons. “I wish I could transfer my breath to them, to breathe life into their bodies again,” he said. “We spent a whole hour holding on to the boat. My children were still alive. The first one died because of the raging waves. I had to leave him to save my second son, who also drowned. I turned around to find that their mother had drowned as well.” > One of most shared pictures of Aylan Kurdi & brother who died trying > to reach Greece http://t.co/qINKW7zcpg pic.twitter.com/vCHNK16hkD— > BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 3, 2015 On Friday, an anonymous person or group took out a death notice in the Sydney Morning Herald remembering Aylan. > Someone Has Placed A Heartbreaking Obituary For The Little Boy Who > Drowned On A Turkish Beach http://t.co/gKhzloURra > pic.twitter.com/mG3saY4utP— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) > September 4, 2015 It read: You did not deserve to drown in the col > er and in the coldness of human indifference. > > > > You were not a Migrant. You were not a Refugee. You were a 3yr old > little boy wanting to play safely, away from the threats of violence > and war. > > > > In Heaven, you will be nursed by those who held you, by those who > kissed you and by those who risked everything in the hope of you > reaching the shores of safety. > > > > Rest In Peace Aylan Kurdi. May God forgive us for failing you. > > > > > > Using the hashtag #Human re, social media has been filled with tributes for Aylan, his family and the more than 2,600 migrants who are known to have died crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe this year. We call on #Europe's governments to respond with huma > 4Kkz— UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) September 3, 2015 embed" data-type="embed-asset" data-provider="Embed" data-title=""> "We are loosing ourselves as humans and the people will die around the boarders" by Daaboul #Human > ash; Art For Amnesty (@ArtForAmnestyUS) September 3, 2015 " data-title=""> Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi's photograph sparks social media tributes http://t.co/jl3kZ5144T #HumanityWashedAshore pic.twitter.com/KJiJORn4Nr— CBC British Columbia (@cbcnewsbc) September 4, 2015 -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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The Syrian man whose wife and two young children drowned while the family was trying to reach Greece by boat emotionally recalled their last moments together. Abdullah Kurdi, whose family tragedy captured international attention when his 3-year-old son Aylan's body washed ashore on a popular tourist beach in Turkey on Wednesday, mourned the deaths as he spoke to HuffPost Arabi on Thursday after identifying his loved ones' bodies. “I wish I could transfer my breath to them, to breathe life into their bodies again,” he said. “We spent a whole hour holding on to the boat. My children were still alive. The first one died because of the raging waves. I had to leave him to save my second son, who also drowned. I turned around to find that their mother had drowned as well.” Kurdi told HuffPost Arabi that poverty kept him from buying flotation devices for Aylan, 3, Galip, 5, and wife Rehan, 35, who all hail from the Syrian town of Kobani. “Gathering the costs for fleeing wasn’t easy, and I couldn’t secure the price of the life jackets,” he said. Aylan, Galip and Rehan were just three of the 12 people who died when two boats carrying 23 people capsized after setting off from Turkey's Bodrum peninsula, Reuters reported. The passengers, who reportedly hoped to reach the Greek island of Kos, were among tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing their homeland who have descended on Turkey to catch boats to Greece, their "gateway to the European Union," in recent months. Kurdi's sister, Teema Kurdi, said she had hoped to help the family make it to Canada. "I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbors who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn’t get them out, and that is why they went in the boat," she told Canada's National Post. Those boat trips present a wide range of dangers: leaks, overcrowding and faulty motors causing the vessels to sink; extreme weather conditions in total darkness; and masked gunmen targeting refugees if their boats cross paths. Kurdi said Canadian officials have since offered him citizenship after hearing of his family's tragedy, but he has declined, Reuters reported. He is planning to go back to Kobani, Syria, and will bury his wife and son's bodies there. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Source: ottawacitizen.com - Wednesday, September 02, 2015 The two small boys whose bodies washed up on a Turkish beach Wednesday were Kurdish refugees from Kobane, Syria, whose family had been desperately trying to emigrate to Canada. Galip Kurdi, five, and his three-year-old brother Aylan died along with their mother Rehan and eight other refugees when their boat overturned in a desperate flight from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos. The boys’ father, Abdullah, survived. His family says his only wish now is to return to Kobane with his dead wife and children, bury them, and be buried alongside them. “I heard the news at five o’clock in this morning,” Teema Kurdi, Abdullah’s sister, said Wedn esday . The telephone call came from Ghuson Kurdi, the wife of another brother, Mohammad. “She had got a call from Abdullah, and all he said was, my wife and two boys are dead.” Teema, a Vancouver hairdresser who emigrated to Canada more than 20 years ago, said Abdullah and Rehan Kurdi and their two boys were the subject of a “G5” privately sponsored refugee application that was rejected by Citizenship and Immigration in June, owing to the complexities involved in refugee applications from Turkey. The family had two strikes against them – like thousands of other Syrian Kurdish refugees in Turkey, the UN would not register them as refugees, and the Turkish government would not grant them exit visas. “I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbours who helped me with the bank d All Related | More on Syria
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When and where married: St Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church at Kingsford with a reception at Clarence House on July 11, 2015 GEORGIA Fentoullis grew up in Sydney’s east, living in the same Pagewood home from birth. Anthony Koulianos on the other hand ...
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To put it simply, (most) Greek parents hold "sleeping over at a friend from school's house" in the same regard they do capital murder. Essentially, both ...
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NORWICH, CT – The Rev. Matthew Baker, priest of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Norwich, was killed on March 1. As TNH reported, over $600,000 was raised for his wife and children within days (Over $600K is Raised for Fr. Baker’s Wife and Children,” Mar. 14). That number, reports the Norwich Bulletin, is […] The post Baker’s Family Helped by Coincidence appeared first on The National Herald.
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Greece’s phenomenal scenery can create the perfect setting for your wedding. Greek Reporter presents the top 5 spots that can easily provide a stunning backdrop to a Mediterranean dream wedding celebration you will never forget. So, don’t be hesitant! Urge him to pop the question and let the preparations begin! Sprinkle Gold Dust On The Happiest Day
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John Corbett and Nia Vardalos return as Ian and Toula in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" (Photo: George Kraychyk, NBC Universal) My Big Fat Greek Wedding started its amazing theater run April 19, 2002. Star and screenwriter Nia Vardalos figures that fans ...
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Tirana, 5 August 2015/Independent Balkan News Agency Founder and the first chairman of the political organization, OMONIA in Albania, died today in a road accident. Theodhori Bezhani, 75 years old, resident in Gjirokaster, found death in the Kakavija road section, near the Greek border, IBNA’s correspondent reports. Police of Gjirokastra official, Enerjeta Camani, told IBNA […]
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Two men, a 72-year-old pharmacist and his 27-year-old son, were found dead in their home in Serres, northern Greece. Their bodies were found by the elder man’s daughter around 10:00 pm on July 28. Greek police and EMTs were immediately called to the scene but unfortunately the two men had already passed away. Their bodies
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IOUs for RIPs: Greece's cash crisis creates hardships for funeral homes and mourning families
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The supermodel left her new beau to attend a Greek island wedding
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It’s an institution that has undergone huge social change since the Victorian era – and now 90% of Britons say that they are happy with their own family. We chart the progress of a resilient, adaptive way of livingNo other institution can have had the last rites administered so often over the centuries and with such relish only to spring back to life, tweaked, transformed, reinvigorated; the death of the family postponed once more. The Greek gods were among the first to bloody the ties that bind. In The Oresteia, written by Aeschylus (458 BC), now adapted for the London stage at the Almeida, father kills daughter, mother kills father, son kills mother and the Furies of Greek mythology beset all those who murder their kin. Nobody wins. Add to that the themes of unnatural mother-son interest (the Oedipus complex) and father-daughter machinations (the Electra complex), and the message echoing through the ages – a favourite of Shakespeare, and fodder for every television soap – is all too clear; in the bosom of the family, no one is safe. And yet …In spite of the toxic framework in which the family has traditionally been framed, and the continual flow of negative statistics about divorce and breakdown, the latest news for Britain is surprisingly positive. Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, drawing on an international study, reported that the UK is one of the happiest nations for family relationships, with more than 90% of respondents saying they were very happy or fairly happy with their family life, the fourth highest in the developed world. Given the dark tenor that colours kinship in popular culture and the family’s regular battering by critics from left, right and centre, how can that be? Continue reading...
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It’s an institution that has undergone huge social change since the Victorian era – and now 90% of Britons say that they are happy with their own family. We chart the progress of a resilient, adaptive way of livingNo other institution can have had the last rites administered so often over the centuries and with such relish only to spring back to life, tweaked, transformed, reinvigorated; the death of the family postponed once more. The Greek gods were among the first to bloody the ties that bind. In The Oresteia, written by Aeschylus (458 BC), now adapted for the London stage at the Almeida, father kills daughter, mother kills father, son kills mother and the Furies of Greek mythology beset all those who murder their kin. Nobody wins. Add to that the themes of unnatural mother-son interest (the Oedipus complex) and father-daughter machinations (the Electra complex), and the message echoing through the ages – a favourite of Shakespeare, and fodder for every television soap – is all too clear; in the bosom of the family, no one is safe. And yet …In spite of the toxic framework in which the family has traditionally been framed, and the continual flow of negative statistics about divorce and breakdown, the latest news for Britain is surprisingly positive. Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, drawing on an international study, reported that the UK is one of the happiest nations for family relationships, with more than 90% of respondents saying they were very happy or fairly happy with their family life, the fourth highest in the developed world. Given the dark tenor that colours kinship in popular culture and the family’s regular battering by critics from left, right and centre, how can that be? Continue reading...
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The Japanese press has taken to calling it sekkusu shinai shokogun: celibacy syndrome. Basically, the country just isn't that interested in sex — and it could have huge effects beyond its borders. The most recent evidence comes in a survey by the Japan Family Planning Association, reported on in the Japan Times. A full 49.3% of aged 16 to 49 respondents in the 1,134 person survey said they hadn't had sex in the past month. There was a minor gender variation: • 48.3% of men reported not having sex • 50.1% of women reported not having sex According to Japan Times, both figures showed a 5% increase since two years ago. Respondents gave a range of reasons as to why: 21.3% of married men and 17.8% married women cited fatigue from work, and 23% of married women said that sex was "bothersome." And 17.9% of male respondents said they had little interest (or a strong dislike) of sex. Other research suggests even more extreme trends. According to a 2011 report from Japan's population center cited by Max Fisher at the Washington Post: • 27% of men and 23% of women aren't interested in a romantic relationship • From ages 18 to 34, 61% of men and 49% of women aren't involved in a relationship • From ages 18 to 34, 36% of men and 39% of women have never had sex Experts say that "the flight from human intimacy" in Japan comes from having a highly developed economy and high gender inequality. (According to the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks 104 out of 140 countries regarding gender equality, slotted between Armenia and the Maldives). "Professional women are stuck in the middle of that contradiction," Fisher writes. "It's not just that day-care programs are scarce: Women who become pregnant or even just marry are so expected to quit work that they can come under enormous social pressure to do so and often find that career advancement becomes impossible. There's a word for married working women: oniyome, or "devil wives." That puts a squeeze on relational prospects for Japanese women. Fisher reports that women in their early 20s have a 25% chance of never marrying and a 40% chance of never having kids. Japan's birth rate hit a record low in 2014 at just 1,001,000 infants. When combined with 1.3 million deaths in the same year, that's a deepening population crisis. According to Japan's population institute, the overall population could dip to 107 million by 2040 — or 20 million lower than today. At the same time, Japan's population is shrinking and graying, setting up a "demographic time bomb" that could radiate out globally through the country's Greece-level national debt and deep economic ties with China and the US. The Japanese government has stepped in to help with the national trend against relationships: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government wants 80% of fathers to take paternity leave, same as mothers taking maternity leave — while also increasing support for childcare. And one economist recommended a "tax on the handsome" to make geeky guys more attractive to women. Different "demographic time bombs" are set to go off around the world: In China and India, the birthrates of boys have been outpacing those of girls for such a long time that a "marriage squeeze" is starting to hit both countries. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: A Japanese lifestyle guru explains how to organize your home once — and then never again
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The average age of American women having their first child reached a record high of 26 years old in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics Report. The average age of first-time mothers is increasing because more women are waiting until their 30s and 40s to start having kids and fewer women are having their first kids in their teens and 20s, the CDC report says. The majority of all births are still to women under 35 (about 85% of the total), but rates for all births, not just of a first child, to women over 35 have been rising over the past 20 years, while birth rates for younger women are stable or declining. That trend is no small matter. It's already changing families, lives, and economies, and as having kids later becomes more common, those changes will become more widespread. We're only beginning to adjust, but make no mistake: Older parents are not going away, and the impact of this shift is huge. What's driving the shift? It's a general trend that as more women get an education and enter the workforce, they marry and start having kids later in life, Stephanie Coontz, co-chair and Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families, told Business Insider. Social and cultural factors also drive the trend. When "a country ... does not enable women to combine work and family well and has strong motherhood penalties, [the trend] is going to be exacerbated by that," Coontz, who is also a professor at The Evergreen State College, told Business Insider. If a woman has to choose between pursuing her career and starting a family rather than doing both at the same time, putting off having kids becomes more likely, in other words. That choice is less trying in countries with better childcare systems and more generous maternity and paternity leaves. Even if it were easier to combine a career and having kids, there are personal reasons a woman might decide to wait to start a family, Elizabeth Gregory writes in "Ready: Why Women are Embracing the New Later Motherhood." Women may want to accomplish specific goals, to have certain experiences, to be in a relationship with the right partner, to be financially and emotionally stable, or any combination of these factors. The availability of reliable contraception offers the means to delay having kids, Gregory writes. "Use of the pill (in tandem with more reliable versions of other forms of birth control) makes contemporary women different from all the generations of women before us," Gregory writes. With both incentive (pursuing education, careers, or other experiences) and means (birth control) to wait to have kids, more women are going that route, and some of the risks and benefits are coming into focus. Pros and cons The drawbacks of waiting to start a family are relatively intuitive. Because a woman's fertility begins to decrease at age 32 and decreases more sharply after age 37, it will likely be more difficult for her to conceive at 40 than it would have been when she was 30, though every woman will have a different experience. And contrary to what it may seem, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is not a cure-all for fertility decreasing with age. The percentage of IVF cycles that result in a baby declines from about 40% for women aged 32 and younger, to about 20% for 40-year-old women, to less than 5% for women 44 and older who use their own eggs. If women use donated eggs, the percentage of IVF cycles that result in a baby does not decrease for older women, but the fact remains that IVF is nowhere near 100% successful. Miscarriages and a number of complications to pregnancy, including gestational diabetes and high blood pressure, are more common for women over 35. Even if a woman is able to have a healthy child at 40, she may not be able to have as many children as she would like, as her fertility continues to decline. In addition to increasing infertility with age, the risks of older parenthood also include the parents having less energy and the grandparents having less involvement in the children's lives, Gregory says in her book. Still, Gregory writes, waiting to have kids has plenty of benefits to weigh against the potential risks. Gregory presents an analysis of US Census data from 2000 that shows women who waited to have kids had significantly higher salaries than women of the same age, with the same level of education, who had kids earlier. For women between ages 40-45 with professional degrees and full-time jobs, those who gave birth to their first child at age 35 made more than $50,000 more per year than women who had their first child at 20, on average. Even waiting to start a family just five more years, at 35 instead of 30, made a difference of $16,000 per year, on average. Besides higher salaries, women who wait until they're at least 35 to have kids generally have accrued experience and clout at work that helps them create what Gregory calls a "shadow benefits system" to supplement official benefits for parents (or lack thereof). They may have lots of stored up vacation time, or may be able to negotiate more flexible work schedules or the ability to work from home, when more junior colleagues might not. In the absence of official benefits to make it easy for women to have a family while continuing to work, putting off having kids can become less like a preference and more like a necessity. "If the world finds the new later motherhood solution problematic, then we, as a society, need to offer other good options for combining family and career," Gregory writes. Why it's a big deal Whether more women waiting to have kids is exactly a problem or not, changing the typical timeline for having kids has implications — for families, countries, and the world — that can't be ignored. Age-related decline in fertility and the increased likelihood of miscarriages and pregnancy complications with age mean that waiting to have kids can put extra physical stress on a woman's body and her baby's — not a negligible effect. But a woman's choice to wait to have kids offers important benefits to society, too. When women establish themselves in their careers before having kids, it can have long-term positive implications for their kids and their employees, Gregory writes in her book. Getting an education and making more money raises a woman's socioeconomic status, so a working class mother can potentially raise middle class kids if she waits to start a family. Besides increasing their own families' upward social mobility, women who delay having kids and advance to positions of authority at work then have the power to set policies they and their female employees would benefit from, like offering paid maternity and paternity leave or allowing flexible work schedules. This "feeds a gradual transformation of the culture of work that can lead in the long run to more equitable HR policies for everybody," Gregory writes. At the level of countries, when many women wait until they're older to start having kids it can have implications for the general fertility rate, because they have fewer fertile years left in which they can have more kids. Data from the World Bank show the seven countries where the average age of women giving birth to their first child is above 30 (Greece, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, according to the CIA World Factbook) all have general fertility rates below what's called the replacement rate. That means the generation currently having kids isn't having enough to replace itself. Countries with low fertility rates have populations that are aging and set to shrink, meaning fewer people of working age have to support more older dependents. The decision to wait to have kids begins as a personal choice with personal effects, but the trend of older first-time parents is already reshaping our world in big ways.UP NEXT: Celebrities have given women the totally unrealistic idea that they can have kids at any age SEE ALSO: American women are waiting longer than ever to become mothers Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: A psychologist reveals how to get rid of negative thoughts
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