Global Greeks: Greek New Zealander Terry Serepisos - Multi Millionaire Property Magnate and Wellington Phoenix Football Team Owner

 

Terry Serepisos -  New Zealand's answer to  Donald Trump

(Photo Source: The Dominion Post - Andrew Gorrie)

Serepisos to become New Zealand's Donald Trump

By TOM FITZSIMONS - The Dominion Post

He might not have the comb-over, but millionaire Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos is to be New Zealand's answer to Donald Trump.

The Phoenix football team owner has been chosen as the host of a local version of The Apprentice. The reality-TV show, an international hit with Trump as host, pits teams of aspiring entrepreneurs against each other.

One unlucky loser is turfed off the show every week to the words "You're fired", before the eventual winner lands a plum job in the host's firm.

Mr Serepisos told Close Up he was not nervous about the role.

"I guess a little bit, but I'm not shy of the camera, so I'm okay with that." ...

 Terry Serepisos' launch into property began here - Maison Cabriole Apartments

His timing was perfect for buying the ex Wellington Gas Company and turning it into inner city apartments

(Photo source: Sophia Economou)

 Terry Serepisos' characteristic blue columned HQ Century City Towers

 View from Wellington's James Cook Hotel

(Photo source: Sophia Economou)

Things you might want to know about Terry Serepisos

• Started out in business by opening men's fashion store Trillini, which expanded to six stores around Wellington.
• Moved into property by buying a derelict Wellington building from Sir Ron Brierley, founder of takeover giant, Brierley Investments for $950,000 and converting it into apartments - The Maison Cabriole Apartments ( photo above).
• Owns the Phoenix football team, it lost him $2.5m during its first two seasons, but was a move which saved NZ soccer and helped send New Zealand to the World Cup in South Africa later this year.
• Brought David Beckham and the LA Galaxy to Wellington in 2007....

 Read More

Global Greek Music: Mario Frangoulis sings Manos Hadjidakis - Asteri tou Voria - Aστέρι του Βοριά - North Star

In his latest album and tribute to Manos Hadjidakis, Epohi tis Agapis or Season of Love, our tremendously talented Global Greek performer, Mario Frangoulis, sings one of the composer's most beautiful pieces.  

Asteri tou Voria, lyrics by Nikos Gatsos shown below, was composed for Elia Kazan's acclaimed film about the massacre and expulsion of the Greeks and Armenians from Asia Minor "America, America" released in 1963.

Τ' αστέρι του βοριά
θα φέρει ξαστεριά
μα σαν φανεί
μεσ' απ' το πέλαγο πανί
θα γίνω κύμα και φωτιά
να σ' αγκαλιάσω ξενητιά

Και 'συ χαμένη μου
πατρίδα μακρυνή
θα μείνεις χάδι και πληγή
σαν ξημερώσει σ' άλλη γή

Τώρα πετώ
για της ζωής το πανηγύρι
τώρα πετώ
για της χαράς μου την γιορτή

Φεγγάρια μου παλιά
καινούργια μου πουλιά
διώχτε τον ήλιο
και τη μέρα απ' το βουνό
για να με δείτε να περνώ
σαν αστραπή στον ουρανό Δίς

Διώχτε τον ήλιο
και τη μέρα απ' το βουνό
για να με δείτε να περνώ
σαν αστραπή στον ουρανό...

There are several versions on YouTube...we are including two more which we think are beautiful - you can choose the one you prefer!

With Manolis Mitsias and composer Dimitri Papadimitriou

 

With Elena Moudiri-Hasiotou and Katerina Sissini 

Two students from the Aristotelian University Theatre School on a school excursion to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus sing the song a cappella... a lovely goosebump producing version in a sacred setting where the acoustics are superb!

Which one do you prefer?

Global Greek Issues: Macedonia - What Do YOU Think? Is it Time for Greece to take a Different Kind of Initiative? VOTE NOW!

Source: received by email - designer not known

Alexander the Great has been a feature of Greek coins and notes for a very, very long time, long before the establishment of FYROM and indeed it's unfounded claims, historically, that it's inhabitants are the direct descendants of one of our most glorious Global Greeks!

Alexander the Great lifetime tetradrachm from Amphipolis, Macedonia, c. 336-326 BC

Is it time Greece took matters into it's own hands and went on the offensive?

We at Global Greek World, think enough is enough!

Let's set the cat amongst the pigeons!

The European Central Bank tells us the following:  

Once a year, each country in the euro area may issue a €2 commemorative coin.

These coins have the same features and properties and the same common side as normal €2 coins. What makes them different is their commemorative design on the national side. Only the €2 denomination can be used for commemorative coins.


They are legal tender throughout the euro area. That means they can be used – and must be accepted – just like any other euro coin.

Most of these coins commemorate the anniversaries of historical events or draw attention to current events of historic importance.

The very first €2 commemorative coin was issued in 2004 by Greece to commemorate the Olympic Games in Athens...   

We think the time is right, and ripe, for Greece to make a move and issue a  commemorative 2 euro coin in honour of this great Hellene.

After all, we have had Alexander the Great on our coins and notes for hundreds of years, why not now? What is stopping us?

What do you think? 

Cast your vote in the sidebar POLL or leave a comment... we're interested in your opinion!

To read more about Alexander the Great depicted on coins and notes throughout the course of Hellenic history from "Numis: Coins and Collecting"   Click here

To read more about the issue on the internet, in Greek  Click here

Global Greek Issues: "Claiming Macedonia" a Very Interesting Book by George C. Papavizas

"Claiming Macedonia" : The Struggle for the Heritage, Territory and Name of the Historic Hellenic Land,

1862-2004.  

                 
By : George C. Papavizas
Published by: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London

When I was thirteen years old I asked my grandfather Constantine why he had joined the Greek andartes (freedom fighters) in 1904 and fought for four years in Macedonia against the armed Slavic bands (komitadjides, committee men) of the clandestine Bulgarian Komitet "Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization" (IMRO, Vatreshna Makedonska Revolutionna Organizadja). Still under the Ottomans in the early 1900s, western Macedonia and Krimini, the small village with its four hundred Greek-speaking inhabitants where I was born, were in the forefront of the so-called Mace­donian Struggle (Makedonikos Agonas that lasted four years. Looking at me straight in the eyes for a long time in silence, twirling his long moustache, his sixty-year-old weather-beaten face furrowed in deep pain because of the distortion of historical facts on Macedonia emanating from the Slavic north, he said softly with tears in his eyes: 
"To make certain that after the Turks, our Macedonia remains Hellenic and my children and grandchildren enjoy freedom as Hellinomakedones" (Greek Macedonians).

Always with a permanent genteel expression evincing compassion and understanding, Kotas, as he was known among his friends and relatives, was a man of genuine affability and modest demeanor, underlined by a powerful mix of genuine Hellenic Macedonian values and an unusually strong commitment to family and the Greek Orthodox Church. Represent­ing an exclusive group of brave men with a tenacious belief in Macedon­ian Hellenism, Kotas, my hero grandfather, had no bigotry, hate, or chauvinism in his heart. What, then, motivated the prudent and peaceful man to become a guerrilla fighter for Macedonian Hellenism when even the official Greek government kept a cautious and ambivalent approach to the Macedonian problem and a safe distance from the Macedonian Strug­gle in the early years? Only an intense, innate passion for Macedonian Hel­lenism's fate and a distaste for history's distortion could incite him to leave his family for four years for the undeclared vicious guerrilla fight against the Turks and Bulgarians. He died of pneumonia at sixty, leaving behind an deep feeling of patriotism for all and an indelible, life-long Hellenic Macedonian legacy that has had a major impact on me, his first grandson.

Sixty years later I was at my son's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Before I sat down, my eight-year-old grandson, Aidan, ran to me and bran­dished the Scholastic Atlas of the World, published by Miles Kelly Publish­ing Ltd. in Great Bardfield, Essex. He proudly demonstrated his geography skills by naming several countries around the world without reading the names, leaving his best for the end, the map of Greece. He looked at it for a few seconds, placed his finger on the word "Macedonia," looked at me with his intelligent blue eyes, and said: 


"Here, Papou [Grandfather]; I know where Macedonia is, where you were born."  


Suddenly, he looked at me again and said, disappointed, 


"But - you told me you were born in Macedonia, Greece." .... 
 
To read more from George Papavizas' introduction and find out more about the very valuable background to this book, Click Here

To buy the book from Amazon, Click Here 

Arximinia kai Arxixronia!...Kali Xronia! Happy New Year to Everyone in our Global Greek World!