The Greek Mafia in Philadelphia PART ONE

Mafia II (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most mafia historians are well aware of the known families and individuals who control the Philly underworld, yet few have peeled back the multiple layers to uncover some of the persons who we’ve not heard of. These are the ones I plan on bringing to the forefront because I have found them to be the more interesting and undoubtedly most powerful.

I’ve chosen to begin with the Greek Mafia which receives very little attention these days, because I’ve found they are one of the most respected and feared of the bunch. I’ll then move on to the Asian, Russian, Irish, and Italian mafias that run the City of Brotherly Love.

Let us begin with the Greeks, for they were credited for finding and shaping civilization, and just like them, these crews have a bloodthirst for violence and power.

To do so, I’ll start by introducing a family that has not been documented to date as far as I know, The Karalis Family.

The way they’ve handled their business for decades in the city and suburbs surrounding Philly, and stretched their enterprise and soilders from New York and Boston, to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, should serve as a blueprint for all rising gangsters on how to stay out of the public eye. And more importantly, that of the various authorities whose job it is to go after them.

The hierchy starts with Andreas Karalis who with brother Apostoli were raised in Greece, on the island of Kefalonia. Along with 7 brothers they quickly gained noteriety for their closeness and loyalty as a family. It’s been said that a quarel with one brother became a war with all seven, so as they grew in age, they used that bond to their advantage in every conceivable way, most notably in buisness where each played a significant role.

In future blogs, I will document many of the stories I’ve uncovered about their upbringing and quest to become not only financially secure, but a powerful force that demands respect. For now, I’ll use this first blog post to introduce some of the key players who are currently at the center of it all.

After the death of Apostoli Karalis, which is a gruesome story in it’s own, Andreas took full control of the top position. The family is structured like the Italian mafia but only include men of Greek decent. The majority are relatives so trust is rarely an issue, although in recent years they’ve added the services of others due to their rapid growth.

Their main business is bookmaking, both in the US and offshore, but they’re also involved in loan sharking and protection amongst the rackets. One of the main reasons they’re underworld endeavors have remained under wraps is because of the many legitimate business they own. From diners and restaurants in Philly, New York, Baltimore, and even Connecticut, to a strip club in Vegas and pieces of others across the country.

Recently, the youngest made member of the Greek Mafia, Gianni Karalis (38), who is known mostly as “Ace” or “VR”, and even “John”,  is also involved in internet gambling sites. The initials V.R. stand for “Vegas Runner” which is exactly what he was sent to Las Vegas for, moving money for their numerous bookmaking operations.

At this writing, under the orders of Andreas, the top soldiers are Caesar, Alex, and Gianni. Each is in charge of different parts of the family businesses and report directly to the boss (also refered to as Theo or Patera, meaning uncle or father in Greek). Caesar helps control the legit businesses, Alex the loan sharing and protection rackets, and Gianni the bookmaking and gambling operations.

The three I’ve touched on above are all first cousins, meaning their fathers are one of the 7 brothers. It’s a known fact that Gianni is the boss’ favorite since he has no sons of his own, and has helped to raise him after the death of his father. From my work, I’ve also concluded he is the favorite mostly because of his “old-school” priciples on everything from business and family, to power and violence. Some believe he is being groomed for the top spot and unlike most Italian families where becoming boss is a struggle, it has never appeared to be a problem with the Greeks. The only difference between the boss and the top soldiers is his ability to make the final decision on a matter, otherwise they are all equal and have little reason to go to war over the seat.

Besides the Karalis Family, there are about a half dozen more in the city of Philadelphia which all work together amongst each other. Strangely, there has not been any documentation of wars between the different families, which is also one of the major reasons they’ve been able to remain under the radar for decades.

Then there are the Greek Families in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, along with various others scattered across the country. But for this blog, I will focus mainly on the ones here in Philly and introduce the players and their stories.

The author chose to create the blog phillymob215 in order to spread awareness about the Philadelphia mob scene. According to him/her this is a topic that he/she has researched for a number of years while attempting to get a book published. Although the author has yet to secure a publisher he/she felt it would be fit, to share some of his/hers stories via these blog posts. We here at HellasFrappe agree and have decided to re-publish PART ONE of his/hers blog entry. We advise our blogger to keep them coming! These articles are pretty interesting. Visit - blog phillymob215

Related articles

• The Greek Mafia in Philadelphia PART TWO
• Greek Mafia in Philadelphia - PART THREE
• Greek Mafia in Philadelphia - PART FOUR
• The Greek Mafia in Philadelphia PART ONE

Papakonstantinou Sends Letter To Economist Refuting Reports on Lagarde List

Former finance minister George Papakostantinou, who is accused of mishandling the controversial Lagarde List, sent a letter to the "Economist" a few hours ago refuting media reports that claim he did not instruct financial police to pursue possible tax evaders named on a list of Greeks with Swiss bank accounts he received in 2010. The letter below, is from his website http://www.gpapak.gr/featured/epistoli-ston-economist/

Sir
In your article “A national sport no more” you correctly state that as Finance Minister I was the one who actually requested the so-called “Lagarde list” of Greek accounts in a Swiss bank, and handed over the biggest 20 (making up about half of total deposits) to the Greek financial police. They did turn out to be suspected tax evaders, as you mention. But it is completely untrue that I “never pursued the matter”. I did exactly the opposite, giving clear instructions to that effect. I repeated these upon handing the full information with all names to the new head of financial police (which he confirmed in a hearing in parliament). I left the Ministry in a cabinet reshuffle shortly thereafter. The information was therefore never “mislaid” by me as you claim (and of course it has since leaked and the names published). It was however clearly not properly investigated.
The discussion on the handling of the “Lagarde list” also obscures the fact that it was during my tenure that Greece finally started to seriously crack down on tax evasion, introducing jail terms for tax offenders, seizing of property, an economic crimes prosecutor, dedicated tax courts, and a complete lifting of banking secrecy. These actions faced significant opposition at the time and all opposition parties, including by Mr. Samaras’ New Democracy voted against them in parliament. It is however the changes instituted then that have since led to high-profile people being jailed for tax offences – a first for Greece.

Sincerely
George Papakonstantinou
Athens

Find out more about the controversial Lagarde List by clicking on one of the following links.

1. Peponis Sends "Lagarde List" To Parliament (VIDEOS)
2. Greek Journalist Arrested For Publishing Controversial "Lagarde List"
3. Lagarde List A La "Imia": Greek Secret Services Found It - Venizelos & Papakostantinou Buried It!
4. LAGARDE LIST: Justice Closes In On Evangelos The Large!

Mr. Portokalos and the Marmalade

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (credit: Wikipedia)

HellasFrappe would like to thank Hellenic Words For this Contribution, we loved this article!

"Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek.... Kimono, kimono, kimono. Ha! Of course! Kimono is come from the Greek word himona, is mean winter. So, what do you wear in the wintertime to stay warm? A robe. You see: robe, kimono."

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a huge success and I honestly have never met anyone that hasn't really liked the film. Perhaps Mr. Portokalos represents a hole generation of Greeks. Men that were forced to leave their country for a better tomorrow, men that could wait for years to hear, or see, something from back home, men that deep inside their soul feel nostalgia, pain, anger and a sour complain for their lost country and how She treated them. The same feeling is rooted deep inside me as many others. Being angry for Her, saying bitter things for Her and for my brothers, but only my heart knows what She means to me, what I felt when my son touched the stones of Olympia and the marbles of Epidaurus. Pride, completion and pain.

Perhaps it only takes a Greek to understand these feelings, as I am very sure that we have our very own way of thinking.

It is the love for their country that lead them to teach the whole world about Hellas´s greatest achievement; Her language and its´ contribution worldwide. All Greeks have to be careful though. Hellenism is at the its´ most difficult era since the foundation of the Hellenic Republic, and they are in a grave danger to associate the terms of unreliability and beggary with their name. Indeed thousands of Greek words are all around the globe, and indeed philosophy is strongly connected to Hellenism. But this does not mean that all philosophers are Greeks. Likewise, it doesn´t mean that all words are from the Hellenic language, and we have to be careful with that, in order to avoid any further mockery; and brake at last the taboo of Greeks hellenising everything. Close to the end of that film, on the wedding speech, Mr. Portokalos said:

"You know, the root of the word Miller is a Greek word. Miller come from the Greek word "milo," which is mean "apple," so there you go. As many of you know, our name, Portokalos, is come from the Greek word "portokali," which mean "orange." So, okay? Here tonight, we have, ah, apple and orange. We all different, but in the end ... we all fruit".

Mr. Portokalos was once again, wrong. He was wrong because he actually switched the origins of the fruits he talked about. See, ¨portokali¨ is indeed greek for orange, but it isn´t any greek at all, since the term is a loan from the latin languages, owning its´ name to the kingdom of Portugal which introduced it to the rest in Europe. In addition, Mr. Portokalos failed to explain correctly what is happening with the ¨Mila¨ (greek for apples) simply because the word ¨apples¨ is of greek etymology. That´s right, the word apples comes from the greek language.

The term apple in english comes from the Old English Æppel meaning "any kind of fruit; fruit in general", from the Proto Germanic ap(a)laz, from the Proto Hellenic Ἃμπελ (pron. Àbel) for Ἃμπελος (pron. Ábelos) meaning ¨grapes, wineyard¨


Etymological Analysis:

1. Apple - English
2. Æppel - Old English for ¨Fruit¨, any kind of.
3. Appel - Norse from Old Frisian
4. Ap(a)laz - Proto Germanic
5. Abel - Latin
6. `Ἃμπελος (pron. Àbelos) - Hellenic for grapes (vineyard) the most important fruit of the ancient world.

Important, is to note that the modern word for apple in the greek language is Μήλο (pron. mēēlo) which is also the root of many other fruit names in the western languages. For example melon, watermelon, cucumber and marmalade owe their names to the greek language.


Melon:

1. from Old Frisian - melon,
2. Medieval Latin - melonem,
3. Latin - melopeponem,
4. Hellenic -  Μηλοπέπον (pron. melopepon) *pepon is greek for a kind of gourd.

 Watermelon:

Water + Mellon (water is also of Hellenic origin)

1. Old English - wæter,
2. Proto Germanic - *watar (cf. O.S. watar, O.Fris. wetir, Du. water)
3. Old High German - wazzar, Gothic - wato,
4. Dacian *wodor/*wedor/*uder- ,
5. Hellenic  - Ὓδωρ (Ydor) ) + Melon (apple, fruit)

Cucumber:
The word that replaced the original Eeorþæppla, (Eeorþ+æppla meaning earth+apple)       *(earth is also of Hellenic origin)

1. Old English eorþe
2. Pr.Ger erþō
3. Ἓρπω (pron. Èrpo) meaning crawl in the earth + apple, hellenic for fruit.

Marmalade:

1. Medival French - marmelade,
2. Portuguese - marmelada "quince jelly, marmalade," -> marmelo "quince," by dissimulation from Latin
3. Latin - melimelum "sweet apple,"
4. Hellenic melimelon, from meli (honey) + melon (apple)

In addition to the words above, there are also many other fruits that owe their names to the Hellenic language, irrelevantly with the terms Melon and Apple. If we would ask for a number, then we should think in tens, while if we do not put all latin languages into the same group, but see them individually as languages, then we talk for hundreds of them. I will give only a small example;  the fruits: apricot, peach, pineapple, and the term pommes for potatoes.


Apricot:

1. 1550s, -abrecock, from
2. Catalan - abercoc,
3. Portuguese - albricoque,
4. Spanish  - albaricoque,
5. Italian - albicocca,
6. Arabic -  أَلْبَرْقُوق  (pron. al-birquq),
7. Byzantine Hellenic - Βερύκοκκον (pron. verikokkon, beríkoko),
8. Latin - praecoquum
9. Hellenic - Πραίκοξον (pron. praecoxon) - (Πρίν+Κόκκος / Prín+kókkos) for premature.

Peach:

1. 12c., from Old French - pesche (O.N.Fr. - peske, Fr. - pêche),
2. Medieval Latin -  pesca,
3. L.L. pessica, variant of persica "peach, peach tree,"
4. Latin - malum Persicum "Persian apple,"
5. Hellenic Περσικόν Μήλον (pron. Persikon malon), from "Persia." the Hellenic name given by the Greeks to the Iranians.

Pineapple:
from pine+apple. Pine originates:

1. Old English - pin,
2. Latin - pinus,
3. Skt - pituh "juice, sap, resin,"
4. Hellenic -  Πίτυς (pron. pitys) "pine tree,"

Pommes
(meaning potatoes in most western European languages)

1. Pommes - c.1400, of types of apples or apple-shaped objects,
2. Old French - pome (Mod.Fr. pomme),
3. Late Latin - poma “apple,”
4. Latin -  pomus “fruit,” later “apple.”
5. Proto Italic - Prumnus,
6. Hellenic - προῦμνον, προῦμνος (pron. prúmnos) for ¨plums, cherries, peaches, apricots¨ e.g Pomegranate, Pommes Frittes etc.

Useful Trivia

After the consolidation of Christianity in the Roman world, and consequently to all the widths and lengths of the Empire, the apple fruit became an exclusively negative object, due to the Original Sin (Peccatum originale / Προπατορικό Aμάρτημα) of Adam & Eve resulting the Fall of Man. As the latin language was the De Facto language of all Europe, the latin word Malum which stands for apple, became synonym of evil, wick, and ill will, creating consequently the other etymological meaning of the term; Malus. Today there are countless words deriving from Malus that are being used regularly. Example of derivatives: malnutrition, malveillants, malicious, malevolent, maligno. ₪

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”   - George Bernard Shaw

Islamist Book Claims That Bulgarians Are "Enslavers" of Rhodope Mountains

location of Rhodope mountain in Bulgaria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rhodope mountain range is located in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Today, an Islamist book which denies that Bulgaria liberated the region of the Rhodope Mountains from the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the First Balkan War of 1912-1913 has been found to be in distribution in mosques across Southern Bulgaria. The scandalous story hit the Bulgarian media on Thursday, just weeks after Bulgaria marked the 100 year since the start of its victorious war against the Ottoman Empire, which conquered the Second Bulgarian Empire in the late 14th centuries and ruled the Bulgarian lands and people for almost 500 years – a period widely seen as shameful and denigrating by the Bulgarians, and known as Ottoman or Turkish Yoke.

Some of the Bulgarian-populated lands in Balkans were liberated from Ottoman Turkey by the Russian Empire in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 to form the Third Bulgarian State, which struggled up until the communist takeover in 1944 to unite all other Bulgarians in the Balkans in one state, including by waging the First Balkan War of 1912-1913 against the Ottoman Empire together with its neighbor allies, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro.

The shocking book entitled "The Balkan Wars in the Rhodope Mountains, 1912-1913" states that the Bulgarian troops that took over the region in today's Southern Bulgaria and Northern Greece did not in fact liberate the locals – many of whom are ethnic Bulgarian Muslims also known as Pomaks – but instead "enslaved" and oppressed them".

The book is the first edition published by a recently founded NGO called "European Institute Pomak", and is authored by Ismen Redzhepov. Critics have been quick to declare that it seems to be in line with a number of other attempts since the collapse of the communist regime in Bulgaria in 1989 to brainwash the ethnic Bulgarian Muslims into determining themselves to be Arabs, Turks, Islamists, or to subscribe to some other ethnic or religious characteristic that is distinct or adverse to the mainstream Bulgarian consciousness.

According to the provocative, apparently Islamist book, whose content historians have been quick to describe as "made-up", Ottoman Turkey was ready to give the Rhodope Mountain region to Bulgaria back in 1912 but instead the Bulgarian Christians decided to wage a war, and then committed acts of "genocide" against the Pomaks.

Readers of the book in question have commented that it was "strange" because it contains Marxist as well as pro-Islamist statements.

"The foundations of Islam rest on a system of values that turns it into the dominant global system," the author of the book declares.

Furthermore, Redzhepov, together with the chairman of the so called "European Institute Pomak" Efrem Mollov, claims that the Bulgarian Muslims, aka Pomaks – who are widely believed to be the descendants of Christian Bulgarians converted voluntarily or by force to Islam during the period of Ottoman Yoke – were in fact descendants of the so called Proto-Bulgarians who fled into the mountains when Knyaz Boris I, ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852-889 AD, adopted Christianity as the national religion in 864 AD, abandoning the Proto-Bulgarians' pagan religion.

According to the author of the provocative book, today's Bulgarian statesmen are continuing to conduct some kind of policy of "ethno-religious cleansing" of the region of the Rhodope Mountains "through economic and spiritual genocide".

The book was first reported to the public by one of Bulgaria's most renowned historians, Prof. Georgi Markov, for its outright lies and Islamist character, and its distribution in the mosques in the Rhodope region is said to have been terminated.

As the ethnic Bulgarian Muslims known as Pomaks, whose number is estimated at about 130 000, have been struggling to find their place in Bulgaria's predominantly Bulgarian Orthodox (Christian) society with its large ethnic Turkish Muslim minority, their community has generally been believed to be susceptible to proselytism efforts by Islamist or other agents. (novinite)

PROVOCATION - FYROManians Now Take Their Propaganda To The Oscars

FYROManians are masters in spreading propaganda, and their latest demise is a new film that is (unfortunately) nominated for an Oscar. The film titled "The Third Half" (time) has been added to the list of best foreign films and is supposedly a true story of a football team by the name of .. "Macedonia".

The football team is apparently coached by a man of Jewish faith who decides to make the team compete in Bulgaria’s national football league during the time of Nazi occupation and they come out as winners.

The film has already outraged Bulgarians since it depicts them as fascists. So much so that they called on EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule to confront Skopje over the movie. European MPs Andrey Kovachev (EPP), Evgeni Kirilov (S&D) and Stanimir Ilchev (ALDE) signed a letter -a copy of which was obtained by EurActiv in late 2011- in which they stated their concern over the "attempt to manipulate Balkan history" and "spread hate" on the part of the EU candidate country against its neighbours.

The film is a lavishly funded international production, depicting a football match played in 1942 between two teams of the Bulgarian football league – Levksi and "Makedonia". EurActiv said in a report that the film allows viewers to think that the Bulgarians were plotting to kill the coach of the team.

FYROManians on the other hand say that the film aims to bring their people "together", but Lazar Mladenov, president of the Bulgarian Cultural Club in Skopje, told EurActiv that mass scenes in the film stage a "very heavy anti-Bulgarian atmosphere".

The film is done with the support of FYROManian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski,  who helped grant the production a state contribution of 1 million Euros. (Money exists for movies and not for jobs... almost one third of the citizens in FYROM are living on the poverty line)

And here is where it gets really interesting. The general sponsor of the film is Sparkasse Bank, a part of the German banking group that has been asked by Bulgarian MEPs to withdraw its support.

In the letter to Füle, MPs said that the "FYROM policy is running counter to our European values" and shows Skopje is breaching European acquis, citing various texts from European Parliament resolutions.

Significantly, the Bulgarian MPs used the acronym FYROM , or Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, even though Bulgaria was the first country in the world to recognize FYROM under its constitutional name, after it seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Kirilov told EurActiv that the Gruevski government had "overdone it" with nationalist activities, aimed at boosting its popularity. "This may have helped him win the elections," he said adding that the FYROManians "will soon realise that this is not in the country's interest."

FYROManians are now doing what Turkey is doing in Greece. Turkey has given Greek television broadcasters free nightly soap operas which they gladly broadcast -because they are FREE-. Obviously Turkey believes that art can express anything it wishes, and FYROM -which is one of its closest allies- is obviously following suit.

But for arguments sake, if this were true, then why was the hate film about Mohamed not received well by Muslim nations, and why was the Corpus Cristi play not received well by Christians? Quite simply, there are some things that cannot be termed "art", but obviously both Turkey and now FYROM perceive art as yet another medium to spread their vicious propaganda. Besides, using the name "Macedonia" has always been about their expansionist designs into Greece.

Athens argues that "Republic of Macedonia" implies a claim over its northern region and considers that Skopje is misappropriating large chunks of its ancient history. Similarly, Bulgaria considers that FYROM is cherry-picking heroes and glorious episodes from its medieval history and the 19th- and early-20th century struggle against Ottoman domination. 

Getting back to the movie, and determined to make this film a winner, we suspect that they also came up with a clever method to make it stand out. But hey ... we are not that naive.

Over the last few weeks they have flooded the movie's page on the IMDb (Internet Movie Database), which is the largest film database on the Internet. They voted in favor of the film by obviously giving it a 10, and after 1340 votes, the modest FYROManian film received a rating of 9.5 (making it a so-called masterpiece of the seventh art).

Now this sounds all fair and good, since it is a competition after all, but the average movie buff can easily be tricked into thinking that the movie is indeed worth seeing and he or she will rush to view it.

Now don't get us wrong, it might indeed be a great film, (we have personally not seen it), but that is not where the problem is. The problem is that after these people view the film, most of which are probably not that up-to-date with geopolitics, will remember seeing a flick about a team that was called "Macedonia" and they will associate that name with this region in Europe. And that dear friends... is a problem.

And it will be an even bigger problem if they actually are awarded with an Oscar.

Hellenes its time for some action. Remember to also be wise in which movie you pay attention to when visiting the site.

References

• http://www.euractiv.com/enlargement/macedonian-film-infuriates-bulga-news-508639
  http://history-of-macedonia.com/2012/10/30/skopiani-propaganda-oscar/

Greek Court Challenges Pension Reform Plan Demanded By Creditors

Pension reform demanded by foreign lenders may be unconstitutional, a Greek court ruled on Thursday, in a setback to the government΄s efforts to push through an austerity package for the near-bankrupt country. According to a report from Reuters which was dispatch by capital.gr, the Court of Auditors, which vets Greek laws before they are submitted to parliament, said planned measures such as increasing the retirement age by two years to 67 and cutting pensions by 5 to 10 percent could be against the constitution.

The court said cutting pensions for a fifth consecutive time since the country΄s first bailout in May 2010 violated a string of constitutional provisions including the principles of individual dignity and equality before the law. Greek lawmakers, who are expected to vote on the cuts next week, could choose to disregard the court΄s opinion. But ordinary Greeks could still cite the ruling to fight pension reform in court, making it difficult to implement even if legislated.

Concerns about the measures΄ constitutionality could also further weaken the fragile ruling coalition΄s resolve, which passed a key privatization bill by a razor-thin margin of two votes on Wednesday.

The government agreed to undertake the reforms to continue receiving aid from the International Monetary Fund and European Union that it needs to stay solvent, and a finance ministry official said it would push ahead. "The opinion of the Court of Auditors is not binding for the Finance Ministry," a ministry official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "It is not the first time the court has expressed reservations on draft bills."

Greek pensions have already been cut by more than a quarter since the country was first rescued by the EU and the IMF. But as the country΄s finances deteriorate further and privatization revenues miss targets, Athens has sought even deeper pension cuts to reduce its deficit.

The government expects pension cuts to deliver about half of the 9.37 billion euro savings it is targeting for 2013, according to the country΄s 2013 budget plan that will be voted next week.

Those savings are part of a 13.5 billion euro austerity package Athens is close to agreeing a final deal on with its lenders, the first step to unlocking a new tranche of aid to avoid bankruptcy this month. (Capital)

Bishop Ambrosios Says Golden Dawn, The Only "Hope" For The People (VIDEO)

Metropolitan Bishop Ambrosios of Kalavryta, shocked the followers of his blog this past week when he published a letter to the Golden Dawn party expressing his views about their work. The Bishop said that "Golden Dawn is not a (bully gang) organization, it is a political party in the Greek Parliament that is equal to that of (any other party including) SYRIZA. What makes people believe that it's not? Was it or was it not voted into office through nominal national elections? Obviously it was, and whoever does not recognize this is an enemy to democracy!"

Ambrosios underlined that he is not be a supporter of the Golden Dawn party, but he believes that this new nationalist party might end up becoming a sweet “hope” for the people.

He said that today some consider it a "sin" to love one's country, or to be a patriot, or a "nationalist". This is common sense, he added, instead it is a "stigma" that is easily affixed to all those who truly love Greece.

"If you iron out your approach, and allow it to mature, you can become a sweet hope for the desperate citizen and a quiet strength in (an obviously) rotting political system."

Finally, Ambrosios instead criticized the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) party charging them with recruiting masked assailants for violent anti-government demonstrations that he says had in the past "plunged Athens into flames.”

Edtitor's Note - The story obviously provoked anger in some anti-Golden Dawn news channels since the newsit.gr magazine (owned by Nikos Evangelatos) more or less left it to be understood that the clergyman's statements were suffering from insanity. Actually we are not surprised, he and all of SKAI channel, as well as his wife Tatiana on STAR channel have set out to make an inch into a mile in the case of Golden Dawn. They have no respect for democracy, and as far as we are concerned are in their own little world. By the way... these are two perfect examples of the wanna-be leftists we always criticise here in Greece who drink champagne and Drambuie by night in their luxury homes or at some posh retreat, but in the day pretend to be one of us and talk about sharing the wealth. Get real!

IMPRESSIVE - Eye drops can treat baldness

English: Bald head (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bald men can regain hair with eye drops for glaucoma. Drug interactions and pre-existing diseases can make the therapy risky. However, eye drops for glaucoma have become a macho thing. It may even end one of the world's greatest male torments, baldness. So a survey, published by researchers in the journal FASEB, reveals.

Eye drops for glaucoma have become a macho thing. It may even end one of the world's greatest male torments - baldness. It is what a survey that has just been published shows, made by a group of researchers in the journal FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) based in the UK. The authors stated that they decided to do the experiment with hair follicles using bimatoprost, because the substance is already used in cosmetics to increase the eyelashes.

Although the result was not conclusive, research shows that hair follicles produce more hair when treated with bimatoprost than those which do not receive the drops. Excited about this? Calm down a moment... There are a few hurdles ahead. The price of the medication is the first one of these. According to the ophthalmologist of Instituto Penido Burnier in Brazil, Leôncio Queiroz Neto, a bottle of eye drops with 3 ml goes for R$ 70 reais (35 US Dollars).


Another problem, he comments, is that the scalps act as a sponge because it has a lot of veins. "This increases the severity of the side effects of medication because of the greater absorption of the drug," he says.

Risks

For example, he observes, bimatoprost may cause hypertension, headache, nausea, shortness of breath in people who exhibit sensitivity to the substance, even when used in the eyes. Surveys show that interaction of the eye drops with a beta-blocker, a medication used to treat hypertension, can cause vertigo. The doctor points out that the larger the area of the scalp in touch with bimatoprost, the greater the damage may be. So those who have high blood pressure should be cautious.

Another group that should exercise caution in using bimatoprost are those with renal problems. That's because the primary means of excretion of the drug is through the urinary tract.

Vanity

Queiroz Neto says that the male population is increasingly vain. So, no doubt that in the coming months the consumption of bimatoprost will increase (in Brazil). Just to give you an idea, the hospital records show that the male audience today in this country already accounts for 4 in 10 refractive surgeries to correct myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. 10 years ago they represented only 20% of all surgeries, i.e. the demand for refractive surgery by the male population doubled in this period.

Queiroz Neto highlights that 60% of patients say they want to get rid of their glasses to appear younger. Not surprisingly, among the over-40s, he says that the procedure is the most sought after is monovision - leaving one eye seeing up close and another from afar so as not to use reading glasses, an undisputed sign of advancing age.

Most prefer the procedure done with intralaser because it is made entirely by laser, and therefore it is more accurate and reliable. A tip for those who cannot use bimatoprost to regain hair is that without glasses a person can look 10 years younger.

Eutropia Turazzi
Translated from the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru