>> Dr. Wahby:
Good morning and welcome to the second symposium on the “A Futuristic Look through Ancient Lenses” and we have been enriched last year to have the lenses of the ancient Egyptians, no bias here, I mean I was not born at that time, but this year we moved in a natural succession to the second ancient civilization that really affected the world and I was just telling the consul general a minute ago that not only they give us the ancient Greeks, not only give us their thoughts, but they give us their way of thinking as well.  

So in other words, they didn't give the way to fish, and get more fish as we go.  

Two thousand years the apostle Paul went to Athens and he give testimony for ancient Greeks at that time.  

He said you are very religious.  

In honor of his apostles, one of his messages to one of the churches he said that the Greeks seek wisdom.  

Seek wisdom, and I think wisdom is the most wonderful attribute that you can give to a human being, and we are thankful for all the experiences that are commanded for us, from ancient Greece, and without much adieu, we have a real Greek person.  

I am not sure how many of you have Greek DNA in them, but here is a real one.  

She told me she called Ioanna.  

And here she is, Consul General of Chicago.  

>> Ioanna:
Thank you. 

Thank you.  

Thank you again for the warm welcome that was already obvious since last evening.  

So, we have now a bet here, how not to repeat myself between last evening and this morning. 

This is working.  

I don't need this.  

Perfect.  

Have this please, he gave it to me.  

I follow the steps of the organizers. 

Even better. 

So going back to what he just said, and that somehow to link it with what we discussed yesterday.  

I was, I made a case that actually what ancient Greece and [unclear dialogue] and classical Athens where everything came together in one city and in the big progress, gave to us, was just not exploring science or art, or the truth and the knowledge, but as well as questioning and trying to establish the way we acquire knowledge.  

How do we reach awareness?  

And that was the most important gain, along with the huge concentration of great minds in one city in a short in short two centuries, less than two centuries is a really short period of time in human history.  

And then actually Wafeek said I didn't really give us the fish, they gave us the nets, I think or the methods you meant.  

And I should have gave you the fish and the nets.  

So it was a good gift.  

So the subject that my good friend Dr. Wahby suggested was a huge one, like I said, so how Greece and ancient Greece is connected to the quest of truth, meaning, knowledge and wisdom, how it affected civilization, the subsequent civilizations and actually I added a little bit, how do we look upon this from where we stand now on the 21st century and what is currently going on in the world.  

Yesterday we tried and we said it is important to know the definitions and how we move and what we mean, and we kind of established that actually Greece, ancient Greece, and the ancient Greek civilization was actually focused on truth in all the ways, truth in this sense and the way you acquire it, and in a way that is completely harmonious, so they reach this level of truth and beauty being the two faces of the same coin.  

And I would just mentioning the reason I repeat myself on that that we can find these ideas in literature or in thinkers afterwards and so I made the reference to a poem by John Keach where he said that truth is beauty and beauty is truth.  

And that is something to remember for ancient Greece because it is part of actually the attraction it exercise on everybody; it's not just the knowledge. 

Actually today we have much deeper knowledge and broader knowledge on everything, we have more information and achievements that we can follow, but it was the combination with beauty and this was not on the artistic sense like I am looking at the sculpture or a painting, or a building, but it was also in the way it was interacting with the landscape.  

So human and natural environment were in harmony and they were actually interacting in the intellectual production and the artisitic production.  

Going now to how this affected subsequent civilizations, I would say again, one could make an easy statement, especially being a good diplomat, that's a very good statement, look around you.  

It's where all over.  

It's and this is a true statement, but we need to support it, and prove it. 

And I would say it's easy everybody can find references in arts that is literature, or sculpture, or anything you can name, to see influence of the classical Greek civilization, be it the technique, or in the themes they use, and since we are in the States, I can just tell you go to Washington DC, go to the nation's capitol and look at the government buildings and you will see the architecture there and you will clearly see the influence of the real classical Athens.  

And go and read the literature throughout the centuries, you will see that, but you listen to your first presidential debate last night, and the dialogue, the exchange of arguments to win a case, is something that actually was born in Athens, in classical Athens.  

Of course, it has been developed ever since, changed covering broader or different areas but the matrix was there and that's the important thing.  

And what is even more important, and [unclear dialogue] the 21st century is also the political system.  

The political system where you are actually proud of democracy was actually based in classical Athens.  

That's where people were gathering, they were exchanging views, they were co-deciding, they were casting votes, the parliament we have, it actually come from that system before that city state were all different ways, but in Athens they developed the dialogue the debate as a means of reaching a consensus and decisions.  

They actually were electing their leaders.  

So the leaders would assume the office, and then they would step down, sometimes they would even be ostracized, exiled, kicked out, if the people were not satisfied by their work.  

And going back to heroes of movies, the word is even Greek, democracy.  

So, and like I say, as if you dig all over Greece you will find something from the past, the relic.  

The same goes with language and terminology and different languages.  

If you go to medicines, if you go to math, if you go to political sciences, you will find Greek words on key words, on key notions. 

And that's the important thing, to see the foundation. 

And since we are talking about U.S. and current political systems, and I am a diplomat, actually it would be only becoming for me to tell you that one of the key books that is taught in the US as well, for international relations in political science is the history of who gave you this, the history of Greco-Persian wars.  

Because it is not a declaration, it's not the history, it's the foundation of international relations and actually of the study of power among states and among not only that, in this work we also have the funeral [unclear dialogue] that's all we know of [unclear dialogue] again not the primary sources, but sources we rely upon. 

And I invite you to go and read their wonderful English translations as work, and if you go through the speech, if you didn't know that that was written in classical Athens, you could think it's a letter of today.  

Actually making a speech for his powerful state, for in a way in the state of the union in front of the first fallen in a war.  

And you will see how well he describes the function of the state.  

This function of the state is actually the way democracy was functioning in Athens at its peak.  

There you can find all the elements of democratic systems that we are proud of and we defend so much, and you will also see a country with, because it was a country, and city/state, but it was a big country, a country with a global vision, to the extent that globals could see the forest back then, when its interests were all over, and where the main issues we are faced with today were there already.  

They were discussed and they were faced in a way.  

So, it's like you know, I won't go as far and say everything was discovered back then, because this is an easy statement.  

I mean if we talk about literature, we can say what is literature in subject?  

It is love and death; there is no other issue in literature.  

So what's new is the way you approach it.  

The shades you discover. 

The interconnections you make, otherwise those are the two issues. 

All other issues has dealt with through the centuries. 

So we don't simplify, I am just saying that at that point, at that corner of the world, a system had been set, and that is what really influenced other civilizations.  

Because elements, business, achievements, some wonderful achievements sometimes, come from all civilization.  

We should never ignore the contribution of anything. 

Nothing comes out of nothing. 

We step on what the people before us did.  

So even the ancient Greek civilization was not born out of nothing of course, it inherited elements from all other civilizations and it took in elements from other civilizations it met throughout history.  

But what was real achievement and that is why we admire it so much, was that it put everything into a system, into a fully functioning system in all aspects.  

In the organization of the state, in the arts, in the science, and in the thought.  

And the thing is that, even if we go now into our sciences, we will step on the same tools, we have developed those tools, of course, because the important thing in there we are completely on the same line, it is not the amount of the information, because everyday you acquire more information, it is the method to gain the information, and what is important for the human mind, is to have the method.  

We have the discussion this morning, what does a University do?  

We are a university here.  

You cannot teach people everything, there's no such thing as everything.  

But what you need to teach them is the way for them to learn. 

So people who really have a good education can learn everything on their own after they leave the university.  

They have the tools to learn, they know what to do, and going now to the most I think important issue is how we approach from 21st century ancient Greece and the civilization and why it is relevant, because if it is just to admire the past, people might say that's a good thing, but maybe not so relevant today we are faced with problems.  

Ok, they gave us the system but now we have developed the system, so ok, why are we discussing that?  

If we go back to what we were discussing that ancient Greece set the foundation for people to understand how they learn, and put into the center the whole ancient Greek civilization, have in the center, the human, the individual, and the way the individual reaches excellence, be it in science, be it in art, be it in the personal development within the city/state, what that automatically means that the center is in what you are. 

Not exactly how much you make, that's a good statement to make, and in Europe this still is the case sometimes, but we tend to forget we are in the 21st century.  

And maybe in the middle of challenges we face now it is important to remember those things.  

Why does anybody in this room remember Athens and ancient Greece?  

The classical Athens we are talking about in that era was a superpower.  

At some point the only power. 

And it kept calling this all over the then-known world reach [unclear dialogue] if you go back to the Greco-Persian wars, the history, you will see some exchange of statements with less powerful countries that are so cynical because excellence doesn't mean necessarily good, mild, soft.  

It means also powerful, so you will see cynicism like you will surrender because we are most powerful, so you have no choice.  

So things that today we would be reluctant to state so openly, but I mean what remains today to everybody's mind when we talk about ancient Greece, is not this superpower all over the Mediterranean and the then-known world, it's not the conquests, because at some point there were huge conquests.  

It's not even the failures, you know, yesterdays I was entering at the library, I saw you know at least with all the wars in ancient Greece, there are more than you can count, so that doesn't mean that you had this wonderful peaceful paradise landscape.  

No, you had human being and that's the marvel of it.  

Real human beings, with failures, with passions, with everything, who were concentrated though in thinking and understanding.  

And that's how we picture this era.  

The picture we get from that era is this, it's the Parthenon.  

That's probably our best achievement in the city.  

It's the marbles. 

It's the literature.  

It's the [unclear dialogue]. 

It's the tragedy.  

It's the comedy. 

It's the rhetoric.  

Those are the things we'll keep and remember.  

It's the harmony.  

That means that actually, the choice that ancient Greek civilization made to promote what the individual is, and the excellence of it's individual was really a wise choice.  

Was a right choice, because it lives with us thousands of years after, afterwards, and this is the real inheritance? 

Coming now to our current world, we might say that although we know, we study, we admire, we repeat, we repeat the things.  

Sometimes, because now of course, we live on a completely different scale, you have to imagine the then-known world was the Mediterranean world, now the world is the whole globe and beyond sometimes with things we do, and now information runs to us with a speed we cannot even absorb sometimes.  

We know what is happening at any place in the world, thanks to internet, and we can't imagine our lives otherwise.  

So, sometimes we tend to forget that of course, power, and things you acquire, are definitely important.  

Power has always been important in this world, but what should prevail, if as a sight and to set priorities, for the individuals, and that's for the whole society, is what you are.  

And I think that's an important statement to make also in an educational establishment, like the university. 

It would be a good thing if people would give priority to the basics, which is, what I am, what's my value, because at the end of the day, to say for bed, this is something to stay with you.  

Anything else, could come and go, could stay but you have no total control over it, and you know that permanent values are always a safer investment, a safer choice for people.  

And I would say that if we go along this path, we might find better or rediscover ways to go over problems that seem to be totally unsolvable at this problem, at this point.  

And another point I would like to make is this, that links to what I just said.  

All civilizations, ever since ancient Greece, going from the Romans that actually conquered us, have been in the constant battle of the ancient Greece, one way or the other.  

They think the same thing, and tricking them in a different way in their literature.  

In Philosophy, they think the same path questioning the same path, entering in the debate, trying to prove whether it's right or wrong.  

They think philosophy into the mechanics or technology to see if it works.  

Studying the architecture and trying to find how it was working with the light, the sun, and the air.  

And I wouldn't go as far as to say that ever since we fine-tune our knowledge, but I would say that we have a constant there.  

We have a constant we build around it, upon it, or even against it, but it is a constant.  

And since we were saying that actually in ancient Greece, we had the, the civilization had reached the point where truth and beauty were actually equal, they were almost the same, you can have one without the other, I would say that it's, this makes me think that another poet, in the way questioned that. 

Since we are in the realm of poetry, so I would say Keats said this, beauty is truth, and then the T. S. Eliot wrote that human kind cannot bear very much reality. 

And maybe that's also price to pay once you reach that point, but then again so see how ancient Greece survives in our time, we go on this point which on of the I think the four quartets, where he mentions that, and then he says after that statement that humankind cannot bear very much reality, that time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future.  

In time future contained in time past.  

That's something that is always good to keep in mind.  

While wondering about ancient civilizations, how relevant they are, how present they are, and to conclude my remarks, I would tell you that since we say, since we said that ancient Greece was all about awareness, thinking, logic, and going back to the roots, the words, logic derives from the Greek word for reason, which is logos but which is funny word, because the Greek word logos that stands for reason, is also for dock, stands also for work, for words, for logical sequence, and so on, because it was the root, the inference, the logic, the math the root of the quest.  

At the root of the quest for truth, for beauty, and for a system that makes sense out of all of it.  

Thank you. 

[Applause]

>> Dr. Wahby:
Well, that's your time for now questions and her time for answers.  

You have the Q she has the A. 

>> Ioanna:
We can do it the other way around if you want to. 

>> Audience member:
While you were talking, I was thinking about education here in the United States and how we teach history and look at historical perspectives.  

In Greece, how is that subject addressed in the schools, and how much sense do you get that the students, the current students in elementary, in high school appreciate the historical, do they see it, do they see it as we see it, or do they see it at a deeper level, or a shallower level, because they are part of it?  

>> Ioanna:
That's the thing, yeah. 

You almost give the answer. 

Of course, I have to say I am not an expert in education, so the best memories I can have are the ones when I was a student, so they are not very up to date.  

But what I would tell you is this, I give the not smart answer, it depends, but it's the only truthful answer.  

The difference with us is, with us Greeks is, once you are born in an environment in the same nation that comes all this thousands of years, and you are surrounded by all this, I was saying, I mean, people who are born in Athens, but not only in Athens, but they don't have a first impression of this.  

So, in a way, yes, they love it, do they admire the way a person seeing it for the first time when this person is sixteen?  

I don't know.  

I cannot tell, I cannot tell the difference. 

So in a way, it's part of you, the past is part of you.  

So the change is the way you talk about history, or the way you see history, because time as a different notion.  

I was mentioning again last night, I was stationed in my career in [unclear dialogue] Slovenia, one of the new states from former Yugoslavia, I was there at the end of the '90's.  

It was pretty, pretty young state back then.  

A little less than 10 years old.  

And we had our national day for the war of independence, which was started in Greece in 1821 against the [unclear dialogue] empire that gave birth to the modern Greek state, so this young lovely journalist comes to me, and says "can you tell me few words about you know the occasion of the Greek national day, blah blah, blah, and I said yes, yes, yes. 

 So she said what are you celebrating?  I said "my state".

She said, "when did this happen?  

I told her oh that pretty recent, that was 1821. 

She said to me, "That far back?" 

And I said, you know of course I was [unclear dialogue] because that was the nation that was coming 90 years of independence, of course, it makes total sense, and to me, 1821, of course, it's very recent.  

So if that gives you an example, yeah, people have this experience that they come from far back, and get the same should be in Egypt, or in present China, Israel, those are civilization that feel they talk as, you know, 2,000 years before Christ was just yesterday.  

In a way, I am not sure that makes you necessarily more aware of certain shades in history.  

I am not sure about that.  

Sometimes, as a newcomer, you might have another insight in things.  

It's like now you visit a place, I've seen people who spend 3 years of their lives in a place and they know far better about this place and the [00:27:49.07] history than the people who live there forever, they take it for granted.  

It's a difference between you know experience and taking something for granted and starting to learn from scratch.  

I can't tell you which works best.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Other questions?   

I have a question about time and thinking.  

Some people can think faster than others, naturally, and some by practice.  

But the name of the game, let's face it, thinking needs time, and some let's call it limitation. 

And quote unquote, just take time to let it sink in and think about it.  

This generation, and even us, living in the digital age, their attention span is very small.  

And people want pills to just get me the bottom of it, how can we balance that and this time and age between the demands and time and the need to think and take time. 

>> Ioanna:
I am not sure.  

You see that's a better question for you guys, professors.  

Because we practitioners, diplomats are actually very happy with minimum time to acquire information and react.  

But no, I can tell you I enjoy talking but still, yeah, if you are a practitioner, you have learned to move on the split second because things might change even since you started talking on something.  

When you are a student or a professor, or a thinker, or an intellectual, you know that everything needs time. 

To start with, nothing can happen without hard work.  

Even what I describe, if you want to be good, let's say good diplomat, and you want to be able to react in a second adapt, come up with a smart thing to say, or the right thing to say, or manage a bad thing that happened, it doesn't happen because you are, I mean, of course, it happened because you might be smart, or well trained, but it is the result of hard work.  

You need a good foundation in order to do that.  

So, good foundations, education, takes time, needs time.  

It is like good food. 

Why in Greece, we have also this, I think it is all of south we have to be fair, south of Europe, we have this wonderful tradition they used to have, now it is with time requirement it is getting you know, it is fading away, this tradition with food, especially Greeks that came from Asia Minor. 

My grandmother was from there, so cooking was the central part of the day for women, and slow cooking because they would put love and creativity in what they were doing, and pride in what they were doing.  

And it was an act of care and love for people.  

So like the truth, I mean if you take now frozen Greek cooked food, it doesn't taste good, ok, it might fill your stomach but it doesn't taste good. 

So the good stuff takes time.  

How can you convince or pass that to kids in this era where they play with smart phones and iPods far better than we do, and with all the machinery they are so exposed?  

I am not sure I know.  

I am not sure I know.  

And honestly, I don't know maybe we changed. 

Maybe also humankind changes.  

Progress is also change.  

We cannot really stop that, but I am sure there will always be some groups of people who will be old-fashioned, and they will continue the trade.  

I honestly I wouldn't worry.  

I think that people worry you know like the old grandpeople who say, "oh, my time was always better."  

We will manage with lots of information.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Ok, I have another question.  

But after you.  

>> Ioanna:
I see, he saved me. 

>> Attendee:
I have a question, I think it was very interesting that you talked about Greek culture and the politics of democracy rising out of Greek, ancient Greeks combining things that they found in other cultures, and developing it yet themselves, and you mentioned in the 21st century the value of the individual the innate value of the individual and his or her work, is somewhat in competition with the value capitalism places on wealth, and I was wondering if you saw any innovative ways that Greeks have been taking advant, perhaps taking advantage of recent economic woes to synthesize the value of the individual to the value of capitalist wealth?  

>> Ioanna:
I will tell you this.  

And don't get me wrong to start with, I will repeat. 

Ancient Greece was all as well about wealth and power and that is why actually they were spreading and they had the colonies to have more resources and wealth, so economy has always been part of the game, and that will be the last to say otherwise.  

But, the thing is that what I, the point I was trying to make, is that sometimes, you know, we tend to neglect that the value, like I said, the innate value the individual is equal if not important because how else are you going to reach wealth and growth if not through individuals that have certain values and capacities.  

So, now to answer your question the way, if I can, I will tell you that times of crisis in any society, and I think almost the whole globe now knows that, are in good time to reevaluate ways and practices. 

Because when something works, we are lazy.  

We don't go back and question if it's good or bad, where does that lead us, as long as everything, as long as growth, there are jobs, there is money, it's fine.  

We can consume, everything is fine. 

So once you know you reach a level when you see that things might not be working that well, under the current system, you saw that here a few years ago, and still there are issues. 

Europe now suffers of this.  

So, our country at some point because they are so interconnected we don't know how those things spread anymore.  

You can go back and question why I reached this point?  

What went wrong?  

I wouldn't open the question, you know the debate, what went wrong to the current crisis, it's I am not an expert, it's a complicated thing and it's still developing, so we can't say, what I can tell though is this.  

After the first shock every society has to face a crisis, then they come to terms.  

It's like people when they are faced with bad news.  

You go to the doctor, they give you some bad news, first thing you are in denial, then you are angry, then you start facing it, and you seek for ways to remedy what happened, or to face it.  

So the same is society, in a way.  

So when they reach the stage to where they come to terms to reality, and Europe is there now, after this time, you start wondering, what in my system, or in my practices within the system, or the system might be perfect, your practice of a system might be at fault.  

So they do, they started doing that; you know the intellectuals are back. 

So they, I mean they speak this back as public speak.  

And the same happens here, you see people talking now about maybe we should do this, or maybe we should be doing that wrong. 

To me, that's a good sign.  

That brings dialogue back into society, quest, even a good practice, if you ask me, should be questioned.  

Because that means that you have a vivid society.  

That the bad the lowest point for society is when the people move along without ever questioning why they do the things they do when they wake up in the morning.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Any other questions.  

I have a quick question for you after her.

>> Ioanna:
Thank you. 

You saved me from his question! 

I don't think I will have a third chance.

>> Attendee:
I have a comment and a question.  

When I was doing a sabbatical at a printing company, they were doing a customer service tour for European customers.  

And they arranged this lovely tour in Amish country and visited some antique stores, and you know, had a nice outing for the people, and when they came back they said well what did you think of the outing and they said well these things you call antiques, we call those grandma's things.  

>> Ioanna:
Ha ha ha ha

>> Attendee:
So, I think that puts my earlier question a little bit in perspective.  

And your comment.  

My question to you is, if I may ask, is how did you get interested in a career as a diplomat? 

>> Ioanna:
Probably this is the most difficult question.  

I can't really value this thing.  

I know that there are people who wanted to be diplomats all their lives, we have these people in the service you know, i meet these people in the services.

I was not one of them.  

It's not like at the age of 10, I would say, oh, I want to be a diplomat. 

No.  

I think though that my primary interest was not to be bored, so I can tell you physically as a career, you never get bored.  

And I have always been extrovert, so I wouldn't mind stepping into a room knowing nobody and introducing myself, or be exposed to different mindsets in different cultures.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
We saw that yesterday. 

>> Ioanna:
I know, but now I am trained.  

I am twenty years in the service, so it is different thing. 

The beginning can be really tough.  

So, I will tell you this is one part and the second part is, I mean, being a diplomat is in a way an act of representing on two ways.  

So, you represent of course your country, and you promote your country's interest, that is your primary job, and at the same time, you build bridges with the countries you are posted in.  

So you try to understand the country you are in, and you try to treasure their message back home.  

And this in a way this role, in a way of matching different countries and bringing understanding, I really found it interesting.  

I could be something else, working with people, but I mean at some point I said this seems like I was in international relations anyway, so I said this might seem a really interesting job. 

And I have no regrets ever since.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Very good.  

Question?

>> Ioanna:
So it is your time, huh? 

Didn’t I tell you there is no third time? 

>> Dr. Wahby:
I just have quick question that you can say quick answer.

>> Ioanna:
Sure!

>> Dr. Wahby:
Trying to go back to the ancient Greece, Greeks, and to you today, and to us.  

Information and knowledge and truth, I mean and wisdom.  

Are all elements towards our actions, so our actions are the sign of life, if you don't take action, then you are not really living.  

Even if you don't take action, it's an action in itself. 

>> Ioanna:
I agree. I agree.  

Denial of something it is. 

It is the other side of the purse. 

Yes. 

>> Dr. Wahby:
So, action is a sign of life, which is the ultimate thing we do as living people or creatures.  

Now how would you balance the information, knowledge and wisdom that leads, and a good balance to a good act? 

>>  Ioanna:
Wow, I mean.

>> Dr. Wahby:
How did they do it back then?

>> Ioanna:
Oh, back then it was easier. 

Information was limited commodity. 

Now we are, I mean, we have to consider information was much more limited in ancient Greece, and you had more time, because time is not just, you know, the 24 hours in the day, it is also the time you have to yourself, in order to think, and some time to yourself.  

You need not to be over exposed or over consumed.  

If you come to the decade we live in, how much private time any one in this room has?  

With the cellphone, with the emails, with the technology, you are I mean you can be contacted any moment of the day, regardless of the time zone you are in, so private time has been minimized.  

And information has been magnified to maximum because you are over-exposed to information.  

So to start with we have a big obstacle to overcome nowadays.  

How do you select amongst all this information, what to keep, and what to leave out?  

That minimize the time you have to work on understanding and at some point if you are lucky enough to reach wisdom, so what I would like to say, I think the only defense is to have a good foundation, and have a good education that might help you, because at least when you are younger, you have more time. 

You never realize unfortunately until you are too old to regain this time you know.  

Experience cannot be transferred; you have to live the experience.  

So, when parents say now that you have time to do that, you say ok, I will have lots of time afterwards, then you really don't have time.  

So what I would say is the only thing to lead I guess people through reading between the lines, and understanding information, at least selecting the right information, or avoiding to select to much garbage, if I can put it that way, is to have a good mind.  

Good mind is like a good body.  

You have to train it, to have it.  

It doesn't come without pain.  

I mean, if you want to be, to excel in gymnastics, you have to work out from the age of three or four, or the ballet.  

The same is with minds.  

You cannot revisit your mind at the age of 20 and say now I'll be good.  

No, you have to build on it.  

You can be really smart, have a high IQ, but if you don't train your mind it will be dull. 

So I think this is the only thing just train your mind when you have time, and when it's trainable.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Yes.  Yes.  

>> Dean Lanham:
I have a very light question. 

>> Ioanna:
Good! 

Those are the worst.

>> Dean Lanham:
I think this one will be easy.  

You’ve mentioned the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", and I know people in the room have seen it and loved it.  

When we saw this movie, it was as if it was a comedy and we were just living with, we were endeared to every character in the movie, I think I can speak for most people who have seen the movie.  

But, what was the Greek people's reaction to that movie or was that just like watching something very common, was it like last weekend at my house?  

Or was it exaggerated for us, because as we are inundated with television and silly programs now in my estimation, and America with reality TV and all these things, you know, just how serious was that movie taken, or was it seen as just oh that was just a fun type of thing.  

And the other thing that has linked in my head, is for those of us who have to be tourists in Greece, because that's our only point of departure there, because we are not citizens, and probably not going to be, so, we love to visit that country and if you can send us a couple of clues as to actual this is a must, this is a must, this is a must.  

I would appreciate it, and if we have to turn the camera off, that would be fine, in case you have to leave out a particular region of the more beautiful country you represent, but to follow-up the movie question, I just want to, how silly do we look when we go or whatever.  

>> Ioanna:
Ok, that's kind of easy.  

To start with the second part, I would be glad to send you all materials you want and even material so that you can make up your mind, because I mean, my lenses may not be your lenses in that. 

But I can send you out and then you make up your mind.  

I think this is my fault. 

I think people should make up their mind.  

I can give all the information I have available, I can tell you for this reason I would prefer on a personal basis to go there or there, and then you make up your mind.  

And so that was the easy part.  

Now as far as the movie is concerned, I think that I can, I saw it as well, and I enjoyed it very, very, very much.  

So what I tell you is my personal take on discussions I had with friends, so it's not like a general expert statement on that, but I think also the Greek audience really loved it, and enjoyed it.  

So the way, now talking about the way people approach it, there is a difference between the Greek audience living in Greece and the Greek American audience living in the US or in Canada and Australia. 

Those are really related in a way.  

So, for I tell you, for the Greeks, this was like what was happening in the families a few years ago, a few decades ago.  

I mean my aunts would do that; they are like in the 70's now, so they would do that, when they were young.  

That was the family thing.  

For the Greek Americans they think yeah, this was the thing, this is the thing they enjoy, and that there is an explanation to that. 

Because when you leave your country and you immigrate the image you give is the image you had when you are living there.  

They go and they visit but it's a different thing if you go for a month to see your relatives and your friends and the way it be a little tourist.  

It be a mixed thing.  

You are a little tourist; you are a little bit in your own home.  

But the vivid images you have are what passes through your parents or your grandparents, because in some cases you have now second, third, fourth generations of people.  

And it's the image they had when they were living there, so you have a nice mixture of things happening today, but also capturing the used to be of the great family.  

What's a constant is the, you know, the openness and the food.  

You cannot but eat the food.  

>> Attendee: 
We'll try point, counterpoint.  

Stick with the food. 

I think that’s a very important aspect of this whole thing. 

>> Ioanna:
It is. It is. 

>>
Isn’t that wonderful. 

>> Ioanna:
It was. 

It was. 

>> Attendee:
As we were talking briefly just before the meeting today I got a paper in progress on Greece. 

I didn't pick it up, just because I knew you were coming, but I have been playing around with it for a couple years, and I, as I indicated, I had a little trouble when I was in Athens about 2 years, I had a meeting scheduled with our American Embassy, and they were closed because of a bombing at one of the other embassies, so I wasn't able to see the people we could interact with and send some messages from the ship. 

I had a meeting with your people in your employment and social security ministry, that was cancelled because snap elections had been called and everybody felt that they needed to go out and campaign, so that they could have a job the following Monday, and that worked so I have some information, but missing some.  

In a country with 24 percent unemployment, 27% among the young people, and forty some percent working in the governmental agencies, and all levels of government I have a surely major problem that you are aware of everyday I am sure when you don't see that wonderful movie, and so the question is what are you thoughts and about potential future direction as Greece tries to work this out, through a really serious economic downturn.  

In this country a number of people have said, well, we don't want to be Greece you know in five or ten years.  

And so we are all watching what you folks do, and hoping that you will find a way through your economic problems and troubles and might give us some leadership and then we can all say "oh we want to be just like Greece" because you worked through this. 

I know that’s a broad question, but I know we've talked about it briefly for a couple days. 

>> Ioanna:
Yea, it's a broad question.  

Let me see, in a way, I told you last evening, I would like to repeat myself again.  

So, what we can say to start with, there can always be statements in the domestic politics picking on countries sometimes they can be let's say not the best can be stated.  

End of comment on those.  

And I think that the whole, this symposium and all these days you are going to have you will think that you would want to be like Greece.  

Trust me.  

Don't get ever the snapshot.  

Get the global picture. 

Because this is more important.  

And going now to economic problems.  

I'll tell you this.  

Economy is an issue for many, many, many countries.  

And for some it is more acute at this point, and for some is to be treated, otherwise it will become acute.  

There are several ways that this as far as Greece is concerned there is a method, there is a way and there is a European union concept how to treat that.  

And it's completely intertwined with what is happening in Spain, in Portugal, in Ireland, and in Italy. 

Because we are in the zone of common currency and the union. 

So it, the reaction is the first from the reaction of the country that has it's own currency and can make its own decisions on a fiscal level.  

Like I said, it is a two fold thing, of course the budget cuts, and that means that people have to make sacrifices. 

Big sacrifices to reduce the deficit.  

I was watching the debate yesterday; I saw the deficit was a big question mark.  

How do you ever think investing, not increasing the deficit, not borrowing money, this is the big question for western democracies at this point? 

And that at some level we might open the debate how we reach this point, but this is not for now, so what I am saying, what I was saying is this.  

We have worked the three years, people have worked because that's people actually sacrifices, great people sacrifices to work to reducing the budget deficit and the primary budget deficit if almost eliminated.  

And now it is the turn of structural reforms that have already been made, and continue to be made to regenerate the economy.  

You want me to tell you the total outlook, that's a one million dollar question for European union.  

If you ask Mrs. Marcos, it was a [unclear dialogue] point. 

And but what I know is that the people in Greece have made great sacrifices and they are not quitters and we have weathered much, much worse crisis in our history, and it's a little bit you know, I understand why people are so focused on economic crisis but we always need to be focused on specific examples but I would say never lose the global picture.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Well, I think that time is running, because she needs to be back to Chicago, but let me tell you a piece of information that I am not telling a secret.  

This symposium that started yesterday, is commented year, it will end on November 7, but that's not the whole truth.  The whole truth is,

>> Ioanna:
There is more to it!

>> Dr. Wahby:
More to the story.  

Yes, the sessions will end by the 7th, with a grand finale, music, and Olympics, and so forth, but I am working on a study abroad course in Greece for the year 2015, and it's entitled, "The Twenty-First Century, Ancient Greece." That's the main study of it. 

And the general consul, consul general, was kind enough when I just briefly mentioned this to her yesterday, she said, I'd be supportive to you, I'd help you in any way I can, and now we have a friend, an insider that will make this one of the best study abroad courses that EIU had ever had.  

We are lucky that Eastern has this element and it's mission and vision, the international element.   

Look at the faculty, look at the students, and look at the President.  

President Perry and his schedule, found time to come here today and yesterday, and he is big supporter of I know for international activities and curriculum, so we thank you very much for that, and stay tuned for Study Abroad course, Twenty-first Century, Ancient Greece".  

Any other final words, other than by-by to our guest speaker?  

>> Attendee:
Thank you for coming.  

>> Ioanna:
Thank you. Thank you.

It has been a pleasure.  

Thank you. 

[Applause]