By Theodore Kalmoukos
BOSTON, MA – Esteemed businessman and philanthropist George Behrakis has a dream and he is pursuing it decisively. He wants to make the children of Greece stop smoking cigarettes. The Behrakis Family Foundation is spending $10 million dollars for this antismoking campaign.
In an interview with The National Herald, the Lowell-based entrepreneur said: “we have a problem in Greece becauseboys and girls 11 to 17 years old are being given cigarettes. I know the government voted for no smoking in restaurants and public places and the owners don’t obey; this is stupidity. Close them down for a night, especially on their busiest night, and you will see how fast they will change. We have cut cigarette smoking in America by 50 percent; why are our restaurants and bars still doing business? Because they know how to obey the law.”
Behrakis, who visited Greece a few weeks ago, also said that “the tax on cigarettes should be increased in Greece. Also, make sure you control the black market from coming in from Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, Kosovo, and FYROM.”
He explained that “I am doing this in Greece it because I am very discouraged when I sit outside a tavern and I see young people coming out from school smoking and I know health care costs in Greece are skyrocketing. The problem is they go home and they see their parents smoking. I am not interested in the parents but in the young kids. If I can cut smoking among the youth by 30 percent, it is a success. It is difficult, but remember Greece was under Ottoman occupation for 400 years but Orthodoxy and Hellenism survived, and that sends a message that this endeavor will bring results.”
He said the recent trip to Greece was excellent. “I went to Thessaloniki; you wouldn’t know that there is a crisis in Greece. People were very happy; the shops in Thessaloniki were spectacular and reminded me Fifth Avenue in New York or Newbery Street in Boston.”
He also said “without a doubt the people also are hurting; the unemployment rate is too high.”But “Greece is in the ideal location. We have the climate, we have the intelligence; people are very bright and highly educated. The government should work to bring the industry in. People cannot only work for the government. The country cannot survive. If couldn’t balance the books; it sends a message of incompetence.”
Would he invest in Greece personally, given the current political and economic climate?
“No, I wouldn’t. My two biggest disappointments were the sale of Astir in Vouliagmeni to Arabs and Turks for 400 million euros. I was born in the United States but I love Greece, and so to see the National Bank of Greece to sell the Astir of Vouliagmeni I thought it was a disgrace. Secondly, when I saw the Hilton Hotel was sold I said there is something wrong here; we can’t sustain ourselves.”
As for Greece’s entry into the Eurozone in the first place, Behrakis said the numbers were falsified to begin with, and that is coming back to haunt Greece.
“By bringing in illegal immigrants,” he added, “it is creating a major issue for Europe. This is why we had the Brexit. Why did the British pull out? They did not want all those people coming in because number one they don’t speak the language, number two they don’t assimilate with Europeans. They want to be in their own little ghetto; that doesn’t work today, it worked years ago. The reason that the Greeks became successful in the United States was because they knew they had to learn the language. They had to become part of the system. They were not educated but they had the brains. The Greeks had the minds and they knew they had to become part of the community. They owned stores, restaurants, bars, but one thing they learned it was they had to educate their children, even though they didn’t have an education themselves. That is why the second generation was successful and the third was even more successful.”
What is in store for the future of the Greek-American community? “We need a big metamorphosis, a change,” Behrakis said. “We need to come into the 21st century.”
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