The 2018 Class of the
Cleveland International Hall of Fame has been announced. The committee chose from over 100 deserving
nominees and agreed unanimously on these 6 individuals. Congratulations to the Class of 2018.
Sister Alicia Alvarado (Puerto Rican heritage)
Sheila Murphy Crawford (Irish heritage)
Dr. Atul Mehta (Indian heritage)
Abdullah (Abby) Mina (Lebanese heritage)
Ralph Perk Jr. (Czech Heritage - American Nationalities
Movement)
Judge Ray Pianka (posthumously) (Polish heritage)
They will be inducted
in a dinner ceremony in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott at Key Center
downtown on Tuesday April 17, 2018.
To
place a congratulatory message in the collector’s edition program book and/or
for sponsorship and ticket information e-mail dan@clevelandpeople.com or call
Debbie at 216-406-6594.
Each year we like to gather an eclectic group of friends and business associates for a holiday lunch. No, it's not just techies. Media, non-profits, politicians, business, cultural - they were all represented.
The food and atmosphere at Bo Loong at 38th and St. Clair is always terrific and our 75 guests maxed out the party room.
Jose Feliciano
Jim Cookinham and Dan Hanson
Joshua Edmonds
Paramjit Singh
Russ Mitchell and Brad Sussman
Gia Hoa Ryan, Lisa Wong, Nada Martonovic and Oanh Loi-Powell
ClevelandPeople.com where we celebrate the 100+ ethnic groups in the area and make it a more attractive destination for immigrant talent as well as showing what a cool and diverse city we live in.
ClevelandSpeakers.com which has grown, by popular demand, from a section on GreatLakesGeek to its own website with some great speakers and topics.
Cleveland101.com which was intended to give visiting reporters some interesting stories during the RNC and Cavs championship run but has evolved into a collection of great Cleveland stories, firsts and landmarks.
ClevelandCooks.com which is for foodies, chefs and wannabe chefs as we celebrate how Cleveland has become a foodie town with great chefs and restaurants.
Cleveland Food Adventurers a group that visits local ethnic restaurants and learns about the food and culture while enjoying camaraderie and a great meal.
ClevelandSeniors.com for the 50 and over crowd and those who care for and about them.
ClevelandWomen.Com for girls and women of all ages in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio
GreatLakesGeek.com. The business, science and technology information on GreatLakesGeek.com is becoming more essential as many of our longtime favorite print publications have disappeared or cut back.
Magnum Computers Inc. where we try and earn some $ so we can volunteer more for CAP and support our other projects. (grin)
ClevelandPets.Com for the four-legged (and other) members of our families.
And some more projects we are working on.
When asked what the diverse group of guests had in common, some reflection made it clear that they, like us, love Cleveland. Most have had many opportunities to work and live in other cities. But we have all chosen to be here because we believe in the city.
As attendees introduced themselves, this became evident and all were impressed by the positive outlooks expressed.
And though the techies naturally gravitated to their own area, as did the media, international, political and other types of guests the fun was when seemingly unconnected people discovered a thread that connected them to someone else in the room.
Want to be invited next year? Let's do some positive things together next year.
A highlight of the 8th Annual ICC-WIN Cleveland Multicultural Holiday Celebration on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at the Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland was the International Fashion Show featuring almost 100 models from about 30 countries.
The mission of the International Community Council - Worldwide Intercultural Network (ICC-WIN) is to "Celebrate Cleveland's multicultural communities through collaboration and cooperation on initiatives that promote the prosperity of the region and its diverse people".
One of the most popular of ICC-WIN's activities is the annual Multicultural Holiday Party. The 2017 event, held at the Global Center for Health Innovation, was the 8th annual party. Hundreds of people from dozens of diverse backgrounds gathered to sample international foods, watch performances, view an international fashion show and meet and socialize with others.
On October 26, 2017 the Cleveland Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society celebrated Carpatho-Rusyn Day in North America by having the Rusyn flag flown over Cleveland City Hall for the entire day.
In the evening there were speeches, entertainment and celebrating.
If you don't know, the Rusyns are a people without a country. They are from the Carpathian Mountains region in Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia.
The Ohio Asian American Economic Summit took place November 14, 2017 at Ariel International Center in Cleveland. Ariel International and Margaret Wong & Associates LLC were the event sponsors. ClevelandPeople.com was honored to be a supporting organization. Ariel CEO Radhika Reddy had worked toward this event for years and with the support of Margaret Wong was able to fill the room with people interested in doing business in and with Asia and a stellar group of speakers and panelists including the Consul General of India who flew in from New York and the Consul General of Japan who came in from Detroit.
Honorable Sandeep
Chakravorty,
Consul General of India
Radhika Reddy and Consul General of Japan in Detroit Mitsuhiro Wada
I recorded the entire day -all the info panels, the keynotes and the dignitaries. Take a look at our Ohio Asian American Economic Summit page.
The American Lebanese Community Council presented the 7th annual celebration of Lebanon Day in the City of Cleveland celebrating the 74th independence of Lebanon. The ceremony was in the Rotunda of Cleveland City Hall.
The Republic of Turkey was founded on October 29, 1923 - 94 years ago. Last year in 2016 the Cleveland Turkish community dedicated the new Turkish Cultural Garden.
They gathered again one year later on Sunday October 29, 2017 to plant tulip bulbs in the Turkish Garden.
Though many think of the Dutch when they discuss tulips, tulips are actually native to Turkey. Tulips are the national flower of the Republic of Turkey with a history going back to its Ottoman roots.
Many cultivated varieties of tulips were widely grown in Turkey long before they were brought to Holland from Turkey In the 16th Century.
The time between 1718-1730 is called the "Tulip Era of Turkey". It was under the reign of sultan Ahmed III and tulips became an important style of life within the arts, folklore and the daily life during this peaceful time.
The botanical name for tulips, Tulipa, is derived from the Turkish word "tulbend" or "turban", which the flower resembles. It's considered as the King of Bulbs.
As youmay know, the ClevelandPeople.Com Food Adventurers travel to authentic ethnic restaurants in the Cleveland area and, besides enjoying a special traditional menu, learn about the culture of the country.
Zoma Ethiopian Restaurant is run by Zeleke Belete and the evening included many glimpses into the geography, history and culture of Ethiopia.
Zeleke told the Food Adventurers that they had entered a Fork Free Zone and explained that Ethiopian food is eaten with the spongy injera bread instead of silverware.
Zeleke prepared a special menu for the Adventurers including:
When I spoke at the ClevelandPeople.Com Food Adventurers event at the Ethiopian Restaurant Zoma in Cleveland Heights Ohio several people asked "Where in the world is Ethiopia?"
I showed that Ethiopia is in the Horn of Africa (East Africa about 2/3rds of the way up) and how the geography is important to the politics and history.
I also told of how the Nile River flows South to North and is split, how Ethiopia is the originator of coffee and about the languages (Amharic and others) and religions (Orthodox Christian and Muslim) of Ethiopia.
Watch this short video of Dan's answers about Ethiopia.
I am a big fans of reggae music especially Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.
They were both followers of Rastafarianism. Both a religious movement and social movement, it developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. Practitioners are known as Rastafari, Rastafarians, or Rastas.
Many Rastas call for the resettlement of the African diaspora in either Ethiopia or Africa more widely, referring to this continent as the Promised Land of "Zion.” Western society is considered to be the oppressive "Babylon".
The smoking of cannabis is regarded as a sacrament with beneficial properties. Rastas place emphasis on what they regard as living 'naturally', adhering to ital (take the v off of vital) diets, allowing their hair to form into dreadlocks, and following patriarchal gender roles.
It was influenced by the Back-to-Africa movement promoted by black nationalist figures like Marcus Garvey.
Rastafarianism is an Abrahamic religion. Rastafari believe in a single God—referred to as Jah—who partially resides within each individual.
Meanwhile, Haile Selassie I ruled as Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. Many Rastas regard him as an incarnation of Jah on Earth and as the Second Coming of Christ. Others regard him as a human prophet who fully recognized the inner divinity within every individual. During his life, Selassie described himself as a devout Christian.
The 1974 overthrow of Haile Selassie by the military Derg and his death in 1975 resulted in a crisis of faith for many Rastas. Enthusiasm for Rastafari declined in the 1980s, following the deaths of Haile Selassie and Bob Marley.
But the music is still great.
Watch this short video telling the story of reggae and Rastas.
When I spoke recently at the ClevelandPeople.Com Food Adventurers event at the Ethiopian Restaurant Zoma in Cleveland Heights I told how several important finds have propelled Ethiopia to the forefront of palaeontology.
This included the several hundred pieces of bone fossils representing 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago that is called Lucy.
Lucy is probably the most well-known hominid discovery. It's offical name is Australopithecus afarensis. Known locally as Dinkinesh, the specimen was found in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Region in 1974 by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. It is one of the most complete and best preserved adult Australopithecine fossils ever uncovered.
There is a cool story how they came up with the name Lucy. Watch the short video to hear it.
It's always interesting to see which of the 100+ ethnic groups will attract the most visitors in a month. October's results were fairly predictable though that is not always the case. The Top 5 groups with the most visitors in October 2017 on ClevelandPeople.Com were: Italian, Indian, Irish, Polish and Slovak. Lithuanian was a close #6
Mike Stovsky is a Partner and Chair of one of Benesch’s core practice groups, Innovations, Information Technology & Intellectual Property (3iP).
Benesch is a business law firm with offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago, Hackensack, Indianapolis, Shanghai and Wilmington. The firm serves national and international clients that include public and private, middle market and emerging companies as well as private equity funds, entrepreneurs, not-for-profit organizations, trusts and estates.
Mike was a speaker at the 15th annual Information Security Summit at the IX Center in Cleveland.
In this interview Mike spoke about Data breaches, Cyber Security, Preventing and reacting and even Quantum Computing.
The 15th annual Information Security Summit was held at the IX Center in Cleveland. ISS is the largest gathering of information security professionals in the Midwest.
The 2nd day focused on Law and one of the speakers was Mehmet Munur, a Partner at Tsibouris & Associates, LLC. He concentrates his practice in the areas of technology, information privacy and security, and financial services regulation.
His topic, presented with partner Dino Tsibouris, was ‘Recent Trends in Information Security and Privacy Laws for 2017.’ This part of the presentation deals with the Yahoo breach.
80% of businesses believe they will be hit by a cyber-attack within this year according to a June 2017 study. That's not news to Gary Sheehan and Glenn Brzuziewski.
For the last 30 years, Gary Sheehan has been working in information technology and in the last 20 years he has focused on information security, specializing in security management, assessments, policy and awareness development, compliance and security project management. Currently Gary is the Director of GRC Services and Solutions for Advanced Server Management Group, Inc. (ASMGi).
Glenn Brzuziewski is an attorney with an emphasis on technology law. For the last 13 years he has served as Owner/managing Partner of Hurricane Labs providing and managing companies' security services, including Security Monitoring, Network Monitoring and Vulnerability management.
Glenn Brzuziewski amd Gary Sheehan
In 2002 Gary and Glenn decided to create an all-volunteer security conference for professionals right in their own backyard to eliminate the time and costs of travelling to out-of-state conferences. They formed the Information Security Summit (ISS) and 150 professional attended the first fall ISS in 2002 on the campus of Tri-C East.
With support and participation from the top IT security companies in the region, ISS took off. It has become the largest gathering of security professionals in the Midwest and has outgrown several spaces, now meeting at the huge IX Center to accommodate the crowds.
The annual Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican ancestry living in other places, especially the United States. It is acknowledged internationally in many other cultures. The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey.
In Cleveland, the celebration centered at the Cleveland Public Theater. There was Latin food, live entertainment, displays and activities throughout the day.
The 2017 Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit brought together more than 2,250 of the brightest leaders from around the world to Cleveland to discuss the investable technologies that will deliver on the powerful promise of Genomics & Precision Medicine. This impact session was titled "Made-to-Order Surgery: How 3D Printing is Revolutionizing the Operating Room."
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has created a searchable database of information on the Displaced Persons Camps and the people who passed through them. Earlier this year, the Holocaust Museum partnered with the Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland to digitize the UMA's extensive collection of DP Camp periodicals produced by Ukrainian refugees from 1945-51. Working with Kyiv-based Archival Data Systems, researchers have scanned more than 75,000 documents archived at the Tremont museum, creating a resource that scholars and others will now be able to access.
Officials from the Holocaust Museum unveiled the new resource and its search tools at a special presentation in Cleveland, a city that resettled thousands of displaced persons. "Solving the Mystery: Tracing Your Family's Path from a Displaced Persons Camp," was presented at the Slovenian National Home, 6409 St. Clair Avenue.
"The furthest distance in the world is not between life and death, but, when I stand in front of you, yet, you don't know that I love you", so said the poet. What I would like to say is that "The furthest distance in the world is not between life and death, but, when I stand in front of you, and you think, "who are you?", "all Chinese look the same"---- This is how Oberlin middle school teacher Ms. Shuo Jin, of Confucius Institute at Cleveland State University, feels.A considerable amount of Americans think that all of the Chinese people are the same!
In order to expand American students' horizons and diminish their over-generalized impressions of Chinese people, Xuhong Zhang (Cleveland State University Confucius Institute's associate director), along with teachers Shuo Jin and Jinting Xing, held a two-day Chinese Traditional clothing show at Langston Middle School on October 9 and 10, 2017.
A total of eighty-five students from Grades 6 through 8, have participated in this event and experienced the incredible beauty of traditional Chinese clothing.
Asian Services In Action, Inc. (ASIA, Inc.) is the largest Asian American & Pacific Islander-focused (AAPI) health and social service 501(c)(3) agency in the State of Ohio. For more than 20 years, they have taken on the most challenging tasks to help the underserved, low-income, and immigrant communities in Northeast Ohio and all across the state. Serving over 28,000 individuals and families annual, ASIA is committed to the AAPI community through the various health and social service programs they offered.
On October 20, 2017 ASIA, Inc. held their 21st Anniversary Gala and Fundraiser at Cleveland State University.
he Piast dynasty was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The folk song and dance group PIAST is named for them. They are part of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America (PRCUA) the oldest Polish American organization in the United States.
They performed at the 2017 Cleveland Museum of Art's International Cleveland Community Day in the Atrium of the Museum.
