9th Olympiad of the Mind

     Preparations for the 9th Olympiad of the Mind, a high-level event bringing together knowledgeable minds from all over the world, began on Thursday, 14 September 2017, the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at the OAC, and will run until 17 September. The 9th Olympiad of the Spirit is carried out under the aegis of the STEPS International Science Foundation (Science, Technology, Economics, Politics for Society) and is co-organised by the OAC. Founder and leader of the Olympiad of the Mind is a fellow native of Chania, Professor Epimenides Haidemenakis.

     His Eminence the Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selinon, representative of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, emphasised among other things, that "coexistence among people is not a simple matter. The weakening of it, its dissolution, is usually due to the virus of egocentrism, manifested in a variety of ways. The question is not of just any kind of coexistence, but a harmonious symbiosis, which contributes to the organic unity of humanity. As a contemporary Orthodox theologian notes, "reason means dialogue, existence, coexistence and survival, cohabitation".

     Afterwards, Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, General Director of the OAC, after welcoming the attendees and stressing the great importance of this conference, issued a message of cooperation, collectivity and dialogue as the most crucial way of solving social problems, since modern problems cannot be solved in isolation. We need each other, we need joint mobilisation and effort, but we especially need a common voice and a spirit of solidarity.