The August full moon was seen rising over ancient archaeological sites in Greece, such as the Acropolis and the Temple of Poseidon, on Sunday night.
The full moon, which many call a seasonal ‘blue moon,’ gave stargazers something to smile about on the night as they prepared their cameras to capture the rare sight.
120 archaeological sites and museums across Greece also opened their gates free of charge so that the public can enjoy the August full moon. At the same time, a series of cultural events have been scheduled between August 20-25, 2021.
Music concerts, theatrical performances, dance performances, poetry recitations, documentary screenings, art exhibitions, stargazing and guided tours are the main events that have been organised this year by the Ministry of Culture and Sports for the August full moon.
Photos:
The August full moon is seen rising over the ancient temple of Poseidon at Sounio, a southern cape of Attica region in Sounio, Greece, on Aug. 21, 2021#fullmoonpic.twitter.com/BOjogExmKP
Melbourne couple Kristina Costalos and pilot John Tilley set sail along Australia’s east coast on their brand new yacht three months ago.
Ms. Costalos says she has Tilley’s navigation experience to thank for their escape from lockdown.
“I just remember thinking to myself there has to be more to my life right now,” Ms Costalos, a former news reporter, told A Current Affair.
“I don’t even know what day it is anymore.”
They currently sit in Airlie Beach near North Queensland after finding themselves in dire straits in the Bass Strait between Tasmania and Melbourne.
“I don’t think this is for everyone, and John’s navigation experience has been an absolute bonus,” Ms Costalos says.
“For example our auto pilot failed when we were in Bass Strait. It was a really scary experience but John was able to stay at the helm for 17 hours and get us through.”
“The sea is the limit, or the border quarantine requirements, that’s the limit,” Tilley added.
The couple had no real sailing experience before setting off but they took lessons and spent a lot of time living on the boat to get used to it.
The finalists for the 2021 Westfield Local Heroes have been announced and they are now in the running to win $10,000 grants to support the impactful work they do for their local community.
Among the names are two Greek Australians from South Australia and win or lose, they are definitely making our community proud.
Here’s the list if you would like to vote before Monday, August 30, 2021.
Morning radio presenter, Emma Georgiadis, harnesses her combination of broadcasting skills and experience as a teacher to connect with young women and build their confidence.
She’s doing this through Enlighten Education, a non-profit provider of in-school workshops for teen girls. Her sessions help girls aged 11 to 18 decode the mixed messages they receive about what to eat, how to act, how to look, how to please and how to be liked.
Emma shares vital tools girls can use to build positive relationships with their peers, parents and teachers. Her fun and engaging workshops cover topics including positive body image, self-talk, social labelling, personal safety, stress, conflict, diversity and healthy friendships.
“My work as a radio announcer gives me the platform to go into schools and have a connection with the girls. It has also provided me with the skills to develop my podcast, Empowerhouse, which builds attitudes of self-love, self-worth and self-belief,” Emma says.
She feels honoured to have been nominated as a Westfield Local Hero and if successful, she will use her $10,000 grant to fund workshops for an additional 500 girls.
“I am so excited by the opportunity to go out into more schools and spread positive messages. I am so pleased to be able to combine my skills to help others realise their potential,” Emma concludes.
Katerina Iliopoulos – HeartKids Limited, South Australia Division (Westfield West Lakes, SA)
Grandmother, Katerina Iliopoulos, is giving back as a passionate and generous fundraiser for families affected by congenital heart disease.
Over the last three years, she has raised nearly $20,000 for the charity HeartKids by baking and selling mountains of Greek shortbread.
HeartKids aims to give every child diagnosed with congenital heart disease a fighting chance of leading a long and fulfilling life. The charity funds research, advocates for people with the disease and offers guidance, information and support throughout their journey.
Katerina was inspired to support the charity after her granddaughter, Zoe, benefited from their support to travel to Melbourne for surgery.
Thankfully, Zoe made a quick recovery and is now a healthy and active little girl. But some children require multiple surgeries and trips to Melbourne. HeartKids also provides the families with peer support once they return home, which is often the hardest period.
“Being able to support others, while in turn receiving support, has created a strong sense of community and reduced the feeling of being alone when it comes to caring for a heart kid,” Katerina says.
She is surprised to be nominated as a Westfield Local Hero but “delighted to do my part, alongside many other supporters and volunteers.”
If Katerina is successful, HeartKids will use its funds to continue offering its support programs to families living with congenital heart disease.
*Please Note: The above finalists are those The Greek Herald could identify by their Greek name.
The world’s first robot tour guide goes by the name ‘Persephone’ and is currently touring a three million-year-old cave in northern Greece.
‘Persephone’ is a multilingual robot that leads the public through the first 150 metres – or the first three of eight stops – of the Alistrati Cave near Serres.
Nikos Kartalis is the scientific director of the Alistrati site and acquired 118,000 euros (AUD$193,400.82) to turn his dream of a robot guide into a reality.
Mr. Kartalis says he’s already reaping the fruits of his labour.
““We already have a 70% increase in visitors compared to last year since we started using” the robot, he says.
“People are enthusiastic, especially the children, and people who had visited in the past are coming back to see the robot guide.”
‘Persephone’ was built by the National Technology and Research Foundation and features a white body, black head, two luminous eyes, and wheels to roll around the cave with.
“It is something unprecedented for them, to have the ability to interact with their robot by asking it questions and the robot answering them.”
“Many foreign visitors couldn’t believe Greece had the capacity to build a robot and use it as a guide in the cave.”
‘Persephone’ was a daughter of Zeus who was abducted by the god of the underworld, Pluto/Hades.
“My name is Persephone, I am the daughter of the goddess Demeter and the wife of Pluto, the god of the underworld. I welcome you to my under Earth kingdom, the Alistrati Cave,” the robot says as she greets visitors.
Alistrati Cave (Photo: itinari.com)
Evdokia Karafera is one of the tour guides who partners with the robot.
“It is helpful, because it speaks many languages. There’s just a little delay in the touring,” she said.
“Most find it fascinating, especially the children, and find it interesting that it speaks many languages.”
Karafera insisted, however, that human tour guides cannot be completely replaced.
“Robots, at some point in the future, will take over many jobs. But I believe they cannot replace humans everywhere,” she said.
“(Visitors say) ‘the robot is interesting, original, but can’t substitute for the human contact with the guide and the conversation we can have on the way back.’”
A young girl from Larisa full of enthusiasm, dreams and ambitions, who loves what she does more than anything in the world while enjoys hanging out with her friends in her spare time.
That could serve as a simple description of 16-year-old athlete Michaela Laki after our conversation with her.
Yet, we would be leaving out some very important details.
Like for example, the fact that just a few days ago she won the Greek championship title in tennis after beating Dimitra Pavlou 2-0 set in the final or that only a couple of months ago she was able to reach the round of 16 in the Roland Garros juniors division, leaving spectators impressed with her performance.
And those are only but a few from the rapidly growing list of her achievements in the sport.
Michaela with her Under-14 European Champion trophy. Image: tennisnews.gr
But for Michaela herself, who started playing tennis at the age of six, it’s become a way of life:
“From when I was young, I liked it [tennis] a lot. I remember back then, it was considered a very different sport, not many people played it. It didn’t have the attention that it gained in recent years due to the success of athletes like [Stefanos] Tsitsipas or [Maria] Sakkari and there wasn’t so much noise on social media. I also like the fact that it’s a solitary sport, I enjoy being by myself inside the court.”
When speaking about the recent string of successes by Tsitsipas and Sakkari, who she characterizes as her role models, Michaela points out that their wins keep her motivated: “Stefanos and Maria are perfect examples of how a professional athlete should be and especially for someone like me who’s just starting out in the industry. It’s really important to have two Greeks so high up in the rankings. It motivates me to keep trying.”
Recently there’s been a lot of talks going around in regards to the mental health of the athletes when dealing with the media representatives, especially after Naomi Osaka chose to withdraw from the French Open as she could not handle answering the questions of the journalists in the post-game press conferences.
Michaela Laki was able to reach the round of 16 at the recent Roland Garros juniors edition. Image: gazzetta.gr
Yet Michaela seems to have a handle on the situation and understands the obligations that come from being a professional: “Some people may get affected by this, but thankfully something like that hasn’t happened to me yet and I hope it never does. I understand that press conferences are part of our job, we need to speak to the media after each game, whether we’re feeling well or not.
“And I believe that it’s for this exact reason that athletes are paid so well, because of all the promotion they get from journalists and social media, they play a great role in the evolution of our career. I’m in a great environment, my coach Mr Phivos Michalopoulos offers me great advice and my parents are there to protect me from such matters so I don’t think I’ll be affected by this in the future.”
When she’s out of the court, the aspiring athlete explains that she’s just like any other girl her age who enjoys the company of her friends: “I live in Larisa, but I travel a lot. I feel like I’m living two lives; one is inside the court and the other is in my everyday routine.
“But it’s very important for me, when I’m not training, to be able to have that time off to relax and enjoy myself so that my mind can drift away a bit. There’s a lot of pressure in this sport and it’s great to have friends who make me laugh, support me, help me forget about everything because afterwards I have a greater appetite to go back and play tennis.”
As we wrap up our interview the ambitious young champion sends her message to all the Greeks of Australia: “I’ve never been there before, I was meant to come over for last year’s Open but that was cancelled.
“I hope everything goes well and I’m able to play in the next edition. I hope I have the support of the Greek community, it’ll be great to see them in the stands! I’ll do my best and I’ll try extra hard for all those who come to cheer me on!”
“Life’s a ride, yeah it gets tough; the bitterness of it keeps me strong,” upcoming Greek Australian artist GIA sings on her 2018 track ‘Life’s A Ride’.
GIA knows this ride better than most and she’s only 23-years-old.
Yianna Nicholas, better known by her stage name ‘GIA’, grew up “just at the foot of the mountains” in Saint Marys in Sydney’s outer west.
Her grandparents emigrated from Tegea, Tripoli, to the Penrith area.
She says musicality courses through her veins.
(Photos: Supplied)
“My dad is a guitarist,” she tells the Greek Herald.
“[He] threw the guitar into my hands at the age of four and I haven’t put it down since.”
She found her greatest inspiration in the Greek music that her parents would play while she was growing up.
“[Greeks] have a way with words. They’re very deep, they’re very good at communicating how they’re feeling in that moment.”
“Their writing is full of depth and I love that.”
‘Eclectic’ is the word Gia uses to define her musical style, but if “you’ve got to throw it into a box and confine it, ‘pop rock’ would be it”.
GIA started out in “your common beer-swinging and chicken schnitzel lunch” kind of pubs in Sydney’s outer west (The Fitzroy Hotel (left) (The Heritage Hotel, Wilberforce (right)
She started performing at 12-13 years old in the Fitzroy Hotel in Windsor and the Heritage Hotel in Wilberforce.
“The best place to learn how to handle a crowd,” she says.
She made her way out of “your common beer-swinging and chicken schnitzel lunch” kind of pubs and into Jimmy Barnes’ home studio.
She recorded part of her self-entitled thirteen-track record ‘Gia’ in this studio and released it during her brief stint with record label Zeus Entertainment in the late 2010’s.
She says she prefers the “creative freedom” and uncontrolled nature of releasing her own music.
“I was sort of controlled in a way with what I could write, again, how I was dressing, how I should pose,” she says.
“Don’t get me wrong, it taught me a lot because now I have the equipment and the knowledge to do it on my own.”
“For me, I love music way too much and I’m stubborn in that I do like to be in control of what I’m doing.”
“Which is why I have the hopes one day to start my own record label that works for the artist.”
Sydney’s current lockdown has been more creative for Gia than its last.
“The last lockdown that we had last year was very difficult. I wasn’t being creative at all. I was too busy trying to find a job and try to get some form of income because that was literally my only form of income.”
“I had a show lined up last year at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville and it got cancelled literally a week out because of the COVID-19 lockdown. That was a great loss.”
“In terms of shows, I can’t do anything right now unfortunately as much as I’d love to, and I am missing the stage a lot.”
On the flip-side, the current lockdown is working Gia wonders.
“I don’t know what’s happened, I’ve shifted and I’m actually being really creative working from home I guess that help,” she says.
Gia says she’s currently working with established producer Paula Jones to “bring out some new singles, new footage,” and “just anything and everything to try to ease the heaviness of this lockdown”, with plans to hit the road once lockdown is over.
The Olympic Games may be over, but that doesn’t mean that the season for playing sports is behind us! Right off the heels of the world’s greatest sporting event will be the Tokyo Paralympics, which will put all athletes with disabilities on center stage and give them their own chance to shine.
Of course, Greece will have their own team of representatives in the competition, who will aspire for greatness and hope to put their nation on the highest point of the pedestal.
In fact, this will be the first time since the Paralympics of Athens in 2004 that the blue-and-white will have such high representation, as they will participate in 11 different sports. This feat is made even more impressive when considering the current state of the world, with the pandemic forcing many athletes to refrain from training.
Most notable among the sports that Greece will compete in will be the sphere, in which both the Stefanidis father and son will take part, an event that will occur for the first time in the tournament’s history.
But it’s not only the sphere team that are worth keeping an eye on, as the Greek mission to Tokyo will include many more athletes who have high aspirations at the event, such as the Rio bronze medalist in the shotput F53, Dimitra Korokida, the silver medalist in the sabre B event in 2016, Panagiotis Triantafyllou and the silver medalist at the 2015 Glasgow swimming world championships, Antonis Tsapatakis.
In the previous Paralympics of Rio 2016, Greece performed quite admirably, collecting a total of 12 medals (five gold, four silver and four bronze). But considering their greater participation numbers in this year’s competition, it’s safe to assume that they will be aiming even higher this time around.
Some of the sports in which the Greek athletes will compete in Tokyo and the ones who will represent the “galanolefki” are written below.
Dr Aris Gounaris will give an online-only lecture entitled Constantinos A. Doxiadis: An urban planner of global fame, on Thursday 26 August, at 7.00pm, as part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.
Constantinos A. Doxiadis (1913-1975) was an architect/master planner educated in Greece and Germany who became one of the world’s most influential and sought-after urban planning and development consultants in the late-1950s and 1960s.
This seminar will explore the critical stages of Doxiadis’ life, including his wartime resistance and espionage activities, and his efforts to rebuild Greece after the withdrawal of the Axis powers in 1944.
The seminar will also reflect on Doxiadis’ innovative approach to urban planning, or the ‘science of human settlements’, as he called it and examine how his theories informed the master plan for a new capital city, a long way from Athens.
How did Doxiadis rise from obscurity to a prominent position in the Greek bureaucracy? How did he establish credibility with foreign power brokers, who authorised and funded his post-war reconstruction plans? How would Doxiadis help Greece get back on its feet after a brutal occupation? What did Doxiadis do in Australia prior to the most productive and successful phase of his career? And which capital city is Doxiadis most closely associated with?
To answer these questions, Dr Gounaris will bring together his knowledge of modern Europe, his passion for the history of cities and curiosity about the people that shaped them, and share some interesting stories along the way.
Aris Gounaris has a PhD in philosophy and history from La Trobe University, an Executive Master of Public Administration degree from Melbourne University and a Graduate Diploma in Economics from Monash University. His thesis, Self-determination and Secession: A Remedial Rights Approach, examines the theory and practice of national self-determination with particular emphasis on the separatist conflicts in Kosovo, Chechnya and Aceh. Dr Gounaris has contributed to the ongoing debate about national self-determination through refereed publications, opinion pieces and public seminars. Dr Gounaris has delivered lectures on Nationalism in the Balkans, Greece and Yugoslavia under Nazi Occupation, Imperial Russia and Napoleon as part of La Trobe University’s Modern European History program. He also tutored in history and philosophy. Dr Gounaris is a Victorian public servant. He will present his views in a private capacity.
When: Thursday 26 August 2021, 7pm
Where: This is an online lecture and can be followed on Facebook and Youtube.
Teresa Polias has many titles – W-League games record-holder, Sydney FC captain and school teacher at McCallums Hill Public School.
This W-League season will be notable by her absence however, as she recently announced she is taking an indefinite break from football as she is pregnant with her first child.
As she stressed to The Guardian, the break is not retirement but rather a pause to reflect and reassess once she and her partner, Foti, have got their heads around parenthood.
“When I close that door, I want to close it for good. I still love the game and I was still able to perform well, so I’ll just see how I bounce back from the pregnancy and if I can physically do it,” she tells The Guardian.
“That’s the sort of a challenge of love. I’ve always wondered if I could do that … I’m curious, so just thought I’d leave that open.”
The 31-year-old adds that for now she is taking some amazing memories away with her. That is, not only her trophies but also being able to celebrate her victories with family.
“I don’t like putting so much praise on titles and owing all your success to titles,” she told the online media outlet.
“There’s been hundreds of moments, like sharing it with your family. The pride and joy I see in my dad every weekend when he comes to the games is just, you can’t really explain what it means to me.
“The same with my partner, they’re like best mates and they love enjoying the game together. My family have been there for the big moments as well. They’ve shared it with me.”
Facebook caption: Maria Skyllas-Kazacos’ work on vanadium batteries could pave the way for a mine which would create about 200 jobs in north-west Queensland.
Greek Australian Maria Skyllas-Kazacos’s invention is about to reach unparalleled heights following Horizon Minerals and Richmond Vanadium Technology’s planned vanadium venture in Queensland.
The Richmond-Julia Creek in Townsville could be a base for the manufacturing of batteries using vanadium resources.
The $242 million mine would produce 790,000 tonnes of concentrate a year and create about 200 jobs.
The technology using vanadium in batteries was developed by Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos at the University of NSW in the 1980s.
In 1999, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia “for service to science and technology, particularly in the development of the vanadium redox battery as an alternative power source”.
The federal government has since funded $3.9m for the manufacturing of large-scale vanadium redox flow battery systems, as well as $1.2m for the development of a vanadium processing pilot plant.
