Greek-born WWII veteran Kostas Sarantidis, who later became known as Vietnamese war hero Nguyễn Văn Lập, tragically passed away on Friday in Athens, aged 94.
Born in Thessaloniki in 1927, Kostas was arrested during the Axis occupation of Greece and sent on foot to Nazi forced labour camps in Germany.
However, he managed to escape near Vienna and stole a military uniform which he used to disguise himself as a German until the end of the war.
Decorated Kostas Sarantidis meets with then Foreign Minister of Việt Nam Phạm Binh Minh in 2018. Credit: Vietnamese News Agency/VNA/VNS
After the end of the war, he found himself in France and joined the French Foreign Legion.
After two months with the Legion, he contacted Viet Minh spies and defected to them, carrying with him his rifle and a machine gun. He was given the name Nguyễn Văn Lập and served in various posts, participating in many battles. Eventually he rose to the rank of captain. In 1949, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam.
After the end of the war in 1954 and the division of Vietnam into northern and southern zones, Sarantidis moved to North Vietnam and retired from the army.
Sarantidis with the legendary General Võ Nguyên Giáp.
After his repatriation to Greece in the 1960s, Kostas joined the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and worked for helping Vietnam as well as promoting Greek-Vietnamese relations.
In 2013, he became the sole foreigner honoured with the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces of Vietnam. Additionally, he has been awarded several honorary titles by both the Vietnamese Party and State, including the Friendship Order in 2011, the Victory Medal, Third Class and the Resistance War Medal, Second Class.
“Kostas Sarantidis’s life is tied in with the heroic moments of the Vietnamese people,” said Vu Binh, Vietnamese Ambassador to Greece.
CEO of the NSW Federation of Community Language Schools, Michael Christodoulou AM, has applauded the NSW Government’s decision to allocate $10.18 million to the schools and boost the rich tapestry of multiculturalism in NSW.
Announced on Wednesday, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell said the 587 Community Language Schools across the state are vital to serve the thriving multicultural community.
“NSW is the most culturally diverse state in the country and we are proud to embrace the many languages and cultures that contribute to our society,” Ms Mitchell said.
Speaking to The Greek Herald, Michael Christodoulou AM revealed that he has meeting coming up with the government to determine where it will be more suitable to allocate the funds and how to get more out of it.
“Definitely it is for the sector, whether it’s for up-skilling teachers or technology I don’t know yet. But this is what we’ll be lobbying. To make sure that that money is distributed accordingly,” Christodoulou said, adding that majority of the funds will go to benefiting the children.
Michael Christodoulou with the Prime Minister of Fiji. Photo: Supplied
“We’re very happy that both governments are involved and they’re assisting community language schools.”
The funding was announced during the Foundation’s 2021 Annual Gala Dinner at the Bankstown Sports Club, which also featured messages from the Prime Minister and the Premier of NSW.
Upon the announcement of the funding, Minister for Multiculturalism Natalie Ward thanked the 3,210 volunteer teachers in the Community Languages Schools, which taught 62 different languages to students in the out-of-school hours program last year.
Christodoulou meanwhile said the Federation is currently dealing with teaching 87 different languages. Coming from a Greek background, Christodoulou said the Hellenic language is one of the most substantial being taught in schools.
“At Community language schools, students actually learn languages. Governments have realised that and that is why they’re investing more money,” Christodoulou added.
The CEO added that in the last three years across Australia, the community languages program has gained $30 million, plus an increase to the students per capita funding of another $40 million.
Victor Dominello MP. Photo: Warren John Duncan
“So you’re talking about announcements of around 70 million, just for our sector here in New South Wales.”
Christodoulou went on to thank the NSW Premier and Australia’s state and federal government’s for their contributions to the sector.
“If you go to many other countries around the world, I can assure you they don’t give money for students to learn their own heritage languages. So we’re very happy and very blessed that governments think like that.”
“Gladys Berejiklian, as she said in her message the other day, she is the product of a community language school because she went to an Armenian school. So she understands it.”
The Federation recently provided two fifty-dollar gift cards for purchases in IGA Supermarkets to each of the young Thai, Nepalese, Greek and Portuguese speakers who have come forward seeking assistance.
Lucia Johns. Photo: Supplied
The President of the Federation, Lucia Johns, who handed out the assistance at the organisation’s headquarters in Dulwich Hill, said: “Many of these young people remain hidden victims of the pandemic even 18 months after it started. Their financial situation has become exceedingly difficult as a lot of casual work has disappeared.”
“The fact that dozens of young people turned up at our office to seek assistance tells me they have a great need of support. I was particularly concerned at the number of young women with babies who were seeking assistance”, she said
Asked about the Foundation’s next steps for the future, Christodoulou revealed that they are in talks with the Federal Government to help build community language schools.
“We would like our teachers to up-skill themselves. That’s priority number one. We want them to go digital if they could, because students these days prefer digital rather than the old style teaching there.”
“In the next two years, you’re going to hear a lot more things this way, for all our schools. Both our President Lucia Johns, and myself as CEO, are very happy with the announcement the other day and we are hoping that we’ll be able to hear more announcements over the next 12 months.”
Famous British painter John Craxton’s arrival in Greece was much like that of Gerald Durrell, who described his family’s move from Bournemouth to the island of Corfu in 1935, as like stepping out of a black and white film and into colour.
Craxton would be less famous over time than his School of London contemporaries, but when it comes to swashbuckling adventure and exuberance of both life and work, few bested this Briton abroad.
“John Craxton’s paintings in the Mediterranean are full of delight and joy – pleasure in the people and the landscape and the animals,” said his friend David Attenborough. “Joy is somewhat out of fashion these days, but my goodness it’s precious.”
The fourth of six children, Craxton was born in 1922 to the musician Harold Craxton and his wife Essi.
John Craxton, Still Life with Three Sailors, 1980-5, private collection.
In his 1941 army medical, Craxton was delighted to hear that he’d “be as much use to the war effort as a three-legged horse”. Collins describes his work at the time as evolving rapidly. “The influence of Palmer and Blake was eclipsed by those of Sutherland, Miró and Picasso, and information from the natural world was being transformed by greater distillation.”
European travel was still not possible when the war ended, so with itchy feet John and Lucien journeyed to the Scilly Isles, an Atlantic archipelago off the coast of Cornwall, in 1945. It proved a turning point in Craxton’s work – a precursor of Aegean light and joy seeping into pictures such as Red and Yellow Landscape. They met the 17-year-old beauty Sonia Leon on the Scillonian ferry but Craxton would not begin Portrait of Sonia until 1948, painting from memory à la Graham Sutherland, in Greece.
“His personal charm and painterly gifts meant that he was able to live his life pretty much as he wished, and to weather many scrapes. When his pictures failed to sell, family and friends helped him. He thrived in Greece in part because, before the era of mass tourism, it was tremendously cheap,” says Collins.
John Craxton, Hydra, 1960. Picture: Wolfgang Suschitsky
The Greek Civil War was in full swing when Craxton finally arrived there in 1946. Not that he would have noticed. He wrote to EQ Nicholson: “I can’t tell you how delicious this country is and the lovely hot sun all day and at night tavernas: hot prawns in olive oil and great wine and the soft, sweet smell of Greek pine trees. I shall never come home. How can I?” Lady Norton provided him with accommodation at the British Embassy.”
If Craxton had been searching for a style, he most certainly found it on Poros. Lodging with – and virtually adopted by – the Mastropetros family in a lovely 19th-century house overlooking the harbour, he realised his first Greek landscape, Hotel by the Sea (1946).
Bathed in the brilliant light of the Aegean, the geometry of sea, land and sky is rendered in faceted planes of jewel-like hues and dazzling whites – the antithesis of grey London. A goat foraging on a fig tree honours Pan, the “horny Greek god of shepherds, flocks and wildness”. Lawrence Durrell declared Poros “the happiest place I have ever known” and in a similar spirit, according to Collins, Hotel by the Sea was Craxton’s declaration of love for Greece.
Read about all about John Craxton’s Greek adventure on The Australian here: https://bit.ly/3jhdibx
According to a book on linguistics I have recently been reading by Carmen Llamas and Dominic Watt, “Language not only reflects who we are but in some sense it is who we are, and it’s use defines us both directly and indirectly.”
Our relationship with language and identity is never static however. It changes depending on the situation we are in, the place we are in and who we communicate with. This is why years ago I held a concert called Identity in the Sand because as a child of migrants myself I found that my identity and language needs and uses would change depending on the situation or place I found myself in. Just like the sand beneath our feet it is never static.
“Both” our language and our identity “are constantly shifting and being re-negotiated in response to ever-changing contexts and interactions”.
The meaning of what makes each of us Greek therefore may not be the same for each of us. For some it is Greek dancing, for others it may be Greek films and music. For others it could be Cretan culture or Pontic food. Our familial culture that we get from our families and their ties to a village, a town or an island is just as important in the formation of our idea of what being Greek is all about just as language is.
‘Greek’ is a space we create for ourselves and our friends and family who share common interests and / or beliefs, possibly a common dialect and common ethics. Not all Greek spaces are the same and in fact, depending on what part of the Greek world we are from, they can in fact be almost foreign to us. Next week I will look at nationality and myths surrounding our own Greek identity.
Current stay-at-home orders have beeen extended across all of Greater Sydney including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong from 6pm today (26 June) until 11.59pm Friday, 9 July.
Everyone in Greater Sydney must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason.
The reasons you may leave your home include:
· Shopping for food or other essential goods and services;
· Medical care or compassionate needs (people can leave home to have a COVID-19 vaccination unless you have been identified as a close contact);
· Exercise outdoors in groups of 10 or fewer;
· Essential work, or education, where you cannot work or study from home.
The New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, and the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, who has flagged the possibility of greater restrictions. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
EARLIER
NSW recorded 29 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. This includes 17 cases which were announced on Friday morning.
One of the cases reported to 8pm last night remain under investigation and the source of another previously reported case, a child who attends St Charles’ Catholic Primary School in Waverley, also remains unlinked.
There were 55,227 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous day’s total of 47,603. This is the highest number of COVID-19 tests in one day since 23 December 2020, when 60,184 tests were recorded.
Of the 29 locally acquired cases to 8pm last night, 26 are linked to the Bondi cluster. Twelve of the 29 cases were in isolation throughout their infectious periods.
Two cases were linked to a workplace in Marrickville, Great Ocean Foods.
Anyone who worked in, attended or was a customer in Great Ocean Foods at 5/11 Cadogan Street from Monday 21 June to Friday 25 June and their household contacts is a close contact andmust immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result, and call 1800 943 553 unless they have already been contacted by NSW Health:
Anyone who directly received a delivery from Great Ocean Foods from Monday 21 June to Friday 25 June and their household contacts must immediately get tested and isolate until further advice is provided by NSW Health.
NSW Health has also been notified of additional venues across Sydney visited by confirmed cases of COVID‑19.
Anyone who attended the following venue at the time listed is a close contact andmust immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result, and call 1800 943 553 unless they have already been contacted by NSW Health:
Sydney
Cheers Bar & Grill
561 George Street
Sunday 20 June01.45am – 03.30am
Bankstown
Rebel, Bankstown Shopping Centre
North Terrace
Thursday 24 June3.45pm – 4.30pm
Anyone who attended any of the following venues at the listed times is a casual contact andmust immediately get tested and self-isolate until a negative result is received. Please continue to monitor for symptoms and immediately isolate and get tested if they develop:
Sydney
Paloma Espresso Café
Shop 1 Ground floor 10 Shelley Street
Monday 21 June1:50pm to 2:10pm
Casula
Oporto
Casula Central Shopping Complex,16/633 Hume Hwy
Tuesday 22 June 12.50pm to 12.55pm
Casula
Pasta Italia Cucina
Casula Central Shopping Complex, 12A/633 – 639 Hume Hwy
Tuesday 22 June 1pm to 1.10pm
Stay-at-home orders are also still in place for the Woollahra, Waverley, City of Sydney, and Randwick local government areas (LGAs) from midnight last night until 12:01am on Saturday, July 3.
Anybody who lives, or has worked in these four LGAs in the past two weeks, may only leave their home for essential reasons.
These reasons include:
Medical care or compassionate needs.
Exercise outdoors in groups of 10 or fewer.
Essential work, or education, where you cannot work or study from home.
If you need to buy essential goods or services.
Visitors to households will be limited to five guests – including children.
The Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) of Victoria is excited announced this week the launch of the nominations campaign for the 2021 HACCI Awards.
HACCI was established in 1974 with the vision to connect and inspire the Hellenic Australian business and the professional community to lead, collaborate and excel.
This year will be the 35th anniversary of the Awards, and they are looking forward to celebrating the outstanding achievements and significant contributions of members of our community.
HACCI are now accepting nomination entries for any of the following categories:
Bank of Sydney Business Award Professional Services Award Community Service Award Sport Award Woman of Influence Award Innovation Award Spiro Stamoulis Lifetime Achievement Award Chris Saristavros Young Achiever Award
Click here to access the application and make sure you apply by 5.00 pm on 30 August 2021.
A husband, wife and two children were fatally shot on Father’s Day in what investigators are probing as a murder-suicide.
Nicholas Mavrakis III, 47, Lesley Mavrakis, 37, Ace Mavarakis, 13, and Pippa Mavrakis, 5, were found dead shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday in their home in Jackson Township, Ohio, local police said.
One of Lesley’s relatives called 911 after she came to the home and no one answered the door, The Repository reported.
“I know her husband has like PTSD from the military and he’s been having problems,” the relative told dispatchers.
Nick Mavrakis and his family. Mavrakis shot and killed his own family on Father’s Day in a murder/suicide. Photo: Facebook/Nick Mavrakis
Responding officers found all four family members deceased, and the incident is being investigated as a domestic dispute that turned deadly.
A family neighbour, who said he also had a military background, said Nicholas suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the US Department of Defense, Mavrakis served in the US Army from April 1993 through July 2013 and retired as a staff sergeant. He was deployed to Afghanistan from January 2002 to July 2002, and twice served in Iraq, from February 2003 to February 2004 and September 2007 to November 2008.
A family member, Zach Mavrakis, shared a photo of the family on Facebook and wrote, “You will forever be missed! Words can’t describe what our family is going through right now but all of you were so loved.”
A relative told dispatchers that Nicholas Mavrakis, a military veteran, suffered from PTSD. Photo: DVIDS
“You were a rock and strong pillar for everybody. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for you guys. And I’m sure a lot of us can say the same! I just can’t believe this is happening right now. I love you guys so much! Look down on us.”
In a statement, the Jackson Local School District said it “grieves the loss of two young children, and their family.”
“Ace Mavrakis was well-liked by faculty and staff at Jackson Memorial Middle School,” the district said. “He was a member of the Jackson High School ninth-grade football team. Pippa Mavrakis was registered to start kindergarten at Strausser Elementary School in August.”
Eleftherios Petrounias secured his place at the Tokyo Olympics after winning gold at the rings at the Doha gymnastics World Cup on Friday.
Greece’s Petrounias, who needed to win at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Doha, Qatar and do so with a score of at least 15.333, confirmed his spot in the Japanese capital with a 15.500 result, more than half a point ahead of second-placed Arthur Zanetti of Brazil.
The “Lord of the Rings”, as he is known, performed the most difficult routine of the eight finalists, receiving a 6.3 difficulty score, while also topping all competitors with the best execution score (9.200).
Ο Λευτέρης της καρδιάς μας. Ο Λευτέρης της Ελλάδας 🇬🇷 Ο Λευτέρης Πετρούνιας θα είναι στους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες 🇯🇵 για διεκδικήσει ένα ακόμη 🥇 καθώς βγήκε πρώτος στο Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο της Ντόχα με 15.500 δίνοντας απεριόριστη χαρά σε όλους μας #Petrounias#TeamHellas#Τokyo2020pic.twitter.com/Q7QL9RxKMR
— Ηellenic Olympic Committee (@HellenicOlympic) June 25, 2021
Petrounias suffered a setback in his qualification when he only finished fourth on rings at the 2019 Worlds after an injury-hit season.
That, coupled with Greece not sending a team, meant he would have to rely on the FIG World Cup circuit to book his Tokyo spot.
Ahead of the final qualifying event in Qatar, Petrounias said on social media that he was “so ready for the fight of my life”.
“Emotions are mixed, a lot of stress, scary pressure, anxiety,” Petrounias – who won European Championships gold in April – added then.
Photo: Getty images
“But what mostly prevails is the anticipation of the fight and the amazing feeling that I will feel after the result that will send me to Tokyo!”
Back in April, Petrounias won his fifth European title in Basel, Switzerland.
The three-time world champion beat Nikita Nagornyy, one of the favourites for multiple medals in Tokyo, to clinch his first championships title since 2018.
Now, he will get the chance to repeat as Olympic champion.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday approved a new treatment combination for bone marrow cancer that was developed by a team of Greek researchers in a study codenamed Apollo.
Headed by Athens University hematologists Meletios A. (Thanos) Dimopoulos, also the rector of the university, and Evangelos Terpos, Apollo confirmed the positive response from patients with multiple myeloma to the addition of daratumumab, pomalidomide and dexamethasone, known collectively as DaraPomDex, to their treatment.
The phase 3 trial was carried out at 48 academic centers and hospitals in 12 European countries and the findings were published in “The Lancet: Oncology” on June 1.
European Medicines Agency.
The study concerned patients who had received at least one previous line of therapy, including lenalidomide and a proteasome inhibitor, had a partial response or better to one or more previous lines of antimyeloma therapy, and were refractory to lenalidomide if only one previous line of therapy was received.
It found that DaraPomDex “reduced the risk of disease progression or death versus pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone and could be considered a new treatment option.”
“For patients with multiple myeloma who relapse, it is important that efficacious treatments significantly reduce the risk of progression,” Dr Dimopoulos told the American Society of Hematology (ASH) on December 6, accroding to the Irish Medical Times. He described DaraPomDex as “a compelling treatment option for early relapsed or lenalidomide refractory patients.”
In what was one of the most exciting matches of the 2021 Australian Open, Nick Kyrgios and Ugo Humbert will face each other again on English turf at the 2021 Wimbledon tournament.
The draw for the tennis competition was released on Friday evening, where it was revealed the Greek Australian will face the Frenchman.
For those who may not remember, Kyrgios prevailed against Humbert faced in the second round of Australian Open, winning a five set thriller.
The Greek Australian had a comical response when he found out who his opponent was going to be.
Stefanos Tsitsipas was drawn with American Frances Tiafoe. The two last faced each other in 2018 during the Next Gen ATP Finals group stage, where Tsitsipas got a convincing three-set victory.
Tsitsipas became the first Greek player to reach a Grand Slam final in June, yet facing World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final, he was outplayed by the best.
“I believe I’m able to play for titles like this. Despite my loss today, I have faith in my game and I very much believe I can get to that point very soon,” Tsitsipas said at the time of his loss.
Photo: Getty Images
“If I don’t downgrade myself, I see no reason for me not to be holding a trophy one day.”
Maria Sakkari similarly enjoyed incredible success at the Roland Garros, reaching the semi-final before narrowly losing to Barbora Krejčíková. The Greek will face Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus in what is expected to be a strong run for Greeks in the tournament.
