More borders are closing to Australian travellers as the Omicron variant causes one of the biggest surges of COVID-19 cases in the world.
The United States and Europe have this week both downgraded Australia’s travel safety rating, making it significantly harder for Australians to visit.
In an official directive, the European Council listed Australia, Canada and Argentina as “COVID-19 danger zones” due to surging Omicron case numbers, and they were removed from the EU’s travel white list.
The directive, which applies regardless of vaccination status, means people wanting to undertake non-essential travel to Europe from Australia could face restrictions ranging from a total ban on entry to having to quarantine or face extra testing requirements.
Greece dissented from the European Council’s decision to ban Australian travellers.
Cyprus, Greece and Italy dissented from the European Council’s decision to ban Australian travellers.
This comes as the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also issued a warning to avoid travel to Australia, listing the country as “Level 4: Very High Level of COVID-19.
The CDC places a destination at level four when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.
The Chief Executive and Founder of Flight Centre, Graham Turner, told The Sydney Morning Herald that although he was taken aback by these developments, he was confident the restrictions would be lifted quickly as case numbers stabilise in Australia.
Australia is listed as red on the CDC map.
“Things will open up fairly quickly… I will be surprised if most countries have many restrictions after [the next few weeks or months],” Mr Turner said.
These restrictions come just as it has now become easier for Australians to get home.
International arrivals no longer need a PCR test to enter Australia, instead a rapid test within 24 hours of departure will be accepted.
If travellers contract COVID-19 overseas, they only have to wait seven days instead of 14 before flying home.
— Ελεύθερα Βουνά χωρίς αιολικά (@savegreekmounts) January 23, 2022
Later, the snowfall extended to eastern portions of the mainland, including the Athens region, as well as the Cyclades islands and Crete.
This extreme weather comes as the Elpis weather front travels across Greece, bringing with it low temperatures, heavy snowfall and gale force winds.
According to Ekathimerini, temperatures throughout Greece gradually fell from Saturday, with highs of no more than to 3 degrees Celsius expected from Monday to Wednesday. There will be heavy frost, especially in the central and northern regions of the country.
The cold snap will also see schools shut on Monday and Tuesday in the Attica region – which includes the capital Athens.
Χιονίζει στη Σαντορίνη, ασπρισε ο Σκάρος κ εμείς στην Αθήνα περιμένουμε την ελπίδα να φανεί pic.twitter.com/tysqxntZfS
Businesses across New South Wales are struggling in the wake of the Omicron wave, with many feeling like they are in a “de facto” lockdown.
One of these businesses is Helen Psarakis’ Impress Laundry Dry Cleaning, which has a shopfront at Bondi Beach and a cleaning service based in Banksmeadow.
The business has had its turnover decimated as customers continue to work from home and don’t need to wash business wear. There’s also the constant cancellation of social events.
Sydney has experienced a ‘de facto’ lockdown.
Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Psarakis said the business had already been doing it tough through two lockdowns since 2020, but recent weeks have provided no reprieve.
“I think people are tending to be cautious and holding back on doing any unnecessary cleaning of garments, particularly those they would normally wear to evening functions,” Ms Psarakis said.
Ms Psarakis’ business partner, Debbie Moore, added that the cost of coat hangers, chemicals, electricity and other services had increased while revenue had plummeted.
Paul Nicolaou agrees businesses have been struggling.
“The governments can easily say we’ve got to continue, but life doesn’t continue. This is a Clayton’s lockdown,” Ms Moore said.
The Executive Director of Business Sydney, Paul Nicolaou, agreed that small businesses were “hurting very badly due to a self-imposed lockdown where customers are choosing to stay away and shop online out of fear of catching Omicron or because they are isolating or recovering from it.”
In response, Mr Nicolaou said the NSW government could reintroduce a form of funding like the previous Job Saver assistance package.
Inspired by long afternoons enjoying playing backgammon with his father and powered by pulverised coffee, the Director of OASIS Coffee, Chris Togias, has created custom backgammon boards.
Dating back over 5000 years, backgammon is steeped in a rich history and in order to preserve this tradition, OASIS Coffee engaged Greek-based craftsmen, Manopoulos, to create their custom boards.
The final product is of superb craftmanship and created in the Oasis signature style, with inspiration drawn from the whitewashed architecture of Greece and OASIS’ signature blue.
Available in traditional and travel sizes, these premium board games are set to become a treasured family favourite activity that brings together generations.
They are limited edition though so don’t forget to shop NOW at the OASIS bean store or online, strictly while stocks last.
Hot Tip? Backgammon is best played whilst enjoying a pulverised OASIS coffee.
The past two years have been a roller coaster ride, but after a couple of false starts, 2022 will be the year Sydney regains its mojo. But it will need a collective effort by us all with government committing to do its bit to get the economy moving again.
Sydney’s CBD in particular is suffering severely from a lack of foot traffic, greatly reducing spending and sending businesses closer to the wall. Staffing shortages have exacerbated business’ ability to bounce back this time from what has become a self-imposed lockdown.
Experts predict Omicron is about to peak and while we must safeguard our health, we also need to shake off the Covid malaise and get on with living our lives again.
For over two years we have been plagued with uncertainty from health concerns, shifting restrictions, lockdowns, and closed borders with no clear end in sight.
Although it can be tempting to be distracted by the disruption of recent weeks as we transition to living with the virus, the fog of uncertainty is starting to lift.
With vaccination rates among the highest in the world and Omicron appearing significantly less dangerous, the fundamentals for the future of our great global city are strong.
Restrictions have been eased and with a few exceptions for health reasons, the NSW Government has broadly stuck with its reopening roadmap. This sends an important message to the community that yo-yoing restrictions are hopefully a thing of the past, which will make it easier for people to plan their lives professionally and personally.
While the impact of Omicron has caused possibly the worst Covid-induced economic impact, it will only delay the recovery rather than derail it. It is exacerbating supply chain & staffing issues and putting upward pressure on inflation. As we have seen with this variant, cases have increased well beyond levels seen in previous occurrences and continues to have a material economic impact as people isolate in a ‘shadow lockdown’ and are shopping, dining and entertaining from home.
Despite this, economists are expecting that the overall economic impact of Omicron to be modest and it will delay rather than disrupt Sydney’s economic recovery. In fact, Deloitte Access Economics latest Business Outlook report predicts above national average economic growth for NSW this year.
Recent changes to close contact rules and Covid case management will go some way to ease staffing pressures and after two years of working from home, more needs to be done to encourage people back to the office when it is safe, so that employees and company productivity can again enjoy the benefits from teamwork and in-person collaboration. Public space reactivation through entertainment and workplace social events in the CBD will drive traffic in the short-term, but a broader strategy is required.
While we as consumers and workers can help turn around the economy, we need all tiers of government to do what they achieved well in previous lockdowns and provide financial assistance, policy changes and programs that assist reactivation and recovery.
My five suggestions for federal and state governments to aid business recovery:
1) Increase the amount pensioners can earn without it affecting their pension entitlement. This would encourage many retired workers to return to the workforce part time, bringing their experience and skills to sectors that need workers now, especially in hospitality, retail, transport and logistics.
2) Provide a tax offset to incentivise workers with a fulltime job to take on part time work, like doing some shifts in hospitality venues, without being taxed so heavily that it is not worth their while. This would be a temporary measure to get us through current staff shortages and help people make ends meet as inflation bites into budgets.
3) Provide free Rapid Antigen Tests for small and medium sized businesses to help them keep workers safe and get them back to work as soon as is safe to do so, without burdening businesses with added cost they can’t afford.
4) Reduce red tape and regulations around sectors like hospitality, retail, transport and construction, with temporary measures that were introduced in past lockdowns to enable business to function better.
5) Extend until the end of 2022 the successful Dine & Discover program with more vouchers and better advertising and communication on how and where to use the vouchers. The Dine vouchers enjoyed strong uptake, but people need to be made better aware of the many places they can
Discover and enjoy a fun, culturally rich experience.
Sydney can bounce back stronger than last time and as the Omicron peak subsides, the city will be in an excellent position to look forward to a brighter future with cautious confidence.
But we need to all work together with governments to ensure Sydney gets its mojo back and takes its place as the best city in our region to live, work, invest and do business in.
*Paul Nicolaou is Executive Director of Business Sydney (formerly the Sydney Business Chamber)
The Presidents of the Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria, Bill Papastergiadis, and the Cyprus Community of Melbourne and Victoria, Theo Theophanous, with the support of the Pontian Federations of Australia, have written to the Prime Minister calling on the Government to formally recognise the genocides committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and other Christian minorities.
The action by the two Presidents follows a motion that was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives on November 29, 2021 calling on the Government to formally recognise these genocides.
The motion in the Federal Parliament was supported by both sides of Parliament. It was moved by Government member Trent Zimmerman and seconded by Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon. Other government speakers were John Alexander and Julian Leeser and from the opposition, Josh Burns and Steve Georganas.
(L-R) Bill Papastergiadis, Simela Stamatopoulos, Theo Theophanous, Peter Stefanidis.
As of 2021, there are 31 countries around the world that have recognised these genocides including the US, France, Italy, Brazil, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and the Vatican City.
“It’s time for Australia to also step up,” a joint statement from the associations said.
“The Turkish Government has steadfastly refused to acknowledge its legacy of past wrongs. We believe that it is in the interests of Turkey itself for it to confront its past and issue a formal apology. This is precisely what Germany did following the genocide and holocaust they perpetrated on Jewish people in the second world war. It has been an important moral admission by Germany.
“We do not believe that this should not be a partisan political issue in the lead up to the coming elections. All we have asked of the Prime Minister, and in fact we also ask of the Leader of the Opposition, is that they respect the unanimous motion passed by the parliament and act upon it.”
Bill Papastergiadis, President of Greek Community of Melbourne and Victoria
Hon Theo Theophanous, President of Cyprus Community of Melbourne and Victoria
Peter Stefanidis, President of the Federation of Pontian Associations Australia
Simela Stamatopoulos, President of the Australian Federation of Pontian Associations
The University of Ioannina – School of Education, Department of Early Childhood Education, and the Department’s Social Issues, Mass Media, and Education Studies Laboratory, in cooperation with:
-the Modern Greek Studies Program of the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University, and -the Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation, in Sydney, Australia, with the participation of: -The Circle of Hellenic Academics in Boston, and -the Boston University Philhellenes in Boston,
Organizes the 8th International Summer University “Greek Language, Culture, and Media”. The project is scheduled to take place in Kastellorizo on July 10 – 15, 2022, at the Hall for Cultural Events of the island.
The program enjoys the auspices and the support of the General for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the auspices of the Municipality of Megisti.
The organization is planned, with the careful consideration of all the current sanitary measures against the pandemic, which it monitors and follows strictly.
This year, the 8th International Summer University holds the special title:
Outermost places, language and culture
Sample topics: -Language, symbols and signs in outermost Greece. -Barren line and language identities. -Dialects and popular culture. -Cultural sources in isolated island regions. -Outermost Greece and the Greek diaspora. -“«Με τον καημό σου, θ’ ανοίξουμε πανιά». The sung language of Kastellorizo. -Press and outermost places. Depictions, descriptions, analyses. -Radio and TV stations in barren lines. Tribute. -Artificial intelligence serving the barren line. -Computational Linguistics, projects for residents in the outermost places. -Language and Education. Interdisciplinary approaches.
ERT, ERT 2, ERT3, ERT WORLD, Proto Program 105.8, and the Voice of Greece, together with the Channel of the Parliament, have supported the project as media sponsors from the very beginning. CNN GREECE, the newspaper The Greek Herald/Ελληνικός Κήρυκας in Sydney, the newspaper Neos Kosmos in Melbourne, and the radio station 2mm Radio 1665, Sydney, Darwin, Wollongong also serve as media sponsors. The project is also supported by a series of other institutions, which will announced soon.
Aimilios Cheilakis and Athena Maximou will star in this year’s TV spot.
After seven years of renowned success for the organization, the “tradition” of cultivating extroversion and synergies with prominent international institutions of education, culture, and media continues. It is reminded that, in the past, the International Summer University “Greek Language, Culture, and Media” has been also supported by the Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece, Harvard University; the Hellenic Delegation of the European Parliament; the Union of European Journalists (Greek department); the Orthodox Academy in Crete; the Club de la Presse Européenne, Paris; the Centre Culturel Hellénique in Paris; the Instituto De Letras in Rio De Janeiro University; and more.
The program is addressed to undergraduate and postgraduate students, PhD candidates, educators, while a limited number of professionals with relevant interests is also accepted, in the framework of lifelong learning. It offers certificates of participation recognition and educational material to the participants. Moreover, it includes cultural activities, always following the health protocols.
Nikoletta Tsitsanoudis – Mallidis, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Greek Language and Director of the Social Issues, Mass Media, and Education Studies Laboratory at the Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Ioannina and CHS – GR Associate, Harvard University, is the Scientific Director of the program.
*Information and submission of CVs/applications to register: Nikoletta Tsitsanoudis – Mallidis, nitsi@uoi.gr and in the website https://summerschool.ac.uoi.gr
Fifth seed Sakkari has made it through to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the second time after brushing aside Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 24 minutes.
Kudermetova may have registered more winners (15-12), but unfortunately for her, she almost tripled Sakkari in the unforced errors department (32-12).
The Greek broke the Russian five times all up and enjoyed sizeable advantages in percentage of first-serve points won (77-63) and second-serve points won (61-32).
Sakkari will meet American 21st seed Jessica Pegula in the fourth round.
Greece has vowed to intensify its campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles amid “optimistic” signs that British public opinion has shifted markedly in favour of returning the marbles to Athens.
According to The Guardian, this decision comes after Britain’s Times newspaper had an about turn recently and argued for the treasures to be returned to Greece.
The argument that Athens lacked an appropriate place to exhibit the carvings no longer held when “a magnificent museum next to the Acropolis” had been built to house the cultural heritage, the article asserted.
This statement surprised many as the British magazine had maintained for more than 50 years that the marbles should remain in London.
The Parthenon Marbles are currently in the British Museum.
In response to this unexpected, but welcomed, support from a sector of the British establishment, the Greek government said it would step up pressure for the fifth-century BC antiquities to be enjoyed in their entirety.
“The sculptures are the most important link between the modern Greeks and their ancestors,” Tasos Chatzivasileiou, an MP who is the Greek Prime Minister’s top foreign policy adviser, told The Guardian.
“Our strategy will be to turn up the heat, to keep this issue in the public sphere and to raise it at every opportunity.”
The Adelaide Advertiser has released its list of young up-and-coming talent for 2022 and there are at least three Australians of Greek heritage named.
Here’s who to keep your eye out for this year:
Emma Georgiadis:
Emma Georgiadis, or Emma G as she’s known by fans of her podcast Empowerhouse, is a rising star in South Australia.
When she’s not winning gold in the Bullseye category at the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards, she’s also visiting schools to run Enlighten Education workshops for young women.
Emma Georgiadis.
The workshops 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.
On top of all that, she also has a demanding day job at Triple M as an announcer and anchor.
Danny and Michael Philippou are the crazy YouTube pranksters better known as RackaRacka. In 2019, they famously filled a car with water and drove it through a bottle shop, earning them a date in an SA court.
But the Adelaide twins are changing their tune this year with the launch of their first feature film, a horror flick called Talk to Me.
In production since mid-2020, the movie will finally start shooting in Adelaide next month with funding from Screen Australia and SAFC, and backing from Causeway Films (The Badabook).
