Greek twins Marianna and Sofia Erotokritou have been awarded the title of ‘Greek Tourism Ambassadors’ in China by Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis after 6 years of commitment to spreading the Greek culture.
Marianna and Sofia arrived in Beijing 6 years ago, studying international trade and Economics in Chinese. In their spare time, they decided to promote Greece and Cyprus to Chinese locals through videos uploaded online. Some of these videos have over 1,000,000 views.
At the same time, the Erotokritou sisters delivered short-term Greek language courses to more than 2,000 online students.
As the two countries look to strengthen their tourism relations, Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis awarded the two sisters the title of “Ambassadors for Hellenic Tourism” for the “market of China”.
“It is our great honour and at the same time a huge responsibility to promote our beautiful country in China!” the sisters said in an Instagram post.
The title is awarded for a period of two years with the possibility of renewal, while the framework of cooperation concerns the following actions:
– promotion of thematic forms of tourism, through social media and other digital media, on a weekly basis.
– emphasis on the promotion of gastronomic tourism, with posts on a weekly basis.
– representation of the Greek tourist product in events related to the Chinese market.
Haris Theoharis emphasised the title of “Ambassador of Greek Tourism” is honorary and no fee is paid.
A Greek sailing coach said he “still loved” the now 21-year-old woman in court yesterday as he was detained and sentenced to temporary detention.
An arrest warrant was issued by the First Instance Prosecutor in Athens, Nikos Stefanatos, last Friday after he reportedly carried out preliminary investigations over the weekend and received the testimonies of the now 21-year-old sailing athlete and her parents.
The “relationship” became public knowledge on Friday, when the accused revealed on television that he had an affair with the athlete when she was 11.
The Greek coach faced charges for aggravated rape, repeated seduction and misconduct in court yesterday.
He arrived at the building shortly after 9:30 a.m., yet did not begin to apologise. Instead, he wished for his parents to be the first to testify as defence witnesses.
According to Greek media, the sailing coach still declares that he is in love with the athlete after 10 years.
“I did not rape her, I categorically deny it. I still love her. I know I will be punished, I must be punished for what happened. Be patient, when I get out of prison I will marry her,” he reportedly said.
An avalanche on Greece’s highest mountain, Mount Olympus, has claimed the lives of two men who had gone for a hike a few days ago.
Three men allegedly climbed the mountain on Wednesday reaching the area of Xerolaki, which is 2,600 meters high. Mid-way through the hike, an avalanche came down and buried two of the men in tons of snow, while the third member of the group escaped and called rescuers.
The two men, aged 46 and 49, were experienced hikers and knew the area well, Sta TV reported. Rescuers brought the survivor, who was in shock, to safety.
According to local Greek media, the two victims were doctors from Larissa working in the public health care system.
A Super Puma helicopter with rescuers and firemen from the service in Katerini and Elassona assisted the Search and Rescue operation on Mt Olympus. One of the men was found after an hour of intensive search, later finding the second perished hiker.
Thousands of students and teachers held peaceful demonstrations in Greece’s two biggest cities Thursday against proposed education reforms, defying a weeklong ban on protests imposed as part of measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
About 4,000 people, wearing masks against the virus, marched through the streets of Athens, while another roughly 1,500 demonstrated in the northern city of Thessaloniki. Protesters oppose reforms that include plans to set up a state security division at university campuses.
On Tuesday, the government announced a ban on protests attended by more than 100 people until Feb. 1, as part of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Violations are punishable by fines of up to 3,000 euros ($3,650) for individuals organizing rallies or demonstrations, and 5,000 euros (about $6,000) for groups or organizations.
University students use loudspeakers to shout slogans outside the Greek parliament during a rally against education reforms in Athens, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021.(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
It wasn’t immediately clear if any fines would be imposed on the organizers of Thursday’s protests. The protests ended peacefully in the early afternoon.
Left-wing parties criticized the demonstration ban, with the main opposition Syriza party describing it as “arbitrary and undemocratic.”
Sydney Olympic FC pre-season is well under-way as the squad prepares for their pre-season matches, ahead of their first match against Sydney United 58 FC on February 27.
Sydney Olympic FC defender Billy Patramanis, who missed out on getting game time last year due to an ACL injury, says the team is looking to start the season on a strong note.
“I’ve been back from ACL pretty much since the start of pre-season, had a little bit of an injury, again, to my knee, but not as bad. So hopefully back for our first preseason game,” Billy Patramanis said to The Greek Herald.
Billy said that having a full pre-season with head coach Ante Juric, who joined midway through last season, has been beneficial for both the club and players morale.
Sydney Olympic training under head coach Ante Juric. Photo: Peter Oglos
Sydney Olympic training under head coach Ante Juric. Photo: Peter Oglos
“When he first joined the club, it completely changed. He just brought a much more positive morale to the team.
“So having a full pre-season with him is good just so we can learn what he wants from us, his tactics… he sort of had to come in and just study it and steady it out and just keep with COVID as well.
“But having pre-season with him, it’s his tactics now so we know what he wants to do so it should be good.”
An Olympic Hall of Fame Legend, Ante Juric said last week the players are performing well, showing an excellent working extremely hard.
Sydney Olympic shot-blockers in training. Photo: Peter Oglos
“Pleasingly the new players have already settled in very well, which can be difficult at big clubs like Olympic, so I’m happy about this”, Juric said.
“We are excited for the season ahead and as a group are driven to be successful and driven to add to the history of trophies and championships that this club is about, we can’t wait for the first game to come around so we can put all our hard pre-season training into action against Sydney United”, Juric added.
Trial games for the Sydney Olympic Men’s 1st Grade commence in late January. See the schedule of these matches below:
Date
Senior Men – 1st Grade
Saturday 30 January – 7.00pm
V Macarthur Rams at Lynwood Park
Saturday 6 February – 6.30pm
V Blacktown City at Lily Homes Stadium
Wednesday 10 February – 7.30pm
V Rydalmere at Rydalmere Park
Saturday 13 February – 6.30pm
V Manly United at Cromer Park
Wednesday 17 February – 7.00pm
V Hakoah FC – Venue TBC
Saturday 20 February – 6.00pm
V St George City FA at Peakhurst Park
Saturday 27 February – 5.30pm
Round 1 NSW NPL V Sydney United at Belmore Sports Ground
Lefteris Arapakis was named one of seven ‘Young Champions of the Earth’ by the United Nations at the end of 2020. He was the only European to be awarded in the UN Environment Program.
At just 26 years of age, Arapakis was honoured as the founder of Greece’s first professional fishing school, Enaleia. The school trains, strengthens and motivates the local fishing community to collect plastics from the sea, allowing fish stocks and the ecosystem to recover.
“It is a very important award, because it shows us that we are on the right path, that we are in the right direction for a more sustainable future,” Arapakis tells The Greek Herald.
“It is a recognition of the efforts of the whole team and the organisation. It also creates a very strong sense of responsibility. Now I feel we need to step up our efforts for a more sustainable planet, inspire more people and make a bigger impact.”
Lefteris Arapakis comes from a family of fishermen. For five generations his family has been active in the rich waters of Southern Greece. In 2016, he decided to establish Enaleia, without ever imagining that he would even receive an award from the UN.
Lefteris Arapakis was named one of seven ‘Young Champions of the Earth’ by the United Nations at the end of 2020. Photo supplied.
“What pushed me to work with the fishing industry was that at the peak of the economic crisis in Greece, unemployment had jumped to 29% that year. At that time, I was talking to my father… and he told me that they were looking to hire staff on fishing boats and couldn’t find any,” Arapakis says.
“So we decided with a friend to start Enaleia, and through it to create the first school for professional fishing in Greece. The school is still open today, and we have trained more than 110 unemployed people in the fishing industry.
“Therefore, our starting point was the creation of new jobs and at the same time, the spread of new, sustainable fishing techniques, such as fishing tourism.”
The recycling of waste into products:
While Lefteris Arapakis’ initial motivation was to modernise the fishing profession, he quickly realised that the problem with plastic waste was out of control. And so, a side involvement began for Enaleia.
“We had heard that by 2050 there would be more plastic than fish in the seas. But I realised it for the first time, when we made our first fishing trip in the Cyclades,” Arapakis recalls.
“What struck me was that the fishermen were taking out not only fish, but also a lot of plastic through their nets. Specifically, it was a soft drink box that caught my interest, which had faded over the years. It had an expiration date in 1987, it was 30 years in the sea.
“While I was looking at it, the fisherman took it from my hands and threw it into the sea, saying that “plastics are not our problem.” We realised that it does not make sense to “bring out” new professionals in the industry, when there will be no fish.
Enaleia focuses on sustainable fishing techniques. Photo supplied.
“So, when the school procedures were organised, we trained the fishermen from Piraeus to bring the plastics they caught back to the port and the truth is that we were impressed by the quantities of plastic they cleaned.
“Therefore, we decided to extend the action to the rest of Greece, having a presence in 13 ports in Greece and Italy, a total of 145 medium fishing vessels, about 700 fishermen.”
So far, Enaleia has cleaned 80 tonnes of plastic from the seas. Every day a specialised network for collecting and sorting the plastic continues.
“In each port we have a special bin which, when filled, goes to a center, where the material is sorted. So far, about 50% of this material is recycled by local recycling companies… while the rest is used to create new products,” Arapakis says.
The pandemic and future goals:
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic did not leave Enaleia unaffected.
“The pandemic was a big ordeal for us. During the first lockdown implemented in Greece, several of the collaborations and sponsorships we had were postponed, while at the same time many fishing boats limited their activity due to lack of demand,” Arapakis explains.
“Our first reaction was anxiety and stress. But we realised that we can not influence the pandemic and that we must focus our actions on the situations that we can influence. For this reason, we took advantage of that period and talked to our partners, sponsors, donors, fishermen and asked them what we can improve in our action.
The COVID-19 pandemic did not leave Enaleia unaffected. Photo supplied.
“We learned many useful lessons from these discussions and applied them directly to our work, with impressive results. The first was that we were extracting much more plastic from the sea because we had improved the structures and procedures for the fishermen.
“The second is that we have improved the way we communicate our work. With this as a starting point, Enaleia has grown 4 times in the last six months, we have expanded our presence in more ports, we have quadrupled the number of fishing boats we work with and now we clean more than 4 tons of plastic from the seabed, every week, despite the lockdown.
“The next goals are to motivate more people and organisations to contribute to the cleaning of the seas from plastics, both in Greece and abroad, with the ultimate goal of preventing plastic pollution.
“We are already working with large institutions and companies that share the same vision with us, such as the Costas M. Lemos Foundation, which is the nationwide donor of the action, but also Nestle, to fight plastic pollution.”
The Australian National Maritime Museum and Settlement Services International last night celebrated two summer exhibitions, Motherland – Exile/Refuge – Migration (repeat) and A Mile in My Shoes, with an invited audience of artists, storytellers, multicultural organisations, diplomats and arts organisations.
Over 170 people toured the exhibitions and the museum with Greek guests including the Greek Consul General in Sydney, Christos Karras, President of the Kytherian Association of Australia, Emmanuel Alfieris, and CEO of Settlement Services International, Violet Roumeliotis.
Guests enjoyed the night at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Photos supplied.
Guests were treated to canapes and champagne as they listened to speeches from Director and CEO of the Australian National Maritime Museum, Kevin Sumption, Ms Violet Roumeliotis, artist Hedar Abadi and the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore.
Left to right: Violet Roumeliotis, CEO of Settlement Services International, Clover Moore, Lord Mayor, City of Sydney, Kevin Sumption, Director & CEO, Australian National Maritime Museum. Photo supplied.
“The exhibitions, as well as the Welcome Wall, were a great idea. They were so well-received that there’s even talk of the exhibitions being extended for three months and even touring. That’s exciting,” President of the Kytherian Association of Australia, Emmanuel Alfieris, tells The Greek Herald.
“Last night, many of the migrants were saying ‘my story is not unique.’ But that’s not true. They deserve to be on display.”
Both exhibitions have been a huge success for the museum, with A Mile in My Shoes still open for a few more days until January 31.
The exhibition, originally created by artist Clare Patey and produced by Artsadmin, sees visitors enter and try on a pair of shoes that belong to someone else and then listen to their story.
There was plenty of food, dancing and festivities as the Pontian Brotherhood of South Australia officially opened its new clubroom on January 24.
The Pontian Brotherhood of SA initially purchased the building in the suburb of Pennington back in 1986 but after realising it was no longer functional for the Pontian community, it was knocked down.
“In February last year, the foundations of the new building were laid and over the weekend we officially had our grand opening, which was really exciting,” President of the Pontian Brotherhood of SA, Nazareth Nalpantidis Chisholm, tells The Greek Herald.
There was a huge turnout at the grand opening of the new clubroom. Photo supplied.
South Australian Councillor, Kelly Thomas, kick started the grand opening by cutting the ribbon outside the building, and this was followed by a traditional blessing from His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope.
Also in attendance were a number of local politicians and representatives of Greek and Pontian associations from across South Australia.
This includes: Consul General of Greece in Adelaide, Mr George Psiachas, Father Christos Tsoraklidis, Steve Georganas MP, Your Honourable Joe Szakacs MP, His Honourable Michael Atkinson, President of the Pontian Federation of Australia, Peter Stefanidis, Mr Jake Hall Evans and Mr John and Mrs Valerie Liddle.
There was lots of dancing and lamb on the spit. Photo supplied.
Once inside the building, a ceremonial plaque was unveiled and a delicious lunch, made up of traditional Greek salads and a souvla, was served to the guests.
This lunch was accompanied by a number of Pontian dances from the Brotherhood’s dancing group, as well as a lyra player.
“We were very, very happy with the event. It was a higher than expected turnout. There was no food left over so it was great!” Nazareth says.
The building will now be used for Pontian dancing practice. Photo supplied.
The building will now be used for Pontian dancing practice, quiz nights, monthly Sunday lunches and, Nazareth says, hopefully Pontain language classes one day.
“We want the building to be a place where we can bridge the gap between the Pontian youth and older generations and make people feel like it’s a place where they can be at home and unite as a culture,” Nazareth says.
There’s a big job ahead but it’s one that’s definitely achievable.
“We invite those living abroad, locals or foreigners, to choose Greece for their studies,” Greece’s Education Minister, Niki Kerameus, said during an online conference held on January 24 to highlight the new initiatives of Greek universities in research and innovation.
The conference was hosted by the General Secretariat of Higher Education of the Hellenic Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, and the General Secretariat of Public Diplomacy and Greeks Abroad of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two new university accommodation blocks built in Sydney by Scape Australia will stay empty this year, as hundreds of international students fail to arrive for the start of the new university semester.
Co-founder and Chief Executive of Scape Australia, Stephen Gaitanos, told The Sydney Morning Herald that a new building to house 200 students that has just been completed in Darlington, inner Sydney, was originally scheduled to start welcoming residents this week.
These plans were made well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but those plans are now up in the air after Federal Education Minister, Alan Tudge, said recently that the large-scale return of international students to Australian campuses may depend on the availability of an effective vaccine.
The empty rooms at the new student accommodation building at Darlington in inner Sydney. Credit: Edwina Pickles / Sydney Morning Herald.
“It’s terribly frustrating to effectively have to mothball it,” Mr Gaitanos said to theSMH of the accommodation.
Scape Australia is also set to complete construction in June of another building in Redfern with 700 bedrooms, and has plans for student accommodation towers in Melbourne. All are expected to remain empty this year.
Last year, the Federal Government requested that each state and territory submit by November international student arrival plans through safe quarantine corridors.
The NSW government developed a plan to start returning 1000 students a week from the beginning of 2021, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian shelved that when the northern beaches was locked down.
Tighter caps on the number of Australians allowed to return to other states were also introduced as a temporary measure in response to more contagious strains of the virus.
Mr Gaitanos said the uncertainty in the position of governments had been “frustrating and inconsistent.”
