Prince of Wales Hospital Craniofacial director Dr Mark Gianoutsos has warned against using shopping centre lip filler injection clinics, saying they are preying on social media obsessed young women.
The leading plastic surgeon said cheap credit services like Afterpay are fuelling the abnormal sized lip trend.
“Particularly in the filler market, there are a lot of people who are driven to have injections and people who go and put it all on Afterpay in the shopping malls,” he said.
Lip fillers became popularised in 2015, when Kylie Jenner admitted that her plumped lips were the result of fillers, after intense media and fan speculation.
Kylie Jenner in 2011. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty
Kylie Jenner. Photo: Instagram
On an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, she said: “I have temporary lip fillers. It’s just an insecurity of mine, and it’s what I wanted to do.”
Although popularised by mainstream celebrities, the trend has become ubiquitous with Instagram influencers.
“There are elements of that which are predatory on people who do live their lives through other people’s social media accounts,” Dr Mark Gianoutsos adds.
Jessica Simpson. Photo: Getty Images
Dr Gianoutsos warned unscrupulous operators were providing lip filler services to people who did not need them with any counselling about having injections.
“You can see the results of that when you walk down the street and see what I would argue are people with very overfilled lips,” he said.
“It is often bizarre looking faces and appearances … I think it is a degree of body dysmorphia but it is largely social media driven.”
Psychologist Janine Rod said she had numerous patients who suffered with body image issues which she said came through social media because of the saturation of images which are edited beyond recognition of the original person.
“Abnormal has become normal because our sense of what is normal is so skewered,” she said.
“Their views are so distorted and then they look at their girlfriends who are all doing it so it becomes normal.”
On August 27th, 1829, Gikas Voulgaris becomes one of the first Greek convicts to arrive in Australia 192 years ago.
Voulgaris is hailed as the founding father of the Australian-Hellenic community.
Gikas Voulgaris was born around 1809 in the Aegean port village of Hydra, Greece.
Voulgaris grew up to be a sailor-fighter in the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s.
The Greek War of Independence was in its sixth year when the captain of the ship Herakles, Antonios Manolis, led an attack on the British ship Alceste on the 29th of July 1827. The Alceste was en-route from Malta to Alexandria, Egypt, when it was intercepted by seven sailors from Hydra, Greece, including Manolis and Voulgaris. The other Greek sailors, including Damianos Ninis, Georgios Vasilakis, Georgios Laristos, Nikolaos Papandreas, and Konstantinos Strompolis, removed Alceste’s cargo in attempt to curtail its plans to supply the Ottomans with weapons.
The Royal Navy, travelling on the Gannet, apprehended the sailors near Crete and led them to face their trials in Malta, a former British colony.
The trial controversially sentenced the group to be exiled to 14-years of death row in Sydney, Australia, on charges of piracy.
Subsequently, Gikas, along with 192 other criminals, set sail on the Norfolk on the 20th of May 1829.
Gikas arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney, on the 27th of August 1829 to serve his sentence.
The seven sailors were employed in the shipyards of Sydney Harbour, the vineyards of Parramatta and Camden, and as construction workers on Elizabeth House in Vaucluse.
Aftermath:
Greece was able to extend absolute pardons to the seven sailors in 1837, ahead of their sentence terms, once gaining independence.
Five of the sailors returned to Greece two years later. The other two, Manolis and Voulgaris, remained in Australia as free settlers.
Gikas married Irishwoman Mary Amelia Lyons in 1836 while living in Braidwood. Lyons was a 19-year-old girl who had migrated to Australia from County Cork, Ireland, on the Red Rover ship four years prior.
The pair constantly moved around in the Monaro district of southern-NSW to work as graziers.
They moved to Bukalong, where Voulgaris worked as a carrier on the Bibbenluke Station, in 1851.
Gikas became an Australian citizen and allegedly changed his name to Ginger/Zinger in 1861.
The pair moved to the Boco Creek, now part of Rockybah, which was just outside the Bibbenluke Boundary, in the late 1860s. Here, they built their house. Many remnants of Voulgaris’ stonework can still be seen, including the house foundations, stone wall and remains of a small church.
Legacy:
Gikas died less than 10 yeas later, aged 65, in 1874 in New South Wales.
He lies in Old Nimmitable Pioneer Cemetery in south-east NSW, Australia.
Gikas had 10 children, 5 girls, 5 boys, and 52 grandchildren.
It is understood via Kalie Zervos’ Australia’s Hardworking Greeks (2017)that Sue, a puppeteer in The Rocks, Sydney, claims to be one of Gikas’ many descendants. The families of Bulgary, Macfarlane, McDonald, and Stewart, are also speculated to descend from Gikas Voulgaris.
Newspaper articles from 1900 suggest that Greeks arrived in Australia decades before Gikas and his six fellow compatriots. Furthermore, what’s known about Gikas’ life is sketchy. His name had many variations, including Jigger Bulgary, Jekier Bulgaire, Jaickar Bulgaria, and Tsikas Bolgkeris.
The Greek Orthodox Community of Canberra and District, under former President Costas Tsoulias, held a requiem mass at his restored grave on the 23rd of March 2002 and more recently, on the 6th of December 2020 a memorial service was also held by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios as part of the National Committee events for the 200yr anniversary of Hellenic Independence.
The board of St Basil’s Homes NSW/ACT is understood to be considering the future of CEO Spiro Stavis, who was found by the NSW ICAC to have engaged in corrupt conduct in his former role with a local council, according to a report published in Australian Ageing Agenda.
The finding relates to activities that occurred between 2014-16 and is not related to his position with the provider.
In a report released on March 22nd, the corruption watchdog said Mr Stavis engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” in relation to planning proposals while he was the Director of City Planning at Canterbury City Council.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said Mr Stavis’ corrupt conduct included misusing his position to influence the outcome of a development application for a neighbour’s property, influencing a consultant to prepare a report for a planning proposals for a development to favour the developer’s interests, and editing a planning proposal to remove material critical of it from a draft report to the council’s City Development Committee.
The ICAC has referred the matter to the DPP and recommends it consider charging Mr Stavis with misconduct in public office.
Mr Stavis joined St Basil’s in 2016 and is a qualified town planner with more than 28 years experience in the private and public sectors. He was appointed CEO of St Basil’s in NSW and the ACT in 2020.
St Basil’s NSW/ACT is a registered charity and an activity of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. It operates six residential facilities across metropolitan Sydney and provides community based services to more than 300 home care package consumers and days centre attendees in NSW and ACT.
The ICAC report also recommends charges against Canterbury’s former general manager Jim Maguire, former councillors Michael Hawatt and Pierre Azzi, and NSW MP Daryl Maguire in relation to ICAC’s investigation.
Criminologist Andy Kaladelfos is blunt in their assessment of how Australia’s justice system deals with sexual offences, the ABC reports.
“It is demonstrably not working in every way,” they said.
The University of NSW researcher has watched the issue of sexual assault and the harassment of women dominate news and politics in recent weeks.
Now, they are calling for a “wholesale re-evaluation” of how the justice system itself handles these crimes.
Dr Kaladelfos wants lawmakers to address the reasons why nearly 90 per cent of sexual assault victims don’t engage with the justice system.
They said the experiences of victim-survivors who do go through the court system also needed to be examined.
They are concerned trials have become so “awful” for victims, the justice system itself is deterring some people from reporting sexual offences to police.
It’s a sentiment echoed by sexual assault victims and victim advocates across Australia, but often not shared by those working within the justice system.
Dr Kaladelfos has spent years researching the way adult and child sexual assault victims are questioned during criminal trials.
In 2017, they and their colleagues published a study that compared the questioning of adult sexual assault complainants in contemporary trials, to trials run in the 1950s.
The researchers wanted to know if decades of law reform had improved the way victims were being questioned while giving evidence.
“We were expecting to find an improvement now, 70 years on,” Dr Kaladelfos said.
In that study, the researchers compared historic transcripts from NSW to contemporary transcripts from New Zealand, because the academics found “contemporary Australian transcripts are subject to access restrictions that make research untenable”.
Australian health authorities have advised the Pfizer vaccine should be given to Australians aged under 50, amid concerns of rare blood clots potentially linked to the AstraZeneca vaccination.
The federal government’s expert medical taskforce met on Thursday to consider the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following advice from the European Union’s medical regulator that “very rare cases of blood clots” were a side effect in the weeks after the vaccine was administered.
The United Kingdom has already decided to offer other vaccines, such as the one produced by Pfizer, to people aged under 30.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly made the announcement, flanked by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in an unexpected press conference on Thursday night.
Professor Kelly said people who have had their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and had not experienced any “adverse side effects”, can be given their second dose.
Greece mulling age limitations for AstraZeneca vaccine
Greece’s National Committee of Vaccinations is considering whether to restrict the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to a specific age group, because of the risk of a rare blood clot syndrome, a Health Ministry official said on Thursday.
“The National Vaccination Committee will most likely give its opinion on the AstraZeneca vaccine today or tomorrow at the latest,” said Marios Themistokleous, Health Ministry secretary general for Primary Health Care.
“We do not expect major changes in our vaccination schedule and there is no question in any European country of stopping vaccinations with this vaccine,” adding however that “what is being discussed is age restrictions.”
He went on to say that despite the upheaval, the rate of the public’s participation in vaccinations exceeds 90 percent and that there are 10,000-12,000 vaccinations with AstraZeneca on a daily basis.
The move follows an announcement by Europe’s drug regulator on Wednesday that it had found a possible link between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and rare blood clotting issues in adults who had received the shot, while adding that the incidents are rare.
Former EU Commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou said the head of the European Commission should have addressed the diplomatic mishap in Ankara where she was left without a chair during a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The incident took place when European Council President Charles Michel, who was with Ursula von der Leyen at the meeting, took the only chair available next to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, relegating her to an adjacent sofa.
Το #SofaGate θα έπρεπε να έχει πρωταγωνίστρια την Ursula von der Leyen. Να απαιτήσει, μπροστά στις κάμερες, την τήρηση του πρωτοκόλλου ή να αποχωρήσει μεγαλοπρεπώς. Αυτό θα περίμενα, ως γυναίκα και ως Ευρωπαία.
— Anna Diamantopoulou (@adiamantopoulou) April 8, 2021
“Ursula von der Leyen should have been the protagonist of #SofaGate. She should have demanded, in front of the cameras, the observance of the protocol or leave in grand style. This is what I would have expected, as a woman and as a European,” she said in a tweet on her official account.
— Aušra Maldeikienė MEP 🇱🇹🇪🇺 (@maldeikiene) April 7, 2021
Draghi accuses Erdogan of humiliating EU’s von der Leyen
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi accused Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of humiliating European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this week, and said it was important to be frank with “dictators.”
Von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel met Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday. The Commission chief was clearly taken aback when the two men sat on the only two chairs prepared, relegating her to an adjacent sofa.
“I absolutely do not agree with Erdogan’s behaviour towards President von der Leyen … I think it was not appropriate behaviour and I was very sorry for the humiliation von der Leyen had to suffer,” Draghi told reporters.
“With these, let’s call them what they are, dictators, with whom one nonetheless has to coordinate, one has to be frank when expressing different visions and opinions,” he added.
Kogarah’s Greek Orthodox church, ‘The Resurrection of our Lord, our Lady of Myrtles, St Elessa,’ is set to upgrade its entrance doors after receiving a $20,000 grant from the New South Wales Government.
The exciting news comes after Member for Oatley, Mark Coure MP, successfully wrote to NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, on behalf of the Kogarah parish and local Greek community.
“Thanks to a NSW Government investment from our Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, the Greek Orthodox Parish and Community of Kogarah has received $20,000 to upgrade the entrance doors to the venue,” Mr Coure wrote on a Facebook post.
Kogarah’s Greek Orthodox church is set to upgrade its front doors.
“This compliments the fantastic facilities at the church and it will further enhance the state of the art precinct as a whole. This is great news for church attendees, Greek Australians and the entire St George community.”
In response, the Kogarah Parish Committee and parish priest, Father Kyriakos, say they are “pleased to have received the grant… towards the much needed replacement of our church front doors.”
“We would like to thank Mark Coure MP for coming to the assistance of the Parish Committee in procuring the funding,” reads a Facebook post.
TV entrepreneur and Number 96 actor, Harry Michaels, couldn’t sell his Point Piper Spanish Mission apartment last June for $3.3 million – now it’s sold for $3.7 million after just one open home.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the famous circa-1929 Santa Barbara block at 2/7 Longworth Avenue had a $3.5 million price guide, but an investor from Longueville came through on Saturday and fell in love with it, agreeing to pay whatever it took to own it.
The ground-floor apartment in the block of six features harbour views, soaring ornate ceilings and original fixtures and has a French Provincial style kitchen with a full Art Deco bathroom.
The ground-floor apartment has harbour views. Photo: realestate.com.au.
It’s sale is a far cry from the previous campaign, when the apartment sat without interest on the market for eight months between October 2019 and June 2020, initially with a price guide of $3.5 million to $3.7 million.
By last June, the guide, with sales agents Cae Thomas and Jye Emdur of Ray White TRG (The Rubinstein Group), had dropped to $3.3 million and there was still no buyer.
Fortunately for Michaels, his luck changed.
Who is Harry Michaels?
Harry Michaels is of Greek Cypriot descent and he first became famous in the late 1970s as Italian Deli assistant, Giovanni Lenzi, in the iconic TV series Number 96.
Harry Michaels is of Greek Cypriot descent.
He was also the host of Greek Affair and The Greek Variety Show from the 1980s.
More lucrative was his role as a football broadcasting pioneer, buying the TV rights for the National Soccer League in the 1980s.
And Michaels’ production company, Silk Studio, produces Aerobics Oz Style, with his aerobics instructor wife, Effie, often appearing on the show.
The couple reside in a seven-bedroom mansion in Wentworth Road, Vaucluse, purchased for $12.35 million in 2008.
He bought the Santa Barbara apartment, which also has double parking, for $2 million in 2010.
The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755 this year – 660 more than a year ago.
Of those, a record high 493 were new to the list – roughly one every 17 hours, including 210 from China and Hong Kong.
As for the billionaires with Greek heritage, The Greek Herald has compiled a list of all of them. They are:
1. Maritsa Lazari and Family (Ranked 1,064):
Maritsa Lazari and her family’s net worth is $2.9 billion, according to Forbes.
Maritsa is a Cyprus-born British billionaire businesswoman. She was married to the Cyprus-born British billionaire property developer, Chris Lazari, until his death in 2015. They had three children together.
Maritsa married Cyprus-born British billionaire property developer, Chris Lazari.
Christos eventually created a successful fashion line called Drendie Girl. The couple used the profits from that business to buy up property.
Lazari Investments owns more than 3 million square feet of commercial real estate in London, mostly office space that it rents out.
2. John Catsimatidis (Ranked 1,111):
John Catsimatidis has a net worth of $2.8 billion. In 2020, he ranked 299th in the Forbes 400 list.
Catsimatidis is best known as the owner of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes. He also owns oil refinery United Refining in Pennsylvania, which he bought out of bankruptcy, and real estate in New York and beyond.
John Catsimatidis has a net worth of $2.8 billion.
He moved with his family from Greece to New York when he was an infant and grew up in an apartment in Harlem. He worked as a grocery clerk while attending New York University, but dropped out for a chance to own a piece of the shop where he worked.
He opened his own grocery store in 1969 and had 10 Red Apple stores by age 25.
3. Philip Niarchos (Ranked 1,111):
Philip Niarchos, the oldest son of the late shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, inherited much of his father’s art collection.
The collection was purchased in 1957 for $3 million from actor Edward G. Robinson and includes some of the world’s most recognisable pieces.
It is said to be the largest private collection of Van Gogh’s work, notably his ear-less self portrait, and includes Picasso’s iconic “Yo, Picasso.”
Philip Niarchos is the oldest son of the late shipping magnate, Stavros Niarchos.
Since inheriting the collection, Philip has added post-war and contemporary works, including pieces by Andy Warhol and Maurizio Cattelan.
He has an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion.
4. Charles Dean Metropoulos (Ranked 1,205):
Charles Dean Metropoulos is an American billionaire investor and businessman of Greek descent. His net worth for this year is $2.6 billion, according to the Forbes list. Metropoulos is best known for saving the iconic Twinkies and Hostess Brands.
Through his Metropoulos & Co, he’s also turned around and sold Chef Boyardee, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Bumble Bee Tuna and others.
Metropoulos and private equity firm Apollo bought Hostess Brands in 2013 and later took it public. Most recently, he’s been selling his shares.
Charles Dean Metropoulos.
The Greek-born entrepreneur is also a trustee of the National Hellenic Museum located in Chicago.
Metropoulos made his first American acquisition at the age of 32, when he acquired a cheese company in his wife’s native Vermont.
Metropoulos, along with private equity titan Alec Gores, took blank check company Gores Metropoulos public in February 2019.
5. Aristotelis Mistakidis (Ranked 1,362):
Aristotelis Mistakidis is a Swiss-based Greek metals trader who became a billionaire working for Glencore. His current net worth is estimated at $2.3 billion.
Mistakidis, known as “Telis,” stepped down from his role as the director of Glencore’s copper business at the end of 2018.
Aristotelis Mistakidis is a Swiss-based Greek metals trader.
In 2018, Canadian regulators fined and banned Mistakidis from serving as a director due to compliance violations.
Mistakidis got his start in commodities at Cargill and joined Marc Rich & Co. in 1993. Later, the firm was bought by management and renamed Glencore.
He first became a billionaire in 2011 when Glencore went public, and currently owns more than 3% of the company’s stock.
6. George Argyros and Family (Ranked 1,580):
The grandson of Greek immigrants, Argyros worked his way through high school and college in southern California as a paperboy and grocery clerk.
Argyros, a real estate mogul, founded property firm Arnel & Affiliates in southern California in 1968 and currently serves as the CEO. His net worth is estimated at $2.1 billion.
George Argyros with his wife, Julianne.
The company owns 5,500 apartments in Orange County, California and nearly 2 million square feet of commercial real estate in southern California.
In January 2018, the Argyros family foundation pledged $7.5 million to renovate the Los Angeles Coliseum, home of the USC Trojans.
7. Ivan Savvidis (Ranked 1,833):
Ivan Savvidis, a Greek-Russian businessman, is the founder of Agrokom Group, whose assets include Russian tobacco firm Donskoy Tabak.
In 1980, he got a job at the Don State Tobacco Factory (now Donskoy Tabak) and was elected general director in 1993.
In 2003, he was elected a deputy of the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Legislation, as a member of United Russia, a pro-Putin party.
Ivan Savvidis, a Greek-Russian businessman.
In 2004, Savvidis founded Agrokom Group; it also owns meat processing and packing plants, greenhouse facilities and a sparkling water factory.
In 2012, his Greek company Dimera purchased 51% of soccer team FC PAOK in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Savvidis is estimated to have a net worth of $1.7 billion.
8. Theodore Leonsis (Ranked 2,141):
Theodore ‘Ted’ Leonsis is founder, majority owner and CEO of Monumental Sports, which owns several teams and arenas in Washington, D.C. His estimated worth is $1.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Subsidiaries include the NBA’s Wizards, the NHL’s Capitals, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, two Arena Football teams and Capital One Arena.
Theodore ‘Ted’ Leonsis is founder, majority owner and CEO of Monumental Sports.
The grandson of Greek immigrants, Leonsis initially built his fortune as a senior executive at AOL, where he worked for nearly 14 years.
He is a cofounder and partner at Revolution Growth, a venture capital firm helmed by AOL cofounder Steve Case.
In 2017, Laurene Powell Jobs reportedly bought 20% of Monumental Sports for hundreds of millions of dollars, making her the second largest shareholder.
9. Vardis J. Vardinoyannis (Ranked 2,141):
Vardis J. Vardinoyannis has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion. He co-founded Motor Oil Hellas, a petroleum company based in Greece, with his late brother in 1970.
Vardis J. Vardinoyannis has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion.
It went public on the Athens stock exchange in August 2001. Saudi Arabia’s Aramco was a major investor before divesting in 2005.
Vardis’ oldest son, John, is vice chairman while nephew, Nikos, also a major shareholder, is on the board.
Apart from Motor Oil, the family also invests in shipping, finance and soccer teams.
10. Stelios Haji-Ioannou (Ranked 2,378):
The son of a Greek Cypriot shipping magnate, Stelios Haji-Ioannou gets the bulk of his fortune from his stake in budget airline easyJet. His estimated net worth is $1.3 billion.
Stelios founded easyJet in 1995 after leaving his father’s company; his siblings Clelia and Polys both have large stakes in the airline.
Stelios Haji-Ioannou gets the bulk of his fortune from his stake in budget airline easyJet.
Stelios maintains ownership of the Easy brand through his private company, easyGroup.
Through his easyGroup, Stelios has licensed the easy brand name to such businesses as easyHotel, easyCar and easyCoffee.
In 2018, he filed a trademark claim against Netflix over their show “Easy” in a UK court.
11. Polys Haji-Ioannou (Ranked 2,524):
Polys Haji-Ioannou is the son of Cypriot shipping magnate Loucas Haji-Ioannou, who at one point owned the largest private tanker fleet in the world.
Polys Haji-Ioannou is the son of Cypriot shipping magnate Loucas Haji-Ioannou.
Most of his wealth derives from a large stake in easyJet, the discount airline founded by his younger brother, Stelios. His estimated net worth is $1.1 billion.
Polys continues the family’s shipping legacy with his own 17-tanker fleet. He has also invested heavily in both commercial and residential real estate, particularly in Cyprus, Greece and Norway.
12. George Yancopoulos (Ranked 2,524):
With an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes, George Yancopoulos is the well-known chief scientific officer of biotech firm Regeneron.
He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Columbia University and became a professor of biology by age 28.
George Yancopoulos has an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion.
Regeneron was cofounded by now-billionaire Leonard Schleifer in 1988. Yancopoulos joined the next year.
Yancopoulos led the invention of seven approved drugs and a technology platform designed to invent more. Yancopoulos owns about 2% of Regeneron stock.
Registrations are now open for the By George! 2021 inaugural biennial international art prize launched by South Australia’s Foundation for Hellenic Studies to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence.
Artists aged 16 and over, from around the world, are invited to submit artwork around the theme, ‘Independence: What is it good for?’ to encourage discussion about independence and revolution, its effect on humanity and the sacrifices made for it through the years.
The Art Prize, valued at $11,000, will be judged by a panel of artists and critics, with prize winners announced at a public exhibition opening on October 28, 2021, in the St George College Art Gallery at 104 Henley Beach Road, Mile End.
Artwork will be available for sale and all art will be viewable online as well as at the art gallery (subject to COVID-19).
For the ‘Judges Choice’ section, first prize will win $5,000, second prize – $3,000 and third prize – $1,000.
A Democratic (People’s) Choice Award will also be awarded and the winner will receive $2,000. Public voting for the category will be conducted online from October 21 and the winner will be announced on the exhibition opening night.
Artists must register their interest at www.bit.ly/3saTg4b or via the QR code on the form.
