An exquisite portrait of Greek Australian nurse, Helen Zahos, will feature in a special art exhibition called the ‘Salon des Refusés’ from October 9 to November 1 this year.
The exhibition is held in conjunction with the Brisbane Portrait Prize and the Royal Queensland Art Society (RQAS).
Painted by renowned artist, Ben Fuog, the detail of Helen’s blue nurse uniform is a sharp contrast to the face mask she is wearing, reminding the viewer of the important yet dangerous role played by healthcare professionals during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Given the current circumstances, I couldn’t have had a more pertinent subject to paint. Helen is an impressive representation of so many who put others before themselves and an example of what humanity should aspire to be,” Ben Fuog tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
For her part, Helen Zahos says that although she thought the request was “unusual” at first, she was still “flattered that an artist of Ben’s calibre wanted me as his subject.”
“As the painting was being done and [I saw] what Ben was capturing, I realised the significance of this painting,” Helen tells The Greek Herald.
“History is being written. This global pandemic will be spoken about for years to come and there are frontline workers that have risked their lives to serve others, thousands of which lost their lives serving their community.
“2020 is also the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, and I think coupled with the historical moment captured in the painting, I feel really honoured and privileged to be the subject.”
If you would like to see Helen’s portrait, or even the work of other artists, you can do so by simply visiting the gallery between Tuesday – Sunday 10am-3.30pm. Exhibition attendance is free and tickets are not required.
A new ‘miGRant’ survey has been announced by a group of academics who want to help create a better Greek language education for Greek children in Australia.
As part of the survey, researchers from Macquarie University in Australia, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Hamburg in Germany, will investigate adolescent digital literacy practices to design a better approach to Greek language education for the youth of new migration background.
To do this, they are looking to talk to new Greek migrant families who have children between the ages of 11-15 years, have moved to Australia between 2010-2018 and at least one parent speaks Greek as their first language.
Two one-hour interviews using Zoom (or similar technology) will be conducted between November and mid-December 2020.
If you are interest in participating or would like more information, please contact Associate Professor Panos Vlachopoulos from Macquarie University at panos.vlachopoulos@mq.edu.au or the MIGRANT team at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki at migrant@auth.gr.
In 2021, Greece will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the uprising of Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman occupation in the Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution.
An international calendar of events has been endorsed by the Greek Government to acknowledge this anniversary.
In South Australia, the Foundation for Hellenic Studies is launching ‘Gr2021’ as the promotional platform for events commemorating the bicentennial. All community groups and individual organisers are invited to send their details and event information to media@gr2021.com.au for inclusion on the website.
In Australia, one of the earliest Greek diaspora communities will be establishing a permanent monument on Rose Street Thebarton, between St George Church and St George College, Thebarton, which has been made possible with the support of members of the SA community.
Additional events will be announced over the coming months, with the following events confirmed:
The official unveiling of the permanent memorial at a community event on 25th March 2021, to honour in perpetuity those who made the ultimate sacrifice to secure freedom for Greece.
The launch of the inaugural St George College Biennial Art Prize with a prize pool of $11,000 and the 2021 theme of “Revolution – what Independence means for the World.” The prize winners for sculpture and work on canvas/paper will be judged by a panel of acclaimed artists and critics, presenting the judges’ selection of first, second and third prize, and a Democratic (People’s) Choice award. The prize winners will be announced at a twilight event on July 2, 2021 at the opening of the public exhibition to be held in the St George College Art Gallery. Entry forms will be released via Gr2021.com.au and www.sgc.sa.edu.au on October 15, 2020. Art will be available for purchase.
A return visit of the Evzones for ANZAC Day (subject to COVID19 restrictions).
A Bourdo Photography exhibition and projections chronicling the Spirit of the Evzones, in late April.
A lecture series including one by Dr George Frazis for students of all ages on May 27, 2021.
Book launch of books written by people of Greek origin or with a Hellenic theme in June 2021.
Interested participants can sign up online to receive news, announcements and invitations to attend events, including the unveiling of the Memorial and the Art Prize and Exhibition.
Greece’s Ministry of Culture estimates that the palace in Pella where Alexander the Great was born will be open for visitors next summer, according to an Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) report.
When the relics of the building were excavated in 1957, no one knew it was the palace where the future King was born. Nearby there was an arena where Alexander played sport with the children of the aristocracy and exercised in a huge swimming pool.
“The palace had a public character and inside was the room where the banquets took place, or the room of the throne, if I am allowed to use this expression,” the director of Pella Ephorate of Antiquities, Elisavet Tsigarida, told AMNA.
Alexander the Great: Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii. Credit: Wikipedia.
The Ephorate Director emphasised that the works, funded by the European Union, are currently in full swing and notes that the site could be open to the public in the summer of 2021 if everything goes smoothly.
Visitors will be able to see the palace floor plan at the foundation level while the goal of the Pella Ephorate of Antiquities is to present a digital tour at the visitor center which is expected to be built in 2023.
In the center, visitors can watch a digital representation not only of the palace where the Macedonian king was born, but of the building ensemble which consisted of seven huge buildings with inner courtyards, corridors, stairwells and galleries that were connected to each other.
“The total area is around 70 acres. These dimensions can be understood if we take into account the fact that Pella was the capital of the Macedonian Kingdom at the time. The original palace was smaller, but it was expanded after the campaign of Alexander the Great,” Tsigarida said.
“The period from 320 to 250 BC was a time of great prosperity for Macedonia, while the wealth of the palace was also known. Let’s not forget that throughout the third and second century BC, Pella was the center of the Macedonian Kingdom, one of the most important states of the time.”
These were, after all, the reasons why the palace was looted by the Romans when the Macedonians were defeated in 168 BC. The victorious army went straight to Pella.
“The Romans did not destroy the city but looted the palace, where of course, there were treasures. They even took the king and his family as slaves in Rome, showing their triumph,” Tsigarida explained.
The fate of the royal family was very hard while the palace was no longer in use. However, the city continued to exist during Roman times, as the Egnatia Highway, a road that connected the east and west, passed through it.
Catching coronavirus on a flight is less likely than being struck by lightning, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Research published by IATA said that between January and July this year, there have been just 44 cases where coronavirus is thought to have been transmitted during a flight. This number includes confirmed, probable and potential cases.
At the same time, the industry association said that 1.2 billion passengers have travelled by air, representing a one in 27 million probability of catching COVID-19 on a flight – significantly less than the chances of being struck by lightning, which is around one in 500,000 according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Catching coronavirus on a flight is less likely than being struck by lightning, according to the IATA. Photo: Jeffrey Groeneweg and Hollandse Hoog, REDUX.
Of the 44 cases cited, the highest number was on a London to Hanoi flight, where 15 people were thought to have contracted the virus – the cases are listed as probable.
A flight from Sydney to Perth had 11 cases of transmission on board, eight of which were confirmed and three are probable.
As the data period of the report runs up to July, it doesn’t include some of the recent cases, such as the 16 people who tested positive for coronavirus following a Tui flight from Zante to Cardiff in August.
In the case of the Tui flight, it’s not clear how many people had caught COVID-19 while in Greece and how many subsequently contracted it due to the flight.
Australia’s international travel ban likely to remain until 2022:
This new data comes as Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has cast doubt on when Australians will be able to travel internationally again.
Scott Morrison is currently in Queensland campaigning with the state’s Liberal National party leader, Deb Frecklington.
Morrison has confirmed Australia will move “very cautiously” to reopen quarantine-free travel with a “handful” of countries, raising the prospect Europe and the United States will be excluded until 2022 unless a COVID vaccine is available.
The Prime Minister made these comments at a doorstop in Redbank, campaigning with Queensland’s Liberal National party leader, Deb Frecklington.
He told reporters New Zealand would be the “first step” and very soon New Zealanders “will be able to come to New South Wales, the ACT, and the Northern Territory.”
“The reason they won’t be able to come to Queensland is there is still a requirement for a two-week quarantine in Queensland,” he said, explaining that allowing international trips to Queensland would prevent Australians returning home due to the cap on hotel quarantine.
“When that is no longer necessary – great – I think that will be tremendous for the Queensland tourism industry.”
Morrison added that after New Zealand, Australia was looking to establish travel bubbles with Pacific nations, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
“There are countries that have performed well on the health front and Australia and those countries are one of a handful that have had the same level of success,” Morrison said.
“But we have to go cautiously on this, very, very cautiously. COVID-19 hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s still there – it’s no less aggressive today than it was six months ago. We need to keep the habit of COVID-safe behaviours.”
Mr Eccles fronted the state’s hotel quarantine inquiry in September.
Mr Eccles fronted the state’s hotel quarantine inquiry in September, and said neither he nor the Premier’s department made the decision to use private security in the program.
The inquiry heard that on March 27, the day the hotel quarantine program was set up, then chief Police Commissioner, Graham Ashton, texted Mr Eccles at 1.16pm and that the senior bureaucrat could not recall calling him back.
But in his resignation statement today, Mr Eccles revealed that phone records showed he called Mr Ashton for two minutes at 1.17pm that day.
Turkey has issued a new Navtex, TURNHOS N/W: 1262/20, for the Oruc Reis seismic exploration vessel to carry out activities south of the island of Kastellorizo until October 20.
Tensions flared last month after Ankara sent its Oruc Reis seismic survey ship into disputed waters, escorted by gunboats, to map out sea territory for possible oil and gas drilling.
The Oruc Reis had initially returned to the Turkish port of Antalya in mid-September, but Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said at the time that the vessel’s work would continue after a short break.
It seems the time has come to do just that despite Greece and Turkey agreeing to resume talks over their contested maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean after a four year hiatus.
The first round of the Turkish Cypriot presidential election has produced a close result between one candidate favouring renewed peace talks on Cyprus and another wanting closer ties with Turkey.
Unofficial results gave 29.8% of the vote to the incumbent president Mustafa Akıncı, who is running for a second term.
He came narrowly behind the prime minister Ersin Tatar, who won 32.4%.
The candidates will face each other in a second round election next week, leaving Turkish Cypriot voters to decide whether they want another attempt to reunite the island or believe separation is a better course.
A Turkish-Cypriot woman casts her ballot at a voting station in the northern part of Nicosia, the capital of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), during the presidential election on October 11, 2020. Photo by Birol BEBEK / AFP.
Cyprus has been divided between its Greek and Turkish communities since 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a coup that aimed to unite the island with Greece.
The northern portion declared independence as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983, but it is diplomatically recognised only by Turkey.
Successive peace talks between the island’s two communities have been unsuccessful.
Akıncı, a left winger who wants to resume peace talks with Cyprus’s internationally-recognised Greek government, has said he hopes a deal can finally be agreed to reunite the island.
But Tatar, a nationalist, supports closer ties with mainland Turkey and advocates a two-state solution.
Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersin Tatar has Ankara’s backing.
He controversially appeared alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week to announce the reopening of the abandoned town of Varosha, which was largely inhabited by Greek Cypriots until it was occupied by Turkish forces in 1974.
Eleven candidates in all contested Sunday’s first round election, including the former Turkish Cypriot peace negotiator Kudret Özersay, who came fourth with 5.7% of the vote.
The Republican Turkish Party candidate Tufan Erhürman was third with 21.7%.
The second round of the election will be held next Sunday, October 18.
It was a sunny Thursday morning when church bells rang joyfully, inviting Athenians to take to the streets to celebrate the end of the German occupation after three and a half horrendous years. It was October 12, 1944.
Soon the rest of the suffering country would be free too. By November 3, the last German, Italian and Bulgarian soldiers had left the mainland. Only Crete had to suffer under the German boot for a few more months.
The countdown to the withdrawal of the Germans and their Bulgarian allies from Greece had taken place a few months earlier, on June 6, when the American army landed in Normandy and began to move towards Germany, with the Soviet army advancing from the east side. It was obvious then that the days of Nazi Germany were numbered.
Crowds of people celebrate in Syntagma Square.
In the period before liberation, the political consultations on the post-occupation situation in Greece had intensified. For their part, the Germans were looking behind the scenes for their safe departure from our country.
From April 26, 1944, the Greek government in exile was led by George Papandreou but the British were the ones who moved the threads. With the Lebanon Conference (May 17-20, 1944) and Caserta Agreement (September 26, 1944), the guerrilla groups of ELAS and EDES were placed under the orders of the Papandreou government, which was also enriched with EAM executives.
The Germans began to withdraw gradually from Athens on the night of October 11 heading north. At 8 am on October 12, the few Germans who had remained in Athens gathered at the monument of the Unknown Soldier. There, in a hasty ceremony, the head of the occupying forces, General Helmut Felmi, accompanied by the occupying mayor of Athens, Angelos Georgatos, laid a wreath.
The last German soldier leaves the Acropolis, carrying his flag.
All that remained was the removal of the Nazi flag from the Holy Rock of the Acropolis. A German soldier unofficially lowered the swastika at 9.15 am and took it with him as he left with his head bowed. This marked the end of the 1,625-day German occupation and the beginning of a crazy festival on the streets of Athens.
Thousands of people with blue and white on their hands were kissing each other, shouting “Christ has Risen,” children were climbing on the roofs of trams, while the National Anthem was resounding from one end of the street to the other. After three and a half years of slavery, the Athenians breathed for the first time the intoxicating air of freedom.
In the six days that passed until the arrival of the government in Athens, the power was exercised by a three-member committee, consisting of Themistoklis Tsatsos, Filippos Manouilidis and Giannis Zevgos, assisted by the commander of the Athens Police, Angelos Evert. Two days later, forces of the 3rd Corps of the British Army under Lieutenant General Ronald Scobby began arriving in the capital, which were enthusiastically received by the Athenians.
The first English soldiers arrive in Athens and are greeted with enthusiasm.
On October 18, George Papandreou and his government arrived in Athens. On the same day, the Prime Minister, in a moving ceremony, raised the Greek flag on the Acropolis and then spoke to the gathered crowd in Syntagma Square from the balcony of the Ministry of Finance.
In a masterfully structured speech, he announced the intentions of his government, stressing, among other things, the need to satisfy national demands, restore popular sovereignty, resolve the state issue after a free referendum and punish the accomplices of the occupiers.
The crowd, that often interrupted him with slogans in favor of EAM and the Greek Communist Party (KKE), welcomed his announcements with cries in favour of a people’s republic. Papandreou, who had been forced to steer constantly between the Left and the Right, replied with the characteristic phrase that remained in history: “We also believe in a people’s republic.”
However, the joy and festivities for the liberation lasted only 53 days. On December 3, the sound of gunfire echoed again in the streets of the capital, starting at Syntagma Square. The December events (Dekemvriana) were the precursor of the bloody Civil War (1946-1949).
The Morrison Government’s Economic Recovery Plan for Australia will create thousands of jobs, rebuild our economy and secure Australia’s future.
Dr Fiona Martin MP, Member for Reid, said that the 2020 Budget will benefit residents in her electorate of Reid, from business owners to employees to families.
“This Budget has been designed to keep Australians in jobs, keep businesses running and deliver the essential services we need,” Dr Martin said.
“It builds on the Morrison Government’s unprecedented investment in the health and economic response to the pandemic to make sure we emerge from the COVID-19 recession stronger than before.”
Dr Martin said that under this plan, taxpayers in Reid will soon get a tax cut backdated to 1 July this year.
“This means more money in the pockets of local households to assist with the cost of living, but also to help generate economic activity and create jobs,” Dr Martin said.
This Budget is investing a record amount in skills and training by committing $1.2 billion to create 100,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships, with a 50 per cent wage subsidy for businesses who employ them.
In addition to this, the Government have introduced the JobMaker Hiring Credit for employers who hire those on JobSeeker aged 16-35, which the Treasury estimates will support around 450,000 jobs for young people, including 2020 school leavers and graduates.
“We’re supporting Australians to get back to work and businesses to rebuild, grow, and create jobs,” Dr Martin said.
“Reid has more than 26,000 businesses and they are the lifeblood of our local economy and essential in providing jobs for Australians.”
Further, tax and investment incentives for local businesses will create more economic activity and jobs across the Reid community.
Tax relief for businesses includes allowing 99 per cent of businesses to deduct the full cost of depreciable assets in the year they are installed, and allowing companies with a turnover of up to $5 billion to offset losses against previous profits on which tax has been paid to generate a refund.
These measures builds on a $1.3 billion investment in Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability to ensure we have an internationally competitive and resilient manufacturing sector, and in the process create more high value jobs.
“Reid has a really strong manufacturing base, especially in suburbs like Lidcombe and Silverwater,” Dr Martin said.
“Our Modern Manufacturing plan will prioritise sectors like food and beverage manufacturing, recycling and clean energy, and the making of medical products.”
The Morrison Government is also delivering record infrastructure investment, expanding our record 10 year infrastructure pipeline to $110 billion, and supporting a further 40,000 jobs nationally. The Budget also includes a $2 billion investment in road safety upgrades to save lives and an additional $1 billion to support local councils to immediately upgrade local roads, footpaths and street lighting to create jobs now.
By bringing the Budget back to balance for the first time in 11 years and maintaining our AAA credit rating, Australia entered the crisis from a position of economic strength, giving Australia the fiscal firepower to respond when we needed it most.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the Government has provided $257 billion in direct economic support to cushion the blow and strengthen economic recovery.
The 2020-21 Budget commits a further $98 billion including: $25 billion in direct COVID-19 response measures and $74 billion in new measures to create jobs.
