A total of five winners will be announced, with entries eligible from any state across Australia.
Winners will be announced every week on Friday in the lead-up to Christmas, with the final winner announced on Christmas Day!
Go ahead and comment on our Facebook post and we’ll be contacting you in the next few weeks to let you know if you’ve been successful (be sure to check your Facebook inbox!)
Good luck and Merry Christmas!
UPDATE: Congratulations to our three competition winners so far!
Greek and Italian migrants to Australia have a more than three times greater incidence of type 2 diabetes than Australian-born individuals.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes resistant to insulin or when the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin. Exactly why this happens is unknown, yet genetics and environmental factors, such as being overweight and inactive, appear to be contributing factors.
Endocrinologist Dr Katherine Samaras says there are many plausible reasons why Greek migrants are more susceptible to diabetes, including genetics and increased obesity, yet clarified that excess weight gain is a vital issue regardless.
“We should be frank. Carrying an extra 5kg is not okay. Carrying a extra 20kg is a health tragedy,” Dr Samaras says to The Greek Herald.
The ‘Mediterranean diet’ or ‘Greek diet’ is globally considered one of the healthiest diets for nutrient balance. Yet, as Dr Samaras explains, the idolised Mediterranean diet is not comprised of souvlaki or other meats. Something that appears to have been lost in translation through health education.
“It is the peasant diet, not the feast or special occasions diet,” Dr Samaras says.
“More commonly, the traditional Greek diet consists of seasonal vegetables, legumes, fish and cheese. All in smaller quantities than Greeks serve in Australia today.”
The situation is not isolated in Australia, however, with a lack of physical activity and an unbalanced diet also leading to people in Greece having greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study conducted by the National School of Public Health’s Department of Health Economics and the Federation of Cooperative Pharmacists of Greece in 2018.
For the many Greek migrants faced with diabetes, there are multiple ways they can maintain a good quality of life.
Dr Samaras says that most modern scientific breakthroughs show fasting as a valuable method to extending life and preventing ageing.
“The best management strategy for diabetes is to reduce the amount of food on the plate by one third – not eating more of any food,” Dr Samaras adds.
“Five kilos weight loss can improve diabetes more than some medications.”
While it may be a ‘big step’, Dr Samaras recommended people with diabetes and obesity consider bariatric surgery, saying it’s “better than having a heart attack”.
“And the best thing good Greek grandparents can do (since diabetes runs in families) is to not overfeed their children or grandchildren,” Dr Samaras concludes.
“Otherwise one would be killing them with kindness.”
Many of us worry about when children should start to learn Greek.
What if their English skills are not established yet?
What if they can speak Greek quite well as they have had lots of interaction with grandma and grandad who speak fluent Greek but not much English?
One parent wants the child to start Greek school and the other insists that it will slow them down at school There is really no good reason for this attitude. Children are very capable of learning many languages and being bilingual or multilingual is a great asset to have at any age.
If children are exposed to languages from young age neurones, form in their brain, potentially making them smarter and better problem solvers than many other children.
The younger they start to hear other languages the better. Children and even babies recognise very quickly that different adults speak different languages, and they can discern this difference. This is called coding.
They may have one grandmother who speaks to them in Greek and another in Thai, while one parent may talk to them in English and one in Greek. They may mix the languages up at first, but eventually, they will be able to translate for others in the family.
When they start school, their language skills in English may seem slower than the other children; however, their language acquisition is the same if not more. This following analogy with the glasses is a good one. Monolingual children may have a glass full of words by the end of Kindergarten.
Bilingual children may have two glasses half full of two languages. All together they too have a whole glass full of vocabulary. Eventually, they will catch up and exceed the monolingual group.
So when should you teach them the Greek alphabet? Next week I will tell you why you should not bother with the alphabet.
Greece reported 108 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, a daily record, with hospitals in the north of the country under pressure as available intensive care beds filled up from the surge in COVID-19 infections.
After a two-month lockdown in March, which helped contain the spread of infections, a spike since October forced the government to impose a second nationwide lockdown this month that officially expires at the end of the month.
However, this could be in doubt.
“Lifting the lockdown on Dec. 1 does not seem realistic right now,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told state TV ERT on Friday.
The government’s committee of experts will evaluate new data next week to assess whether a partial lifting of the lockdown early next month is feasible.
Health authorities reported 2,311 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total since the first case was detected in February to 90,121. The death toll is 1,527.
The case load in Thessaloniki in the north of the country remained nearly double that of Athens.
“The seeming stabilisation of infections in Athens is fragile, the improvement is not sufficient to relieve pressure on the hospital system,” infectious disease expert Gikas Magiorkinis told reporters on Friday.
The program for the Greek Community of Melbourne’s Greek History and Culture Seminar Series for 2021 has just been released.
As 2021 coincides with the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence, it’s probably the most ambitious series attempted so far. More than half the program has been dedicated to 1821 themes. Delivering 30 seminars, and this may even grow, and a crash course aimed at students is a massive undertaking.
According to the program’s convenor and Board member, Dr Nick Dallas, “Yes there will be coordination challenges, but we feel very confident we can pull it off, as we have many dedicated people supporting us”.
The impact of Covid has been an interesting one for the seminar series. Initially the series was suspended but then resumed online after a few months. During this period, it also acquired a modified audience base, one which was younger and more diverse geographically. Every week there are interstate and overseas people following. Even in its communications, an Athens start time is stipulated for those in Europe who may be interested. Furthermore it’s been possible to access a greater range of speakers, everyone is simply a Zoom click away no matter where they’re located. It also means a greater range of topics for the audience to be exposed to.
Antonis Liakos.
Alexander Kitroeff.
Despite these positive developments, the major downside has been the loss of the social dimension and the interaction that follows when the seminars were held at the Greek Centre. The challenge in the future when semi-normality returns, would be to get the balance right and getting the best features of both approaches or combining the two.
The program will kick off with Sydney University’s enigmatic Professor Vrasidas Karalis on Thursday 4th March 2021. However the two Thursday evenings before that a crash course on the main themes of 1821 will be rolled out for the benefit of NUGAS (National Union of Greek Australian Students) members and other students.
According to NUGAS president, Denise Sardenes, many younger adults don’t have sufficient historical knowledge on the Greek Revolution. The aim of this crash course is to put them in a better position to appreciate the more specific seminars with 1821-linked themes.
Eleftheria Zei.
Thanos Veremis.
An attempt has been made to deal with events associated with 1821 from a variety of angles. Some of the topics include the pivotal Battle of Navarino, Ottoman perceptions of the Revolution and Mando Mavrogenous, a female heroine not as well known as Bouboulina.
The program has a strong international flavour with eight overseas-based academics having accepted invitations to participate. Harvard-based Professor Alexander Kitroeff will examine the 1821 Revolution as an international event, while the closing seminar to be given by award-winning Greek historian Antonis Liakos on the international resonance of 1821.
Paschalis Kitromilides.
Different people and divergent sectors of society had dissimilar expectations and visions of what the revolution should entail but also what type of nation-state should follow. Professors Paschalis Kitromilides and Thanos Veremis, along with Dean Kalimniou will examine themes along these lines.
Moreover, the organisers hope that the almost year long program complimented by other related events will promote introspection, debate, increase awareness and dispel myths, and encourage people to do further research and reading on topics of interest.
An amazing theme of small business is definitely coming across the dynamic duo of husband and wife teams. Working alongside each other by day, and resting together at home by night; their lives are intertwined 24/7! But what wonderful chemistry drives husbands and wives to become business partners, and to work side-by-side? Over the years, it is admirable to see their relationship grow, parallel to the growth of their business too…
One of the dynamic duos- of husband and wife- in small business is George and Lucy (nee Petrou) of the award-winning Hair Appeal and Beauty Connection, Revesby; George and Lucy’s story is simply great angles whether their important role they play in servicing the local community or the continual recognition they receive for their high-quality work and service.
George, with his parents, Stavros and Maria, and siblings, Magdalene, Katina and Angela, migrated from Rhodes, Greece, in 1961, when George was only two years old. Lucy, with her parents, Kyriakos and Despina, and siblings, Angela, Georgia, Andrew and Maria, migrated from Cyprus in 1972, when Lucy was ten years old.
After finishing school and working a couple of jobs, George got an opportunity to commence his apprenticeship as a barber at his uncle’s barber shop, Terry Trippis Barber, at Lindfield. With his growing reputation, George becomes the journeyman of barbers, working for the Cordoni family and studying for another two years at TAFE for hairdressing. His first business experience was with Mario Parisis when they opened a hairdressing salon, Hairem International, in Dulwich Hill; after two years, George moves on.
It is when George found work in John Kostakis’ Compass Hair Salon, Bankstown where, between perms and colouring hair, he met the love of his life, Lucy Petrou, a hairdresser there… George continued working in various hair salons from Castle Hill to Parramatta.
After marrying Lucy, another business opportunity arose, to take over a barber shop in Burwood; unfortunately, it did not work out. But fate does reward good people; it was Lucy’s father, Kyriakos, who found a vacant shop on River Road, Revesby, and George and Lucy take the chance to start up- from scratch- their own business, Hair Appeal, in 1988.
George recounts how difficult the early years were, as Lucy and he balanced raising a young young family and running a business, ‘In the early days of our business, we had a shed in the rear of the property; we transformed it into a nursery and our sons, Stephen and Kieran, practically grew up there. My mother-in-law, Despina, nurtured and raised them in our nursery! Our sons played with a toy dinosaur and that toy dinosaur is still around. Today, we have children who play with the same toy dinosaur while their parents are getting their hair cut or styled, and we explain to them our children used to play with it too…when they were young.’
Over the years, Hair Appeal has grown from strength to strength, to the point where they introduced the beauty salon section to their business 11 years ago. Hair Appeal has continued to grow….
Business names and buildings are just that; it is the shop-owners who make them successful, as George pays tribute to Lucy’s love and support in their business, ‘We could not have been so successful and happy, without Lucy. I know I would have been totally lost without her! Our salon is not a salon… without her! At the end of the day, our customers ring up for either Lucy or me, or both of us. This business may be called Hair Appeal but for our customers, Lucy and I (with our dedicated staff), make up Hair Appeal. This business is about people…’
And what does it mean to run a small business in the same area for over thirty years? George is ever-so-grateful for the local community’s enormous support and attributes Hair Appeal and Beauty Connections’s success to this, ‘In Revesby, we have been lucky to work in such a local community. People here are welcoming; they are loyal and true. If I walk down to Revesby shops, so many people will greet me. I feel that Lucy and I are part of Revesby’s community!
‘We have customers like Connie Trutwein (nee: Iofrida) who have been coming here from the day we opened. Her sister, Sylvana, worked for us for over 15 years. People like Connie are not customers; they are like family!
‘So many people have moved out of the area, yet they still come here to get their hair cut and styled. We get customers coming from as far as Canberra, Sussex Inlet and Port Macquarie!’
Over thirty years with Hair Appeal and Beauty Connection, George and Lucy have grown together and so has their business… alongside the Revesby community…
An email by City of Sydney councillor Angela Vithoulkas, obtained by the Sydney Sentinel, has exposed Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore for excluding her in a “post-pandemic vision” project that she believes should have been included in.
Copied to all eight other councillors, as well as City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone, Small Business Party founder Vithoulkas slammed the Lord Mayor for not inviting her to a joint City of Sydney–NSW Government summit, which was billed as an initiative “to ensure retailers, cafes, bars and restaurants had the best opportunities possible across the Christmas and summer trading period”.
While Vithoulkas has since decided to stay on as a councillor, the councillor says the lack of an invitation brought her to the end of her tether after repeated instances of exclusion and political partisanship.
“Lord Mayor, this is the most difficult email I have written in my eight years as a councillor,” Vithoulkas began.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore at a 31 December, 2019 press conference. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP Image.
“I have finally reached the end of the line when it comes to thinking for even a moment there might be a form of democracy or respect within our council,” she wrote.
“I have always been very transparent with my views [and] most councillors know that I say what I think, and if I give my word, it stands.
“What I won’t stand for anymore is the disrespect I feel has been delivered yet again to myself and the small business community within the City of Sydney.”
Vithoulkas possesses decades of hospitality experience, previously running the award-winning Vivo Cafe on George Street, which she ran with her brother Con for 16 years until its closure in August 2018.
Angela Vithoulkas.
Vithoulkas alleged that if the summit had pertained to town planning matters, the Lord Mayor would have sought the involvement of Councillor Philip Thalis, a town planner; and that if it had related to the arts, Moore would have called upon Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Scully, an art curator and former arts festival director.
“Of course I know I am not on your team,” Vithoulkas wrote. “But I think it’s fairly safe to say I have more hospitality business experience than any other councillor and in fact most likely any staff at the City.”
She continued: “You should have included me. You should have done it because it was the right thing to do. It shouldn’t have been political and you know very well I would not have made it that.
“I am disappointed and frankly disgusted … with a structure that holds political media point scoring in higher regard than actually fixing a problem.”
In her missive, Vithoulkas said she was “looking into the process of resignation … because I am not sure how I could continue to be part of a council that I have lost faith in”.
Natalie Jade Kringoudis is the sole-director and owner of the Pagoda Tree (Vic) Pty Ltd, which operates The Pagoda Tree clinic in Albert Park.
Ms Kringoudis has been accused of withholding thousands of dollars in government-funded parental leave payments from one of its staff and has been temporarily banned from practicing, ABC News reports.
The affected worker was employed as a Chinese medicine practitioner at the clinic when she took parental leave in 2018, the ombudsman said.
The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges Ms Kringoudis withheld more than half of the $12,948 owed in parental leave payments, and underpaid the employee by more than $10,000 in annual leave and other entitlements.
The Pagoda Tree employee who was allegedly underpaid was employed as a Chinese medicine practitioner. Photo:ABC News
The Pagoda Tree promotes itself as a boutique natural fertility clinic, offering fertility and pregnancy treatments using traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture.
Ms Kringoudis, a published author and self-proclaimed “fertility expert”, has also been banned from practicing temporarily while under investigation by the Health Complaints Commissioner, which has issued an interim prohibition order.
“It is necessary to make this order to avoid a serious risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public,” the order states.
Under the order, Ms Kringoudis is prevented from advertising, offering or providing any health services which involve Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, or the treatment of mental health disorders or emotional disorders.
Pagoda Tree owner Natalie Kringoudis allegedly underpaid an employee and withheld parental leave payments. Photo: ABC News
According to its website, The Pagoda Tree is open for acupuncture, natural fertility, traditional Chinese Medicine and Women’s Health services.
“You will receive a post treatment letter, where we will outline specific diet and lifestyle advice to ensure you can start to support your own unique self outside of our four walls,” its website reads.
“Because it takes two to make a baby, we offer an initial couples consultation where we will sit and discuss both you and your partner’s health and health goals and form a treatment plan for you both.”
2021 is a year of celebration for Greece. The celebration of 200 years of independence.
The ‘Greece 2021’ Committee has launched the celebration and issued the first commemorative collector’s edition medal, available to the public for purchase.
Depicting the work of the well-known folk painter Theofilos, “Greece Reborn”, the ‘Foreunner’ combines the engraving skill of the the artists of the National Mint with the most modern coin making technique.
Committee chairman Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said earlier this year that the anniversary “is not simply history, but a great opportunity to escape daily reality, celebrate – as Greeks know best – and to remember where we started from; to realize where we stand and decide where we want to go.”
She noted that although “we each have different memories, lives and dreams, all of us make up Greece.”
The commemorative coin is the first in a series to be issued by the Numismatic Program of the ‘Greece 2021’ Committee, which is implemented with the support of the Bank of Greece.
