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FYROM THREATENS AUSTRALIA

carlinat — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:29:39 +0000

FYROM threatened to vote against the candidacy of Australia for a seat in the UN Security Council if the Rudd Government does not take action against the Premier of South Australia, Mike Runn.
The Skopje government is allegedly deeply troubled by Mike Runn which has accused Macedonia of “theft of Greek history and Greek culture.
The Ambassador of FYROM to Australia, Peter Stogianovski, said he would [not] seek an explanation but an apology.
“It will depend on what Canberra tells us as to whether will vote in favour of the nomination of Australia for a seat in the UN Security Council,” said Mr Stogianovski.
Mr Runn is however adamant. “I believe what I say and will not apologize,” he said.
A day earlier Mr. Runn said: “I will speak about the Greek origin of Macedonia and nobody is going to stop me because it’s something I believe.”
Mr. Runn, has for years, supported the Greek position on FYROM and Cyprus in every possible way, causing anger to residents of Australia from Turkey and Macedonia.
He recently accused the president of FYROM as “instigator of problems in the most dangerous way.

(Source: neos kosmos)

The Black Saturday bushfires a deep wound for all Australians

carlinat — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:39:19 +0000

The Victorian fires were Australia’s worst national disaster since Federation, Rudd said in a joint statement with other government officials. A service was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne’s central business district to pay tribute to the 173 lives lost on February 7th 2009, the date that’s come to be known as “Black Saturday.”
“February 7 will forever be etched in the nation’s memory as a day of mourning, but also one of tremendous spirit and inspiration,” PM Kevin Rudd said. “The tragedy brought out the best of the Australian character and inspired countless acts of bravery and generosity.”
As the “Black anniversary” came up, expat Martha Milionis who lost her children, Dimitris and Tania Tsimiklis to the fire, sent a message to the media, in which she accuses the fire department and the authorities for the extent of the fire. She states:
“On this day the fire department, on seeing the extent that the fires were taking due to the strong winds, made the decision from 1.00 pm not to perform their duty. They protected themselves and their cars and left the people to their fates. For me, that’s what the fire department did on that “black day”.
“We made a mistake”, they said, but we are the ones paying for that mistake, the people who paid for it with their lives and us, who lost them. This tragic mistake cannot, in any way, be corrected, especially for me. It is unjustifiable, it is a crime and not a mistake.
Evacuations should be made compulsory where there are fires, and the nonsense should stop, like leaving their houses early or staying to protect their properties. Compulsory evacuations, so that this evil is never repeated. On that Saturday, when they had been warned about the bad weather, they should have blocked off the roads so no one could have got through to King Lake. They should have driven everyone nuts with the news on the radio and on tv and to try to use every possible medium – the army, police- and altogether with all means possible to inform people and save them from a horrible death. Unfortunately, none of what I mentioned occurred.
Had they blocked off the roads, our Tania wouldn’t have been able to get home and she would have phoned Dimitri to inform him in time to get out of there. If all this had been properly arranged, we would not have lost our Dimitri and our Tania and so many others.
It is an embarrassment for a country as rich as Australia, that they didn’t have the means to inform people residing in the country, when disaster arrives.
Source: ana-mpa

Nelson Mandela’s lawyer lecturing in Australia

carlinat — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:35:43 +0000

Giorgos Bizos –Nelson Mandela’s greek lawyer- is due to visit Australia for a series of lectures on Human Rights in South Africe.
As expat lawyer and organisor of the visit, George Georgiou of Perth announced, George Bizos will be arriving at the end of the month with his son Alex, and will be giving lectures in all the large cities. Refering to the situation of human rights in South Africa, mr. Bizos noted:
“Most dictators in Africa, although considered by themselves elected leaders, only make a mention of human rights without truly believing in them. Neither does their Parliament nor their governments have any respect for human rights. They also claim that human rights as proclaimed in 1948 by the U.N. are for Western Democracies. They try to place on the map of rights a different democracy, an African democracy. They claim that African nations are not ready for democratic principles. That is an insult to the people of Africa.”
Source : ana-mpa

Greek church bells forbidden to sound

carlinat — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:34:17 +0000

The new electric church bells of St. Nicholas’ Greek Orthodox church in Marrickville of Sydney have been silenced to due the intensity of its (73 decibel) sound. The new electric bells which cost $60,000 in total, were installed to save elderly committee members climbing 40 steps in two bell towers for every wedding, funeral and Sunday morning worship.
Marrickville council arrived on the decision further to a petition signed by 77 neighbours. The bells are only allowed to sound again if they are adequately sound-proofed, in an acoustic box costing $20,000. Now, only an old hand-pulled bell is permitted for 7.30am services
However, the parish priest, Eleftherios Kampourakis, stated that the cost of insulating the bell is overwhelming and added that the sounding of the bell is part of “our faith, our tradition and our customs”
Source: ana-mpa

School website causes uproar concerning immigrant children

carlinat — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:21:48 +0000

An uproar has been caused by the federal government’s new website which publicises the student grades from the country’s schools and gives the opportunity to parents and other interested parties to make comparisons. The educational community is strongly opposed to the website, saying that it is misleading and there is a danger of stigmatizing the schools which children of immigrants attend, since it is natural for those students’ grades to be lower than that of the rest of the students whose mother tongue is English.
On Thursday, the first day of operation of the website http://www.myschool.gov.edu.au, there were many access problems due to the large number of visits to it, as from 10am to 2pm the website received 4,5 million visits. The issues were later resolved.
The Minister for Education, Ms. Julia Guillard, stated that the high visitation to the site proved the great interest of the parents and the necessity of it’s existence.
However many parents consider the site misleading because the comparisons are not made to the point and there is no mention of the particular characteristics of each school, but only statics are presented. In addition, there are fears that schools with lower scores will be stigmatized causing many children to remove their children from them.
The parents views are contradictory concerning the site, some are claiming it will help them choose the school to send their children to, whereas others mentioning that the site doesn’t offer any useful information.The government however insists that the website is here to stay, and that will time it will be enriched with more information. According to the Ministry of Education, the total amount of funds of the private schools and their sources are to be publicized, and it is expected that the information will force the elit schools to justify their current high fees.
One of the most interesting facts derived from the comparison between public and private schools, is that the NAPLAN scores of public school primary students are on average higher than those from the private schools at which parents pay up to AUD$10,000 annually.
(source: neos kosmos)

Exports of Australian beef to the E.U. are to be doubled

carlinat — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:49:35 +0000

Exports of Australian bovine meat to countries of the European Union are expected to double according to a common announcement of the Minister of Commerce Simon Crean and the Minister of Agricultures, Fisheries, and Forestry, Tony Burke, which dealt with the free access of Australian bovine meat to the European market during the first quarter of 2010, with the abolishment of the 20% tax that has been in effect up to now.
The only other country that has taxless access to the EU market is the United States.
The bovine meat exports from Australia to the EU are expected to double from the current 11.000 tonnes that are bringing in around Aus$136 million to Australia. The success took place further to the recent cooperation with the EU on quality control and strict nutrition requirements, with a view to production of high quality meat according to the EU guidelines and is considered important, especially after the rise of the Australian dollar against the euro, which is making exports to Europe more difficult.
(Source : neos kosmos)

“Honey and wine“ at the Australian European Film Festival

carlinat — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:37:47 +0000

This year Cyprus is participating in the annual European Film Festival of Australia, the “Windows on Europe Film Festival 2010”, with the feature film “Honey and Wine” (photo).
The Festival is being organized by the E.U. representation in Australia, in collaboration with the diplomatic missions of the E.U. member states.
The Cypriot film will be screened at movie theatres across Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, throughout February 2010 and in Auckland, New Zealand at the beginning of March 2010.
In the film “Honey and wine” the director and artist Marinos Kartikis follows the life of two women, Eleni’s, who lives alone, along with her memories and that of her neighbour, Rhea, who is an actress. An unforeseen event brings together their lonely lives, which then develop with unexpected consequences.
Starring: Androulla Irakleous and Eleni Dimitriou
Dates, times and screening locations
Canberra: Dendy Cinemas Level 2, North Quarter, 148 Bunda Street, Canberra City 2600 – Tel. (02) 6221 8900
• Thursday, 11/2/2010, at 20.15
• Saturday, 13/2/2010, at 19.00
Sydney: Dendy Cinemas Shop 9, 2 East Circular Quay, Sydney NSW 2000 – Tel. (02) 92473800
• Thursday, 18/2/2010, at 20.15
• Saturday, 20/2/2010, at 19.00
Brisbane: Dendy Cinemas Portside Wharf, Remora Road, Hamilton Brisbane QLD 4007– Tel. (07) 31376000
• Thursday, 25/2/2010, at 20.15
• Saturday, 27/2/2010, at 19.00
Auckland: Academy Cinemas 44 Lorne Street, Auckland NZ – Tel. (09) 3732761
• Monday, 8/3/2010, at 16.30.
(Source: neos kosmos)

Baghdatis retires with injury to gift Hewitt pass to fourth round

carlinat — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:40:07 +0000

MELBOURNE, Jan 23 – Marcos Baghdatis retired from his match against Lleyton Hewitt on Saturday due to injury to gift the Australian a free pass to the fourth round at Melbourne Park.
Baghdatis and Hewitt played an epic five-set match that finished after 0430 in 2008, the latest-finishing match in the tournament’s history, but hopes of a similar hard-fought contest were snuffed out when the Cypriot walked off when trailing 4-2 in the second set after losing the first 6-0.
Baghdatis, who was attended to by trainers during the break after the first set, had experienced cramping in his five-set second-round win over David Ferrer.
“He just said he was obviously feeling it in his serve a little bit… his shoulder,” Hewitt said in a courtside interview after the match.
“He just wished me good luck.”
Hewitt will now meet Roger Federer in the fourth round.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom, Reuters)

250000 strong Facebook group finds owner of lost camera

carlinat — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:41:33 +0000

Nobody likes to lose a valuable item—be it a wedding ring down the disposal or a pair of shoes forgotten under a hotel bed. Even more frustrating, though, is the loss of a camera: Not only is the object itself gone, but so too are the irreplaceable memories captured on it.

Knowing that frustration, Danny Cameron set out on a quest through Facebook to find the owner of a lost camera he found along the side of the road while vacationing on the Greek island of Mykonos last summer.

“In theory, with six degrees of separation, the whole world can be reached,” said Danny, of Sydney, Australia. “I decided to see whether the world of online resources could track down the owner.”

With that goal in mind, Danny started the Facebook group “Needle in a haystack”. He uploaded photos from the camera to the group, with the hope that members would recognize someone they know among the strangers.
The group, which started on Oct. 17, grew virally as members faithfully invited others and posted notes of encouragement and thanks to one another for their attempted good deed. Within two weeks, the group ballooned to 235,000 people strong.

On the morning of Nov. 3, Danny received a Facebook message with astonishing news—his social experiment had worked. Some of the people in the photos recognized themselves, explaining that they were tourists who had been in Mykonos the day before Danny. The camera’s owner, they revealed, was a woman living on the coast of France. Amazed at the human chain that had been created to find her, the woman was ecstatic to retrieve her missing item.

As for Danny, the success of his campaign led to a newfound respect for the power of social connections and human kindness.

“My simple act found that it is possible to be a noncommercial, nondenominational person just performing a random act of kindness, and I was happy to find (nearly) 250,000 other people who shared that philosophy,” he remarked. “If the whole online community could be optimistic, full of hope and good will, then the possibilities for our capabilities would know no bounds.”
By Sara Lannin , blog.facebook.com

Australia Day in Greek colours

carlinat — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:35:52 +0000

Australia Day this year will have a greek flavor. It will bring together Greeks and others in a fun atmosphere at Mornington Park, on Sunday 24th January.
Thousands of Greeks are expected to take part in the event on Sunday organized by the Union of Greek Elderly Associations, to celebrate Australia Day (commemorating the arrival of the first white settlers).
The preparations for the event have started long before in every detail, in order to ensure the successful outcome and to attract as many as possible, the Union coordinator Giorgos Katsourakis says.
“The fact that we chose for it to happen on Australia Day is not accidental. We considered that it is a chance to say a “thank you” to this country which accepted us and offered us so much”, stated the president of the Union mr. Theodosis Nomikos.
Greeks have been going on excursions on Mornington shore for …100 years now. At the beginning of last century it was an opportunity to see each other, to have fun but also put on their best clothes. The ladies with the hats and long dresses, the men with their suits and hats, and the children also with their party clothes.
“One time I remember we had 56 buses”, says the former president of the organization , Peter Gialouris , noting: “The elderly excursion always took place on the second Thursday of January, before the Community events took place. We always had great success. The Australians couldn’t believe their eyes. During the first years journalists would come and ask me what we were celebrating. They considered it unbelieveable that excursions could happen with so many elderly people. The big surprise would come when all would join the dance, having fun and enjoying themselves like they were young children.”
“This year we are not enjoying ourselves alone”, the current president, Theodosis Nomikos says and adds: “We thought of inviting all the community, young and old, in addition to people from all nationalities to have a good time together. Immigrants, old or new, we all have the same life experiences. We came to this country without provisions, with the same dreams and the same expectations. Australia gave us opportunities we would never have had in our country. What better opportunity than this to show our appreciation all together. The most important thing is that all generations are invited to participate. The elderly can bring their children and grandchildren to this happening. This is the idea we promoted and, as it seems, it found fertile ground, as many have stated that they are coming with their families.”
“It’s a wonderful idea”, expat Angeliki Birbili says. She is enthusiastic about the fact that Australia Day is being celebrated there, saying: “We have lived, almost all our lives, in this country. We worked hard, but we were rewarded for our efforts. We had a family, had the opportunity to send our children to school, to university. We started from nothing; With a suitcase, and in most cases… not a full one. We are a part of this country. We, the immigrants, made Australia what it is today. We contributed with our labour and our ideas towards her development. Such a national holiday, is also about us”.
“ The enthusiasm is so apparent this year because of the new form that this annual excursion of the Union is taking”, says Mr Giorgos Katsourakis, also mentioning: “the idea of everyone participating, Greeks of all ages, Australians, immigrants from all over the world living in this country, is of great importance and has motivated interest in the highest degree. On our side, we try to be perfectly organized, so everything turns out as planned. There will be a special tent for the VIPs, amongst which the governor of Victoria, John Bramby, the leader of the opposition Tedd Baillieu, ministers of the state and federal governments, the mayor David Gip and other personalities.
Of course, there will be greek music groups and greek food for a big greek festival to take place.