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THEO-FANYA
n ways inexplicable, my attendance at the annual Theophania Festival at Port Melbourne determines the outcome of the rest of the year. I can attend the same ceremony in Frankston, or Rye or Rosebud,...
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PRESIDENT
“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” William ShakespeareI blame the woes of post-Junta Greece on the fact that Greek diva and actress Aliki Vougiouklaki, the darling and eternal hope of...
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CHANGE: THE ARCHDIOCESE YOUTH CONFERENCE
“Be shining lights,” His Eminence, Archbishop of Australia Makarios, encouraged the attendees of the recent Archdiocesan Youth Conference, in English. “It is very hard to change the world. But that is...
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RE-MOOTING MULTICULTURALISM
“The anaemic responses to multicultural policy by Labor and Coalition since the mid-90s, that Dr Aly alludes to, has allowed race and new identity politics, born in the US, to colonise our very...
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BEYOND 200
Rigas Pheraios, in his famous pre-Revolutionary poem: “Thourios,” conceived of the Greek revolution as a movement that would unite peoples of all creeds and colours against tyranny and intolerance. He...
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GREEK YOUTH SUMMIT
“The children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders enter...
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BYZANTINE NEW ENGLAND
Mention the words “New England” and the mind conjures up images of privileged white adolescents being incited by non-compliant with the directives of the Education Department teachers, to rip pages out...
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ANTIPODEAN GOATS, YIOTA AND OTHER MUSICIANS
“Yiota, who?” people in the crowd were asking themselves.“Γιώτα Νέγρα,” (the Negro) one of the Antipodes presenters, announced on stage.I was viewing Giota Negka’s keynote Antipodes concert from the...
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SPEAKING DIALECT IN MARCH
῾Σύρι σακάτ μιριά κι φέρι᾽μ του μαρκούτς, απ᾽ του γκαντούν, ᾽ my grandfather enjoined me.Ἄντι, τι κάθισι κι κατσέρνς τς μύγις; Ιγκδά είνι,᾽my grandmother added.My friend from Greek school looked at me,...
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ΛΟΙΜΟΣ
"Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as...
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CHURCH, COMMUNION AND CORONAVIRUS
If you are an average Greek Orthodox Christian in Australia, chances are that you will on average, take communion, only once a year, just before Easter. It seems therefore strange that the question as...
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REVOLUTION EXPORTED: GREEKS WHO FOUGHT FOR SERBIA
Just prior to his death by strangulation in the castle of Belgrade, Serbia, Greek visionary Rhigas Pheraios is said to have uttered the immortal words: "I have sown a rich seed; the hour is coming...
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KATRINA GINIS AND DAPHNE
I’ve always been troubled by the myth of Daphne and Apollo. A story of pride, lust and loss, it seeks to explain how the laurel tree came into being. Pursued by an infatuated Apollo, Daphne, a river...
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MATI
«Φόρα και μια χάντρα θαλασσιά, να μη σε ματιάσουν τα νησιά,» Yiannis Kalatzis.“Of course your sister is sick,” my grandmother pronounced, dismissing my assertion that she was merely suffering from a...
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HOLY WEEK IN THE TIME OF LOCKDOWN
“Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a Tree,He who is King of the Angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns.He who wraps the heaven in clouds is wrapped in mocking purple.He who freed...
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SAINT GEORGE: THE ICONS
My family icon of Saint George has a legend attached to it. According to tribal lore, it hung in an ancestral home and I owe more existence to it, for it predicted imminent Ottoman reprisals during the...
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A RESILIENT SPIRIT: KRASNOSTEIN AND THE ART OF THE PERENNIAL
“When I look at my photographs today, I feel like an archaeologist might feel when she or he has uncovered some carefully wrought object from the past that illuminates precious relics from the past...
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INQUIRY
In 1816, a Select Committee of Inquiry of the British House of Commons was called upon to deliberate as to whether it would be expedient for Parliament to purchase the Parthenon Marbles from Lord...
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COURT NOSTALGIA IN TIME OF LOCKDOWN
Generally speaking, court appearances, which form a significant proportion of the daily tasks of the legal practitioner, are the bane of my existence. Just as I have recurring nightmares of sitting my...
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ENCOMIUM TO TREBIZOND
«Οὕτως ἄνωθεν Ἑλληνικοῦ τε φρονήματος ἔμπλεως ἦν καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἔτίμα.»“Thus long our city had a Greek mentality and honoured liberty.”Bessarion: Panegyric to Trebizond.Jibes about Pontian magnate...
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