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LOOKING FOR THEMIS
“I rule in favour the plaintiff,” the judge pronounced. I barely suppressed a whoop of triumph. Being a relatively newly minted lawyer, this was the first case I had undertaken without supervision and...
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ΚΡΙΜΣS ΑΓΑΙΝΣΤ ΑΛΦΑΒΣΤS
Some things get my goat like no others. One of the major ones, are persons who misspell their parents’ names on their tombstones. Tombstones are civilisation’s lame attempt at a final stab at...
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FROM THE BRINK: REVIVING GREEK VIA HEBREW
It is, perhaps no coincidence that Φάρος, the Greek word for lighthouse and thus a beacon to guide one to safety and ensure their survival, rhymes with Χάρος, the shady mythological figure whose job it...
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KOLOKOTRONOCLASM
It is a phenomenon as old as the world itself. The Vikings knew it, which is why all their myths coalesce around Ragnarök, the last battle in which the gods would be vanquished and the world broken....
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IDLES OF MARCH
There are few things worse than being the token Greek at a Lebanese wedding, especially one where the guests, having visited the Melbourne barakia in the nineties with their Greek friends, have...
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PHILHELLENE ON THE MARCH
A few days before the march commemorating Greek Independence Day was to take place, I received the following text message: «Γειασουθείο. ΜπορούμεναέρθωστηνπαρέλασιτοΚυριακή;»....
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LENTEN LOGIC
It is Sarakosti, the period of fasting and repentance and in accordance with hallowed tradition, my wife has hung the proverbial potato with the feathers, one for each week of the fast from the...
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WHOSE IS THIS SONG?
A few months ago, I was driving to the Assyrian New year Festivities with my family. My wife, who is a member of that tribe, was playing a particularly patriotic and militant Assyrian song on the...
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LEGISLATING REMEMBRANCE.... BY OMISSION
On Christmas Eve 2024, a presidential degree of the President of Greece, published on 14 January this year, brought into effect a series of laws around appointing 6 April, as the day upon which...
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TRADEMARKING MACEDONIA
A few months ago, the Preston Lions Soccer Club, most of whose members are culturally affiliated with Greece’s northern neighbour, recently registered “PRESTON MAKEDONIA S.C” as a trademark with IP...
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FROM DELPHI AND ULURU
My first question, when comparing Melbourne academic Dr Christos Fifis’ latest publications, a poetry collection entitled “From Delphi to Uluru” and the second edition of his “With Lyre and Knowledge:...
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HYDRA IN WINTER
Just imagine, if you will, that you could read a humorous version of the Pentateuch, written by a particularly witty in-law of a descendant of Abraham, who peppers her pages with an innumerable...
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ΠΑΠΟΥΤΣΙ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΤΟΠΟ ΣΟΥ
Honestly, the goings on of the Ministry of Culture of the Hellenic Republic make a person with the future of the race at heart despair. I mean serious, imagine getting stroppy with ADIDAS TM simply...
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THE MELANCHOLY OF THE POLITICIAN
"Despite their promises at the last Election, the politicians had not yet changed the climate" Evelyn Waugh, 'Love Among the Ruins' 1953.Giorgio de Chirico, one of my favourite artists, painted “The...
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RITUALS: GIFTS TO THE GODS
The Hellenic Museum of Melbourne’s most recent exhibition, Rituals: Gifts for the Gods, is not merely a curated display of antiquities, but a contemplative pilgrimage through the spiritual psyche of...
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ASHPOEMS
It is only when the fire burns to ashes, when the embers are glowing, that cooking, and warmth is possible. Similarly, in George Vassilacopoulos’ latest poetry collection: Ashpoems, we are presented...
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ALEXANDER'S JOURNEY
In the annals of our diasporic cultural production, few works attain the intellectual gravitas, aesthetic cohesion, and spiritual resonance exhibited by Alexander’s Journey, a compelling dramatic...
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