19 January 2013

THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN The oldest circulating Greek newspaper outside VEMA Greece JANUARY 2013 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 E-mail: [email protected] MEDIA’S IMPACT ON OUR CHILDREN: iDisorder: Part 1 PAGE 7/25 FIRE CREWS BATTLE BLAZES across south-east Australia Serving the Orthodox Mission in Madagascar The New South Wales Rural Fire Service says 12 properties have been lost in a bushfire west of Coonabarabran, “How the hand of God has saved us in times which also damaged the Siding Spring Observatory. of peril, comforted us in times of doubt and The fire in the Warrumbungle National Park has burnt out strengthened our little faith through joy, whilst up to 40,000 hectares and has already forced the evacua- serving the mission of Madagascar”. tion of over 100 residents. PAGES 17/35 + 19/37 The Rural Fire Service confirmed that 33 properties had been lost. Residents in the area, as well as 18 staff from the Siding Spring Observatory, had to be evacuated at the height of the blaze. The observatory, run the Australian National University (ANU), is the country’s largest optical astronomy research facility and was deliberately located in the Warrumbungle Ranges for the altitude, clear air, and low humidity. ANU acting vice-chancellor Erik Lithander says five build- ings, including cottages that house staff, have been destroyed, but fortunately the telescopes remain in tact. Large parts of NSW have been affected by bushfires, In Tasmania, a Victorian firefighter has died while fighting brought on by searing temperatures and wild winds. a bushfire on the Tasman Peninsula, south of Hobart. More than 170 fires continue to burn across the state and The man aged in his 60s was found dead yesterday at least 30 of them are uncontained. about three kilometres from a fire edge east of Taranna. Firefighters are also working to control blazes in Victoria He was one of the Victorian firefighters sent to Hobart to and Tasmania, while the threat from fires in Central Aus- assist in controlling the bushfires that have destroyed about George Dalaras tralia has eased. 170 properties. makes a strong comeback When George Dalaras made his comeback on December 2 with a new album of songs Darling Harbour to make Australia penned by Nikos Antypas, his fans were there to welcome his return and express their sup- port. PAGE 15/33 Day spectacular! PAGE 2/20 Lake Trichonida A wetland of great aesthetic, environmental and economic interest. GREEK ORTHODOX, JEWISH AND ISLAMIC SCHOOLS PAGE 20/38 PAGE 8/26 JANUARY 2013 2/20 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA Darling Harbour to make Australia Day spectacular! On 26 January, Sydney’s Darling Harbour fun activities for kids including indigenous At 7.00pm the grand celebration that is opportunity to see up close the majestic will host the most spectacular Australia musical group Circular Rhythm, the humor- the Australia Day Spectacular will com- sails and hulking hulls of these wonderful Day celebration in the country! ous antics of French mime artist Leo the mence; quite simply one of the greatest ocean farers of a bygone era. Proudly presented by Sydney Harbour Clown, the Amazing Drumming Monkeys spectacles on the Australia Day calendar! The Australia Day Spectacular will culmi- Foreshore Authority, Darling Harbour Aus- and more! The Governor of NSW will sail into Cock- nate in a breathtaking multimedia sympho- tralia Day is one of the most popular For a taste of world music, head to Palm le Bay aboard the Admiral’s barge to give ny of lights, lasers, sound, fire and water events on the Sydney calendar attracting Grove and Harbourside Amphitheatre from her Australia Day address to the crowd, on Cockle Bay, with an awe-inspiring py- more than 180,000 people each year. 12.30pm where a superb program of live leading into a wonderful water parade of rotechnic crescendo over Darling Harbour, The ‘Australia Day Spectacular’ will pro- entertainment will showcase Australia’s Sydney Harbour’s grandest and quirkiest all choreographed to a brilliant soundtrack vide a breathtaking finale to Darling Har- rich tapestry of multicultural sounds. Sa- vessels carrying Australians of the Year by one of Australia’s finest young com- bour’s day-long program of live shows, vour the exotic Arabian funk of Jimmy D’s and some of the nation’s newest citizens. posers, Felix Riebl. kids’ entertainment and interactive per- Flying Carpet Band, taste the delicious The Harbour Heroes Parade will follow, There is no better place to celebrate formances that celebrate Australia’s cultur- Eastern European gypsy-jazz of Polski recognising the different services per- Australia Day than Darling Harbour, so al diversity. Ogorki Trio, sample some hard-hitting har- formed on Sydney Harbour with a flotilla of gather with friends and family at Sydney’s From 11:30am, head to the Children’s monies from Irish folk group Hermitage tugs, high-speed craft and a variety of in- premier party precinct for a spectacular Stage at The Village Green where Play- Green, and chill out to the joyously cool ca- teresting working boats, before the grand day of FREE entertainment! school star Jay Laga’aia will host loads of lypso rhythms of Caribbean Soul. entry of The Tall Ships, a stunning and rare Sydney Airport rapidly running out of space: analysts Infrastructure analysts at the Com- monwealth Bank warn that Sydney Air- port may hit capacity 20 years earlier than it expects. Sydney Airport's management has previously said that it will have suffi- cient capacity to meet the city's air transport needs until 2045. However, an analysis by Common- wealth Bank infrastructure analysts An- dre Fromyhr and Matt Crowe estimates that Sydney Airport is likely to near or reach its maximum capacity in 2025 Various independent reports conclude Sydney Airport will reach capacity 20 based on the bank's passenger fore- years ahead of its management's expecta- casts. tions. (AAP: Mick Tsikas) The bank's estimate is consistent with a finding by a joint Federal and Beijing's main airport. London (Heath- NSW Government study that found row), Hong Kong, Bangkok, Atlanta and signs of constrained capacity would Tokyo's Haneda airport rank next for emerge at Sydney Airport from around capacity utilisation, with Sydney in the 2020. middle of a group of 20 airports stud- That report found that all peak morn- ied by the bank, with a similar utilisa- ing (6:00am-12:00pm) and evening tion to Charles De Gaulle Airport in (4:00pm-7:00pm) weekday slots would Paris. be allocated by 2020, and that there However, Sydney had the best utili- would effectively be no free slots by sation rate of any airport in Australia, 2027, with unmet demand for more comfortably above Melbourne and well than 100 flights per day. ahead of Brisbane and Perth. While Sydney Airport is likely to hit To match Beijing, the analysts sug- constraints in about a decade, the CBA gest Sydney Airport could increase the report finds that it could currently han- number of flights by 34 per cent and dle 61 per cent more passengers if it cater more for larger aircraft to in- matched world's best practice utilisa- crease the average number of passen- tion of existing facilities, exemplified by gers per flight by 19 per cent. JANUARY 2013 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/21 Editorial Greek economy yet to be transformed Two-and-a-half years into the streamlining program, Greece still relies on consumption, not on investment By Dimitris Kontogiannis - Kathimerin, Athens With total consump- Greece may be winning the battle for fiscal consolida- tion spending falling, tion but it seems to be losing the war to transform its but at a slower pace economy from one based on consumption to one fueled than hoped for com- by investment and exports. pared to GDP, invest- Although exports are seeing their share of gross do- ment spending drop- mestic product rising, investment has been dropping, un- ping and only exports dermining the country’s future growth prospects. If this providing hope, the trend continues, Greece may not be able to attain satis- transformation of the economy is clearly factory GDP growth rates and will therefore struggle to not on track. come up with the kind of primary budget surpluses asso- ciated with sustainable public debt levels. Backed by the most recent data, there are increasing signs that Greece may be able to come close and even beat the goal for a general government primary deficit of 2.4 billion euros or 1.2 percent of GDP in 2012. This is mainly due to the overdose of austerity which helped overcome the bigger-than-estimated drop in real economic activity last year. size in 2000, according to European Commission data. Pri- the brightest spot as far as the much needed transforma- A new set of spending cuts and tax hikes is expected to vate and public consumption spending contracted by tion of the economic model is concerned. hurt the economy again this year but is likely to produce a about 36.4 billion between 2009 and 2012 at the same Unfortunately, the figures from the investment side are larger-than-expected primary surplus. Revenues are pro- time economic output fell by about the same amount or discouraging. Gross fixed capital formation, which refers jected to exceed expenditure (without including interest 36.1 billion. GDP is estimated at 195 billion in 2012 from to the net increase in physical assets without including payments) by about 750 million euros, or 0.4 percent of 231.1 billion in 2009.

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