TWO TYPES of FAITHLESSNESS Part: B PAGE 5/21
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THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN The oldest circulating Greek newspaper outside VEMA Greece SEPTEMBER 2016 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 E-mail: [email protected] OUR ARCHBISHOP’S VIEW TWO TYPES OF FAITHLESSNESS Part: B PAGE 5/21 Melbourne sets the standard It’s well known that Melbourne prides itself on being a cultural capital and this is the result of de- termined planning by the City of Melbourne; t o not only a ttract visitors to the city, but t o make sure the residents and visitors have plenty of rea- sons to remain in the city and spend their mone y there. Sydney, take note. PAGES 14/30 - 15/31 50 mil. children ‘uprooted’ Telling their stories - global persecution & displacement of Christians Most of you are aware of the intense perse- worldwide cution being experienced by Christians in the world. Whether it be the genocides in Iraq and Syria or the fr equent turmoil in occupie d- Across the globe, nearly 50 million children have been • Children represent a dispr oportionate and gr owing Palestine, much ha s been said in the me dia uprooted – 28 mi llion of them driv en from their homes proportion of those who ha ve sought refuge outside about their suffering and many of us have seen by conflicts not of their making , and mi llions more mi- their countries of birth: they make up about a third of the the graphic photos online. However, you ever grating in the hope of finding a be tter, safer life. Often global population but about half of all r efugees. In 2015 thought about wha t happens a fterwards to traumatised by the c onflicts and violence the y are flee- around 45 per cen t of all chi ld refugees under UNHCR’s those who sur vive? Even when the y flee t o ing, they face further dangers along the w ay, including protection came from Syria and Afghanistan. places of safe haven, like America or Australia, the risk of dr owning on se a crossings, malnourishment • 28 mi llion children have been driv en from their are their troubles really over? and dehydration, trafficking, kidnapping, rape and even homes by violence and c onflict within and acr oss bor- murder. In countries they travel through and at their des- ders, including 10 mi llion child refugees; 1 mi llion asy- PAGE 13/29 tinations, they often face xenophobia and discrimination. lum-seekers whose refugee status has not yet been de- A new report released recently by UNICEF, “Uprooted: termined; and an estimated 17 million children displaced The growing crisis f or refugee and migr ant children”, within their own countries – children in dire need of hu- presents new da ta that paint a sobering pictur e of the manitarian assistance and access to critical services. lives and situations of millions of children and families af- • More and more children are crossing borders on their fected by violen t conflict and other crise s that make it own. In 2015, ov er 100,000 unaccompanied minors ap- seem safer to risk everything on a perilous journey than plied for asylum in 78 countries – triple the number in remain at home. 2014. Unaccompanied children are among those a t the “Indelible images of individual children – Aylan Kurdi’s highest risk of exploitation and abuse, including by smug- small body washed up on a be ach after drowning at sea glers and traffickers. or Omran Daqneesh’s stunned and bloody face as he sat • About 20 mi llion other in ternational child migrants in an ambulance a fter his home w as destroyed – ha ve have left their homes for a variety of reasons including shocked the world,” said UNICEF Ex ecutive Director An- extreme poverty or gang violence. Many are at particular thony Lake. “But e ach picture, each girl or bo y, repre- risk of abuse and de tention because they have no docu- Lesvos sents many millions of children in danger – and this de- mentation, have uncertain legal s tatus, and there is no This eastern Aegean island encapsulates per- mands that our c ompassion for the individual chi ldren systematic tracking and monitoring of their well-being – haps better than any other, Greece’s tradition, we see be matched with action for all children.” children falling through the cracks. culture and spirit. “Uprooted” shows that: PAGE 16/32 SEPTEMBER 2016 2/18 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA Randwick City Council welcomes students from Kastellorizo Randwick City Council held a morning in year 11 said: “This program happens Greece. Opportunities on the island are Kastellorizo, as it is very hard.” tea for three students from Kastellorizo every two years, where one year children minimal depending on your family’s sta- Despite these troubles, life in Kastel- this month to celebrate the 20th an- from Kastellorizo come to Australia, and tus, Alexandros said. lorizo in the summer is nice for the stu- niversary of the sister city relationship one year they come from Perth to Kastel- “It is hard, as the school is not very dents, with many of their friends coming between Kastellorizo and Randwick City lorizo.” good. The subjects are easier here in from Australia, Greece and all over to en- Council. “We went to Perth and Melbourne for Australia than in Greece.” joy their holidays. Businesses boom in Alexandros Dervishi, Despina Papoutsis one week, Canberra for three nights and The local school on the island has only this period with tourists from all over the and Pantelis Amygdalos were chosen to Sydney for nine days.” 23 students. In order to advance them- world flocking to the Greek islands. travel around Australia on a cultural stu- Travelling Australia, the students have selves, many students have to venture to The students have made new friends dent exchange program initiated by the notice life is a complete change com- mainland Greece or the island of Rhodes. while on exchange and have also caught ‘Friends of Kastellorizo’ in Perth, who pared to the island of around 500 resi- Pantelis and Alexandros are going to up with relatives that some had here, as raise funds in conjunction with Perth City dents. From the little things to clean Rhodes this month to start their educa- well as friends from Perth that were sent Council for the exchange program be- roads, and schools, the students believe tion in Year 11. to Kastellorizo on the program, on a once tween Kastellorizo and Australia. the culture of Australia is much more se- Alexandros said, “If you want to go to a in a lifetime opportunity that the stu- Alexandros Dervishi, who is currently rious than the partying lifestyle of good university, you can’t do it from dents have soaked up. INTERNATIONAL VISITORS SPEND $9.1 BILLION IN NEW SOUTH WALES Overseas visitors to NSW have spent over the 12-month period up 21 per more during their stay than ever before, cent on the previous year. according to the International Visitor “There was also huge growth in visitors Survey released earlier this month. from the US and Korea with both mar- Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major kets up by 16 per cent. Events, Stuart Ayres, said Tourism Re- “In fact, NSW was the top destination search Australia (TRA) figures highlight for the year in 11 of the top 15 source international visitors to NSW spent more markets for Australia: China, United K- than $9 billion for the first time up 18 ingdom, USA, South Korea, Germany, In- per cent on the previous year. dia, Hong Kong, Canada, France, Taiwan “In the year to June 2016, there were and Indonesia. 3.6 million overseas visitors who stayed “Regional NSW achieved significant almost 87 million nights and spent $9.1 growth, welcoming 718,200 visitors who billion in NSW more than 35 per cent stayed nearly 14 million nights an 11 higher than any other state and close to per cent increase on the previous year 50 per cent more overnight stays,” Mr and more than double the rate of growth Ayres said. in nights for Regional Australia.” “Tourism has a massive impact on em- Destination NSW Chief Executive Offi- ployment, with analysis highlighting cer Sandra Chipchase said the results re- NSW tourism supports almost 270,000 flected the continued success of the jobs, with around two thirds employed in NSW Government’s partnerships with in- one of the State’s 93,600 tourism busi- dustry to drive overseas visitation. nesses. “Our strategic marketing, strong indus- “China is the largest source of interna- try partnerships and securing and staging tional visitors and continues to lead of major world-class events such as Vivid NSW’s tourism growth. We saw 639,000 Sydney are delivering for NSW,” Ms visitors from China travelling to NSW Chipchase said. SEPTEMBER 2016 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/19 Politics in the age of the web By Alexis Papachelas – Kathimerini, Athens Would the Donald Trump phenomenon exist were it not for the web and social media? The answer is no. The eccentric mogul would not have got even as far as competing for the Republican party’s presidential nomination. The unfounded conspiracy theories to which he re- sorts, the falsification of actual facts and his constant about-turns on key issues would have knocked him out of the race long before that. Nevertheless, a large part of American society is not interested in whether Trump is lying or not. These voters don’t care about what The New York Times or the large television networks report and would rather lap up every unfiltered and sensationalist piece of in- formation they read online.