THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN The oldest circulating Greek newspaper outside VEMA Greece SEPTEMBER 2009 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 E-mail: [email protected] OUR PRIMATE’S VIEW MR G. BABINIOTIS AND THE ‘DIALOGUE’ ON GREEK EDUCATION PAGE 5/23 CRUCIALGREEKS GO TO THE POLLS ON OCTOBER 4 ELECTIONS Fantasy islands Owning your own island is a dream Greece’s main parties started pre- that has long attracted the surplus paring for a brief but intense election campaign in the count- millions of the rich. down to snap polls next month. PAGE 15/33 Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the head of the main opposition PASOK party, George Papandreou, in- creased their public appearances and intensified their rhetoric in a bid to se- cure the votes of disenchanted sup- porters of their respective parties. They, as well as the three leaders of the other parties with representatives in Parliament, agreed to participate in George two televised debates in the count- Papandreou down to the October 4 polls. Karamanlis continued with the straight talk that earned him praise af- Costas ter his speech at the launch of the Karamanlis Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) ear- Canberra’s lier this month, appealing to New Democracy supporters at an Athens PASOK leader George Papandreou Meanwhile, the electoral committees Byzantine Secret rally to vote for the ruling party “in the gave as good as he got. Addressing a of New Democracy and PASOK started national interest,” even if the party has large crowd in Neo Faliro, he de- unveiling their respective lists of candi- One of the finest surviving Byzantine disappointed them in the past. He scribed the current economic and so- dates for next month’s polls. church floor mosaics resides in the stressed that ND has a plan for bring- cial problems as an “insult to the Greek Australian War Memorial in Canberra. ing the country out of the financial cri- people” and gave voters his “word of sis and accused PASOK of lacking sub- honor” that “all this will change on Oc- *** More on the Greek elections stantial proposals. tober 4.” on p. 7/25 PAGES 8/26 - 9/27 Visit of His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos to St Andrew’s Astypalaia Authentic and unspoiled Grammar, This Aegean island has sacrificed Perth neither its character nor its natural assets at the altar of tourism. PAGE 4/22 PAGE 17/35 The Greek Australian VEMA SEPTEMBER 2009 2/20 TO BHMA This Day A day with the WA Governor! On Tuesday 25 August, the In History Year Nine cohort from St An- In History drew’s Grammar (Perth), em- barked on an elaborate ex- cursion to State Parliament, October 7, 2003 the Greek Consulate Office and Government House as Arnold Schwarzenegger part of the Society and Envi- ronment programme of Law becomes California and Government. governor It was a day of learning many interesting and histori- cal facts about the develop- On this day in 2003, actor Arnold ment of Western Australian Schwarzenegger is elected gover- politics. We were also greet- nor of California, the most populous ed by our local MLA for Nolla- WA Governor state in the nation with the world's mara, Ms Janine Freeman. Dr Michael fifth-largest economy. Despite his in- Visiting the Greek Consul with staff experience, Schwarzenegger came Office was an inaugural event and students out on top in the 11-week campaign for both the Honourable to replace Gray Davis, who had ear- Greek Consul Mrs Despina lier become the first United States Tzanakaki, as well as for St ment. The remaining after- spent in the company of the orable one. The excursion governor to be recalled by the peo- Andrew’s Grammar, as so noon was spent touring Gov- Governor of Western Aus- was extremely worthwhile ple since 1921. Schwarzenegger many students had never be- ernment House in all its tralia, His Excellency Dr Ken and thoroughly enjoyed by all was one of 135 candidates on the fore visited the Perth Office in grandness alongside special- Michael and Mrs Michael. It in attendance, including Mrs ballot, which included career politi- such a large group. We were ist guides who informed us of was a visit of regal propor- Reklitis and Reverend Father briefed on the importance of the lavish history of the home tions with the generous hos- Elpidios. cians, other actors, and one adult- the diplomatic roles and rela- and its equally significant oc- pitality by His Excellency, as film star. tions between the Western cupants over the decades. well as from all his personal Mrs Hiotis Educator (St. Andrew’s October 9, 1967 Australian Greek community Notably, the highlight of the staff, who ensured our visit with that of Greece’s Govern- day was our afternoon tea was a truly special and mem- Grammar) Che Guevara is executed Jobless rate On this day in 1967, socialist stays at 5.8 % revolutionary The jobless rate unexpect- and guerilla edly held at 5.8 per cent for a leader Che third straight month in August, Guevara, age despite the number of people 39, is killed by in work declining, new data the Bolivian shows. army. The U.S.- The Australian Bureau of military-backed Statistics said 27,100 jobs, Bolivian forces seasonally adjusted, were captured Guevara on October 8 lost in August, larger than the while battling his band of guerillas in 15,000 predicted by econo- Bolivia and assassinated him the fol- mists. lowing day. His hands were cut off The number of people in as proof of death and his body was full-time work dropped by a buried in an unmarked grave. In hefty 30,800. 1997, Guevara's remains were Economists' forecasts had found and sent back to Cuba, where also centred on the unem- they were reburied in a ceremony ployment rate edging up to 5.9 per cent. attended by President Fidel Castro The federal government in and thousands of Cubans. the May budget had forecast October 11, 2002 a jobless rate of 8.25 per cent by June next year. Jimmy Carter The jobless rate in NSW was unchanged at 6.1 per wins Nobel Prize cent, and was also static in the Northern Territory at 4.2 On this day in 2002, former Presi- per cent and the ACT at 3.6 dent Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel per cent. However, it jumped Peace Prize "for his decades of un- to 5.1 per cent in Tasmania tiring effort to find peaceful solu- from 4.1 per cent the previ- tions to international conflicts, to ad- ous month, and increased to vance democracy and human rights, 6.3 per cent from 5.9 per cent and to promote economic and social in Victoria. The unemployment development." rate also rose to 5.8 per cent from 5.7 per cent in South Australia. In Western Australia the jobless rate fell to 5.4 per cent from 5.7 per cent and in Queensland it declined to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent. AAP SEPTEMBER 2009 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/21 Editorial 180 votes in the 300-member Parliament or elections Thessaloniki’s Prime will be called, so TIF presented an obstacle that had to Minister be overcome by the prime minister. He had two op- bell tolls Costas Karamanlis tions: Announce tough measures or call elections. Announcing that he would ask the president to dis- for Karamanlis solve Parliament and call early elections, Karamanlis spoke of the need for painful structural reforms. But he did not specify what those reforms would be. PASOK Thessaloniki's International Fair (TIF) has been the leader George Papandreou, responding to the call for a subject of much lamentation in the past few years, as a snap election, was just as vague. This evasiveness - changing world has made such expensive showcases this fear of the political cost - is what prevented the of goods and equipment redundant. In the era of glob- necessary measures from being taken over so many alization and the Internet, who needs to set up expen- years. If the parties that hope to govern Greece after sive pavilions and who needs to visit them, when every- October 4 do not have the policies or are too scared of thing is on display online, and purchases are just a click announcing them, then they will do nothing to instill con- away? fidence in the public and these elections will be just an- The fair kept on going mainly out of the momentum of other step in Greece's long decline. its long history and because it gave Thessaloniki a brief moment each year in which it became the center of the Leaving out the failures Greek world. But, in the past two years, TIF has proven bility and absolute authority in the party that he had led to be a catalyst for major political developments. The out of the political wilderness with its electoral victory in In the coming days and weeks, Prime Minister Costas annual migration of Athens's political and economic elite 2004. Karamanlis will have to convince the country’s increas- each September has taken on the power of a ritual that His blunder provoked angry muttering and insults ingly doubtful voters that he can govern in a different cannot be evaded, prompting decisions that might not from ministers and lower ranking party officials who manner and with the help of different people should he otherwise have been made. felt that he would lead them to inevitable defeat when- win the October 4 general elections against the socia- We saw this last year when, after a long silence, ever elections were held.