In his interview to the Swiss newspapers “Tribune de Geneve” and “24 Heures”, the Vice President of the Greek government, Theodoros Pangkalos said that ca. 70,000 job positions in the public sector will be lost due to new merging measures.
He made clear, however, that layoffs will not occur in public management but in public businesses, while he deems “it is not a good time for the privatization of the Public Power Corporation”.
Furthermore, he claimed that he disagrees with the Greek Church being exempted from the property taxation, appealing to all Greeks. He repeated, “we spent the money together” referring both to Greek politicians and the Greek people.
Pangalos: 70000 Layoffs in Public Businesses
Makis Psomiadis Temporarily Released From Prison
Makis Psomiadis, owner of Kavala FC, has been temporarily released from prison after having been accused of setting up a soccer match-fixing network.
There is an on-going dispute between the investigator and the prosecutor concerning the criminal treatment of Psomiadis. The Council of the Magistrate Court are working to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.
The investigator of the case fought for the release of Psomiadis, under the conditions that he will not exit the country, and will pay indemnity costs, that amount to 600,000 euros.
The prosecutor believes that the defendant should remain in provisional custody.
The judge of the court, before questioning the defendant, read over a statement, forwarded to him by Makis Psomiadis, describing his view of the accusations against him.
Greeks Prefer Neighbouring Countries To Purchase Consumer Goods
Within the last year, over 1500 Greek businesses have relocated their premises to neighbouring countries while more and more people decide to do their shopping outside the Greek borders.
According to the National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) announcement last Thursady, this trend is devastating for the Greek market since 1 out of 4 enterprises located near the country’s borders closes down or is relocated abroad. ESEE points out that the harsh austerity measures lead middle class businessmen to destruction.
ESEE also noted that “cross-border illegal trade and smuggling are most common in the regions of Macedonia, Thrace, Northern Aegean and the Dodecanese, with more than 500 million euros being spent to Bulgaria, Skopje and Turkey respectively for the purchase of consumer goods annually”.
Besides clothing, footwear, cigarettes, petrol, dental services and car services, many Greeks buy their weekly food supplies from neighboring countries because of their lower prices.
ΕSEE recommended different measures in order to stop this “consumer immigration”, such as “reducing taxation on all enterprises operating near the country’s borders, lifting all visa issue hurdles and imposing stricter inspections in open market sales from third countries”.
Olli Rehn: Will Not Allow Greek Default, Euro Zone Exit
The European Union will support Greece, but the debt-stricken country needs to do more to implement the promises it has made, the EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs said Thursday.
“An uncontrolled default or exit of Greece from the euro zone would cause enormous economic and social damage, not only to Greece but to the European Union as a whole, and have serious spillovers to the world economy,” Olli Rehn said according to the text of his speech at the Petersen Institute of International Economics in Washington. “We will not let this happen.”
Still, he warned, Greece must do more to justify the EUR109 billion bailout package that ministers agreed on back in June.
“A condition for the new programme is that Greece implements all the corrective measures required, without any wavering,” Rehn said. “In the past couple of weeks Greece has gone a long way toward meeting these demands, but we are not quite there yet.”
He added that Ireland and Portugal, the other countries to receive aid, are doing much better, and that he doesn΄t foresee a return to recession in Europe.
(source: Dow Jones)
Canada Says Greece Could Lead to Global Banking Crisis
Canada’s Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty stated on Wednesday that the eruption of global banking crisis is very possible, unless Europe properly deals with Greece’s debt problems.
Jim Flaherty also said that Ministers of Finance of the 20 largest industrial and emerging countries (G20) will focus on Creece’s crisis during their meeting in Washington on Thursday. Additionally, Ministers of Finance from the smaller Group of Seven(G7) also discussed the economic problems of Greece when they met in France earlier this month.
“Our number one priority is to talk about – as we did in Marseilles with the G7 – tha fact that Europe has to decide and deal with the current issue concerning Greece,” Flaherty told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“Otherwise it will become a banking crisis, it will affect banks all around the world, we could get into a new credit crisis, leading to a contraction in the real economy,” Flaherty said. He advised to expand the volume of the European rescue fund of 440 billion to 1 trillion €.
The BRICS emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – might offer support to the Euro Zone, possibly by purchasing bonds, although it is unclear if a set plan will be drawn up.
“The G20 is a wider group, something that is very positive for this discussion. We may want the BRIC countries participating through the IMF,” concluded Flaherty, without giving details.
Greek on Cover of Mornington Yellow Pages
Each year, the publishing house of the Yellow Pages and White Pages directory, awards local residents for contributing to their community by featuring them on the cover of its books. This year’s theme was “Australians Creating a Better Future”.
Greek-born Mr. Steve Karakitsos has been selected to be the face of this year’s Mornington Yellow Pages and White Pages cover, which are distributed throughout many nearby towns of Mornington, Victoria.
Mr. Karakitsos was recognised fo his effort to raise public awareness and provide educational advice on climate change issues, biodiversity and the protection of the environment.
Mr. Karakitsos is the founder and president of the South Eastern Centre for Sustainability (SECS) and has helped in the establishment of an environmental education centre along Kackeraboite Creek.
The Centre aims at providing schools, groups and individuals with an interactive facility that will offer information about the water cycle, streamside ecology and native flora and fauna of the local area.
18th Greek Film Festival of Sydney Returns
The 18th Greek Film Festival of Sydney will be hosted from 13-30 October at Norton Street Palace Cinemas Leichhardt, with one of the strongest programs including internationally awarded and acclaimed films, comedies, dramas, documentaries and three classics by the late Michael Cacoyannis.
Launching over a fortnight of Greek films is an adaptation of one of Greece’s best loved stage comedies – Need for Lies (Dir. Ieroklis Michaelidis), with Minister of Health and Welfare, hiring a professional liar as his senior advisor to help him deliver on the promises, wheeling and dealing he orchestrated during his election campaign.
The screening goes on with Greece’s box office hit Once Upon a Time there was a baby (dir. Nikos Zapatinas), with two very different men thrown together with one abandoned baby in a comedy of opposites and unfortunate situations.
Vangelis Seitanidis’ Other Half takes a riotous look at just how far we’ll go to find our other half and includes an all-star line-up.
In comedy/drama Plato’s Academy (Orpheus Award for Best Feature at the 2009 Los Angeles Greek Film Festival), a man finds himself confronting his prejudices and questions his own identity, when an itinerant Albanian labourer enters his world to hilarious, yet profound effect.
The Greek Film Festival features a tribute to the late film legend and multi award winning Michael Cacoyiannis. From a documentary of his life in My Life and Times: Michael Cacoyiannis (dir. Lydia Karras) to some of his greatest works includig Stella (1955) and A Girl in Black (1956).
The Greek film festival’s highlight is Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg, focusing on a girl forced to embrace life, including her latent sexuality, and other people on the impending death of her father.
Add to that the enigmatic thriller The Signature (dir. Stelios Haralampopoulos), the dramatic adventure Without Borders and the erotic drama Red Sky (dir. Layia Yiourgou) this year’s Greek Film Festival program is a stand out!
The Greek Film Festival of Sydney is an event of the Greek Festival of Sydney, and an initiative of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW.
For more information visit www.greekfilmfestival.com.au
Over 400 Greeks Take Part in Oceania Pan-Hellenic Sports Games
Every two years in Australia, the Pan-Hellenic Athletic Games of Oceania occur.
This year the event will take place in Darwin, Australia from the 29th of September until the 2nd of October 2011 with the participation of over 400 Greek – Australian athletes, from Australia and New Zealand.
This yearʼs Games in Darwin -organized by the Greek Orthodox Community of Northern Australia and local Hellenic Associations, with the generous support of the Northern Territory Government, local businesses and SAE Oceania- are expected to be greater and larger than previous years.
Oceania Pan-Hellenic Sports Games is a unique promotional vehicle of the Hellenic communities in Australia and New Zealand, clustering a significant portion of dynamic youth of Hellenic background and creating a core which will continue to promote Hellenic culture in Oceania.
The Oceania Pan-Hellenic Sports Games, an initiative of SAE Oceania, are aimed to create interest in other regions of SAE worldwide to follow by example, creating the necessary conditions for organizing World Pan-Hellenic Sports Games in Greece.
The Pan Hellenic Games will also host an out of season Glenti as part of the closing of what is anticipated to be very friendly and enthusiastic sporting competition.
The Unknown Story of a Greek Spy
Olga Staboli was born in Egypt, immigrated to Australia, worked her way into theatre business, performed in Athens just before World War II broke out, joined the Greek Resistance against the Nazis…and ended up spying for the British.
Her fascinating story is just now coming to light thanks to a book written by her Greek-born grandson, Phil Kaukalides, and published under the title “Someone Else’s War”.
“I’ve been flirting with the idea of writing this novel for years. It is based on real stories my grandmother, my mother and my aunts used to tell”, said Mr. Kaukalides and continued: “These are stories of my grandmother aiding the rescue of Allies soldiers, especially British and Australian pilots, during World War II; of her being trained by the British to become their spy and of separating from her family, who thought she was dead”.
Olga Staboli, the author’s grandmother on his mother side, was in Sydney in 1936. She was the mother of four children and had a husband. Then suddenly she mysteriously disappeared and was located again in Athens all by herself and penniless.
According to the Introduction of the novel, “In Athens she caught the attention of the British Foreign Affairs Ministry because of her acting skills and the fact that she could speak more than just one language, having been born in Alexandria of Egypt. Thus, she was fully trained to join the Greek Resistance against the Germans invaders of Greece”.
Opposition Reacts Harshly to New Squeeze
The initial reactions of Greek opposition parties to the new austerity measures announced by the government after a lengthy meeting of the government commission lasting over 6 hours are very harsh. Giannis Michelakis, the spokesman of Nea Dimocratia, the main opposition party (centre-right), spoke of ”a tsunami of unfair and unbearable measures, the result of a mistaken economic policies.”. ”The government,” added Michelakis, ”did not speak about the total cost of the measures, since behind its statement other measures are concealed.
There is no respect for citizens who every day are called upon to make large sacrifices without getting anything in exchange by policies which are plunging us ever more into a recession.” Aleka Papariga, Secretary General of Greece’s Communist Party (KKE), has once again urged the population not to pay taxes.
”Not even one step back,” Papariga said. ”We must turn the government’s life into a living hell. This is what we must do starting from today.” ”The socialist government of Pasok,” the other left-wing party in Greece, Syriza said in a statement,” has no right to continue with the same catastrophic policies, not only because it lacks democratic legality but also because it is in clear contrast with the vast majority of society.” ”Measures which are harsher than the previous ones and not as harsh as those to come,” reads a statement by Laos, the extreme right party, ”it is not possible to dream of dignity and the quality of life while begging and praying.” ”The measures that the government announced today demolish the social achievements won with decades-long struggle and sacrifices,” was the comment by Democratic Alliance, a small leftist party.
”The government has exceeded all limits. It is turning the country into an enormous hospice for the poor,” was instead the comment of Constantinos Michalos, chairman of the Athens chamber of commerce and industry, in reference to the latest austerity measures. ”These measures,” added Michalos,” cannot be carried out. The government’s insensitivity due to an unprecedented incapableness cannot be accepted either by firms or by workers or even pensioners. The entrepreneurial world fears that the measures announced yesterday will not be the last.”