Monthly Archives: October 2014

Dinner parties were an ancient Greek staple

Though having often written about ancient Greeks and their food culture, I felt it was time to visit the subject again, with the spotlight on our spiritual forefathers and the dig in Amphipolis that we are all holding our breath over, and the renewed interest in the Parthenon Marbles now that Amal Clooney (nee Alamuddin) is lobbying for their return to their ancestral home.

There is a lot that can be written about the ancient Greeks and their diet and it helps to give a background on the way they lived and their philosophies on life, in order to be able to understand the impact this had on the way they ate.

The key ‘ingredient’ of their lifestyle was simplicity, even amongst the rich, from the way they dressed, the way they ate to the way they amused themselves. Their homes were simple, the poor had white-washed walls and the rich’s only decorations were wall murals. The furniture was simple even in rich homes.

Water was collected daily and stored in the water tanks next to their homes. Soap was olive oil and sand. Cleanliness was ingrained in the culture for home and body. They did not have forks, they used knives and spoons and bread to mop up food and also to clean their hands.

They had ample produce but back then Europe still did not have eggplants, peppers, okra, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, nor coffee or sugar. They also did not have rice, as we know it today – although there are records of luxurious bread made from rice flour. And Greece did not have ouzo, as they still had not discovered distillation.

The set table consisted of healthy food that we would do well to mimic today. They had wine in abundance but it was drunk watered down – sometimes with sea water and it often had added ingredients such as honey.

The stand-out event of eating in the ancient Greek world was the symposia (symposium in Latin). What we might call today ‘dinner parties’, symposia were well organised and nothing was left to chance. The food was carefully chosen, with the most famous being Plato’s symposia which he later wrote about.

These symposia of ancient Greece were drinking parties strictly for men. The symposia did not consist of many men and Plato’s – known to reach the number of thirty – was considered to be a crowd. These gatherings were not just about food and drink; they were a venue for philosophical dialogue.

I have in my possession a Greek cookbook, Ancient Dining by Maria Loi, that I bought in Greece, with spectacular recipes from the ancient world. I can only give you a few in this space but there is not one in the thirty-odd recipes that we could not salivate over today – they are all within our reach. They are healthy and, judging them, I know if we ate like this we would never have a weight problem.

source: Neos Kosmos

I begin by associating myself with the contributions made by many of my colleagues on the passing of Gough Whitlam.

I offer my condolences firstly to the Whitlam family—they have lost a father and grandfather—and of course the Australian Labor Party and indeed the broader community have lost a significant and indeed iconic figure. One cannot reflect on the life and times of Gough Whitlam without making reference to the other half of the Whitlam whole—his life’s partner, Margaret Whitlam, who passed away a couple of years ago. This was Australia’s power couple akin to the Roosevelt’s, Eleanor and Franklin Delano, and I thought that when I met the Whitlams for the first time as a 16-year-old schoolgirl during that dramatic period after 11 November 1975. The passage of time has only reaffirmed my belief that Gough and Margaret Whitlam were truly a marriage of true minds.

It is often said that everyone remembers where they were on the day that the Whitlam government was dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. I remember where I was. I was in class, year 11 at Princes Hill High School, and I remember the uproar in our entire school community; students and teachers alike were absolutely outraged and took to the school quadrangle, as opposed to the streets. This marked the beginning, I believe, of my own political activism. Like everyone else around me at the time I felt—such was the feeling at the time—that I had to do something. I very much wanted to be a part of the dramatic events that were unfolding. The public wrath was palpable as Australians faced what many consider to be the closest we are yet to come to a coup d’etat. So I joined the Migrant Workers Committee at the Victorian Trades Hall Council and I ended up working as a volunteer on the election campaign to re-elect the Whitlam government in the 1975 federal election. Of course, I could say that the rest is history.

When I became the candidate for the federal seat of Calwell in 2001, I wrote to Gough inviting him to launch my campaign. Quite to my surprise, and as a colleague said previously, he rang me and he actually greeted me in the Greek language. This voice on the other end of the phone said ‘Tia sou ti kaneis’, and I immediately recognised it as Gough Whitlam’s voice. I was very surprised that he would greet me in the Greek language at the time—but not really surprised, as I will mention later.

I invited Gough because I had discovered that the last function he had officiated at as Prime Minister of Australia was the opening of the Broadmeadows Sporting Club, in my electorate. We thought at the time it was a great idea to invite him to make a return visit to Broadmeadows—unfortunately he was unable to do so because he could not travel at that time. But he was very gracious with his time and, as always, with advice. He had a propensity to give a lot of advice and to correct a lot of records. I know the people of Broadmeadows remain very chuffed that they are a small footnote in a very important historical event. He informed me that after Broadmeadows Sporting Club he went to the Melbourne Town Hall, and of course the next day he came to Canberra, where he was dismissed.

If Arthur Calwell laid the foundations for modern Australia, Gough Whitlam, as Australia’s 21st Prime Minister, was the architect of the contemporary Australian identity. To this end I want to reflect on his very special relationship with migrant Australia, or the New Australians as he often referred to them. Gough Whitlam envisaged an Australia that was reconciled with its first people, our Indigenous Australians—and of course there is that memorable photograph of Gough with Vincent Lingiari. He gave hope for reconciliation and paved the way for native title. Gough Whitlam embraced the new Australians that came here, my family and I included, in a way that gave us a sense of ownership and belonging, a gesture that would become the driving principles of access and equity which underlined multiculturalism—a policy that the Whitlam government not only championed but also implemented during that period of great reform.

It is indeed a privilege for me to be given the opportunity to speak in this condolence motion as the member for Calwell. The sense of fate and history does not escape me at this moment, because the 16-year-old schoolgirl of 1975 would never have imagined that she would be here today in the House of Representatives. It is a very important moment, when you look back in time.

Universal health, free education, land rights, the Racial Discrimination Act, ending conscription, legal aid, no-fault divorce, pension reform, multiculturalism and a new national anthem are some of the most iconic policies that characterised the Whitlam government, but it is Gough’s relationship with new Australians that I want to reflect on here today and in particular his relationship with the Australian Greek community. It was a very special relationship. Gough Whitlam was a philhellene in every sense of the word. Gough once said:

… there can be no doubt that the Greek language is important in Australia, and that Greek civilization is important to Australia.

Gough became very involved in the Greek Australian community. From advocating for the return of democracy to its original birthplace during the seven-year dictatorship of the 1960s and early 1970s to supporting Australian peacekeeping forces in Cyprus and advocating for the return of the Parthenon marbles he was indeed a true friend of Greece and the Australian Greek community.

He was patron of the Antipodes Festival in Melbourne for many years. He was an honorary member of the Greek Orthodox Community of Sydney and NSW. He was a recipient of the Hellenic republic’s highest honour—the Order of the Phoenix—for services to Hellenism. As my constituent Kostandinos Tsourdalakis, the cantor of our local Greek orthodox church, said in the 18-stanza Homeric prose he wrote on the occasion of Gough’s passing last week, Gough was ‘the Greek community’s second father’. I am absolutely certain that Gough would love Mr Tsourdalakis’s 18-stanza Homeric epic tribute to him. I wish I could read it out in the chamber today, but I think I would be trying the patience of Hansard considerably.

The affection new Australians held for Gough is captured by what my late father always used to say to me. During the 1975 campaign at a rally in Melbourne, Gough walked by my father, stopped and shook his hand. My father always described this as the moment an Australian Prime Minister had embraced him as a fellow Australian. There is no denying that Australia is a better place today because of Gough Whitlam.

source: studio3newcastle.com.au

Opening Night will feature Μικρά Αγγλία, Greece’s nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, which tells the story of the maritime community of Andros during the 1930s and 1940s and the fates of two sisters whose loves and arranged marriages lead to disaster. Also screening will be Οικόπεδο 12, a comedy in which a Greek Cypriot family battles plans by the government to resume their land, and to keep secret the discovery they have made there. The third film is Committed, a romantic comedy in which a young man trying to escape in his sports car from pressure to marry his girlfriend picks up a bride running away from her wedding.

When: From 20 to 24 November
For more information, visit http://www.hcwa.org/ or contact (08) 9328 5141

source:  Neos Kosmos

Daniel Tsakmakis (L) with friends Raphael and Sakis Papaspyropoulos in Neos Kosmos, Athens.

Melburnian Daniel Tsakmakis won a scholarship to study Greek at the University of Cyprus in July.

Born to an Australian-born-Greek father and an Italian-born mother, Tsakmakis has experienced two very rich cultural heritages.

Raised in the Greek and Italian influenced suburb of Northcote, he told Neos Kosmos growing up with Greek and Italian as his first languages meant he wasn’t exposed to English until he started school.

“I started school and had to learn English so I lost my Greek language skills, because I had to focus on English. I went to Italy as a boy and went to school there, so I kept Italian and then it wasn’t until year 11 and 12 when I was completing VCE Italian that I wanted to pick up VCE Greek again but it wasn’t possible.”

He lived in Italy as a child for close to three years and won a scholarship to study at the University of Milan, which spurred him to go to Cyprus because he wanted to fairly “balance” his ethnicities.

“I wanted to better my Greek and show that I was mutual between my languages and cultures. My father’s fully Greek, my yiayia and pappou are from Thessaloniki, and my Italian grandparents don’t really speak English that much, so I wanted to show myself that I was between both and not leaning towards one or the other.”

He first went to Greece at the start of 2014, with his Italian speaking cousin, and said going to Athens for the first time was a novel cultural experience.

“Three months later I got back and I was told that I won that university scholarship at the University of Cyprus. My first experience there [Athens], for not even a week, triggered me to want to go back and refine everything that I knew and visit family and re-establish connections growing up.”

Tsakmakis says NEPOMAK (World Organisation for Young Overseas Cypriots), which runs the scholarship, offers a youth program that connects people from the Greek diaspora, from places like Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada and it was an opportunity for students to represent their respective countries.

“Essentially we had to represent our own countries. For example, we went to parliament and we spoke about where we were coming from and what we thought about specific European issues.”

“As well as the study experience I found it really rewarding. At first it was a bit challenging obviously because even the teachers didn’t really speak English that much and all the essays and the exams we did were in Greek, so after a while I kind of forgot what reading in English was like, because we were so immersed.”

He hopes that much like his experience, second, third and fourth generation Greeks can explore their culture and language through similar programs.

source: Neos Kosmos

Greek fighter jets above the Rio-Antirio bridge. Photo: AP/Dimitris Manakanatas.

A day after Turkish fighter jets violated Greece’s national air space in the Aegean in a show of force, outgoing Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos underlined that the Greek armed forces would protect the country’s interests.

In comments made on the anniversary of Greece joining the allied forces in World War II, Avramopoulos, who later this week assumes the post of European commissioner for immigration, issued a terse message to the neighbouring country.

“Wherever the country’s interests are at stake, the Greek armed forces are always present,” he said.

The statement came just a few hours after Turkish fighter jets entered the Athens Flight Information region on two occasions, in one case over Lesvos and Chios and in another over the islets of Fournoi.

The transgressions came amid indications that Turkey is boosting its presence off the southern coast of Cyprus, where Cypriot authorities have a license to prospect for underwater energy reserves. Sources at the Greek Foreign Ministry said the move was being interpreted as an attempt by Ankara to raise tensions amid reports that Turkish authorities have approached major international energy firms in a bid to begin drilling in the area.

Greece’s Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos is due in Nicosia this week to discuss the situation with his Cypriot counterparts ahead of a scheduled visit to the Cyprus capital on November 7 by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Source: Kathimerini

Tourists flocking to Greece. Photo: Anthony McPhee.

International travellers coming to Greece were up by 15.6 per cent compared to 2013, according to a report released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority, ELSTAT. The report referred to a Frontier Statistical Survey conducted by The Bank of Greece in the January – June 2014 period.

According to the survey, arrivals from Europe, which account for the majority of arrivals of non-residents (85.4 per cent) showed an increase of 14.6 per cent in the January – June 2014 period compared to the same time the previous year. At the same time, arrivals from European Union member states pointed to an increase of 17.7 per cent.

The report showed there was a significant increase in arrivals, in absolute values, from the UK (33.8 per cent), France (15.1 per cent), Netherlands (32.2 per cent), Romania (58 per cent), Russia (13.5 per cent), Cyprus (29 per cent) and Bulgaria (12.8 per cent). A considerable decrease in arrivals was reported in the case of Italy (-10.2 per cent), Albania (-8 per cent) and Denmark (-26.2 per cent).

Meanwhile, percentage increases in arrivals from Asia, Africa, America and Oceania were greater than those observed in Europe.

With regard to the contribution of arrivals by country of origin, the largest number of arrivals came from Germany (11.4 per cent), UK (11.1 percent), France (6.6 per cent), Russia (6.1 per cent) and Bulgaria (6 per cent).

Arrivals from Turkey were up 5.5 per cent and from the United States by 3.2 per cent.

Source: Kathimerini