Monthly Archives: August 2015

On Sunday the 9th of August 2015 at Camp Shortland (the park across from Nobby’s Beach) at 1 pm, representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church and Community of Newcastle, will be attending an official presentation to the Novocastrians, of a unique piece of marble, which comes from the Island of Thassos, Greece, and  is considered to be the only pure marble on the planet.    

This marble will be used by the well known artist Roger McFarlane, to create a monument, dedicated to the awareness and resilience of people who struggle with mental health illness and their families in our community.   

Mr McFarlane, an experienced sculptor, has carved large sculpture s in many parts of the world. His sculptures are in China, South Korea, Brazil and Switzerland.   

This “piece” of Hellas which will be situated in the heart of Newcastle is the second such piece to be decorating our beautiful city. The first is a piece of marble from Ancient Olympia which can be found at the Hellenic Community Centre of the Greek Orthodox Church in Hamilton NSW. This was sent by the Greek Government, together with the appropriate certificate of authenticity, as a gift when the Community Centre was built in 2002.

The Consul of Greece, Mr. Geoff Antoniades, the Rector of the Orthodox Church of Newcastle, Fr Nicholas Scordilis, the President of the Community Mr Paul Milonas, and young members of the Community wearing their National Costumes and other distinguished guests will also be attending on Sunday.  

For further information regarding this event please contact the coordinator, Ms Joanne Sinclair: on 0401 768222 or Fr Nicholas on 0425258986. 

source: Holy Apostles Greek Orthodox Parish of Newcastle

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored the only goal in a tame curtain-raiser at Wembley, ensuring Arsène Wenger has beaten José Mourinho for the first time in 14 attempts.

It has taken 14 attempts, spread over 11 years, and in the most difficult moments Arsène Wenger has looked as if he would cheerfully throttle José Mourinho with his own tie, but finally Arsenal’s manager knows what it feels like to get one over his bete noire. It has been a long time coming and, psychologically, it should do them the power of good to break a run that has hurt Wenger far more than he would probably confess.

His team played without any sense of inferiority, which has not always been the case when these sides meet, and it was no surprise to see Mourinho tossing his medal into the crowd afterwards, even if he did direct it towards a young Arsenal fan rather than a supporter of his own team. Mourinho doesn’t even keep all his winner’s medals so there was no way he wanted a souvenir of a game when Chelsea played with so much carelessness there were only passing reminders they were here as Premier League champions.

It was a strangely subdued performance from Mourinho’s team and the Chelsea manager was stretching the truth when he said that the better side had been beaten. It was true, as he pointed out, that Wenger’s side sacrificed some of their attacking instincts during the second period. That, however, was just common sense after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had speared a wonderful shot into the top corner of Thibaut Courtois’ net and Arsenal, operating on the counterattack, should be commended for playing with a streetwise edge. Far too often that has been exactly what they have lacked.

The decisive moment arrived midway through the opening half and, to put it into context, it was the first time Arsenal had scored against these opponents in 506 minutes of play. Arsenal had not even led against Chelsea since October 2011 but they passed the ball with the greater incision and fluency in the opening 45 minutes and it was a wonderful finish from Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The move started on the left but Mesut Özil’s crossfield pass changed the direction of the attack. Theo Walcott moved it out to Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right and, turning inside César Azpilicueta, his left-foot shot was still rising as it flashed past Courtois.

Mourinho could reflect on the moment later in the first half when Loïc Rémy clipped in a beautifully weighted cross to pick out Ramires six yards from goal. Ramires overlooked the first rule in those positions to head the ball downwards, turning it over the crossbar, and on the far touchline an aggrieved Mourinho could be seen gesturing how it should have been done.

His changes at half-time, not only withdrawing Rémy but switching Ramires, Fàbregas and Willian into different positions, were another sign of his discontent but Chelsea continued to make the kind of basic errors that, if we are going to be generous, smacked of pre-season rustiness. Fàbregas had a chance late on to send a free-kick into the penalty area but did not even get it past the first man. Soon afterwards, Branislav Ivanovic played the ball back to Courtois and the goalkeeper miscontrolled it, conceding a corner.

Hazard has rarely been so ineffectual and Chelsea plainly have problems in attack if the injury issues that prematurely ended Diego Costa’s involvement last season are going to trouble him again. Costa’s fragile hamstring ruled him out here and Rémy was taken off after a first half in which he strayed into offside territory on four occasions. Radamel Falcao was given the second half to impress but if the Colombian is to reinvent himself as a grade-A centre-forward there was little evidence of it on this showing.

For Arsenal, the issue is whether Wenger persists with Walcott in attack at the expense of Olivier Giroud. Walcott was the one Arsenal player who disappointed even if it was his pass that contributed to the goal. Giroud replaced him midway through the second half and in the closing exchanges he and Santi Cazorla both had chances to extend the lead. Courtois denied them both but there was still plenty to encourage Arsenal’s followers, one of whom now carries a little red box containing a medal Mourinho does not want to see again.

source: theguardian.com

Malaysia asks authorities in nearby islands to be vigilant for possible plane wreckage, as France confirms that wing part washed up on Reunion was from Boeing 777.

Malaysia has asked the authorities in the islands surrounding Reunion to be vigilant for possible plane wreckage, as France confirmed that the object washed up on the Indian Ocean isle was from a Boeing 777.

The Abbott government is continuing to deal with the fallout from the Bronwyn Bishop travel expenses scandal.

A number of Liberal MP’s say Bronwyn’s Bishop resignation has come too late, arguing the damage has already been done.

‘As usual way too late in reading the public, the damage has been done,’ a Liberal MP told Sky News.Criticism is also coming from the frontbench with a Coalition government minister telling Sky News, ‘she took two weeks too long to resign, and it’s seriously hurt us.

‘After three weeks of political turmoil, Mrs Bishop caved in to pressure confirming she had resigned out of ‘love and respect’ for the parliament.

It comes after controversy over a number of taxpayer funded trips, including a $5,200 helicopter ride from Melbourne to Geelong.

source:skynews.com.au

Στους λόφους της Καλαμάτας, παράγονται κάποιες από τις καλύτερες ελιές στον κόσμο. Αυτές δίνουν ένα λάδι τόσο λαμπερά πράσινο, που κάποιες φορές περιγράφεται ως «υγρός χρυσός».

Δεν είναι η πρώτη φορά που ο διεθνής τύπος υμνεί το ελληνικό ελαιόλαδο. Αυτή τη φορά όμως η Washington Post το χρησιμοποιεί για να δείξει πώς εξηγούνται τα προβλήματα που αντιμετωπίζει η Ελλάδα.

«Ομως, όταν βγει αυτό το λάδι στις εγκαταστάσεις επεξεργασίας, το μεγαλύτερο μέρος του ”καταλήγει” στη θάλασσα. Το 2012, το 60% της ελληνικής ελαιοπαραγωγής μεταφέρθηκε με πλοία στην Ιταλία. Εκεί, συσκευάστηκε σε ιταλικά μπουκάλια, με ιταλικές ετικέτες και στάλθηκε σε όλο τον κόσμο. Και τα περισσότερα από τα κέρδη καταλήγουν στην Ιταλία. Σύμφωνα με την εταιρεία McKinsey, η Ιταλία παίρνει ένα επιπλέον 50% της τιμής του ελληνικού ελαιολάδου», γράφει η αμερικανική εφημερίδα.

Γιατί συμβαίνει αυτό; Οι Ελληνες επιχειρηματίες αντιμετωπίζουν συγκεκριμένα ζητήματα όταν επιχειρούν να εξάγουν το ελαιόλαδο της χώρας τους, απαντά η Washington Post. Πρώτα από όλα, δεν μπορούν να βρουν κάποιον στην Ελλάδα που φτιάχνει μπουκάλια, οπότε πρέπει να τα κατασκευάσουν στην Ιταλία. Εχουν δυσκολίες στη λήψη δανείων για να πληρώσουν τα μπουκάλια και στη συνέχεια τους «χτυπούν» οι φόροι. Εξαιτίας των οικονομικών ζητημάτων, η ελληνική κυβέρνηση ζήτησε από τους επιχειρηματίες να εκτιμήσουν και να καταβάλουν το φόρο που θα πρέπει να πληρώσουν το 2016 προκαταβολικά, το 2015, εξηγεί η εφημερίδα.

Η ιστορία δείχνει ένα από τα πιο επίμονα προβλήματα της ελληνικής οικονομίας, πέρα από τη σύγκρουση με τους Ευρωπαίους δανειστές. Η οικονομική εξαθλίωση της Ελλάδας έχει σε ένα μεγάλο βαθμό αυτό-επιβληθεί. Πέρα από την Ευρώπη, υπάρχουν πράγματα που η Ελλάδα θα μπορούσε να κάνει για να βελτιώσει την οικονομία της που πασχίζει, προωθώντας την ντόπια βιομηχανία και χαλαρώνοντας τους επαχθείς περιορισμούς. Το γεγονός ότι η Ελλάδα κατέχει μόνο ένα μερίδιο 28% στην παγκόσμια αγορά για τη φέτα και ένα 30% στην αγορά των ΗΠΑ για το ελληνικό γιαούρτι, δείχνει μία σαφή εμπορική ευκαιρία, αναφέρει η McKinsey στην αναφορά της.

Ο γεωργικός τομέας της Ελλάδας έχει πολλές δυνατότητες. Η χώρα είναι η τρίτη μεγαλύτερη σε παραγωγή ελαιολάδου στον κόσμο, σχεδόν ισάξια της Ιταλίας που είναι στη δεύτερη θέση πίσω από την Ισπανία. Το ελαιόλαδο αντιπροσωπεύει σχεδόν το 1/10 της ελληνικής γεωργικής παραγωγής, σύμφωνα με την Eurostat. Η χώρα εξάγει επίσης μέλι, κρασί, φρούτα και λαχανικά σε όλο τον κόσμο και θα μπορούσε να κάνει πολλά περισσότερα. Πέρα από το γεωργικό τομέα, κάποιους από τους πιο πολλά υποσχόμενους τομείς στην Ελλάδα είναι εκείνοι των γενόσημων φαρμάκων, της υδατοκαλλιέργειας, της φροντίδας ηλικιωμένων, των μεταφορών, της διαχείρισης αποβλήτων και του τουρισμού, σύμφωνα με την McKinsey. Μόνο ο τουρισμός αποτέλεσε το 17% της οικονομίας το 2014.

Τι πρέπει να κάνει η Ελλάδα για να εκμεταλλευθεί αυτές τις ευκαιρίες; Πρώτα από όλα να διασφαλίσει την οικονομική σταθερότητα. Επιπλέον, η χώρα χρειάζεται υποδομές, για μεγαλύτερη και πιο σύγχρονη παραγωγή και εγκαταστάσεις συσκευασίας για να εκμεταλλευθεί τη γεωργική παραγωγή, όπως σημειώνει η ίδια αναφορά.

Πηγή:madata.gr

Αύγουστος! Ας πάει στο καλό ο πιο έντονος και κακός Ιούλιος της μεταπολίτευσης και ο νέος μήνας να φέρει καλύτερα madata!

Στα σημερινά viral κάτι εντελώς ξένο με την καθημερινότητα την πολιτική. Ένα τραγούδι που δεν πιστεύω ότι υπάρχει άνθρωπος, Έλληνας, να μην το έχει τραγουδήσει, να μην έχει ζήσει απόλυτα τους στίχους αυτού του τραγουδιου, το οποίο είναι και ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου.

Ο Αύγουστος του Νίκου Παπάζολου είναι από τα πιο γνωστά και αγαπημένα τραγούδια της σύγχρονης ελληνικής δισκογραφίας και ένα από τα πιο ερωτικά κομμάτια που έγραψε ο σπουδαίος αυτός καλλιτέχνης.

Στο βίντεο θα ακούσετε τον ίδιο τον Παπάζογλου να αφηγείται κάτω από ποιες συνθήκες έγραψε το τραγούδι που ακούγεται μέχρι σήμερα σε πολλές κυρίως καλοκαιρινές συναυλίες.

Στο μεγάλο σεισμό της Θεσσαλονίκης ο Νίκος Παπάζογλου έστειλε την έγκυο γυναίκα του σε συγγενείς στην Αμερική επειδή το σπίτι τους υπέστη ζημιές και ήταν υπό κατάρρευση. Ο Μίκης Θεοδωράκης τον προσκάλεσε να μείνει μαζί του στο Βόλο για λίγο μέχρι να γίνει το σπίτι του. Εκεί όμως ερωτεύτηκε μια κοπελιά τόσο παράφορα που δεν άντεξε να μείνει κοντά της γιατί ένιωθε μεγάλη έλξη και δεν ήθελε να απατήσει τη γυναίκα του.

Αποφάσισε να γυρίσει στη Θεσσαλονίκη και στο δρόμο της επιστροφής μέσα σε 20 λεπτά όπως είπε και ο ίδιος έγραψε ένα τραγούδι που το μισό το αφιέρωνε στην γυναίκα που ερωτεύτηκε στο Βόλο και το άλλο μισό στη νεογέννητη κόρη του.

Καλημέρα, καλό Σαββατοκύριακο και καλό μήνα!

“Σε ποιαν έκσταση απάνω σε χορό μαγικό
μπορεί ένα τέτοιο πλάσμα να γεννήθηκε
από ποιο μακρινό αστέρι είναι το φως
που μες τα δυο της μάτια πήγε κρύφτηκε
κι εγώ ο τυχερός που το ‘χει δει”

Πηγή:madata.gr

British police have accused Russia of being involved in the murder of Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Mr Litvinenko died in 2006, three weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium during a meeting with two Russian men, who are suspects in his death.

The former KGB agent left Russia to become a British citizen and was a fierce critic of the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

From his deathbed Mr Litvinenko accused Mr Putin of ordering his killing.

British authorities said there was “irrefutable” scientific evidence to try Russian suspects Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun for murder.

Both Russians deny the charge and the Kremlin has rejected any involvement, dismissing the validity of the British inquiry into Mr Litvinenko’s death that caused Anglo-Russian relations to sink to a post-Cold War low.

On the closing day of the inquiry into his death that began in January, Ben Emmerson, lawyer for Mr Litvinenko’s widow Marina, listed several reasons he said pointed to Russian responsibility.

Polonium is rare and nearly exclusively made in Russia, which has a history of political assassinations, he said.

Mr Lugovoy had contact with corrupt Kremlin figures, he said, and launched a political career as a Russian parliamentarian after the murder. He and Mr Kovtun also had no personal motive for killing his client.

Mr Emmerson said Mr Litvinenko, who the inquiry was told was working for British security services, produced diligence reports for western companies that linked Mr Putin and his associates to criminal gangs.

These had led to deals being cancelled, he said.

Mr Litvinenko had also passed some of them to Mr Lugovoy, whom he trusted as a businessman.

Putin ‘personally ordered the liquidation of an enemy’

Ms Litvinenko, who pressured Britain into holding the inquiry, said the truth had finally been uncovered.

“My husband was killed by agents of the Russian state in the first ever act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of London and this could not have happened without the knowledge and consent of Mr Putin,” she told reporters.

Her lawyer called Mr Putin a “tin pot despot” who personally ordered the poisoning.

“If the Russian state is responsible, Putin is responsible,” Ben Emmerson said.

“He personally ordered the liquidation of an enemy who was bent on exposing him and his cronies.”

Mr Emmerson said scientific evidence linking Mr Kovtun and Mr Lugovoy to traces of polonium detected around London proved beyond doubt that they were responsible.

Tests of the sink in the bathroom of Mr Kovtun’s room at the Millennium Hotel revealed quantities of polonium that could only be achieved by direct contact with the rare isotope.

Mr Emmerson said Mr Putin awarded Mr Lugovoy a medal of honour for services to the Motherland while the inquiry was underway as an attempt to manipulate and intimidate the proceedings.

“It was a crass and clumsy gesture from an increasingly isolated tin pot despot, a morally deranged authoritarian,” he said, referring to Mr Putin.

The inquiry is expected to report its finding before the end of the year.

source:abc.net.au

Aircraft debris that washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion that may belong to the vanished Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has arrived in France for investigators to study its origin.

According to a witness and news agencies, an Air France flight carrying the debris landed at Orly airport near Paris for a subsequent journey to a military unit near the city of Toulouse which specialises in analysing aviation wreckage.

Experts will begin their analysis on Wednesday.

Investigators hoped the barnacled 2-by-2.5-metres wing segment known as a flaperon and a piece of luggage could yield clues as to the fate of MH370, which vanished without trace in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said that additional Malaysian officials were headed to Reunion to look for more debris, and others would go to France.

“If the flaperon does belongs to MH370 it is actually in accordance with the drift pattern seen in the Southern Indian Ocean,” he said.

“But we do not want to speculate. We will wait for verification from the French authorities.”

Discovery of the debris may finally confirm the plane crashed into the sea after veering off course from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing route, helping to end 16 months of lingering uncertainty for relatives. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

Investigators believe someone deliberately switched off MH370’s transponder before diverting it thousands of kilometres off-course.

The debris will be analysed at a lab staffed by 600 experts that is operated by the French defence ministry.

On Friday, a Malaysian transport official said a part number on the wreckage confirmed the object was from a Boeing 777.

“From the part number, it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. This information is from MAS (Malaysia Airlines). They have informed me,” deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said.

If the serial number on the flaperon confirms that it is from MH370 then the laboratory can use sophisticated tools to try to glean more information about the cause of the crash, such as whether its shape corresponds more to a mid-air explosion or a crash into the ocean.

The defence ministry also contributed to the investigation of Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that killed 228 people in June 2009.

A fragment of luggage that was also found in the area is with the aircraft debris, and will be sent to a unit outside Paris that specialises in DNA testing.

Australia pledges continued search of answers

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hailed the “first positive sign” that part of the plane had been found as she reiterated Australia’s commitment to finding answers for the families of those on board.

“Well, this piece of wreckage is being analysed by experts in France. It’s believed to be part of a Boeing 777. That is the same kind of aircraft that was MH370,” she said.

“So, in a sense, this is the first positive sign that we have located part of that plane.”

Australia has been leading the hunt for the plane, with satellite and other data pointing to it coming down in the southern Indian Ocean.

Ships have been scouring more than 50,000 square kilometres of deep ocean floor for evidence, although none has so far been found. Authorities plan to search a total of 120,000 square metres.

Ms Bishop said Australia remained determined to locate the main debris field.

“Of course, experts will have to analyse if this is a piece of MH370, the current drifts and how it ended up there, and what does that mean for the broader search question,” she said.

“But Australia is still committed to assisting and doing whatever we can so that we can locate MH370 and provide answers for the families of the 239 people onboard that flight.”

On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Australia was “confident that we’re searching in the right place”.

“And if in fact the plane parts found on Reunion island are linked to MH370, that would rather strengthen the case that we are in the right area,” he said.

But he also cautioned that while the discovery “could be a very important piece of evidence” if it was linked to MH370, using reverse modelling to determine more precisely where the debris may have drifted from was “almost impossible”.

source:abc.net.au