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Keywords: Greece

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Reinventing Greece's paradise lost

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 09 November 2011
    7 Comments

    In their Greek travels, 20th century writers Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller tried to construct a sort of paradise for themselves. Most foreign inhabitants of Greece try to do the same. I certainly did. I hope now that there is a chance of Paradise being regained.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Watching Athens crumble

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 29 September 2011
    4 Comments

    Two weeks ago two grandmothers met at a popular rendezvous in central Athens. Their talk was the usual leapfrog business, but there was an undercurrent of worry: What was going to happen to this country? Was any sort of solution going to present itself? Suddenly the riot squad hove into view.

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  • RELIGION

    Simple answers to economic blues

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 22 September 2011
    13 Comments

    The weak August retail sales have disturbed market watchers. The more ideologically inclined have blamed lefties who look down on shopping and consuming. Throughout history simplicity, thrift and voluntary poverty have been valued highly by many philosophies and religions.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Child migrant trauma

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 10 August 2011
    3 Comments

    At least adults have a little hope of understanding the pain, and coping with it. Even the most equable of children must find the experience bewildering at best, and agonising at worst. My eldest son had a period of not eating. His migration as a child remains the defining fact of his life.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Greek crisis viewed from the corner store

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 15 June 2011
    4 Comments

    Panayiotis runs the mini-market he inherited from his father. I have known father and son for 30 years. 'How do you see things at this stage of the krisi?' I ask him, for I'm always asking people what they think of Greece's financial crisis. 'What crisis?' he grins. 'Greece has got a crisis; Greeks haven't.'

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Muslims who venerate St George

    • William Gourlay
    • 12 April 2011
    6 Comments

    Crowding onto ferries in Istanbul, Turks arrive on the island they call Büyükada early in the morning, Muslim pilgrims en route to a Greek Orthodox church to ask favours of St George. No one is sure when the Muslim practice of venerating St George began, but it is well documented.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Bilingual parenting

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 16 February 2011
    4 Comments

    When I first moved to Greece, my language skills were reduced to those of a three-year-old. The pain of this was exacerbated when six months after our arrival, my six and eight-year-old sons started speaking to each other in Greek.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Greece's wheel of financial hardship

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 03 November 2010
    3 Comments

    The Greek population is trying to cope with the consequences of three decades of greed and irresponsibility. My middle son is in the Army; my youngest son is a fire fighter. Both have had their salaries cut by a total of 3000 euros for the year, and more cuts may follow.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The life and death of Barry and Aristomenis

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 07 July 2010
    10 Comments

    When you love, you must be prepared to die another death before you die your own. Five minutes before 19-year-old Aristomenis died, he called in at his mother's place of work to tell her he thought the exam had gone well.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    How my English teacher saved my life

    • Fiona Douglas
    • 30 June 2010
    18 Comments

    It occurred to me to approach my school English teacher. This would be normal enough, if not for the fact that she had been my teacher some three decades prior. From the fog of my depression medication I somehow found my phone and emailed her from my bed.

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  • RELIGION

    A Christian view of budgets and burqas

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 13 May 2010
    15 Comments

    This week's headlines have been about elections in the UK, the economy in Greece, and justice and law in Australia regarding banning the burqa and monstering asylum seekers. The way these are played out leaves little room for love, altruism, forgiveness, restoration, reconciliation and freedom, and no space for grace.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Close encounters with Greek unrest

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 10 May 2010
    5 Comments

    Greek leaders condemned the outbreak of violence that has seen innocent people die on the streets of Athens. However many people fear that worse is to come. Most people are angry, particularly the young. Greece has never treated its youth well.

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