Category: Books
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Nervous days in the Euro zone
Europe waits nervously for the latest deadline in the Greek crisis. The coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has only days to meet the EU Troika’s draconian $13.5 billion package of cuts, after three months of talks have failed to bring agreement. The stumbling block within the coalition appears to be a newly-imposed demand…
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Behind the savaging of Sir Jimmy Savile
The English are passing through one of their periodic fits of morality and the cause célèbre de jour is the late disc jockey Jimmy Savile. Why do Australians have to be dragged into this morass of English public hypocrisy? Here’s some background to consider … Jimmy Savile, a hugely popular radio and TV presenter, was…
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The unfeeling toffs
SO NOW it’s London, Glasgow and Belfast. There were massive demonstrations on Saturday against the Cameron government’s austerity measures – 100,000 people took to the streets in the capital alone. Called by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the day was a significant show of strength. At the rally, though there were signs that the TUC…
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The problem with austerity
Austerity doesn’t work – it’s official. An American bankers’ think tank, the Institute of International Finance, has just come out with a report which concludes the bleeding obvious: that the all-out pursuit of debt reduction at the expense of economic stimulus has made the Greek situation worse. The Institute’s chairman Charles Dallara, who worked for…
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Reunion with the Tiger Man
In 1956 when I was 14 years old I spent my school holidays with my widowed Aunt Ethel (Smith) and my two cousins, Peggy and Peter, at Sarina, a small sugar town just south of Mackay in North Queensland. It’s on the map these days because its association with rugby league, producing such stars as…
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A looming showdown
When the Troika came back to Athens last week, parliament was deadlocked over the brutal austerity package, but outside sporadic protests had already begun. Angry pensioners stormed the health ministry over the loss of their pharmaceutical benefits, while industrial action was being planned by journalists, teachers, doctors, transport workers and even judges, who are expected…
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Crunch time approaches
Greece’s summer break is coming to a close, with its place in the Euro-zone still on a knife-edge. Those Greeks still with jobs are returning to work with a deep sense of insecurity. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras spent the whole of last week in shuttle diplomacy with European leaders pleading for more time to implement…
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Ecuador shames Australia
The first responsibility of every democratic state is the welfare of its citizens, a responsibility that has been abdicated by the Australian government in the case of Julian Assange. As a result, Ecuador, a tiny republic in South America, has stepped into the breach vacated by the Australian government to protect one of our citizens.…
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Surrealism on Andros
How come the island of Andros in the Aegean Sea is host to some of Greece’s best exhibitions of modern art? The answer lies in both the island’s long cultural history and its maritime prowess. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) at Hora, the main town, is funded by the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation,…
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Epiphany at Epidaurus
The American writer Henry Miller visited Greece 73 summers ago on the eve of the Second World War. He fell in love with the northern Peloponnese and in particular with Epidaurus. At the great theatre, built among beautiful hills in the 4th century BC, he had an epiphany described in his book The Colossus of…