Category: Arts
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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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A discovery in Bangkok
The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, opened only four years ago by the municipal authorities, is a spacious modern nine-storey Guggenheim-style building. Its aims are to exhibit contemporary art, provide a meeting place for artists and hold community cultural events. When so many of Asia’s great galleries still appear to have little connection with their…
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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…
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Where Theseus sailed
One of the first Greek myths to made a deep impression on me as a child was the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus, son of King Aegeus, left Athens to defeat the Cretan monster and secure the supremacy of his home state. He succeeded with the help of Ariadne, princess of Crete, who…
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Ex-Defence Minister threatens to tell all
As noted in previous despatches, Greece’s vast over-spending on arms was one of the compelling reasons for its debt crisis as well as the corrosive spread of corruption among the political classes. We have been receiving a daily diet of reports on the impending trial of former Defence Minister Akis Tsochalzopoulos, a senior member of…