Designer’s death
Sophia Kokosalaki, famous for her elegant, Ancient Greece-inspired designs died on Sunday at the age of 47, not long after being diagnosed with cancer. Her unique clothes had graced on the red carpet numerous times and were worn by stylish celebrities such as Chloë Sevigny, Alexa Chung, Kate Hudson, Kirsten Dunst and Jennifer Connelly to name a few. The Greek prodigy made waves in the fashion world in the late nineties when she introduced her label at London fashion week in 1999. In 2001 she collaborated with Topshop launching one of the most successful collections. Back in in 2002, she was chosen to design the stunning costumes and uniforms at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 and from 2006 to 2007 she served as creative director at French heritage fashion house Vionnet. In 2012, she also introduced Kore, a cheaper line for Vionnet, which was sold through Asos. Never a part of the parties she lead a quiet life with her husband and daughter.
Athens Photo World Award
Associated Press photographer Dar Yasin is the recipient of the Yannis Behrakis International Photojournalism Award for his coverage of the Kashmir conflict. The annual competition, established in the memory of the award-winning Greek photographer who died of cancer earlier this year at the age of 58, comes with a 15,000-euro prize that was established through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Based in Srinagar, Yasin located in Indian-held Kashmir, will exhibit his work in Athens next summer.
Pronia’s Carers
This week Pronia facilitated a ‘Caring till the End’ workshop with Carers Victoria at Clayton Community Centre for carers of people living with life-limiting illnesses. It focused on carers’ well-being and self-care during the end of life stage of a loved one, providing opportunity for discussion around expectations and desires of families versus systemic barriers and organisational challenges in regards to end-of-life care. Carers expressed their feelings of guilt, expectations of responsibility and challenges when it comes to acceptance that the death of a loved one is eminent. The lack of control, unavailability of culturally and linguistically relevant services and supports in palliative care settings, and the pressure on women to assume caring roles makes many female carers feel that they have no say in the decision-making process. The session helped participants identify culturally appropriate strategies to have conversations about death, advance care directives, wills and other important matters when a loved one has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The ‘Caring till the End’ workshop will be presented in Brunswick on Thursday 24 October from 12.30–3.30 pm.
Large Greek flag
A large Greek flag has been constructed on the Aegean island of Oinousses in a bid to send a strong message to neighbouring Turkey against continued provocations. The most recent incident took place on Thursday when two Turkish F-16 jets flew over the island just before 10.30 am – an overflight, which according to Greece’s National Defence was unauthorised. Located two kilometres off the coast of Chios, illegal overflights by Turkey occur almost on a daily basis. As a message of defiance, locals decided to construct the large Greek flag on a hill overlooking the main town of Oinousses, which took close to two months to create. Situated on 0.4 acre, stones were moved manually and painted in the colours of the flag.
New US tax hike on European speciality products excludes Greek olives
Producers of speciality agricultural products in Europe were due to face a tax increase by the United States on Friday. Approved by the World Trade Organisation, the decision was made as a form of compensation for the US, following illegal subsidies from the European Union to Airbus. The tariff hike will impact on US$7.5 billion (AU$10.9 billion) worth of imported goods produced in countries within the EU, with France, Spain, Germany and Britain hit hardest, penalised the most as stakeholders in Airbus. To the relief of Greek olive producers, they have been exempt from the increase, as have those of Italian olives.
Australian economy worse than Greece’s, says IMF
The Australian economy has been exposed in a damning report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), predicting growth this year will lag behind that of Greece. The IMF initially predicted an increase of 2.1 per cent in April, but was been downgraded to 1.7 per cent on Tuesday. By comparison, predictions for Greece grew by two per cent this year, despite the country’s economy almost collapsing during its turbulent decade-long debt crisis. The grim results show Australia’s economy is at the slowest pace since the global financial crisis a decade ago; in 1991 and 2018, the pace of growth was 3.2 per cent – higher than the current 1.4 per cent for the year to 30 June. IMF analysts said that “subdued growth is a consequence of rising trade barriers; elevated uncertainty surrounding trade and geopolitics”, hinting that the trade war between the United States and China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, would drag down global economic activity. In 2020, the IMF expects the Australian economy to grow by 2.3 per cent, and Greece by 2.2 per cent.
Alleged gang rape victim says she was forced to sign retraction
The 19-year-old woman who claimed she was gang-raped by Israeli teenagers at an Aya Napa beach resort in Cyprus in July, told court on Wednesday that local police forced her to sign a retraction letter 10 days later, which they wrote for her. During the three-hour cross-examination, she said that the confession was written under duress in broken English and not written in the way an English speaker of the language would phrase things, offering to point out the bad spelling and grammar mistakes by reading the statement in court. “It isn’t in proper English, it’s in Greek English,” she said. “I’m a very well-educated person, I got into university with an unconditional offer so there’s no way I would write something like this. Marios wanted me to write that I had made it all up.” The woman had a panic attack after signing the retraction, which psychologists attribute to PTSD suffered as a result of the alleged gang rape.