We have set in place in Australia over 1100 registered Greek community organisations, more than 30 Federations of Greek community organisations, at least 11 Co-Federations of the Federated community entities in Australia and at least five Grand (world and planet-wide) World Co-Federations, including the Macedonians, the Cretans, the Pontians, the Thessalians, the Cypriots. Amongst the latter, only the Cypriots deserve and have the agony of such an organisation.
In addition, in Australia we have organised multiple of ambitiously founded and operated social classes of clergymen, businessmen, professionals, teachers, unionist, RSL, industrialists, university students and other milieus of economically, socially, and politically motivated Greek entities.
Moreover, we have a manyfold of Greek bishops, over 120 politicians of Greek ancestry in Australia at local government, State and Commonwealth levels and at least another 20 high-ranking politicians married to Greek spouses.
Furthermore, we have over 1000 keen Philhellenes in posts of influence.
Also, we have an Ambassador, at least five career consuls and consuls generals, and several honorary consuls, in addition to marine and commercials consular heads.
Additionally, we have the support and the ardent alliance of another strong team of diplomats, namely the Cyprus High Commission.
What is more, since 1944 we established a plethora of commerce and industry chambers, multiple collective entities supposedly to represent collectively the Greek Communities and its leaders; we temporarily founded and raised collective bodies with grandiose designations, such as Australian Hellenic Council, Council of Hellenes, United Hellenic Alliance.
Moreover, we established chairs, lectureships, departments at eleven Australian Universities; we founded nine bilingual schools across Australia where we had the opportunity to teach and preserve studies related to our history and ethnic identity; we managed to build a robust corpus of Greek legal personalities excelling in the judicial system; we forged nationally and international strong cohorts of prominent scholars, journalists, writers, artists and world-acclaimed actors and cinema directors.
Finally, Australia’s Greeks are the most adaptable settlers, possessing the highest citizenship rate in Australia amongst all other ethnic communities.
Yet, in 2023 have we utilised any of the above resources and socio-economic axioms to benefit our country over the bare minimum? Have we invested these credentials in advancing Hellenism in a systematic, well-organised, and consistent way? Had we ever designed as a group (forget about implementation) any ethnic, cultural sequencer, any socio-political driver, placing in a concrete fashion where we are and what do we wish to achieve now and in the future? Did we ever have any platform, any plan, or agenda?
Is there any serious course of communication between the Hellenic Diaspora and the Metropolis? Had we ever organised any conference congress or even a colloquium to overview the current rubric of our internal affairs via-a-vis our bond, rapport, or even affiliation with the Grecian Greeks? When was the last time that we had a genuine appraisal of our “national issues” in Australia? Are we happy with the current idleness and indifference that had incapacitated our collective ability? Are we content with the mode, options, and settings of the currently disseminated leadership fashion? The existing exceptions of robust leadership shown in some cities of Australia, including Melbourne, are mainly related to persons and their keen passion in promoting Hellenism.
The Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies should also be placed under scrutiny and accept the due portion of responsibility for this socio-cultural insolvency. At the same time, all and each one of our leaders must undertake his/her share and try to abort from the fallacy that we are well organised.
It is time, to acknowledge the self-imposed constraints, to understand our congenial abilities, our potential as a persuasive and instrumental ethnic group and try to rejuvenate our human resources in posts of leadership and influence; it is appropriate to invigorate our aspirations, to revive the past aggressive attitude towards the maintenance and the dissemination of our culture. Our continuing apathy and dispiritedness if will be allowed to prevail in the years to come we shall lament not only the collapse of our ability to maintain our identity but also will lead to the eradication of all those significant achievements that past generation of Hellenes, with lesser ammunitions, manage to accomplish.
We need to display cohesive attitudes and utilize affectively every aspect of the communal strength; abandon the useless personal polemics; build open channels of communication between the different providers; clearly define the course of our endeavored aspirations; build strong and undisputed filters of co-ordination; engage people who have both social and know-how standard of displacement; set aside old prejudice and commence from ground zero, widening the objectives and ambitions.
The key word is “Hellenism”, and its relation to the development of the current world.