Dialogue
Dialogue –
Dear Diary, I got COVID-19 today
Knocked down, locked down and feeling down. Welcome to COVID-19. Welcome to mandatory isolation. I knew I had coronavirus two days before the Victorian Health Department notified me. I had flu-like symptoms when no influenza …
Diatribe – ‘Dad, when are we going to the parelasi?’
The night before my first parelasi (loosely translated as “march” or “parade”), I couldn’t sleep. On the couch by my bed, my mother had laid out the costume my aunt …
Dialogue –
My father’s family story – A journey down the Palaia Fokaia, Smyrni, memory lane
February 2016, I stood staring at the door of the faithfully restored stone house on the shores of Foca, 60 kilometres North-West of current day Izmir. I am looking at …
Dialogue –
West’s weak response to Russia on Ukraine hard to take
A few years ago I recounted in these pages a comment made to me by the then Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Synch. It was made during my visit to …
Dialogue –
Diatribe – When we abuse our elders
“My daughter-in-law keeps on making appointments for me to have a brain scan,” my elderly client tells me, his voice shaking. “I refuse to go. That’s what she did with …
Dialogue –
The Religious Discrimination Bill: How it all went wrong
A close friend and colleague best described as a ‘religious progressive conservative’ has an interesting theory: that conservative governments are best placed to bring in controversial progressive reforms, and progressive …
Dialogue –
When the family catches COVID-19 – an immunocompromised mother recalls
Monday 3rd January 2022. My 19-year-old son wakes up and says his throat hurts. He feels like he is `coming down with something’. He was out all weekend celebrating NYE. …
Dialogue –
Minority Parties holding the balance of power is the worst electoral outcome
Voters beware. Decisions will be made by these new governments that will set the stage for the next decade and beyond to such things as our responses to climate change, …
Dialogue –
Diatribe: Griko, Greek and the psychology of language
Over the holidays, a mother heard my children and I speaking Greek to each other at the park. Introducing herself, and her child who spoke perfect Greek with an Athenian …
Dialogue –
Women spend triple the time than men on household work, yet domestic labour remains half the story
I’m sure there’s plenty of dads out there who call themselves feminists, proudly declaring that they did/do their fair share of domestic duties—nappy changing, dishwashing, laundry, cooking, etc.—and sit back …