Keywords: Greek Orthodoxy
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ECONOMICS
Had Greece decided to exit the EU last year the consequences would have been far greater than Brexit, because Greece uses the euro, whereas Britain has the pound. British interest rates are not set in Brussels, they are set by the Bank of England. And it has an independent fiscal and budgetary system, to the extent that it is possible. The British government has been imposing 'austerity' measures because it subscribes to neoliberal orthodoxy, not because it is being told to do so by Brussels or Germany.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Gillian Bouras
- 10 August 2015
12 Comments
When my son was four, he asked me one night, 'Why did God make the world and us?' I nearly broke a plate while searching for an answer; in the event, he beat me to it. 'I think he did it because he was lonely.' Perhaps the great, 'blasphemous' Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis also considered the possibility of God's loneliness, for at one stage he wrote: 'My God and I are horsemen: we ride and converse.'
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 20 July 2015
14 Comments
As high level negotiators left the air foetid in Europe and Australia, South America was scented rather more freshly, with Pope Francis ahead in the stakes of providing hope for humanity. He delivered a fiery denunciation of modern capitalism, declaring modern capitalism's 'unfettered pursuit of money' the 'dung of the devil' and accusing world leaders of 'cowardice' for refusing to defend the earth from exploitation.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Gillian Bouras
- 03 December 2014
7 Comments
In pride of place on this feast day, a modest silver cross lies in a glass case. The cross is surrounded by leaves of basil, the plant that was supposedly found growing on the True Cross when it was discovered by St Helen in 326. The word basil means king, the plant is considered the king of herbs, and bunches of it are always used in the sprinkling of holy water.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Gillian Bouras
- 03 October 2012
6 Comments
The convent has a history of catastrophe at the hands of invaders like the Franks and the Turks, not to mention the earthquake of 1986 and fires of 2007. There are now only two nuns in buildings designed to hold 100. One announces that she would rather someone plunged a dagger in her heart than be forced to leave.
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RELIGION
The situation of Christians in Bethlehem is difficult, and many are leaving. It is hard to shed tears for Jewish victims of the Holocaust while living under Israeli military occupation, and it is equally difficult being part of a Christian minority in a predominately Middle Eastern Muslim society.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 27 February 2007
7 Comments
The last state authorised execution in Australia—that of Ronald Ryan—occurred 40 years ago last week. 12 year old Frank Brennan felt it was wrong. His adolescent moral sensibilities found resonance in public debate, law reform and policy change.
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RELIGION
- Gillian Bouras
- 29 April 2006
In extremis, we seek what we know, or something very close to it.
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