Antenna: News in English, 96-11-25

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: [email protected]

News in English, of 25/11/1996

TITLES

• The prime minister says lean times now will lead to a better future.
• The winners at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
• And, Hellenism's revival in painting in the 18th and 19th centuries.

SIMITIS

Explaining the reasoning behind his tight 1997 budget, Kostas Simitis said the alternative is Greece falling into the European second division economically. That, he added, would weaken the country diplomatically.

PAPANTONIOU

Iannos Papantoniou said bond interest will be taxed at 7.5 per cent, 282 tax breaks are being stricken from the books, and the tax man will become more zealous about collecting what the state's due.

Properties valued at over 300 thousand dollars will be hit with progressive taxes.

That all relates to those the government calls the "haves".

The have nots, public sector employees and pensioners, will be getting modest raises next year which the government SAYS will keep pace with inflation.

Finally, to raise money for the troubled treasury, the government intends to sell off a number of state-owned enterprises.

The budget announcements surprised no one - its contents were pretty much known for weeks, and the prime minister never hid his view that belt- tightening is a necessity.

But the trade unions, pensioners, and the opposition parties disagree with the Pasok view of the economy. New Democracy leader Miltiades Evert said the government's tax policies amount to quote "looting".

PANGALOS

Theodoros Pangalos was responding to his Turkish counterpart's call for all Aegean issues to be taken up by the international court.

At a press conference Thursday, Pangalos said that's a ploy to get Greece to bargain over things international law already gives it the right to.

FILMFEST

The award ceremony brought the curtain down on the annual celebration of cinema enjoyed by thousands of movie-lovers.

DECOR PAINTING

This tome, put together by Miltos Garides is a treasure chest of frescoes and paintings spawned during a period of re-emerging Hellenism.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, ceilings, walls and facades throughout the Ottoman Empire were decorated in a new style. The Islamic aesthetic weakened, and a Balkan version of the European Baroque and Rococo styles came slowly to dominate.

From Constantinople to Crete, from Albania to Asia Minor, from village to village, a joyous, bright style of painting spread. This new style was popular, not scholarly.

It animated mythological themes and ancient allegories, anything the Ottoman Empire would tolerate being depicted.

The Greeks living under Turkish domination borrowed back what the Europeans had taken from the ancient Greeks, interpreting themes according to their own specific needs and aspirations.

Innocence; mythical atmosphere; tension of colour; all the tension that springs from the urge to tell a story - all these qualities are the artistic hallmarks of the tension contained created by the desire to live.

The world depicted is quaint and aesthetically complete. This book brings us closer to the vision of an earlier age, one forgotten but determined to go on existing. This book also talks to us today, revealing a rich Hellenism, one that is quaint but not naive.

©ANT1-Radio 1996

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