The week in review
review
14 Jan 2018
/ 09:07
CORFU. Catch up on what happened in Corfu this week.
Following Christmas and New Year, the celebration of the Epiphany is an important date in the Greek Orthodox calendar. Last weekend saw the traditional ‘Blessing the Water’ ceremony taking place in coastal parishes all over the island. Here you can see a video of the Corfu Town ceremony at the Old Port.
The Church was also in the news last week for another reason. A marble throne and two marble shrines in the Metropolitan church have provoked a backlash and led to the intervention of the Inspectorate for Antiquities.
The traditional New Year Cake is not cut just on New Year’s Day in Greece – throughout the month of January clubs, societies, organizations and companies hold special events to cut the cake for the good of the coming year. This week saw several such events, including that of the Art Café in Corfu Town, which also had a sale of items from the Municipal Art Gallery.
MPs also took the opportunity to pay visits, with the two SYRIZA MPs, Fotini Vaki and Kostas Pavlidis, visiting the Port Authority and Civil Protection services respectively.
The holiday season, unfortunately, always brings accidents on the roads and this year was no exception. In the whole of Greece, there were slightly fewer than last year, but still 29 people died in 25 accidents. In the Ionian Islands, fortunately, there were no fatalities and no serious accidents.
This Friday saw legislation with the measures required for the 3rd assessment by our lenders coming to parliament for ratification. In protest at the legislation, the seamen had a 24-hour strike on Friday and local authority employees and civil servants are planning work stoppages on Monday 15th January.
The problem of waste disposal continues to dominate the news. Paxos has 7 months’ worth of accumulated waste and wants Corfu to come and take it away. The mayor of Corfu stated that in a ‘matter of days’ they would do so. The rubbish on the beaches of Corfu continues to accumulate, as we can see here. However, there are residents who take the time to do whatever they can to keep the beaches clean, as we can see here.
On a positive note, there is good news for tourism with the planned visit of important American ASTA agents to Corfu on a fam trip in April. Ryanair has also announced new flights between Corfu and Rome (Ciampino) in 2018.
The Church was also in the news last week for another reason. A marble throne and two marble shrines in the Metropolitan church have provoked a backlash and led to the intervention of the Inspectorate for Antiquities.
The traditional New Year Cake is not cut just on New Year’s Day in Greece – throughout the month of January clubs, societies, organizations and companies hold special events to cut the cake for the good of the coming year. This week saw several such events, including that of the Art Café in Corfu Town, which also had a sale of items from the Municipal Art Gallery.
MPs also took the opportunity to pay visits, with the two SYRIZA MPs, Fotini Vaki and Kostas Pavlidis, visiting the Port Authority and Civil Protection services respectively.
The holiday season, unfortunately, always brings accidents on the roads and this year was no exception. In the whole of Greece, there were slightly fewer than last year, but still 29 people died in 25 accidents. In the Ionian Islands, fortunately, there were no fatalities and no serious accidents.
This Friday saw legislation with the measures required for the 3rd assessment by our lenders coming to parliament for ratification. In protest at the legislation, the seamen had a 24-hour strike on Friday and local authority employees and civil servants are planning work stoppages on Monday 15th January.
The problem of waste disposal continues to dominate the news. Paxos has 7 months’ worth of accumulated waste and wants Corfu to come and take it away. The mayor of Corfu stated that in a ‘matter of days’ they would do so. The rubbish on the beaches of Corfu continues to accumulate, as we can see here. However, there are residents who take the time to do whatever they can to keep the beaches clean, as we can see here.
On a positive note, there is good news for tourism with the planned visit of important American ASTA agents to Corfu on a fam trip in April. Ryanair has also announced new flights between Corfu and Rome (Ciampino) in 2018.
Corfu cuisine also got a boost, with 6 local restaurants winning national Culinary Awards.
Finally, the German-Hellenic Society and Regional Police made a generous donation of basic necessities to Roma families in need in Corfu. And the Corfu Socio-Medical Centre has a paediatrician….after a wait of two years!
