‘Jigger Bulgary’ links Greece with Australia
One of the first Greeks known to have set foot in Australia, a convicted pirate deported by the British in the early 19th century, has been honored by the Greek community of Canberra as «a bridge between Greece and Australia.» Greek community leaders, consular officials and 40 descendants of Ghikas Boulgaris (1807-74), attended a ceremony this month at the pirate’s grave in the «Old Cemetery» of Nimmitabel, New South Wales, 155 kilometers south of Canberra. A new headstone was added to the grave, together with a plaque telling the story of the Hydra-born shepherd – who was known during his lifetime as Jigger Bulgary. Boulgaris, who arrived in Australia in 1829 with another six sailors from the Herakles privateer, was one of the two who chose to stay in the continent after his pardon in 1836, and was naturalized in 1861. «Boulgaris will forever serve as a bridge between Greece and Australia,» Greek consul Theodoros Michalopoulos said. The political comeback of the conservative party should mark the end of these vacuous leftist ideological constructs, so that politics can regain its traditional urban face in a society where the citizen is not only a productive unit but rather a member of a particular community in which his value is not confined to the size of his property. In other words, Simitis’s political demise should also mark the end of an era which was characterized by a sense of inferiority and by an effort to create a reality that perceives European diversity not as a specific historical setting but as an ephemeral multinational consortium.
