How the world sees Greece
“Greek Independence Day is on March 25, so why do the Greeks hold their parades on different days?” I heard that complaint lodged over and over again, ever since I was a kid. And I’m sure it was lodged long before I was even born, too. It is a valid point, to be sure, because […]
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Greece Athena and Scotia-Glenville won NYSPHSAA boys semifinals Sturday morning, setting up a Class A championship game between unbeaten ...
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Ever since Homer, writers have had trouble describing the bonds that exist between friends. But if film and TV can focus on friendship, why can’t books?Patroclus is like a brother to Achilles, wrathful hero of the Greeks at Troy, and the other half of one of literature’s greatest friendships. When Patroclus dies in battle, wearing his beloved friend’s armour, Achilles laments – Homer tells us in another familial simile – like a lion who has lost his cubs. Related: The best eight young adult books – and why grownups should read them, too Continue reading...
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One of Europe's largest news magazines published a shocking juxtaposed photo of Germany's Angela Merkel standing with Nazi's in front of ancient ruins in Greece. Under the headline, "How Europeans look at the...
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Greece's new left-wing finance minister has put his luxury holiday home up for rent at €5,000 a week, it emerged today. With his heiress wife and luxurious second home, Yanis Varoufakis has been mocked as a champagne socialist. A celebrity style ...
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Less than 24 hours after a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and fellow European Union leaders seemed to have put the negotiating process "back on track", in Tsipras' own words, there is bickering and differing interpretations as to ...
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The Greek Parliament voted a bill notably providing relief to those with arrears in income taxes and social security contributions. Except for certain clauses, the bill was voted by both ther present government coalitioon of radical left Syriza and populist right ...
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Since then, both sides have been engaged in laborious negotiations with the EU accusing Greece of being uncooperative and Greece saying its ...
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The leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party has been released from prison and placed under house arrest, after an 18-month limit on his ...
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BRUSSELS - Greece has promised to speed up implementation of its extended bailout agreement and meet creditors' demands for a broad package ...
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The proposal came as Venezuela and Greece solidified their partnership when Venezuelan officials visited the European country to meet the new ...
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LONDON (CNN) - Greece is a tourist hot spot. But if you're going to the islands this summer, would you mind being wired to catch tax cheats?
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The parliamentary speaker in Greece's Chamber of Deputies Zoe Constantopoulou announced on March 17 the formation of a committee to audit the ...
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Sofia. “I have the assurance of our partners that the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector will be financed with money under the EU funds ...
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In Germany, news about Greece dominates the papers and the television programs. And this sensitivity is certainly understandable, given Germany's ...
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I visited Athens recently as part of a solidarity delegation from the British party Left Unity. On January 25, the day before radical left party SYRIZA's ...
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That is, Greece leaving the euro and the eurozone by accident, not by design. Everyone involved in the negotiations keeps insisting that this isn't what ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.forbes.com |
Both leaders are trying to end weeks of tension between Greece and Germany, but time is running out for Tsipras to secure a new debt deal with ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.europeonline-magazine.eu |
On Thursday, Greek banks reported the largest deposit withdrawals in a month, a sign savers are worried about the outlook for the country's finances ...
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She said Greece needed to understand that the international assistance to avoid it defaulting came with an obligation to “to reform its budget and work ...
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Russia's agricultural watchdog will conduct inspections of agricultural facilities in Greece, Cyprus and Hungary starting on April 6, giving them priority ...
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But for all the think-piece chatter, this veneration of the toned and chiselled is hardlya 21st-century phenomenon: get a load of those Ancient Greeks, ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.independent.co.uk |
The EU offered Greece funds on Friday to deal with what it called a “humanitarian crisis” after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras vowed to clarify ...
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But maybe there's hope for Greece. One of the Prime Minister's chief economic advisers, an out-of-the-closet communist, has announced his ...
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A few days later, however, French authorities contacted their Greek counterparts demanding his arrest after identifying him from fingerprints taken in ...
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All over the country, a handful of fraternities are making headlines for all the wrong reasons — racism, an investigation into hazing, vandalism and a ...
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KOLKATA: There was drama at high sea on Saturday morning after the Coast Guard embarked on a mission of mercy from Haldia to evacuate a ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT timesofindia.indiatimes.com |
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and teams of relevant ministries are in a series of meetings in order to compile the list of reforms required after the meeting in Brussels. Greece’s European partners have asked Tsipras to expedite procedures as time is running out for the Greek government which is facing a serious cash crunch. Things are even more pressing since the Greek premier has an important meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday. Merkel insisted in Brussels that Greece must present a comprehensive list of reforms in the next Eurogroup, and if the list is approved, only then Athens can receive further funding from creditors. Tsipras must have some proposals ready for the German Chancellor. The list of reforms will be the same in principle as the one presented in February by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. Certain points will be refined and all measures will have a “price tag” and an implementation time frame. The state budget, tax system reforms, reforms in insurance and labor laws, pensions and minimum wage will be the key points on the list. Sources from Brussels say that it is very likely that there will be an emergency Eurogroup on Friday, which means Greece must be ready by then, even though Tsipras has not given the exact date the list will be ready. On Wednesday the creditors’ representatives, the Brussels Group, will be in Athens to meet with the Greek technical teams and the next day there will be a meeting of the EuroWorking Group. On Friday, Tsipras gave a press conference saying that the recessionary measures of the previous government are history and the new measures will aim at growth with a primary surplus target of 1-1.5 percent. He promised a fair tax system where everyone will be paying taxes according to their revenues and announced that expected state revenues from tax evasion will reach 800 million euros in 2015. He also said that measures and reforms will be decided by the Greek government and not the lenders.
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A German couple have been hailed as "heroes" after paying out what they described as their personal share of World War II reparations to Greece.
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ATHENS, Greece — Panthrakikos beat third-place PAOK 3-1 in the Greek league on Saturday, when last-place OFI announced it was dropping out.
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Historic club OFI Crete announced Saturday that they are withdrawing immediately from the Greek Super League criticising the top-flight circuit for ...
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Cal Poly Greek Life have released a statement regarding the "St. Fratty's Day" celebration that was cut short, when a roof collapsed, injuring several ...
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photos by JASON CLARK / The GLEANER Guests enjoy the atmosphere and colors of Greece during “Mykonos on the Ohio II” on the ground floor of ...
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With Norway being the most carefree nation in the world and Nigeria the most stressed-out country, Greece lies somewhere in the middle of the “Most Stressed Out Nations” list in a survey conducted by Bloomberg. Neighboring Turkey is less stressed out than Greece. So is Argentina with a plethora of economic problems. Greeks are the most stressed out amongst the euro zone population and more stressed than the rest of Europe. The survey used seven basic criteria to measure the stress level of a population and shows some very interesting statistics. * Number of homicides: El Salvador and Venezuela top the list, something that puts them both in high places of the most stressed countries list. * GDP per capita based on purchasing power: At the bottom are Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. * Income inequality: South Africa and Colombia are the worst in that aspect. * Corruption: Venezuela, Bangladesh and Nigeria are the most corrupt. * Unemployment: FYROM, Greece, Bosnia and Spain have the highest unemployment rates. Yet they are not on top of the most stressed list. They are somewhere between the middle and the top. * Urban air pollution: The most polluted countries are Mongolia, Pakistan, Egypt and Iran. * Life expectancy: Nigeria, South Africa and India have the lowest life expectancy and very stressed out citizens.
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Main opposition New Democracy accused Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday of trying to take credit for the achievements of the previous government of Antonis Samaras. “The 2-billion-euro package [of EU funds] announced by Tsipras is the well-known result achieved after the negotiations of Mr. Samaras at the end of 2013, which was eventually agreed on for the period 2014-2020 from the same European budget,” party spokesman Costas Karagounis said. The spokesman also said that a large number of these funds have already been earmarked for specific social needs. “The government should focus on absorbing these funds within the year and by front-loading 2015, instead of taking credit for work which has already been done,” Karagounis added. (source: ana-mpa)
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In light of recent controversies related to Greek life on campus and across the country, several University sororities are ramping up restrictions on their ...
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How racist are Greek people? How do they feel about migrants? Action Aid, an international non-governmental organization whose primary aim is to work against poverty and injustice worldwide, carried out a social experiment in Athens to determine Greek people’s reaction to racism on the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The social experiment took place on February 20, in central Athens. Two actors, one from Bangladesh and one from Greece, played the roles of a migrant and a Greek citizen. The migrant from Bangladesh was the victim of a verbal attack from the Greek man, while they were both waiting for the bus. The migrant was sitting on the bus stop bench when he was approached by the Greek man who started insulting him, making racist comments and demanding from him to stand so someone else could sit in his place. More than 200 people unknowingly participated in the experiment which was repeated 22 times over the course of eight hours. The results were optimistic. Most Greeks appeared to have a strong reaction against the man who was making the racist comments, while several people even defended the migrants. In four incidents the people at the bus stop were indifferent to the scene they were witnessing, while on two occasions they showed racist behavior. However, on 15 occasions they defended the migrant. For over 40 years, Action Aid has been working to help people who are discriminated, helping them fight for their rights.
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A number of other Greek Week honors were presented during the event. The service winner was Sigma Tau Gamma, the philanthropy winner was Pi ...
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A bill titled “Regulations for the restart of the economy” passed in Parliament late on Friday night by roll-call vote, in principle and per article, under emergency voting procedures. The bill, which settles arrears to the state and social security funds by provisions that include the opportunity to settle debts in as many as 100 installments, passed in principle by ruling parties SYRIZA and Independent Greeks (ANEL), and former ruling coalition partners New Democracy (now main opposition) and PASOK, while Potami and extreme-right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) voted “present.” The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) voted against because the government rejected an amendment for full write off of debts of families with total annual income of 20,000 euros and a haircut of debt for families with double that income. During the per-article discussion, New Democracy proposed roll-call votes for four articles involving the jurisdiction of the finance minister in setting debt regulations and exemptions from them (articles 16-17); precautionary and temporary taxation of companies under suspicion of “triangular transactions” (article 21); and the end of all operations for Paraktio Attiko Metopo (Coastal Attica Front) S.A. and transfer of its assets to the current state privatization agency (article 24). The four articles passed on the votes of SYRIZA and ANEL. ND, Potami and KKE voted against, PASOK voted for the first three and against the fourth, while Golden Dawn voted “present” for the first three articles and against the last one. FinMin Varoufakis: Greece ‘claiming ownership of its reforms program’ Greece and this government have succeeded in claiming ownership of the country’s reforms, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Parliament on Friday during the debate on the bill to restart Greece’s economy, as he commented on Thursday’s EU Summit meeting. “What we achieved with yesterday’s EU Summit, and are achieving every moment with blood, is the right of this government and of Parliament to claim ownership of the reforms program,” Varoufakis said. According to the finance minister, the delays in communication with Greece’s EU partners is apparent since the agreement between the Eurogroup and Greece on February 20 is not due to the Greek side or to dissatisfaction over Greece’s proposals but “to some apprentice magicians in some of the institutions [Greece’s creditors] who would very much like to have us return to the state of the now-gone troika, where they would legislate and we would follow faithfully.” Some people, he asserted, wanted us as early as February 21 to overturn the logic of the agreement and have us return to the fifth review, he added. Referring to the draft bill calling for as many as 100 installments for repayment of outstanding debts to the state and social security funds, Varoufakis described it as “a necessary draft bill, although not adequate to restart the economy” and said that soon a draft bill would be tabled to regulate the non-performing loans of citizens to banks. (source: ana-mpa)
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The aircraft used for transportation of the Greek head of state has been put in emergency use for transferring a sick child to Hanover, Germany. A spokesperson for “Smile of the Child” voluntary organization said that a 12-year-old girl with a brain tumor had to be transferred urgently to a hospital in Hanover to undergo surgery. The official announcement made by “Smile of the Child” is as follows: “The “Smile of the Child” in cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Office, the doctors of Aglaia Kyriakou Hospital and the ambulance team, joined forces for the emergency transfer of little Despina from Athens to Hanover, Germany. The mobilization of all involved was immediate, sustained and coordinated with the main concern being to find the safest way for Despina to travel. Under the pressure of time and intense emotions, the solution was given by the Office of the Prime Minister which lent the presidential aircraft for Despina to go to Germany. The surgery is today. We ask for your prayers that the surgery will succeed and Despina will return home soon!” It should be noted that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was in Brussels at the time, where he had traveled using a commercial airline.
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During these years of economic crisis, Greeks are hiding their money under the mattress instead of keeping it in the bank, says a Bloomberg report. In the months following the announcement of snap elections, Greek banks have lost billions in deposits. The Bloomberg report says that the funds “missing” are not transferred to other banks but are most likely hidden under mattresses or under bathroom tiles. Data provided by the Bank of Greece indicate that the money withdrawn have been transferred to other accounts. The data is based on estimating banknotes in circulation, the amount of which do not show a significant rise. But according to Bloomberg, the “banknotes in circulation” only show “the amount of cash Greece has been allocated under its share of overall euro-area banknote circulation. Any extra cash needs of the Greek economy are accounted for elsewhere on the Bank of Greece balance sheet under the rather drab headline of “net liabilities related to the allocation of euro banknotes within the Eurosystem.” However, balance sheets show this extra cash was zero before the crisis hit in 2009 and rose to 22 billion euros shortly before the 2012 political crisis that led to the second bailout. They started falling steadily, until December 2014 when the new political crisis culminated in snap elections and the leftist SYRIZA government came into power. This extra cash started rising significantly again. Using graphs of extra cash and banknotes in circulation in Greece, the report concludes that in the three months until the end of February 2015 there is a 10 billion euro increase in total cash. Therefore they can be found under the mattresses of Greek households.
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The Greek crisis is not just an economic mess. Increasingly, it is becoming a geopolitical mess too. Alexis Tsipras, the country’s prime minister, whose radical-left Syriza party swept into government after January’s general election, has taken to ...
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Greek bailouts are nothing new—ask Lord Byron. But is the country finally ready to learn its lesson and clean up its own fiscal house? Last year I took a trip with my father to Messolonghi, in western Greece, to visit the monument to Lord Byron in the ...
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Greece must cooperate with international creditors and boost confidence among its euro zone partners about economic reforms, Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said in a radio interview, adding a lack of trust was a major problem. If Athens does not step up efforts to honour terms of its current bailout package, it will find few allies in Europe should it need a third rescue, he ...
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Despite the recent impasse in negotiations between the SYRIZA government and lenders that brought threats of a Grexit, Greek people show their trust to the leftist party as 47.8 percent of them would vote for them if elections were held tomorrow. The survey conducted by Metron Analysis for weekend newspaper Parapolitika shows SYRIZA leading the race with a difference that is more than double than second New Democracy. SYRIZA is at 47.8 percent and the previous ruling party is at 21.1 percent. This means that SYRIZA won 11 extra percentage points over the opposition party and New Democracy lost almost 7 points. Third party is again the extreme rightist nationalists of Golden Dawn at 6.1 percent followed by The River at 5.6 percent. The Greek Communist Party would get 4.5 percent of the vote, Junior coalition partners Independent Greeks (ANEL) would get 4.4 percent, PASOK would get 3.4 percent and the Socialist Democrats Movement of George Papandreou 2.2 percent. The vast majority of Greeks are in favor of the common European currency with 84 percent saying that they prefer the euro, while only 13 percent would like a return to the drachma. This is a little contradictory since there is a significant number of SYRIZA MPs who have openly stated that they would like to see Greece leaving the euro zone and return to the drachma. Regarding debt negotiations, 60 percent of Greeks believe that it is the euro zone that should back down, 20 percent believe that Greece should back down, while 18 percent of participants said that the two sides should compromise. When asked if a compromise is possible, 80 percent of Greeks are optimistic that there will be a solution that would satisfy both sides, while 17 percent said that there won’t be a solution.
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The latest issue of German magazine Der Spiegel features a controversial cover juxtaposing Chancellor Angela Merkel with a group of Nazi officers standing in front of the Parthenon in an old black and white picture taken during Germany’s occupation of Greece. The title of the feature is “How Europeans View Germans: The German Superpower.” In light of the recent acrimonious exchanges between, mainly, the finance ministers of the two countries and the return of the issue of German war reparations, the Greek public reacted to the cover. The article, of course, does not equate Angela Merkel to the Nazi forces of the past. It is a report on how people in Europe view the German superpower of today, as Germany appears as the unofficial leader of the European Union. There is mention of the Fourth Reich in the article, while there is a picture of a graffiti of Merkel sporting a Hitler mustache. According to Der Spiegel there are countries in Europe where people make comparisons between Germany’s political influence in the EU today and the Nazi regime of the past. In Greece, such comparisons have thrived in the past two months as many Greeks view the German Chancellor as the ruthless ruler who doesn’t back down on the country’s request for financial aid. Several newspapers have published cartoons and editorials depicting Mrs. Merkel and finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as Nazi figures. Yet, the magazine article says that Germany has returned as a power, but not as big and forceful as many Europeans believe.
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Greece ‘s Supreme Court upheld the 16.5% interest rate charged by banks for credit card debt as legal in a case before the A1 civil section of the court. The case was brought up by a consumer for a card issued November 16, 2004, at a time when interest ...
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But maybe there's hope for Greece. One of the Prime Minister's chief economic advisers, an out-of-the-closet communist, has announced his ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.peoplespunditdaily.com |
I visited Athens recently as part of a solidarity delegation from the British party Left Unity. On January 25, the day before radical left party SYRIZA's ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.greenleft.org.au |
Russia's agricultural watchdog will conduct inspections of agricultural facilities in Greece, Cyprus and Hungary starting on April 6, giving them priority ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT sputniknews.com |