How the world sees Greece
 Kathimerini | Greece's company tax and VAT rates highest in region Kathimerini It is not so much salary costs, but rather the corporate income tax rate and the value-added tax rate that discourage foreign direct investment in Greece, according to a survey by KPMG researchers published yesterday. The annual survey on corporate and ... |
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UN official concerned at Greek prison conditions WSLS ATHENS, Greece (AP) A United Nations fact-finding mission has voiced concern at conditions in Greek prisons and detention facilities, lamenting overcrowding and harsh treatment of illegal immigrants. The UN working group focusing on arbitrary detention ... |
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The Globe and Mail Globe and Mail The risks highlighted by Streetwise back then were not exactly rocket science – runaway health spending and a stubborn structural deficit, combined with increasing national strains because of a bifurcated economy with mineral-wealth haves and have-nots ... |
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 IPE.com (registration) | Greek privatisation fund completes first public land deal GlobalPost Greece's privatisation fund said Thursday it had completed its first public land international deal in 15 years, by accepting an offer over a plot on the western island of Corfu. "The board of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund has accepted ... Greek pensions vehicle sees 'huge bet' on domestic bonds pay off Greek Pension Fund Balloons On Sovereign Debt Bet Greek privatisation fund clinches 23 mln eur real estate deal |
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 WKBW-TV | Whey! The Downside to the Greek Yogurt Explosion Businessweek Yogurt makers such as Chobani of Norwich, N.Y., the leading producer of Greek yogurt in the U.S., sell the leftover whey to farmers who use it mostly for fertilizer, spokeswoman Lindsay Kos says. Fage U.S.A., a Greek yogurt maker in Johnstown, N.Y ... Schumer: Feds work to bring Greek yogurt to school Greek Yogurt, Meat Alternative, May Get Into School Lunches USDA to begin adding Greek yogurt to school meal menus |
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 FRANCE 24 | Greece reels from new strikes against austerity FRANCE 24 ... groups ranging from sailors to doctors to transport workers causing disruptions. AFP - Greece reeled on Thursday from fresh strikes against austerity measures, with walkouts by groups ranging from sailors to doctors to transport workers causing ... Greece protesters storm labour ministry Greece hit by new austerity strikes Strikes pause in Greece, more protests planned |
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Greece accepts $31 million bid for island plot Huffington Post ATHENS, Greece — Greece's state privatization fund says it has accepted a (EURO)23 million ($31 million) bid from New York-based investors to develop real estate on the western resort island of Corfu. It is the first successful deal involving a large ... |
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It is safe to assume that Diageo is aiming for a 9% dividend, or more, for the financial year - that's a strong statement of corporate confidence
Diageo rarely misses an opportunity to boast about the squillions it has returned to shareholders since its creation, via the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997, but here's a small fact it strangely neglected to mention on Thursday: the dividend, pushed up 9% yesterday, is rising at the fastest rate since the off.
It was only an interim dividend but since Diageo is religious in observing a one-third/two-third split in distributions to shareholders it is safe to assume it is also aiming for 9%, or more, for the whole 2012/13 financial year. That's a strong statement of corporate confidence.
Southern Europe, where sales fell 19% in the half, is the only bleak spot. "I don't see it getting any easier there in the next 24 months," says chief executive Paul Walsh. But since he's talking about a territory contributing only 5% of Diageo's business, the pain in Spain and Greece gets lost in the multinational wash. The health of the US – a "very resilient market," says Walsh – and emerging markets lie behind Diageo's current swagger.
Pre-tax profits rose 5% to £1.96bn in the six months. On a global basis, the group seems to have had little difficulty in performing its usual trick of pushing up prices while simultaneously encouraging Scotch drinkers to try a pricier label. This price/mix effect turned a pedestrian 1% increase in volumes into a 5% rise in sales. Put another way, Diageo seems to run on rails.
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 WBNG-TV | At Chobani, the Turkish King of Greek Yogurt Businessweek Hamdi Ulukaya sits in a restaurant in upstate New York, waggling a rolled-up slice of pizza, making bombastic pronouncements about yogurt. As the founder and chief executive of Chobani, the brand of Greek yogurt that has stormed the stainless steel ... Schumer: Feds work to bring Greek yogurt to school Greek Yogurt, Meat Alternative, May Get Into School Lunches USDA to begin adding Greek yogurt to school meal menus |
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 UN News Centre | Greece must improve detention conditions for migrants – UN experts UN News Centre 31 January 2013 – A group of United Nations independent experts today stressed that Greece must improve the conditions of detention for migrants and effectively implement recent legislation to enhance screening procedures for asylum-seekers. “In most ... |
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 The Voice of Russia | Greece default still likely - Moody's The Voice of Russia Default in Greece is still likely because of Athens' inability to cope with the implementation of the second bailout program, Moody's said in its survey on Thursday. According to the survey, the Greek economy will shrink by five percent in 2013, a ... |
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 FRANCE 24 | IMF to send mission to Greece in February FRANCE 24 People walk by the National bank of Greece headquarters in Athens on December 11, 2012. The International Monetary Fund will send a staff mission to Greece next month to assess the country's performance under an austerity program backed by an ... |
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Greek workers to strike against austerity on Feb. 20 Reuters ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek private sector workers will walk off the job for 24 hours on Feb, 20 to protest austerity measures prescribed by the country's international lenders, their union GSEE said on Thursday. Public sector union ADEDY is expected to ... |
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With the female employment rate the third lowest in the OECD, Italian activists urge action on 'colossal loss to economy'
Enza Miceli has one word to sum up the life of a working mother in southern Italy: "impossible".
Last month, she received a call from her children's school asking her to come in for an appointment. Her husband was abroad. So Miceli, 44, a call centre worker, asked her supervisor if, just this once, she could slip out for two hours. "She said to me: 'Well, you need to choose between your work and your family. If you choose your family, you will never succeed at work.'"
Miceli chose her family and quit. "So now I am at home and I am a carer, mother, housewife, jack of all trades and feminist in spirit."
With a female employment rate of 46.5% – the third lowest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), better only than Greece, Mexico and Turkey, and 12 percentage points lower than the EU average – Italy has a problem getting its women into work and keeping them there.
In a country which has a generally low level of employment and where the economic crisis has dealt a particularly heavy blow to young people, the so-called "female question" has not, until now, gained particular attention.
But, with an election a month away, economists and feminists are demanding the issue be taken seriously – as much for the country's gross domestic product (GDP) as for its female population. "Italy is not using to the best of its ability a significant part of its human capital – women. It is a colossal loss for our economy," wrote Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, two leading economists, on the front page of Corriere della Sera this month. "The next government will have to put the question of female employment at the heart of its programme."
For many people who watched with horror and incredulity as Silvio Berlusconi spent years combining the job of prime minister with sexist buffoon, such a move would be refreshing. But they say that this element of his legacy, which drew on Italy's traditional gender roles and pushed them to grotesque extremes in the form of "bunga bunga" soirées and barely clad television showgirls, will be difficult to overcome.
"The idea that that's the career for a girl is a terrible educational thing," said Michela Cella, a Milan-based economist and mother. "I think that, even more than for the finances of this country, 20 years of Berlusconi was very bad in terms of culture."
When it comes to female unemployment, observers agree that tackling the cultural roots of the problem is crucial. In Italy, particularly in the south where the situation is far more acute, the female population is still expected, as Cella says, to be "the ultimate care-giver". She manages to combine full-time work with a family, but acknowledges she is lucky to have a relatively flexible job.
Maddalena Vianello, a researcher and feminist activist, believes a "revolution of mentality" is needed in order to redistribute the burden of unpaid domestic work, be it housework, childcare or looking after the elderly.
That may take some time. According to figures published in 2011 by the OECD, Italian women spent three hours 40 minutes more per day on unpaid work than their male counterparts.
Defenders of the status quo argue that women, in performing the role of what the Italians call the "angel of the hearth", are performing a hugely valuable function.
But Giavazzi, a professor of economics at Bocconi University in Milan, does not agree. "It's very inefficient because you have people with good university degrees who could be very productive on the market and instead work at home," he said. The argument that they are facilitating a booming demography is also wrong, he said, adding that Italy, with an average of 1.4 children for every woman, has one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe – lower, for instance, than Nordic countries where the female employment rate is much higher.
As Miceli discovered, if women manage to find work in Italy – in a country where the unemployment rate is 11% – their experiences can be discouraging. Families who cannot rely on relatives to look after their children – a common strategy among working-age Italians – will have to find childcare, the public provision of which in southern Italy is patchy and often over-subscribed. The work women find is often precarious, says Daniela Del Boca, an economist at the University of Turin.
What can the next government do to fix this problem? For many, the answer is clear: better public services that will allow women greater freedom by providing more care for pre-school children and elderly people. Others, such as Giavazzi, advocate easing the tax burden to boost women's pay.
Now that the subject is being discussed, is Miceli hopeful that things may improve? "I am only hopeful because I have young daughters and if I lost my hope I wouldn't know what to cling to," she said. But, she says, when she talks to other women in Puglia she realises attitudes are so ingrained that they will be hard to overcome. "This is a really awful thing, that we've got used to it. We treat it as if it's something inevitable that we cannot change."
If there is one feature of the Italian workplace that sums up the difficulties women can have while pursuing a career, it is the phenomenon of dimissioni in bianco, or blank resignations.
For decades, many employers have insisted that new members of staff – particularly female ones – sign an undated resignation letter which can then be used further down the line to terminate their contract. In practice, say economists, it is usually pregnant women who bear the brunt and prosecutions are rare.
In 2011, the Italian Institute for Statistics said it believed 800,000 women had at one point in their lives been forced to leave a job either during or after a pregnancy. "It's astonishing," said Daniela Del Boca, an economist at the University of Turin. "It's totally illegal. But they can do it anyway, because you want the job."
The practice has been a tricky issue for successive governments. Under Romano Prodi in 2007, a law was passed to clamp down on it; the legislation was swiftly repealed under Berlusconi in 2008 on the grounds that it would be too complex and too bureaucratic.
As part of its package of labour reforms passed last year, the technocratic government of Mario Monti singled out the issue, with welfare and employment minister Elsa Fornero declaring blank resignations to be a practice that weighed "heavily and negatively on the working conditions of women and on their dignity, representing a real breach of freedoms which are fundamental to civil society".
A new law was passed, and the government won plaudits for tackling the issue. But, say many observers, it hasn't fixed the situation.
"They tried to address the issue, but in a very complicated way which is not very effective," said del Boca.
Maria Vittoria Ballestrero, professor of employment law at the University of Genoa, has said the law, while well-intentioned, is easy for a cunning employer to get around.
There is now pressure on whoever forms the next government to solve the problem once and for all.
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A spotlight on NYC's Greek population Queens Chronicle Those details, along with other questions like when she attended Greek school (age 6), if she likes Greek music (very much) and if she would live in Greece (no, but she's not sure if she could live anywhere except New York City), are all documented in ... |
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My dear friend, Anthony Whitehead, who has died aged 88, was for many years a classics teacher at Queen Elizabeth's grammar school, Middleton, Manchester. He was a rare example of a clever man who also had an abundance of common sense and good humour.
Anthony had an extensive knowledge of the Greek and Roman worlds and supervised many excursions to study them with his pupils. In retirement, each week he would go to the library in Didsbury and translate Latin and Greek texts. He also studied modern Greek and Italian, taking examinations at the highest level for translators. He and his wife, Betty, travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East, recording their journeys in notebooks and on camera.
I met Atnhony on our first day at William Hulme's grammar school, Manchester, in 1935, when we were both put in form 1C, much to the disgust of Anthony's mother. We all soon realised, however, that the boys were put into the first year's three forms alphabetically. Anthony, a scholarship boy from nearby Denton, soon showed his academic brilliance. For one homework assignment, we had to write 12 similes and 12 metaphors in complete sentences. I was pleased with my work, comprising 24 sensible sentences, until I heard Anthony's offering, which was a fully fledged poem, much to the English teacher's delight.
Anthony will be remembered by many people because of his genial temperament, from his days at William Hulme's; the RAF, in which he served during the latter stages of the second world war; Manchester University; Queen Elizabeth's grammar; and the Classical Association.
He was very keen on music of all kinds, playing the piano well and being a member of choral societies. Even in later life, he participated each week in hockey, playing or refereeing.
The anchor of his life was Betty, who survives him.
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Paul Lewis, The Guardian's special projects editor, has won the innovation-of-the-year category of the European Press Prize for Reading the Riots.
His year-long research project into the causes of the 2011 summer riots, which was run jointly with Professor Tim Newburn of the London School of Economics, was commended by the judges for its new approach to reporting. It combined investigative journalism with scientific methodology.
Lewis analysed the mechanisms that led to the violence and to its rapid spread from London to other major towns and cities in Britain. It seriously questioned many assumptions about the riots, from the role of social media to the involvement of criminal gangs.
Lewis commented: "Needless to say, there is no other news organisation in the UK - or the world, probably - that would give its journalists the freedom to create an innovation like Reading the Riots."
The news reporting award went to three reporters from the Danish daily Jyllands Posten - Orla Borg, Carsten Ellegaard Christensen and Morten Pihl - for their investigation on the role of Morten Storm, an ex-Danish secret serviceman who helped the CIA locate an Al-Qaida leader.
Judges gave the commentator award to Nikos Chrysoloras, the Brussels correspondent for the Greek daily Kathimerini, for his article "Why Greece must remain in the Eurozone", which was published in papers across Europe.
And the editing award went to Ihor Pochynok, chief editor of Express a daily newspaper published in Lviv in the Ukraine. Judges said the paper was a prime example of a local newspaper becoming the opinion leader of its region and assuming at times a national role.
On the judging panel, chaired by former Sunday Times editor Harry Evans, were Sylvie Kaufmann, editorial director of the France's Le Monde; Jørgen Ejbøl, vice chairman of the Jyllands-Posten Foundation; Paolo Flores d'Arcais, one of the most influential philosophers and writers in Italy; and Yevgenia Albats, editor in chief and CEO of the Moscow-based political weekly The New Times.
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IPE.com (registration) | IMF's Greek Euro Exit Analysis Wall Street Journal (blog) We're a tad late getting to this, but the International Monetary Fund in its latest report on the Greek bailout took an interesting look at how far euro-zone economic output would fall if Greece ditched the common currency. The fund's answer: Maybe a ... Greek pensions vehicle sees 'huge bet' on domestic bonds pay off |
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