The baby boy was taken from the island of Agathonisi to a hospital on the nearby island of Samos, where he was pronounced dead, the GREEK ...
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How the world sees Greece
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Readers react to the Royals, GREEK debt and Bernie Sanders
A little known bit of information is the roles that financial giants AIG and Goldman-Sachs played in both profiting from the GREEK debt and trying to help ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.kansascity.com |
Riot police clash with refugees in Lesbos
Some 17,000 people are trapped on Greek island in stinking conditions waiting for permits that would allow them to travel on towards northern Europe
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.telegraph.co.uk |
19 photos that show life around the world in the hottest month ever recorded
Throughout the summer, droughts have ravaged California and Brazil. Wildfires raged and burned in the American West, Europe, and Asia. A heat wave in the Middle East brought temperatures over 120 degrees Fahrenheit to Iraq — and it felt like 164 F in Iran. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Scientists are trying to figure out if super-hot summers exacerbated by climate change are just the new normal. Scroll through for a look at the way people around the globe sweated through a sweltering month. GREECE DEALT WITH EXTREME HEAT ALONG WITH A DEBT CRISIS. THIS MAN TRIED TO STAY COOL AT A BEACH OUTSIDE OF ATHENS. ABOUT 500 KM AWAY, IN ANOTHER PART OF GREECE, LOCAL RESIDENTS NEAR THE TOWN OF NEAPOLI STRUGGLED TO EXTINGUISH THIS WILDFIRE. SUCH FIRES RAISED ALARM AROUND THE WORLD THIS SUMMER. FIREFIGHTERS IN THE WEST WORKED TO CONTAIN BLAZES LIKE THIS ONE IN LAKE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. See the rest of the story at Business Insider NOW WATCH: Harrison Ford has some advice for the new ‘Star Wars’ cast in his first on-camera interview since the accident
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Refugee baby dies on Greek island, clashes on Lesbos
A two-month-old baby from a family of refugees died Saturday on the Greek island of Agathonisi, a police source said, as riot officers clashed with migrants on the island of Lesbos.
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The Latest: Migrants, police clash on Greek island of Lesbos
The latest news as tens of thousands of migrants pour into countries across Europe. All times local (CET):
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Hot Financial Stocks
National Bank of GREECE (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) decreased -2.29% settle at $0.640. Its total traded volume during last trading session was 2.41 million ...
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GREECE, Europe and the Transformation of Alexis Tsipras
After all, Prime Minister Tsipras and his Syriza party had run on an anti-austerity/anti-Troika platform, vowing to break GREECE'S dependency; and he ...
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Protests Accompany First Day of Thessaloniki International Fair
Saturday September 5 marks the first day of this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) — one of Greece’s biggest commercial exhibits — where a number of organizations demonstrated on the streets of Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. In the early evening three different groups began marching in the streets in protest of the austerity measures and reforms of the third
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New Tragedy in Refugee Crisis: Two-Month-Old Syrian Child Drowns by Agathonisi Island
Following the death of Aylan Kurdi, another child has passed away during his family’s effort to migrate to Europe. A two month Syrian boy was declared dead on the island of Samos on Saturday after the boat that was transporting him and his family to Europe hit some rocks on Agathonisi, a small Greek island which is located close to
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GREEK hoopsters enter Eurobasket with win over FYROM
Its good long-range shooting troubled the GREEK defense, but that was not enough to stop the players of Fotis Katsikaris from avenging the defeat ...
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Yanis Varoufakis says he'd come back to GREEK politics to give 'bitter medicine'
"You only have to listen to the parties themselves. All of them disagree with the program, but they vote on it on the basis of blackmail," Yanis Varoufakis ...
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Canada and the world must help with refugee crisis, Turks and Greeks say
… by catamaran across the water, Greeks in Kos tell similar stories … threw eggs and yogurt at Greece’s visiting minister of defence … the Kurdi boys — smugglers, Turkey, Greece, the United Nations, the European …
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New obstacle for refugees: the Greek coast guard
… of repeated instances in Greek waters where Greek forces fire guns … will be fully investigated.” Greece rejects the claims. “As … tries before they reach Greece. EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM … economic migrants have arrived in Greece from Turkey and other …
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Varoufakis Says He’d Give Greeks ’Bitter Medicine,’ Not ’Poison’
… Bloomberg) -- Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has … a political comeback after the Greek election -- but only if …
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IZMIR, Turkey: New obstacle for refugees: the Greek coast ...
Migrants hug as they disembark from a ferry after their arrival from the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos to the Athens' port of Piraeus Saturday.
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Newborn boy found dead as migrants clash with Greek police
ATHENS A newborn boy was found dead after his migrant parents reached the shores of a Greek island in a boat from Turkey on Saturday, while new scuffles ...
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Giannis goes horizontal after jamming for GREECE
Our guy Giannis Antetokounmpo is hooping with GREECE right now in their EuroBasket game against Macedonia. At the break, he has 5 points and 1 ...
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Authorities struggle to identify dead in migrant tragedies
MILAN (AP) — Adal Netuse, an Eritrean immigrant whose brother drowned in a smuggler's boat while trying to reach Italy in 2013, knows all too well what might be in store for the relatives of those who died last month in a similar accident in the Mediterranean. Months of anguish over whether their loved one's body will be found. The emotional pain of looking at photos of badly disfigured corpses. Red tape and wasted time with bureaucrats who "just talk and talk" but don't keep their promises. As record numbers of desperate migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia flood into Europe, hundreds are also dying in risky journeys arranged by unscrupulous smugglers, and authorities are struggling to identify those victims. As of Sept. 1, at least 350,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year. More than 2,700 are known to have died, or are lost and presumed dead, according to the International Organization for Migration. Only about a third of the recovered bodies are ever identified, said Frank Laczko, head of the IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Center in Berlin. "If each person has 10 relatives, that's close to 30,000 people who are affected," Laczko said. Besides the emotional pain, survivors must cope with legal issues such as property ownership to the right to remarry. When Austrian authorities opened a truck apparently abandoned by smugglers on a highway near Vienna on Aug. 27, they discovered 71 badly decomposed bodies of men, women and children, and officials said some may never be identified. Another tragedy that same day left Libyan authorities with the task of identifying scores of bodies from two boats that sank off the coast. In a commercial disaster like a plane crash, authorities have passenger manifests, electronic tickets, credit card records and data from travel agencies to work with. But human traffickers understandably usually keep no records when they arrange passage to Europe for those paying cash, so there are no emergency contacts and no way to contact relatives. And many refugees carry no ID. Laczko said his agency wants a Europe-wide database for families to provide information about missing relatives and for authorities to distribute details about bodies they have found. He also wants far more attention paid to mining data from cellphones found on victims. In the case of the truck ditched in Austria, experts are studying Syrian documents found with the dead but also have taken their fingerprints, DNA samples and dental information, in addition to data from 10 cellphones, police spokesman Helmut Marban said. A hotline with Arabic, English and German speakers received more than 100 calls in its first two days. Marban would not disclose if any relatives have been located, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. Some 2,535 people, mostly Eritreans and other sub-Saharan Africans, have died this year in the longer and more hazardous sea route from Libya to Europe, and most of the estimated 600 bodies recovered have ended up in Libya or Italy, according to the IOM. At the same time, about 114,000 have landed safely in Italy. Over a longer period, from Oct. 18, 2013 through Aug. 26 this year, Italy has received a total of 382 bodies, the Italian Interior Ministry said. Greece has logged 234,778 arrivals via the shorter route from Turkey, with 85 people dying along the way. Sixty of those bodies were recovered and most of them were brought to Greece, while some were sent to Turkey, the IOM said. When the bodies end up in Italy, its main forensics team, based on the island of Sicily, gathers what information it can: fingerprints, a DNA sample, dental information and a list of tattoos and any other distinguishing marks. Italy has plenty of experience, dealing with maritime disasters involving smugglers' boats for years. But two tragedies in 2013 off Lampedusa, a tiny island 70 miles (115 kilometers) closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, changed much about how the world views the waves of migrants. On Oct. 3, 2013, a trawler sank near the island, and authorities recovered 368 bodies, mostly of Eritrean refugees. Eight days later, there was another shipwreck south of Lampedusa in which nearly 200 people are believed to have drowned. Until recently, the bodies were found were recorded in Italy's missing persons' register sparely: "African ethnicity," or even "shipwrecked." The minimal descriptions belied an official view of the futility of ever getting a positive identification. "Before there was the view that we only needed to identify Italians. In reality, that's not the case," said Vittorio Piscitelli, who took over the government office for missing people in 2013. The office recorded 1,300 missing people through June 30, 2014, most of them Italians and some dating back decades, but also including hundreds of migrants. Piscitelli and his team partnered with other organizations to set up a protocol for identifying the dead from the October 2013 tragedies. Just this year, they began reaching out to migrant and refugee communities in Europe to find relatives that can help with the process. North America is next. The physical descriptions in the Italian missing persons' ledger have grown more robust, and DNA samples were taken of all the October 2013 victims — which authorities say will ultimately help resolve more cold cases. So far, the official protocol applies only to the October 2013 tragedies. DNA samples were not typically taken of migrant victims prior to the two shipwrecks, and the identification process is otherwise handled by local police, meaning family members must figure out which jurisdiction to contact. Piscitelli hopes to be able to expand it to apply to more recent wrecks. Of the 368 bodies recovered from the Oct. 3, 2013, sinking and the 21 bodies in the second shipwreck, 195 were identified right away, Piscitelli said. Under the new protocols, another nine bodies have been identified, with tentative identification on another 19. One of the dead from Oct. 3 was the 26-year-old brother of Netuse, the Eritrean immigrant. Netuse considers himself "the lucky one" to have his brother Abraham identified. In an interview in a park near his Stockholm home, Netuse said the process took 18 agonizing months — from the moment smugglers in Libya confirmed his brother was on the capsized trawler to the final DNA confirmation. He had traveled to Lampedusa immediately to seek information about his brother's fate. He looked at hundreds of photos of the dead, eventually giving up under the emotional strain of seeing so many badly disfigured faces. "I was there one week, and I couldn't find him. But I talked to his friend who was there. He told me ... he drowned. But I didn't get an official answer to my questions," Netuse said. No one took a DNA sample from him on that first visit to Lampedusa. He finally gave one when he was there again for a memorial on the tragedy's anniversary. While there, he was told results would come in a month; the positive identification actually took six months. "They promised a lot of things, but they don't keep their promises," he said. Netuse said officials told him that Abraham is buried in Sicily in a grave that is marked with a number but not a name. Piscitelli said identifying the remaining bodies from the October 2013 wrecks will require help from relatives, many of whom are out of reach inside oppressive nations or in conflict zones. A group called the Oct. 3 Committee, meanwhile, works with the Eritrean diaspora in Europe, seeking both DNA samples and documents. Gergishu Yohannes, an Eritrean living in Germany for 30 years, assists others who are struggling with the uncertainty of a vanished relative. She is motivated by the loss of her brother, Abel, who disappeared in 2009 while on a small boat from Libya to Italy and has never been found. The craft, carrying 85 people, ran out of fuel near Malta. Adrift and out of food and water, the passengers began dying one by one, and their bodies were thrown overboard. When Italian authorities finally them three weeks after they had set off, only five remained alive, Yohannes said. She helps others, she said, "so that they won't have a fate like me, waiting every day, and can identify their loved ones." Until her brother's body is found, Yohannes said she cannot rest. "One waits every day, and I'm still waiting today," she said. "I cannot give it up." ___ Rising reported from Berlin, and Keyton from Stockholm. Paolo Santalucia in Rome and Christoph Noelting in Wachtberg, Germany, contributed to this story. Join the conversation about this story »
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A Dutchman 'in control’ of the Greek government
#economy #media
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GREEK governmental musical chairs
This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the quiz about Greece's finance ministers and the RFI English reporter. There's club news ...
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GREEK State Loses 37.044 Bln Euros from VAT Evasion
During these five years, the GREEK State lost a total of 37.044 billion euros from VAT tax evasion. The average VAT Gap rate, which denotes the rate of ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Data reveal impact of capital controls in GREECE
Athens. The consequences of the capital controls on financial activity in GREECE have started becoming clearer, according to the official ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT focus-fen.net |
Higher education after the bail-out
A month later GREECE'S members of parliament voted in, by a majority of more than two thirds, a new Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU, which ...
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GREECE crisis showed that the EU has solidarity problems: political scientist
Varna. “It is hard to say what the exact role of Moscow was in the overall situation with the GREECE crisis, but I believe, albeit I cannot prove it that ...
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Newborn migrant dead on Greek shores
A newborn migrant boy was found dead early on Saturday after his parents reached the steep shores of the Greek island of Agathonisi in a boat from Turkey ...
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Newborn Migrant Baby Found Dead on Greek Isle
His parents are still alive
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Alexis Tsipras faces shock election defeat as voters on course to punish Syriza at the ballot box
GREEK voters are set to punish the government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras after polls show his hard-Left Syriza party is on course for a shock ...
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GREEK General Elections: Alexis Tsipras On A Course Of Shock Defeat
The ruling Syriza party of former prime minister Alexis Tsipras is on course for a shock defeat in the GREEK general election scheduled for September ...
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Opinion Polls Foreshadow Close Race in Greek Elections
If opinion polls are any indication, the September 20 Greek elections will run down to the wire. In the January 2015 Greek elections, SYRIZA had collected 36.3% of the vote while New Democracy had 27.8%. A little over seven months later, opinion polls indicate that this 8.5% lead has severely diminished — if not completely evaporated.
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Egyptian Billionaire Offers to Buy Greek or Italian Island for Migrants
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris expressed his willingness to intervene and assist in the refugee crisis that has developed in Europe this past year. “Greece or Italy sell me an island, I’ll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country,” Sawiri wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday and added that
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Greek Political Party Leaders Able to Question Each Other During September 9 Debate
The rules of the September 9 Greek political party leaders debate have been set. The seven party leaders will respond to the questions of Greece’s nationally syndicated channels’ reporters in a televised debate that will take place eleven days before the Greek elections. The evening will begin at 9 pm and will be separated into six different thematic
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Clashes Between Police and Migrants in Lesvos as European Commission Pledges Immediate Assistance to Greece
During a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou on Saturday, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said that 33 million euros will be given to Greece by September 15 to help the country deal with the ongoing refugee crisis. “From then on, the provision of the remaining funds, as well as of
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EU Refugee Crisis: Newborn Baby Found Dead Off Coast Of GREECE, No End To Smuggling ...
A Syrian family is pictured on the dock in GREECE after being rescued by the Greek coast guard in June 2015. A large portion of the people arriving on ...
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Europe Border Crisis: Order Reigns as Migrants and Refugees Reach Macedonia-GREECE Border
IDOMENI, GREECE — Order and calm sometimes outweigh chaos on Europe's borders. Thousands of migrants and refugees clustered along a thin ...
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Greek finmin sees negative or slightly positive growth in ...
ATHENS, Sept 5 Greece may have negative or slightly positive growth in the second half of 2015 and in the first half of next year, the interim Finance ...
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Baby migrant boy found dead on coast of Agathonisi, GREEK coast guard says
A newborn migrant boy was found dead early on Saturday after his parents reached the steep shores of the GREEK island of Agathonisi in a boat from ...
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REMINDER: GREEK "Odyssey" Festival in Orange This Weekend
We welcome you to join us over the Labor Day Weekend (September 4-7) on our beautiful Church grounds for our annual Odyssey GREEK Festival.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT patch.com |
New polls show Syriza narrowly ahead in Greek election ...
ATHENS (Reuters) - The leftist Syriza party is on course to win 26.5 percent of votes in the snap Greek election in September, slightly ahead of the conservative New ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.yahoo.com |
On the migrant trial: ‘I will walk to Germany’
From eastern Greece to the northern tip of France, thousands of migrants fleeing war and persecution tread the Balkan route each day heading for northern Europe. Follow their hazardous journey with FRANCE 24's team of reporters.
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Greek coastguard says newborn migrant boy found dead ...
ATHENS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A newborn migrant boy was found dead early on Saturday after his parents reached the steep shores of the Greek island of Agathonisi in a ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk |
Greece still needs to build trust: Eurogroup head
Trust in the Greece has yet to return after months of wrangling to secure a third bailout deal, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers said.
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Thousands Of Refugees Arrive In Germany And Austria
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Thousands of exhausted, elated migrants reached their dream destinations of Germany and Austria on Saturday, completing epic journeys by boat, bus, train and foot to escape war and poverty. Before dawn, they clambered off a fleet of Hungarian buses at the Austrian border to find a warm welcome from charity workers offering beds and hot tea. Within a few more hours of rapid-fire aid, many found themselves whisked by train to the Austrian capital, Vienna, and the southern German city of Munich. The surprise overnight effort eased immediate pressure on Hungary, which has struggled to manage the flow of thousands of migrants arriving daily from non-EU member Serbia. But officials warned that the human tide south of Hungary still was rising, and more westward-bound travelers arrived in Budapest within hours of the mass evacuation of the capital's central rail station. About 4,000 migrants crossed into Austria from Hungary by mid-morning, according to Austrian police spokesman Helmut Marban. Vienna city official Roman Hahslinger said 2,300 had arrived in Vienna by midday, and 1,500 had boarded trains for Salzburg. Hungary's nationalist government had spent most of the week trying to force migrants to report to government-runrefugee centers, but thousands refused and demanded free passage chiefly to Germany. After a three-day standoff with police, thousands marched west Friday from the Keleti train station along Hungary's major motorway and camped overnight in the rain by the roadside. Hundreds more broke through police lines at a train station in the western town of Bicske, where police were trying to take them to a refugee camp, and blocked the main rail line as they, too, marched west. Austria and Germany made the breakthrough possible by announcing they would take responsibility for the mass of humanity that was already on the move west or camped out in their thousands at Keleti. Hungary on Tuesday had suspended train services from that station to Austria and Germany, compounding the build-up there in a futile bid to try to make the visitors file asylum papers in Hungary. Austrian Federal Railways said the arrivals, once they passed through hastily assembled border shelters and enjoyed refreshments, were being placed on trains to both Vienna and the western city of Salzburg and, for those who requested it, links onward to German cities. The human rights watchdog Amnesty International welcomed the initiative to clear Hungary's humanitarian traffic jam. "After endless examples of shameful treatment by governments of refugees and migrants in Europe, it is a relief to finally see a sliver of humanity. But this is far from over, both in Hungary and in Europe as a whole," said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty's deputy director for Europe. "The pragmatic and humane approach finally applied here should become the rule, not the exception." When the first 400 migrants and refugees arrived in Vienna, charity workers offered a wide choice of supplies displayed in separately labeled shopping carts containing food, water and packages of hygiene products for men and women. A mixed crowd of friends and Austrian onlookers cheered their arrival, with many shouting "Welcome!" in both German and Arabic. One Austrian woman pulled from her handbag a pair of children's rubber rain boots and handed them to a Middle Eastern woman carrying a small boy. "Austria is very good," said Merhan Harshiri, a 23-year-old Iraqi who smiled broadly as he walked toward the supply line, where newcomers munched on fresh fruit. "We have been treated very well by Austrian police." "I am very happy," said Firas Al Tahan, 38, a laundry worker from the Syrian capital, Damascus. Seated beside him on the train station's concrete pavement were his 33-year-old wife, Baneaa, in her lap 1-month-old daughter Dahab, and beside them four other children aged 5 to 12, all smiling beside a cart containing green and red apples. Earlier in jubilant scenes on the border, about 100 busloads of migrants and refugees disembarked on the Hungarian side of the border and walked a short distance into Austria, where volunteers at a roadside Red Cross shelter welcomed them with tea and handshakes. Many of the travelers slumped in exhaustion on the floor, evident relief etched on their faces. Many had been awoken by friends at Keleti around midnight with news many didn't believe after days of deadlock: Hungary was granting their demand to be allowed to reach Austria and, for many, onward travel to Germany. Many feared that the scores of buses assembling at the terminal instead would take them to Hungarian camps for asylum-seekers, as the government previously insisted must happen. At times, it took extended negotiation at the bus doors to persuade people to climb aboard. Keleti appeared transformed Saturday as cleaners used power washers to clear what had become a squalid urbanrefugee camp of approximately 3,000 residents sprawled about every courtyard and tunnel leading to Budapest's subway system. Only about 10 police remained to supervise a much-thinned presence of approximately 500 campers sleeping in pup tents or on blankets and carpets. Many travelers have spent months in Turkish refugee camps, taken long and risky journeys by boat, train and foot through Greece and the Balkans, and crawled under barbed wire on Hungary's southern frontier to a generally frosty welcome in this country with strong anti-immigrant sentiments. Since Tuesday morning, Hungarian authorities had refused to let them board trains to the west, and the migrants balked at going to processing centers, fearing they would face deportation or indefinite detention in Hungary. Government officials said they changed course because Hungary's systems were becoming overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. In Berlin, German officials said they felt it was necessary to take responsibility given Hungary's apparent inability to manage the challenge. But they emphasized that Hungary, as an EU member and first port of call for many migrants, needed to do more to ensure that new arrivals filed for asylum there rather than travel deeper into Europe. "Because of the emergency situation on the Hungarian border, Austria and Germany have agreed to allow the refugees to travel onward in this case," German government spokesman Georg Streiter told The Associated Press. "It's an attempt to help solve an emergency situation. But we continue to expect Hungary to meet its European obligations." German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led calls for other EU members to shelter migrants as potential refugees, particularly those fleeing civil war in Syria, said in comments published Saturday that her country would observe no legal limit on the number of asylum seekers it might take. Merkel told the Funke consortium of newspapers that "the right to political asylum has no limits on the number of asylum seekers." "As a strong, economically healthy country we have the strength to do what is necessary" and ensure that every asylum seeker gets a fair hearing, she was quoted as saying. ___ Associated Press reporters Alexander Kuli in Budapest; Bela Szandelszky and Frank Augstein in Hegyeshalom, Hungary; Balint Szlanko and Petr Josek in Nickelsdorf, Austria; George Jahn in Vienna and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Finland's Prime Minister Offers His Home To Refugees
HELSINKI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila said on Saturday he would offer his home to refugees. As EU leaders struggle to agree policies to cope with a huge influx of migrants, many fleeing war in Syria, Sipila said his home in Kempele, northern Finland, was little used at the moment and would house asylum seekers from the start of next year. "We should all take a look in the mirror and ask how we can help," Sipila told national broadcaster YLE. He said an EU plan to distribute 120,000 refugees arriving in Greece, Italy and Hungary to countries around the European Union should be voluntary and hoped Finland could show an example. Finland's government yesterday doubled its estimate for the number of asylum seekers in the country this year to up to 30,000. _ALSO ON HUFFPOST:_ -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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How the Crowd Can Help Make Entrepreneurs Out of South Africa's Unemployed Youth
_This is the last in a series of political risk and prediction blog posts linked to Dr Aziz's upcoming political comic book, THE GLOBAL KID (note: 100% of sales will go to global education non-profits that help youth reach their potential)._ Youth unemployment in South Africa has been over 50% in recent years (the third highest rate in the world after Greece and Spain), obviously creating significant frustration among young men and women aged 15-24. To make matters worse, the fear of recession is growing, with Q2 GDP growth contracting by 1.3% in Africa's most advanced economy. The good news is the government has _actively_ been trying to create jobs for its younger citizens. Strategies include employment subsidies so companies will be incentivised to hire young people; skills and training programs to help youth enter the job market; and a jobs fund that, among other things, provides public funding to support young job seekers. Meanwhile, outside entities like the Mckinsey Global Institute have been advocating how with appropriate investment the country could create 3.4 million jobs by 2030; similarly the World Bank argues that if policymakers take advantage of its growing working age population, per capita income of South African citizens could double in 15 years. All of this is positive. These are sensible policy prescriptions and initiatives that in theory should help South Africa's deeply entrenched youth unemployment crisis, especially in the long-term. And yet it simply isn't enough in the short-term. We see that youth are suffering - keep in mind that since 1994 the working age population has increased by 11 million, making up 65% of the country. Yet many youth, whether qualified or with limited education, have been sitting idle for years, either hoping for jobs or have simply "given up looking". How can we help South Africa's unemployed youth in the near-term? One strategy is to leverage the crowd to create more immediate entrepreneurship opportunities for youth. In fact, the South African government sees the value of entrepreneurship, even creating the Ministry of Small Business Development in 2014. And there are some success stories of youth entrepreneurs - check out the country's top 10 entrepreneurs under 30, who've created everything from a product for sanitation in impoverished areas to a non-profit that shapes young leaders, to a software company and a record-breaking rocket. But are these super successful entrepreneurs the exception? It would seem so. According to the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report, South Africa has an "alarmingly low level of entrepreneurial activity." And there's still a disconnect between government's job creation initiatives and the 54% of youth who are still unemployed. In fact, a quarter of budding entrepreneurs say their "fear of failure" has stopped them from setting up a business. Leveraging the crowd could reduce this gap between policymakers and frustrated unemployed youth who perhaps don't feel existing policies can help them - or are simply to afraid to try. First, we could simply _ask_ unemployed youth _what they want_. Aggressively show them someone cares about them and wants to see them succeed. Crowdsourcing their answers to this question could be a quick way to help government and other private entities to determine what areas of entrepreneurship would be the best fit for these youth in the near-term. Internet penetration is over 45%, which means it wouldn't be a struggle to get responses and would help government officials to determine if these youth need to be trained in specific skills for their business. Second, we could then crowdfund for one specific entrepreneurial initiative, asking the global citizenry to offer small amounts to help youth start their businesses in one specific sector. We could even identify a specific town in South Africa, linking up with a local non-profit (e.g. IkamvaYouth) or government body (e.g. the Jobs Fund) that can administer these crowdfunds. Let's consider this a small-scale, local project funded by a global crowd - if it works well, it could be replicated in other South African towns with high youth unemployment and so help government with more near-term relief for its younger citizens. (Worth noting that South Africa isn't alien to crowdfunding - look up Thundafund and their recent crowdfunding program for those in "less affluent and historically less networked sectors".) If there isn't any effort to relieve the suffering of unemployed youth in the near-term, what can we expect in South Africa? Instability will rise in at least two ways. First, there will of course be more _protests_. Remember, South Africa's protests have nearly doubled since 2010, with 2014 being an all-time high in unrest. Admittedly these protests are usually linked to state failure to provide services like water, sanitation or housing; but it isn't inconceivable that frustrated youth will engage in demonstrations specifically on their plight too. Second, certain non-state actors, including ISIS, will take advantage of the frustration of these unemployed youth - increasing reports suggest some youth have already been recruited online by the terrorist group to fight in Syria and Iraq. Leveraging the crowd - both locally and globally - to make entrepreneurs out of unemployed youth could be one way to reduce instability in the near-term in South Africa. _Dr Aziz recently completed a research certification in leveraging crowds in the public sector at NYU's GovLab and also spoke on crowdsourcing in policymaking at the 2015 Open and User Innovation Society Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal._ -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. 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Informal “Gymnich” meeting of EU member-state Foreign Ministers takes place in Luxembourg (4-5 ...
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France’s Macron confident new Greek government will stick to commitments
#economy
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