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How the world sees Greece
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Earthquake in Greece: 6.4 quake has ‘huge rocks coming down from the mountains’
Earthquake in Greece: The 6.4 earthquake in Greece was strongly felt in Crete, as far as the Greek capital Athens, which is about 180 miles away, and in Israel. “The earthquake struck at 4:11pm (1311 GMT) and its epicentre was in the sea, 275 kilometres ...
Plato Academy Students Skype Kalymnos Peers
TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - By 9 a.m. the students were at their desks, clutching the posters they had carefully scribed with Greek letters in preparation for their international video call. Some sat quietly, blinking away their sleepiness.
But most were visibly excited, giggling as they pondered what they would say in front of the camera.
With the click of a laptop, the projector screen turned bright, connecting the students at Plato Academy, a charter school, with their peers on the Greek island of Kalymnos.
Kalimera, the students called out. Good morning.
Kalispera, they heard back. Good afternoon. In Greece, it was 4 p.m.
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TAXIDI: Splendor Among The Ruins
The ancient city of Ephesus cuts a benchmark in the history of Greek and Roman civilization. Once a thriving port of 250,000 people, today it lies in well-preserved ruins, silted up and now 9 kilometers from the sea in the Izmir province of Turkey. Like most Aegean and Mediterranean sites, its only occupants are cats.
Our ship, the Azamara Journey sits docked at its replacement port of Kusadasi, a 40-minute bus trip to the south. Gallipoli is 800 kilometers north.
For tourists and amateur historians, this is where you will find the best example of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine architecture. The Temple of Artemis, the Library of Celsus, the Basilica of St John and a cascading list of grand structures stand testament to the city's historical importance.
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Debate? No Thanks
by
Monnet Matters
During the 1980s, a local council in the UK came up with an intriguing slogan aimed at making people question their own social conscience. It went like this: “Are you a racist? ‘Cause you’d be a nicer person if you weren’t.” Never, on more than one level, has a more false note been struck.
It is certainly unlikely that a racist skinhead would be swayed by this appeal to social acceptability. If you want to be liked, the argument goes, then you had better be more tolerant; because likeability is always the first thing any self-respecting neo-Nazi thinks of. Self-image is very important.
Of course, it is possible those behind the campaign were appealing to the middle classes, where social acceptability is key to social standing. Curb that hate speech, your membership of the rotary club depends on it. And remember, you are always free to vote in any way you want.
At this point, it might be pertinent to introduce that other smug relic of 1980s bourgeois political sloganeering: “Nuclear? No Thanks”. That really gets to the heart of things.
Of course, there is a point to be found lurking behind all this; the fear to address issues at their root, that a snappy slogan (no matter how ill-conceived) can substitute for political engagement.
The comfortable bourgeois types who want to express their opposition to nuclear energy by not actually campaigning at a grassroots level, preferring instead to represent their views through the medium of a bumper sticker, also find themselves oddly mirrored in the authors of the racism slogan, who wish to alter perceptions, but do not want to address serious social and political issues.
On 9 October, the European Parliament debated the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe.
In many ways, it was a timely discussion; far-right and populist parties are expected to increase their representation in the parliament after next year’s elections. Far-right and populist politics are not exactly the same thing, although justice commissioner Viviane Reding was happy to lump them together, but the fear that parties representing those particular viewpoints will upset the political staus quo in Brussels is driving the need to expose the issue at this level.
The debate was predictably disjointed, with the right wanting to know why left-wing extremism wasn’t debated, and the Greeks feeling insecure; we are not the only ones with a problem, they argued (not unreasonably).
Still, the sad fact is that all eyes are on them right now, despite rising support for extremist parties in Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary and elsewhere.
A toxic mixture of failed economic policies, cumulating in the death-squeeze of austerity that has left so many of Europe’s young without the immediate prospects of employment, as well as its older citizens left starving, owing to a reduction is pensions and other social provisions, and the complacency of the European institutions and member state governments, that has fostered extreme and misguided opposition, is effectively giving votes to extremists.
The heavy-handed clampdown of the Greek authorities on Golden dawn serves only to martyr those it seeks to destroy. The weakly-worded response of Europe’s politicians serves only to enforce its own isolation from the political realities faced by so many of its citizens in this time of crisis.
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Earthquake in Greece: 6.4 earthquake rattles Crete, Greece
A 6.4 earthquake in Greece rattled many areas of the country on Oct. 12. According to The Christian Science Monitor, the center of the earthquake was south west of Chania on Crete. There were not any reports of major damage or injury following the ...
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Greek Government Denies Problems between Samaras and Stournaras
Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou, denies press reports of relationship problems brewing between the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras. Simos Kedigoglou stated that the publications about the Prime Minister and Mr. Stournaras have nothing to do with reality. “The Minister of Finance has the full confidence of the Prime Minister” he […]
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Governments New Effort to Build a Mosque
The members of the “Independent citizens action against the construction or the licensing of a mosque” are organizing a gathering outside the offices of the service on Tuesday morning; here the new effort to tender the construction of a mosque in Athens (Greece) will take place. After three unsuccessful attempts last July, the government will […]
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Greece Proposes Bond Rollover To Fill Budget Gap
ATHENS - Faced with a budget gap of 4.4 billion euros ($6 billion) and the prospect that getting additional loans would require more of the austerity measures that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he would never again impose, the government is proposing to its international lenders to roll over bonds as a solution.
The newspaper Kathimerini said that the bonds were initially issued in 2009 just as the country?s financial crisis was starting to hammer the economy. They were take out at that time to give money to banks which were reeling.
The newspaper said that the EU Commission and the European Central Bank, which bought Greek bonds during the crisis, have raised concerns over the proposal but Greece hopes they will give their approval.
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Witnesses Reveal Golden Dawn Brutality
ATHENS (Reuters) - She first got into politics in Greece last year - when she claims she bought herself a bullet-proof vest and learned how to beat up immigrants with poles hung with the national flag.
Her training over, she was a full member of Golden Dawn, the far-right party whose rage against foreigners has propelled its stiff-arm saluting leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos and 17 others into parliament in Athens in the wake of the Greek debt crisis.
A year on and the woman is Witness B, giving evidence used to arrest Mihaloliakos and five fellow Golden Dawn lawmakers. They have been charged with belonging to a criminal organization involved in many offences including the stabbing last month of a left-wing rap artist whose death has infuriated the government.
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Paris-Tours Results
by
Associated Press
Paris-Tours Results
Associated Press - 13 October 2013 10:38-04:00
TOURS, France (AP) — Results Sunday from the Paris-Tours cycling race, a 235-kilometer trek from Authon-du-Perche to Tours:
1. John Degenkolb, Germany, Argos-Shimano, 5 hours, 29 minutes, 19 seconds.
2. Michael Morkov, Denmark, SaxoBank-Tinkoff, same time.
3. Arnaud Demare, France, FDJ, same time.
4. Tyler Farrar, United States, Garmin Sharp, same time.
5. Michael Van Staeyen, Belgium, Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, same time.
6. Heinrich Haussler, Australia, IAM Cycling, same time.
7. Samuel Dumoulin, France, AG2R La Mondiale, same time.
8. Jon Aberasturi, Spain, Euskaltel-Euskadi, same time.
9. Ioannis Tamouridis, Greece, Euskaltel-Euskadi, same time.
10. Niki Terpstra, Netherlands, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, same time.
News Topics: Men's road cycling, Road cycling, Men's cycling, Cycling, Travel, Sports, Men's sports, LifestylePeople, Places and Companies: Michael Morkov, Tyler Farrar, Heinrich Haussler, Samuel Dumoulin, Niki Terpstra, France, Paris, Western Europe, Europe
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Monument to Russian Admiral Ushakov unveiled on Greek island
Monument to Russian Admiral Ushakov unveiled on Greek islandThe Voice of RussiaBy erecting Admiral Ushakov's statue the islanders gave their due to the famous Russian who commanded the Russian fleet that liberated the island from French invaders in 1798, who laid foundations for an independent Greek state and who treated the ...and more »
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Smashing time at Greek Fest as festival-goers run out of puffs
Of the 27,000 people who walked through the doors of the Riverway festival, nobody went home hungry with honey puffs, octopus and sweet treats served by the thousands. Festival co-ordinator Bill Malandris said crowd numbers were on par with last year and ...
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The Tragedy of Greece as a Case Study of Neo-Imperial Pillage and the Demise ...
The Tragedy of Greece as a Case Study of Neo-Imperial Pillage and the Demise ...Truth-OutStriking farmers market vendors hand out fruit and vegetables for free to consumers in Athens, Greece, May 15, 2013. The handouts were part of a protest against the government's plan to liberalize closed professions. (Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis / The ...and more »
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Greece proposes bond rollover to cover 2014 funding gap -paper
Twice-bailed out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, Greece has been kept afloat by 240 billion euros in financial aid since 2010. Under its latest bailout programme, Athens will be financed until the second half of 2014, when ...
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Arsenal and Liverpool in fight to sign Greek hotshot Konstantinos Mitroglou
Arsenal and Liverpool in fight to sign Greek hotshot Konstantinos MitroglouExpress.co.ukARSENAL and Liverpool are set to rival Borussia Dortmund in the race to sign prolific Greek striker Konstantinos Mitroglou. By: Ben Jefferson. Published: Sun, October 13, 2013. Tweet · 0 Comments. Konstantinos-Mitroglou-is-in-prolific-form-for ...and more »
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A Greek beer, please!
Greek ReporterA Greek beer, please!Greek ReporterThough most Greek beers are not widely known, there are some, like Volkan Beer from Santorini island that have been awarded internationally. So if you're the type who enjoys an ice-cold brewsky while watching the game with buddies, or loves sitting by ...
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Don't be fooled by Tommy Robinson's political sleight-of-hand
The former EDL leader may have left his party, but this is just an old far-right trick to attract the media and shift the debate
In interview after interview, the newly reformed Tommy Robinson was challenged last week about inconsistencies in his account about leaving the English Defence League (EDL). About the fact, for instance, that the assertion he hates extremism, not Muslims, did not tally with his past rhetoric; that his claim he decided to leave the EDL back in February did not sit comfortably with his recent activities. Each time he waved away these charges simply by saying that this was in the past and he was looking to the future. This was also the way he dismissed his past association with the British National party, when questioned by Andrew Neil only four months ago, at a time when he was still "EDL till I die".
This represents a pattern of behaviour by far-right nationalist movements more generally. Like shyster businessmen, leaders of far-right movements set up one firm which serves their goals, then declare it insolvent and set up another one with a different name – each time creaming the profit of press coverage and a small shift of the political landscape.
Last week Diane Abbott complained that Ed Miliband was "pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment" and Nigel Farage half-declared his intention to stand for parliament. We must explicitly connect the dots between the rise of a movement like EDL, the popularity of Ukip and Labour's disappointing noises regarding immigration. Because this is precisely how the constant formation-denouncement-repackaging cycle of far-right movements works.
By making a very public announcement of his disassociation with the EDL, Robinson gets up from a space he himself has created along the crowded bench which is our political spectrum and sits somewhere else. He repositions himself, notably, in relation to his previous position. Having formed a movement out of his dangerous and divisive views, he denounces it with sadness as taken over by extreme elements and repositions himself in relation to it. His views have not changed one iota. Yet, magically, he now appears more moderate in comparison to something which he created, then labelled extreme. In the process he makes everyone else on the bench scooch up or scooch down.
This is precisely the modus operandi of such factions. From the British Union of Fascists to the British People's party, the Action party, the National Front, the Flag Group, the New National Front, the BNP and the EDL, the far-right throbs and expands, blooms then folds into itself and subdivides like an amorphous but sentient blob from a 1950's B film. It reinvents itself constantly until it finds the marketable packaging, charismatic personnel, economic conditions and public mood within which it can thrive. In the process it creates new and unusual vacant spaces in our political consciousness. The entire manoeuvre is designed to inexorably drag the Overton window to the right, making the intolerable, accepted and the intolerant, acceptable.
There is some evidence to suggest that such strategies may work for the extreme left, too, but are employed to a much lesser extent. Perhaps this is partly to do with Professor Farruh Yilmaz's observation that the far right gained a sort of "first mover advantage" by claiming ownership of the immigration debate in Europe. Far left movements are traditionally more internationalist, finding it difficult to gain traction. Charting the development of the far left in Greece in parallel to the rise of Golden Dawn, one observes that they tend to be more anarchic as organisations and, as such, tend to meet their demise by fracturing into small pieces. Far-right movements in Greece have been much more military in nature, usually coalescing around an autocratic, charismatic figure. This makes it easier for them to be "rolled over" into a new incarnation. The extreme left is more prone to mitosis, while the extreme right to mutation.
Occasionally, this strategy succeeds by marginally toning down its immoderate image during the mutation, like in France. The process is still the same when one looks at the history of the National Front, the Ordre Nouveau, the Nouvelle Droite, the Parti des Forces Nouvelles, the Front de la Jeunesse – one dominant with endless offshoots and offerings, the cumulative effect of which has been to redefine Marine Le Pen as a "moderate" and find a populist shape which can gather momentum.
More worryingly, occasionally it succeeds by embracing even more hardcore values, as Golden Dawn has done in Greece, using largely unsuccessful permutations as the National Political Union (EPEN) and the Patriotic Alliance (Patris) to harden their image.
I believe that people can change for the better. I tend to be slightly suspicious of people who choose to announce they just changed for the better at a press conference. And so, I am not particularly interested in what "the new and improved Tommy Robinson" has to say about his motives, or who supports his time in purgatory, or what he might do next. I am more concerned about the shifting of the foundations that such cynically engineered tremors cause and how it weakens honest political debate as a whole. Only by understanding this elegant, deceitful, unpredictable and organic process can we hope to counter it. Only by seeing it coming can we stop it.
The far rightEnglish Defence LeagueGreeceEuropeAlex Andreoutheguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
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Earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 has struck west of the Greek island of Crete
The IndependentEarthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 has struck west of the Greek island of CreteWashington TimesATHENS, Greece — A very strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 has struck west of the Greek island of Crete. The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake took place at 4:12 p.m. (1312 GMT), 68 kilometers (42 miles) west of the city of ...Greek island Crete rocked by 6.3 magnitude earthquakeThe IndependentEarthquake Hits Greek IslandDaily BeastStrong Quake Strikes Greek Island CreteGreek ReporterXinhua -Kuwait News Agency -Reutersall 59 news articles »
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Earthquake in Greece: 'Severe' 6.4 level earthquake rocks island, no injuries
An earthquake in Greece was described as a “severe” earthquake of 6.4 level magnitude that rocked the island of Crete; fortunately, however, no injuries or casualties were announced from the quake. The CS Monitor offers this Saturday, Oct. 12, that the ...
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Greek far-right leaders accused of organised violence
ATHENS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - She first got into politics in Greece last year - when she bought herself a bullet-proof vest and learned how to beat up immigrants with poles hung with the national flag. Her training over, she was a full member of ...
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Greek Festival wraps up in Savannah
(1/2)The three day festival was packed with people enjoying homemade Greek foods, dancing and live music. SAVANNAH, Georgia (WJCL) - The shouting of "Opa" was underway, as the Savannah Greek Festival wound down. The 63rd annual festival ended ...
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Strong earthquake hits west of Crete
ATHENS, Greece (AP) A very strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck west of the Greek island of Crete, causing minor damage, according to early reports. The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake took place at 4:12 p.m. (1312 GMT), 68 kilometers (42 miles) west of the city of Chania, in Crete, and 279 kilometers (172 miles) south of Athens. The epicenter was 23 kilometers ...
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Earthquake in Greece: A 6.4 magnitude quake shakes Crete
An earthquake of 6.4 magnitude off the coast of Crete caused minor damage on the Greek island on Saturday, but there were no reports of casualties or serious destruction, police and fire brigade said. The center of the quake, at 1311 GMT (about ...
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Greek Allies hosts Coming Out While Greek
A panel of LGBT people and allies spoke.
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Greece on alert for next two days after 6.2-magnitude quake
Greek authorities were put on alert on Saturday for the next two days after a 6.2-degree earthquake on the Richter scale jolted the southern Aegean Sea island of Crete.
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Ottawa Hosts Conference Day to Promote Greek-Speaking Education
Greek ReporterOttawa Hosts Conference Day to Promote Greek-Speaking EducationGreek Reportereducation A “conference day” on Greek-speaking education will take place in Ottawa, on Saturday the 19th of October. It will be organized by the Greek Embassy in Canada, in cooperation with the Office of the School Counselor of Canada and the ...
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Woman, 75, cuts a rug at 10th annual Greek Fest
Woman, 75, cuts a rug at 10th annual Greek FestCorvallis Gazette TimesSeventy-five-year-old Eve Rios of Corvallis was unacquainted with Greek cuisine and dance, but she found herself experiencing both firsthand on Saturday at St. Anne Orthodox Church's 10th annual Greek Fest at the Lewisburg Grange Hall. After having her ...
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Washington OXI Day Foundation?s Third Annual Celebration of Freedom
WASHINGTON, DC ? The Third annual commemoration of the Greece?s resounding ?NO-OXI? to the forces of fascism on October 28, 1940 and the celebration of the courage of those who fight to preserve and promote freedom and democracy around the world will be presented by The Washington Oxi Day Foundation October 23-25 in Washington, DC.
The gathering, which will be attended by people from across the country and around the world, culminates in a Black Tie Dinner and Presentation of Oxi Day Awards the evening of October 24.
The recipients include Kenyan journalist and anti-corruption crusader John Githongo, introduced via video by pop music icon Bono, and Cuban dissident and leader of the Women in White organization, Berta Soler. The keynote speaker will be noted financier Jim Chanos.
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