How the world sees Greece
Greek borrowing costs soared tonight as the International Monetary Fund all but ruled out letting Athens skip a debt repayment – pushing the country closer to an exit from the eurozone. Christine Lagarde, managing director at the IMF, said she would ...
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk |
Greece is negotiating with its international creditors, including the IMF, over a list of reforms that it would need to implement to get more loans as ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.reuters.com |
Europe is losing hope that Greece will adopt the economic policies needed to unlock bailout funds before it runs out of money. Policy makers across the euro currency zone are bracing themselves for brinkmanship in coming weeks that could lead to a ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.wsj.com |
Net budget revenue significantly surpassed targets to total €4.232 billion in March, from a target of 3.16 billion, Greek Alternate Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters, Mardas pledged that the government will continue paying wages and ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.enikos.gr |
Violent incidents involving anti-establishment rioters and Greek Police broke out late on Thursday in downtown Athens, Greece. Hoodie-wearing rioters threw Molotov cocktails and stones against police, who responded with teargas. The incidents were sparked when anti-establishment militants tried to enter the Athens University and were repelled by a strong police contingent. (source: ana-mpa)
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck off the eastern coast of Crete, Greece, on Thursday, according to the Athens Geodynamic Institute. The tremor struck at 9.08 pm local time at a focal depth of 10 kilometers. No damages or casualties have been reported yet. A few minutes later, two more 4.3 and 4.0-magnitude quakes followed in close proximity to the first. (source: ana-mpa)
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Seismologists in Greece say a magnitude 6.1 earthquake has struck near the island of Crete, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT abcnews.go.com |
ATHENS (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck around 50 km (30 miles) off the eastern tip of the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT feeds.reuters.com |
The heroes are the best-known part of Greek mythology, but what makes a hero? Having monsters to fight, that's what. Luckily for the heroes, the ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT io9.com |
Brussels Beat: Policy makers across the eurozone are bracing themselves for brinkmanship over Greece in coming weeks that could lead to a resolution—of one kind or another.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.wsj.com |
Greek mayors on Thursday promised to support the government’s emergency plan for dealing with an increased influx of immigrants as long as their contribution is funded by the state.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
A ceremony will be held at the Portianos Military Cemetery on Friday to unveil a monument to two Canadian nurses who died and were buried on the island in 1915, which will hopefully serve as a reminder of the millions who left their homes and families to serve the greater good, in many cases never to return.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greece’s ambulance service, known as EKAB, has 620 vehicles but 130 are out of commission and cannot be repaired, Parliament heard on Thursday.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
The Finance Ministry is on a mission to find resources with which to meet its upcoming obligations – its latest proposal being the compulsory submission of state entities’ cash reserves to the Bank of Greece – a measure that the prime minister’s office has not yet approved.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
You are absolutely right (Editorial, 16 April) to assert the need for urgent humanitarian and compassionate action by the European Union to address the causes and the effects of the appalling tragedy of the people who are fleeing Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and other north African countries.We know that 10,000 desperate migrant people have been rescued by Italian coastguards and the navy since last Friday. It is time to recognise that the Italian, Greek and Spanish maritime rescuers urgently need much more EU solidarity and support.It is a truism that British imperialism has a short memory – but this is ridiculous. If you break it, fix it Continue reading...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
“Berlin is much more prepared to let Greece go than people [outside Germany] believe,” says a European diplomat. “Listen to Wolfgang Schäuble and ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com |
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — By the day, Greece is getting closer to a potentially catastrophic debt default that could force it out of the euro bloc.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.yahoo.com |
Very strong earthquake offshore Eastern Crete, Greece. Last update: April 16, 2015 at 6:55 pm by By Armand Vervaeck ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT earthquake-report.com |
Seismologists in Greece say a magnitude 6.1 earthquake has struck near the island of Crete, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT feeds.foxnews.com |
A powerful earthquake measuring 6.2 on Richter scale occurred at 9:07 pm in the sea between the islands of Crete and Karpathos in South Greece. According to first information, the epicenter was in the sea 108 km east of Agios Nikolaos, Crete, and 54 km south-east of the island of […]
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
By the day, Greece is getting closer to a potentially catastrophic debt default that could force it out of the euro bloc. All it needs to avoid that fate is a deal with its creditors to get more loans, but there's no sign that will happen. The post The Sticking Points: Why It’s Hard To Save Greece appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - A Columbus, Ohio, man who trained with Islamic militants in Syria has been arrested and charged with supporting terrorism and making false statements, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, a naturalized American, had been instructed by a Muslim cleric to return to the United States and carry out an act of terrorism, a federal indictment said. The indictment said Mohamud told an associate that he wanted to go to a military base in Texas and "kill three or four American soldiers execution-style." Mohamud's brother was killed fighting with the Nusra Front, the Syria-based affiliate of al Qaeda, the indictment said. Before leaving for Syria, Mohamud had posted material on social media promoting symbols of the Islamic State militant group, the indictment said. A law enforcement official said, however, that once in Syria Mohamud and his brother, Aden, trained with Nusra. According to the indictment, Mohamud obtained a U.S. passport and purchased a one-way ticket to Greece. He left the United States in April 2014 but instead of flying to Greece, went to Istanbul, Turkey, and then Syria. In Syria he sent videos of himself to an unnamed person, the indictment said. In one video, he pointed to a gun in a holster on his hip and in another, he stood in front of a white house with a black flag on it. Upon his return to the United States, the indictment said, Mohamud told an unidentified person that while in Syria, he had been trained in shooting weapons, breaking into houses, using explosives and hand-to-hand combat. According to the indictment, Mohamud also said that just before he was about to start fighting with militants in Syria, a cleric connected with an unspecified militant group told him he should return to the United States and "carry out an act of terrorism." A law enforcement official identified the cleric as a representative of the Nusra Front. According to the indictment, Mohamud "wanted to kill Americans, and specifically wanted to target armed forces, police officers or any uniformed individuals." The indictment said Mohamud's plan was to attack a U.S. military base but that he also had a backup plan to attack a prison. The indictment said Mohamud told his unnamed interlocutor that his brother, Aden, had died and that Mohamud himself "was next and would join Aden soon. A U.S. official said Mohamud initially was arrested in February in Columbus and held by local law enforcement authorities. The official said Mohamud would be transferred into federal custody on Thursday. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Will Dunham and Bill Trott) -- 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.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
The Greek government has announced it will set up a national development bank that will absorb several state financial agencies.Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis will be in charge of setting up the bank.The Cojnsignments and Loans Fund, which ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.enikos.gr |
Greece maybe tumbling towards a messy default on its debt, and it may even have to exit the eurozone. But it will do so in style, thanks to Yanis Varoufakis. The Greek finance minister has taken Europe's economic institutions by storm, found his way onto the front page of every newspaper and (reportedly) into the hearts of plenty of German women. And he's barely been in politics for four months. Whether you're in awe or loathe him, there's no avoiding Yanis Varoufakis.Before he got into politics, Varoufakis was an academic, and spent some time as chief economist of video game company Valve. Varoufakis only announced he would run for election in January 2015, less than three weeks before the government actually came into power. A few days after the election Varoufakis had an incredibly awkward back-and-forth with Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, setting the frosty diplomatic tone. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |
NEW YORK (AP) — Major stock indexes flipped from losses to gains Thursday afternoon following a rebound in crude oil prices. Major markets in Europe finished with losses amid renewed concerns that Greece could default on its debts.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT hosted2.ap.org |
These factors all indicate that capital markets are getting increasingly concerned the Greek government won't reach a deal with its lenders in time to ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.marketwatch.com |
The International Monetary Fund has warned Greece in its toughest language to date that a delay in debt payments would be an unprecedented event ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.telegraph.co.uk |
Greece has been pushed a step closer to default and potential exit from the euro after one of its main lenders, the International Monetary Fund, all-but ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Thursday, in a statement to Reuters, he is confident that Greece and its European partners will be able to work through their differences and reach to an agreement by the end of the month. He noted that there are “many points of convergence” between the two sides, with disagreements remaining in just four areas relating to labor relations, social security, VAT and state property. The full statement: “The Greek government is working hard on every individual aspect of the negotiations, in Brussels just as much as in Athens, in order to reach a mutually beneficial solution, an honorable compromise with our partners: a compromise that will respect the recent popular mandate as well as the Eurozone’s operational framework. There already are many points of convergence between the two sides and they compose the framework around which our agreement will be formed. There has been remarkable progress, compared to the starting point, on a series of issues regarding the improvement of the tax collection system and the reinforcement of its autonomy, the fight against corruption, the effectiveness of the administration, as well as tax initiatives that will guarantee the appropriate primary surplus for the current year without burdening the majority of society but by distributing the burden on those who have a strong ability to pay taxes. There are, of course, four points of disagreement remaining in the fields of labor relations, the social security system, the VAT increase and the rationale regarding the development of state property. Let me be clear: This does not have to do with a technical weakness but a political disagreement, which everyone was aware of in advance, to the extent that they recognized and continue to recognize that the compromise we seek will respect the clear mandate of the Greek people as expressed in the January elections. Despite the cacophony, erratic leaks and statements in recent days from the other side, I remain firmly optimistic that there will be an agreement by the end of the month. Because I know that Europe has learned to live through its disagreements, to combine its parts and move forward. I am convinced that Europe of democratic traditions and the Enlightenment will not give in to the extreme voices of some, will not choose the path of an unethical and brutal financial blackmail but the path of bridging differences, the path of stability and mutual respect, and above all, the path to democracy, for the benefit of our common European future.” (Source: ANA-MPA)
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday sent a letter to Archbishop Ieronymos, thanking the head of the Greek Orthodox Church for his offer to put up its assets for development to help the debt-racked country pay off its debt.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias is due to begin a five-day visit to the US on Monday, April 20. He will begin his trip by meeting Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, where he will also hold talks with National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Relatives of victims of domestic terrorist attacks in Greece on Thursday expressed opposition to a bill that would allow convicted November 17 member Savvas Xeros, among others, to be released from prison.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Citigroup and Netflix reported results that pleased investors.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT rss.nytimes.com |
"Also, everyone has one eye at least on the situation in Greece." Benchmark 10-year notes were last up 3/32 in price to yield 1.88 percent, down from ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.reuters.com |
Two slippery slopes have led the ECB to such imprudent Greek exposure. The first was through its secondary market purchases of around 27 billion ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT thehill.com |
“Greek two-year yields surged to their highest since the bonds were issued last year. Athens is dangerously close to running out of cash, with its ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT blogs.barrons.com |
At the time the Lib Dems decided to jump into bed with the Tories, the economy was on the mend. Then the coalition overdosed it with austerityIt’s the weekend after the general election in 2010. David Cameron has failed to win enough seats to win an overall majority and Gordon Brown is still prime minister. Talks are going on among the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats to see who can form a government.The coalition that saw Cameron become prime minister five days after the election was, Nick Clegg claimed again yesterday, a matter of necessity. Suggesting that the Lib Dems were simply doing their patriotic duty, the deputy prime minister said the government was born in the “midst of an economic firestorm”. Related: Nick Clegg refuses to veto in-out EU referendum There was a crisis, but it was going on in Greece, not Britain Continue reading...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Athens bond yields soar as payback deadline approaches
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com |
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is hav a meeting with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Washington on Thursday. Varoufakis is in Washington as he is the keynote speaker in the thematic table on "The Greek economy and its global ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.enikos.gr |
LONDON (AP) — The 68th Cannes Film Festival will feature a lesbian love story starring Cate Blanchett, a Shakespearean tragedy with Michael Fassbender and films from cinema heavyweights including China's Jia Zhangke, Italy's Paolo Sorrentino and the United States' Gus Van Sant. It won't feature a lot of selfies, if organizers have their way. While stars including Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and Benicio del Toro will be welcomed on the red carpet at the French Riviera extravaganza, selfies and selfie sticks most definitely won't. Announcing the festival lineup Thursday, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux called selfies "ridiculous and grotesque." "We're not going to ban selfies. We don't have police powers," Fremaux said. But he strongly urged festivalgoers to keep the red carpet a selfie-free zone. Fremaux announced 17 films that will be competing for prizes at the May 13-24 festival, chosen from more than 1,800 submissions. They include Jia's "Mountains May Depart," Sorrentino's "Youth" — a film about age starring Michael Caine — and Van Sant's forest feature "The Sea of Trees," starring Matthew McConaughey. Returning Cannes veterans include "Gomorrah" director Matteo Garrone, with "The Tale of Tales," starring John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek; South Korea's Kore-eda Hirokazu with sibling saga "Our Little Sister"; and France's Jacques Audiard with "Dheepan," the story of a Tamil refugee in France. Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star in a film version of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" by Australian director Justin Kurzel. Also in the lineup are films by Italy's Nanni Moretti, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien and American Todd Haynes, whose entry "Carol" is a 1950s-set love story between two women starring Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Cannes organizers have faced criticism for not selecting more films by female directors. For the first time in more than 25 years, this year's festival will be opened by a film by a woman, French director Emmanuelle Bercot's drama "La Tete Haute." Two more female filmmakers are in competition: Valerie Donzelli with "Marguerite and Julien" and Maiwenn with "Mon Roi" ("My King"). Both directors are French. Geographically, the entries range from Europe to China, South Korea, the U.S. and Mexico, setting of Denis Villeneuve's narco-crime drama "Sicario." Genres range from drama to martial-arts thriller to science fiction rom-com — in the form of "The Lobster," a film by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos starring Weisz and Colin Farrell that Fremaux called incomprehensible, in a good way. Fremaux said several more films will be added to the competition before the festival opens. Films in the lineup but not competing for prizes include Allen's campus comedy "Irrational Man," starring Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, George Miller's dystopian thriller "Mad Max: Fury Road" and Asif Kapadia's documentary about the late singer Amy Winehouse, "Amy." Pixar, whose buoyant "Up" opened the festival in 2009, returns with "Inside Out," in which an adolescent girl's thoughts and emotions become animated characters. Actress Portman makes her feature-film directorial debut with "A Tale of Love and Darkness," based on a memoir by Israeli writer Amos Oz. Winners of the Palme d'Or and other prizes will be chosen by a jury led by directors Joel and Ethan Coen. ___ Online: http://www.festival-cannes.com/en.html Milos Krivokapic in Paris contributed to this report. Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless-- 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.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
The University of Texas, Austin has chosen the president of the prestigious Ford Foundation to speak at its commencement this year, but it will be hard for him to outshine last year's graduation speaker. US Navy admiral and UT, Austin, alumnus William H. McRaven returned to his alma mater to give seniors 10 lessons from basic SEAL training when he spoke at the school's 2014 commencement. It was widely considered to be the best graduation speech of the year. McRaven — a former commander of the US Special Operations Command, who organized the raid that killed Osama bin Laden — stressed the importance of making your bed every morning, taking on obstacles headfirst, and realizing that it's OK to be a "sugar cookie." As McRaven describes in his speech, a "sugar cookie" was a someone who failed uniform inspection during SEAL training, and was ordered to run fully clothed into the ocean and then roll around on the beach until every part of their body was covered with sand. "Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie," McRaven said. "It's just the way life is sometimes." In another lesson from his speech, McRaven stressed how everyone will likely fail at some point, and how to learn from those failures. The former Navy admiral described how SEALs would sometimes be ordered to do "circuses" — "two hours of additional calisthenics—designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit." However, McRaven said, "The pain of the circuses built inner strength-built physical resiliency." McRaven's personal stories from his many years as a Navy SEAL supported all of these lessons. "While these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform," McRaven told students. "It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or your social status." In January, McRaven took over as chancellor of the University of Texas System. We first saw this speech at the Military Times. Here's the video of the full speech with the transcript below: Here are McRaven's 10 lessons from his years of experience as a Navy SEAL, via University of Texas, Austin: I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training in Coronado, California. Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable. It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL. But, the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardships. To me basic SEAL training was a life time of challenges crammed into six months. So, here are the ten lesson's I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life. Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Viet Nam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that's Navy talk for bed. It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over. If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students—three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surfzone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in. Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on the beach. For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can't change the world alone—you will need some help— and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle. Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down to just 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men each. I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the little guys—the munchkin crew we called them—no one was over about 5-foot five. The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish America, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the mid-west. They out paddled, out-ran, and out swam all the other boat crews. The big men in the other boat crews would always make good natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim. But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the Nation and the world, always had the last laugh— swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us. SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers. Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough. Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges. But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle— it just wasn't good enough. The instructors would fine "something" wrong. For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand. The effect was known as a "sugar cookie." You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day—cold, wet and sandy. There were many a student who just couldn't accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right—it was unappreciated. Those students didn't make it through training. Those students didn't understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform. Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie. It's just the way life is sometimes. If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events—long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics—something designed to test your mettle. Every event had standards—times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to—a "circus." A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics—designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit. No one wanted a circus. A circus meant that for that day you didn't measure up. A circus meant more fatigue—and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult—and more circuses were likely. But at some time during SEAL training, everyone—everyone—made the circus list. But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Overtime those students—who did two hours of extra calisthenics—got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength-built physical resiliency. Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core. But if you want to change the world, don't be afraid of the circuses. At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including a 10-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net, and a barbed wire crawl to name a few. But the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three level 30 foot tower at one end and a one level tower at the other. In between was a 200-foot long rope. You had to climb the three tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end. The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977. The record seemed unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life—head first. Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself forward. It was a dangerous move—seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk. Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the training. Without hesitation—the student slid down the rope—perilously fast, instead of several minutes, it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record. If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first. During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego. The waters off San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. To pass SEAL training there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One—is the night swim. Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters off San Clemente. They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark—at least not recently. But, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position—stand your ground. Do not swim away. Do not act afraid. And if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you—then summons up all your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away. There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them. So, If you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks. As Navy SEALs one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. We practiced this technique extensively during basic training. The ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles—underwater—using nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get to their target. During the entire swim, even well below the surface there is some light that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above you. But as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight—it blocks the surrounding street lamps—it blocks all ambient light. To be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel—the centerline and the deepest part of the ship. This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the ship—where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship's machinery is deafening and where it is easy to get disoriented and fail. Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission—is the time when you must be calm, composed—when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to bear. If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment. The ninth week of training is referred to as "Hell Week." It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and—one special day at the Mud Flats—the Mud Flats are area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slue's—a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you. It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some "egregious infraction of the rules" was ordered into the mud. The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit—just five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold. Looking around the mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up—eight more hours of bone chilling cold. The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything and then, one voice began to echo through the night—one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing. We knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well. The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing—but the singing persisted. And somehow—the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away. If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person—Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan—Malala—one person can change the world by giving people hope. So, if you want to change the world, start singing when you're up to your neck in mud. Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do to quit—is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o'clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT—and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training. Just ring the bell. If you want to change the world don't ever, ever ring the bell. To the graduating class of 2014, you are moments away from graduating. Moments away from beginning your journey through life. Moments away starting to change the world—for the better. It will not be easy. But, YOU are the class of 2014—the class that can affect the lives of 800 million people in the next century. Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up—if you do these things, then next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today and—what started here will indeed have changed the world—for the better. Thank you very much. Hook 'em horns.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 9 animated maps that will change the way you see the world
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |
"(There's) very little progress, and this is all the more worrisome because Greece is running out of time. We cannot quite be sure how much liquidity ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cnbc.com |
The Greek government has surrendered in the face of a massive influx of refugees from the Middle East. It has even issued threats directed at the Europe Union, only to withdraw them hastily. In the wake of a crisis meeting set up by Prime Minister Alexis ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dw.de |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - European stocks slipped on Thursday, pressured by Greece's worsening financial predicament, and euro zone government borrowing costs hit new lows.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT feeds.reuters.com |
Talks on resolving Greece's financial crisis must “intensify” if euro-area finance ministers are to be able to assess the country's reform commitments ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.bloomberg.com |
Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said that he never asked to be informed about the process of missing a payment to the fund. The Financial ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.bloomberg.com |
The miners at northern Greece's Skouries gold mine and their familes that demonstrated at central Athens' Syntagma Square earlier, have left peacefully for their buses. The photo shows them marching away from the square. Source: enikos.gr Inside photo ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.enikos.gr |
THE beauty of financial markets is that they look forward. Clever traders try to predict tomorrow’s events and their implications for everything from the price of orange juice to demand for steel. That makes markets powerful barometers of the economy, and when traders are uncertain, volatility is the result. Thus in the run-up to Britain’s most unpredictable election for a generation, some markets are in a flutter—but perhaps not those you would expect. The 2010 election campaign drew attention to ups and downs in Britain’s government-bond markets. With a sovereign-debt crisis engulfing Greece, Italy and many other European countries, the Conservatives claimed austerity was necessary to placate bond traders. Markets were in a tizz before the election; the price of insuring against a British government default was jumpy in the run-up to polling day (see chart). Investors worried that an unstable coalition government might not deal with a gaping deficit and the debts that had been run-up bailing out the banks during the financial crisis. Today, stability has returned to the bond markets and Greece is seen as an exceptional...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.economist.com |
In the Jerusalem Hills, there stands the single largest memorial to the Holocaust in the world known as Martyrs' Forest, which is comprised of six million trees planted in memory of those six million Jews who perished. A unique ceremony, the only one its kind held on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the capital, will take place there this year to commemorate the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust. Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF) and the B'nai B'rith World Center have for the past 13 years held a joint ceremony dedicated to those Jewish rescuers. This year's event, held at the "Scroll of Fire" Plaza on Thursday morning, April 16, will pay tribute to Rabbi Moshe Shimon Pessach, an outstanding rabbinic and communal leader in Greece whose efforts saved the Jewish community of Volos, a coastal port city, from the German Nazis. Rabbi Pesach, born in 1869, initiated and orchestrated the rescue of the Jewish community with the help of the Bishop of Volos, Joachim Alexopoulos and other non-Jews, saving 74 percent of the Jewish community in a country where 85 percent of the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. On Rosh Hashanah, September 30, 1943, the German military governor Kurt Rikert summoned Rabbi Pessach to his headquarters, demanding a list of all the Jews in the city and their assets within 24 hours. Rabbi Pessach was told that the purpose behind the demand was to determine the amount of food rations needed to sustain the Jewish community. Photo: Courtesy of B'nai B'rith / Rabbi Moshe Pessach who saved hundreds of Jewish lives in Volos, Greece from the Nazis. But the perceptive rabbi saw the real purpose of the Germans, and proceeded with a series of actions to rescue his community at great risk to himself and his family. After asking and receiving a three-day extension to submit the list, Rabbi Pessach then went to his friend, the bishop of Volos, to ask for his intervention and find out the Germans' intentions. The bishop contacted Helmut Sheffel, the German consul in Volos, with whom he was on good terms, and who told him that the Jews must leave Volos immediately. Bishop Alexopoulos promptly informed Rabbi Pessach and gave him a letter addressed to the clergymen of the villages surrounding Volos, urging the countrymen to protect the Jews. All but 130 Jews, were spirited away with the help of the mayor, municipal officials, the chief of police and the Greek underground to the surrounding remote mountain villages, including Rabbi Pessach and his family. "We want to thank all those Greeks who provided the Jews of Volos with shelter, food and water during their hiding," Rabbi Pessach's grandson, Moris Eskanzi told Tazpit News Agency. Eskanazi will be accepting the "Jewish Rescuers Citation" award conferred by the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust and the B'nai B'rith World Center on behalf of his grandfather who passed away in 1955. We don't know the names of those Greek villagers who helped out the Jewish community and hid them in their homes and nearby caves and shared their food -- to their own great personal risk... Eskanazi told Tazpit. But we want to thank the kind hearts of those villagers, who the Germans would have killed had they known of their efforts. After the war, Rabbi Pessach returned with 700 members of the Jewish community to Volos, having suffered his own family tragedies from the Nazis. Because of his rescue efforts, the Germans had put a bounty on Rabbi Pessach's head during the war. The Nazis captured and murdered two of Rabbi Pessach's sons who taught Judaism in Salonika and Didymoteicho, and Rabbi Pessach's wife died while they were in hiding. During the war, Rabbi Pessach also established a unit of partisans that rescued allied soldiers and fought the Germans. The Greek King Paul and the commander of the Allied forces in the Mediterranean decorated Rabbi Pessach for his actions. Rabbi Pessach became the chief rabbi of Greece after the war in 1946. "My grandfather was respected by Jews and Greeks alike and he always gave help and advice to all before and after the war," said Eskanazi. "He was one of them, my grandfather, and the Jews were accepted by the Greek community." Rabbi Pessach's good friend bishop Alexopoulos was recognized posthumously by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Gentiles in 1977 following the request of the Jewish community of Volos. The organizers behind the Jewish Rescuers Citation Award ceremony view believe it is especially important to expose Jewish youth to the phenomena of Jewish rescue during the Holocaust as a model for Jewish solidarity and courage. "We believe that the topic of Jewish rescue during the Holocaust for the past 70 years hasn't received the attention it rightly deserves," said the director of the B'nai B'rith World Center, Alan Schneider. "There were thousands of Jewish rescuers who saved countless Jewish lives, who many people don't know about." At the ceremony on Thursday, members of the underground Zionist youth movement in Hungary during WWII will also be recognized for their rescue efforts as will Yaacov (Jacko) Razon, a Greek-Jewish boxer who helped other Jews survive at Nazi concentration camps. Since the creation of the Jewish Rescuers Citation in 2011, around 100 awards have been presented to Jewish rescuers who operated in Germany, France, Hungary and Holland. -- 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.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
GREEK JITTERS: Mounting fears of a Greek debt default sent the country's borrowing costs surging. The latest jitters were stoked by a report Thursday ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT abcnews.go.com |