The GREEK captain of a fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Senegal on Wednesday was found dead by local authorities on Thursday. The Dimitrios ...
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How the world sees Greece
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Penfield couple bring GREEK soft drink to Rochester
In May 2010, Anastasia and Phil Broikos, an American-born couple of GREEK extraction, launched their GREEK soda business, Opa! Originals.
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Aylan Kurdi: friends and family fill in gaps behind harrowing images
Kurdi family had escaped Damascas and headed to Aleppo before moving to Kobani when fighting broke out Even now, one night and a day after the disaster, the detritus of their devastation still lines the beach. This was not the place any of them should have died: they had escaped Syria, tried Turkey and, in the form of the Greek isle of Kos, freedom now beckoned from across the sea. For Abdullah and Rehan Kurdi, and their two small children, Aylan and Ghalib, the dream of a life in Canada, far from war and civil strife, had never been nearer. But then came the waves: a sea so fierce it overturned their cramped plastic dingy. “I took over and started steering,” said Abdullah Kurdi on Thursday. “The waves were so high and the boat flipped. I took my wife and kids in my arms and I realised they were all dead.” Related: Father of drowned boy Aylan Kurdi plans to return to Syria Related: The Guardian view on the refugee crisis: much more must be done, and not just by the UK | Editorial Related: Migration crisis: Germany presses Europe into sharing refugees Continue reading...
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Greeks Told Grexit Easy Task
A left-wing opposition leader is telling voters they won't find a Greek exit from the common European currency hard at all. The post Greeks Told Grexit Easy Task appeared first on The National Herald.
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Naoussa in Paros Beats Mykonos
Compared to the neighboring Mykonos, Paros is a Cycladic gem of sorts. I was delighted to find the tiny island streets of Naoussa filled with interestingly designed shops selling local sweets, handmade clothing, and cool new Greek souvenirs. And there was not a trace of trash on the floor, at least in early August when […] The post Naoussa in Paros Beats Mykonos appeared first on The National Herald.
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Greece Could See Yet “Millions” More Refugees
Already overrun by more than 230,000 illegal immigrant and refugee arrivals this year, the problem could get so acute that the crisis-hit country could find itself seeing “millions” more eager to get to Europe. The post Greece Could See Yet “Millions” More Refugees appeared first on The National Herald.
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Veteran aid worker expresses frustration with handling of migrant crisis in GREECE
Veteran aid worker Stathis Kyrousis is appalled by GREECE'S handling of the refugee crisis engulfing its holiday islands, decrying worsening conditions ...
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ECB pledges QE, safe deposits for GREECE
European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi sent on Thursday a clear message that GREECE will have to fulfill its obligations with consistency and ...
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Latest Political Drama Puts Brazil On Path To Becoming Latin America's GREECE
Brazil is fast becoming the GREECE of Latin America, seemingly willing to be wiped off the map of relevance like sad sack Venezuela and arch rival ...
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4 detained in Turkey over deadly migrant capsize en route to GREEK island
... police office said Thursday that four Syrian citizens had been apprehended for illegally carrying refugees from the Turkish coast to GREEK islands.
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Classical Greece was incredibly politically innovative ...
Josiah Ober is the Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University. He is also the author of a new book from Princeton University Press
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What Europe's migrant crisis looks like in Hungary
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says 1,500-2,000 are taking the route through GREECE, Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary every day ...
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Greek Jews, ‘An Extended Family,’ Stand Together for the ...
With yet another round of surprise elections called for in Greece on Sept. 19—the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur —one can imagine that the Greek ...
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On Arctic tip of Europe, Syrian migrants reach Norway by bike
By Stine Jacobsen and Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Some Syrian refugees have found a cheaper, safer, though much more roundabout way of reaching Europe than crossing the Mediterranean -- heading to the Arctic Circle and entering Norway from Russia, sometimes even by bicycle. As world attention focuses on migrants cramming into trains in Hungary or onto flimsy boats headed for Greece or Italy, Norwegian police say about 170, mostly Syrian, refugees have used the Storskog border crossing in the far north of Norway so far this year, up from just a dozen in all of 2014. Warm relations between Moscow and Damascus mean that it is relatively easy for Syrians to get visas for Russia.
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People dance to traditional GREEK music at a previous Long Beach GREEK Festival.
It's all GREEK this weekend at the 66th Annual Long Beach GREEK Festival by the Sea and Cultural Event. From Saturday, Sept. 5 to Monday, Sept.
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Controversial German Philosopher Says Man And Machine Will Fuse Into One Being
_Peter Sloterdijk is Germany’s most controversial thinker and media theorist. He has dared to challenge long-established divisions in traditional philosophy of body and soul, subject and object, culture and nature. His 1999 lecture on “Regulations for the Human Park,” in which he argued that genetic engineering was a continuation of human striving for self-creation, stirred up a tempest in a country known for Nazi eugenics. At the same time, he himself has concluded that "the taming of man has failed” as civilization’s potential for barbarism has grown ever greater. His seminal books include “Critique of Cynical Reason” and his trilogy, “Spheres.”_ _At a recent Berggruen Center on Philosophy and Culture symposium on humans and technology at Cambridge University’s St. John's School of Divinity, The WorldPost discussed with Sloterdijk the end of borders between humans and technology, the cloud, singularity and identity in the age of globalization._ FOR YEARS NOW, YOU HAVE BEEN ARGUING THAT A NEW TYPE OF BEING WAS COMING INTO EXISTENCE, AS THE HUMAN SPECIES FUSES WITH ITS TECHNOLOGICAL PROSTHETICS -- “ANTHROPO-TECHNOLOGY.” HOW DOES YOUR CONCEPT OF “ANTHROPO-TECHNOLOGY” DIFFER, OR HOW IS IT SIMILAR, TO THAT OF FUTURIST AND AI PROPONENT RAY KURZWEIL’S IDEA OF “SINGULARITY”? KURZWEIL SEES NOT ONLY AN EPISTEMIC BREAK WITH THE PAST, BUT A NEW PHASE OF EVOLUTION ALTOGETHER THAT REACHES BEYOND CONSCIOUSNESS INTO BEING AND BIOLOGY. The concept of “anthropotechnics” rests on the hypothesis that the current psychophysical and social constitution of the species _Homo sapiens_ -- note the evolutionist emphasis of this classification -- is based substantially on autogenic effects. In this context, the term “autogenic” means “brought about by the repercussions of actions on the actor.” The human being -- especially in so-called “advanced civilizations” -- is the animal that molds itself into its own pet. While evolution means adaptation to a natural environment, domestication means, from the outset, adaptation to the artificial. What we call “civilizations” in moral and cultural-theoretical terms are, from the perspective of biological anthropology (which deals with the animal/human distinction), the result of a long sequence of auto-domestications. Tens of thousands of years before the Greek oracle could write the motto “Know thyself” above the place of encounter with the truth, the great mothers, chieftains and sorcerers had applied a different one to the lives of their own kind: “Tame thyself!” This led to what would become known much later as “education” -- in Greek _paideia_, in Latin _humanitas_, in Sanskrit _vinaya_, in Chinese _wenhua_ and in German _Bildung_. > While evolution means adaptation to a natural environment, > domestication means, from the outset, adaptation to the artificial. The term “anthropotechnics” points to the fact that the process of the humans’ domestication by humans, which began very early on, retains an open future. Firstly, it describes the largely unconscious secession of humans from pure animality -- whereby they became not only members of the “symbolic species,” a “ritual animal” (as Wittgenstein remarked on occasion), indeed a mythological narrative animal, but also a technical creature. Secondly, it points to future possibility of conscious self-shaping through forms of training of the mind, through chemical modifications, perhaps even through genetic impulses. The concept of “anthropotechnics” thus refers to the entire _autopoiesis_, or self-creation, of “mankind” in its many thousands of cultural specializations. It is empirical, pluralistic and egalitarian from the ground up -- in the sense that all individuals, as heirs to the memory of mankind, are free to surpass themselves. Ray Kurzweil’s idea of “singularity,” by contrast, contains futuristic, monistic and elitist elements. Although “singularity,” according to its logical and rhetorical design, is meant to integrate mankind as a whole, it is evident that it could only encompass a tiny group of exceptional transhuman individuals. KURZWEIL ARGUES THAT EXPANDING OUR MINDS INTO THE CLOUD AND VICE VERSA WILL CREATE MORE DIVERSITY AND LESS UNIFORMITY BECAUSE WE WILL HAVE ACCESS TO ALMOST INFINITE INFORMATION WITH WHICH TO FERTILIZE OUR IMAGINATION AND CONSTRUCT OUR PERSONALITY. DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS LINE OF THINKING? In speaking of the “cloud,” Kurzweil positions himself in a field that is preformatted by traditional philosophy. With his concept of the “objective spirit,” Hegel outlined the formal premise of a “cloud”: these consist in the “expressions” of the spirit, which have solidified into institutions. Institutions are programs for cultural transmission handed down to future generations. It should not be especially difficult to develop the concepts of “spirit” and “institution” into the concept of the cloud. Clouds are liquidized institutions, as it were, in which the mass of prior experience that is capable and worthy of transmission is made available for later interested parties. The difference between a cloud and a school reveals itself in the fact that in the former, the autodidactic (and _eo ipso _auto-domesticative) factor increases -- whereas schools, as prototypes of formal institutions, are principally heterodidactic (authoritative) and conservative (hetero-domesticative) in their structures. > We don’t know today whether the clear sky, or the cloud that > covers it, is the information. What clouds and schools have in common is that both wrestle with a nonsense problem: schools can never be entirely sure of passing on what is worth knowing, and cloud visitors are all the more incapable of distinguishing with certainty between nonsense and no nonsense. One part of the modern-postmodern situation is the instability of the difference between institutionalized and de-institutionalized knowledge. In this respect, one must take the cloud metaphor seriously in a literal sense: clouds cover up the clear sky. The current infospheric encasement of the human field is the continuation of the “objective spirit” by other means -- and today, those are digital means. It had already become evident in the 19th century how far the “objective spirit” can transform into an ideology and communicative plague (propaganda). The first half of the 20th century belonged entirely to the conflict among (pre-digital) ideological clouds. The second half of the 20th century brought -- in the form of the Cold War -- a form of ceasefire in the war of clouds. To counter th > ctival distortion, a renewal of the idea of enlightenment is > indispensable. > > > > It is unforeseeable w per-cloud of the 21st century will end the regional immersion in institutionalized untruths that was typical of the 20th century. Nor do we know today whether the clear sky, or the cloud that covers it, is the information. Anyone who uses the word “cloud” in the singular risks falling prey to mystification. At present, once more, there are several cloud systems, and what we once called the Cold War now returns as the war of clouds. One of the nasty surprises of the incipient 21st century is that the demons of propaganda have returned in a digitally updated form. To counter the new empires of lie and perspectival distortion, a renewal of the idea of enlightenment is indispensable. PERHAPS A BETTER PHRASE THAN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WOULD BE “INTELLIGENT ARTIFICE”; AND FOR HUMANS IN THIS FUTURE, “ARTIFICIAL HUMANS.” IN OTHER WORDS, THE “AUTHENTIC SELF” AND BEING-IN-THE-WORLD IS NO LONGER SEPARATED FROM OUR TOOLS. IT IS “THE WORLD-IN-BEING” AS WELL AS VICE VERSA? “Artificial intelligence” is a hybrid term for the long-familiar phenomenon that in artifacts (tools, works and institutions), the intentions of the producers survive almost independently of their products. That is precisely what was expressed in Hegel’s concept of objective spirit. What is objective is the intelligence invested in tools, works and institutions by their producers, which subsequently separated from them to be absorbed and applied by other intelligences (subjective spirit, pupils, users). Now, Cecil Rhodes’ dictum “Expansion is all” only applies to the sphere of the political with significant qualifications. For the current worlds of money and information, by contrast, it is all the more valid. The spheres of artificial intelligence and intelligent artificiality develop of their own accord an expansionist constitution that has increasingly permeated all aspects of existence. In this sense, existence in the technical world _per se_ is characterized by ever-greater artificialization. Modern and postmodern humans not only live in the “house of Being” (as Heidegger called language), but increasingly in the abode of the technosphere. IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION YOU HAVE NOTED THAT, SINCE THE RUPTURE THAT GAVE BIRTH TO MODERNITY, HUMAN CIVILIZATION HAS MOVED FROM THE ERA OF “HUMANISM AND THE NATION STATE” TO “ECOLOGY AND GLOBALIZATION,” FROM THE “AGRARIAN PATRIOTISM” IN WHICH IDENTITY IS TIED TO THE EARTHY VIRTUE OF PLACE TO THE “GLOBAL SELF.” WHAT IS THE LOCUS OF IDENTITY FOR THE GLOBAL SELF IF IT HAS BEEN DE-TERRITORIALIZED? NOT IN THE HEAVENS, BUT IN THE CLOUD? More than a few contemporary thinkers have defined the 20th century as an age of global mobilization. Actually, this period -- or rather, that beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century -- saw the dissolution of the immemorial alliance between humans and territory (Oswald Spengler spoke of culture and landscape) that had defined the age of agrarian sedentarism. Thus begins the adventure of post-sedentary life forms -- and _eo ipso_ of liquidized identities. These not infrequently appear in a costume of nomadic romanticism. It feeds off the notion that the moderns’ constant state of transit is accompanied by the return to a deeper truth about human beings. In this respect, the philosopher Vilém Flusser probably hit the mark when he stated that humans do not necessarily belong to a territorialized nation (a “home”). This was exemplified by the Judaism of the diaspora era -- but they need at all times and in all places a suitable home in which to anchor themselves existentially. Homelessness constitutes a worse fate than statelessness. What we call a residence is the place in which one gains relief through habituation. This (Heidegger-inspired) interpretation of the human being as a residential being corresponds to the concept of “connected isolations” developed some decades ago by the American architectural firm Morphosis to describe the _modus vivendi_ of post-sedentary “society.” The phrase points to the modern challenge of creating a balance between isolation (literally: island formation) and connectivity (context formation). ISN’T THE DIALECTIC OF YEARNING FOR BELONGING IN SUCH A VACUUM OF COMMUNITY CREATING A BACKLASH? WE SEE IT TODAY WITH RELIGIOUS FERVOR AND NATIONALISM ALL AROUND. IS THIS A SEARCH FOR THE SECURITY OF IDENTITY AND RECOGNITION IN THE “WOMB” OF THE VOLK, OR YOUR “BUBBLES” WHICH ARE THE CONTAINERS OF IDENTITY AND MEANING? WHAT OUGHT TO BE THE RESPONSE TO THIS NEW TRIBALISM? The same applies to the traditional tension between the will to independence and the will to belong. So-called “new tribalism” is a virtually inevitable reaction to the progressive individualization of modernity. It tries to generate synthetic social bonds where the natural ones have been broken. Only future historical experience can show whether such bonds can be produced without regressive fictions. 'New tribalism' is a virtually inevitable reaction to the progressive individualizat > > > The most malign form of regressive political factionalism manifests > itself today in the new , which are termed, in some cases rightly, a return of fascism. Fascism (as it emerged in Europe in the shadow of World War I, as a rejection of demobilization) is a martial tribalism whose ambition is to reform the whole of “society” on the model of a combat league. ORDER AND CHAOS IN MODERN CHINA FINALLY, A QUESTION ON EAST AND WEST IN THIS CONTEXT. YOU HAVE ARGUED THAT THE “EXCESS REALITY” MOBILIZED BY MODERN ENERGIES OUTSTRIPS ANY NARRATIVE OF ORIGINS AND CONTINUITY THAT CAN TIE A GLOBALLY SYNCHRONIZED WORLD TOGETHER. THE STEADY DISRUPTION OF THESE ENERGIES HAS LED TO PERSISTENT ASYMMETRY AND DISEQUILIBRIUM, A LACK OF BALANCE. “ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR.” ALL ATTEMPTS AT RE-FOUNDING LEGITIMACY AND NARRATIVES OF ORIGIN ARE FRUSTRATED. THUS, THERE IS ONLY A KIND OF CORROSIVE ENTROPY AWAY FROM ORDER THAT SAPS “COSMOLOGICAL CONFIDENCE.” I WONDER HOW TRUE THIS IS IN CHINA? YOU MIGHT SAY THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY (LIKE THE “INSTITUTIONAL CIVILIZATION” THAT PRECEDED IT THROUGHOUT MANY DYNASTIES) SEES ITS MAIN TASK AS RESISTING THE FLOW OF ENTROPY BY SEEKING TO ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN EQUILIBRIUM -- A POLITICAL RUDDER, SO TO SPEAK, TO KEEP THE SHIP FROM CAPSIZING AMID THE SWELLS OF UNLEASHED MODERN ENERGIES. TO DO SO, IT AIMS ABOVE ALL TO PREVENT ANY COUNTER-HEGEMONY (OR WORSE, NO IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY) FROM ARISING OUT OF THE CHAOS BY GRAFTING THE NARRATIVE ORIGINS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM’S LEGITIMACY AND CONTINUITY -- MAO -- TO THE NARRATIVE OF CHINA’S MILLENNIA-LONG CONFUCIAN AND DAOIST COSMOLOGY. THIS BOUND THE CHINESE TOGETHER AS A CIVILIZATION LONG BEFORE THE NATION-STATE AND MASS MEDIA. There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent. Mao >> Unlike the West, in China today there seems to be a kind of > inner-civilizational confidence -- not a lack of cosmological > confidence -- that prevails. P st is only experiencing something new that China has experienced over and over again for 2000 years -- many episodes of upheaving change over centuries have led to an obsession with order. CHINA, PERHAPS, HAS LEARNED TO MAINTAIN CIVILIZATIONAL CONTINUITY AFTER PERENNIAL BOUTS OF DISRUPTION. IN MORE RECENT TIMES, REMEMBER MAO: “ALL UNDER THE HEAVENS ARE IN DISORDER; THE SITUATION IS EXCELLENT.” MAO _WAS _THE DELUGE. NOW CHINA AUTHORITIES ARE ATTEMPTING TO REFOUND LEGITIMACY AND CONTINUITY BY LINKING THE FUTURE TO THE PAST. CIRCULAR TIME STILL MAINTAINS IN CHINA, AND SO DOES BALANCE AGAINST ASYMMETRY. MIGHT ALL THIS SUGGEST THAT IN THE EAST, THE OLD PATTERNS OF SYMMETRY, BALANCE AND CIRCULAR TIME REMAIN? PERHAPS THE “MYTH,” THE NOBLE LIE CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE TRUTH, STILL WORKS IN CHINA? MAYBE THE MODERN WEST IS JUST TOO YOUNG YET TO GAUGE THE WHOLE PICTURE? As a non-Sinologist and admiring observer of the “Chinese phenomenon,” I tend to be restrained with judgments about the course of events in that part of the civilization universe. It seems to me, however, that my statements about the growing asymmetries in the process of modernity are also applicable to China. China may have averted a demographic disaster in the last half-century, but its contribution to environmental disasters -- local and global -- seems immense. It could be that in the longer term, China will form the decisive counterweight to the Jurassic Park of Western modernity. For the political and cult > , one can say with a degree of certainty that, in the coming > century, it will develop a conceptual system of coordinates based on > the difference between the sustainable a stainable. It is reasonable to assume that China’s vote will be of increasing importance in this context. The rest of the world will learn to see China not only as the paradigm of cunning despotism, but also as a civilization that affords the principles of symmetry, balance, circularity and continuity an appropriate status -- in contrast to Western nations, which are less and less in control of their great experiment with asymmetry, imbalance, irreversibility and discontinuity. It could be that in the longer term, China will form the decisive counterweight to the Jurassic Park of Western modernity. At the same time, it cannot be overlooked that China itself has incorporated many motifs from the Western civilization of asymmetry. These, as China’s political leadership has evidently recognized, contain a high explosive potential. In light of this, it is a sign of the civilization-critical wisdom of tomorrow to remain alert as a “comparatist” of the Western and Eastern paths. _This interview was translated by Wieland Hoban and is part of the WorldPost Series on Exponential Technology._ _ALSO ON WORLDPOST:_ -- 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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Father Of Drowned Syrian Toddler Describes Last Moments With Family
The Syrian man whose wife and two young children drowned while the family was trying to reach Greece by boat emotionally recalled their last moments together. Abdullah Kurdi, whose family tragedy captured international attention when his 3-year-old son Aylan's body washed ashore on a popular tourist beach in Turkey on Wednesday, mourned the deaths as he spoke to HuffPost Arabi on Thursday after identifying his loved ones' bodies. “I wish I could transfer my breath to them, to breathe life into their bodies again,” he said. “We spent a whole hour holding on to the boat. My children were still alive. The first one died because of the raging waves. I had to leave him to save my second son, who also drowned. I turned around to find that their mother had drowned as well.” Kurdi told HuffPost Arabi that poverty kept him from buying flotation devices for Aylan, 3, Galip, 5, and wife Rehan, 35, who all hail from the Syrian town of Kobani. “Gathering the costs for fleeing wasn’t easy, and I couldn’t secure the price of the life jackets,” he said. Aylan, Galip and Rehan were just three of the 12 people who died when two boats carrying 23 people capsized after setting off from Turkey's Bodrum peninsula, Reuters reported. The passengers, who reportedly hoped to reach the Greek island of Kos, were among tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing their homeland who have descended on Turkey to catch boats to Greece, their "gateway to the European Union," in recent months. Kurdi's sister, Teema Kurdi, said she had hoped to help the family make it to Canada. "I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbors who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn’t get them out, and that is why they went in the boat," she told Canada's National Post. Those boat trips present a wide range of dangers: leaks, overcrowding and faulty motors causing the vessels to sink; extreme weather conditions in total darkness; and masked gunmen targeting refugees if their boats cross paths. Kurdi said Canadian officials have since offered him citizenship after hearing of his family's tragedy, but he has declined, Reuters reported. He is planning to go back to Kobani, Syria, and will bury his wife and son's bodies there. -- 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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Germany Steps Up On Refugee Crisis As Rest Of EU Dawdles
A summer of tragedy in Europe is set to continue into fall, with Germany shaping up to be an important player in a crisis that's sending hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans into the country. Germany expects to receive the most refugees and asylum seekers of all EU member states -- up to 800,000 by the end of 2015, according to German interior minister Thomas de Maizière, at least double the number that arrived last year. Unlike many of its neighbors, the country welcomes the responsibility. Germany is the European Union's biggest recipient of asylum seekers. On Aug. 25, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees announced that the country had suspended the Dublin Regulation -- an EU rule that requires refugees to seek asylum in the first European country they arrive -- for Syrians. The change effectively allows all Syrian refugees to apply for asylum in Germany. "As one of the world's richest countries, with good infrastructure, a viable welfare state and a solid budget surplus, we are in a position to rise to the occasion," German Labour and Social Affairs Minister Andrea Nahles said at a briefing ahead of a G20 meeting in Turkey. Asylum procedures differ dramatically among European countries. Hungary, for example, granted asylum to fewer than 10 percent of applicants in 2014. Sweden, in contrast, granted asylum to 77 percent of its applicants. France accepted almost 70 percent and Germany had the highest percentage of over 80 percent. This year, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, France and Italy are the EU countries slated to receive the largest numbers of asylum applications. Germany has warned it can't shoulder the burden alone, and has taken leadership of the discussions surrounding a solution - namely, Germany has called upon the EU to reach consensus on a comprehensive and unified approach. "If Europe fails on the question of refugees, this close connection with universal civil rights ... will be destroyed and it won't be the Europe we want," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Sunday. "If we say that Italy and Greece can't be left alone with this task, then neither can it be that three countries, like Sweden, Austria and Germany, are left alone with the lion's share of the task," she added during a press conference in Berne Thursday. The EU has made little progress in reaching a pan-European solution to the problem. Merkel has suggested a quota system to distribute people more evenly across the 28 EU member states. While the proposal has received support from France, it has been met with thorny opposition from other countries. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary plan to reject any proposed quotas. Britain, which does not participate in the Schengen agreement that allows people to move freely among its 22 participating states, blames the open-border agreement for the continent's influx of people and the worsening human smuggling problem. "As countries in Europe are increasingly realizing, these tragedies have been exacerbated by the European system of no borders," Britain's home secretary Theresa May wrote in The Sunday Times. Many experts argue, however, that political infighting about Schengen is time wasted. Instead, EU leadership should focus on a comprehensive policy that will take care of refugees and economic migrants coming to Europe and work to integrate them into European society. In countries like Germany with aging populations, this will specifically involve economic integration. "The real crisis is not about migration or refugees. The real crisis in Europe is the incompetence of Europe to come to a common response," Hein de Haas, former co-director of Oxford's International Migration Institute, told WorldPost last week. "With more than half a billion inhabitants, the European Union has the resources to cope with this, and can make sure that people arriving at the European border get access to asylum procedures," he said. While Germany's willingness to accept refugees and asylum seekers surpasses that of other European countries, its numbers still pale in comparison to the efforts of countries like Turkey and Lebanon. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that by the end of 2015, 1.9 million refugees will be living in Turkey. Approximately 1.3 million already live in Lebanon. And despite Germany's general acceptance of refugees and asylum seekers, the road to integration will be long and arduous. According to a poll released Thursday, fully half of Germans worry that growing numbers of asylum-seekers are overwhelming the country. Anti-migrant protests flare up regularly across Germany. More than 150 arson attacks have stricken asylum-seeker shelters in the first half of 2015. Last week in Heidenau, outside of Dresden, right-wing anti-migrant protesters booed Merkel during a visit to a government migration shelter and deemed her a "traitor." EU interior and justice ministers will meet in an emergency session to discuss courses of action on Sept. 14 in Brussels. A comprehensive solution is unlikely to emerge, which may push some leaders to advocate instead for stronger borders, as Hungary's Victor Orban has already done. The dream of a borderless Europe may be dying a slow death. -- 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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Artist pays tribute to Aylan Kurdi and Good Samaritan
A priest who set up a group to help refugees who arrived on the Greek Island of Lesbos has died. His death comes at the same time that the photo of…
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Economic Support for Greek Islands Receiving Most Migrants
Caretaker Finance Minister Nikos Christodoulakis on Thursday said islands receiving the bulk of migrants will be economically supported. During a press conference on the refugee issue, Christodoulakis noted that officials of the Economy ministry will be transferred to to the Migration Policy ministry to help assess the crisis. Alternate Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas earlier said
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Mario Draghi Lays out Conditions for ECB’s Purchase of Greek Bonds
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi discussed the possibility of the ECB purchasing Greek bonds, during a press conference in Frankfurt on Thursday. Draghi clarified that for the ECB to purchase Greek bonds, whose low credit rating does not fulfil the ECB’s credit rating requirement, Greece needs to show that it is implementing the reforms and measures agreed in the
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Lesvos: The Migrant Crisis in 24 Pictures
Lesvos, the beatiful Greek island in the Aegean once known for its spectacular beaches, has lately been in the news as the main entry point to Europe for thousands of migrants and war-torn Syrian refugees. Only on Tuesday, Lesvos had a reported 12,000 migrants and war-torn refugees roaming around the island, searching for ways to
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Drowned Syrian toddlers' family had not applied for Canada entry
The family of two Syrian toddlers who drowned as they tried to reach Greece had not yet applied to enter Canada, the extended family said on Thursday, despite earlier reports that their refugee application had been rejected. A photograph of Aylan Kurdi's tiny body in a bright red T-shirt and dark shorts, face-down in the surf, appeared in newspapers around the world, prompting sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees. It shouldn't have happened to them," the aunt of the drowned toddlers, Tima Kurdi, told reporters in Vancouver, breaking down in tears.
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GREECE Sees 1300% Increase in Refugees, Migrants in 2015
GREECE has been struggling to deal with the influx of refugees and migrants arriving on its shores, as underfunded refugee camps and aid service ...
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European Central Bank Decreases ELA to GREECE
ecb The European Central Bank Governing Council decided on Thursday to reduce the Emergency Liquidity Assistance to GREECE down to 89.1 billion ...
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As with Greece, Ukraine debt swap may not be the last word
* Debt write off, extensions far less than expected* But generosity to bondholders raises worries* Some people see parallels with Greece* Athens seeking ...
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Greek left opposition leader says euro exit easy to ...
ATHENS, Greece – A left-wing opposition leader is telling voters they won't find a Greek exit from the common European currency hard. Former energy ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.foxnews.com |
INTERVIEW-Aid worker warns of worsening conditions for refugees in GREECE
LONDON, Sept 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Veteran aid worker Stathis Kyrousis is appalled by GREECE'S handling of the refugee crisis engulfing ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.trust.org |
Over 230000 Migrants Arrive in GREECE in 2015
GREECE'S Alternate Shipping Minister Christos Zois said that some 230,000 migrants and refugees have entered GREECE in 2015, a drastic increase ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT sputniknews.com |
Former GREECE chief Todd Baxter joins Ogden police
Following a 26-year career in law enforcement, Baxter stepped down in May 2014 from his post as Chief of the GREECE Police Department and took on ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.democratandchronicle.com |
Alexis through Greek looking-glass world
Syriza support is draining faster than euros from banks before capital controls, writes Tony Barber
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com |
Greece Seeks EU Funds to Help With Migrant Influx
Greece Seeks EU Funds to Help With Migrant Influx Athens needs $820 million to cope with some 230,000 arrivals so far this year
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.wsj.com |
Nurse abandons holiday to help refugees who have fled to GREEK island from war-torn Syria
A nurse's holiday on the GREEK paradise of Kos has turned into a heartbreaking humanitarian mission to help Syrian refugees. Niamh McGarry-Gribbin ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk |
GREEK opposition New Democracy party closes gap on Syriza
Two opinion polls by GREEK research companies published on Wednesday showed Syriza's lead over the centre-right New Democracy party shrinking ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com |
98th Annual GREEK Fest kicks off in the Central West End
The event will be in front of the St. Nicholas GREEK Orthodox Church at the corner of Kingshighway Boulevard and Forest Park Parkway. There will be ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT fox2now.com |
ECB Cuts Greek Emergency Funding as Draghi Rules Out Bail-In
… month, reflects an easing of Greece’s financial crisis following months … out a comprehensive assessment of Greek lenders’ balance sheets, the results … . The ECB will assess whether Greece has implemented specific “milestones” in …
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
September 3, 1843: When Greeks Forced Their German King to Grant a Constitution
After Greece gained its independence fighting off the Ottoman Empire, the Greek insurgents called upon Ioannis Kapodistrias, a former foreign minister of Russia, to take over the governance of the fledgling state in 1827. Kapodistrias ruled until 1831, when he was assasinated by a family of Greek landowners in response to the imprisonment of one of its
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Greece to Miss the 2015 Privatization Revenues Target
The privatization program is not likely to reach its revenues target for 2015, said head of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED), Stergios Pitsiorlas. Pitsiorlas talked to Reuters saying that the privatization deals are progressing despite the pre-election period, but the delays so far seem that they will affect state revenues for another year.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
On the migrant trail: 'Heading west, until we reach 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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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.france24.com |
GREECE Seizes ISIS-Linked Weapons Shipment
The Greek coastguard has seized a ship loaded with thousands of undeclared, carefully concealed weapons, and possibly explosives, en route from ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.breitbart.com |
Egyptian billionaire to GREECE, Italy: sell me an island to host the migrants
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to buy an island off GREECE or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.timeslive.co.za |
Refugee crisis: less recrimination and more concerted action needed
ANALYSIS: Britain’s ungenerous mood in 2015 reflects decades of immigration but we can’t let frontline Greece and Italy to go on carrying the can We have all been taught that one picture can be worth a thousand words. So the poignant photograph of a Turkish policeman carrying the tiny body of a drowned Syrian refugee up a beach has made a huge media impact in the past few hours, including the front pages of British newspapers better known for migrant bashing those. But will this tragedy in miniature off Bodrum actually do any good beyond making readers and viewers uncomfortable for a few minutes? Is it just a sentimental twitch by tabloids which will be back to “We Can’t Cope with This Tide” headlines by the end of this week? Or, in the case of Thursday’s Daily Mail, on the next page? Continue reading...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Egypt billionare offers to buy Med island for refugees
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to buy an island off Greece or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com |
'My children slipped through my hands': father of drowned Syrian boy
The father of a three-year-old Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach, an image that shocked the world, said Thursday his children "slipped through my hands" as their boat was taking in water en route to Greece.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com |
Greece's Syriza party clings to slight lead in latest poll
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's leftist Syriza party maintained a slim lead in the latest opinion poll published on Thursday, winning 25.5 percent of votes compared to 25 percent held by its main conservative rivals, the New Democracy party. Syriza's poll lead has shrivelled since its leader, former premier Alexis Tsipras, resigned in August and called for a snap election to win new backing for a bailout programme. (Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Matthias Williams)
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com |
Sprechen Sie power?
SUCH was the status of German in the 19th century—for Europeans generally and for Jews in particular—that Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, once proposed making it the official language of a future state of Israel. In the event, devotees of Hebrew won out. After the Holocaust, German was particularly despised. But times change. Israeli 14- to 15-year-olds going back to school after the summer holidays now have the option of German as a foreign language for the first time at five public schools, to be followed by more. German is also becoming popular among adult Israelis, and not only the more than 20,000 who have moved to Berlin in recent years. This reflects a broader shift in perceptions. Fifty years after Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations, 70% of Israelis have a positive view of the country, according to a poll by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think-tank. Many find Germans honest and trustworthy. With the possible exception (at least lately) of Greece, people elsewhere agree, polls show. This suggests a big gain for Germany in “soft power”. Joseph Nye of Harvard University, who coined the term in...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.economist.com |
Don’t Miss The National Herald’s First-Ever Extensive Poll On Greece
With Greece in crisis again, the National Herald gave its readers and followers a chance to give their opinions about what the Sept. 20 election will bring and other critical issues for the country's future. The post Don’t Miss The National Herald’s First-Ever Extensive Poll On Greece appeared first on The National Herald.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Stars of GREEK debt drama part ways over bail-out
Alexis Tsipras, right, and Yanis Varoufakis talk during the first round of a presidential vote at the GREEK parliament in Athens in February. The fearsome ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.bdlive.co.za |
GREEK Islands: No Crisis, No Worries
Just back from a week at a villa on the island of Paxos and I can report on the latest crisis in Greece: a small blockage in the filtration system of our ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com |
Parliament agrees to push for oversight of GREEK reforms
Also last month, then-GREEK Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wrote Schulz saying he would request the “direct” and “full” involvement of the European ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.politico.eu |
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