How the world sees Greece
Edmonton Journal | Greece's international creditors approve payout of new $3.3 billion batch of ... Edmonton Journal BERLIN - Greece's international creditors have cleared a 2.5 billion-euro ($3.3 billion) installment of bailout loans following the approval of new austerity measures by authorities in Athens. European Commission spokesman Simon O'Connor said the ... |
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Bunds Set for Weekly Drop on European Optimism; Greek Bonds Rise Bloomberg German government bonds were poised for a their first weekly decline this month as stronger-than-forecast euro-area economic reports reduced demand for the region's safest assets. The benchmark 10-year yield was about two points from the highest level ... |
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Wall Street Journal | Clearing Next Greek Payment Leads to Talk of 2014 Options Bloomberg Options include tapping unused funds earmarked for Greek banks, having Greece venture back into the short-term bond market in late 2014, or having creditor governments put in more money, the official told reporters in Brussels on condition of anonymity ... Greek Aid Slice Gets Green Light From Euro Zone Tragedy in 22 acts: EU delays Greek bailout payment Eurozone officials approve release of next Greek bailout tranche |
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PHOTOS: Greek Isle Residents Live Decade Longer Than Americans ABC News PHOTOS: Greek Isle Residents Live Decade Longer Than Americans. Previous · Next. Why Do People on This Greek Isle Live So Long? 100-year-old Konstantinos Spanos lost a leg fighting in World War II. He still goes to work every day, and drinks a glass or ... |
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HOUSTON (AP) — Billionaire Texas oilman, developer and philanthropist George P. Mitchell has died at his home in Galveston.
He was 94.
Mitchell was the son of Greek immigrants and became one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. He's considered the father of hydraulic fracking to recover natural gas from shale deposits, pioneering the now common process that's led to an energy boom.
Mitchell's family announced his death Friday on the family foundation website.
The posting said he died of natural causes while surrounded by family.
Mitchell was born in Galveston, graduated at the top of his class at Texas A&M University in 1940 and had been one of the school's top benefactors.
His wife, Cynthia, died in 2009. They had 10 children.
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The long-running protests in Bulgaria are not a plot led by middle-class Soros-oids – they are about social alternatives
On Tuesday the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, witnessed a night of violence. After 40 days of protest the National Assembly was besieged amid demands that the government resign, and police stormed the peaceful crowd. A bus full of MPs trying to get away was surrounded and its windows broken, and scores of people were wounded. The next day Mihail Mikov, chair of parliament, said that "looking for solutions within the constitution becomes increasingly difficult".
A brief look back can explain why. The collapse of Bulgaria's centre-right government in February following protests against rising electricity bills led to early elections in May. These produced a coalition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the Movement for Rights and Liberties – the party supported by the Turkish minority in Bulgaria – under the prime minister, Plamen Oresharski.
Since 14 June protests have demanded Oresharski's resignation. He was elected on a pledge of popular reforms that would benefit the most economically vulnerable, but any trust in him dissipated with the appointment of Delyan Peevski as head of the state agency for national security. In the eyes of most Bulgarians the media monopolist was corruption incarnate.
The peaceful protests – which coincided with more violent events in Brazil, Turkey and Egypt – have been described as "middle class" by international media that have otherwise largely ignored them. This trope eclipses the reality of the people on the ground, who barely make ends meet on average incomes in the EU's poorest member state.
This rhetoric also exists in local narratives, both for and against the protests. The creation of a strong middle class as a result of Bulgaria's transition to liberal democracy and a free market was once the collective dream; now it is used to divide the country. Rightwing intellectuals present protesters as "intelligent", "moral", even "beautiful" and "smiling". This self-proclaimed "cultural and professional elite" presents itself as "European", "non-violent", "able to pay bills and taxes", as distinct from the "uncivilised" Bulgarians who staged the protests in February. By contrast, most protesters – public service workers and students – see all the protests as intrinsically related. They do not formulate, however, any economic demands or critique the IMF- and EU-inspired austerity and privatisation agendas – embraced by all Bulgarian governments – that led to mass unemployment and dismantled the welfare institutions of the socialist state.
The BSP and its media supporters have also used the "Sofian middle class" rhetoric to turn many Bulgarians against the protesters. They are portrayed as a part of a transnational elite network, connected to power centres in Washington and Brussels. It is alleged that the protesters are paid-up "Soros-oids"; the financier George Soros and the Open Society Institute are seen as masterminds of the protests. Oresharski's timid reforms are thus portrayed as fighting a world conspiracy against ordinary Bulgarians.
What really stands between the protesters and emancipatory politics is the neoliberal hegemony of previous decades, which emptied the collective political imagination. Protests are framed as explicitly "anti-communist" – and the "communism" of the BSP is expressed in its complicity with non-transparent privatisation deals and economic austerity. Talk of "anti-communism" stifles any real debate about economic and social alternatives. New legislative measures, meanwhile, render the emergence of new political actors increasingly difficult, and Bulgaria remains subordinated to local oligarchy and power blocs. As a consequence, the growing political and economic crisis and the precariousness of the majority of Bulgarians are addressed only by the racist far right, whose electoral power is slowly expanding.
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