Agrégateur de flux

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Last Thursday, Greece was momentarily shaken out of its crisis funk when Alexis Tsipras announced that he was resigning from the post of Prime Minister and calling for new elections to be held on September 20th. Tsipras had only been in office since January, but he declared that his mandate had “exhausted its limits”. Having lost a third of his party’s support, the now ex-Prime Minister prefers to wager on the chance that a favorable majority will form by September rather than risk struggling with negotiating coalitions for the rest of his term.

Tsipras splintered Syriza, a radical left party, when he agreed to the bailout terms presented by the troika—the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—just weeks after 61.3 percent of Greeks had voted against them on July 5th. Despite his drastic U-turn, polls still indicate that Greeks favor Alexis Tsipras as a leader over most other candidates. This popularity, however, is not very useful to a Prime Minister who faces a hostile parliament. Observers say that Tsipras had no choice but to agree to the creditors’ terms for another bailout. But for some, agreeing to the memorandum after holding a national referendum was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The party fractured itself between pro- and anti-memorandum partisans; the latter working hard to form stronger coalitions in order to oppose creditor conditions and leave the Eurozone to return to the Greek drachma.

On Friday, the former Energy Minister under Tsipras, Panagiotis Lafazanis, became the head of Popular Unity, a new left-wing party looking to bring together Syriza’s disenfranchised electorate and politicians. If the 25 Syriza MPs that defected to Popular Unity were not enough to cause a tight race, pressure is also mounting on the right. While radical socialists hurry to organize on time for elections and a caretaker government takes Syriza’s place, far-right party Golden Dawn is addressing the overlooked immigration crisis that Greece faces in the Aegean sea, at the expense of Tsipras’ and Syriza’s MPs.

Despite such active opposition, it  seems unlikely that parties, especially newly-formed ones, will have time to campaign and win over many new supporters. Tsipras’ idea that next month’s elections will allow for a more cohesive government to form is not senseless. The former Prime Minister has gained right-wing voters at the expense of left-wing voters. Even if this was unintentional, the shift from  radical ideologist to being perceived as a social democrat might work in his favor.

It is difficult to predict whether Tsipras is simply breeding more uncertainty for Greece’s future or if his resignation is a ploy meant to ensure stronger bargaining power on the national stage. Many say that Greece should be actively implementing reforms to meet the expectations of creditors, rather than putting Greeks through a new round of political brinkmanship. On the one hand, it may seem like Tsipras is stalling the implementation of strict austerity measures, but, on the other hand, he also appears to be heading in a direction that favors dialogue with the troika.

Tsipras’s new style of politics, which cost him a third of his party, is one driven by survival instinct.  Steering away from the idealistic (and reactionary) goals first set by Syriza, a Greek utopia that wanted to avoid austerity while maintaining the Euro, Tsipras is now appealing to wider political base.

A 2013 Pew Research Center poll indicated that a majority of EU citizens considered Greeks to be the least hardworking country in Europe. This kind of stereotype demonstrates the finger-pointing tendency that the Jacques Delors Institute warned against: “It is of crucial importance that backward looking criticism will be replaced by forward looking constructive dialogue on how to strengthen the euro”. According to the Institute, that aims to advise European Union leaders, the EU needs to customize its approach to countries’ economies in the future and invest in Greek industries in a way that will trigger growth. Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s President, who knows a thing or two about sovereign debt, told Euronews in June, “All those measures are not meant to overcome the crisis, they are just to liquidate the debt”.

However, irrespective of the outcome of the vote, I would venture a guess that Tsipras, both lacks the political will and the common sense to see through the reforms demanded by the creditors. The Greek default, often compared with Latvia’s, Iceland’s, Ireland’s or Argentina’s, is nevertheless unique. Athens not only lacks a strong export sector or any significant comparative advantage over other EU members (the much-touted olive oil and cheese industry only account for $790 million worth of exports), but the shabby state of the Greek institutional framework and inefficient court system render the austerity-driven bailout vacuous.

Increasing the country’s competitiveness through austerity measures without bolstering its manufacturing sector, imposing tax hikes without strengthening its tax collection capacities, selling off state assets without stamping out corruption, and holding elections on the fickle platform “paying lip service to the creditors while bemoaning the European diktat” are the wrong ways to put Greece back on track. As much as some pundits have tried to spin the Greek crisis into a case of victim blaming whereby evil European creditors snuffed democracy in the name of finance and at the expense of the Greeks themselves, without deep, comprehensive structural reforms Athens will be dead in the water.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Almazbek Atambayev will be traveling to Beijing and Tehran, but dropped the New York leg of his September travel plans

Ahogy láthatjuk a híreket, Guineában még nem teljesen forrtak be a múlt sebei, hiszen két napja attól forrong a helyi sajtó és a nemzetközi közvélemény Guineával foglalkozó része, hogy az egykori puccsista és közel egy évig egy katonai kormányt irányító Moussa Dadis “Nép Fia” Camara gépét nem engedték leszámolni Elefántcsontparton, ahonnan elvileg továbbrepült volna a guineai fővárosba, Conakryba. A 2008-ban puccsal hatalomra jutott, majd az ellene egy évvel később elkövetett súlyos merénylet után Burkina Fasóba menekülő ex-katona pár hete jelentette be, hogy visszatér országa politikai porondjára és indulni fog a 2015. októberében esedékes elnökválasztáson is saját pártjának színeiben, ennek apropóján tervezett hosszú idő után visszatérni hazájába, de mint Maxime Manimou, a Hazafias Front a Demokráciáért és Fejlődésért (FPDD) pártjának szóvivője elmondta (ez a párt Camara mozgalma), az egykori elnök menetrend szerinti járatát nem engedték landolni Abidjanban és átirányították a ghánai fővárosba, Accrába, ahonnan aztán a gép visszarepült a burkina fasói fővárosba.

Manimou és Camara ügyvédje egyaránt a guineai vezetést vádolta meg az akcióval, amellyel szerintük megsértették a Nyugat-Afrikai Államok Gazdasági Közössége (ECOWAS) által biztosított, szabad mozgáshoz való jogot és a többi utas életét is veszélybe sodorták – amely vádat természetesen Conakryban tagadnak és azt állítják, hogy az elefántcsontparti légügyi hatóság döntéséről van szó. Akár egyébként lehet is igazság ezekben a vádakban, hiszen az már ismert, hogy a jelenlegi elnök, Alpha Condé legnagyobb kihívójának számító, a legnagyobb ellenzéki párt, a Guineai Ellenzéki Erők Szövetsége színeiben induló Cellou Dalein Diallo és Camara szövetségre lépett egymással, azaz bármelyik jutna be egy második fordulóba, a másik támogatná – ahogy Diallo fogalmazott korábban, Condé megbuktatásáért akár az ördöggel is szövetségre lépne.

Ami sokak szerint most meg is történt, hiszen Camara uralma alatt 2009. szeptemberében a rendőrség és a katonaság emberei az elnök parancsára tüzet nyitottak a változást követelő tüntetőkre és 157 embert meggyilkoltak – további százakat megkínoztak, megsebesítettek vagy a nyílt utcán megerőszakoltak. A hivatalos álláspont szerint Camara most pont ezért tért vissza, hogy a múlt hónapban a 2009-es események miatt ellene indított bírósági eljárásban tisztázza nevét és hivatalosan is benyújtsa jelentkezését az elnökválasztásra, mint jelölt. Az biztos, hogy Camarát még a mai napig elég sokan támogatják, főként az ország déli részén és ezek a támogatók most meg is mutatták magukat, hiszen az egykori katonai vezető accrai leszállításának hírére több százan csaptak össze Conakryban a repülőtérnél a rendőrséggel és csak könnygázzal sikerült őket feloszlatni.

Azt mondjuk elég nehéz elképzelni, hogy bármely guineai bíróság elítélni Dadis Camarát, hiszen pont támogatói okán egy ilyen döntés szinte biztosan egyenlő lenne az erőszak elszabadításával Guineában, ezt pedig valószínűleg mindenki szeretné elkerülni – főleg azok után, hogy Diallo és Condé múlt heti megállapodásával elvileg békés választások jöhetnek az országban, az országban, amelyben a 2010-ben, az ország történetében először demokratikusan megválasztott elnöktől, Condétól mindenki egy új világ elérkezését remélte, hiába. És ha már el nem ítélhetik, hogy tudnák távoltartani a guineai politikai porondtól? Minden eszköz bevetésével. Persze ez lehet akár csak egy összeesküvés-elmélet is, hiszen szinte bizonyosra vehető, hogy Camara hamarosan meg fog jelenni Conakryban és ez akár egy újabb fordulatot hozhat a guineai mindennapokban.

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4 ember kedveli ezt a posztot.Tetszett az írás.Tetszett az írás.

A kíiró csillagászati modellépítési pályázatot hirdet általános és középfokú oktatási intézmények és tanulóik részére.

A Kultúra alprogram nem támogat pornográf, rasszista vagy erőszakot pártoló projekteket. A Kultúra alprogram elsősorban nonprofit projekteket támogat.

Pályázat célja: Országos irodalmi verseny amatőr írók részére. A pályázatban egy élőlény (pl. a kutyám, macskám stb.) vagy élettelen tárgy (pl. a cipőm, a szemüvegem stb.) megszemélyesítésével, megtörtént vagy kitalált történetét novella formájában várjuk, természetesen a "Fények Vakondja" humoros, ironikus szemével megírva.

Forgass egy rövidfilmet és légy része a változásnak!

A forgatókönyvíró mentorprogram célja felfedezni az írói tehetséget, az újító gondolkodásmódot, és létrehozni egy nemzetközi piacon is helytálló csapatot.

A verseny célja, hogy megtaláljuk a legjobb hazai betegedukációs projekteket valamint, hogy a betegedukáció kiemelt kommunikációs szerepét tudatosítsuk.

Robbanás történt Oroszország legnagyobb bankjának egyik kijevi fiókjában.  A Sberbank tájékoztatása szerint személyi sérülés nem történt.

 

China watchers around the world are alarmed at the significant fall in Chinese stock markets and many are warning that the recent crash has alarming prospects for the underlying Chinese economy. Their worries reached new heights following the 8.5% drop in the Shanghai Composite Index on Monday – the biggest fall in eight years. Many attempts were made to stem the decline in the stock markets, including the banning of short-selling and new listings, the threat to arrest short sellers, the freezing of close to half the companies traded, and massive influx of state capital to buy shares. Perhaps in an attempt to prop up the financial position of its exporters, a supposed one-time yuan devaluation of 1.9% was announced last Tuesday by the People’s Bank of China. Since then, the yuan (or renminbi) has had its value cut an additional two consecutive days.

Some prominent China watchers are calling into question the Communist Party’s ability to control not only its stock markets, but also other policy-making areas. Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008 and professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, calls the Chinese leadership “naked emperors” and says “they have no clue what they’re doing.” Despite Krugman’s admonition, the Party may have a few tricks up its sleeve.

Beijing has been expanding its reach in other markets, such as Africa, where ten out of the top twenty fastest-growing economies between 2013 and 2017 are located according to the International Monetary Fund. Indeed, it has done so for some time now, with China’s trade with Africa reaching an estimated $200 billion in 2012. Chinese companies are also winning massive infrastructure contracts to build railways, airports, highways and ports, typically supported by large, state-owned financial institutions such as the Export-Import Bank of China. Most of the financing of these large projects is tied to procurement of Chinese equipment, machinery and materials—a boost to its exporters. And many Chinese have flocked to Africa to set up small retail stores and sell cheap Chinese-made household items.

Yet, while providing new markets for Chinese state-owned enterprises and traders may help improve China’s gross domestic product (GDP), this strategy is not without risk. As Howard French, author of China’s Second Continent relates, it is “outcomes that count.” Chinese citizens and companies have been welcomed by many African leaders who believe they can quickly build much-needed infrastructure. And in many countries they have done just that. However, French reports in his many travels throughout Africa, that some of the Chinese-built infrastructure is substandard, with airports subject to flooding or newly-built highways crumbling. In another example, French points to the “outraged Ghanaians who seem to have awoken one recent day to the discovery that thousands of Chinese newcomers were scrambling illegally to take control of their country’s lucrative gold mining sector, digging up the countryside, despoiling the land, and bribing local chiefs and police officials in the process.”

If Chinese policy-makers want to sustain their stated GDP growth near 6-7 percent for the near future, increasing the number of countries their exporters have access to would certainly help. With Chinese-led initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS New Development Bank, and the Silk Road Fund, their exporters and state-owned enterprises could well gain access to new markets. But given the backlash many Chinese companies are now facing in Africa, new efforts will need to be undertaken to improve their behavior—lest better-governed countries turn to their competitors.

Nadiya Savchenko, third from left, is pictured before a deployment to Iraq in 2004. In Aug. 2015 she appeared in a Russian court to face murder charges, after allegedly being kidnapped from Ukraine. Many feel her trial is an example of Russia’s impropriety in seeking justice for casualties in the Ukraine crisis. Photo: Savchenko family via Washington Post

A covert agent disappears from his homeland, and next shows up days later in an enemy prison. The agent’s government claims he was kidnapped in a police operation and forcibly moved to enemy territory. The enemy claims the agent carried covert audio equipment and firearms, intending to execute a “covert operation.”

A Cold War-era spy thriller? On the contrary, this situation happened in 2014 and is very real. The agent in question—Estonian security officer Eston Kohver—was taken into Russian custody. He was convicted on charges of espionage, and sentenced to 15 years in prison last Wed., Aug. 19, 2015.

Just hours after Kohver’s sentencing, prosecutors in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don sought a prison term of 20 years for Oleh Sentsov. A Ukrainian filmmaker, Sentsov is accused of plotting to destroy a statue of Lenin in Crimea. He is charged with terrorism.

Two days later a Ukrainian military officer, Nadiya Savchenko, was indicted on murder charges in Russia after allegedly being kidnapped from Ukraine. She is accused of carrying out a mortar strike that killed 2 Russian journalists.

High profile court cases have become the latest battleground between familiar adversaries: Russia and the West. All of these arrests result from the involvement of the FSB, Russia’s intelligence agency and main successor of the KGB, and evidence used in each of the trials has been deemed top secret and not been publicly released. Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, states that Moscow is on a “war footing” with the West, and the trials are another front.

Savchenko’s case has received particular attention around the world, as she was elected to Ukraine’s parliament while in prison. U.S. officials have identified Savchenko as a “hostage” and demanded her release. According to the Washington Post, Russia has offered to exchange Savchenko for two Russian soldiers being held in Ukraine. It is possible that the accused in the other trials could also end up as political bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges, but nothing is certain at this point. Some are accusing Russia of violating international laws by arresting Kohver, Sentsov, and Savchenko without sufficient evidence and holding biased trials.

These cases are certainly troubling, and represent yet another volatile area of contention with Russia. Relations with Russia are delicate, but it cannot be allowed to make unsubstantiated arrests and abduct suspects from other countries. This might be the beginning of a slippery slope no one wants to go down.

Pour trouver un emploi, de plus en plus de Français se tournent vers l'étranger. Quels pays choisissent-ils ? Quels sont ceux qui, en Europe, offrent le plus d'opportunités d'embauche ? Et quelles sont les destinations préférées des retraités ? Les réponses dans cette vidéo.