1 Greek debt talks hit stalemate (San Francisco
Chronicle) Talks between Greece and its creditors in the 19-country eurozone
broke down Thursday without agreement or even a plan of action on how to move
forward on the country's debts and bailout. Following an emergency meeting of
the eurogroup in Brussels, the two sides failed to even issue a statement, a
sign that a compromise deal over Greece's debts at next Monday's follow-up
meeting will be a struggle.
Europe has been embroiled in another Greek crisis
following the election of the radical-left Syriza government last month. The
new government was elected on a mandate to drastically reduce the burden of the
country's bailout and the associated budget austerity measures, which it blames
in large part for the country's economic woes.
Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, laid
out the hope that progress could be made at Monday's meeting. Popular support
for a change of course is strong in Greece, with thousands taking to the
streets across the country Wednesday to give their backing to the government.
Despite the divisions, the prevailing view in the
markets is that some sort of compromise deal will be thrashed out in time for
Greece to avoid defaulting on its debts and leaving the euro. Still, markets
have been volatile over the past two weeks amid the uncertainty. The higher
rate Greece had to pay Wednesday — 2.5 percent against 2.15 percent last time —
indicates investors are more worried about Greece not repaying its debts.
2 Old politics and a young generation (Suzanne
Moore in The Guardian) As UK’s two-party system shatters, we ought to be seeing
more individuality, not less, but the opposite is happening. Who can blame the
young for their lack of interest? The mythical youth vote cannot be Snapchatted
into existence. An interest in party politics already marks you out as
prematurely aged.
Coming up to an election, though, we are suddenly to
be addressed by gender and generation. Where do they all live? As they can’t
afford to buy anywhere, because rents are so high; as they have been hammered
by tuition fees and their wages have declined significantly compared with
everyone else’s, a lot of them actually live with their parents. The
generational conflict is about towels left on the bathroom floor, not about
tribes of jobseekers declaring all-out war on the baby-boomers for stealing
their future.
Yet they are patronised at every turn. I read that
they are a generation that cares deeply “about a whole range of issues”. What
does this mean? Some are upset that, apart from rioting over trainers, they
have not formed a revolutionary vanguard as they were too busy sexting. Half of
18- to 24-year-olds did not bother to vote at the last election. This is bad
for Labour and apparently bad for democracy itself, as voting is a habit that
has to be acquired young.
I don’t blame them for their lack of engagement. If
you give people real alternatives, you get new levels of youth engagement. Look
at Scotland. But there are much larger forces, and when people are asked bigger
questions, they do engage – as in Greece. Nonetheless, the fact remains that
there are a lot more older people than younger: over 11 million over-65s, to
just under 6 million 18- to 24-year-olds.
This may well be a country for old people, with old
politics to match. But that’s crumbling. To make it youthful we don’t need just
the young. We need to play with something new.
3 Why Delhi’s common man won (Syed Nazakat in
Khaleej Times/The Christian Science Monitor) He’s known as India’s corruption
buster. And now Arvind Kejriwal, a youthful-looking former tax inspector and
winner of Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, has pulled off a stunning
near-sweep in New Delhi’s local elections.
The Aam Aadmi, or “Common Man,” party won 67 of 70
seats in New Delhi, the largest single victory ever in India’s capital. The
party’s victory also marks the first major loss for the nationalist BJP party
since its own sweep of India last spring, which brought Prime Minister Narendra
Modi to power.
The Common Man party’s popular majority of 54 per
cent shows that Kejriwal’s support appears to transcend class and religious
categories, though whether he can transcend Delhi politics and exercise power
outside the capital remains unclear. Tuesday’s election marked the first time
that Congress, the vulnerable party associated with the liberation movement of
Mohandas Gandhi, failed to win a single seat in Delhi.
The success of the Common Man party stems from its
sustained campaign against corruption combined with a dedicated army of
volunteers. Analysts say Kejriwal also benefited from the perceived arrogance
or overconfidence of the BJP, with Modi often deriding Kejriwal as no match for
his own persona and political intelligence.
Kejriwal entered politics in 2012 and championed
transparency and anti-corruption. He launched a party that brought together
activists, youth, and poor people, and his anti-graft ideas caused a stir
nationwide. His party’s symbol is a broom, a reference to its origins as an
anti-graft campaign group.
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