Romanians take to streets in austerity winter
BUCHAREST, Jan 27 – In December 1989, art student Titi Amzar risked his life to join the demonstrations in University Square that brought down reviled communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Now 43, Amzar is back on the square demanding much the same thing – a new leader for Romania.
“All these post-communist governments have been incompetent,” Amzar, now a designer, told Reuters at the crossing of broad boulevards in central Bucharest where some 50 protesters were killed more than 20 years ago.
“The political class is the main culprit for the collapse of our economic system and the ills of the society.”
Protests against President Traian Basescu and his close ally, Prime Minister Emil Boc, have occurred daily for two weeks and spread around the country, initially against proposed health reforms but quickly broadening to express unhappiness with tough austerity measures and corruption.
Many demonstrators, like Amzar, have also criticized the opposition and questioned if any of Romania’s current leaders can fix the country’s problems.
The unrest, the worst in more than a decade, is still far from serious enough to sway policy or threaten the government.
But it may derail Boc’s chances in parliamentary elections late in 2012 and leave Basescu, who will not face the voters until presidential elections in 2014, stuck in an unhappy marriage with his opponents.
Basescu has a theoretically non-executive position but makes almost all major Romanian policy announcements himself, including wage and pension cuts in 2010, a new International Monetary Fund deal and withdrawal of the healthcare reforms.
The bluff former sea captain, president since 2004, made a serious misstep when he criticized the popular deputy health minister Raed Arafat, prompting his resignation and sparking the demonstrations.
Basescu had accused Arafat, a Palestinian-born doctor who created Romania’s widely admired main emergency response system, of being a left-winger – a sensitive thing to say in post-communist Romania – after he opposed privatization of the health system.
STILL POOR
While Romania has made huge strides in the last 20 years, its per capita income is still less than half the EU average and it is still markedly poorer than other former communist countries like Poland and Hungary. Many villages and even some parts of Bucharest still have no running water or electricity.
Romanians tended to suffer quietly under communism and there was no equivalent of 1956 in Hungary or the 1968 Prague Spring. But tempers boiled over in 1989 after years of food and energy shortages and Romania’s revolution was that year’s bloodiest, with more than 1,000 killed.
The thousands
Article source: PRNewswire
Broken schools breed South Africa’s "lost generation"
JOHANNESBURG |
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The first blow to Martha Netshiozwe’s future came when her parents died of AIDS. The second came when she ran out of money and had to drop out of a South African high school.
Netshiozwe, 23, is a product of the first post-apartheid generation who entered a new and aspiring education system which aimed to heal the economic divisions created by the white-minority government. But like many, she left without the skills to qualify for anything other than manual labor.
Despite pouring billions of dollars into education, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has little to show for its money except for public primary schools regarded as among the worst in the world and millions of students destined for a life in the underclass.
“If you don’t have an education, you don’t have a chance in life,” said Netshiozwe, who is unemployed with little prospect of finding regular work. She and her HIV-infected aunt live together and scrape by on about $100 a month in welfare benefits.
Nearly half of South Africa’s 18 to 24 year olds — the first generation educated after apartheid ended in 1994 — are not in the education system and do not have a job, according to government data.
Academics have called this group the “lost generation” and worry it will grow larger unless the government fixes a system riddled with failing schools, unskilled educators and corruption that stops funding from reaching its intended destinations.
“This is an appalling waste of human potential and a potential source of serious social instability,” the Ministry of Higher Education said this month when it unveiled sweeping plans
for boosting university enrollment and improving vocational colleges.
The lost generation poses long term risks for Africa’s largest economy, which is trying to grow its tax base as it funds increased social spending.
There are about three people receiving social welfare payments for each taxpayer. While the recipients of state funds are set to increase substantially under anti-poverty programs, the number of taxpayers is not, which should cause already yawning budget deficits to widen.
Major ratings agencies are also worried.
Fitch, this month, and Moody’s a few months ago, downgraded the outlook for South Africa, saying the government has not done enough to tackle structural problems including chronic unemployment, growing state debt and a broken education system.
CRIPPLED BY CORRUPTION
South Africa does not suffer a lack of plans or finances for education, the largest sector of state spending and
Article source: PRNewswire
Costa Concordia dilemma: salvage, cut, or sink?
AMSTERDAM |
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Twice the size of the Titanic and three times the length of a soccer pitch, the cruise ship Costa Concordia conjures up superlatives even as a wreck.
Fitted out with sumptuous spas, enormous ballrooms and a Formula 1 race car simulator for its 3,000 passengers, it cruised around the Mediterranean with the equivalent of a small town on board.
Now half-submerged off the coast of Tuscany like an office block that has keeled over, the Costa Concordia could cost the insurance industry up to $1 billion, making this the biggest-ever shipping loss for insurers.
And for the salvagers – maritime scavengers who are preparing to bid for the business of either making it shipshape again, or dismembering it for scrap, or even sending it to the bottom – the Costa Concordia poses one of the most daunting recovery tasks ever tackled.
At 290 meters long and 36 meters wide, the ship has a gross tonnage – describing the volume and size of the vessel – of 114,500 tonnes, and an estimated actual weight ranging from 25,000 to 45,000 tonnes.
But half-submerged and tipped on its side, it is now much heavier because it is full of water and furnishings, from soggy mattresses, carpets and clothes to water-logged chairs and sofas. And it is perched perilously close to a sea cliff on rocks that in the worst-case scenario could crumble or collapse under the enormous weight.
All of which means that the owners of the crippled cruise ship will have to weigh up whether it makes more sense financially to refloat it or to chop it into pieces which can be sold for scrap, or simply sink it off the coast, given the technical difficulties involved.
“This has not happened with other passenger ships,” said Mike Lacey of the International Salvage Union, the sector’s trade association. “There have been large bulk carriers or large tankers that were stranded but not a type such as this one.”
Guesstimates for the cost of salvaging the ship are in the region of $50 million or more. On top of that cost, if the exterior can be rescued, the ship’s owners will need to refit the Costa Concordia from scratch because its interiors are no longer usable.
HOUSE-SIZED FUEL TANKS
When a big ship runs into trouble, one of the first things the salvagers do is remove the fuel, so that it does not leak and cause an environmental disaster, before they can even
Article source: PRNewswire
Madison Square Garden Finals of the 38th Annual Colgate Women’s Games Track and Field Series
NEW YORK–()–
WHAT:
Join us for the 38th Annual Colgate Women’s Games Finals,
where 220 of the nation’s best
female athletes, ranging from Elementary A to 30’s plus, will
compete for trophies and
educational grants-in-aid from Colgate-Palmolive Company.
Events include 55 meters, 55-meter hurdles, 200 meters, 400 Meters,
800 meters,
1500 meters and high jump. Top point scorers advance to the Finals
at Madison Square Garden,
where they compete for trophies and educational grants-in-aid from
Colgate-Palmolive Company.
Over the last three decades, this athletic program has helped young
women develop a strong
sense of personal achievement and self-esteem. As the nation’s
largest amateur track and field
series for girls and young women, the Colgate Women’s Games has
produced hundreds of national
age/grade division champions and more than 20 Olympians.
WHEN:
Saturday, January 28
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
(Doors
Article source: PRNewswire
Little Big Show Benefit Concert Series to Rock Seattle Non-Profit Arts Organizations
SEATTLE–()–Today Starbucks, KEXP and Seattle Theatre Group (STG) launch the Little
Big Show, a new quarterly benefit concert series that helps Pacific
Northwest citizens make a difference in the community as music fans. The
face value of tickets (excluding possible fees and/or service charges)
will be donated to local non-profit organizations in support of
arts-based programming.
“We’re honored to team up with stalwarts KEXP
and STG to host Little Big Show, to inspire our neighbors to get
involved and create positive change in our neighborhoods, while
celebrating Seattle’s musical heritage.”
The inaugural Little Big Show concert is scheduled for Thursday, Feb.
16, at 8:00 p.m. at the Neptune Theatre. The total face value of ticket
sales will benefit Arts Corps (artscorps.org), an arts education
organization for disenfranchised youth. This February, the Little Big
Show series will be kicked off by hometown favorites Pickwick, with
electro-soul duo Fly Moon Royalty as special guests.
“Starbucks is committed to helping communities thrive, and by providing
direct access to arts programs we’re helping build a stronger, more
vibrant Seattle culture,” said Rodney Hines, director of Community
Investments, Starbucks. “We’re honored to team up with stalwarts KEXP
and STG to host Little Big Show, to inspire our neighbors to get
involved and create positive change in our neighborhoods, while
celebrating Seattle’s musical heritage.”
“Last year, 12 percent of middle and high school students in Seattle
reported that Arts Corps programs were their first-ever arts classes,”
said Andrea Fullerton, Development Director, Arts Corps. “Little Big
Show proceeds will help sponsor at least two after-school classes for an
entire year, or give approximately 120 youth the opportunity to
Article source: PRNewswire
