To Ethnos, 4 October 2010
Reporting on the visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the 2 and 3 October, To Ethnos notes the “many contracts that awaited the coming of the Chinese.” The Athens daily adds that “two memorandums of collaboration signed on the occasion included 11 contracts between Greek and Chinese companies, which will open the door to new investment” in shipping, telecommunications, transport, real estate, and also in the cultural sphere. Trade between the two countries could be worth up to six billion euros by 2015. Wen Jiabao also pledged to continue buying Greek treasuries at future bond auctions.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies.
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either?
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.