Across Europe, there's a generation with its future on hold
Young people in Greece, Ireland and Spain talk about how the economic crisis is affecting them
• Europe's lost generation costs €153bn a year
• Europe's lost generation costs €153bn a year
Athens
Glykeria Papadopoulou is young and ambitious. She dreams of becoming a teacher of modern Greek literature. In the four years since she graduated with a degree in the field, she has sent out her CV "hundreds of times", placed adverts in print and online media, and even stickers on lampposts outside schools. But youth unemployment inGreece is at 55.4%, higher than any other EU country.
"It is quite clear that my generation has lost out," she says. "The previous generation didn't think so much about the future. They grew up dreaming of having work, money, a home and family and educating their children and here we are educated and with a home but with no work or money."
She recently signed up to a six-month university course to teach children with learning disabilities, a programme her retired father underwrote to improve his daughter's prospects.
The Long View: My dad, I'm afraid, had a soft spot for Mussolini, especially when Benito crushed the commies
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
New model bucks Jamaican package deals
A Jamaican town tries to beat all-inclusive packages with local food and marine reserves to keep tourist dollars from leaking offshore.
The town of Bluefields, Jamaica, is best known as the home of Peter Tosh, an original member of Bob Marley and the Wailers. But in recent years, Bluefields has also built up a profile as a hidden seaside paradise of pristine white beaches, unspoiled by roves of peddlars hawking shell necklaces and hair braiding.
The people of Bluefields say they have built a sustainable model for tourism that can inspire the nation and keep more foreign money on the island.
It would be a desperately needed change. Tourism in Jamaica is worth about $2 billion (1.5 billion euros) a year, making it the biggest source of foreign exchange in the country. But most visitors come as part of package deals. That means as much as 80 percent of their dollars leak out of Jamaica's economy, according to a 2011 study by the World Bank. For just one example, hotel operators spent some $62 million on imported food in 2009, according to research conducted by the University of Florida.
The Irish Times - Monday, October 22, 2012
Regional elections hold mixed results for Rajoy
GUY HEDGECOE in Madrid
EXIT POLLS showed that the Popular Party (PP) of prime minister Mariano Rajoy managed to hold on to power in a key regional election in Galicia yesterday, providing a desperately needed boost for the beleaguered Spanish government.
However, in elections also held yesterday in the Basque Country, the PP lost ground as nationalist parties dominated, bringing the issue of independence to the fore.
The Galician vote in particular was seen as a gauge of Spaniards’ reaction to the government’s handling of the economic crisis and exit polls showed the PP retaining its majority in the northwestern region.
Spain’s economy has been at the heart of the euro zone crisis in recent months, with a jobless rate of 25 per cent and increasing speculation that Madrid will request a sovereign bailout in order to ease pressure on the country’s borrowing costs. Since taking power at the end of 2011, Mr Rajoy has raised income tax and VAT and slashed spending on areas such as health and education as he attempts to meet deficit targets set by
Legendary photographer Alf Kumalo dies
South Africa is mourning the death of renowned photographer Alf Kumalo, who died in a Johannesburg hospital from renal failure.
Kumalo (82) was born in Alexandra, and made his name as a photographer for Drum.
The ANC said on Monday Kumalo's work spoke volumes, providing the international community with evidence of the brutality of apartheid.
As such, his work helped to mount international pressure against the apartheid regime, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said on behalf of the party in a statement.
Mthembu described Kumalo's career as "industrious and illustrious" and "journalism in the highest form".
Reverse brain drain pulls Brazilians home, and Europeans with them
Reverse brain drain means twofold "brain gain" for Brazil as the global recession pulls native Brazilians home and, with them, a wave of European migrants leaving their austerity stricken homelands.
When school friends Alessandra Orofino and Miguel Lago were growing up here in the 1990s, their hometown wasn't where they envisioned getting an auspicious start to their futures. It was depressed, dirty, and violent. So like thousands of Brazilians with means, they headed abroad for college – both to Europe, and she, later, to the United States.
"When I left, people said, 'You are never going to come back,' " says Ms. Orofino, who graduated fromColumbia University in New York City.
Both friends – like many immigrants around the globe – figured they'd have careers abroad, returning home much later. They were part of the classic brain drain in which human capital flows from developing to developed nations.
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