NEWS,01.05.2013

Angry workers unite on May Day

Workers around the world united in anger during May Day rallies on Wednesday - from fury in Europe over austerity measures that have cut wages, reduced benefits and eliminated many jobs altogether, to rage in Asia over relentlessly low pay, the rising cost of living and hideous working conditions that have left hundreds dead in recent months.

In protests, strikes and other demonstrations held in cities across the planet, activists lashed out at political and business leaders they allege have ignored workers' voices or enriched themselves at the expense of labourers. In some places, the demonstrations turned violent, with activists clashing with police.
Many nations have been struggling with economic downturns for several years now, and workplace disasters in developing countries are nothing new, but the intensity of some of Wednesday's gatherings suggested workers' frustrations have grown especially acute, with many demanding immediate action to address their concerns.
The anger was painfully evident in Bangladesh, where the collapse last week of an illegally built eight-story facility housing multiple garment factories killed more than 400 in a Dhaka suburb. The building collapse followed a garment factory fire in November that killed 112 people in the country, and it has increased the pressure on the global garment industry to improve working conditions.
A loud procession of thousands of workers wound through central Dhaka on Wednesday. Many waved the national flag and demanded the death penalty for the now-detained owner of the doomed building.
From a loudspeaker on the back of a truck, a participant spoke for the throngs gathered: "My brother has died. My sister has died. Their blood will not be valueless."
The Bangladesh tragedy drew a denunciation from Pope Francis during a private Mass at the Vatican. He blasted what he called the "slave" wages of those who died, many of whom were being buried Wednesday as other bodies were still being pulled from the rubble. Francis criticized the focus on "balance books" and personal profit that he said are tied to the failure to pay workers fair wages.
In Greece and Spain, increasing numbers of people are losing their jobs as governments grappling with a debt crisis have been cutting spending, raising taxes and pursuing other stinging austerity measures. Both countries have unemployment rates hovering just above 27 percent.
Unions in Greece held a May Day strike that brought ferry and train services to a halt, and organized peaceful protest marches through central Athens. The country, which nearly went bankrupt in 2010, is now in its sixth year of a deep recession and is dependent on international bailout loans.
Turkey
While the austerity drive has succeeded in reducing high budget deficits, it has been at a huge cost: under the terms of its latest loan disbursement, Athens has agreed to sack about 15,000 civil servants through 2014.
"We are here to send a message to... those in power in Europe, that we will continue our struggle against unfair, open-ended policies that are destroying millions of jobs on a national and European level," said Kostas Tsikrikas, leader of Greek public sector labor union ADEDY.
More than 100 000 Spaniards infuriated by austerity measures and economic recession took to the streets of some 80 cities in trade union-organized rallies Wednesday, with the largest protests in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao.
Under banners reading "Fight for your rights," union leaders Ignacio Fernandez Toxo of Workers Commissions and Candido Mendez of the General Workers Union called on the government to reverse its austerity drive and urged politicians to agree an all-party economic plan aimed at creating jobs.
Francisco Moreno, an unemployed bookkeeper, scoffed at Spanish leaders' calls on the public to be patient. "You can only be patient if you have savings, money in the bank," the 47-year-old said. "You can't be patient if you have no income and kids to feed."
May Day events in Turkey turned violent when some demonstrators, angered at a government ban on a symbolic rally point, hurled stones, gasoline bombs and fireworks at riot police. Security forces used water cannon and tear gas to prevent crowds from accessing Taksim Square, and Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said 22 police officers and at least three passersby were injured. More than 72 demonstrators were arrested.
The square is the city's main hub and is undergoing a major facelift. Authorities banned celebrations at Taksim this year, citing construction safety risks, and partially suspended public transport services to prevent large gatherings there. But trade unions had vowed to mark May Day in Taksim, which has symbolic importance because dozens of protesters were killed there in 1977 when unidentified gunmen opened fire on May Day celebrators.
"Taksim is our sacred venue. Open it up to the workers!" demanded Kani Beko, leader of a major labour union confederation.
Boos and whistles from protesters forced Danish Prime Minister Thorning-Schmidt to halt her May Day speech to thousands at the gathering in Aarhus, some 200km northwest of Copenhagen. Some believe that she has been leaning too far to the right to uphold the goals of her leftist Social Democratic Party. 
Indonesia
As she was walking to her car, a man squirted her with a water pistol. Police spokesperson Carsten Dahl said police had detained the 23-year-old man, but the premier was not injured.
Swedish police said seven people were arrested and five were injured as counter-demonstrators tried to interrupt a May Day parade by right-wing extremists in the southern city of Jonkoping. Police spokesperson Goran Gunnarsson said 60 others were briefly detained as officers tried to keep the two sides apart.
In Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, tens of thousands of workers rallied for higher pay and other demands. Some also carried banners reading: "Sentence corruptors to death and seize their properties" to protest a proposal for the government to slash fuel subsidies that have kept the country's pump prices among the cheapest in the region.
In the Philippines, an estimated 8 000 workers marched in Manila to also demand better pay and regular jobs instead of contractual work. Some rallied outside the US Embassy, torching a wooden painting stamped with the words "low wages" and "union busting" that depicted Philippine President Benigno Aquino III as a lackey of President Barack Obama.
More than 10 000 Taiwanese protested a government plan to cut pension payouts to solve worsening fiscal problems, saying it reflects a government policy to bolster economic growth at the expense of workers' benefits. Analysts say poor income levels have forced many young Taiwanese to share housing with their parents and delay marriages.
And in Cambodia, more than 5 000 garment workers marched in Phnom Penh, demanding better working conditions and a salary increase from $80 to $150 a month. About a half million people work in the country's $4.6bn garment industry, which makes brand name clothes for many US and European retailers.
In Mexico, public school teachers who have blocked highways and battled police in recent months marched peacefully on Wednesday in Mexico City and the southern city of Chilpancingo, hoping to block an education reform law that introduces teacher evaluations and diminishes the power of unions in hiring decisions.
"Not here, not there, the reform shall not pass anywhere!" the marchers chanted.
In his 1 May speech, President Enrique Pena Nieto promised new effort to produce more salaried jobs, noting that two-thirds of Mexicans have no benefits and low wages.
In Havana, tens of thousands of Cubans joined the communist nation's traditional May Day march in the Plaza of the Revolution. This year's edition was dedicated to Cuba's ally, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Cuban President Raul Castro attended the event, but did not speak.

 

Anti-austerity protests sweep Europe

Trains and ferries were cancelled and hospital staff walked off the job in Greece on Wednesday and thousands were due to demonstrate across Spain as May Day triggered protests against harsh government spending cuts.
Separately, Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds gathering in central Istanbul for a rally on what has become a traditional labour holiday.
In Spain, where the unemployment rate stands at a record 27%, the two largest trade unions, CCOO and UGT, called on workers and the unemployed to join over 80 demonstrations across the country.
In a column in financial newspaper El Economista, CCOO Secretary General Igancio Fernandez Toxo criticised the government's "huge irresponsibility" in allowing unemployment to rise to such levels.
Candido Mendez, head of UGT, said having more than 6 million people unemployed meant there had "never been a May 1 with more reason to take to the streets".
In Athens, about 1 000 policemen were deployed to handle any violence during rallies and strikes called by public and private sector unions.
It is the latest in a long line of strikes and protests in the debt-laden country ravaged by its sixth year of recession and popular fury over wage and spending cuts.
"Our message today is very clear: Enough with these policies which hurt people and make the poor poorer," Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of public sector union ADEDY, told Reuters.
"The government must take back the austerity measures, people can't take it anymore."
Participation, however, was expected to be well below the levels of major protests last year when as many as 100 000 Greeks marched to the central Syntagma square chanting slogans.
Unions themselves expected turnout to be low in Greece with the traditional May 1 holiday falling just a few days before Greek Orthodox Easter, which meant public schools were shut and many workers had already left for vacation.
Public transport in Athens was disrupted with buses and subways halted, while ships and ferries stayed docked at ports after seamen also walked off the job. Bank and hospital workers also joined the one-day strike.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has sought to maintain a hard line against striking workers in a bid to show European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders - as well as the public - that he is determined to push through unpopular reforms.      
Turkey, Russia
In Istanbul, thousands of police were stationed across the city centre to block access to the main Taksim square as crowds of protesters converged in different parts of the city early in the morning attempting to storm police barricades.
The incidents followed the pattern of recent years, when May Day demonstrations in Turkey's largest city have often been marked by clashes between police and protesters.
Authorities often use force to prevent the rally happening in the centre of the city, having this year already denied large trade unions permission to march on Taksim, saying major construction work there would make it too dangerous.
Two officers were wounded by stones and metal objects thrown at police lines, state-run TRT television said, citing the Istanbul governor's office.
In Russia, around 1.5 million Russians were expected to participate in May 1 parades - a fraction of the millions that used to march in the Soviet times. 

Chinese manufacturing falls in April

China's monthly index of manufacturing activity fell in April, a report said Wednesday.
The Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing sector fell to 50.6%, down from 50.9% in March, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said.
The 50% mark denotes the divide between expansion and contraction.
The index has remained above 50% since October, which the government said earlier was a sign that it had arrested a slowdown in growth in the world's second-largest economy.
The slight drop in April indicated slower growth in manufacturing and the need for a stronger momentum in the country's economic growth, the federation said.
Annual economic growth fell to 7.8% last year, the slowest since 1999, down from 9.3% in 2011. China has been dealing with slowing demand for its exports amid the eurozone debt crisis and uncertainty over the US economic recovery, as well as growing production costs including rising wages.

Greeks, police clash in May Day protests

Trains and ferries were cancelled and hospital staff walked off the job in Greece on Wednesday as workers marked May Day with a strike against harsh austerity required by the country's foreign lenders.
Elsewhere, Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds gathering in central Istanbul for a rally on what has become a traditional labour holiday.
Greece's 24-hour walkout was called by its two major public and private sector unions. It is the latest in a long line of strikes and protests in the debt-laden country ravaged by its sixth year of recession and popular fury over wage and spending cuts.
"Our message today is very clear: Enough with these policies which hurt people and make the poor poorer," Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of public sector union ADEDY, told Reuters.
"The government must take back the austerity measures, people can't take it anymore."
About 1 000 policemen were deployed in central Athens to handle any violence during the rallies, though participation is expected to be well below the levels of major protests last year when as many as 100 000 Greeks marched to the central Syntagma square chanting slogans.
Demonstrators began to slowly gather in central squares in Athens to rally before marching to parliament, the site of frequent clashes between police and protesters in recent years.
Unions expected turnout to be low with the traditional May 1 holiday falling just a few days before Greek Orthodox Easter, which meant public schools were shut and many workers had already left for vacation.
Public transport in Athens was disrupted with buses and subways halted, while ships and ferries stayed docked at ports after seamen also walked off the job. Bank and hospital workers also joined the one-day strike.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has sought to maintain a hard line against striking workers in a bid to show European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders - as well as the public that he is determined to push through unpopular reforms.
The lenders' decision to disburse long-delayed aid last year has eased fears that Greece could go bankrupt and be forced to leave the eurozone, but the country still faces deep challenges from a volatile social climate and domestic opposition to a reform programme that includes firing civil servants.
In Istanbul, thousands of police were stationed across the city centre to block access to the main Taksim square as crowds of protesters converged in different parts of the city early in the morning attempting to storm police barricades.

UK manufacturing contracts slightly

British manufacturing contracted by the narrowest of margins in April, and much less than expected, the first major set of data for the second quarter of the year showed on Wednesday.
The Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 49.8 in April from an upwardly revised 48.6 in March, putting the sector within a whisker of the 50 line that separates growth from contraction.
Economists had expected a much weaker reading of 48.5.
Manufacturing output fell 0.3% in the first quarter while the economy grew 0.3%, the preliminary official estimate of Britain's gross domestic product in the January-March period showed.
"It is welcome to see the sector showing signs of stabilising in April... The sector should at least be less of a drag on broader GDP growth in the second quarter," said Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit and author of the survey.
He added that a strengthening in manufacturing would also boost other parts of the economy, such as the services.
Manufacturing accounts for 10.5% of UK economy, according to the latest GDP release.
April's improvement in factory activity was helped by the first expansion in new orders since January, with the related sub-index climbing to 50.6 from March's 49.3.
New export orders rose for the first time in more than a year and at the fastest pace since July 2011 on the back of increased sales to North America, the Middle East, Latin America and Australia. But demand from the eurozone remained sluggish.
There was marginal growth in output led by the production of consumer items and investment goods such as factory equipment.
There was also good news on inflation, with manufacturers' selling prices rising at the slowest pace since November while lower commodity and energy prices contributed to the first dip in their input costs since August.
"This provides headroom for the Bank of England's MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) to extend its accommodative policy stance if GDP growth fails to gain traction in the coming months," Dobson said.
If the central bank were to announce more asset purchases this year, it would most likely do so either next week when it updates its quarterly economic forecasts or after its new governor Mark Carney takes over in July.
On a gloomier note, factories shed jobs for the third straight month in April.

Venezuela MPs come to blows

Political tensions over Venezuela's disputed presidential election boiled over on Tuesday in the National Assembly as government and opposition lawmakers said they physically clashed.
"I'm not the only one who has been beaten. They have struck several lawmakers. [Assembly speaker] Diosdado Cabello has to be held to account personally," said opposition lawmaker Julio Borges.
He said he was denied the right to speak in the assembly by the body, which is controlled by a majority loyal to socialist President Nicolas Maduro, because opposition lawmakers have not recognized Maduro's reelection.
So the ruling party majority voted to deny opposition lawmakers their right to speak in the forum to which they were elected, Borges said.
A combative Cabello told the opposition legislators - many of whom shouted in protest and frantically blew whistles - that "as long as [national] authorities are not recognized and the Republic's institutions are not recognized... the ladies and gentlemen of the opposition can go talk to [TV network] Globovision, to [newspaper] El Nacional.
"But they won't be doing it here" in the assembly, Cabello said.
Authorities on Monday began a partial audit of the disputed election won by Maduro, the late Hugo Chavez's handpicked successor, as the opposition rejected the move as insufficient.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who says he was the real winner of the 14 April presidential vote, has accused election officials of rejecting his appeal for a full recount on the orders of the ruling Socialist Party.
The National Electoral Board has ruled that Maduro won by 1.49% of the vote, amending an earlier tally that had Maduro up by 1.8%.
Spain impertinent
The Board has insisted it is legally impossible to carry out a full recount, and that no audit can reverse Maduro's win.
The 40-year-old Capriles has said he will not accept anything short of a full recount.
Capriles - a businessman, lawyer and Miranda state governor - alleges that some voters cast multiple ballots or even voted on behalf of the dead.
Both the government and the opposition have urged their supporters to turn out for massive street demonstrations planned for 1 May.
Former colonial power Spain has offered to mediate between government and the opposition. But on Tuesday Maduro shot down the offer with an insult, calling the Spanish Foreign Minister "impertinent".
"Mr Foreign Minister, get your snout out of Venezuela.... Just get out of here, you impertinent Spanish foreign minister," he said. "Respect Venezuela."

NEWS,20.02.2013

Almost $50bn left Russia illegally

Nearly $50bn was transferred out of Russia illegally in 2012 and more than half this sum may have been controlled by a single group of companies, the central bank said on Wednesday.Sergei Ignatyev, chairperson of the Bank of Russia, was citing the findings of a study that the bank said it would publish later on Wednesday. Ignatyev, who retires in June, was also due to testify to the upper house of parliament."You get the impression that they (half the transfers) are all controlled by one well-organised group of people," Sergei Ignatyev, chairman of the Bank of Russia, told the Vedomosti daily in an interview.

India braces for nationwide strike

Millions of Indian workers were expected to join a two-day nationwide strike starting on Wednesday in protest against "anti-labour" economic reforms introduced by the embattled Congress government. Premier Manmohan Singh has appealed to unions to abandon the strike, the latest in a string of protests against liberalisation, warning it would cause a "loss to our economy" already poised for its slowest annual growth in a decade. A one-day strike against reforms last September cost Asia's third-largest economy $2.3bn in lost output and trade, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry.But talks following Singh's appeal this week collapsed after the government refused to bow to union demands to roll back reforms, which are aimed at jumpstarting the economy and averting a downgrade in India's credit rating."The workers are being totally ignored and this is reflected in the government's anti-labour policies," said Tapan Sen, general secretary of the umbrella Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).The 11 unions behind the strike plan to block rail and road traffic, and said operations of state-run banks would be disrupted.The government's "big ticket" reforms include opening retail, insurance and aviation sectors to wider foreign investment, hiking prices of subsidised diesel used by farmers and reducing the number of discounted cooking gas cylinders.The steps aimed at freeing up the still heavily state-controlled economy and lowering India's ballooning subsidy bill and fiscal deficit have stirred wide public anger, especially among the poor."The last time that we called a strike (in February 2012), nearly 100 million workers participated. This time we're expecting a bigger number," Sen said.The protest was expected to have maximum impact in eastern West Bengal, where unions enjoy significant clout. The walkout could also have a big effect in southern Kerala state where strikes are common.It might be business as usual however in financial hub Mumbai, where some unions said they would not protest.An overtly patchwork response indicating a lessening of union influence would be welcome news for the government, which has been buffeted by graft scandals, the weakening economy and stubbornly high inflation, analysts said.

Fresh unrest erupts at Greek protests

Police in Athens fired tear gas at stone-throwing protestors Wednesday as thousands of Greeks walked off the job to join the debt-ridden country's first general strike this year and oppose austerity measures. About 15 000 striking workers took part in a Communist-organised demonstration in Athens and 20 000 more joined protests organised by other unions, according to police figures.Another 15 000 people marched in Greece's northern metropolis Thessaloniki, local authorities said.Protesters tried to firebomb a car in Athens and threw rocks at police, who fired back tear gas, while in the city of Iraklio on the island of Crete, demonstrators overturned a squad car, police said.In Thessaloniki, a TV crew car was torched and protesters smashed the front windows of pawn shops."Unpaid bills, slashed wages and pensions, boarded-up shops. Greek people cannot wait for saviours. Only by taking their fortunes into their own hands can they exit the stalemate," main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, head of the radical leftist Syriza party, told reporters.The nationwide strike  the first general work stoppage in Greece this year  forced airport authorities to scrap or reschedule dozens of flights while hospitals operated on reduced staffing."People of labour must fight for as long as this disastrous policy is followed by the government under orders from [Greece's creditors]," said Yiannis Panagopoulos, chairperson of the private sector union GSEE."They have destroyed an entire people," he said.Ships were to remain docked throughout the day, disrupting ferry services to the islands. And although most public transport was to run, buses and train services expected disruptions.Doctors, lawyers and teachers took part in the protest action organised by GSEE and the public sector ADEDY."Everybody I know is unemployed," said Alexandra Papadatou, a 28-year-old jobless economist."I am fighting on the streets for this government, which passes all these measures, to fall," she told AFP."I am considered lucky because at least I have a salary, about €600," said Panayiotis Kolovos, a 25-year-old novice lawyer."This amount is probably a privilege for the majority of youth near my age. We truly marginally survive," Kolovos said.Greece's three-party government insists there is no alternative to the harsh austerity programme demanded by the country's creditors in return for vital loans to stave of bankruptcy.Successive cuts to salaries and pensions over the past three years have angered Greeks who have frequently taken to the streets to demonstrate their frustration. The government has pledged to remedy some of the cuts when the economy limps back into growth next year - a prospect that had been originally forecast for this year.Facing a sixth year of continuous recession, the heavily indebted country has been relying on international rescue packages to avoid bankruptcy and get its economy back on track.Since 2010 the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have committed €240bn overall in rescue loans to Greece.Auditors representing Greece's EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund creditors are expected in Athens next week to assess the progress of its programme.Their report will determine whether Athens will receive a scheduled slice of €2.8bn from its international creditors due in February.Among its obligations to its creditors, Greece must eliminate 25 000 civil service jobs this year, a measure set to cause further union trouble.The government has seen its parliamentary majority erode after adopting in November a new €18.5bn round of spending cuts and other reforms by 2016.The coalition now has 163 deputies in the 300-seat chamber.

Europe horsemeat scandal spreads to Asia

Europe's horsemeat scandal spread on Wednesday to Asia where an imported lasagne brand was pulled from the shelves in Hong Kong, as Czech officials ordered similar action on frozen meals mislabelled "beef".A host of top players have been caught up in the spiralling scandal including Nestle, the world's biggest food company, top beef producer JBS of Brazil and British supermarket chain Tesco.Hong Kong authorities ordered ParknShop, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the city, to remove lasagne made by frozen food giant Findus, one of the firms at the centre of the scandal.The product was imported from Britain and made by French firm Comigel.Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said the item "might be adulterated with horsemeat which has not undergone tests for veterinary drugs"."The product was removed from our stores last week following the government's instructions," a ParknShop spokesperson said.The chain, owned by tycoon Li Ka-shing, has about 280 stores in Hong Kong and the neighbouring gaming hub of Macau.A spokesperson at the government's food and environmental hygiene department said only one contaminated product had so far been sold in Hong Kong.In Europe, the Czech Republic became the latest country embroiled in the affair, with food inspectors ordering Tesco to withdraw Nowaco brand frozen "beef" lasagne after detecting horsemeat.The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority said it had found horse DNA in two samples of the Nowaco meals manufactured in Luxembourg.Inspectors "ordered the seller to immediately withdraw the products from its network", the authority said in a statement."We are very sorry about the situation and we will discuss the matter with the supplier," Tesco spokesperson Jan Dvorak told the CTK news agency, adding the chain had protectively withdrawn the product earlier.Supermarkets in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Finland, France, Austria, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia have all removed meals from shelves.The Czech authority noted that horsemeat is sold for human consumption in the country, but that if not mentioned on the product label it was misleading to consumers and could lead to a fine of up to $118 000.Spanghero, the French firm that sparked the food alert by allegedly passing off 750 tons of horsemeat as beef, was on Monday allowed to resume production of minced meat, sausages and ready-to-eat meals.But the company, whose horsemeat found its way into 4.5 million "beef" products sold across Europe, will no longer be allowed to stock frozen meat.Under the ban it cannot act as middleman between slaughterhouses and food-processing companies, the situation which allegedly allowed it to change labels on horsemeat from Romania and sell it on as beef.The firm's sanitary licence was suspended last Thursday after it was accused of passing off huge quantities of mislabelled meat over a period of six months.Investigators on Wednesday conducted a second day of raids on Spanghero's headquarters in Castelnaudary in southern France, a source close to the probe said, adding they had already seized several documents and copied computer records.

Japan pressured over snatched kids

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be under pressure when he meets US President Barack Obama this week to pledge progress on a long-stalled treaty to prevent the snatching of children by a Japanese parent in international divorce cases.Abe is expected to promise that Japan will follow through on a decades-old pledge to ratify the Hague Convention on child abduction, giving some legal muscle to hundreds of foreign fathers - including Americans, French and Canadians - kept apart from their half-Japanese children."Those are only the reported cases," French Senator Richard Yung told AFP during a recent trip to Tokyo to press officials on the issue.Japan is the lone member of the G8 industrialised nations the others being the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia and Canada not to have adopted the 32-year-old international treaty.Key allies including the US, France and Britain have long demanded Tokyo step into line.iplomats say ratification of the Hague Convention could come during Japan's current parliamentary session, which ends in the summer. That would make it the 90th state to adopt the treaty, which is aimed at securing "the prompt return of children wrongfully removed or held" in another treaty state."These cases are particularly cruel birthday or Christmas presents are returned," said Yung, who added that he met a vice foreign affairs minister but was refused a sit down with Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki. The changes would also offer hope to hundreds of thousands of Japanese fathers who face similar estrangement under domestic custody laws.Japan is unique among major industrialised nations when it comes to the children of estranged parents.Courts do not recognise joint custody - for foreigners or Japanese nationals and almost always order that children live with their mothers, leaving desperate fathers with almost no recourse to see their children.Many lose touch with their offspring if the ex-spouse blocks access, a common occurrence due to the widely held opinion that child rearing is a task for women, while men earn the money.Yasuyuki Watanabe, the deputy mayor of a small Japanese town, has not seen his daughter in years. After the country's devastating 2011 quake-tsunami disaster, he says he tried to make contact with the now five-year-old girl."And my wife called the police on me," he said.Michael, a foreigner who has lived in Japan for three decades, had a messy divorce that ultimately saw two of his three kids tell a Japanese court they had no wish to ever see their father again.That, he says, was the product of "brainwashing" by his ex-spouse. Michael, which is not his real name, has never met his two grandchildren.Sometimes, judges do order the custodial parent to send photos of a child to their former spouse, or to allow a short monthly visit. But police almost never intervene when those orders are commonly ignored.Ratification of the convention would not automatically change Japanese laws, but it offers hope for hundreds of thousands of Japanese men cut off from their kids, including Watanabe who said he recently met with the justice minister."I told him how the judicial system is malfunctioning and that judges encourage these abductions, whether it is international or in Japan," he added.But ratifying the treaty alone is no silver bullet and there are fears that future changes to domestic laws could lack both scope and substance, warned Yung, who cited public opinion as the biggest weapon in winning the fight for access.Richard Delrieu, president of advocacy group SOS Parents Japan, has not seen his own half-Japanese son in years and also said that ratifying the treaty alone won't change things overnight."This situation is not worthy of a great country like Japan," he said.

Castro meets US lawmakers in Cuba

President Raul Castro on Tuesday welcomed a delegation of US lawmakers, the first to come to Communist Cuba since US President Barack Obama's re-election, state media reported."Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla took part in the meeting, and issues of interest to both countries were addressed," a statement read out on the government news broadcast said.The US legislators were in Havana to meet with Cuban officials and hope to visit an American contractor jailed for distributing laptops and satellite phones, diplomatic sources said earlier.The US lawmakers also met with Rodriguez Parrilla and Ricardo Alarcon, a former Cuban ambassador to the United Nations and assembly speaker, the Cuban report said.Sources at the US Interests Section - the countries do not have full diplomatic ties - said the delegation arrived on Monday and is led by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.e visited Cuba last year and met with Castro at the time.In Washington, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland confirmed the trip earlier. "Our understanding from the delegation is that they have been told that they will have an opportunity to see jailed US contractor Alan Gross," Nuland told reporters.Nuland said that the State Department expected the lawmakers to call for Gross' "immediate release.""We will look forward to the results of their diplomacy on his behalf and, more broadly, with regard to all of our concerns about Cuba" on human rights and other issues, she said.Gross was arrested in December 2009 for illegally distributing laptops and communications equipment to members of Cuba's small Jewish community under a State Department contract.He is serving a 15-year jail term for "acts against the independence or territorial integrity" of the communist-ruled island.His case has heightened tensions between the two countries, with Washington making his release a condition for improved ties.Cuba has made it clear it is ready to negotiate Gross's release in exchange for the release of five captured Cuban spies held in the United States. But Washington has ruled this out.And the Cuban news bulletin did not say if the Americans were able to meet with Gross.After visiting Cuba, the American lawmakers will head to Haiti on Wednesday.

N Korean camps compared to Nazi Holocaust

North Korea's prison camps are a closed-off world of death, torture and forced labour where babies are born slaves, according to two survivors who liken the horrors of the camps to a Holocaust in progress."People think the Holocaust is in the past, but it is still very much a reality. It is still going on in North Korea," Shin Dong-hyuk told AFP through an interpreter on the sidelines of a human rights summit in Geneva.Shin himself spent his first 23 years in a prison camp in the secretive country, where he says he was tortured and subjected to forced labour before making a spectacular escape seven years ago - and giving the outside world a rare first-hand account of life inside the camps.The 30-year-old is the only person known to have been born in such a camp to flee and live to tell the tale, and was portrayed in a book by journalist Blaine Harden published last year called "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West."Camp 14 - a massive slave labour camp comprising a number of "villages", factories, farms and mines - is one of five known prison camps in North Korea believed to house as many as 200 000 people.While Shin's comparison with Nazi concentration camps - where the majority of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust were murdered - may seem extreme, another North Korean prison camp survivor, Chol-Hwan Kang, agreed with the analogy."Fundamentally, it is the same as Hitler's Auschwitz," Kang told AFP, also through an interpreter, referring to one of the Nazi era's most notorious death camps.With whole families in North Korea thrown into camps together and starving to death, he said the "methods may be different, but the effect is the same... It's outrageous!"Kang, now 43, was sent to Camp 15 with his whole family when he was nine years old to repent for the suspected disloyalties of his grandfather.He spent 10 years there before his family was released and later managed to flee to China and on to South Korea - the same route taken by Shin.Both men say the international community must do more to help North Koreans, with Kang insisting the world should take advantage of growing feelings of opposition within the communist state.He suggested that Pyongyang's recent nuclear test was meant not only as a message of strength to the outside world but also to potential opponents to the regime within the country."It is the international community's duty to help them light the fire of resistance," he said.Shin, who at the age of 13 was forced to watch the executions of his mother and brother, also said "I want to push the United Nations and the international community to take action."After meeting Shin and hearing his harrowing account in December, UN right chief Navi Pillay called for an in-depth international inquiry into "one of the worst, but least understood and reported, human rights situations in the world."Shin, who says his father and grandfather were sent to the camp because two of his uncles apparently defected to the South, said he was expected to spend his entire life there under North Korea's "guilt-by-association" system that calls for up to three generations of family members of an accused to also be punished."The birth of a baby is a blessed thing in the outside world, but inside the camp, babies are born to be slaves like their parents. It's an absolute scandal," Shin said.Both Shin and Kang described life in the camp as defined by hunger and violence."Daily I saw torture, and every day in the camp I saw people dying of malnutrition and starvation. I saw lots of friends die and I almost died myself of malnutrition," Kang recalled.Shin still carries the scars of his experience on his body. Resting his right hand on the table in front of him, he revealed the missing tip of his middle finger, which was chopped off by a prison guard as punishment after he dropped a piece of machinery in a factory.Overstepping prison rules was enough to get you killed, including not informing the guards of other prisoners' misdeeds.In Harden's book, Shin admits he didn't hesitate to inform a guard of his mother and brother's escape plan, and that he felt no remorse when he was forced to watch their executions.Shin had never felt close to them or anyone else in the camp, seeing others as competitors for the tiny rations of mainly cabbage-based gruel he survived on.That has changed since he got out, he told AFP. "Now I feel they were dear to me, but I'm still learning to feel."Behind barbed wire, Shin had no notion of life on the outside until he met fellow prisoner Park Yong Chul who had lived abroad and who vividly described the food he had tasted."I really didn't have the understanding of freedom and liberty. I only escaped because I imagined the food," Shin said.One day when Shin and Park were working in a remote area on the outskirts of the camp where the guards were far between, they decided to make a run for it through the high-voltage fence.Park was electrocuted and Shin got out by climbing over his body. Today, he lives in South Korea and works to spread awareness about the conditions in the camps."I don't know what impact I'm having," said Shin, who hosts a television show where he interviews North Korea defectors."I'm here outside the camp, but what I'm doing daily is talk about the situation in the camp," he said. "I'm still in the camp in my head."

NEWS,13.12.2012

Mild pick-up for US economy next year

The US economy is expected to remain sluggish next year, despite widespread expectations for more monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve later on Wednesday, a  poll showed.Most consensus forecasts for the first half of 2013 were downgraded to their lowest since  began polling for this period more than a year ago. The forecast for the current quarter was slashed again.That underscores a very fragile world economic outlook, given sharp slowdowns in many big emerging economies such as Brazil and India and only a tentative sign of re-emergence of China's economic growth engine."Too much of the global economy is stumbling to support export demand," said Carl Riccadonna, senior US economist at Deutsche Bank. "It's Europe, it's recession in Japan, (and) softer growth out of China for much of the year.""US exports are likely to pose a drag on growth in the current quarter, which is something we haven't see since the collapse in trade during the recession," he said.Much depends on whether politicians can sort out a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff", a series of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts next year. Uncertainty around that has already damaged business confidence and curtailed hiring.Indeed, the poll showed growth is expected to have slowed to just 1.2% on an annualised basis in the quarter that ends this month, down sharply from 1.6% in the November poll, and well below the economy's potential.Weak exports have dragged on growth, not to mention superstorm Sandy, which hit the US east coast in October and shut down most of New York City and surrounding area for days, damaging business and infrastructure.The outlook for all of 2013 has been chopped to 1.9%, far below the Fed's September prediction of 2.5%-3.0%, and also the lowest consensus for 2013 polled so far this year.Despite a third round of bond purchases from the Federal Reserve to boost the jobs market, employment expectations remained tepid. The consensus for average monthly non-farm payrolls growth was mostly unchanged at 127 000 for the first three months of 2013. That comes despite a strong majority of forecasters, 47 of 51, expecting the central bank to buy more US Treasuries when its Operation Twist program expires at the end of December.The Fed is expected to buy $45bn of Treasuries every month in addition to the already-announced purchases of $40bn every month in mortgage-backed securities. But these new purchases will further expand the Fed's balance sheet.The poll also showed the Fed is likely to continue its monetary stimulus for at least a year, making for an additional $1 trillion of purchases. The Fed has bought bonds worth $2.3 trillion in two prior rounds of quantitative easing.A majority, 31 of 49, also expect the Fed eventually to adopt numerical thresholds for inflation and unemployment, similar to results of a survey taken last week.So far, markets have been sanguine that Washington will avoid the fiscal cliff. US stocks have erased all their losses after the November 6 presidential election and the S&P 500 is up almost 1% so far this month.But signs from lawmakers have been mixed with nothing concrete to indicate a deal will be reached by the end-of-the-year deadline.US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner offered no signs of progress on Tuesday but said he remains hopeful that both sides would reach an agreement.But Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said it would be difficult to get a deal before Christmas.If a deal is not reached it could lead to $600bn being sucked out of the economy in 2013 in what is essentially a self activating austerity program built into current law.

EU approves budget for 2013

EU lawmakers gave final approval on Thursday for a European Union budget of nearly €133bn ($172bn) for 2013, removing some uncertainty around the bloc's future funding after talks on spending for 2014-2020 broke down.The vote by the European Parliament in Strasbourg brought some clarity to EU finances at least for next year, and saw off a threat that some EU programmes, including the Erasmus student exchange scheme, would run out of money this year."We have managed to avoid a budgetary crisis on top of the economic crisis," Goran Farm, a Swedish socialist member of the European Parliament, said in a statement. However, doubt still surrounds the EU's long term spending plans. EU leaders were unable to reach a compromise last month on a proposed budget of some €1 trillion between 2014-2020. Under the 2013 deal, EU payments next year will be limited to a maximum of €132.84bn, which represents a just-above-inflation rise of 2.9% from the original budget agreed on for this year. The vote will also unlock an extra €6bn in spending for this year.The €6bn will fill a spending gap in research, education and employment programmes and means total EU spending in 2012 of €135bn, the highest level ever.About three-quarters of the EU's annual budget is spent on farm subsidies and funding for new motorways, bridges and other public infrastructure projects in poorer eastern and southern European member countries.EU leaders will hold further talks, possibly in February, to try to agree on the bloc's long-term funding.

EU, IMF agree to lend Greece €49bn

Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to release €49.1bn in aid to Greece by the end of March, with most of that sum flowing immediately, senior EU officials said on Thursday."Money will be flowing to Greece as early as next week," eurogroup chairman Juncker told a news conference after a meeting of ministers from the single currency bloc. "We are convinced the programme is back on a sound track."A eurogroup statement said €34.3 bn would be paid out in the coming days and the remainder in the first quarter of 2013.Agreement to release the funds hinged on the success of a debt buyback launched by Greece last week, which will enable Athens to retire nearly €20bn in bonds repurchased at a third of their face value from private holders.Juncker said he was not sure that additional measures would be needed to reach an agreed goal to bring Greece's debt down to 124 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, but the bloc stood ready to take new steps if necessary.

Oil curbs spark new rivalry

 

A new rivalry at the top of the Opec oil group has emerged, pitting up-and-coming Iraq against undisputed cartel heavyweight Saudi Arabia. Having overtaken Iran as Opec's second biggest producer, a rejuvenated Iraq is beginning to worry Riyadh.At Wednesday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries the opening salvos were fired in the struggle over who takes responsibility for cutting output if oil prices, now at a comfortable $108 a barrel, start falling.After 20 years of war, sanctions and civil strife that left its oil industry in disarray, Iraq is in no mood to consider curtailing output, especially as it starts to take off."Iraq will never cut production," said Iraq's Opec governor Falah Alamri. "Some countries that have increased their production in the last two years - they should do so. This is a sovereign issue, not an Opec issue."That was a clear reference to Saudi Arabia, which this summer lifted output to a 30-year high above 10m barrels a day to prevent oil prices ballooning after Western sanctions on Iran halved its production.The view from Riyadh, said delegates at the meeting, is that Iraq should contribute to the next round of Opec supply curbs. If Saudi pushed that line there would be "dark days ahead" warned a senior Iraqi official, saying Baghdad would not even consider output restraints until 2014.Opec delegates said ministers agreed to retain its 30m bpd output target, but many market observers think supply restrictions may be needed sooner rather than later if producers want to prevent slow global growth sending prices tumbling. "Every additional barrel that Iraq produces reinforces its confidence and its expectations that higher production is achievable and it will negotiate on that basis," said Raad Alkadiri of Washington consultancy PFC Energy. "Now Opec is dealing with a much more confident Iraq and Baghdad is looking at regional politics and is less willing to compromise.""Iraq is impervious to arguments. It says that it was subject to sanctions for so long that it has a free pass to rebuild its economy," said Neil Atkinson, director of energy research at Datamonitor.Output from Opec is already down sharply from the highs of the summer when the Saudi surge took the 12-member group to nearly 32m bpd. Production in November was down to 30.8m bpd with Saudi easing to 9.5m bpd. But Opec may need to ease further to balance the market in the first half of next year when, demand depressed by a stagnant economy, its own forecasts indicate the requirement for Opec crude will come in at only 29.25m bpd."We're concerned by the drop in demand and the high level of stocks," said Algerian energy minister Youcef Yousfi."There is rising oil from places like the US and Iraqi output is rising quite sharply. There's a risk that we see a sharp drop in price next year," said Atkinson.Iraq risesThe world's fastest growing crude exporter, Iraq expects more gains next year as foreign companies push production towards the highest level ever, Iraqi oil minister Abdul-Kareem Luaibi told reporters on Sunday ahead of the Vienna meeting.Output began to rise in earnest in 2010 after Baghdad secured service contracts with companies such as BP, Eni, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.Flows have now reached 3.4m bpd, up nearly a million bpd from when companies got down to work three years ago. Luaibi said output in 2013 is expected to average 3.7m bpd, just shy of an all-time high of 3.8m reached in 1979 with exports running at 2.9m bpd, including 250,000 bpd contributed by the semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).The changing shape of Middle East politics after the US led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the 2011 Arab Spring plays into Opec dynamics."Political issues sit behind this rivalry," said PFC's Alkadiri. "Regional alliances are pitting Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran against each other."That was illustrated in Wednesday's meeting by a quarrel over the appointment as Opec's next secretary-general, the group's public face and head of its Vienna headquarters.Iran dropped its nomination to back Iraq's candidate against Saudi Arabia.Adding to the heat is the dramatic rise in oil output from the US, spurred by hydraulic fracturing of shale reserves.The US Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday that US output will increase 760,000 bpd in 2012, the fastest pace since commercial oil production began in 1859.After years outside Opec's quota system because of low output, Iraq was brought into the fold a year ago when it set the 30m bpd target for all 12 producers. But unlike previous Opec deals no individual quotas were assigned.That suited Saudi Arabia, leaving it free to balance the markets by using its spare capacity as it saw fit. But in the event of a build in inventories that hits prices, Opec may need to restore quotas if it is to enforce a credible production cut. That is likely to prove very difficult, not just because of Iraq but because Iran is very unlikely to accept a quota anywhere near its sanctions-constrained production. Venezuela too could resist a lower quota after disputing independent estimates of its output for years."Quotas would become a big issue if we see a price drop and then everyone would have to come to the table," said Datamonitor's Atkinson. "That would cause enormous problems for Iran and Venezuela."Opec can only hope that a difficult decision is postponed by a continued stand-off between Western powers and Iran over Iran's nuclear programme, and the threat of Israeli military action, keeping oil prices high.That could mean a repeat of 2012, with oil prices supported in 2013 for fear of an attack on Iran, even if demand is poor and market fundamentals weaken."Lady luck has been a huge help for Opec because the macro numbers do not add up to 2012 being a successful year," said oil brokers PVM. "She has come in the form of geopolitical tensions and supply uncertainties which have kept speculative interest in oil lively and stimulated stock building."

NEWS,18.10.2012

Clashes erupt at Greek anti-austerity protests

Greek police clashed with anti-austerity protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs on the day of a general strike that brought much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill.In the second major walkout in three weeks, almost 40,000 protesters marched in Athens in a bid to show EU leaders meeting in Brussels that new wage and pension cuts will only worsen their plight after five years of recession.Tensions mounted when a small group of protesters began throwing pieces of marble, bottles and petrol bombs at police barricading part of the square in front of parliament, prompting riot police to fire several rounds of teargas to disperse them.A 65-year old protester died of a heart attack, hospital sources. Another three people were injured. Police detained about 50 protesters suspected of attacking them.Most business and public sector activity ground to a halt at the start of the 24-hour strike called by the country's two biggest labour unions, ADEDY and GSEE."Enough is enough. They've dug our graves, shoved us in and we are waiting for the priest to read the last words," said Konstantinos Balomenos, a 58-year-old worker at a water utility whose wage has been halved to 900 euros and who has two unemployed sons.It was the third time since late September that tens of thousands of Greeks have taken to the streets holding banners and chanting slogans to show their anger at austerity policies imposed by EU and IMF lenders in exchange for aid.Some were carrying Greek, Spanish and Portuguese flags and shouted: "EU, IMF out"."Agreeing to catastrophic measures means driving society to despair and the consequences as well as the protests will then be indefinite," said Yannis Panagopoulos, head of the GSEE private sector union, one of two major unions that represent about 2 million people, or half of Greece's workforce.Greece is stuck in its worst downturn since World War Two and must make at least 11.5 billion euros of cuts to satisfy the "troika" of the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, and secure the next tranche of a 130-billion-euro bailout.Lenders demand austerity European Union leaders will try to bridge their differences over plans for a banking union at a two-day summit which starts on Thursday. No substantial decisions are expected, reviving concerns about complacency in tackling the debt crisis which exploded three years ago in Greece.The austerity policies being pursued in Europe's indebted Mediterranean countries at the behest of Germany and other rich euro zone members will drive the euro apart, protesters warned."This can't go on. We sure need measures but not as tough as the ones (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel is asking for," said Dimitris Mavronassos, a 40-year-old shipyard worker who has not been paid for six months.The strike emptied streets and offices in Athens. Ships stayed in port, Athens public transport was disrupted and hospitals were working with emergency staff, while public offices, ministries, bakeries and other shops were shut.Newspaper kiosk owners, lawyers, taxi drivers and air traffic controllers were among those protesting over the cuts, which include further drastic reductions in welfare and health spending.Opinion polls show rising anger with the terms of the bailout keeping the economy afloat, and Greeks becoming increasingly pessimistic about their country's future."The new, painful package should not be passed," the ADEDY public sector union said in a statement."The new demands will only finish off what's left of our labour, pension and social rights."During Hundreds of youths pelted riot police with fire bombs, bottles and chunks of marble Thursday as yet another Greek anti-austerity demonstration descended into violence, less than a month after more intense clashes broke out during a similar protest.Authorities said around 70,000 protesters took to the street in two separate demonstrations in Athens during the country's second general strike in a month as workers across the country walked off the job to protest new austerity measures the government is negotiating with Greece's international creditors.Thursday's strike was timed to coincide with a European Union summit in Brussels later in the day, at which Greece's economic fate will likely feature large.Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades in the capital's Syntagma Square outside Parliament as protesters scattered during the clashes, which continued on and off for about an hour. Another general strike in late September had also seen limited, but much more intense, clashes between protesters and police.A 65-year-old protester suffered a fatal heart attack during the demonstration but efforts to revive him failed. The organizers of the protest march he participated in said the man had fallen ill before any rioting had broken out.Four demonstrators were injured after being hit by police, volunteer paramedics said. The Health Ministry said two of the protesters were treated in hospital and that their injuries were not serious. Three policemen also required hospital treatment.Hundreds of police had been deployed in the Greek capital ahead of the demonstration. Police said seven people were arrested Thursday, out of more than 100 detained.The strike grounded flights, shut down public services, closed schools, hospitals and shops and hampered public transport in the capital. Taxi drivers joined in for nine hours, while a three-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers led to flight cancellations. Islands were left cut off as ferries stayed in ports.Athens has seen hundreds of anti-austerity protests over the past three years, since Greece revealed it had been misreporting its public finance figures. The country has been surviving since then with the help of two massive international bailouts worth a total (EURO)240 billion ($315 billion). To secure them, it has committed to drastic spending cuts, tax hikes and reforms, all with the aim of getting the state coffers back under some sort of control.But while significantly reducing the country's annual borrowing, the measures have made the recession worse. By the end of next year, the Greek economy is expected to be around three quarters of the size it was in 2008. And with one in four workers out of a job, Greece has, along with Spain, the highest unemployment rate in the 27-nation European Union."We are sinking in a swamp of recession and it's getting worse," said Dimitris Asimakopoulos, head of the GSEVEE small business and industry association. "180,000 businesses are on the brink and 70,000 of them are expected to close in the next few months."The country's four-month-old coalition government is negotiating a new austerity package with debt inspectors from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. The idea is to save (EURO)11 billion ($14.4 billion) in spending largely on pensions and health care and raise an extra (EURO)2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) through taxes."In 2011, only 20 percent of businesses were profitable," Asimakopoulos said. "So these new tax measures present small businesses with a choice: Dodge taxes or close your shop."After more than a month and a half of arguing, a deal seems close. On Wednesday, representatives from the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, said there was agreement on "most of the core measures needed to restore the momentum of reform" and that the rest of the issues should be resolved in coming days.

Why Spain's Economic Doldrums Could Be Good For Startups

 

Spain is having a rough month. Again.Standard & Poor's downgraded its rating on the country by two notches last week, which has brought Spain close to junk status. On Saturday, thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid, where they protested the Spanish government's latest austerity cuts. And the country's hiring situation remains bleak, with unemployment hovering around 25 percent.But could this kind of sour environment ultimately turn out to be a sweet one for start-ups?"This landscape is perfect for entrepreneurship," says Josemaria de Churtichaga, associate dean for IE School of Architecture in Madrid. "I'm not defending the crisis but in some way the crisis is helping to change or should help to change the attitude within the young people, which I think is the mass that is suffering more -- and, at the same time, is the mass that has been living too well for the last decades, too protected from their parents, too protected by the state."Certain universities in Spain are more aggressively pushing for the creation of homegrown entrepreneurs who could launch and oversee new ventures and the Spaniards who might work there. One tactic, besides teaching courses on entrepreneurship: getting students from business schools as well as engineering or science departments to participate in startup or acceleration labs, and prepping recent grads to pitch their business plans in front of potential investors. But the academic efforts may also mean students both those wanting to launch a business, and others seeking a job at an existing organization need to be taught to become much more competitive as a way to survive in Spain's uncertain economy. "I sometimes wonder whether we should emphasize more some facets of managerial personality, like competition," says Santiago Iniguez de Onzono, dean of IE Business School in Madrid. "Should we make our graduates more fierce, more willing to compete in a really tough way as some others do?"Companies are also playing a nurturing role in the growth of new startups. Everis, a technology consultancy that is headquartered in Madrid, hosts speed dating-like meetings between entrepreneurs and investors, who boast more than 40 million euros in funds to help grow startups during the first stage of operation. The initiative could spur innovation and job creation in the country's tech sector, says David Garcia Hernandez, a director at Eversis.Creative minds have also carved out a space in an old garage near Madrid's CaixaForum Museum for entrepreneurs who want to start or nurture enterprises with a socially driven mission. Known as Hub Madrid, which launched three years ago, it is designed to be a shared working space where member entrepreneurs "are challenging you, provoking you, inspiring you to do what it is you're passionate about and also makes an impact," says Max Oliva, a Hub Madrid co-founder. Around 300 members have been paying between 15 to 300 euros a month to garner access to this shared space. It encourages collaboration through rounded desks, where there is no hierarchical "head" of the table, as well as non-ergonomic seats that regularly "encourage" people to get up and mingle near the kitchen or a library built of old wine cases. A second floor is being completed, where giant holes punched through the walls are supposed to encourage more discussion flow and better opportunities for eavesdropping, which could lead to new collaborations. "It's an ever-changing space to provoke sparks, to provoke accidents, to provoke failures that are positive failures," says Churtichaga, who helped design Hub Madrid.Other companies are working closely with local universities to provide additional training to students who are looking for a leg up in a tough hiring climate. Emzingo, for one, sends MBA candidates from Spain and other countries from around the world to South Africa and Peru, where students work with NGOs to improve and expand operations through mini-consulting projects. The for-profit social enterprise provides students with leadership development training as part of the experience and is a growing network of alumni (more than 75 so far), including some who have landed jobs at companies such as McKinsey, PwC, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson. "We're working now [on] placement after the MBA, so that's an extra benefit that you get for going through the program," says Pablo Esteves, who is based in Madrid and works as Emzingo's director of branding and partnerships.

Exhibition explores love, hate of money

New York - How does money make you feel? Fearful, stressed, happy?

US financial guru Suze Orman has teamed with the producer of the popular Body Worlds exhibits for a new traveling show to look at how we relate to and understand money.Orman, media star and author of best-selling books on personal finance, described the finance-themed exhibit as "an extension of my life's work as a financial educator, and an innovative way to teach people about money".The interactive, multi-media exhibit, "Economia: Money Matters," will begin a five-year, nationwide next year, starting in Chicago. The admission-charging show will move on to other venues that include science and natural history museums.Gail Vida Hamburg, who designed and developed the exhibition, said she hit on the idea several years ago."I found a study about worry, stress and depression and their links to money or rather the lack of money ... I realized that I could synthesize all of this information into a designed exhibition with multimedia and interactives (displays)," said Hamburg, who designed the Body Worlds traveling exhibition of preserved human corpses that has toured Europe, North America and Asia.The Money Matters exhibit spans 7 000 square feet with galleries on phases of life ranging from College Road to Third Phase, or retirement. It aims to meet national and state financial literacy goals for children and adults.Hamburg, who founded museum exhibit firm Rainworks Omnimedia in 2010, believes the show's appeal is universal because money is something that everyone has a relationship with throughout life.Orman has described the show as a walk through the life of money, and the effect it can have on you."It will be entertaining," she said in a statement, "and when you're having fun learning, the lessons stay with you."Hamburg said she addressed finance's fear factor by engaging people with various exhibits and displays."How do you make it easy for visitors to understand the power of compounding?" she asked, adding that it has traditionally been taught with graphs or charts or calculators.She decided to approach it differently using visitor prompts, and entry into a computer terminal and to show the results through the growth of actual physical objects."We should all be so smart with money and channel our inner Suze Orman. But we're not and we don't. Unless you're an MBA or an economist or a freak, you don't want to read about SEP-IRA or social security or student loan interest rates."The goal of the exhibition "is to give visitors the tools and resources for financial self actualization," she added.