Ben Whishaw: impish star steals the show, even from James Bond

Ben Whishaw: impish star steals the show, even from James Bond

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NYTimes: China’s Global Ambitions, With Loans and Strings Attached

China’s Global Ambitions, With Loans and Strings Attached http://nyti.ms/1MoUBLM

NYTimes: Noteworthy Moments From Cannes

Noteworthy Moments From Cannes http://nyti.ms/1ca9TVy

The Classical Dilemma

Tags

BPI, classical music, Classical Music Exchange, Gramophone, RAM

Credit: flickr creative commons

Classical music is regarded as an exquisite art form reserved for the cultural elitists. As a matter of fact, it’s getting more and more accessible to the general public. The prices for classical records are surprisingly low in London. You could get a CD of the Three Tenors’ 1990 Rome Concert at 50 pence in any London record stores. And a ticket to a classical concert at a major London venue even costs less than that of a Chelsea football match or a blockbuster Hollywood film.  

But the sales of classical music have been disappointing in the UK, a country home to the world’s many well-known classical labels. According to BPI figures, the sales of classical music fell by nearly 20 percent in 2013. The same downward trend continued in 2014. And the market share of classical music hovers around three percent, less than one tenth of the pop music share.  

In order to decipher the elements involved with the sharp drop, I talked to industry insiders, music critics and classical musicians for their perspectives on the toughening market environment. These people include Gennaro Castaldo, Director of Communications for the BPI, the British recording industry’s trade association, Martin Cullingford, Editor and Publisher of Gramophone, Mark Ernesti, Head of Professional Development of the Royal Academy of Music, and Shirley Thompson, the first female composer who has written a symphony in Europe in the past 40 years, as well as Belle Chan, a young classical pianist with amazing talent and music flair.

These interviews have been transformed into a radio documentary titled The Classical Dilemma. Here is the trailer of the documentary.

Here is an excerpt of Gennaro Castaldo’s analysis about the decline of classical music sales.

Here is an excerpt of Martin Cullingford’s analysis about the inadequacy of media coverage for classical music.

 

Special thanks for Belle Chen, Dr. Shirley Thompson and Glauco for allowing me to use your wonderful tracks in the documentary. The sample tracks that are used to enhance the interviewees’ points are listed below.  

Recording from Belle Chen:

Alberto Ginastera-No.2_Danza De La Moza Donosa_From Danzas Argentinas(Live)

The Opening_Francis Poulenc_Intermezzo No. 1  

Recording from Shirley Thompson:

Location, Location, Location (Movement 2)

New Nation Rising (Movement 4)  

Recording from Glauco Alves: Invisible soul    

Here is the link to the documentary in its entirety on my soundcloud account:

Royal Mail joins hands with Alibaba

Britain’s 500-year-old Royal Mail has decided to open a virtual shop on China’s biggest online shopping platform, to deliver authentic British products to Chinese consumers. To British businesses vying for China’s enormous online shopping boom, this could be the biggest fruit from Prince William’s four-day visit to China.

Royal Mail sets eyes on Chinese market

 Let’s talk about business….

If you think Prince William’s visit to China has been largely ceremonial and only culminated in exchanges of pleasantries with Chinese dignitaries, then you are wrong. The first visit by a royal member to China in three decades has been fruitful in some unexpected field.

Shortly after Prince William’s arrival in Shanghai on March 3rd, the UK’s Royal Mail announced that it would open a virtual shop on Tmall.com, China’s biggest B2C online shopping website, run by ecommerce giant Alibaba Group.

Moya Greene, CEO of Royal Mail, said at a UK-themed promotion event in Shanghai that the new platform is expected to go live towards the end of March. She added the shop will help British retailers and exporters expand into the Chinese market.

Royal Mail said in a press release that the new platform will offer Chinese customers increased access to “premium, authentic and high quality” British products, including renowned British brands like Brompton Bicycles. And Royal Mail will provide delivery to the doorstep.

Moya Greene received the interview by yicai.com, a Shanghai-based business news agency, during her stay in Shanghai. She said that parcel delivery has always been the greatest strength of Royal Mail and she’s full of confidence in the cooperation with Alibaba. For more details from the interview, please watch this video on yicai.com.

http://www.yicai.com/news/2015/03/4582083.html

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Royal Mail made the announcement to join hands with Alibaba, following Prince William’s meeting with Jack Ma, Chairman of the Alibaba Group and China’s richest man, on March 3^rd in Shanghai.

According to an article posted on Alibaba’s official WeChat account, Prince William shook Jack Ma’s hands and asked:“Hi, Jack, how’s business?”

Shanghai-based CCTV NEWS reporter Shi Wenjing covered William’s Shanghai trip. She said she saw the Prince in person. But she didn’t get a chance to ask questions. So she only smiled at the Prince, like a 10-year-old schoolgirl. She said, unlike William’s Beijing trip which focused more on cultural exchanges, business was high on the agenda of the visit to Shanghai. And the prince acted like a goodwill ambassador to promote the British creative industry and services.

https://soundcloud.com/ying-li-2/shanghai-reporter-shi-wenjing-on-prince-williams-visit

An increasing number of British brands are choosing to access potential Chinese consumers on China’s online shopping portals. British beauty care websites like BEAUTY EXPERT，LOOKFANTASTIC，HQHAIR，MANKIND, are all acceptting payments by Chinese consumers on Alipay, China’s most-used online payment platform.

This is apparently what the UK government is glad to see. In late 2013, Jack Ma and British Prime Minister David Cameron signed an agreement to promote the sale of British goods on the company’s sites.

Ahead of the UK’s Royal Mail, Australia Post and New Zealand Post have already opened their virtual shop on Tmall, to enable Chinese consumers direct access to their original products and provide international logistics services to Chinese companies.

In the first half of 2014, Alibaba’s total trading volume exceeded 150 billion US dollars. The company says in two years’ time, the online retail volume of Alibaba will surpass the sales of Walmart worldwide.

 

Related reading…….

The moment Prince William stood in front of the Taihe Palace in the Forbidden City, he might be thinking about his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. Three decades ago, the Queen also stood in front of the Palace, where the Chinese emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties ruled.

“Taihe” literally means “the Supreme Harmony”. The name of the Palace reflects the highest pursuit of Chinese feudal monarchs in domestic governance. It remains an elusive question to what extent Prince William could digest the cultural connotations when hearing translation of Palace’s name. But he did seize this opportunity to show off a bit of his Chinese to the photographers, saying” Ni Hao, Ni Hao”(meaning how are you?) He also admitted that his Chinese skills were slowly come along.

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CCTV News reporter Zeng Siwei has been following the Beijing leg of William’s China visit. He says William’s one-day stop in Beijing has a strong emphasis on cultural exchanges.

https://soundcloud.com/ying-li-2/beijing-reporter-zeng-siwei-on-prince-williams-visit-to-beijing

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//Caption:Beijing reporter Zeng Siwei on Prince William’s visit

Prior to his visit, Prince William delivered on video his Chinese New Year greetings in Mandarin. The video has been a nice surprise to his young Chinese fans and hugely popular in China.

//upload YouTube video here

There have been extensive media coverage on Prince William’s visit on Chinese media outlets.

The official Xinhua news agency says the visit “will be a rare and important field trip” for him to “experience in person the great Asian civilization and promote bilateral exchanges”.

Ken Rea, the mentor who trains Britain’s best actors

Acting class at Guildhall

Eddie Redmayne’s crowning moment at the 87^th Oscar Award ceremony has been another strong testament to the talent and caliber of British actors in the film industry. In the Oscar history, there have been 19 British winners of the Best Actor Award, next only to Americans. What’s the secret to their success? What kind of trainings have they gone through to enable them to stand out in an industry known for fierce competition? I visited London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, one of the UK’s leading drama academies and talked to a senior acting lecturer who trained some of the country’s biggest stars. Here is the story.

Ken Rea: the great mind who trains Britain’s aspiring young acting talents

Profile of Ken Rea:

Ken Rea has been teaching at Guildhall School of Music and Drama for 37 years. The long list of actors he trained at Guildhall includes Joseph Fiennes, Sarah Lancashire, Daniel Craig, Neil Morrissey, David Thewlis, Alistair McGowan, Daniel Evans, Rhys Ifans, and Michelle Dockery. Here is some of his star students’ reflections on Ken’s teaching.

Damian Lewis (Homeland, Wolf Hall)

“Ken taught us to be dangerous; to abandon any sense of failure and to take risks – that’s where to find creativity. A lesson we can never stop learning.”

Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit)

“Ken is one of the few truly great teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. As timeless as they are unique, his techniques for accessing character and unlocking performance are phenomenally effective.”

Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey)

“Ken’s classes were some of the most interesting and diverse that I was lucky enough to attend in drama school. He opened the mind to what acting could be. There seemed no end to the possibilities, to the depth, only how far you were prepared to go.”

Ewan McGregor　(Moulin Rouge, Star Wars, Trainspotting)

“Ken’s opinion always meant a great deal to me, and still does now. When I know he’s in the house when I’m on stage, I still get the wobbles. I still want him to like what I’m doing.”

Inspire young dreams

A burgeoning partnership between sports charity and primary schools in London has been gradually changing the way PE lessons are carried out for young children in London. With tailor-made sessions available on campuses, the children in Foresters School are able to have fun and learn new skills.     It’s a Friday morning at Foresters School in Waddon, West London. The pupils were arriving for a special coaching session with Gordon Secker from the Panathlon Challenge.

They were a mixed group of boys and girls ranging from four-year-olds to nine. They were divided into Team Red and Team Blue, ready to compete in some novel events they had never experienced before.

Gordon liked his little pupils the moment he saw them. The children were polite and well behaved. They greeted him with smiling faces and repeated his name with an intentional drawl, which charmed their new instructor. Gordon could feel their excitement. Some children were fidgeting on the bench, ready to jump up and get into action once the order was given.

“A good sign,” Gordon said to himself. He had prepared four to five Paralympic events for the day’s session. And he decided to get started with New Age Kurling. It’s a simplified version of curling, the better-known Winter Olympic event. But it’s readapted to be played on indoor gymnasium floors by able-bodied and disabled children alike.

Being an experienced instructor himself, Gordon knew that primary school children are able to learn the game very quickly and they simply love it. Gordon explained the rules to the children in simple and easy-to-follow language. And he demonstrated to the children all the necessary skills and movements to keep the game going. All in all, precision and eye-hand coordination are the most important thing in Kurling. Gordon expected the children to do well.

They didn’t let him down. They took in every instruction he gave and did nothing against the rules. The division between Team Red and Team Blue quickly blurred. Whoever hit the big basketball, which was positioned lengthwise at the far end of the sports hall as the target, aroused clapping and exclamation of equal strength from both sides. Gordon was very impressed.

“The children today were so capable and motivated. They responded to my instructions really well and they longed to excel in the games. And because of their excellent performance, I decide to move up the session to a more challenging level.” Gordon said.

The more challenging event means relay. Gordon divided the two teams into four sub-groups and lined them up at one end of the sports hall. Each individual child in a sub-group was given a number. They were supposed to run to the opposite end of the hall without bumping into the wall when their numbers were called, and ran back to their ranks and files as fast as they could.

The race launched the session to a climax. All the children were attentive to the callings of their numbers, adhered to the rules and cheered for their group mates wholeheartedly. They sprinted like young steeds and never stopped smiling.

Vae Billin has been a PE teacher at Foresters School for 15 years. She’s also the coach of the girls’ netball team. She’s very glad to see the positive changes among her students since the Panathlon sessions were introduced to the school about two years ago.

“They boost their confidence and raise their self-esteem. A lot of our pupils used to have very low self-esteem. But now, they are more willing to come out of their shell to engage in competitions and make new friends.” Vae reflected.

Each child got a medal at the end of the session. All of them were proud and exhilarated to pose for a group photo with the medal dangling around their necks. Gordon and Vae have made new plans for the children. They wanted to take the children to compete in Panathlon’s inter-primary tournaments in the borough.

What’s been happening in Waddon’s Foresters School is a vivid example of a new partnership scheme combining the expertise of sports charities and the facilities of local primary schools in London. Gary Palmer from London Sport described the scheme as “satellite coaches”.

“With satellite coaching sessions in place, school children will have access to professional guidance for more events that they may become interested in. It might be a bit intimidating for the children to step into a gym full of strangers. But with the sessions available on campuses in a more familiar surrounding, the children feel much more relaxed and are more liable to learn and engage.” Gary noted.

Gary also pointed out that the lack of sports space and professional guidance was perhaps the biggest challenge for PE lessons to be carried out in a metropolis like London. And satellite coaches might be a good solution to help lift them out of such a dilemma.

London-based Youth Sport Trust released the result of a nationwide school sports survey in January. The survey indicates a considerable slump in the number of minutes spend in sports in primary schools.

When asked for comments about the survey, Gary Palm from London Sport said the decline in sports time doesn’t necessarily mean the children are less interested in sports. In his opinions, it just reflects the urgent need to make available to more London schools specific partnership schemes like the satellite coaching sessions.

He said he has firm belief in the children’s natural inclination to race and build new friendships in team sports.

Below is the more detailed interviews with Gordon Secker, Vae Billin and Gary Palmer.

Here is another YouTube video on a Panathlon primary school event.

Holiday phobia among young Chinese professionals

The homesickness is ever growing, as the Chinese New Year draws near. They miss their mums and dads. They long for the family feast on the New Year’s Eve. But somehow the idea of homecoming is getting dreadful…….

Photo credit: CCTV DAILY

Going home or not, that’s a question:

The Chinese New Year, better known as the Spring Festival for Chinese, is just around the corner.

It’s the most celebrated festival for Chinese all over the world. It’s the time of the year for everyone to go home for family reunion, no matter how far apart they are.

But for an increasing number of young Chinese professionals, the journey home is becoming so intimidating these days. Lots of these young people work in metropolis like Beijing or Shanghai and they are originally from small towns elsewhere in the country.

Their parents are proud of them. And people back in the hometowns hold them in high esteem, for being on track of a promising career. Going home for the Spring Festival would enable them to see these people’s smiling faces. All of them would be so caring and loving, eager to know how their small town kids are doing in the big cities.

But wait! Maybe they tend to be too eager. And they don’t mind pouring all their curiosity into one embarrassing question: when are you getting married?

Indeed, if you are in your late 20s or early 30s, and still single, most likely you would be regarded as odd fish by folks back in the hometown. The banquet on the Christmas Eve is the occasion for all the family members and close relatives to come together and celebrate. That means miserable bachelors at the tail end of their youth would be interrogated by warm-hearted aunts and uncles keen to terminate their celibacy.

And you can’t just bluntly tell your kinsmen to mind their own business and it’s your life after all. It’s in China. And families are absolutely at the core of the entire social structure. Most Chinese parents consider the marriage of their children as their paramount responsibility. To see their children securely settle down in wedlock gives Chinese parents an unrivalled sense of fulfilment

Your sheer indifference, annoyance or even indignation won’t thwart their enthusiasm. So when you say you are still unmarried in your 30s, chances are a whole number of blind dates have been arranged for you throughout your week-long Spring Festival holiday.

What makes it worse is that “When are you getting married” is not the only embarrassing question you have to put up with. There are a whole lot more. The two most commonly asked questions are how much your monthly salary is and have you bought your own apartment. Aside from the questioning, the folks also incline to compare you with some acquaintances’ children who are supposed to do much better than you.

Beijing-based China Daily conducted an online survey a few days ago to find out what the most feared words and most dreadful questions are for young Chinese professionals during the Spring Festival holiday. The picture below explains very well the result of the survey.

Coming home, with love…..:

To avoid the embarrassing situation of being interrogated by their worried parents and kinsmen, some young Chinese professionals choose not to go home for the Spring Festival. And they stick to this choice even for years in a row. They believe they have good reasons to do so.

Fierce competition is a tough reality that every young professional has to face up with nowadays. Everyone strives for early success. Young professionals in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai are usually under greater pressure than their contemporaries in slow-paced hometowns. It’s not that they don’t want to get married. For one thing, the soaring housing prices in mega cities are making it such a daunting task.

A sense of frustration and anxiety is prevalent among these young people. And they tend to keep their wounds to themselves. They hate to expose their vulnerabilities to their parents and kinsmen, who expect them to achieve so much.

But there are also people who believe that the family reunion is of such healing power and their parents’ love will overcome the uneasiness associated with whatever conventional expectations and gossips.

27-year-old Mei Mei is a line producer working for CCTV, China’s state television. She loves her job and enjoys working under deadline pressure. But the pursuit for her own Mr Right has not been as smooth as her career.

She broke up with her boy friend about a year ago. And she still feels the pains to this day. At her age, lots of her high school classmates are already married or even have had children. The idea of facing the inquisitive looks of her kinsmen at home is not exactly encouraging to her. She really hesitates about whether going home or not this Spring Festival.

But a casual telephone conversation with her parents has changed her mind. They are already in their 60s and not very well. They didn’t talk much on the phone. And they assured her that they would be fine even if she works through the Spring Festival holiday in Beijing.

But Mei Mei’s heart ached when listening to her parents talking. Their longing to see her was palpable, even though they didn’t mention a word of it. They are liberal-minded and supportive parents. They always respect her choice for her pathways in life. They accepted the news of her breakup with total composure and assured her that there is no rush.

These thoughts brought tears to Mei Mei’s eyes. She suddenly realized other people’s opinions matter very little to her. And the only thing she cares is the people who love her most in the world. And this year, she will spend the Chinese New Year with them.

Xiao Wei is also a media professional working in Beijing. He’s completely at ease when confronting with relatives’ questioning at home. His tactics have been simple, just to ignore them. He said he didn’t mind a bit of matching-making during the holiday. But more often than not, the girls introduced to him for dating were not up to his standards. So what’s the use of worrying about unconstructive proposals?

Here is the audio clip of Mei Mei and Xiao Wei’s account of how they cope with relatives’ interrogation about their marital status.

And holiday phobia turns out to be a situation that’s not confined to the Chinese culture. Young people from India, Italy and the UK have also expressed their empathy when they are told about the experience of their Chinese counterparts. Have a listen of what they think.

 

An interview with an expert from Greek Politics Specialist Group

“We have finally put behind us the vicious circle of fear and austerity.” That’s the immediate message that Alexis Tsipras declared to his cheering supporters after the release of the election results on January 25^th.

So what does the surprise victory of the Syriza mean for Greece and the rest of the Eurozone? With the mounting pressure Greece’s massive debts, would a “Grexit” become increasingly possible?

With these questions on mind, I interviewed Vasiliki Tsagkroni, a research associate from London-based Greek Politics Specialist Group. The interview was conducted through email correspondence. Here is the entirety of the answers from Vasiliki Tsagkroni for my questions.

1: What’s the reason behind the rise of Syriza in Greece? To what extent that the public discontent with the austerity measures helps build up the support for the Party?

The economic crisis that began in 2009 was a turning point for Greece. The crisis brought in the surface not only a problematic economy but also a crisis in the society.

The decisions taken by the previous government of PASOK, since 2009 and later by the coalition governments that followed created sentiments of despair and a need to react towards the established political parties that were undertaken as responsible for the new situation that the country had to face.

The austerity measures that were advised after the involvement of IMF and the EU and their instant enforcement contributed to an extended public discontent that lead even the loyal voters away from the two major parties (ND and PASOK) that were ruling the country for the last decades.

Syriza along with the extreme right and right wing movements of Golden Dawn and ANEL experienced this despair by seeing their numbers rising, something that become even clearer in the elections of 2012.

The populist rhetoric against austerity measures and the end of the bailout of the country were the two major focuses of Syriza that made the electorate to trust them and support them in the latest elections.

Syriza, within less than a decade experienced its percentage from 4.6% in 2009 to launch up to 36.3% in 2015 mainly because they proposed that an exit from the despair is possible.

2: Is the sluggish performance of the Greek economy directly related to the bailout plan under the auspices of the Troika?

Without a doubt the bailout plan under the auspices of the Troika played an important role in the Greek economy. What can be claimed though is that the recommended measurements, although they presented to be a plan that eventually in a period of time would lead to the growth of the economy, in a shorter period of time appeared to be rather problematic.

Nevertheless, what is even more obvious is that such a problematic economy like the Greek one cannot start to be constructive without focusing more measurements on the development and national production.

Without being able to restart the economy and stimulate the industrial and agricultural production the government won’t be able to effectively promote economic growth and eventually gradual exit from the crisis.

3: Is it possible and feasible for the new Greek government to postpone the payment of its heavy debts to the rest of the Eurozone economies and increase public funding to immediately improve people’s livelihood? The government has pledged to rehire workers in the public service sectors. Can such policy moves be sustainable or it’s just out of expediency consideration?

The actual governmental goal is not to postpone the heavy debts but on the contrary to negotiate debt relief in order to seek a ‘viable, fair and mutually beneficial solution’ as Tsipras stated.

The main argument of the new government is that it is unrealistic from the European partners to expect that Greece is capable of repaying its debt in full.

Having said that one of the priorities of the new government is to increase the public funding and to immediately improve people’s livelihood by striking the unemployment and resetting the minimum wage to 751€ per month.

Among others the government pledges to special provision for young people who have never found work and seasonal unemployed, but also special welfare measures, the grant of the rent and the prohibition of forced evictions, the suspension of service for loans, necessary measures especially in times like this when unemployment threatens the working class and youth with misery.

And although such measures appeared to be appealing to the Greek voters that supported Syriza with their votes, it still raises concerns on how such policies are sustainable and possible, especially since the government vows against any further support from the IMF or the European partners.

Nevertheless, Syriza insists to its pro-election argumentation, that there is enough money to apply these measures and provide applicable solutions to the people.

4: The speculations about Greece’s exit from the Euro zone have been on the rise since the election victory of the Syriza. Is there any concrete ground for such speculations? What impacts would the Greek exit cast on the Eurozone economy?

The speculations about Greece’s exit from the Euro zone have first emerged back in 2010 with earlier exit proposals making their first appearances.

In 2013, Varoufakis, the current finance minister was underlining that as long as Greece remains in the euro under these conditions, the crisis is inevitable.

Nevertheless, for Syriza an exit from the euro will not be an exit from the crisis and will eventually cause long term and short term loses, without any further warranty for future profit.

Although the speculations and the voices arguing in favour of such exit, the possibility to happen is rather vague.

In the potential scenario that Greece goes through such a radical decision, the impact of the Eurozone economy will be instant, despite the argumentation from the German government that Eurozone will be able to cope.

Having said that, Syriza insists on underlining that scenarios like this only exist in order to create fear and insecurity to the people.

5: Tsipras is the youngest Greek Prime Minister in 150 years. Is his relative political inexperience a disadvantage? Or do you think he’s more like an inspiration to rekindle hopes for the young people of his country?

Even from 2006, when Tsipras ran for the municipality of Athens, it seems clear the he had a popular appeal to the people.

He was the political secretary of the youth of Synaspismos since 1999 and gradually developed to a crucial member of Syriza having the support from the party’s former leadership. What Tsipras represents has a dual perspective.

With the established political parties and the political elites overwhelming the national political scene, Tsipras appeared to be the new and alternative face of the Left.

The initiative from the side of Syriza to propose a relative young person to be its leader, developed to be rather beneficial for the political future of the party.

Tsipras, distinguishing from the corruption and the elitism that used to characterise the politicians for the last few decades, proved to be an inspiration and hope for young people that were so far declining to participate in the political discussion.

However, the political inexperience due to his young age appears to be vague. Despite his age, Tsipras has the characteristics of a charismatic leadership and gives the impression of a strong and reliable figure ready to respond to the country’s needs and the peoples’ demands.

It is he after all that the electorate chose to trust and bestow its hope for a better tomorrow.

Alexis Tsipras, could he be the one to lift Greece out of the prolonged crisis?

“Are we promising benefits? No, we are committing ourselves to basic protection for our people. These are our commitments and they will be implemented on our first day in government.”

Alexis Tsipras, Greek Prime Minister

Photo credit: flickr creative commons

 Can Tsipras live up to the expectations of his countrymen?

The first day in the official residence forebodes a tough beginning for the tenure of Greece’s youngest ever Prime Minister.

The result of the January 25^th general election proved to be so embarrassing to his predecessor Antonis Samaras that the veteran politician swiftly pulled out of the residence, leaving behind only the key under the doormat for his young successor.

The Greek media reported that what awaited Tsipras was pretty much an empty house when he and his entourage set foot on the terrace of the building. A somewhat dismal-looking Tsipras told Greek reporters that there was no toilet paper in the residence and it took him an hour or so to find a piece of soap in the bathroom. Samaras had retreated in such haste that he forgot to tell the new head of government the Wi-Fi password. Tsipras managed to log on to the official Twitter account of the Greek Prime Minister only the very next day he moved in.

More urgent and challenging issues are in store. The whole Europe has been closely watching every move of this charismatic young leader.

Pinning their hope for the eventual national revitalization on the 40-year-old Left-wing politician, many Greeks liken Tsipras with Andreas Papandreou. The much revered veteran politician served twice as the Prime Minister in the 1980s and mid-1990s. He’s acknowledged as the most successful Greek Prime Minister in recent history.

Dimitris Sourvanos from the LSE’s Hellenic Observatory notes that before taking office, Andreas Papandreou was actually a far more radical leader than Tsipras. Of all the leaders in recent memories, Papandreou was the one who broke the dominance of the conservative Greek Right for decades and shifted the country’s politics to a more populist and center-left focus.

His most important and daring achievement was perhaps the introduction of political equality among the Greeks. During his years in power, the defeated left-wingers of the Civil War were no longer treated as second-class citizens.

Greece in collision course with Eurozone over debts

Compared to his far more influential predecessor, Tsipras’s most radical political pursuit is perhaps to write off the massive debts of his country. And that’s what irks the rest of the Eurozone economies.

Photo credit:flickr creative commons

“I do not envisage fresh debt cancellations. There has already been voluntary debt forgiveness by private creditors, banks have already slashed billions from Greek debts.”

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out cancelling any of Greece’s debts in an interview with the Die Welt newspaper. And the Troika and the Eurozone economies are echoing her unrelenting stance.

But against all odds, Tsipras has to press ahead with his goal of at least erasing the Greek debts by half. During his election campaigns, he had made the promises to create at least 300,000 new jobs, increase public spending, rehire public sector workers and even scrap property taxes to garner supports to relieve the Greek public from the heavy burdens associated with the stringent austerity measures.

Analysts say in order to achieve these goals, the Tsipras government is in urgent need of huge amount of funding support. Under the circumstance, the most expedient resort would be to seek at least partial cancellations or default of the country’s massive debts.

Greek economy in numbers:

★Average wage is €600 a month

★Unemployment is at 25%, with youth unemployment exceeding 50%

★Economy has shrunk by 25% since the start of the Eurozone crisis

★Country’s debt is 175% of GDP

★Borrowed €240bn from the EU, the ECB and the IMF.

The current argument of the Tsipras government is that Germany’s war debts from the Second World War was reduced by half in 1953 to pave the way for its economic recovery. Why can’t the same thing happen to Greece?

On another unexpected front, the new Greek government has come to the conclusion that the German government actually still owes Greece a huge sum of money and it’s time to clear up the age-old debt.

The Greek government is talking about a loan Greece was forced to make to Germany. In 1942, Nazi Germany forced the Greek national bank to pay out an interest-free loan to the tune of 476 million Reichsmarks. The Nazis used the money to finance their occupation of Greece as well as military operations. The loan was never repaid. A Greek committee has estimated that Germany therefore owes Greece about 11 billion euros.

The German government has argued that all war compensation problems between the two countries had long been solved in accordance with international treaties. And analysts point out that Europe in the 21^st century is vastly different from what it was in the aftermath of the War. The EU was not even in existence back then.

But Tsipras sounds quite determined to take on the challenge. He said famously in his campaign pledge:”We will not permit banks to repossess the main dwelling of working class and middle class people. That’s the end of that. It’s non-negotiable.”

Kevin Featherstone, head of the LSE’s Hellenic Observatory, told the Los Angeles Times that he expected European leaders to give Greece an extension of several months to allow negotiations to take place in a more measured way.

He said the sustainable economic growth in Greece is also in the interests of the EU. “No serious voice in the rest of Europe is saying compromise on the debt without also insisting that Greece must publicly commit to continued structural reform, ” he warned.

Long and arduous renegotiations with Greece’s debtors seem to be avoidable. How to lift Greece out of its debt crisis and rejuvenate the country’s economic growth, without clashing with the interests of the Eurozone economies as a whole would be the biggest test for this new government and the new leader.

Tsiparas may pose like a unorthodoxy leader. But he’s not a political supernova.

Photo credit: flickr creative commons

Unlike his many opponents in the general election, Tsipras doesn’t boast a glamorous overseas educational background. He’s Greece’s own homegrown talent. He grew up in the streets of Athens, went to college there and became passionate about politics from very young age.

He was involved with a lot of students’ protests in high school years and made his name known to the nation by appearing on a TV political debate at the age of 18.

His first attempt to win an important political post was futile, but it deeply impressed many observers. He ran for the Mayor of Athens in October 2006 as the youngest candidate, representing a little known municipal movement “Open City”. The Party ended up in the third place with 10.5 percent of the votes.

His political career afterwards was a record of prominence. In the general election of 2009, he was elected Member of the Greek Parliament and Chairman of Syriza, the country’s major Left-wing opposition alliance. He was only 35 years old then and firmly established his presence in Greece’s political landscape henceforward.

The success of a Left-wing Party like Syriza has always been a major source of apprehension in Europe. But it’s not that much of a surprise to the Greek people. Dimitris Sourvanos from the LSE’s Hellenic Observatory, says Greece is a country rich in the Left Wing tradition. The Greek communist Party and other Left Wing groups played such a constructive role in the anti-fascism movement during the Second World War that the Greek people natural maintain a patriotic feeling towards the Left Wing groups.

Emerging victorious from general election on January 25^th, Tsipras told the cheering crowd of his supporters:“Greece is leaving behind the destructive austerity, fear and authoritarianism. It’s leaving behind five years of humiliation and pain.” In a country not alien to the Left-wing influence, such populist rhetoric naturally appeals to the general public.

For the complete interview with the LSE’s Dimitris Sourvanos, please watch this short film that I made on Youtube.