France hit by third national strike this month,the biggest so far.

Frances Biggest Strike Yet

Frances Biggest Strike Yet, Gian Sexsmith

            France is currently experiencing huge union strikes, with some workers off the job for more than fifteen days already.  Many of these workers are striking because they are trying to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. The people of France are striking because of the government pension reforms; this is going to be the third strike in one month for France. These are the biggest strikes that have happened “Police say Tuesday's protests in Paris are the biggest so far, estimating a turnout of 330,000.” According to the BBC.. Due to all the different jobs that are striking it is causing complete chaos for France.  Airline flights are being cancelled; one out of three are being cancelled from the Charles de Gaulle Airport. In Paris the Eifel Tower was shut down because there weren’t enough staff to operate it. The French oil industry is taking huge blows with, “Workers at the Fos-Lavera oil port in southern France are striking for a 15th day, forcing up diesel prices in Europe. Diesel supplies have run out on Corsica”. According to the BBC There are 56 petrol tankers and 29 cargo ships stranded outside Fos- Lavera port. A cement worker in the central town of Angouleme told some French press "I'm prepared to extend the strike. I started working at 17 and now I'm 50 and I'm starting to get really fed up with it." According to the BBC. People are not ok with the pension reforms and are going to continue to strike until they are revoked.

Wind Farms in the UK

Wind Farms in the UK, Gian Sexsmith

Off the coast of southeast England there is a wind farm that has just opened to help with the use  of renewable energy to power homes. With not only the U.S trying to go "green" Britain is also fighting for finding alternative energy resources. With a deadline of 2020 coming closer and closer to having 15% of its power be from renewable energy sources, where right now its only at 3%.  The opening of this wind farm is one step closer to reaching their goal. Although there are many people who are in favor of this concept of putting as many wind farms that will fit too use the energy created from the farm. There are just as many people who are against the idea. People who live on the beach of where this wind farm just opened complain about the view it gives them now. Even though their view is not as important as global warming and finding alternative energy sources, it is something people complain about. One man, Mr. Wellington lives in Norfolk, England protested and dressed up as a rare pink footed goose because he is concerned with opening more and more of these farms it is going to end in the result of extinction of that species. There are only 250,000 more pink-footed geese and he doesn’t want to keep putting indents on the species population. Even though people are protesting the government is still pushing forward trying to meet the deadline. Off the southeast shore of England the largest off shore wind farm operated by a company called Vattenfall. This new wind farm can operate alone 200,000 homes just off of the energy it produces.  Britain now has 268 wind farms and are trying to think of new ways besides wind farms to produce alternative energy.  They are talking about hydropower generators and how they could produce way more energy than wind farms. They would produce more energy because wind is inconsistent change of wind direction and how hard it can be blowing. That hydropower could be a better approach.

Can Greeks be Trusted

                               

              Can Greeks be Trusted, Gian Sexsmith

    After reading the Vanity Fair Magazine article “Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds” it really puts into perspective how bad and dishonest the Greeks’ government system is. They think, if you can get away without paying taxes then you’re already doing it. The amount of people that can get away with it was unbelievable.  One of the quotes from the article says, “The Greek people never learned to pay their taxes… because no one is ever punished, it’s like a gentleman not opening a door for a lady.” As it’s said an estimated two- thirds of Greek doctors reported incomes under 12,000 dollars a year. The reason these doctors are saying they get paid so little is because an amount that low was not taxable. This is including doctors such as plastic surgeons who make millions of dollars not having to pay anything. One of the reasons that so many people do it and can get away with it is because the people who would be prosecuting them are doing it too, but that it can take up to 15 years to resolve tax cases in Greece. Greece’s new minister, Minister Papaconstantinou came to Greece last October. When he first got there the government estimated their budget deficit at 3.7 %. Later when he had the numbers revised the real numbers came out and were closer to 14%.  After this all came out the “Ministry of Agriculture had created an off- the books unit employing 270 people to digitize the photographs of Greek public lands.” At the end of the discovery it was said that the there was only going to be a 7 billion euro deficit but in actuality it was more than 30 billion Euros. How could have this happened and no one of known about it till know?  Now the question is if Greece is going to default on their debts. They would have to walk away from a 400 billion euro debt, or try and pay back the banks and countries that lent them the money. If not it could really hurt the other countries and could start the bankruptcy of the other countries.

The Popes Visit to the UK

                                                     The Popes Visit to the UK, Gian Sexsmith
Last week Pope Benedict XVI took a four day trip to the United Kingdom. It was the Vatican’s first ever, state visit to Britain. He went to the UK to talk about the Roman Catholic churches sex abuse scandal that has been going on. During his time in Birmingham it happened to be the weekend of the 70^th anniversary of the battle of Britain. The battle of Britain was when the Nazi’s bombed England. Pope Benedict XVI said “For me, as one who has lived and suffered through the dark days of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is deeply moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to recall how many of your fellow citizens sacrificed their lives, courageously resisting the forces of that evil ideology,” (http://www.nytimes.com).  There were tens of thousands of people gathered to see the pope and him driving around in the popemobile. Surprisingly many of them were there to protest against the pope and did not want him around because of the child sex abuse crisis. During the popes four-day stay in the UK he had brought up the child sex abuse crisis three out of the four days. The last time was on the last day with the Roman Catholic Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales where he said it “Undermines the moral credibility of church leaders”. (http://www.nytimes.com). He also talked about how he acknowledged that the church failed to act quickly enough to deal with the child rape and the molestations by priests. He than stated, "It's difficult to understand how a man who has said this could then fall into this perversion. It's a great sadness," Benedict said. (www.npr.org).  In Belgium over 13 people have committed suicide because of what has happened to them with priests and hundreds have said they have either been raped or molested. All in all the pope said that it was a historical trip and was glad he made it. 

Greeces Financial Crisis

                     
                                        Greeces Financial Crisis, Gian Sexsmith

The U.S has been going through an economic crisis for a long time now and it’s not only happening in the U.S. Like the rest of the world Greece has been experiencing an intense economic crisis. Greece has been struggling economically since the beginning of summer. Prime Minster George Papandreou said  “The major task of reforming Greece has just begun,”. The Economist.com.  In may Greece received a 140 million dollar rescue package from the UN and the IMF (International Monetary Fund).  Now in Greece “New statistics show that one in three Greeks younger than 24 is unemployed.” The economist.com. There is said to be over 200,000 new jobs being created to help out Greece’s unemployed. The new jobs will have to do with new wind farms and solar plants. The countries current debt is €300 billion while the countries GDP is only at €250,000. On Sunday Mr. Papandreou was criticized and was told that his ambitions were weak and incomplete. On September 8^th Greeces economy shrank by 1.8 %. As said by an article on BBC “The contraction was worse than expected and compares with the 0.8% shrinkage in the January-to-March period.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/ This caused Greeces citizens to keep protesting and continuing strikes. With the economy so bad it might cause Greece to start borrowing from other countries, which inevitably would put them into further debt because that is just more to pay back. Hopefully soon something will come along to help Greece get out of its deep economic battle.