ガンジーもスーキーも欧米教育の産物。
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Suu Kyi receives Nobel Peace Prize 21 years late
By Balazs Koranyi
OSLO | Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:45pm EDT
OSLO (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally received her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Saturday after spending 15 years under house arrest, and said her country's full transformation to democracy was still far off.
"What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to draw me once again into the world of other human beings outside the isolated area in which I lived, to restore a sense of reality to me," Suu Kyi said as the packed crowd, led by Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja, rose in a standing ovation at the ornate Oslo City Hall.
Suu Kyi, 66, the Oxford University-educated daughter of General Aung San, Myanmar's assassinated independence hero, said much remained to be resolved in her country.
"Hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days before I started out the journey that has brought me here today," said Suu Kyi, on her first visit to Europe in nearly a quarter of a century.
"There still remain (political) prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten," she said, wearing a purple traditional Burmese dress and looking strong and healthy after falling ill on Thursday.
Still, Suu Kyi - elected to parliament in April - said she was confident President Thein Sein wanted to put the country on a new path.
"I don't think we should fear reversal," she told public broadcaster NRK. "(But) I don't think we should take it for granted there is no reversal."
Suspending rather than lifting sanctions was also the right move to keep pressure on the government, she said a day after arriving from Switzerland to a jubilant, dancing and chanting crowd, which showered her with flowers.
"If these reforms prove to be a façade, then the rewards will be taken away."
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Suu Kyi, who spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and her release in late 2010, never left Myanmar even during brief periods of freedom after 1989, afraid the military would not let back in.
Her sons Kim and Alexander accepted the Nobel prize on her behalf in 1991, with her husband Michael Aris also attending the ceremony. A year later Suu Kyi said she would use the $1.3 million prize money to establish a health and education trust for Burmese people.
She was unable to be with Aris, an Oxford academic, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in Britain in 1999.
On Saturday, Kim and Anthony Aris, her late husband's identical twin brother, attended the ceremony.
Suu Kyi thanked Norway, a nation of just 5 million people, for its support and the instrumental role it played in Myanmar's transformation.
In 1990, the Bergen-based Rafto Foundation awarded its annual prize to Suu Kyi, after a Norwegian aid worker in South-East Asia highlighted her work.
The award provided lasting publicity for her non-violent struggle against Myanmar's military junta, putting her in the international spotlight and setting the stage a year later for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Norway has also provided a home to the Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition television and radio outlet, which broadcasts uncensored news into Myanmar.
Suu Kyi acknowledged that recent violence between Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslim Rohingyas in the northwestern Rakhine region was a test of Myanmar's transformation but she blamed lawlessness for the escalation.
The violence, which displaced 30,000 people and killed 50 by government accounts, flared last month with a rampage of rock-hurling, arson and machete attacks, after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman that was blamed on Muslims.
"The very first time a crime was committed... they should have taken action in accordance with the rule of law," Suu Kyi told the BBC.
"If they had been able to do that, and to satisfy all parties involved that justice was done ... I do not think these disturbances would have grown to such proportions."
Tensions stem from an entrenched, long-standing distrust of around 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas, who are recognized by neither Myanmar nor neighboring Bangladesh, and are largely considered illegal immigrants.
Suu Kyi is also due to visit Ireland, Britain and France.
5 reasons for Spain's colossal economic troubles
Jul 24, 11:47 AM EDT
By HAROLD HECKLE and ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press
MADRID (AP) -- Spain's financial crisis is a lot like peeling an onion: remove one troubled layer and you expose another.
Repeated efforts since 2009 by successive governments to fix the country's problems have managed to undermine confidence in the fourth-largest economy among the 17 nations that use the euro.
A recession is deepening in Spain and a growing number of its regional governments are seeking financial lifelines. These developments are adding to the problems of a government already struggling to prop up its shaky banking system.
Spain's main IBEX stock index has lost 3 percent over the last three days while the government's borrowing costs for its debt have soared to their highest levels since the country joined the euro in 1999.
Last Friday, Spain finally got approval from the other 16 members of the eurozone to access up to (EURO)100 billion ($121 billion) in loans to prop up its banks which are weighed by down by (EURO)180 billion in soured real estate investments.
Spanish officials had hoped a solution for the banks would ease some concerns about the state of the country's finances and prompt investors to stop demanding unmanageably high interest rates for government debt. Such high rates forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek full-blown public finance bailouts.
But instead of easing off, investors panicked again.
On Monday the country's central bank said that the economy shrank by 0.4 percent during the second quarter, compared with the previous three months. The government predicts the economy won't return to growth until 2014 as new austerity measures hurt consumers and businesses.
On top of that, Spain is facing new costs as a growing number of regional governments that function like U.S. states ask federal authorities for assistance.
By Tuesday, investors had sent benchmark borrowing rate for Spain's 10-year bonds to 7.53 percent, just the latest in a series of records. By contrast, Germany's is just 1.26 percent.
If Spain's borrowing rates continue to rise, the government may end up being locked out of international markets and be forced to seek a financial rescue that would push Europe's rescue funds to breaking point.
Here are five reasons investors are scared about Spain:
HURTING REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS
During Spain's property boom, the country's 17 semi-autonomous regions raked in unprecedented revenues from building permits and fees. They windfall to finance infrastructure projects and the ranks or public employees swelled. Across Spain, highways, parks, public swimming pools, gleaming government buildings and airports sprung up.
Now the property market has collapsed and the regions can no longer afford to pay their bills and manage their debts.
The regions' problems have been a focus of investor concern for more than a year, but the fears skyrocketed last Friday when the region of Valencia announced it would be the first to tap a federal fund set up to bail out the hurting regions. Over the weekend, the region of Murcia said it also needed help.
More regions are expected to join the queue, threatening to overwhelm the central government. No one knows how much money the regions will need, though leading newspaper El Pais said they have combined debts of (EURO)140 billion and that (EURO)36 billion must be refinanced this year.
The fund set up by the government on July 13 will have (EURO)18 billion in capital, part of it raided from the national lottery. If more funds are needed, Spain would either have to issue debt at punishing rates - or ask for a bailout.
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While one out of every four Spaniards are unemployed, the rate for job-seekers under 25 stands at 52 percent. Emigration by young adults is on the rise, and companies are taking advantage of new labor reforms that make it cheaper to fire workers. The country is in its second recession in three years.
Just as Valencia was announcing its financing needs last Friday, Spain's finance minister revealed that the economic contraction will be deeper than expected in 2013 - meaning an even longer period of economic pain before Spain can hope to start generating jobs again.
For this year, the government expects a smaller contraction than previously forecast of 1.5 percent, down from a previous estimate of 1.7. However, instead of economic growth of 0.2 percent for next year, the government now forecasts a contraction of 0.5 percent.
BANK BAILOUT WORRIES
The concerns circling Spain's shaky banks intensified in May when Bankia, the country's fifth-largest lender, unexpectedly announced it would need (EURO)19 billion to cover its toxic property loans and assets. A month later, leaders of the other 16 countries that use the euro crafted a rescue package of up to (EURO)100 billion for Spain's banks.
Spain still hasn't put a precise figure on how much the banks will need, denying investors a clear picture of the extent of the problem and whether the (EURO)100 billion is enough to handle it. Those numbers won't start coming out until September when extensive audits and stress tests of each bank are finalized.
Friday's announcement by eurozone finance ministers that they had agreed the terms of the bailout hasn't quelled markets. That's because the government is ultimately liable to repay the loans. Europe's financial leaders agreed in principle earlier this month to eventually make loans directly to banks and take the Spanish government out of the equation. But that shift is a long way off - a pan-European banking authority would have to be created first and that could take years.
There is also concern that the rules of the bailout mean that eurozone would have to paid back first before other debt is settled. This could leave less money for private investors.
DEBT DEPENDENCY
The bank bailout has only made investors more worried about Spain's financial position.
Two-thirds of Spain's government bonds are held by the country's banks, pension funds and insurance companies - that's 50 percent higher than last year. This sharp increase is a sure sign that foreign demand for Spanish debt is falling fast.
Market-watchers are concerned that Spain and its banks are dependent on each other: the government is issuing debt, the majority of which is being bought by its banks, only to use the funds from the sale to prop up its banks so that they can buy more government debt.
Spain has so far this year issued (EURO)59 billion in bonds out of a total (EURO)86 billion planned for 2012. But as the banks' condition deteriorates, there is growing concern that they won't be able to buy up much more government debt.
Since beating former Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in the polls late last year, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been introducing successive rounds of austerity measures aimed at preventing the country from being forced into a public finance bailout.
Rajoy's latest set of measures has been his most controversial -a steep hike in Spain's sales tax, and the elimination of one of the 14 yearly paychecks that public servants receive.
Spain has been spared the level of brutal anti-austerity street violence like that seen in Greece, but got a taste of it on July 11 after Rajoy unveiled the new round of cuts and tax rises. Spanish miners and sympathizers, incensed with the seemingly endless cutbacks and tax hikes, clashed with riot police who fired rubber bullets, injuring 22 demonstrators and 10 officers.
The miners said cuts in government mining subsidies will leave them jobless, and many Madrid residents joined in because they believe the problems that the miners face are similar to their economic woes.
Off-duty police and firefighters are starting to join in anti-austerity protests by public servants. Officers are prohibited from wearing their uniforms while protesting, but deck themselves out in white shirts to identify themselves, and the firefighters hold their helmets.
If future protests come with escalating violence, that would only make investors more nervous about Spain.
ヨーロッパ経済と出稼ぎ、頭脳流出の実態
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Class of 2012: Europe's young pursue dreams abroad
By ALAN CLENDENNING
Aug 1, 11:27 AM EDT、Associated Press
MADRID (AP) -- Santiago Oviedo, a lanky 24-year-old from Madrid, is on track to get his master's in physics in October - a crucial milestone in his dream of becoming a researcher probing the origins of the universe.
Spain won't benefit from his big brain.
Because of education spending cuts and Spain's downward economic spiral, Oviedo is planning to emigrate to Britain, France, the Netherlands or Germany to get his Ph.D. or work at a company that lets him do research. He's afraid he may never work or raise a family in his country.
If he had graduated two years ago, Oviedo would have stood a good chance of landing a government-funded scholarship and grant for four years of doctoral study and research. That has evaporated in an austerity drive that has brought slashed budgets for scientific research and waves of layoffs at companies large and small.
With Spain's unemployment rate for people under 25 at an astonishing 53 percent, young Spaniards are leaving the country in droves to carve out a brighter future. Most seek jobs, but some, like Oviedo, are leaving because the government is struggling to afford to develop their minds.
Since 2009, when Europe's financial crisis hit full-bore, the number of Spaniards in their late teens, 20s and early 30s leaving the country has increased 52 percent - from about 12,500 to nearly 20,000 according to the government statistics agency. Young and talented Europeans from other hurting eurozone nations - Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal - are also abandoning home not only for stronger European countries but surging former European colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
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Editors: This is the latest installment in Class of 2012, an exploration of Europe's financial crisis through the eyes of young people emerging from the cocoon of student life into the worst downturn the continent has seen since the end of World War II.
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Oviedo is set to join a growing number of young Spaniards giving up on Spain, a nation that had visions of grandeur during a decade-long property boom but which is now teetering on the edge of financial collapse.
"I don't want to go away forever, but looking at the situation how it is now, maybe that will happen," said Oviedo, who heads to every Madrid anti-austerity protest he can fit in with his studies. He blames politicians for immersing Spain in its misery.
In addition to education spending cuts, Spain last December eliminated its Ministry of Science and Innovation to save money, making it a division of the Economy Ministry. In May, the country saw a tide of protests against the education squeeze by university students and teachers, some of whom clashed with police.
"Science isn't a priority now in Spain," Oviedo said. "The economy is terrible. A couple years ago we had a really good public health and education system, but now they are destroying it all. When I have children, I don't want them to live here if they don't have the things I have enjoyed."
Oviedo's fears mirror those of Spanish architecture student Rafael Gonzalez del Castillo, one of the five European students whose lives The Associated Press is tracking in the Class of 2012 project.
"I see myself working abroad," said Gonzalez del Castillo, as do many of his 25 architecture classmates at his elite Madrid university. "I don't know where. It doesn't matter where."
The long-term toll could be sinking competitiveness as crisis-hit countries lose many of their best and brightest amid already falling birth-rates - a potential formula for a vicious circle of economic agony. But countries like Spain could benefit if young emigres return because they would bring back better work and language skills that would help fix low productivity, said Gayle Allard, an economist with Madrid's IE Business School.
"If they come back it will be for the good of the country," said Allard. "If they don't come back, this is a tragedy."
Across the border from Spain, the number of Portuguese heading to former colonies Brazil and Angola for work has increased sharply since 2008. The trend has accelerated since last year when Portugal got a bailout of its public finances, according to statistics based on consulate and embassy registrations. Portugal's prime minister suggested last year that unemployed teachers should consider heading to former colonies for work. The country doesn't track youth emigration, but researchers say it is rising.
One of Gonzalez del Castillo's friends is a 26-year-old Spanish civil engineer who graduated last October, and moved to Brazil last month after a six-month job hunt in Spain that netted not a single job interview. She represents a sharp reversal for countries like Spain and Portugal, which for decades were on the receiving end of migrants from Latin America.
She has already had better luck in the booming business hub of Sao Paulo, getting an interview within two weeks of arriving. The woman did not want her name revealed because she entered Brazil on a tourist visa and fears she could be deported if caught seeking work.
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In bailed-out Ireland, emigration has become a defining national characteristic. More than 76,000 people left last year, representing 1.7 percent of the population. They joined 200,000 who have departed since 2008 at the end of a property boom-gone-bust similar to Spain's. Their top destinations are Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States. Official statistics show that the vast majority of those leaving are in their 20s and 30s.
Orla Kelleher, executive director of the Aisling Irish Community Center in Yonkers, New York, said the volume of newly arrived Irish jobseekers had multiplied six times "if not more" since 2009, following the implosion of the Celtic Tiger economy.
Brian Whelan, 28, moved to London from Dublin two years ago after being recruited to work on the Irish pages of the Yahoo news site. Many of his Dublin friends are living outside the country, many in Canada.
"If I hadn't landed a job in advance I'd have been heading to London anyway," said Whelan, who now works as a freelance journalist. "Irish people are not having any difficulty landing jobs abroad. It's often the best and the brightest who are going abroad. Some of the best trained and most able young people are leaving because Ireland can't afford to keep them."
Italy, whose decaying economy may soon need a bailout, has long been bleeding much of its finest talent as rigid labor laws and chronic cronyism force highly skilled young people abroad. Italy doesn't track how many citizens leave, but the country's statistics agency said the number of Italians with college degrees living abroad rose from 8.3 percent in 2001 to 15.9 percent in 2010.
Maria Adele Carrai, 26, got her bachelor's degree in Chinese language and culture in Rome, graduating at the top of her class, and went on to complete a master's in Venice focusing on Asian languages, economics and legal institutions. When she finished, she could find only low-paying work as an Italian-Chinese translator for a court that always paid her late - or not at all. She did freelance translation on the side, making (EURO)5 ($6) an hour.
Carrai would rather be home but left Italy for Hong Kong, where she's doing her Ph.D.
"That's the only way to become economically independent," she said. "Italy is an unthinkable destination right now."
Oviedo, the physics master's candidate, thinks he would probably be able to land a well-paid job in Madrid, where large banks pay good money for math whizzes like him to be analysts, known as "quants," and design complex trading formulas.
Oviedo says he would hate himself if he used his math skills to help big banks profit off the financial crisis.
"I don't want to do that job. It would be like helping the enemy," he said. "They have destroyed the world. I see the results every day in Spain."
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Associated Press writers Paola Barisani in Rome, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin and Daniel Woolls and Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.
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Poland hopes to identify remains of Auschwitz hero
Aug 30, 10:04 AM EDT
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - It could hardly have been a riskier mission: infiltrate Auschwitz to chronicle Nazi atrocities. Witold Pilecki survived nearly three years as an inmate in the death camp, managing to smuggle out word of executions before making a daring escape. But the Polish resistance hero was crushed by the post-war communist regime - tried on trumped-up charges and executed. Six decades on, Poland hopes Pilecki's remains will be identified among the entangled skeletons and shattered skulls of resistance fighters being excavated from a mass grave on the edge of Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery. The exhumations are part of a movement in the resurgent, democratic nation to officially recognize its war-time heroes and 20th century tragedies.
