Greece failing to afford athletes for Olympics

What happens if the country that invented the Olympics cannot afford to produce Olympic athletes? As this summer's London Games approach, that notion is causing great angst in Greece, where elite athletes are feeling the sting of austerity measures in the face of debt crisis.

The government scrapped a plan to spend nearly $10 million a year on Olympic preparation, according to the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Athletes say their financial stipends are frequently months late, and it is common for coaches to go months without paychecks. Training centers have fallen into disrepair or have closed. A sports psychologist who counsels Greek athletes is working pro bono these days.

Greeks will compete in London, but they will perhaps be limping a bit at the opening ceremony July 27. "Young athletes are very skeptical about continuing when they see that the top athletes are not receiving what they deserve, that they are not supported as they should be," Vassilios Sevastis, the president of the Greek amateur athletics association, known by the acronym SEGAS, said through an interpreter. "This is the major risk."

Greece has competed in every Summer Olympics since the modern Games began in 1896, when Athens hosted. Even during the Great Depression, Greece managed to send athletes to Los Angeles in 1932 - the year it defaulted on its external debt. For Winter Games, Greece usually sends a handful of skiers.

To build a team for London, the country's Olympic committee has pursued private-sector sponsors and has increased its dependence on aid from the International Olympic Committee. Now the growing concern is whether Greece, the host of the 2004 Summer Games, which have come to symbolize a decade of overspending, can sustain this course for long.

Like other elite athletes, the pole-vaulter Kostas Filippidis said it had been several months since he received his monthly $1,400 stipend from the athletics federation.

"Of course it's a thought, but I cannot be worried about this every day," he said, adding that he lived rent-free in an apartment owned by his father. "Taking part in the Olympics for my country makes me very proud."

Filippidis trains indoors at the Olympic Stadium complex. He said the heat was on for just one hour a day. On a recent visit, just a few athletes were training there, and a large plastic container was positioned in a long-jump lane - not to be leapt over but to catch water leaking from the skylight above.

Alkisti Avramidou, a water polo player, said that "I think twice" before spending even one euro and that it was becoming difficult to ask her parents for help. Her father, a doctor, has seen his salary cut in half; her mother, a civil servant, has not been paid in several months. With the exception of going to practice, Avramidou avoids driving because she cannot afford gasoline, which costs about $8 a gallon.

Sevastis said the organization received only three-quarters of the $9.6 million budgeted for 2011, and that was after an injection of $1.6 million in December. A month earlier, the association's board suspended operations to protest. The December infusion allowed coaches and athletes to be paid, Sevastis said, but overall, the association provides money to just 23 elite athletes, compared with 60 two years ago.

From: http://ping.fm/WUtn8

Cheerful counterpoint to depressing news

The writer below has good ideas about this topic, but I would add to it, sports, in my case, bicycling is my cheerful counterpoint activity to this modern day financial depression the world is going through.

Recently a PhD student was talking about her anxiety building. (I’m not attributing the problems quotes because these are pretty common problems.) Part of the problem was this:
I need to stop reading about the lack of jobs in humanities as I am not in humanities. Still makes me panic.
I think my anxiety is related to the pressure to look TT and I never wanted to do that from the beginning.
I suggested stopping reading the news and trying novels, even trashy novels. Someone else chimed in
I started reading novels but kept ending up with dystopias and novels with sad endings. So I went back to news.
trust me, didn’t pick them intentionally. I was looking for goodness& light. Taking recommendations
From: http://ping.fm/Ofbhs

UC Davis research finds newer radiation therapy technology improves patients quality of life

 (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Patients with head and neck cancers who have been treated with newer, more sophisticated radiation therapy technology enjoy a better quality of life than those treated with older radiation therapy equipment, a study by UC Davis researchers has found.

The findings, presented today at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Phoenix, is the first of its kind to measure long-term quality of life among cancer patients who have undergone radiation therapy for advanced cancers of the throat, tongue, vocal cords, and other structures in the head and neck.

Starbucks in deal with Tata Global Beverages to open first cafe in India

Corp said it will open its first outlets in India in August or September and plans to have 50 stores in operation by the end of the year in a joint venture deal with Tata Global Beverages.

The formal launch of the company's retail foray into India comes a year after it signed a deal with Tata Global to buy coffee from India and open retail outlets in the country.

Starbucks and Tata Global, part of the salt-to-software Tata conglomerate, said they had formed an equal joint venture to run cafes and develop business in India.

University applications drop by 44,000 after fees hike

 Data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) shows an 8.7 per cent drop in applications to start courses this September compared with 2011.

Figures show an 11.2 per cent fall in demand from European students – who must pay the same fees as British counterparts – prompting fresh claims that candidates are being put off by fears over debt.

The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, described the disclosure as “very worrying” and insisted it highlighted the “Government’s folly in raising tuition fees to as much as £9,000 a year”.

Tax evaders in Greece, Spain and Italy better beware

BERLIN – In Greece, tax officials fly helicopters over residential areas to spot swimming pools of the alleged poor. In Italy, inspectors raid elite ski resorts to catch the down-and-out in their Ferraris. In Spain, taxmen snoop about homes rented to sun-seeking vacationers — then visit the owners who neglected to report the income.

Evading taxes is almost a national pastime in European nations such as Greece, Spain and Italy, and for years their governments largely looked the other way.