World Media on Greece: Highlights of 2007 Archive

”With little fanfare, Greece has become one of Europe's best-performing economies and stock markets” Tatiana Serafin reports in her article “The Exchange That Launched 1,000 Ships” at Forbes Magazine.

According to Forbes, over the past four years Greek shipping companies have benefited from increased trade with China and India, and freight rates have more than doubled. Today the shipping industry leads tourism in fund inflows from abroad. Greece has 3,800-plus ships of 1,000 tons or more, the largest fleet in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. Helped by cheap bank financing, shippers have at least 260 new vessels on order. Read the entire article here.

The energy interconnection between Turkey and Greece is now complete and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis are set to inaugurate on November 18 the pipeline that will carry Azerbaijani natural gas from Shah Sea (region of the Caspian Sea) to European Union countries.

Analysts consider that the new natural gas pipeline and the interconnection of the electricity systems of Greece and Turkey are the two most important interstate projects between the two neighboring countries. Read more...

More articles on the subject:

• Greece and Turkey Open Gas Pipeline (The New York Times, 19.11.2007).
• Greece and Turkey open gas line (Aljazeera.net, 18.11.2007).
• Greek, Turkish premiers open taps on Europe's first supply of Caspian gas (International Herald Tribune, 17.11.2007).
• Sec. Bodman Celebrates the Opening of the Turkey-Greece Inter-Connector (Newsblaze.com, November, 2007).

In her article suggesting an autumn break in Athens, Dana Facaros compares the Attica coastline with the Riviera. Facaros refers to the urban makeover that came with the Olympic Game, and the changes it brought on to the beaches around Athens. The slick new hotels, bars and restaurants have brought a touch of Mykonos hip to the Attica coastline.

According to Facaros: “the coastline is pronged with peninsulas and scalloped with coves. Its beaches stretch languidly along the sheltered Saronic Gulf, where the water stays warm enough for swimming well into October. And its resorts are hip, happening and full of beautiful people.” Facaros makes mention of almost all the beaches in southern Attica, from Glyfada, Voula, Kavouri and Vouliagmeni, down to Sounio and Anavyssos and gives a quick guide to the resorts and facilities they offer.

As Gordon Ramsay notes in his Times article, when we talk about Mediterranean food and produce, we tend to think of Italy, and yet some of the best products come from Greece, the sleeping beauty of cuisine.Ramsay went to Crete to attend the annual Kerasma International Conference, which promotes Greek food around the world.

Food historians argue that Crete created Mediterranean cuisine and after his visit in Crete, Ramsay believes them. Ramsay visited the Toplou Monastery, where the monks produce their own organic oil, honey and wine. As Ramsay says: "The monastery, its monks and its organic olive oil and honey epitomise what I love about Greek produce. The country is full of small, unique growers and farmers whose produce is organic and of the highest quality". Read more...

In this extensive New York Times article the Athens and Epidaurus Festival is described as a vibrant arts experience, whose success has won over audiences and critics, with most events being sold out. It refers to the sweeping changes ushered in by artistic director George Loukos, which have radically altered the nature of the Festival.

These include the concentration of the Athens events in the two months of June and July, the addition of new sites (like the warehouse complex in Pireos 260), making it possible to expand performance and audience possibilities and bringing in new kinds of companies like Ariane Mnouchkine or the Wooster Group, while the impressive international allure of the programme has turned Athens — like Avignon and Edinburgh — into a concentrated source for artistic producers seeking to discover new work. Read the entire article here.

A team of scientists at the National Observatory of Athens is using artists’ renditions of sunsets to glean information about the effects of climate change. The team is looking at 554 works dating from 1500 to 1900 to estimate how much natural pollution was released into the skies.

By studying the colours in skies painted before and after such eruptions, researchers say they can calculate how much material was in the sky at the time. Read the entire article here.

Jonathan Glancey reports from Athens on a momentous achievement: Tschumi's new museum - a geometrical marvel dedicated to the celebration of antiquity - was funded by Greece's ministry of culture and the EU. The building is complete, though its display of magnificent Athenian art, some 4,000 ancient artefacts in all, won't be finalised until next summer.

Entirely free of decoration ("The ancient sculpture on display inside will be enough," says Tschumi), the concrete, glass and marble building nevertheless plays a number of clever structural games. Read more...

Greece will host the 17th Mediterranean Games in 2013, with the joint bid by its two cities Volos and Ioannina obtaining 37 votes against 34 for the Croatian city of Rijeka in the second round.

The Mediterranean Games, first held in 1951, are a multi-sport event held every four years, in the year following the Olympic Games.  Read more...

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