The eurozone crisis aboil. (photo: Vélocia/flickr)

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, also known as the ‘Bishop of Corum’

  • “The promenades of Geneva and Zurich may seem a world away from the protests and turmoil plaguing the streets of Athens. But, with the European sovereign-debt crisis going rapidly from bad to worse, concerns are growing about the economic impact on Switzerland if the Greeks ditch the euro.”
  • “Shares in Spanish banks have tumbled as the country’s prime minister expressed concern over rising borrowing costs amid fears that it could be the next country sucked into the eurozone debt crisis. Bankia, which said over the weekend that it was seeking further state funds to stay afloat, slumped by more than 13 per cent on the Madrid stock exchange while Banco Popular fell 7.50 per cent and CaixaBank dropped 5.09 per cent.”
  • “The euro zone crisis boils along, like a tea kettle left screaming on the stove. Another summit of European leaders last week failed to resolve the crushing questions of Greece and how to square the circle between austerity and growth (aside to Europe’s leaders — you can’t. It’s one or the other).”
  • “China has opened up its banking system to private-sector investors, the latest move by Beijing aimed at underpinning economic growth.”
  • “Since the introduction of doi moi (renovation) policy in 1986, Vietnam’s economic growth has lifted millions out of abject poverty. Increasingly, however, the country’s growth and development trajectories are showing signs of distress. Macro instability, increasing inequality, lurking environmental problems and simmering public discontent are putting Hanoi under rising pressure to change.”
  • “Students in Quebec are to meet with the province’s education minister to resume talks over a proposed tuition fee hike that have sparked widespread protest.”
  • Robert Fisk: “Bashar al-Assad will get away with it. He got away with Deraa. He got away with Homs. And he’ll get away with Houla. So will the armed opposition to the regime, along with al-Qa’ida and any other outfits joining in Syria’s tragedy. Yes, this may be the critical moment, the “tipping point” of horror, when Baathist collapse becomes inevitable rather than probable. And dear Mr Hague may be “absolutely” appalled. The UN, too. We all are.”
  • “Greg Spencer, a 27-year-old from San Diego, Calif. was on holiday in Uganda with his dad four years ago when he found his calling. ‘I was just a year out of college and I wanted to be involved in a cool, challenging and innovative business,’ he said.”
  • “The Rev. Dr. Franklyn Richardson longs for the old days, when all it took was Sunday sermons by African-American ministers to fire up their flocks to get registered and vote in local, state and federal elections.”
  • “After demonstrators were arrested and roughed up in an unsuccessful attempt to march to McCormick Place on Sunday, I thought it would be interesting to check in with Mel Rothenberg. He has the distinction of leading the only demonstration that succeeded in marching to the International Ampitheatre, where the Democratic National Convention was being held, in 1968.”
  • TRNN: “AFRICOM Expands Mission In Africa. Maurice Carney: A U.S.-based unit has been selected as the Army’s first “regionally aligned” brigade, and by next year its soldiers could begin conducting operations in Africa.”

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off.