The Mediterranean blues

摘要

The news from Greece gets ever grimmer, gdp will shrink in 2012 for the fourth year in a row. Talk of a default and/or departure from the euro is growing. This week Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, demanded urgent progress towards a deal imposing a "haircut" on private creditors (which may now have to be bigger than 50%), saying that Greece might otherwise not get its second European Union/IMF loan. And thieves have just stolen a Picasso painting from the national gallery, where only one guard was on duty.Yet most evenings Athens is buzzing. Around Syntagma Square, the scene of so many protests, the streets are crowded, with cheery music playing. In nearby Karytsi Square, bars and restaurants are packed with rowdy people; some are even jolly. The mojitos may have been replaced by cheap beer, but Athenians live for an evening out with friends. "Staying home is not an option," says a classics student from Athens University. "It's too depressing."