The Greek crisis has cast a pall over the entire eurozone.

Indeed, there are several grim indicators of this development.

Consider the grim statistics recently released by the Supreme People s Procuratorate (SPP).

Dark prophecies are often wrong, but they may also become self fulfilling.

Amid this gloomy outlook, we anxiously look for encouraging signs.

In any case, the political consequences overshadow legal or bureaucratic issues.

Yet this bleak picture is neither an excuse for apathy nor grounds for pessimism.

However, the already dire humanitarian situation, coupled with the tsunami, poses considerable new challenges for the incipient Government of Somalia.

It is time to redress that balance, or Soros s gloomy prognosis may become reality.

Even the most optimistic minded would struggle to find a silver lining in that outlook.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that African economies, taken together, have recovered from the dark years of the 1980 s.

In an effort to reverse the dismal situation, Sushma Swaraj has sought to provide assurances to African ambassadors and individuals in India alike.

However, in comparison with the Holocaust, most people still know little about this dark episode.

But let s put these grim prospects aside, and ponder what a civilized solution to the problem of technology driven unemployment would look like.

An influential 1933 study of the Austrian town of Marienthal by the sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld painted this dismal picture in detail.

As a former ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), I can say from experience that such dire predictions are nothing new.

His carnivalesque odyssey of totalitarianism displays a world of misery, boredom, and obedience in its dark journey to an unreachable paradise.

PARIS Dire conditions can permit what was once unthinkable to push its way into public debate.

I grew up with the sounds of war the staccato sounds of gunfire, the wrenching booms of explosions, ominous drones of jets flying overhead and the wailing warning sounds of sirens.

Consider, for example, Colombia s grim ranking as global leader in the number of victims injured by landmines.

Such a scenario would reverse the gloomy demographic and economic trends in Russia s eastern territories, and would strengthen Russia s geopolitical position in the process.

Yet, despite Bolivia s arrival at this gloomy turning point, events can, paradoxically, turn out moderately well.

The emergence of such an identity depends on politicians ability to communicate to their fellow citizens the Union s real advantages and the bleak prospects of nation states that try to go it alone.

Even if a budget is adopted, there is no lack of depressing business for the Austrian presidency, which starts on January 1.

Given the new threats overshadowing our planet, the Democratic Republic of the Congo believes it crucial that we reinforce the international peacebuilding and conflict prevention structures.

In these dismal circumstances, a recent development has provided a rare ray of hope the extraordinary mobilization of Congolese civil society in defense of the DRC s nascent democratic institutions.

With so much underutilized productive capacity today, and with immediate economic prospects so dismal, the risk of serious inflation is minimal.

WASHINGTON, DC As the world enters yet another year in the shadow of continued financial and economic crisis, a broader view of the contours of the future global economy is required.

Houphouet s fondness for money and power was plain from the outset, and his regime offered no exception to the dismal African rule of corruption, fraud, cheating, cronyism, embezzlement, and weak law enforcement.

In the midst of a gloomy crisis for public spending in Britain, the government has committed itself to sticking to its pledge of spending 0.7 of GDP on development assistance in poor countries.

Merkel s Panglossian campaign was much more in tune with the sentiment of the German electorate than the opposing parties tristesse about working class distress, which was rightly seen as a ploy for raising taxes.

Despite all the grim news and auguries, there is some hope, owing to the increased political mobilization of Pakistan s middle classes, whose members have finally begun to question those espousing extremism.

And, rather than surging forward, the US economy, regrettably and exasperatingly, will remain captive to unusual sluggishness, while its vulnerability to the ill winds blowing from the rest of the world will only increase.

With HIV AIDS adding to this bleak picture (5 per cent of the population is infected), it is not surprising that Haiti lives in a climate of recurrent social unrest.

The twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 26, 1986 is prompting a new wave of alarmist claims about its impact on human health and the environment.

The best we can hope for is that liberal democracies will muddle through this period of unease that demagogic temptations will be resisted, and violent impulses contained.

Over the years, however, as the world economy continued to grow without interruption and, in the current age of globalization, seemingly without limits the dire predictions of the Club of Rome have become increasingly an object of ridicule.

BRUSSELS Since the summer, the continuing installments of the Greek crisis have concealed a worrying process of fragmentation in the eurozone. Indeed, there are several grim indicators of this development.

There is one positive note in this dismal picture the sources of global growth today are more diverse than they were a decade ago.

There is one positive note in this dismal picture the sources of global growth today are more diverse than they were a decade ago. The real engines of global growth in recent years have been developing countries.

In fact, both the critics fears and the optimists euphoria are unwarranted. With so much underutilized productive capacity today, and with immediate economic prospects so dismal, the risk of serious inflation is minimal.

And I remember at the beginning of my career, again and again, on these dismal outings with orchestras, I would be going completely insane on the podium, trying to engender a small scale crescendo really, just a little upsurge in volume.

But my joyful period was marred by solemn and morbid thoughts thoughts of walking through the prison's high security death row, as this was the only route to take me to the makeshift operating room.

It is believed that the Armenian genocide inspired the Nazis in their plans for the extermination of Jews. However, in comparison with the Holocaust, most people still know little about this dark episode.

Libya, of course, can survive the gloomy prospect of post authoritarian civil war. But this requires containing tribal and regional polarization, as well as the rivalries between the Interim National Council (INC) and the Military Council (MC), and between senior military commanders.