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Eurovision 2015 Contestants: Cyprus

Cyprus is making its return to the Eurovision this year, after being absent last year for financial crisis-related reasons (i.e. the fear of winning the contest and having to organize it the following year). This means Greece will benefit from 12 extra points this year thanks to their Cypriot neighbors.

The small island has participated 31 times in the contest but has unfortunately never won. This doesn’t really seem to bother most Cypriots as they aren’t particularly fond of the Eurovision.

Twenty-year-old John Karayiannis will represent Cyprus in this year’s contest. John has 10 pairs of glasses and his World of Warcraft team used to be ranked 58th out of the millions of guilds the online game counts.

He will perform “One Thing I Should Have Done,” a song that has quite a happy tune for surprisingly sad lyrics (“One day you think you have it all, the next you're staring at a wall in a dream. The road that once was paved with gold has turned a rusty shade of all the saddest colors in the world.”)

Our vote:

Does it make you want to visit that country? 3.25/10

Was there enough glitter? 1.5/10

Ok to quit your day job? 4.25/10

OVERALL AVERAGE: 3/10

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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