Politis
A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015

 
Author Archive
 

 
 

How simple it is to know who’s who

Fact checkers and vote counters are legion in the US. Here is site that prides itself for being up on the latest in IT developments. No hiding behind the anonymity of an electronic vote. At issue in this instance is an amendmen...
 
 
 

Sinking in our own shit

By David Wisner Here is something I had been thinking a lot about before it happened. We all want action to be taken to avert or resolve a crisis. We all want to believe that we can contribute our small part in the effort to cl...
 
 
 

Would you swear an oath to the Queen?

By David Wisner The Globe and Mail ran a story yesterday about “would-be Canadian citizens” who are up in arms about the oath of allegiance they must swear to the British monarch prior to earning full rights as citi...
 

 
 

Is this the moment for national service?

By David Wisner Michael Gerson had some interesting thoughts about an offhand remark made recently by retired US General Stanley McChrystal on service to the nation. McChrystal had expressed concern that only 1 percent of Ameri...
 
 
 

Saying of the day: 6/28/13

    “If history tells us anything, the fight against NSA secrecy is a winnable.” — Gregory Ferenstein, TechCrunch
 
 
 

Football activism

          A striking scene from the Copacabana.  
 

 
 

Dumb ways to die

An award-winning public service message from Metro Trains, Melbourne, Australia.
 
 
 

Up a creek…

What is the expression again, “up a creek without a paddle?”
 
 
 

The enemies of public broadcasting

By David Wisner As luck would have it, I happened to log on to Facebook today just around the time that two transplanted Athenian acquaintances commented on news reports announcing the imminent closure and restructuring of the ...
 

 
 

With partners like these…

By David Wisner I read in Simon Johnson’s column in Bloomberg last week (later picked up by Kathimerini English edition) an interesting critique of the performance of the EU in the unfolding of Greece’s sovereign de...
 
 
 

More on those pesky 16 year-old Scottish voters

The British think tank Demos has put this short video out arguing the merits of allowing 16 and 17 year-old citizens the right to vote in Scotland.
 
 
 

Thessaloniki then and now

By David Wisner In light of the 2013 edition of the Thessaloniki naked bike ride scheduled for this Saturday, the folks at the blog “Diary of a cyclist” have assembled a collection of photos of central points in the...
 

 
 

More on the youth vote

By David Wisner Excerpts below from a post by Andrew Rosenthal in yesterday’s New York Times about the youth vote in the 2012 US Presidential election. The interesting thing is that Republican youth groups were heavily in...
 
 
 

Why are our legislatures unresponsive?

By David Wisner We often have the sense that politics is not working, yet conceivably it is working all too well, if what we expect from politicians is that they will prioritize getting elected and then getting reelected. Rober...
 
 
 

There are demonstrations and then there are demonstrations

By David Wisner I have been watching the anti-gay marriage demonstrations in France for some time now (live blog here). Were one perfectly objective, one would appreciate the degree to which a grass roots mobilization of civil ...
 

 
 

Fathers, sons, and political preferences

By David Wisner There is a wide ranging debate ongoing these days about the sources of political behavior, be they social or  genetic. Elias Dinas of the University of Nottingham has published a very interesting bit of researc...
 
 
 

Is the crisis over?

By David Wisner “Phew, that was tough,” is the initial impression left behind by Nick Malkoutzis in his comment in the pages of today’s Kathimerini English edition. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, now....
 
 
 

The new sick man of Europe

By David Wisner “The European Union is the new sick man of Europe. The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in ...
 

 
 

Right, left, and Nixonian

By David Wisner “No one,” writes David Hawkings in his blog in today’s Roll Call, “expected Obama would get to a second term and find his legislative agenda suddenly frozen in the face of a bipartisan wa...
 
 
 

Lustration and the Arab spring

By David Wisner The Dukakis Center hosted well-known Greek blogger Kostas Kallergis in April for a talk on lustration as a means of dealing with corruption in Greek politics. Hearkening back to attempts in various countries in ...
 

 
 


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