M P | Politis

A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015

Lessons from a shipwreck to a shipwrecked country

By Maria Patsarika This is not an easy piece to write. The tragic April 2014 ferry accident in South Korea, better deserves a an expression of humble, silent sympathy with the mourning families. Watching the story unrave...

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Boutique politics in times of crisis

By Maria Patsarika A new company has come to my attention, called West Wing, a political consultancy. Unbelievable, where did this come from! A true ”boutique outfit,” that. As I was going through “West Wing&#...

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Absurdities

By Maria Patsarika First, our ministers make earnest declarations that in order for smog percentages to diminish, people need to return to the use of oil for heating purposes. I’m sure it crossed all people’s minds:...

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Ecosystem threat part and parcel of civic irresponsibility

By Maria Patsarika Browsing a Sunday paper and a series of depressing articles on politics, one article made me think of the word “crisis” on a broader eco-systemic level, and also ponder the distressing consequence...

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Freedom requires virtue and courage

By Maria Patsarika “Θέλει αρετή και τόλμη η ελευθερία” – Andreas Kalvos “It is inevitable that the Greek people will go through hardships to get through the crisis… Inev...

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Of games and empathy: virtual public service?

By Maria Patsarika The world of video-gaming is usually discussed in these controversial terms: does it promote violence or is it simple entertainment, in the same way that films are? I discussed this issue in depth recently wi...

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On friendly politicians and false equality

By Maria Patsarika The latest article in Kathimerini English edition by Takis Theodoropoulos makes a very good point: “The [second person] singular is the form of the collapse, which is often falsely equated with democrat...

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Paid or unpaid?

By Maria Patsarika As practitioners of public service and volunteerism, we encourage high school and college students to pad their c-v by doing internships. That leaves open an important question: Paid or unpaid? It may be more...

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Thessabike is here!

By Maria Patsarika Beware Boris with your Barclays bikes; beware Copenhagen and Amsterdam: Thessbike is here! This was missing from our city, no doubt. A bike-renting service is now available in Thessaloniki at various hotspots...

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Social entrepreneurialism twisted

By Maria Patsarika Did you know about Bitcoin, the virtual currency? I didn’t. I found out this weekend reading the FT magazine. Bitcoin is one of the many entrepreneurial initiatives that feature all too often in the med...

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She faces the music

By Maria Patsarika “She faces the music” – I can’t think of a better way to express my own thoughts about Kiki Dimoula, a great (the greatest?) poet of our times, and the uproar that her apparently xenop...

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The power of habit

By Maria Patsarika Scenario 1 A couple of weeks ago I read that Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary in the UK, claimed that he could live on £53 per week, after a benefits claimant told the BBC that he makes end...

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A culinary public service

We all know that Ilias Mamalakis cooks delightfully… Imagine doing this in a prison and publishing a book about it. Cooking as public service.

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And what about the political corruption?

By Maria Patsarika I read an article by Thanasis Skokos in Protagon yesterday about corruption. Actually, it is one of the many articles out there discussing the extent to which politicians who have misused power and public fun...

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Second chance?

By Maria Patsarika Is there a second chance for democracy, as Nikos Marantzidis claimed in Protagon last week? For one to be able to identify a positive orientation for populism in politics is a fresh, however risky, perspectiv...

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Creativity sentenced to death

By Maria Patsarika I never thought academic writing could be that frustrating until I started practicing it. And it’s not because I prefer live dialogue to print dialogue (although I do); writing is a pleasure, whether yo...

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The NSRF phenomenon – or, The dangers of ΕΣΠΑ

By Maria Patsarika Some months ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend about what it means to achieve fulfillment in life. This was prompted by the dilemma that we face nowadays perhaps more acutely than ever: how c...

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What our dilemmas teach us

By Maria Patsarika Whenever I am faced with a dilemma I know that my choices are limited. Dilemmas represent difficult decision making, being torn between solutions neither of which is convincing enough to go for with watertigh...

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In defense of quiet activism

By Maria Patsarika Last week I went to an interesting talk about the role of social sciences in these days of financial, political and social crisis and insecurity for Greece. Throughout the talk a critical question was lingeri...

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