A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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The joys of austerity
Posted June 4, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Graham Hill I live in a 420-square-foot studio. I sleep in a bed that folds down from the wall. I have six dress shirts. I have 10 shallow bowls that I use for salads and main dishes. When people come over for dinner, I pull out my extendable dining room table. I don’t have […]
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Truckloads of gold
Posted March 27, 2013 by Politis
Euros arriving by truck to Cyprus from Brussels.
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Destination: bankruptcy (and not just moral)
Posted March 27, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Nikos Chrysoloras It is now official: Cyprus will pay a heavy toll for turning its economy into an offshore financial haven and allowing its banking sector to hyperinflate. But if the purpose of the dramatic eurozone all-nighters was not just to punish and make an example of the island, but to solve the issue, […]
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Giving up the ghost
Posted July 26, 2015 by DW
It was a metaphor that was not uncommon in earlier moments of the crisis, that of Greece as a patient on life support. The notion of a sick man of Europe has a long pedigree after all. It has come back with a vengeance now, most recently in the form of a commentary by Maria […]
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Around the town: 3/28/13
Posted March 29, 2013 by laura
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Fri 29th March- Hugo Race- A prolific and visionary performer, Hugo Race, will be performing music from his latest album, Fatalists. Drawing inspiration from all his travels, he has created a mix of rock ‘n’ roll, soul, […]
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A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy
Posted March 22, 2013 by Politis
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Each year, America celebrates Greek Independence Day to strengthen the bonds between the birthplace of democracy and the world’s oldest republic. We recognize the enduring contributions of Greek Americans, woven into the fabric of our national life. And we reflect on the ancient Hellenic […]
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Extreme citizen action
Posted August 1, 2013 by Politis
Below the text of a petition to save the public toilets of the British city of Bath. One woman has pledged to occupy one of the toilets all day as a means of protest. Nearly 100 people have signed. …/… Dear Councillor Dixon, Please do not close our public toilets in Bath. Many people rely […]
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Life lessons from Cyprus
Posted March 22, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Edward Scicluna, Minister of Finance, Malta There is nothing more undignified than the sight of a bankrupt person begging for assistance. The contrasts between the cosy and sometimes sumptuous living before the event and the state of helplessness and destitution soon after are stark indeed. While generous persons may come forward to offer their […]
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Armed revolution… or democracy?
Posted May 11, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship We were struck this week by one response to our broadcast last week on gun violence and the Newtown school killings. A visitor to the website wrote, “It is interesting to me that Bill Moyers, who every week describes the massive levels of corruption in our government… [and] the […]
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Greek-Turkish kinship
Posted March 2, 2013 by Politis
Speaking recently in Ankara at a Greco-Turkish forum dedicated to tourism, the current mayor of Thessaloniki, Ioannis Boutaris, suggested that he felt a feeling of kinship with Turks, acknowledging among other things the important monuments in his city dating from the Ottoman occupation of Greece. “I feel myself to be a brother with the Turks, […]
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Sinking in our own shit
Posted July 18, 2013 by DW
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 clean up the mess we ourselves may be partly responsible […]
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The world is watching
Posted October 7, 2016 by Politis
By Lydia Richards I am a study abroad student and a Dukakis Center intern at the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) from the US, where I attend the University of Northern Iowa and major in flute performance. At ACT, I am taking several International Relations classes. As someone who has not spent a great deal […]
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Hands on the roof of the car
Posted October 24, 2013 by Politis
What say we reverse roles. A regular reader of Politis sent this arresting image our way this morning, with the following caption by Banksy. “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.” […]
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315 charts on poverty and inequality
Posted May 15, 2013 by Politis
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development has just released data on poverty and inequality for all OECD mamber states in the form of some 315 charts, including one interactive chart on income distribution and poverty.
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In praise of subjecthood (of the right sort)
Posted June 10, 2013 by Politis
Living in Europe today is akin to being a subject in some latter day Holy Roman Empire, that “political commonwealth under which the Germans lived for many hundreds of years.” So says Brendan Simms of Cambridge University in today’s New York Times. While the Empire lasted nearly a thousand years, however, the comparison is not […]
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Gaming the election?
Posted March 29, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Researchers Robert Epstein and Ronald E. Robertson have prepared a paper in which they argue that an Internet search engine, not Google necessarily but “a future Google,” might be able to manipulate search results in such a way as to impact the outcome of an election. “In a controlled experiment,” they write, […]
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Social movements: political efficacy or alienation?
Posted December 5, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Jiya Pinder Tensions have risen in Bangkok over the past few weeks, as anti-government “yellow-shirt” protesters have sought to remove democratically elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her cabinet. The Protestors descended on the city center, popular TV stations, police headquarters and the government house in an effort to disrupt the capital city and […]
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Citizen election monitoring in Kenya
Posted March 2, 2013 by Politis
Politis is interested in citizen activism round the world, not only in Greece. We report here about an interesting article in Deutsche Welle on a grass roots initiative aiming to monitor the upcoming election in Kenya, using a platform developed by a company called Ushahidi. Ushahidi calls itself a “non-profit tech company that changes the […]