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… Inevitably some businesses will have to close down,” Giannis Vroutsis, Minister of Employment, has observed. This is the mantra of our times: a fashionable stoicism that makes […]
Der Spiegel has a story according to which professional clowns in Germany are up in arms regarding a comment made by the leader of the German opposition, Social Democrat Peer Steinbrück, comparing Italian political figures Silvio Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo to clowns. “A circus clown is no fool who can be placed on the same […]
By Francesca Kareivis I had to get a physical examination to study abroad and when I told my doctor I was going to Greece the first thing she said was “You know, it’s not too late… You don’t have to go.” Needless to say, not many people supported my decision to study in Greece. And […]
“How To Raise Your Child’s IQ” – by Professor William Maxwell, an Inspiration Exchange discussion series event to be held under the auspice of Michael and Kitty Dukakis Centre for Humanitarian and Public Service at the American College of Thessaloniki on Wednesday, May 9, at 5 PM in the Bissell Library. All Revolutions are born […]
“At least he [Erdogan] is leaving us some crumbs. The previous bastards never gave us everything.” — Turkish supporter of the AKP
By Alexia Apostolina A cloudy morning in November we woke up, dressed as warm as we could with a smile on our faces, bags with pullovers, raincoats and everything else we wanted to give to those people. Heroes. In the bus everyone seemed unsure, wondering about what we would come across in Eidomeni. Many feelings, many […]
A striking scene from the Copacabana.
“Unless we take action on climate change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled.” — Christine Lagarde
By David Wisner I faced a small crisis the other day when one of the students whom I advise failed a course in his last semester at college. I discussed the issue and solicited from colleagues ways to resolve the student’s predicament while remaining firmly within school rules and, above all, seeking to uphold a […]
By Fotinie Efstratiadou A law pertaining to uninsured vehicles has recently been passed in the Greek Parliament and will enter into force on April 15, 2013. The law concerns owners of vehicles that will be found to be uninsured through database cross examinations conducted by the National Information Systems of the Greek Ministry of Economy, […]
By Krystallia Kalachani It is late afternoon, June 2011, the temperature in Athens is high. I am still at work giving a last look at my social media accounts before I leave for home, there is calling for a gathering in Syntagma Square, central Athens, in front of the Greek Parliament. I would be there […]
A nice article in today’s Deutsche Welle celebrates the tenth anniversary of the launch of WordPress, one of the main platforms for blogging world wide. “Over the last decade, WordPress transformed from a simple platform to write a blog into an online content management system used by multinational corporations to maintain their Internet presence. A […]
By Laura Strieth A group called NoMines N. has posted the following petition regarding a project to mine for gold in the vicinity of Ierissos, on the third foot of the Halkidiki region. The campaign “calls for citizens all over the world to raise their voice in condemnation against the development of mining activities and […]
As reported yesterday in Greek Reporter, as many as One Greek in three would consider leaving Greece, as the economic situation becomes ever more dire. They report, “The startling statistic came from a a survey carried out on primary and secondary school pupils by the Children’s Ombudsman. Out of 1,211 pupils from 22 schools around […]
Bit and pieces below from an essay by Nicco Mele in Salon on Anonymous and the threats of hacking to contemporary security. “Anonymous, untraceable private networks—the kind that can be built by technology like FabFi or Tor—are called ‘darknets,’ literally networks that exist in the shadows of the Internet. They are increasingly easy to build, […]
In the spring of 2006 I invited Pavlos Geroulanos to visit the Dukakis Center to speak on the topic of “youth and politics.” At the time Geroulanos was something like chief of staff to the then-president of PASOK, George Papandreou, having recently returned to Greece from the US, where he had done an MBA at […]
Parallaxi, a free-press magazine inThessaloniki who began the well known “ThessalonikiAllios” are organizing the 2nd annual effort to clean up the city ofThessaloniki. Thessaloniki Allios willbe reviving an area of Thessaloniki that has been left abandoned for a longtime, the coastline from Aretsous until Macedonia Airport. One mission will be to clean up the coastbehind […]
Politis has posted a lot lately on the potential impact of IT companies like Google on politics. George Packer has an excellent article just out in the New Yorker which examines the question in some detail. Many IT engineers and researchers, while apolitical at face value, have a deeply embedded belief in the social utility […]
By Politis A wonderful story here by Sam Jones in last Friday’s Guardian about a group of skateboarders in Britain who have organized themselves to preserve their skateboard park. So called “Long Live Southbank,” the effort is focused on gaining recognition of an undercroft of the central London arts complex as village green, a community […]