A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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What will it feel like to vote this time?
Posted May 5, 2012 by pdcadmin
In this post we publish the responses of a group of young Greek voters to the question, “How will you feel when you go to vote in Sunday’s elections?” It is perfectly certain for a responsible and thoughtful citizen that his right to participate in politics by voting is not so simple. In a democratic […]
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Greek Reporter exposes fake Greek products abroad
Posted January 27, 2013 by Politis
Saddening news from today’s Greek Reporter. “Shady businessmen and companies produce thousands of fake Greek products in China, the UK and the US causing tremendous financial losses to Greek exporters and domestic economy, reported the Panhellenic Exporters Association Jan. 24, adding that ‘disturbing phenomena of malicious trademark registration of well-known Greek companies have been recorded […]
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The same language
Posted November 27, 2015 by DW
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 […]
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Gov 2.0: the state of play
Posted March 30, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Logan Harper For many, Gov 2.0 is about putting government in the hands of citizens. Whether it’s a mobile app alerting residents to a local meeting or checking social media networks to see which roads are clear for the morning commute. The term should be defined primarily by its utility in helping citizens or […]
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A humanitarian crisis
Posted February 22, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alex Politaki European societies typically assume that humanitarian crises only take place in the aftermath of natural disasters, epidemics, wars or civil conflicts.That such a crisis could happen in a European country, especially one that is a member of the European Union, seems out of the question to many of us. And yet a […]
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The enemies of public broadcasting
Posted June 11, 2013 by DW
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 Greek public broadcasting service ERT. The one, a retired diplomat who hobnobs with foreign investors and rails day […]
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When push becomes shove: getting citizens to act in their own best interest
Posted August 1, 2013 by DW
It was originally called the “Behavioural Insights Team,” a team of British policy analysts who employed psychological research to persuade citizens in the most subtle of ways to pay their taxes on time, get off unemployment, or insulate their attic. Now Canada has created a “nudge unit,” whose mission is to “nudge citizens into acting […]
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Why serve?
Posted June 7, 2015 by DW
By David Wisner I confess. I am a Europeanist and a self-conscious product of what we call the Western tradition. I dreamed as a teenager of studying in Florence, the Florence of the Italian Renaissance. I later came of age intellectually during five fabulous years spent in Paris. I established a name for myself as […]
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One click off
Posted June 4, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas* Globalization has us readily accepting goods from other lands into our homes. But can countries absorb imported citizens just as easily? Whenever I join the crowd to criticize a line-jumper in a queue in Greece, someone inevitably tries to muzzle me with the classic insider-outsider putdown: “You’re not Greek.” Apparently, only locals […]
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Saying of the day: 8/1/13
Posted July 31, 2013 by Politis
“Greece – like Detroit but without hockey.” — Anonymous
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Looking at strangers in a globalized world
Posted November 29, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Franchesca Verendia Leaving for Greece from the US I was expecting plenty of things—good food, a nice view, rich history, and some beautiful weather. I was even expecting some initial culture shock. What I was not expecting were the long stares when I walked down the street, the second-guessing questions (“So where are from?” […]
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Athens, city of contrasts
Posted November 29, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani I have been asked whether the Enri Canaj’s photographs of the darker sides of Athens are representative in any way of what is happening these days in Athens. I first saw them some time ago, in fact. I think I had posted a link on Facebook. I see that there is some debate […]
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@#$% democracy
Posted September 23, 2015 by DW
I first saw this illustration on Facebook early this past Monday morning, after I had read initial accounts in the Greek press on voter turnout in the September 20 general election. My first reflex was maybe to share it with awi tty caption. To be truthful, I experienced an odd combination of emotions when I […]
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What are Greece good at?
Posted June 7, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner There is good news and bad news this week from the birthplace of democracy. On the one hand, according to findings from the European Values Study published by Tilburg University in Holland, more than 80% of those polled in Greece showed support for a democratic regime. This is clearly the highest average in the […]
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The perils of democracy
Posted February 1, 2013 by Politis
Politis posted excerpts earlier today from a Council of Europe report on domestic threats to democracy in Greece. Below a short article taken from Portside giving a left-of-center take on the same question. “There’s a new smog hanging over Greek cities this winter: an acrid cloud of wood smoke that burns the back of the […]
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Global occupy
Posted April 13, 2013 by Politis
By Politis David Graeber offers an insightful excerpt from his book The Democracy Project in today’s Salon on media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street. Why, he asks, did the US mainstream media “eventually began treating the occupation as a major news story.” His answer has both a peculiarly US and also a potentially profound […]
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More on the youth vote
Posted June 5, 2013 by DW
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 involved in producing the initial report. I wonder what the results would be if Greek youth expressed themselves systematically […]
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“Poor because of you” — Femen demonstrate in Davos
Posted January 26, 2013 by Politis
From the AP in Davos. “Three women angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in a Swiss resort. Predictably, they failed. The ubiquitous and huge security force policing the World Economic Forum in Davos carried the […]