A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Unemployment: this is no joke
Posted April 2, 2013 by Politis
This is, unfortunately, not an April fools joke. “Greece’s record 27 unemployment rate – which some analysts said could soon hit 30 percent – could even undermine the government if social unrest increases because 60 percent of the jobless have been out of work for more than a year and have no benefits,” according to […]
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Saying of the day: 4/1/13
Posted April 1, 2013 by Politis
“So what does it mean when a company institutionalizes altruism? It means more students are mentored and tutored, more afterschool programs funded, more books read, better grades and test scores, and more poor families helped.” — Julia Wade (Domus Kids)
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Nextdoor: a Facebook for your neighborhood
Posted April 1, 2013 by Politis
Alexia Tsotsis has written an engaging review in TechCrunch of the neighborhood social media service Nextdoor. The platform is a de facto neighborhood support group among subscribers. Nextdoor now serves some 10,000 neighborhoods and roughly 1 million households, and has a very savvy matrix for developing a local network to its optimal level. Users explain […]
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Right to know
Posted March 31, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Several months ago one of my Greek undergraduate students wanted to do a bit of research on the incidence of ministerial amendments to Greek legislation. We asked a renowned specialist, who informed us that governmental personnel act anonymously and are not required to make such information public before a plenary vote, implying […]
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Saying of the day: 3/31/13
Posted March 31, 2013 by Politis
“Obama is very possibly a world-historical political figure, and until those who oppose him come to grips with this fact, they will get him wrong every time.” — John Podhoretz
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Greece: mostly not free
Posted March 30, 2013 by Politis
2012 World Map of the Index of Economic Freedom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2012_World_Map_of_the_Index_of_Economic_Freedom.PNG).
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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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Saying of the day: 3/30/13
Posted March 30, 2013 by Politis
“… we still have a system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.” — Bryan Stevenson
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Mirrors of democracy: “Black mirror,” S01E01
Posted March 30, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Maria Mavrommati The first episode of British Channel 4′s mini-series Black Mirror (2011) explores the nature of modern democracy in the most colorful ways. The dominance of image (with “image” meaning both a visual representation of something and a popular conception of someone), television language and conventional understanding of the essence of truth and […]
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Greek tech
Posted March 29, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexander Besant The office of Greek app-maker Taxibeat is located in a modern building, surrounded by shuttered shops and streets with cracked pavement, in the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood in Athens. The contrast between the office and its surroundings is more than aesthetic—it’s the difference between where Greece is, a low-tech economy based on tourism […]
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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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A poor excuse for a country?
Posted March 29, 2013 by Politis
From today’s Greek Reporter, a story on how Greece ranks next to its EU partners in terms of relative poverty. “Greece is one of the poorest countries in the EU according to a research published today by a German think-tank. The country is third only to Bulgaria and Romania which are poorer. Some 20 percent […]
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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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Saying of the day: 3/29/13
Posted March 29, 2013 by Politis
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” — John Kenneth Galbraith
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The long and the short of the Cyprus deal
Posted March 29, 2013 by Politis
The Economist has published this excellent assessment of the aftermath of the Cyprus deal last weekend. More might be said of the political fall out, which will surely be felt more intensely as the economic situation in Cyprus deteriorates. “The euro zone bail-out agreed for Cyprus means that the worst possible outcomes have been avoided: […]
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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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Saying of the day: 3/27/13
Posted March 27, 2013 by Politis
“Cyprus should leave the euro. Now.” — Paul Krugman
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Light on the Cypriot horizon
Posted March 27, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Javier Solana Once again, Europe has peered into the abyss. But the tentative agreement between Cyprus and the troika (the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank) probably means that the worst has been avoided. Big losses for large depositors in Cypriot banks will now be imposed, and the country’s […]