A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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2014: Voting as European citizens
Posted September 3, 2013 by Politis
Excerpts below from an article in yesterday’s New York Times by Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Felix Marquardt, founders of Europeans Now. “The time is ripe for a transnational, transgenerational, transpartisan, grass-roots and crowd-funded movement to take European integration to the next level. And before forming a party, we should look to Europe’s success stories to determine what […]
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Crisis plays leading role in Greek films
Posted February 15, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Kirsten Allen From the outside, the Greek financial crisis is easily reduced to an exhausting series of bailouts, austerity deadlines and protests. But to the people who live with the fallout each day, it’s an existential threat, and one that raises fundamental questions about their identity as Greeks. These questions and the crisis itself […]
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Lazy Greeks? Civil society making its mark
Posted May 28, 2013 by Politis
Who’s doing what and where to get Greece out of this mess, courtesy of the Omikron Project.
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Illiberal and un-European
Posted October 26, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner A few months ago I filed my Greek tax return, as I have every year since 1995; just recently I payed the first installment of my remaining income tax obligation for 2012. This year, like last, I had to submit all the receipts I had amassed over the course of the calendar […]
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In search of a Greek social contract
Posted February 24, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner I’ve been thinking a lot about the American Declaration of Independence. Let me explain by way of an anecdote. Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long-time business associate, is blind in one eye, owing to complications in a cataract operation. As Alice Schroeder tells the story, Munger never blamed the doctor, instead accepting responsibility […]
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Wanted: deep thinkers
Posted February 7, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner The title of an article in the English version of Der Spiegel got me thinking about what appears to be a systemic problem throughout Europe and the eurozone. Spiegel claims that Europe needs new blood, not so much in terms of higher birthrates and immigration, but in terms of ideas and thinkers. […]
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Can Facebook remake government?
Posted September 5, 2013 by Politis
Excerpts below from an article in TechCrunch last about about the prospect of Facebook and other social media to remake government around the world. Is there hope? Mark Zuckerberg has a grand vision that Facebook will help citizens in developing countries decide their own governments. It’s a lofty and partially attainable goal. While Egypt probably […]
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Saying of the day: 6/12/13
Posted June 12, 2013 by Politis
“Culture is like marmalade. The closer you get to the bottom of the jar the more you try to spread what’s left.” — Anonymous (Paris, 1968)
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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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Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0
Posted January 8, 2014 by Politis
The MPA program at the University of North Carolina has a really useful “Citizen’s Guide to Open Government, E-Government, and Government 2.0.” They conclude that Open Government is here for the long haul. “Engaged citizens want clear, credible information from the government about how it’s carrying on its business. They don’t want to thumb through […]
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Civic education in Greece*
Posted February 24, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner Last November the Dukakis Center hosted an international symposium on political reform in Greece. We brought in a wide variety of distinguished practitioners, scholars, and journalists to engage in a frank public conversation about how the Greece of tomorrow might appear. We gave equal time to students and young professionals, however, and […]
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Greek image, also in crisis
Posted December 4, 2012 by alice
By Maria Alafouzos There is a cafe off Syntagma Square and it’s filled with people drinking coffee and speaking to each other in indoor tones. The smokers sit outside under outdoor heaters. Daylight is beginning to fade. That same day, in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, the CEO of Express Service was arrested […]
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Circle dancing with the Greeks
Posted April 19, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner I first drafted this note over a year ago. If anything, the tendency I described, and its implications for the future of Greece and the EU, are all the greater. A worldly Greek acquaintance likes to tell the following anecdote. Foreign investors of a bygone era come to Greece, only to lose […]
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Skateboard civil society
Posted May 11, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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Paid for services rendered
Posted November 4, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Fotinie Efstratiadou Here is a story about a public servant — an employee at the public ambulance service in Northern Greece — who missed work for five years from 2006 to 2011 and yet was payed throughout without his superior having been notified. One is almost left speechless. What can one think of these […]
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What do these young people really want?
Posted December 17, 2015 by KK
By Krysta I am commenting on a recent article on the site Ανιχνεύσεις (“Η Νεολαία του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ζητά να καταργηθεί η πρωινή προσευχή στα σχολεία“). I first asked myself, what is more interesting, the question of prayer in school or the activity of Syriza youth. Apart from the fact that the title is completely misleading […]
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Around the town: 4/25/13
Posted April 25, 2013 by laura
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 25th April– PillBOX open market ‘Spring Bouquet’- The PillBOX market features the latest trends in handicrafts, accessories, clothes, ornaments, cosmetics, collectable vinyl and many more cool items at low prices. This bazaar-market will take place in […]
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She faces the music
Posted May 12, 2013 by M P
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 xenophobic public comments caused. My inital reaction was surprise and disappointment in her. Greek intellectuals appear perplexed, lacking […]
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Around the town: 28/2/13
Posted February 28, 2013 by laura
NOW till Monday 1st Apr – The Greek Monsters – The Beetroot Design Group and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art present a three-dimensional sculptures exhibition featuring the Minotaur, the Cyclops, the Stymphalian birds and the rest of the bizarre creatures that haunted heroes’ deeds in ancient Greek mythology. The exhibition consists of installations, sculptures, […]
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The new global populism
Posted April 5, 2013 by pdcadmin
By John Judis ‘Something is happening and you don’t know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?’ Bob Dylan sang. Mr. Jones was the typical suburban ‘square,’ and the ‘something’ that was happening was the sudden explosion of the new left and the counter-culture during the Sixties. Something extraordinary is happening now in European and […]