The Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based group that has promoted moderate GOP lawmakers and policies, will remove the word “Republican” from its title and welcome center-right Democrats in 2013, Yahoo News has learned. The organization’s board of directors voted Tuesday morning to scrap party identification from its title and be known simply as “The […]

By Konstantinos Bouas and Petros Katsimardos Introduction Human Resource Management policy is probably the most important challenge for Greek public administration, given the severe on-going crisis and the need to sharply reduce public expenditure. The high remuneration cost of Greek public servants (13,6% of GDP in 2009, against only 11% of OECD member countries [1]), […]

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 […]

By Krysta Kalachani Who were the aganaktismenoi, the Greek indignados? They were mostly people who were not supporting strongly any ideology or party. They might have been coming from all parties and all ideologies, meaning that they could have voted for one party or another in the past, but the gatherings in Syntagma Square during the […]

Aristotle was, arguably, one of the fathers of the idea of public service. With this in mind Politis brings the following announcement to the attention of its gentle readers. “The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) on Feb. 13 will host an International Colloquium on Aristotle, featuring a series of lectures presented by researchers specialized in […]

“A growing body of experimental research is finding evidence suggesting that, to some degree, political inclinations and ideological leanings may be tied to innate factors like a person’s biology, physiology and genetics.” So reads the conclusion of a recent article in Politico. Politis has run stories like this for a couple months, now. It all […]

By Francis Fukuyama Over the past decade, Turkey and Brazil have been widely celebrated as star economic performers—emerging markets with increasing influence on the international stage. Yet, over the past three months, both countries have been paralyzed by massive demonstrations expressing deep discontent with their governments’ performance. What is going on here, and will more […]

Advance notice, for immediate release The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service is commemorating 15 years of public service initiatives this spring with a Festival of Civic and Urban Culture, consisting of a series of events conceived to celebrate different aspects of citizenship in the city of Thessaloniki. The next in […]

On the TV news a few days ago Greek journalist Pavlos Tsimas suggested that the Greek government and several other EU member states, especially Germany, were engaged in a war of words. The next day Bloomberg said what Tsimas could not, or would not, alluding to a “Greek alternative reality,” a “twilight zone.” No less […]

By Krysta Kalachani Have you seen this article on EnetEnglish? It circulated a lot on twitter the other day; you can find more info with the hashtag #skouries. The article is about Police files containing transcripts of interviews between Tolis Papageorgiou, the founder of Hellenic Mining Watch, and 11 newspapers, news agencies, and websites both […]

This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 4th April- Wear Vintage Bazaar- Spring time’s new vintage arrivals are available for purchase today. Hundreds of cool 70s, 80s and 90 pieces can be found. Abel Nagengast and Tako Reyenga will on the decks playing […]

By Jayde Ashante Hansen I’m not sure words can begin to explain how I feel, being an American citizen, and failing to register to vote.  All year I’ve been thinking about this opportunity, after all, it’s my very first opportunity to vote for the president of the United States. I won’t have this opportunity for […]

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 […]

  “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

  “If we cannot come up the €5.8bn in a few days then I think we will go to the Cyprus pound. That will be the end of Cyprus in the Eurozone.” — Marios Mavrides

By Livingston T. Merchant For one who loves Greece, at least the way it was five years, or even better, before it entered the candy shop of the Euro zone, there is nothing at all in the news to cause optimism about the future. The country is being systematically destroyed by very clever people who […]

Students and faculty from Anatolia and ACT, and the Dukakis Center took part in two clean up activities in Thessaloniki on the weekend of June 9-10, 2012. First, a group of volunteer citizens helped clean up the beach behind the Hondos Center in the Florida shopping center, part of a city-wide initiative led by Thessaloniki […]

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 […]

This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 23rd May- Ondatropica- Colombian musician:Mario Galeano, and an English producer: Quantic, have joined forces to create the Ondatropica project.  This project endeavors to explore and expand the tropical sound of Colombia in its rawest form and […]

“Would you vote for me? Exhibition of photographs State Museum of Contemporary Art — Warehouse B1, Port of Thessaloniki June 5-21 The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service was launched in 1999 to provide a forum for young people to explore the meaning and scope of public service in the contemporary […]