A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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So many candidates
Posted June 15, 2012 by DW
By Dimitris Diamantis and David Wisner “So many candidates, so little time to choose,” reported one interlocutor to us in early May. How can one decide about new parties and about personalities that had until recently resided more or less in the margins of national politics? We have been asked several times how we would […]
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Tax cheat sheet
Posted March 13, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Andy Dabilis After hostile reaction, the Greek government said it would not go ahead with plans to give tax cheats an 80 percent discount on fines they would have to pay for breaking the law, including some 2,062 people with $1.95 billion in secret Swiss bank accounts, the so-called Lagarde List, that has created […]
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On the “social” economy
Posted January 30, 2014 by DW
Politis recently published a post on efforts in Northern Greece to encourage active citizens to involve themselves in matters of “social economy.” Below we share excerpts on the subject from an article by Andrew Higgins in the New York Times. “In their search for solutions, Greeks are tinkering with a new kind of economy with […]
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New Media emerging
Posted April 22, 2012 by KK
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 […]
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How to raise your child’s IQ
Posted May 8, 2012 by laura
“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 […]
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Party time
Posted March 13, 2014 by DW
By Damian Mac Con Uladh Exports, imports and retail prices might all be in decline. And unemployment hovering over 27% for nine months straight. But six years into a recession that has ravaged the gross national product, there is one Greek industry showing impressive growth rates: the production of new political parties, movements and coalitions. […]
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Coming to grips with children trying to earn money on the streets
Posted July 11, 2013 by Politis
By Alyssa Olivo Even though I’m used to seeing homeless people begging on the streets of New York City, I’ve been surprised at the amount of children trying to earn money on the streets in Greece. I can count on both hands the amount of times I’ve had a child come up to me, play […]
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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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Disrupt and occupy
Posted December 20, 2014 by DW
Start-ups are all the rage. Even the prestigious international politics journal Foreign Affairs agrees. Correspondingly, a debate has emerged on the precise value to the global economy of such business activity. Whither Greece and Europe? Since before the onset of the sovereign debt crisis in Greece entrepreneurship and start-up activity has been on the rise […]
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Dumb ways to die
Posted June 23, 2013 by DW
An award-winning public service message from Metro Trains, Melbourne, Australia.
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Politics at the bistrot — liveblog and livestream
Posted May 17, 2016 by DW
Live streaming video by Ustream
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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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Giving up the ghost
Posted July 26, 2015 by DW
It was a metaphor that was not uncommon in earlier moments of the crisis, that of Greece as a patient on life support. The notion of a sick man of Europe has a long pedigree after all. It has come back with a vengeance now, most recently in the form of a commentary by Maria […]
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Available since this morning! Monopoly money for Europe!
Posted May 14, 2013 by MK
By Maria Kalogeroudi This is the new 5 euro bill. The old one is still acceptable and can be used for trade. We still do not know when it will be considered invalid, but announcements will be made. Includes new and more amplified evidence of authenticity. The watermark and hologram present the portrait of Europe, […]
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A culinary public service
Posted April 3, 2013 by M P
We all know that Ilias Mamalakis cooks delightfully… Imagine doing this in a prison and publishing a book about it. Cooking as public service.
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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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…making more of a difference than anybody in government could possibly make
Posted October 9, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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The crisis hits the media
Posted February 20, 2013 by Politis
From today’s NPR. “Three years of spiraling economic crisis in Greece have devastated every sector of the economy. The Greek media are among the hardest hit. Many newspapers and TV outlets have closed or are on the verge, and some 4,000 journalists have lost their jobs. Many people believe the country’s news media have failed […]
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Open data: what it is, what it is not
Posted July 29, 2013 by Politis
This clip, courtesy of The Guardian, provides a nice overview of the state of thinking about open data, which advocates argue will revolutionize political practice in positive fashion in the months and years to come. See for yourself whether you agree.
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Women in public life — today!
Posted February 24, 2013 by Politis
Three stories in today’s Guardian show all the contradictions in looking at the roles women play in contemporary public life around the world. First, Yvonne Roberts laments the small number of women in public life in the UK. According to a report entitled Sex and Power, to be published Monday, “women make up only 22.5% […]