A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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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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Everything in order to not tell the truth
Posted January 22, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Pantelis Boukalas All those stereotypical expressions that recur in our speech probably once carried some actual meaning before losing it somewhere along the way. The value of these expressions was mostly undermined by overuse, which was in turn prompted by two apparently contradictory desires that in fact complement each other. On the one hand, […]
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Using your voice
Posted October 30, 2016 by Politis
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 […]
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How European is Greece?
Posted January 13, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexandros Petersen For many, the realities of life in pre-crisis Greece, now exposed to the world, conjure images of large-scale corruption and petty bribery more associated with the Middle East than Europe. In the Western and Northern European mind, not to mention many in North America, the question of whether Greece should have ever […]
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In praise of “person-centered” politics
Posted September 30, 2013 by Politis
Krysta Kalahani and Maria Patsarika, two of Politis’ regular contributors, enjoyed an exchange on Facebook this past weekend on the merits of “person-centered” municipal politics, inspired by a recent report, excerpted below, in the Thessaloniki daily Aggelioforos. We share an excerpt below. Krysta: I am coming to this article hot off a fcbk conversation with […]
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Political extremism and violence
Posted April 25, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Takis Michas has written about political extremism and violence in today’s Protagon. “Is there really a difference,” he asks, “between the violent tactics used or condoned by SYRIZA (riots, occupations of public buildings, harassment of university teachers, intimidation of political opponents, hate speech etc ) and those used or condoned by Golden […]
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Football activism
Posted June 23, 2013 by DW
A striking scene from the Copacabana.
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Digital Politics in 2012: coming to Europe soon?
Posted March 2, 2013 by Politis
Findings from a recently published report by the Pew Research Center on digital politics in the 2012 US general election. Should we look for signs that this is the future face of European electoral politics too? 1. Digital Politics:Pew Research findings on technology and campaign 2012 Aaron Smith Research Associate Pew Research Center @pewinternet, #SMWdigitalpolitics […]
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German ‘hypocrisy’ over Greek military spending has critics up in arms
Posted April 25, 2012 by PR
By Helena Smith, The Guardian, Athens A few months before submarines became the talk of Athens, Yiannis Panagopoulos, who heads the Greek trade union confederation (GSEE), found himself sitting opposite Angela Merkel at a private meeting the German chancellor had called of European trade unionists in Berlin. When it came to his turn to address […]
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Whither the bourgeoisie?
Posted January 2, 2013 by DW
I read a tongue-in-cheek article by the wags at Reform Watch Greece some weeks ago which got me thinking about one of my favorite Balzac stories, Cesar Birotteau. The middle class has been decimated, so the argument goes, the principal victim of the sovereign debt crisis. Depending on one’s reading, the Greek bourgeoisie has been […]
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A public service announcement for owners of uninsured vehicles
Posted April 6, 2013 by Politis
By Fotinie Efstratiadou A law pertaining to uninsured vehicles has recently been passed in the Greek Parliament and will enter into force on April 15, 2013. The law concerns owners of vehicles that will be found to be uninsured through database cross examinations conducted by the National Information Systems of the Greek Ministry of Economy, […]
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How Long Until Junta?
Posted January 30, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Bill Frezza. It is often said that to get a glimpse of our future we should study the lessons of the past. Or we can observe the fate of those marching a few steps ahead of us down a road we seem determined to travel. Take Greece. Long hailed as the birthplace of democracy, […]
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New meaning to the word demos
Posted February 24, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Laura Strieth “Iceland Mob Rule” is what the Guardian called it but to me it seems like an evolved form of democracy. A country with the oldest continuous parliament dating back to 930, had the 3rd largest financial meltdown in human history and as a response: rid themselves of their government, the central bank […]
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Wanted: the right kind of Greeks
Posted March 23, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner A contestant in a British reality show called “The Apprentice” has indicated in an interview that there are certain types of children she will not allow her own kids to play with. For one, they need to have the right sort of name. “At the risk of sounding snobbish, I also favour […]
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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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Why the media want you to blame Greece
Posted June 11, 2012 by iankehoe
By Ian Kehoe Looking through some of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers recently I found myself shocked and equally intrigued by the vilification of Greece, this corrupt little country that had brought down Europe and irritated those poor suffering markets so much… so much so that I was half expecting a headline saying ‘Greece causes man to […]
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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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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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Greek radicalism in context
Posted March 15, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Scott Stewart In last week’s Geopolitical Weekly, George Friedman discussed how the global financial crisis has caused a global unemployment crisis and how Europe has become the epicenter of that crisis. He also noted that rampant unemployment will give way to a political crisis as austerity measures galvanize radical political parties opposed to the […]