A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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The importance of being earnest
Posted June 11, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani “But two stories this week reminded me that media freedom is not just an issue beyond our borders, but also something we must defend here in the EU.” A small but interesting text from Vice President of the EU Commision Neelie Kroes, writing about Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis, who was tried once […]
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Coffee or tea with your news?
Posted June 11, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Kostas Kallergis The Greek government spokesman announced some minutes ago, all of a sudden, that the Greek Radio & Television will stop broadcasting as of tonight, midnight. In a pretentiously sturdy press conference he explained the reasons why the government came to this crazy decision. Simos Kedikoglou gave the public a long list of […]
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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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In praise of subjecthood (of the right sort)
Posted June 10, 2013 by Politis
Living in Europe today is akin to being a subject in some latter day Holy Roman Empire, that “political commonwealth under which the Germans lived for many hundreds of years.” So says Brendan Simms of Cambridge University in today’s New York Times. While the Empire lasted nearly a thousand years, however, the comparison is not […]
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With partners like these…
Posted June 10, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I read in Simon Johnson’s column in Bloomberg last week (later picked up by Kathimerini English edition) an interesting critique of the performance of the EU in the unfolding of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. One of Johnson’s main points is as follows. “Greece came to the IMF in 2010 later than it […]
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More on those pesky 16 year-old Scottish voters
Posted June 9, 2013 by DW
The British think tank Demos has put this short video out arguing the merits of allowing 16 and 17 year-old citizens the right to vote in Scotland.
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Saying of the day: 6/9/13
Posted June 9, 2013 by Politis
“When police attack peaceful protesters, when protesters attack property, everyone loses.” — Livy Merchant
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Whither liberalism
Posted June 7, 2013 by Politis
Political and economic liberalism have come under heavy and sustained attack as many countries struggle to find responses to the prevailing economic malaise. But for the staleness of much left-of-center political thinking, liberalism might be long dead and buried. Some in the UK think otherwise, however. Today’s Guardian has a nice clip with bits and […]
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Let them eat cake
Posted June 7, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani I was surfing online today, looking to book tickets to see the opera on Tuesday, and I came across this story about unemployed citizens given the opportunity to attend the general rehearsal of Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman” for free yesterday at the Atticus Theater. Good news, right? “In this crisis, at the very least,” […]
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Saying of the day: 6/7/13
Posted June 7, 2013 by Politis
“Like the Spartans, Thebans, and Thespians at the Pass of Thermopylae, the Greeks were sacrificed to buy time for the alliance.” — Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph
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Where in Athens not to go out alone at night
Posted June 7, 2013 by Politis
Crisis maps: an innovative way to measure the very real threat to civil society posed by violent attacks on migrants in Athens. Users are invited to submit reports here.
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Thessaloniki then and now
Posted June 7, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner In light of the 2013 edition of the Thessaloniki naked bike ride scheduled for this Saturday, the folks at the blog “Diary of a cyclist” have assembled a collection of photos of central points in the city from moments in the first half of the 20th century and then again more recently. […]
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What’s that? New York is not Greek?
Posted June 6, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Here is a lovely little article full of irony and mockery. Just the way to start my day. The staff at To Kolouri dare to mock members of Golden Dawn in New York City, pointing out that they have committed suicide after they realized that New York is not Greek and that […]
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Paraphrase of the day: 6/6/13
Posted June 5, 2013 by Politis
If you are reading these lines, you are very weird. You’re spending spare time considering arguments about politics, which most people don’t bother to do. — Ezra Klein
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More on the youth vote
Posted June 5, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Excerpts below from a post by Andrew Rosenthal in yesterday’s New York Times about the youth vote in the 2012 US Presidential election. The interesting thing is that Republican youth groups were heavily involved in producing the initial report. I wonder what the results would be if Greek youth expressed themselves systematically […]
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Inaugural European Citizen’s Summit
Posted June 4, 2013 by Politis
The eight networks member of the Civil Society Contact Group, a cross-sectoral coalition of NGO actors, are organizing the first Citizen’s Summit taking place in Brussels from 24 June 13.00 to 25 June 14.00 2013. The event will bring together for the first time professionals, practitioners and activists from across the different sectors of culture, development, […]
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Saying of the day: 6/4/13
Posted June 4, 2013 by Politis
“Wherever you go, there you are.” — Ben Bernanke
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Democracy in Europe
Posted June 4, 2013 by pdcadmin
By John Lloyd The rich are always with us, and we’ll have more of them soon. A report last week from Boston Consulting Group shows that the global millionaire population is some 13.8 million. That is twice the size of Switzerland, which is, incidentally, where many of them have parked much of their wealth. More […]
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The joys of austerity
Posted June 4, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Graham Hill I live in a 420-square-foot studio. I sleep in a bed that folds down from the wall. I have six dress shirts. I have 10 shallow bowls that I use for salads and main dishes. When people come over for dinner, I pull out my extendable dining room table. I don’t have […]
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“Public administration is almost a bad word…”
Posted June 3, 2013 by Politis
The Volcker Alliance was launched in 2013 to address the challenge of effective execution of public policies and to rebuild public trust in government. As a nonpartisan organization based in New York City, the Volcker Alliance aims to catalyze new thinking and action with respect to federal, state, and local government in the U.S. and […]