A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Dukakis Lecture 3/11/13
Posted March 7, 2013 by Politis
The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service Cordially invites you to attend a Dukakis Lecture Featuring Dimitris Katsoudas Former Secretary General for European Affairs, Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs PHOENIX OUT OF THE ASHES? HOW GREECE CAN RECOVER Monday, March 11, 5 PM, ACT New Building Conference Room The lecture will […]
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Look who’s running! (journalists and politics)
Posted April 23, 2014 by Politis
Politis asked Maria Patsarika, Krysta Kalachani, and David Wisner to comment on a recent article on tvxs.gr by journalist Stelios Koulouglou, a candidate for Syriza for the European Parliament. How compelling are Mr Koulouglou’s arguments likely to be among Greek voters? What does the inclusion of several journalists on the lists of the political parties […]
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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 solution for Greece’s debt and immigration problems
Posted May 29, 2013 by Politis
Is this a hoax? We don’t know, but the idea might just be sound. Invest in a country and earn a non-resident passport for your troubles. It’s the Dominica Economic Citizenship Program. For 100,000 USD you can get a passport for yourself; 200,000 USD will buy you passports for your whole family, valid for 10 […]
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Destination: bankruptcy (and not just moral)
Posted March 27, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Nikos Chrysoloras It is now official: Cyprus will pay a heavy toll for turning its economy into an offshore financial haven and allowing its banking sector to hyperinflate. But if the purpose of the dramatic eurozone all-nighters was not just to punish and make an example of the island, but to solve the issue, […]
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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 […]
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Is there an EU education gap?
Posted May 8, 2013 by Politis
Anders Aslund, the author of a report on the root causes of the eurozone crisis published on the website of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, argues that “[t]he most overlooked common problem of the four Southern European countries—Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece—is that they are all hampered by little education and the poor quality […]
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Civic Work, Civic Lessons
Posted October 25, 2013 by Politis
Civic Work, Civic Lessons explains how and why people of all ages, and particularly young people, should engage in public service as a vocation or avocation. Its authors are 57 years apart, but united in their passion for public service, which they term “civic work.” The book provides unique intergenerational perspectives. Thomas Ehrlich spent much […]
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A world that doesn’t shame your heart…
Posted February 12, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani “I hope for nothing, I fear nothing, I am free.” “And what is the highest command? Deny all consolations-gods homelands, ethical, truths – and be left to conjure, with only your power, a world that does not shame you heart … take upon any responsibility…” — Nikos Kazantzakis Sometimes I cannot seem […]
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I, Citizen
Posted February 14, 2014 by DW
By David Wisner I was invited not too long ago to discuss my views on citizenship on a local television program. What is different about citizens in Greece and in the US, was more or less the line of inquiry. I answered in somewhat broken Greek, and for fear that my thinking is not easily […]
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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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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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Art, Aesthetics, and Power
Posted May 18, 2013 by Politis
A very interesting yconference organized at the American College of Thessaloniki by Dr. Maria Kyriakidou. Wednesday, May 22, 11-6. The event is open to the general public. For further information contact Maria Kyriakidou at markyria@act.edu.
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Alex is back, lazier and more hard-working then ever
Posted May 8, 2013 by Politis
Alex is back, thanks to Damian Mac Con Uladh of EnetEnglish. “Alex, the popular animation character that seeks to demolish the negative, crisis-fuelled stereotypes about Greece in his own little way, has returned to YouTube, this time to challenge the “fact” that Greeks are lazy… Part two features Alex, a metaphor for the Greek people, […]
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Dukakis Center and Politis participate in cleanup weekend
Posted June 10, 2012 by ip-admin
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 […]
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Global occupy
Posted April 13, 2013 by Politis
By Politis David Graeber offers an insightful excerpt from his book The Democracy Project in today’s Salon on media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street. Why, he asks, did the US mainstream media “eventually began treating the occupation as a major news story.” His answer has both a peculiarly US and also a potentially profound […]
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Live coverage of the US General Election, November 6, 2012
Posted November 6, 2012 by DW
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Diaspora Perspectives
Posted June 28, 2013 by Politis
By Elizabeth B. Seliotes Bolling [Editor’s note: Politis welcomes Alaska-born Hellene Elizabeth B. Seliotes Bolling, who will contribute notes on the experience of a diaspora Greek during the crisis.] Being an American of Greek blood who grew up in Alaska but is living in Greece, I experience treatment from the older Greek generation that sometimes […]
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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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Ageing, but with grace?
Posted January 20, 2013 by DW
The editors of Kathimerini write in today’s online English edition that “The prime minister knows better than anyone else how difficult the job ahead is, and how many problems he has to deal with… he is making a gigantic effort to hold the country together even though he is dealing with a shattered public administration and […]