A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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What makes a [good] citizen?
Posted March 17, 2013 by MK
By Maria Patsarika What makes a citizen? I wonder, reading Matthew Engel’s article“UK citizenship tests: why we need them.” Does a certificate personify all attributes of citizenship in all its complexity? During the seven years that I spent in the UK the prospect of coming back home (to Greece) kept at bay the anxiety of […]
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Civil servants’ woes — UK
Posted January 28, 2013 by Politis
The Guardian has an article today on the plight of a large number of disgruntled British civil servants. “Two-thirds of Britain’s most senior civil servants are so demoralised that they are considering leaving their jobs, according to the first survey of mandarins to be conducted since the coalition’s reform plans were published,” they write. The […]
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None of the above
Posted September 27, 2013 by Politis
Voters in democracies often express their dissatisfaction for the candidates, the parties, and, indeed, the political system itself by abstaining from voting on election day. (American voters may also vote for so-called “write-in” candidates whose name does not appear on the ballot.) In India, voters will henceforth have yet another alternative through which to express […]
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Why is the Greek crisis over?
Posted April 10, 2014 by DW
By David Wisner The international news is awash with stories of Greece’s return to the bond market. It is fashionable again for Greece to be in the headlines. The “success story” line is ubiquitous. As Hugo Dixon writes in Reuters, the Greek rebound is “astonishing.” Why? First, it is important to acknowledge that the discerning […]
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Politics at the bistrot: how democratic are the Democratic primaries?
Posted May 17, 2016 by Politis
What: Debate on US Democratic primaries, premiere of get-out-the-vote campaigns, selection of the best «Vote here» signs, mock exit poll, masterclass in social media, and more When: Monday, May 23, 7-9 pm Where: La Place mignonne, Ethnikis Aminis 4 click here for the map Who: Alec Mally (former US Consul General of Thessaloniki, Democrats Abroad Greece) […]
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A Greek winner!
Posted March 22, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Christina Flora A Greek team of student-entrepreneurs won first place at the Pan-European trade fair, organized by the international organization Junior Achievement Europe (JA-YE), in Riga, Latvia, with 450 pupils from secondary schools and high schools from 30 countries of Europe and Africa participating. Business ideas were presented in the exhibition and combined technology […]
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Center right, center right
Posted March 19, 2013 by Politis
We all know the two rules of business, according to which 1) the boss is always right, and 2) if the boss is wrong, see rule number one. In American politics it would appear that the Republican Party has replaced the boss. Bloomberg has been investigating the phenomenon in US electoral politics according to which […]
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The Citizenship we need now is about transforming institutions
Posted March 27, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Ian Kehoe In these unprecedented times in Greece, it is more important than ever to question the purposes and outcomes of social projects and institutions in order to make sure we are really tackling the underlying causes and behaviours that led us to this crisis. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in alternative […]
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Hands on the roof of the car
Posted October 24, 2013 by Politis
What say we reverse roles. A regular reader of Politis sent this arresting image our way this morning, with the following caption by Banksy. “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.” […]
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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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Greeks seek austerity trial at The Hague
Posted April 25, 2012 by PR
By Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens It is rare for citizens to try to take their government to court, and even more so for a Western European government to be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. But that is what one group based near the Greek capital is now attempting. And […]
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Four things we learned on May 6
Posted May 9, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner The crisis in Greece is political. Very few of the reforms the governments of George Papandreou and Lucas Papademos pledged to undertake in exchange for loans from the Troika have materialized. The evaluation of public sector employees to have begun this week has been put off indefinitely. Very little has been done […]
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Join in to unf_ck the world
Posted May 31, 2013 by Politis
June 8 is “Unfuck the World Day.” Seriously. According to the team at UFTW, “Unfuck The World Day is dedicated to all the people who are awakening, who get up, go out and make this world a better place, every day.” You can organize your own party to mark the date. Here is how. “On […]
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Dukakis Lecture 3/20/13
Posted March 19, 2013 by Politis
The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service Cordially invites you to attend A Dukakis Lecture Featuring Stan Draenos, sometime resident historian, Andreas G. Papandreou Foundation “Andreas Papandreou’s New Nationalism and Kennedy’s New Frontier: Greece in the Tangles of the Cold War” Wednesday, March 20, 5 PM ACT New Building Conference Room […]
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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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The spirit of public service
Posted April 16, 2015 by DW
By David Wisner For EF For the better part of the past decade and a half I have been searching for ways to translate the concept and practice of public service, so commonplace throughout the United States, into the contemporary Greek reality. I learned early on that there is not a direct or literal translation […]
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Why the future of Greece lies in the rise of a new civil society and education
Posted January 15, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Yannis Theocharis A light breeze of transformation stems to have started blowing silently in Greece. The younger generation has inspired a wave of voluntary initiatives and actions targeted at resolving collective problems in the last couple of years. The recent manifestations are numerous and exciting: voluntary-based events that encourage structured debate and spreading new […]
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Afghanistan on the Aegean?
Posted June 25, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexis Papahelas It won’t be long before the relationship between Greece and the troika starts resembling that of the United States with Afghanistan. The efficient Americans entered that historical and complex country and tried to set up a modern state, an open economy etc. Not long after they started to realize that they were […]
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The same language
Posted November 27, 2015 by DW
By Alexia Apostolina A cloudy morning in November we woke up, dressed as warm as we could with a smile on our faces, bags with pullovers, raincoats and everything else we wanted to give to those people. Heroes. In the bus everyone seemed unsure, wondering about what we would come across in Eidomeni. Many feelings, many […]