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, […]
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 […]
“J’ai mal à la Grèce.” Angélique Kourounis
2012 World Map of the Index of Economic Freedom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2012_World_Map_of_the_Index_of_Economic_Freedom.PNG).
“[T]ransparency, participation, and collaboration are best viewed as instrumental to the accomplishment of democracy in that they enable citizens to enact their various roles as citizens. That is, transparency is not an end citizens pursue for its own sake. Citizens may desire their government to be transparent, but that is largely because something else is […]
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. […]
Chris Hedges posted a desperate warning in his column in Truthdigs earlier this week: rise up or die. His focus is the conspiritorial, near-criminal triumph of corporatism in the US, but the symptoms and peril he decribes are global in scale. You cannot get more stark than this. Here is his conclusion to that post: […]
By Krysta I am commenting on a recent article on the site Ανιχνεύσεις (“Η Νεολαία του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ζητά να καταργηθεί η πρωινή προσευχή στα σχολεία“). I first asked myself, what is more interesting, the question of prayer in school or the activity of Syriza youth. Apart from the fact that the title is completely misleading […]
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 […]
By Nikos Konstandaras Our country bears many great wounds, which, over the years, brought us to the point of bankruptcy, ridicule and insecurity. But however great the problems which stem from the corruption and incompetence of our political elite and state machinery, from the chaos of the public sector, from the lack of national strategy, […]
A review by Krysta Kalachani of Alain Badiou, “Greek anti-fascism protests put the left’s impotence on display,” The Guardian, October 3, 2013. Here are my first thoughts but one has more to say. This is no ordinary article: one must read it carefully. There are some interesting views there, while one can find counter arguments […]
By David Wisner “The European Union is the new sick man of Europe. The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in disrepute across much of Europe.” So read the opening lines of a new report […]
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 […]
Excerpts from a post yesterday on the Human Rights Watch site. “Partly hidden within [the] turmoil [of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis] is another crisis threatening to spin out of control – xenophobic violence against migrants and asylum seekers in Athens and elsewhere. Violence against people from Afghanistan and North and sub-Saharan Africa is alarmingly commonplace, […]
“Unlike in Greece, corruption is not a way of life in Spain. Most Spaniards go about their daily business without ever paying a bribe. But experts say that the concentration of power in the hands of regional and municipal officials and their ties to the local savings banks created ideal conditions for corruption in […]
The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service and Ianos Bookstore Cordially invite you to a presentation of Greek Urban Warriors: resistance and terrorism 1967-2014 by John Brady Kiesling Athens: Lycabettus Press, 2014 Monday, March 2, 2015, 7 PM Ianos Bookstore, Aristotelous 7, Thessaloniki Moderator: David Wisner The event will take place […]
By Krysta Kalachani A quick search online relative to the elections that took place in Italy earlier this week will return to even the most inexperienced internet user hits that include words and phrases like “paralysis,” “European crawl,” “markets down,” “Moody’s on the crisis to come back,” etc., in other words a disaster coming up […]
From the AP in Davos. “Three women angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in a Swiss resort. Predictably, they failed. The ubiquitous and huge security force policing the World Economic Forum in Davos carried the […]