A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Saying of the day: 2/3/13
Posted February 3, 2013 by Politis
“You should love responsibility. You should say, I and I alone am charged with saving the earth. If it is not saved, I am at fault.” — Nikos Kazantzakis
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Is this what your average Cypriot citizen wants?
Posted March 25, 2013 by Politis
According to the 7:26 PM GMT entry of the Guardian’s live blog on the situation in Cyprus, “The Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades announced plans by his government to appoint investigators ‘to find out where responsibility lies’ in relation to what has happened in the country over the past two weeks. In a television address in […]
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Business and Politics in Greece
Posted December 4, 2012 by Politis
The lines separating the worlds of business and politics in Greece have often been blurred. Businesses are not free from state intervention, on the one hand, but, on the other, business interests have often played a preponderant role in political decision making. Is it possible that these times of crisis are also an opportunity to […]
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How to design a new government
Posted September 27, 2013 by Politis
With all the talk of public sector reform in Greece these days, it would not be surprising if a casual reader might ask, what alternatives are there to the current state of affairs? Where might one start to look? Fear not, Google has an answer. It is called Constitute. It works, too, according to a recent […]
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Catalan Way Toward Independence
Posted September 5, 2013 by Politis
A recent press release on the Catalan New Agency describes an interesting form of citizen activism. “This coming 11th of September – which is Catalonia’s National Day – pro-independence supporters have organised the so-called ‘Catalan Way Towards Independence’ that calls for the independence from Spain. The gigantic human chain will cross Catalonia from North to […]
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Why are our legislatures unresponsive?
Posted May 29, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner We often have the sense that politics is not working, yet conceivably it is working all too well, if what we expect from politicians is that they will prioritize getting elected and then getting reelected. Robert Kaiser has a keen perspective on what has happened in the US federal government, and one […]
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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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One click off
Posted June 4, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas* Globalization has us readily accepting goods from other lands into our homes. But can countries absorb imported citizens just as easily? Whenever I join the crowd to criticize a line-jumper in a queue in Greece, someone inevitably tries to muzzle me with the classic insider-outsider putdown: “You’re not Greek.” Apparently, only locals […]
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The ancients were smarter…
Posted February 23, 2013 by Politis
According to sources cited today in Greek Reporter, the ancient Greeks were smarter on average than their counterparts today. Gerald Crabtree, Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is reported to have made this claim on the basis of research tending to show that humans become less intelligent with the […]
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Happy birthday, coalition
Posted June 18, 2013 by Politis
By Nick Malkoutzis It is one year to the day since Greece held its second general election in two months and third in three years. What better way to celebrate the occasion than trying to relive the uncertainty and tension we experienced during the summer of 2012? The leaders of Greece’s three coalition parties go […]
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Greek tech
Posted March 29, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexander Besant The office of Greek app-maker Taxibeat is located in a modern building, surrounded by shuttered shops and streets with cracked pavement, in the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood in Athens. The contrast between the office and its surroundings is more than aesthetic—it’s the difference between where Greece is, a low-tech economy based on tourism […]
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Protection rackets
Posted May 22, 2013 by Politis
Say you are an eager entrepreneur seeking to launch you own business. In the past, says Alexis Papahelas of Kathimerini, you might have faced “tailor-made amendments, biased legal and standards committees, and odd circulars were all mobilized in an effort to erect obstacles in the path of people outside the loop who wanted to enter […]
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Pictures at an exhibition
Posted June 9, 2014 by DW
“Would you vote for me? Exhibition of photographs State Museum of Contemporary Art — Warehouse B1, Port of Thessaloniki June 5-21 The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service was launched in 1999 to provide a forum for young people to explore the meaning and scope of public service in the contemporary […]
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Around the town: 5/24/13
Posted May 24, 2013 by laura
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 23rd May- Ondatropica- Colombian musician:Mario Galeano, and an English producer: Quantic, have joined forces to create the Ondatropica project. This project endeavors to explore and expand the tropical sound of Colombia in its rawest form and […]
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Extreme citizen action
Posted August 1, 2013 by Politis
Below the text of a petition to save the public toilets of the British city of Bath. One woman has pledged to occupy one of the toilets all day as a means of protest. Nearly 100 people have signed. …/… Dear Councillor Dixon, Please do not close our public toilets in Bath. Many people rely […]
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Saying of the day: 3/11/13
Posted March 11, 2013 by Politis
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.” — Marcus Aurelius
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Who owns Thessaloniki’s history?
Posted January 30, 2014 by iankehoe
By Ian Kehoe Back in 2008, while I was talking about the history of Thessaloniki to a group of university students I realised that many of them did not even know that there had been a major Jewish population in the city. I was surprised to say the least, given that Jewish people had been […]
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Feministiki protovoulia
Posted February 8, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Feministiki protovoulia. A number of women’s groups participate in this blog. They are serious and active in a number of worthy causes, with a focus on violence against women. The blog itself suffers from a lack of copy editing, however. In their most recent post they ask for a reply from Syriza […]
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“Do you mean what you say?” Mark Mazower on political extremism
Posted February 11, 2013 by Politis
Mark Mazower, the author of “Salonica, City of Ghosts,” was interviewed in Kathimerini this past weekend. Here is what he had to say about political extremism in Greece today: “The new and highly disturbing feature of the scene in Greece is obviously the rise of the far right. Its emergence forces us to confront the […]
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Una fatsa (una faccia)? Is Italy headed toward a “Greek-style” crisis?
Posted March 15, 2013 by KK
By Krista Kalachani I just found a small gap to write a couple of things about what is happening in Italy. If you checked the newspapers in Italy this week, apart from the Pope’s election which is probably the most important news story of the week, one of the things that has been circulating is […]