A new academic year is beginning at the American College of Thessaloniki and the Dukakis Center is planning another banner year of events and public service initiatives. Politis caught up with Dr. David Wisner, Executive Director of the Dukakis Center, to get the inside story on the many events he has organized at ACT over […]

Politis has invited Krysta Kalachani and guest contributor Sakis Ioannides, of Parallaxi, to comment on Παναγιώτης Μένεγος, “Δημοσιογράφος, ο μεγάλος χαμένος (και) της κρίσης,” popaganda.gr, January 28, 2014. SI Let me summarize “Journalist, the crisis’ big loser,” an article by Panagiotis Menegos, one of the staff writers at popaganda.gr (a multimedia electronic magazine). Menegos wrote […]

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 […]

On February 14th, the American College of Thessaloniki and the Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service will join the One Billion Rising in solidarity with and outrage at violence against women. This Thursday from 1-2pm in Effie Common, New Building, you are all being called to take “The Walk of Honor: put yourself in […]

  By Maria Patsarika This is not an easy piece to write. The tragic April 2014 ferry accident in South Korea, better deserves a an expression of humble, silent sympathy with the mourning families. Watching the story unravel on the news these days, however, one image kept coming back: inside the gymnasium, where the relatives […]

Politis posted excerpts earlier today from a Council of Europe report on domestic threats to democracy in Greece. Below a short article taken from Portside giving a left-of-center take on the same question. “There’s a new smog hanging over Greek cities this winter: an acrid cloud of wood smoke that burns the back of the […]

By David Wisner “No one,” writes David Hawkings in his blog in today’s Roll Call, “expected Obama would get to a second term and find his legislative agenda suddenly frozen in the face of a bipartisan wave of comparisons to Richard Nixon.” This is precisely what has happened right, left, and center after the revelations […]

    The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service     Cordially invites you to attend The first Dukakis Lecture of the Spring 2013 Semester Featuring Hon Spyros Kouvelis Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs “Development perspectives, reform, and outward opening of Greek entrepreneurship” Monday, February 18 5-6:30 PM ACT New […]

Is your vehicle currently insured? A penalty of 250 euros will apply for any uninsured vehicle the next few days, as soon as the cross check will be made by the Greek Ministry of Finance, since yesterday, was published the relevant law. If your vehicle is not then insured within two months, further penalties will […]

Ahead of the Thessaloniki European Youth Capital 2014 year, the British Embassy in Athens is organising a debate at Thessaloniki Municipal Council Hall on Wednesday, 13 November 2013 at 4.30, open to the public. Four young speakers from UK and Greece, Natalie Robinson – UK Young Ambassador, Sophie Rodgers – UK Young Ambassador, Ioannis Konstantinidis […]

By Laura Strieth “Iceland Mob Rule” is what the Guardian called it but to me it seems like an evolved form of democracy. A country with the oldest continuous parliament dating back to 930, had the 3rd largest financial meltdown in human history and as a response: rid themselves of their government, the central bank […]

By Maria Patsarika Did you know about Bitcoin, the virtual currency? I didn’t. I found out this weekend reading the FT magazine. Bitcoin is one of the many entrepreneurial initiatives that feature all too often in the media. It is a monetary storage and distribution digital system, which enables transactions through exchange of codes, rather […]

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 […]

What does one need to know to be eligible for citizenship in a country not of one’s origin? Take Greece, for instance. According to the site Living in Greece, “For foreigners of no Greek origin who have long-term residency in Greece… [m]arriage to a Greek citizen does not automatically grant citizenship or a Greek passport […]

A public service announcement from our friends at Greek Reporter. “Insured workers who have worked in Germany will be able to contact the Goethe-Institut of Thessaloniki from April 16 to 19 to find answers to questions concerning them about their pensions. The information will be be given by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, the German Pension Insurance […]

By Kostas A. Lavdas ‘Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand With a grip that kills it.’ Rabindranath Tagore Hardly a day goes by without an analysis appearing in the international media on the rise of the extreme right in Greece. And rightly so. At the same time however the Greek left’s contribution […]

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 […]

By Politis Are geeks the model citizens of the 21st century? Bill Moyers and Co. think so, with compelling evidence. “… we see hackers getting involved in so many different domains of politics… there are some bread and butter issues: free speech and privacy, civil liberties. This is something that a lot of hackers who […]

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 […]

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 […]