A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
0
comments
The new conventional wisdom on Cyprus?
Posted March 26, 2013 by Politis
The papers were full of analysis on the heels of the EU-Cyprus agreement Monday. Not surprisingly, after some of the hyperbole, there came reflection. The deal, it appears to some, was not as bad as it might have been, and not as bad as it has been made to appear. Hugo Dixon writes in Reuters, […]
comments
Women and politics: new rules
Posted January 23, 2013 by Politis
Joan Walsh, commenting in Salon on Hillary Clinton’s Senate hearing today notes that “Clinton stood up to the raging bulls with grace and fire of her own… After [which] she was lectured and hectored by guys who don’t quite measure up to her and never will.” Okay, so Salon is a liberal paper and one […]
comments
Indymedia: a different sort of public service
Posted January 25, 2013 by KK
Indymedia. The website is on the Politechnic’s server, or at least was in the past. From time to time the people that write there are accused of being anarchists. Whoever likes can write on the website. They started as independent media and often there have been efforts to shut them down… Sometimes they were actually […]
comments
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 […]
comments
Could this work in Greece?
Posted March 17, 2013 by Politis
The Project on Government Oversight seeks to “provoke accountability” in the workings of the US Federal Government. About POGO Founded in 1981, POGO originally worked to expose outrageously overpriced military spending on items such as a $7,600 coffee maker and a $436 hammer. In 1990, after many successes reforming military spending, including a Pentagon spending […]
comments
The virtuous cycle
Posted October 8, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Maria Tsiouri Why are the Swiss good at everything? ask the Huffington Post. People. “Countries that invest in human capital end up getting returns in terms of economic growth. And then countries that have that economic growth are able to reinvest further in human capital. So you have this virtuous cycle that’s established.”
comments
Open the doors/where are the people?
Posted April 3, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Growing up my friends and I used to play a small game with our hands. We would start with our hands clasped, thumbs aligned, index fingers erect. “Here is the church/here is the steeple/open the doors/where are the people?” We would then interlock our fingers and perform the same series of steps: […]
comments
Party time
Posted March 13, 2014 by DW
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. […]
comments
Surprise -This is a Great Time for Public Service!
Posted November 18, 2016 by Politis
By Michael S. Dukakis September 13, 1999 Editor’s note. We present here Michael Dukakis’ inaugural address at the Michael S. Dukakis Chair for Public Policy and Service to close out this phase in the life of Politis. We will be back soon with a new look, a new name, and new material, all in the […]
comments
The Human Library
Posted March 22, 2013 by Politis
The Human Library does not consist of actual books but of people who are willing to share their stories and experiences with others, in order to fight prejudice and promote diversity. Human Library Greece was initiated in October 2009 in Athens by a group of volunteers, in collaboration with the global network of Human Libraries […]
comments
The European family
Posted May 8, 2013 by Politis
This post comes courtesy of Politis reader Maria Tsouri. “Europeans have common ancestors, as shown in research on the DNA of Europeans from England to the Balkans published by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The investigation showed that the differences go back only tens of generations and genetic affinities are greater than scientists […]
comments
Who wants to …?
Posted January 25, 2015 by DW
Election day is nigh upon us. With this in mind, there are three dimensions to the question I have been thinking of asking: Who wants to run, who wants to vote, and who wants to govern. In May 2014 the Dukakis Center examined an apparent inflation in the number of candidates running for local and […]
comments
Saying of the day: 4/1/13
Posted April 1, 2013 by Politis
“So what does it mean when a company institutionalizes altruism? It means more students are mentored and tutored, more afterschool programs funded, more books read, better grades and test scores, and more poor families helped.” — Julia Wade (Domus Kids)
comments
New media and the future of journalism
Posted June 28, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Let me bring to your attention a very interesting discussion (in Greek) about the new media and new types of journalism in the context ERT, as ERT was / is supposed to be. Worth watching, it tackles specifically the situation in the Greek media.
comments
Shedia
Posted June 12, 2015 by KK
I have been going through Shedia’s website recently. Shedia is a street paper part of the International Network of Street Papers. It is a very well organized website now, compared to the last time I had checked it which I think it was almost a year ago (maybe even more). I have been buying this […]
comments
Would you vote for me?
Posted June 2, 2014 by Politis
Advance notice, for immediate release The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service is commemorating 15 years of public service initiatives this spring with a Festival of Civic and Urban Culture, consisting of a series of events conceived to celebrate different aspects of citizenship in the city of Thessaloniki. The next in […]
comments
Why has there been no revolution?
Posted November 14, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I have asked myself this question over and over. So have many of my acquaintances, from what I can gather. Indeed, I began this line of inquiry barely a year into Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. American that I am, I asked the question from the point of view of the tax payer […]
comments
Dualing rallies: whose democracy?
Posted June 19, 2015 by KK
By Krysta Editor’s note: Krysta Kalachani has been a regular contributor to Politis from Athens since 2010. She attended anti-memorandum rallies in downtown Athens throughout the summer of 2011 — despite managing two companies — and has a particular interest in the development in Greece of alternative media. Here Krysta reflects on some of the […]
comments
Wanted: deep thinkers
Posted February 7, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner The title of an article in the English version of Der Spiegel got me thinking about what appears to be a systemic problem throughout Europe and the eurozone. Spiegel claims that Europe needs new blood, not so much in terms of higher birthrates and immigration, but in terms of ideas and thinkers. […]
comments
Austerity cuts Greek household income 38%
Posted February 8, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Andy Dabilis “The severity of Greece’s crushing economic crisis and austerity measures demanded by international lenders has drastically cut the incomes of more than 90 percent of Greek households, with an average drop of 38 percent. The startling numbers that illustrated how bad the crisis is for most Greeks, apart from politicians, the rich […]