A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Saying of the day: 3/30/13
Posted March 30, 2013 by Politis
“… we still have a system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.” — Bryan Stevenson
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Let them eat cake
Posted June 7, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani I was surfing online today, looking to book tickets to see the opera on Tuesday, and I came across this story about unemployed citizens given the opportunity to attend the general rehearsal of Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman” for free yesterday at the Atticus Theater. Good news, right? “In this crisis, at the very least,” […]
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Nai se ola
Posted March 22, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Pitsirikos writes for Unfollow Magazine, a pretty decent magazine, although if it was not so leftist sometimes it might be better… Pitsirikos is a blogger known for his sharp way of writing. I am not sure what more there would be to say about the subject of one of his most recent […]
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Paraphrase of the day: 6/6/13
Posted June 5, 2013 by Politis
If you are reading these lines, you are very weird. You’re spending spare time considering arguments about politics, which most people don’t bother to do. — Ezra Klein
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Illiberal and un-European
Posted October 26, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner A few months ago I filed my Greek tax return, as I have every year since 1995; just recently I payed the first installment of my remaining income tax obligation for 2012. This year, like last, I had to submit all the receipts I had amassed over the course of the calendar […]
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Erroneous Press Reports on U.S. Consulate General, Thessaloniki
Posted April 9, 2013 by Politis
Athens (April 8, 2013) — Erroneous press reports have appeared overnight suggesting that the U.S. Consulate General in Thessaloniki is closing. As the Consulate announced on February 15, certain U.S. citizen consular services and notarial services will be provided only on a periodic basis in Thessaloniki from the end of May onwards. Those services will […]
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With partners like these…
Posted June 10, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I read in Simon Johnson’s column in Bloomberg last week (later picked up by Kathimerini English edition) an interesting critique of the performance of the EU in the unfolding of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. One of Johnson’s main points is as follows. “Greece came to the IMF in 2010 later than it […]
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To serve our country’s democracy
Posted November 9, 2016 by Politis
By Michael Ertel NB Michael Ertel is Supervisor of Elections in Seminole County, Florida, where he has served since 2005. He spoke at two Dukakis Center events during the 2016 election period. Politis reproduces these remarks with permission of the author. When I tearfully hugged our staff as they left the building last night, my […]
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Public service is a calling — even when the government is shut down
Posted October 13, 2013 by Politis
Excerpts from an opinion piece in this past Saturday’s Washington Post by Ann Marie Oliva, director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs. “The past two weeks have made me ask myself two fundamental questions: What does public service really mean, and what is my responsibility when I […]
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Depositor’s rage
Posted March 21, 2013 by Politis
Helena Smith of the Guardian reports this from Nicosia on the evening of March 21: “At branches in Nicosia, the divided capital, Cypriots queued for hours in the hope of withdrawing cash with lines frequently moving at a snail’s pace because of the inability of cash machines to dispense more than €40 euro at a […]
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We don’t get to choose these things
Posted January 10, 2015 by DW
By David Wisner Armchair expert on the Greek sovereign debt crisis that I have portrayed myself to be, you can imagine my relative despondency having read Pavlos Eleftheriadis’ article on Greece’s oligarchs in a recent issue of Foreign Affairs. Reading Eleftheriadis’ account of recent Greek history, it appears that one should have given up the […]
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Stitching up the laws
Posted April 10, 2014 by KK
By Krysta So a boy of African descent living in Greece has sought and been granted asylum in Belgium. I don’t think that there is anything new in this article that we have not yet discussed a million times regarding Greece’s very frustrating and problematic status on questions of human rights, discrimination, and as part […]
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How Long Until Junta?
Posted January 30, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Bill Frezza. It is often said that to get a glimpse of our future we should study the lessons of the past. Or we can observe the fate of those marching a few steps ahead of us down a road we seem determined to travel. Take Greece. Long hailed as the birthplace of democracy, […]
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The mandate, and other democratic myths
Posted February 17, 2015 by DW
This past weekend the digital site of the French newspaper Le Monde ran an interesting story entitled, in translation, “The Greece that did not vote for Syriza.” I cannot say the piece was faultless, but Eliza Perrigueur, the author, did good research and presented an interesting view of the Greek elections for a francophone audience. […]
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Vote for Angie!
Posted September 9, 2013 by Politis
Fears in Germany that conservative voters may abstain from voting in the coming German national election. Their response: erotic dancers. Would the picture of this semi-nude performer inspire you to vote?
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Greece 2012 International Religious Freedom Report
Posted May 21, 2013 by Politis
Excerpts from the annual international religious freedom report that was published on Monday by the US State Department. Executive Summary The constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom with some restrictions. In practice the government generally respected religious freedom, although it imposed restrictions affecting members of non-Greek Orthodox religious groups. The government granted privileges […]
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This is not Sparta
Posted December 23, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Nikos Konstandaras Groups of left-wing protesters have been fighting to obstruct university reforms which, among other things, will put an end to their lengthy dominance. At the same time, groups of far-right thugs have stepped out of the shadows and can now be heard bragging that the time of their own dominion is coming. […]
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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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Citizen election monitoring in Kenya
Posted March 2, 2013 by Politis
Politis is interested in citizen activism round the world, not only in Greece. We report here about an interesting article in Deutsche Welle on a grass roots initiative aiming to monitor the upcoming election in Kenya, using a platform developed by a company called Ushahidi. Ushahidi calls itself a “non-profit tech company that changes the […]