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 […]
A bit of finger pointing (and back-patting), if not distance-putting, today from Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras. Inaction by former PMs Kostas Karamanlis and George Papandreou exacerbated Greece’s sovereign debt crisis, claimed Sournaras in an interview in Sunday’s Kathimerini. As early as 2006 the Greek government could and should have taken corrective measures to lessen the […]
Recently I read that a group of Greek anti-austerity campaigners want to bring the government on trial for ‘crimes against humanity’ at the International Criminal Court. Understandably, there is considerable anti-government sentiment at the moment. However I’d like to offer another perspective on what is going on, one that might not be popular. The problem […]
A great story published in today’s Globe and Mail focuses on the driving forces behind Canada’s Idle No More movement. They call themselves an “indigenous rights revolution” aiming at honoring and fulfilling Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water. The movement is the brainchild of four women, which, as Friesen writes, is “one of […]
By Dimitrios Machairas [H]ow are we to interpret the insistence on the part of Greece to accept, at whatever cost for the last three years, almost all the measures that have been imposed by its international lenders and the EU to rescue the country from default and remain in the Eurozone? Is it an indication […]
By Krysta Kalachani I have been asked whether the Enri Canaj’s photographs of the darker sides of Athens are representative in any way of what is happening these days in Athens. I first saw them some time ago, in fact. I think I had posted a link on Facebook. I see that there is some debate […]
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 […]
This is, unfortunately, not an April fools joke. “Greece’s record 27 unemployment rate – which some analysts said could soon hit 30 percent – could even undermine the government if social unrest increases because 60 percent of the jobless have been out of work for more than a year and have no benefits,” according to […]
By Lauren Rothschild NB Lauren Rothschild is a Freshman at Northeastern University majoring in international relations and political science and studying abroad at ACT and interning at the Dukakis Center during the Fall 2016 semester. On Saturday October 22nd, the Olympion Theater in Thessaloniki hosted the 5th annual symposium on World Affairs, with this year’s […]
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 Simon Bensasson The following is a set of assumptions which provide, to my mind at least, the broader context in which the current Greek crisis is situated. (a) There is a global problem caused by an imbalance of consumption/production. Parts of the world consume more than they produce whilst others consume less. The issue […]
By David Wisner I faced a small crisis the other day when one of the students whom I advise failed a course in his last semester at college. I discussed the issue and solicited from colleagues ways to resolve the student’s predicament while remaining firmly within school rules and, above all, seeking to uphold a […]
From yesterday’s CNN, the following report that Senator Rand Paul will deliver the official Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address on February 12. “Tea party leaders are turning to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, to deliver their message following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, a speech that will […]
“Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise.” — Aeschylus
By Jayde Hansen Regardless of how we feel about the elections, there is absolutely nothing we can do about the selection of the president at this point. What we can do is be catalysts for change. Social media has gone absolutely crazy since the world found out that Donald Trump is now the president of […]
By Alexandros Petersen For many, the realities of life in pre-crisis Greece, now exposed to the world, conjure images of large-scale corruption and petty bribery more associated with the Middle East than Europe. In the Western and Northern European mind, not to mention many in North America, the question of whether Greece should have ever […]
By Krysta Kalachani I found this speech pretty optimistic as well as inspiring, and feel that it is worth reposting in Politis even if it has been available on YouTube since last December. It relates imagination (and fairy tales) with scientific progress, posits imagination as a way to get through all kinds of crises, and […]
The Editors of Politis asked members of the current blogging team to consider arguments in favor of not voting. We post the contributions of Northeastern University freshman Katharine Welch and Dukakis Center Director David Wisner below. This ends the current cycle of posts dedicated to the 2016 US general election. “Hearing the arguments,” by Katie […]