By Maria Patsarika Last week I went to an interesting talk about the role of social sciences in these days of financial, political and social crisis and insecurity for Greece. Throughout the talk a critical question was lingering in the air, like the elephant in the room: “Why do most social scientists and intellectuals typically […]

By Fotinie Efstratiadou A law pertaining to uninsured vehicles has recently been passed in the Greek Parliament and will enter into force on April 15, 2013.  The law concerns owners of vehicles that will be found to be uninsured through database cross examinations conducted by the National Information Systems of the Greek Ministry of Economy, […]

By Claudia Chwalisz Editor’s note: Originally published on policy-network.net as “An Athenian solution to democratic discontent,” February 19, 2015. Reposted by permission of the author. New forms of contact democracy and innovative forums that allow political and economic institutions to deliberate with citizens are important steps in the long-term battle to renew representative democracy for the […]

  This is a question on the tip of many people’s tongues, in Europe and elsewhere. As the folks at Debating Europe phrase it: should Turkey join the European Union? Have events in Turkey the past few days changed opinions about the intentions and objectives of the current Turkish government?

By David Wisner Ask a young person today whether they like politics. More than half the time they will respond in the negative. Why do they dislike politics? Overwhelmingly, because politicians are corrupt and dishonest. (Now disliking the political for these reasons may merely be a symptom of a more systemic problem in our democratic […]

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 […]

By David Wisner In light of the 2013 edition of the Thessaloniki naked bike ride scheduled for this Saturday, the folks at the blog “Diary of a cyclist” have assembled a collection of photos of central points in the city from moments in the first half of the 20th century and then again more recently. […]

Politis likes this: a machine, “open and free to anyone,” which uncovers the most deviously hidden government secrets. More from Billy Gallagher at TechCrunch: “The Freedom of Information Act Machine, an open online platform that automates Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, launched on Kickstarter two days ago and has already surpassed its funding goal. At […]

By Alex Politaki European societies typically assume that humanitarian crises only take place in the aftermath of natural disasters, epidemics, wars or civil conflicts.That such a crisis could happen in a European country, especially one that is a member of the European Union, seems out of the question to many of us. And yet a […]

Politis have selected the following series of previously published articles, covering a variety of topics, for your summer reading. Compiled by Politis summer staff intern Miriam Kamil. 1. This cheat sheet is excellent to have on hand while reading other entries in Politis’ live blog coverage of parliamentary elections in Greece. 2. We love Politis […]

In response to recent media commentary that Greece has turned the corner in its economic woes, Bloomberg’s Megen Greece had this to say earlier in the week. “The nature of economic activity in Greece also suggests that the European Commission’s growth target is a pipe dream. Although hedge funds have been active in buying Greek […]

  “I learned… that writing is play. So is reading. They are things you do to enjoy yourself. I found out that I enjoyed writing, and I could do it for hours on end, for my own amusement, rather than for any assignment or to get a good grade.” — Elias Kulukundis

By Alyssa Olivo Even though I’m used to seeing homeless people begging on the streets of New York City, I’ve been surprised at the amount of children trying to earn money on the streets in Greece. I can count on both hands the amount of times I’ve had a child come up to me, play […]

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 […]

  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 […]

By Simona Ramos As times in Greece are getting worse and new taxes place an additional burden on the backs of millions of Greek citizens there are many things to be said and even more to be done. Ironically, but it seems that Greece have moved directly from its golden age to its age of doom. […]

By Krysta Kalachani I’ve read Kyriakos Pierrakakis’ recent interview in Ethnos. Any thoughts, you ask? A bunch of words describing what has to be done in order to find solutions in this country, seemingly through the left. But without any practical substance in it. I mean we all (almost all) know what has to be […]

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 Maria Patsarika “She faces the music” – I can’t think of a better way to express my own thoughts about Kiki Dimoula, a great (the greatest?) poet of our times, and the uproar that her apparently xenophobic public comments caused. My inital reaction was surprise and disappointment in her. Greek intellectuals appear perplexed, lacking […]

By Krysta Kalachani A quick search online relative to the elections that took place in Italy earlier this week will return to even the most inexperienced internet user hits that include  words and phrases like “paralysis,” “European crawl,” “markets down,” “Moody’s on the crisis to come back,” etc., in other words a disaster coming up […]