A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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The world is watching
Posted October 7, 2016 by Politis
By Lydia Richards I am a study abroad student and a Dukakis Center intern at the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) from the US, where I attend the University of Northern Iowa and major in flute performance. At ACT, I am taking several International Relations classes. As someone who has not spent a great deal […]
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Saying of the day: 4/17/13
Posted April 17, 2013 by Politis
“When the civilian bystanders to the attack ran toward the first blast to give aid to the victims, without a second thought for their own safety, the primary desire of the terrorists — to paralyze a populace with fear — was already thwarted. ” — Dennis Lehane
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Penalties for uninsured uninsured motor vehicles in Greece
Posted June 20, 2017 by Politis
Herewith a special warning for owners of motor vehicles with Greek license plates, especially those living abroad, about the penalty they may receive for uninsured vehicles, i.e., in storage during the winter months. The insurance cancellation date has recently changed, from one month after the most recent renewal, to noon on the actual renewal day. A […]
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Making sense of the suicides
Posted July 4, 2013 by Politis
By Alyssa Olivo As a New Yorker and visitor of Greece, my view on the crisis differs from natives. Our newspapers tell stories about riots in the streets and articles talk about austerity endlessly but the main question and concern is what’s going to happen to the euro. It’s rare I do not hear or […]
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The cruel fact
Posted February 16, 2013 by DW
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 […]
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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 […]
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Coming to grips with children trying to earn money on the streets
Posted July 11, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
Posted August 19, 2015 by DW
Last year I published a Kindle e-book on the Greek sovereign debt crisis. I wanted to understand, and explain to non-Greek readers, why Greeks behaved as they had during the crisis, and why they might have acted other than an American readership might have anticipated. I framed the story I told as a contemporary version […]
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Greek tech
Posted March 29, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexander Besant The office of Greek app-maker Taxibeat is located in a modern building, surrounded by shuttered shops and streets with cracked pavement, in the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood in Athens. The contrast between the office and its surroundings is more than aesthetic—it’s the difference between where Greece is, a low-tech economy based on tourism […]
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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)
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Waiting for a leader: a post-leftist appraisal
Posted October 7, 2013 by KK
A review by Krysta Kalachani of Alain Badiou, “Greek anti-fascism protests put the left’s impotence on display,” The Guardian, October 3, 2013. Here are my first thoughts but one has more to say. This is no ordinary article: one must read it carefully. There are some interesting views there, while one can find counter arguments […]
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NGOs and learning the ways of the world
Posted March 30, 2014 by KK
By Krysta This story is a little old already, but I am reading about the Greek ngos. I have two experiences of how ngos and think tanks work in Greece… dyed “blue” or “green” or whatever color pays… not the unbiased work I thought they would be doing, but I guess it was part of […]
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The enemies of public broadcasting
Posted June 11, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner As luck would have it, I happened to log on to Facebook today just around the time that two transplanted Athenian acquaintances commented on news reports announcing the imminent closure and restructuring of the Greek public broadcasting service ERT. The one, a retired diplomat who hobnobs with foreign investors and rails day […]
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Accounting for all of those voices
Posted October 11, 2016 by Politis
By Katharine Welch Note of the Editors. Katharine “Katie” Welch is a freshman at Northeastern University majoring in Political Science, studying abroad at ACT and interning at the Dukakis Center. She is from San Francisco, California. On Wednesday October 5, the Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service hosted a round table discussion on “Voting […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Stai’s the limit
Posted May 24, 2013 by MK
By Maria Kalogeroudi Elli Stai works for the public sector news channel which is essentially the voice of the leading political party. Apparently she would not dare to criticize Prime Messers Samaras and Papandreou. Blaming a party is unprofessional, no matter how right she is. However, criticizing and blaming are two different things. Golden Dawn […]
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News on the street
Posted November 8, 2013 by Politis
A picture says more than 1000 words, or so they say. And now, the news.
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How does it feel to be Ukrainian?
Posted March 10, 2014 by pdcadmin
By Iana Nazarenko In a democracy, realists claim that the government should represent the common will of citizens, or at least act in the interest of the state and its people. But what if it does not? Should then citizens take action and change the situation, even if at the cost of hundreds of lives? […]
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The US is not Greece; or, beware of economists bearing regressions
Posted March 10, 2013 by Politis
Matthew O’Brien says in this month’s Atlantic, “No, the United States will never, ever turn into Greece.” What he means is that, contrary to the view of certain economists, the US will never “spend itself into bankruptcy.” According to the popular wisdom O’Brien seeks to debunk, “too much public debt makes markets nervous. Nervous markets […]