By David Wisner I first drafted this note over a year ago. If anything, the tendency I described, and its implications for the future of Greece and the EU, are all the greater. A worldly Greek acquaintance likes to tell the following anecdote. Foreign investors of a bygone era come to Greece, only to lose […]

            The Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service at the American College of Thessaloniki in collaboration with Navarino Network and the Kalliopi Koufa Foundation Cordially invite you to attend a Dukakis Lecture by Kostas Ifantis Panteion and Kadir Has Universities Greece and Turkey: Neighbours in a […]

Freelance journalist and blogger Kostas Kallergis recently visited the Dukakis Center where he spoke about fighting corruption in politics. In his prepared remarks he underlined that there are two main methods of fighting corruption: 1) the Judicial system, as it has laws as weapons; and 2) the media, which inflicts punishment through publication. Kallergis also […]

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 Kostas Kallergis The Greek government spokesman announced some minutes ago, all of a sudden, that the Greek Radio & Television will stop broadcasting as of tonight, midnight. In a pretentiously sturdy press conference he explained the reasons why the government came to this crazy decision. Simos Kedikoglou gave the public a long list of […]

By Maria Patsarika Browsing a Sunday paper and a series of depressing articles on politics, one article made me think of the word “crisis” on a broader eco-systemic level, and also ponder the distressing consequences of our collective ignorance. Permissions for gold mining in Chalkidiki and protesters’ prosecutions are scandalous according to George Triantafyllidis, lecturer […]

I recently found myself obliged to spend some time in a public hospital. Aside from the obvious benefits to my health, it was a most revealing experience. Ihave no complaints about my treatment. The rather negative opinion I had formed previously about this particular hospital, based largely on the impression of utter chaos and lack […]

This one’s rich. According to todays Chicagoland blog in the Chicago Tribune, “Republican voters are suggesting the 2nd Congressional District replace one felon with another after picking ex-convict Paul McKinley as the candidate to run for the seat recently ceded by former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.” Jackson pleaded guilty last week to misusing campaign […]

Photographer Taslima Akhter on a photograph she took at a collapsed factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “I have been asked many questions about the photograph of the couple embracing in the aftermath of the collapse. I have tried desperately, but have yet to find any clues about them. I don’t know who they are or what […]

Anders Aslund, the author of a report on the root causes of the eurozone crisis published on the website of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, argues that “[t]he most overlooked common problem of the four Southern European countries—Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece—is that they are all hampered by little education and the poor quality […]

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 […]

Do IT and civic engagement mix and match? What do you think these young people are reading (and/or writing) on their smart phones? Are young people more active as a result of being more “connected?” Maybe, maybe not. Judith Froemming writes, “A true zombie is nothing more than an unconscious being apathetically and lifelessly lumbering […]

The Greek office of the World Wildlife Fund is circulating the following open letter with regard to pending legislation regarding potential private development along Greece’s Aegean seacoast. …/… Αγαπητοί φίλοι, Με κομμένη την ανάσα παρακολουθούμε τις τελευταίες εξελίξεις που αφορούν το νέο σχέδιο νόμου του Υπουργείου Οικονομικών για τον αιγιαλό. Ίσως έχετε ακούσει το θέμα […]

By Maria Patsarika October 27, 2011 may now seem as a distant instantané of the eurozone crisis. However, at that time, it was seen by many as a victorious day, after having agreed a deal that slashed the Greek debt to 50%. As with all such deals, however, this one, too, had winners and losers; […]

By Maria Patsarika “Θέλει αρετή και τόλμη η ελευθερία” – Andreas Kalvos “It is inevitable that the Greek people will go through hardships to get through the crisis… Inevitably some businesses will have to close down,” Giannis Vroutsis, Minister of Employment, has observed. This is the mantra of our times: a fashionable stoicism that makes […]

I first saw this illustration on Facebook early this past Monday morning, after I had read initial accounts in the Greek press on voter turnout in the September 20 general election. My first reflex was maybe to share it with awi tty caption. To be truthful, I experienced an odd combination of emotions when I […]

According to sources cited today in Greek Reporter, the ancient Greeks were smarter on average than their counterparts today. Gerald Crabtree, Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is reported to have made this claim on the basis of research tending to show that humans become less intelligent with the […]

What do politicians do when they are not politicians? Or better yet, what did they do before they became politicians? Two scholars, Mark Hallerberg and Joachim Wehner, asked more or less these questions. They were particularly interested in the circumstances when an electorate would choose technocrats to lead a government. Their findings? “Our analysis of data […]

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.”