A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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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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Saying of the day: 2/22/13
Posted February 22, 2013 by Politis
“It is my heartfelt conviction that in Germany more Europe does not mean a German Europe. For us, more Europe means a European Germany.” — Joachim Gauck
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Can do: entrepreneurship and public service
Posted May 18, 2015 by DW
Prepared remarks by David Wisner for a round table on The Greek Startup Scene: bubble or future,” Thessaloniki Science Festival, May 15, 2015. Thank you, Michalis Stangos, for inviting me to speak on your panel. For the benefit of our audience this evening, the Dukakis Center and the Anatolia Business School hosted the Second Business […]
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Tea Party right, Tea Party left
Posted February 9, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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Saying of the day: 6/2/13
Posted June 2, 2013 by Politis
“At least he [Erdogan] is leaving us some crumbs. The previous bastards never gave us everything.” — Turkish supporter of the AKP
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The NSRF phenomenon – or, The dangers of ΕΣΠΑ
Posted December 2, 2012 by M P
By Maria Patsarika Some months ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend about what it means to achieve fulfillment in life. This was prompted by the dilemma that we face nowadays perhaps more acutely than ever: how can someone retain one’s ethos and character when modern times is characterised by such fluidity, uncertainty […]
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We can’t help it!
Posted January 31, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I often tell my politics students that people have a natural predisposition to act and think politically. What we do with this is the great challenge of contemporary citizenship and civic education. Two recent articles in the mainstream media challenge our thinking about different dimensions of homo politicus. Some people seem to […]
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What is exactly the character of this democracy?
Posted October 26, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Have you seen this article on EnetEnglish? It circulated a lot on twitter the other day; you can find more info with the hashtag #skouries. The article is about Police files containing transcripts of interviews between Tolis Papageorgiou, the founder of Hellenic Mining Watch, and 11 newspapers, news agencies, and websites both […]
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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 […]
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Ready to govern?
Posted February 27, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I read Guy Dinmore’s characterization in today’s Financial Times of the members of the M5S party of Beppo Grillo elected to one or the other of the houses in the Italian Parliament with a sense of wonderment. “How coherent a unit his parliamentarians will prove to be remains an open question, notes Tommaso […]
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Paid for services rendered
Posted November 4, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Fotinie Efstratiadou Here is a story about a public servant — an employee at the public ambulance service in Northern Greece — who missed work for five years from 2006 to 2011 and yet was payed throughout without his superior having been notified. One is almost left speechless. What can one think of these […]
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American politicians love their job
Posted March 12, 2013 by Politis
According to a poll published in Roll Call, 95% of members of the US House of Representatives say they get a sense of personal accomplishment from their work as legislators. 89% claim that they are performing an important public service. The sample was small, however: 194 House members were selected randomly, but only 25 responded. […]
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In search of a Greek social contract
Posted February 24, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner I’ve been thinking a lot about the American Declaration of Independence. Let me explain by way of an anecdote. Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long-time business associate, is blind in one eye, owing to complications in a cataract operation. As Alice Schroeder tells the story, Munger never blamed the doctor, instead accepting responsibility […]
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Would you swear an oath to the Queen?
Posted July 11, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner The Globe and Mail ran a story yesterday about “would-be Canadian citizens” who are up in arms about the oath of allegiance they must swear to the British monarch prior to earning full rights as citizens of Canada. The Citizenship Act requires applicants for citizenship to swear or affirm they will be […]
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Desmond Lachman on the eurozone crisis
Posted March 25, 2013 by Politis
Ezra Klein spoke with Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute about the crisis of the eurozone, and recorded their conversation in his Washington Post Wonkblog. When asked about the political dimension of the crisis in southern Europe, Lachman replied: “My view is that what you’re seeing already is the politics coming unstuck in a […]
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She faces the music
Posted May 12, 2013 by M P
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 […]
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A dark vein of intolerance
Posted January 13, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Ginger Gibson While continuing to identify as a Republican, former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday criticized the GOP for a series of racist attacks against President Barack Obama. “There’s also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What do I mean by […]
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Unemployment: this is no joke
Posted April 2, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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Of technical competence
Posted February 27, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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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 […]