A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
0
comments
German ‘hypocrisy’ over Greek military spending has critics up in arms
Posted April 25, 2012 by PR
By Helena Smith, The Guardian, Athens A few months before submarines became the talk of Athens, Yiannis Panagopoulos, who heads the Greek trade union confederation (GSEE), found himself sitting opposite Angela Merkel at a private meeting the German chancellor had called of European trade unionists in Berlin. When it came to his turn to address […]
comments
The best and the brightest
Posted September 19, 2015 by DW
In the spring of 2006 I invited Pavlos Geroulanos to visit the Dukakis Center to speak on the topic of “youth and politics.” At the time Geroulanos was something like chief of staff to the then-president of PASOK, George Papandreou, having recently returned to Greece from the US, where he had done an MBA at […]
comments
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 […]
comments
Saying of the day: 8/1/13
Posted July 31, 2013 by Politis
“Greece – like Detroit but without hockey.” — Anonymous
comments
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 […]
comments
Una fatsa (una faccia)? Is Italy headed toward a “Greek-style” crisis?
Posted March 15, 2013 by KK
By Krista Kalachani I just found a small gap to write a couple of things about what is happening in Italy. If you checked the newspapers in Italy this week, apart from the Pope’s election which is probably the most important news story of the week, one of the things that has been circulating is […]
comments
After the storm
Posted April 22, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani In business transactions, as in all transactions that one desires to be fruitful, productive and of mutual benefit all interested parties are supposed to establish a ground of mutual trust first. Mutual trust must be accepted as a prerequisite, because otherwise transactions, social relations, relations between citizens and governments, and among people […]
comments
Democracy: reinvented
Posted December 13, 2012 by DW
By David Wisner I’ve been looking for an adjective with which to describe this recent op ed article by Bill Keller in the New York Times. Curious, perhaps. It’s not quite a celebration of a certain place where democracy has flourished. Hardly, in fact. On the other hand, as a test case, South Africa, does […]
comments
Honest Abe
Posted November 4, 2013 by DW
“Honesty is a virtue.” Not only in the realm of the proverbial, but also according to classical ethical theory. How often do we ascribe this virtue to contemporary politicians? Do we celebrate our national heroes, our great statesmen and women, for their dedication to the truth? I saw the film “Lincoln” some months ago and […]
comments
More on those pesky 16 year-old Scottish voters
Posted June 9, 2013 by DW
The British think tank Demos has put this short video out arguing the merits of allowing 16 and 17 year-old citizens the right to vote in Scotland.
comments
Around the town: 4/11/13
Posted April 13, 2013 by laura
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 11th April- Geneva Jacuzzi- An LA-based songwriter, musician and visual artist who is known for her unique style of synth driven pop recordings, theatrical stage personas and retrostyle video art. Her videos and live performances portray […]
comments
Aristotle scholars head for Thessaloniki
Posted February 7, 2013 by Politis
Aristotle was, arguably, one of the fathers of the idea of public service. With this in mind Politis brings the following announcement to the attention of its gentle readers. “The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) on Feb. 13 will host an International Colloquium on Aristotle, featuring a series of lectures presented by researchers specialized in […]
comments
Are Europe’s education systems failing young people?
Posted May 18, 2013 by Politis
Debating Europe is asking this question in its online forum: Are Europe’s education systems failing young people? “All this week, Debating Europe has been publishing a themed series of posts looking at the issue of youth unemployment in Europe. With young people the first to be fired and the last to be hired in a […]
comments
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. […]
comments
Love and death
Posted May 8, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
comments
Choose4Greece II, 17 June 2012 Elections
Posted June 8, 2012 by ip-admin
Choose4Greece is an online application which calculates voters’ ideological congruence with political parties for the June 17 elections in Greece. Choose4Greece II represents an update, which takes into consideration the changes in the Greek political party landscape, on the initial application that was launched because of the significance of the May 6 general election and […]
comments
Nextdoor: a Facebook for your neighborhood
Posted April 1, 2013 by Politis
Alexia Tsotsis has written an engaging review in TechCrunch of the neighborhood social media service Nextdoor. The platform is a de facto neighborhood support group among subscribers. Nextdoor now serves some 10,000 neighborhoods and roughly 1 million households, and has a very savvy matrix for developing a local network to its optimal level. Users explain […]
comments
The ultimate American decline story?
Posted May 22, 2013 by Politis
Mattea Kramer and Jo Comerford posted this article on the Moyers and Complany blog. It depicts one of the most extreme visions of 21st-century American decline in print. Politis reposts excerpts of the article below. “The streets are so much darker now, since money for streetlights is rarely available to municipal governments. The national parks […]
comments
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 […]
comments
Conceptions of politics: changing patterns in Greece
Posted April 14, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Kostas A. Lavdas Greeks know a thing or two about politics. But the reasons why they do – the conditions that help nurture a political culture prone to intense politicization – are diverse and, at least some of them, divergent. In fact, as I have suggested elsewhere, political development in modern Greece can be […]