An excerpt here of a very strange story from today’s Washington Post, which offers a real challenge to notions of citizenship within the same country. “The Supreme Court decided Friday to take on a case after considering a petition from adoptive parents Matt and Melanie Capobianco, who would like to regain custody of 3-year-old Veronica, returned to […]
We rarely equate paying taxes with citizenship these days, although it is certainly one of those old-fashioned obligations we associate with residing in a certain place. French actor Gerard Depardieu (by the grace of God born a Frenchman, has now been offered Russian citizenship (along with the Belgian citizenship he sought a short while back […]
I read a tongue-in-cheek article by the wags at Reform Watch Greece some weeks ago which got me thinking about one of my favorite Balzac stories, Cesar Birotteau. The middle class has been decimated, so the argument goes, the principal victim of the sovereign debt crisis. Depending on one’s reading, the Greek bourgeoisie has been […]
By Politis “A year in a word: Grexit,” runs the headline of this article in yesterday’s Financial Times. Coined in February 2012, when speculation on Greece’s fate in the eurozone was reaching frenzy, the term later spawned its very own progeny — the Brexit. Sounds like a very bad sequel to the Hobbit. What has […]
By David Wisner Politis has pointed this phenomenon up before. Newsworthy Grecians can no longer hide behind the figurative distance between Athens and the rest of the world, or the relative inaccessibility of the Greek language outside Greece. Two examples since the beginning of December suffice. Stephen Grey, who spoke at the Dukakis Center on […]
By Nikos Konstandaras Groups of left-wing protesters have been fighting to obstruct university reforms which, among other things, will put an end to their lengthy dominance. At the same time, groups of far-right thugs have stepped out of the shadows and can now be heard bragging that the time of their own dominion is coming. […]
The title of a recent analysis in Politico – “The disappearing independent” – struck this reader as personal. I looked down at my hands, at my feet; checked in the mirror to see that my nose, ears, and eyebrows were still there; I even dug out my blood pressure gizmo to make sure my heart […]
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 […]
By Konstantinos Bouas and Petros Katsimardos Introduction Human Resource Management policy is probably the most important challenge for Greek public administration, given the severe on-going crisis and the need to sharply reduce public expenditure. The high remuneration cost of Greek public servants (13,6% of GDP in 2009, against only 11% of OECD member countries [1]), […]
Livestreaming from Here
By David Wisner Lecture given at Hamilton College, New York, September 2012 The title of my talk is: «The Crisis of the EU and the Future of Greece». It might well have been the inverse: «The Crisis in Greece and the Future of the EU». Semantics aside, the core problem I will address is whether […]
On Dec 19 the Anatolia Christmas charity drive will take place. Volunteers will be collecting food with a long shelf life (packaging must be intact) and personal hygiene products and household detergents (used and half full items can be donated). There will be collection points throughout campus, look out for the collection bins with signs […]
By Maria Alafouzos There is a cafe off Syntagma Square and it’s filled with people drinking coffee and speaking to each other in indoor tones. The smokers sit outside under outdoor heaters. Daylight is beginning to fade. That same day, in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, the CEO of Express Service was arrested […]
The lines separating the worlds of business and politics in Greece have often been blurred. Businesses are not free from state intervention, on the one hand, but, on the other, business interests have often played a preponderant role in political decision making. Is it possible that these times of crisis are also an opportunity to […]
There has been a lot of talk of late about the future of higher education in Greece. The public universities might appear to some to be a microcosm of all of Greece, in which things are clearly falling apart. Lo and behold, the news is not all bad, however. As the author of a recent […]
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 […]
By Paschos Mandravelis Most people look back on their college years with nostalgia. Those were carefree and uncomplicated days, but three times a year, the sensation of nonchalance was brutally interrupted. In late May, early September and mid-January, the backgammon board, students’ favorite pastime, would slam shut. Traffic at students hangouts would halt. Students would […]