By Nicholas Burns In Athens, a popular far-right party condemns Jews as a source of the country’s misfortune and recycles the ancient lie depicting them as “Christ killers.” In Hungary, the prime minister fails to disassociate himself convincingly from an anti-Semitic and increasingly powerful fascist group. Scenes from Europe in the 1930s? No. Both examples, […]
Athens (April 8, 2013) — Erroneous press reports have appeared overnight suggesting that the U.S. Consulate General in Thessaloniki is closing. As the Consulate announced on February 15, certain U.S. citizen consular services and notarial services will be provided only on a periodic basis in Thessaloniki from the end of May onwards. Those services will […]
By Maria Patsarika Is there a second chance for democracy, as Nikos Marantzidis claimed in Protagon last week? For one to be able to identify a positive orientation for populism in politics is a fresh, however risky, perspective on democratic renewal. When this is accompanied by concrete suggestions, however, the argument becomes even more robust […]
By Krysta Kalachani I was surfing online today, looking to book tickets to see the opera on Tuesday, and I came across this story about unemployed citizens given the opportunity to attend the general rehearsal of Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman” for free yesterday at the Atticus Theater. Good news, right? “In this crisis, at the very least,” […]
Clive Crook has this to say about the proposed legislation to tax depositors in Cyprus, an idea he labels as “stupid.” “You want bank bondholders to be concerned about the safety of their investment, so that they exert some discipline over the banks, and you want small depositors to rest easy about the safety of […]
Fact checkers and vote counters are legion in the US. Here is site that prides itself for being up on the latest in IT developments. No hiding behind the anonymity of an electronic vote. At issue in this instance is an amendment to cut off funding the the recently divulged NSA spying program. Now, who […]
The Guardian has an article today on the plight of a large number of disgruntled British civil servants. “Two-thirds of Britain’s most senior civil servants are so demoralised that they are considering leaving their jobs, according to the first survey of mandarins to be conducted since the coalition’s reform plans were published,” they write. The […]
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 25th April– PillBOX open market ‘Spring Bouquet’- The PillBOX market features the latest trends in handicrafts, accessories, clothes, ornaments, cosmetics, collectable vinyl and many more cool items at low prices. This bazaar-market will take place in […]
By Marten van Heuven The author is a retired senior US diplomat with extensive experience in European affairs. He contributed this note in response to an invitation by Politis for thoughts on the trans-Atlantic dimensions of the crisis in Greece and the eurozone. I find the situation in Greece and in Europe unsettling, in part […]
Politis invited regular contributors Krysta Kalachani and Maria Patsarika to comment on two recent blog posts discussing revolution, by Christos Giannaras and Politis’ own David Wisner. Why all this talk about revolution now? Are we getting it right? KK: Why don’t you like it? Love it. One reason that you are not sure about it […]
Americans look at the crisis in Europe and think they see “an underdeveloped version of the American polity,” that if European leaders only acted more like us, everything would be solved. This article by Russell A. Berman inspects that fallacy of logic and offers an informative run down of the euro crisis and Merkel’s budgetary […]
By Diego Salas Things about Greece, Thessaloniki 1. Things I that I never thought I would encounter People in general have at least a basic level of English. Taxis are incredibly cheap. People treat you like a brother though you’ve met them only once. Ouzo as a casual Greek beverage. Greeks take hours to […]
“Culture is like marmalade. The closer you get to the bottom of the jar the more you try to spread what’s left.” — Anonymous (Paris, 1968)
By Krysta Kalachani Now on to the Macropolis site. I just read a couple of texts there. It is a pretty good effort to show an ecumenical picture (καθολική εικόνα) of Greece’s political, economical, and social life in the context of the crisis, and not only. It shows they have a few serious experts writing […]
Parallaxi, a free-press magazine inThessaloniki who began the well known “ThessalonikiAllios” are organizing the 2nd annual effort to clean up the city ofThessaloniki. Thessaloniki Allios willbe reviving an area of Thessaloniki that has been left abandoned for a longtime, the coastline from Aretsous until Macedonia Airport. One mission will be to clean up the coastbehind […]
By Dimitrios Machairas [H]ow are we to interpret the insistence on the part of Greece to accept, at whatever cost for the last three years, almost all the measures that have been imposed by its international lenders and the EU to rescue the country from default and remain in the Eurozone? Is it an indication […]
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 […]
This weekly feature offers a glimpse of what is happening in and around Thessaloniki. Compiled by Laura Strieth. Thu 16th to Sun 19th May- 10th Thessaloniki Book Fair- The institution of the Thessaloniki Book Fair has established a dynamic presence the last 10 years and signals its new era by creating strong collaborations and international […]
Indymedia. The website is on the Politechnic’s server, or at least was in the past. From time to time the people that write there are accused of being anarchists. Whoever likes can write on the website. They started as independent media and often there have been efforts to shut them down… Sometimes they were actually […]