A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Wanted: deep thinkers
Posted February 7, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner The title of an article in the English version of Der Spiegel got me thinking about what appears to be a systemic problem throughout Europe and the eurozone. Spiegel claims that Europe needs new blood, not so much in terms of higher birthrates and immigration, but in terms of ideas and thinkers. […]
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Citizens or consultants?
Posted November 24, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Zaid Jilani A few weeks ago, the massive consulting firm Deloitte came to my public policy school – the Maxwell School at Syracuse University – to conduct what it called a “case challenge.” The students who participated were separated into groups and presented with a sample consulting challenge. At the end of the multi-day […]
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Saying of the day: 1/27/13
Posted January 26, 2013 by Politis
“Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise.” — Aeschylus
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Independence day, for whom?
Posted March 25, 2014 by DW
Politis found this note on Facebook today. Apparently citizens were discouraged from attending today’s Independence Day parade in downtown Athens. “When the public cannot be trusted to celebrate their country’s independence, what independence is it, exactly, that they have to celebrate?”
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To which party would you be matched if you were a Greek voter? Choose4Greece
Posted May 1, 2012 by ip-admin
Choose4Greece is an online application which calculates voters’ ideological congruence with political parties for the May 6 election in Greece. To which party would you be matched if you were a Greek voter? Greek citizens can find out which political parties they are closest to ideologically by using a new online tool designed by a group […]
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“Poor because of you” — Femen demonstrate in Davos
Posted January 26, 2013 by Politis
From the AP in Davos. “Three women angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in a Swiss resort. Predictably, they failed. The ubiquitous and huge security force policing the World Economic Forum in Davos carried the […]
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Truth or dare 2.0?
Posted January 31, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Ask a young person today whether they like politics. More than half the time they will respond in the negative. Why do they dislike politics? Overwhelmingly, because politicians are corrupt and dishonest. (Now disliking the political for these reasons may merely be a symptom of a more systemic problem in our democratic […]
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Truckloads of gold
Posted March 27, 2013 by Politis
Euros arriving by truck to Cyprus from Brussels.
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@openkorinthos
Posted September 4, 2013 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Very good site! It seems that it will be fully working in a few days, it is very new. Really interesting though. They are trying to bring Corinth’s citizens together, to spot problems in the area and find solutions, or find opportunities worth pursuing, among their goals is to act as mediators […]
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Circle dancing with the Greeks
Posted April 19, 2012 by DW
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 […]
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The ancients were smarter…
Posted February 23, 2013 by Politis
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 […]
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The spirit of public service
Posted April 16, 2015 by DW
By David Wisner For EF For the better part of the past decade and a half I have been searching for ways to translate the concept and practice of public service, so commonplace throughout the United States, into the contemporary Greek reality. I learned early on that there is not a direct or literal translation […]
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Tax paying as civic duty
Posted April 3, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner I file my tax returns in Greece and in the US. I read this comment by Lawrence A. Zelenak in the New York Times as a welcome counterpoint to all the negative press generated throughout the Western world about tax evasion. “In the next two weeks, Americans rushing to file their returns by […]
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Who owns Thessaloniki’s history?
Posted January 30, 2014 by iankehoe
By Ian Kehoe Back in 2008, while I was talking about the history of Thessaloniki to a group of university students I realised that many of them did not even know that there had been a major Jewish population in the city. I was surprised to say the least, given that Jewish people had been […]
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Open data: what it is, what it is not
Posted July 29, 2013 by Politis
This clip, courtesy of The Guardian, provides a nice overview of the state of thinking about open data, which advocates argue will revolutionize political practice in positive fashion in the months and years to come. See for yourself whether you agree.
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Saying of the day: 5/27/13
Posted May 27, 2013 by Politis
“There’s a lot more optimism in the air . . . but we’re not yet through the crisis. It’s still a tough balancing act for [small and medium-sized] companies like ours. — Fotis Sousalis, Export Manager, Terra Creta
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Saying of the day: 8/1/13
Posted July 31, 2013 by Politis
“Greece – like Detroit but without hockey.” — Anonymous
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Saying of the day: 6/7/13
Posted June 7, 2013 by Politis
“Like the Spartans, Thebans, and Thespians at the Pass of Thermopylae, the Greeks were sacrificed to buy time for the alliance.” — Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph
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Saying of the day: 3/18/13
Posted March 18, 2013 by Politis
“If you make people’s lives better they will pay you for it — bottom line.” — Rob Markey