A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Greek tech
Posted March 29, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Alexander Besant The office of Greek app-maker Taxibeat is located in a modern building, surrounded by shuttered shops and streets with cracked pavement, in the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood in Athens. The contrast between the office and its surroundings is more than aesthetic—it’s the difference between where Greece is, a low-tech economy based on tourism […]
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More center right, center left
Posted January 14, 2013 by Politis
This just in from Fishbowl DC: After dropping out of the presidential election and a two season-long Republican bashing media tour, Jon Huntsman is ready to lead along with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). The pair, along with Republican Strategist Mark McKinnon, are founders of “No Labels” a project aimed at fostering bipartisanship in Congress. Huntsman […]
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Wanted: the right kind of Greeks
Posted March 23, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner A contestant in a British reality show called “The Apprentice” has indicated in an interview that there are certain types of children she will not allow her own kids to play with. For one, they need to have the right sort of name. “At the risk of sounding snobbish, I also favour […]
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Open the doors/where are the people?
Posted April 3, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Growing up my friends and I used to play a small game with our hands. We would start with our hands clasped, thumbs aligned, index fingers erect. “Here is the church/here is the steeple/open the doors/where are the people?” We would then interlock our fingers and perform the same series of steps: […]
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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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In praise of subjecthood (of the right sort)
Posted June 10, 2013 by Politis
Living in Europe today is akin to being a subject in some latter day Holy Roman Empire, that “political commonwealth under which the Germans lived for many hundreds of years.” So says Brendan Simms of Cambridge University in today’s New York Times. While the Empire lasted nearly a thousand years, however, the comparison is not […]
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Absurdities
Posted January 20, 2014 by M P
By Maria Patsarika First, our ministers make earnest declarations that in order for smog percentages to diminish, people need to return to the use of oil for heating purposes. I’m sure it crossed all people’s minds: are they nuts? With such high oil prices, who can afford to buy it? And, surely, people would rather […]
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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.
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One click off
Posted June 4, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Kathryn Lukey-Coutsocostas* Globalization has us readily accepting goods from other lands into our homes. But can countries absorb imported citizens just as easily? Whenever I join the crowd to criticize a line-jumper in a queue in Greece, someone inevitably tries to muzzle me with the classic insider-outsider putdown: “You’re not Greek.” Apparently, only locals […]
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More on the youth vote
Posted June 5, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner Excerpts below from a post by Andrew Rosenthal in yesterday’s New York Times about the youth vote in the 2012 US Presidential election. The interesting thing is that Republican youth groups were heavily involved in producing the initial report. I wonder what the results would be if Greek youth expressed themselves systematically […]
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Big fish eat small fish: Greece way
Posted February 22, 2013 by Politis
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Inspiration Exchange
Posted May 16, 2012 by PR
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Citizen walkers, walking citizens
Posted March 13, 2014 by DW
By David Wisner This past Sunday I finally had an opportunity to experience a car-free waterfront. I went down to Leoforos Nikis and sat with some students — young people who were born and raised in Thessaloniki — to enjoy the hush and feel the energy of citadins taking their morning promenade. We got to […]
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Depositor’s rage
Posted March 21, 2013 by Politis
Helena Smith of the Guardian reports this from Nicosia on the evening of March 21: “At branches in Nicosia, the divided capital, Cypriots queued for hours in the hope of withdrawing cash with lines frequently moving at a snail’s pace because of the inability of cash machines to dispense more than €40 euro at a […]
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Tax cheat sheet
Posted March 13, 2013 by pdcadmin
By Andy Dabilis After hostile reaction, the Greek government said it would not go ahead with plans to give tax cheats an 80 percent discount on fines they would have to pay for breaking the law, including some 2,062 people with $1.95 billion in secret Swiss bank accounts, the so-called Lagarde List, that has created […]
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Golden Dawn: before and after?
Posted October 3, 2013 by Politis
Excerpts below from an article by Clark Boyd of Public Radio International’s The World on possible consequences of the recent arrest of members of Golden Dawn. The author cites Politis’ good friend Brady Kiesling, former political affairs officer at the US Embassy in Athens. …/… “[I]n the wake of the arrest of a number of […]
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Up a creek…
Posted June 17, 2013 by DW
What is the expression again, “up a creek without a paddle?”
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The Crisis of the EU and the future of Greece
Posted December 9, 2012 by DW
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 […]
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Around the town: 4/25/13
Posted April 25, 2013 by laura
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 […]
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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 […]