Stories from and

Greece: “Gods Just Got Bored Playing Dice”

  24 December 2012

German daily Handelsblatt reportedly picked Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras as politician of the year, after yet another round of austerity measures, another bailout tranche to Greece, a warning from the European Commission of more to come, and endless ‘GRexit’ speculation (on whether Greece will exit the Eurozone and default). Financial blogger Albert John offers...

Inappropriate Analogy for Greece-Macedonia Name Dispute

  14 December 2012

Responding to an assertion by Gerald Knaus… Athens and Skopje face a [prisoner's dilemma]: if neither side believes that a solution is possible, and acts on this, both will lose. …Zarko Trajanoski wrote on Facebook: However, the analogy with “prisoner's dilemma” is not only false, but very offensive: Athens is...

A Traveling Exhibition to Expose Police Violence in Greece

  26 November 2012

A small team of Greeks in Zurich decided to expose Greek police brutality with a traveling photo exhibition in various European capitals. @Ypopto_mousi tweets a link to a poster in his blog, [el] which gives more information on his friends’ effort to bring this project to life, as well as...

Greece: New Platform Encourages Affordable Heat Options

  15 November 2012

This winter, website Kala-Nea.gr [Good News] reports on Ksyla.gr [el], a new platform that aims to reduce the cost of heating, by serving as an aggregator on different types and prices of solid fuel: firewood, pellets, briquettes, coal. Traders can join the project, providing data for their products and the areas...

Wedding Party at Petrol Station with Greece in Crisis

  1 November 2012

In a blog post entitled “Crisis wedding in Greece”, Belgian freelance photographer Nick Hannes posts the story of a bride and groom in Patras, Peloponnese who decided to hold their wedding party at the groom's petrol station. “This is how we respond to the crisis”, a family member said to...

Greek Journalist Arrested for Publishing List of Alleged Tax Evaders

  29 October 2012

Greek journalist and editor of Hot Doc magazine, Kostas Vaxevanis, tweeted his arrest and posted a video message [el] a few hours after his magazine published a leaked list of over 2,000 names of Greeks with bank accounts in Switzerland, allegedly the “Lagarde list” that Greek governments had misplaced for years.

Greece: Petition to Remove Golden Dawn MP from Non-Discrimination Committee

  18 October 2012

The Golden Dawn party has become notorious for its blatant anti-Semitic and xenophobic rhetoric and has been responsible for perpetrating attacks against Jews and foreigners.” The European Union of Jewish Students have created a petition urging the Council of Europe Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly to remove...

Greece: Debunking a ‘Coup That Never Happened’

  1 October 2012

Impressive reportage from fantasy land, but no knowledgeable editor with a soul was at hand to throw it in the trash. In a Twitlonger post [el], journalist Yiannis Bogiopoulos debunks a controversial expose published in Sunday newspaper To Vima about “a coup that never happened“, and dismisses “loaded” conjectures as to why...

Greece: Poster Response to Unemployment Crisis

  17 September 2012

In blog post entitled ‘Cirque de Grece’ (Greek Circus), Kostas Kallergis shares an Athens poster mocking the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, which is inspired by a poster for Cirque de Soleil's ‘Alegria‘ show.

The Netherlands: Balkan Snapshots Festival 2012

  14 September 2012

Balkan Buro, a Dutch non-profit “dedicated to providing a platform for artistic and cultural encounters between Western and Southeastern Europe,” announces the Balkan Snapshots Festival 2012, which will take place in Amsterdam on Sept. 21-23: “three nights of music, creativity, movies and inspiring debates!”

Greece: August 15 Celebration Overshadowed by Brutal Athens Murders

  16 August 2012

On August 15, 2012, as user @northaura points out: “Greece celebrates the Assumption of Mary, one of the biggest Greek orthodox days”, yet “2 people are found murdered thrown in a dustbin”. Journalist and human rights activist @NikoAgo had earlier tweeted [el] about the discovery of two murdered people in an Athens...

Athens: Virtual Community Initiative Under the Acropolis

  13 August 2012

Shop owners on picturesque Pandrosou street in Plaka, Athens, have started a virtual community initiative with a blog and Facebook page. They aim to “rebrand the image of Greece into one that reflects collaborative cooperation, innovation and honest hard work”. With their most recent project, they hope to inspire others to reclaim the beauty of pedestrian...

Greece: Photo ‘Road Trip’ Around Europe Debt Crisis

  27 July 2012

‘We Are The Pigs‘ – in reference to the derogatory PIGS acronym – is a crowdfunded photojournalism ‘road trip’ venture, to collect people's stories from European countries affected by the debt crisis. The project, started by two young Central European women journalists frustrated with the stereotypical hyperbole and abuse levelled in the media...