Agora
Posts by Nick Malkoutzis
![Photo by Can Esenbel [www.mundanepleasure.com]](resources/toolip/img-thumb/2013/10/15/acropolis_esenbel_900_1510-large.jpg "Photo by Can Esenbel [www.mundanepleasure.com]")
House of cards (The rise and fall of Akis Tsochatzopoulos)
It was the house that did for him. Former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos succumbed to the base desire of enshrining his wealth and potency in real estate. Hubris, however, blinded him to the dangers of choosing a property within a marble fragment’s throw of the Parthenon. On some days, the Acropolis’s shadow virtually touched the luxury apartment the PASOK veteran purchased on Athens’ most exclusive road.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Society (140), Greece (496)
A quarter-pounder democracy
Just under 17 years ago, New York Times commentator Thomas Friedman put forward a theory that if McDonald’s restaurants open in a country, a functioning democracy and institutions won’t be far behind. In July, the last McDonald’s operating in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, closed. Friedman did not opine on whether the opposite of his theory was also true.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Society (140), Greece (496)
Lest we forget
The satisfaction of seeing our political system and institutions fulfilling their role should not allow the events that have led up to this point of possible catharsis slip from our mind.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Society (140), Greece (496)
Nightmare on Democracy Street
Fascists attacking communists: It could have been a story from war-ravaged Greece’s civil conflict in the late 40s. Instead, it is a tale from the streets of Athens, the capital of a long-standing member of the European Union, in 2013. Hopes had been building recently that Greece would soon wake from its economic nightmare but its political and social one may be just about to begin.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Economy (329), Society (140), Greece (496)
Ring of Fire
“I want my life back, now!” was one of the chants heard at a teachers’ rally on Friday, when they protested against job transfers and sackings in the civil service. It’s been clear over the last three years that our daily comforts, as small as they may have been, are slipping away one by one and being replaced by uncertainty or, even worse, dead ends. To be alarmed by this is only human. We shouldn’t forget, though, that for some Greeks the wish of having their life back is not a slogan but the basis for their epitaph.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (385), Society (140), Greece (496)