“We are all Greeks now” – Solidarity with the Greek People

As Greece seems more stifled everyday by economic pressures and social turmoil, manifestations of solidarity and support to its people multiply throughout Europe and even across the globe.
A new movement expressing empathy towards Greeks has been gaining in popularity: Saturday, February 18, has been designated International Day of Action for the purpose of protesting against the implementation of extreme austerity measures in Greece. Between 12:00 and 18:00 (local times) demonstrations have been planned in the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, the Netherlands, two cities in Germany, twelve cities in France and New York City in the U.S.A. Organisers have been using social media, especially Facebook, as a means to mobilize demonstrators and spread the message “We are all Greeks!.”
(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)

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PM George Papandreou`s interview in “Guardian”

“Greece is on a normalised road,” Prime Minister George Papandreou said in an interview in the UK newspaper The Guardian, noting that in the nine months since his government took office “it has been crisis management, day in, day out,” and stressing that, in politics “you have to make tough decisions.”

In the interview, titled “Reinvigorating Greece is an Olympian task,” concerning the reactions to the austerity measures, the premier admits that “naturally I feel very bad that we had to take these measures and that our financial sovereignty is under the tutelage of the so-called troika (the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank).”

“It’s not a happy state to be in, and the most painful thing is to take measures against people who were not responsible for the crisis,” Papandreou said. He goes on to explain that the option for the country was to default, or take these measures.

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)

Online petition to save department of Greek Studies at King`s College London

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) A petition has been submitted in an effort to persuade King’s College London not to dismantle the department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies at the university.
“We would like to express our deep concerns over the projected dismemberment of the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at King’s College London. […]

The great strength of King’s has always been that it is the only university in the UK to offer a combined programme in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, thus  emphasising the importance of continuity through the centuries,” reads the petition which may be found at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/sdbmgs10/petition.html
Foundation of the Hellenic World:  The Byzantine Empire &  
Modern Greek Studies Association: www.mgsa.org & European Society for Modern Greek Studies: www.eens.org

Mediterranean Research Centre

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  Greek researcher, Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis, lecturer in Classical and Archaeological Studies at the University of Kent in the UK has received €300,000 of a potential €4.2 million from the Los Angeles-based Cotsen Corporation to establish a Mediterranean conservation, research and education centre in Greece. Through the centre, Dr Kyriakidis aims to set up a visiting scholars’ programme, workshops and lectures on archaeological site management and planning in the Mediterranean region, as well as developing collaborations with relevant institutions in this field worldwide. T he €300,000 grant will be used to fund the pilot phase of the project which, if successful, will be eligible to receive a total of €4.2 million over the next eight years.

Book on the Making of Modern Greece

The Making of Modern Greece, Nationalism, Romanticism, and the Uses of the Past (1797–1896), edited by Roderick Beaton and David Ricks, King’s College London, UK Ashgate, May 2009.  This book brings together the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore the ‘making’ of Greece as a modern state, using current theoretical and historical thinking about nations and nationalism in the modern world.  It spans the period from 1797 – when Rigas Velestinlis published a constitution for an imaginary ‘Hellenic Republic’ – to the establishment of the modern Olympic Games, in Athens in 1896, an occasion which sealed with international approval the hard-won self-image of ‘Modern Greece’. 

Greece: Democracy & Human Rights

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  With the opportunity of the publication of its second round of reports, JURISTRAS research project has launched its own webpage at: www.juristras.eliamep.gr. JURISTRAS, a Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy project, comparatively explores processes of human rights litigation in the European Court of Human Rights judgments, and its effects in national legislative reform and policy making in a number of EU member states and Associate Candidate States. Nine countries are selected as case studies: eight EU Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, and the UK) and one EU candidate country (Turkey). Gateway of the European Union: europa.eu 

Hellenic Observatory & LSE

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   The Hellenic Observatory Research Seminar series provides a forum for academic and policy research addressed mainly to student and academic audiences within London, but also to the wider Greek community in the UK. Topics cover mainly current economic, public policy and foreign policy issues related to Greece, Cyprus and southeast Europe region but also extent to topics on culture and history. The Hellenic Observatory plans to launch a new book series on Greece in 2008-9. The series will be launched in conjunction with a leading UK and international publisher and will be focussed on contemporary Greece from the perspective of the social sciences. Full details will be placed on the HO Web-Pages. Prospective authors with good ideas are invited to contact the Observatory. More info on the future plans: Hellenic Observatory Newsletter 2008