Pages

Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

‘Spatosimo’ Air Passenger Fee Now €12 for All Greek Airports

A fee imposed on the airline tickets of travellers departing from all Greek airports will be set to a flat rate of 12 euros per passenger, regardless of their final destination, according to an amendment tabled in Parliament on Wednesday by Transport ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.gtp.gr

It's all Greek to Lakonía, from Maine to Chincoteague

Daphne Contraros Rioux, founder of Lakonía Greek Products, started in 1998 with a small parcel of land outside a fisherman's village in Greece and a few olive trees. Now, her daughter Melissa Rioux is president of the unique family business based in ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.delmarvanow.com

Contemporary Greek artists works on sale in museums and sites

Original works by contemporary Greek artists will be put on sale in the country’s museums and archaeological sites under a deal signed on Wednesday between the Visual Arts Chamber of Greece and the Archaeological Receipts Fund (ARF), which manages the ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.tornosnews.gr

Get your big fat Greek salad on Original Greek food truck

The Place: The Original Greek operates from a mobile kitchen in a bright blue food truck that can be found in Wynwood and various locales two hours south or north. The blue and white Greek flag flaps by the logo depicting a trio of Greek islands in a white ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.miamiherald.com

Industry convinced there are many more reserves of natural gas in GREECE

Major international oil companies are seriously interested in the natural gas reserves estimated to be in GREECE that could share similar characteristics, ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com

Greek Sing-CMU News

Carnegie Mellon University's Greek community is stepping up to help children cope while their parents battle cancer. CMU fraternities and sororities have set a goal of raising $150,000 over the next two years for the university's Camp Kesem chapter, which ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cmu.edu

Digital Dig: A new discovery from Ancient Greece

Through the careful study of excavation records dating back some 40 years, Michigan State University’s Jon Frey has discovered an ancient gymnasium at the archaeological site of Isthmia, Greece. Frey and his team are performing a “digital dig” of ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT msutoday.msu.edu

New report: No confirmation of deal between Greece and creditors

The European Commission is unable to confirm a Reuters report about a preliminary agreement between Athens and the institutions to conclude the second review, European Commission spokesperson Annika Breidthardt said on Wednesday. “We saw the media ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.tornosnews.gr

Greece to probe possible defence corruption

Committee to examine surge of procurements under former minister


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com

Greek government will not legislate without "full agreement including debt"

The government will not legislate if there is not a comprehensive agreement that will include the debt issue, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos on Wednesday said in statements to Star TV. Tzanakopoulos expressed optimism that the negotiation on ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.tornosnews.gr

Jim Peck: Discoveries in Greece

I’m standing on top of a mountain in Greece, watching as a drone zooms through the sky taking pictures, gathering important information for MSU archaeologist Jon Frey. He’s standing next to me, telling me about the history of this place. It’s quite a ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT msutoday.msu.edu

Greece, EU-IMF lenders agree on major issues

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos (left), European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici (centre) and Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem take part in a eurozone finance ministers meeting in ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.gulf-times.com

UNICEF Report Says Greece Leads In Child Poverty Within EU-14

A report released by UNICEF on Wednesday shows the dramatic downgrade of children’s living conditions in Greece, that is by far the leading country in which children are deprived of the basic essentials and services within the EU-14 at 45%. This figure ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

10 multipurpose ingredients that will bring your office lunch to the next level

or how many ways you can use it to up your lunch routine, but we'll tell you anyways: 1. Mix olive oil into Greek yogurt with nuts and spices for a savory, filling lunch. (Scoop up with pita! Or pita chips.) 2. Use it to thin tahini to make a multipurpose ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com

15 Reasons to Visit the Greek Islands

The charming, bloom-filled village of Assos on Kefalonia. The fresh-from-the-Aegean seafood on Naxos. The gorgeous, off-the-beaten-path Porto Katsiki beach below the cliffs on Lefkada. The sunrises in Mykonos (most likely after a long night out).


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cntraveler.com

Eatery offers fast casual Greek dishes in Carrollwood

Tony DeSisto was watching The Profit on CNBC one day when he first learned about The Simple Greek restaurant. "I've always been interested in opening a restaurant, particularly a franchise or fast casual," said DeSisto, owner. "Then I saw this one and ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.tbo.com

LETTER: Budget situation resembles GREECE

LETTER: Budget situation resembles GREECE ... 2015) it's obvious that we will be well on the way to GREECE (budget deficits) before Oct. 24, 2019.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.pe.ca

Worldwide: GREECE Golden Visa Program Grants 1500 Resident Permits

More than 1,500 residency permits for GREECE immigration have been granted since the introduction of the Golden Visa Investor Program. Chinese ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mondaq.com

X Games ZOOM gallery, March 2017

"We have shot with Jason in many places, but never in his hometown Volos, in GREECE. In the Volos marina [is this replica of the] Argonauts boat.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT xgames.espn.com

Belgian man robbed at knifepoint by hosts in GREECE

The victim told police that he knew one of the culprits, who had invited him to GREECE to stay at his home. The Belgian man said that on arrival at the ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com

Artisanal Greek Soaps by The Vilia Soap Company

Staci Wagner Hamalis is no Shirley Valentine. After getting engaged to her Greek partner she left a jet-setting corporate career and moved to Greece, but instead of wiling away her days sipping ouzo in the sun, she immediately set up a dynamic business ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.greece-is.com

Greek parliament to probe possible defence corruption

Greek lawmakers have unanimously backed a parliamentary probe into possible corruption involving some €4bn of security procurements signed between 2001 and 2003 while Yannos Papantoniou, a senior Socialist politician, held the post of defence minister.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com

US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt on the Smart-City of Trikala

A visit to Trikala [last] week and meetings there with government and business leaders has reinforced my optimism about Greece’s future and this country’s rich endowment of human and natural resources. Trikala has the distinction of being the first ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.greece-is.com

New Airport Levy to be imposed to all airports, lowers children age

The Greek government expands the airport levy of 12 euros for flights departing from Greece to all airports including the regional airports. The levy will start to be imposed after the operation date of the 14 regional airport and until November 1st 2024. After this date, the levy will be down to 3 EUR for … The post New Airport Levy to be imposed to all airports, lowers children age appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

Pre-Hellenic Greek Dress

In seeking to conjure up a vivid picture of the life of an ancient people, it is the task of the archæologist to neglect no point that can in any way throw light on the manners and customs which that people practised from day to day, both in the exercise ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT brewminate.com

Turkey ramps up war games in Greek air space

The Greek military was on heightened alert today after Turkish fighter jets invaded the country’s national airspace, buzzing over a number of islands, engaging in an aerial show of strength over the Aegean Sea. The war games increased fears of a ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.pprune.org

Primerose raises over $1,000 at its My Big Fat Greek Fundraiser

The Primerose Restaurant in Ladner raised $1,040 for Delta Hospital at its My Big Fat Greek Fundraiser. Sia and Maria Adjudani, owners of the Primerose, had a full house at the March 2 event where partial proceeds from all food and beverage sales were ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.delta-optimist.com

8 energy giants show interest in oil exploration in Greece

ELPE manager speaks at Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry forum


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.protothema.gr

Greek Super League champion to be decided in play-offs from next season

Next season to have 14 instead of 16 teams


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.protothema.gr

Greek MEP Marias forms new party called “GREECE-THE OTHER PATH”

Purpose to liberate Greece from its lenders-"loan sharks"


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.protothema.gr

Greek-American Chef Michael Psilakis Busts Myths About Mediterranean Cooking

NEW YORK – Michael Psilakis, a Michelin-starred Greek-American chef, just released his second cookbook, Live to Eat: Cooking the Mediterranean Way, and it’s filled with […] The post Greek-American Chef Michael Psilakis Busts Myths About Mediterranean Cooking appeared first on The National Herald.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

Electric Bill Shock for Greeks: Big Surcharges Leave Them Gasping

By Andy Dabilis ATHENS – Ioannis Haidinis, an 82-year-old pensioner, did not look happy as he walked out of a Public Power Corporation (PPC) branch […] The post Electric Bill Shock for Greeks: Big Surcharges Leave Them Gasping appeared first on The National Herald.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

Tsipras Blames New Democracy, PASOK for Greek Corruption, Scandals

ATHENS – Trying to keep his fragile coalition attacks as austerity talks with international creditors are stalled, Greek Prime Minister and Radical Left SYRIZA leader […] The post Tsipras Blames New Democracy, PASOK for Greek Corruption, Scandals appeared first on The National Herald.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

“Abyss” Scans Reveal the Secrets of Santorini and Kolumbo Volcanoes

SANTORINI, Greece (ANA) – The research vessel RV Poseidon of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research of Kiel in cooperation with the Geology Department […] The post “Abyss” Scans Reveal the Secrets of Santorini and Kolumbo Volcanoes appeared first on The National Herald.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

Mango Greek Yogurt Cheesecake with Muesli Crumble Recipe

We begin making the Mango Greek Yogurt Cheese cake with Muesli Crumble Recipe by pre heating the oven at 150 degree Celsius for 10 minutes. Prep the mangoes by peeling of the skin and chopping them into small pieces and blitz it in the mixer to a smooth ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.archanaskitchen.com

Greece Agrees With Creditors on Review of Rescue Programme

Greece has reached an agreement with its creditors from the EU and the IMF on key reforms regarding the labour market, cutting expenditures and energy issues, thus moving closer to reaching a preliminary deal concerning the review of the fulfilment of the third rescue programme before the meeting of Finance Ministers of the Euro zone on April 7, reported Reuters, citing sources close to the negotiation process. According to two unnamed representatives of the EU, Greece will cut expenditures on pensions by up to 1% of GDP in 2019. At the same time, authorities in Athens have agreed to reduce the threshold on the tax-free annual minimum to about EUR 6,000 in order to save more funds amounting to another 1% of GDP. Regarding labour market reforms, Greece will not be forced liberalise further mass layoffs as initially demanded by the IMF. Collective bargaining, which was partially weakened as part of the necessary reforms envisaged in the rescue programme for 2012, is expected to be restored after the current financial assistance programme ends in the middle of 2018. It has to be kept in mind that Greece risks becoming insolvent if a final agreement on the review of the third rescue programme is not reached soon.  


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.novinite.com

Imam Arrested for Weapons Found in Xanthi Mosque Released Pending Investigation

An imam in charge of services at a village mosque in Xanthi, northeastern Greece was released without conditions on Wednesday, after testifying before a Xanthi public prosecutor. The imam had been arrested on Tuesday after police, acting on a tip-off, raided the village mosque and his home, finding two guns hidden in the minaret of […]


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Ten Syrians Returned to Turkey From Greece Under EU-Turkey Deal

Ten Syrians were returned to Adana, Turkey on a flight from Greece on Wednesday, in accordance with the EU-Turkey Statement on migration. The group included five men, one woman and four children. One individual in the group had been denied asylum at first instance, eight had given up their right to await the outcome of […]


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Why Socialist Job Guarantees Are Better Than Universal Basic Income

Universal Basic Income (UBI) has received a great deal of attention in efforts to resolve workplace displacement, but UBI schemes raise an important question -- who controls the means of production? Self-managed job guarantee programs, on the other hand, empower workers, raise wages and in the long run can free labor from the control of elites and Wall Street. [(Photo: Unsplash)](Photo: Unsplash) _Who are the powerful funders behind Truthout? Our readers! Help us publish more stories like this one by making a tax-deductible donation. _ Universal Basic Income (UBI) is on the rise. Pilot programs providing income on an unconditional basis are being implemented at national, provincial and municipal levels in places like Finland, Scotland, Kenya, the Canadian province of Ontario, the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and Oakland, California. Anti-work advocates see UBI as a victory against neoliberal productivist ideology and subjectivity (what some have referred to as "homo economicus"). Workerists see UBI as a way of tipping the balance of power in favor of labor. While these qualities of basic income are ones worth aspiring to, the policy contains macroeconomic deficiencies if adopted universally. In addition, UBI advocates overlook one of the fundamental questions of power in political economy: Who controls the means of production? One way to address this question is through a self-managed socialist job guarantee. That is to say, providing a job to anyone who wants one, within a self-management institutional framework. UBI AS HYPERINFLATIONARY Economist Pavlina Tcherneva has argued there could be disastrous results from wide-scale implementation of UBI. In a paper from 2006, Tcherneva argues that solely implementing UBI would lead to "stagflation," i.e., "low employment and high prices." She writes: > In order to coax [UBI] recipients back into the labour market, > employers will need to offer higher wages (which, at first > approximation, is a desirable result). However, soon thereafter, > these same employers will also raise prices, to cover the increases > in wage costs. As a consequence, rising prices will erode the > purchasing power of the [UBI] payment, which will affect > particularly those recipients who did not return to the labour > market. To maintain the objective of the universal guarantee and > provide just levels of standard living, there will be pressure to > revise the [UBI] benefit upward. If this happens it will further > induce some exit from the labour market, drop in output, a > compensatory rise in wages and prices and further drop in [UBI] > purchasing power. This vicious cycle renders the income guarantee > self-defeating. Note that, if the benefit is continually increased > -- the income guarantee becomes not just inflationary, but > hyperinflationary. Within a political-economic climate preoccupied with budget-neutrality (i.e., balanced budgets; running no fiscal deficits), "if taxes are raised ... they will also induce workers on the margin to exit the labour force." This coupling of a rising UBI to compensate for increased prices, with rising taxes (again, partially resulting from an obsession with budget-neutrality), will result in declining output. UBI AS OPPRESSIVE VOLUNTEERISM Besides macroeconomic incoherence, other issues emerge. Tcherneva points to the likely stigmatization of those who do not work. More than this, UBI points to the emergence of a new subaltern class, as UBI "does not deal with the loss of skill and deterioration of human capital that result from unemployment." Nathan Tankus, a research scholar at Modern Money Network, has noted that, "If you distributed to everyone the same amount of IOUs regardless of whether they worked, production will fall into volunteerism and the community has no method of insuring that work is distributed equally or that production continues at adequate levels given the goals of the community." This holds the potential for exacerbating gender and racial inequities. UBI programs hold the potential to actually fit quite well into a neoliberal paradigm. Some see UBI as administratively efficient; this ethos could evolve into one that only further perpetuates decreases in welfare provision and accompanying decreases in public employment. In support of a pro-UBI article in the Wall Street Journal, John Daniel Davidson has written in the conservative-leaning magazine The Federalist that, "Instead of the sprawling mess of welfare programs we have today, the idea is to end all social welfare programs and instead just cut everyone a check." This is hardly an end to neoliberalism; it is an intensification of it, as every individual is granted a certain sum of money to fulfill their status as a good and abiding consumer. With UBI -- and the presumably unchanged state and capitalist control of credit -- one's status as a consumer is perpetuated while their status as a worker is tentative and subject to elimination. Capitalist control over the means of production remains intact, and the finance, insurance and real estate sectors continue to go unchecked and unconstrained. A CHARTALIST UNDERSTANDING OF MONEY The hyperinflationary argument is not the same argument against raising the minimum wage. Tcherneva's argument against UBI stems from an understanding of money -- and the operation of inflation -- that radically departs from orthodox economics. Government-backed full employment programs have faced elites that opposed them on fiscal grounds, and thus took steps to reduce or limit the scope of full employment programs. The classic lament of the liberal is that while the aims of the left are sound, we cannot achieve those aims because we must truck with a finite store of money, sourced from the rich. Contra the liberal understanding of money is a framework known as "chartalism." What chartalism teaches us is that money is infinite -- only resources are finite. Those who understand chartalism understand that government with its own currency (known as a sovereign currency) does not borrow money from "bond vigilantes" to spend. Rather, it spends first and then collects taxes. The US dollar is a sovereign currency (unlike, say, Greece, which does not have authority over the euro). It is the power of the US government to impose tax obligations that gives the dollar its value. A chartalist understanding of money implies that a monetarily sovereign government can afford to employ all who seek employment, without first seeking money from rich people. THE JOB GUARANTEE: HISTORY OF A NON-REFORMIST REFORM The real reason that elites resist full employment programs is because they facilitate class consciousness and help build dual power. This elite resistance is exactly the reason why the left must press all the harder to make full employment a reality, and take charge of its policy design. Full employment both requires class consciousness and creates it. In this regard, there are three full employment programs worth noting: the French National Workshops of 1848, the Argentine Jefes program and the Indian National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. _The French National Workshops in 1848_ Marx chronicled the French National Workshops in his classic _The Class Struggles in France_. The National Workshops were an attempt to implement the Revolution's "organization of work" in the ferment of 1848. Unclear in what this meant, local elites outside of Paris resisted the creation of the Workshops. Only when workers rose up to demand the formation of the Workshops in their locales did the elites relent in some cases. Across France, local governments organized everything from "charity workshops" to full on bridge-building and public works programs. While some National Workshops were the domain of only unskilled labor, in others, disgruntled artisans and skilled craftsmen demanded the socialization of their labor. Contra their reputation in some circles, it has become apparent that the National Workshops mobilized large sections of the French proletariat and delivered real wage gains, before elites destroyed the program. Naturally, elites resisted the Workshops as a waste of public resources and a locus for radical political agitation from the working class. Not all localities established national workshops, and even where the workshops emerged, there was a constant struggle between local elites and workers over who would control wages, hours and working conditions. It was in the industrialized cities of Paris, Lyon and Marseilles, where relations between workers and elites were most volatile, that the National Workshops had the greatest scope and effect. Funding for the National Workshops largely came from the state, and not the local municipalities. The activities funded included not only unskilled labor but also public works, textiles manufacture and even railroads. The more sophisticated projects emerged out of worker uprisings, where workers demanded the socialization of skilled labor enterprises. Even with state funding, there were still budgetary shortfalls and financial difficulties; for example, Marseilles attempted to borrow 4.5 million franc from the central government to complete projects. The industrialized cities faced a "collapse of the domination of the notables over the working class and the emergence of working class consciousness...." The workshops played a "key role in pitting the working class against the state and thus in shaping a common consciousness among the lower classes." Perhaps because of this, at the end of June of 1848, the government closed the National Workshops. _Argentina's Jefes y Jefas Program in 2002_ In 2000-2001, Argentina faced a near-revolutionary situation in the streets. Manufacturing facilities were expropriated and converted into worker cooperatives. Unemployment reached 25 percent at the peak of the crisis. The government of Eduardo Duhalde responded in 2002 with the Jefes program, which offered a job to each head of a household with children. The deployment of the Jefes y Jefas program in 2002 was an attempt to stabilize prices and provide employment. The program supported the creation of local municipal councils to oversee community projects, such as drainage works, community centers, domestic violence shelters/services, food kitchens, public health and child care. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the work they did in the program, with 90 percent either satisfied or very satisfied. Although measurements of impact on overall employment were mixed, it is known that from 2002 to 2005, unemployment decreased by 50 percent from previous record levels. The project overall raised GDP by 2.4 percent, and employed 5 percent of the population within four years of initiation. Women made up 64 percent of participants, and reported great satisfaction with the work they did through the program. The program did face opposition from business communities, as the program became the de facto minimum wage in rural areas where much work fell below the minimum wage. Some opposed the entry of women into the labor market. There were also reports of corruption, namely the use of Jefes program funds for political and electoral organizing. Additionally, some economists considered care work to be nonproductive work. Efforts to expand the program to allow multiple household members to participate were blocked out of concerns over the financial cost of the program. In an effort to wind down the program, a faction of government officials moved to reduce or eliminate job creation and substitute direct cash payouts. In interviews with participants, economists Randall Wray and Tcherneva found _not a single participant_ who preferred the cash payments to working. Argentines valued being out in the community and having a sense of doing something, and this exceeded the simple cash wage. This effect was especially pronounced among women participants, many of whom had only worked within the home, which is unfortunately not formally valued within the economy. _India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) -- 2006 to Present_ Since 2006, India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has legally guaranteed 100 days of employment to every rural household in one of the world's most populous nations. The employment guarantee program is still ongoing, and has to date facilitated over 15 million projects, stabilized rural wages and diminished wage differentials between men and women. India's NREGS program has a statutory requirement of 30 percent female participation -- and in most areas, the cohort of women has exceeded 30 percent. Some states report that women's participation is in the range of 40 percent to 52 percent. This is particularly impressive, given that the government of India prescribes only certain types of projects as permitted under the employment guarantee scheme, and most, if not all of those projects require heavy manual labor. Within NREGS, there is hardly any difference between the wage rates of men and women. The program has had a wider effect on the wages of both men and women. In one study, the daily average wage increased by 5.3 percent, calculated via data from 2000-2011, with a sample size of 249 districts across 19 states. Wages in the NREGS program have increased through 2011, but fallen since 2012. Over the breadth of India, however, the impact of the employment guarantee scheme has been highly variable. NREGS has had good performance in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala, due to strong institutions and/or civil society organizations.   Unfortunately, some localities provided zero workdays to participants, and, according to Jonathan Pattenden, a researcher at the University of East Anglia, the employment guarantee scheme has performed worse in "states with greater degrees of inequality and poverty, such as Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha." Pattenden goes on to say that "in some states, classes of labor [were] too weak to challenge the dominant class." Local elites have attempted to block NREGS programs by the use of their local electoral bodies. Unlike the Jeffes initiative, the employment guarantee scheme made use of pre-existing representative electoral bodies at the village level. These local assemblies appear to often be dominated by high caste elites, who use slow payment of wages and bureaucratic rules pertaining to project signoff to stifle the staffing of NREGS projects. Panttenden finds that there is corruption at local levels, though "corruption associated with Gatekeepers is best understood as struggle between dominant and labouring classes over the distribution of public resources." Although the National Workshops, Jefes and NREGS took place in different places and cultures, what becomes clear is that all programs faced significant elite resistance, while also facilitating increased worker consciousness and, in two cases, significant advances in gender equality. A SELF-MANAGED SOCIALIST JOB GUARANTEE Economist Darrick Hamilton has argued that a job guarantee program would do away with Wall Street bailouts during financial crises. For one, labor would increasingly free itself from the control that the finance, insurance and real estate sectors have secured over the economy. Second, according to Tcherneva, > in a nutshell, during recessions jobless workers would find > employment in the public sector at the fixed [job guarantee] wage. > Total government spending rises to relieve deflationary pressures. > Alternatively, when the economy recovers and non-government demand > for labor increases, [job guarantee] workers are hired into private > sector jobs at a premium over the [job guarantee] wage. Yet, as Tcherneva writes, some contend that public employment programs would be "a logistical nightmare." One logistical solution is for local-level participatory administration, design and programming. Economist Mathew Forstater remarks that "community and neighborhood organizations, NGOs, and nonprofit enterprises will be the primary institutions employing job guarantee workers, and that workers themselves will have a voice in initiating and organizing the projects." Hamilton has argued that job guarantee workers could be unionized. Furthermore, a job guarantee program need not recreate capitalist relations of production. Instead, according to Forstater, the job guarantee program "has the potential for creating spaces for noncapitalist social relations." Job guarantee initiatives could be designed to provide the necessary tools, training and incentive-structure to form enterprises that are community and worker self-managed, both empowering workers and experimenting with new forms of property relations. Forstater himself writes that, "Just as [job guarantee] activities can be designed to pollute less or to use more labor-intensive methods, they can also be designed to be less hierarchical and more egalitarian, with more consensus-based decision making." To cast all of this in more explicitly left discourse, a self-managed socialist job guarantee program is possible. Besides simply outright creating publicly owned cooperatives, there are a few specific ways we might go about imagining and administering a job guarantee program. PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING AS A TOOL FOR MARSHALLING SOCIALIZED LABOR Marshalling associative labor in a job guarantee program through participatory budgeting is a possibility. For example, political scientist Benjamin Goldfrank cites a process wherein a community lacking sufficient currency for participatory democratically chosen projects drew upon volunteer labor from the community to directly implement projects. The potential for participatory budgeting processes to marshal and draw on labor power need not be confined to the rare example of community members volunteering their time and skills. Participatory budgeting processes and job guarantees could be coupled in such a way that brings the best out of both. In more egalitarian job guarantee processes, needs are identified and projects are proposed by the community in neighborhood assemblies to dictate how funds should be spent. In many job guarantee processes, bureaucrats tell participants that more imaginative complex project-ideas simply cannot be implemented due to fiscal and labor constraints. A job guarantee program would undercut this discourse. It would provide capacity to make such projects feasible and prioritizable. Processes similar to job guarantee -- or adjoined to job guarantee -- could be essential for leveraging job guarantee to effectively meet community needs and complete those projects most socially desired at different "thematic" and geographic levels and scopes. Similar to Argentina's Jefes program, individuals and various groups can design and develop their own jobs. For administrative and startup logistical purposes, these could be connected to relevant nonprofits or cooperatives. This leads to drawing on the example of Mondragon, a cooperative of cooperatives with 80,000 worker-owners. LEARNING FROM MONDRAGON Until the 1990s, Mondragon's Caja Laboral -- the cooperative bank -- facilitated entrepreneurship and "intrepreneurship." The former involved creating startup cooperatives from scratch. The latter meant spinning out current activities and functions from within an existing cooperative into a cooperative with expanded capabilities and an enterprise identity of its own. A job guarantee program could be administered in this way, with existing -- but under-supported, understaffed and underdeveloped -- activities spun out into their own cooperative entities and enterprises. The understaffing of service-provision would no longer exist. Experimentation with more creative, malleable and cooperativist units rooted in and more responsive to distinct communities could be structurally incentivized. In addition, proposals for public banks could be given a more participatory and democratized character, and services and income provided to those who cannot work can also be adjusted upward. A FREE ASSOCIATIONAL LABOR UBI's aim of a society of "free labor" -- or no labor at all -- is appealing, but it is individualizing and lacks coordinating devices. With a self-managed socialist job guarantee, free labor would be an associated and socialized labor. At the same time, it would socialize the deployment of capital to meet community needs. Tcherneva likewise stated at a talk that the job guarantee program is an institutional vehicle -- a coordinating mechanism -- for addressing social needs, "as [a] place to come, and to truly nurture participation." Participatory budgeting, at its best, has been used to allot funds through the seeds of a distinct non-state logic. A similar non-state associationist logic can be deployed to cooperatively determine, assign and administer publicly-backed labor. As illustrated above, there are a number of overlapping ways that needs and desirable social projects could be identified at different scales. These include utilizing a variety of participatory forms, through both an intensification of the existing, and in experimentation with the imagined. A job guarantee program could be leveraged to meet needs, identified and solved through a multichannel participatory fashion. It could be utilized to rapidly democratize work itself.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.truth-out.org

Donald Tusk to Pay Working Visit to Bulgaria

European council President Donald Tusk is to pay a working visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of President Rumen Radev, the press secretariat of the Bulgarian head of state has announced, quoted by BNR. On 4 April Donald Tusk and Rumen Radev will pay a visit to the Joint Contact Centre for Police and Customs Cooperation set up by Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey at Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint. The two will conduct an aerial survey of the facilities along Bulgaria’s southern border by helicopter and will take part in plenary talks between representatives of the Bulgarian institutions and the European Council.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.novinite.com

13 photos that prove that this Greek island is the perfect honeymoon spot

Santorini is one of this year's hottest honeymoon destinations, according to Pinterest's Wedding Report 2017. The Greek island is known for its stunning sunsets, pastel-colored houses, and scenic clifftop villages. The Greek island of Santorini is ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com

Which Are More Accurate: Literal or Non-Literal Bible Translations?

His deep experience with a non-Indo-European tongue qualifies him eminently to deliver a helpful insight about the Greek genitive, and about Bible translation in general. Brunn writes, We have all been told that New Testament Greek is a precise language.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT blog.logos.com

Portugal unveil hilarious statue to commemorate opening of Cristano Ronaldo Airport

Look, all I’m saying is: if I were the greatest sportsman a country had ever produced, a gleaming, shimmering spectacle of genetic perfection and sporting dominance and a noted philanthropist who looked quite a lot like a Greek god – perhaps the Greek ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.shortlist.com

Greece’s Eurobank Reports Profit Fall on Quarter

This is the kind of news coverage and analysis you can access exclusively as a WSJ Pro Member.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.wsj.com

Lack of Greek athletes due to time commitments, stigma

While there’s no official policy barring student-athletes from being involved in a fraternity or sorority, those who do both are usually few and far between. Laura Roof, USD’s director of sorority/fraternity life, said she believes there’s a ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT volanteonline.com

Greece's Eurobank swings to profit in 2016, to focus on impaired loans

ATHENS, March 29 (Reuters) - Greece's Eurobank was profitable for a fourth straight quarter in October-December but earnings shrank despite slightly lower provisions for bad debt. The third-largest Greek lender by assets, in which the national bank rescue ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk

Finance Minister Admits that Syriza Is Not a Government for All Greeks

On Tuesday night, Greece’s Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos essentially admitted that his government failed to deal with critical economic issues and as a result “killed” the middle class. Speaking in an event organized by the Parliamentary Budget ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Greek betting firm OPAP's Q4 core profit down on austerity tax

ATHENS, March 29 (Reuters) - Greece's OPAP, Europe's fourth-biggest betting firm, posted on Wednesday a 19.2 percent drop in fourth-quarter core profit, hurt by an austerity tax. OPAP, which was fully privatised in 2013, currently offers sports betting and ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk

What’s up in Greece’s politics? Ex PASOK PM Simitis calls for Early Elections

Odd things are happening in Greece’s politics. After 13 years of silence, the prime minister who took Greece to the eurozone, tha man who urged Greeks to put their savings in Athens Stock Exchange and saw it collapse without doing nothing, gave an interview. What did Costas Simitis say? “Early Elections!” In the same wave … The post What’s up in Greece’s politics? Ex PASOK PM Simitis calls for Early Elections appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

Hottest day of the year to put GREECE in the shade

The UK is heading for the hottest day of the year with temperatures set to soar above 21C on Thursday. Parts of the country will bask in unbroken ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT weather.com