GREEK STUDIES (EN)

Thalia Tzanetti
(RIEAS Senior Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Ever since the recent arrests of the six suspected terrorists, what continues to strike me as particularly odd is a specific aspect of what the Police discovered: How can a 31-year-old, a 30-year-old, three 26-year-olds and a 21-year-old have in their possession (or have access to) two scorpion submachine guns, one unidentified submachine gun, three AK-47 assault rifles, one unidentified assault rifle, 200 grams of TNT, fifty kilograms of ANFO -a mixture widely used in improvised explosives devices-, rounds of ammunition, three hand grenades and a sizable collection of other, relatively trivial, yet rather costly, items?

Thalia Tzanetti
(RIEAS Senior Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Thursday’s (24 June 2010) terrorist attack against the Ministry of Citizen Protection, which claimed the life of a highly-regarded police officer, was the latest, most spectacular and lethal example of the recent rise in terrorist activity in Greece. It has not been a secret that high-profile attacks have been sought and that targets of increasing symbolism have been becoming the focus of terrorists’ attention. The fact that the perpetrators caught the whole security apparatus by surprise, however, and that they succeeded, not only unhindered but, as it turns out by the investigations, even unwillingly aided, to carry out the attack, is undoubtedly unprecedented and marks a significant victory for the terrorists.

Dr. Peter Nanopoulos
(Computer Science Department Chair, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology University of Indianapolis-Athens).

Copyright: Peter Nanopoulos on line

Until recently, we used to teach our students that economic development is driven by four   foundational factors of production:  Land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.   In the digital age we need to add one more latent element, Information Technology, in recognition of the fact that technology defines the competitiveness of agriculture, the efficiency of industrial production, and the productivity of the steadily rising services sector, which includes governmental output.

Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis
(Department of History and Political Science, King College, USA; Senior Editor at intelNews.org)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Diplomatic observers were surprised in November 2008, when the then Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to meet his Cypriot counterpart, Dimitris Christofias, during the latter’s official visit to Moscow. Considering the traditionally close bilateral ties between Russia and Cyprus, the excuse from President Putin’s office, that he was too busy attending his United Russia party’s national conference, appeared unconvincing.

For the second time in two years, Greece will shortly have an early general election. Prevailing atmospherics are rather awful. The country is stumbling into its worst recession in over twenty years. Unemployment is rising and many smaller and medium enterprises are in their death throes. Liquidity to sustain daily operations and business expansion has all but disappeared, with banks refusing to ease their purse strings. Disposable income for most Greeks is shrinking, in some cases dramatically. Consumption has been affected accordingly, leading many retailers to desperation. Post-dated checks -- an illegal financial instrument dear to almost all Greek businesses, large and small -- have inundated the market, highlighting the straits faced by the majority of business owners.

The devastating wildfires that burned in Attica, home region of the Greek capital, Athens, between August 21 and 24 have subsided – but the reasons that spawned this unprecedented disaster remain very much in play.

Fortunately, the fires did not cause human casualties this time around. Exactly two years ago, a similar conflagration in the southern Greek region of the Peloponnese killed 76 people, laid waste to hundreds of  communities, and consumed an estimated 670,000 acres of forest, shrub, and farm land. In the two years between the two holocausts, however, little was done to help the areas affected and even less accomplished in terms of learning the lessons and trying to implement critical reforms.