Saturday 26 January 2013

Peace Child International builds European network to tackle youth unemployment crisis

Peace Child international, the youth-led organization with over 30 years’ experience empowering the young to make their own change has reached out to organizations from all over Europe in a bid to stem the spread of youth unemployment. Its EU Youth job creation network will draw on experience and knowledge from the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece’s Innovation Farm.


Uncertainty and doubt about the future has always been part of the impetus that drives innovation and achievement. It has rarely been far from most people’s minds but the last few years have seen a period of renewed intensity. After decades of raised expectations for many, the roller-coaster is now the big dipper, the double-dipper, the triple-dip to the point where pundits are running out of euphemisms. There are few for whom this is more terrifying than our young. The thought of a future-less generation fills us all with dread.  

Wednesday 16 January 2013

who's to blame

Since long before living memory commercial industry has invested trillions to develop products and services that have satisfied needs, both real and fabricated. 


Trillions have been invested to make marketing ever more persuasive. 

Even more has been spent to create new devices that both address needs and desires and open new lucrative markets for their maintenance, upgrading and accessories. 
 
Trillions upon trillions have been conjured up by financial institutions to enable everyone to acquire them. 


..and we are to blame because we bought too much?

or being punished because we just plain ran out of money


Wednesday 2 January 2013

End of the Fakelaki?

On new years eve the wife decided to tackle an outstanding round of paper-stamping. We had to take on IKA and OAEE and although New Year's may seem a masochistic day for such a task we headed off with freshly woken kids to the big smoke of Thessaloniki's public services. We made a quick pit stop at the post office to get the road tax paid which went swiftly and without hitch or hindrance. Next the hardcore, IKA. after about ten minutes. Wifey emerged from the offices with a reserved smile, while she hadn't managed to complete she was pleasantly surprised by the generally helpful demeanour of the public servants. We proceeded to the police station as I required some stamps to prove that I'm not an illegal alien. After trying two previous addresses of the dept of aliens I enquired if the bloody office was on wheels and received a smile, not common from public employees let alone the police. And here lies my point, is it me or are public employees growing some humanity? *


Wednesday 17 October 2012

Prime the smart-bomb, corporal!


A chilly October evening and the first of the autumn rains was bouncing off the roads and pavements but from deep in the darkest corners of the town hall came light, small but bright.  Inside the hall all the seats are taken and many more stand around the walls; this is the tip of the iceberg that is the resistance.


Tonight there is a seminar about the new legal commercial entity, the IKE, a talk given by a young lawyer,Nayia Antoniou, then another about the merits and process of establishing a startup in America by two lawyers from San Francisco, Christina Tsakona and Andrew Dimitriades.   All this followed attentively by a crowd (more about crowds later) of young and not-so young optimistics, entrepreneurs and professionals. These are the real patriots, the draughtsmen of tomorrow.  

Saturday 13 October 2012

It's not just Quantity but Quality


Boycott Fuel 21st - 28th October

The resistance is mobilising again. A mass boycott of fuel is proposed from 21st to 28th October 2012. The aim is to hit the system so hard that it is forced to address the problem of price.   


Greece is in the top five most expensive countries in Europe for petrol. In fact, top 5 in the world. Looking at the members of this list you’ll see the countries with the highest disposable incomes in Europe such as Sweden, Norway and UK and you’ll see Euro-naughtiest like Italy, Portugal and Greece. 

Friday 28 September 2012

Is crowd-sourcing really a crowd pleaser?



Welcome to the 21st century, an age of collaborative working, coworking, crowd-funding, crowd-publishing, a new dawn of communistic creation, an open source world of limitless opportunity. Or is it.


In 1991 a young Finnish student studying in the US released the kernel of a computer operating system that came to be know as linux. Since then it has become the world's largest open-source project. Thousands upon thousands of coders, testers, translators and graphic artists have worked together to create an computer operating system to rival Windows and OS X. Unfortunately, what we now have are hundreds of operating systems that for one reason or another have not even managed to replace each other, much less Windows or OS X.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

The Resistance Manifesto


If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Tales from the resistance



Cut out and wear with pride

Greece; you only have to say the word and it conjures up a myriad of images. Sun, sea, ancient civilisation, wonders of the world, economic crisis and moustaches. What doesn't spring to mind is entrepreneurship and business acumen.


Greeks have traditionally fallen into two categories as far as work is concerned; public servant or self-employed. With private-sector employee being very much a consolation prize. A job, any job in the public sector has always been regarded the safe, secure route, not overly taxing with tenure and a reliable pay-cheque. Self-employment, on the other hand hovers around nearly 40% of the workforce, more than twice the UK level and nearly four times the US. Greeks have been running their own businesses for years. From fishing boats to cigarette kiosks, from farming to shipping, Greeks have been doing the business in business. In fact, in spite of the efforts of the country's largest employer, the government, the people of this greatly misunderstood nation have managed to turn a tidy profit and send a fair bit of it to Germany; there are more Mercedes on Greek roads than Fords.

From Under Dark Clouds

The Century of DIY