Μάθε καλά τα SOS για τις εξετάσεις. Here are your crib notes for the test.

Μάθε καλά τα SOS για τις εξετάσεις. Here are your crib notes for the test., originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

ΚΟΥΡΑΣΗ 67.2%
ΠΙΕΣΗ 58.0%
ΠΛΗΞΗ 52.7%
ΑΓΧΟΣ 52.4%

TIREDNESS 67.2%
PRESSURE 58.0%
BOREDOM 52.7%
ANXIETY 52.4%

As I was in the centre a headline in the Eleutherotypia newspaper caught my eye, Pupils Golgothas. Actually, every year newspapers use exactly the same words to describe the annual Panhellenic university entrance exams. However, the article also mentioned the results of a survey which had been conducted on student attitudes to school. The most popular response was tiredness, followed by pressure, boredom and anxiety.

To fully understand what students in Greece go through on regular basis you have to look at a typical day for many of them. This involves waking up at 7am in order to be in school for just after 8am. After doing a full day at school many of them are expected to do extra lessons at cramming schools, known as frontisteria in Greek.

Here they are supposed to learn the material which the regular school program was unwilling or unable to teach them. If this was not enough students are often assigned huge amounts of homework by both their school and frontisterio.

The basic logic being that "good" teachers swamp their pupils with material. As a result, after finishing extra lessons at 9 or 10pm they are often studying till midnight for the next day.

As if this wasn't enough the teenagers are also expected to study for a foreign language qualification which many consider essential in today's job market. So, add another 6 - 10 hours of lessons and study to your week.

You'd expect that with so much teaching going on the amount that students learn would be much higher than in other countries? Unfortunately, no. In international surveys on student ability Greek pupils regularly score far below their "lazy" European peers (see pg 53).

What you have is the educational equivalent of gruel. A low quality product dished out in large quantities. Dull, boring and mostly ineffective which people are forced to consume in vast amounts as they have no alternative.

The picture above was taken a little while back in a high school here in Thessaloniki. I spent a weekend in this classroom wondering how on Earth people stand seven odd hours a day in such a place without going crazy. The material and intellectual poverty of the place was enough to depress even the most ardent advocate of education. Bare walls, broken furniture, total absence of any kind of teaching equipment other than a board marker were stark reminders of how little interest the present government has in providing quality learning.

The school, which was less than a decade old was little more than a warehouse to keep kids off the streets, a con trick to fob off parents with the illusion that their children are being educated.

ΠΑΣΟΚ - Με την ευγενική χορηγία της Ζίμενς

ΠΑΣΟΚ - Με την ευγενική χορηγία της Ζίμενς, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"Reinhard Siekaczec, a former executive at the German electronics giant, which supplies equipment to Greece’s state telecoms operator, gave damaging testimony at a trial in Munich earlier this year. He said that “commissions” worth 8% of the contract’s value were paid to Greek politicians and senior executives through a network of offshore companies. The total amount exceeded €1 billion, he claimed. Most of it apparently went to officials from Pasok, which held power from 1993 to 2004, but the New Democracy government elected that year approved a contract worth over €40m for security equipment for the Athens Olympics.

Nikos Zagorianos, a prosecutor investigating the Siemens affair, is shortly to go to Germany. One former Pasok official, Theodoros Tsoukatos, has admitted that he accepted €400,000 from the local Siemens boss as an election contribution in 1999, when he was a prime ministerial aide responsible for collecting political donations. Amid the furore, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a New Democracy deputy who is the son of a former prime minister, recently paid an overlooked bill for a switchboard that was supplied to his private office by Siemens, after a copy of the invoice was printed in a Greek newspaper."

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12209248

Siemens is proud to sponsor New Democracy

Siemens is proud to sponsor New Democracy, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"The warrant for Christos Karavellas, Siemens' former financial manager in Greece, was issued after he failed to appear in court as scheduled on Friday. Karavellas' lawyer claimed his client was abroad and sought to postpone the testimony, the source added.

German industrial giant Siemens is accused of bribing local politicians and officials from Greek telephone operator OTE to bag a multi-million-dollar contract before the
Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

An arrest warrant was also issued on May 20 for the group's former Greek operations director Michalis Christoforakos, who is believed to be in Munich. Greek officials are labouring to have Christoforakos extradited.

Two more suspects, former Siemens executive Ilias Georgiou and OTE's former telecommunications general manager George Skarpelis, who are scheduled to testify in mid-June, have been barred from leaving the country.

The paybacks scandal rocked Greece for months and both the ruling party of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the main opposition PASOK socialists are accused of taking bribes.

A former PASOK official admitted in June to having accepted 1 million German marks (around €510,000 $720,000) from Siemens in 2000, on behalf of the party when it was in power.

The Siemens scandal erupted in late 2006 and shook the group to its core. The sprawling conglomerate has acknowledged that millions of euros were funnelled into various funds used to obtain foreign contracts, and that the practice was widespread across its numerous divisions."

http://www.thelocal.de/money/20090529-19599.html

When regular journalism is for the birds, Twitter

A few days ago Greek TV ( and I mean with 12 channels showing the same footage, nearly all of it) a "debate" with the leaders of the major parties in the run up to the European elections. I use the "debate" in inverted commas as the format of the event involved questions from a panel of journalist and the politicians' answers. At no point were the reporters or other leaders allowed to query responses. As a result what you had was a dull, lacklustre affair in which those questioned were allowed to simply trot out the party line. There were no opportunities to further probe the answers or engage in anything that resembles the word "debate", at least in English.



I think that the format of the discussion neatly reflects the relationship between the mainstream media and those in power. Yes, you are allowed to ask difficult questions, on occasion, but in the final analysis the politicians have the final word. There is no follow up, and at least for those at the top of this particular greasy pole, no exposure to the harsh wind of critical questioning. The politicians were free to ignore any difficult question and so got out the line set down by the party hacks, PR experts and God knows who else in the wings.

The whole programme was less an exercise in democracy than a beauty pageant, except I think that nowadays most contestants in, say Miss World would give more convincing answers. I shudder to think what the bikini round would look like, though.

On the other hand I followed the event live on Twitter (use #deb8) and that was a much more interesting experience as the idiocies and inanities of our political betters were ruthlessly exposed and dissected. Not least of which was the almost total absence of European issues in a debate over the European elections.

Waffle, evasion and laughable attempts at manipulation marked the answers by most of those involved. The only funny thing about the debate was the clumsy way in which Georgios Karatzaferis, leader of the far right, LAOS party flirted with the possibility of some kind of political alliance with ruling conservatives, New Democracy. Kiss, but no tongue it seems so far. Still with prime minister Kostas Karamanlis up to his neck in scandals and dire poll results looming who knows if this isn't the start of another beautiful friendship.

Welcome to Europe - No loitering

Welcome to Europe - No loitering, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

SLEEP

SLEEP, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

They Live - John Carpenter

They Live - We Sleep

They Live - We Sleep, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Greek riots 2008 - Using social media to tell a different story

Yesterday I gave a talk, along with Asteris Masouras on social media and activism for students of the school of journalism at the Aristotelion university of Thessaloniki. The presentation was part of the course, Blogs and the New Media: legal matters and ethics organised by professor Elsa Delagianni. It was a nerve wrecking experience speaking in front of an audience in Greek and I'm sure that I garbled my grammar on more than one occasion. Still, both my and Asteris's presentations on the uses of blogs, Twitter, Delicious and the like were well received.

As promised here is the slide show presentation I used along with a brief summary of my talk in English and a list of the sites mentioned. I will also post the video of the event as soon as it becomes available.

Griots Presentation

View more OpenOffice presentations from teacherdude.

Greek riots 2008 - Using social media to tell a different story

The presentation is divided into three sections:

Finding out what was happening

The internet provided me with invaluable tools to find out about events during the riots and protests that followed the death of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on 6th December 2008. The killing of the teenager by a police officer sparked off a wave of violent responses that last nearly a month.

By using Twitter, blogs, Indymedia Athens, Technorati and Google's Blog Search I was able to find information on what was happening both here in Thessaloniki and across the country. In the beginning these were virtually the only sources of reliable information available as the mainstream media were at a loss to explain what was happening and limited their coverage to long distance shots of burning streets and interviews with self - proclaimed experts who had no direct connection with the events happening in Athens and other cities.

Getting your story out

For most December I went out onto the streets to cover the marches, demonstrations and riots that were taking place daily in Thessaloniki and then going home to publish the pictures I had taken and write article to explain the story behind the images. I used participatory journalism sites sites such as CNN's Ireport, Nowpublic and Guardian weekly to submit stories and also wrote on my blog, put photos on Flickr and added video to Youtube.



As a result within days I was giving interviews to CNN, BBC, Sky news as well as French and Egyptian news outlets. The paradox was that foreign media services half a world away were better informed about what was happening here than their Greek counterparts who literally were just a kilometre or two away from what was happening.

The difference being that reporters in Paris, London and New York had taken advantage of the opportunities that social media sites such as Twitter and blogs offer in getting out a story and decided to interview those directly involved. By contrast Greek TV stations limited themselves to endless footage of burning cars and "analysis" by politicians who were at a loss to understand what was going on and just used that opportunity to peddle their own conspiracy theories. I don't think I saw an interview with anyone under 40 till nearly two weeks after the riots had kicked off.

A personal impressions of what happened

At one point I wrote in my blog that I felt like I had lived six months worth of experiences in six days. The more I look back at my blog entries from that period the more I believe that. December proved to be one of the pivotal moments in my life, a period of intense excitement, mixed in with large does of fear and exhaustion. The routine of going out and photographing, the often violent protests, researching and writing articles as well as trying to fit in my day job as a teacher meant that by the day Christmas came I was on the verge of burning out.

On the other hand I felt I had embarked on a hyper intensive journalism course in which months of tuition were compressed into a matter of days. In addition the huge gulf between what I witnessed and what the mainstream media reported confirmed many of the suspicions I had felt before about the role of TV in creating a consensus about how stories are defined.

I felt that I was in a position to explain the background to what was happening to a non - Greek audience. That what we were seeing was not simply a bunch of hooligans out to cause mayhem just for the hell of it. I wanted to bring to light wider set of causes such as police brutality, political scandals, unemployment and lack of faith in the present system which were fuelling the protests.

For more on using social media in general and the influence it had on the Greek riots check out these links:

A beginner's guide to citizen journalism

Social media - How to get started

Social media and the Greek uprising

Social media και creative media (πολυμεσικά Μέσα), στην υπηρεσία του ακτιβισμού και της δημοσιογραφίας

Θα μιλήσουν οι:

Αστέρης Μασούρας (ακτιβιστής, blogger, φωτο-δημοσιογράφος)

Craig Wherlock (πολίτης δημοσιογράφος, φωτο-δημοσιογράφος, καθηγητής αγγλικών)

ΠΟΤΕ: Στις 27/5/2009 και ώρα 17:45

ΠΟΥ: Στο Τμήμα Δημοσιογραφίας και Μ.Μ.Ε. Α.Π.Θ.
Εγνατίας 46, Αίθουσα 4Α

Στο πλαίσιο του μαθήματος της Ε. Δεληγιάννη: Blogs και Νέα Μέσα: Νομικά ζητήματα, ηθική-δεοντολογία.

Tomorrow I will be giving a short talk on the uses of social media to students from the department of journalism at the Aristotelion university of Thessaloniki at 5.45pm - Egnatia 46, Room 4a. Feel free to pop by if you want. Also Asterios Masouras (Oneiros.gr) will be talking on the same subject. The event is part of the lesson, Blogs and the New Media: legal matters and ethics organised by professor Elsa Delagianni.

Night March

Night March, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Steal This Fest - Thessaloniki

Picture from Allher

Πρόγραμμα του φεστιβάλ κινηματογραφικών ομάδων Θεσσαλονίκης

Μέρα : Κυριακή 24.05
Μέρος προβολής : Ροτόντα
Θεματική ενότητα : πνευματικά δικαιώματα

D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist, USA 2002,(55')

Ένα ντοκιμαντέρ για την ανεξάρτητη καλλιτεχνική σκηνή της Αμερικής.

Steal this film, Sweden 2006, (32')

Steal this film II, Sweden 2007, (44')

Δυό ντοκιμαντέρ για το κίνημα ενάντια στα πνευματικά δικαιώματα.


Δευτέρα 25.05
Φουαγιέ ΠαΜακ
Βία-ρατσισμός

18:00 Μισώ τον ήλιο που βγαίνει για όλους

Ντοκιμαντέρ με συνεντεύξεις φυλακισμένων που περιγράφουν τις άθλιες συνθήκες διαβίωσής τους στις ελληνικές φυλακές.

20:00 Do the right thing, USA 1989, (120')

η ταινία μελετά τα αίτια και τις συνέπειες των φυλετικών συγκρούσεων που ξεσπάνε σε μια γειτονία του Μπρούκλιν, στη Νεα Υόρκη, τη πιο ζεστή μέρα του καλοκαιριού.

22:30 La Haine, France 1996, (96')

ο Abdel νοσηλεύεται μετά από μια ταράχη, όπου ένας αστυνομικός χάνει το όπλο του. Ο φίλος του ο Vinz το βρίσκει και ορκίζεται να σκοτώσει ένα αστυνομικό αν ο Abdel πεθάνει.


Τρίτη 26.05
Ιατρική αμφιθέατρο Ανατομίου
Περιβάλλον

18:00 Ανεβαίνοντας τον Yangtse, Canada 2007, (94')

Το φράγμα “3 φαράγγια” γίνεται φόντο αυτού του δραματικού ντοκιμαντέρ για μια ζωή μέσα στο κινέζικο όνειρο του 21ου αιώνα.

20:30 Μια τρύπα στο νέρο, Greece 2008, (58')

ένα ντοκιμαντέρ για τις αντιδράσεις σε ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα οδικά έργα της Θεσσαλονίκης: την υποθαλάσσια.

22:00 Earthlings, USA 2003, (95')

χρησιμοποιώντας κρυφές κάμερες, το Earthlings δείχνει τις καθημερινές πρακτικές των μεγαλύτερων βιομηχανιών του κόσμου, που όλες βασίζονται στα ζώα για κέρδος.

Τετάρτη 27.05
ΝΟΠΕ αίθουσα 212
Πόλεμος- Οικονομική Πολιτική

17:00 Lemon tree, Israel-Germany-France 2008, (106’)

η αληθινή ιστορία μιας γυναίκας που προστατεύει τη λεμονία της από τον υπουργό άμυνας του Iσραήλ.

19:00 Viva la muerte, France-Tunisia 1971, (90')

Στο τέλος του ισπανικού εμφυλίου, ένα 10χρόνο αγόρι προσπαθεί να καταλάβει τον πόλεμο και τη σύλληψη του πατέρα του.

21:00 The Corporation, Canada 2003, (145')

ένα ντοκιμαντέρ για το ρόλο της επιχείρησης καθ'όλη τη διάρκεια της πρόσφατης ιστορίας μέχρι και τη σημερινή της κυριαρχία.

Παράλληλα

7ο φεστιβάλ μικρού μήκους στο Φυσικό,
αίθουσα Α31 μετά τις 20:00


Πέμπτη 28.05

Φυσικομαθηματικό αμφιθέατρο Εμπειρίκος
Κρατική καταστολή- σχέσεις εξουσίας

18:00 Φράουλες και Aίμα, USA 1970, (109')

ο Simon είναι ένας φοιτητής στο San Francisco που απέχει από τις συνεχείς διαδηλώσεις και διαμαρτυρίες στο πανεπιστήμιό του. Ομως η περιέργεια του και η γνωριμία με τη Lisa τον ωθούν να αναμιχθεί.

20:00 This is what democracy looks like, USA 2000, (72')

Πολίτες από όλο τον κόσμο συγκεντρώθηκαν το Νοέμβριο του 1999, στο Σιάτλ και τη Ουάσιγκτον για να διαδηλώσουν ενάντια στη Διάσκεψη κορυφής του Παγκόσμιου Οργανισμού Εμποριου μέσα σε ένα κλίμα βιαιής αντιμετώπισης από την αστυνομία και εναντίωσης από τα ΜΜΕ.

21:30 Lunacy, USA 2005, (118')

Η απόλυτη ελεύθερία ενάντια στον έλεγχο και την τιμωρία μέσα σε ένα ψυχίατρειο.

Παρασκευή 29.05

Πολυτεχνική, αμφιθέατρο Ι.Μ.Παναγιωτοπουλος

Animation

18:30 Ναυσικά στην Κοιλάδα του Ανέμου, Japan 1985, (84')

Ενα αντιπολεμικό και οικολογικό παραμύθι.

20:30 Food (14')

21:00 Το Τριο της Μπελβιλ, France-Belgium-Canada-UK 2003, (78')

23:00 street of the crocodile, (21')

00:00 Steal this Party!

Αστεροσκοπειο (party)


Συμμετέχουν οι κινηματογραφικές ομάδες :

ΚΙΝΗ.ΜΑ
Κ.Ο.Τ.Α.
CinemaGroup
Κινηματογραφική Σ.Φ. Νομικής
Κ.Ο.Φ.Ε.Θ.
Κινηματογραφική Ιατρικής
Κινηματογραφική Σ.Φ. Πολιτικών Επιστημών
Κινηματογραφική Φυσικού
Κιν.Ο.Γε
Κινηματογραφική Χημικών Μηχανικών
Ν.Υ.Χ.Τ.Α.

Stealthisfest.blogspot.com

Welcome to Afghanistan

Welcome to Afghanistan, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

A Special Report by John Pilger

"Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.

In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban".

In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination.

Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'.

While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?"

Breaking the Silence - John Pilger

Greece and Britain - The far right waiting to fill the gap

It is interesting how the political situation in Britain and Greece seems to be in synch. In both countries the major parties have been tarred by scandals and public faith in their credibility at an all - time low. Whether it be the MP expenses debacle in the House of Commons or the endless list of bribery and corruption scandals in Athens the picture seems to the same. That power corrupts and that those in charge have grown indifferent to the consequences of their greed seems blatantly obvious to even the casual observer.

Here in Greece asking most people to choose which of the two major parties they want in power is like asking a Pole in 1939 who is going to benefit the country most; Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union? Similarly in Britain the choices are grim and I doubt if many of those who vote in the forthcoming European elections will do so without holding their nose while they cast their ballot.

Unfortunately, this climate of distrust and disillusionment with the present political set up has had unexpected benefits for small far right parties in both Greece and UK. In Greece the LAOS (Popular Orthodox Rally) party is eagerly awaiting the possibility of sending another representative to Brussels/Strasburg. Already they have 10 MPs in the national assembly and are a regular feature on TV shows, part of their attempt to obtain mainstream respectability.



Likewise the British National Party (BNP) has also given itself a media make over. No more nasty skinheads marching down rainy high streets in Doc Martins, they have been replaced by men in suits with handy sound bites and TV friendly publicity ops. Unlike their Greek counterparts they do not have parliamentary representation, though this has more to do with Britain's first past the post voting system than any lack of support.



Let's not be fooled by the smooth words and newly found moderation in their speech. In both cases these parties represent the worst in political ideologies and given half a chance they will use and abuse any power given them to further a more extremist agenda.

It's all on your door step

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Taken from my balcony last night.

Last nights gathering

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Last night there was a gathering of three to four thousand Greeks gathered outside Agia Sophia in the centre of the Thessaloniki. They were there in order to remember the deaths of thousands of Pontian (Greeks from round the Black Sea) during the last days of the Ottoman empire. Their hope is that these events will be declared a genocide by the world community.

In that respect their campaign closely mirrors the one by Armenians who have been attempting to have the deaths of their compatriots at the hands of Turkish soldiers between 1915 and 1923 considered a genocide as well.

As well as politicians from Thessaloniki and Athens the crowd was addressed by Michael Atkinson, South Australia's attorney general (his speech can be read here in English and Greek) who introduced a parliamentary motion to condemn the deaths.

Afterwards those present took part in candle - lit march to the Turkish consulate.

A group of 20 - 30 supporters of the ultra - right Xrysi Ayhi (Golden Dawn) party shouted anti - Turkish slogans during the speeches and then marched along Tsimiski street.

No animal was harmed in the making of this bomb

100% Organic Poster, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Lightning - Taken 20 minutes ago

Lightning - Taken 10 minutes ago, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Every year during May and early June the lightning storms roll around the Thermaikos bay, always threatening to engulf Thessaloniki, but for some reason they never do. I was out on the balcony taking pictures and managed to capture this less than half a hour ago.

Teacher Dude's wonderous world of T-shirts

Teacher Dude's world of T-shirts, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Albert Einstein on the current MP expenses scandal in UK

Apparently, Einstein was misquoted. What he really said was this:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and the greed of politicians; and I'm not sure about the universe."

100% organic

100% organic, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.