Dimitrios' World

The empowerment of the social capital of the country has become one of the most important aspects arising out of the Occupy Gezi movement in Turkey. While the definitions of the term ‘social capital’ are many, I would posit that the World Bank’s is the most inclusive: Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society's social interactions. Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together. In other world, the social capital refers both to a country’s institutions and their representatives and to its civil society and the interplay between both. It raises the issues of legitimacy, accountability, democracy, education and responsibility by both the institutions and civil society. In the case of Turkey, th...

Surrealism is a good word to describe what one experiences in Cihangir in the center of European Istanbul near Taksim Square. The tension is palpable, the air heavy with humidity. People having their usual conversations in cafes with their thoughts on how their life's have fundamentally changed since 31 May. Strangers are walking up and down the streets ready to partake in the protests that will follow later with their gas masks (the choice is infinite both in terms of type and color) and their goggles to protect their eyes from the pepper gas and other such niceties we will all have to deal with later and into the night. Others still are carrying various types of supposedly protective head gear...so many days of this has made both protesters and those simply standing by better prepared to deal with the onslaught or so we think.... The sounds of helicopters making their reconnaissance flights are heard overhead. The streets are slowly filling up and now the now the air is inundat...

The closure of the public broadcaster, ERT, in Greece and the ensuing debate reflects the reality of the country today where the public space has been so totally politicized by all the political parties, including those in the opposition, and their powerful unions to the point that their collective vested interests have converted the public good that ERT is supposed to represent into one more public enterprise that existed to propagandize in favour of the powers that be and as another vehicle of the patronage system that so effectively was put in place by the political parties representing Greece's representative democracy since the return to democracy in 1974....where patronage equates with providing jobs and political favors to relatives, party diehards and others that needed to be included in order to keep the system and the ensuing vested interests in place....the financial and economic crisis has brought about the biggest challenge to this self perpetuating system as it bei...