VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

So, I traveled to Thessaloniki for the Greek Easter, and you can imagine my surprise when at the tolls just outside Athens I saw these flags by the Greek Communist Party please note the hammer and sickle symbol at the top of the flags. Now, my first reaction was total surprise! I asked myself whether this photo would be possible on any other European highway; I am now back in Vienna, Austria and it really strikes me as impossible. Also, along with the flags, there were volunteers covering all lanes, with fryers explaining the values of the communist party with the slogan "Trust the KKE in the upcoming EU elections". I must say that this is one of the first campaign moves from a Greek Political party for the upcoming European elections, scheduled between 4 and 7 of June 2009. The message was clear enough: even if you don't agree with the Communists, vote for them in the European elections to send a "message"... whatever that means... Also in the same fryers the...

What would you ask José Manuel Durão Barroso, the current President of the European Commission? I came across the site http://w ww.tellbarroso.eu/ - a great example of EU politics coming up with a website, and an opportunity to put EU Internet into good use... there is also a facebook group but with very little support, given that we are talk ing about the EU. The "Tell Barroso" website an initiative by the Centre for European Studies asks all Europe ans to answer: How can the EU improve your life? All in all the website is not anything spectacular and the multimedia and communications team at the EU Commission could definitely have done a better job in engaging with the citizens of the EU and creating a community like website that users can interact and co-operate with one another. Instead the site just asks vague open ended questions like What areas affecting your daily life should the EU focus its energies on? they urge people to think of as many issues as come to the...

There has been so much talk and analysis of the first overseas trip by President Obama; I will just comment on the discussion that he had during a student roundtable in Turkey. After a question regarding the European future of Turkey, Obama talked about the Sarkozy opposition to Turkey EU membership and in answering he said: "You'll probably have to ask him directly, so maybe when he comes here, he'll have a townhall meeting like this one". After seeing the video I sensed that there was a bit of sarcasm in the President’s answer. But he makes a good point; foreign leaders do not have townhall meetings with the public in most of their trips. It is one of a first for US Presidents as well. I do not know if he is going to insist in having these meetings in future trips, and whether other politicians will follow his example. Then again some politicians do not know, or are afraid of this sort of open discussions, with no moderation or formal Q&A. You do not know th...

You see it not enough for politicians to be involved with the public through websites and new social media. Young citizens give an excellent example on how they have embarked on an online campaign ( www.sendmyfriend.org ) trying to bring together hundreds of thousands of students and teachers in the UK who want the government to keep its promise and make sure that every child can go to school, no matter where they live in the world. In doing so, in January of this year, they managed to get the UK Prime Minister, the leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of the Liberal Democrats to answer to the same questions concerning the Millennium Development Goal on Education. What is more I have also noticed that recently on the G20 Summit in london "Send My Friend to School 2009" was present with the 14 year old James Simmonds who was chosen to be one of the official G20 Voice Bloggers. Young people are utilizing online avenues to reach mainstream politics. They are mak...