Helping Others is Both Free and Costly

At PORTA – the Albania House in Athens – we’re all about giving. We give of ourselves, and we give nearly everything we do for free. There are many reasons for this. For one, as what Greeks call a “spiritual” center, we are not allowed to charge for...

In Greece, Thankful to Count Taxis and to Worship

If 9:30 p.m. seems past a small child’s bedtime, you know you are not in Greece. When my Greek friends tell me that Greek schedules are about three hours behind other countries, I know they are not talking about time zones, but about a generalized Grecian...

When Times Are Hard, Then You See the Challenges

In response to the crushing economic crisis in Greece, I have been working to improve my greatly underutilized capacity to empathize with my Greek and Albanian friends. As I have turned up the volume on my faulty hearing and labored to hone my otherwise distracted...

Will New Government Resolve Greece’s Debt Crisis?

The Greeks held another national election on June 17 and it now appears that a coalition government can be pieced together. It is not yet clear, however, what, if anything, the fragile, politics-makes-strange-bedfellows confederacy government will be able to do about...

Amid Economic Woes, Can Greece’s Government Function?

On the first Sunday in May, voters in the economically troubled country of Greece went to the polls and clearly demonstrated to the rest of the world just how fragmented and divided this birthplace of democracy has become. The two historically dominant political...