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van Gent, Amalia
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3 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Papandreou has little time for reforms
After his electoral victory on Sunday George Papandreou, the head of the Greek socialist party Pasok, has declared war on corruption and cronyism. But his time margin is tight because the country's social and economic problems are pushing in from all sides, writes the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "The conservative politician Konstantinos Karamanlis went to the polls in 2004 with promises of eradicating the rampant corruption and improving state management. ... Like Karamanlis, Giorge Papandreou also ran with the promise of stamping out corruption. He promised transparency in the allocation of state contracts. Until now the custom has often been to grant the biggest state contracts to companies close to the governing party, which has only fuelled corruption. Now the social democrat must show that he is more successful in the role of the nation's Mr Clean than his conservative rivals. Time is also pressing here, because voters are expecting speedy results."
» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Greece
The dispute over a Greek history book
Amalia van Gent reports that a new history textbook brought out by the Greek Ministry of Education is causing a stir. The Orthodox Church has accused the initiators of the textbook, which was published by historian Maria Repousi and is intended for sixth graders, of embellishing the details of Greek-Turkish relations for reasons of political correctness and of undermining the role of the Orthodox Church. According to van Gent, this is intentional: "Maria Repousi and her group decided to ignore the legend of the 'secret school' in the new book, for example. According to the legend, which originated in the 19th century, the Greek language and culture only survived thanks to the efforts of Orthodox priests who resisted a ban imposed by the Ottoman Empire and secretly taught children in churches and monasteries. The picture by the famous painter Nicolaos Gyzis, showing a white-bearded Pope reading to a group of girls and boys by candlelight, has influenced generations of Greeks, but it has little to do with historical reality. The fact is Greek schools were not forbidden under the Ottoman Empire."
» to the homepage (external link, Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » History, » Weltanschauung, » Greece, » Turkey
The crisis in Greece's education system
Amalia van Gent, the newspaper's correspondent in Greece, reports on the current crisis affecting Greece's entire education system – with demonstrations, strikes and the occupation of school buildings. "University professors protesting against the government's higher education reform programme have now joined the school teachers' protest. Meanwhile, the student protests involving the occupation of school buildings, appear to have spiralled completely out of control." Van Gent points out that education is very expensive in Greece. "The chronic crisis in the public education sector has created a 'shadow education system' that is worsening the situation. School teachers supplement their low salaries by giving private lessons. As a result the quality of education in state schools has suffered. Parents who can afford it send their children to private classes in foreign languages, music, maths, history and physics to compensate for the shortcomings of the state schools."
» to the homepage (external link, Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Greece
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