tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-321210112025-10-21T22:01:15.120+03:00All kinds of ideas, comments, political ranting, works, photos and reviews, purely subjective of course, and now from a Franco-Greek perspective but mainly written in English. Your comments are always welcome.Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-83192886878297474912020-03-20T11:38:00.000+02:002020-03-20T11:38:17.021+02:00

Today has been a mentally gruelling and frustrating experience. The Centre requires field agents, while not on a mission, to participate in the training of new or prospective recruits at the base. My partner and myself were assigned a young prospective agent and made him go through some of the hoops of our trade. Exercises included foreign languages, pattern recognition, friend or foe

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-35050089768191449362020-03-18T11:52:00.002+02:002020-03-19T15:03:00.063+02:00

The city streets are empty and I drive the car in near silence, passing the rare open shops who braved the curfew and the few masked silhouettes hiding from the invisible attacker. My mission: buy additional ammunition from an undercover friendly supplier and deliver these plus two mysterious packages in a blind drop to my agent. Masked and gloved, I sneak pass along militians who've arrested

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-42308814326780601622018-01-25T17:34:00.000+02:002018-01-25T17:34:07.833+02:00

I have now been living in Greece for more than 5 years and I can say it's been quite an experience. In many ways, Greece is idealised in Western Europe as much as it is demonised, especially during the last 9 years. The terrible economic crisis that has struck Europe has been particularly nasty for Greece, a country which was ill prepared, to say the least, to face the brunt of it. This has been

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-5356472428609256262015-03-19T15:59:00.000+02:002015-03-20T08:25:20.180+02:00

Dear readers, Long time no see, eh? (now I sound like a Canadian, to some of you...). I have very poor excuses for this long absence. But one of the true reasons is that I have started a weekly column on the Greek Liberal Monitor. Of course, that's a lot of energy spent that I can't spend on this blog. I know, that column is not that old, and I've been absent from here for a much longer time.

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-67810877061305267822014-06-19T18:33:00.002+03:002014-06-19T18:34:11.690+03:00

Many people wondered why Golden Dawn did so well in the Greek EU elections, despite being presented as a criminal and violent organisation. As a French living in Greece and as an ex-candidate for D66 in the Netherlands, now trying to help Greek social liberal Kinonia Axion, I think it is pretty clear why Golden Dawn is having good results, despite the heavy charges weighing on its leaders.

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-68731258591130280002013-10-27T13:21:00.002+02:002020-07-15T11:16:53.642+03:00

Speech given in Athens, on 25th October 2013, on the point of view of a social liberal foreigner on Greece's current situation.   Good afternoon, goede middag, καλι σπέρα σας. It is an honor for me that Κοινονια Αξιον (Society of Values) and D66 asked me to give you a summary overview of the Greek situation today. First, I would like to explain from which point of view I will share

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com3Michalakopoulou 114, Athens 115 27, Greece37.981297300000008 23.75896199999999712.459262800000008 -17.549632000000003 63.503331800000012 65.067556tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-18870513182275482962013-10-27T13:16:00.000+02:002013-10-27T13:27:11.669+02:00

Text of a speech given in Athens, on 26th October 2013, for the Social Liberal meeting organised by Koinonia Action to prepare the 2014 European Elections. Good morning, As a former member of D66 Rotterdam, I was asked by Hugo van Haastert to give you a short overview of the History of our party. I hope it will help give you all an idea of how it appeared in Dutch politics. This History was

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0Michalakopoulou 114, Athens 115 27, Greece37.981297300000008 23.75896199999999737.975039800000012 23.748876999999997 37.987554800000005 23.769046999999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-7817635172202976882013-10-12T10:38:00.000+03:002020-07-15T11:19:15.287+03:00

I know I haven't posted in a long time. Learning Greek, working from home and so on haven't left me with the free hours I was hoping for. Nevertheless, I have been recently involved in political activities again. I would like to it a bit with you. As you might know, I was involved in the Netherlands with the D66 party (social liberal, ALDE member). I even participated in the municipal elections

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-74650069478839698102012-07-23T09:06:00.000+03:002013-10-12T10:07:01.084+03:00

Greece has passed "successfully" the test of the elections, if you look at it from the point of view of European institutions and, more generally, of North-West European governments. A center right government has been elected, joining the fledgeling forces of Nea Democratia (winner because of the 50 MP's bonus) to the beaten down PASOK and the Democratiki Aristera alibi (DA, the untainted ones if

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-58270955857165062972012-06-19T12:15:00.001+03:002012-06-19T13:03:03.127+03:00

Unless you have lived under a stone for the last five years, you would know that there were elections in Greece to vote a new Parliament in. And you might know that it was the second time in a month, due to the inability of the politicians to work together for the good of the nation to form a new government. This second round meant that the winner would be nearly automatically ensured to be

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0Athens, Greece37.9753357 23.736149737.9252692 23.6571857 38.0254022 23.815113699999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-74554440296849546692012-06-11T21:00:00.000+03:002012-06-11T21:01:57.544+03:00

It is very difficult to understand Greece with North-West Europe references. Not that Greece is particularly "exotic" or "alien", but mostly because it has a rather troubled recent History that most foreigners or visiting tourists don't know well (and I was one of these poorly informed people). The political landscape in Greece used to be rather simple, at least seen from the outside, opposing

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-60329797025369437922012-06-01T13:15:00.001+03:002012-06-11T21:02:28.235+03:00

After nine months of letting this blog pretty much slowly die, I have decided that my personal circumstances were justifying a relaunch. Due to private reasons, I just relocated to Greece, in Nea Ionia (Attika). Many friends and relative have been a bit shocked or at least surprised by this decision, considering that Greece is going currently through quite difficult times. The country is

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com2Nea Ionia, Greece38.040727 23.75584738.028221499999994 23.736106 38.0532325 23.775588tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-9919265887605550332012-01-18T12:02:00.000+02:002012-01-18T13:14:48.448+02:00

Happy New Year! OK, it is horribly late... But I wish you all a pleasant new year 2012. I especially wish it to be better than 2011, which was an execrable year in so many ways. New year means new good resolutions. This apple is there as a symbol of sound(er) eating and healthy diet... Enjoy! Tweet

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-74711952248551179242011-10-07T18:34:00.004+03:002011-10-07T18:35:18.988+03:00

Democracy (as understood in the Western concept of the word) has existed in all kinds of ways and institutional constructions. All of these constructions have included the idea that one of the fundamental rights of the citizens was to organize themselves in political structures conveniently called "parties". Gathering of people interested in the same ideas, as well as vehicles for the personal

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-19688939991287580362011-10-06T15:33:00.000+03:002011-10-06T18:04:54.188+03:00

Greece, the land where democracy was invented, entered the European Union in 1981. While we Europeans are all confronted to the worst existential crisis since the Rome treaty, Greece has taken the brunt of it. I am using the word "existential" on purpose, to avoid "economic". Indeed, I want to prove, by use of the Greek example, that the crisis we are currently experiencing is only economic in

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-61544401155494187292011-10-05T09:06:00.001+03:002011-10-06T15:34:25.496+03:00

So yesterday, Russia and China vetoed a very mild United Nations resolution including sanctions threats on Syria. The resolution was a typical concoction by Western countries, aimed at the Syrian military regime. Nothing too harsh, mind you, not just to appease Moscow and Beijing, but also for reasons linked to the complex Syrian internal mix-up as well as the regional maze of interests. Yet,

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-29109430378264670822011-10-04T12:37:00.000+03:002011-10-06T13:23:57.527+03:00

This week, i have decided to work on my blog again. I am happy to see that Blogger added all kinds of new features. One of the most important for me is the possibility to add fixed pages to it (like with WordPress). This way, I don't need to maintain two different sites any more (the old fixed one and the blog). So from now on, you will be able to discover my photography work on display by

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-684062990599539002011-07-15T13:10:00.003+03:002011-10-05T12:26:51.680+03:00

Dear readers, I discovered Google+ a couple of days ago, thanks to my good friend Draz. I have to say that I am quite impressed by Page's team work on this. I know, one should not compare it to Facebook, because it was not intended to compete with it. Yeah, right... It does a lot of stuff that Facebook does not do too well, or similar stuff but slightly better. To be completely honest, it also

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-77187774213471025232011-03-17T10:48:00.005+02:002011-10-06T15:35:17.943+03:00

Tweet Dear readers, My girlfriend had a funny remark this morning about the Dutch armed forces. Apparently, the new defence budget of the Netherlands includes no replacement for its tanks or transport helicopters. She said: "what is the point of a modern army without tanks? They really should get rid of it completely if they can't do it seriously". I had to laugh but to give her the point. I

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-61496542657162971422011-03-01T15:49:00.004+02:002011-10-05T13:34:57.459+03:00

Tweet Dear readers, It is a weakness of traditional media and particularly TV stations to select and filter information in a way which will hold in a traditional 25 minutes news bulletin. Unfortunately, this means that most channels and even newspapers will simply let some important pieces fall from the prime time news. This get even worse when there is abundance of events. No time was a better

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-6584334437860301702011-02-22T11:27:00.003+02:002011-10-06T15:38:37.617+03:00

Dear readers, After this very long pause in writing, I have been motivated by the Middle-East revolutions to put out this new piece. The main reason was my total disgust feeling when watching the reaction of European institutions and European countries to the insurrection. I am not going to elaborate too much, but suffice to say that these reactions have varied from worried indifference to the

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-24847348764417250522010-04-23T10:45:00.003+03:002011-10-06T15:54:21.722+03:00

Dear readers, The BBC reports that Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's chief, declared that NATO should retain nuclear capacities as long as there would be rogue regimes and terrorists threatening the Alliance. He added that such threats also made a serious anti-missile defense system all the more important. While I completely agree with mister Rasmussen's second statement, the first one is, to say

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-11892703540349070692010-01-21T22:42:00.002+02:002010-01-21T22:44:55.988+02:00

Dear readers,Looks like the website Blacksmiths of Lebanon has gone into hiding. Strangely, it is now an invitation only site. That sounds bizarre for te rather outspoken collective of Lebanese bloggers behind the site. If anyone has news about these gentlemen, please comment. I am actually a little bit worried.

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-9692281242993122952009-12-31T13:26:00.002+02:002011-10-06T15:50:51.080+03:00

Dear readers, I have been a very bad blogger in 2009, inflicting only a couple of blog posts on you. I am very ashamed of this, so I decided to finish this year with something useful. So for all of you living in Rotterdam, Dutchies of Alochtones, here is a couple of tips from my 2009 experience to use in 2010 (and some shameful publicity for some friends of mine). * Restaurant (classic): Met de

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32121011.post-82588489267826323952009-08-21T12:21:00.005+03:002009-08-21T12:53:47.528+03:00

Dear readers,I have listened with disgust to many of the comments made in the UK and in the Netherlands about the so-called Icesave deal. This is a nasty piece of chauvinistic bullshit if there is one. Let's go back to the facts. In 2007 and 2008, many Dutch and British citizens (as well as most Icelandic people) subscribed to Landbanski saving accounts which were proposing extraordinary returns,

Jean-Baptiste Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00357296593091267312noreply@blogger.com6