Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

This month, Rob Martineau, Tom Stancliffe, and Guy Hacking are running 1,000 miles from Odessa to Dubrovnik, via Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Croatia, as part of the Run For Love 1000 campaign, whose aim is to raise funds for Love146, a UK charity that “gives care and hope to trafficked children, and to raise awareness of the scale of human trafficking across Europe.” Follow their run on the RFL1000 website, on Facebook, and on Twitter; support the runners by donating here (215 donations have been made so far, with nearly £12,500 raised).

Martenitsas on a blossoming tree.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Μάρτης [el], мартеница [bg], мартинка [mk], mărțișor [ru]…however you call it, an ancient tradition [el] with multiple variations that takes place in the Balkans. So, weave your red-and-white threads for protection against the “evil eye” or to welcome Spring!

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On January 23, 2013, an excerpt from the annual report of l'ACAT-France, A World of Torture 2013, makes a fresh assessment of the state of torture in the world [fr]:

“A report called A World of Torture in 2013, assesses torture practices that continue to be alarming, from Pakistan to Italy, by way of South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Bolivia. From authoritarian regimes to democratic countries, none are exempt from criticism on the topic. In 2013, torture remains as endemic, omnipresent and multi-faceted as ever”.

Black Sea News publishes Natalya Belitser's paper [en] – “Transnistrian Conflict: State of Affairs and Prospects of Settlement” – written for the international conference on “frozen conflicts” in Europe, which was held in September 2012 in Bled, Slovenia (via Andrei Klimenko).

A poster for the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2012.

The Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2012 opens in Tirana today. This is the third time that the festival is being held; this year's theme is “TALK TO ME – multilingualism and communication”; the program of the three-day event is here.

On June 30, young social media activists from the cities of Chișinău and Bălți, and from Transnistria and Gagauzia, are meeting for a “get to know your neighbor” event [ro, ru], to discuss issues relevant for young people who grew up separated by geopolitics and the role of social networks and the Internet in their lives, as well as to brainstorm social initiatives that they could carry out together.

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova draws attention to the candidacy of centre-left politician Oazu Nantoi for the post of President of Moldova – a post which is indirectly elected by parliament and has proven impossible to fill since the 2010 parliamentary elections, leaving the country with merely acting presidents.

Bloggers discuss [ru] the 30-day arrest [ru] of Eduard Bagirov [ru], writer and a blogger close to pro-Kremlin propagandists, in Moldova. Oleg Kozyrev says [ru], Bagirov's arrest is connected with his activity as a commentator on Moldova unrest in 2009. Kommersant, however, provides [ru] the official Moldovan version – Bagirov (known for his aggressive style of writing (often with physical threats to other bloggers)) is charged with the organization of post-election protests in Chisinau.

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova comments on and argues against rumours about an upcoming German-Russian proposal on the status of breakaway province Transnistria within a federal state of Moldova.

Notes on the Moldova election results – at Democratist and Morning in Moldova (here and here).

The Kalpak writes about a short trip to Tiraspol, Transnistria. Morning in Moldova has more on the situation with Transnistria.

Morning in Moldova shares his views and analysis of results of Moldova's 28 November parliamentary elections.

Photos from Gagauz Yeri – the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia – at Moldovarious.com.

A compilation of mock Independence Day greetings to Moldova's interim president, reflecting the current geopolitical situation – at Morning in Moldova.

Morning in Moldova comments on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to solve Moldova's Transnistria problem.

Morning in Moldova argues that Moldovans only look east to Russia and west to the European Union, in the process mentally shutting out the rest of the world.

Updates on the gas dispute between Russia and Belarus – at Leopolis, Jamestown Foundation Blog, and BelarusDigest. A May 28 post on Moldova's relationship with Gazprom – at RFE/RL's Transmission.

Sleeping With Pengovsky writes – here and here – about this past Sunday's referendum on the Arbitration Agreement between Slovenia and Croatia; posts Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of The Definitive Guide to the Arbitrage Agreement Between Slovenia and Croatia (links to the earlier installments are here); and notes that “the Arbitration Agreement can (not necessarily will) become a model for solving similar disputes in the region.” More background on the Sunday's referendum – at ESI's Rumeli Observer.

Anatoly Karlin of Sublime Oblivion discusses the relationship between economic and demographic crisis in Russia and Eurasia.

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova comments on a recent demographic report about Moldova's ageing population and makes a few suggestions of how to deal with the problem.

Worldwide Facebook statistics – at Facebakers.com: in Central & Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic has most users – 2,634,300 people, the country's overall ranking is #29, penetration is 25.8%. It is followed by Poland (#31), which has 2,604,440 users, with 6.77% penetration. Serbia (#41) is CEE's #3: 1,997,540 users, penetration is 27.07%. Russia is #56, with 1,112,680 users and penetration of 0.79%.

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova argues that Moldova's centre-right politicians underestimate the power of political forces aligned with Russia and thus put the country's democratization and plans to join the European Union in peril.

An expat's homemade wine production diary from Moldova – at Moldovarious.com.

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova argues against parliamentary immunity as part of a new Moldovan constitution.

Morning in Moldova writes about the issue of Moldova's military neutrality: “In Moldova's case, neutrality has just made the country weak and defenceless in the face of very real aggressors who control a large chunk of the country's territory (the Russians and Transnistrians) [...].”

Eternal Remont writes about the destruction of a public menorah in the capital of Moldova and cites a response issued by the Russian Orthodox Church: “We believe that this unpleasant incident could have been avoided if the menorah had been placed near a memorial for victims of the Holocaust.”

Information Policy links to a BusinessWeek/TOL article on social networks and the media in Central and Eastern Europe.

Scraps of Moscow writes about Moldova's “‘linguistic’ divides.”

At OpenDemocracy.net, Louis O'Neill writes about the post-election politics in Moldova: “All Moldovans should be proud of what they have done with these elections. Let us hope they can be equally proud of their leaders in the next months and beyond.”

A Fistful of Euros reports that “a number of pro-Russian astroturf websites” have vanished.