Global Voices

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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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Haemus journal Vol.1 (2012)
http://haemus.mk

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Hungarian Spectrum writes about the ongoing diplomatic confrontation between Romania and Hungary, sparked by the Romanian authorities’ ban on flying the flag of the Székely Land, an ethnic Hungarian enclave currently demanding territorial autonomy within Romania.

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).

The Economist's Eastern Approaches and Bucharest Life comment on the results of the Dec. 9 parliamentary elections in Romania.

Romania's general election is scheduled to take place on Dec. 9. Bucharest Life notes that “this has been the most lacklustre Romanian election campaign since 1990″ and that “it’s not the outcome of the election that we need to pay attention to, it’s the outcome of the outcome”:

[...] Given how boring the campaign itself has been, the week or two after the election could be fun.

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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.

At OpenDemocracy.net, Luke Dale-Harris writes about the Romanian Orthodox Church's “threatening influence on democracy in the country.”

Gabriela Ionita of Power&Politics World summarizes ongoing anti-government protests in Romania, draws parallels to the Arab spring, and asks if this is the start of a European wave of revolutions.

Power & Politics World reports on the protests in Romania, sparked by budget cuts and the resignation of deputy health minister Raed Arafat. Csíkszereda Musings writes about Raed Arafat and the government's policies: “Basescu and his government seem hell bent on using the excuse of ‘austerity’ to destroy education, healthcare and pretty much everything else that the country actually needs.” GV's Ruslan Trad is posting links to media reports on the protests on the GV-CEE Facebook page.

An anti-discrimination Roma flash mob/dance duel in Bucharest (video – here), and a report by Bulgarian Roma students on media coverage of Roma-related issues – at TOL's Roma Transitions blog. Education for the Roma children in the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – at the Economist's Eastern Approaches blog. (Update: TOL's East of Center also has a post on “the Czech Republic’s segregated education policy” for the Roma students.)

Spotted by Locals: Experience cities like a local features a few dozen locations, including CEE cities of Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, Ljubljana, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. A random sample post from Zagreb, Croatia: Hrelić Flea Market – The Aleph of Zagreb; from Bucharest, Romania: The Haunted House – Armenian Neighbourhood; from Sofia, Bulgaria: Nissim – A True Old-School Bookstore.

Jovana Tozija wrote lovingly about making ajvar, a traditional favorite winter provision in Macedonia and some other post-Ottoman countries.

Watcher.com.ua reports [uk] that, according to a 6-month study of 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries conducted by Pando Networks, Romania (1,909KBps), Bulgaria (1,611KBps), Lithuania (1,462KBps) and Latvia (1,377KBps) have the second, third, fourth and fifth highest download speeds in the world, while Ukraine has been ranked #8 (1,190KBps).

Nelson Duque at The View East discusses the repressive role of the security service, Securitate, in Ceaucescu's communist Romania.

Edward Hugh of Baltic Economy Watch argues that Central and East European economies are more exposed to risk in case of a Eurozone crisis than what financial ratings say.

Hungarian Spectrum writes about the relationship between the Orbán government and the Hungarian minority in Romania.

Richard Byrne of Balkans via Bohemia writes about the playwright Lucian Blaga and a renaissance for Romanian 20th century literature and drama.

Gabriela Ionita of Power&Politics World publishes an interview with Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, on Russia, Romania, and European relations.

Csíkszereda Musings writes about some of the problems with the Romanian education system – here and here.

Kosmopolito writes about Romania's “clumsy way” to the Schengen zone.

The Hungarian Spectrum writes – here and here – about the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) natural gas pipeline project and Hungary's possible involvement in it.

“Roma reports” at Pestiside.hu: a video about a “Roma fashion show” recently held in Budapest; and a Romanian Roma music video that “seems to have… borrowed quite a bit” from a Hungarian Roma music video.

Csíkszereda Musings writes about Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland's film, set and filmed in Transylvania.

War and Peace posts a mini-review of Sholem Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman; Csíkszereda Musings reviews William Blacker's Along the Enchanted Way; Poemless wonders why there are “so few translations of contemporary Russian authors available to the English speaking world.”

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

L'Acqua Al Deserto discovered [MKD] that Romanian singer Irena had recently released “a copy” of Milioner, a 2007 single by Macedonian singer/songwriter Elena Ristevska with music by Darko Dimitrov, also available in Serbian, and in English (with lyrics by Leroy Chambers). Irena's website claims [RUM] that the author of ‘her’ version is Gabi Jianu.

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.

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%.