Europe: Still Some More on Eurovision

Posted 16 May 2007 21:05 GMT

Countries	Poland, Ukraine, Serbia
Topics	Arts & Culture, Humor, Music, International Relations, Ethnicity & Race, Migration & Immigration

Poland

Another mini-roundup of entries on last Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest: Anegdote encourages readers to rejoice - because they “accomplished something too by watching” Serbia's winning entry on TV; Belgrade 2.0 thinks Western Europeans should set up a bloc of their own next year, to counter the votes of the existing Eastern and Central European blocs; Reluctant Dragon notes that Serbian nationalists praising Marija Serifovic would've probably attacked her had they known “she was a Gypsy or if it turned out she actually was gay”; the beatroot argues that the contest “is all about nationalisms and politics”; Illyrian Gazette has more on bloc-voting and the potential profitability of appealing “to ‘eastern' tastes.”

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Updates about Western Europe

10 February 2012

Labor

Elsa Doladille writes [fr] on the Educators Without Borders blog : ” While the Guéant Bill in France aims at toughening the conditions for foreign students to obtain a work permit, Germany encourages the integration of students from abroad in their workforce.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

Human Rights

Pierre Vicari [fr] had this to say about the results of a survey [fr] which appeared on the site Lefigaro.fr, “To the ignoramuses who say that PACS and marriage are the same thing: No! A PACS does not provide any of the same rights as marriage! In addition, you intolerant people who do not want equality for all human beings, please tell us why because so far, despite the years that this debate has been going on, nobody has been able to put forth any real arguments.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

Georgia

As parliamentary elections approach this year in Georgia, to be followed by a presidential vote in 2013, allegations against Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire opposition politician, have appeared on the Internet. The alleged exposé of life in the Ivanishvili household by American teacher Patrick Downey, formerly employed by the businessman turned politician, have been met with skepticism from other expatriates in the former Soviet republic, and not least because of claims also made against Georgia in general, the U.S., and [his ancestral homeland of] Ireland. Downey had sought asylum or residency in the latter, according to a video blog, “[…] in light of recent uncontrolled and willfully ill-advised policies concerning the mass emigration of non-Irish persons to Ireland […].” Ivanishvili has responded by saying that Downey “is suffering from psychological problems.”

• Onnik Krikorian

8 February 2012

Religion

Hanan Ben Rhouma of Saphir News reports [fr] that: “The first Muslim public cemetery in France was open in Strasbourg on Monday, February 6. In a sense, it is a unique cemetery of that kind because it is the first to be managed by local public authorities based on the Alsace-Moselle Accord of 1801 [fr], which does not exist anywhere else in France.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

Italy

On the blog Presse-citron, Jean-Marie Le Ray wites about”Volunia” [fr], the new search engine in 12 languages invented by Professor Massimo Marchiori of the University of Padua (Italy) : “this is a new concept of navigation of our times I think a test, a laboratory of ideas , also with a prospective vision of the Semantic Web, which relies heavily on “voluntary and spontaneous” interaction with the user. In a sense, it is a participatory search engine trying to put the future in perspective in order to adapt the current search process better [fr]. “

• Abdoulaye Bah

Bulgaria: Thousands Take Part in Anti-ACTA Protests

Black March Boycott protest ACTA, do NOT buy Movies, Music or Video Games for the...
Great article,great job.Even though we have much bigger problems in Bulgaria than ACTA i feel...
Next time we will be there again :)