December 31st, 2008
Window on Eurasia writes that Central Asian migrant workers in the Urals are considering forming a “Muslim trade union.”
December 27th, 2008
Ukrainiana writes about president Yushchenko's answer to the question that got over 85,000 online votes: “A straight question needs a straight answer. Instead, we got a rambling lecture, replete with peripheral thinking.”
Ukrainiana writes about the explosion in an apartment building in Yevpatoria, Crimea, which has killed at least 27 people.
December 26th, 2008
The New York Times‘ Clifford J. Levy writes on The Lede about the first anniversary of the paper's interactive Russian-language LJ blog: “The results far exceeded my expectations. The blog has received more than 26,000 comments, and has become an important tool for the newspaper to better understand and explain Russia. The title of the blog is, “Tell Americans and the World about Russia,” and Russians have done just that.”
December 24th, 2008
A holiday season roundup: Tanja of Czechmatediary recalls family Christmas celebrations of her childhood, writes about the Czech Christmas Mass, and shares a recipe of Vanocka (“Christmas bread”); CzechFolks.com writes about a calorie-free yet mouth-watering way of decorating a holiday table with crocheted Czech Christmas cookies; The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia decorates a traditional Slovak Christmas tree; the POLSKI blog writes about Polish Christmas food; Belgraded writes this about the ban of Santa Claus (aka Deda Mraz) in Bosnian kindergartens: “[…] this fear of Deda Mraz is quite possibly one of the best proofs that he really does exist! Yay! In that spirit, happy holidays to all of you out there, regardless if you’re religious or not.”