· December, 2006

Stories about Ethnicity & Race from December, 2006

The Balkans: Main 2006 Stories

  29 December 2006

Ed of Balkan Baby lists the most important regional stories of 2006: “Slovenia moves towards Eurozone,” “Croatia and Serbia Disappoint at World Cup,” “Croatia Stop-Start its way towards EU,” etc.

Russia: Kalmyk Deportation

  28 December 2006

Yet another sad anniversary from J. Otto Pohl: “Sixty-three years ago the Stalin regime deported the vast majority of the Kalmyk population from their historic homeland to Siberia.”

Guadeloupe, India: 152nd Anniversary of Tamul Hindus’ Arrival

  26 December 2006

Atout Guadeloupe announces (Fr) that Guadeloupeans of Hindu Tamul origin celebrated the 152nd anniversary of their ancestors’ arrival in Guadeloupe on Dec. 24. Says the feed: “Hindus arrived after the second abolition of slavery.” The ceremony which took place in capital Pointe-a-Pitre included offerings of flowers to the ocean and...

Brunei: Origins of Wedding Rituals

  25 December 2006

The Daily Brunei Resources blog traces the origin of Malay wedding custom of bunga telur. Bunga telur is the token gift presented to the guests who attend a wedding.

Sri Lanka: Discrimination and those of the Indian Origin

  21 December 2006

Moju on workers in Sri Lanka of Indian origin being paid less than average and the troubling times for this ethnic community. “Their call on an indefinite strike to raise their daily wages to an amount of Rupees 300 from Rupees 135 per day is staged when elsewhere in the...

Estonia, Latvia: EU for Non-Citizens

  21 December 2006

Itching for Eestimaa reports that the Council of the European Union now permits non-citizen residents of Latvia and Estonia to travel in the EU without visas: “Hopefully those newcomers that couldn't make it in Estonia can press their luck elsewhere.”

China: Xinjiang 2021

  21 December 2006

Michael from the opposite end of China blogs about his wild speculation of Xinjiang in 2021. The post was written in response to a call by neweurasia.net.

France, Minorities: Integration v. Identity Politics

  20 December 2006

Pondering the tension between integration and now fashionable identity politics, Fenetres Sur/Windows On writes (Fr): “Can we really demand recognition of our “community”, desire to live as such, outside of the common trunk of citizens and at the same time ask for the same rights as everybody else? We need...

Trinidad & Tobago: Retro BWIA

  20 December 2006

As Trinidad and Tobago's indigenous airline comes to the end of its life (BWIA will cease operations at the end of the year and reopen on January 1 under a new moniker, Caribbean Airlines), Thebookman refers to a BWIA ad from 1972 and says, “Perhaps in a couple of decades,...

Estonia: Amnesty International Report

  19 December 2006

David McDuff of A Step At A Time (and Edward Lucas) – on Amnesty International's “report on Estonia which – almost incredibly – charges that country with “human rights abuses” allegedly committed against its Russian-speaking residents.”

Bahamas: Bicentenary of Abolition of Slave Trade

  18 December 2006

Why should the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade by Great Britain be commemorated? According to Nicolette Bethel, “the short answer is that it marks the beginning of a process of emancipation that involved all parties — the slaveowners as well as the slaves. The long answer...

Russia: Caucasus Hatreds, and Peace

  13 December 2006

The First Chechen War began twelve years ago, in December 1994; the Second Chechen War followed five years later. Still, Chechnya remains part of the Russian Federation. Timur Aliev – LJ user timur_aliev, a native of Grozny, an ethnic Chechen, a journalist, editor-in-chief of The Chechen Society newspaper, the Chechnya...

East Timor: Native Ceremony

  12 December 2006

Dili-gence gives us a glimple into a native ceremony in East Timor. “One part of the ceremony involved the symbolic killing of a pig. Probably in deference to the large foreign presence, the actual kill was carried out away from the Palacio but body parts from the pig are presented...