Stories about Ethnicity & Race from July, 2010
Georgia: Frozen conflicts, frozen happiness
With a little over a week to go before the second anniversary of the short war fought between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, Evolutsia turns its attention to another one of the country's two frozen conflicts, Abkhazia.
Chile: Mapuche on Hunger Strike over Anti-terror Law
On July 12, 2010, fourteen Mapuche indigenous detainees began a hunger strike to denounce the Chilean State’s treatment of Mapuche communities in southern Chile. The strike is aimed mainly at ending the use of Chile’s Anti-terrorism Law against Mapuche prisoners, a Pinochet-era decree widely used during the seventeen years of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Latvia: ‘The Harmony Center’ Political Bloc
All About Latvia writes about Saskaņas Centrs (“The Harmony Center”), Lativa's “most popular” political bloc.
Serbia, Kosovo: Another View on ICJ's Ruling
The Greater Surbiton writes that “the ICJ’s ruling on Kosovo sets a precedent that is dangerous only for tyrants and ethnic cleansers.” (More views are here and here.)
The Balkans: Regional Lottery vs Nationalism
Belgraded writes about the planned revival of “the one big regional lottery” in the former Yugoslavia and does not “miss the opportunity to point out just how stupid nationalism is.”
Georgia: Presidential faux pax
The Tbilisi Blues comments on the latest gaffe by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when he called his prime minister a term considered politically incorrect in the West. The blog says that it is surprised at how many people have reacted to the remarks so strongly given that even losing a...
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Border
This is cinemelo comments on Border, a 2009 film from director Harutyun Khachatryan. Ostensibly a tale of life in rural Armenia, the blog says that the most telling images come from barbed wire fences which illustrate the filmmaker's connection with his country and his hatred of the war and closed...
Spain: First Online Galician Newspaper Closes Down
The first monolingual Galician online newspaper Vieiros [gz] has closed down after 15 years because of financial problems. In a melancholy post, Galician reporter McShuíbhne says the loss of language online amounts to a loss of nation.
Israel: Rape by Deceit or Racism?
The recent conviction of rape by deceit of an Arab posing as a Jew to seduce a Jewish woman to engage in sexual intercourse has sparked conversations across the Hebrew blogosphere about the dire inequality between Jews and Arabs living in Israel. Gilad Lotan translates some of the reactions from Hebrew.
Trinidad & Tobago: Types of Discrimination
gspottt applauds new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for acknowledging that discrimination “includes, but is certainly not limited to, racial bias.”
Estonia: Folk Culture
Itching for Eestimaa writes about the Viljandi Folk Music Festival and the Estonian “folk culture.”
Armenia: Eating a way to peace
Ianyan says that food might represent the path to peace for cultures that place such significance in it. Referring to an Armenian bakery in the U.S.-Armenian Diaspora as well as responses to a recent guest entry on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations in the context of the still unresolved conflict over Nagorno Karabakh,...
Algeria: The Origins of the Berbers
Where did the Berbers originate from? Algerian linguist Lameen Souag attempts an answer here. Please read the comments too.
Bahamas: Race & History
“If…young Bahamians imagine that they can take their twenty-first century notions of black and white and translate them into what they may one day read about the history of this nation, they will never fully understand their country and its rich and difficult past”: Nicolette Bethel explains the significance of...
Moldova: Solving the Transnistria problem
Morning in Moldova comments on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to solve Moldova's Transnistria problem.
Sri Lanka: The Black July of 1983
D. B. S. Jeyaraj remembers the Black July of 1983 when anti-Tamil attacks were carried out by Sinhala mobs in different cities of Sri Lanka.
Philippines: Dayo and the Filipino Migration
The Marocharim Experiment designates the Filipino word “dayo” as descriptive of the Filipino experience of migration: “Diaspora assumes exile, deportation, the removal of identification. ‘Dayo,’ like ‘pakikipagsapalaran,’ represents the hope for return; of when, they can only tell.”
France: Rioting in the Itinerant Community after Shooting Sparks Row
On July 18th, after 22 year old Luigi Duquenet was shot and killed, riots shook the quiet town of Saint Aignan in the Loire valley and immediately revived law-and -order reactions while also highlighting the discriminatory practices towards Roma people.
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Moving the conversation forward
Le Retour (in 3 Parts), a blog by a Canadian-Armenian resident in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, comments on the three recent guest entries posted on The Caucasian Knot, the blog of Global Voices’ Caucasus regional editor, and summarized here. The blog looks forward to more conversations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
Armenia: More homophobic media reports
Unzipped: Gay Armenia continues to monitor the level of homophobia evident in the local media and comments on reports that members of the country's LGBT community meet next to the capital's municipality building.
Turkey: Armenians and Turks show Gay Pride
Despite a long history of animosity between Armenia and Turkey, Unzipped: Gay Armenia posts photographs of Armenians and Turks side by side at this year's Gay Pride rally in Istanbul. The blog says that the pictures are incredible.
