Stories about Ethnicity & Race from April, 2011
Azerbaijan: Overbearing Landlords
Aaron in Azerbaijan recounts two upsetting experiences with renting apartments in Azerbaijan. The blog notes how irritating it can be when landlords appear anytime they want without notice or reason and even decide to stay overnight or impose their own way of keeping things in order.
Hungary: “Refusing to Face the Past”
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the revisions of history initiated by Hungarian politicians, including the history of the Holocaust in Hungary: “The new constitution will state that whatever happened between March 19, 1944 and May 2, 1990 simply doesn't exist. Or, more precisely, it existed but entirely independently from the Hungarians....
Bosnia & Herzegovina: “Remembering War in Sarajevo”
Café Turco writes about the April 6 commemoration of the liberation of Sarajevo in WWII and the beginning of the siege of the city in 1992.
Russia: “Political Schizophrenia”
A Good Treaty writes about “Russia’s bastard democracy” – which “drives most anyone to a sort of civic manic depression” – and journalist Oleg Kashin's political “mood swings.”
Trinidad & Tobago: No Impartiality
B.C. Pires suggests that the former head of the Police Service Commission has shown his true colours by “putting out a public call to police officers who feel they are being victimized”, saying: “So. It was ‘an Indian thing’ all along.”
Ukraine: Eyewitness Video of a Racist Attack on Kyiv Metro
Slava Baranskiy witnessed (RUS) the beating of a black African man on a crowded metro train in the center of Kyiv, between Khreshchatyk and Arsenalna stations, on April 2. Baranskiy was in an adjacent train car and recorded the beating on video, which he later gave to the police, who,...
Trinidad & Tobago: On Race
“We need to work hard at bringing all of our people back fully into the national family if we ever hope to advance as a nation…”: Plain Talk tackles the issue of racism.
Trinidad & Tobago: Equal Representation
“Mohammed made an ill-advised move earlier in his appointment in a confrontation with two police officers and lost a lot of credibility thereafter, and there was subsequently a national petition to have him removed from office–but surely the bigger picture is that he is right about the imbalance in the...
Azerbaijan: Novruz Bayramı
Novruz, a holiday celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan and other countries, was once again also observed in Azerbaijan on 21 March although festivities started weeks before. This year was no different, and Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in the former Soviet republic once again commented on the event.
Trinidad & Tobago: PSC Chair Removed
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog posts a release from the Office of the President, confirming that he has revoked the appointment of the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, following the latter's controversial statement about an ethnic imbalance in the service; meanwhile, B.C. Pires republishes a friend's Letter to the...
Slovakia: The Roma People, “Livin’ On the Edge”
Tibor Blazko writes about the problems that Slovakia's Roma people are facing and translates some of the Slovak netizens' reactions to the news that an international NGO is planning to file a complaint with the European Commission regarding the country's failure to remove all forms of racial discrimination.
Trinidad & Tobago: Mohammed's Statements
B.C. Pires and Guanaguanare take note of the fallout over the recent statements of the Police Service Commission Chair, which suggested that there is a racial imbalance in the service.
