Stories about Ethnicity & Race from June, 2007
Serbia: Asne Seierstad's Book
Bosnia Blog and Bosnia Vault review Asne Seierstad's book about Serbia.
The Balkans: One Man's War Stories
Balkanizer runs the first installment of a story of one man's war experiences: “I was nine years old when Germany invaded Yugoslavia. I was 60 years when war came again to my village in Bosnia.”
Lebanon: Living Through Terror
This was yet another violent week here in Lebanon. In addition to the military action, taking place in the North between the Lebanese Army and the militants, and the almost regular explosions taking place around the country, this week was marred by another assassination, writes Moussa Bashir, who brings us the latest conversations from the Lebanese blogosphere.
Former Soviet Union: Victims of Communism Memorial
As the Victims of Communism Memorial opens Washington, D.C., J. Otto Pohl lists “the nationalities deported in their virtual entirety by the Soviet government from their homelands to distant areas of the USSR”: “In total they numbered nearly 2,000,000 people. Over 500,000 of them or more than one in four...
Touring Libyan Blogs: Is the Arabic Language Dead?
Libyan bloggers mourn the death of the Arabic language as more Libyans resort to blogging in English. What makes them blog in a language other than their mother tongue? What do they think of the phenomena? And what is the relationship between language, religion, globalisation and terrorism? Fozia Mohamed summarises the raging debate going on in her blogosphere here.
Jamaica: Caribbean Americans and the American dream
Geoffrey Philp confesses that he had no intention of becoming a Caribbean-American, because he wanted to be known only as a Jamaican writer – but he now realises that Caribbean-Americans “have had a significant role in shaping the conscience of America”.
Bahamas: Race, not Racism
“It turns out that the things that we have been taught to regard as fundamental to our own identity here in the Bahamas…are based on a lie. But it's a lie that is alive and well in the Bahamas and in the world.” Nicolette Bethel continues to explore the concept...
Ukraine: Berestechko
Olechko re-visits Berestechko, the site of the 1651 historical battle, for the first time since a school trip many years ago.
Philippines: Must Visit Museum
Senor Enriques recommends the Bahay Tsinoy Museum as a must see. The museum celebrates Chinese heritage in Philippines. “ With great embarrassment I admit it was only when I moved back to Manila from New York that I finally realized the immense influence of the Chinese in our local history;...
Vietnam: America and Racism
VietPundit is offended by people who think of US as a racist country. “The truth is that there’s less racism in America than anywhere else on earth. Just from the little corner of Asia where I came from: the Vietnamese hate the Chinese, who can’t stand the Japanese, who despise...
Eastern & Central Europe: Children's Books in Romani
Children's books in the Romani language are a rarity, writes TOL's Romantic, but a teacher from Ukraine has recently published a few items.
Sri Lanka: Bloggers react to eviction of Tamils in Colombo
The Sri Lankan Blogosphere is reacting strongly to the recent move by the authorities to evacuate some Tamil people in Colombo. A lot of blogs have expressed anger and rage at the government's actions, while others have attempted to understand the reasons for this move. Another debate appears to if...
Iran: Why Iranians use the term of Persia?
Plateau writes that most Iranians in using the term “Persia” nowadays want to distance themselves from the Islamic Republic Regime of (Iran) and the likes of Ahmadinejad, in the eyes of those non-Iranians who cannot or will not make a distinction between Iranian People and the despicable regime ruling Iran.The...
Ukraine: Rusyns
Dykun returns to blogging with a post on the plight of Ukraine's Rusyns, who were recently recognized as an indigenous nationality of the Transcarpathian region.
Jamaica: Customs Woes
The alleged involvement of Caribbean nationals in the recent JFK terror plot complicates Jamaican Marlon James’ entry into the US: “Maybe I do come to the States too much. I have never been to Europe, or Africa, or South America or even most of the Caribbean. Why was I coming...
Iran:False Obsession over being Aryan
IranianTruth reports when in the world have Iranians ever obsessed about being “Aryan”? This clearly seems like a modern phenomenon born out a sense of inferiority to Western nations. The man correctly noted that if we look at the vast majority of our past dynasties had no ethnic tie to...
Hungary: Famous Magyars
Pestcentric writes about famous Hungarians – which the newly-elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy is not: “The French can have him. And if he turns out to be a disaster, […] let’s be glad he doesn’t consider himself a Magyar.”
Russia: Prominent Roma Scientists
TOL's Romantic posts bios of two prominent female Roma scientists – chemist Natalia Pankova and biologist Lubov Pankova – and their father, Nikolay Pankov, famous for his translation to the Romani language of Aleksandr Pushkin’s poem “Gypsies.”
More on Moldovans in Italy
Lyndon Allin translates another blog comment about Moldovans living and working in Italy - this time by a commenter named Snejana: "…when I write about Moldova I get very emotional, because I don’t understand why life is so difficult. On every corner in Italy there are Moldovans looking for work which they hope will make them some money and allow them to pay off their debts and send some money home to their children."
Estonia: Varbla Cemetery
Itching for Eestimaa is on the road again, this time visiting his wife's great-grandparents’ graves in Varbla: “Anna learned of her impending deportation — for being the wife of a Estonian Liberation War veteran — and hid in the forests with her youngest daughter for enough time that they stopped...
South Asia: A Brown Doctor on the telly
Sepia Mutiny on the slow increase of brown faces on American television. “I do realize that because of stereotypes about Asians we’re likely to see Asian representation on TV increase soon, but I want more than just parity for yellows and brownz. And yes, I do also realize that TV...
