Stories about History from June, 2006
Brazil: Caetano Veloso's Biography
France-based Togolese bloggerKangni Alem writes (Fr): “Even though modesty is not Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso's forte, he has great talent as an agitator. He also exhibits phenomenal memory in the intellectual autobiography that was prompted by the New York Times to recount the birth of the artistic and musical movement...
Russia: Cheburashka Existed For Real
Konstantin Dlutskiy of Russian Marketing Blog writes about the cartoon character Cheburashka, its creator Eduard Uspenskiy and a new finding that claims that Cheburashka “actually did exist in reality.”
Poland: Communism Vs Capitalism
An angry comment forces the beatroot to continue an endless debate on whether life was better during communism.
Venezuela: Translations
Francisco of Caracas Chronicles has translated excerpts of a piece by Juan Carlos Zapata, which argues that a new power dynamic is evolving in Venezuela. Another translation comes from Guillermo Parra, who offers the english version of Antonio López Ortega's reflection on Arturo Uslar Pietri and the concept of “mestizaje”...
Japan: PM goes to Graceland
Perhaps having realized his trips to the Yasukuni war shrine were losing him votes, as seen on Mutantfrog, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is making a trip to a different, more widely-accepted shrine.
Poland: Poznan Uprising of 1956
The beatroot writes about a little-known 1956 uprising in Poznan, Poland, which preceded the famous Hungarian events.
China: Victims of China's Cultural Revolution, your stories can always be blogged (3/4)
Currently unable in today's political climate to have his years of research into the stories of those persecuted as right wing elements during China's ultra-left Cultural Revolution published, blogger-journalist Ran Yunfei (冉云飞) has since found an outlet in his blog. Last month he gave a lecture on his findings in...
Why No Mention of Slavery in African and Haitian Fiction?
Why is there so little mention of slavery in African and Haitian Fiction? That is the question that Togolese France-based blogger Kangni Alem addresses in a prolific and well-thought out blog entry. He deplores that African fiction does not count more passages on the different waves of slavery that have...
Russia: Photographs Critiqued
Wu Wei writes about Simon Roberts’ photos of Russia published in Granta and some of the realities they convey: “I know what he means, but I'm not sure he really succeeds. Where is the dignity in most of these pictures when you know enough about the background.”
Serbia: Search for Mladic, Not For Karadzic
Balkan Ghost of Finding Karadzic reproduces an article by Nedim Dervisbegovic on the neglected search for Karadzic: “Pressure on Serbia to capture Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic keeps rising, but his wartime boss Radovan Karadzic seems almost forgotten.”
Serbia: Serbian Radical Party
Srdjan Cvijic of The TransAtlantic Assembly writes on how the pro-EU parties in Serbia can use “a sharp rise of the populist, ex-Milosevic ally, Serbian Radical Party.”
Argentina: “Hostile Takeover”
Why did British Brigadier General William Carr Beresford invade Buenos Aires 200 years ago without approval from his superiors? Robert Wright lays out some theories.
Singapore: Dragon Boat Race
The blogger at Good Morning Yesterday talks about the Dragon Boat Festival in Singapore and posts videos of couple of dragonboat racing training sessions.
Haiti, Ghana, Brazil: Football allegiances
Ghana's inspired performance at this year's World Cup raises issues of allegiance for Haitian-American blogger Nightshift and some of his friends.
Mongolia: Past Crimes
Luke Distelhorst reports on how the Mongolian government is and isn't redressing the crimes of the communist government.
Ukraine: Trip to Chernobyl
MoldovAnn posts an account of her trip to the the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: “…wild land, more or less untouched by humans for the past 20 years. […] It was breathtaking, even, to see the vast expanse of lush green. At the same time, though, you can never forget that you...
Pakistan: Grand Trunk Road
Shirazi on the Grand Trunk road that spans South Asia. “Its angles have been yanked and diverted by history. It has witnessed the march of Aryans and victorious advance of Persian and Greek armies. It also saw the Scythians, White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, Turks, Mughals and Durranis making...
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh: Rethinking 1857
Sepia Mutiny discusses an article by William Dalrymple that explores the uprising in 1857. “I don’t think Dalrymple is saying that everyone involved in the Rebellion of 1857 was motivated by this kind of religious feeling (indeed, as I understand it there were as many or more Hindu sepoy rebels)....
Paraguay: German Presence
Posthegemony looks at the German presence and legacy in Paraguay.
Poland: Hungary In 1956 Vs Iraq Now
The beatroot writes about “the major difference between Hungary back then and Iraq today”: “Hungarians led the uprising, which was later crushed by a Superpower. In Iraq today, a Superpower has ‘liberated’ Iraq and is now experiencing an insurgency by some Iraqis (and a few cross- border terrorist weirdos).” He...
Serbia: Football and the EU
Doug Muir of A Fistful of Euros writes about Serbia's poor performance at World Cup and the country's slim chances of getting into the EU anytime soon.
