Stories about History from September, 2006
Belize: Independence
Lee Vanderwalker reminds us that September is the month Belizeans celebrate their country's independence from Great Britain and offers a “quick, bad-memory recap of historical events,” which begins: “On September 10, 1798, the English Baymen who were loggers, farmers and pirates, along with their slaves beat the crap out of...
Poland: The Week's News Selection
In the past week, the beatroot has covered these subjects: a Polish goalkeeper in “the wonderful world of Scottish sectarian football”; 26 years later, something's wrong with the Polish Solidarnosc; a missile defense competition between Polish and Czech governments that both “would rather lose”; Elton John meets Lech Walesa at...
Estonia: Historical Revisionism
Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonia's Russian community and the differing interpretations of history: “Under the premise of spooky Stalinist history, everything the USSR did up until the very moment that Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 was just fine, including the partionining of Europe. Because how...
Pakistan: Clerk's House
More history at Metroblogging Lahore. “Entrance to the Maktab Khana (Clerk's House). It is a small cloistered court surrounded by arcades in which clerks use to sit, recording the names of visitors. The inscription outside tells that King Jahangir built Maktab Khana in 1618.”
Bangladesh: Google Archives
Drishtipat on the treasures inside Google News Archives, and on reading of Bangladesh's independence in the 70s.
Latvia: Sandra Kalniete
All About Latvia writes about Sandra Kalniete, the newest candidate for president: “Kalniete’s biography represents Latvian history before and after the fall of the Soviet Union.”
Serbia: Film on War in Kosovo
Kushtrim Xhakli writes about a movie about the missing persons of the war in Kosovo.
Cuba: Grandson of Cuba's first president
Luís Afonso Assumpção interviews the grandson of Cuba's first president.
Belarus: Kolkhoz
Ivan Lenin of Rush-Mush writes about a diehard Soviet tradition in today's Belarus.
Russia: Chechnya's Independence Day
David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article about Chechnya's Day of Civic Concord and Unity, or the Republic Day.
China: How i lost my home
Ai Wei Wei talks about Beijing renovation in preparation for the Olympic, his beautiful traditional courtyard will turn into an artificial theatre, and so will the whole old Beijing city and its people: within one night, all the old courtyard in the district were painted by a gigantic hand with...
China: Mao and textbook
Picking up the discussion from Peking Duck on the purging Mao from history book, Frog in a Well explains that the history book revision project is to change the historical perspective from a leader-oriented perspective to people-oriented perspective. And the revised edition is just in Shanghai.
Russia: Kondopoga and Thoughts on Illegal Immigration
A week ago, two ethnic Russians were killed in a restaurant fight with Chechens in the northwestern town of Kondopoga, Republic of Karelia. The deaths triggered riots and demands to deport all Caucasus people from the town. Reading Russian blogs now is a little like walking through a minefield: ethnic...
Central Asia: Borders
Ben Paarmann has his fifth and final post on the determination of national borders in Central Asia.
Serbia: Guca Festival
Belgrade Blog posts a video from the 46th Guca Trumpet Music Festival.
Lebanon: Peace, Art, Humor and Politics
Topics discussed in the Lebanese blogosphere this week involved, among others, literature, war-art, the art of souvenir production and war-humor. Peace is a topic that is almost always present. A few samples discussing and dissecting the concept of peace with Israel has been selected for this week’s roundup. In addition to these we have historical account, from a personal view point, of one blogger who lived the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and what followed.
China: Purging Mao from Chinese textbooks
Richard from Peking Duck points out that purging Mao from Chinese textooks is a Maoist thing.
Serbia: Ahtisaari and the Future of Kosovo & Metohia
Serbian forum dwellers are confused and terrified by the statements made by the UN representative Martti Ahtisaari, who is authorized to tackle international negotiations to determine the final status of Kosovo and Metohia (K&M in further text). During the set of negotiations held in Vienna on August 8, Ahtisaari announced...
Estonia: Peter the Great Monument
Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes about the opposition to construction of a monument to Peter the Great in Estonia.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Srebrenica Perpetrators
Srebrenica Genocide Blog begins to repost “a list of over 800 Bosnian Serbs who allegedly participated in the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, and are still believed to be in positions of power.”
Ukraine: Russian-Germans During WWII
J. Otto Pohl writes about the 1941 mobilization of the Russian-German men aged 16-60 in Ukraine into construction battalions.
