Stories about History from January, 2009
China: Obama and Chinese Emperors
Xujun Eberlein from Inside-Out China explains why Obama has reminded him of certain Chinese emperors.
Slovenia: Ljubljiana Impressions
A Ljubljiana trip account – at Dr. Sean's Diary.
Czech Republic: Museum of Exile
CzechMateDiary writes about the Museum of Czech and Slovak Exile that has opened in Brno.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: “Reunited After 16 Years”
Amila Bosnae shares a story about a Bosnian refugee in Germany who found his daughter after 16 years of searching for her.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Wartime Humor
Bosnian wartime humor – a YouTube video of “Top Lista Nadrealista” – at Amila Bosnae.
The Balkans: Gaza and Srebrenica
Jasmin's Heart recalls Srebrenica as she is thinking about the situation in Gaza.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Nihad Hasanović
An interview with Bosnian writer Nihad Hasanović – “one of the most interesting and intriguing young writers in the space of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian language” – at Jasmin's Heart (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5).
Croatia, Slovenia: Border Dispute and the EU
Sleeping With Pengovsky writes about “the Slovene-Croat diplomatic crash which happened shortly before new year, when Slovenia effectively blocked the continuation of Croatian EU accession negotiations” – here and here.
Ukraine: Lily Hyde's “Dream Land” – the Crimean Tatar “Anne Frank”
Window on Eurasia writes about Lily Hyde’s “Dream Land” – a book by a Ukraine-based British freelance journalist, who “tells the story of the return of the Crimean Tatars to their homeland in the early 1990s from the perspective of Safi, a 12-year-old girl who comes back with her parents,...
Poland, Israel: “Using the Holocaust to Beat the Israelis”
The beatroot wrote on Jan. 8: “When protestors – who know little of either Gaza or Warsaw – shout slogans involving ‘holocaust’, or ‘genocide’ or ‘Warsaw ghetto’ they degrade all those terms and memories, and put off one person – me – who would like to join them in condemning...
Russia, Israel: “Chechnya and Gaza”
A Step At A Time quotes a piece by Ben Cohen, comparing Israel's military actions in Gaza to those employed by Russia in Chechnya: “Oleg goes on to explain in his broken Hebrew that if Russian soldiers were sent into Gaza they would take care of things in three or...
The Balkans: “Britić”; “Beyond Sarajevo”
Balkan Anarchist writes about Britić, a new British Serb quarterly magazine. Bosnia Blog is seeking “co-bloggers and writers for Beyond Sarajevo, a wannabe directory of many wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) things about Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.”
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Accounts by Wojciech Tochman and Peter Lippman
Kirk Johnson of Americans for Bosnia writes about the newly-published English translation of a collection of Polish-language articles by journalist Wojciech Tochman (“Like Eating a Stone: Surviving the Past in Bosnia”): “I can only highly recommend that anyone interested in the human stories behind official statistics on refugee returns and...
Estonia, Poland, Ukraine: The Holocaust
A Step At A Time quotes from an article on the “European complicity and responsibility” for the Holocaust and the ways in which Poland and Ukraine are dealing with “vague and extremely unfair accusations levelled at a whole nation.” AnTyx writes about Estonia's pre-war Jewish population: “While it is a...
Serbia, UK: Stevo Jakšić, Rest in Peace
Alan Jakšić of Balkan Anarchist posts a moving tribute to his father, Stevo Jakšić, who passed away in June 2008.
Latvia: Book Publishing VAT Up From 5% To 21%
Very belatedly, links to Peteris Cedrins’ reporting and musings at Marginalia on the history of book publishing in Latvia and the outrageous VAT increase on books from 5 percent to 21 percent.
Hungary: Lifestyle, Literature, Law and More
A selection of posts from The Hungarian Spectrum: the lack of continuing education programs; health and lifestyle issues; domestic violence; writer György Dragomán; the Hungarian Secret Service and the Catholic Church.
Azerbaijan: World's Oldest Surviving Centenarian?
Eternal Remont comments on recent reports in the Azerbaijani media that 126 year-old Kableyinovruzali Aslanova is the oldest living resident in the country. Born in 1882, Aslanova has over 200 children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren. However, the blog also notes that while Aslanova is reportedly 12 years...
Moldova: Chisinau Circus
Moldovarious.com writes about the German artist collective “Project: Synapses” that has initiated the re-opening of the Chisinau circus.
Ukraine: Rescuing the European Bison
Chernobyl and Eastern Europe Blog writes about efforts to rescue the European Bison from extinction.
The Netherlands: “A Soda With Karadzic”
Via A Fistful of Euros, a link to a lawyer's account of a meeting with Radovan Karadzic in The Hague.
