Stories from Quick Reads and Romania
Macedonia: Ajvar, Glorified
Jovana Tozija wrote lovingly about making ajvar, a traditional favorite winter provision in Macedonia and some other post-Ottoman countries.
CEE: Top 10 Worldwide Download Speed
Watcher.com.ua reports [uk] that, according to a 6-month study of 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries conducted by Pando Networks, Romania (1,909KBps), Bulgaria (1,611KBps), Lithuania (1,462KBps) and Latvia (1,377KBps) have the second, third, fourth and fifth highest download speeds in the world, while Ukraine has been...
Romania: Ceaucescu's Repressive Machinery
Nelson Duque at The View East discusses the repressive role of the security service, Securitate, in Ceaucescu's communist Romania.
Central and Eastern Europe: Economies more exposed than expected
Edward Hugh of Baltic Economy Watch argues that Central and East European economies are more exposed to risk in case of a Eurozone crisis than what financial ratings say.
Hungary: Orbán Government and Romania's Hungarian Minority
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the relationship between the Orbán government and the Hungarian minority in Romania.
Romania: Literary renaissance
Richard Byrne of Balkans via Bohemia writes about the playwright Lucian Blaga and a renaissance for Romanian 20th century literature and drama.
Russia-Romania: Interview with Rogozin
Gabriela Ionita of Power&Politics World publishes an interview with Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, on Russia, Romania, and European relations.
Romania: Education System
Csíkszereda Musings writes about some of the problems with the Romanian education system – here and here.
Romania: Accession to the Schengen Zone
Kosmopolito writes about Romania's “clumsy way” to the Schengen zone.
Hungary: AGRI Pipeline Project
The Hungarian Spectrum writes – here and here – about the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) natural gas pipeline project and Hungary's possible involvement in it.
Hungary: “Roma Reports”
“Roma reports” at Pestiside.hu: a video about a “Roma fashion show” recently held in Budapest; and a Romanian Roma music video that “seems to have… borrowed quite a bit” from a Hungarian Roma music video.
UK, Romania: “Katalin Varga”
Csíkszereda Musings writes about Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland's film, set and filmed in Transylvania.
CEE: Books and Reading Notes
War and Peace posts a mini-review of Sholem Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman; Csíkszereda Musings reviews William Blacker's Along the Enchanted Way; Poemless wonders why there are “so few translations of contemporary Russian authors available to the English speaking world.”
Moldova: Mock Independence Day Greetings
A compilation of mock Independence Day greetings to Moldova's interim president, reflecting the current geopolitical situation – at Morning in Moldova.
Macedonia, Romania: Blogger Detects Cross-Border Plagiarism
L'Acqua Al Deserto discovered [MKD] that Romanian singer Irena had recently released “a copy” of Milioner, a 2007 single by Macedonian singer/songwriter Elena Ristevska with music by Darko Dimitrov, also available in Serbian, and in English (with lyrics by Leroy Chambers). Irena's website claims [RUM] that the author of ‘her’...
Slovenia: Referendum on the Arbitration Agreement
Sleeping With Pengovsky writes – here and here – about this past Sunday's referendum on the Arbitration Agreement between Slovenia and Croatia; posts Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of The Definitive Guide to the Arbitrage Agreement Between Slovenia and Croatia (links to the earlier installments are here); and...
CEE: Facebook Use Stats
Worldwide Facebook statistics – at Facebakers.com: in Central & Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic has most users – 2,634,300 people, the country's overall ranking is #29, penetration is 25.8%. It is followed by Poland (#31), which has 2,604,440 users, with 6.77% penetration. Serbia (#41) is CEE's #3: 1,997,540 users, penetration...
Romania: Hungarian Minority Politics
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the Hungarian minority politics of the recent presidential election in Romania.
The Balkans: A Travel Roundup
“Street and alternative photography of Belgrade” – at Belgrade Raw; “Other people's journeys: Balkan travelogues 2009” – at Balkanology Blog; a map of Belgrade's hostels – at Belgraded; a review of the “best flight options to Sarajevo” – at Bosnia Blog.
Romania: Election Results
Updates on the results of the second round of Romania's presidential election – at Power&Politics World and Csíkszereda Musings.
Romania: Presidential Election, Round One
Posts on the first round of the presidential election in Romania last month: Csíkszereda Musings – here, here, and here; and Power&Politics World – here.
