Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from November, 2009
Bangladesh: Romanian Song In Bangla Tune
Call that fusion or copying, A Bengali in T.O. informs that the tune of a popular Bangla classic song (written by Radha Romon Dutta in the year 1870!) was used by Liviu Mititelu for a Romanian song.
Featured Author: Filip Stojanovski
Filip Stojanovski is a Global Voices author and translator based in Skopje, Macedonia. He is the Program Coordinator of Metamorphosis, a think tank which seeks the development of democracy and prosperity by promoting knowledge-based economy and information society.
Russia: 6,5 percent of all Web sites are Russian
There are 15 million Web sites in the Russian segment of the Internet. They account for 6,5 percent of all Web sites available online. An average Russian Web site contains 255 pages, 159 thousand words, and 204 images. These facts were revealed in the latest research “The Runet Content” by...
Russia: Blogging the Winter in Yakutia
Winter is yet to arrive in much of Europe, but one of its geopolitical attributes is already back in the spotlight: fears of disruptions of Russian gas deliveries are growing more intense, due to the recurring dispute between Russia and Ukraine. Politics aside, though, in some of Russia's regions winter has been there since early fall. In Yakutia, for example.
Poland: Anonymous Blogger to Write About a Daily Tabloid
An anonymous journalist who used to work for a Polish daily tabloid called Fakt, started a new blog, BrukowiecStory ("TabloidStory" in English), in which he wants to write the truth about how things really work in the newsroom and in the publisher’s office.
Featured Author: Elena Ignatova
Elena Ignatova covers Macedonia on Global Voices, is in charge of Global Voices in Macedonian, and works for the Metamorphosis Foundation, which seeks to seeks to enhance the use of information in Macedonian government and society
Russia: Young People Trust Internet
Fifty one percent of young Russians (ages 16 – 24) consider the Internet a reliable source of information. This makes the Internet the second most trustworthy source after TV among the youth. This and other findings are available in a newly published report [RUS] by the Public Opinion Foundation.
Serbia: Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle Dies
Head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Pavle, died on Sunday, November 15. On Monday, Serbia’s government declared a three-day mourning. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the reactions from the Serbian blogoshere.
Poland: Creators of “Polish Rapidshare” Arrested
Earlier this month, the Polish police arrested creators and owners of OdSiebie.com service. The portal, which is currently down, was a clone of Rapidshare, and since its day one in 2007, it was continuously growing in traffic. Jakub Gornicki reviews the reactions from the Polish blogosphere.
Ukraine: News and Views Roundup
Ukraine roundup: flu and politics – at What's Up, Ukraine? and at Jamestown Foundation Blog, here and here; the latest on the tense relationship between the Ukrainian president and PM – at Ukrainiana, as well as two posts – here and here – on one of the 18 presidential candidates,...
Hungary: More on Imre Kertész's Interview
More on the Hungarian reactions to Imre Kertész's Die Welt interview – at Hungarian Spectrum. (Marietta Le's GV post about it is here.)
Czech Republic, Slovakia: Velvet Revolution, 20 Years On
On Nov. 17, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, and The Czech Daily Word lists “most frequent stupid arguments and errors” of those who believe that “the era of communism was better than the post-revolution times.”
Russia: Medvedev's Speech and IT; Twitter and the Police
Profy writes about the IT dimension of president Medvedev's annual address: “The draft speech was initially published online as a lengthy article by the president and he invited all the citizens to voice their opinions out via the Kremlin official website – and people were definitely very willing to participate...
Russia: Forbes Website
Profy writes about the newly-launched ForbesRussia.ru website and “their obvious lack of interest in anything local and specific to the Russian market, in particular in the field of social media and social networking.”
Slovenia, Russia: Thoughts on Blogging
Dr. Filomena and Profy are musing on what it means to be a blogger.
Russia: Quarantine in Yekaterinburg
Russian Blog reports that Yekaterinburg authorities have announced a flu-related quarantine from Nov. 13 to Nov. 20.
Ukraine: Updates on the Flu Epidemic
Last weeks’ posts on the flu epidemic: Tetyana Vysotska of What's up, Ukraine? falls ill (doctor tells her it's “impossible to have a test on whether it may be a swine flu”) and recovers; Foreign Notes writes that “there is no reason to expect the medical profession in [Ukraine] to...
CEE: The Berlin Wall
The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: How To Marry a Bulgarian hosts a series of readers’ personal reflections: Biliana Velkova, Alexandra Grashkina-Hristova, Maria Vassileva; Hungarian Spectrum writes that “for Hungary and the Hungarians the whole thing started much earlier”; Belgraded writes about the upcoming and much-awaited...
Russia: 1999 Chechen Diary, Part 4
The final part (part 4) of Polina Zherebtsova’s 1999 Chechen Diary – at Sundry Translations and Other Tangentialia. (More links: intro, part 1, part 2, part 3, Russian-language original.)
CEE: Recycling & Bicycles, Energy Consumption, and More
At Th!nk About It, a climate change blogging competition, Adela reports on the construction of a highway in Romania, which will go through a national park, endangering “the only virgin forest on our good old continent”, and also writes about the Recicleta project in Bucharest, and one Romanian man's roof...
U.S., Europe: Immigrant Writing; Diaspora Mentality
Maud Newton writes about a newly-published anthology of immigrant writing, “Becoming Americans.” Sublime Oblivion examines the views of “Russian political analyst & nationalist Konstantin Krylov” on “international diasporas” and “the diaspora mentality.”
About our Eastern & Central Europe coverage
Filip Stojanovski is the Central Europe editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
Daria Dergacheva is the Eastern Europe editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
