· May, 2010

Stories about Western Europe from May, 2010

Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia make Eurovision Top Ten

This year's Eurovision Song Contest drew to a close on a Saturday in a televised final which attracted around 125 million viewers worldwide. But while some media reported lagging interest in the 54-year-old competition and concerns about spiraling costs, countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to take it very seriously indeed.

France: Scholar Unpacks the Concept of National Identity

  31 May 2010

Reflets reposts (Fr) from newspaper Le Monde a review of “L'identité nationale, une énigme“, a book by a specialist in comparative anthology Marcel Detienne, denouncing the “mythideology” of an immanent France, whose brand of nationalism rules out interracial mixing. The author was interviewed in two videos, here and here (november...

Angola: Similarities between Cabinda and East Timor

  29 May 2010

Orlando Castro discloses [pt] the similarities between the Angolan enclave of Cabinda and the recent history of East Timor, criticizing the positions of the Portuguese and Timorese leaders for failing to recognize the self determination of a province that produces 70% of domestic oil.

France: Questions and Controversy about ICC

  29 May 2010

EU-LOGOS blog explains why France was questioned by an Amnesty International report about its implementation in internal criminal law of the 1998 International Criminal Court status (fr). An impending bill seems to require a condition of  the “usual country of residence” to be France for legal proceedings to take place.

France : A Legal Review of the Burqa Ban Bill

  29 May 2010

A lawyers blog Mieux connaître vos droits en Europe ponders the legal aspects of the French burqa ban bill (fr). Earlier,  the blog also  posted the main points of the bill and a survey of reactions from officials (fr).

Caucasus: Eurovision Semi-final roundup

Unzipped: Gay Armenia offers its opinion on last night's semi-final in this year's Eurovision Song Festival, and especially the entries from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The blog, which has become a mainstay for covering the competition in the Caucasus region, also regularly tweets on it at @unzippedblog.

Caucasus: Social media, cleavage, and rare unity in Eurovision

Although last night's second semi-final for this year's Eurovision Song Contest has been and gone, Twitter was alive with commentary and updates throughout. The annual international competition, noted more for its kitsch entries than for its music, is viewed by well over 100 million people worldwide. Its presence online is nowhere near as large, but is increasingly becoming an important consideration.

Secularism in France from a Foreigner's Perspective

  26 May 2010

Art Goldhammer, from French Politics blog, links to Eric Fassin‘s article in Le Monde (fr) and the NSAE's blog quotes in extenso from the article that describes French secularism in the style of the  Persian Letters (fr).

Azerbaijan: Live tweeting Eurovision from Oslo, Norway

Complimenting the already relatively impressive of social media by Safura Alizadeh, Azerbaijan's entry into this year's Eurovision Song Contest, jazz singer Ulviyya Rahimova will be live-tweeting updates as part of the national delegation. Also blogging at the girl in jazz, she can be followed on Twitter at @UlviyyaRahimova.

Bangladesh: Tulip Tweets

  17 May 2010

Maskwaith Ahsan at E-Bangladesh highlights Tulip Siddiq, who along with few others have pioneered the political presence of Bangladeshi women in the UK; and she tweets too!

Iran:Deal between Iran and France

Tahe Khand writes that France decided Monday to send home an Iranian agent it had jailed for murdering the Shah's last prime minister, two days after Tehran freed a young French academic accused of spying. The blogger with irony says [fa] why you do not want to believe french government...

Netherlands: Twitter campaign against violation of privacy

  14 May 2010

Dutch internet users have started a campaign on Twitter (@telegraafboycot) to boycott the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf [nl] after it violated the privacy of the sole survivor of the plane crash in Tripoli by interviewing the little boy by phone. The hashtag is #telegraafboycot.