5/31 Review: Checking Facts, Basketball, and ICTY, WHY?

News

BIGGEST NEWS OF THE WEEK:

"#ICTY judgements are consistent, logical and contribute to reconciliation in the Balkans," said no one, ever. bit.ly/11dXlny
— Nastasja Vojvodić (@nastasja__v) May 30, 2013

All I'm going to say about that ^^ is holy balls of hellfire, I am slowly starting to hate ICTY.  Make up your mind about what is ancillary and what is not.

5/24 Review - Dramatics and Righting Historical Wrongs

Friday means reflecting on our past week.  Tune in to get a gist of the big news, my opinions on the news, videos, art, and music.  My discoveries are yours to enjoy!

Animation Gluttony

I love seeing animations and so do you!  They're not all with English subtitles, so bust out that translating software/website.  Today has a wide selection from countries, styles, and even time periods (though not one is past 1990).  Gear up for some beautiful animation, which goes so unappreciated these days.

5/17 Reflections and Sharing Time

 This is the round up of the past 7 days. Short news blurbs/my opinions on them, and some cool stuff I tweeted about for those who don't follow me/scroll through the little box to the right.

Hungarian Ethnography & Folklore

I discovered this site a number of weeks ago, but never got around to featuring it.  I don't fully recollect how I got to it, but it has visual beauty and information that one needs to learn about rural Hungary.  I lived in Budapest and only ventured outside the city to go to Belgrade, Vienna, and Lake Balaton.  This meant I didn't get to experience the non-urban aspect of Hungarian culture, which was a real shame.  When I end up Hungary again, I'll be sure to visit smaller places and soak in more of the traditional culture.

Monday Book Review: The Frog's Ass

I have discovered time travel, so rest assured this was published on Monday, but only when I went back into the past today.  It's a weird time loop thing that can never fully be explained by science or fiction.  This book had sat in my mental queue for quite some time since I had seen Kelly Hignett mention that it was a swell read.  By the grace of Stalin, it was in the library for me to snatch up and experience; I had run out of books in my own house to read.  This is my story.

Moving Forward: 4/19 Review

This past week hasn't been the flashiest in terms of news, but there has been some movement on the political scene.

Central Europe

Hungary got quite a bit of negative attention this week, and for more than solely-political reasons.  To add to the constitutional changes that Fidesz has put into action, they've decided to annoy Brussels with an ad hoc tax to pay EU fines.  Delightful.  It had one thing going in its favor: the ruling on the violent interrogation was upheld.

Romania made two big decisions this week: 1) they are abandoning their original EU target year and postponing until 2020 and 2) they are proposing a property restitution bill to settle disputes from collectivization during the Soviet era.  A Romanian daily paper is concerned that this will fuel the Romanian real estate bubble.

Germany has a new party emerging: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has an outline of its political stances here (in German - sorry!).  Surprise, surprise, they are not pro-EU/United States of Europe and challenging the CDU/CSU coalition that's been in power since Merkel stepped up the podium.

Monday Book Review: Hasonmás

"Már túljártam életem felén, amikor egy szeles, tavaszi napon eszembe jutott Esti Kornél."  Lászlo Krasznahorkai says that it is the most beautiful sentence in Hungarian and written by Dezső Kosztolányi in Kornél Esti.  In English it reads, "I had passed the midpoint of my life, when one windy day in spring, I remembered Kornél Esti."  Thus begins the tale of two doppelgangers, or as they would say in Hungarian hasonmás, reconciling after decades apart.

Baring It All: 4/12 Recap

Welcome to the recap of the week.  There's so much to read and know that I've taken the liberty of condensing it for you.  If you want to see these things as they happen, follow me on Twitter!  You just have to click that button over to the right.  It's not far...  You can also see who I follow; I discovered that Twitter is the best place to find anything on CEE and there are fantastic, smart people to interact with.

Let's get to it.

Risen Again - 4/5 Recap & Rants

It was Easter this past Sunday and it was a good time to indulge in the east European traditions, some of which seemed a little more cruel than unusual.  Particularly when it involves whipping women.  There were lovely eggs to make up for it, though.  Though Europe had it tough because snow, not flowers, came to greet them on the symbolic holiday of rebirth.  It's like winter reborn.

The cat's out of the bag. Orbán is the most sought after television personality in Hungary.  No, I'm kidding, he's stealing all the airtime available.  I want graphs on the Politburo air times for comparison, just for kicks.

April Fool's!  I thought this was a pretty USA-centric holiday, but it turns out that Odessa is the OG of pranks.  The best part was that Humorina started during the Soviet rule. That's one way to let off steam about the endless droning of ideology!

Art, Music, Articles

Since I have not been following the news this week (which I am sure to regret since that's when EVERYTHING happens!), I can't do a summary.  I'm very sorry.  However, I do have a bunch of fun links and that's always a good time.  You're welcome.

Friday Round Up - 3/8

I have been all atwitter on twitter this week!  Lots of stuff going on in Europe these days, particularly the southeasterly neighbors in the Balkans.  Europeans be trippin', as they say.  There were so many happenings that this post is all news and very little play.  Scroll through my twitter for some of the fun diversions I found!

The Window of the Past

I discovered the delightful website Ablak a múltra.  The name means "Window to the Past" and it places modern pictures as the backdrop for older photos and matches them up.  It's a visually striking way to see the changes in Hungary over the past century and how that change has affected the visual aesthetic of people, as well as the places themselves.  Signs and details aren't the same and some buildings show serious decay.  I highly recommend looking at all the locations for some truly interesting contrasts between now and then.

Take a look!

Monday Book (and Lecture) Review

This week's review is a double.  I wanted to review the lecture I attended at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs back in early December, but I didn't think it made much sense to do so without including the book.  I saw Anne Applebaum speak about her new book, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944 - 1956 at CCGA.  I bought the book at the event since I had read glowing reviews and I totally jive with the subject matter.  I find the era leading up to the establishment of communism in Europe really fascinating (which was my favorite part of this book, actually) primarily because it was such a tumultuous time period.  The geo-political landscape had fundamentally altered after the most (up to that point) devastating war and there was a lot of assumptions, grievances, and fears thrown into the pot at once.

Communism and Fire

Self-immolation is a way to get attention.  Just ask Ndreca, Palach, Plocek, and Zajíc.  There is a whole list that I can barely fathom, especially since the last one was in 15 days ago.  They've picked up popularity, though I wasn't aware of almost any of the immolations in the past 10 years, which have to do with Tibet or an Indian province that would like to separate.  But they had a strong tradition in the USSR.

Monday Book Review!

It is no secret that I really love Slavenka Drakulić.  She ranks right alongside Vàclav Havel, Ryszard Kapuściński, and Dezső Kostolànyi as one of my favorite authors to read from the other side of the Iron Curtain.  Her journalistic writings have the same narrative power as Kapuściński with the idealism and compassion of Havel.  I was aware she had a number of fiction novels to her name as well, but it wasn't until recently that I gave it a try.  I ended up buying A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism at THE bookstore in NYC during my first ever visit to that metropolis.  The title, the author, and the subject matter all sang to me.  I thought it would be a continuation of what I loved so much about her writing.

Love Letter to Europe

Dearest Europe,

I write to you out of deep affection and a respect that can only be earned through acquaintance.  You are, and will, remain a fixture of my soul.  My time abiding with you has touched me in ways that cannot be erased or forgotten in the sands of time.  Though I have not yet met the darker corners, hiding secrets so old and deep they forge into myth, and the depths of your trials, I feel a great kinship with you.

I have spent time in your central areas, those that have driven history and been subject to its many forces.  The aggressors, the supposed innocents, and the brow beaten, yet ultimately idealistic have all welcomed me in their borders.  These countries are glimpses into the human condition writ large: they have fought, despaired, blasphemed, and given up.  The whip of German masters awoke resentment in the heart of the Austrians and the despair of losing was in their vise grip and strangled in their fervor.

So We Extradited An Axe Murderer

So this happened.  I wish I could speak to international criminal justice laws, but that remains a large mystery to me.  It is suspicious, however, that there was a deal on the table with Azerbaijan and Hungary has been trying to wrangle itself "free" from the EU's political ambit.  Oh, and that it has to go through the EU to get IMF money to make their economy more stable.

Hungarian Swimmer Honors Memory of Norwegian Rival

An article from WSJ's Emerging Europe blog:

The Olympics bring out the EU in Europe, I think.

Minimal Olympics Coverage

I haven't been able to watch the Olympics--no TV and no time--but I try to keep abreast in the major events of the Olympics.  I would do more in-depth coverage of ECE nations if I didn't have a day job and public transit didn't eat up additional hours of my day.  I would love to simply watch athletics for hours on end, but being an adult has completely eroded whatever time and enthusiasm I have left at the end of the day.

I wasn't aware that Slovakia had a company that made competition canoes.  Were you?  Luckily, my RSS feeds (see my page for the ones I follow!) brought this to my attention.  I see that Eastern Europe is doing pretty well in the medal count, all things considered.  The full list of medal counts are here on ESPN, but here is the individual list linked for your quick reference (these only include counties that have medals):
Belarus
Croatia 
Czech Republic
Germany
Hungary
Lithuania
Moldova 
Poland
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia (notice the number of canoeing medals!)
Slovenia
Ukraine

The medal count per capita in these countries must be higher than the USA, which has a ridiculous number of medals.  It seriously resembles the 1% getting the larger part of the spoil.  It is worthy to note that Hungary has more medals than Brazil (where my mother-in-law is from) or India, which is embarrassing for those BRIC countries.  You'd think that a "backwater" Eastern European nation with a despotically inclined PM would not get more medals than two of the fastest growing economies with large populations.  Funny, ain't it?