Monday Book Review

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I read Crumbling Walls and Tarnished Ideals: An Ethnography of East Germany Before and After Unification by Hans Baer during my research in 2009.  I was under the false impression that the book was about East Germany in general, though given the title, it was a reasonable expectation.  It was after reading the first few chapters that I realized why academics give very dry and specific titles to their books and articles: you want to know exactly what you're reading about without heavy browsing.  I wanted a more general treatise on East Germany and ended up with a book largely about the SED (the political party of East Germany during Comunism) and education system in East Germany.*

Big News for Serbia

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I read Eastern Approaches this morning to come across this article.  When I read the rest of my European RSS feeds, about half of the press releases were about the arrest of Ratko Mladić, the haunting general of Bosnian Serb forces.  He ordered the killing of 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica and was the commanding officer in the Siege of Sarajevo––in other words, he is the big fish.  As the article points out, this opens up the discussion for Serbia's EU ascension, but it also allows for the nation to lustrate its past.  The lessons of The Haunted Land seem just as poignant now as they were in the early 90s.  The big question now is the same one that Rosenberg writes about, "How do we purge the past to move forward?"

With the possibility of EU ascension on the line, Serbia will be more closely watched as they lustrate one of their biggest and meanest ghosts of a bloody, post-Communist war.  I hope that Serbia is able to do so and move forward to a much brighter future.

FEMEN and Feminism

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Ever since I heard about this group, I was intrigued.  No, it was not because they were protesting topless.  My fascination stemmed from the visibility of a Ukrainian feminist group.  It's not like Eastern European feminist groups make many headlines, so FEMEN's prominence is not to be taken for granted.  It must be noted that bare breasts do make great news, though that's not why FEMEN bares them publicly.  This article on the Eastern Perspectives is well written and covers all the bases necessary for discussion, but I have used quotes from the Der Spiegel article linked at the end.

Russian Lessons

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Christine Armbruster, who has appeared on my blog before with her Sarajevo project, is once again making me jealous.  She is currently living in Russia taking pictures and maybe learning Russian while doing a trans-Russian trek with her friend Tree Gore.  Their project is being documented on the blog, Крыша.  She doesn't know she's being featured today, so it will be a pleasant surprise.  This is my thanks for her sharing her Sarajevo project and being a visible follower on my blog (and a kick-ass fellow ECE enthusiast).

American Culture, Imported

Instead of actual writing, I will just share The Simpsons in various Eastern European languages. It was fun listening to the various languages with such a familiar show.  Hope you enjoy!