Belarusian Insight

The Independent published a rare interview with Lukashenko.  It's an intriguing read about a man that controls the last Soviet dictatorship.  A great Tuesday read.

Food for EU Thought

There has been a lot of austerity and general socio-political woes in Europe for the past year.  Economics and finances have been breaking the EU apart at the ideological seams.  As soon as someone messes up and the chips are down, it's no longer "Europe" but Greece, Germany, Spain, France, etc.  Understandable and human, but also not what the EU project is about.  So it's no wonder that Erasmus is getting the short shrift.  Times are tough and it's hard to keep lofty ideals floating with cash when that's hard to come by. 

Monday Book Review

source

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.*