Lukashenko Never Slept with a Cuddly Bear

Lukashenko has his panties up in a bunch about the Swedish stunt in July.  I can understand why--he's trying to retain authoritarian rule with an opposition that everyone BUT Lukashenko is actively supporting.  He's jailed them, practically made them disappear, and has otherwise ignored any call for lessening his Stalinesque grip on the nation.  He even outlawed hand signals.  This man is serious about using his frenemy Russia and staying right where he is, thank you.

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?

Martin Schultz on the EU

I'm just going to let these articles speak for themselves.  It's a great follow-up to the EU post from earlier and definitely will stay a hot topic as things heat up and break down in Europe.  Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament, would naturally be for strengthening that branch of legislature, but I am inclined to think he has really solid opinions given that national interests trump in the two other branches.  I embrace the idea of a European-wide election with no national elections because it's a concession that clearly puts nation first, continent second.  They can have all the EuroVision contests and ERASMUS programs they want, but when it comes down to it, no one is pushing for the real European integration that was originally envisioned.

A Pole on Czechs

I really liked this article and Mariusz's perspective on Czech culture as a Pole. I'd be interested in hearing more cross-cultural analysis in Europe––the friendly kind, not the stereotyped, nasty kind. Before this article, I was unaware of any misunderstanding between Czechs and Poles. All I knew was that Poland and Hungary are bros. Happy reading!

About the European Union

I came across items of interest lately concerning the EU.  I have much to learn myself on the functioning of the EU, but I thought these would be helpful for other curious folk.  After the jump, there is a video on how the EU works, an explanation of what the ECHR does, an article about EU squabbles and sovereignty, and a humorous look at European nations.