fuck yeah eastern europe: Archive

fuck yeah eastern europe

January 2012

258 posts

December 2011

282 posts

Kosovo Serbs call referendum on recognizing... →

Three out of four Serb-run municipalities in Kosovo’s tense north decided to hold a referendum in early 2012 to decide whether to recognize Pristina’s Kosovo Albanian-dominated government, a local official said on Thursday. Kosovo, 90 percent ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbs dominate in a small swathe of the north bordering Serbia and pledge allegiance...

Poll claims only 4% of Lithuanians support... →

A poll by Lithuanian market research company RIAT claims only 4% of the country supports the introduction of civil partnerships for gay couples. The Baltic News Agency-commissioned poll says 70% of the population is in favour of some form of legal recognition for relationships outside marriage, but not for gays. Same-sex marriages are currently banned under the Constitution and the Civil Code,...

Ukraine Sends Opposition Leader to Remote Prison →

The Ukrainian authorities abruptly transferred the jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to a prison camp about 300 miles east of the capital on Friday, a move that her supporters suspect is intended to cut off her access to the press and the public. Ms. Tymoshenko, 51, a former prime minister whose charisma helped drive the pro-Western Orange Revolution, was sentenced to seven years in...

Budapest Mayor Not Thrilled To Be Hosting LGBT... →

As Budapest gears up to host the annual LGBT sportsfest known as theEuroGames next summer, one thing’s fairly clear: The Hungarian capital’s mayor, István Tarlós, won’t be watching. In a just-released letter to Berlin’s openly gay mayor Klaus Wowereit, Tarlós says that while he respects the right of the EuroGames folks to do whatever they and their “like-minded people” want, “I disassociate...

Linguistic Respect for the People Once Derided as... →

In Romania, the official term for the country’s Gypsy minority has been amended, after nearly a century of lobbying. The official Romanian dictionary now uses the term Roma, and now recognizes that the word Gypsy, or Tigan, has a pejorative connotation. Groups that promote Roma rights are celebrating, but many Romanians are against the change — as are some Roma themselves. In an alley behind a...

10 Things to Do in Eastern Europe in 2012 →

I want to go to the one in Romania that involves eating lots of cheese.

“The two leaders shared a love of jazz, and Havel surprised Clinton with a gift:...”

– Paul Begala reflects on Vaclav Havel, playwright-turned-world leader, with Bill Clinton (and Madeleine Albright), including this great moment in smiley face history. (via cheatsheet)

Bosnian parties end political impasse →

Bosnia’s Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders have made a major breakthrough by agreeing to form a government and pass a budget for 2011 to avoid financial collapse, ending a political impasse dating back to a 2010 election. Leaders of the six largest political parties said they had also agreed on a long-delayed set of laws that will pave the way for Bosnia to apply for European Union...

Balkans Reclaim a Place in Cinema →

“I think there is a fresh energy in the Balkans in terms of filmmaking,” said Ms. Turajlic, sipping her tea. “So this is an exciting time.” While it might be premature to claim that there is a second New Wave of western Balkan cinema (the first new wave — or “Novi Film” — movement happened in Yugoslavia in the 1960s), it can be said that a large group of talented young filmmakers from the...

Eastern Europe: Innovation’s hidden hub →

Eastern Europeans aren’t known for being innovative, but in some ways the stereotype is unfair. Hungarians, for example, invented the ballpoint pen and holography. A Hungarian, John George Kemeny, co-invented the BASIC programming language with American Thomas Kurtz. Hungarians also invented artificial blood and the Rubik’s Cube. Four Estonians designed Skype. Russians were the first in space,...

New man, old problem →

Time was when Russia’s writ ran long and strong in Transdniestria: political analysis consisted chiefly of working out where the political and other largesse was being distributed. Not any more. On Sunday, voters in the self-proclaimed republic inflicted a humiliating defeat on Moscow’s favoured candidate for the presidency. In the final round of voting, Anatoly Kaminsky, whose Renewal...

The Blank Spots →

Foreign Policy magazine marks out a list of 10 uncovered secrets from the Soviet era that continue to be largely forgotten. Including: 7. An explosion at the Mayak nuclear facility in the Urals in 1957 caused a nuclear catastrophe almost on a par with Chernobyl. But in the Soviet Union the Communist Party had total control over the information, and disasters were kept secret from the public....