EU: Russophone Bloggers React to Dairy Farmers' Protest

Global Voices Online
Thursday, September 17, 2009

On Wednesday, LJ user drugoi re-posted two Reuters photos of Belgian farmers spraying their fields with fresh milk in protest over low milk prices, and summarized the situation this way (RUS):

[...] Belgian farmers, drawn to despair by low prices offered for their produce, decided that it was more profitable for them to dump 3 million liters of milk than sell it for nothing. Currently, the milk price is approximately 18-20 euro cents per liter, while the production cost is 33 euro cents. To make dairy farming business solvent, they believe that farmers should be able to sell milk for 50 euro cents per liter. But for now they can only dream about such a price. Earlier, farmers had already blocked roads and given away the milk for free. And now here's their latest decisive action - fields near the Belgian town of Ciney have been fertilized with millions of liters of milk that no one needs. [...]

And here is drugoi's post scriptum (RUS) to this post:

[...] They should've asked LJ users. Our experts always have recipes for all possible situations. For example, here the experts' council could suggest giving the milk away to the starving children in Africa. Let's see who responds in the comments - and what recommendations we'll get.

LJ user drugoi has 41,453 readers among registered LiveJournal users alone, and, needless to say, many people have responded: there are 774 comments so far, and here's a translation of just a handful of them:

a_brosimov:

Would've killed them if I were God.

***

flymanager:

Indeed, they should have given it away to the needy. To export to Africa would be too costly.

lenin75ka:

Africa wouldn't allow European products in, just like Russia. The problems with sales that the local farmers are facing are much worse than those of the European farmers.

[...]

The price isn't going to go up if they give it away to the needy, because this would diminish the demand.

***

sokolhan:

It's better to sell it for 20 cents than to dump it.

***

lavradar:

Last century, during the over-production crisis, they were just dumping it into the river, so here they've actually done a pretty practical thing.

lenin75ka:

In the years of the great famine in the USSR, Stalin was offered American products for free, because the demand wasn't there at all. We were too proud and categorically refused - and showed off our "abundance" by staging feasts. So the farmers were forced to burn grain and dump milk into rivers. It seemed to have helped as a result - the demand returned.

lavradar:

Haven't heard about the "free offers" - but it's true about farmers giving away for free, only there are no sponsors to deliver it to Africa.

lenin75ka:

There were rumors in the West that many people in the USSR are starving to death, even newspapers were writing articles about it. But the USSR was denying these rumors were true. They were even staging huge feasts for European and American guests, to demonstrate that there was no food shortage in the USSR. And the West believed it. Offers of humanitarian aid from the U.S. government to Stalin stopped coming.

[...]

http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm

In the open letter to the editor of the Manchester Guardian, Bernard Shaw calls the reports of the famine in the USSR false. (Thursday 2 March 1933)

pashyrey:

Famine in the USSR was caused by the fact that the harvest was being taken away from the peasants and sold to the West. They needed currency for industrialization, and gas and oil weren't so popular then, grain had much more value.

lenin75ka:

Yes, the were selling. And - it was also rotting in the fields. Moreover, the West refused to buy - they had plenty of their own and the prices were collapsing towards zero.

***

denver07:

Well... Let's take Sudan, for example. Where people are dying off like flies. And they are dumping the milk... This mentality is somewhat alike to ours.

lavradar:

Well, so why don't you sponsor the delivery to Sudan.

***

onlymax:

http://www.rg.ru/2009/07/30/moloko.html [An article published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on July 30, RUS]

An unprecedented action is planned for tomorrow in Ust-Labinsky region of [Kuban]. Villagers drawn to despair by low milk prices intend to publicly dump their produce into manure.

Same stuff in Stavropol region.

***

pashaman:

This did happen before... In England... Some 100 years ago... But with vegetables. They were drowned in the sea.

[...]

And our [Russian] farmers are also selling their produce for 10 rubles [22 euro cents], and in stores it costs 30 rubles [67 euro cents].

daily_winegraph:

Ten rubles sounds like a good price. According to the info I have, it's from 4 to 6 rubles [8-13 euro cents].

kolbaska:

Four rubles per liter [8 euro cents].

***

zanozanet:

They should have dumped the milk into a swimming pool and then charged 50 euro cents for tickets there.

***

leo_nardo:

Don't they have orphanages and other preschool institutions in Belgium?

mcsdwarken:

I don't think Belgian orphanages and other institutions suffers from a shortage of milk.

***

tatti_anna:

Aren't they making anything out of milk nowadays? [...] Like, division of labor - farmers are producing milk, other farmers are making cheese and cottage cheese [...] People are too lazy to produce something, it's such a Russian way - to gather, have it rot, ask for more money... This has always been the cheapest option...

incogn1too:

Socialism does lead to this. Everyone wants subsidies from the state.

***

sergey_sht:

By the way, in 2002, when the EU refused to buy powdered milk from Ukraine, which resulted in a similar situation, our folks slaughtered the cows - so radical. And this reflects on the raw products market still. And [the Belgians] are just dumping the milk, drawing attention to themselves, but they aren't SLAUGHTERING the herd! It remains to be seen who is acting smarter in such a situation.

***

red_tengu:

They used to get good subsidies from the national government and the EU, and now the subsidies have been significantly cut (WTO and the crisis) - and the farmers' revenues have fallen. No one wants to buy such expensive milk. In Latvia, by the way, milk prices are even lower - approximately 6 euro cents, and there were cases when farmers weren't getting anything for their milk - like, not fat enough, etc.

***

golovach_igor:

Why do they need so many farmers if no one needs milk? All Belgian farmers should urgently turn into citizen journalists, bloggers, sell their tractors, buy a camera with a laptop, and they'll have enough money left to buy a ticket to [Perm] - quite a competition that's gonna be!!!!!!!!

***

rolliks:

A good way to get money for the milk:

Day One. In a convoy of milk trucks, we drive into Brussels - and water the streets [with milk].
Day Two. In a convoy of milk trucks, we drive into Brussels. It smells. We still water the streets [with milk].
Day Three. We approach Brussels. The stench is terrible. Brussels residents meet us at the city edge with money. We sell the milk.

Latvia: Rioting in Riga

Global Voices Online
Saturday, January 17, 2009

In his post about the Jan. 13 peaceful anti-government protest followed by rioting in Riga, Aleks Tapinsh of All About Latvia wrote that Ivars Godmanis, the Latvian PM, had "told the people in his New Year’s Eve address how penguins deal with severe winter - they huddle together to stay warm - the same way as Latvians ought to do when going through the economic turmoil."

What happened in Latvia's capital on Tuesday has thus been labeled by some as the "penguin revolution."

Below are some of the accounts and opinions from the blogosphere.

More from All About Latvia's post linked to above:

Shattered glass. Blue paint on the building. Broken plastic bottles. Cobblestones. Ninety-eight detained.

[...]

But it started all so peaceful. Around 5 p.m. several hundred people had already flooded the Dom Square in the heart of the capital of Latvia. People of different ages, ethnicity, backgrounds appeared united in their disdain for the ruling coalition, and – more importantly – the culture of political cynicism.

Following the 90-minute event mostly young people moved toward the Saeima building. They tried to get in. Prevented from doing so by the riot police, they began throwing anything that they could lay their hands on - from snowballs to street cobblestones. [...]

An English-language interview with a protester, conducted by Aleks Tapinsh, is here. The man believes that "new people" should be allowed into Latvia's politics for the country to prosper and talks about the effect that the ongoing crisis has so far had on his business.

A selection of relevant photo and video reports - at a Russian-language blog on the disturbances of Jan. 13: http://lvrevolucija.blogspot.com/.

Juris Kaža of Free Speech Emergency in Latvia offers this assessment:

[...] On one level, the ruling coalition in Latvia had this coming to it. Regardless of what the law and the book of etiquette says, a riot is a form of political struggle, though less focussed and clear than a well-defined non-violent protest. Seeing eggs and rocks fly at the Saeima building as a symbol of the ruling elite and Latvian politicians made not only me but many others feel that they had this coming.

If there is more severe repression against future protests, it will most likely escalate to the West European model of periodic clashes between the police and young streetfighters.

While this is unfortunate, especially for those suffering collateral damage -- looted stores, injured police and bystanders -- it now seems inevitable that street violence will become part of the political scene here and the threat of such violence -- a likely excuse for curbing non-violent expression. Post-Soviet authoritarian thinking in Latvia is strong, and it will not diminish but find some self-justification after the Riga riots.

A pre-protest roundup on the political and economic situation in Latvia - defaulted bank loans, corrupt politicians, legislative chaos - in earlier posts at All About Latvia, here and here.

Juris Kaža, in a Jan. 16 post, reports on the Riga City Council's decision "[to deny] permits for two politically-oriented gatherings in Riga's Old Town" on Saturday and Sunday:

[...] There are comments and appeals circulating on the internet asking people to defy the ban on gatherings in the Old Town and hinting at a repeat of the January 13 disorders if the police attempt to disperse or interfere with any unsanctioned public meetings. [...]

A reader, however, refutes the information about the banning of the rallies in this comment to Juris Kaža's post:

[...] Blanket ban of assembly in Old Town would, of course, be wrong and unlawful, and even ban on particular kind of gatherings would, I think. No such ban has been established, public comments of officials proposing to ban particular kind of gatherings notwithstanding. [...]

Riga-based LJ user xzirnisx posted several pictures and wrote this (RUS) the morning after the disturbances:

In all kinds of tourist booklets, they've always liked to call Riga the "small Paris." Last night, the city turned into a small Athens, and I'm incredibly happy about it, because I used to think that for our people, who are patiently enduring all the troubles and deprivations, there is nothing that can force them to drag their behinds off the couch. But, it turns out, there is something.

Naturally, the mass media are trying to turn everything into farce, emphasizing the fact that the "vandals have looted the Latvijas balzams (liquor) store," but for some reason failing to mention the [five dozen] injured protesters, faces of girls adorned with running mascara and bruises, and pensioners who've also got a taste of black rubber.

Over a hundred people are now huddling at [police] stations all over the city. Most of them are not vandals. I still can't get through to my brother. The PM said that "there'll be no more actions on the territory of the Old Riga." Here it is, the true face of our pseudo-democracy ;)

In response to a reader's question, LJ user xzirnisx listed some of the reasons (RUS) for the people's discontent:

[...] We currently have the highest unemployment rates in the EU. In December, some 300 people were losing jobs every day - this with the population of 2 million. Per capita GDP is the lowest in the EU (or [it's the lowest] in Polans, which places us on the second place from the end). And what are the measures that the government is taking? They are raising the VAT to 21 percent and cut [state employees'] salaries by 15 percent. In the private sector, salaries have also gone down - by about [a half] since October. In addition to all this, public transportation has become twice as expensive this year and costs Ls 0.50 ($1). They've also raised [natural] gas prices - and they are selling it to us at four times (!!!) the price that Russia is charging them for it. And the more expensive the gas, the more expensive the electricity and heating. [...]

Daugavpils-based LJ user aljena-beljaeva posted information (RUS) about a fundraising effort for Edgar Gorban, a 16-year-old protester who lost his eye during the rioting:

[...] They say the eye was hit either by a stone, or he lost it as a result of [tear] gas, but originally there was information about a rubber bullet. I don't know what really happened and I don't really care. One way or another, I saw this boy's crying mother on TV, an ordinary Russian-speaking woman, and I feel very sorry for her. Some people are now saying that we shouldn't be turning him into a romantic hero - he must have been throwing stones himself, so he is the one to blame. [...]

Riga-based LJ user kris_reid posted his policeman friend's account (RUS) of what had occurred on Jan. 13, addressing the entry to readers from Russia - who, according to the blogger, were likely to get the other side of the story - "the protester's version" - from "the zombie-box [Russian TV]":

[...]

"[...] When [...] the number of people returning from the rally decreased and we were expecting to hear "thank you for your work" over our walkie-talkies, we got information about groups gathering by the Saeima [Latvian parliament] [...]. And at 8 PM, a general alert was issued and an order came for all the free units and the reserves to go to certain points to get instructions. [...]

About the "non-use of special devices" - lies. I myself was among those who used them. Got caught on [some videos]. [Beat up] one guy [who was] five meters away and about to throw a stone, and handed him to [the riot police guys], who [beat him up some more] and led him away [...]. Him and his cocky [girlfriend]. I heard from colleagues that flash/noise and gas grenades were being used by the Saeima.

[...]

Upd. [Rioters] were multinational. There were enough of both [ethnic] Latvians and [ethnic] Russians.

Can't say anything about the rally - didn't see it [...]. People leaving the rally made a good impression - more or less normal people. The whole mess happened because of the predominantly marginal youth, most of them [drunk]. [...] And the disturbances were of a totally European scale - with ripped out cobblestone. [...]"

Central & Eastern Europe: Trademark on ;-) and Other Internet News

Global Voices Online
Thursday, December 18, 2008

Below is a selection of recent posts by bloggers from around Central and Eastern Europe on social networking, participatory media, online activism and other related issues.

Eternal Remont writes about Russian businessman Oleg Teterin, who claims to have trademarked the ;-) emoticon:

[...] Seeing that the Russian patent agency will grant a trademark for just about anything these days, Eternal Remont is attempting to trademark "Oleg Teterin," (trademark pending) and will expect payment whenever anyone speaks, writes, prints, or otherwise uses this phrase in all media known to humanity, existing or future. [...]

Streetwise Professor has chosen a different approach:

[...] To Mr. Teterin, I say: ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

So sue me.

Russian Blog writes about the Russian Facebook look-alike, vkontakte.ru - which, among other things, appears to be a good language learning tool:

When learning a foreign language communication is crucial. [...] I tell my Russian students of Swedish to join Swedish online communities, and the same advice goes for you who are studying Russian - join a Russian online community! Not only will you find lots of interesting (or uninteresting) clubs as well as people, or be able write to strangers from one sixth of the Earth’s ground (that’s just how big a country this is), but for those of you who are only beginning to study Russian joining in itself will be a challenge. After all - one must join in Russian. [...] There’s a Russian version of Facebook, though it’s completely independent, and in no way connected to Facebook, except for one thing - it is an almost exact copy of the way Facebook used to look before (the old Facebook), translated into Russian. [...]

Siberian Light interviews Dmitry, the owner and manager of Expatriates.ru, a new social networking site with fast-growing membership:

[...] What inspired you to develop expatriates.ru?

During my studies abroad many people asked me a lot of questions about Russia. I decided to create a community where all people will find the answers to their questions about Russia and where they can talk and discuss issues related to Russia. [...]

Siberian Light also discusses some of the challenges that a blogger writing on sensitive geopolitical issues - in this case, Russia - often has to deal with:

[...] Over the past few months, I’ve written posts that have both criticised and praised Russia. I write them because I think that Russia is often right, although it’s also far too often wrong.

And, far too often, I take crap from people. Usually because of what they think I have said, in the context of their tiny little world views, rather than what I have actually said, in the context of an entire blog post, or a series of posts. [...]

Gray Falcon, a blogger focusing on the Balkans, seems to share Siberian Light's frustration:

It has been almost ten years since I started publishing commentary on-line, and it never ceases to amaze me that people seem to possess a remarkable capacity of completely missing the point of entire articles to zero in on one particular sentence or phrase and make a huge deal of it.

[...]

Look, I'm routinely attacked by Albanians because I'm a Serb (it doesn't matter what I say, really - unless I endorse the KLA somehow; then I'm a poster child for what needs to be done). I get grief from Greeks, because I dare say "Macedonia" instead of FYROM or what have you (look, Alexander was a barbarian, OK? Just because he embraced the culture of Hellas and spread it around the known world doesn't make him any more Greek than my Orthodox faith makes me one).

And now I'm marked for malice by Macedonians for daring to point out that hey, today's Macedonia exists within the boundaries of the territory liberated from the Ottoman Empire by the Kingdom of Serbia. [...]

Belgraded writes about the Facebook group celebrating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre (the group is now closed; an earlier GV text on it by Sinisa Boljanovic is here):

[...] What struck me as interesting is that the vast majority of members were not even born when the Yugoslavia breakup wars started and were still in pre-school when it all ended. So where do they get their ‘knowledge’ and information about the past from? Who makes the biggest influence on how they see the past – their parents, media, their friends, the whole society?

[...]

There are no similar hate groups in English, presumably because the facebook admins can react swiftly if they can understand what some group is all about without waiting for numerous people to hit the ‘report’ button and translate ‘Ubij [insert nationality here]’ for them. I know also some would like to blame facebook and other social media for making hate speech so available, but remember – it’s not guns that kill people.

I guess that facebook is still not considered to be so influential or important by mainstream media, at least not in the Balkans. All this despite the fact that both Serbia and Croatia have around 170.ooo members on facebook each, a respectable number which is only going to grow in the future, with Bosnia lagging behind with about 50.000 members. Despite the fact that it’s mostly teenagers. Despite the fact that members post things under their full names with their photos attached – without having any fear or feeling no responsibility that the things they are posting could be dangerous and are wrong. [...]

In another post, Belgraded welcomes a new arrival on Serbia's online magazine scene:

White City magazine is "Belgrade’s first English-language domestic urban magazine. It is written entirely in English, entirely by local Serbian writers for a Serbian readership." Check it out - it looks good, the articles are very well written, hopefully it will survive in this tough competition.

Scraps of Moscow reviews some of the new arrivals in "Moldovasphere":

Moldovaphiles should check out this new website, Moldovarious, which has been set up by a couple of Austrians. Curiously, the guys behind another interesting project related to Moldova (well, related to the PMR) profiled here are also Austrian.

[...]

And, via barabanch, I learned of another newly launched project, this one initiated by Moldovans and called ThinkMoldova (also available in English) [...].

One of the people involved in the project is Barabanov's wife and fellow New Times journalist Natalia Morari. [...]

Hungarian Spectrum writes about the blog of the Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsány:

[...] Quite a few Hungarian politicians decided at one time or another to write a blog but after a few days, or at most after a few weeks, they gave up the ghost. Ferenc Gyurcsány is an exception. He began writing a blog about two and a half years ago, just before the 2006 elections. [...] Even in the midst of a grueling campaign the Hungarian prime minister wrote his blog practically every weekday. Moreover, he didn't stop after the election that he managed to win practically single-handedly. [...] I think one reason that he didn't stop is that the readers of the blog were so enthusiastic and so supportive that he felt it his duty not to disappoint the team that supported him with words and deeds. Eventually Gyurcsány and his readers organized personal meetings where people revealed their pseudonyms, where they met each other as well as the prime minister. The fact is that he is a good blog writer. His notes are interesting. Very often he reveals government plans that the readers of the blog are the first to know. By now the members of the media visit the blog every morning to see what's going on in Gyurcsány's head. [...]

Meglena Kuneva - a Bulgarian politician, the European consumer affairs commissioner, and a blogger - writes this about "the realities of cross-border e-commerce for consumers in Europe":

Some of you have complained through this blog that you cannot buy over the internet from certain stores located in other EU countries. I share your frustration. The Internet has the potential to bring the single European market to a whole new level, and to provide consumers with the chance to buy the very best that is on offer within the EU in terms of choice, price and quality.

But the fact is that although a third of EU citizens already shop on the internet, only 7% shop online from other Member States than their own. [...]

Cyrus Farivar writes this about Estonia's advanced voting practices:

The Estonian parliament [...] has just approved a bill to let Estonian citizens vote via their mobile phone. This makes the country the first country in the world to do so, and comes about 20 months after Estonia held its first nation-wide election where the electorate could cast their ballots online.

[...]

Update (Dec 17.): I spoke with Silver Meikar, an Estonian MP, who told me that this actually isn’t quite mobile phone voting. In fact, this is using Estonia’s digital ID card infrastructure to use your phone as an ID tool instead of your ID card and reader. You still need a computer and an Internet connection to vote online, but you now can just have your phone instead of your ID card. So, not as sexy. [...]

Window on Eurasia reports on what appears to be a move in the opposite direction for Russia:

In the name of fighting extremism, a group of United Russia Duma deputies has proposed new legislation that would allow the government to impose sanctions on those who distribute what Moscow believes are “extremist” materials via the Internet and to close down the sites they post them on.

[...]

And even though the nature of the world wide web is such that Russian government efforts in this area are unlikely to be fully effective, such moves against what many consider to be the last free media space in Russia represent a further act of intimidation by Vladimir Putin and his associates against the embattled members of civil society in that country. [...]

In Latvia, too, the state seems to be taking a proactive approach in its dealings with the online world. Free Speech Emergency in Latvia wrote this last week:

According to unconfirmed reports, the Latvian Security Police have detained Valdis Rošāns, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi who has been writing his views extensively on the internet (in Latvian) using the nickname FENIKSS.

[...]

By harassing a young neo-Nazi crackpot, the Security Police may be trying to restore their image after their detention of economist Dmitrijs Smirnovs and questioning of musician Valters Frīdenbergs. This caused an international uproar.

I don't think too many people will rally around Valdis Rošāns, but his case should be put on the record. [...]

Earlier this month, Aleks Tapinsh of All About Latvia wrote on GV about Dmitrijs Smirnovs' case and the economic crisis dimension of the freedom of speech situation in Latvia. On his blog, he posted a picture of a t-shirt featuring a mock message to the Latvian security police:

Notice to the security police: I admit that yesterday I withdrew money from my bank. Please don’t arrest me. I did it to buy milk and bread, and not to destabilize Latvia’s financial system.

Central & Eastern Europe: A Travel Roundup

Global Voices Online
Thursday, November 13, 2008

Olive harvesting in Albania, John Paul II monuments in Poland, a Soviet military hardware "cemetery" in Moscow, and more: Central and Eastern Europe-based bloggers share their recent travel observations and photos.

Albania

- Stepping Stones has posted photos of two elderly Albanian village women: the first one is harvesting olives in "the old-fashioned way"; the second one has her black apron filled with "tiny daisies," which she is picking for a local company and gets paid less than $1 per kilo.

Also, Stepping Stones has spent some time at the ancient city of Apollonia and visited the Ardenice Orthodox Christian monastery:

[...] Ardenice is an old Orthodox monastery which was saved from destruction during the times of totalitarianism. 4 monks still live and work there but they were away at the seminary today so we didn't get to see them. The site has been 'reclaimed' in recent years and is being well maintained and lovingly restored after being used for everything from a restaurant to a small hotel. [...]

- Kolin of Living in Shkodër has been jogging around the city lately - "seeing 'normal' Albanian life," getting "LOTS of really strange looks" and taking pictures of the old doors to private houses:

[...] There are many of these and one street could have about 20 different kinds of doors. It is the old wooden doors that I really like.

I think to myself, what kind of story could these doors tell us if only they could speak. [...]

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia

Balkanology Blog has posted some photos of Croatia and, following a tip from a fellow blogger (Stuart Pinfold), wrote about "the eccentricities of Google Maps in giving driving directions between certain points in Southeast Europe."

First, there is Google's Dubrovnik-Mostar route:

[...] Instead of the conventional 150-kilometre drive that less creative mapping software might recommend, Google suggests a more adventurous approach: a ferry to Italy, some driving, another ferry to Greece, and more driving through Greece, the entire length of Albania, Montenegro, and finally Bosnia. At 1541 kilometres it's a mere 10 times longer than the usual route - and so much more interesting. [...]

Then, there is the Split-Dubrovnik route:

[...] Sure enough, Google's answer does involve a drive along the Adriatic Coast - unfortunately it is on the other side of the Adriatic, between Bari and Pescara [in Italy]. [...]

And there is also the Split-Zagreb route:

[...] The result was even more surprising: "We could not calculate directions between split, croatia and zagreb, croatia." [...]

And the Belgrade-Podgorica route:

[...] Closer inspection of the driving directions reveals the problem: Google wants us to head southeast for 150km, turn around, and drive back to the outskirts of Belgrade on the same road before finally taking the correct road towards Montenegro. [...]

The author of Balkanology Blog gave up at this point, but Stuart Pinfold - the blogger who first discovered the confusion - shared some more results of Google Maps destination searches in the comment section to this post.

The Czech Republic

The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks writes about the town of Svitavy - which, among other things, is the birthplace of Oscar Schindler, the man "credited with saving the lives of over 1000 Jewish people towards the end of World War II":

[...] The Schindler home is at Poličská Ul. 24 but is still a family residence and therefore inaccessible to the public. It’s marked only by a small stone memorial in the park across the street.

[...]

One block south of the main square, the Svitavy city museum dedicates an entire wing to the story of Schindler and his Jews. Most of the displays take the form of documents and photographs and are neatly displayed in white on black panels. There are also several items exhibited in glass cases - prisoners’ uniforms, identity cards, food stamps and so on [...].

In another post, Captain Oddsocks writes about his "love/hate relationship" with "tourist information offices in the Czech Republic" and offers some tips on how "to make sure their visitors, however few or many, have such a wonderful stay that they want to go away and spread the word without being asked":

[...] I say that because I think, even though foreign tourists have been coming here freely for almost 20 years, the Czech Republic remains drastically underrated and underappreciated. Most people only go to Prague. [...]

Latvia

Latvian photographer Arnis Balcus posts photos of Latvia's oldest movie theater, Rīga, founded in 1923:

[...] It is probably also the only cinema in the country that still hires an artist to paint film ads.

Poland

- Polandian writes about the fast-growing population of Pope John Paul II statues in Poland:

[...] There are now 228 known public statues of Jan Pawel in Poland (this guy keeps a record). The Pope only died three years ago. According to a calculation I just pretended to do, if the production of Pope statues continues at this rate there will be more marble John Pauls than actual Polish people by about 2025. [...]

[...]

Kitsch is the word that springs, unfortunately, to mind. You have to wonder what John Paul would have thought of all this idolatry, and you have to conclude that it wouldn’t have been positive. [...]

- 20 east explores Warsaw landmarks connected to Heinrich, count von Brühl - the palace at Saski Square and the palace in Młociny:

[...] We’ve walked past it many times but not ventured over the fence. The other weekend, I went out for a walk alone into the wilder parts of the neighbouring land and after working my way around a small lake and then up a steep slope I found myself standing face to face with the palace without having to deliberately break any boundaries. I imagined the place would be deserted but I think there’s a caretaker living in the north wing because I saw a tricycle parked there (visible in the next picture) and curtains in the windows. There’s a weird looking guy, about 45 years old, rides around the neighbourhood on a tricycle made for a 6 year old. I thought he was just the local mutant but it seems he might be the palace caretaker. [...]

Russia

- Eagle and the Bear writes about "a strange assemblage of Soviet military hardware" at Khodynka Field in Moscow - here and here:

[...] Listen up, kids — this kind of thing doesn’t happen in America or Europe: A completely unsupervised collection of Soviet air power, Hinds and MIGs, relics that once hunted down Afghani goat-herders now at your disposal for war games and stupid pictures. [...]

LJ user akry has also devoted several posts (RUS) to Khodynka military hardware "cemetery" and has posted over a hundred photos taken there:

[...] We were shocked by what we saw there. The once mighty, beautiful machines have been left to rot under the rain, their blister windows broken, their insides sticking out... And these are the helicopters and aircrafts that used to protect us... [...]

Serbia

- A Yankee-in-Belgrade writes about the "long and tumultuous history" of Serbia's capital:

[...] When the Scordisci (a Celtic tribe) set uptheir stronghold Singidunum at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers in the third century, the city at the "crossroads of the worlds" had been already been conquered by the Byzantines, the Gepidae, the Sarmatians, the Eastern Goths, the Slavs, the Avars, the Francs, the Bulgarians, the Hungarians, the Ottomans, the Austrians, the Germans... each of whom gave the city their respective names: Singedon, Nandor, Fehervar, Nandor Alba, Alba Graeca, Grieschisch Weisenburg, Alba Bulgarica, Taurunum... However, its Slavic name Belgrade, meaning White City, has lasted the longest. [...]

- At the Balkan Crew, GV author Danica Radovanovic writes about places she loves best in Belgrade:

[...] 2. Markets, open lively markets with food and other goods. Someone said that you have to go first to the open market when you visit some city in order to know better the soul of the city and its habitants, people who live there. [...]

- Viktor Markovic of Belgraded.com writes that the travel tips he shared in The Guardian last week "are a good sneak preview of what's coming soon at Belgraded - a series of articles entitled 'Hundred things to do in Belgrade'." Viktor invites readers to contribute their own "top secret Belgrade tips."

Central & Eastern Europe: Financial Crisis

Global Voices Online
Thursday, October 16, 2008

Below is a roundup of reactions from the Anglophone blogosphere on the ongoing financial crisis in some of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Hungary

Antal Dániel of Central Europe Activ wrote this on Oct. 13:

After major banks and insurance corporations were bailed out by European government, Hungary has become the first member state of the EU the receive a bailout offer from IMF with the support of EU’s Ecofin. Hungary looks to be the most fragile member of the Union in the global financial crisis. [...]

The Hungarian blogger believes that "the current economic situation is a result of a political crisis":

[...] In the 2002 election campaign, both the then-ruling centre-right and the centre-left campaigned with the promise to give back more to the people from Hungary’s economic success between 1989 and 2002. The two major parties, right-wing Fidesz and the Socialist Party have outbid each other with spending promises and tax-cut promises. [...] The Socialist Party has kept much of its incredible promises, driving up budget deficit to a 10% record. Sadly, a similar bidding came in the 2006 elections that the Socialists won narrowly. The Socialist Partly leader, Mr. Gyurcsány has admitted afterwards that his party lied to the voters, which made his later austerity measures rather unwelcome by the Hungarian people. [...]

To overcome the crisis, Dániel concludes, "Hungarian voters [...] will have to force their major parties into more rational public finance promises and policies."

Eva Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum wrote this about the Hungarian opposition's inadequate response to the crisis:

[...] Let's start with the leaders of SZDSZ. Once again, they seem to be out of touch. [...] They talk as if the Hungarian government's most important task would be "reforms." Reforms that ended, according to them. And therefore, isn't it wonderful that they left the coalition? As if today, mid-October 2008, when the whole financial world is teetering on the brink of collapse these so-called reforms will make or break Hungary. [...] Meanwhile, these petty squabbles weaken the government's efforts to keep the country's economy in balance and avoid panic. It's important to pass the budget and move on. Because there's going to be a lot of hard work ahead.

Then there is Fidesz's chief, [Viktor Orbán]. He tried to explain to a group of important business leaders yesterday that Hungary's economic problems would be solved within three months if there were early elections and he became prime minister. He would turn the economy around. Alone, in Hungary. Of course, the problem is that in a global economy no country is an island. One way or another Hungary will be affected. Less so on the front lines than some other European countries because Hungary's banks are not awash in toxic paper and Hungary was not the favorite destination of currency traders and hedge funds. But the first signs are already here. Opel's sales are down, so the Hungarian Opel factory will be closed "for a while." However, Orbán claims that his economic team is ready with all the answers: drastic tax cuts, less bureaucratic handling of tax collection, decrease of bureaucracy and corruption, a smaller parliament, well organized public administration, and better handling of finances. Laughable? No, under the current circumstances this small-mindedness shows a lack of vision.

What is even more worrisome is that Viktor Orbán thinks in black and white when it comes to the root of the current crisis. He is certain that "liberal economic policy" is the cause of the problem and he spoke enthusiastically about those countries where democracy is not exactly in full bloom: China, Russia, some of the Islamic countries. Those are the successful ones, not the liberal democracies in the West. [...]

In a follow-up post on the Hungarian politicians' response to the financial crisis, Eva Balogh wrote about "a seven-point list of demands" put forward by Fidesz - and PM Ferenc Gyurcsány's "twelve-point plan":

[...] The fact that this twelve-point plan has the blessing of the president of the Hungarian National Bank will certainly give it weight. And it includes most of Fidesz's demands. [...]

Will the plan help ease the fallout of the global financial crisis? Who knows? Real damage has been done to the credit markets, and there will undoubtedly be a spillover into the global economy. How deep, how long is anybody's guess.

Edward Hugh of Hungary Economy Watch explained "why Hungary is not the next Iceland":

[...] The longer term financial and economic future of Iceland is rosy, once they weather the present storm, and learn some belated lessons. I wish I could say the same about Hungary. [...]

[...] Iceland is a young country, almost reproducing itself in terms of children, and with a rapidly expanding population of working age. Hungary on the other hand is a comparatively old country, with a rapidly ageing population, where each generation is about two thirds of the size of the previous one, and where the potential workforce and total population are now in long term decline.

This is why Iceland - even though it has gone to a huge excess - can sustain a much higher level of "leveraging" into the future than Hungary can, and why in the longer term Iceland is certainly no Hungary. I do not say any of this to criticise Hungary, or its citizens, but really out of a deep seated concern about the future of a country that I do care about. [...]

At A Fistful of Euros, Edward Hugh wrote about the International Monetary Fund's "readiness to offer financial and technical help to Hungary":

[...] The EU has said it welcomes the intervention. Under the circumstances there really was little else it could do. This would now appear to set a precedent, and the Hungarian case may well be followed by the Baltics, Bulgaria and Romania in pretty short order I would say, looking at the speed with which things are happening. [...]

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

One day later, Edward Hugh continued his "IMF receivership" roll call at A Fistful of Euros:

[...] Meantime a growing number of countries now seem to be at risk of following Iceland and Hungary into the arms of the IMF, with the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania now looking particularly vulnerable, according to a warning from the International Monetary Fund itself yesterday.

[...]

In my view the threat to the Baltic financial systems is real, as is the threat to the Bulgarian and Romanian ones. Action, of some form or another needs to be taken, and soon. Latvia and Estonia are now in deep recessions, and Lithuania, while still clinging on to growth, can’t be far behind. Basically it is hard to see any revival in domestic demand in the immediate future, which means these countries now need to live from exports. But with the very high inflation they have had it is hard to see how they can restore competitiveness while retaining their currency pegs to the euro. [...] So better get it over and done with now I would say, and take advantage of the shelter offered in the arms of the IMF. [...]

At Latvia Economy Watch, Claus Vistesen provided a thorough analysis of the situation in the Baltic states:

[...] But while the current crisis is pretty much a generalised global one, if there is one region where the crisis is making its presence more acutely than elsewhere, that place is Eastern Europe, and among the ranks of the regional casualties high on the list come the three Baltics countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. That this is the case should not really strike us as so strange. On many occasions since the credit crisis went global back in the summer of 2007 many analysts (including yours truly) have been flagging the risk of a hard landing in Eastern Europe. This unfortunate situation has now by and large materialised and the only question which really arises is how hard is "hard" going to be? A couple of recent tentative signs suggest that the big eye of the credit crunch, not unlike Sauron with his glance toward Frodo et al., is fixing Eastern Europe fast in its gaze.

[...]

Ultimately however the immediate challenge for the Baltics at this point in time is damage control and more specifically how to wriggle themselves out of the current vice of dependence on credit inflows at the same time as the economy needs to restore competitiveness. [...]

[...] What is critical for the Baltics at this point is consequently that the current economic downturn is managed in such a way to minimize the risk of a collapse of the financial system as foreign banks shut down operations. Whether this entails the maintaining of the Euro peg is a difficult question to answer. One thing is pretty certain however and this is that the kind of wage and price deflation needed to correct the imbalance would be a disaster for any political leadership.

Of the three economies Latvia clearly seems to be the most vulnerable to a rout, and given the proximity of the economies sudden unexpected events in one country could easily spread to the others. Here is to hoping that it does not come to that. [...]

Ukraine

Next on the "growing list of Eastern European countries" lining up for IMF's support is Ukraine (see this Oct. 14 post at A Fistful of Euros).

As Edward Hugh pointed out in his earlier in-depth review of the political, social and economic situation in the country, Ukraine "is far from being alone in having banking, stock market and credit crunch problems at this point in time (but here, of course, there is no strength or consolation to be found in company)." Below are some of the more general points from Hugh's post:

[...] The current events in Ukraine may well take some observers by surprise, since the general impression has been that the economic performance has been solid and GDP growth has been strong in recent years, and this has given the impression that the underlying reality was sound, which it basically hasn’t been. The country has been bedevilled by constant infighting, while at the same time a combination of strong migration of Ukraine workers to external destinations and very long term low fertility has meant that the country endemically suffers from acute labour shortages as the population both ages and declines comparatively rapidly. Hence, in my view, the absurdly high levels of inflation we have been seeing.

Nevertheless, real GDP has grown by 7.5 percent a year on average since 2000, in line with other CIS countries, and indeed that rate has been higher than in most other transition economies: whether or not this growth was built on sand is what we are now all about to find out. [...]

Peter Byrne of Abdymok began his post on the current "banking mess" in Ukraine with this piece of street wisdom (RUS): "Decent people in Kyiv always have cash on them." He continued:

[...] [National Bank of Ukraine] chief vololdymyr stelmakh said on oct. 10 that it will take at least two weeks to calm the situation in ukraine’s finance and banking sectors.

fat chance. [...]

Serbia

Finally, there is Serbia on the list of "those in the IMF sick ward." Here's yet another one of Edward Hugh's explanations at A Fistful of Euros:

[...] So, to be clear, Serbia is not an “emergency case”, like Hungary for example - although it should be noted that the Hungarian government are stating that they are not an emergency case like Iceland, who are themselves not an emergency case, like Ukraine, for example, who are in no way to be considered as being in need of support in the way in which, let us say, Latvia is. And Latvia according to Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis is not any kind of case at all, and certainly not one to be compared with Serbia.

Well, make of all that what you will, but one thing is for sure, and that is that experts from the International Monetary Fund are going to have a role in drafting Serbia’s 2009 budget. [...]

Latvia: "Halves"

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, February 14, 2007



Peteris Cedrins, a Latvia-based blogger who took this picture of a house in Daugavpils, writes:

One house, two worlds. Many of the older houses in Daugavpils are being transmogrified by cheap plastic windows, poor cores wrapped in the dull facades of a poor and tasteless modernity.

Daugavpils is the second-largest Latvian city, pop. 108,260 people. It used to be called Dinaburg from 1275 to 1893, Borisoglebsk from 1656 to 1667, and Dvinsk from 1893 to 1920.

More of Cedrin's Daugavpils photos are here.

His blog, Marginalia, is here.

Russian-Language Blogs: Miscellanea (3)

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Israeli blogger pilka writes (RUS) about a surreal experience of eating next to three clowns at a hospital in the wartime Haifa:

[...] I had breakfast with clowns today. I work at the children's department, okay? So strange, a clown on the right, a clown on the left, a vegetable salad in front of me, and next to it, a clown again. Scary. They eat in their noses and suspenders, just like that. It feels especially weird when one of them begins to complain that his wife took their little son away to Eilat, a few hours by car from here, and he hasn't seen him in two weeks already. And the other is whining that he is sick and tired of sharing a protected room with five other people, mother-in-law, father-in-law and two children. And I used to think that clowns are funny... [...]

***

LJ user auseklitis posts one of the campaign ads of the Latvian political alliance Harmony Center (Saskanas Centrs in Latvian, Tsentr Soglasiya in Russian), which can be seen in the Latvian capital, Riga:



According to auseklitis (RUS), the slogan, translated from Latvian, reads: "We are for the Jews."

[...] Of course, when you're crossing the Deglava Bridge for the first time and see the "We are for the Jews" slogan, you flinch and think that someone has decided to clearly express [his/her] position on the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

But then you notice other slogans - "We are for the Russians," "We are for the Latvians," "We are for everyone" - with pictures, and realize that this is a pre-election thing. [...]

The "Russian face" on the Harmony Center's ad is Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel to space. LJ user chilandra, in the comment, is wondering about the choice, and auseklitis offers an explanation from the Soviet past:

Because there used to be this poem:

Good that our Gagarin
Is neither a Jew, nor a Tatar,
Neither a Tajik, nor an Uzbek,
But a Soviet person!

To which chilandra responds:

)))
Haven't heard it before.
In any case, who else but Gagarin?
[Aleksandr Pushkin] is, of course, our everything - but his national origin is unclear.
[Leo Tolstoy] is great but he looks like [Krisjanis Barons] - what if they mistake one for another.
All those Lenins, Stalins, Putins are out of question.
While Gagarin is such a positive hero. And he's wearing a space suit, which makes him recognizable.

Latvia's general election is scheduled to be held on October 7, 2006.

***

In another entry, auseklitis posts a photograph of the two-page, handwritten message left by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Russian poet, in the visitors' feedback book of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. auseklitis writes (RUS):

I have been to the Occupation Museum again. It was being shown to the great Russian poet Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko. And I was just humbly present there.

The poet ended up being dissatisfied with the exhibition. There was nothing there about the Congress of the People's Deputies of the USSR, in which he participated, or about [Aleksandr Yakovlev]'s commission, or about [Andrei Sakharov], or about the Russian democratic intelligentsia's support for the Latvian people's struggle for independence.

There were only bad things about the Russians.

Which is not really surprising, as the museum is run by representatives of the Latvian emigration. [It's like asking] why there's no monument to Lenin! Who gave Latvians independence in 1918. [...]

Yevtushenko, who visited the museum on July 21, 2006, spent a long time writing his impressions, according to auseklitis. Among other things, he wrote (RUS) that to ensure strong ties between Russia and Europe,

...our grandchildren should not be held responsible for the crimes and mistakes of their ancestors. This is, for example, the basis on which economic and cultural relations of the new Russian generation and the new generation of the Germans are built.

***

LJ user old_fox is marathon-blogging about the 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. One of the entries (RUS), for example, is about underground production of explosives similar to Molotov cocktails, complete with a recipe. In the comment section, old_fox explains his reasons for this history blogging and writes about plans for the future:

In Russia, nothing normal - except for a few not bad though outdated overview works - has been translated. Moreover, they haven't been writing anything themselves. Very little documented specifics.

Of course, I am going to publish it, but in a year and a half or two. At first, everything has to be generalized and put in order. There are three parts here - information, the chronicles (I haven't started posting them yet) and portraits. Until October, the Uprising will be the main theme of this blog, in one way or another. Read it, and then, at the end of the year, I'll make additions, based on comments in this blog, too, and will decide which chapters to expand and how the book's skeleton will look.

In two years or so, it'll be time for it. The blog is a wonderful proving ground.

A reader - LJ user metaloleg - offers a suggestion:

And if the book happens, then I hope its content will be determined by the posts in this journal. More stories from the streets of the Polish capital, less general politics between London, Warsaw and Moscow - enough has been written about it.