“Moldovanii se descurca”

by Claudia Ciobanu

 

Even though they live in a country that can hardly be called democratic and many of them depend on remittances sent by relatives working abroad, Moldovans are survivors, and capital Chisinau is a lively and colorful town.

Fires in Greece-Saturday Morning Update

by Apostolis Fotiadis

Some minutes after midnight yesterday the nation was shocked by images broadcasted on TV channel Alpha, picturing charred bodies’ lying dead next to their cars. They had been burned to death in their effort to drive away from the rampaging fire blazing all the way through yesterday and last night, when a car crushed into a fire engine and immobilized them in the middle of the fire.

Tony Onuoha: Dying in the postmodern age

by Makis Karagiannis

“The angry reaction of African immigrants was caused by the death of a Nigerian CD-vendor, who fell from the first floor of a café in Thessaloniki. In his effort to escape, thinking that he was pursued by police officers in civvies, he jumped from the first floor, with the result that he lost his life” the report said.

Of Exclusive Schools and Gravel (part 2)

Having marked my former North American high schools teachers as ‘more liberal and left-wing’ than the average Bulgarian I cannot help but ask myself whether I would go as far as labelling Bulgarian society as ‘conservative’. How could I do anything like that given the recent advance of my country in Europe’s top party destinations list and my familiarity with crowded night clubs and nude beaches along the coast? After all, these places, I assure you, have no similarity whatsoever to Evangelist churches, religious schools or pro-life and anti-gay marriage rallies – the traditional symbols of American conservatism. Could it be that Bulgaria has a form of endogenous conservatism, specific for the country and perhaps present, in some form or another, in other transitional Eastern European countries as well?

Of Exclusive Schools and Gravel (part 1)

by Vassil Genchev

I recently started a discussion, with a former colleague of mine from my undergraduate years, in Facebook – that wonderful utility of proximity, narcissism and voyeurism – things we all adore, anyway. The conversation was sparked over my marked support for Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel – a largely neglected maverick Democrat candidate, former Senator from Alaska and one of the few men who released the Pentagon Papers on Senate record shortly before the Watergate scandal was fully blown. My Canadian-Maltese friend from undergrad thus found it curious that I, someone who attended ‘one of the most exclusive high school in Sofia’ (the classification is made by a Bulgarian lady friend of his, the information ‘ACS 02 Graduate’ is supplied on my Facebook profile), would pay allegiance to Senator Gravel. My explanation was that I cannot help but have sympathy for a man who a) risked his career and perhaps even his life (remember the ‘Nixon plumbers’) to release classified material on the Vietnam war, b) sets off on campaign trail with $500 in his war chest, and c) somewhat uncommonly for a Columbia graduate, spent some time working as a cab driver in New York.

www.welcome to israel.ill

by Nicolas Kosmatopoulos

“The young officer asks the taller officer if it’s OK by now. The latter murmurs something in Hebrew, the younger offers him a hidden smile and the show starts again: Please turn around Sir; stretch your arms Sir; wide open your legs Sir. The breaking in through the last intimate zones of my body is accompanied with the utmost verbal politeness. The humiliation bears a civilized mask; the blatant penetration comes together with a humble voice. Orwell is watching.”

Refoulement of Iraqi citizens fleeing to Greece

PRESS RELEASE
1 August 2007
  Common statement by 16 NGOs

We wish to express our profound concern regarding the policy of the Ministry of Public Order towards Iraqi citizens entering into our country. In particular, whereas until recently the readmission protocol between Greece and Turkey was not applied to Iraqis, the Greek authorities instead adopting a policy of tolerance including avoiding detention and deportation/refoulement of Iraqi citizens, lately there have been arrests and returns to Turkey on the basis of the readmission protocol. Turkey provides no guarantees for the protection of the rights of Iraqi citizens. Moreover, as has been noted by UNHCR’s latest press release, Turkey often deports them to Iraq.

Becali, Self-Proclaimed Savior of a Nation

by Claudia Ciobanu

 

From the midst of confusing signals coming from the Romanian political class, the voice of a populist makes its way, loud and clear, to the hearts of a large chunk of the electorate.

“I am the strongest man in this country and it is normal that the strongest man lead the country,” answers Gigi Becali, when asked why he wants to become the president of the country. “If I am strongest, I should also be number one.”

My name is Tomo, I’ve been in Darfur

by Apostolis Fotiadis

 

The desert of Sudan is a sea of sadness. The war that began in 2003 was overshadowed by the noise of the US invasion in Iraq. Over the next four years it developed into an unrestrained massacre in which thousands of innocent people were tortured, raped and executed. Slowly and steadily the scale of the horror, underlined by the 2 million refugees, became far too big to ignore. The Western world seemed hesitant to become involved, so the majority of us spent our objections in some half-hearted emotional denouncements, swallowing our guilt that once more, after Rwanda, the ‘civilized world’ had turned it’s back on Africa.