I've been slowly reading
Inventing Eastern Europe by Larry Wolff which explores a western european view
"~we~ are civilized and ~they~ are barbarians" from the 1600s on that entering Prussia/Poland heading east was like entering Asia. A concept I'm not sold on, but my eyes have become more alert to stories about Eastern Europe.
#Ungureanu , a local MP filed, a criminal complaint on Monday over the death of 66-year-old woman who was undergoing surgery at Bucharest's Floreaca Hospital. for her pancreatic cancer
on December 22 when she was set ablaze after the electric scalpel
surgeons were using came into contact with flammable disinfectant . #romania
Jan 4 2020
On Christmas Day 1989, Romanian communist dictator #NicolaeCeausescu and his wife were executed by
firing squad against a toilet block.
Jan 10
Poland, a producer of about 17 percent of the EU's poultry, had to slaughter 40,000 turkeys due to the H5N8 bird flu.
jan 19
Orthodox Christians across Russia and #EasternEurope have been
dipping into icy waters for the Epiphany which commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, and they celebrate on Jan 19.
Jan 24
I've been reading a history of Buda and Pest lately so I've been looking for stories on Hungary. Hungary's military has deployed a patrol boat to catch swimming migrants along its river border with Serbia. Many of the migrants are hoping to reach Austria. #austro-hungarianempire
feb 6
I don't often see stories about the Czechs sending troops anywhere , but they're sending 60 to the #Sahel region of Africa to assist France. Meanwhile the USA Defense Secretary Mark Esper stated he will pull troops out of Africa to focus more resources on China.
Feb 17
A 55 year-old Czech walked into a bank in Chur , Switzerland with a pistol and left with several thousand francs. He was apprehended at a nearby bar drinking a beer. The bar owner has put up a sign: “You don’t need to rob a bank to buy a beer here.”
Feb 23
I'm leafing through a tour guide on Bulgaria and notice that rose oil extracted from the damask rose is one of its biggest exports. Also, the guide mentioned that #Bulgaria entered WW2 on the side of Germany but didn't expound. The Axis move led to a ton of payback from Russia.
March 14, 2020
Polish opera star, Jakub Jozef
#Orlinski , uses breakdance to lure young audiences to his performance of coloratura pieces and largos arias.
April 22, 2020
A #coronacorridor ? Czech Republic proposed the idea to help out Croatian tourism on the Adriatic Coast.The deal would be among countries in the region who have low Covid 19 rates and would allow mutual travel for citizens in both directions. The obligatory 14-day mandatory
self-isolation period would be waived.
May 15, 2020
Romania’s Orthodox Church criticized a billboard campaign
showing doctors as saints with
halos for abuse of Christian iconography. That's a bit strong but McCann Worldgroup, the creator of the display, doesn't appear to have considered that doctors aren't looking for deification.
June 5, 2020
The "Frugal Four", Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and
Sweden aren't too happy about bailing out Greece and Italy in the proposed EU's €750 billion COVID-19 rescue fund.
June 21, 2020
A most wanted man "falls". Gholamreza #Mansouri, a former Judge who fled Iran last year after authorities there alleged he took bribes, fell to his death from a high hotel floor in Bucharest, Romania. The German chapter of Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint last week with
federal prosecutors in Germany urging that Mansouri be
investigated on allegations of torture and human rights abuses for
ordering the arrest of 20 reporters in Iran in 2013.
July 2
Hundreds of people gathered on Prague's Charles Bridge, which was built in the14th-century, to
celebrate the end of the Czech Republic's Covid crisis with a
group dinner along a gigantic table
July 7, 2020
Hungary is offering exemptions for U.S.A film cast and crew from an EU ban.
July 27, 2020
Poland applied to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, a binding instrument with goals to prevent violence against women. Of course, some of the protesters are out screaming Poland will promote domestic violence now. However, #Ziobro , Poland's Justice Minister, objects to the false assumption in the convention articles that suggest biological sex is archaic, and everything comes down to the socio-cultural gender.
Aug 14, 2020
Folks in #Belarus are using #Nexta , which has found way to bypass internet restrictions, to disseminate news about the unrest after its recent "election:. It has no website and a small editorial team of four in Warsaw, but does have a YouTube and a Telegram channel.
I suspect the "dictator" Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, is getting a little nervous. Belarus authorities free hundreds detained after election protestsand Interior Minister Yuri Karayev apologised on state television for the indiscriminate use of force by police.
September 1, 2020
Since 2010 Hungary has built or renovated 3,000 churches, but unlike most of Europe not a single one was converted to a mosque. Most of Europe has been converting churches into mosques, nightclubs, or demolishing them.
Sept 14
A growing sense that Moscow will back Lukashenko in public while beginning talks behind the scenes on a transition plan.Belarus is going to get uglier.
Sept 27
Armenia declared martial law and mobilized its military
after clashes with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabak, a region which broke away from Armenia in 1991.
The conflict could cause instability in the South Caucasus, which serves as a
corridor for pipelines transporting oil and gas to world markets.
OCT 11
Belarusian President
Lukashenko held a meeting with political opponents in
the jail where they are detained. Other than free me , what else would you say to the President.
Oct 22
#GiorgiaMeloni , the leader of Italy’s right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party, noted the anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 uprising, and said Europe
needs “brave peoples like the heroes of ’56, to remind it of its real
identity”.
Dec 1, 2020
Moldova's incoming president #MaiaSandu has called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the
separatist region of Trans-Dniester - a narrow strip of land between
the Dniester river and the Ukrainian border whose main city is Tiraspol. The Kremlin laughs.
April 19, 2021
Putin's boys are busy. Russian authorities on arrested two men , Yuri Zyankovich and Alexander Feduta, in Moscow who were allegedly planning to carry out the coup attempt in Minsk on May 9, a day when Belarus celebrates victory over the Nazis. Many in Belarus feel the arrests of the two men are a "provocation" organized by the secret services of Russia and Belarus.
april 20, 2021
The USA Treasury Department revoked the Belarus-related General License and implemented a 45-day wind-down. The yearly renewed license authorizing U.S. citizens to conduct certain transactions with nine Belarussian companies was first issued in 2015.
may 6, 2021
Environmental campaigners suspect Prince Emanuel from Liechtenstein, who lives in Austria, killed a 17-year-old male, brown bear on a "trophy" hunting expedition in Romania in March. They say he'd been granted a permit to shoot a female bear that had caused damage to some farms. I suspect the Prince , who apparently like to travel, will pay a fine.
May 16, 2021
A 60-year old male , British tourist, faces charges of “fraudulently crossing the border” after taking a walk on the beach in which he crossed the border from Bulgaria to Romania. He is back in Bulgaria.
June 6, 2021
Thousands of people marched through Budapest to protest against plans to open Fudan U, a Communist Chinese university campus. Let's see how Hungary's President #Orban, who claims to be an anti-communist, explains this one away.
July 2, 2021
Can Eastern Europe rise? Slovenian PM, #JanezJanša , dubbed “the Slovenian Donald” started a rotation that occurs every six month to chair meetings of the Council of the EU and set the agenda for issues to address.
And Orban contends that Hungary's law are to allow parents to have more say on their kids education on sexual matters and is not anti-LBGT.
July 23, 2021
Romania lets towns' authorities shoot encroaching brown bears which angers green groups. While I concur with this approach, towns need to do some cleaning of illegal rubbish dumps which attract the bears.
Aug 2, 2021
#KrystsinaTsimanouskaya is receiving Japanese protection after members of the Belarusian team took her to the Tokyo airport in a bid to send her home against her will after she publicly criticized the Belarussian coaches. Poland and Czechoslovakia have offered her refuge.
July 31, 2023
Hide & Seek, a 2019 Ukranian TV cop series, reeled me in then dropped me with exaggerated plot twists. Blatant police corruption- scary if it was based on reality.
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