Meanwhile Elsewhere in Slavland....

BBC tells the unfortunate tale of Gaitana, this year's Eurovision representative from Ukraine.

 The right-wing Freedom Party attacked the ground-breaking selection of a Gaitana - who is half Congolese - to represent Ukraine. "Millions of people who will be watching will see that Ukraine is represented by a person who does not belong to our race," said Yuri Syrotyuk, whose party is preparing to contest the parliamentary elections later this year. 


 "The vision of Ukraine as a country located somewhere in remote Africa will take root," he added. Oh, European right wing, you never fail me with the absurd soundbites.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Slavland...#2

I have other things I should be posting about and I hope I will find to do so in the next few weeks. But for now, I though I'd better post about this since people will undoubtedly be emailing me about this all day.

(Via The Times) Nigerian-born Polish citizen, John Godson, becomes Poland's first black MP



Congratulations to Mr. Godson and Powodzenia!

Wait! What? A Brother IS Mayor in Slovenia?!

As the conclusion to our ongoing posts "Wait! What? A Brother Running For Mayor in Slovenia?!" (1, 2). I just want to report to you what the UK newspaper The Guardian has already splayed across their own pages....

DR. PETER BOSSMAN IS THE FIRST BLACK MAYOR IN SLOVENIA!!!!



As he said on BBC World Service this morning, "It will take some time to see if there will be any real change."

All who know me, know that I'm not holding my breath. I'm just celebrating.

Update on Wait! What? A Brother Running For Mayor In Slovenia

Quick follow up to July's post Wait! What? A Brother Running For Mayor In Slovenia ....

According to news reports (Slovenian only), Slovenian-based Ghanaian doctor and politician Peter Bossman was in the lead with over 30% of votes after yesterday's election to become mayor of the lovely seaside town of Piran. The race will now go into run-offs against the current sitting mayor (who had just over 20%) of the vote. Here's hoping Dr. Bossman makes it all the way through and becomes the first black* mayor in Slovenia! Let's goooooo!

In further news, journalist Vlado Miheljak puts forth a more ambitious proposition..."Peter Bossman For President" and much mudslinging in the comments ensues! (Slovenian only)

*yes, say BLACK/črn not temnopolt/ "dark-skinned". Black comes in many shades (from light to dark) and is an experience, not just a state of melanin.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Slavland...

Interesting news slightly late off the presses from Slavland North (aka Russia)

Jean Gregoire Sagbo Becomes First Black Politician Elected In Russia
KRISTINA NARIZHNAYA | 07/25/10 09:22 AM | AP



NOVOZAVIDOVO, Russia — People in this Russian town used to stare at Jean Gregoire Sagbo because they had never seen a black man. Now they say they see in him something equally rare — an honest politician.

Sagbo last month became the first black to be elected to office in Russia.

In a country where racism is entrenched and often violent, Sagbo's election as one of Novozavidovo's 10 municipal councilors is a milestone. But among the town's 10,000 people, the 48-year-old from the West African country of Benin is viewed simply as a Russian who cares about his hometown.

Read the rest here....

Congrats to Mr. Sagbo and Good Luck Brothaman!

Wait, What?! A Brother Running for Mayor in Slovenia

I was walking along minding my business, when I came along this story (Slovenian only) on a Mr. Peter Bossman, a black doctor who is running for mayor of the lovely Slovenian seaside town of Piran. Well, go 'head bruh!



Upon further inspection, it seems that he is being subjected to the haterism that plagues a black man anywhere he tries to do something good. In this case, he is being pressured to step out of the race by people who are claiming that he is addicted to gambling. Mind you, he is a doctor who works healing people from their own addictions, but they think that he -- most likely one of the most noticeable people in his town -- is sneaking around feeding some sort of addiction, while also trying to build his own political career (he is already part of the presidency of the local chapter of his political party). Hmm, dubious. They also tried to out him as having a child out of wedlock, to which he replied that that didn't fly in his culture and that he was indeed paying his child support. Then the people said that as soon as voters saw a black face on the campaign posters they would realize that they didn't want a black mayor.

Where is this coming from you ask? Well, according to recent polls, it seems Mr. Bossman is some fierce competition for the incumbent, Tomaž Gantar, and the existing structure is none-too-thrilled about the threat to the established order. I don't really know what this Bossman cat is all about, but a little change -- in fact a lotta change -- sounds good to me. If Bossman wins, I might have to relocate to the seaside and help him paint the town a lovely shade of brown!

Breathe

Happy "I Hope I Can Finally Exhale and Stop Being So Embarrassed of America" Day!

Presidential

On the eve of Obama's great ascent into the high heavens, I thought it appropriate that my colleague would send me this photo of me dubiously looking at Slovenia's Prime Minister (which is the same thing pretty much as president in America) Borut Pahor at a work event last week. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

WOW WOW WOW

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW









WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW

Fingers Crossed!

Today on this day of the American election, I sit here with my fingers crossed tightly for Obama to pull through.

This song is dedicated to today.

Dar Fur: War for Water

Slovenian writer and activist Tomo Križnar, who I've briefly mentioned before, recently premiered his documentary Dar Fur: War For Water here in Slovenia. The film has been getting a lot of press and even showed at Cannes Film Festival. The Captain and I are planning to go see it this week. Here is an older version of the preview.



Also, if you are in Slovenia, there will be a benefit concert at Festivalna Dvorana this Wednesday (5th November)featuring such great talents as Vlado Kreslin and(my favorite) Maša Kagao Knez.

Invisible Inflows

Two Latin American women who've been living in Spain without papers - Source

We recently had some family visitors from Germany, and at one point I was asked how life is here in Slovenia for immigrants.

This is a tough question. I gave a few anecdotes about poor pay, about other people of various backgrounds and their experiences, about how I get the sense that the Slovenian market doesn't really seem to know what to do with immigrants unless they are uneducated Bosnians here to do manual labour. All in all, it is very tough to say exactly how things are. It is one thing to talk about The Erased, but yet another thing to talk about The Invisible -- those who do not appear on public register, and even when they do, they cannot materialize on the social register. The immigrant experience is so very personal in so many ways that I would never be able to (and am not really interested to) comment on. But on the public scale, I rarely see immigrants on television except for the few times that the cart out some fortunate (usually European) foreigner who has triumphantly learned the language. So it's all so tough to say.

Today I came across this fantastic survey of immigration in Malta, Cyprus, and Slovenia. It is only 17 pages and certainly worth a read. Very illuminating.

"Where Slovenia is defined as a country of immigration there is an implicit understanding that this refers to mainly European migrants. People from outside of Europe (i.e. ‘Asians’ as defined in the table) are deemed at best to be a transient population, on their way further west to Italy, France or the UK. The experience of 2000 served to reinforce this perception. Asians, it was suggested during one of the interviews, are not attracted to Slovenia because of its image as a ‘communist’ country.

The distinction between the two migrant groups is problematic for two reasons. There is first and foremost the risk of racially profiling migrants. It is the non-white population who seem not to form part of the Slovenia’s immigration profile. In the case of some Asian migrants residing in Slovenia, this has led to questioning their motives for being there. The recent growth in the number of Chinese migrants, who work mainly in Chinese restaurants, has become a source of intrigue and suspicion. There are doubts over the economic viability of the restaurants, and an assumption that the businesses are simply fronts for illegal activities."

Read more here.

Whew! Got It!

Received and returned yesterday!
Done and done.

Punching In

Dear Other American Expats/Travellers Around Le Monde,

How many of you have already received your absentee ballot?

I am still waiting.

When should I start to worry?

Yours Truly,
Brainy, Bigmouthed, Black, and For Barack!...By The Balkans

The Great Escape!

These past few days have marked the one year anniversary of my first visit to Slovenia. Conveniently, the past few days have also been national holidays here. In honor of all these momentous occasions, I am following the cue of everyone else and getting out of Slovenia. The Captain, Captain's Mama (CapMom), and I are going on the annual 1st May trip to Munich. This will be my first ever trip to Germany, and my mother informs me I will be shocked at the cleanliness. As per habit, I will certainly be traipsing those glisteningly clean streets in search of all the purchasables that I cannot purchase here. Expect a full report-back next week.

In the meantime, I just came across this link to Tuesday's United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission)'s hearing on The State of (In)visible Black Europe: Race, Rights & Politics...if anyone is looking for any light holiday reading.

Oh and congrats to Congolese-born Jean-Leonard Touadi (former deputy mayor of Rome) for becoming Italy (our neighbor to the west) 's first black MP. Africa is on the move!

Old Friends

The Initiative of Five at a meeting in New York, 1960

Gregor and other people kept mentioning this "thing"to me, a "thing" in which Yugoslavia used to be a part of with a bunch of other countries including many African nations. As a result of said "thing" there were a lot of Africans coming to work and study in Yugoslavia and a lot of Yugoslavians going to work in Africa (and other places). I was never quite sure was this "thing" was so I finally sat down and Google'd it.

It turns out it was the Non-Aligned Movement. A group of nations whose purpose, according to the Wiki, is/was to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, Zionism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics." Wow! People used to have big ideas 50 years ago! I guess all that just sounds like crazy talk now. The picture at the heading of this entry features the founding members AKA "The Initiative of Five" (Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia). This picture is a great find, and I am most excited to see Nkrumah and Tito together since my family is from Ghana!

The group certainly seems to have had its ups and downs since the end of the Cold War, and the movement has weakened considerably, with most of the European countries have deserted the group to get (or vie for) EU membership. Nonetheless, my discovery of this group, has got me excited about the past and the future. It makes me feel like things are not so startling new here in Slovenia. It makes me feel like the world isn't so big and strange after all, and even though things have changed a lot in the last 50 years, maybe I'm just here to work with and live amongst long-lost old friends.

Tax Dollars at Work: Protest Sunday in Ljubljana

I guess I live closer than I thought...

Just got this nervous message from the US Embassy email list....I don't know the details of this protest (for or against or what?) and I'm kind of in the mood for some action, but I guess I better take heed this time.

Warden Message February 22, 2008: Kosovo Independence

Following Kosovo’s February 17, 2008, declaration of independence, street protesters caused damage to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. A large, organized demonstration is scheduled for Sunday, February 24, at 12:45 p.m., near the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, which reiterates its longstanding guidance to American Citizens to avoid large crowds or demonstrations. American citizens are urged to maintain security awareness.

In the event further information is obtained regarding this or any other security or safety situation in Slovenia, the U.S. Embassy will provide updates via this same channel and on the Embassy's web site: http://slovenia.usembassy.gov.

More Kosovo

My fantastic dad sent me this the other day, for a number of obvious reasons (I'm still just learning Slovene, I aint going to Serbia no time soon) I won't be needing this for a while.

Yes, I'm blogging about Kosovo again even though I don't exactly live near there. It is just that it definitely does have some effect on this part of the world (we being the western Balkans and all), and frankly it is interesting for me as a young political scientist...though according to the accounts it is appearing to be a frightening case of history repeating.

Here are a few more great links I found today:

* Anegdote - Déjà vécu
Many people were injured in Belgrade today, and one person died. But that feels like nothing compared to knowing that lunatics are once again politicians and that people are capable of such hatred, again.

* B92 (Serbian radio station whose offices were attacked) blog - Vojo's viagra: same old, same old
It may be just me, but there seems to be something inherently wrong with so-called “people’s protests” which are in actual fact not organised by the people themselves, but by those working in state institutions.

Slobo used them to great effect in the late ‘80s, bussing in the confused, ignorant and fearful for the yoghurt revolution and similar managed pantomines that collapsed autonomous governments in Vojvodina and Kosovo presaging the years of misery that followed.

Then, as now, the “people’s protests” were orchestrated for internal political gain by conservative demagogues manoeuvring against domestic opponents in a bid to retain power in Belgrade.

****
Attacking US embassies is nothing new, but for a government to post no police to guard it on the most sensitive day in the past seven years, while providing, in effect, the looters with a holiday and free transportation to expedite their activities, must be a first in the annals of anti-Americanism.
I mean, if you want the US embassy sacked, you should have the balls to say so out loud to the crowd, and if you don’t, then this is a case of massive incompetence.


* A Fistful of Euros - The interesting smell of burning embassies

This came at the same time as a government-sponsored mass demonstration against Kosovo’s declaration of independence. (Yes, Serbia still does government sponsored mass demonstrations. It’s a bad old habit that they still haven’t shaken.) The official line is that the two events were completely unrelated, and indeed the US and Croatian embassies were a couple of kilometers away from the center of the demonstration. On the other hand, there’d already been embassy attacks earlier in the week — the Slovene embassy was broken into and looted on Monday — and the Americans, at least, had pre-emptively evacuated their embassy and asked for increased police protection.

In A Land Far Far Away

On this, the eve of Kosovo's "independence"*, I feel the need:

first, to post the map of former Yugoslavia so my family and friends can see how far away Slovenia is from the drama


Look Mom, look Pop, no danger!

AND
secondly, to post some educational links about the situation for your leisurely perusal:

• Kosovo on Wikipedia
• Doug's (only slightly dated) summary of Kosovo's current situation
• Recent brief thoughts from Doug on A Fistful of Euros
• Recent educational discussion on Pengovsky
• Dr. Filomena's poll
• New Kosovareport

Knowing is Growing, peoples!


*I am tempted to post a link to the Merriam-Webster definition of independence, but I don't want to have any fur fly. I'll stand here on the safe sidelines for now.

Friendly Skies No More

I just got this from my mother.....

The Guardian
Monday February 11 2008
Bush orders clampdown on flights to US:
EU officials furious as Washington says it wants extra data on all air passengers

The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as "blackmail" and "troublesome", and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington's requirements.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days.

The data from the US's new electronic transport authorisation system is to be combined with extensive personal passenger details already being provided by EU countries to the US for the "profiling" of potential terrorists and assessment of other security risks.(click here to read the rest)

At first glance, the article struck me as a bit alarmist, but it appears to be true. Here is another report from The Daily Mail.

Apparently, Brussels is urging the EU states to stand together and bargain collectively but the Czech Republic seems be scrambling to sign it, with Greece next in line...Now I'm not holding out much hope that Slovenia will be some kind of maverick and stand up and say no, but I hope that -- as the current president of the EU--they might at least be swayed to toe the party line....We'll see.