Slovenian Meets Louie

Hilarious to see this on one of my favorite shows! So random.

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.

Where are ya?

Cute track Kje si Lubi? (Where are you, Lubi?") from Slovenian band Manouche (via Europopped blog)

Full Circle - Manhattan to Ljubljana and back again!

New York has kept me wildly busy, more busy than I could have ever imagined. I wear many different hats working with many different organizations, but one of the jobs I recently took on is as contributing Blogger for Slovenian - American startup Zemanta. Last week posted my first piece; it is an interview I did with my boss, Tin Dizdarevic. Incidentally, Tin, who was born and grew up in Slovenia and Serbia until he was a teenager, first met me when he was visiting family in Slovenia last year, and the reason he knew of me is because of this very blog. Full circle, huh?

Click the pic above to read the interview!

Why don't more people live in liveable cities?

Great piece from kottke.org a blog "about the liberal arts 2.0"..

I brought up a similar point in a piece I wrote last year.


image by Andreja Brulc

Why Don't More People Live in Livable Cities?

Those lists of most liveable cities...why don't any of the vibrant big cities of the world ever make the list? Because the lists don't take into account many important reasons why people choose to live in a certain place.

I spoke to Joel Kotkin, a professor of urban development, and asked him about these surveys. "I've been to Copenhagen," (Monocle's Number 2) he tells me "and it's cute. But frankly, on the second day, I was wondering what to do." So, if the results aren't to his liking, what does he suggest? "We need to ask, what makes a city great? If your idea of a great city is restful, orderly, clean, then that's fine. You can go live in a gated community. These kinds of cities are what is called 'productive resorts'. Descartes, writing about 17th-century Amsterdam, said that a great city should be 'an inventory of the possible'. I like that description."

Joel Garreau, the US urban academic and author, agrees. "These lists are journalistic catnip. Fun to read and look at the pictures but I find the liveable cities lists intellectually on a par with People magazine's 'sexiest people' lists."

Ricky Burdett, who founded the London School of Economics' Cities Programme, says: "These surveys always come up with a list where no one would want to live. One wants to live in places which are large and complex, where you don't know everyone and you don't always know what's going to happen next. Cities are places of opportunity but also of conflict, but where you can find safety in a crowd.

"We also have to acknowledge that these cities that come top of the polls also don't have any poor people," he adds. And that, it seems to me, touches on the big issue. Richard G Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's hugely influential book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (2009) seems to present an obvious truth -- that places where the differential in income between the wealthiest and the poorest is smallest tend to engender a sense of satisfaction and well-being. But while it may be socially desirable, that kind of comfort doesn't necessarily make for vibrancy or dynamism. If everybody is where they want to be, no one is going anywhere.

(via stellar and many emails)

Update: That Decartes quote above? He never said it.

Brainy, Bigmouthed, and Black....by the Brooklyn Bridge

St. Cyril Slovenian church in NYC's East Village

Noticing a lag in this blog, the Powers That Be have elected to send me on long-term assignment to perhaps the most exciting city in the world -- NYC. I will try to keep you posted as to any of my experiences, things I read about, and goings-on that pertain to race, culture, Slovenians and/or other Slavs here, at home, and abroad.

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Slavland...#3

a view on the way to Prague Castle - 2009

While you're waiting for this blog to maybe one day come back to life, I strongly suggest you turn your attention to my fellow African-American sister in Slavland, Ms. Tinu a.k.a. Black Girl in Prague, who has just done something I've been DYING to do for ages...she started a podcast! Her first interview is with Prague-based American expat jazz singer Lee Davison and is sharp, smart, and funny. Just like her*!

Don't just sit there, click over!

*She's also a gorgeous girl, so y'all gotta start sending around the petition for her to add a v-cast component ;)

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.

Sara Rajh, architect

Just came across another fascinating young Afro-Slovenian.

This lovely woman is Sara Rajh, a Ghanaian-Slovenian architect who enjoys the richness of her Hungarian, Slovenian, and Ghanaian heritages.


Sara Rajh with her husband, the academic sculptor Jürgen Rajh - photo credit

She was raised in northeastern Slovenia and now calls the Austrian town of Graz her home, but still works on projects in Slovenia and with family and associates in Ghana. Among her many endeavours has been: the establishment of a Slovenian association in Graz (which already had quite a large Slovenian population), working on the local radio station, organizing fund-raising exhibitions of Ghanaian jewelry/artistry, and developing an eco-farm in northeastern Slovenia (one of the most economically depressed regions in the country). All this from a woman that the article (Slovenian-language only) describes as "a true little miracle in a Slovenian countryside where no one had ever seen a dark-skinned person up close before."* Bravo and best wishes to you Ms. Rajh!


* As regular readers may have already noted, there is a lack of tact here, especially as regards race.