Viktor Orban and the new centralism

Is he so hungry for more and more power?

The disposable academic - The Economist

Do we really need a PhD? Why?

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223

Bosnia, Albania Celebrate EU Visa Lifting

Call for Papers - Community of Knowledge

As in the last post we addressed the issue of different content assigned to images and words, varying from a culture to another, you have the occasion now to share your experience, by applying to the Call for Papers for the Community of Knowledge. Speaking each other's language - also in terms of the words we are using - is a human business.

Good luck subscribers!

Mister Wong and Europe

Image via CrunchBase//The current logo

Mister Wong is a social bookmarking site created in 2006 and covering the German speaking realm. Recently, it got the Russian and Chinese variants. A very interesting and succesful idea.

But...not enjoying universal acceptance. The problem: the logo of the website - a Chinese man, with suite and glasses, in his 50s - was considered discriminatory by the American-Asian users. An aspect not familiar for the German/European public it was basically addressed. The creator of the site, Kai Tietjen, apologized for this inconvenience and replaced the logo with a very schematic - a kind of abstract African art representation, in my opinion - icon.

Different sensibilities, different worlds, but at the end, we have to take them into account, mostly when we are talking about businesses.

Nixon tapes

"The Nixon Library makes available almost 50 million pages of documents, over 300,000 photographs, thousands of motion pictures and videos, and the Nixon White House Tapes."

Communism sells/in East Berlin

Most part of the visitors from Berlin were interested in places and events connected with the Wall. And to do not forget that 2009 was the year when there were celebrated 20 years since the fall of the separation fence between East and West Berlin.

A lonely man's life

Since I finished my work in the area of intellectuals from Central and Eastern Europe I took a break from reading too much about the latest public discussions. But as I am preparing to start writing a serious book about this, I reentered little by little my too familiar environment.

My week-end lecture was the thematic diary of the Romanian intellectual - Adrian Marino, whose posthum memories - at his request - confirmed both from the point of view of the content and of the reception the dramatic situation of the intellectual debate.

Adrian Marino was among the few Romanians published abroad during communism, with studies and books in the area of comparative literature. Avant-la-lettre he was among the very few cases of freelancer researcher, being - after the period spent in the communist prisons - disconnected of the official layer of the culture communist bureaucrats.

With a lot of sadness, he is describing his alienation in a world hungry to win benefits and prestige - the international intellectual stage - the marginal condition of the intellectual belonging to a minor culture - predominantly focused on the production of journalism and poetry - and fighting with the hunger for acquiring a pseudo-intellectual status in the world of reversed values during communism. A situation continued in post-communism. Not the quality of work prevails but the laudatio to the VIP of the time, hence the over production of works without real value. Those political compromises are the red line of the Romanian culture, from the supporters of the right wing during the inter-war period to the communist ideologues and their post-communist re conversions.

From the point of view of the reception of this book, the debate was focused on persons and not on the situation of the Romanian intellectuals. Another missed opportunity for coming to terms with the past and for starting the discussion about the European values and reliable concepts of a different intellectual atmosphere.

Many some of his descriptions are too severe and personal, based on personal interactions and subjective reasons. What I appreciated in his book is the risk of assuming his opinions, even it was transmitted when he was no more present. In a way, probably he predicted the reactions and chose to better be the big absent of the media shows.

Roma or Gypsy - the Romanians' problem

Image via Wikipedia/Meeting between the Romanian president (middle, left) and representatives of Roma organisations

A new round in the semantic clash from Romania regarding the Roma minority, was consumed a couple of days ago after the Government from Bucharest asked the MPs to accept changing the name of the community from Roma to Gypsy/Țigan. For the main Roma organizations, the name is having depreciative connotations. Other representatives of the community might consider it "normal". The main reason for the change - introduced in Romania at the beginning of 90s - is the possibility of a confusion between the name of the country - Romania - and the name of the community - Roma. (What about the capital city of Italy? Did anybody ask Berlusconi? Maybe not.) At the level of the authorities, the confusion was considered having negative impact on the country's image abroad, as the Roma are associated with a high level of infractionality. This linguistic make-up, dictated from up, will not change anything. At the end of the day, all are citizens of the same country, Romania. And not the name will change the image, but the behavior and the coherence in actions and the respect towards the international obligations assumed.

Propaganda and Cold War: The mystery of the Colorado beetle

On the right, an image during the Cold War, from East Germany, protesting against the so-called dropping of Colorado beetle by the Americans. It is hard to imagine how the country was back then: poor people, hardly finding food in the middle of a destroyed country. And, instead on focusing on reconstruction, they were arming the media against the Americans and the West. A desperate try to build consensus.

Related articles

• The US-Soviet Cyber Cold War (news.slashdot.org)
• The Cold War in Popular Culture (gonintendo.com)

Modern art as CIA weapon

New revelations about the Cold War labyrinth - How modern art was part of a bigger plan to promote Western culture in the East. And, whatever the initial aim, the final outcome leaded to a positive effect for arts and culture.

History as a matter of diplomacy

From another cable released on Wikileaks, revealing the relations between history and foreign affairs:

Subjects discussed on the occasion of the visit to Moscow of the minister of Foreign Affairs of the state of Israel, Avigdor Liebernamn:

"Lavrov (Serghei, the Russian top diplomat) raised Russian concern with "historical revisionism" regarding the Soviet Era and Second World War, which, he said, was particularly acute in Eastern Europe but was also present in Israel. He cited Israel's official recognition of the Holodomor, the 1930s famine that occurred in Ukraine. Lieberman explained that by recognizing this tragedy, Israel had not said Russia was guilty of causing it, nor that it was an act of genocide”.

Caucasus Wedding on wikileaks

Image via Wikipedia

Reading during a short break some recent wikileaks documents, I found one very useful for somebody interested in the history of the former communist space, but also in perceptions and misperceptions. This is the cable about a wedding in Dagestan, with short sociological and historical observations about the society, the puzzle of ethnic minorities, the origin of the new stake-holders.

From the academic ladder of the Cold War

Image by deVos via FlickrSheila Fitzpatrick's account about being a Western academic in the world of the Cold War.

The scandal of the day

Image via Wikipedia/ former Hungarian prime minister Medgyessi

The first news I've read today is from my dear battle playground.

In a period when everybody is complaining about the difficult economic situation and various bidget shortages, in Hungary a new scandal is about to begin. The spark: On the occasion of their national day - 1st of December - Romanian officials applied and succeded in obtaining permission for celebrating their holiday in the National Theater in Budapest. I've read the news on the Hungarian Ambiance, a (very) conservative blog (Somebody correct me if I am wrong).

The scandal: For Hungarian all over the world, 1st of December - celebrated in Romania as the day of the creation of Big Romania - is the day when they lost Transylvania, and celebrating this moment at the National Theater in Budapest is considered at least a gesture of cynicism.

Harsh attacks are directed against the director of the Theater, Róbert Alföldi, coming from the right side of the Hungarian political stage and the requests for his dismisal are the kindiest. The permission was withdrawal meanwhile, but most probably the discussion will continue for another weeks from now.

In 2002, the then prime-minister Péter Medgyessy was accused of treason after deciding to participate to the celebration of the Romanian National Day, at Hotel Kempinski (Interesting, the Hungarian Ambiance is mispelling Medgyessy's name). Hungarian politicians in Romania refused to participate to the local ceremonies, considered as days of mourning.

I am waiting now for a reaction from the Hungarian intellectuals. To be continued.

Multiple worlds

Part of my efforts to identify identity representations and cultural diversity in cultural and geographical spaces other than the Central and Eastern Europe, I discovered today Andrée Chedid and hers "Multiple child". Born in Egypt, of Christian/Maronite Lebanese descent, she spent part of his life in Egypt and, from age 14, in Europe. Although I tried to separate her personal life and experience of the story narrated in the book - a one-arm child whose parents are killed during the civil war in Lebanon - sent to relatives in France, with fragments of memory of family episodes spent in Egypt - it is difficult to do it and, at a certain extent, detrimental to the understanding of the book.

Omar-Jo is a 12-year old, with the calculated distance and human knowledge of an adult, who founded refuge of his traumatised childhood - he lost his arm in the attack where his parents died - in a Manege of Maxime. Little by little he is reconstructing his universe, making laughing people and children and bringing back to life Maxime, whose decision to left his previous career for his dream of the Manege blocked in his impossibility to go beyond his own limits. He owned the idea and the real project but was lacking the grain of enthusiasm to put on the right move the wonder-wheel. Omar-Jo is becoming the soul of this project, accepting to dedicate his time to recreate for free the world of circus.

In visual or written arts, the image of the circus is corresponding to the idea of freedom and children' imagination. Within its limits, all are free to laugh, beyond any social, racial and linguistic differentiations. This is the world shared by Omar-Jo with the others, including with the taciturn Maxime. Brought from his world of hate and fratricide conflicts, he is fighting hard, together with the other characters from the book, to preserve his identity. In this world of appearances, he is himself, outlining its meaning as a human, and asserting his normality, beyond the different perception of his one-arm appearance: "I am a normal kid". And this is starting with the fight to keep his name in the front of his host relatives from Paris. Ironically, he will give a new name, made of a similar composition of two names, to his feminine correspondent - "the poppy lady" - Cheranne, with a destiny split between France and United States. Together, they share the double belonging, but only the boy is presented in interaction with his past and history. His father, Omar, told him once: "You have to learn getting older than the others". This is his destiny of belonging to a world where what matters is survival. And this was, for years, the education the people belonging to his place - the author let know later in the book that it is about Lebanon, Egypt being the direct geographical reference, but this might happen in many other places across the Globe. Lysia, the woman for whom Omar-Jo mother used to work is the older version of this journey: she lost everything, including his social life, wandered from a place to another and living outbursts of sentimental attachment to life.

The structure of the book is very simple, without complicate characters and narrative. The centre of the story is Omar-Jo, but his energy shadows the action of the other presences, missing the multiplication potential of a world as a huge manege where we are trading our nostalgies and the lost roots.

Eastern connections

The death of the Romanian poet Adrian Păunescu, known for his literary support for the former communist dictatorship, is reopening many questions regarding who will be in or out the "national pantheon" of the recent history of this Eastern European country and who will decide the value. In the last hours, the national media praised the value of this poet and "activist for the national cause", and politicians of all colours sent official messages of condolences. Shortly, Păunescu was one of the creators of the club, "Cenaclul Flacăra"/The Flame, using the context of the 60-70s for create emulation among the youth on the side of the party. Late 80s, he used to animate these meetings - with a program of folk shows, poetry clubs - with direct interventions on TV from stadiums across the country. Practically, the old generation of Romanian folk singers - still popular for a generation now in its 60s, but also among some younger hippies, is paying a tribute to Păunescu, as one of their promoter and financial supporter. In these shows, registered on vinyl and listened religiously during communism and thereafter, he was extensively reciting his poetry, with long praised hymns to the dictatorial family and was talking and talking. A close friend to the so-called heir of the Ceausescus, the son Nicu, he was taking part to various parties reserved for the new generation of Communist nomenclature.

His increased popularity, and some scandals he was involved - a rape accusation, an accident while driving drunk - worried the old generation of apparatchik and he slightly acquired a status of "dissident". He limited his public appearances in a review bearing the name of his club, devoting an impressive number of pages to his poetry and various nationalist-populist views, and introduced to a Romanian public opinion lacking basic sanitation and medication various "healers" and alternative medicine "experts".

In the first days after the fall of communism he attempted to found refuge to the US Embassy in Bucharest, but was held hostage for a short while by the "revolutionary" mobs. Then, in the front of the free cameras of the national TV he declared with the same emphasis used to recite his poetry: "I was a pig".

His political and public career continued smoothly in the next decades: he was several times MP and representative of the country to the Council of Europe, from the part of social-democratic party and for the nationalist-extreme party Greater Romania. He hosted several shows and was a frequent presence on private and national TV stations, with opinions regarding (national) culture, history, relations between Romanian and Hungarian minorities, (national) literature.

His sources were the protocronist and national-communist values, sharing perspectives without connections with the European present and values assumed by this country. His poetry was very rich in volume, but with a lot of versifications and improvisations.

The current Romania media lament - with some isolated critical perspectives though - is a testimony of the problematic process of changing mentalities. Death is a natural phenomenon and we don't need to become heroes for fighting against human oblivion and to project ideal past only for being able to survive a precarious present.

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The Roma issue

An interesting testimony regarding the recent issue on Roma from a representative of the Roma community from Romania, studying now in the United States. Romani/Gypsy heritage is part of the European culture and history and we, Westerners have to be fully aware of their importance and value. Everybody is talking extensively about the problems with the Muslim communities, or the situation of religious minorities and so on. But, wait! For centuries, an important Roma community is living in Europe and we are too blind to see it but when there are becoming too visible for our diffuse view.

A proof that we, as Europeans, are self-centered not only in relation with the overseas worlds, but also in relation with our closed neighbours.

Related articles

• Romania is shirking its Roma responsibilities | Nicolae Gheorghe (guardian.co.uk)
• EU suspends Roma complaint against France (foxnews.com)
• Q+A: Who are Europe's Roma? (reuters.com)

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Where is the failure?

Image via Wikipedia

In the last months, the discussion about the failure of the multicultural model in Germany is becoming a daily issue in the media and academic debates. I assisted already to several public debates and read lots of news about. The most used words are: crisis, failure, minorities, integration. The religious arguments are added linguistic and cultural problems, with references to historical traditions and past, European legislation and local traditions. Movies, cultural events and other public debates are dedicated to this issue, from the German or the perspective of minorities.

What it is very unclear by now is the common understanding of terms - as multi-kulti, for example, a very cool concept if used by the hip youngsters living in Berlin - and the common project of society. What are the expectations of minorities and in what respects the state offer must be adapted or changed accordingly to satisfy these needs? Is this a common understanding of the minority policies at the level of the most part of the minorities - ethnic, religious - living in Germany? What are the limits of the new walls?

Related articles

• Is multi-kulti dead? (economist.com)

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Intellectuals and public positions

I am not a fan of Arundhati Roy and I qualified many of her public positions, regarding the Middle East especially, superficial and emotional, without any connection with the reality. My interest in her case, as in the case of other public intellectuals, is the public reaction following statements and positions expressed on sensitive political problems. The latest scandal is related to her view of an independent Kashmir, stirring protests and media calls for lynchage and a possible trial for sedition.

Right or wrong, she expressed a point of view, as an intellectual. Her opinion is not the perfect truth, and should be took as such, and eventually discussed and refuted. This is the normal way, but very often it is happening exactly the opposite.

An example of intellectual cowardice

He is having the chance to change something. A small contribution to a long process of correcting misunderstandings. Culture can build these bridges, because it is said that great mind think alike. But, why not to continue and enforce and support the largely accepted narrative and refuse to get involved otherwise than by being a simple follower? Sounds so familiar.

Egyptian Author Objects to Hebrew Translation of His Novel

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Fatiha BouzidiAlaa Al Aswany

Alaa Al Aswany, the best-selling Arabic-language novelist, has objected to the translation of one of his novels into Hebrew as protest of normalized relations between Israel and Arab nations, Agence France-Presse reported.

A group called the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information said in an e-mail to supporters that it was offering a Hebrew translation of “The Yacoubian Building,” a novel by Dr. Al Aswany set in an apartment complex in his native Cairo.

The group acknowledged that although Dr. Al Aswany refused to have the book translated and published in Israel, it was offering a free translation prepared by a volunteer in order to “expand cultural awareness and understanding in the region.”

Dr. Al Aswany told Agence France-Presse, “What the center and the translator did is piracy and theft, and I will be complaining to the International Publishers’ Association.” He added: “My position has not changed regarding normalization with Israel. I reject it completely.”

A representative for the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information declined to comment to Agence France-Presse.

Short notice on intellectuals

I continue to be extremely interested in issues regarding the Cold War, as I consider that many of the patterns created then still continue to influence our ways of thinking and translating the facts. The place of intellectuals, mostly scientists, in the East/West confrontation, their blindness - in supporting indefinitely the Moscow's part - the "red hunt", the political manifestos, and all the games behind the scenes will play a big part of my studies and lectures. In these stormy times, intellectuals were used or offered their services, to a part or another, and rarely were able to express dissenting opinions and positions. I am very familiar with the situation of intellectuals during the communist regimes, I followed some of the cases of intellectuals during the Third Reich but had a limited knowledge of the situation in the "free world", excepting my regrets for the lack of integrity in defending the cause of free thinking and to oppose repression from the other side of the Iron Curtain.

The very detailed biography of Robert Oppenheimer gave me new food for thought for deconstructing the myth of the beneficial role of the intellectuals. Far of becoming an anti-intellectual myself, I recognize the limits of human self-awareness and indifference, independently of the level of education and intelligence. Preoccupied by their works, not without direct political and civic implications - as it was in the case of the atomic bomb, they have often limited understanding of the need of expressing solidarity and civic involvement. For example, enjoying the freedom of thinking might imply to be able to defend, whenever necessary the situations when other scientists are not able to do their work in the same conditions. Very often, I think that "Dreyfus affair" was a very singular case in the intellectual history.

For me, Oppenheimer is a sad example of this lack of involvement and the refuse to be more than a wonderful mind. An encyclopedic mind and a coherent scientist, he - like many others - went involved - but not as a full member - in the activities of the Communist Party from the US, mostly as a counter action to the advance of Nazi Germany. From the book, it is not very clear the ways in which this US Communist Party fought or reacted against the fate of the European Jews. In Europe, Paul Dirac and other scientists were more connected to the Soviet Russia, but still unable to create a common front against what was happening in Germany, including with their Jewish colleagues. Little by little, once he's involvement in the Manhattan Project is increasing, Oppenheimer is becoming neutral regarding the communists, whose fellow traveller used to be for a while and dedicated fully to the works for building the atomic bomb, together with other bright minds. At the realm of the Cold War and when the pressures at various levels of the American establishment increased, Oppenheimer will be the perfect victim for separating the waters. The trial was unfair and the non-academic ambitions of the political and military elites played an enormous role. But, even in this situation, he refused to express but than scientific advices following the consequences of the use of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki or to separate clearly from his late Communist involvement. Obviously, it was a sporadic involvement, without a clear knowledge of all the sides of the story. And the public support from the part of his fellow scientists was limited as well. He was, perhaps, hiding many untold stories and the question of a possible spying case the Soviets, directly or by tolerating this kind of activities of scientists working for the Manhattan Project, is missing from the book. But, even confronted with days and hours of interviews and confrontations, he kept a low profile and hide behind his quiet world of ideas. He behaved predominantly defensive and reactive, as he lost the case before exposing all the arguments. He devoted most part of his life to a scientific project, but without understanding clearly all the implications. The tragic situation of being carried by the unchanging waves of politics.

The chronological structure of the book, describing step-by-step his personal and professional life, is not helping too much in understanding the context and the history of mentalities from this period. Given the enormous documentation, it was perhaps the most recommended way to build the narrative, but a synthetic perspective would add value and create a bigger framework of the world of ideas from the period of the Cold War and before.

Minorities in the Middle East

I have to confess that I am not extremely familiar from the academic point of view with the history and reliable references of minorities from the Middle East. I have a limited direct knowledge of the area and I had the occasion to meet in person or to have professional dialogues with people from the region, with various minority background. But I am reading very often media reports - with a careful scientific distance - and I see how often the minority issue is raised, used and misused. I am also trying to write currently an article about the possible comparisons between the approach to minority issues in various regions, as the South-Eastern Europe, Black Sea Region and, last but not least, the Middle East. My main idea is that without the pressure of joining in a near future global alliances and organizations as EU and NATO, offering subsequent economic and symbolic advantages, the situation of minorities will not receive soon a proper legal framework.

The recent conference held in Berlin by prof. Mordechai Zaken, author of a book about the Jewish communities in the Middle East, was a perfect challenge to orient my academic interests towards different historical, cultural and geographical space. The main focus on the conference was to explain the misuse of the comparison between the situation of the Kurds and of the Palestinians. Among the most important there are: different demographic data, lack of political will from the part of the states to get involved in supporting the Kurdish case, geopolitical and political opportunism in abusing the "Palestinian case", but also the lack of trained and organized elites and of a clear political manifesto and ways of action (in the Kurdish case). Repeating the same patterns or accepting various involvement from outside must be balanced once the clear interests are set. The religious aspects might be important, but the smart and targeted actions and the creation of valuable elites will give, by far, more weight and support for a coherent and, at the end, successful action.

Dealing with the German past

Before starting to write this post, I had a long moment of thinking: what is the category to include this post about the newly published book about the German diplomats during the IIIrd Reich? First choice was to include in a post on foreign affairs and politics - because, as usual, the decision to create a commission to investigate the past is foremost a political decision and this was the red line followed during the discussions taking place yesterday, at a full Haus der Kulturen der Welt. But, after deliberations, I decided that it have to deal with memory and recent painful history and included in my history blog. I bought the book yesterday and I will be back with an extensive

review as soon as my German will allow me to do it. This is the reason why I will focus on a couple of remarks about the issue at large. Using myths in building identity narratives is common place in the history. The role of historians is to document and diversify the sources in order to do not allow the misuse of identities for political reasons. The truth is not pleasant, welcomed or desired. But it have to be followed and exposed. Being relatively familiar with the ways of working of a foreign minister, I continue to be astonished about the surprise of discovering the strong connections between the Foreign Ministry and the Third Reich. Diplomats, in every political regime, as the interface of the home politics and their actions are following a clear political mandate. It was never different and will never be different. The access to the documents to explain certain situations is problematic always, for this reason and you need political will for offering the proper conditions for academics to do their work.

It was interesting for me to watch Joschka Fischer's interventions directed against the idea of "elitism" of the diplomats. He is the product of his times, of a stormy German post-war youth, accusing their parents of the frustrations of a complicate present. Understanding this past is a good insight of understanding various directions of the present, including the diplomatic stances at certain moment regarding the situation from the Middle East. Can't wait to start reading.

France - The change of paradigm?

I was very happy the last week to be able to attend the Mona Ozouf's conference in Berlin. I had the occasion to read many of her books since I was at the university, together with the works of Pierre Nora being valuable tools in guiding me across the complicate world of national symbolism and painful national identities. In the last months I followed the various political interventions from France regarding the national paradigm and its possible crisis or, at least, the lack of adaptability to the daily reality from the Hexagone.

The conference was interesting and useful as an update of reevaluating the crisis from the point of view of the possibilities to go beyond the current conflict at the level of mentalities. Because, as Mona Ozouf outlined by various examples, the theoretical reality included by the political definitions of identity don't correspond to the daily and human reality of nowadays France. A ministry of national identity will not solve the increasing tensions by symbolic interventions in the educational system, as singing the Marseillaise or preaching about the common identity.

On the other hand, the messianic vision of a France fighting for universal values is contradicted by the daily reality of the diversity - regional, religious, ethnic. You might not recognize the idea of minority - of any kind - but it doesn't mean those minority don't exist or will accept to give up their identities. The structures and histories of the communities you have to deal are diverse and with different relations to modernity and various reasons - economic and political mainly - to choose France as their home country. Theoretically and simplified, if you are entering my house, you have to accept the rules of the house, isn't it? But you cannot impose me what to say or what to dress or what to eat! It is against the general value of human rights. And if you are not able to convince me by your "soft power" that I have to adjust my attitude, it is, perhaps, an error in the projection of the whole system, isn't it?

Purposely I will not refer to specific situations and cases: as the burqa prohibition. Our secular Western values and societies are in obvious contradiction with some values preached in the anti-Western religious communities from the Middle East. The dramatic tension is the result of two opposite standpoints, refusing any kind of dialogue and critical thinking.

But the daily human, social and political reality is different of the historical projections from the history books. The "glorious past" of France is not the necessary liaison to reinforce a national profile. We are living global, this is obvious, but our global world is made up of various networks and communities, created by individuals with different backgrounds. You can be in the same time European, France citizen, Hindi speaker and with a strong Corsican identity. It might be contradictory in some cases, hard to understand, but there we need first to map the reality, to understand it and after to find solutions, new solutions for new realities.

Another kind of academic diary

My wonderful PhD paper is ready for almost one year and already went through minimum three rewriting processes. Most probably, for the book I am intending to write - a good reason to return more often to this dear neglected blog - I will rewrite at least twice the whole material, beyond the translation process and the need to adapt and rewrite fragments and chapters, in order to better address the Western audience.

To recap: I am ready and prepared to face the defense, to answer the questions and to present my arguments and ideas. (I even went intensively to a couple of Toastmasters sessions in order to improve my public speaking skills.)What I am waiting for? For finishing the long and extremely annoying process of filling papers, going with a file from a building to another, correcting various bureaucratic formulae. And the most part of the fun is that I have only three more weeks until the established deadline for entering the final stage of the PhD - the defense - and still I am jumping around nervous, more and more nervous from a day to another, giving desperate phone calls and trying to solve - from thousand-kilometer away, because I cannot go back home every week - problems I hope to delete from my brains 1/2 second after the whole chaos is over.

I very often remark that I would better write another 600 or more pages paper+the research, than to face this grotesque system. But, thanks to some brilliant ideas, I will succeed. Can't wait. To start a new project, of course.

Colourful but colourblind

It is time to know more the Roma. We are very often ignorant who they are and what their culture represents.

The newest initiative is a project of Transitions covering Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

I welcome any piece of information that might help to go beyond our daily stereotypes and narrow-minded ways of judging the other - belonging or not to a different ethnic, national or linguistic community. On the other side, for what concerns the case of Roma, I cannot stop observing how keen we, the Westerners are to listen to their music, to dance or to watch them dancing. But this wave of enthusiasm doesn't mean that we are more open to fight the discrimination they are facing - surprise, in many of the countries who supported by loud public declarations their integration - or to stop thinking about them in discriminative terms.

Mitläufer

Mitläufer - is a follower of a group, supported by his or her presence as organic part of the group. Even not agreeing with the ideas and the ways in which these ideas are put into practice, the Mitläufer is prefering to be rather "in" than "out", by reasons of personal security - keeping the job and the money, advantages for the the members of the family etc. He or her are voiceless - of their and other people's dissatisfactions.

The term was used recently by Herta Mueller, in Bucharest, in relation with the mainstream attitude of Romanian intellectuals during communism. A position I fully agree. Otherwise, how it would be explained the overall silence, and absence of the real dissent during Romanian dictatorship?

Hungary? Again?

Orban Viktor is back and very much in the business. With almost the same agenda he had previously, in a country facing serious economic problems countered at a very rhetorical level.

New tensions to be expected with the neighbours.

Orban promised to crack down on Magyar Garda, a paramilitary movement, but is stating this after a meeting with the representatives of this organization!

Next to come/hope not the best!

Memoirs

After almost one year of devoted interest - not constant, but still with high fidelity - I am left by any kind of interest for "childhood memories" from the "Eastern side of history". In Germany, during the last year they were published an impressive amount of books dedicated to this recollections of memories, written by people born in late 70s. The patterns are almost similar: memories about the first rock band concert, the free trip on the other side of the wall, cartoons, being a "pioneer" etc. Small life stories, repeated over and over again. But, for me, it is enough. There are too many similarities and too many repetitions to determine me to go to explore other areas. Mentally and geographically.

The hard past

Even my research focused on the post-communist period - most precisely the first ten years of transition in Romania and Hungary - at the beginning of my research I focused considerably on the minority policies from the communist period. Even too much, I dare to say, and as a consequence of this situation, the first draft of my paper dedicated 45% to the editorial space to this time.

Beyond the relevance for understanding the origins of the current situation, it was as well - psychanalitically speaking - also an interest for understand a period I lived to, even shortly and whom I always regarded with a lack of any academic detachement: I simply hated what happened for more than 40 years.

Finally, I went beyond this memory blockage and was able to focus successfully on my topic.

During this intensive research, I had the occasion to read various memories written by former member of the nomenklatura who survived the transition. Some of them staying on the side of Ceausesc until the very last moment. They wanted now to share their memories, but without any critical perspective. All you got, is a never-ending lamentation, rephrased on hundred of pages about the ridiculous political transition, the former "comrades" who "betrayed" the communist values, they still believe in. Like grandparents, they, who neglected the fact that people were starving and were humiliated every minute of their life, they lecture about how they tried to change something or meditated about the values of communism while on vacation of various selected resorts strictly designed for the members of the ruling elite.

Ethnic Literature

Using minorities as characters in books might demands lots of documentation and research.

It depends of your audience - if it is familiar or not with different ethnic identities or if it is made by the members of the minority itself.

When it is about literary works, the most important dimension you have to find is authenticity. In this case, the careful details provided by the documentation are offering the information necessary to set up the credible characters. You don't have to give the reader a lesson of history, culture or even geography but to make your characters able to speak with their own original voice.

These are a couple of thoughts, giving me a couple of insights for a work-in-process about how to better communicate about minorities, following the meeting with Kemelman's Rabbi Small.

Autogeography

How much biography is in our writings? How much by our own perspective we are recreating an entire geographical space in a very personal way?

A very interesting perspective, here.

I am still pondering for my own opinion, made up of various mixed personal writing and literary experiences.

Glamourous CVs

Holding an academic degree for traditional sounding names academic fora is a sure way to a successful academic career. Of course, qualifications are not enough and given the high number of undergraduates, you need to prove your degrees by the practical experience. But, anyway, to be a LSE, or Princeton, or Harvard graduate is a good personal brading.

But...

Directly related to this high interest for getting high degrees and acquire more qualification, there are some business interests too. Of course, not all those who are enrolled and finally get the degrees are able to face the pressures of the daily academic challences. Some are dropping, but for the others, who still insist to get the academic degree, if they have enough money, it is still a chance. And here, intervenes the business I mentioned. There are either individuals or specialized companies working for you, making your papers and doing the researches according to the academic standards required. Find them, pay them and the future is yours.

Hence, do not wander if you'll meet amazing successful graduates who, in fact, are hardly able to write a coherent one page essay about a very simple topic.

Academic disabilities

The academic conferences, in my humble opinion, must represents occasions where experts and professionals from various domains are gathering together to share the results of their researches and analyse it using the tools of the critical thinking.

But, when the topics are connected to more or less recent histories, where the place of built and manipulated memories is playing the a very - if not the only - important role, these conferences are opportunities to display historical frustrations and precarious identities. The critical thinking is the last resort used for understanding and reading the realities.

The conferences with historical and political topics, addressing unsolved issues as the Balkans and the Caucasus are a good example in this direction. And I will randomly mention a couple of situations I observed in my last academic peregrinations: Hungarians claiming their right over Transylvania; Romanians claiming their predominance over Transylvania; representatives from the former Yugoslav countries fighting over who killed more and finding as well explanations and excuses for doing so; Armenians and Turks harshly fighting if it was or not an Armenian genocide; Armenians and Azeris accusing each other of aggressions. The pathetic discourses, and the passionate perspectives are killing any hope for critical appreciation. What matters is to claim that you - and only you - have and tell the truth and to deconstruct - and nullify - the point of view of the other.

What for so many hours spent in libraries and so many efforts to write presentations introduced as academic prodigies, when the basic level of the approach is not going too far of the usual information you could find in the "yellow media"?

The cultural weapon

used by the Slovakian establishment. This kind of policies will function as long as there will be individuals to answer the nationalistic messages. And you have this potential target-group because for decades, nationalism was in this part of Europe the answer to structural disfunctions, incapacity to understand the functioning of economic markets and the late modernisation. It is a vicious circle and it is how the members of the societies from this region are considering appropriate to win and request symbolic and electoral support.

Is this a curse?

It is a feeling/impressing/kind of story I wanted to write for a long time already. And thought about it over and over again, considered at the beginning very interesting, then boring and at the end completely erased from my writing priority list. But maybe the time has come to share my poor experience. As shortly as possible, I hope.

For me, one of the most disgraceful experience is to answer this kind of questions: "Really, you were born in Eastern Europe? Cannot believe it?" Most part of the people never been there, have a completely distorted image - the same for other part of the world. I could understand the reasons as well of this misunderstanding as many of the countries from this part of Europe do not have any coherent strategy of branding or the first contact with these country is very bad - bureaucracy, corruption, rude behaviors. But, being born in a certain country is just an occurrence.

Second, and the most boring part of the story is when you have to do a kind of public testimony of "how was then, during the communism". Of course, it is interesting to hear and many of my dialogue partners never had the occasion to know directly from the source these information. But, on the other side, for me, it is simply an occasion to remember facts and events I do not want to remember any more. Mostly when your dialogue partner is trying to convince you that, from a certain level, this kind of ideology was, maybe good.

At the end of the discussion, what I feel is that, in fact, our worlds are different and I have to live with this. In the same time, it is an acknowledgement of the fact that, in very small details, between me and this world there are only purely accidental historical connections. I can speak some "rare" languages, I know the history and the geography as well as the literature. My degree of representativity is extremely low, if not non-existent.

The Post-Communist Generation in the Former Eastern Bloc

www.pewglobal.org
January 20, 2010

Members of the post-communist generation, who are now between the ages of 18 and 39, offer much more positive evaluations of the political and economic changes their countries have undergone over the past two decades than do those who were adults when the Iron Curtain fell. The younger generation is also more individualistic and more likely to endorse a free market economy than are those who are ages 40 or older.

Throughout 2010, the Pew Research Center will release a series of reports that explore the values, attitudes and behavior of America's Millennial Generation, which first came of age around the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and played an important role in the election of President Barack Obama. The Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project's contribution to this project focuses on a somewhat different age group: the post-communist generation in the former Eastern bloc. The generation gap on attitudes about democracy and capitalism in Eastern Europe reflects a divide among the past, present and future. Concerns about the way things are going span all ages, but while the older generation looks back longingly, often saying that people were better off financially under communism, the younger generation expresses more confidence that democracy can solve their countries' problems.

Read the full commentary: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1467/post-communist-millennial-generation-more-positive-democracy-free-market

End of the project

After more than 10 years of focusing on Central and Eastern Europe, and sometimes on the Balkans, my project is about to finish. Not because 20 years after, the topic is no more fashionable - this is also true in some respects, but hope to do not forget to write about once.

But because it is time to end and my interests are shifting in another direction of research. I will always keep an eye - professional - in this region. In many situation, knowing more than the facts - but some professional trajects and personal feedbacks - are useful for a better understanding of the region.

It is why, in the next maximum two weeks I will try to post as much as possible in terms of relevant ideas and stories about Central and Eastern Europe and its minorities. After, the blog will remain online, but will be feed only from time to time, when something interesting would catch my interest.