This
website is a forum for all those who
would like to invent themselves, their
communities, villages, cities, countries,
or their region: Central Europe.
DIVIDED SOCIETIES
Many of the countries in Central Europe suffer from an inner division, which may be social (rich and poor, minorities and majorities, various ethnic groups, “natives” and immigrants or guest workers, etc.), or political (different ideologies, party affiliations, etc.). In some cases there is bitter hostility between the opposing sides. This situation makes it difficult, or even impossible, for any form of co-operation, consensus-building, or compromise. The result is that these countries under-perform, miss available opportunities, and their development is inhibited.
How can we get out of this deadlock? How can we create the preconditions of co-operation? How can we reach an acceptable compromise
October 1956 was witness to the courage and dignity of spirit of the Hungarian people; October 2006 was witness to the dishonor and indignity of the Hungarian establishment.
In this paper I would like to address a seemingly simple issue that mirrors the remapping of the minds of numerous intellectuals in Eastern and Central Europe during the last nearly four decades: the changing contents of the concepts of East and West in these minds.
If the concept of territorial autonomy comes to realisation, there can be long-term consequences for the survival of Vojvodina as one of the rare multiethnic regions in this area.
At the beginning of 1990s, we witnessed the divorce between the good democratic guys (Slovenia and Croatia) from the authoritarian forces (Serbia and Montenegro). Fifteen years later, here we go again with the story of good and bad guys (now) in the Western Balkans.
There are approximately 700,000 Russians living in Latvia whose vast majority could not receive Latvian citizenship after the country’s independence was proclaimed. Together with the Hungarian minority of a few hundred people, they are stuck in a stalemate with nowhere to resettle and with practically no chances of getting Latvian citizenship. They are homeless.
On May 21, Montenegrins will decide individually whether to follow those accused of following Milosevic's steps and refusing to acknowledge the crimes and mistakes of the war, or those accused of being related to the Italian mafia and international smuggling. Dictatorship or Sopranos? Montenegrins will vote what they consider to be less harmful out of the two evils.
Music has several different faces. One is beautiful, the other, however, can be exclusionary, brutal, subliminary, political, and it can restrain the freedom of expression.
Time is running out, and the status quo in Kosova, mainly a product of the international community, just won’t last longer. The negotiations will begin at the end of February, 2006. A possible, pragmatic solution is the “conditional independence” model.
We must consider to what degree the American preoccupation with patriotism is leading the country down the path of exclusivity, in much the same way as European nationalism is dividing countries and the EU.
The parliamentary elections will turn the world community's attention back to Ukraine again. The memories of the glorious Orange Revolution are still fresh in our mind, and, as in all western fairy tales, we presume that the happy end had come.
Mountains
cannot be surmounted except by winding
paths.
