The first new statue of Josef Stalin to be erected in Ukraine for decades has caused controversy in the country. Watch my report for Al Jazeera here... when I went to film it in the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine last week, it was an absolute coincidence that I met a fanatical Communist who was also called Stalin.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Stalin Returns to Ukraine
The first new statue of Josef Stalin to be erected in Ukraine for decades has caused controversy in the country. Watch my report for Al Jazeera here... when I went to film it in the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine last week, it was an absolute coincidence that I met a fanatical Communist who was also called Stalin.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Unholy Row Over 'Sacrilegious' Book
Scuffles between a small group of free-speech campaigners and hardline Orthodox Christians outside a university in the Georgian capital yesterday have generated passionate but widely differing reactions here.
Giorgi Lomsadze reports in a blog post on the EurasiaNet website that the row began after a promotional event at the university for a new book which apparently mocks the Church – the most respected institution in the country. According to Lomsadze: “The title of the book, Saidumlo Siroba, is a profane send-up of the Georgian term for the Last Supper. (It translates literally as ‘Secret Hogwash’, but is closer to ‘Holy Crap’.)”
A post on media.ge suggests that the Orthodox protesters accused their liberal opponents of being traitors, scum, promoters of homosexuality and enemies of Georgia, then started to physically assault them. One prominent opposition politician, Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri, who’s currently standing in elections for the position of Mayor of Tbilisi, is reportedly backing calls for the controversial book to be banned.
The row follows a fierce dispute last year about a series of video clips which mocked the head of the Church. Musing on yesterday’s clashes, Tbilisi blogger Isterika says that he believes that some kind of cultural “war” is now going on in Georgia.
EurasiaNet’s Giorgi Lomsadze doesn’t see it in such apocalyptic terms, however: “The scuffles are symptomatic of challenges faced by Georgia as it tries to reconcile its reverence for the Church, part and parcel of the country’s national identity, with the dose of cosmopolitan liberalism that democracy and international openness bring,” he writes.
Giorgi Lomsadze reports in a blog post on the EurasiaNet website that the row began after a promotional event at the university for a new book which apparently mocks the Church – the most respected institution in the country. According to Lomsadze: “The title of the book, Saidumlo Siroba, is a profane send-up of the Georgian term for the Last Supper. (It translates literally as ‘Secret Hogwash’, but is closer to ‘Holy Crap’.)”
A post on media.ge suggests that the Orthodox protesters accused their liberal opponents of being traitors, scum, promoters of homosexuality and enemies of Georgia, then started to physically assault them. One prominent opposition politician, Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri, who’s currently standing in elections for the position of Mayor of Tbilisi, is reportedly backing calls for the controversial book to be banned.
The row follows a fierce dispute last year about a series of video clips which mocked the head of the Church. Musing on yesterday’s clashes, Tbilisi blogger Isterika says that he believes that some kind of cultural “war” is now going on in Georgia.
EurasiaNet’s Giorgi Lomsadze doesn’t see it in such apocalyptic terms, however: “The scuffles are symptomatic of challenges faced by Georgia as it tries to reconcile its reverence for the Church, part and parcel of the country’s national identity, with the dose of cosmopolitan liberalism that democracy and international openness bring,” he writes.
The Killer Instinct
Leaders of former Soviet states sometimes like to portray themselves as muscular 'action men'. Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has often been photographed, bare-chested with a knife at his belt, on hunting trips in the wilder reaches of his country (see comprehensive gallery here). The latest to do so is former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan (see photo above), whose wildlife-blasting African safari jaunt last year was recently highlighted by Armenian blogger Unzipped. There's more info about the source of the photos on the Global Voices site here.
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