Various things about Transnistria that didn’t fit in the previous post. If you don’t find this sort of thing interesting, don’t hit that link. Continue reading
Author Archives: Douglas Muir
Frozen conflicts: Transnistria
Spent a weekend in Nagorno-Karabakh last month.
If you don’t know what or where Nagorno-Karabakh is… well, that’s healthy and normal. Most people don’t. But it’s pretty interesting, in a depressing sort of way.
When the Soviet Union broke up, it left a number of unresolved ethnic and territorial conflicts around its old frontiers. Four of these still survive today. In ascending order of nastiness, they are Trans-Dnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Would anyone be interested in an occasional series on these? Here’s one on Trans-Dnistria below the cut.
Continue reading
Well-kept Secrets of European Airports
I’ve been on the road recently. So:
1) The Billa Supermarket in Vienna International (Wien-Schwechat). It’s located on the arrivals level; walk out of customs, turn left, go past the McDonalds, down the long corridor, and turn left.
In addition to the usual supermarket stuff, it has cold shelves full of salads and sushi, an icebox full of smoothies, and a deli that makes sandwiches to order. All fresh and tasty, and less than half what it will cost at one of the overpriced eateries on the departure level or out by the gates. The only drawback is that there’s noplace to eat it, but this didn’t slow me down — I sat on the stairs outside, while everyone went by on the escalators.
2) The showers at Frankfurt airport. Terminal 1, Departure Hall B, outside security. Two each, male and female. Used to be 5 euros each though that might have changed. Nobody knows about these, which is a damn shame. If you’re travelling in Europe, you’ll have to spend some time in Frankfurt airport, so why not take the chance to freshen up?
3) The kids’ playroom at Budapest Ferhegy. Okay, I wouldn’t exactly call this a secret — it’s not hard to find — but it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen: a small indoor playground with a toy chest, free video games and a changing room. Weary parents and squirrelly kids alike will find this a blessed oasis. If only more airports had this!
Add your own.
Balkan War Criminals: First the good news…
The good news is, last week Serbia handed over a fellow named Zdravko Tolimir. Tolimir, a Bosnian Serb, was a top aide to wanted war criminal Ratko Mladic.
This is good news not only because Tolimir is a wrong’un — he’s under indictment on counts of genocide, extermination, murder, persecution, forcible transfer and deportation, and was the third most wanted suspect after the two headliners, Karadzic and Mladic — but also because both Serbia and the Bosnian Serb Republic cooperated in getting him and handing him over. For Serbia, that’s the first evidence of real cooperation with the Hague since 2005. For Bosnia… well, it’s the first time the Serb Republic’s police have helped catch a war criminal, ever.
It may be because Serbia has a new government; or because they’re hoping to re-start talks with the EU (stalled for over a year now, because of that same lack of cooperation); or because they’re hoping to score points as the Kosovo issue comes up in the UN this month. Whatever he reason, it’s very welcome.
If only that were all the war criminal news this week. Unfortunately not. Just a day before Tolimir was picked up, convicted war criminal Radovan Stankovic escaped from prison.
This is bad in a variety of ways. Continue reading
Eurovision: Who’s European?
A close family member who shall remain nameless looked at the list of finalists and gasped, “Why, there’s not one real European country on it!”
Ah, I thought that would get your attention. Continue reading
Serbia: Day 109, and over
At the last possible moment, they pulled it out. Serbia has a new government.
Prime Minister Kostunica will stay Prime Minister. Some ministries will be shuffled; control over state security will be divided (since, in Serbia, nobody trusts a rival party to control this). Oh, and they’ll kick the Radical leader out of his position as Speaker of the Parliament.
The new government will probably be weak and consumed by constant internal bickering and backstabbing. But it’s still much better than the alternative of a Radical (opportunistic, vaguely fascistic populist-nationalist) government.
Also: 109 days to form a government. That’s pretty impressive. It’s much better than their previous record of 70 days from 2004. This one will be hard to beat.
Still, here’s a tentative prediction: just as the Italians have a habit of short-lived governments, the Serbs are going to have a habit of long post-election wrangling periods. I’d bet a euro that after the next election — two, three, or four years from now — the next government won’t be formed for at least 60 days.
Speaking of bets, seven weeks ago I bet that Serbia would form a new government at the last possible moment. I was right! But I also bet that before this happened, the UN Security Council would make a decision on Kosovo. I was wrong… Oh, well, that’s 1-for-2.
So, that’s sorted. On to Eurovision!
Consider this an open thread.
Serbia: Uh oh
So Serbia has elected a new Speaker of the Skupshtina, or Parliament. That’s the first step towards forming a new government. This after more than 100 days of post-election wrangling.
Should be good news, right? Except that they elected the leader of the Serbian Radical Party — the obnoxious populist-nationalist guys.
“Obnoxious” doesn’t really do it. The leader of the Radical Party is currently on trial in the Hague for war crimes. The acting leader has been accused of war crimes… plausibly accused, IMO, though there’s not enough evidence to bring it to trial. And the party in general is crawling with former paramilitaries, sleazy businessmen who got rich under Milosevic, and mouth-breathing beat-the-Gypsies racists. There’s not a lot to like. In the last election they played down the nationalist aspect and played up the economic populism — Jobs for everyone! We’ll crack down on corruption! Banks are charging too much interest — we’ll renationalize them!
The Radicals got about 28% of the vote, which means they took about 1/3 of the seats in Parliament. But they’re pariahs, so everyone figured the other parties would find a way to bury their differences and form a government.
Maybe not. Continue reading
Early Elections in Turkey
So Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said he’ll call for early elections, either on June 24 or July 1.
This would be early, but not greatly so. Turkey’s Parliament runs on a five-year term, and the last one was elected in November 2002, so he’d have to call elections within a few months anyway.
What’s interesting here is the precipitating incident. Turkey’s Presidency comes open in a few weeks. The President is elected for a single seven-year term, and the current President entered office in May 2000. So it’s time to appoint a new one. The President is appointed by Parliament, but Parliament needs a two-thirds majority to elect. The Prime Minister’s ruling party is just a few votes short of the needed majority, and the opposition parties — in a rare show of unity — boycotted the vote, denying them even a quorum. (There are some constitutional and legal wrangles here, which can be elided.)
What’s the problem? Well, Erdogan’s chosen President is his current Finance Minister, Abdulah Gul. Both Erdogan and Gul are members of the Justice and Development Party, which is an “Islamist” party. The meaning of “Islamist” is fiercely debated. Erdogan and Gul say it’s just like being a Christian Democrat party in Europe. Their critics (and some party members) say there’s more to it than that, and that the party’s Islamism extends to imposing religious values on Turkish society. This is a huge deal in Turkey, which is an Islamic country but which is also fiercely proud of its secular political tradition. Much of this is about symbolism — Gul’s wife wears a headscarf! — but symbolism matters.
So Erdogan is going for a snap vote, presumably hoping to pick up a few more seats. Could happen. On the other hand, if he loses seats, there’d be pressure to appoint a different, less overtly Islamic candidate. Continue reading
Serbia: Day 93
So Serbia still has no government.
I posted a while back that they had 90 days to form one after the January 23 election. Not true! They have 90 days after the first session of the new Parliament. That was on February 14. So they have 17 more days.
Still, three months without a government is pretty awesome. It totally blows past their old record of 70 days from 2004. Go team!
As to why this is happening… I don’t usually quote wholesale from other blogs, but Eric Gordy of eastethnia has pretty much nailed it: Continue reading
Europeans discover first habitable planet beyond Earth
Okay, strictly speaking it’s a maybe-habitable planet. But still!
Yesterday the European Southern Observatory announced the discovery of an Earthlike planet orbiting the star Gliese 581. “Earthlike”, to astronomers, is a pretty broad definition; it means a planet that is not so tiny it will lose all its atmosphere to space, nor either so large that its surface will be crushed under hundreds of atmospheres of pressure; and not so cold as to be a frozen iceball, nor either boiling hot. Basically, it’s a planet that can support liquid water.
This is a broad definition, but up until now astronomers have found over 200 planets around other stars without finding a single one that fit. Most were too big — it’s much easier to detect giant planets than little ones, of course — and the ones that weren’t, were either too hot or too cold.
But the new planet — which goes by the euphonious name of Gliese 581c — is a “Goldilocks” world, just right. It orbits Gliese 581c in the “habitable zone”, receiving just about as much sunlight as earth.
Of course, there are some complications. Continue reading