Ukraine's lost potential

From Transitions On-Line:

Sulking on the Sidelines
Ukraine has been left out of the current round of EU expansion, and rightly so. The country belongs in Europe and should be offered membership, but not before the corrupt and authoritarian government in Kiev gets its marching orders.
by Ivan Khokhotva

KIEV, Ukraine--As the 10 new EU entrants were finalizing their membership at the Athens conference on 16 April, the feeling of frustration in Kiev was almost palpable. Twelve years after the collapse of the Soviet empire, as some of its former Communist neighbors are being admitted to the world’s most prestigious club, Ukraine’s prospects of joining the party look as distant as ever.

( Read more... )

Life of late

Not much has been going on. I'll need as many hours at work as possible in order to pay off my credit-card debt and accumulate funds for an early August trip with Tom and Dan.

Work has been hectic. As the library is being renovated--the 39-year-old carpet is being replaced, and the walls are being painted--we have to move the books ahead of the workmen. Today, we unplugged all but two of the public-access computers; fortunately not many people wanted them today. I have no idea how we'll manage to move the non-fiction. Ah, well--plenty of hours next week.

Saw Jen today as I was going on the taxi. We chatted briefly. She had soem roasted corn as a snack, offered me some. 'Twas nice.

Want a new central European state? Look here.

From the CINEast Archives, originally from the UK Independent on Saturday, 6 March 1999:

Long live Ruthenia!

By Timothy Garton Ash

Whence they came, no one can tell. Nobody knows exactly who, how many or where they are. They live in six states and in none. They are loyal to each of these states, and to none of them. Their language is written in five different versions; in the Cyrillic, but also in the Latin alphabet. Some regard themselves as Ukrainians, others as Slovaks, others again as Poles. Or Romanians. Or Hungarians. Or Yugoslavs. But many insist they are "Rusyns", or "Carpatho-Rusyns", or rusnatsi. Or, they throw up their hands and give the ancient answer of the peasant from Europe's Slavic borderlands: "We're just from here."

Yet now they have a provisional government that wants to form a new nation-state. A state called Ruthenia.

( Read more... )

Ah, Hogwarts

You excel at History of Magic. You seem to have
the mind for history, while everyone else is
getting a little shut-eye you're alert and
taking notes.


Which Class at Hogwarts Would You Excel at?
brought to you by Quizilla

From Ecuador to Spain

From Reuters:

Ecuador Families Torn Apart as Parents Go to Europe
Sun May 4, 2003 12:17 PM ET
By Amy Taxin
QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Wearing a name tag around her neck, 13-year-old Diana waits at Ecuador's airport to board a jet that will take her to join her parents for the first time since they emigrated to Europe three years ago.

Preparing for the trip from Quito to Amsterdam then on to Milan, the shy teen-ager shows no fear of making her first flight, but she is nervous about life in a new country and a new language.

"We'll have to see if I can get used to it," said Diana, who hopes to stay with her parents in Milan now they have obtained Italian visas after leaving their poor homeland in search of jobs.

In Ecuador, a nation with one of Latin America's highest migration rates, dozens of children board transatlantic jets by themselves every day to rejoin their parents in Europe, hoping the joy of reunion will help ease painful memories of years of separation.

More than half million Ecuadoreans have emigrated since an economic crisis hit the small Andean nation in 1999. People left homes and even children behind in a frantic rush for a better life.

( Read more... )

Final Undergraduate Marks

I've finally gone onto the UPEI website to check my marks. 81% for Literature in/and the World; another 81% for HIST 102B, Canadian History-Post Confederation; and 82% for HIST 312, The Art of History.

Could be higher, but I don't particularly care: I'm out.