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On Wednesday 24 February, a panel of experts met to discuss the legacy of war and communism in eastern Europe. A full house convened for the event to mark the release of the latest edition of Granta, No Man’s Land, which focuses on the ground between opposing forces, twenty five years since the fall of communism.
Themes of amnesia, nostalgia, construction, rebuilding, liberal democracy, end of history, paranoia, and conspiracy theories led the body of the rich discussion.
Oliver Bullough, journalist and author of The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame Be Great who has lived and worked extensively in Russia, chaired the event. Joining him were senior fellow at the Legatum institute and author of Nothing is True and Nothing is Possible, Adventures in Modern Russia, Peter Pomerantsev, and Philip Ó Ceallaigh, author of Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse and The Pleasant Light of Day.
The event began with Pomerantsev and Ó Ceallaigh reading excerpts from their Granta pieces – ‘Propagandalands’ and ‘Bucharest, Broken City’ – and drawing the audience into the landscape that was to be discussed.
Bullough engaged with the theme of truth being an irrelevant concept in eastern Europe. “This idea that the victory belongs to the persuasive… How pervasive is that? How quickly do you doubt everything?”
“Ukraine is a laboratory of contemporary propaganda… The problem that people have is they have too many sources of information… In all the sociology they say ‘we don’t believe anyone anymore,'” Pomerantsev responded. He went on to say that this phenomenon is not unique to Ukraine but is seen across the world – particularly in the United States.
Ó Ceallaigh commented later on the mistrust that was prevalent in Romania during the time of communism. “One of the deepest wounds of the Communist years was the fact that everyone was snitching on everyone else.” He shared that the younger generation are different in that sense.
Bullough then moved the discussion onto the subject of nostalgia, questioning its significance in the contexts of Ukraine and Romania.
“I think nostalgia might be more about not being happy with the present… The phrase that the separatists used, ‘things will be like they always were’; they’re talking about some kind of dreamscape. On the one hand the internet breaks our idea of reality, fragments it, and in this fragmented space people start dreaming of sort of lost nostalgias… But at the same time when you go and pull down a statue of Lenin no-one seems to care,” Pomerantsev responded.
“It’s a nostalgia for a fictional past,” added Ó Ceallaigh.
Fascinating @GrantaMag/@frontlineclub talk last night with @OliverBullough & @peterpomeranzev. Now to dive into this pic.twitter.com/Uc5RKAtrT9
— Jack Losh (@jacklosh) February 25, 2016
The discussion moved to the notion of conspiracy theories, with Bullough asking: “Is conspiracy theory essentially yearning for a higher power?”
Pomerantsev commented, “Confronted with the chaos of globalisation, the chaos of too many information sources for our little minds to cope with… people revert to conspiracy theories. And that is a reflection of some of the nasty political movements.”
“Victims of the violence are actually being confused with the perpetrators, which is exactly what you had in the wake of the Paris attacks… The media suddenly flips and you see things completely backwards. It happens over and over again. This is what we need to recognise,” Ó Ceallaigh said.
An audience member asked the panel to comment on how the West could feasibly improve the current situation in Ukraine and Romania.
Ó Ceallaigh responded, “Throw money at it. In a way it’s as simple as that. It’s crude and usually goes wrong at the beginning, because when you throw money at a corrupt society the people there who are going to take advantage are those in power.”
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Rabbit à la Berlin
Academy Award-nominated documentary Rabbit à la Berlin uses the Berlin Wall rabbit population as a metaphor for the huge transition post-communist societies underwent. For 28 years, the Death Zone between the Berlin Walls was a safe home for wild rabbits: full of grass, no predators, guards protecting them from human disturbance. They were enclosed but happy. When the rabbit population grew to thousands, guards started to remove them but the rabbits survived and stayed until, one day, the wall fell down. The rabbits now had to abandon the comfortable system they had been living in. They moved to West Berlin, where they’ve have been living in small colonies ever since. They are still learning how to live in the free world, just as many citizens of Eastern Europe. Directed by Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosołowski | Duration: 39’| Year: 2009
EXIT
In October 1989 the East German authorities tightened border security following the exodus of GDR citizens that had started earlier in the summer. Through exceptional and rare footage shot between 10 and 20 October 1989, Exit shows East German refugees who managed to cross the Polish border in order to reach the West German embassy in Warsaw. For the first time they talk openly about life in East Germany, not knowing the world is about to change. Directed by Małgorzata Bieńkowska-Buehlmann | Duration: 30′ | Year: 1990-2009
Oxygen
During the communist dictatorship in Romania (1945-1989), thousands of people risked their lives attempting to flee their country. Despair made them invent the most incredible methods to cross the border illegally. Some of them managed to escape, but many lost their lives in these attempts. Oxygen is a free re-enactment of a real case: a man who tried to cross the Danube illegally using an oxygen cylinder, to escape the communist Romania. Directed by Adina Pintilie | Duration: 30′ | Year: 2010
The screening of Rabbit à la Berlin kindly supported by Deckert Distribution
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Over the course of three evenings, an impressive and challenging line up of speakers will debate issues ranging from the current situation in Ukraine to the role of social media in journalism. These first events mark the start of regular discussions and screenings that will take place in Bucharest as part of the Frontline Club’s International Parters programme.
Full line-up of events and speakers:
Screening: Ukraine – From Democracy to Chaos + Q&A with Jill Emery
Tuesday 18 February, 6:30PM
Ukraine – From Democracy to Chaos explores this complex country, its geopolitical importance in Europe and its unfinished struggle for democracy. The film explores the political divisions between east and west Ukraine that gave rise to the Orange Revolution in 2004 and still have deep roots in dictating today’s political reality.
The screening will be followed by discussion about the recent developments in Ukraine, moderated by Stefan Candea, co-founder and director of the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism. He will be joined by: Vlad Mixich, journalist and senior editor of HotNews.ro; multimedia journalist, Laurentiu Diaconu-Colintineanu; and Paul Radu, investigative journalist and director of Rise Project.
Screening: Fortress + Debate
Wednesday 19 February, 6:30PM
Over 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union directors Klára Tasovská and Lukáš Kokeš travel back in time on their visit to the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldovian Republic. A separatist region within Moldova, it has its own passports and stamps, an elected president and a legal system.
The screening will be followed by a debate with: Marian Voicu, producer Romanian Public Television; Michael Bird, journalist and editor of The Black Sea; and Lina Vdovîi, online editor at TVR and member of the Romanian Centre for Independent Journalism.
One World Romania Preview Screening: High Tech, Low Life + Debate
Thursday 20 February, 6:30PM
High Tech, Low Life follows Zola, a smart, tech-savvy and playful youngster, and Tiger Temple, a 50-something citizen reporter, as they each travel the country to report stories that would otherwise remain unknown. A unique peek behind the notorious Great Firewall of China that captures the fearlessness of a new digital generation.
The screening will be followed by a debate moderated by multi media journalist Brăduț Ulmanu. He will be joined by: independent journalist, Radu Ciorniciuc; human rights activist and coordinator of the FreeEx program of ActiveWatch, Liana Ganea; and journalist Ioana Moldoveanu.
]]>On Friday 31 January, the audience was taken on a cinematic journey of insights from Tibet, Japan, Romania, Afghanistan and the UAE during an evening of Shorts at the Frontline Club. The selection showed five very different but equally compelling short documentaries. This time the films provoked thoughts on the consequences of tourism on ancient traditions, the dedication of individuals who take on a community’s responsibility and the forming of different memories that, combined, create our history.
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Russel O. Bush’s film Vultures of Tibet was set in the striking Tibetan mountains, home to the monks who continue the ancient tradition of sky burials. The sacred practice offers bodies of the dead to the mountain’s vultures. With cameras at the read and hungry for a spectacle, a new phenomenon of tourists now preys on the burials. The unwelcome invasion of mainly Chinese tourists is depicted in the film as a direct threat to Tibetan culture. With reference to the tourists’ disrespect of the local dead, a monk reflected: “They think death only happens to others not themselves.” The voyeuristic banality of the tourists is in stark contrast to the pensive monks. Although another monk explains that the Chinese tourists are not conscious of their negative impact on their practice, the film painfully echoes wider Chinese–Tibetan tensions.
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The sanctity of identity was even more explicitly explored in the film Recollections by Nathanael Carton. After the 2011 tsunami in Japan, around 750,000 photographs were found severely damaged by the sea near the city of Yamamoto. This film documented a group of Japanese volunteers who repair and reconstruct these photos. When possible the photos are returned to their owners, reuniting them with their memories. One volunteer explained that the photographs act as “proof of their existence”. The photos evidently brought with them the pain of loss but importantly, in some cases, the trigger to move forward.
Following on from Recollections was Layla’s Melody by Jens Pedersen which also deals with family identity and looking to the future. Layla is an Afghan girl growing up in an orphanage. Despite the harsh Taliban stance on women playing musical instruments, she plays the drums and dreams of becoming a musician. Her story took an emotional turn when her mother comes for a rare visit and reassures Layla that she can stay in the orphanage away from the problems plaguing her family. The film was an intimate reminder of the ongoing fight for women’s emancipation in the country.
While the evening’s films dealt with some difficult subject matter they did not lack humorous moments. Feeding 500 by Rafed Al Harthi, follows Sediq, an Indian working in the UAE, who for 15 years has taken it upon himself to feed 500 of its stray cats. As the film demonstrated, this requires a daily routine taking up most of Sediq’s time and money. The underlying question was how his apparent duty to feed the hungry cats could be at the expense of seeing and providing for his family back in India. Nevertheless, Sediq’s jovial and unflinching efforts to feed his furry friends along with his ability to ignore the locals disdain had the audience laughing loudly.
The same can be said of the final film, Stremt 89 by Anda Puscas and Dragos Dulea. Taking us to Romania, the film captured the reflections of its rural village countrymen and women recounting their interpretations of what can only be described as a revolution of sorts. The anti-Communist revolution took place in Romania’s bigger cities in 1989 but the excitements failed to impact the small rural area of Stremt. Evidently this did not deter the local men, who eagerly jumped at the opportunity of change or counterchange (they would decide later). Their enthusiasm was fuelled, much to their wives’ concerns, with local wine and lots of it. Perhaps the only sane man explains how he managed to stop the men killing each other by stealing their bullets. The locals’ witty anecdotes painted a chaotic and honest picture. Some wise words filtered through as an old man declared that he was no longer sure what the fuss was about, saying that revolutions were merely “trading powers”.
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]]>By Nicole Hunt
Following the horrific shooting at the Dark Knight Premiere in Aurora, Colorado on Friday that killed at least 12 people and injured 58, suspect James Holmes appears in court on Monday morning. Police spent much of the weekend disabling explosives in Holmes’ apartment, and are still trying to piece together a motive for the attack.
EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels to discuss a host of issues, from energy policy to South Sudan. But the real focus will be on Syria – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed last week that ministers would seek to impose new, stronger sanctions on the Assad regime, a move which gained renewed importance after China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on 19 July that would have authorised stronger global sanctions.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is in Moscow to hold his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Syria is on the top of their agenda, too. Given Russia’s recent stance, though, it’s unlikely that Monti will be able to persuade Putin to change his mind, so their time might be better spent discussing bilateral issues.
Officials from the IMF, EU and ECB make their quarterly-ish visit to Greece on Tuesday to check on how economic plans are progressing. The mission is the first since Greece’s new government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took over after elections last month, and was delayed from June due to Samaras’ health problems. Discussion will reportedly focus on securing a ‘bridging loan’ for Greece while the new government tries to find nearly €12bn in further spending cuts.
Tuesday also sees the latest hearing in Baghdad in the trial of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, who is accused of operating a death squad. The trial was postponed earlier in the month to allow an appeals court to review the case and rule on the conduct of the trial, including a request by Hashemi’s lawyers to call senior government figures as witnesses, which was denied by the trial court.
The Pakistani Supreme Court has given new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf until Wednesday to issue a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to re-open graft investigations against President Asif Ali Zardari. Ashraf’s predecessor Yousuf Raza Gilani declined to submit the same request to Switzerland; he was subsequently found to be in contempt of court and disqualified from standing as Prime Minister, so it’s a deadline Ashraf will be looking at with some consideration.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is in London on Thursday. In addition to attending the Olympic opening ceremony and reportedly meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Labour Leader Ed Miliband, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Romney is also playing host to two fundraisers for wealthy American ex-pats. Those whose wallets can only spare $2,500 will attend an evening reception with Romney, while donors who can dig up $75,000 will find themselves sitting down to dinner with the man himself.
Friday…Friday…Well there must be something going on Friday. Oh yes, the small matter of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The Queen officially opens the Games, and in return she and other attendees can enjoy Danny Boyle’s ‘Isles of Wonder’ spectacle, a concert with Paolo Nutini, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Duran Duran and Paul McCartney, and a Red Arrows flypast.
Meanwhile, the mood may be a bit less celebratory in Spain, where the latest quarterly unemployment figures are released. Despite relatively positive figures recently, including a drop in unemployment of 100,000 last month, figures still hover near the 25 per cent mark, and hundreds of people took part in demonstrations in Madrid last week to protest against unemployment and austerity.
Former US President Bill Clinton delivers the closing address at the AIDS 2012 Conference in Washington on Friday. He caps off a week of speakers that have included his wife (otherwise known as Secretary of State) Hillary, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former First Lady Laura Bush, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sharon Stone.
Romney continues his international jaunt on Saturday with a three-day trip to Israel, where he’s planning to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro. In addition to bolstering his international credentials – and probably making much of the fact that his Democratic rival hasn’t made the trip to the holy land during his presidency – Romney is also hosting another of his ex-pat fundraisers on Sunday.
Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to decide whether or not President Traian Basescu should be impeached. Basescu was suspended from his post in a 6 July parliamentary vote, after Prime Minister Victor Ponta accused him of exceeding his authority and acting in a partisan manner. Basescu and his supporters have in turn accused Ponta of trying to oust the president in order to consolidate his own power.
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Given the ongoing violence and international concern over Syria, it’s hard to believe (‘ridiculous’, even) that parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place on Monday, but President Bashar al Assad has insisted they will go ahead. The polls were set on 13 March, following the approval of a new constitution which changed electoral rules that had previously reserved 167 or 250 seats for the Ba’ath-supporting National Progressive Front coalition.
In Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin returns to the role he held from 1999 to 2008 when he is sworn in as President following elections in March. President Dmitry Medvedev, who acted as something of a placeholder while Putin took an obligatory term off, returns to his old post of Prime Minister.
The Atlantic Council holds its annual awards dinner in Washington, where Prince Harry, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and ‘the Enlisted Men and Women of the United States Armed Forces’ are among those receiving honours. Harry’s Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award is in recognition of his charitable work supporting members of the armed forces, while Ban receives the Distinguished International Leadership Award.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is in London from Tuesday, his fist high profile endeavour since being convicted of contempt of court on 26 April. Gilani is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron and participate in the first annual review Meeting of the Enhanced Strategic Dialogue, but his five-day visit may also be used to try to shore up party support among Britain’s sizeable Pakistani community.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan host a joint Italian-Turkish summit in Rome, bringing together their foreign affairs, economy, interior, economic development, labour and environment ministers to discuss policy and bilateral relations.
Following VE Day on Tuesday, President Putin can celebrate his return to the helm on Wednesday at Russia’s annual Victory Day military parade, commemorating Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany. The parade is traditionally a fairly spectacular affair, including missiles, tanks and marching soldiers.
The World Economic Forum holds its annual meeting on Africa in Addis Ababa, this year focusing on the theme of ‘Shaping Africa’s Transformation’. Speakers include African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka, president of the China Investment Corporation Gao Xiqing, Wal-Mart International CEO Doug McMillon, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies secretary general Bekele Geleta, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Annan participates in his role as chairman of the Africa Progress Panel and as a board member of the WEF Foundation, but he has been preoccupied as of late with his role as UN-Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria.
Two high-profile international trials were postponed last week and rescheduled for Thursday. The judgement in former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase’s appeal was scheduled for 2 May, but was postponed at the last minute. Nastase was convicted in January of illegally raising €1.6m during the 2004 election campaign and sentenced to two years in prison.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi’s trial (in absentia) for allegedly running a death squad was postponed from 3 May in Baghdad after a series of shootings and explosions near the courthouse prompted his lawyers to request a venue change.
Algerians go to the polls on Thursday to elect members to the People’s National Assembly, in what President Abdelaziz Bouteflika called the beginning of a new stage of political reforms when he broke with tradition and announced the election date on TV, rather than asking the electoral college to set a date for the vote. Conscious of the 36 per cent turnout in the 2007 elections, Bouteflika encouraged more people to vote this time around, especially as the elections follow protests in 2011 over youth unemployment and inequality.
And some positive news from Greece, for once: Thursday marks the beginning of the Olympic Torch Handover Relay, which begins with a lighting ceremony at the Temple of Hera before the Torch is taken on an eight-day trek around the country and handed over to the UK.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych hosts a summit in Yalta on Friday that’s quickly become more noteworthy for who’s not attending rather than who is. German President Johann Gauck announced that he was cancelling his visit in protest at the continued imprisonment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, prompting eight other leaders, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the presidents of Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Estonia and Bulgaria, to decline their invitations.
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on World Food Security, which normally sits just once a year, holds an extraordinary meeting in Rome to adopt the (deep breath) Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT). The guidelines are the end result of an extensive three-year drafting process, and are designed to help governments designing policies in these areas.
The European Commission publishes its biannual EU Economic Forecasts on Friday, looking at short-term and macro-economic projections for the euro area and member states over the next two years. Though the publication traditionally comes out in May and November, the Commission released an interim report in February this year ‘due to the rapidly changing economic circumstances’; the interim report predicted ‘a mild recession with signs of stabilisation’.
Demonstrations are planned across Spain on Saturday to mark the one year anniversary of the ‘indignados’ movement, which occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square from 15 May last year. The occupation lasted nearly a month, which now seems a short time compared to the Occupy movements, but sparked the whole movement of taking back public spaces.
Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi, who was recently released on bail after more than a year in prison, is expected to find out on Sunday whether he has
been found guilty of organising illegal protests and incitement to stone-throwing. The Ofer Military Court is scheduled to rule on the charges, which relate to weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
Regional elections take place in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the seventh state elections in just over a year. As always, observers are watching closely for indicators of the falling popularity of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its allies.
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Ana Maria Luca, a journalist based in Bucharest working for the Antena 3 TV network, is about to become Beirut correspondent for the channel. She’s just back from her ‘war reporter training’ in Romania,
]]>Seriously speaking, it was a hell of an experience. Doing the physical exercises, and trying to finish the obstacle course, which was not very easy, and then wearing the bullet proof vests and the helmets, which were pretty heavy, although they were not the heaviest they have. The combat equipment is much heavier than the training one. link
]]>Prosecutors on Monday exhumed the body of an influential Romanian journalist after years of speculation over his death in an auto accident in 2003. An inquest found that Dumitru Tinu, the managing director and majority owner of influential daily Adevarul, died after losing control of his car, which skidded and overturned on an icy road on Jan. 1, 2003…
…During the communist years, Tinu served as a correspondent and later foreign editor for the Communist Party newspaper Scanteia. He covered the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and, in the 1980s, Poland’s Solidarity movement. Romania was one of the few Warsaw pact countries to condemn the invasion. link