It took two aborted face-to-face encounters, and one email written with my heart on my sleeve to convince the esteemed Edward Lucas to let me share some of my stories from Eastern Europe on the Economist’s Eastern Approaches blog. Here they are:
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A cow by any other name
Dec 9th 2010, 16:51 by S.T. | TALLINN
ANY Eastern Approaches readers who, unaccountably, have not been keeping up with the latest developments from the Estonian Animal Recording Centre may be interested to hear that a new 48-page survey of the most popular names for cows in Estonia is the talk of Tallinn.Refugees in Ukraine: Shut out
Feb 10th 2011, 18:09 by S.T.
THE walls of fortress Europe have grown increasingly impenetrable of late. A planned fence on the Greek border with Turkey has received some attention. Not so the situation in western Ukraine, where there a growing community of refugees, mainly from Afghanistan and Africa, seeking entrace into the European Union have congregated. Effectively trapped in limbo, these asylum-seekers are subject to abuse, exploitation and torture.Unorthodox Protest in Ukraine: Indecent exposure
May 20th 2011, 15:10 by S.T.
Founded in 2008, the woman’s-rights group is best known for for staging topless protests in the streets of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. Marching bare-breasted underneath banners with slogans such as “Ukraine is not a brothel,” the women of Femen have organised protests against corruption, next year’s European football championships (held jointly with Poland) and the sex-tourism industry in Ukraine. Women sporting high heels and little else have confronted riot police; lingerie-clad supporters have brought busy roads to a standstill by lying lifeless in the middle of them.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/05/unorthodox_protest_ukraine
Estonia’s happy new year
Jan 11th 2011, 15:54 by S.T. | TALLINN
WHEN Estonians woke up on January 1st they found themselves shaking off their hangovers in the glare of the European spotlight. The new year marked the beginning of Tallinn’s stint as Europe’scapital of culture (ECC) as well as Estonia’s entry into the euro zone.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/01/euro_zones_latest_member
