Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Keeping the Demons at Bay

The lady on the left here is Anat Rosenberg. She was an Israeli woman who lived and worked in London for a charity agency. She was too afraid to move back to Israel for fear of terrorist violence. She was killed in the London bombings last July. In this week's EuroQuest, entitled "Keeping the Demons at Bay" we try to come to terms with a history of violence or misdeed.


Segment 1 - 7 Months On, Man Mourns Suicide Bombing Victim
Anat Rosenberg and 51 other people were killed in the July 7th suicide bombings in London. Her boyfriend John Falding says he is still trying to come to terms with what happened...
Coming soon: extra audio of Sarah Johnson's compelling interview with John Falding.

Segment 2 - Bosnia and Croatia Connected Again by Dutch Ferry
Hans Andringa reports on how the former Yugolsav republics are getting on 10 years since the end of the wars in the Balkans. He gives the example of the resumption of ferry service between pushover on the Croatian side of the Danube and Bacs on the Serbian side.

Segment 3 - Rumanian Church in Bed with Communists?
The Rumanian Orthodox church is something of a survivor in a sense. However, 16 years since Rumania's 1989 anti-communist revolution, people are beginning to wonder if that survival is no coincidence. IulianMuresan has more.
Wikipedia has a concise history of the Rumanian Church including information about state control during the Ceaucescu period.

Segment 4 - Moldova in Limbo
Western Moldova has its sights set on a future however the breakaway republic of Transdniestr has its feet firmly planted in its Soviet past, and its present is assured by Russian troops. Darrell Harvey brings us this report from Moldova.
The CIA World Factbook entry on Moldova.

Click here to download this week's show as a high quality mp3

4 Comments:

At 9:46 PM, Blogger ADM said...

Nice bit about the Securitate. Hanka is part-Romanian, so this particular interview appealed to her very much. I asked her to ask her dad if he had any experience with it, since he spent his formative years in Romania -- I'll get her to have a listen, then get back to you.

One more point -- wanted to know if Transnistria is actually the same part which was once called Subcarpathian Ukraine -- which, in fact, had actually been a part of the First Czechoslovak Republic, and then severed off. Is this true -- because, then, I could totally understand why they're as 'militant' (inverted commas are totally intentional) as they are.

 
At 12:40 PM, Blogger HG said...

Actually, my father was born in Czechoslovakia in 1953 already, so he has no experience with Securitate or Romania.

However, my grandparents left the region in 1947 or before that, don't know exactly when, came in from Tarna Mare, close to Satu Mare.

They have been in the Eastern Orthodox Church however - their nationality being Ruthenian, supposedly.

I enjoyed the part about the Orthodox Church very much, especially the note of "You think something and you answer something else.." I have been thinking about this feature of Eastern Europeans quite a bit lately and seeing it really applies in all Eastern European countries makes me think it is somewhat common thing in the region. However, I also think this originates in the rule of the Communist regime, not the people having this feature in their blood necessarily.

--

Adam, I don't think Moldova or Transnistria have been part of the Subcarpathian Ukraine - or Carpatho-Ukraine as I have am learning lately. It is a little further east according to this map here

 
At 3:56 PM, Blogger Jonathan Groubert said...

I think the point of militancy of the transndnestrian's is purely ethnic. They are Russians, pure and simple, while most Moldovans gravitate towards Romania (Ukrains and Gagauz notwithstanding).
This is similar, although less militant problem, with transplanted Russians in the Baltic states.

 
At 9:48 AM, Blogger ADM said...

Or the Russians living in Kaliningrad -- but then, I'd heard this on a EQ a long while ago as well.

 

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