As the European Broadcast Union determines whether “Eastern European Funk,” in suggesting inequality between eastern and western Europeans, suffers from having political content, Lietuvos Rytas yesterday published an article by Andrius Užkalnis that argues a similar point of inequality, but from the entirely opposite direction.
Užkalnis, the most famous Lithuanian living in England now that John [...]
Continue reading about You are William the Conqueror, not Vilius the Vergas!
Because of the victory in Eurovision 2008 by the Timbaland-produced “Believe” (video of Dima Bilan’s semi-final performance, featuring ice skating by Evgenij Pljushchenko), the 2009 edition of the European Song Contest was hosted by Russia (the victor each year hosts the following year’s competition). Georgia, who had, of course, recently fought a brief war with [...]
One of my favorite movies of 2008 was Edward Zwick’s Defiance. I didn’t particularly like it because of its cinematic qualities—though the color, photography, and performances by the two leads (pictured) were excellent—but, rather, for the way it subverts in its retelling a story familiar to every child of the Lithuanian Diaspora: the fight of [...]
Continue reading about Brown is never equal to Red; Brown is always worse
Other than the Lithuanian President’s decision last month not to grant citizenship to ice dancer Katherine Copely, things have been rather quiet on the citizenship front. However, this week, there is some news.
The current citizenship law in Lithuania adopted in mid-2008, which has been the basis of my popular “Guide to a Passport” series, was [...]
Continue reading about Current Lithuanian citizenship law deadline extended
Over on Twitter, Jurate has been doing yeoman’s work in trying to put the recent “Section-28-style” law that was passed in Lithuania yesterday into context. Pink news describes the law in this way:
The law, titled ‘Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information’, includes “the propaganda of homosexuality [or] bisexuality” [...]
Continue reading about Is the new law in Lithuania really homophobic?
The biggest, by far and away, task facing the myriad diaspora Lithuanian organizations that had been formed before 1990 was, after Lithuania regained its independence, figuring out how to integrate the new wave of immigrants into the diaspora society.
Many casual and lazy prognoses about the difficulty these organizations have faced since 1990 blame the idea [...]
It was probably obvious to everyone that when I wrote yesterday about news in the works, I was guaranteeing myself a post on the same topic again today. And so it has been: the workgroup created last year by president Valdas Adamkus has presented their recommendations to the Seimas about dual citizenship. (In English)
And, importantly, [...]
This is a quick-hit to talk about the status of my “Guide to a Passport” series. I have the next few steps all written and ready for publication as soon as I start hearing back from various agencies (currently I’m waiting on about six of them, scattered across four countries).
In the meantime:
Today I was forwarded [...]
Yesterday, the workgroup on changing the citizenship law made their proposals to Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus. They argue that dual citizenship should be granted to anyone who fled or was exiled up to 11 March 1990, as the current version of the law holds.
The 15 June 1940 date holds, too. So any citizens who left [...]
Continue reading about Citizenship workgroup presents findings to Adamkus
I read today on Café Blogas that MTV News has started a new ad campaign featuring popstars getting, for lack of a better word, tortured by faceless individuals. During the torture, a microphone looms, in order to record whatever comes from the person’s mouth. Accompanying these staggeringly graphic photos is the slogan, “naujienos bet kokia [...]
Continue reading about „Naujienos bet kokia kaina.“ Lithuanian torture porn
