This video was made by the blogger Jodi Bush, and is part of the Th!ink about it project. We waste unbelieveable amounts of food, plastics, whatever, and it is time to deal with it. Please help spreading this video in any way you can!

Waste not, want not... from Jodi Bush on Vimeo.

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Kal - Radio Romanista

I don't think anything can bring people together like music. And no music is probably better fit to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western Europe than Kal's new record Radio Romanista, released on of my absolute favourite labels Asphalt Tango Records. (Did they ever release anything bad?)

(Picture from Kal's homepage. (C) Kal )

Kal has turned into ethno-stars since their self titled tribute three years ago, but there is nothing tired about this record. It's definitely punk. It's definitely rock. It's maybe ska, but mosty of all it is a return to the roots. The ingredients are age old - accordeons, a shrieking "gyspsy" violin (that brings to mind Dylan's Desire LP). The beats are newer, tough, and the most appealing with Kal's music is that there is not distinction between old or new. It is just music.

The musicians are Serbian roma, and this is not only visible in the rythms - Kal speak up for their rights, and a number of songs on the album are topical. But more than anything this is a contribution to a globalized post-communistic balcan culture, open and aware of a multitude of traditions. Anyone familiar with Kustoriza films will feel at home in this music. As will fans of Moldovan Zdub si Zdub, or Bulgarian The Pomorians or Balkandji. You don't need to feel at home there, but I storongly reccomend a visit to Kal's imaginary state Romanistan

And the ticket to Romanistan? How do you get a hold of this brilliant music? The record will be found in record stores around Europe, and can also be ordered online from Asphalt Tango records. Personally I borrowed a copy at the local library.

The record can also, like all other productions from the company, be downloaded from their download shop.

Taking a short break

Maladets! will go into a slow period from now until the end of the year. The reason is that I will focus on another blog project - Think About it! (See the banner to the right.

Think about it! is a blogging competition, gathering bloggers from all over Europe to write about climate change. Next weekend we will all meet in Copenhagen for the kick off event, and then start writing up til the UN Climate meeting in Copenhagen 7-18 Dec
2009. Do I need to add that I am excited? :)

My writings will be found here. Welcome!

You can already see updates from the think about it blogs to the right of this text.

For Maladets! I will write more seldom, when I have time. I still have some stuff waiting to be translated, and for sure I will not be able to stay away from the keyboard. Most likely there will be articles about Bulgaria and Europe as well as Sweden, while I take this break... thus I can please everyone that voted in what will happen with maladets!, thank you all or giving your opinion!

I hope also to spend some time adjusting the looks and gadgets on the blog, and come back, revigorated, in December.

Freedom Not Fear 2009

Today internet users and vanguards of democracy all over the world mark the Freedom not fear campaign day - against legislative ideas in different countries like Sweden, France, Germany and Bulgaria to store data about citizens' internet use.

Behind the protest stand a wide range of people - in Bulgaria Zelenite and many others protest - in Sweden every single political party have representants talking at todays event. Which makes one wonder who actually wants these measures.

I find this pattern scaring - governments might seem these measures as necessary, but noone wants to defend them in public. Which gives us a kind of policy that lives its own life, that noone wants to take responsibility for.

There are many blogs that cover this topic better than maladets! - when it comes to electronical rights I always reccomend the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Nonetheless, as an internationally minded blogger I can not abstain from stating my solidarity. A free internet outside policial control is the spine of a vital democracy.

Considering governments in countries like China, Iran and Moldova, European governments in Europe should think twice before they limit freedom in the name of fight against terrorism.

Happy demonstrating!

Ole Ole Ole! Voronin nu mai e!*

Today, Friday 11 September Vladimir Voronin, the Communist president that has led Moldova with an ever hardening pathriarcal hand from stalemate to stalemate throughout eight years , has resigned. What will happen in the future is far from clear. The communist is the strongest party, the opposition coalition is untested, and Moldova is utterly dependent on geopolitical developments decided far from Chisinau. But I doubt that anyone will miss Voronin.

Picture originates from Wikipedia Commons, but was adapted in the maladets! laboratories...

Pa Pa!

An article on Voronins imminent resignation in Radio Free Europe


*"Ole Ole Ole! Voronin is no more" - this was sung on the streets of Chisinau in the revolts in April. It was too early, but true.

Social justice II

Traveling in Europe these in these days offers some food for thoughts. About who is European. And if those who are not are equal in the eyes of the law. Except for a failed attempt to smuggle in a cat into Sweden, I and my partner travelled without harrasments, scandals, or very careful checks. I could probably not have travelled with my brothers passport, but I had the feeling that no one ever really checked if this was me. Which is, of course, the point of the European Union, Schengen etc.

Not everyone was so lucky though. A gypsy woman, additionally from an unknown country whose citizens are considered potential criminals and need a visa, was interrogated in a quite humiliating way in front of well dressed and well behaving Europeans by the Hungarian border police in Budapest airport. Of course, Hungarian police is not famous for ethnic tolerance, but how comes this is not a major EU problem?

We rushed towards our gate, where the plane to Coenhage would take off from. There was no need to rush, however, because there was a major scandal, and all of us had to wait. A Swedish speaking man of middle eastern descent, was judged to sick to board the plane. Not such a nice surprise for him of course. I guess it could be seen as an isolated case of bad luck, but who does? Who is surprised that it is a dark skinned man, probably a muslim that gets in trouble? No one. In deed... maybe the reason that Western Europe turns a blind eye to the roma issue in eastern Europe, is that they don't know how to deal with their own minorities.

The poor brown guy didn't enter the plane but the Swedish guy did and that could have been the end of the story. Maybe he really was sick, and in these times of various viruses, It might be necessary to restrict sick people's right to fly. The only problem is that this scene is played up again and again. The actors are the same - policemen or other authorities from the majority population vs. "immigrants" with considerably darker skin and a different religion. In fact - who says that they are not themselves policemen? They might be anything, but in this theatre there is only one role - immigrant.

This weekend we visited some Bulgarians living in Copenhagen. I guess they would have a thing or two to say on this topic as well, but it was all very fine. We travelled there and back in bus. The thing about buses are that they are very cheap, and attract many immigrants, travelling between frinds and families in north European cities, I guess. The difference in terms of ethnicity between a Swedish train and a Swedish bus is big. And one more thing... they always get stopped and checked with narco-dogs on the border. I have travelled many times across the Scandinavian borders, and I never saw a custom control on the train, or on cars. On the bus it happens more than often.

Why is this? I think there might be a good reason behind any one of these cases, but it is anyway difficult not to see a pattern, where certain Europeans are more equal than others. You are much more likely to be checked, or end up in problems if your hair is black than if it is blond. Can Europe afford such an injustice?

Bulgaria - impressions roundup

As attentive readers know - I was about to move to Sweden. Now I am already here - the relative silence prevailing on maladets! was due to the rather demanding logistics of moving.

My girlfriend showed me this account from a foreigner living in Lund. As I am moving to the very same village, I take up the challenge, and try to sum up my own, highly subjective impressions from Bulgaria, arguably the EU's most corrupted and most beautiful country.

Sex

Sex, mostly in the form of more or less undressed women was everywhere, really. Chalga singers with swimsuits in the colour of water-melons... a store for bathroom interiors with a showering bare naked lady, life size, in the window. I laughed a lot about the melons the first time, but after three summers it was not so exciting. Moldova was very prudent in comparision. Sweden is a lutheran church.

Fast money

In Bulgaria, things happend fast and loud. Houses were built, magazines opened and closed. During my one and a half year in Sofia a thousand things changed, and yet it was pretty much the same in the end. The building projects, and most commercial undertakings smelled more of fast profits than corporate responsibility. But also at work, and in any kind of organized activities, I always had the impression that decisions were taken impulsively, often in a haste.

This contrasted to an impressive ability to relax in the face of huge problems. The ability to sit down, drink without getting drunk, laugh and take it cool. At the table, the Bulgarians struck me as a very elegant people.

Back to school

Coming back to Sweden in some way resembles being institutionalized. Foucault argued that the prison was the model of the entire industrialized society. I think in the case of Sweden it is more fair to say that the school is the model of the society. God knows what would make the model of Bulgarian society... In Bulgaria there is something of everything everywhere, and there is a feeling that anyone can do what they want.

Coming from Sweden, a country where people might earn ten times more than their neighbour but buy the same cheap clothes, and the same cheap food, it was very difficult to comprehend a society a city with big black jeeps, horse carts, and enviromentalists on bikes. All at the same time.

1994

In the history of the peoples, the 1994 Fotball World Cup was the Greatest. On this Bulgarians, Swedes and also Romanians agree. I talked a lot of football in Bulgaria. Especially Zlatan Ibrahimovic, very un-swedish in name as well as manners, was remembered by many Bulgarians. But we seldom agree on the details, like whether Stoichkov was a brilliant striker (Bulgarian history) or a crybaby who threw himself on the ground whenever he was within the penalty area (Swedish history).


Bulgaria was a country so differnet from what i knew before. How could I not miss it? At least a little bit...