Archive for March, 2009

18
Mar

The US In Need of Perestroika?

By Anna Ershova 15 Comments
Categories: Russia, US and financial crisis

Gorbachev’s 1987 perestroika signaled beginning of the end for the USSR. Perestroika means re-building in Russian; it primarily referred to re-structuring of the Soviet economy, although it did lead to significant political changes in the Soviet bloc. It collapsed, erasing one  of  our two superpowers from the world’s geopolitical map, making for a unipolar and then a multipolar world… and the rest is really poli sci 101.

Twenty-ones years later, Mr. Gorbachev is back proposing a new kind of perestroika: for the US.

America needs perestroika right now. I did a lecture in the US and said the country needs its own perestroika and I got a 10 minute standing ovation,” said the man whose own policies helped trigger the collapse of the Soviet Union. “

(President) Obama’s proposals will be bigger than perestroika. I want to wish success to Obama and his Cabinet, because the problems he has to deal with are not easy ones.

Of course, President Obama is not exactly leading a Communist nation with command economy, but he does need to change, maybe fundamentally, the way economics in the US functions.

Interestingly enough, Gorbachev challenged the communist behemoth and ended up making it capitalist; Barack Obama, president of possibly the most pro-capitalist nation in the world, is perceived as ’socialist’ by his political foes. He was in fact accused of being a socialist during his campaign. Remember Joe the Plumber’s accusation of Obama being on the ’slippery Socialist slope’ of trying to ’spread the wealth’?

Whether it is called socialism, communism, or any other -ism, Obama’s plan to ’spread the wealth around’ makes sense in this economy. The supposed wonders of free economy led to the worse economic downturn since the Great Depression. What’s worse is its impact on the world; the recession in the US caused a domino effect of national currencies worldwide tanking, trade stalling, consuption fallin, and a myriad other negative effects. At least the USSR’s socialism/communism and its ill economic consequences was limited to only a handful of countries.

As Mr. Gorbachev knows all too well, socialism has many problems. As President Obama is learning, capitalism has serious problems of its own. It seems that what they need is a perestroika of economic theory, not just economic policies.

12
Mar

Eurovision 2009: More Drama as Georgia Withdraws

By Anna Ershova 5 Comments
Categories: Eurovision, Politics, Russia, Russia-Postsoviet Relations and georgia

I really like and respect Georgia. Despite my usual sarcasm showing in the past few post, I think it’s a great country with an impressive history. Its problem is its unfortunate geopolitical situation: It is very difficult to be a small neighbor of Russia these days. Russia wants it to be obedient (and share some of the territory), and another superpower wants to use it to put pressure on Russia. Having seen Ukraine deal with a similar predicament, I can’t help but feel sorry for it.

Georgia has participated in the Eurovision only twice before. So when Georgia pulled out of this year’s contest yesterday, I felt bad for it. But what is the deal with all the hypocrisy?

Here is what MSNBC quotes Georgia’s representative as saying:

“Our song … does not contain political statements and the public broadcaster is not going to change the text of the song and refuses to go to competition in Moscow,” the head of production at Georgia’s state broadcaster, First Channel, George Chanturia, told a news briefing.

Many countries in the past expressed and enforced their political views through using or banning popular music. National anthems are composed to sound grand and solemn to inspire patriotism. The Russian’s use of the old Soviet score for theirs was a definitive political choice. But politics and music intertwine more often than an average Russian hears the anthem: Presidential candidates everywhere enlist pop singers to campaign for them. Western Ukraine banned playing songs in Russian in public places a few summers ago (all other languages were fine). The Beatles were banned in the USSR at some point — as a propaganda tool of the “decaying capitalism.  I have seen North Koreans study Britney Spears CD’s as a way of learning about America’s culture.

There is nothing wrong when a band from a country that feels oppressed performs a song that claims they don’t want a president of the oppressing country. I mean, North Korea does it with George Bush. Wait, that’s a bad example. All similar ones I can think of right now were written by the Communist propaganda masters.

Anyway, there is also nothing wrong when that song gets distributed worldwide through the wonder that is YouTube. But it is somewhat strange when that song gets entered into a competition that is supposed to be non-political by nature, that will be held in the ‘oppressing country’s’ capital, — and when the official representatives claim it is clearly non-political and act all indignant.

If there were no rules in place that ban songs of political nature to be performed at Eurovision, I would not mind ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In being performed this year. Freedom of speech is a jus cogens to me. Truth be told, Eurovision is a very politicized events, and the way voting is structured allows countries to block against other countries etc.

Judging aside, from a political scientist viewpoint, I think that this song situation did not work in Georgia’s favor. Georgia knew what the rules were, it knew that everyone would hear ‘Putin,’ not ‘Put In’, it could probably predict the song would be banned by the Eurovision organizers. I would guess that it was looking for some sort of political martyr reputation, but instead, it came across as being petty. Georgia just needs a new political strategist.

12
Mar

Catwalks: The Russians Are Coming

By Anna Ershova 0 Comments
Categories: Fashion, Russia and financial crisis

“Cheap is the new black,” read a comic in this week’s New Yorker. People consume less, think of creative ways to recycle, rethink, or re-accessorize, and this spring may be ‘lost‘ for this season’s clothes. Yet the haute couture world is still showing itself off in Milan, Paris, and New York City. A friend linked me yesterday to this Newsvine article: apparently, it is Russian that is the new black. At least for Fall ‘09-Winter ‘10. This is how Newsvine describes one of the shows:

It was like some opening into a doorway of dreams in Russian-Ukrainian fairy tale fantasy dreams,” the first-row guest told reporters backstage.

A Russian-Ukrainian fairy tale? Sounds good to me.

Many a Russian woman who found herself choosing between furs or ugly, bulky, shapeless jackets for a Russian winter will appreciate the fashionable efforts of the designers to make something warm and Russia-inspired (that is, if she can still afford it). The usual array of Russian/Eastern European models made these collections made even more relevant in a cute way.

But now that the designers got their fashion inspirations right, they need to get their weather facts straight.

Citing Newsvine: “Kenzo sent out oversized felt coats and voluminous striped knits that were fit for a Siberian winter.”

Here is a photograph of Kenzo outfit  taken by style.com’s Marcio Madeira’s (btw, it is modeled by a Belorusian):

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Siberia is warming up, but is this fit for a Russian winter? I don’t think so.

10
Mar

Russia: The Eurovision Drama Unfolds

By Anna Ershova 0 Comments
Categories: Eurovision, Politics, Russia, Russia-Postsoviet Relations, Ukraine and georgia

In my last post, I blogged about Georgia’s tongue-in-cheek anti-Russian song for this year’s Eurovision. The Eurovision drama just got more like a Mexican soap opera: the Russians made their pick to represent Russia. Get this: it’s a Ukrainian (but a Russian citizen). Singing a song in both Russian and Ukrainian. It totally warms my heart, as I can actually understand the lyrics. But hey, Russia and Ukraine are in the state of a miniature Cold War, so that’s an achievement.

The song’s title is “Mamo,” which is how one addresses one’s mother in Ukrainian. It’s a regular sentimental song, but at least it’s not politics-laden. Now, that’s refreshing.

The best part of Russia’s choice is that the lyrics were written by an Estonian, and the music was composed by a Georgian.

Here is the song:

Here is a link to a YouTube video of what I think is a TV screen record, with the actual performance.

Although I can’t be bothered to look up the statistics (I am on the spring break, after all), I believe around 13% of Russians, myself included, are actually ethnic Ukrainians. A Ukrainian has as much of a right to represent Russia as a representative of any common ethnicity in Russia. As a Russian-Ukrainian, I am absolutely ecstatic (plus Eurovision falls on my birthday this year).

I was semi-expecting more political gestures at this year’s Eurovision, but this is actually a gesture of goodwill. Take that, Georgia.

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