tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117442432024-03-23T12:46:13.666-05:00DYKUN of MozhlyvivkaStefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-15251506491850204962009-02-24T12:42:00.004-06:002009-02-24T12:45:28.162-06:00www.hutsul-project.com website up and runningThis is a belated announcement; our Hutsul Project site has been up and running for sometime. Please visit: www.hutsul-project.comStefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-32405917189206510982008-09-07T11:40:00.002-05:002008-09-07T11:44:01.417-05:00Hutsul Project Travel Diary COMING SOONMykhajlo Mykolajevych Tafijchuk Hutsul instrument maker and musician in the village of Bukovets, approximately half way between Verkhovyna and Kosiv.Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-88722981695310567452008-07-25T06:15:00.011-05:002008-07-25T06:37:34.086-05:00American "democracy promotion" and the ORThis excerpt is from an article on openDemocracy site; full article here. * * * Jonah Gindin: Is the promotion of democracy inherently imperialist? William I Robinson: The promotion of democracy is inherently not imperialist; on the contrary, it is inherently revolutionary, progressive and wonderful! But the people who are promoting democracy are social movements in the global north and Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-90885143957097228932008-06-17T06:01:00.001-05:002008-06-17T06:03:56.379-05:00Drunk on Power and Wealth: The Cult of Deregulation CapitalistsObama and the Fall Into Tyranny (link to original) By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS As articles by John Pilger, Alexander Cockburn, and Uri Avnery make clear, by groveling before the Israel Lobby Obama has dispelled any hope that his presidency would make a difference. Obama told the Lobby that in order to protect Israel he would use all the powers of the presidency to preventStefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-18526493850633068562008-04-13T14:08:00.003-05:002008-04-13T14:15:21.399-05:00NEXT WEEKEND: Come and see a great show!I am dancing in this one:Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-51707073598021023272008-03-24T23:18:00.004-05:002008-03-24T23:42:52.363-05:00You Tube Vids: Il'inskaja Pjatnytsa and Someone Else does очи чёрныеFirst, I posted this recently to my You Tube site:This is the text I wrote to go along with the video:WELCOME TO SPRING, 2008!I filmed this one year ago on March 25, 2007, which was Easter Sunday. A number of folk ensembles performed in the Old City of Riga (Latvian: Vecriga) and on top of "Bastion Hill ( Bastejs Kalns)" just outside of the old town. (Bastion Hill is what remains of the Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-63875920887870021582008-02-09T14:38:00.001-06:002008-02-09T15:33:14.919-06:00BABA MARIJKA: Vichnaja Pamjat. . .My paternal grandmother, Marija Iwaskewycz has passed away this past Th evening at 5:45 PM, US central time.My brother Mark and I were in the room with Baba at the very moment that she passed away. She was in the process of dying from old age and advanced dementia for the past few months.The following is the obituary that will appear in tomorrow's paper. It is the product of many minds--I typedStefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-48961339677297754612007-12-14T00:05:00.000-06:002007-12-17T13:39:16.907-06:00What Should've Happened in 2005, Among the Gizzillions of Other Missed OpportunitiesFrom RFE/RL newsline:The December 11 "events in the Verkhovna Rada revealed the obvious lack of viability of a [BYUT/NUNS] coalition of 227 lawmakers," Yanukovych said. "Society should receive an answer to the question of whether a coalition of 227 is capable of taking responsibility for the country," he continued. "Either they take responsibility and realize their promises to voters...or Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-67459778864120162382007-09-10T17:49:00.000-05:002007-09-10T17:52:20.802-05:00Reminder: Former UPA still without Veteran StatusFrom RFE/RL newsline:LAST COMMANDER OF UKRAINIAN INSURGENT ARMY DIES. Vasyl Kuk died on September 9 at the age of 94, Ukrainian media reported. Kuk was the last commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1950-54. The UPA was a combat force created by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in western Ukraine during World War II to pursue the ideal of an independent Ukraine. It fought Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-28090728142050545612007-06-07T00:04:00.001-05:002007-06-07T10:17:15.197-05:00A Victory against Ukrainian Chauvinism: Rusyns of Transcarpathia get Minority Recognition At Last!though ukrainain politics in general is beyond the realm of the asburdly ridiculous, the article below (from arel's ukraine list) is about a very positive event; but first, a few comments of my own:i have long been very interested in the rusyn question, for a variety of reasons, but most importantly: it is important for ukrainians to think twice about insisting on the national identity of anotherStefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-61796660577609307412007-04-16T14:26:00.000-05:002007-04-16T15:23:25.776-05:00The Second Majdan of Viktor Yushchenko?"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."cf. this text(even still, i favored the disbanding of parliament)Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-43901246315429908262007-03-21T13:43:00.001-05:002007-03-21T13:43:05.833-05:00Concert of Authentic Ukrainian and Russian Folk Music in Riga Click to Play wedding songs and rituals: i was surprised to find out that one of the best folklore ensembles from ukraine was coming to riga to do a concert! the bozhychi folklore ensemble from kyiv joined up with an excellent russian ensemble here in riga (excellent because they, like bozhychi, are uncomprimisingly dedicated to village-based authenticity) called Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-87607125650756143632007-02-18T12:23:00.000-06:002007-02-18T12:44:28.214-06:00history hasn't endedhere's another response to an anonymous commentor to my last post. the commentator at some point asked why i had not become an anti-left turncoat after the failure of the ussr (which s/he seemed to interpret, as so many others, as the overall failure of leftism) and the arrival of the supposed end of history, and thus why i had not adopted the free-market dogma that is the faith of the Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-41479236714860350262007-01-30T08:46:00.000-06:002007-01-30T15:06:50.523-06:00Orange Revolution: Spirit and StruggleSpirit and the Struggle:The most basic principle of materialist philosophy in all its variants is the notion that things do not happen in the world because of spirit. History and events do not take place as part of a process of spirit realizing itself; it is through things happening that some thing we might call "spirit" is constituted and that some process we might call "progress" happens (Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-39932275219739235952007-01-22T16:09:00.001-06:002007-01-22T16:09:19.271-06:00Latvia: Commemorating in 2007 the Barricades of 1991 Click to Play This is footage of members of the folk choir Skandinieki singing this past weekend at a rock that marks one of the spots in Riga where 5 people were killed during a Soviet crackdown on January 20, 1991.In the course of its terminal year segments within the Soviet government made two bungled attempts to keep things from falling apart. The second of these is Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-72664973579170598482007-01-08T10:19:00.000-06:002007-01-08T18:22:55.436-06:00Warsaw Workshop on Post Socialism and the EUI will be at a workshop in Warsaw this weekend; a selection of the most relevant posts on my site to the subject matter of the conference:On the Road to a Documentary, Part II: Neglect (text and photos)On the Road to Documentary, Part III: Tradition (text and photos)On the Road to a Documentary, Part IV: Decay, Ruin, Neglect, Immiseration (text and photos)Fall Harvest in Western Ukraine, Part IStefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-40893438781643352007-01-02T08:19:00.001-06:002007-01-02T08:19:16.654-06:00New Year's Eve 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine Click to Play Z NOVYM ROKOM!   this is a long, 20 minute clip from new year's eve 2005 in kyiv. the orange revolution demonstrations and the third round of elections (that yushchenko won) had just concluded. on this day, people were anxiously awaiting the inauguration of yushchenko and the start of a truly new year.i post this as reminder of the optimism about Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-46732488489075505172006-12-31T04:20:00.001-06:002006-12-31T04:20:09.043-06:00Latvian Winter Solstice 2005 Click to Play This was filmed on a relatively crappy digital camera at Dievseta, a retreat center run by Dievturi in Wisconsin, USA. Dievturi refers to an organization of people who follow pre-Christian Latvian customs in a contemporary context that is active both in Latvia and the Latvian diaspora.The Dievturi have a kind of formalized path for following these traditions,Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-84501409733894085382006-12-23T03:07:00.000-06:002006-12-23T03:11:04.977-06:00Winter Solstice 2005 -- Happy Holidays 2006Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-10205110762907029542006-12-12T12:53:00.000-06:002006-12-12T13:07:27.898-06:00Bolivarian PotentialVenezuela and the Bolivarian Dream article from counterpunch.By TARIQ ALI In the Muslim world religious groups that are militarily effective, but politically limited dominate resistance to the American Empire. Asia is infatuated with capital. Europe lies buried deep in neo-liberal torpor, and the Left and social movements in the EU (Italy is the most Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-30668676137046865872006-12-09T10:22:00.000-06:002006-12-09T10:24:49.882-06:00very interestingrecord of military service among us politicians and pundits:DEMOCRATS: John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer BrigadeBill Clinton: Did not serve. Student Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-86051974428563784462006-12-07T12:33:00.000-06:002006-12-07T12:39:12.874-06:00more professionalism or more pillaging?hi. haven't been in the ukrainosphere for a while, and this isn't really a break in that abscence, but. . .from RFE newsline:UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS 2007 BUDGET... The Verkhovna Rada onDecember 6 adopted a budget bill for 2007, Ukrainian media reported.The bill envisages government spending at 161 billion hryvnyas ($32billion) and revenues at 147 billion hryvnyas, thus setting a Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-33109190248564160822006-11-19T17:01:00.001-06:002006-11-19T17:01:54.342-06:00Ukraine: A Hutsul Wedding, Part III Click to Play Here is the third and final installment to the Hutsul wedding video. Parts I and II were posted earlier. Part I had footage of the rituals that take place in the morning just before the actual wedding ceremony at the church.Part II had footage of the wedding ceremony and the rituals that precede the start of the wedding reception. It also has footage of the Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-62325812671721447322006-11-13T11:31:00.001-06:002006-11-16T14:28:47.535-06:00Notes of Caution on the US Elections; Comparing Elections USA 2006 to Ukraine 2004compiled below are some short, excellent cautionary notes addressing the significance of the US elections, all from counterpunch.the main points these articles convey are as follows (and these points are also relevant for a discussion concerning the failure of the OR to ignite a process of real, progressive change in ukraine):1) voters in the US have called for sweeping changes, or rather, Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11744243.post-42797899136399834792006-11-09T22:38:00.000-06:002006-11-09T22:51:23.263-06:00What Dems Must Do to MatterThis is from here; copied below is most of the article that matters. . .Will the Demcrats Become Part of the Problem?After the years of illegal war and the overnight destruction of civil liberties that were 800 years in their creation, the United States stands at a watershed. If the legislation that has been put on the books permitting spying on Americans without a Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00913779662275547638noreply@blogger.com0