Everything Will Be Illuminated

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

I actually live in Absurdistan

I'm not sure how many of you follow the news in this part of the world...Morgan gets 2 gold stars for sending me articles about recent political events. I frequently have experiences here that make me laugh and shake my head and say, "Is this place for real?" Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan (one of my FAVORITE books) paints a freakishly accurate picture of this part of the world. If you haven't read it, READ IT! Especially if you have any interest and/or experience with this part of the world. Check out these links to stories of recent goings-on here and tell me if you think this place is for real. And of course, given all of the security warnings and precautions I receive from JDC, and the e-mails from the US Embassy, I will not be attending any of the demonstrations.

Demonstrations last week...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6512941.stm

That lead to the disbanding of Parliament this week...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/world/europe/03ukraine.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

What is The Orange Revolution? (Shame on you for not knowing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution

To help clarify: Yushchenko and Yanukovich were the presidential candidates. Yushchekno is pro-West and Yanukovich leans towards Russia. Yushchenko was poisoned during the elections leaving his face disfigured...we're pretty sure it was Yanukovich that poisoned him. Yushchenko won the election and is the current President of Ukraine. Yanukovich is our Prime Minister...

Other craziness:
http://perezhilton.com/topics/gay_gay_gay/headline_of_the_week_weak_20070402.php

1 Comments:

Blogger Alyson Fieldman said...

How can you live in Absurdistan? *WE* live in Absurdistan and we live in a different country. And, chances are, Eritchka would say she also lives there... HMM, seems like Absurdistan is more a way of life than a country. Borat for President AND Prime Minister!

5:00 PM  

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