Magic Balkan Box

After three months of teaching and studying in the Western Balkans, we have managed to get used to our second home at Pacific Northwest.  We also are about to start a new project regarding our Western Balkans. In order to honor our new Balkan explorers we are creating "Magic Balkan Box" - Net version.  On-ground version will be available to our new students in the classrooms of University of Washington.

Magic Balkan Box is a list of online resources available in English that have a special scent.  We'll keep filing in this box with other treats when we stumble upon or find them on our path towards and from the Western Balkans.

Magic Balkan Box

Norman Wacker' s Latest Piece on Serbian prose
TransCulture-November

“Balkanize” verb
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balkanize

Balkan Peninsula

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/balkans.htm

SPiT in Leipzig Book Fair 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhCYdFDzfGE

Deutsche Welle – 20 Years of Fall of Yugoslavia, 2010

http://www.dw.de/flashes/20jahre_yugo/en_yugo/en_20years_popup.htm

TransCulture on National Identies in B&H
http://www.transconflict.com/programmes/transculture/transculture-balkans/our-peoples-my-identities/ 

Trans Culture on Sarajevo After 20 Years
http://www.transconflict.com/2012/02/sarajevo-beyond-the-siege-022/

Institute of War and Peace Reporting on Bosnia 20 Year Later
http://iwpr.net/focus/bosnia-20-years-later

Institute for War and Peace Reporting on Two Different School Curricula

http://iwpr.net/report-news/under-one-roof

EU Enlargement From 6 to 27 Countries
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/policy/from-6-to-27-members/index_en.htm

EC Next Steps For EU Enlargement
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1087_en.htm

First Annual Balkan Nigth Northwest - March 10 Capitol Hill

Boston has Balkan Night, San Francisco has Kolo Festival, New York has Golden Festival… now Seattle is getting in on the act with the first annual Balkan Night Northwest! There are over a dozen bands lined up, two stages, food catered by the Croatian ladies, full bar- it ...will be a great night of music and dancing featuring local Seattle musicians from Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Bosnia, and more! Spread the word, invite your friends and more info to come soon! Sponsored by Seattle Balkan Dancers.

 http://www.facebook.com/events/166213933478313/

February and March 2012 in the Western Balkans

To start this post with "It has been a very hectic time..." would be boring.  "Boring,but true." February and first days of March have been very hectic months in the Western Balkans.

As for Serbia, EU leaders granted Serbia "candidate" status.  This is a milestone in the EU accession process for Serbia.  Read more EU Leaders Grant Serbia "Candidate' Status. 

Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić met 19 February 2012 with United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.Read more Pusic and Burns Met 

And Aleksandar Hemon published one more personal story, this time on his dog Mek (Mac) and how Mek helped his family through the Bosnian war.Hemon

ICTY is working very to close some of its most notorious cases (Seselj, Karadzic, Simatovic).  Read the latest Court update on ICTY Weekly Update.

January 2012 in the Western Balkans

It has been a very hectic time in the region of the Western Balkans.  Usually winter months are pretty quiet and full of various religious and family holidays.  However, this year a lot has happened.
Let's list the most relevant to our mission - mission of understanding the Balkans in the context of European framework.

On January 22nd 66% of Croatian citizen voted "for" accession to the EU on the national referendum.Read more about current Croatia - EU relations by following this link EuropeanCommisionOnEnlargment

On February 1st  the ratification of Croatia's EU accession treaty by the Parliament of the Slovakian Republic has happened.  Slovakia was the first EU member which ratified Croatia’s accession treaty.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Crotia Vesna Pusić attended  on  January 31,2012 in Belgrade an informal meeting of foreign ministers of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP), held as part of Serbia’s presiding of this regional initiative. Read more about it:
http://www.mfa.hr/custompages/static/hrv/templates/_frt_Priopcenja_en.asp?id=7236
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=02&dd=01&nav_id=78565

And Aleksandar Hemon, a famous Bosnian-American fiction writer, wrote and published a new story about Bosnia and Hercegovina - National Subjects - Podanici naroda.  One more great piece of writing and analysis of situation in Bosnia.

And last, but not the least important news comes from Melbourne, Australia. Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player, wore down Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis.  Read more
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=01&dd=29&nav_id=78533
or
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146053852/djokovic-wins-australian-open-in-longest-final

P.S. Our posting this week included articles on Vesna Pusic, present Foreign Minister of Croatia, and a former guest lecturer to our program.  We also have two links from B92, an independent media house, whose director and co-founder, Sasa Mirkovic, has also been a frequent guest lecturer to our program.