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From: Transitions Online <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New at TOL
Date: 22 January 2001 20:46
Transitions Online (TOL) (http://www.tol.cz) is the leading Internet
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NEW AT TOL:
OUR TAKE: Big Game, Big Trophies
On Bush's foreign policy
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=16&NrArticle=538&ST1=body&ST_T1=wir&ST_ma
x=1
The full text of this article appears below
WEEK IN REVIEW January 15-January 21 2001
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Held in Havana
Czech deputy and another Czech national arrested and jailed in Cuba.
by Petra Breyerova
Naughty Boys
Estonian Parliament clamps down on absentee deputies.
by Kristjan Kaljund
Somebody's Listening
Transcripts from mysteriously tapped phone lines raise questions of privacy in Macedonia.
by Gordana Icevska
End of the Line
Russia's scandalized former Kremlin property manager misses the party after being arrested in New York.
by Sophia Kornienko
Too Much Energy
Kuchma fires embattled energy reformer just days after her official indictment.
by Oleg Varfolomeyev
More Week in Review:
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Armenia, Azerbaijan Approved for Council of Europe
Hackers Attack Political Web Sites in Bulgaria
IMF Loan to Georgia Aims To Fight Poverty
Romania Passes Restitution Law
Cold, Dark Russian Far East Restless With Riots
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Beta publishes daily (Beta News) and weekly (Beta Week) bulletins in English--invaluable for any media outlet, international
organization, or company with vital interests in the former Yugoslavia and Southeastern Europe. You can now order Beta's bulletins
through TOL, helping you stay informed of the current events and breaking news in the region that transformed the last decade and
will be transforming itself during the next decade. Click to learn more. http://archive.tol.cz/cgi-bin/linkredirect?id=1
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FEATURE: Captain Crook's CDs
by Konstantin Vulkov
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=525
Purchasing pirate CDs is an everyday occurrence in Bulgaria. By 1996, the country was already the center of CD piracy in Europe;
last year, Bulgarian consumers bought an estimated 6 million illegal discs. Despite the government's efforts to clampdown on the
illegal trade, record companies are now trying to beat the pirates another way--by competing with their prices. This year Universal
Music Group has given its licensee, Sofia-based Virginia Records, permission to produce official CDs in Bulgarian plants with full
booklets and packaging for the cut price of around $6. Now the illicit trade is moving on.
OPINION: Overshadowed, Not Forgotten
by Hovann Simonian
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=3&NrArticle=523
One of the major issues that has led to tension in the relations between the Armenian government and its international diaspora has
been the recognition of the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915. For over a decade, it has been overshadowed by the momentous
events in Armenia surrounding the conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. But now, as
relations with the homeland improve over the genocide issue, the Armenian diaspora gets its second wind.
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for other nonprofit organizations, Transitions Online has begun offering interested advertisers the possibility to reach thousands
of readers through our weekly electronic mailings and on our site. Check out our newly redesigned media kit
(http://www.tol.cz/mediakit/) and find out how to instantly reach a diverse, international audience with a demonstrated interest in
the post-communist world--people guaranteed to want to hear what's new in products and services dealing with the region--and
increase your company or institution's exposure by targeting the English-speaking elite in all of the 27 countries we cover.
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BOOKS: Short Road to Fame
by Roman Didenko
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=5&NrArticle=521
When the western Ukrainian daily newspaper ÒKyivskiye VedomostiÓ dared to publish a series of articles soiling the reputation of
the country's foremost 19th century poet, Taras Shevchenko, the public was a bit taken aback by the editors' audacity. When the
same series of articles, penned by Kyiv journalist Oles Buzyna, appeared in the more provincial ÒRivne VechirnyeÓ newspaper in
western Ukraine, the citizens there were enraged. A Kyiv journalist makes a name for himself by shaming a national poet-hero.
OPINION: Biting The Hand That Fed Her
by Dragan Stojkovic
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=3&NrArticle=536&ST_max=0
Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is probably the most despised person in Serbia. And for the past few years in
Yugoslavia the competition has been intense: Serbs have actively disliked former Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek, former Bosnia
and Herzegovina President Alija Izetbegovic, and late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman--not to mention their own leaders residing
on Belgrade's fashionable Dedinje hill. But Albright has always topped the list.
TAJIK EDUCATION SPECIAL:
Lots of Lawyers, Little Law
by Ravshan Kasimov
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=534
If you need a lawyer in Tajikistan, the best place to go is the illegal labor market, Padjshanba, in the center of Khodjent city.
And the best person to ask is most likely the ice-cream vendor or the man with the large box of cut-rate cigarettes--chances are he
or she is one of the country's hundreds of out-of-work lawyers. In Tajikistan, holders of law degrees are a dime a dozen--but law
faculties still keep pumping them out.
No More Pencils, No More Books ...
by Konstantin Parshin
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=532
Statistics show that the educational system in Tajikistan is bad--and getting worse. In the last five years, the number of
secondary school pupils in Tajikistan has increased by approximately 156,000. Each year, the total number of students increases by
30,000 to 40,000 due to population increases, according to statistics provided by the Tajik Education Ministry. Unfortunately the
system can't cope.
*** TOL in Russian! *********************************
TOL has published another selection of past articles translated into Russian.
Latest translated articles:
Russian Media Magnate Arrested in Spain
Compiled by TOL
Translated by Iya Topourina
http://archive.tol.cz/russian/rusmagnate.html
Culture Without Language
by Matthew Reynolds
Translated by Ostap Yednak and Iya Topourina
http://archive.tol.cz/russian/culture.html
The Difficulty in Judging Little Whores
by Iulian Robu
Translated by Olga Schukina
http://archive.tol.cz/russian/littlewhores.html
Violent Protests Shake Kosovo
Translated by Albina
http://archive.tol.cz/russian/
** INVITATION *********************************
Transatlantic Internet Seminar Kosovo/a (TISK 2000)
Engaging Citizen Ambassadors in Preventive Diplomacy via 'Fourth Wave' Education
TOL's readers are invited to join TISK 2000 "Global Discussion" Series this Friday, 26 January for the last session of a
transatlantic Internet seminar on Kosovo: "Peacekeeping Efforts Reevaluated." For 16 sessions, TISK 2000 participants -- including
students, experts, and policymakers -- have issues ranging from identities in historical perspectives to NATO's role in non-NATO
Europe to EU and US crisis management solutions. This Friday's session will tie together these discussions and attempt conclusions.
Don't miss it!
To sign up to the TISK 2000 e-mail list and for more information, please visit http://www.rboston.com/bosch/details.htm
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A Czech nonprofit dedicated to promoting independent journalism, TOL is based in Prague and uses a network of local correspondents
to provide unique, cross-regional analysis. We encourage you to visit our site and become part of a dynamic new media project
dedicated to building independent journalism in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union.
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OUR TAKE: Big Game, Big Trophies
Put a hunting rifle in his hand and George W. Bush is likely to return with a bear--no squirrel hunting for the 43rd U.S.
president, inaugurated on 20 January. For the Bush administration, it's big game or no game at all--a message he and his advisors
have made perfectly clear. Where foreign policy is concerned, that means focusing on U.S. interests only--oil and power--and
leaving the humanitarian problems in "periphery" countries for others to deal with. Bush and National Security Advisor Condoleeza
Rice, have both said that the Clinton administration expended too much energy on "periphery issues"--such as the Balkans--instead
of concentrating on the real threat of Russia, China, and North Korea. The Bush administration has also criticized Clinton's policy
of making China a "strategic partner."
Critics have suggested that Bush's choice of advisors is reflective of the Cold-War mindset his policies will evolve from and
perhaps is not well-equipped to meet the challenges of the more nebulous post-Soviet world. Fighting Central American drug cartels
or Central Asian Islamic fundamentalists with a Star-Wars-like defense program or anti-communist absolutes just won't wash, critics
say.
To deal with the world's perceived threats Bush plans to go full steam ahead with the launching of a multi-billion dollar national
missile defense (NMD) system--despite the U.S.-Russian Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty from the 1970s that prohibits such a
thing, and despite the fact that experts say the United States is threatened more by car-bombs and cruise missiles than ICBMs.
But then again, like Reagan's Stars Wars program demonstrated, pie-in-the-sky technology is more about bankrupting your foes than
it is about blowing up their missiles. Already, Russia and China are a little nervous. Those two behemoths will be forced to play
by the rules of a much more conservative, Reaganesque game that will come down to questions of money and technology--and little
more. Days before Bush's inauguration, Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted by announcing the two countries are laying down the
terms of a new political treaty--the first since their relations' collapse in 1979.
As far as the Balkans are concerned, Bush may ignore this most volatile of "periphery issues"--at his peril. A rapid withdrawal of
troops could backfire and confirm the suspicions of Bush's harshest critics that he is an uninformed hot-head. Moreover, the new
administration's position on plans for a European Union-led rapid reaction force have been confusing with Cold-War warrior and
Defense Secretary nominee Donald Rumsfeld saying that a proposed European security force is a threat to NATO. As Rice herself
conceded in a December 2000 interview, the U.S. can't have it both ways: "We want you [Europe] to do more, but we want you to do it
according to our decisions and security priorities." After all, it was the United States' mixed signals and repeated dithering over
humanitarian interventions in the Balkans that prompted the Europeans to suggest the new force. If the Americans pull out, what
choice do the Europeans have? The only hope here is that Rice and Secretary of State nominee Colin Powell, both of whouments for
formalizing security arrangements with vulnerable countries on Russia's periphery." Yes, the accession of the Baltic states into
NATO isn't as glamorous as defense shields or bi-polar summits, but in a dramatically changed post-Soviet world, deserves more
attention than a mere brush off.
Perhaps Bush will find his glamour and big stakes in the Caucasus and Central Asia, where he will attempt to secure the United
States' place in the oil business. But that would mean signaling loud and clear to Moscow that Russia's sphere of influence ends at
its borders and then injecting the resources necessary to ensure stability and protect U.S. investments. For the past decade, the
region has been experiencing severe security upheavals and impoverishment, and is a powder keg for new conflicts. Hopefully, Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney will forget their oilmen roots and see that these transitional states need outside help to guarantee
their independence and achieve legitimacy with their own populations. To see the future of the region only through oil interests
could have catastrophic consequences.
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