• Caboodle.hu - Museum of Hungarian language to be opened in Széphalom
  ‘Plans have been unveiled to build a unique museum aimed at acquainting visitors with the culture of the Hungarian language’
  (tags: Hungary)

European Union immigration policies and and its member state’s various definitions of citizenship are either the kind of topics that utterly fascinates or assists in relieving insomnia. For me it fascinates, and is of a personal concern, as well.

On May 31st IMISCOE (International Migration Integration Social Cohesion) held a conference at Central European University where Rainer Bauböck gave the keynote address. Overall, an excellent overview and projection into the future of what citizenship currently means and could transform into within the EU context. Along with CEU’s own János Kis, who responded to Bauböck conclusions, the panel added much to the ideas presented. For example, Maria Kovacs mentioned that 48% of the population of central and eastern europe no longer live in the same country they lived before 1989 - not because the people moved but because the borders have.

Well worth downloading and listening to if this sort of thing interests or concerns you.

IMISCOE: International Migration Integration Social Cohesion
A roundtable discussion presented by
the CEU Nationalism Studies Program:

“Contemporary Challenges for Citizenship in Europe”

May 31, 2006 5:00 pm
Central European University, Budapest

Chair:
Ayse Caglar (CEU) [not on audio]
Keynote speaker:
Dr. Rainer Bauböck (CEU)

Respondent:
János Kis (CEU)

Panel:
Mária M. Kovács (CEU)
Robert C. Smith (City University of New York)
Jo Shaw (University of Edinburgh)

Download the .MP3:
[Right-click (PC)/Control-click(Mac)]
Rainer Bauböck& János Kis (20megs)
Mária M. Kovács, Robert C. Smith & Jo Shaw (19megs)

Thanks to Archive.org for the free hosting.

About a thousand or so people in Budapest protested the lack of time pedestrians have to cross the walkways on Budapest’s intersections - as well as Budapest’s breath taking air polution.

What was the protest exactly? Simply cross the crosswalks when the pedestrian lights were green. Of course, with that many people trying to cross at one time it is impossible to cross without blocking traffic - and, that’s exactly the point.

However, the point seemed to be lost on the many drivers that got frustrated and beeped their horns in counter-protest

I will write up some notes and thoughts about this José Casanova Lecture tomorrow. A very interesting talk by José Casanova about Secularism, what is it exactly, does it have to be ‘modern’ or does modern have to be secular? and so on - all rather complicated stuff, but quite brilliant and gave me some new insights that I’m still digesting my head.

You can download the .mp3 recording (Archive.org: 93megs/1:46hrs) I made.

For background, please read his 2004 article ‘Religion, European secular identities, and European integration‘

TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2006 4:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Central European University
A public lecture presented by the Department of History, Religious Studies Program:

“Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective”

José Casanova
(New School on Social Research, New York; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin)

Chair: Aziz Al-Azmeh (CEU)

more info

Chief: “Which way, captain?”

Willard: “You know which way, Chief.”

Chief: “You’re on your own, captain. You wanna go on ?
Like this bridge : We build it every night. Charlie
blows it right back up again. Just so the generals can
say the road’s open. Think about it. Who cares ?”

Willard: “Just get us up the river !”
- Apocalypse Now

At this point in current affairs in Iraq, to say that Iraq is like Viet Nam is a cliché - sadly, it has become too obviously true.

I wonder how long it will take for the Iraqi insurgents to destroy the bridge that the US Military rebuilt after the US Military destroyed it to thwart the insurgents?

HUSAYBA, Iraq, April 2 — Last August, under daily attack from car bombs and mortars, the Marines took down the only bridge over the Euphrates River for miles around.

Now they are trying to rebuild it.

With the bridge down, marines say, insurgents and foreign fighters can no longer infiltrate as easily into this town near the Syrian border in western Anbar Province, the heavily Sunni Arab area that has formed the heart of the insurgency.
NY Times

No, not the script, but the WordPress.org page itself. I can get to the page only occaisionally tonight. Poor server must be under a lot of stress as zillions of WP Bloggers desperately bang on the site to their X-mas gift.

Still trying to figure out how to back up MySQL properly for all of the Allotherplaces.org websites - can I upgrade to 2.0 for each blog or do I have to do all of them at the same time? I posted this question on the WP forums, but the site went down again.

Well, I’ll wait for tomorrow for more details. A sincere thank you to all who have made Wordpress possible - including those involved in the web design

Boston Globe:President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

Mike Wallace: What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn’t want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn’t have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?
- Boston Blobe

Associated Press fails to mention that Rep. Duke Cunningham’s party affiliation - Republican, of course

Josh Marshall also noticed this in the first stories by the AP, later to be ‘updated.’