"Information Direct from the Manufacturer": An interview with the guys behind Privesc.Eu

First off, apologies for the long absence from this space - things have been genuinely busy at work, and I just haven't had the time.  Fortunately, something I initiated back in early October, before I got busy, has finally born fruit.

I think I first wrote about Privesc.Eu back in July, on Moldova's second election day of 2009.  At the time, I described it as

a streaming video site called privesc.eu ("I watch," in Romanian), launched during the campaign, which has increased transparency by showing complete video of press conferences and public meetings of, for example, the Electoral Commission... rather than the carefully edited versions which appear on state-run TV.

And that evening, I watched on a laptop in my kitchen as the results came in and Privesc.Eu's live feed and open mic from the Central Electoral Commission picked up random conversations of journalists and election officials, including one where two people were discussing, in Russian, whether the country that had just voted should be called "Moldova" or "Moldavia." 

Anyway, I was familiar with Privesc.Eu founder Mihai Moscovici as one of the first Moldovan bloggers I saw on the interwebs, and more recently from his prolific Facebook updates, and decided to ask if he and his collaborators on this interesting project would mind answering a few questions about what it has been like to launch an online public-access channel in the midst of what has to have been one of the most politically tumultuous years in Moldova's history.

To put this in an American context, these guys have created something that is a cross between CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, and hip-hop (rap music being, in the immortal words of Public Enemy's Chuck D, "CNN for Black people"), all with a level of interactivity that makes full use of all the capabilities Web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 now?).  I don't think they were the first to do it in Moldova (Public TV and JurnalTV were first, I think, by a matter of months), but the team behind Privesc.Eu has done a great job working with hardly any resources other than what they have contributed from their own time and pockets.

Before (or after) you read the interview, please consider contributing some amount, however small (or large!) to support the work of these young Moldovans who are working to improve transparency and people's access to government in their country and for the many labor migrants who might otherwise be out of touch with political developments at home.  You can donate via PayPal (which takes all major credit cards) right here.

What motivated you to start this project?

On the way to democracy, Moldovan media find themselves forced to play the games of diverse political and economic interest groups, thus losing neutrality in presenting information to citizens. As a result, the Moldovan public is confused and is not discerning with respect to media coverage. Lately, international monitoring organizations have often criticized the Moldovan media for lack of objectivity, misleading reporting and one-sided presentations of information.

Since the Internet penetration rate in Moldova grows about 50% every year, online media coverage has long been a challenging journey for existing mainstream media, amateurs and new media projects. Still, there is a need for innovation and intense exploration to create new initiatives and progressively successful projects to satisfy the need of the Moldovan public for access to information online.

Information consumers, particularly youth, are looking to avoid media that only offer one-way information sharing and prefer to become participants in events and play their own role in the decision-making process.

We have started Privesc.Eu because there was a need for an innovative online platform which will give young people opportunities to share their opinions on real-time ongoing events, to instantly react and interact with each other, to ask questions, to be active and get involved in the country's daily life, to share and discuss their know-how, to organize and promote their own events, and, more than that, to share their activism by maintaining that platform.

Privesc.Eu is now an innovative online project, integrated with the latest social media elements and modern real-time data transmission technologies, that focuses on exposure of current events and on providing opportunities for social engagement for the Moldovan online youth community.

Did you start with a detailed business plan and specific goals, or just with a camera and a dream?

We started this project on July 5^th, 2009 in the central park in Chisinau. We had no business plan, but we had a dream, inspiration, and enthusiasm. In a few weeks, we realized that a business plan is necessary for the future of project, and eventually drafted one.

It occurred to me that Privesc.eu's content and goals are sort of like those of the C-SPAN channel in the U.S.  Are you familiar with this channel, and if so, what do you think of the comparison?

One of our team members watched this TV channel while living in the US, but we didn’t know about it until we launched the project. We started Privesc.Eu following the needs of the Moldovan society. As for comparison, we look forward to establishing such a TV channel in Moldova :)

When did you begin broadcasting online, and how did you promote the site when you launched it?  How quickly did you develop an audience, and how large is that audience now?

We started our broadcast on July 5^th, 2009, in the central park in Chisinau. On that day we set up the domain name for the project: www.Privesc.Eu (translated from Romanian as www.Watch.I).

We established two main directions of activity: provide live video streaming from the major events in the country (politics, economy, social, civil society, etc.); and establish user interaction to enable them communicate with each other and with the event organizers.

Since launching www.Privesc.Eu in July 2009, the site has continuously grown in traffic and user participation. In the first four months, the project has already become well-known among Moldovan young people in the country and abroad. Now we have more than 30,000 viewers per month. Every live stream on www.Privesc.Eu is watched and commented in real-time by 200 to 2000 visitors, depending on the event.

In addition, Privesc.Eu has more than 1000 fans on Facebook.

If you could start the project over again, is there anything that you would do differently?

If we would start over again, perhaps we would think more about better promotional methods than we have used so far.

Do the people involved have journalism backgrounds or more IT backgrounds?  (Please feel free to discuss what the various members of the Privesc.eu team do professionally or not, and/or their educational backgrounds, as you prefer)

Privesc.Eu was developed and is maintained by an innovative and creative team of volunteer young professionals: two high-skilled web developers, a professional journalist, a marketing/PR specialist, and an inspired and dedicated project manager.

You and your partners have obviously spent a lot of your own time on this project - how have you found time for this in addition to doing whatever your "day jobs" are?  And how much of your own money have you had to spend on equipment and other expenses (hosting, etc.)?

Five people are involved in this project: Eugeniu Luchianiuc, Vitalie Eşanu, Mihai Moscovici, Radu Chivriga, Oleg Ciubotaru. Each of them is responsible for a specific department: Tehnical Department - Vitalie Eşanu and Oleg Ciubotaru; Promotion and Marketing Department - Mihai Moscovici; Journalism and LIVE Video Streaming Department - Radu Chivriga and Eugeniu Luchianiuc. Every one of us has a primary job, but Privesc.Eu is more than just a hobby, it is a way for changing our society for better. We use our own equipment: laptops, microphones, webcams and 3G mobile internet services. Privesc.Eu is grown on enthusiasm and we don't seek any financial benefits from this project.

Have your expenses been covered by advertising revenue?  Do you have any other sources of funding for the project (private donors, grants)?

On our web-site, we have a page where people can donate money through PayPal or to donate money to cover our mobile internet expenses through top-up terminals. Until now, we have 13 private donors who have donated a total of 400 USD.  Also, we applied for a Soros Foundation grant and are currently waiting for their decision.

Why do you think online broadcasting is important in Moldova?

Privesc.Eu helps Moldovan internet users to have open access to unbiased, democratic, interactive, objective, as-is coverage of important events in Moldova.  It helps citizens to form their own opinions based on pure and as-is information, avoiding journalistic comments and opinions.

Privesc.Eu fills the void of information about the situation and events in Moldova currently experienced by citizens working abroad, as well as by those living in the breakaway Transnistria region.

What do you think Privesc.eu provides viewers that they cannot get from TV or other mainstream media, or from already existing online sources such as YouTube?

Primarily, Privesc.Eu is a source of pure and as-is information about Moldova’s major events for citizens, as well as for international internet users, tourists, business people, potential investors, researchers and other people interested in Moldova.

Do you view your primary audience as being located in Chisinau?  Moldovans overseas?  Rural areas of the country?  Romanians sympathetic to Moldova?

According to Google Analytics, last month we had viewers from 58 countries . Most of them are from Moldova – 27,000, Romania – 1,500, United States - 540, France - 500, Italy - 455. Moldovan viewers came mainly from 5 cities: Chişinău, Rîbniţa, Bender, Tiraspol and Balti.

Many Moldovan websites have Romanian-language and Russian-language versions (and often English-language as well) - is there a reason that Privesc.eu has only a Romanian-language interface?

We don't think this is a problem for Russian-speakers. Any visitor can easily click on the video and watch it as it is. Sometimes we cover events where people speak Russian. Also, there are many comments in Russian language during our live broadcast.

What has been the most memorable or most significant event you were able to broadcast this year (in the opinion of you and/or your partners)?

The day when we had the most traffic and the highest number of viewers so far, was July 29^th, when we presented the results of the elections in Moldova.  On that day we had more than 6,000 live viewers. Also, some Romanian TV channels and national web-sites used our live video stream.

Have you had any difficulties with hackers attacking your site or with people spamming or acting as provocateurs in the comments section?

Yes, we have lots of provocateurs in the comments section, but didn’t have any hacker attacks.

 Do you have any advice for people who might want to start similar projects in countries with semi-closed media systems?  Why do you think it was possible for you to make a project like this happen in Moldova, and do you think it would be possible for people in places with more authoritarian governments, for example in Central Asia (or Transnistria)?

The main problem is with the quality of internet coverage in the country, and it depends also on the country's government. Live video streaming requires a good Internet connection, without it you can only do live blogging from the events. 

 What are your future plans for Privesc.eu?  Do you have any plans to generate original content (roundtable discussions or interviews which would be exclusive to Privesc.eu), or will you continue to focus on providing direct coverage of government-related events without commentary?

We have lots of ideas, but it takes time and resources to develop them all, so we take one idea at a time. We already have a talk show called "Fara cenzura" ("No Censorship") it's a show that seeks to present the facts without editing the video. Follow Privesc.Eu and you’ll see many great things in the coming months.

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Abkhazian National Library - a thank-you, and an R.I.P.

When I visited Abkhazia this spring, I was assuming I would encounter a substantial degree of hostility toward me as an American.  In fact, I encountered nothing of the sort.  I also encountered substantially less Sovok than I had expected.  One of the more pleasant experiences of my time in Sukhumi was visiting the national library and talking with the librarians and archivists there.  These professionals offered me more research assistance than I would have expected to receive (having arrived unintroduced and unaccredited) in Moscow or Washington at similar establishments - granted, researchers aren't exactly beating down their doors, but still...

As it turned out, I happened to visit the researchers late on Wednesday afternoon, told them briefly the topic I was interested in and promised to return on Friday morning.  The unfortunate thing about Friday morning was that I had to be across the border to Russia by early afternoon to make my flight home.  But even though my time there on that Friday was a bit rushed, I still got the chance to look at a bunch of relevant newspapers and other articles thanks to the the library staff.

At one point, I asked whether it was OK for me to take pictures inside the library and was referred to the director.  Little did I know that this was the same guy who had been responsible for restoring the place after it was practically burned out during the '92-'93 war.

Here are some more pictures from those tragic days.  All of this lends a bit of flavor to the recent allegations by Georgians that the Ossetians in Tskhinvali, "like fascists," engaged in book-burning.  Anyway, below are my pictures from the Abkhazian national library, taken in May of this year:

Papaskir National Library, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

 IMG_2418, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

 

IMG_2415, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_3129, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2411, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"The feats of Heroes won't be forgotten for centuries"

IMG_2405, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Shrine to former president Vladislav Ardzinba - "A person born in the name of the salvation of his people and Fatherland" (who is apparently living out hisdays in a diminished capacity a la Ronald Reagan)

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A Racist Restauranteur - Routine in Russia?

This was a pretty amazing article - appeared a few weeks ago on the afisha.ru website and generated some reaction from the Moscow dining public. So I translated it:

White Russian
Zhenya Kuida, 18 Sept. 2009

"Our patio has been open all summer - it's a pity that no one really wrote about it. But we still did a great job with it - even on weeknights there was a line for it, people were booking tables an hour in advance. I've been scolded for the fact that not enough people know about our patio, but I just didn't have time, we built it all ourselves in a month, practically with our own hands, Arkady didn't even know. I heard he was going to hire another director for this restaurant and was on his way here to talk about that with me, but when he saw our patio he decided to let me keep my job."

Alexei, the director of Novikov's latest restaurant Tatler, is showing me sketches of how the interior is supposed to look. Inside they're doing the work (changing it from the restaurant which currently occupies the space, I Fiori), and for now only the white-curtained summer patio is open.

At the next table over, someone is smoking a hookah. The sketches show wooden tables, an open kitchen, Ralph Lauren furniture and clocks set to London time.

"Tatler is, after all, first and foremost a London magazine, the most important one about celebrities. Arkady really wants to make this restaurant more democratic, American-style, to get people to come here for lunch - big portions, big plates, an eclectic menu. It's true that we have a French chef, so this is difficult for him. At the last tasting Arkady took a long time explaining to him that he needs to have fewer fashionable things, that everything should be simpler. Why don't you order something, try something, everything is delicious, we have a new menu!"

The waiter walking by drops a menu, and Alexei rushes to help him. "I remember well what it's like to be on your feet all day. I myself am not from Moscow, I worked my first few years here as a bartender in a casino and then as a waiter in GQ Bar. I always found it interesting to work at the bar - even when I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a bartender and making cocktails."

Alexei's phone rings, and he has a long conversation about a car loan. "I want to buy a Volvo, maybe now they'll give me a loan, one of the co-owners [of the restaurant] is a banker, he promised to help, and now I have a decent salary. It was, of course, a big step for me to become a manager. Although I'm really young, I run pretty much everything in the restaurant - I hire the staff myself, I watch the till, I structure people's work. Arkady only looks after the chefs and other little things."

Two beefy Armenians sit down at the table next to us, and Alexei's face darkens.

"Of course this used to be a completely dead restaurant. When I became manager, I cam here and freaked out - the place was full of darkies ["черные"]. It's like that everywhere - as soon as the darkies start to come, that's it, the restaurant dies. Of course I try to fight it - I don't let them in, I tell them that the tables are occupied or reserved, there's no table for you here, but you can't control everything, they still get in. And then normal Russian people come up to you and say, 'What sort of a zoo are you running here?' They also feel uncomfortable when something like that is sitting at the table next to them, they just want to come have dinner at a place with their own people, without these darkies. But what can you do, in these times of crisis things have become very difficult, who comes to restaurants these days? Just the darkies, no one else has any money. Just watch how restaurants go bad before your very eyes, and the same thing happens with clubs. One must strictly maintain the proper ratio - you can let them in sometimes, but not too many, so that they don't ruin the look of the place."

Alexei notices the hookah attendant walking by and calls him over. "By the way, we have excellent hookahs - the best in the city. Try the apple-flavored one, people say they come back to try it again."

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Russian world

CIMG6491, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

On the occasion of Russian-language advocacy organization Russkiy Mir (not this one) opening an office in Tiraspol, I decided to translate this commentary from an Ekho Moskvy blog about the role of Russian in the post-Soviet space:

Every day, there's some new story about the misfortunes of the Russian language in the former Soviet republics. Here are just three recent examples.

Kazakhstan: starting in 2012, all movies will be required to be shown in the state language [Kazakh].

Tajikistan: now all official paperwork, correspondence and education must be conducted in Tajik. All citizens are required to know the state language - Tajik.

And finally, Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko has signed government order #1033, which requires all public-school teachers to speak only Ukrainian during work hours - including during breaks. Even in the school cafeteria.

How can all of this be assessed by someone who lives in Russia, speaks Russian and loves their language? Of course, such a person should feel pain, bitterness and disappointment - basically, a whole range of negative feelings. After all, we're talking about the language of Pushkin and Dostoevsky! After all, this is the language which we all used to speak together and in which we all seemed to understand each other wonderfully! The language of peace and friendship!... And so on and so forth.

I love my language. That's what I could say. But I won't. Because I perfectly understand that there's no way to separate a language from politics.  Whether we like it or not, in the newly proclaimed states the Russian language is the most immediate (and daily!) reminder of the former empire.  And attempts to preserve or promote it are judged as attempts to return the former state of relations - between the imperial center and the colonies.

The arguments of the now-independent states say the following:  We have our own language, and this language should have an indisputable priority; anyone who wants to be a citizen of our country should first learn the national language, and all other languages are secondary.  Do you have anything to say against this?  I don't.  Because this is exactly how Russia acts in relation to its own state language.  And Russia is absolutely right!

But why does it deny others the same right?  Just because "we used to be together"?  That's why I won't say "how horrible" about the linguistic innovations of the former republics.

The real question is, what should Russia do about this - fight the situation or make peace with it?  I have an answer, but I doubt you'll like it.  We should make peace with it, I'd say.  Fighting it is not only useless, it's dangerous, because all it does is generate increased aggression and firm opposition to the phrase "Russian language."

So, we need to accept the situation.  And work out a new language policy.  A NEW policy!  One that will be, excuse the pun, free from politics.  People shouldn't be afraid of Russian.  They should love it.  And love and fear do not go together.

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Sukhumi's Semi-abandoned Station

IMG_3014, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

The train station in Sukhumi is freighted with the historical memory of Stalinist architecture and the bitterness of failed post-Soviet conflict-resolution efforts.  The railroad from Adler, in Russia, hasn't run through to Georgia since the war in the early 1990s.  However, the possibility of restoring rail service was discussed in the final years of Shevardnadze's presidency as a potential confidence-building measure which would have had the added benefit of restoring a Russian rail link to Armenia.

Blogger cyxymu posted some thoughts and photos about the railway running through Abkhazia in 2007. By 2008, Russia's deployment of railway troops to the region with the stated goal of restoring the lines was seen as a prelude to last August's Five-Day War.  And this year, Georgia condemned the transfer of control of the railway to Russia as "robbery."

When I was in Sukhumi earlier this year, I took the long walk from downtown to the train station and took some photos (below); and posting them gave me an excuse to translate the Bol'shoi Gorod article below, which I first noticed when I was a devotee of the publication back when I lived in Moscow and it used to be the city's free weekly.

Moscow-Sukhum, Car #26
October 11, 2004

Bol'shoi Gorod, № 32 (116)

This is the train from the TV. The train was running along the seacoast as the Channel One newsreader explained that this was the first Moscow-Sukhum (as the Abkhaz call their capital, notwithstanding that it's "Sukhumi" in Georgian) passenger train in 11 years and even called it a "window to Europe." A week later, because of this "window," two presidents - ours and Georgia's - quarrelled at the meeting of CIS heads of state. Saakashvili didn't like that Russia was establishing contacts with unrecognized Abkhazia, but Putin responded by saying that railroads are a business, and the government wouldn't interfere. The presidents agreed to disagree, and we got to ride the Moscow-Sukhum train, which departs from the Kursk Station once every two days.

Upon closer inspection, the train turns out to be two passenger cars hooked onto the train to Adler - an economy-class [плацкартный] car and a sleeper car, numbered 25 and 26. In Rostov-on-Don they latched on another two cars, bot those turned out to be practically empty. Just as it should be on a train to a resort area at the end of the season. But the train cars headed to Sukhum from Moscow were crowded: the economy-class one was completely full, and the sleeper car was more than half full. At the border all of these carriages were hooked up to a locomotive, and then it finally became a train.

Later on, one of the conductors told us that, when they ran it for the TV cameras, the train had one more carriage, a fifth one, beautiful and modern. It carried the head of Russian Railways Gennadii Fadeev, his entourage and the journalists. Wine and vodka flowed like rivers. Afterwards, articles appeared with headlines like "Five Carriages into the Future," "The Road of Life" and "Train of Hope."

That carriage was then removed to the depot in Moscow. In the remaining carriages were light fixtures which turned on and off on their own, doors with handles falling off, stuck windows and restrooms with rusting toilets. There was no toilet paper, but there were purple soap remnants.

It was mostly Russians in the sleeper car. I shared a compartment with a retired colonel named Nikolai Leonidovich. In the next compartment over were a young couple and a stern old man, also military. After them were some quiet old folks, and after them were three Abkhaz guys. They were transporting a large, black Sony television. "We get TVs [in Abkhazia] shipped in from Turkey, but they're low-quality ones," one of them explains.

"You should write about the TV set," I get instructed by Andrei, the half-drunk guy who is riding with his wife and the old officer in the compartment next to mine. "About how three Abkhazians are hauling a huge black television from Moscow." The guys from Sukhum learned from the TV that there is now a train on which they could take a TV home. The train was in the TV; now a TV is in the train.

Andrei has round, unshaven cheeks, which make his good-natured visage resemble a pear. Under his white T-shirt, he already has a ponderous belly. Andrei was lured to Abkhazia by the schoolbook map of the USSR's climatic zones. On that map, the subtropics crawled north in a narrow band along the Black Sea coast right up to Sukhumi. Andrei is hoping to prolong his summer by 10 days. Andrei's wife Alla has a specific task to accomplish on this trip - to conceive a child. They've got it all planned out - down to the fact that the place they're staying in Pitsunda is well-guarded, because it belongs to President Ardzinba's son.

My compartment-mate Nikolai Leonidovich had also gone to Abkhazia to make a baby. And he had made one - a son, 17 years ago. At the time he had been serving at the nuclear test grounds on Novaia Zemlia. The summer there lasted a month. But the salary was 1,000 rubles a month [huge by Soviet standards], and he got free package vacation tours. Nikolai Leonidovich still goes to the Moscow Military District resort [in Sukhum]. Basically, this means a vacation on a military base. Even Tengiz Kitovani's paramilitaries couldn't capture the two military resorts.

The train got its first police inspection near Rostov; it's second, in Lazarevskoe. The officers looked at everyone's passports and asked people about the purpose of their trip, both times carefully studying the large, black television. Between Adler and the Vesioloe, on the border, the conductor collected all of the passengers' passports, explaining that they had to be checked in the computer.

The customs guy made us turn all our bags inside out. The passengers, who had already been without their passports for a half hour, were visibly nervous. If you wind up without your passport in Abkhazia, there's no way to get back into Russia other than using mountain paths - there is neither a Russian consulate nor a Russian embassy in the unrecognized republic, even though 80% of the residents are Russian citizens. After the customs guy, a border guard passed through the carriage, returning passports. Apparently to everyone.

We passed over the border, the bridge across the River Psou. From the train windows, we could see the entire journey that people have to make when traveling into Abkhazia not on the train: a long, cement road with border and customs posts, two on each side. Lots of people were hauling large packages of goods. During tangerine season, the border turns into a madhouse. I imagined my carriage-mates stuck in a crowd of Abkhaz peasants with their large, black television.

After the landscape of Sochi, which in recent years has started to look like a suburban Moscow cottage subdivision, Abkhazia rewinds time by 15 years. But there's definitely a screw loose in the time machine. The Stalin Empire architecture of the Soviet resorts, familiar from childhood, gapes with broken windowpanes. Late-Soviet-era high-rise apartment buildings with "improved floor plans" stand half-destroyed. The upper floors are burned out, but people still live on the lower floors. The private room-rental business is bouncing back bit by bit, but there are still plenty of gutted single-family homes. Vacationers are concentrated in the few resorts which more or less survived the war, or else they rent rooms from people they knew from before the war. When the train arrived, all the arriving passengers were met by people with cars. I remained alone on the platform.

As the train from the TV made its way through Abkhazia, people came out of their homes and waved at us. The local cows, which have grown somewhat wild after 11 years, are also not used to the railroad - I was told they frequently wander onto the tracks and get run over.

My photos of the station from May of this year:

IMG_3100, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

Taxi stand.

IMG_3001, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2974, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Stray dogs on the track-facing side of the station.

IMG_2959, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2920, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Someone has poached the Soviet coat of arms from this locomotive.

IMG_2943, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2930, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2933, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2926, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

IMG_2922, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Signaling equipment, branded "Svetofor" ("Stoplight") and date-stamped with years in the 1950s and 1960s.

IMG_2989, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
The refurbished and functional part of the station.

IMG_2992, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Arrivals board.

IMG_3056, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Kiosk advertising beer, with a sign proclaiming that it's "open" - I didn't knock to check.

IMG_3055, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Abandoned kiosk advertising "Hot and cold beverages"; "Coffee
Cocoa Tea Juices Water Cocktails"; and "Soft-serve Ice-cream".

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Divided by a common language?*

CIMG1630, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Limba Noastra decorations in Chisinau last year.
This poster says "Our Language - Romanian," whereas I saw other,
similar posters elsewhere in the city that left off the word "Romanian."

On August 31st (yes, I've been busy IRL** and the timeliness of this post has suffered), Moldova celebrated a holiday called Limba Noastra ("Our Language"), which celebrates the Romanian language (notwithstanding the Voronin government's preference for calling the local dialect a separate "Moldovan" language) and country's transition to the use of the Latin alphabet at the end of the Soviet era.

IMG_7689, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Signage in Floresti, Moldova, Aug. 2008
Moldovans of my in-laws' generation sometimes still accidentally sprinkle in Cyrillic letters...

The holiday occasioned a lot of interesting online commentary. Imedia offered a straight-news report. Morning in Moldova characteristically takes a somewhat strident tone in defense of more robust promotion of Romanian language usage in Moldova, in a post which occasioned a pretty interesting comment. Nicu Popescu posted (in Romanian) an interesting historical survey of Russification efforts which shows that Romanian language usage in Moldova has actually survived much harder times than the past eight years of PCRM rule, and expressed the pragmatic and in my view absolutely correct point of view that people should not get hung up on what to call the language. Louis O'Neill, writing for RFE/RL, discusses the language issue in light of the mini-scandal which erupted after Voronin's apparent outburst (delivered in Russian) in Filat's direction at last Friday's opening session of parliament.

Natalia Morari also covered the language issue in one of her columns for RFE/RL last month (they are being translated into English - from Russian - but unfortunately RFE/RL doesn't seem to have a way to aggregate all the translations of her posts on one page), exploring the situation of the children of Russian-speakers in Chisinau (or, more precisely, the situation faced by Russian-speaking parents of children in Chisinau). And finally, award-winning and sometimes controversial Moldovan blogger Soacra Mica shared her personal experiences with the country's bilingualism.

As for my own experiences in the ten years I've been traveling to Moldova, I can say that I've always felt comfortable using Russian in Chisinau, although I've been glad not to have to in recent years, having picked up Romanian (or Moldovan, whatever) over time. For the most part, I find that people in the Moldovan capital tend to be fairly laid-back about which of the two languages is used in their day-to-day interactions, which is something I have always admired - it means that, if you only know Russian, you don't have to worry that you are creating political offense every time you open your mouth. It's something of a problem, of course, for the many citizens who end up using both languages passably but neither of them correctly, but I am not much moved by arguments based on linguistic purism.

In any event, the penetration of Russian seems to be slowly waning - as far as I know, none of the deputies use it in parliament anymore (though this was the case a few years ago, and it's still common to see political figures give interviews in Russian), and there is now a generation of young adults which has grown up able to avoid using Russian entirely. As the photos posted below show, though, there is plenty of usage of Russian in the public space, especially in Chisinau.

Even when people can't agree to speak the same language, sometimes they can still have a conversation. Last year I had lunch in Chisinau with a politically active Moldovan who spoke Romanian to the waitress taking care of our table. She spoke Russian to him. They had a conversation about the menu, about what would be tasty that day, etc., and each understood the other but did not speak the other's language. Of course such situations have the potential to be a bit tense, but I think there is something positive - or at least not entirely negative - about the mutual acceptance.

Earlier this year, I attended a peaceful gathering with speakers by (then-)opposition politicians on Chisinau's main square, just a few days after the violence of April 7th. Of all the speakers, Andrei Popov, who is now in parliament with the PDM but at the time was working as the director of a think-tank in Chisinau, made the strongest impression on me when he gave some remarks in Russian about how the Communists were cheating all Moldovan citizens - Russian-speakers included - out of a democratic government.

Also earlier this year, I was talking with an Estonian who works in Chisinau about the country's bilingualism. I mentioned that it was an unusual situation of a country that is really bilingual. The conversation took an unexpected turn when my interlocutor agreed and pronounced the situation in Moldova "disgusting," expressing his relief that the Baltic republics had avoided a similar situation and that Moldova would be less confused politically and better off in general if it had somehow moved away from widespread use of Russian being acceptable. It's a not-uncommon point of view that I understand but can't agree with.

CIMG3202, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bilingual signage can be seen in all walks of Moldovan life. This is a sign listing prices for having
various prayers said or ceremonies performed at the monastery in Saharna in northeastern Moldova.

IMG_3948, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A bilingual welcome to one of Chisinau's main athletic venues.

CIMG3335, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A trilingual and very shady ad seeking "girls with fashion/swimwear body" in Chisinau.

CIMG6510-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Fast food at the Central Market in Chisinau.

CIMG6495-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Parking lot and mechanic services.

CIMG6491-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bilingualism beyond the grave - this sign advertises custom-made gravestones.

* There are actually two main "linguistic" divides in Moldova (notwithstanding that they persist in large part because of various political forces capitalizing on and exacerbating them, they do seem to be real), only one of which involves a common language: the division between people who self-identify as "Romanian" and the subgroup of people among those who self-identify as "Moldovan" who believe the language they speak should be called "Moldovan." The other linguistic divide in the country, of course, is between Romanian-(or Moldovan-)speakers and Russian-speakers.

** in real life...

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Moldovan Independence Day

In my Facebook feed, I saw a witty observation flash by today - "Moldova has always been independent - nothing ever depended on it." Nicu Popescu had a very interesting post today, which I'd translate if I had time, about the Moldovan mentality of dependence (he developed the theme further in this interview).

But I'm going to use the day as an excuse to post some of my photos from last year's celebration of the holiday. A year ago today, I got up well before 9am, quite a feat on a holiday for someone who had just been a student for three years, and made it down to Chisinau's main square to watch the ceremony of flower-laying at the statue of Ştefan cel Mare.

I have no idea how the festivities went down today (actually, with the exception of Lupu's absence, it looks like a familiar scene - Zina shi Vologhea u Shtefana), but I'd imagine there is a more tense atmosphere this year, as tomorrow marks the first meeting of parliament after the July 29th repeat elections. The current government ministers will tender their resignations, and the no-longer-opposition will be able to form a new government (though it lacks the 61 votes required in Parliament to choose a new President).

According to the excellent Morning in Moldova blog, it is absolutely imperative that a speaker of parliament be elected tomorrow. Imedia reports (on their excellent and extremely useful new English-language blog) that the members of the Alliance for European Integration, recently formed from the four opposition parties that made it into parliament on July 29, may not quite be done haggling over who gets the spot. Of greater concern is the fact that the Communist Party this week stated that it will not negotiate with the Alliance as a whole, but would be happy to negotiate with the individual parties that make up the Alliance, suggesting that the horse-trading over who becomes the country's next President (and of course the side deals that may be necessary to arrive at a compromise on that central issue) may just be heating up.

Anyway, I prefer to think back to a happier time - last year, when I was still enveloped in post-bar-exam bliss, and April 7th was just another insignificant date like any other...

IMG_7941-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
PM Zinaida Greceanii, President Vladimir Voronin and then-Speaker of Parliament
Marian Lupu, accompanied by the Patriarch - separation of church and state is so
overrated - approach the Stefan statue, preceded by goose-stepping soldiers...

IMG_7965-2, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...proceed past the assembled press corps...

IMG_7952, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...and prepare for the flower-laying.

IMG_7979, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Meanwhile, lesser lights await their turn to lay flowers of their own, and
the bigwigs' chariots stand ready, lined up with military precision.

IMG_8002-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Who will get that license plate next?

IMG_8016, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Even here, some jackass opinionated individual showed up with one of those pro-unification t-shirts.
A bit like showing up to a 4th of July celebration with a t-shirt claiming the US in George III's name.
Well, not really, but I couldn't think of a better analogy.

IMG_8010, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

And the band played on...

IMG_8039, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Celebratory flags outside Chisinau's City Hall.

IMG_8036, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Beer tents set up in anticipation of a concert planned for that evening.

IMG_8022, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
At the time, I wondered if the arrows on the sign at right symbolized
Moldova's unfortunately non-straightforward road toward Europe.

IMG_8021, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
The holiday was known as Independence Day for years (still is, officially and colloquially).
Therefore, when I saw the signs on the stage on PMAN proclaiming it Republic Day, I
immediately recalled how for many years June 12th in Russia was celebrated as
Independence Day (though not without some bemused wondering about "who did
we become independent from, anyway?") but under Putin became known as the more
bombastic Russia Day. "Further evidence of Putinism in Moldova?" I wondered lazily.

IMG_8029, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

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Signs and Symbols in Abkhazia

People more knowledgeable about the situation than I have posited that on August 26, 2008, when Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Abkhazia exchanged the de facto independence it had enjoyed until then for the security which it hadn't.

It remains to be seen how the project of Abkhazian independence will withstand Russia's warm embrace - here is an excerpt from a very worthwhile piece by a local journalist who has been observing and writing about the situation there for years:

In relation to the main enemy, Georgia, even an ordinary Abkhaz farmer understood very well what was in Abkhaz interests and what was not, as these interests had cost the lives of several thousand Abkhaz during their 1992-93 war with Georgia. But how to organise its relations with Russia, at present its only ally - this not even the Abkhaz political elite itself knows.

The Abkhaz have no wish to quarrel with their mighty neighbour: Russia is not just their only window on the world and guarantor of protection from Georgia, but also the source of financial prosperity. Direct subsidies from Moscow make up more than half the Abkhaz budget and trade with Russia is 95% of the country's commercial traffic. Holidaymakers at Abkhaz resorts (the most important segment of the economy) are almost exclusively Russian and practically all foreign investments are also Russian. On top of this most people have dual Abkhaz-Russian citizenship, which allows them to travel the world. Local pensioners receive a Russian pension, which is 10 times greater than the Abkhaz pension. Such close relations make it difficult to preserve the national interest, that is sovereignty and national identity, but Abkhaz society is not prepared to sacrifice its sovereignty just to please Moscow - it is too hard won. South Ossetia regards independence as a transitional stage to eventually becoming part of Russia, but Abkhazia has no such plans.

The anniversary today has occasioned a predictable avalanche (relatively speaking - and especially relative to the situation which existed in the Western press before August 2008, when Abkhazia was hardly discussed at all) of commentary about whether recognition has turned out to be good or bad for Russia, Georgia, the international order, and the territories themselves. I'm not going to try to make this post into a link roundup, as I assume those interested in the topic are as adroit with Google News as I am; this piece pretty much sums up the arguments in favor of the proposition that Russia made a mistake; opendemocracy has had a tremendous amount of readable coverage in recent weeks as well.

I wanted to use the anniversary as an excuse to post the second installment of photos from my May trip to Abkhazia (the first is here; and all of my photos from the trip are here), which is sort of a hodgepodge of various posters and signs. They are in no particular order, although I've tried to provide translations, as well as explanations of their significance or kitsch value (where not self-explanatory), in the captions.

CIMG2987-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Abkhazia and Russia - Always Together!" - through a cracked windshield.

IMG_1804, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Billboard exhorting local residents to "Clean up our city!"
by participating in a subbotnik - near Pitsunda

IMG_2747, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Office of the Congress of Russian Communities and Compatriots of Russia in Abkhazia.
This organization, then known as the Congress of Russian Communities (or KRO) played a major
role in procuring Russian passports for over 100,000 residents of Abkhazia in 2002. I interviewed the
organization's director and learned some interesting things about the process. The "and Compatriots
of Russia" part was added to the name as the organization wanted to seem more inclusive of the
ethnic Armenians and Abkhaz, many of whom it likewise helped to obtain Russian passports.

CIMG2859, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Beer bar, near the compound which was formerly a resort for military personnel
and served for years as the headquarters of Russia's "peacekeeping" forces in Abkhazia.

IMG_2639, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"No smoking" - in one of the local government buildings.

IMG_3053, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
At the semi-abandoned Sukhumi train station.

IMG_2761, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Sign on a boarded-up metal kiosk advertising ice cream, coffee, juices and khachapuri.

IMG_2714, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Ancient street sign - after I took this picture, one of the guys playing dominoes nearby
told me that there is a problem with antique hounds stealing street signs like these and
then selling them in Russia. This one marked the Street of the Third International.

IMG_2727, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Sign (in Abkhaz and Russian) indicating the location of a
repair shop for refrigerators and washing machines.

IMG_2339, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Photos for new passports and documents."

IMG_2280, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Sign advertising hi-tech services services: loading songs and photos onto mobile phones, printing
digital pictures from phones and cameras, and burning CDs and DVDs - inside a used bookstore.

IMG_2230, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Various advertisements for photo printing, disc burning, fireworks displays, as well
as some local flavor - a DVD chronicle of the 1992-93 war, and the small sign
advertises tapes of "funeral music in Abkhazian, Armenian, Greek or Russian."

IMG_2226, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Stained-glass sign of a hand holding books, marking a library.

IMG_2229, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Prices for long-distance phone calls.

IMG_2199, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Cold drinks / Beer / Ice cream / Juices" - outside a winery.

IMG_1944, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Various tourist services and restaurants, at Lake Ritsa.

CIMG2750, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A Soviet relic - the "Peace to the World" (Миру - Мир!) painted on a bridge near the border with Russia.

IMG_1628, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Gagra is our city"

IMG_2120, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
War memorial, in the lobby from which tourists enter the caves at New Athos.

IMG_2096, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Sign exhorting residents of Abkhazia to participate in the 2007 Russian Duma elections,
now enjoying a second life as a tarp, near the Novy Afon / New Athos monastery.

CIMG2858, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Lovely Lenin mosaic on the territory of the Russian peacekeepers' HQ.
I was there to interview the Russian ambassador, who had just been appointed.

IMG_1647, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Road sign reminding drivers not to blind oncoming traffic (thanks to EB for tipping me off to this one).

IMG_2805, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Salesperson's Commandments" - hanging in a grocery store.

IMG_2777, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Vladimir Il'ich Lenin Park"

IMG_1769, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Signs pointing the way to tourist activities on the embankment in Pitsunda.

CIMG2845, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Information"

IMG_2427, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bus shelter at the old Sukhumpribor factory, a building which now appears to house an indoor market.

IMG_2440, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Shoe repair"

IMG_2442, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Clothing repair"

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Happy 421st birthday!

This year, my wife's hometown of Floreşti celebrated its birthday (last weekend) without us. Incidentally, unless there's a local trend with which I'm unfamiliar (which is not impossible, since I'm not exactly plugged in with the youth subcultures there), someone has pranked Wikipedia by adding a sentence to the entry about Floreşti - "Since 2009 Floreşti has become the most popular producer of Moldova's Hip-Hop and Rap industry."

Be that as it may, a phone call last weekend reminded me of how much fun last year's "City Day" celebrations were, and I decided to share a few of the photos from way back when (the whole photoset is here, including some photos of the two nights of concerts on the main square - on one of which the city was honored with the presence of one Fuego, an artist previously unknown to me who is apparently a Romanian pop star):

CIMG1244, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Flyer showing the schedule of festivities, alongside information
about payment rules at the local telephone exchange.

IMG_7380, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bulletin board with the heading "Floreşti - Past, Present, Future"...

IMG_7425, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...and several representatives of Floreşti's future.

IMG_7284, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Celebratory assembly at the local House of Culture, which included speeches by
local luminaries and children reading some genuinely touching poems they had
written about their hometown - as well as an older woman who had witnessed and
survived deportation by the Soviets and read a tear-jerker of a poem about that ordeal.

IMG_7541, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Together we will succeed!"

IMG_7575, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Small child with a toy gun on the main square.

CIMG1416, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
My in-laws' cellar.

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18 years ago...

[image source - a personal memoir from someone who was there]

[image source - a great series of photos from 1991]

Last week, Snob.ru asked its community of readers and "global Russians" whether they remember August 21, 1991, the date when the GKChP and bit the dust - and with it, any chance that the USSR could be preserved. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, it stood for "State Committee on the State of Emergency," the group of people behind the attempted putsch which - much too late - aimed to derail Gorbachev's reform (or liberation, or running into the ground, if you prefer) of the Soviet Union.

[image source]
Boris Yeltsin at the barricades with his bodyguard Aleksandr Korzhakov,
whose apparent role in ruling the country (at least according to his tell-all
memoir) made him infamous during the '90s as a symbol of poor governance

The comments are pretty emotional and talk about the various stages of people's feelings about Russia's post-Soviet experiment:

Naive but wonderful feelings of unity - "A couple of times during the night [of 20-21 Aug.] I had a completely incredible feeling, as trite as it sounds, but a feeling of unity with my people [с моим народом], with all of the people [со всеми людьми] who had gathered there for whatever reason. It was a physical feeling of brotherhood, which I have never felt since. By 1993 it became clear that in 1991 we had been total idiots. What remained was an unpleasant aftertaste and those feelings, and it's not clear what to do with them. They have been lost for nothing. And it's a pity."

Later disappointment - "Everyone had incredible - and naive, as it later turned out - hopes...... Who could have known then that the nomenklatura (in epaulets and otherwise) would - having repainted itself - steadily come crawling back, once again grabbing up everything for itself, although now in the role of 'state capitalists'."

Dashed hopes - "Those were days when the hope appeared that there would be real democracy in [our] country. However, that hope rather quickly died a quiet death....I remember that since then I have never seen so many normal, human faces in one place. The first sign that nothing would really change was when they allowed the Communist Party to continue. First they banned it, and then they authorized it on the sly - that little fact left a feeling of extreme disgust. And didn't leave any hope for a better future."

Postcard of SVO as it looked in the late-Soviet era.

And one of Snob's readers had an interesting story which I've translated:

It was one of the most powerful impressions of my life!... At the time, I was working as a line customs inspector at Sheremetyevo-2. In those days, all of the flights with people leaving to live in Israel departed early in the morning (around 5am), so that arriving foreigners would not be discomfited by this picture of thousands of people emigrating. Naturally, all of the people leaving would show up at the airport the night before, and all night the departure halls were noisy, people would hold farewell parties for their departing friends and relatives; some laughed, some cried...

On the night of August 21, the departure halls were DEAD QUIET! And thousands of absolutely white faces, raised up to the monitors which had been set up in the airport, on which a single question was frozen - WILL THEY LET US OUT OR NOT? It was a frightening picture, burned into my memory...

The GKChP plotters and their not-so-bad fates (not counting Boris Pugo, who shot himself), 15 years later, as reported by AiF in 2006:

[image source]

More: Reports on the GKChP anniversary from 2004 and 2006.
Paul Goble's impressions of Russians' historical memory of August '91.

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