Eurovision 2015 - Vienna is coming (IV)

Russia - Polina Gagarina with "A Million Voices"

Let's now talk about one of the countries the people speak more about in Eurovision, and not for the best reasons. Last year Russia was the first country to bring a winner from the Junior Eurovision Contest to participate in the Eurovision: The Tolmachevy Sisters.
Even with their good voices and good voice performance on stage, the 6th was too high for these contestants, because of the song that was a little outdated. However, the most remarkable on the rusian participation was the booing, especially during the voting. The anti-gay laws and gowing homophobic environment together with the invasion of the ukrainian territory were the reasons for that.
And the victory of a drag queen was even more symbolic last year.
This year Russia brings again an young voice (not so young as the twins!): the 28 years old Polina Gagarina with a powerful ballad called "A Million Voices". For me this is in line with their 2013's proposal: a song that appeals to peace and harmony. Of course many voices started immediatly arguing, saying that is a sign of hypocrisy from a country that is reducing the freedom, especially against the LGBT community, Also this year, even before the begining of the contest, some people in Russia protested against the Polina's words, when she supported the Conchita's victory.
Performing in semifinal 1 and being Russia, it would always be very easy to advance to the grand final. This year, they not only will qualify but they also deserve it. Let's hope that Polina will be able to put on stage all the emotions essential for this powerful ballad.
The booing will be inevitable: especially because Eurovision is one of the biggest LGBT events in the world.


Israel -  Nadav Guedj with "Golden Boy"

Let's talk about a country with one of the most particular and curious paths in the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel was the first country from the euro-Asia region to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest (since 1973) bringing many times over the years, songs with a singular and unique style. The victory of Dana International in 1998 is still one of the most famous victories not only, but also for being the first and only (so far) transexual to win the contest.
Unfortunately in the last years Israel hadn't been lucky, failing the qualification since 2011 (the year when Dana's returned). 2013 and especially 2014 were years in which the voting was very unfair with Israel. Some people have been putting Israel in  the countries that may withdarw from the contest due to the unfair results. However, not only Israel resists, but also they made a big style change from last year. This year's song is fresh, funny and with traditional and ethnic elements, that make it even more attractive. In a year full of ballads, many of them a little boring, Israel made a great decision by sending a song very different from the others in style. It has a curious strange beginning, but the people can easily understand the message. This song will easily remain on people's mind when the time to vote will arrive. Nadav Geudj was selected through the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa and the song was selected internally.
It's a good proposal and it seems that Nadav will perform it well. The only problem will be the capacity to conciliate a ritmic song with a good vocal. Israel will be in the called most difficult semifinal. and among the countries that in the past gave more points to Israel, only The Netherlands and Portugal will vote in the same semifinal.

Eurovision 2015: Vienna is coming (III)

Here are my comments about two more countries

Slovenia and Maraaya

For me the Slovenian participation in the ESC is one of the most peculiar among the Balkan Countries. Unfortunately not for the best reasons because several times Slovenia should be in the Grand Final and that didn't happen.Surprinsingly Slovenia qualified last year, even without many of its neighbors in the contest. 

This year the scenario is a little different. One of out neighbors returned (Serbia) but the most important is the quality of the music: since the victory of the duo "Maraaya", the slovenian song is placed between the favourites not only to advance to the grand final but also to win this competition. However, even with the recent changes inm the voting system that are reducing the political and neighborhood effects, I don't think that Slovenia will win this year. The style of the duo is very interesting and the songer has a great voice live. This song was tottaly differente from the runner-up, the group Rudi Bučar en Figoni with the song "Šaltinka". It's a very funny and energic song but, coming from Slovenia it was a certain way to rest in the semi-final.

But it's interesting to see the variety of the songs this country has sent to the contest, or at least has on its semifinal. Slovenia will have at its semifinal Montenegro and Ireland, that are among the countries that usually give more points to this country. 

The qualification is more than certain, and I sincerely hope will win in a better place than last year and 2011.

Czech Republic and Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta

I need to start standing that, so far and for the first time, Czech Republic is really caring about its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Now let's talk about the lest lucky country in the Eurovision. It had participated only three times and, not only failed to reach the final all the times, but also place last two of these times, and the other was the penultimate. Even being in the center of Europe, surrounded by countries, the neighborhood effect doesn't mean anything to Czech Republic.

After the withdraw in 2010 due to poor audiences and results and the absence since then, no one was expecting the return of this country to this year's edition. However, in 19th of November 2014, the czech broadcaster, ČT, revealed its intention to participate and the internal selection as the selection  process.

This year ČT decided to choose two singers with a consistent career in the country: it's obvious that Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta are not beginenrs and inexperienced in the music field. 

Alone their voices are great and the same was expected when they would be put together. However, the result was not so stunning as many people were expecting. The ballad is interesting and, even being in a year full of ballads, is not among the worst. But after listenning the song I feel that something is still missing like if they were really close but didn't achieve it!

Even bring the most dificult semi-final and not receiving any political voting, the voice quality of the singers and a decent performance on stage can make to Czech Republic the same that was made with Montenegro and San Marino last year: achieve the final for the first time. But if the qualification can be a reality, a good place (maybe TOP 15 at least) is not so possible.

Armenian Genocide: 100 years of conflit in the Caucasian Region

Today (24th of January 2015) we celebrate a century from what is called for many as the first genocide of the 20th century. And it happened in a very turbulent region of the world, very close to the european continent. What happened there was a result of what was happening for centuries and was one reason for many of the conflits that still exist in this area.
But let's go back to 1915 to understand better what occurred there.
The caucasian region map was quite different from the present. In the beggining of the 20th century Armenia was between 3 big nations: Persia, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Armenia is one of the oldest nations in the world but its boards were not defined in the same shape like today.
Being in a territory where many conflits occurred among the centuries and being placed between the East and the West, many cultures, religions and beliefs had been spread in this areas. And also with all the invasions and occupations, the diaspora was a natural consequence of this situation.

It was estimated that 2 million of armenians were living in the Ottoman Empire and after the massacre and deportation, 1.5 million died. In 1915 the Ottoman Empire was participating in the World War I together with the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. At this time, the ottoman religious authorities declared a 'holy war' - jihad - to all the christians, except their enemies: among the enemies were of course the armenias. Many of the military authorites started to accuse the armenians of betrayal, arguing that they were helping the russians. On 24th of April the real massacre started: first the intellectual armenians were arrested and brutally executed, and then the rest of the armenians were forced to leave their homes with nothing and sent to walk in the Mesopotamian dessert with no food or water until they died. They were forced to walk under a extremly hot sun and if they stopped to rest they were immediately dead. At the same time, organizations were formed in the Ottoman Empire in order to eradicate any christian presence in the country, by persecution, destruction and dead. The result was obvious: when the massacre ended in 1922 only 388000 armenians were still living in the Ottoman Empire.
But the tensions did not finish then.

The religions differences

As you already figured the religion is a controversial subject in this area. The crhistians and muslims were co-existing in the same territory for centuries, but this living together is far away from being paceful.
The official religion of the Ottoman Empire were the Islam but they allowed the existence of religious minorities. However, their rights were not tottaly respected and their social status was below the statusof the muslims. Eventhought the armenians lived together with the ottomans. But the religions tensions had been always there and it was a question of time until a conflit based on religious questions get started.
After the genocide the religious issue continued to be a problem. With the end of the Ottoman Empire and later the Soviet Union, many countries were formed in this region besides Armenia: Azerbaijan and Georgia too. Like Armenia, the main religion in Georgia is the christianity. But like Turkey, the main religion is the Islam. There have been some religious tensions in this region in the last decades, especially between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Armenia Genocide memorial in Bikfaya

Conflits between Armenia and Azerbaijan

The problem is far away from being solved. The main issue is the authority in the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, a non-recognized sovereign republic that was part of the soviet republic of azerbaijan when it was integrated in the Soviet Union. After the fall of the comunism in the region, the authority over this territory is being disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The religious freedom is legally recognized in all this countries but over the decades many inccidents and discriminations have occurred.

The lack of civil rights

Besides the religious rights, many other problems related to the civil rights persist in this region, especcially the LGBT ones. The same-sexual activity is recognized in all these countries. But only of them had signed the UN declaration and in none of them the sam-sex relationships or marriages are legally recognized. Not also the adoption. The same for the absense of anti descrimination laws, that only exist in Georgia.
There are also some improvements that need to be done in gender equality between men and women in the domestic and labor worlds.

The Eurasia is a place of tensions and conflits which are far away from being solved. Unfortunately many situations like the armenian massacre could happen again.

Eurovision 2014: what happened in one year after Conchita's victory?

Whitin excatly one month will start the Eurovision 2015 with the first semi-final. Of course the dimension of this contest goes beyond the week of the competition. Since October unitl March are released the songs for the next edition and of course after the end of the contest, people and the media continue to talk about the recent edition. The dimension of the talks and the media's cover depend a lot of the controversies of that edition. And last year was one of the years with more controversy in the History of Eurovision. And the big part of that controversy was caused by just one person: CONCHITA WURST.

In this article I will talk about some of the reactions about Wurst's victory and some of her biggest moments.

The victory: support from the West and hate/indifference from the East

Last year's contest was another contest in which the people didn't have a big consensus about the winning song, unlike some past editions like 2013 or 2012. Austria was one of the favourites but, some bad comments and reactions about that character made the chances for Conchita's victory many difficult. But the truth was that, surprising for some and expected for others, Conchita did win the contest with the 4th biggest points awarded in the grand final. But even with only 4 countries not voting for Austria, Europe last year was tottaly divided into 2 parts. Despite the 12 points from Israel, the other 12 countries that gave the maximum points to Austria were all from the West (Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland and Sweden). Conchita was clearly the winner in the West but not so clear in the East. Even being in the TOP3 points from Lithuania, Ukraine, Romania and Georgia, the fact is that 3 of the countries that didn't give a single point for Austria were from the East too (Poland, Belarus and Armenia). And of course I need to mention all the polemic and the boycott threats to participation in the contest from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Many voices, even from politicians and ministers especially from Russia accused Conchita for giving a bad example for the kids and to violate the good values of tradition, And the comments became even worst, saying that Conchita should die and burn in hell.

The truth after all was that the big part of Europe supported Conchita and her song.

Of course the controversy was intensified after the show especially between Conchita and Russia. But of course the problems were not only between Russia and Conchita.

Just a few days after Conchita's victory  Angel Dzhambazki, an european congressman from Bulgariam said that Conchita is a genetically modified organism. That sentence is very hard to understand since Conchita only put implants on brest and long hair: according to her press conference after the grand final, Conchita is still a man.

The controversy with the Christian Religions

Of course the Conchita's caracther was also a controversy issue for the christian religions.

And in that subject, we saw two opposite reactions.

First, the negative and absurd comments from the orthodox Patriarch of Serbia that blamed the gays and the Conchita's victory for the storms that happened in the Sava River and caused the death of dozens of persons in the Balcan region. It's very strange to see that a Austrian singer that won in Denmark was responsible for storms that happened... in Serbia. Even more strange is the fact that the pedophile priests or even the gay ones are not responsible for nothing. 

One the other side, we received an amazing positive reaction from the Arcebishop Schonborn from Vienna who said that "In the garden fo the Lord there's space for everyboy", which is clearly and anti-hate message for Conchita. This surprising reaction received a positive feedback and support not only inside the catholic church but also outside it.

Presence in important places 

After Conchita's victory, she performed in many places, including of course the gay parades and other gay-friendly events in many cities. But I would like to highlight the presence and concert in the European Parliment, a way to show that in the European Union there's shouldn't be place for hat and homophobia Unfortunately, in some of its members the hate still persists. I would love to see the  Angel Dzhambazki's reaction in front of Conchita Wurst.

In all the editions we face lots of controversy about many subjects. But one of the most controversial was last year's edition. But despite all the bad reactions and comments the truth is that Conchita is one of the most famous winners from recent years and, brought attentions to the Eurovision from people that usually don't pay attention to that contest.

What about this year? We have already some controversies but they will not be so big like last year!

Eurovision 2015: Vienna is comming (II)

Here are my cooments: this time I will do like before - comment two countries in each message.

THE NETHERLANDS - Trijntje Oosterhuis with "The Walk Alone"


In 2013 The Netherlands surprised us with the artist and the song they had chosen to represent their country in Malmo. And for the first time since there are semi-finals, The Netherlands took part in the Grand Final, finishing in the TOP10 (9th place), something that never happened before since 1999. But the surprises from this country that was "lost" in the competition with very bad results between 2005 and 2012 didn't stop here. Last year, with another internal selection by the dutch broadcast (AVROTROS) The Netherlands reached the final again finishing in 2nd place and winning its semifinal, achieving the best result for the country since 1975.
With this wave of good luck the AVROTROS used the same method to select its representative for this year contest. The artist chosen is Trijntje Oosterhuis a very famous dutch singer with a solid career and a great voice. The Netherlands was one of the first countries to present its artist and song. After the good reaction by the selection of Trijntje, there were many expectations around the song. One month after the annoucment of the artist the broadcaster presented the song, already considered by the artist an uptempo song.
This year The Netherlands tries to achieve the final and a place in the podium with a style a little different from the previous two years. However, considering the big number of ballads present this year and the quality of Trijntje's voice the qualification is almost sure. The song doesn't bring anything new in terms of musical quality and it will be very hard to amaze the audience with an amazing performance but the jury will definitely support the dutch song and with the help of Belgium and France - the countries that usually give more points to The Netherlands - voting in this semi-final we will see this country in the Final.


FINLAND - Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät with "Aina mun pitää"

I don't know exactly how to start. If we make some research on the internet (foruns, youtube, social networks) it's practically impossible to see somebody making good comments about this song. It wasn't the favourite of antbody: in fact, it's almost always in the last place. But the true is this - They win the 'Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2015'.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is a finish punk-rock song created in 2009 consisting on adults with developmental disabilities. The participation in the finish documentary "The Punk syndrome" and the concert with Mr. Lordi made this band very famous in Finland.
But despite that, the victory of this band was very unexpected. Like always, the finish festival is very different in style of what its neighbours present and rarely has the quality to win or even finish in a good place in the Grand Final. This year wasn't different. Howerver there were a few songs with the capacity to bring a good result to Finland, including the 2nd ranked, "Satin Circus" with the song "Crossroads", which was the favourite of the jury and many people on the social networks (including me).
Surprisingly the victory was to Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. Honestly I can't find anything good on the song, even because it has only 1:30 minutes (something possible in the Eurovision according to the rules). It's impossible for me to understand the quality's voice of the singer and even the melody.
But if it's true that the people can be mean about the song, it'a not also true that they can be mean about the artists. Calling them bad names just because they have mental disabilities is being rude and prejudiced.
Maybe the people will vote on this song for pitty, but one thing is voting for pitty in the babushkas in 2012 for example, with a song that we could easily listen without having a headache and another thing is this music. And unfortunately from the countries that give more points to Finland only Denmark will vote in that semi-final.
I can predict a very bad result for Finland this year.

The singular growth process of India (I)

Generally, the economic growth process is a sequence that starts with the loss of importance of the agricultural sector (either the percentage of GDP or in percentage of the workforce employed) and an increase of the importance of industry first, and services next.

As the economic growth nears maturity, the dominant sector is the services, followed generally by the industry and then by agriculture.
However, the economic growth process of India was deviated from this common process, going straight from agriculture to the leadership of the service sector.
The lack of industrial development was due in very of the presence of a stifling regulation, especially in the legislation about the work and the policies about the small size industries.
Another unusual aspect is the permanence of the same distribution of the employed population among the diverse sectors: the majority of the employed population still remain in the agriculture.

The IT related activities still represent a small parcel of the service sector. The sub-sectors that had increase considerably due to economic liberalization were the business services, comunications and banks.
However, due to high qualifications, and technic capacity of human resources in IT field, we expect that this will the sub-sector with the higher increase in the next years.
And could India have a sustained economic growth in the future, without the industrial sector? The most likely scenario is no.
The manufactured production will be a way to India have a sustentable growth, and will contribute to the poverty reduction.
One of the fundamental variables to the manufactury development will be the increase in qualifications and skills of the rural population.
A more qualificated population together with a liberalization of agriculture, would allow an exit of workforce to the more procutive areas.
This process will fortify the pruduction level of the rural areas and generate a bigger work suplly to the manufactury activity.
Through this process, India will have a economic path similar to its asiatic neighbors, and could also have a biggest urbanization of its territory.

In the last 50 years, India has change its isolation policy (namely, domestic view policy): the increasly economic liberalization and gradual opening to the world economy, boosted the economic growth rate and lifted millions out of poverty.
If these reforms are maintained and move forward at the same rytm and intensity in the next 10-15 years, then the economy could increase in an average of 6%/year.
However, if the reforms will be deeper , the GDP coul increase an average of 7-8% per year in the same period.
In 2020 India would be the economy with thw higher annual economic growth, and the 3rd biggest economy in the world (behind China and USA). Its GDP per capita also could duplicate in the same period of time.
This projection will only be possible if the demographic conditions remain the same. And these conditions will be discussed in the next message.

Eurovision 2015: Vienna is comming (I)

Yes I'm back with my comments about the Eurovision's entries. This year we are going to Vienna, and I'll start to comment the choice from my own country.

PORTUGAL AND LEONOR ANDRADE

Like in some many years in the past, the portuguese public broadcast (RTP) held the 'Festival da Canção' in March to select its representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. In the last years we have watched some changes in the selection process. The same happened this year, with the (re)introduction of two semifinals, one final and a super-final. In the semifinals and in the final three songs were chosen - two by the public and the other but the composers - to advance for the next round.
Despite the differences the Fetsival received the same criticisms by some people about the repetition of the same music style and the weakness of the songs. Also this new method of asking to all the composers to  select a music from the 'competition' to advance to the next round was very criticized. However, the public agreed with almost all the qualifiers from the semi-finals. The same we cannot say about the qualifiers for the super-final with many people expecting to see Yola in this last round. After all, the public with 100% of decision power, chose Leonor Andrade to represent Portugal in Vienna in May.

This year we had the return of one of the symbols of the portuguese participation in the Eurovision: Simone de Oliveira, the portuguese representative in  1965 and 1969. Simone de Oliveira was qualified for the final but missed the qualification for the super-final. As for the other participants, most of them were known from their participation in some portuguese talent shows (like the winner) and/or from previous participations in the Festival, like Filipa Baptista in 2009 (that failed to qualify from the semi-final) and Teresa Radamanto in 2007 (that was in the super-final). Like in the previous years, we could see that there are really good voices in Portugaal. Unfortunately the voices are underused and their potential are not fully availed.

This song has definetly many aspects to be improved and Leonor and her team have a long and hard work to do before May. However, even with better and strongest voices in the final, as Yola and Teresa, it's amazing to see Portugal choosing a different style to represent it in the Eurovision.

This year the semifinal where Portugal was allocated is not very hard, but it will not have the political voting from Spain and France, the two countries that usuallt give more points to Portugal. However, improving the performance a qualification is really possible.