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!