Word: easternism
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...idea of China as the gravitational center of a globalized world is something most countries have gotten used to. But classical music hadn't seemed like it would be part of that mix, if only because Western opera and the Eastern world never made a natural fit. To outsiders, the traditional Peking opera seemed as much circus as song, with extraneous acrobatics and melodies that struck European ears as atonal and arhythmic. Western opera - with its volume and bombast - fell similarly flat in the East. But since Western ways were the planet's dominant ones, it was China that...
...Eastern Europe avoided the first wave of banking problems caused by the sub-prime mess, but as the global economy slows and credit dries up, there's plenty to cry about. Many of the region's capitals borrowed heavily to fuel the boom, and those bills are coming due. On Oct. 26, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a $16.5 billion bailout for Ukraine, to prevent a run on its banks and shore up its currency. Three days later, the IMF agreed with the World Bank and the European Union on a $25 billion rescue package to restore confidence...
...During Eastern Europe's good times, few countries partied quite as hard as the tiny Baltic states. The end of communist rule and the liberalization of their economies, together with the promise of joining the E.U. (which all three did in 2004), drove dizzying growth. Rapidly rising wages and property prices fueled the exuberance. In cities like Tallinn, families borrowed to buy their own homes for the first time. Flashy cars bumped along cobblestone streets, while high-end restaurants catered to the new moneyed class, serving mojito cocktails and champagne for lunch. "It was like New York City...
That's a question being raised in other parts of Eastern Europe these days, too. By one estimate, net banking flows into the region, most of them originating in Western Europe, will fall from $219 billion in 2007 to just $74 billion next year. Sweden's Swedbank, which not long ago earned a fifth of its profits from the Baltic region, has seen its stock price halve in the past year over fears of exposure to bad loans, and on Oct. 27 it announced a $1.5 billion rights issue to bolster its finances. Two days later Austria's Erste Bank...
Today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—the former property of Belgian King Leopold II and third largest African nation by land mass—tens of thousands of people are living in displaced peoples’ camps located throughout the eastern region off that nation. According to a Congolese woman interviewed by the BBC, “The fighting began near our home in the middle of the night. There was a lot of gunfire and ‘mabombi’ —explosions [shelling]. Some people were caught in the middle...