August 2004
Complete and utter disaster both
for my career as a sports pundit
and for Moldova! Despite wining
a silver and a bronze medal at both
the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics,
the Moldovan team left Athens without having to worry too much about the metal detectors at the airport. Not even the prospect of a $50 000 reward from the government could propel any brave Moldovan beyond fourth place: Alexandru Bratan (pictured here on this Moldovan website) intitially placed fifth in thr 105kg weightlifting class, but sadly only one failed drug test promoted him a further position.
Transdniestr's sorry saga continues, as President Voronin announced that he will not negotiate directly with the rebel region's representatives, but deal only
with Russia and Ukraine over the issue, reports Radio Free Europe. I'm beginning to think that this is developing into a Cypriot-style frozen conflict that is never quite going to be resolved. A bit like Lancashire vs Yorkshire.
Two reports from the International Journalists' Network mention Moldova: firstly, the country earns slightly more than faint praise for the liberalism of its media laws, but there are worrying reports of a hunger strike over recruitment atTelradio Moldova. I felt much the same when the BBC turned down my application to join them...
Seanne Hanke, the US Peace Corps volunteer whose jottings I follow has set up a website geocities.com/topalawater to highlight a partnership project to bring running water to the small community of Topala. She notes.. after the fall of the Soviet Union, however, this once relatively prosperous farming hamlet found itself abandoned and without a civil society to maintain even the most basic services. Hell, where's an evil empire when you really need it? |
