Another attempt to make some kind of sense of what's going on east of the Dniester. Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan come in for special attention.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Back to Bloglandia

It's been a while, but I've been pretty busy with family, work and endless rehearsals with various bands. However, the knowledge that I have an audience of multiple millions (a silent majority, of course,) thirsting for me to make some sense of their confusing and drab little lives, has forced me to once again take up electronic pen and paper and provide enlightenment.

While I've been busy saving the world via punk rock, some other admittedly less influential people in the world have been going about their business. The US Presidential election has been going big guns, not least in the form of an increasingly nasty (and tiresome) fight between Hilary and Barack.

(Full disclosure: were I American, I would almost certainly vote for a Democrat candidate)

That being so, I've watched and listened to the right-wing radio network do its "Jeremiah Wright 24/7" show. Boring beyond belief.

Closer to home, Ukraine's top two politicians (by position, not by popularity) are - no news here - embroiled in a multi-front battle to be top dog. I'll say this for Ukrainian politics: boring, they ain't. The overall strategies remain the same for Mr. A ("hang on to power at any cost") and Mrs. B ("win more power at any cost"). Tactics shift from the poor, abused Constitution to the State Property Fund. I'm going to look at some of these in separate posts and will be wondering whether recent events have left others longing for the principled management of the Party of Regions (irony intended.)

And Russia...oh, dear. Much to talk about there. And, I warn you, I will.

Hockey? We've got hockey here at Eastern Approaches. For those who care (i.e. all of you,) the Montreal Canadiens managed to hand off the Bruins, but not without real difficulty. Next up were the Flyers and the Habs had no answer for that opponent - they were out in 5 games. Bummer, but it was an unexpectedly good season, leaving me with lots of optimistic feelings for next year.

In international hockey, Canada won the Under-18 Junior World Championship, smiting Russia 8-0 in the final. I feared mentioning this at home, lest I be set upon by relatives. Canada took the silver at the Women's World Championship, losing to perennially tough opponents the USA in the final.

The World Hockey Championship is now underway in lovely Halifax (great place to have ANY event, especially hockey) and Canada is 3-0, having had a fairly easy time beating the stuffing out of Slovenia (5-1) and Latvia (7-0, ouch), before moving on to a much tougher game against the Yanks. Glory be, we won (5-4), but it wasn't easy. Speed on defense seems to be a problem and will be a massive worry should we face the Russians, who have a smoking good team. Check out the tournament site ici

And on to the fray...

No comments:

Fisherman"s Blues

Fisherman"s Blues
Ice-Fishing near Astana (when it was still Akmola)