Still haunted by the past

The Greek referendum is not, of course, the only significant event taking place in Europe at the moment. This week also marks the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, one of the more grotesque chapters of European post-war history.  

In a disquieting, but nonetheless quite absorbing article for The Guardian, Julian Borger does not just describe the continued anguish of those who lost loved ones and are still waiting for their remains to be unearthed.  He also reveals the extent to which narratives of the war continue to compete within Srebrenica today and the rise of denials surrounding the true scope and nature of the killings.

Ad absurdum?

And talking of attempts to assert a certain control over a situation and its depictions, I spotted a rather pointed article in Der Spiegel about encroachments on the freedom of the press in Russia. The authors begin their analysis with the story of the Siberian newspaper editors who spent three days painstakingly removing a page from all 50,000 editions of their weekly paper. It would almost be funny, if weren’t for the fact that their assiduousness articulates the very real need to toe the [Kremlin] line.

What’s more, if this RFE / RL article is anything to go by, it’s not only journalists who may have to start fearing for their livelihoods. In the city of Nizhnevartovsk, yoga instructors apparently received letters warning them to refrain from teaching the practice in municipal buildings so as to "prevent the spread of new religious cults and movements."

The mind boggles, and I’m pretty sure my chakras are in a bit of a twist too.