2022 International Family Day

Today is the International Day of Families.  It takes place every 15 May and it was first proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993.  The goal is to promote awareness of the issues which families face and to increase the social, economic and demographic processes that affect families.  There's a different theme each year.

This year's theme is Families and Urbanisation.  The goal is to raise awareness about the importance of sustainable, family-friendly urban policies.  Cities and settlements should be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Family homelessness is increasing.  Germany and Slovakia have the largest homeless population per 10.000 people.  Sweden, Luxembourg, and Latvia also have a significant homeless population.  Many people think that is in large part due to the increasing number of homeless refugees and migrants.

2022 Eurovision Finals

Last night were the grand finals of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Italy.  This year's competition had 40 countries enter and compete in two semi-final rounds with 25 in the grand finale.  Again, Russia was not allowed to compete due to its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

Kalush Orchestra, who won the first semi-final, won this year's contest.  They won with 631 points which is incredible.  Their song "Stefania" is the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian.  It's also the first song to ever win with hip-hop elements.  Here's their winning performance.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The UK came in second place.  Sam Ryder's song "Space Man" received 466 points.  This sets a record for the UK with 16 second place finishes.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The winner of the second semi-final, Sweden, finished in fourth place behind Spain.

Czechland didn't do so well.  We Are Domi earned just 38 points and ended up in 22nd place.  But at least we made the grand finale and beat Iceland, France, and Germany.

©Eurovision Song Contest

If anyone's interested in watching the full grand finale then here's the complete 4,25 hour show that's available on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Well done Ukraine!  I hope that this isn't the only thing that they win this year.  Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

New Old Man Glasses

Back in 2017, the optometrist diagnosed me with "old man eyes."  I only needed them for reading but now I find myself needing them more and more.  So a couple of weeks ago I went and had my eyes checked.  Yep, my vision has gotten a little worse so I got a new prescription and ordered some new frames.

Aside from my vision having gotten worse, two things were different this time.  

1. In order to squeeze me in sooner, the clinic scheduled me a visit with an optometrist who doesn't speak English.  I did the entire visit in Czech.  I was kind of proud of myself for that one.
2. There used to be a 150 Kč discount towards new frames but apparently that doesn't exist anymore.

This week I picked up my two new pairs.  I tend to keep one pair for work and another pair for home.  What do you think?

2022 Eurovision Semi-Final 2

Last night was the second semi-final round of the this year's Eurovision Song Contest.  The first semi-final on Tuesday was won by Ukraine.  Eighteen countries participated in last night's competition.

Sweden came in first place.  Cornelia Jakobs sang her song "Hold Me Closer" in English.  Here's the video of her performance from YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Czechland placed fourth in the last night's competition so they qualified for Saturday night's final.  This year the Czech entry is the group We Are Domi which is a Czech-Norwegian electro pop group that started in the UK in 2016.  

Dominika Hašková is the lead vocalist.  She's actually Czech-American as she was born in the USA to Czech parents.  Her father is Dominik Hašek who used to play hockey for the Buffalo Sabres.  In 2010, she made the final of season one of Česko Slovensko má talent. 

Casper Hatlestad and Benjamin Rekstad are Norwegian musicians.  Since 2020, they are both music teachers at the International School of Music and Fine Arts in Prague.

Their song, "Lights Off" is sung in English.  Here's their performance from last night.  Let's see how they do in the finals.

©Eurovision Song Contest

2022 Eurovision Semi-Final 1

Last night was the first semi-final for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.  Seventeen countries took part in the first semi-final held in Italy.  Russia was originally supposed to compete in the first semi-final but they were excluded from this year's competition due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.   

Ukraine came in first place.  Kalush Orchestra actually performed their song "Stefania" (Стефанія) in Ukrainian.

Here's the video that I found out on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The Czech entry competes tomorrow night in the second semi-final.  The grand final is on Saturday night.

New Mattress

The old mattress

Back in 2011, I bought a mattress from Ikea.  It was 160 cm (63 inches) wide.  Well after 11 years the mattress was getting a bit lumpy and it was well past time for a new one.

This time I actually went to a mattress store for something a bit better.  The first thing is that I wanted the maximum size mattress which is 180 cm (71 inches) wide.  My first adventure at the shop was explaining to the shop assistant that I didn't want to go with two individual (90 cm) mattresses.  

The shop assistant asked me which side of the bed I slept on and I said "the middle" which is why I don't want to sleep on the crack between two smaller mattresses.  He then tried to explain to me why it is so much better to go with two smaller mattresses.  He asked if I was married and tried to suggest that perhaps my future wife would prefer two mattresses.  I was starting to get annoyed.  Not just because he assumed that I was straight and would have a wife but because I came in to spend money and he was making me not want to give him my money.

I finally just put my foot down and said that this is what I wanted and that was it.  Because the mattress is not a standard size it would take longer to make and to ship it to me from Slovakia where it would be manufactured.  I was told it would take about five weeks and it arrived today.

I'm so looking forward to a good night's sleep.  Now I just have to get rid of my old mattress.  The company didn't offer a service to remove the old one.  It looks like I'll put a message up on the Brno Facebook page to see if anyone wants a free mattress.

Geetha's Farewell Lunch

Today was Geetha's farewell lunch.  I've more or less worked with Geetha the whole time that I've been here in Czechland.  She worked in India with my team located in Brno.  She's always been a rock star so several years ago I sorted out a transfer for her to Brno.  Then a few years later, we worked together in a different team before I left to do something else.

But after more than five years in Brno she's ready to go back home.  That's one of the things about expats.  For the most part they come and then one day go back to their home country or head to the next adventure.

When I first moved here I thought that I'd be here for 2, maybe 3 years, and then either head back to the USA or perhaps end up in another country.  Yet, even after almost 13 years, I don't have any plans to leave Brno.

Safe travels back to Bangalore Geetha!  We'll miss you!!

Partnership for Peace

NATO has something something called Partnership for Peace (PfP).  It's a bilateral cooperation programme between NATO and Euro-Atlantic partner countries that lets partners build up an individual relationship with NATO.  PfP started in 1994 as a way to build security relationships between NATO and non-NATO countries.  Participating countries choose their own priorities for cooperation and the both the level and pace of progress.

The programme allowed NATO to reach out to former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Republics following the end of the Cold War.  The programme allows countries to build closer relationships with NATO without actually becoming a NATO member.  It's important to remember that the PfP programme has nothing to do with NATO's article 5 which says that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all.  So while Ukraine is a PfP member it is not a member of NATO.  

Here's the list of when countries joined the PfP programme.  Many went on to officially join NATO later on.  

Romania - 26.01.1994

Lithuania - 27.01.1994

Poland - 02.02.1994

Estonia - 03.02.1994

Hungary - 08.02.1994

Ukraine - 08.02.1994

Slovakia - 09.02.1994

Bulgaria - 14.02.1994

Latvia - 14.02.1994

Albania - 23.02.1994

Czechia - 10.03.1994

Moldova - 16.03.1994

Georgia - 23.03.1994

Slovenia - 30.03.1994

Finland - 09.05.1994

Sweden - 09.05.1994

Azerbaijan - 04.05.1994

Turkmenistan - 10.05.1994

Kazakhstan - 27.05.1994

Russia - 22.06.1994

Armenia  05.10.1994

Uzbekistan - 13.07.1994

Belarus - 11.01.1995

Austria - 10.02.1995

Malta - 26.04.1995

Macedonia - 15.11.1995

Switzerland - 11.12.1996

Ireland - 01.12.1999

Croatia - 25.05.2000

Tajikistan - 20.02.2002

Bosnia and Herzegovina - 14.12.2006

Montenegro - 14.12.2006

Serbia - 14.12.2006

In 1999, Czechland, Hungary, and Poland became the first three PfP countries to join NATO.

In 2004, NATO saw its largest expansion when seven PfP countries joined - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Malta joined the programme in 1995 but left in 1996 and rejoined in 2008.

In 2009 - Albania and Croatia joined NATO.  Montenegro joined NATO in 2017 and North Macedonia joined in 2020 as the 30th NATO member.

In 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine, NATO suspended practical cooperation with Russia.  It's hard to picture Russia as a Partnership for Peace member considering it invaded Ukraine to keep it from joining NATO in the future.  But by doing do, I don't think it will be long until Finland and Sweden decide to join NATO.

Traditionally neutral countries such as Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland are all PfP members.  For Austria, the programme allows for cooperation with NATO without joining because under the country's constitution, Austria is prohibited from entering into military alliances and no foreign military bases may be on Austrian territory.  

Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City are all neutral micro states that are surrounded by NATO members.  They are all a part of the OSCE but they do not participate the PfP programme.

Cyprus is the only EU member that isn't a member of either NATO or the PfP programme. Kyrgyzstan is the only former Soviet republic that didn't join the PfP programme.  It did join the CSTA with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

Update: 4 April 2023 - Finland became the 31st member of NATO.

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organisation.  It even has observer status as the United Nations.  It began in 1973 as a forum between the west and the east during the Cold War.  The OSCE focuses on arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and free and fair elections.  

Its headquarters are in Vienna and today the OSCE consists of 57 participating countries plus 11 observer/partner countries.  The six official languages are English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. 

It's basically every country in Europe plus the USA and Canada.  The 11 partner countries are Afghanistan, Australia, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, South Korea, Thailand, and Tunisia. 

Each year a different country assumes the chairmanship for a calendar year and that country's minister of foreign affairs is the Chairperson-in-Office.  Czechoslovakia held the chairmanship in 1992.  An independent Czechland hasn't held the chairmanship yet but Slovakia held it in 2019.  

The chairmanship is with Poland this year.  North Macedonia has it next year followed by Estonia in 2024 and Finland in 2025.

Here's a short video I found out on YouTube about the OSCE.

©The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Bosnia, Serbia, Russia, and Z

So while in Banja Luka, I wasn't really thrilled about the Russian Z's I saw throughout the city.  They weren't everywhere but they were visible.

First of all, what's the Z?  The letter Z doesn't even exit in the Cyrillic alphabet. 

©BBC

I had to do a double-take when I saw people standing in a queue to use the ATM at a Sberbank.  That's because Sberbank, which is Russia's largest state-owned bank, is shut down in Czechland due to EU sanctions.  

My housekeeper mentioned that she had an account with Sberbank but she received a letter that her account would be closed because Sberbank is no longer allowed to operate in the EU and that she would could transfer all of her money to a new bank.  

So why hasn't Bosnia and Herzegovina sanctioned Russia like most every other country over its invasion of Ukraine?  Well, that's because of Republika Srpska and Serbia.  

Serbia and Russia are allies.  For example, because Serbia claims Kosovo as part of Serbia, Russia keeps blocking recognition of Kosovo in the United Nations.    

©DW News

Serbia hasn't closed its airspace to Russia.  Russian flights still can't get to Serbia because the planes would have to cross EU airspace to get to Serbia.  But, AirSerbia is still flying to Russia which means that many Russians are flying to Serbia and then flying onward from there.  Serbia was bombed by NATO in the 1990s and there's distrust for NATO which is good for Putin.  It's funny that Serbia isn't following EU sanctions when it is trying to join the EU.

Bosnia isn't able to pass sanctions on Russia because Republika Srpska vetos the resolutions in support of Serbia.  

©EuroNews

I still don't see how anything gets done in Bosia when everything needs to be done by consensus between three parties that were all fighting each other for years only a short time ago.  I wonder how long before this breaks up Bosnia and Herzegovina.

©BBC

Germany looks like it will ban the Z.  It seems that under German law this falls under forbidding public approval of illegal acts, or something along those lines.

In Prague, the local officials are changing the name of the street in front of the Russian Embassy.  Its new name will be "Ukrainian Heroes" street.  I bet the Russian embassy loves that one.  

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine.