By this does German song abide

East Ethnia offers its congratulations to Dr Faust.

Essay competition

I'll just bet that among the people who read this blog there are some who might have something to submit to this essay competition. We want to publish the ten best pieces on the theme “Evaluating Intervention: Local perspectives on democracy-building in the Post-Yugoslav countries and territories.”

Update: The announcement that is posted is not the final version. I will link to the final version when it is up. The deadline will be 18 May.

Notes on prosecution

We finally saw the fine old Orson Welles film The Stranger. A war crimes prosecutor (played with a lot of enunciation by the great Edward G Robinson) inexplicably releases a major suspect (played by somebody who resembles Janez Drnovšek) without trial. The suspect leads him to a small town where the principal suspect (played with arrogant menace by the great Orson Welles) is hiding in plain sight, teaching history. The failure of witness protection is made painfully apparent in several instances, and Edward G Robinson has only a friendly high school student to help him reach the truth and apprehend the suspect. Everybody in town is unfamiliar with the purpose of prosecution and with criminal procedure. When the truth comes out, the suspect lays claim to a transcendent rationale, after which he is permitted to die without trial. The greatest menace is represented by the functioning of devices to measure time, to which everybody objects.

Prescient little film, that.