2007-05-13

Readers write!

One writes in with a happy story -- Marija Šerifović, representing Serbia with the song "Molitva," has won at Evrovizija. Apparently that means that Serbia will host the competition next year. That should be fun.

And one writes in with a bizarre story about leech smuggling. The estimated value of 8849 leeches is 722,000 Euros? Apparently leeches are a profitable business. Who knew?

9 comments:

Katja R. said...

Yes leeches ARE profitable, because medicine has discovered that leeches can be used for a variety of tasks, such as cleaning wounds, removing bruises, maggots have medical use now too. They can debride a wound more cleanly than even the most skilled surgeon.

Katja R. said...

pardon the double post, it's because of the sad lack of an 'edit' button.... well that's my excuse, the truth is I have 'thoughts of the stair-case' very often...

the words in B/H/S for 'medicine' and for 'doctor' come from the word for 'leech' and this is true in Irish as well.

Anonymous said...

well, serifovic isn't Lordi, but for a Eurovision piece it's not bad at all.

Anonymous said...

whoops, that should read чип

Eric Gordy said...

Hop, cup, na kalup....

A couple of the reactions I've seen -- "Rock and democracy" calls it "turbo-folkić":

http://rockdem.moj-blog.org/blog/?p=253

And the Guardian features Ian Traynor's take under the title "From pariah state to kitsch victory: how a Balkan ballad showed Europe a new Serbia." Faint praise, anyone?:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/serbia/article/0,,2078972,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

The kitsch thing, I don't know, one the one hand the song sure isn't my style (but I'm not holding my breath waiting for Lucid Mad Love to represent the country at Evrovizija either). On the other hand, pretty much nothing can hold a candle to the Ukrainian entry on the kitsch front.

Anonymous said...

Whilst I cannot bear to watch, the whole Eurovision thing shows the possibilites of new nationhood countering new nationalisms ... all the ex-Yu countries gave the Serbia entry high marks, a pattern repeated in FSU states for each other ... well, the West will have to work out a new system to avoid 14 of the top 16 places being held by songs from CEE and FSU!!!

Still, getting a new govt, sacking Nikolic, becoming chair of Council of Europe and winning Eurovision in the space of 4 or 5 days is pretty impressive :-) .. more success than in the last 17 years combined!!!!

Bg anon said...

If we are totting up Serbian victories we can count tennis player Ana Ivanovic in as well - she won Berlin tournament yesterday.

There is no way that Molitva bears any connection with turbo folk any association is wide of the mark.

Anonymous said...

Seems I spoke too soon ... or at least failed to reckon with accusations now circulating that it is a copy of an earlier Albanian song!!!

http://www.net.hr/film-glazba/page/2007/05/14/0133006.html

Anonymous said...

Leeches secrete an anti-coagulant into the blood at the attachment site. This helps stop scab formation. If the skin doesn't seal over, healing of delicate repairs from the inside outwards is promoted.