Comments on: Belated Eurovision liveblog

By: A shift in focus: History and Culture | Nosemonkey’s EUtopia

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:34:16 +0000

[...] am always reading to find out more, and in recent months have most enjoyed writing posts like the Eurovision liveblog and overview of wannabe European [...]

By: Turbopixie

Turbopixie — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:46:21 +0000

I barricaded myself in with sinful amounts of booze and nibbles for this. Azerbaijan were robbed! ROBBED I tell you! My favourites were either them or the nut-nuts from Bosnia and their demon knitting Mrs Havershams. I know Bilan is a star and that Timbaland produced the winning song, but in my humble opinion it blows all kinds of goats. Are the Eurovision entries available for download anywhere?

By: Ma-ma-ma-making your mind up « Gary Andrews

Ma-ma-ma-making your mind up « Gary Andrews — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:54:19 +0000

[...] euroblogger par excellence Nosemonkey does his bit for Anglo-European relations: “Azerbaijan to win! Brilliantly over the top [...]

By: NiklasHS

NiklasHS — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:11:27 +0000

Devolution, country breakups and cultural ties have always played a part. In Scandinavia it’s always brought up and criticized, but Scandinavian nations still give kinship votes to each other without any feelings of hypocrisy. And it really works in the disadvantage to certain countries such as the UK who do not have many other countries who they’re big buddies with (except Ireland in this case). Hey, just got one more argument for Scottish independence! The unequalness is also strengthened by the addition that all countries have equal weight in point distribution, so San Marino gives out just as many points as Germany.

In many respects, despite the legitimate criticism, there is always the other side of looking at it. Europe is geographically very broad, and as mentioned, depending on who you ask it includes Azerbaijan and even Israel. The center of Europe is not western Europe. The center is not the Benelux. It’s more towards Slovakia/Poland/Belarus. This means coming to the realization that just because us western Europeans are the most dominant economically or feel like we’re culturally superior does not mean that we deserve to be the victors.

It feels like there is some kind of an ethnic discriminatory-like grudge towards easterners in combination to western self-admiration that underlines this whole issue. We deserve to win because we’re superior and the easterners deserve to lose because they’re inferior and just cheat all the time. No wonder eastern European immigrants sometimes lie regarding their country of origin – when this type of ethnic strife continues to be perpetuated through something as simple as a song contest!

I still believe though the Eurovision song contest is a good thing to do and a good thing to have. It’s a beautiful remnant of the post-WW2 thinking of trying to bring Europe together. And to me it feels reminiscent of the European Union, though as a cultural project instead of a political and economic project.

By: John

John — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:33:08 +0000

“Because everyone hates us and our song was shit.”

No, just because our song was shit.

By: Eurovision: can’t resist | afoe | A Fistful of Euros | European Opinion

Sat, 24 May 2008 21:27:33 +0000

[...] found that Nosemonkey did a much better job of this, even if he did inexplicably take the French entry [...]