Anna Claessen

It was the election of firsts, first woman to lead Iceland’s government, first time so many women have been in parliament (42.9%), and the first time in Icelandic history that there has been a leftist government.

The bosses of Iceland’s central bank stepped down and said goodbye to their employees on Feb. 26 after the parliament passed a bill restructuring the bank’s senior management policy, reducing the number of chiefs from two to one.

"David Oddsson and Eirikur Gudnason, the governors of the Central Bank of Iceland, announced their resignation at a meeting earlier today, MBL reported. Eirikur Gudnason has worked in the Central Bank for 40 years and hence was an important part of Iceland’s financial history. Oddsson has been chairman since autumn 2005."

Like the three wise men in the Bible, my two siblings and I were riding camels through the desert with only the stars to guide us through the darkness. Seeing my mother deeply touched, I thought there was no better way to celebrate Christmas.

After a six-hour flight from Maldives, entertaining ourselves watching one of the thirty channels offered in the Emirate plane, my family was finally in Dubai, the second largest of seven emirates of The United Arab Emirates, situated on the Persian Gulf next to Saudi Arabia, and Oman.

Young men in tuxedos playing air guitar to the thumping sounds of rock; young women in long dresses jumping wildly around in formless frenzy - this was not exactly

Not what I thought a Viennese ball would be like.

For one thing, I had expected a waltz. As a former ballroom dancer, I imagined men and women in stylish evening clothes swirling to a ¾ beat or a Latin tango. And as it turned out, I was not all wrong. It was just that some other, unexpected things have been added to the scene.

The crowd looked like a stream of ants going into the Hofburg for the Economics University Ball on Saturday Jan.12. And economists or not, the denizens of the Wirtschaftsuniversität were arriving late, just minutes before the program was to begin.

I turn on the TV and different images keep flashing on my screen. I feel my emotions rushing through my body. Anger, devastation and disbelief – all those images of territory lost to pollution, facts about global warming and cartoons showing the damage we are doing to our earth. Next to these images were videos of celebrities, actress Jessica Biel and American Pie actor Jason Biggs doing their part by sorting the trash. Apparently we are supposed to admire them so much that we immediately want to do the same.

“What is this,” I wonder. It isn’t until I see John Mayer singing “Waiting for the World to Change” live in concert that I realize what this is: It’s Live Earth.

Christmas in Orthodox Macedonia is on Jan. 7th, 14 days later than most others celebrates. This is a mixed blessing. The upside, especially if you are a student in a foreign country, is that you get to celebrate twice. The downside is that it makes you different. But being different is not always a bad thing, because in Macedonia we don't have the shopping hype and chaos, at least not for Christmas. We value the New Year more and exchange our presents then. At our Christmas -- celebrated on what is the feast of Epiphany in the Christian West in honor of the visit of the Three Kings -- the importance is placed on the 6th of January rather than on the 7th.

It’s hot, loud, a Turkish wedding and a work of theatre. It’s socio-experimental theatre.

Standing in front of the entrance door, we again checked the address, Ragnarhof, Grundsteingasse 12. “Situated in the 16th District, near Thaliastrasse,” the invitation said.

We followed the crowd, taking the narrow flight of stairs up to the second floor where rows of chairs were set up, men to the left, women to the right.

As times change, so does the news. We’re now in the digital age, with 24-hour news, andmedia that seem to morph into new forms before our eyes. We can watch whatever we want, when we want, and how we want.

Before, we had little choice, so we read and watched what was offered in a handful of newspaper, newsmagazines and network channels. Today, the sources seem limitless, and the number of newspapers, TV and radio stations can be overwhelming. Since the arrival of the Internet, we have an opportunity to download or upload what we’ve missed. Today, we have a lot of to choose from. Perhaps too much.

Moishe Arye Fried- man, the chief Rabbi of the Orthodox Anti-Zion- ist Community in Austria, has been heavily criticized by many both in- and out- side the Jewish community for his opinions and his ac- tions. But he had no idea that his attendance at the Holocaust conference in Teheran would later be- come grounds for his chil- dren being expelled from a Talmud-Torah school.

It was all done very im- personally with a letter ad- dressed to their house.

“Other parents do not want to have their children educated with children whose father shows such infuriating behavior,” was Viennese Talmud-Torah school of Machsike Ha- dass’s reason for why Fried- man’s four children attend- ing school there were being expelled.