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Joaquim Crima leads the way for Russian immigrants | News | The First Post
'Volgograd Obama' has competition in election bid | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire
I think there are 3 Africans there in a town of about 12/14k. So if two collected 600+ sigs to get on the ballot... someone had to sign it...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news...ectid=10588895
[this one is good long and explains everything]
So, for black people who live in Russia, it doesn't pay to be too sensitive about their ethnicity. Pop star Narcisse, who came to study in Moscow from a wealthy Cameroonian family, was evidently aware of this. He had chart success in summer 2004 with a ska tune whose chorus began: "I'm a chocolate bunny, I'm a tender rascal, I'm 100 per cent sweet."
I think there are 3 Africans there in a town of about 12/14k. So if two collected 600+ sigs to get on the ballot... someone had to sign it...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news...ectid=10588895
[this one is good long and explains everything]
In September, Crima will mark 20 years in Russia and the former Soviet Union. He first arrived in 1989 as a student on a Soviet-era exchange programme, and was sent to university in Moldova, then a Soviet republic. After a year, he was transferred to the Pedagogical University in Volgograd where he specialised in biochemistry.
He decided to stay in Russia after graduating, and met Anait, a Russian woman of Armenian origin, whom he later married. The pair have a 9-year-old son. Despite his education, the would-be mayor makes a living standing by the side of the road between Volgograd and Srednyaya Akhtuba, selling watermelons grown and harvested by his father-in-law.
Because he lives in a town where everybody knows him, Crima doesn't face the day-to-day racism that plagues African immigrants in Moscow and other Russian provincial cities.
He played down the tag of "Volgograd Obama", and said he would not dream of comparing himself to the American President. However, he said that Mr Obama's election was part of a "global process", and that, in time, even Russia would be ready for black officials.
Crima is philosophical about his chances, saying even if he loses, he plans on the small town being home for the rest of his life.
"I've seen some terrible things about Guinea-Bissau on the TV, and I'd like to go back to see what has happened to my country," he says.
"But this is home now. My life is here; my son is here. I'm Russian."
- INDEPENDENT
He decided to stay in Russia after graduating, and met Anait, a Russian woman of Armenian origin, whom he later married. The pair have a 9-year-old son. Despite his education, the would-be mayor makes a living standing by the side of the road between Volgograd and Srednyaya Akhtuba, selling watermelons grown and harvested by his father-in-law.
Because he lives in a town where everybody knows him, Crima doesn't face the day-to-day racism that plagues African immigrants in Moscow and other Russian provincial cities.
He played down the tag of "Volgograd Obama", and said he would not dream of comparing himself to the American President. However, he said that Mr Obama's election was part of a "global process", and that, in time, even Russia would be ready for black officials.
Crima is philosophical about his chances, saying even if he loses, he plans on the small town being home for the rest of his life.
"I've seen some terrible things about Guinea-Bissau on the TV, and I'd like to go back to see what has happened to my country," he says.
"But this is home now. My life is here; my son is here. I'm Russian."
- INDEPENDENT
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