Shame on the West

Last year, when all ten songs qualifying from the semi final came from the area that is commonly known as "the East", all Western Europe went berserk and made utter fools of themselves, spewing headlines like "Eurovision died this year" or "Hate the East" or "Throw them out" and other cheerful phrases.

This year, western Europe did a lot better: Finland, Iceland, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and Norway made it through, and if one supposes that "West" means "country taking part before the East were let in" then also Israel, Greece and Turkey should be added to the bunch. Nine out of twenty qualifyers is a great step forward compared to last year.

But then the truth of the matter creeps out, and the whole ugly thing shows its real face: now many westerners are still complaining. The West made it, yes, but not the "right" countries from the West.

"We have to investigate the Nordic bloc" someone wrote. A Swiss newspaper had the story: "We were the only Western country in the second semi and we were kicked out!" Excuse me, what? What is Iceland? An eastern country?

And this is the whole reason why East keeps doing better than West: they take an interest in each other, they like each other's songs and care for the other singers. While the western countries just sit with their noses stuck in their belly buttons, complaining at every given chance.

The whole East/West division is sad and pathetic. Let's bury it now and never dig it up again.