Russia is a traumatized country, almost more than any other.
Not necessarily more than any other.... Ukraine's history is pretty traumatizing as is Poland's
But lots of traumatized countries aren't trying to invade their neighbors...
The West never engaged with us as equals,
When was russia equal? Never... you need to be honest about the past and russian seem allergic to the truth like an abused kid who _swears_ his dad is really great and his broken arm is his own fault when he fell down the stairs....
One of russia's tragedies is it's continued belief that it _deserves_ western style prosperity and power and prestiage without ever actually doing anything that the western countries did to achieve what they did.
That's how you managed to combine industrialization and famine (which the Chinese copied but without real industrialization...)
Everything Russia does, can be understood - if you wanted to.
I understand it fine... abuse + sense of entitlement - therapy = bad - many of the worst criminals were horribly traumatized and abused as children, that doesn't jusifty their crimes.
And.... harship doesn't _create_ character.... it _reveals_ it.
The cure is that russia needs a national story to tell itself and it doesn't have one and so it makes things up (we can repeat! russkij mir! multipolarity!) but it's all fake and has no emotional resonance.... that's why russian invaders in 2022 were using soviet flags and symbolism... at least that meant something to them.
ussians are among the most astute political observers in the world :)
cause that's all they're allowed to do.... you mistake powerlessness for acumen
places with loud public disagreements can also talk through differences while places with enforced public unity.... can't.
The biggest reason russia failed so spectacularly in the 1990s.... no history of publicly working through issues, russia's like a dysfunctional family with an abusive father who goes bezerk at unpredictable times, no one knows what will set him off they walk on eggshells all the time...
while Poland took some economic and social hits in the 1990s and it was a long tiring slog but it's about 100 times better off than when it was a soviet client state and a big art of that is people airing differences in public
He';s not.... he's a typical trust fund fvvk up who's turned eveything he's ever touched into sh1t and who, despite being given every advantage blames everyone but himself for his continual cascade of failures...
I thought you had a lot of that type in the UK....
Off topic... what does he think about particular Polish guitarists?
I don't know enough about guitars to really make fine judgements....but I knew a British guy who was very much into guitars in the 1990s and he really admired a particular Polish guitarist.... which might that be?
Individual Ukrainians might get along with individual russians but the cultures and values are too dissimilar. Ukrainian values are far more in line with Europe and the 21st century.
Warsaw was bombed to death. Today, you would never know it.
If the city where your family lived was flattened by a bomb while you were out of town.... it wouldn't matter because it would be built back.
Would you be willing to greet those who bombed your family with open arms and thank them?
Europe (apart from Germany) has woken up to the fact that russia does not intend to stop in Ukraine. The recent double tap policy targeting aid workers shows just how psychotic the russian leadership is (he puts it a bit more diplomatically).
For the last 9 months Europe has provided more aid than the US.
US concerns about hitting oil infrastructure are misplaced.... increased energy is baked in now no matter what happens.
Ukrainians are better at targetting russian infrastructure than russians are at repairing it and have no reason to hold back...
russia is now involved in a new type of war crime.... double tapping, sending in a round of missiles to civilian targets then sending a second round of missiles to try to kill rescuers.... wanna talk about that?
US aid to Ukraine is being brought to a vote this week
Been hearing that for a long time....
Wha'ts the Trump doctine gonna be (if he gets elected)?
The Biden doctrine is that no US ally can actually win and the US will support both sides in different ways.... (see US sharing intelligence with russia after crocus)
wanna talk about that?
What about the second part of the Biden doctrine: "White House political operatives with no relevant experience or record of success will use American power to micromanage the military tactics of our allies, including target selection and timing of maneuvers"
wanna talk about that?
What's the Trump doctrine gonna be (after he's said he wants to reward russia to end the war)?
Ukraine hit an airbase in Crimea with multiple explosions
I asked for evidence of 'mass lynchings' which means many people lynched at the same time.... that didn't happen.
And again, it happened across a large swath of the country, not just the south, and had different causes. It wasn't only restricted to the whites lynching blacks in the south.
you accept what the followers of Trump the Perfect dish out on a daily basis
huh? I'm not a Trump supporter, he wasn't nearly as bad as some like to say but there's no reason for him to be running again...
Persians are concentrated in the middle of the country (according to an Iranian) and the minorities closer to the borders. Everybody accepts modern persian as the lingua franca but maintenance of minority languages is hit or miss (depends on a lot of factors, other iranian languages are generally the most endangered).
Interestingly it can be argued that despite the "islamic republic of" part Iran is no longer a muslim majority country. A co-worker (believing Shia) told me a few years ago most people no longer really identify as muslim and things like fasting in public for ramadan or going to mosque are practiced only by small minorities....
Phillip Bobbit apparently thinks of everything from WWI to the end of the Cold War as a single conflict the goal of which was to determine which socio-economic system was supeior, communism (actually socialism), fascism or capitalism.
Capitalism easily won.
The current challenge to the constitutional order is about the ideology that will be used to justify the coming order (fluid no borders capital and intense bio-surveillance of individuals).
the US, UK, russia and China all agree about the basics and mostly disagree about a few specifics....
The challenge is to support (as much as possible) countries that are trying to hold on to some version of the nation state like Poland and Ukraine...
That's the problem with extra-judicial processes... and why those who take part should be punished.
But a lot of what happened has been distorted.
It was a general breakdown in law and order across large parts of the country (and/or a continuation of rough frontier justice) and not just a case of whitesouthern racists killing random black people (modern version of history).
Rather than random videos, I've decided to continue posting songs with lyrics (and my rough translations) with some info on the artists...
Danuta Rinn (1936-2006) was more of an entertainer than strictly a singer (though that's how she began) or an actress (which she dabbled in). Her public persona was sort of a chaotic but fun wine aunt and I always liked her. She was the type who would have been a regular on variety shows (like Carol Burnett) if Poland had that type of thing.
A lot of her songs verge almost on novelty material but some are quite good.
Today's entry was debuted IINM at the 1988 Opole festival and features lyrics written by Ernest Brylll who died just a month ago and who wore a lot of hats, writer, poet, translator, songwriter and even diplomat - he was the Polish ambassador to Ireland 1991-95 and seemed to have a special affinity for the country)
This song is called either O jakbym (Oh it's like I....) or Zawiadowca (station master) a few songs seem to have the problem of multiple titles... O jakbym isn't the greatest title but the lyrics don't lend themselves to an obvious title... musically it doesn't sound like pop from 1988 as it's influenced by the big band sound that Rinn debuted in but it still works.
Anyhoo the lyrics are very clever, detailing a frustrated would be passenger in a small train station. Except that it's clear that it's a big metaphor for Poland itself in the twilight of the PRL - nothing works right, no one knows what's going on and all that you can do is wait for information from a loudspeaker). My favorite lyrics are about "Those who thought up a train that can't move" ie socialism who "changed life into... a provincial train station" Poland itself isolated and neglected while people wait for change that wasn't too long in coming.
Rinn delivers it with her usual infectious enthusiasm digging into the lyrics at face value and leaving it for the audience to get the message.
Oh.... it's like I slammed the door loud enough for the whole country to hear. "But what of it?" they say "the doors don't close all the way." Oh... it's like I wanted just once to open the window in the stuffy room "But what of it?" - a sign of the times - the window's been bricked up.
So I sit on my bundle in front of a big loudspeaker. And I listen to the crackle before it's revealed. I'm waiting for the day that they take down the loudspeakers. Although the waiting goes on and on... in a dirty station.
Oh.... it's like I packed up, went off to where they don't know me. No one knows, if there's a train or not, they're not selling tickets. The seller has a dumb face, but its strictly forbidden to ask questions, Why do stupidy, fear and wind roar through the platforms?
(chorus)
I'm waiting for the day when instead of hoarse stupidity Not the stationmaster, but one of use, will say in a normal voice: "What are we waiting for? Huddled together like sheep? Where are we going? Let the stationmasters go! Those who thought up a train that can't move. And who changed life into... a provincial train station."
(chor)
O... jakbym zatrzasnęła drzwi, żeby zagrzmiało w całym kraju, Ale co z tego? - mówią mi - drzwi się nie domykają. O... jakbym chciała chociaż raz otworzyć okno w dusznej sali, Ale co z tego? ― taki czas ― okno zamurowali.
(ref) Więc na tobołku siedzę swym przed wielkim megafonem I słucham, co tam charczy w nim, nim będzie objawione. Ja się doczekam tego dnia, gdy zdejmą megafony, Choć to czekanie trwa i trwa... na dworcu zaśmieconym.
O... jakbym spakowała się, ruszyła tam, gdzie mnie nie znają, Nikt nie wie, pociąg jest czy nie, biletów nie sprzedają. Bileter mordę głupią ma, lecz pytać srogo zabronione, Czemu głupota, strach i wiatr hulają po peronach?
(ref)
Ja się doczekam tego dnia, gdy zamiast głupot schrypłych Nie zawiadowca, lecz ktoś z nas, tak powie głosem zwykłym: "Na co my tu czekamy, stłoczeni niby owce? Dokąd my wyjeżdżamy? Niech jadą zawiadowcy! Ci, którzy wymyślili pociąg, co iść nie może, I życie zamienili... w prowincjonalny dworzec".
Lynchings were terrible because they were carried out extra-judiciously (and were common in other parts of the country as well at the time and didn't only target blacks).
And.... the unfortunate (or fortunate) reality is that most lynching victims were.... guilty....
BLM once again is simply the fall out from...white
Blacks don't have agency? They don't have moral compasses? You know how racist most BLM apologists sound?
the Orthodox and the Catholics share: faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic bread and wine (something that protestants lack)
I'm culturally protestant (though officially agnostic). Growing up I was told by my mother to answer "methodist" when asked about religion (which they used to do in school).
The viral video on different denominations I have to say the Methodists (with their emphasis on faith as a tool to become a better person through good works) is maybe the closest to my personal ethics.
On the other hand the closest things I've had to religious experiences were both in Catholic churches (one in Oaxaca Mexico, one in Malta) in both cases I was still processing deaths (in one case a relative in another the spouse of a close work friend) and that may have had something to do with it. I glimpsed some of what the faithful probably feel...
I've been in three types of orthodox churches (Poland, Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian) and I like the imagery but dont get the rites....
I visited an Armenian church (in Bulgaria) and it was... very weird, very distinct from Bulgarian orthodox churches).
I also find a lot of African American gospel music to be very uplifting... a very different tradition but one that speaks to me....
some ukrainian drivers are now working in poland, could this be a plus?
In showing that foreigners are accepted as drivers yes.
it's very similar to polish so it would be "easy" to learn
Look at it the other way, any Ukrainian you know would help you learn Polish very quickly.
But beware about mixing slavic languages. For non-native speakers, a second or third slavic language is liable to interfere with those you already know in weird and unpredictable ways.
This is unlike Romance languages where knowledge of one mostly helps with others and where interference (dropping Italian words into Spanish or vice versa) doesn't make you sound crazy.
Especially Polish and Ukrainian are just similar enough and just far enough apart that it will be tricky to keep them apart but randomly using words from one in the other will sound.... very weird.
Learn Polish (not so hard if you know some Ukrainian) and start contacting the mass transit authorities in cities with streetcar networks, see here for the larger cities with trams to enquire about feasability of your plan:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Poland#Tram
nb. Very often in Poland the first answer to any request or enquiry is "No." Don't take that too seriously... often it means "I'm busy now" or "Let me think about it" or "Convince me".... persistence pays off!
