http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3074454/Russia-to-ban-Simpsons-and-South-Park.html

So, why no one complains when “GTA” gets banned in USA and it is OK when “Visions of Ecstasy” gets banned in UK by BBFC, but when Russians decide that crude and often disgusting humor of South Park is too much for kids it is called “Soviet-style indoctrination”.

For full list check out these Wiki links: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_movies

Do you know what kind of crap they were showing in Russia in the last 15 years? Loads of dirt, violence, sex and lack of decent movies that would say at LEAST ONE PATRIOTIC THING. If you compare US that has flags hanging in every possible place, that has “patriotic birthday cakes” what indoctrination are we talking about?

In case you are not aware of it, majority of thinking Russians want and ask for reforms from the government to put an end to this pointless flood of stupidity that is coming from TV. And even thought I really like Simpsons the point is not about banning it. The point is about banning the channel which has crude and offensive content. And if you ask people on the street, democratic majority will support it. Now, you may have a different opinion but why should it be the right one? What right does one culture have to impose its values on other cultures?

I see abolutely no value in having this cartoon on TV and even the possibility of kids accidentally watching it makes me worried. I don’t see anything particularly democratic about it. So you have a political point in one of five episodes, the others just being crude and not carrying any value to those watching them.

In fact they truly are quite perverted, violent, american centric and may indeed cause damage to a young mind. And I don’t think the “this is just a joke” stands here. It may be a joke for a person laughing at it, but far too many will take it seriously…

So, going back to the “patriotic indoctrination”. This is a whole other topic, but why don’t anyone realize that some indoctrination or other happens to everyone from the moment they are born. The question to ask is which one is right and which one is wrong. Say in Europe the indoctrination of “equal rights” is so great lately that people are completely incapable of defending their own cultural values in the face of immigrans from muslim countries. http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2007/04/uk-police-you-cant-fight-terror-without.html

In US everyone is so brainwashed into believing that their country is “the best” that people don’t even bother learning where the rest of the world is.

Of course there are always normal people everywhere. People who would ban teaching of creationim at school and those who would not not accept that having violent video games is a norm. And this is exactly my point. It is normal to cenzor things for kids. What is not natural is for kids at the age of 10 to start using such words as “fuck” in their everyday language, assume that all muslims are terrorists and start believing that there is only dirt in this world. At this point i would like to point you to the other post of mine that discusses this in greater details http://simplexveri.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/beautiful-far-away-or-the-world-of-lost-innocence/

But anyway, all this talk about banning “South Park” is just that, talk to warn others that all the dirt that we see on TV has to go. In reality no channel will get closed but some of its worst shows will go. So that’s ok, we are still civilized enough… unfortunatelly.

And here are some more links in regards to South Park controversies:

http://www.politicsintheclassroom.com/articles/tomcruisesouthpark.php

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4735216.stm

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/663919

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/19/2369093.htm

I am sure this will be haled by the USA and treated as proper and adequate response to “Russian threat”. And of course, even thought the premise of Russia using this uranium for military goals is retarded (Russia being the third largest supplier of uranium in the world and all really can’t find it anywhere else) no one will think that this is exactly the kind of use of resources as a threat that Condoleeza Rice was accusing Russia in just yesterday. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2985506/Condoleeza-Rice-says-Russia-isolating-itself.html

Once again, the double standards rule.  Nice! 

Now, can someone tell me that the following is a complete bullshit please! Because a lot of it makes too much sense. And if it is true, the world is a much darker place to be than I thought it is… 

The movie is coming from here: http://www.uaff.us/ I am not claiming it is true. I don’t live in USA and have no idea how bad it is. For all I know it can be the same kind of propaganda that Russia gets pounded with lately.  But if it is true… what right does the American government have to pursue democracy in other countries!

More under the fold…

The comparison that came to my mind was that of Germanic and Gaelic tribes that experienced Roman expansion when it was at the peak of its power. Think about it. A large and powerful country comes your way and tries to impose the influence on the premise that it is “more advanced” and “a core of the civilized world”. Naturally the powerful country doesn’t give a damn about the “barbarian” countries that it tries to subjugate as they are inherently unworthy of their independence.

The first article that I’ve hit in google while searching for “roman invasion” http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Roman_invasion.htm caught me by surprise. I just couldn’t believe how close it reflects methods used by USA. Here are a few quotes.

“The Pretext. In 43 A.D. Claudius became Emperor of Rome. Needing a public relations coup to secure his tenuous position (nothing ever changes in politics, does it?) he decided to revive the dream of expanding the Empire to the British Isles. The pretext was conveniently provided by Caratacus, king of the Catavellauni tribe. Caratacus invaded the territories of the Atrebates, whose king, Verica, fled to Rome and appealed for help. Claudius was quite happy to respond. “

Replace the name of the rulers and countries (and the age) and it is exactly what Bush administration was doing for the last couple of decades.

“Client Kingdoms. The Romans followed the formula in Britain that had been so successful elsewhere; rather than try to conquer with force, they established “client kingdoms” on the borders of territory they directly controlled. Basically this meant that certain Celtic tribes, in return for not being overrun, agreed to ally themselves to Rome. Treaties with tribes in the north and in East Anglia created buffers on the frontiers while the process of mopping up resistance continued.

Is client kingdoms not exactly what USA was creating throughout the world over the last few decades? To Russians at least this is exactly what NATO’s expansion is all about.  

“Dealing with the druids. Part of this mopping up took the form of eradicating the Druids. By the standards of their time the Romans could be tolerant of the religions of the peoples they conquered. However, the Druids represented not just a religious hierarchy, but real political and administrative authority among the Celts. And to give the Romans their due, they seem to have been genuinely horrified by what they considered the grisly and uncivilized practices of the Druids.” 

The Romans were big on the benefits of the civilization they were bringing to the people they conquered. They saw themselves as on a mission to expand the Empire and bring the Roman way of life to all the poor souls bereft of its benefits. Curiously, this is the same attitude later employed by those who built the British Empire.”

I am not a supporter of Islamism, but it wouldn’t be that much of a threat if not for the latest political decisions. But anyway, the point here is the strong belief of the Romans and Americans that their system is actually making it better for other people. Now, don’t take me wrong, I am not saying that the system itself is evil, just that whoever is on top is always going to be in the win while the others will only get marginal benefits depending on how close they stand to the leader. And just think about the bigger picture here. This is written about Roman Empire! 2000+ years later USA politics is in many ways follows the same methods. 

Here is another site: http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/his_roman_invasion.htm

The factors that Claudius took into account before the planned third invasion

• Rome had, up to this point, enjoyed useful political and trading relationships which they wanted to keep alive. – And so did USA
  
• Trade with was bringing in a good income, especially for the wine growers, the pottery factories and merchandise in general. – Replace trade items with Oil
  
• The Spanish silver mines, for which Rome depended to produce raw materials for the manufacture of it’s currency were running low. Shafts had to be dug deeper. This meant that less material was available and with deeper mines, the time and cost factor rose sharply. – ahem… Oil and resources again
  
• Information arrived from Rome that extensive surface deposits of argentiferous lead ore (galena) had been found in the South West region of Britain – umm… more Oil…
  
• This invasion would enable Claudius to deflect attention from his political battles with the Senate of Rome – internal economic issues in USA. Retarded Bush administration
  
• Iron was also available throughout Britain, which could be used to repair ships damaged in the invasions of 55 and 54 BC. – more Oil still

And here is something to ponder about.

“Taking these lands was a titanic struggle for the Romans. Over the next 200 years, the effort of holding onto these lands would be much harder…….”

I was expecting to find some similarity, but this in my eyes went far beyond that. So I went further trying to look for more and found this paper: http://www.roman-empire.net/articles/article-018.html.  Mind you, this was before the Wall Street Meltdown happened…  Now although I don’t have any illusions about the political agenda of US the last thing I would want to see is for USA to go down in flames. I think it will be a major stroke to the world as we know it and with global warming and all other issues the last thing we need now is more chaos and more violence. And this is exactly why this paper got me really worried.

It doesn’t take a genius to find parallels here:

“ Roman advances were strengthened by the settlement of farmers on confiscated territory and a prudent treatment of conquered neighbours minimised the difficulties and dangers. Occasionally, subject communities were admitted to Roman citizenship. “

The only difference between Americans and Romans here is that America is using multinational corporations instead of farmers. Everything else matches quite well.

“The fundamental basis of ancient economic activity was significantly undermined but the system of exploitation was too well established now for it to be abolished. Perhaps if the institution of slavery had been challenged much earlier on then things would have been different but unfortunately even the most enlightened philosophers of the Republic seemed to support it.”

Current economic crisis in US has been predicted for more than decade now, but no one did anything to prevent it for very similar reasons.

“They were against any form of economic improvement which threatened their power and so their actions tended to maintain senatorial authority but at the huge price of economic retardation.”

I guess this is true for any system in similar situation.

“The need to create new markets was one of the factors that lead to the continued drive for expansion. The lack of good communications lead to industry increasingly moving out to the peripheries to be closer to their markets. The growing need to find fresh supplies of slaves was also a factor that contributed to the shifting of industry to the peripheral areas such as Gaul where was a better supply. Backward areas such as these therefore gained what Rome had lost, a surrounding area inhabited by peasants. This process of decentralisation was also linked to the lack of technology within the Empire. In modern industry the effective use of technology reduces overheads significantly but there was not really a tendency to do this in the Roman Empire. Increasing slave concentrations did not reduce the overheads and therefore there was no incentive to carry on developing old centres as it was more profitable to move to new areas under this system.”

The reasons might be different but the results are the same. Most of American manufacture has been outsourced to Asia leaving only financial institutions, IT and farming etc. Leaving behind this http://www.white-history.com/hwrdet.htm

.

http://www.reuters.com/article/Autos08/idUSN1642919420080917

“Under Trajan the empire reached it furthest extension but because of the weaknesses within the empire, its resources were pushed to breaking point. The empire found itself in a catch-22 situation in which there no solution to the problem. On the one hand there was the ever growing need to expand and on the other the ever diminishing capacity to carry it through. If the empire continued to expand it would have been disastrous but if it stopped then there would still be the problem of the lack of a deep internal market. The expansion of the empire only brought greater extension, not greater depth. This was not a progressive forward-looking policy, it was an essentially blind process When Hadrian came to power he stopped this policy of relentless expansionism but by this time it was too late”

I am not saying this is the case. But it may be… It feels like all these “Resource wars” that USA is waging in order to stay on top of the world actually weaken it more. Could that be already too late now?

“Alongside this growth of the large estates was the shrinkage of the towns and a decline in the quality and extent of ancient civilisation. The cities began to wither away and urbanisation slowed down as the empire became more and more based around a decentralised structure. Politically the implications of decentralisation were very damaging as it lead to situation of widespread political autarky among the peripheries and therefore, political decomposition thus weakening the political centre. It meant that Rome gradually ceased to be Rome. Being spread out to the borders of a vast empire enfeebled it and Italy therefore surrendered its pride of place to the provinces and the peripheries.”

Do you know what the situation is with literacy in USA now-days? Have a look here:http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/stats.asp and here http://www.igesl.org/Read%20&%20Lead%20workshop%20resources/Literacy%20Statistics.doc

People believe in creationism and trying to push it in school. Majority of white colar workers are immigrants from Europe and Asia.

“Despite the considerable contraction of the population and resources this was not accompanied by a corresponding reduction in the price of imperial administration. The maintenance costs of the empire were huge and continued to expand all the time. Taxes had to be collected, frontiers defended; the empire had to be policed and the imperial post had to maintained. The upholding of the Roman standard of culture meant huge amounts had to be spent to provide an adequate supply of the amenities that were considered essential to the full life or a Roman citizen…

… Seneca estimated that it cost Rome five million dollars a year to import its luxuries from the east. Another area in which Rome spent huge amounts of money was the army. An important implication of the Roman peace was that the army changed its economic role. Whereas previously it had been an important source of plunder it was now mainly used as a peaceful garrison force. The army became an economic liability, as there were more than 400,000 mouths to feed and nothing for them to do. Of course, even in peace the army was essential to the security of the empire but the cost of it more than doubled between 96 and 180 AD. The empire was over-spending by epic proportions yet the economic structure meant that nothing could be done to counter-act this.”

Does that ring the bell? I am telling you it is scary how close it comes to what we have now!

“The over-consumption and pampering of the Roman citizens during the imperial period also created other problems. It has often been suggested that the increasingly materialistic and greedy lifestyles that many Romans lead began to affect them ‘spiritually’ and intellectually. A sense of futility seemed to be permeating society. The Roman ‘spirit’ which had conquered the world was becoming increasingly lethargic. During the “pax romana” it seemed that peace, comfort and security took priority above political freedom and trying to solve the problems which were blighting their civilisation. Many historians mention the change in racial stock as a reason for this. Others say that plague and malaria were also possible causes. One suspects that the real reason was the ‘disease of materialism’ or the ‘affluent society’. We need not look solely to Rome for this tendency, it is happening in the west today. The price that western society seems to be paying for the considerable wealth and comfort of most of its inhabitants is a corresponding rise in apathy, complacency and unreflective consumerism/indulgence. The modern industrialised west seems to share several of the characteristics which predominated during the “golden era” of the Roman Empire. The growing sense of negativity exists now and then, as does the obsession with violence (blood-sports in Rome, Hollywood films and video games now), sex, and indulgences. Another interesting parallel is the growth of oriental religions which appeared in Rome in an attempt to fill the spiritual vacuum and the growth of new-ageism now. The increasing popularity of mystical religions is also a sign of the influence which the lower classes were increasingly having on the upper classes and therefore represented a sort of “barbarisation” of culture. 

I don’t think a comment is needed here. This says it all.

So, the rhetorical question is: Are we about to hit another Dark Age? Islam is on the rise, West is divided, USA is fighting “war for Oil” while slowly loosing in Afghanistan and sinking into a Stock Market black hole. Russia is being alienated and made into a scare crow. And you just wait for the fight for Arctic resources to start. Now that will make it even more crazy. Will Pax America hold to this pressure? Will the world hold? I sincerely hope so…

I have to say I am shocked and depressed to find that. Not even one search for Georgia… Looks like everything is even worse than I thought.

I think it is Russian’s turn to ask, why do Americans hate us so? I mean really where is all that fear and hatred is coming from? It made sense during Soviet times ideology and all, Commies trying to take over the bright and wondeful world of free people. Fair enough.

But I really thought it would get better by now. Do YOU not realize that Russia is not a bloody Mordor? That we don’t have a Dark Tower in the middle of Moscow. What is it that makes everyone so hatefull?

I am risking to start repeating myself but let me put it down one more time:

1. Russia does not want to take over the world. Because:

    a. Russia is just getting its economy restored. Why would it want to have a major war when it is such a major expense

    b. Any major war these days would involve Europe which is the major customer (70%) for Russian oil. Why would Russia destabilize relationship with its main customers

    c. Russia IS a part of Europe. Most Russians are afraid of Chinese expansion. Why would it attack its natural allies?

   d. Russians are not ideologically brainwashed. Noone is going to fight in a war that they perceive as agressive. Over the whole period of Soviet rule people believed that they were doing good. This is the part of Russian mentality, you don’t go and do bad stuff to others. 

   e. Russian military budget is tiny compared to American! Do you realize that people? For the borders that Russia controls it is miniscular! 

 f. Russia didn’t have any major military operations for the last 20 years or more. 

2.  Russia is not a totalitarian place. Get it straight people Russia is just not the same as USSR. I think everyone is just getting all stupid when it comes to this word. “Totalitarian” – how repressive and scary! You know, when I think totalitarian I imagine people getting killed on the streets, I imagine something like an African country, or maybe a Middle Eastern country. It is not like that in Russia. People just live here, watch TV, read stuff on the Internet, argue about stuff. Many know and read in more than one language ( I bet not many of you know Russian heh). Many more travel to other countries at least once a year. What are you going to do if everyone in the country is suddenly feeling very “anti-west” because of the way West is acting not because people are been “forced” to take this opinion or brainwashed (no more than Americans are if you ask me).  

3. And I have to repeat, Russia is not a bad place to live. Why do you think people in Russia don’t just all immigrate. Whoever wanted left already. Those who are left are quite happy with the place. Let me tell you about my experience. In Russia I feel the history. I feel connected to all those people who were building this place before me. I love that feel when you walk around settlements and churches that are 600+ years old.

So, tell me, why do you choose to make an enemy out of Russia? What did we do to you lately? To be honest, I think I know the answer. Russia is trying to crave the piece out for itself in the world that has only one winner. One place that consumes 24% of all world resources while having only 5% of world population. Naturally they can’t not being afraid when any major resource supplier is able to do more than just supply…

World Resource Consumption

I have to say, I feel really bitter about USA lately. Looking at the way it manages its affairs abroad really dispels any of my notions about the democracy being somehow immune to violence and warmongering.

War against Afganistan was questionable but at least justifiable. The war in Iraq was a load of *** lies, fought with one purpose only -to bring Iraq Oil under the control of the “right” governement. 

The way Pakistan has been pushed to the brink of war recently, the way Iran is just about to be attacked (it is not that I support Iran, but it is going to get a lot worse there after the attack the same as Iraq did). 

http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2008/09/14/facing-up-to-the-war-in-pakistan/

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5797904

And then whole NATO business. There is plenty of evidence that the only reason to expand it the east is to contain Russia. 

 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bdffd9a6-7b71-11dd-b839-000077b07658.html

This is all fine, politics and national interests and all, but please, don’t give that crap about the democracy! This is so sick. Democracy is great, but it has nothing to do with national interest and it is no excuse to pursue them through military means. And why is there so much surprise and indignation when the country stands up and defends agains such obvious threats. Pah!!! 

And now, check the out.

Ahem… I am sorry if I got a bit too agitated here. I didn’t even want to bring that up, but this is just too much to keep inside.

Although I personally believe that it is not so much about the differences in political systems and more about resources that are getting more and more sparce on our planet, I generally share the same opinion as Dr Müllerson. I believe he is making a lot of sense and presenting it much better than I ever would. But you can make your own judgement.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-world-after-the-russia-georgia-war#comments_for_node

I believe in ideals! One needs to know what he is living for, needs to know why sometimes you need to sacrifice, why it is really not a big deal if you don’t have Lexus… But above all I believe in love, true pure untainted love.  And I think, some things in this world matter more than my personal happiness.

I want my kids to believe this too. I don’t want them to grow into “consumers” happily buying “completely new and super advanced toothpaste with extra shiny bits that make you teeth whiter than white”. I want them to feel the moments of heartbreaking sadness from seeing something beautiful and pure…  I want them to go walking in autumn park with the feeling of bittersweet sadness from the sight of peacefull fading that surrounds them.  I want them to cry at the last pages of the “Lord of the Ring” from the realization of the loss that the world will never be able to recover…

I want them to have a true romantic experience? I want them to love so deep and pure that sex would only come as an underlying current, never overshadowing the deep magical feeling that drives you. And I want them to believe. It doesn’t have to be God (I am not very religious myself) but a person needs to believe in something for life to have any meaning. 

Do you know what I am talking about? Perhaps you also like lonely walks in autumn parks… You might, but it feels to me that majority of people in the Western world have long forgotten what is it like, to really believe in ideals. There are no IDEALS there are only needs spoon fed to you through media from early childhood. Big and small they drive people through life from craddle to grave.

And I think Russia, blindly copying everything from the West, is loosing them too . I hope we as a nation will be able to stop and recover the things that are lost. Getting back family values, patriotism and finding new ideals to live and fight for. I think we still have a chance, not so sure about the rest of Europe. If not, well, I guess we’ll all go down together under the pressure from nations more passionate about their purpose and ready to do sacrifices. Do you want it? I don’t!

I want to end this post with a song from the most important movie of my childhood. The story is about a girl from the 21st century who ends up in 1980 pursued by two space pirate who are trying to get hands on a telepathic device invented by her dad. With help of local kids she manages to save the device and get back into the future. It sounds kind of silly, but there is so much goodness in this movie that I just can’t find anything that would match it. Every time there is a hard choice that I need to make in my life, every time I feel down, I listen to this song, cry and feel stronger again.  This is the kind of stuff I want my kids to watch, not Hannah Montana, American Pie or that crap that they show worldwide on Cartoon Network!

Beautiful far away

I hear the voice from a beautiful far away,

The voice clear as a spring silver dew

I hear the voice and the road is calling

Spinning my head as a carousels

Beautiful far away,

Don’t be cruel to me,

Don’t be cruel to me,

Cruel to me!

From pure beginnings

Into the beautiful far away

Into the beautiful far away

I start on my path.

I hear the voice from a beautiful far away,

Telling me of beautiful places

I hear the voice and it is asking me

What have I done today to make a better tomorrow?

Beautiful far away,

Don’t be cruel to me,

Don’t be cruel to me,

Cruel to me!

From pure beginnings

Into the beautiful far away

Into the beautiful far away

I start on my path.

I swear to be better and more kind

An will never leave a friend in need

I hear the voice and hurry to follow the call

Along the road that has no footprints.

Not sure if my translation is adequate. The song is about standing strong by your ideals, not being afraid of the future and doing something to make it better. Perhaps it may sound like “commie brainwashing” but if so, I am ready to be brainwashed any time.

So, I went home and thought for a while trying to decide if the question actually makes sense… And having thought and looked around I would say that healthy majority of Russians don’t actually hate America but many (I think it is quite a significant number) now dislike it. The thing is that just 10 years ago most people in Russia actually liked America and thought of it to be a wonderful place to be. So what happened here. 

I am not claiming to be a major expert in political relationships so what I say below is mostly my own opinions based on personal experience, things I’ve read, watched and listened. I do believe this to be true but if you find some of my opinions contradictory let me know. Anyway, here it comes.

I think if you talk to Russians, you’ll find that majority feel that the countries of the West and especially America found it very convenient not to have a strong Russia after the break up of USSR. Some general details can be found in all knowing Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_post-Soviet_Russia. Many Russians believe that it was a huge mistake to let American advisers into the country to “help” with reforms. As a result of “shock therapy” the amount of stolen resources and goods during this time is just unbelievable. And many believe that many western companies profited from this. In any case no one came and helped when the country was in dire need.

Instead NATO was spreading to Russian borders while keeping it out at the same time. I don’t know if you are aware of that, but there was a deal made between Russia and the West (read USA) that NATO will not spread to the East. With Russia weak the deal was soon forgotten. Another fact, Russia actually asked to join NATO in 1991…

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html res=9D0CEED61731F932A15751C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all 

But this request was ignored while the adjacent countries were accepted in. So what does it tell Russians? That they are still considered if not an enemy, then an opponent. 

That followed by the chain of coloured revolutions supported by USA really made Russians feel rather uncomfortable. 

An example used in many articles circulating on the Net is the equivalent situation of having Russian weapons pointing at USA from, say, Mexico after the pro-Russian government is installed there. I think the reaction would have been very quick… 

Then we have the whole Iraq/Afganistan thing. The whole war was fought because of one reason – USA trying to secure oil supplies. I am sure there is more to it than that, but you have to be blind to believe that “establishing democratic government” was anywhere close to being the reason for that war. 

And if we look at the current situation, Pakistan was a safe enough place as long as it ran along with USA plans for the region, but as soon as its relationships with USA got colder and those with China warmed up we are having a nice little civil war coming up while American troops are attacking villages without sending any requests to Pakistani government. And if anyone is going to tell me that USA is trying to pursue anything but pure political interests in the region I will smile.

So, do you think that having all that going on adds to the feeling of love and respect towards United States? Not really. The divergence between the “democratic knight in shining armour” and the oil drenched political reality are so obvious that only a true American patriot is not going to see it.

Now, Georgia was yet another example of the same approach. I am not going to go into it now, but will instead do some translations of political analytics from Russian side later. I have to say, I do not believe in Russian altruism on this matter any more than in American idealism but I do believe America is at fault for meddling in the areas of the world that it has interests in and not tidying up after itself. The war in Georgia is a result of such “remote meddling” exercises.

But anyway, these are all political and economic grievances that Russia and Russians have against the USA and the West. There is also a whole other layer to this – cultural issues. There is that funny thing about most humans and most countries. Everyone always believes that their way is the best.

If you go to China, they will tell you “Look our way is so good. With our hard control over the economy and the people we can achieve so much and so fast.” And they will be correct at that.  They do manage to achieve a lot at a very low cost. And people in the country are very patriotic and are ready to fight anyone who would come and change it for the sake of “democracy”. I’ve discussed this with many Chinese with whom I had luck to study and work together in the past. Majority admit that there are still problems, but MANY actually go back while pretty much ALL are proud of their country. So they gotta do something right in China to instill people’s loyalty. It can’t be all brainwashing, a lot of it is tradition and culture. 

Now look at Europe. To me this place was a childhood dream. A birthplace of western civilization, diverse cultures that learned to co-exist with each other over the turbulent years of past centuries. But I’ve read it often enough from American journalists that European democracy is not “democratic enough”. That it puts too much emphasis on government support, shorter working hours, bureaucracy, which makes it less effective.

If you look at USA itself, you’ll find that there is a huge separation between people and decision makers. The lobbying and donations is the standard way to win the elections and in the end interests of big businesses run it all. At the same time health-care system is pretty dodgy (unless you are rich) and the crime rate is rather high. 

My point is that every system has a right to exist if it is capable of competing and is able to stand against others in our complex interconnected world. And when I look at Russia I don’t see a horrible totalitarian state that West/America is trying to portray. I see huge areas of land that are very hard to control through democratic means. In place like that quick switch to democracy equals corruption decay and collapse. As a patriot who loves his country I do not want this to happen as you wouldn’t either. So I shake my head and say that democracy that West is trying to force on Russia will not work for quite some time, just as Communism didn’t. First the corruption has to be eliminated, the supporting infrastructure has to be build and people need to get used to the idea. And even then, it may not be what people will want. And this is exactly my point.

People are complex and they don’t want the same things. Or rather they do, but ideas may mean different things in different places. In Russia many think that Western obsession with hard rules makes people dull. It is like living in a glasshouse where all nutrients are provided and all you need to do is eat, sleep, work and have kids. To Russians such life without this extra “extremeness” is plain boring.  Majority of my Russian friends and colleagues who routinely travel to Europe and into USA on assignments and on holidays believe that although western system provides security (rule of the law) it does not leave much space for anything outside the square. 

I will give you one example. In Russia they widely sell gauze which is used in all sorts of applications starting from pickling and making cottage cheese and finishing with baby nappies and wound bandages. Now in the West, an average person will have to buy 10 different things “specially designed” for each individual task. So, someone put some creative thought into it and made money, but majority is just stupidly consuming it. So, to someone coming from Russia it feels extremely stiff. You need to have hundreds of items that you could live without back home. 

I am just telling you this to give a perspective on cultural diversity. The thing that Russians (and I in particular ) dislike the American culture for is unipolar globalization of the world. You may say “The world wants it” but the truth is the world doesn’t have a choice and American politics is trying to ensure that it stays that way.

Mc Donalds is not great but it is everywhere, same comes for all the other stuff. It is not great, it is just convenient/easy to digest and the worst is that USA has enough power to spread throughout the world uncontained. I am all for globalization in general (sharing ideas, lifestyles etc), but I think everyone should have the right to keep their own literature, music, art. I personally think that Americanization of the world is quite bad, just as bad as Russification or Chinafication or Germanofication whould be. The world has to be diverse and the differences should be respected.

This doesn’t mean that there will be no conflicts, but conflicts get resolved. What should be avoided is a self righteous “holier than thou” attitude which is so common in USA.

Well, after submerging deeper into English culture it seems to me that it comes from nowhere other than James Bond movies. I was really quite impressed that guys my age still had the whole “Russian Vilian” image embedded in their minds so well. The number of stereotypes about Russia and Russians is huge and I feel compelled to tell a few things, both good and bad, that I consider to be true about Russians and Russia.

Russians don’t want to take over the world .

I mean really, I hope not many people believe this one, but with all the games and other stuff it kinda gets into the minds of many otherwise sensible people. I am not going to get all political and discuss financial military and other struggles that Russia is involved in. Everyone is involved in some struggles or other and methods used by most governments around the world are detestable. But my point is that Russians as a nation never wanted to conquere the world. Russian colonization was a lot softer than say English. And even during the time of USSR majority of the population wanted to liberate the rest of the world. And it was not some excuse for invasion, people really believed it.

What Russians really want is not to be pushed around. And we don’t want our country to fall apart under the external political and military pressure. But this is an item to be discussed on its own. 

Russians are not all dark and gloomy.

This stereotype is so strong, that I fell for it myself while living overseas. The images shown by the media of Russia being the dark cold repressive state with depressed people hating their life is so strong that it is almost impossible to resist. I have no doubt that it is a wide spread belief. Well, it is not true. There is always a variation, but in general I would say Russians are no more gloomy than Americans. But we really smile less or rather we smile on different occasions. Most Russians find American way of smiling quite disconcerning. To Russians it looks and feels out of place. It feels fake actually. It took me ages to get used to this “I am just being polite” smile or to the “I am reporting news on TV so I have to smile even if the news are terrible” smile.

A kiss on the 50th wedding anniversary of my wife's grandparents!

If I was to compare, Russians are a lot more like Italian/Latino ( except we don’t “speak with our hands” as much ) than English. It is strange, but I am getting more and more convinced that this is true. Russians are in general very social, very friendly, often mix business with home, passionate, emotional. Remember a moment in “Edvin Scizorhands” when Edvin is presented with a moral dilema about money found on the street. Well, most Russians would probably make the same choice he did and give them to those they love rather than giving them back to the police.

This has been true for centuries and, I think, it one of the reasons the corruption is such an issue in Russia (and in Italy). 

But there is a good side to it too. Russian poetry is beautiful, Russian literature is deep, Russian music is heartbreaking. 

This is something I can talk about for ages, so I will just shut up now and leave it for another post.

Russians drink a lot

I think it kind of follows from the item above. I think the main reasons are tradition plus the whole thing with being social and friendly. The habbits are changing though. As far as I know people nowdays go easy on vodka and drink more beer and wine. I just hope this will become less of an issue with time. 

However, having said that, I think that drinking habits of Russians are highly exagerated by the western media. Majority of people that I’ve met in Russia don’t drink much more than anyone else in other places.

Russians smoke a lot

This is also true and I blame “perestroyka” for this. Smoking wasn’t a problem in USSR, it came from the West because “they had it and so it was good”. It became one of the symbols of success and independence among that generation and now we are still struggling with the consequences. This year the government has finally raised taxes for cigarettes so I hope it will deter some from starting and will help others to quit.

But just to put it in perspective, according to statistics from World Health Organization, Russian smoking levels are comparable to those of China, Korea and Japan. 

Russian roads are bad

)))))!!! They are bad. In some places they are unbelievably bad http://englishrussia.com/?p=1876, in some others they are ok.

Russia is a depressing place to be

Not! Another one I started to believe while living in Australia. I was really happy to find out that I was rather wrong about it. I can now tell with confidence, that the media coverage is rather shaky on this one.

Smolniy Cathedral, Saint-Petersburg

Russia is very very diverse. Some places are very modern while others feel like they are still part of Soviet times. But it doesn’t mean that the whole thing is depressing. It is actually very exciting. I don’t know if it will make sense to you, but to most Russians USA looks like an extremely boring predictable place. And I am not talking some hardcore communists, or outsiders. I am talking about Software Engineers, Scientists, Businessmen – the “middle class”. 

I have heard it so many times already. People go to USA on assignment and get all excited about the new stuff, but 1 month later they all moan and complain about how everything is so standardised and predictable and unexciting. And I have to agree. Unlike many Western countries Russia has “vibrancy” which means you can do stuff outside the square. You can go into the forest without booking the route. You can go fishing without getting a permit. You can talk to the stranger on the train and he will not think that you are trying to offend him. 

Of course it doesn’t mean that it is all great. The corruption is true. Bureaucracy is true. Bad roads are really really bad!!! But this is not the point. My point is that it is not all dark and gloomy. The place is not all set up as the western countries which should be expected considering the Soviet times, but it is not inherently bad, it is just not as developed.

One mistake that many people do outside of Russia is to assume that it is in some or many ways similar to China or Middle Eastern countries. The logic goes, it has human right issues, lots of oil, and it doesn’t seem to fit in in the West… Well, this is not true at all. Despite the differences Russian culture is very much in line with the West.  Of course it picked a few things from the East being conquered by Tatars and Mongols, having active contacts with Middle East and Caucazus, but it is still as much a European culture as Spain or Serbia or Greece are.  So please, believe me, Russia is not a crazy barbaric country even though it has its own quirks and problems. 

In the following posts I will try to further explore the place of Russia in the world as well as issues and benefits associated with it.  

Stay tuned