A very good explanation of why it’s stupid and consumerist to expect Muslim countries to fight American wars.
Tea is becoming really huge in this country. And I still can’t find a decent brewing pot.
Trump is plenty nasty but still not a fascist.
U of Tennessee valiantly battles the Secret Santa tradition. I wonder how many adjuncts have to be exploited to afford the idiotic diversity office that comes up with this crap.
In the non-news of the day, JK Rowling is an idiot.
Beautiful photos of Iranians before the stupid revolution of 1978. (Scroll down the insignificant little blurb in Russian.)
Iceland still can’t figure out separation between church and state.
An earnest dumbass discovers the concept of “minority” and worries it to death. Stupid people tend to have a lot of free time on their hands.
I can’t even summarize this article in any other way but to say that it’s scary that such vapid, self-involved, smugly stupid people exist.
Obama is privatizing the cosmos. No, seriously.
Clarissa's Blog 
Great news! It’s about time our idiot President did something right besides approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement and using drones to slaughter terrorists.
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Too bad neither you nor your children will be alive to see it.
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A stirring essay Amitav Ghosh wrote years later in the New Yorker about the anti-Sikh pogroms in India that happened in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s death.
THE GHOSTS OF MRS GANDHI
http://www.amitavghosh.com/essays/ghost.html
“The Bosnian writer Dzevad Karahasan, in a remarkable essay called Literature and War (published last year in the collection Sarajevo, Exodus of a City), makes a startling connection between modern literary aestheticism and the contemporary world’s indifference to violence:
The decision to perceive literally everything as an aesthetic phenomenon – completely sidestepping questions about goodness and truth – is an artistic decision. That decision started in the realm of art, and went on to become characteristic of the contemporary world.
When I went back to my desk in November 1984, I found myself confronting decisions about writing that I had never faced before. How was I to write about what I had seen without reducing it to a mere spectacle?
.
.
But it is worth asking if the very obviousness of this subject arises out of out modern conventions of representations: within the dominant aesthetic of our time – the aesthetic of what Karahasan calls “indifference” – it is all too easy to present violence as an apocalyptic spectacle, while the resistance to it can as easily figure as mere sentimentality, or worse, as pathetic or absurd. “
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“about the anti-Sikh pogroms in India that happened in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s death.”
Why on earth would people target the Sikhs of all people after here death?
Maybe it had something to do with being killed by traitorous Sikh security guards?
Maybe it had something to do with said traitors being regarded as heroes by Sikhs?
Of course not, it was just blind random violence…..
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What?? Are you insane? Where did I say it was random violence? It’s common knowledge that her bodyguards who killed her were Sikh, and Hindus took revenge on the entire Sikh community, abetted by the police.
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All I wanted to share was a beautiful piece of writing, but here comes Cliff teaching me Indian history.
Dude.
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” here comes Cliff teaching me Indian history”
You seemed a little unclear. And I live to serve (deep sweeping bow). No really, no thanks are necessary.
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“And I live to serve (deep sweeping bow).”
Given that you identify as libertarian, I think you might have actually done that deep sweeping bow in person ( while wearing a Fedora). 🙂
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“Given that you identify as libertarian”
Ouch! You really know how to hurt a fellow…. Call me libertarian? What on earth did I ever do to you? Libertarian…. (shivers, shakes in disgust).
“while wearing a Fedora”
What’s the thing with Fedoras? I know it’s a way to insult people but I missed the original reference.
Were I to wear a hat it would be a shtreimel (though it might not go over well with some people – still they’re the coolest ass hats ever).
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What I can contribute is that Amitav Ghosh is a beautiful writer. Highly recommended.
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“What?? Are you insane?”
I like to think not, but I leave the actual diagnosis to trained professionals. Their verdict? Not yet!
“Where did I say it was random violence?”
Kind of implied through the juxtaposition of “pogrom” and “death of” (with no actual mention of the immediate cause of death).
“Hindus took revenge on the entire Sikh community, abetted by the police”
Collective punishment is the normal order of affairs in a place ruled by group morality. Regrettable but until the individualist mentality takes root in India that won’t change.
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“Kind of implied through the juxtaposition of “pogrom” and “death of” (with no actual mention of the immediate cause of death).”
No. I actually thought this was trivially common knowledge among members of this blog, who I consider more aware of the world than average people. That is why I didn’t bother.
“Collective punishment is the normal order of affairs in a place ruled by group morality. Regrettable but until the individualist mentality takes root in India that won’t change.”
Thank you for this unique insight, Mr Cool Internet Rugged Individualist.
What is with the commenters here lately?! Either baying for blood or posturing to be too cool for school about violence.
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No. I actually thought this was trivially common knowledge among members of this blog, who I consider more aware of the world than average people. That is why I didn’t bother
Stringer Bell, I only know this because my parents and grandparents educated me on this. I know none of this through schooling.
Collective punishment is the normal order of affairs in a place ruled by group morality. Regrettable but until the individualist mentality takes root in India that won’t change.
So when did the individualist mentality take root in the United States again? Not everything can be shoehorned into WEIRD and non-WEIRD paradigm So where is the “individualist” mentality in all of these incidents?
Gurudwara vandalised in Los Angeles with ‘anti-Islamic State’ graffiti
Mosques vandalized, terrorized after Paris terror attacks
Yup it’s definitely because of the “individualist” mentality you see talking heads insist ad nauseum: “#notallMuslims!” “#allMuslims!”
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The way to distinguish if a society has individualist mentality is by asking the question: is the idea of pursuing one’s own interests, one’s own good, one’s own goals widely accepted in this society? For instance, on a Russian talk show, people angrily ask a young woman, “OK, so your father raped you since the age of 8, whatever. But don’t you realize that denouncing him to the police was going to harm your whole family? Don’t you get that?”
If this sounds like an atrocity, you are in the grip of individualist mentality. If this sounds normal and convincing, then you are not. Should the needs of an individual be subservient to those of the group s/he was born into?
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You reminded me of a documentary I have seen just yesterday. A guy grew up in a Sarayevo orphanage, then eventually moved to Britain, etc. After long efforts he finally manages to find his family back in Bosnia. He learns two things: he was left at the orphanage simply because his mother had him out of wedlock and … his whole family are Serbs.
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Thank you for sharing this link. My husband and I were just discussing what happened to the Sikh community in India in the 1980’s. For us it was recent news. I wanted to learn more and I found a link to the text of the document cited “Who Are the Guilty”:
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2003/who-are-guilty.htm
for anyone else who might be interested.
It is interesting to note that the first steps to violence were the spread of ugly rumors.
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“… I still can’t find a decent brewing pot …”
If you are concerned about this beyond aesthetics, it probably means you are not using enough tea.
[BTW, if you are using Ahmad tea bags, this is certainly the case …]
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Shots fired!
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No, the pot is for real tea, and the ones that can be bought around here are too small. Bigger ones don’t allow one to place a tea strainer in it.
There doesn’t seem to be a good, big, resilient tea pot anywhere in the world.
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Amazing about space. Corporations soon to be battling it out over pieces of it. The first colonies will be lost and then, a toehold. Hm. Where have I heard of this before…
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Meanwhile Russian Orthodox Church declared Mars its “canonical territory”…
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Oh yes, I forgot about that one. 🙂
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But just imagine the possibilities. First they can send there just an unmanned shrine with the remnants of some saint, somebody important enough and definitely with military experience, like Alexander Nevsky or Dimitry Donskoy… 🙂 Then they can protect the pilgrims…
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I wish they just sent Putin already and crowned him the king of the universe. Did you hear that Khazanov tried giving Putin a copy of the emperor’s crown as a gift? And I fear he was not doing it as a a humorous gesture.
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yes I did her. But I think it was a trolling gesture. Unlike this recent proposal for the official prayer… I forgot was it for Putin or to Putin.
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Khazanov seems long past the point of having any sense of humor about his Putinism. 😦
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I meant to say “I did hear” 🙂 🙂
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The best article on immigration I’ve seen in a long time. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/refugees/419976/
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The trauma of immigration proper that is passed on to children and grandchildren
+ the trauma of living in a place where you do not understand or speak the language
+ the trauma of going from a pre-industrial / poorly industrialized / religious / pre-modern / insecurely modern, etc. society to a secular, cynical, post-industrial, playful postmodern society
What can the result possibly be?
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What kind of kettle are you looking for? Something like this: Big 6.3-liter 7-quart Stainless Steel Whistling Tea Kettle Pot with Infuser:
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Big-6.3-liter-7-quart-Stainless-Steel-Whistling-Tea-Kettle-Pot-with-Infuser/7923809/product.html
It seems to have good reviews.
I brew tea directly into the cup I’m drinking out of using an electric kettle. I really love the electric kettle. It doesn’t whistle, and it keeps the water hot for a very, very long time. At first I turned my nose up at it, but my brother convinced me to try it. It boils much faster than the stove top. Unfortunately, it isn’t often that I need to brew more than two cups of tea at a time. Although sometimes I fill the kettle full and use the water to cook noodles and make tea.
I’m glad to hear that tea drinking is on the rise in the states. Have you read the Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō?
“But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup.”
― Okakura Kakuzō
It’s one of my favorite books ever. I feel like you would appreciate it. It isn’t long, but it’s a delight to read and reread.
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We use an electric kettle, too, which is why a separate brewing pot is needed. We never tried the simultaneous boiling / brewing kettle in your link. That might be an interesting experiment, thank you! 🙂
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Link the following because of “The fear of mixed cities” part:
The penny finally drops for John Kerry
Op-ed: Statement from the US secretary of state that Israel must choose if it is a Jewish state or a binational state should be commended, as places like East Jerusalem and Afula show that Jews and Arabs living together can be a recipe for disaster.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4738017,00.html
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Uri’s latest column:
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU is our prime minister for life.
So it seems. So he evidently believes.
…
So we are stuck with him for life (at least). Time to face this prospect.
HE IS not the worst. No one ever is. For every bad leader, there is a worse one. (Except Adolf Hitler, perhaps.)
So let us look first at the positive sides of his rule. There are some. (Yes, indeed.)
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1449855777/
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Wanted to ask whether you read A.S. Byatt’s “The Children’s Book,” and if yes, whether it was good.
One person recommended “Possession” by this author, but I haven’t tried yet any of the books.
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Never heard of this author, sorry!
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Why Aren’t Women Advancing At Work? Ask a Transgender Person.
Having experienced the workplace from both perspectives, they hold the key to its biases.
https://newrepublic.com/article/119239/transgender-people-can-explain-why-women-dont-advance-work
I found this really funny, if sad:
\ At one conference, another scientist said, “Ben gave a great seminar today—but then his work is so much better than his sister’s.” (The scientist didn’t know Ben and Barbara were the same person.)
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The only reason that prevents women from succeeding in the workplace in advanced societies today lies within the women.
My sister was organizing an entrepreneurship contest for her organization. She was dedicated to making the contestant pool as diverse as humanly possible. As a result, the contestants could be filmed for a diversity ad because there was such a variation of races, ethnicities, countries of origin, etc.
One problem, though. There were no female contestants.
My sister went all out trying to get women into the contest. But the female candidates stubbornly self-sabotaged at every turn. They forgot how to read emails, didn’t know how to fill in forms, lost the forms, showed up late for meetings, didn’t submit the paperwork, etc.
As a result, there was not a single woman at the contest, and my sister felt like a total idiot.
I have an endless supply of stories like these.
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Interesting info about education in Arab countries, like Egypt. Look at the quote from the interview from 2008 with an expert on education systems in the Arab world:
http://www.germanimmigration.eu/2015/12/what-kind-of-education-did-educated-migrants-get.html
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Die Zeit featured a long interview with Ludger Wößmann, an educational economist, about the level of education of current migrants.
http://www.germanimmigration.eu/2015/12/two-thirds-of-migrants-functionally-illiterate.html#comments
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Two questions. An educational expert says about Egypt:
\There is a complete mismatch between what the university and education system is graduating and what the private sector is saying we need in skills for us to be competitive in this global economy. How can you be competitive in business if rote memorization is how you made it through 16 years of education, if you’re just memorizing facts and disconnected from critical thinking?
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/egypt804/interview/extended.html
But I am not sure how my (non university) schooling in Ukraine and then in Israel was different from rote memorization. When was I taught to think critically at school? And, even if I somehow missed the latter, it still hasn’t prepared me to become “a self-actualized individual in the entrepreneurial realm.” Not everybody can be good at that. Analyzing literature, for instance, seems to me as not related to becoming good at entrepreneurialism.
Talking about Western education, how are multiple choice quizzes in USA different from rote memorization in Egypt? Also, I am not sure how non-multiple choice tests in American schools are different.
Do you agree that starting your own company is the way of the future? I thought the future lay in huge companies and chains, while small business stores f.e. were lessening in numbers.
SECOND – regarding 06:58 comment from johannes here:
http://www.germanimmigration.eu/2015/12/two-thirds-of-migrants-functionally-illiterate.html#comment-6a00d834516a2569e201b7c7f7a55e970b
What do you think about his idea of Germans who fail joining a parallel society to get a sense of belonging and “their best or indeed, only future chance for sex and offspring”?
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“Talking about Western education, how are multiple choice quizzes in USA different from rote memorization in Egypt? Also, I am not sure how non-multiple choice tests in American schools are different.”
“people, like locust companies, can move, settle (and if criminal: infest) wherever the pastures are greener, will stay as long as it suits them or the others leave, and that they know how to do so, while the administration is hopelessly left behind”
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As for sex, it seems more logical to go to Eastern European immigrants of both genders instead of to burqaed women from Somalia for that purpose. Something tells me, the burqaed from Somalia don’t make the best, most enthusiastic and talented sexual partners.
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Meir Ettinger: The face of Jewish terrorism
The Shin Bet describes him as a central figure in Jewish terrorism, ‘a violent and dangerous ideological criminal,’ while his friends tell of a quiet and pleasant young man who became a leader merely because of his writing skills; somewhere on the way, between the outposts he’s been living in since he was 15, to his administrative detention following the Duma murders, Rabbi Meir Kahane’s grandson has formed a radical and anti-Zionist ideology.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4738049,00.html
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News:
1 – Gambia’s president has declared the tiny West African country an Islamic republic, saying it is line with the country’s majority religion and is an effort to break from a colonial past.
2 – BERLIN – Switzerland’s Attorney General’s office and the Swiss Federal Police Office say they have opened criminal proceedings against two Syrian citizens on suspicion they manufactured, concealed and transported explosives and toxic gases and also allegedly violated bans on militants groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State. The attorney general said in a statement the two people, who were not further identified, were arrested Friday in the Geneva area.
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No links to post, but I’m interested in anything you know about the effects absent parents have on a toddler. My father was also absent a lot in my early childhood (he was playing in an orchestra back then so he’d be away for months while on tour) and it certainly feels, at times, that I’m working through trauma I have no map for.
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It depends on the age of the child. If the absence (and obviously I mean protracted absence) happens roughly before the age of one, these are likely to be people who will suffer from anxiety and have difficulties bonding with others (partners, friends, their own children.) They will either over-bond, becoming clingy and intolerable or fail to bond at all, remaining distant and cold.
Between the ages of 2 and 3, absence of one of the parents can create a tendency towards entering into “triangular” relationships: choosing a married lover, being one in a group of 3 close friends who constantly bicker over each other’s importance, competing with a colleague for the boss’s favor.
I’m mostly familiar with the first of these scenarios (before the age of one) because it is my own.
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Ok, I literally laughed out loud here. The touring bit happened every year for a few months, so both age 1 and age 2-3 were included. I am anxious, alternatively clingy and cold and polyamorous. Also, since he used to be a musician, music is hugely important to me but it can’t be classical music since that’s what he was playing (preferably it’s something with lyrics since that kinda brings things back to words, if that makes sense to people who aren’t me). Also he brought me back this very fancy toy TGV train the first time I actually remember him being gone, so every guy I ever fell for for more than an afternoon either lived in a different city so I’d have to take a train to see him, or lived right next to the railway station.
Human I am, and nothing human is alien to me, no matter how fucking ridiculous.
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The railway bit is really interesting, and it’s great you can connect it like this. Nothing beats the process of self-knowledge when such connections begin to come together.
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What Syria’s refugees think about Israel, America, Russia, etc. :
http://www.timesofisrael.com/what-syrias-refugees-think-about-israel/
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Rather than what they think of Russia, I’m much more interested how these young men in the photos will interact with women. Groups of young men hanging out together don’t tend to create a great environment for women.
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Entertaining:
Netanyahu calls to change law after having to quarantine dog
Netanyahu family dog Kaia had to be put into quarantine after biting MK, husband of deputy minister; PM: ‘I found flaws in legislation that are not in line with logic and compassion.’
…
the 10-year-old mixed breed, which was taken in by one of Netanyahu’s sons from a rescue home earlier this year. Her adoption by the Netanyahu family saved Kaia from being put down, as she is an old dog suffering from hearing issues and has a hard time walking.
…
Netanyahu himself was reportedly bitten as well in July, and needed to get a rabies shot. The dog was not, however, put in quarantine after reportedly biting the prime minister.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4738239,00.html
As somebody commented, it is kind of annoying when people talk of changing laws which inconvenience them personally.
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Did the dog get sick after biting any of the humans? 🙂
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If that dog survived biting this mad cow (Bibi), it will survive anything. 🙂
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Uh, cows are female in English…
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Yes, I was too kind to Netanyahu.
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In case you missed, loved this poem
Дмитрий Макаров
Наш ковчег отправился в полночь.
В нем были только непарные звери:
Слишком старые, слишком гордые,
Или просто – последние.
http://morreth.livejournal.com/2838220.html
Have also read a poem you probably know and loved it-
Константин Симонов – Пять страниц
http://androprono.edusite.ru/rgb_sh/simonov/5.htm
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Gross food from the 70s.
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Looks pretty tasty to me — assuming there’s no actual fish meat inside it, of course.
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I’m going to have nightmares about this fish. 🙂
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And when you wake up..
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Well, that’s the way restaurants in Europe serve REAL fish — head and tail and everything intact right on the plate! (Doesn’t change the good taste.)
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My gefilte fish also has a head but it’s not scary: https://clarissasblogdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/20131230-181824.jpg
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Looks delicious to me!
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It is. 🙂
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http://www.interaksyon.com/article/121382/asian-scholar-benedict-anderson-dies-in-his-sleep-in-indonesia
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Great scholar, truly great.
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IDF reserve officer briefly detained in UK for war crimes
Pro-Palestinian organizations file complaints against soldiers and officers who served in Operation Protective Edge, who are now liable to be detained.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4738408,00.html
What impressed me was this:
\ “Every soldier and officer who served in Operation Protective Edge whose name and picture were published in the media in the standard manner by the army but also on social networks, is liable to encounter such incidents while abroad,” a source from the IDF’s prosecutor’s office told Ynet.
SB and other pro-Palestinian people may be glad to read this, but let me tell them such tactics return like a boomerang… to Palestinians. In Israel everybody (normal) serves. When every soldier can be detained or worse, it means every Israeli Jew can be so, if s/he dares to travel abroad. Thus, limiting our mobility and strengthening “everybody outside of Israel is an antisemite who hates us” position inside Israeli society.
It will only make us more militaristic, less trusting in EU and their proposed solutions to the conflict, and … if everybody hates us, why give anything to our enemies? SB once talked how Israel should trust foreigners to support us, if new Palestinian state does not uphold its side of the deal. Which normal person would trust those antisemites?
I truly see red now. And think using the word “antisemites” is OK since no other country, including Iran or Syria (when it still existed) is / was treated this way. Iran supports terror, yet its citizens (except Jews) are free to travel abroad. Russia is free to do whatever it wants, yet Russians are not detained. And there are more examples.
Other news about “reading War and Peace on TV” project in Russia:
Толстой в гимнастерке
Лев Толстой поразил меня еще в 15 лет совершенно небывалой правдой о войне -“Севастопольские рассказы” стали откровением а “Война и мир” – книгой на всю жизнь. Но вот небольшая статья в интернет-издании наглядно демонстрирует, как великого пацифиста, убежденного противника всякого насилия, с подозрением относившегося ко всякому барабанному бою, а особенно государственному, – пропаганда превращает в казенного патриота, прославляющего военную мощь России.
http://trim-c.livejournal.com/772606.html
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\ A very good explanation of why it’s stupid and consumerist to expect Muslim countries to fight American wars.
Saw a column about the issue in Israeli press too:
Ethnic wars and interests in the Middle East
Analysis: While everyone claims to be fighting ISIS in order to deceive the US, they are actually engaged in their own wars
…
It’s not a “conflict” but a global war, and there is no more “Syria.” The United States, Russia and a number of European countries are caught in illusions, and the area which was once Syria and Iraq will keep serving as the arena of a huge storm. Even worse is the fact that Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are being dragged into the center of this storm against their will, and 2016 could be a critical year for some of them.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4737727,00.html
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Интервью с “русской палестинкой”
Несколько лет назад Наташа (у нее есть еще одно, мусульманское имя Валида) приехала в Казань поступать на медицинский факультет, здесь она познакомилась с будущим мужем – арабом из Палестины и вскоре приняла ислам.
http://www.strana.co.il/news/?ID=83324&cat=0
What impressed me was the place in which she срывается на крик. And then mentions “на повышенных тонах.”
I also want to note that солдаты-русские are formerly Russian JEWS, not Russians like her.
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“I also want to note that солдаты-русские are formerly Russian JEWS, not Russians like her.”
This is the notorious conception of “the Russian world”: everybody who speaks Russian belongs to Russia and the territory where s/he is located does, too.
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There is still hope for France – “Pollsters project France’s far right is routed in regional elections after winning 1st round”
As for Turkey and Russia:
\ A Russian destroyer used small arms fire on Sunday to ward off a Turkish fishing ship and prevent a collision in the Aegean Sea, the Defense Ministry said, calling the actions of Turkey’s vessel “provocative.”
What is that about, weird:
\ 69 police officers injured in clashes in eastern Germany. Leipzig police say 69 officers have been injured in clashes with rioting leftwing protesters and that they had to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the group.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4738608,00.html
I naively thought only Right wing was so violent.
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I hate Marine Le Pen to the point where my head hurts. It is a disaster that she’s doing so well.
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http://fortune.com/2015/12/12/dow-dupont-corporate-research-america/
“America’s vaunted research prowess is under attack. Not from China, Japan, or Germany, but from within, led by impatient investors eager to gain immediate boosts in stock prices.
Spurred on by activist investors, these shareholders are arguing that research takes too long, costs too much, and carries too many risks.”
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Angela Merkel has promised to “tangibly” reduce the number of refugees and migrants entering Germany in an attempt to quell a rebellion in her conservative ranks, but rejected calls to impose a cap on immigration.
At a gathering of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Merkel said Germany would pursue a range of measures to stem the flow of asylum seekers, expected to reach about 1 million this year.
“Even a strong country like Germany would in the long run be unable to cope with such a large number of refugees,” the chancellor said in a one-hour long speech. “We want to tangibly reduce the number of refugees arriving. With an approach focused on the German, European and global level, we will succeed in regulating and limiting migration.”
However, she said Germany had a “moral and political” duty as Europe’s top economic power to continue to help desperate people, particularly those from war-ravaged Syria.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/angela-merkel-pledge-cut-german-immigration-figures
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Since in Israel the terror wave continues (just today: “Eleven wounded in vehicular attack in Jerusalem… concrete barriers to be placed in front of 300 bus stations in the capital, after the measure proved effective in the West Bank”) , wanted to share:
Poll: Two-thirds of Palestinians support knife attacks
66% of Palestinians say intifada would ‘serve Palestinian national interests in ways that negotiations could not,’ while three-quarters oppose involvement of ‘young school girls’ in stabbings.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4739356,00.html
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The European Commission unveiled a controversial proposal Tuesday for a new EU border force with the power to intervene “in urgent situations” if it believes countries are failing to guard their external frontiers effectively.
But the measure, which will be a major topic of discussion at summit of EU leaders later this week, is already drawing criticism from some countries that see it as an encroachment on their sovereign powers.
http://www.politico.eu/article/countries-balk-at-eu-border-force-proposal-migration-security-frontex/
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HAHAHAHAH! The European Union couldn’t fight its way out of a wet paper bag with a hole already in it.
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Sweden faces moral dilemma over migration
http://www.politico.eu/article/sweden-faces-moral-dilemma-over-migration-malmo-refugees-border-checks/
I did not know that:
\ These men come from the Gaza Strip and have lived in temporary accommodation in Sweden for nearly seven years. They still haven’t received asylum.
Unlike Syria, Gaza is not considered a war zone by the Swedish government, and asylum is not automatically granted. These men receive $160 a month, which they say they are grateful for, but does not go far in a country with notoriously high living expenses.
“We want to work,” said Mohammad, who has been in Sweden the longest and seemed least bothered by the cold. “We are still young. Why are Syrians getting asylum and work and not us?”
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IF Gaza were a war zone, the two-thirds of Palestinians who favor knifing Israeli grandmothers in the back would already be dead.
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Good question. And it’s one of many questions that arise when a very loud and a very moralizing system of subdividing refugees into more and less worthy is adopted.
Whenever you get in the business of judging the extent of the suffering of others, prepare for real ugliness to ensue. I don’t believe anybody can declare that Syrians are more deserving of compassion than Gazans and preserve any shred of morality.
The whole thing just stinks. And societies become hopelessly torn and divided, resentments brew, and politicians exploit that.
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\ Good question. And it’s one of many questions that arise
For me, the questions that arose were connected to Gazan young men not working after “nearly seven years” (!) despite Swedish system knowing (!) they were in their country for close to a decade. Neither Swedes made any attempt to integrate those people. Interesting whether somebody in Sweden made a rational decision regarding this matter. For instance, “we won’t let them work in order not to attract more Gazans.” But they are doing the opposite with the Syrians presently. Weird.
\ Why are Syrians getting asylum and work and not us?
Are Syrians getting permission / help to find work, unlike Gazans?
\ Whenever you get in the business of judging the extent of the suffering of others, prepare for real ugliness to ensue.
But then one must either accept everybody or receive only immigrants, who will contribute to economy, and not accept refugees at all. Accepting everybody is impossible, so would you be for accepting nobody? What is the solution?
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Keeping people in a country and not letting them work for years is a general practice. I’m not entirely sure what purpose this serves but it’s done quite a bit. My husband was in the US legally for 2 years but not allowed to work. In spite of having a PhD in a tech field from a prestigious American university. Somehow, the US government considered it better for him to just sit there, not paying taxes or doing anything. It’s a good thing he knows how to sublimate into legal activities. Other people forced into unnecessary unemployment might react differently.
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As for the immigration model, as I said, I’d change it altogether from “what we can give to immigrants” to “what immigrants can give to us.” Just change the narrative completely and proceed from there. It will humanize immigrants and allow them to come in with dignity and not as supplicants who have to compete in who’s more miserable.
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\ Just change the narrative completely and proceed from there. It will humanize immigrants and allow them to come in with dignity and not as supplicants who have to compete in who’s more miserable.
So you offer to change the narrative (the way Europeans think about immigrants) and accept everybody? All millions of people from Gaza, Syria, Africa, etc who want to come to Europe?
Will changing the way of thinking solve the problem of Europe not needing so many people from the third-world? People who don’t have suitable skills to succeed in European economy?
Israel has “every Jew is a blessing” narrative and still millions were needed to integrate Ethiopean Jews. And the process is not complete yet. It takes several generations. It there were more Jews from the third-world, Israel would’ve been in a worse condition than now.
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Do I look like an insane person who advocates for open borders? I suggest accepting immigrants who have something valuable to contribute. If they have zero skills and can’t contribute to the economy or to their own upkeep, that settles the whole issue.
During my emigration process to Canada, I had an interview at the Canadian embassy. My hardship, if any, was not part of the conversation at all. We only talked about what I could contribute to Canada. The issue of whether I was more or less miserable than a prospective immigrant from Belarus, Russia, or anywhere else did not arise. That’s the system I’m advocating. It exists, it’s been tried, it works beautifully. Why invent the wheel if it’s already here?
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\ I’m not entirely sure what purpose this serves but it’s done quite a bit.
I think the goal must be forcing people to return to their own countries. Without you working, what would your husband live on? It hasn’t “worked” as intended in N’s case, but it supposedly works on others.
\ It’s a good thing he knows how to sublimate into legal activities. Other people forced into unnecessary unemployment might react differently.
Who will feed those other people, if they don’t have somebody supporting them? They are forced either to leave or to work illegally.
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First of all, at no point did my husband live off my earnings. To the contrary, he helped me out financially when I worked and he was unemployed. I’m a post-Soviet woman, and this is a crucial point to me. 🙂
If the goal is to get people to leave, just cancel their visa. But giving them a visa that allows them to live interderminately but not to work is insane.
Other people work illegally, which deprives the treasury of taxes. What the point of that is I’m not sure.
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PARIS – Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper whose staff was decimated by Islamic extremist gunmen, is giving nearly 4 million euros
($4.4 million) to victims of the three days of attacks in January.
…
In a statement Wednesday, Charlie Hebdo said it would turn over the donations from 84 countries, and that the French government would appoint an oversight committee to determine how the money would be redistributed.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4740270,00.html
Is this Russian lying or could it be true? This:
\ Russia’s strategic nuclear forces chief says its new weapons will be capable of “neutralizing” any potential missile defenses. Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, the Strategic Missile Forces’ commander, said Wednesday in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that the nation’s military planners have taken into account the emerging potential of NATO’s US-led missile defenses. The Kremlin long has described the US missile shield as a top threat to Russia, dismissing Washington’s claim that it is intended to fend off an Iranian missile threat.
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He’s lying. Russia’s nuclear arsenal is outdated and needs enormous injections of cash to modernize. For as long as the price of oil stays as low as right now (and hopefully goes lower), Russia will not be able to modernize the nuclear arsenal.
So let’s all hope that the oil prices keep plummeting.
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О доминировании английского языка и роли советской науки
http://scholar-vit.livejournal.com/447184.html
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О связи цвета тв-“мыла” и окружающей действительности
http://algalagan.livejournal.com/277866.html
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I began looking through her blog and found this post (in Russian) about the difference between Soviet movies for children and today’s Western ones:
http://algalagan.livejournal.com/41703.html
Do you agree that
\ Советские мультики (как и заграничные, впрочем) бывают разными …
Но в почти всех самых качественных, самых высокохудожественных мультиках я вижу то, что мне теперь, взрослой, не нравится.
Они, уча безусловно доброму и светлому, взращивают человека-жертву. … жить как собака, никогда не пытаясь изменить свою жизнь, не пытаясь бороться за нее.
Ах! Вы живете вшестером в двухкомнатной квартире. Ничего, добрые и светлые мультики считают это нормальным, втесноте – да не в обиде!
Вам повышают тарифы – ну, вас же научили делиться, чего вы ноете!
I was born later than you, so already watched both Soviet мультики and American ones. At least, when I was ~ 9 (and more) years old. Don’t remember what was before.
In general, was there some special Soviet atmosphere even in movies like “The Three Musketeers” and “Sherlock Holmes”? I read once that Soviet Sherlock Holmes has a different feeling to it than Western adaptations, but since I watched (and love greatly) only Soviet version, I can’t judge.
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I’m not into cartoons, so I can’t say but Soviet movies are definitely vastly superior to anything Hollywood has ever produced. I still watch a lot of them. Yes, they are all propaganda but who cares? There’s great acting of the kind Hollywood doesn’t produce. Even good actors who go to Hollywood turn into horrible actors there (Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas). Hollywood doesn’t require acting. It requires posing and scowling, nothing else.
Hollywood directors are impotent. All they can do is spend money. A real director, on the other hand, brings actors into an empty room and using no makeup or costumes gets them to act in such a powerful way that viewers remember it forever.
Sherlock Holmes is a great example. I watched the American version with Robert Downey Jr, who is not even a bad actor by Hollywood standards, but there was no comparison to our Soviet Sherlock Holmes. The Hollywood one had “I’m so American, where’s the nearest McDonald’s?” written all over his face. In short, there is no comparison.
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After outcry over MDA director’s claim severely wounded terrorists to be treated before victims, ZAKA says Jewish victims come first.
http://israellawblog.blogspot.co.il/2015/10/zaka-clarifies-we-treat-jewish-victims.html
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As a practical matter, I don’t think the medical responders will actually do this (treat somebody with a minor cut while they let a severely injured person bleed to death).
That’s not the way medical triage is handled anywhere — even for terrorists.
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Amusement park settles in discrimination case
Management to compensate Arab schools with 4,000 free tickets after being sued over policy of separate admission days for Jews and Arabs.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4740731,00.html
I have visited this park myself once with my relatives. Based on the article, I don’t think the court decision was fair. One Hebrew commentor noted “and where is compensation for Jewish schools?” After all, Jewish school students wouldn’t be permitted to come on a day, scheduled for Arab school/s either. If we can’t go to the same school with Israeli Arabs, why pretend shock when park management takes steps to prevent somebody being badly injured (or even killed)? Everybody knows mixing those two populations is a danger, expecially entire schools of hormone-filled teens. Why be a hypocrite?
Somebody commented:
\ Well, congrats to the Kumbaya Society. They made separate days because being together didn’t work. My kids refused to go to Superland with their daycamps after one year of trips, they came back scraped and bruised from having been beaten on by the Arab kids. Being a bully pays, I guess, when you have Bleeding Hearts Anonymous working on your side.
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Complete and utter insanity. Is there a single kid on the planet who never came home scraped and bruised at least once, even in the absence of Arabs for a thousand miles around?
These are all reports from a place where people are addicted to the adrenaline rush of hatred and fear-mongering. This is very sad.
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I like how el sprinkles this blog with hate and bigotry and then innocently asks ‘Clarissa, what do you think?’
‘We don’t want to give Palestinians water. Here’s why. What do you think?’
‘This mullah said something that hurt my feelings. We should bomb Iran, what do you think?’
It’s like a full-time job.
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It’s very easy to get people into the state of adrenaline addiction of this kind. I don’t want to see it happen in this country because it’s impossible to live among people who get in this state about amusement parks and calligraphy lessons.
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\ Complete and utter insanity. Is there a single kid on the planet who never came home scraped and bruised at least once, even in the absence of Arabs for a thousand miles around?
Ignore her comment. Are you for bringing schools of Arab and Jewish teens together and watching what happens? Why is the claim that Arab teens would direct their violence against Jewish teens (and the opposite) so hard to believe that you misrepresent ethnic hatred as “everybody had a fight with a friend once”?
This was news in 2015 Israel:
Arab, Jewish teenagers meet in youth parliament
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4623098,00.html
\ Moran Chen, one of the coordinators of the group, says outsiders don’t always understand how limited the interaction between Israeli Jews and Arabs actually is.
“If (members of the two communities) have meetings and encounters, it’s mainly negative meetings and encounters”
While the youth parliament may be it, I do not think the amusement park is a suitable place to promote interaction between the two groups.
Till the situation improves, the park management was right to act so. As for the current situation … For instance, Jewish teens are preparing for their IDF service and have serving family members. Arab teens are for “IDF is evil” narrative. Every day we read more tales of 13-year-old Arabs stabbing Jews (usually either kids of the same age or old people). An Israeli Jew won’t travel to an Arab Israeli villiage out of fear. Etc.
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Imagine if this were a story about the US and white parents insisting that there are no black kids allowed into the park on the days when white kids are there, would you still feel the same about the story? Honestly?
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\ Imagine if this were a story about the US and white parents insisting that there are no black kids allowed into the park on the days when white kids are there, would you still feel the same about the story? Honestly?
Here I can only repeat your own words back to you. Those about hating both American centrism and pretending everything is like everything else. Our relations with Palestinians are extremely different from African-American history. We are both majorities, for one. (Depends where.) Also, African Americans don’t demand a separate nation state and are not at war with America as a state (on an ideological level, but often not only). Etc.
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Forget to add the most important bit: the goal of the park was not to discriminate against Arabs, but to prevent violence (and the park getting sued). To prevent violence against Jewish students, yes, but against Arab students too. Realistically, with the current day-to-day separation and hatred, one would need to bring squads of policemen to the park on an “Arab-Jewish schools day” to ensure safety for everybody. In their teachers’ place, I would not want to be responsible for teens’ safety on such a day, that’s for sure! Arab schools’ principals agreed with me since they requested Jew-free days too! The latter was reported previously in a hebrew press. It is not only Jewish principals recognizing and wanting to prevent danger.
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So no answer, eh?
Now imagine it’s parents of boys who don’t want any girls around. Or parents of Ukrainians who don’t want any Jewish kids around. And so on. How does it look?
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\ So no answer, eh?
I gave my answer. Clarissa, honestly, would you take responsibility over safety of those kids, were you their school principal or a teacher supervising them? A serious question.
If you think “yes”, it may be because as a non-Israeli citizen, you are less aware of the reality on the ground.
As for Jewish and Ukrainian kids analogy, once again – Arab schools’ principals were afraid and against going on a Jewish school day too. We are not talking about usual days, when everybody of every nationality may enter with their family, but about special days when entire schools come on organized school fun days. Violence or even a real threat of it have this ability to destroy fun really quickly, you know.
And, if there were special schools for children of Ukrainian parents, who would “love” me as much as Israeli Arabs on average do, I would not want their school being mixed with a Jewish school either. Would not want to put Jewish kids at risk in the badly executed attempt to reeducate others to tolerance.
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There is only risk of violence because these poor children are being brainwashed by irresponsible, hateful parents into detesting each other. This reality of fear and hatred is constructed for the children by their parents. And that’s a horrible thing. These are just kids! They don’t need to be indoctrinated from cradle into hating their neighbor.
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\ I don’t want to see it happen in this country because it’s impossible to live among people who get in this state about amusement parks and calligraphy lessons.
Here is somebody proving how great the situation in Israel is (despite the quote with supposed proof below, I am not convinced):
\ President Rivlin is wrong – we are not a sick society.
…
According to the Israel Democracy Institute’s (IDI) latest democracy index, “the majority of the Jewish public, 71.3 percent, are against giving special privileges to Jews in Israel.” This is not a sign of a sick or violent society, but of a healthy one.
The report was presented to the president in an impressive ceremony three months ago. Why isn’t he reading it? According to Prof. Sami Samucha’s latest research, 70.7 percent of Israel’s Arab citizens consider Israel “a good place to live in.” Fifty-four percent support the statement that “the government in Israel, despite its flaws, is democratic towards Arab citizens as well,” and only 20.6 percent disagree with that statement. Again, this is sound evidence that the president is mistaken.
IDI researchers have made it even clearer: “The public discourse in Israel, which is often characterized by pain, desperation, and the prevailing feeling that the state of Israeli democracy is deteriorating and at a low point, as reflected primarily in the media, is probably not entirely accurate in light of the comparative international findings.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4740912,00.html
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On Israeli gas, Russia and a possible Israeli-Turkish Reconciliation:
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This is what waiting for an employment based green card looks like
Part of a series with different writers. Not that any of this is news to Clarissa.
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Thank you for posting this!!!
“After going to school here and contributing to the U.S. economy for over a decade, I’m still subjected to huge amounts of paperwork to stay in the country legally and still face the risk of self-deportation without ever having an opportunity to return to work here. Traveling overseas to visit family comes with the risk of not being able to return. The travel restrictions while I’ve been in the process have forced me to spend unreasonably long periods of time away from immediate family. For instance, I’ve gone almost two years without seeing my parents and almost three years without seeing my younger brother.”
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