Sorry, guys, for some reason I
didn't get a notification again. I'll answer soon.
By the way, Greg, is there a topic about cinema at the
forum?
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Sorry, guys, for some reason I
didn't get a notification again. I'll answer soon.
By the way, Greg, is there a topic about cinema at the
forum?
No problem Alexey, we're always
here. :) And I saw a shortcoming in my previous reply, but let's continue and I'll correct it.
There is a
thread about Good Movies Lately here, and you
can post anything you like. If you want to create a different discussion you can start a new thread. As a member
you can create a thread on any topic. Just put it in Open Discussion. Let me know if you need any help. What do
you have on your mind besides politics and great photography?
It is me again :)
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If Europe thinks its boundaries to be
inviolable
Well,
actually the US signed this treaty too :)
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Modern Europe is only a little more enlightened, and they are
concerned more with economic unity than ethnic freedoms.
I
think that the US virtually have not such problems since the significant part of the native population died out (and
many were killed by European invaders) and now constitutes a very small percentage of total population.
As far as I know Europe does much for ethnic cultural freedoms but this
problem has not any solution from my point of view. If every nation has to have a state of its own – what should be
borders? If not, how I can have the same rights as the ‘title’ nation if I want to speak my ethnic language?
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What you say makes
sense, if you consider "self-determination" to be a goal for a modern political philosophy.
No, I haven’t any
strict views of my own on the subject. I just think that if a territory has a right to separate, any part of it has
to have the same right. That’s only one thing I am saying. But it is impossible.
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[SIZE=
3]--As for me I think nothing, but I am sure that if Russia begins to built
military bases in Cuba the US wouldn’t be too happy too.
[/SIZE]
--Ah, do
you interpret such actions through the lens of a Soviet camera? Or is the camera a modern Russian one? They are very
different. Is it so hard to understand "manoeuvres
defensif"?
I just think that nobody cannot be unbiased. Say, Mexicans will elect
somebody like Saakashvili and a civil war among different ethnic groups will begin (God forbid, of course).
I think that it would be difficult for the US not to interfere at all if
it happens at the US’s borders.
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As another thought, what do
you think of the UN?
Nothing :) Rather, it is a bit better than nothing but the UN is
incapable to solve serious problems, I think.
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As for my
pictures, they are only good "snapshots", and not artistically rendered. I will gather some and send them to you.
Great, I am waiting
for it : )
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There is a thread about
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Thanks a lot,
Greg. I am going to read it and post my questions :)
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Let me know if you need any
help
No, no,
everything is OK :) Thank you!
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What do you have on
your mind besides politics and great photography?
Money :) My main concern is how to get money from the Russian
Internet : ))
I understand and partially agree. The only problem is with old borders
drawn arbitrarily, without respect to major cultural/religious populations, as in the former Yugoslavia and
Albania. After the Soviet demise such things were inevitable I think. And then there was Milosevic, another small
problem. :)
Self determinism is pretty
important as a foundation for a Democracy. But you are absolutely right about small indigenous groups. They will
not have the power to realize any independence of course.
Interesting analogy Alexey, especially in the light of your
comment about borders. Of course the US would have an interest in the outcome. That raises a question I have.
What is the international status of South Ossetia?
As you recognized, there is a cultural
difference between the north and south. If either area have an allegiance to Georgia or Russia then their political
sponsor has an obligation: Georgia in the south and Russian in the north. But I'm not sure of the dynamics of
these areas among their people, if you exclude powerful armies.
Going back to the subject of this thread
(remember that?) :) the west is becoming a little nervous of Putin for other reasons as well. We will
see.
And are corrupt and political.
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I understand and partially agree. The only problem is with
old borders drawn arbitrarily, without respect to major cultural/religious populations, as in the former
Yugoslavia and Albania.
Major on minor?
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After the Soviet
demise such things were inevitable I think.
Well, the same
problems are in Catalonia or the Country of Basques, for example.
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And then there was
Milosevic, another small problem.
Yes, sure, but now there are another guys there. :)
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Interesting analogy Alexey, especially in the light of your
comment about borders. Of course the US would have an interest in the outcome. That raises a question I have. What
is the international status of South Ossetia?
The same as of
Kosovo : ) It is a part of Georgia, of course.
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As you
recognized, there is a cultural difference between the north and south.
Well, I don’t think
so. The only difference, I believe, is that there were many ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia, of course. As well as
there were quite enough Serbs in Kosovo. Of course, the difference is that some Serbs remain in Kosovo, but I think
that all Georgians were banished from South Ossetia and Abkhazia…
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If either area have an allegiance to Georgia or Russia then their
political sponsor has an obligation: Georgia in the south and Russian in the north.
I think that the
main problem is that Russia is more tolerant to ethnic minorities than Georgia. Actually even as an Empire ethnic
minorities in Russia were much more equal to the main nation that in the Western Empires. Maybe because Russians
were mainly serf slaves so there were no difference for Czars :
)
Georgians want to make everybody Georgians and it is not OK with Abkazs
and Ossetins.
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Going back to the subject of this thread (remember that?)
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the west is becoming a little
nervous of Putin for other reasons as well. We will
see.
Yes, all
troubles at the Caucasus are only coming : ))
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And are corrupt and political.
Well, Greg, what is not corrupt and political in the modern
world? : )
Hi Alex,
After finally getting
around to doing some more reading about Georgia, I have to agree with you. Saakashvili made a big mistake, and his
country paid a price. The Russian response may have been a little heavy-handed, but Putin is the kind of person who
likes to prove his point.
The discussion about Kosovo, Basques, ethnic sovereignty and such can be discussed
endlessly, and is probably one of the more interesting discussions available. Ethnic and religious tensions that
history ignored - or suppressed under a dictatorship - later become revolutions if they can, genocides if they're
very unlucky, or victims of re-suppression if they're only moderately unlucky. This ignores political tensions
which suddenly appear in the vacuum of a failed imperial tyranny such as the Soviets.
Considering all that, the
Balkans were a very old soup that boiled over after its last restraint was removed. It was going to happen, and the
Western powers had to make a choice. Recognizing Kosovo was not so much a matter of violating borders, but of
recognizing a new political landscape that they did not choose, but had to accept.
In sheer pragmatic terms, a
population must have the means to revolt in terms of capability, then it must have legitimacy in its political
sphere. These two rules prohibit many populations from breaking whatever "chains" they have, or perceive to
have.
On another note, I see that Putin, ooops, Medvedev wants to place missiles near Poland. Medvedev said that
he is counting on our new President to make "conciliatory gestures". What do you think of this? What do you think
of our new President?
Greg hi,
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After finally getting around to doing some more reading about Georgia, I have to agree
with you. Saakashvili made a big mistake, and his country paid a price.
Well, I remember a line from ‘Jackie Brown’. - Can you trust Melony? –
You can trust that Melony will be Melony.
Or something like this.
Saakashvili is Saakashvili and I think that it is a great mistake of the US government that it supports such guys.
Again, Hitler was elected democratically too.
Quote:
On another note, I see that Putin,
ooops, Medvedev wants to place missiles near Poland. Medvedev said that he is counting on our new President to make
"conciliatory gestures". What do you think of this?
Nothing : ) As far as I know we have not military units to the west of
Moscow at all and all this is just a show. A good half of Russians are very anti-Western and I think that the
Kremlin guys just try to satisfy them.
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What do you think of our new
President?
Well, I am glad that after Bush America chose something else :) For me it shows that
democracy works.
Much more a bit later – we are making our site and my
brains don’t work completely : )
What do YOU think of new President?
:)
I think its apples and oranges. A
non-nuke defensive missile program in Europe, with full NATO support - in our current political climate - is much
different than Nikita K. trying to plant offensive nukes in a puppet state ruled by a certified gangster.
The
spirit of Che Guevara died its final death when the Soviets caved to JFK (btw, the last Democrat with balls), and
subsequent communist revolutions in the Americas died slower deaths as toilet paper became more and more scarce, but
in much higher demand. Or, you could say that the need to wipe one's ass properly became both a real and political
necessity with Castro wannabes running amok and attempting too late their plans for centrally-controlled paradises.
They missed the trend, and got caught with their ideology failing like an adolescent at the Mustang Ranch.
Castro just got lucky at just the right time with just the right amount of thuggery. The kind of thuggery that
won't pass the scrutiny of today's international scrutiny unless you're Castro, or Putin, which leads to the crux
of this thread which is Russia's new Tsar. Of course the big differnce between petty dictators and big ones are
big weapons. Which leads to a need to contain them.
A
major mistake and disaster waiting to happen. McCain wasn't much better and I didn't vote for either of them. I
think we are in for some very bad times.
But then, I've been saying that for a long time and as predicted,
things have continued to worsen under each successive president. Obama's crazy ideas are just going to speed things
up.
Alex! Its been a long time
since we have spoken мой друг, вы
хорошие?
We have a new President now, what do you think of our future
political relations with Obama? Do you think he is a match for Medvedev/Putin?
I also see that Moscow and Kiev
have a dispute with gas deliveries to Europe. What is the real problem with Gazprom?
No problem Alexey, its only been
a year, and I had a girlfriend who took that long to get ready for a date. Come to think of it, she was Russian!
:)
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge (but not gas) in the past year or more. How is everything in your
part of the world?
The forum is good Alex, but
politically we're in shit up to our tallest basketball stars, especially considering that some of them are from
China. :)
Are you keeping up with the American experiment?