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Yeah my wife (Russian/Ukrainian) was really shocked and thought I was illiterate or something when I couldn't do cursive and had a hard time reading it. Then almost everyone else in the room also expressed a similar skill level in cursive. People just don't write with a pen or pencil anymore. Other than jotting down notes or measurements when building something, or filling out a form in big block letters, people just don't hand write, it's become an almost totally lost art, around here anyways. We learned it in mid elementary school, everyone hates it because gently caress you just finished teaching us how to print and now you're teaching us this even harder way to print?? Then it never comes up again and most kids forget it. By highschool most assignments were typed and everyone's cursive was so bad teachers would ask for things printed. I think that's a part of it too, people's hand writing was so bad teachers didn't want to deal with that poo poo for marking so just demand everything be typed. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 22:49
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jonnypeh posted:
Greece has a shockingly large military and tank force. Are they still ready to throw down with Turkey any moment?
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Dec 9, 2014 23:12
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Libluini posted:Some more news. The ceasefire is already breaking up: Separatists have wounded 8 soldiers and killed three others. The power still stays in on Kiev, but in the suburb my in-laws live in about 30 min north they have less and less power every day. First it was an hour or two scheduled at a certain time each day, then it got longer and longer but was generally predictable. The power is now off more than it is on and it is hard to predict  I'm worried about them.
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Dec 12, 2014 22:57
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Discendo Vox posted:Somehow I suspect the Russian nuclear arsenal is not in a better position. You'd be wrong unfortunately. Their nuclear arsenal is one thing the Russian never cut corners or try to save money on. They get all the money they need to stay functional and are constantly being modernized and upgraded.
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Dec 16, 2014 20:00
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The economic problems will just make Putin hold onto Ukraine even tighter. He needs some legitimacy, he needs to seem strong. Having the currency collapse and then "lose the war" against the western homonazi's. Do you want a leader who can't even destroy a small western backed junta or keep the economy functioning? If Putin leaves Ukraine now he will lose massive face and he can't afford that right now. Russians support putin for 2 main reasons. He happened to be leader at a time when many got rich of their oil and gas so they believe he saved and grew their economy, and he made them feel proud to be Russian again, that russia was strong and feared again. With the economy going into the toilet all he will have to fall back on is the whole "We are a world power, the west fears our mighty military! Russia STRONG!". Pulling out of Ukraine or stopping their support of the rebels will make russia look very weak. If anything the economic situation in Russia will make things more likely for more direct military intervention, not less. Putin needs to wrap this up, he needs a big MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner and an official Victory. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Dec 16, 2014 |
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Dec 16, 2014 20:45
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So how popular is that guy?
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Dec 23, 2014 20:30
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mobby_6kl posted:Not sure Putin has anything to do with that though. Orthodox ceremonies are long as gently caress as you have to stand through them, no one is comfortable after standing for 5 hours or so.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:54
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Paladinus posted:When you look at it from a different angle it doesn't look so menacing. This is such a Russia picture. No one is smiling, grumpy old people in ill-fitting overly authoritarian looking uniforms.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:25
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drat it's a good thing we managed to more or less talk our family into sending us most all their savings when this conflict first started brewing. They were worried about the bank transfer fees reducing their savings. Now it's all sitting safe in Canada making a solid 6-7% interest. They're going to come out way ahead in the end, if there's a ukraine left of course. Also a lot of ex-soviet citizens seem really against investments of any sort. You squirrel your money in a lovely bank or literally just keep it under your bed or in a safe but sticking it in a really basic mutual fund is just crazy risky and should never be done. BUT if your cousin comes to you saying he has a hot tip and will double your money in a year you absolutely give all he asks for.
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Jan 13, 2015 21:51
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So my wife has put her foot down and is saying we are 100% going to Ukraine in September no matter what. The trouble is just in the east and kiev is totally safe and don't be such a coward because she NEEDS to visit her family every year or two. Is this a really bad idea? I keep saying that the country is an active war zone right now and things could spill over any time, it's way too unpredictable. And even if not a danger of being shot, there's a danger of being stuck in the country if there's an airport shutdown or no-fly zone or who the hell knows what might happen. Am I being paranoid or is she dismissing the risks?
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Jan 14, 2015 23:40
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Last time we went to Kiev hungarian airlines went bankrupt like the day we were flying out, nearly trapping us there. Also it was a record cold snap that killed a few hundred people. Also my in-laws house wasn't actually finished despite the contractor's promises so I had to help finish their house out of desperation for somewhere private to sleep. I do not like to go to Ukraine. I love my in-laws and grand-in-laws though. We will certainly try to bring them things they need. We sent them a bunch of clothing twice but both packages got "lost" in the mail Grandparents live right downtown in Kiev near the main square, in-laws live about 30 min north in a little suburb/village with their own newly built house and a car. Everything's gas though for heat and cooking, but they have a wood stove at least. Kiev gets fairly reliable electricity but the village now has the power off about 50% of the time on a schedule. Have they fixed that loving reactor turbine yet?
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Jan 15, 2015 01:30
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Sergiu64 posted:I guess they're just accepting the fact that they're about to get declared a Terrorist Organization by everyone in the West? Plus they know no one in the west is going to do a drat thing to stop them. They can kill as many Ukrainians they want and the west will keep ignoring the situation. They'd have to shoot down a few more civilian planes full of non-slavs while tweeting about it to get the West's attention.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:25
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mobby_6kl posted:http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-30999101 Germany, a country not currently know to be frantically mining coal to make up for their disastrous green energy policies, certainly not willing to demolish entire villages to get that sweet sweet coal. http://www.globalsolarportal.org/index.php/environmental-news/120-germany-is-demolishing-entire-towns-for-cheap-brown-coal
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Jan 27, 2015 20:04
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a mining area wanting to secede to its more powerful neighbor, where have I heard this before?
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So is the Russian post now unofficially at war with Ukraine? Apparently packages and mail are all being held up in customs and being rejected. My family in Kiev is saying none of the stuff they regularly get from Russia is coming, mix of personal and business are all being held by customs then blanket rejected.
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Feb 5, 2015 21:44
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Best Friends posted:It's hard to overstate just how much Americans hated Japan in the 40s. They weren't just a normal enemy - they were depicted, and often considered, to be basically inhuman. Based on the poo poo they did in asia that was a fairly well deserved reputation, and their constant attempts to white wash it all and sweep it under the rug or outright lie about it has a lot of people who were victims of their atrocities still pretty mad.
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Feb 17, 2015 19:46
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Why the gently caress would a left wing party be hanging out with hard right russian ultra-nationalists?? Wouldn't any left/progressive political party be diametrically opposed to everything modern Russia and is currently doing in Ukraine?
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Feb 18, 2015 21:09
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Everything's getting really expensive and really scarce, power is off more and more.
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Feb 25, 2015 05:43
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It's also really really hard to get out of Russia. At least to the west anyways. Unless you have a really in-demand degree or get married (and even then it's 3+ years of waiting) it's a serious pain in the rear end.
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Mar 11, 2015 19:48
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Mr Luxury Yacht posted:What I don't get about Yanukovich getting re-elected is wasn't he implicated in that whole dioxin poisoning of his main rival? Or was that never actually proven? Only if the voters care enough. I used to think massive scandals and even criminal acts would "destroy" politicians and parties, but never discount blind tribal loyalties. People will hand wave it all away with "yes it's bad but all parties do such things, my party simply got caught this time" or they'll have some comparable scandal that "the other guys" did last election. When people believe every politician and party is an outright criminal they simply vote for the criminal they think will benefit them the most, but it's already known they are all criminals so scandals don't upset them. The only reason things like that hurt politicians in the west is that people here still under the impression that their entire ruling class are not criminals. But even over here we're getting more and more used to that. In Canada the ruling party keeps getting involved in major criminal scandals but people don't care. Better a conservative criminal than a socialist. And besides I'm sure those other parties are all doing the same thing, so it evens out. Way back in the day I thought something like wikileaks would totally upend the political landscape. If all the dirt and lies our governments and politicians spout were put in the light people would stop voting for them, there would be change. Nothing happened. People don't give a poo poo about policies, or facts, or anything really. All that matters is that they support their team and their team wins. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Apr 8, 2015 |
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Apr 8, 2015 16:41
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I love the patriotic porn.
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Apr 10, 2015 17:36
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So what's with Ukraine's dumb symbol ban? My grandpa and his veterans org is really mad/confused/sad that suddenly all their medals and monuments are illegal or some poo poo now???
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Apr 12, 2015 03:19
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OddObserver posted:Veterans stuff is exempt. My grandpa gets all his news from Russian channels, but he was saying soviet veterans are banned from a bunch of events/parades but the nazi sympathizing partisans are being celebrated as freedom fighters.
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Apr 12, 2015 06:11
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I finally convinced my wife that we shouldn't buy tickets or plan on going to Kiev. So much can change in a few months. Even her family who wants to see her told her probably just wait and see how things go. It doesn't have to be Russian tanks driving around Kiev, it can be burning tire barricades again, it can be general unrest and protests. Last time I was in Kiev I almost got trapped due to loving Hungarian airlines going bankrupt and I"m not getting trapped there again no matter how much chicken Kiev you give me.
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Apr 13, 2015 21:26
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How likely would a total surrender/giving what russia wants actually end the war and let the rest of Ukraine rebuild? Like if Ukraine just told russia they can have Crimea forever, told the little warlords in eastern ukraine they can have their little neo-fascist fiefdoms and just moved back to territory they can fairly safely control. Would Russia let up, or would they just press even deeper? At what point do you just cut your losses and settle for the territories where you have a clear ethnic majority and popular support and spend the next decades catching up to economic and quality of life superstars such as Romania or Hungary? The Czechs are doing fine without the Slovaks. Would Ukraine be better off without the east and russian majority areas? There's so much bad blood, it would take generations to heal, and that's without Russia sending in its military and financing "separatists" and showering the country with propaganda.
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Apr 17, 2015 16:54
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NEED TOILET PAPER posted:Throughout he emphasized that this crisis is both a danger to Ukraine and an excellent opportunity for the country to change itself, if the impetus for change can be harnessed and put to use. This reminds me of my wife's friends in Kiev. They are educated upper middle class 30 somethings who opened up their condo as a clinic/safehouse for protestors to crash/hide in during the protests. They have some optimism for the future. Although he top leaders in the government are all poo poo, a lot of new blood has managed to get into government that would never have gotten in years ago due to the corrupt status quo. Their only hope is that this entire war will be worth it if it means a new government and new system of politics that is even a bit less corrupt than the old one. Ukraine was stagnating to death with no hope before this all.
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Apr 17, 2015 20:16
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Yeah my Hungarian family have a lot of stories about the Russian invasion/occupation. My grandma was very lucky and her house was stolen by some officers, who let the family stay and treated them fairly ok and even said they'd protect them. Yet every night it was the sound of screams, gunshots, and rape. Lots of smashing and glass breaking, they'd even take the tiles off roofs. Whole villages would be burned and decimated because some drunk soldier decided to accuse them of harbouring nazi's. It was really really bad, and Hungary got off lucky compared to a lot of places the soviets conquered. And the soviet troops were desperate too. They were high on power and revenge fantasies, but also barefoot and starving. They stole and looted because they were not properly supplied at all. They were written off as being able to "live off the land" which was code for "rape and pillage" because that was easier than working out supply logistics. My grandpa was a forester and would constantly find russian soldiers prowling the woods trying to hunt or fish or find berries or anything to eat. He'd help them out, and they'd be gracious, but there was always this high level of tension where you didn't know if they'd just shoot you because they liked your boots. Also it was apparently common for Russian soldiers to carry some lint covered candy in their pocket to offer up after a rape or pillaging against a household in order to make amends. "Sorry about the rape, here's a candy to show I'm not a total monster though" Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Apr 20, 2015 |
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Apr 20, 2015 22:04
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A Pale Horse posted:Its going to be a modified version of the EC725 Caracal if that helps anyone with particular knowledge of these machines. I've only heard one interview from a military expert so far about it and he wasn't super excited. He said it was the bone Poland threw the EU after going with the American Patriot system which was a much bigger contract despite the European offer being significantly better. It was all politics basically. Still the Patriot at least is a known quantity so I'm not upset at all about that. Chomsky just hates america with a burning passion, all his political analysis is through that lens. The same passion he has against the US and it's allies that has resulted in him writing a lot of really good stuff has also resulted in him writing a lot of bad stuff. When the US was invading countries left and right and committing war crimes and hiring rape gang mercenaries Chomsky's biting critiques seemed intelligent. But now that it's Russia invading and loving poo poo up he can't change his rhetoric, he has to some how frame everything with the US being the bad guy, the source of all that is evil in the world. I think a lot of his comments on eastern europe have proven he actually isn't very astute or fair, he's a stopped clock and the only time he reads is "US neo-liberal neo-colonialism!!!!". Putin could be caught building massing death camps and Chomsky would some how shift the blame or at least the conversation to something something well america did X or Y worse. Even when he doesn't outright shift the blame, he just has to bring up the US and its history. Oh I'm not blaming the victim, I'm just saying the victim has been recently associating with people that have done far worse than the accused. I think we need to talk more about the victim's associates, in fact lets totally ignore the perpetrator's current actions and discuss all the wrongs the victim's friend has done to the perpetrator. In fact let's totally ignore the victim, strip them of all agency, and make this about the perpetrator and a sort-of friend of the victims and come to the conclusion that we should really ignore this whole thing and just focus on how bad the victim's sort-of friend is. I mean how can you blame the perpetrator, the victim's friend was so mean to them and made them feel insecure and small! Oh he also calls the actual legitimate grass-roots protests and change in government a coup and in his mind it was basically some CIA agents overthrowing a popular government to install a puppet fascist regime JUST LIKE THE US DID IN SOUTH AMERICA!! I mean that's what the US's MO was in south america right? So that has to be what's going on here. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Apr 22, 2015 |
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Apr 22, 2015 01:06
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http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article3973 Decent little interview about Russia Today and idiot western leftists cheer leading Putin/Russia. "I mean, if the left are ready to support this kind of logic, even if this kind of logic in some ways confronts American imperialism, I probably don’t agree with this left in a very fundamental way. I think that one of the main mistakes of a very big part of the left for years was the idea that imperialism can only be American; that if you talk about imperialism, we mean the United States, because there are not any other imperialist powers. But if we look back at the Marxist definition of imperialism we will find that imperialism, it’s always a conflict. It’s a conflict between states, between capitalist interests, and it always leads to a kind of military confrontation with the blocs of interests, like it was in the first world war. . . . So you should simply recognize that yes, even if we have no justification for American imperialism, we should recognize that there are other imperialisms. And you can’t find among these imperialisms something that is more progressive or objectively progressive than the other. That should be a kind of rule, like in the conflicts you have in Ukraine: You have no good side; no progressive side. Of course, you have fascists on both sides. Of course, you have imperialist interests on both sides. And any kind of support of one or another side from the left simply strengthens one of the sides, but weakens the left. For the American left, of course for them only American imperialism exists, yes? I can’t understand it. . . . In Russia, there are a lot of leftists who also believe that Russia is the main evil in the world, it’s a reactionary empire, and it should be destroyed. Or, at the same time, you have a lot of leftists who believe somehow Russia is resisting American imperialism [and] who support these “republics” in the East of Ukraine. But you have a huge provincialization of the left as a whole because they can’t even understand each other and every leftist community, they believe in their own national reality. And that’s why they can be so easily manipulated. By whom? By Russia Today? I think it’s a very pitiable situation because the Russian propaganda machine, which is not the most clever, not so smart . . . it can so easily manipulate such a big sector of the Western left. It points to the problem of the Western left itself, but not the strength of Russia Today."
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Apr 22, 2015 19:57
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So my in-laws who only moved back to Ukraine a couple years ago and bought a house are now saying they're just going to ditch their house and move somewhere else. But where? Back to moscow? With what money? They don't speak english and we don't have enough to support them so they can't come here to Canada, at least not now. I don't know what the hell they're going to do. Our advise was to stay put, the economy is poo poo but they're safe just outside of Kiev and their whole extended family is there. Their main complaint is jobs/economy/corruption but where can they go that's better, Russia??
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Apr 28, 2015 00:42
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awesome-express posted:Yeah time to start learning English. Ditch the house, convert everything to USD/GBP/EUR in a foreign bank rent for a bit on the cheap and get the hell out They moved a couple years ago because Moscow is even more of a hole than Kiev, and a lot more expensive to live in. Sell their very highly valued moscow apartment and get a HOUSE. A house! A real house, like in american movies! Then they realized they hate gardening and home upkeep and then there was a nazi-backed coup and all russian speakers will be persecuted, veterans regarded as traitors and nazi's held as heroes! They can't move back to Moscow since their house outside of Kiev is now worthless. Basically they tied all their money up into this new dream retirement house. And yeah, we've told them to start learning english. I think they think we can some how just get them out right now and set them up with a comfortable western life. Other members of the extended family also constantly will ask my wife to help "set them up" or "why haven't you gotten your cousin into Canada yet?". None of them speak english or have any in demand job skills. My wife had a job at the British Council and worked her way up from a test invigilator or organizing cultural and educational events, poo poo that looks really good on a resume, also perfect english fluency. The family just has this idea/expectation that now that my wife is here she can just get them into the country and set them up with jobs and do all the paperwork for them and financially support them for how ever many years it takes them to find work and learn english. We'd like to maybe have kids, maybe even retire one day, but this is all triggering all my wife's eastern european FAMILY FIRST guilt. Man this is more e/n poo poo though.
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Apr 28, 2015 18:39
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Ardennes posted:Yeah, unfortunately, you are right, pretty much every Western country is only going to let them come over if they have a skill set including language skills. Obviously, there are exceptions but that isn't going to generally apply to members of an extended family. Otherwise they can try to work illegally in Poland or other EU states, that is very hard to suggest someone actually do unless their situation is genuinely completely hopeless. Also, yeah the money that the parents invested into the house is probably mostly a loss, but it is very unfair to your wife who can't wave a magic wand to fix everything. Pretty much totally Russian although the family mostly grew up in Kiev. Old military family so grandpa moved around all over the soviet union and ended up retiring to Kiev after being the highest general of the region and a military diplomat. Grandpa gets 100% of his news from Russian state media which then filters down through the rest of the family, who also mostly just speak russian so only reach/watch/listen to russian media. To them things are bad, it's nazi's, it's russian language becoming illegal, it's veterans being called oppressors and nazi's liberators. The in-laws lived in Moscow for the last decade or so, mostly for my wife's education but also father-in-laws film aspirations (and aspirations that she also get into film). I have no idea what they are thinking now. Kiev isn't a great place to be, but it's better than being penniless in Moscow chasing after a film career. They have a house and car, they have land they can garden, they have a modest income and their extended family is all in Kiev, it's the best place for them to be right now because Canada is not a short term option. If this is something they seriously want to move towards, to retire here in Canada with their daughter, this is something we can plan for, but it's a long term plan involving intense English study and a ton of paperwork and some pride swallowing that maybe you might have to work bagging groceries rather than being a great actor or director. The alternative is just never working and destroying your daughter's chance at children or retirement. Rent and utilities for a lovely 1br apartment would be close to $1000 a month, then add food, transport... it's not like we're rich and have a house with in in-law suite, that would be a different story. We have a small 2br apartment we can barely afford and a retirement/kids education fund. My wife understands this as well but the guilt is killing her. She has to "do something". "I can't just be like a north American and abandon my family out of greed and comfort!". But they haven't even communicated what they want us to do. It's just lots of complaints about how their house was a huge mistake, how they hate Ukraine and want to move, and how my wife has it so good. I'd love to help them, I'm fine sending them money, and I'm fine talking about a long term plan for them to retire here one day (they're only in their early 50's, not helpless seniors) but the guilt and panic needs to stop or my wife's going to lose it. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Apr 28, 2015 |
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Apr 28, 2015 19:41
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"Russia Seizes Ukrainian President Poroshenko's Candy Factory" http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-seizes-ukrainian-president-poroshenkos-candy-factory/519974.html I always thought this was extremely weird having the leader of a country at war with another country owning factories in the country invading him. A lot of Ukrainians don't trust him because of this, view it as a conflict of interest, divided loyalties.
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Apr 29, 2015 22:39
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I have a pair of looted nazi binoculars in my living room courtesy of my awesome russian general grandpa-in-law. They are actually really solid and compact and some of the nicest I've ever used. He didn't personally loot them because he has a very strong sense of ethics and was like 12 during the war, but got them from someone who did. My Hungarian relatives had Russians hauling their loving roof tiles off their house hoping they could some how get them back home. Those dude love to loot, they murdered and looted like no one's business during and after the revolution, during the war, during the occupation of eastern europe. They looted their own economy in the 90's. Now their economy is once again in the shitter so they're lacing their lootin' boots up. Looting and pillaging is the only solution they know to problems, both domestic, international, and personal. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 03:30 on May 1, 2015 |
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May 1, 2015 03:28
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HorseLord posted:"not this poo poo again" I think that's what most of this thread thinks every time you post.
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May 1, 2015 19:02
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There's a TON of vietnamese in Czech republic. It's sort of a sad situation, europe is pretty poo poo in general with immigrants.
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May 3, 2015 09:32
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"In 1986 the GUNT rebelled against Gaddafi, stripping Libya of its main cover of legitimacy for its military presence in Chad"
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May 5, 2015 18:52
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My wife's friends in Kiev are both ethnically "russian" but the russian invasion has them now changing to Ukrainian as their official household language. He speaks it fluently, she is a little rough so learning. They want to make sure their kid learns Ukrainian as home-language. Apparently they are not alone, they also know a bunch of bi-lingual people who are trying to stamp out their use of Russian. Russian really wasn't an oppressed language or group, it was a stupid political issue but it wasn't a huge deal outside a few areas and a few politicians who made it a big deal. The Russian invasion has polarized people, now it's a bigger and bigger issue. Which of course is perfect for the russian narrative, a delightful self-fulfilling prophecy.
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May 6, 2015 19:56
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A majority of the absolutely worst social conservative free market worshiping poo poo heads I've ever met were all eastern european immigrants, specially from Poland. It's this amazing combo of sexism, homophobia, Catholicism, and "serial entrepreneurial-ism". Just a string of failed get-rich quick schemes and borderline scam business ventures that would have succeeded if it wasn't for the commies/socialists and their regulations.
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May 13, 2015 21:07
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Which is weird because a lot of early western political movements to establish something more akin to social-democracy were largely coming at it from a christian perspective. Now we have supply side jesus.
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May 13, 2015 22:04
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My wife has a bunch of Stanislaw Lem stuff, I guess that episode of futurama was totally based on it. Also the femputer episode.
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May 14, 2015 04:05
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