It can be funny, Reiner, but it's also depressing. I don't understand the Americans. They waited for the fall of Musharraf before they started to attack fundamentalists on Pakistani soil. A bit late, in my humble opinion.

What they're doing in Afghanistan is also not ver clever. Many people in Afghanistan want the Taliban back in control. The mind boggles.

From Wikipedia:

"In August of 1977, then Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke traveled to Indonesia to meet with Suharto in the midst of one of the Indonesian military’s brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in East Timor in which tens of thousands of East Timorese were being slaughtered. Holbrooke visited officially to press for human rights reform, however once Suharto was met by Holbrooke, he was praised for Indonesia’s human rights improvements and was told that he in fact welcomed the steps that Indonesia had taken to open East Timor to the West, allowing a delegation of congressmen to enter the territory under strict military guard, where they were greeted by staged celebrations, welcoming the Indonesian armed forces.

Behind the scenes, Holbrooke and Zbigniew Brzezinski played point in trying to frustrate the efforts of congressional human rights activists to try and condition or stop US military assistance to Indonesia and in fact accelerated the flow of weapons to Indonesia at the height of the genocide."

Mr Richard Holbrooke called Radovan Karadžić "the Bin Laden of Europe". We all know that Mr Karadžić made a lot of aggressive video messages, he has a lot of money on foreign bank accounts and he ordered his followers to hijack airplanes to attack New York and the Pentagon. He's really a great thread to European civilization. To give an example: the major part of violent crimes in the Netherlands are being committed by members of the Serbian Orthodox Church. We almost never see a Muslim committing a crime in this country.

There's plenty about the goings-on in Bolivia and Venezuela on news.bbc.co.uk even if it's not made it onto recent radio/tv reports. (There have been at least two new reports posted on the website within the last three hours)

Some while ago - while Suharto was still in power - I had an Indonesian friend here in Moscow - she was a tv-journalist for the only non-State (ie non-Suharto) channel in Indonesia, and she had to cover all of E Europe (based out of Moscow) - they were a cash-strapped outfit.

One day Suharto went on a State Visit to Turkmenistan, to visit his fellow dictator President Nyazov (aka "Turkmenbashee" of late unlamented fate).  At the official Press Conference, Suharto spoke first - no need to translate anything for an Indonesian audience. But then Nyazov replied, and L had to deliver an impromptu paraphrased translation (since the only official translator was Suharto's interpreter, whispering it into his ear all the while).  Nyazov began along these lines...

"We are delighted to welcome President Suharto...  (blah-blah, diplomatic niceties and compliments).  On the subject of Human Rights, President Suharto is a man who has been an inspiration to us all.  He is famous for his fairness and justice.  In fact, during his visit we plan to sit down with his advisors and draft a new Code Of Human Rights for Turkmenistan,  based on the Human Rights in Indonesia...."

At this point, L was beginning to crack-up.  As the details of this "plan" emerged, she dissolved in hysterical laughter and couldn't continue translating....

Oh my god. But what happened then?!?

This is a quote from Millie's post on copmposer Trunk:
How easy is it to condemn people when we have had a different upbringing, different outlook, different situation altogether.


How critical can one be of people who tried to survive and did dishonorable things (like during Nazi regime or socialism under Stalin). Some people refused to cooperate and they were killed, some survived by being silent.
In the Soviet Russia people were indoctrinated and had to believe in everything the Party said. If one even doubted inside one's own mind he/she was send to a labour camp. This is how Industrial Revolution was achieved. They had to spy one after another and write reports about what the neighbors were doing. Some times they wrote bad things because they wanted to move into someone's flat. 
In Germany during Nazi regime they had different problems.
 
It is difficult to survive (even if we are talking about material well being). Would one be judgemental about another human being's adaptability to life?

Many things are different between cultures. What mean something in one culture means nothing or different thing in the other. Therefore it is difficult for people of different countries and cultures to understand each other (may be even impossible).

Some people still managed to be decent human beings in a difficult situation.
For example, people would help the other person, but in a covered kind of way. For example, when my Polish friend and her family was taken away as Polish Nationalists their guards told them to take everything they can with them because they are not coming back. They were able to take things with them that they later sold.
While they were in labor camp a lady-doctor helped them. She told them what to do in order to appear that they are ill because of luck of right kind of food. She told them to behave like if they are blind and walk into the walls and doors. Authorities gave them better food after that. They wanted women to cut down huge trees. After a while they realized it is not very productive. Then men were brought to cut huge trees down and women had to cut the branches.

There were people that tried to survive, they had to go to war and fight. However, they did not write reports what people are saying or what kind of political views they have. They did not put other people in jail or separate children from their parents.

Some people want to survive in such a comfort that they are ready to sell their soul.


If certain things were done under political pressure one can understand that. However, Shostakovich did not put anybody in jail. May be he wrote some political oratorias (like Prokofiev did) or people had to go to serve in the army because the government made them do it. One can understand that. But what if some people do things voluntarily, like subscribe under hateful literature, or hate others so much that one is able to kill them.

From what I know about different artists and musicians, they could be confused or frightened, but they were still decent human beings.


On a different note (may be more humorous) your obsession with different vegetables means absolutely nothing in other cultures.
The difference in cultures is so big that I often think it is impossible for people of one culture to understand the other.

No, I did not know. Thank you for telling me.



The real Arien has to be Tall, Thin, Blond

Captain of the Soviet Union
Leads us from one achievement to the other!