I watched 'Death of a Nation' with grim fascination. An excellent documentary, no doubt, but very much concentrated on the dark side of Russian life. Maybe this needed to be presented in the UK- in our society we still know little about Russia.
I have just returned from a year and a half living and working in Siberia and was thoroughly charmed by Russia, but of course the society is still very much in transition and needs time to put itself fully on the path toward rule of law and a functioning, free market economy. Whether democracy as we know it in the West will ever develop, I do not know- membership of the EU will not happen in my lifetime as it would involve a dilution of the Kremlin's power.
Anyhow, forgive me if these seems like a plug but if anybody wants to read about my time in Russia, please take a look at http://www.siberia.eclipse.co.uk . My scribblings are there.
What the Meshkets are being subjected to is both disgusting, and criminal. Where else in the world would such a plausible form of ethnic cleansing be allowed to take place without intervention? But because the Meshkets have nothing to their name, of material worth, no one is willing to help them. They are being denied basic civil rights such as having a driver's license. They have been segregated from the majority population, evicted from their homes and denied employment. The authorities have not recognized the marriages of many of them, and parentage has often not been recorded on birth certificates. So i'm glad this has been brought to light. Obviously, still, no one will particularly care - and those that do will be prevented from taking any action.
I agree about the Meshkets. One of Russia's many self-defeating contradictions is that despite the shrinking population, immigrants are hated. I think the programme illustrated this well.
However, as a Westerner in Siberia I was treated very well. I was always conscious that my Tajik, Uzbek and Chinese friends lived a very different life where mindless abuse, muggings and police persecution were just around the corner.
We see a much less extreme version of this mentality in the anti-immigration hysteria of the UK.
Trite as it may sound, it's time to start educating younger generations to view other races as human beings rather than a threat to their own culture, in Russia and in the UK.
Originally posted by Siberian Spireite: I watched 'Death of a Nation' with grim fascination. An excellent documentary, no doubt, but very much concentrated on the dark side of Russian life. Maybe this needed to be presented in the UK- in our society we still know little about Russia.
I have just returned from a year and a half living and working in Siberia and was thoroughly charmed by Russia, but of course the society is still very much in transition and needs time to put itself fully on the path toward rule of law and a functioning, free market economy. Whether democracy as we know it in the West will ever develop, I do not know- membership of the EU will not happen in my lifetime as it would involve a dilution of the Kremlin's power.
Anyhow, forgive me if these seems like a plug but if anybody wants to read about my time in Russia, please take a look at http://www.siberia.eclipse.co.uk . My scribblings are there.
sounds fascinating. Did you dgo sibe via an rganisation or was it by your own initiaive?
I saw an ad placed by a now-defunct charity named Siberian Intercultural Bridges, and after sorting the initial contacts via them pretty much did things in tandem with the school I worked for in Siberia. If you're interested in doing the same I can happily point you in the right direction! Native English speakers are more than weclome in Russian universities.
Originally posted by Zaira: What the Meshkets are being subjected to is both disgusting, and criminal. Where else in the world would such a plausible form of ethnic cleansing be allowed to take place without intervention? But because the Meshkets have nothing to their name, of material worth, no one is willing to help them. They are being denied basic civil rights such as having a driver's license. They have been segregated from the majority population, evicted from their homes and denied employment. The authorities have not recognized the marriages of many of them, and parentage has often not been recorded on birth certificates. So i'm glad this has been brought to light. Obviously, still, no one will particularly care - and those that do will be prevented from taking any action.
Well, the problem of the Meshets is not a Russian problem only: they were forced out from Uzbekistan, they are not welcome to their historic homeland in Georgia, Turkey stopped the progrm of their immigration into the country and as far as I know the US has also suspended their program of support... By the way, there dozens of different ethnic groups living together in Southern Russia and I have never heard of any serious troubles with them...
Originally posted by Siberian Spireite: I watched 'Death of a Nation' with grim fascination. An excellent documentary, no doubt, but very much concentrated on the dark side of Russian life. Maybe this needed to be presented in the UK- in our society we still know little about Russia.
I don't think it's a good source of information about Russia - it was all about drunk cossaks and HIV in Irkutsk. Actually I used to live in the city for six years and could hardly recognize the place in the "documentary"... Bty, the most surprising for me was to learn that Irkutsk is a key point in drug traffiking from Afganistan. Had the author ever seen a map of Russia? Smells like propaganda of the "good" old Cold war age...
In fact, Russia is a disgrace to all civilised nations in the twenty first century, instead of her to face the reality; by solving the problems of education, health care and eradicating poverty to the minimum level. The Russian government and the majority of the Russia citizens see the Western World and the United State of America to be the cause of their problems. The recent issues in Estonia as shown that, Russia government is still looking forward towards its ambition to retain the title of ‘Big Brother’. Even though the Estonia government invited the representative from the Russia federation to the commemoration to lay flowers for the Soviet soldiers, but surprisingly the invitation was ignore. That is how they love their ‘heroes’. – Obviously, they were busy looking for the foreign enemies! Isn’t it? The Cossack’s enforcement officers who suppose to protect and guide the citizens and the ethnic minorities happen to be the one terrorizing the ethnic minorities, I can see from his beloved literature ‘Mein Kampf ‘ and his devote to Hitler by salute. Quiet a pity that European Union [EU] as got no other option rather than to had summit with Russia. To my own understanding, Russia is a betrayer to the European civilisation. Is not a secret to the whole world that if you are dark skin, Jewish or Black African your life is 100% at risk in Russia! The incident of racist attacks and stabbing people who are dark skins to death for the past few years has proved it.
PS The Documentary film will enlighten UK people and the rest of the world about Russia, in the twenty first century. Thank you so much Marcel Theroux!
I missed the broadcast, unfortunately. For the record, I run a social purpose business in the UK which directs resources toward human rights advocacy in the former Soviet Union. Around a decade ago, I was helping a friend, Nick Flynn, edit some of Malcolm Muggeridge's unpublished works for a proposed new collection and these included his articles on Stalin's man made famine. At the same time, Terry Hallman an American who is now my colleague embarked on a related path. He'd observered the disaster brought about by the attempt to fund arms reduction under the Defense Enterprise Fund during the Yeltsin era and offered an alternate strategy, what's since become known as social enterprise. It was delivered as part of a USAID package in the twin towns of Tomsk/Seversk and became known as the Tomsk microfinance initiative. Putin agreed to the project, replicating the concept in Georgia, but a run in with the FSB for refusing to pay a bribe got Terry blacklisted and unable to return. We moved on to Ukraine, where we've been working for the past 5 years joining our efforts with democratic activists. Our aim has been to replicate earlier efforts in Russia on a much enlarged scale.
Nowadays, I raise funds from business in the UK, promoting awareness of Ukraine's history on the http://www.holodomor.org.uk/ site for recognition of this genocide and another in development for HIV/AIDS awareness today, particularly amongst street children who are estimimated ar 125,000 in nummber. Our main efforts however will be found on http://www.p-ced.com/
