Stop the America-bashing!

[Serb]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
According to my records they do.

It was a joke, of course I know what we have an oil deposits in Chechnya, but it is far not the largest source of black gold on our territory.

No. Russians are all but greedy.

Sometimes I regret about this fact.

Sorry I missed that. But to give them some half-hearty autonomy and to let them go are 2 different things though.

Of course it is 2 different things. When I said that they were free to do anything It mean exactly what I've said, for the period of time 1996-1999 it was not some kind of an autonomy they were ABSOLUTELY not controlled, they formed their state- fundamentalist state, Taliban's type state. They do not lived by our laws, they has their own laws based on physical punishment for crimes, they have irregular band formations- as we called it, they called it an army, they have their own flag, they do not paid taxes to Russian budged, their have their own budget, they used slavery, we are abolished slavery in 1861, and the most important- there were no single Russian soldier or police officer in Chechnya for that period of time. Chechnya remains part of Russia only on paper, "de fucto" it was not.
Ok, question for everyone!
Explain to my please, what else needed to call one nation living on one territory to be independent from another nation living on another territory?
Answer this question please.

No. And I'm always cautious if a Russian or American tells me, that something is pretty close. For me is pretty close, what I can reach within 2 hours in my car. For them, what they can reach in this time by plane.

It is the second biggest city in Siberia, but perhaps you right about plane, it's 800 km on the west from Novosibirsk.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Serb

It is the second biggest city in Siberia, but perhaps you right about plane, it's 800 km on the west from Novosibirsk.

That's what, 480 miles? Even for an American like me, that fails to qualify as "close." But yeah, in general our idea of distance is quite different from our friends across the pond. The English side of my family tends to be amazed at what we consider to be "relatively nearby." I think that tends to be even more true of Americans in the middle of the country (midwest) than New Englanders like me (their states are a LOT bigger, with less people).

-Arrian

p.s. I hate prevocative rhetoric. "Axis of Evil?" George, ya gotta be kiddin' me. What IDIOT in the White House staff cleared that line? Open mouth, insert foot.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Willem
We get that same sort of reaction from Europeans here in Canada as well.

Yea, Canada is amazing. An area bigger than the US, a population like Austria.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Serb
Explain to my please, what else needed to call one nation living on one territory to be independent from another nation living on another territory?

A thing that is called a "souvereign country". Greetings from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

[Cairo_East]

What percantage of modern nations qualify as being ethnically homogenous?

10%.

Just something to add to the pot.

[Cairo_East]

What percentage of modern nations qualify as being ethnically homogenous?

10%.

Just something to add to the pot.

[Willem]

I'm really enjoying this opportunity of discussing current events and history with people from around the world. It's so easy to look at life through the eyes of our own cultures, and especially our media, so I find it fascinating to read the point of view of other people living our future history, and compare their observations with my own.

So I was wondering if any of you could recommend a good forum that I could participate in. I know I can do a search for one, and I have, but I usually end up spending a lot of time just wading through crap and feeling like I've wasted my time. So do any of you have a discussion site that you enjoy, where at least some of the people can go beyond rambling about the mundane aspects of life?

And much as I like playing Civilization, I put that in the same category. I'd like an opportunity of discussing philosophies, future trends, past trends, the impact of technology on all our lives etc., etc. Things that actually mean something in our lives.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


A thing that is called a "souvereign country". Greetings from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Then you should explain to me what is the meaning of the "souvereign country".
May be I'll say somthing silly again now, please correct me if I mistaken, but I think that the official head ("de juro"- only on papper") of Canada and Australia is queen of GB, if I mistaken forget about this, if I'm not please tell me- do you count those countries as a "souvereign countries"?

[Serb]

Originally posted by Arrian


That's what, 480 miles? Even for an American like me, that fails to qualify as "close." But yeah, in general our idea of distance is quite different from our friends across the pond. The English side of my family tends to be amazed at what we consider to be "relatively nearby." I think that tends to be even more true of Americans in the middle of the country (midwest) than New Englanders like me (their states are a LOT bigger, with less people).

-Arrian

I think it’s time to bring apologizes. I do not want to offend anyone. I am not a rude bustard. I thought sir Ralph as man long lived in my country understand me properly. I think I should explain what I’ve mean when I said that is “pretty close to place where I live”. You see, Russia has little different territorial division then USA. We have 89 states, and every state (subject of federation) is in fact a big city in center of surrounding territory. The major part of population of this state is live in this central city. There are no two equal populated cities in on state (subject of federation). In most of the cases the name of the state is equal to the name of this city, for example Novosibirsk state is the subject of federation, the central city of this state is Novosibirsk, it’s not called a capital of the state (like in USA for example) it is just the biggest city in this region, a dozen times more populated then any other, and because of it entire state has it’s name.
When I’ve said that “it is pretty close to place where I live” I do not mean that 800 km is short distance, (actully I've typed it wrong the distance is about 600km). I’ve mean that I live in nearest big city, that I live in neighbor state (the subject of federation). Excuse me once again for that line, I’ve really do not thought that it might offend somebody.

p.s. I hate prevocative rhetoric. "Axis of Evil?" George, ya gotta be kiddin' me. What IDIOT in the White House staff cleared that line? Open mouth, insert foot.

Sorry, I am not sure that I understand you properly, can you say the same with other words. What does it mean -'Open mouth, insert foot'?

[Serb]

Originally posted by Willem


Well I'm pleased that you're so confident. Personally I think there's still a long way to go before we see the end of it. Al Qaeda and the Taliban seem to be just the tip of the iceberg, just two aspects of a world wide network. The terrorists may be on the run now, but they're certainly not beaten. They'll go into hiding for awhile, then they'll be back, and no doubt a little smarter next time.

Execuse me, do you have psionic abilities?
You just reading my mind. I am absolutely agree with you. I think that the war not over, I think it's even a started yet. I just said that the Taliban lost control under Afghanistan and as I see it, this was the goal of war in Afghanistan. Of course terrorists are not beaten yet, as you said it was just the tip of the iceberg. But I am also absolutly sure that further actions in war against worldwide terrorism must be different then it was in Afghanistan. I think that if USA will start to use "war against terrorism" as cover to achive some of their self-interests goals and will start bombardments of Iraq, Iran or any other country, it might have very bad consequences, very bad. I really hope they chose different way.

Frankly, I think as long as the situation in Israel remains as it is, this issue will never go away. If the world wants to defeat terrorism, they're going to have to put pressure on Israel to finally make some concessions to the Palestinians. The conflict has become a strong symbol for the fundamentalists in their struggle against the "decadent" West. Until there's peace in that area, there will always be fuel for their fire.

Perhaps you right again, this conflict become a symbol, and it must be solved. But I'm not sure that it will be suficient to end the worldwide terrorism as decease of 21 century. The entire system of relationship between the "golden billion" and the rest of the world must be changed, if we want to end this war with small casulties.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Serb

Sorry, I am not sure that I understand you properly, can you say the same with other words. What does it mean -'Open mouth, insert foot'?

It's an expression in the west, at least in North America, I'm not surprised you don't understand. We say that when a person has said something really stupid, and also somewhat embarrassing, that they've put their foot in their mouth. Don't ask me where it comes from, it's just one of those sayings.

[Harovan]

Serb, Chechnya has never been as independent from Russia, as the members of the British Commonwealth are from the UK. It has had some kind of "local autonomy" with no international rights, without an own foreign policy, a regular army (not talking about rebels) etc.

What concerns the might of Her Majesty the Queen over Canada and Australia, she has no more power than in her own country, and that is practically zero. It's not like in the United States or in Russia, where the President is the head of the government. Most European countries have a government with a Prime minister (in Germany it's Chancellor Schroeder) as leader for the executive power, and either a President (in Germany that's Johannes Rau) or a (constitutional) Monarch for representation only.

May be you ask Willem, if he feels that Canada is controlled by UK? At the same time, Russia always had it's thumb at Chechnya.

[Harovan]

One more note, Serb. I just read your response to Arrian and must say you seem to have greatly misunderstood him. He with no word offended you, and he also did not take your words as offense.

You should all this not take too serious. Nobody feels threatened by you or wants to argue, nobody wishes to convince you, that you are wrong, and nobody sees in you the "evil Russian", we're just people who talk (certainly off topic), express our opinion and relax . That's not the UN here .

It's like Willem said, just interesting to see other points of view 'round the globe. If all points of view were identical, this discussion would be boring.

[siredgar]

Originally posted by Willem
I'm really enjoying this opportunity of discussing current events and history with people from around the world. It's so easy to look at life through the eyes of our own cultures, and especially our media, so I find it fascinating to read the point of view of other people living our future history, and compare their observations with my own.

So I was wondering if any of you could recommend a good forum that I could participate in. I know I can do a search for one, and I have, but I usually end up spending a lot of time just wading through crap and feeling like I've wasted my time. So do any of you have a discussion site that you enjoy, where at least some of the people can go beyond rambling about the mundane aspects of life?

And much as I like playing Civilization, I put that in the same category. I'd like an opportunity of discussing philosophies, future trends, past trends, the impact of technology on all our lives etc., etc. Things that actually mean something in our lives.

Can you say the same for the differing viewpoints of the Canadian figure skating pair and the Russian judge?

[Arrian]

Willem,

I too have enjoyed our running discussion here. As for forums devoted to things like this, I have no idea, but what I can recommend is a newspaper that offers a good mix of ideas/opinions on current events (terrorism, etc.) like you don't get from our (N. American) media: The Lebanon Star. The editorials and letters to the editor are pretty good for getting a variety of viewpoints, especially from the Arab world - something U.S. mass media totally ignores.

Serb - Your English is excellent considering it's not your native language (seriously, your writing compares favorably to many U.S. highschool students), but I think you may have misunderstood my last post, like Ralph said.

-Arrian