261–270 of 303 posts
I don't know the specifics of Crimea that well but there should be some easy heuristics to see who owns what country. - When items are sold, which country collects sales tax? - Who provides the police, driver license, mail? - If there are elections, who to the people vote for? Does Crimea not have simple answers to those questions?
It does. Russia does it all.
Genuine question. How should Apple decide what to show where? We being individuals, can take a stand, but how can a company take non neutral stand where there are grey areas? Because one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Should a business be in the business of Justice?
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Where did you het this idea? If they want to be reunited, then how about they use one way ticket to Moscow and enjoy the motherland..
From their 80% vote to join Russia when given the option
What are you doing on hn?
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Ukrainians didn't think that Russians are evil boogiemen and look what happened to them. Better safe than sorry.
Did you not follow the whole Ukraine civil war where the entire point was the gov was going non-NATO and pro-Russian? The vast majority of Ukraine stood up to Russia at significant costs to themselves. I agree with a lot of anti-Russian stuff (their overarching geopolitical approach not the hysteria that’s used as a political tool in the west), but that's a very strange counter-example to use...
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Where did you het this idea? If they want to be reunited, then how about they use one way ticket to Moscow and enjoy the motherland..
From their 80% vote to join Russia when given the option
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This really seems like the Right Way(tm) to approach this because it acknowledges that the google isn't attempting to be an authoritative source for what's really a subjective truth, and it presents the "most true" version of reality based on where you're coming from. And has the added benefit, one imagines, of being even more infuriating to those trying to push their One True Truth down everyone else's throats.
> google isn't attempting to be an authoritative source for what's really a subjective truth There is an objective truth here, though, that could be shown (if it were allowed). You could show it as disputed. That the dispute exists is an objective truth. The very fact that different states require you to display it differently is proof of that. > presents the "most true" version of reality based on where you're comin…
So what? Google wants people to use their map software. By showing variations of the map depending on what the official stance of the regional government is, they are ensuring that their map software is available in that region and fits the context of that country.
There is a Russian narrative for Crimea being theirs. There is a Ukrainian narrative for Crimea being theirs. It's not Google's place to decide between them, it's their place to create a map people can find things on.
It does not matter what you, I or Sundar Pichai believe is the truth of whom Crimea should belong to. Their product is a map and it's available in Russia, Ukraine and Crimea. In fact, by presenting all the credible alternatives in this case (for Russia's side, they currently administrate the region and for Ukraine's, it was very recently their territory), they are being apolitical about it.
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From their 80% vote to join Russia when given the option
Yeah, right, vote under gunpoint of Russian soldiers, organized by Russian side, counted by Russian side, all completed in just two weeks during which the whole peninsula was filled with propaganda claiming Ukraine was taken over by nazi junta so the Choice is either nazi or Russia. What are you doing on hn?
It's either a member of fifth column [0] (could be unwillingly - by accident) or a troll/bot [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency#Troll...
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> Also, the infrastructure has improved significantly since the Russian takeover (unfortunately Ukraine being poor, neglected the peninsula after the collapse of the USSR) so getting around is easier now. Ukraine, after Soviet Union crumbled was always under the foot of Russian Federation. It is the poorest performer of any country which became independent after Soviet occupation. It never managed to properly "wester…
Interesting and fair enough. Crimeans that I've spoken to are mostly happy with the annexation, but they have complained about the loss of purchasing power (Ruble is stronger than Hryvnia). So infrastructure is better, but their incomes have not adjusted to be in line with rest of Russia and things are more expensive than before.
> Crimeans that I've spoken to are mostly happy with the annexation
1. They won't tell you otherwise. Ask N. Korean citizen if it likes to live there. Of course it does - either because it does not want to end up in a work camp lasting for 3 generations or at best - that the person does not know any better.
2. I guess the most important thing is - Russification of Ukraine lasting more than a century. Crimea suffered the worst [1]. I could bet that former Soviet citizens living in Baltic states [2] would have asked for "help" from Kremlin and would've successfully and "happily" voted for regions with biggest Russian population to secede from Baltic country into Russia. That's what happened in Crimea and thank god that Baltics are in NATO.
3. Sevastopol is a major naval base for Russia [3][4] that they leased from Ukraine (oh how generous of them) and was one of the initial attack vectors to annex peninsula in 2014.
I could rant for hours on this, but in short - Russian Empire and Soviet union have destroyed major percentage of natives from the occupied territories and have relocated great numbers of native Russians into the occupied territories.
In the Baltics every person knows at least some relative or a friend that during Soviet times were exiled to Siberia, mysteriously disappeared or KGB kicked out the door at 3am ant told to go "for a drive". If the person does not know anyone with such faith - I could give 99.9% that the person (or it's ancestors) were/are Russian/Soviet citizens.
To this day Russia uses those former Russian/Soviet citizen as a fifth column, these people are very susceptible to Russian propaganda and they have very idilic image of Soviet way of life (oh those great young days). Soviet/Russian propaganda is strong, intelligent and witty. Goebbels would be so jealous of how good they are.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification_of_Ukraine#/medi...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Latvia#/media/File...
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