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Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

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Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#41

Post by svilen_dobrev »

davidzweig wrote: post #20
scrose wrote: post #4

On the topic of helping, does anyone have ideas/tips on how to help refugees attempting to communicate with the embassies in another country for refugee status/assistance? I have extended family from Ukraine that speaks very little English and also can’t communicate in the countries native language that they fled to, but my partner and I cannot call those embassies to help relay information because we’re in the USA a…

If it's any help, I am helping to organise for the parents of my Ukranian friend to move to Bulgaria. And possibly a few other friends. It's picturesque in the mountains and Russian is widely spoken. Renting an appartment here is about 150 EUR/mo. If they are Russian speakers, they will have a bit easier time here than Poland, language-wise. Call me if I can help: +359 879 340194.

The overall campaign in Bulgaria was started and still lead by here:

www.bg4ua.com

There is now also some official governmental site: https://ukraine.gov.bg/

Donations are here.. about ~~130K so far, target is 0.5-1M :

https://platformata.bg/en/kauzi/1544:bg4ua/details/campaign....

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#42

Post by paganel »

nathell wrote: post #16

Like every other day, I was shopping this morning at my local bakery in Warsaw, Poland. As I was packing my purchases, a woman next in line after me ordered coffee in Ukrainian. (We have it lucky. Polish and Ukrainian are mutually intelligible to some extent, which enables basic communication even without knowing each other's languages.) I said, to no one in particular, "Do widzenia, слава Україні" as I was leaving.…

On that topic, it's really interesting how presumably small things that nobody focuses on in particular can really make a difference (for good) for people in very dire circumstances (like the refugees are).

For example over here in Bucharest (from where I'm from) I've started seeing lots and lots of Ukrainian mothers taking their kids for a walk in downtown Bucharest relying only on their mobile phone's map apps. What makes that possible is the smartphone itself, which, however bad-talked as a technology piece is really helpful when you're hundreds/thousands of kms away from your actual home, plus free voice and data plans that were provided by the local telecom companies to all Ukrainian refugees.

Again, I know it's not much (after all, many of the Ukrainians who remained at home face the much more dire prospect of actual Russian bombs) but imo I think that it's important that as a refugee mother with your kids after you in a foreign country you sort of gain the autonomy of respecting your daily ritual of walking with your kid(s) without being assisted by anyone else. This "stickiness" to normalcy (like walking your kids unassisted in a foreign city where you've just arrived one or two days prior while escaping war) it's what also makes life worth living, in a way.

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#43

Post by baybal2 »

Timwi wrote: post #23
saiya-jin wrote: post #7

> There is a rumor that Putin had recently made a personal order to damage as much of Kharkiv as possible, to retaliate for breaking the hope of being “pro-Russian.” And however absurd it might sound, I am close to believing it because there seems to be no other point in doing what they do now. I have the same impression, just old bitter fart and shadow of a man he once was, entrenched in his untouchable position, th…

How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?

Lock the ambassador in the WC cabin when he goes for a break.

Quorum is established at the start of the SC meeting, after that, absention means abstention

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#44

Post by generj »

Timwi wrote: post #23
saiya-jin wrote: post #7

> There is a rumor that Putin had recently made a personal order to damage as much of Kharkiv as possible, to retaliate for breaking the hope of being “pro-Russian.” And however absurd it might sound, I am close to believing it because there seems to be no other point in doing what they do now. I have the same impression, just old bitter fart and shadow of a man he once was, entrenched in his untouchable position, th…

How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?

Theoretically the USSR is the entity which has a permanent veto right, and everyone has just allowed the Russian Federation to take the USSR’s seat.

In practice nobody is removing permanent veto power from the second largest nuclear power. The entire point of the UN was to give special powers to great nations so they wouldn’t fight out their grievances.

The only way to strip the Russia Federation of its Security Council seat would also call into question Russia even being in the UN. If they are kicked out of the UN entirely, would they even bother to reapply? Is it worth creating another League of Nations to have a temporarily more effective UN?

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#45

Post by tut-urut-utut »

tgz wrote: post #38

Can you explain me what the "Alley of Angels" in Donetsk is?

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley_of_Angels:

"The Alley of Angels in Donetsk, Ukraine is a memorial for children of Donbas killed during the War in Donbas."

Unfortunately, even the reporting of victims of war is quite selective. Hope that everyone responsible for killing children, regardless where they come from, will be punished appropriately.

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#46

Post by MagnumOpus »

Timwi wrote: post #23
saiya-jin wrote: post #7

> There is a rumor that Putin had recently made a personal order to damage as much of Kharkiv as possible, to retaliate for breaking the hope of being “pro-Russian.” And however absurd it might sound, I am close to believing it because there seems to be no other point in doing what they do now. I have the same impression, just old bitter fart and shadow of a man he once was, entrenched in his untouchable position, th…

How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?

Soviet Union had a permanent veto right by statute. Russia only has it because people felt that Russia was the obvious successor despite leaving the Soviet Union before it was dissolved.

If enough important countries agree that Russia has no veto, then they can rewrite convention...

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#47

Post by notpachet »

Timwi wrote: post #23
saiya-jin wrote: post #7

> There is a rumor that Putin had recently made a personal order to damage as much of Kharkiv as possible, to retaliate for breaking the hope of being “pro-Russian.” And however absurd it might sound, I am close to believing it because there seems to be no other point in doing what they do now. I have the same impression, just old bitter fart and shadow of a man he once was, entrenched in his untouchable position, th…

How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?

We go back to the lab and develop a superveto, harnessing cutting-edge quantum technology.

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#48

Post by octopoc »

baybal2 wrote: post #39
redwood wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to me to hear you say that. I would say that about Trump but not GWB in hindsight. At that time I was of the opinion you share and I remember feeling that GWB was essentially everything that was bad in the world… but in hindsight I realize how narrowly scoped my vision was and the spectrum is so much bigger and in fact I now believe it's important to be willing to find common ground with conservative…

GWB's great sin is he gave China, and Russia time. The 15 years USA spent running after imaginary boogeymen sowed the seeds of what we are dealing with today. There are many aspects to this folly, but most bad were: 1. Okaying what Russia, and China were doing 2. Wasting trillions on completely pointless war 3. Squandered overnight the enormous goodwill USA carried from successful 199X 4. Stalled the wheel of democra…

Yeah it seems like the globalist mindset that much of the west adopted blinded it to the geopolitical realities that still govern international relations. Remember the "Russian reset"[1]? It was a big red button that was supposed to reset Russian relations. Remember when Obama criticized Romney for saying the biggest threat in the future would be Russia? Obama laughed it off because "this isn't the cold war anymore." Remember when Clinton gave China the NAFTA deal? GWB was cut from the same cloth as these other globalist-minded presidents.

The western globalist attitude involves giving power to our rivals in the hopes they will become our friends. Guess what...they're still our rivals.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reset

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#49

Post by ghostwriter »

MagnumOpus wrote: post #46
Timwi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?

Soviet Union had a permanent veto right by statute. Russia only has it because people felt that Russia was the obvious successor despite leaving the Soviet Union before it was dissolved. If enough important countries agree that Russia has no veto, then they can rewrite convention...

Which countries are the most important? What makes them important?

Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here

#50

Post by mekkkkkk »

tgBax wrote: post #31
_bhjy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire invasion is illogical. There was arguably some sense to Crimea - there is no sense in this invasion.

There certainly are reasons (not a value judgement), some of them cynical: - Crimea wants to control the canal from the Djnepr, which had been shut off by Ukraine. - Russia wants the coast line to control more gas fields in the Black Sea. The U.S. of course also want to control them by proxy (see Burisma/Biden). Snake island also controls some of the fields. - Rightly or wrongly, Russia is scared of NATO expansion. I…

The reasons for the immediate action might be logical, but looking at the medium term consequences it breaks down completely in my mind. The only two possibilities I can see going forward is either a forever-war as in Afghanistan, or a forever-sanction situation like Iran or DPRK.

I don't see how any listed benefits would outweigh the costs of either option. It troubles me a lot, because Putin has seemed to me to be a carefully calculating player up until this. It makes me wonder if he has truly lost it. Or if there is some grand plan which this is only a small part of. Both are scary.

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