Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you're an occupier?
a "liberator" according to him pretty sure that's the current propaganda line
I don't care about governments, I born and living here. Those who don't like that can go fck themselves.
The only tourist in Moldova
381–390 of 427 posts
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#382Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
English is spoken very widely in Ukraine in fact, and was just promoted to an official status (not as a primary language, but to a secondary official status nonetheless) in the past month.
So, maybe that is the difference to the German language? Here in the news you can hear "die Ukraine" (the Ukraine) all the time. And usually any "rules" in the rough vicinity of political correctness, anti-discrimination or simple politeness are meticulously adhered to in German news. Which I am personally fine with.
Oh, one more thing[0]
The guy says 'just promoted to an official status ... in the past month'.
So he himself confirms, what for the 33 years they didn't bother with a language 'which is spoken very widely'. And suddenly, in the year 2022, not only it's spoken 'very widely' despite being non-existent in any conceivable metric[1] before, but promoted to 'a secondary official status nonetheless' absolutely ignoring the language which is used by 30% of the country.
Imagine Ottawa declares what Mandarin is now 'promoted to an official status (not as a primary language, but to a secondary official status nonetheless)' instead of French? [2]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ27fEm_ZCA
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Ukraine#2001_nati...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Canada#The_two_of...
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
> The USSR proclaimed friendship of peoples My apologies, I thought this was a serious discussion. By that standard, European colonization never happened, either. All European colonial powers proclaimed things like a civilizing mission. Several of them had "indigenous" programs, too. > Had Stalin who collectively punished ethnicities which collaborated with Nazi more than others. Oh really. Remember that time when, i…
It is. Apologies are not accepted.
Can you give me an example where an ethnicity was declared inferior in the USSR? I doubt you can.
In the Europe and in the US the theories of the superiority of white people were abound and used to justify slave trade and exploitation.
"By that standard, European colonization never happened, either."
What standard exactly? Ideology is important, but it wasn't the main point of my argument. Soviet republics got industrialized thanks to what you call 'Soviet colonization', their population got rid of illiteracy at the same time as Russians. You can't say that about real colonies of Europe.
"Oh really."
Please don't make major edits to your comments which make replies seem inadequate or incomplete.
Funny that you have no objection to collective punishment which is enough to make it a crime. And your examples are irrelevant because they describe relations between different states, not the unequal treatment of different ethnicites by the same government.
"later annexed parts of then-neutral Romania"
You mean the parts that were grabbed by Romania 20 years earlier? [0]
"The Soviet Union literally collaborated with Nazi Germany at the highest government level before their alliance broke down and ended up in war."
The USSR was supporting anti-fascist side in the Spanish civil war and was trying to arrange anti-Nazi treaty with the Britain and France, only after the infamous Munich agreement, when the West green-lighted dismemberment of Czechoslovakia by Germany, Poland and Hungary, the USSR signed the non-aggression pact with Germany.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukovina#Kingdom_of_Romania
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The USSR proclaimed friendship of peoples My apologies, I thought this was a serious discussion. By that standard, European colonization never happened, either. All European colonial powers proclaimed things like a civilizing mission. Several of them had "indigenous" programs, too. > Had Stalin who collectively punished ethnicities which collaborated with Nazi more than others. Oh really. Remember that time when, i…
It is. Apologies are not accepted. Can you give me an example where an ethnicity was declared inferior in the USSR? I doubt you can. In the Europe and in the US the theories of the superiority of white people were abound and used to justify slave trade and exploitation. "By that standard, European colonization never happened, either." What standard exactly? Ideology is important, but it wasn't the main point of my ar…
> It is.
It clearly isn't, because so far you've moved the goalposts of colonization several times, including claiming that it couldn't have happened because Soviet authorities said it didn't.
But, sure, what's another goalpopst: sure I can, and you don't have to take my word for it, it's literally the Soviet state apparatus that admitted to it. Law N 1107-I of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on the rehabilitation of the repressed people recognizes that there were several peoples "against whom a policy of slander and genocide was pursued at the State level on the grounds of national or other affiliation, accompanied by their forced relocation, the abolition of national and State entities, the redrawing of national and territorial boundaries, the establishment of a regime of terror and violence in places of special settlement" (Art. 2). Several of the peoples on the list were, ironically, indigenous peoples that were supposedly protected by the Soviet Union's policy of indigenization, like the kalmyks.
The Soviet Union never developed a legal theory of racial superiority because it had a theory of political superiority from the very beginning, which it could conveniently apply along ethnic lines.
Edit: oh really now, who's sneak-editing their comments? (Besides, you don't need me editing my comments post-factum to make your own posts seem incomplete: most of your quotes end halfway through the phrase anyway)
> Funny that you have no objection to collective punishment which is enough to make it a crime.
Of course I do. That's the whole thing you're skirting around.
> You mean the parts that were grabbed by Romania 20 years earlier? [0]
Yes, the one that had been grabbed by Russia 100 years before that, and the other one, which it had "grabbed" from the other European empire and had never been incorporated in the Russian empire or the USSR before. Funny how when someone else does it, it's "grabbing", but when the Soviet Union did it, it's the friendship of peoples.
> the USSR signed the non-aggression pact with Germany.
...uh-huh, which included, you know, that part about the partitioning of Poland, the Baltics (which was eventually walked back on through another pact), and the non-interference of Germany in the occupation of Bassarabia and Northern Bukovina. And was promptly executed through the joint invasion of Poland.
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#386Another place I'd like to go is Kyrgyzstan. And Turkmenistan. Why? Because no one goes there. What other reason do you need?
I’ve been to Bishkek, it’s a really interesting place. At the time everything was still straight out of the Soviet Union (maybe still is) and the people were all friendly. The mountains are immense and beautiful. The tourist experience wasn’t sugarcoated at all though. It’s a genuine poor country with not a whole lot happening. Id say go for it, it’s a place that I find myself thinking of often.
I'd thought of going to Greenland when I was in Iceland, but finally the 3-hour flights and lack of much tourist infrastructure finally dissuaded me.
At least in Bishkek you can go to other places, like Samarkand (only a 12-hour drive /s )
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which countries? Arguably, women of post-socialist (Slavic) countries have comparatively higher socioeconomic status and comparatively more even gender dynamics that these in the West. For a dedicated sexual predator, it would be much easier to just head directly to Thailand or similar.
Arguably, all you need to do is look at GDP. Even looking at Germany, the east/west split is evident - and that was 45 years of soviet regime. Furthermore are you saying that behavior in Thailand is acceptable? What is the point of mentioning it otherwise? Before I found out these allegations I unfortunately watched videos of him in South America as well as India. He walks around like a Belgian in 19th century coloni…
GDP is a poor signal because these huge middle class salaries for breadwinners in the US, Japan and S. Korea actually held gender balance back for decades. Wife will be expected to quit her job and dedicate herself to the family when her husband made five figures USD annually.
Countries where both sexes were expected to work, for the same ballpark of four figures salaries, and where child care / child leave were subsidied becase of said lowish salaries got a comparative gender balance advantage out of their mediocre economies.
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is. Apologies are not accepted. Can you give me an example where an ethnicity was declared inferior in the USSR? I doubt you can. In the Europe and in the US the theories of the superiority of white people were abound and used to justify slave trade and exploitation. "By that standard, European colonization never happened, either." What standard exactly? Ideology is important, but it wasn't the main point of my ar…
> It is. It clearly isn't, because so far you've moved the goalposts of colonization several times, including claiming that it couldn't have happened because Soviet authorities said it didn't. But, sure, what's another goalpopst: sure I can, and you don't have to take my word for it, it's literally the Soviet state apparatus that admitted to it. Law N 1107-I of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on the…
"The Soviet Union never developed a legal theory of racial superiority because it had a theory of political superiority from the very beginning, which it could conveniently apply along ethnic lines."
That was rich. Ok, so what was that "theory of political superiority" and how, as you allege, it was applied to Kalmyks?
Anyway, the conversation seem to have drifted quite a lot from the topic of 'colonization' of Moldova. Tell me, was its population enslaved, put into reservations or exploited? Was it robbed of its resources? Wasn't its industry developed?
What gives you any basis for spreading the narrative of 'colonization'?
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#389I was in Moldova back in 2013 for a university org summer course and for me it somehow felt like being in Cuba. There weren't many tourists but everyone was very welcoming. You could see even between students the difference in pro-russians and pro-europeans. Weird thing is cut the hot water during the summer. Best wine I've ever had and it was home made from my friend's parent's cellar. Loved the time there.
"Weird thing is cut the hot water during the summer."
That's probably for the pipe maintenance. Even now in Russia the hot water gets cut off for a couple of weeks.
Re: The only tourist in Moldova
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
Old Soviet style communities get hot water from central plants, mainly used for heating but also for showers, so when winter is over, they shutdown the heating plants for the season and no hot water at all. Some places in Northern China hook into muni hot water for showers in the winter but use solar hot water in the summer, when hot showers can be a bit less satisfying (in my experience anyways).
It is so incorrect, it is boderline idiotic urban legend. post-Soviet cities have hot water year around; same heating plants used for winter heating, are used for hot water in summer time, albeit at lower power. Also waste heat from power plants used for the same purpose.
Even if you've never had to take cold showers in the summer, I have. I'm not sure why you can't believe our experiences would differ. The only reason I mentioned the USSR at all is because when I asked in China they said they got the system from them (and south of the Yangtze, you don't even get that).