221–230 of 377 posts
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> Ok, is it better to stay quiet when you have your president becoming a dictator? When police is more like bandits and courts are lawless? When peaceful protests are almost outlawed just because it annoys the dictator and its clique? Reminds me of one country that tends to drone strike everything that they can't spy on.
The difference is that Yanukovych is the president of _my_ country.
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Russians moving into the country during Soviet rule and moving out after it seem to explain the graph pretty well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Russians : The number of Russians in Latvia increased significantly during the Soviet occupation of Latvia when the size of the community grew from 10.5% of the total population in 1935 (206,499) to 34.0% in 1989 (905,515). It started to decrease in size again after La…
No, it doesn't fully explain changes. Numbers don't match. Take a look at another statistics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Latvia#Vital_st... Number of births per 1000 had fallen right after end of "Russian occupation" and never ever regained 14.2 right before Latvian independence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ethnic_groups_in_Latvia.pn...
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Strange that Ukrainians I know all support it.
I know both kinds. What would you personally choose: a corrupt government or a revolt that was designed by someone outside of your country with their own agenda?
Do you think what Yanukovych did is good or bad for Ukraine? I mean the whole set of anti-demonstration and anti-press laws. It's almost martial law. Is it OK with you? Better alternative to what exactly? Do you think he will let go of the power by himself? Or are you ok with benevolent dictator for life? It's how it always been in USSR, right? No point in leaving important matters to people.
I was 6 when Poland become independent in 1989. I don't remember much, just empty shelves gray people and standing with my mother in queues forever. But my parents and the whole family do. Nineties was hard but in the end it all worked out OK. Poland is much better place now. Do I care who started the protests - nope. Do I think there were some foreign agencies and conspiracies in this? Probably there were. Both Soviet and American. In the end regular people decided. Soviets had the whole country, the army, press, censorship, party, everything. Americans had radio free Europe and Hollywood movies to "brainwash" us. And Russians were brainwashing us every bit as hard as Americans, with schools, media, holidays, incentives to be a party memeber, everything. Still couldn't hide the fact that system was broken by design and worked worse every year.
People decided the revolution, not secret agencies.
Shame on the the hooligans!
:)
How well are these events being reported in the media (US), in your view?
Reading stuff like this is a wonderful way to remind me how naive and easy to manipulate people generally are.
I can't upvote this enough. People do indeed believe in revolutions, and thinks by burning stuff that wealth will be made. 3 years later (Tunisian here), we found out that it's not a revolution. The dictator might have been ousted by external agencies. While the protests are legit, the outcome is not. This made me a new opinion: You can have power over another entity by using damage (burning, and crashing stuff). But…
When the peaceful protests started in November, the main motive had at least something to do with economics (association with EU). Nowadays it's totally different. By taking a number of violent actions and unconstitutional moves, the government took this up to a completely another level. It is no longer about trade laws, but about basic human rights and the total corruption of power. We know that the economical situation will suffer, but we are prepared for it.
Ukrainians got burned enough with revolution in 2004, and we had lost our fair share of illusions. So there had to be a very good reason for us to try it again. And this government managed to provoke it.
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Low tech? Partly, but its success, I think, will depend heavily on the night tech of the mobile phone and the internet. If those weren't available, those in power could probably have ended this days ago. And [nitpick], I don't think they had lasers in the Peloponnesian war. Also: what's the rationale for having manholes locked from the inside in a government sector? I can see a reason for locking manhole covers to pr…
Locking manhole covers (or welding them shut) prevents assassins from easily placing bombs under them, and makes it harder for people to enter the sewers. Also, manhole covers may be used as weapons or shields.
Man, the amount of disdain people have for protesters in the comments to this story is really shocking. I do not exactly understand where it's coming from. Yanukovych is a corrupt petty thief and rapist, turned politician, who has very close ties with Russia, and is stealing from the Ukrainian people through corruption. He rigged an election in 2004 and only massive riots prevented him from coming into power then by…
Unfortunately, I can see how this Ukraine revolution can turn out. I believe the opposition will prevail and new leaders will be elected. Will they be able to remove all corrupt bureaucrats? No they won't. Those people will stay in their place, like the mafia. And they will corrupt everyone else around them. EU integration is just words to calm the public down. Real issues are never addressed by politicians.
The only true worthwhile revolution comes when people realize they don't need anyone to rule them. When the majority realizes that, no more revolutions and violence can follow.
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They also use Molotov cocktails to burn/kill police officers and some of them are using those air(?) guns.
None have been killed with a Molotov cocktail so far.
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Russians moving into the country during Soviet rule and moving out after it seem to explain the graph pretty well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Russians : The number of Russians in Latvia increased significantly during the Soviet occupation of Latvia when the size of the community grew from 10.5% of the total population in 1935 (206,499) to 34.0% in 1989 (905,515). It started to decrease in size again after La…
No, it doesn't fully explain changes. Numbers don't match. Take a look at another statistics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Latvia#Vital_st... Number of births per 1000 had fallen right after end of "Russian occupation" and never ever regained 14.2 right before Latvian independence.
