Russia, which had been a wheat exporter, won't be this year. "Farmers interviewed are worried about their own livestock starving and thenThis article shows a peat fire on the outskirts of a Moscow suburb and comments indicating that the West is somehow to blame, a kind of climate Dr. Evil is out there making the terrible heat and devastation. Not sure who got THIS video up on youtube from Russia Not good news, and seriously, this WILL have an economic impact, and not just an uptick for American wheat farmers.
Just a bit of proportion and some events from the other side of the Big Pond.
Please share widely!
There are more poignant pictures here:http://www.1tv.ru/news/social/158649
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p>Unfortunately, almost every village and small town in Russia does not have running water. The Reds did bring electricity, but the water is found only in wells ( constructed during Tsarist times). To this day, villagers have to get their water in buckets from those wells (sort of a modern day Pilgrim Plantation scene) so now you can understand why all those people were helpless before the fires. Saddest of all, however, is the fact that the people are easily demoralized since their mentality is to always rely on the government to solve their problems. And, not to be snarky, most of the 2000 people who drowned had been drunk, a fact confirmed by Russian media outlets.
The Doctor Evil theory was actually proposed by some crackpots, but most Russians know better than to believe that story. They may be more ready to accept the idea of “Global Warming” however.
“Saddest of all, however, is the fact that the people are easily demoralized since their mentality is to always rely on the government to solve their problems.”
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p>…Any evidence? At all?
Even most educated Russians will tell you of the
Sovok “mentalitet” which exists to this day. Here’s a good book for you to read, if you have not lived there: “Inside the Stalin Archives” by Jonathan Brent which demonstrates the living legacy of soviet socialism. If you have ever taken the most basic Russian culture course you would see the evidence. Of course, if you lived there for any period of time you would experience it first hand. I suggest that you make the acquaintance of some Russian immigrants, since you are unlikely to believe anything that I tell you. You think that I am making up the fact that there is no running water in Russian villages and small towns? If so, you have some learning to do.
I attended college in what is now St. Petersburg and was then Leningrad in 1966-67. I also spent time in Novgorad, Tblisi, and other cities. In the countryside, in general, there is not running water. Even in the late 60s, trains were heated by coal stoves in the aisles. More then that, the beaten-down mentality from the days of the Tsars was still evident, and initiative in those days was dangerous in the extreme.
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p>Just as there is a legacy from the days of slavery in American culture, there is a legacy of the milleniums of true tyranny in Old Russia – of which Stalinism was only 70 years and not all that different from the days of Ivan Gorzny, also known as Ivan the Terrible.
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p>This is a reality that is going to be hard to change, and I see all too much real evidence of a not-so-gradual decline back into the comforts of tyranny with it once again being a crime to think about opposing the government in Russia – NO I am not kidding. I wish I were. And this sort of widespread disaster isn’t going to lead to greater respect for civil rights.
That is why I provided some pictures and stories about dispairing farmers. I don’t think Russia will meet its own food needs this year, let alone export. And yes, it is awful and the coverage so far in this country has been almost zero.
I think you’re making up the fact that people in Russia are demoralized entirely because they rely too much on the government.
I know that utopian socialists hate to admit such tendencies, and people can be affected negatively by many different sources. Look at what the Catholic Church did to the Irish mentality for many centuries. That doesn’t mean that the church is, per se, a negative influence on the world in general.
As Amber correctly points out, that kind of reliance on our big savior, the Govt., began under the tsars. and the idea that “if only Papa Joe knew the truth, he wouldn’t be sending me to rot in Kolyma” still plays out under Putin and Medvedev. You only have to follow the news there to hear that Putin is going to punish those responsible for this latest disaster. Of course, he won’t hold himself responsible for not starting the project of bringing running water and piping to the vast countryside.
In fact one can make the argument that overreliance on the govt. has almost destroyed some groups of people even here in the US. But that is a story for another day.
I think the demredsox comment only makes sense if the emphasis is on “entirely.”
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p>Like the legacy of slavery in the US, “reliance on government” is but one factor in a complicated situation. Obviously, the lack of anything other than totalitarian government in the recent or even distant past in Russia significantly exacerbates situations like these. The Irish example is, alas, another good example.
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p>I think the reaction to your original comment is an artifact of the heated, polarized and dishonest political rhetoric of today: WAY TOO MUCH government, in the totalitarian sense, destroys freedom; therefore, regulation of the financial sector in the reduces us to slavery, and no government of any kind can be defended. WAY TOO LITTLE government, in the anarchy sense, likewise destroys freedom; therefore all government is beneficial, and no government of any kind can be criticized.
with my weird tin foil hat predictions, my off color not mainsteam worldviews, the rantings which obviously made not sense whatsoever.
FWIW.
only oneself. Or rather you are one your own, literally.
A: There’s a first time for everything.
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p>http://www.wunderground.com/bl…