Russian Acts of Kindness

[Rylkova,Galina S]

Alina, 

I am not suggesting that Russia is perfect. Far from that.
My initial post was in response to calling it "that benighted entity
[that] has become the Soviet Union again .... We're left with their
marvelous language." I do believe that even on state Russian channels
the variety of views/interpretations of the same event would correspond
if not surpass the variety of views expressed here. 

Galina 

On Mon, 6
May 2013 11:24:16 -0400, Alina Israeli wrote: 

> Galina, 
> Have you
asked yourself why in the country where there is such a great freedom of
speech (Russia) there is such a long list of killed journalists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia [1] ?

> It does not include those who were beaten up and harassed. Just
recently Beketov died http://expert.ru/2013/04/8/himkinskaya-tragediya/
[2]; he was beaten up in 2008. Attacks on journalists are a daily
business: http://www.cpj.org/europe/russia/ [3] 
> After Oleg Kashin was
attacked http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIYVd_0W2U [4] Medvedev
promised to get to the bottom of it. He is still getting to the bottom
of it and will be till the second coming. 
> There was also a wonderful
story when Bastrykin threatened a journalist of Novaya Gazeta to the
point that he had to go into hiding:
http://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2012/06/13_e_4624421.shtml [5] 
>
Bastrykin was forced to apologize after weeks of denying the incident.

> These are the measures of freedom of speech, not what we can say in
our kitchen with impunity, although for 40 years that was also
dangerous. 
> And we are not even talking about the repressions against
the manifestation which occurred a year ago TODAY. The number of people
on trial promises to be very impressive. 
> On the subject of ecology,
the attacks on the concept of global warming come from the right and
from the left (Latynina). The debate reminds me the one about the
roundness of the Earth. Not everybody is good at calculations, Latynina
makes sometimes ridiculous blunders due to her inability to understand
science, but together with the officialdom they got the issue covered.

> Meantime Russia is ahead (впереди планеты всей) on
some forms of pollution
http://www.geotochka.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=274:---&catid=34&Itemid=119
[6] 
> But I believe the thinking is: It's going to get warmer, we are
going to grow bananas in Russia. 
> Here's the projected temperature
change:
http://www.global-climate-change.ru/index.php/ru/climate-rf/78-about-climate-rf/184-climate-change-ggo
[7] 
> Not enough for bananas or even oranges, but permafrost is
already melting. 
> 
> On May 6, 2013, at 7:40 AM, Rylkova,Galina S
wrote: 
> 
>> Dear Paul Gallagher,
>> 
>> Russian people (and
intellectual in particular) have been traditionally infinitely more
critical of any political regime than their American counterparts. In
2011-2012 Putin was accused of every possible failure and crimes. For
the most extreme summary see Masha Gessen's "The Man Without a Face: The
Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin" (2012). This book was highly advertised
through various blogs and was on sale in one Moscow bookstore. Do you
think that Putin (who had a meeting with Masha Gessen after this book's
publication) was unaware of its content?
>> 
>> Russian journalists have
been working extremely hard to uncover the truth and often show
extreme/unprecedented courage. Yet they think that what they do is a
mere fraction of what their American counterparts are supposedly doing
here. This phenomenon of living up to some non-existing standards is
explored (albeit very gently) in Todorovsky's film "Stiliagi" (The
Totalitarian Rock).
> 
> Alina Israeli 
> Associate Professor of Russian

> WLC, American University 
> 4400 Massachusetts Ave. 
> Washington DC
20016 
> (202) 885-2387 fax (202) 885-1076 
> aisrael at american.edu [8]

> 
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/ [9]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


 

Links:
------
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia
[2]
http://expert.ru/2013/04/8/himkinskaya-tragediya/
[3]
http://www.cpj.org/europe/russia/
[4]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIYVd_0W2U
[5]
http://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2012/06/13_e_4624421.shtml
[6]
http://www.geotochka.ru/index.php?option=com_content|+|amp|+|view=article|+|amp|+|id=274:---|+|amp|+|catid=34|+|amp|+|Itemid=119
[7]
http://www.global-climate-change.ru/index.php/ru/climate-rf/78-about-climate-rf/184-climate-change-ggo
[8]
mailto:aisrael at american.edu
[9] http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/seelang/attachments/20130506/ea60ff77/attachment.html>