commentary to student safety in St Petersburg

[Alina Israeli]

On Nov 27, 2009, at 2:44 PM, Dustin Hosseini wrote:

>   However, how would
> you like it if your neighbor came into your house and told you how  
> to raise
> your children and/or treat your partner?

Well, this actually is taking place every day, it's called "laws".  
What used to be considered "a family affair" is no longer treated as  
such; beating of a spouse is no longer permitted, nor is beating of  
children in the US. Even some religious practices are challenged, for  
ex. families that prevent their children from being treated by  
doctors which lead to the death of the child.

On Nov 28, 2009, at 6:01 AM, Dustin Hosseini wrote:

>
> No, I am against foreign interference in Russia for both issues.   
> Since when
> have Russians ever wholeheartedly welcomed outside influence to  
> solve their
> own problems?  I don't remember it ever causing much good either  
> objectively
> or in the eyes of the Russians.


Since always. Not in a form of visiting Napoleons and their armies,  
but looking over the shoulder and observing how the "civilized  
countries" do it. Russians either go abroad to get the ideas  
(Christianity in Byzantium, or whatever Peter the Great found in  
Holland), or find them in books (marxism), or invite people to help  
out (Jeffrey Sachs, Italian architects to build the Kremlin, German  
and Swiss scientists that made the early Academy of Sciences), or  
simply try to conform to the practices of the West.


Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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