In the time of sanctions

The morning in Moscow was nice and clear, but cold, as cold as the relations between Russia and the West right now, a new Cold War emerging. In Moscow things appear to be normal, business as usual. In the streets, people commute to and from work in their fur-collared winter jackets and fur hats. My commute from the hotel to the office is quite short, just a 10 minute walk.

The conflict in east Ukraine is not resolved, and probably won’t be for a long time. Russia is under sanctions, from USA and its allied. The goal of the sanctions is to hit the Russian government and the rich oligarchs who support it. The exchange rate of the Ruble is down 50% compared to US dollars. Consequently, the cost of imported goods has increased a lot.  The sanctions hit ordinary people too. That’s what my Russian friends and colleagues tell me.

I doubt the sanctions will work. Russia can’t be forced in any way. The Russians don’t give in to external pressure, and never did.  They didn’t give in to Napoleon. They didn’t give in to Hitler. They certainly don’t give in to Obama. They will rather perish.

The Russians like to criticize their government, the bureaucracy, the misuse of power and corruption in their country. However, they don’t want to be criticized by foreigners. What happens when sanctions are imposed is that Putin becomes more popular than ever. He is gathering the Russian people against a common external enemy; USA, EU and NATO.

From the western point of view, the Russian annexation of Crimea is unacceptable. It violates international rules and laws. The Russians see it differently. They have bad experience with laws in general, from past and present corrupt regimes. The laws are obscure and ambiguous, and can always be twisted and interpreted in favor of the mighty and powerful. Law doesn't imply justice. For the Russian government, the same logic applies on the global scale; USA is an aggressor, supported by international regulations, which threatens Russian rights and interests.

The Russians have a good, but quite subjective, sense of justice. And justice says that Crimea belongs to Russia. When Leo Tolstoy was a young man, he served in the Tsar’s army during the Crimean war. He wrote about it in the Sevastopol Stories (a good book). Crimea was given to Ukraine by Khrushchev in the 1954. At that time it was only an administrative formality within the Soviet Union. Then Crimea drifted away when the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became independent. However, many Russians still see it as a part of Russia.

That’s what they say. I just say that different people see things in different ways. The politicians in America and Western Europe don’t understand the Russian mentality. That’s for sure.

(Picture taken in Moscow this morning, when I was walking from the hotel to our office, and crossing the bridge over the frozen Moscow River to Krasnye Holmy.)

Charlie is back

Last week, we were shocked by the acts of terror in Paris. This week, Charlie Hebdo is back with a new issue. That’s great.  The artists and cartoonists are brave.  

I think duck liver is a hype, but I always liked the French cheese, and the French attitude to freedom of speech. Charlie Hebdo’s satire offends the Muslims. That’s fine. They just have to learn to live with it, like the Christians, Jews and Satanists have learnt.

What’s holy for you is not holy for me.  Mocking the gods and prophets can be fun, for sure. But blasphemy is more than entertainment. Blasphemy is an important part of the freedom of speech. Religion mixed with a political agenda is a bad combo, because it makes the agenda indisputable. Who are you to challenge God?

• Imagine Obama coming to The House proposing a new law received from God, and the Republicans could do nothing to stop it. 
• Imagine the Labor party coming to the Parliament with a political program given by God, and Cameron had to approve it right away. 

The French and the Americans (I think) were the first to develop a secular constitution. This is very important, splitting governing, legislative and religious power. Turkey is Muslim-secular, but develops in the wrong direction. Many Muslim countries are stuck in their political-religious swamp. The list of ridiculous laws and rules coming out of religion is endless:

• Women are not allowed to watch football games (Iran)
• Women are not allowed to drive cars (Saudi)
• Death penalty for blasphemy (Pakistan)
• Separate ski lifts for men and women (Iran)
• One-hour marriage with prostitutes (which makes prostitution compliant with the Quran; Bahrain).
• Men can’t sit next to women on airplanes (orthodox Jews)
• Women can’t become priests (Catholics)
• Priests must live in celibate (Catholics)
• Ban on condoms (Catholics)

None of these rules come from God. They were invented by powerful people as tools to control people. When rules can't be justified by rational arguments, the easiest solution is God. No wonder religious authorities  who make up such laws and rules (and their Prophets and Gods) become subject to satire and blasphemy.

The French author Michel Houellebecq once said that “among all ridiculous religions, Islam is the most stupid”. He was taken to court in Paris for this statement, but was acquitted based on freedom of speech. They are all about equally bad; I dislike religion in general. 

I have plenty of religous books in my shelf; the Bible, the Quran and the Book of Mormon, and I have read a fair part of them (but far from everything). Sharia is mostly useless as legislation for the modern world. But taking the worst of the Bible, it would make a pretty bizarre law too.

Some of the religious texts can be quite entertaining. Once we had fun drinking beer and reading load from the Quran in a pub up north. I think the pub was a safe place for our blasphemy. It's an unlikely place to meet jihadists and inquisition.

In Satan we trust >:)

(Cover page of this week's issue of Charlie Hebdo; link to WIkipedia. The text above Muhammsd's head says "Everything is forgiven".)

Spies and heroes

When I was a kid during the Cold War, I read a lot of spy-thrillers; Our Man in Havana (Graeme Greene), From Russia with Love (Ian Flemming), The Fourth Protocol (Frederick Forsyth ), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John LeCarre), and many more. In the Cold-War thrillers, the Russians were the bad guys and the Americans (and Brits) were the heroes.

Now everything seems to be turned upside down. What I have in mind is the Snowden case.

To me Snodwen is a hero. He is a whistleblower who stands up against powerful organizations violating American and international law. He told the world that NSA violates rights of privacy, monitoring millions of accounts on Google and Facebook.

Whistleblowers never win. They’re always shot down, unless they stay undercover, like Deep Throat. But, history often gives them the credit they deserve.

The NSA claims they have prevented several terror attacks. That’s great. We can probably accept surveillance of selected groups and individuals to prevent terror.

But why does the NSA spy on European embassies and government offices? We don’t like that. I’ve always been a fan of Obama, but in this case he has disappointed me, if he knew what was going on.

I hope the NSA has noticed that Napoleon is no longer Emperor of France, and Hitler is not Chancellor of Germany. 

Today most EU countries are social democracies. Is this the motivation for the surveillance?

In America the only word that appears more scaring than terrorism is socialism. It means collective farms and gulags, Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot.

Social democracy is not the same as communism.

In practice, a social democracy is a capitalist system with a socialist touch. The social democracy has invented horrifying things like free health care and free education. Except from that, there’s not much to fear.

We’re friends of America and will always be. Part of a friendship is to tell your friend when he has done something unacceptable. 

(The cartoon was borrowed from joyreactor.com)

Dogs and whales

I read in the news that the Republicans are mocking Obama because he ate dog meat when he was a kid in Indonesia.

I immediately realized that this will make my own campaign difficult. I planned to run for President of the USA in 2016. I know that the Republicans will try to dig up everything that has happened in my life. So I better tell it right away.

I have something to confess: I ate whale meat when I was a kid. I ate Shanu and Keiko and Moby Dick. They're so cute, though some are bigger than a school bus. Still I ate them. Not only once, but regularly.

It used to be the cheapest meat you could get. Therefore we had it for dinner almost once a week. My mother made fried whale beef with gravy and potatoes. It was very good.

Now whale meat has become  expensive, because of the international restrictions on whaling. But they serve it in the gourmet restaurants, at a high price.

Whale carpaccio is delicious. Typically you get it for a starter. Very thin slices of raw and tender whale meat, served with olive oil, Parmesan cheese and rucola. Try it, unless you wanna run for President >:)

(I had no pictures of dogs or whales in my collection, so I borrowed the one above from the Internet)

Birth certificates

The US national debt is more than 14.000 billion dollars, and the country is close to losing the AAA credit rating.

In the meantime the Republicans and the Tea-Party sheep argue about Obama's birth certificate.

These guys know how to prioritize.

By the way, I was born in Winterland. If you don't believe it, I might be willing to post my birth certificate here >:D

(I admit it: I'm a big fan of Obama, just like I was a fan of Clinton. Nice to get an oportunity to post a picture of the President on this blog. Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to take a picture of Obama, so I stole one on the Internet.)

Health or wealth

The Republicans are back in the House. On their agenda is to stop Obama's health reform.

In my mind, the health of the many is more important than the wealth of the few. But that's obviously an insane idea for the Republicans.

Then the good news: With Republicans like Jack Conway, Christine O'Donnell, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich in free action, it will hopefully help the Democrats in the next election >:)

A big fucking deal

The president won, and the vice president said the F-word in pure happiness. That’s cool. I like people who dare to say it, in particular when it appears inappropriate (I guess it’s that little rebel in me). The train has started to move, but Obama’s reform is not really a health reform. It’s rather an insurance reform, a step in the right direction, a beginning. But it doesn’t even touch the real problem.

All over, the US health care system is the most inefficient in the world. USA is spending 16% of the GNP on health care, for about half the population. For comparison, Canada and European countries are spending 8-9% of the GNP to give health care for the entire population. And it’s been like this for more than 40 years. Basic health care is offered by public hospitals. We pay for it over the tax bill; about 7% of the tax is for health care and social services, such as one year maternity (or paternity) leave. The rich and wealthy can buy additional services and cosmetic surgery if they want to. Yes, that’s possible, even in the most fucked up “socialist regimes” in Northern Europe (sorry about the F-word, it's just my Tourette again).

The American system is sick, infected by parasites sucking money out of the system; insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals, and lawyers (the lawyer assholes are everywhere). The main purpose of the US system is, not to produce health care for the people, but to make profit for the companies involved. The republicans are their loyal spokesmen and defenders (like they are for the gun industry, and used to be for the tobacco companies).

The health (or insurance) reform limits the insurance companies’ possibilities to refuse insurance due to “pre-existing conditions”, or cancel the insurance if you get sick. That’s insane isn’t it? The health insurance is cancelled when you need it, when you become an expense rather than a source of income for the insurance company.

The hospitals also take their big share of the cake. Some years ago, we lived in Colorado for a while. We didn’t have an insurance, since we were covered by the public health care in Winterland, within reasonable limits. When needing medical care for the kids, we learnt that it was important to tell the doctor that we were self-paying customer. Then the price was greatly reduced compared to treatment covered by insurance.

It’s amazing to see how those opposing the health reform are defending a bad system with such enthusiasm. It’s a good system for the rich and very bad for the poor (like USA in general). I know there are historical reasons why Americans are suspicious to government involvement, and prefer coffee before tea. But there’s no reason to be afraid of King George III anymore. He died in 1820, and is not coming back to force you into the British Commonwealth again (there’s not much left of the Commonwealth anyway).

In general, I think there are a few things that are best handled by government and authorities. This includes road construction, power supply, water supply, and basic health care. This may of course involve commercial sub-contractors to perform the actual work. I know this is crazy European socialist thinking (we call it social democracy), but all over it’s a quite beneficial system for both the rich and the poor.

But who cares about the poor anyway? They’re probably just lazy and stupid. If they were smart, they would have been rich and republican, of course; insurance agents and lawyers and vampires and stuff like that.