Once again, America ignores the rest of the world…
Did you know that war may be on the horizon between Estonia and Russia? I didn’t for a few days, until a friend on LJ who actually lives in Estonia told me. As soon as she told me I started looking at the US media, and…nothing.
Then I checked The Guardian, and it was right there front and center. That’ll teach me to rely on the US media.
So, in case anyone else missed it, check out the following links from The Guardian. Short summary…the Estonian government took down a monument commemorating the Russian soldiers who drove the Nazis out of Estonia (they didn’t destroy it completely, they moved it to a new location). Estonia’s Russian population is pissed off. Ethnic Estonians considered the monument to be a national insult “celebrating” the fact that they were “liberated” from the Nazis only to be colonized by Russia – from their perspective they simply swapped one set of oppressors for another. The Russian government is throwing a tantrum and demanding that Estonia be “punished”. Given Russia’s previous behavior in the Baltic, this is more than a little ominous. According to my friend what’s actually happening on the ground is much worse than the media is making it out to be, and this confrontation has been brewing for a long time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2067022,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2067391,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2068215,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2069211,00.html
Because whoever said that women don't have "the gaze" was smoking crack
About Me
- Cassandra Says
- I'm a progressive, left-wing Brit living in California. I used to be a high-tech sales guru, but got tired of that and am now thinking about going back to school to get a Masters in Journalism. My undergrad is in Psychology, but I have never used this in any constructive way. This is typical for me. I grew up mostly in the Middle East, was educated at a very fancy Scottish boarding school, moved to London at 18, and have lived in the Bay Area for the past 8 years. I am now suffering from a serious case of itchy feet, and am feeling that 8 years is quite long enough to stay in one place. Again, this is typical. If anyone really wants to figure me out they should Google "third culture" - I fit the prototype pretty closely. If any other Third Culture kids happen to stumble across this blog, write to me. There aren't very many of us.
11 comments:
relax, there will be no war in the near future (:
the Russian official reaction was useful, since it showed their real face. strange how they can't understand when is the right time to stop.
anyway, the monument has been replaced and looks like that:
http://www.epl.ee/uudised/384060
That's what the Russian FM called a sacrilege. Now they're already saying that we didn't destroy the statue (which was never the plan) only because of the riots and Russian pressure :-p
In the meantime, Russian hackers attack Estonian govenrment sites from Russian government servers.
That's about all they're gonna do. Kind of pathetic.. old Jossif Stalin is probably turning in his grave.
http://www.eechan.net/pronks/src/1177884549054.jpg
I meant that the monument's location has changed, damn my English
That's what the story in the Guardian reported, that the statue was moved to a military cemetary and that the bodies buried underneath will be, too.
I hope the noises coming out of the Russian government are just them being blustery and throwing a tantrum rather than them actually intending to do anything. My friend was rather frightened by the statements they were making.
They would happily treat us like they treat Chechens, of course - if they only could. Their empty rhetorics only shows that they cannot do that, for now, and that's always good news for Estonia. They will never bury the idea of "getting us back", though - but hey, we were aware of that already (:
After the mess in Chenya do they really have enough soldiers left to be invading another country? I think everyone is hoping they learned something from that experience about bullying their nieghbors.
Making business with Estonia you support and finance Nazis.
You should understand, that making business with Estonia or buying anything produced in Estonia or visiting Estonia as a tourist, you actually support and finance a new generation of European Nazis. Estonia, which has recently joined to EU and NATO, officially practices Apartheid policies and does its best to rehabilitate and legalize Fascism, for years. EU, US and other democracies preferred not to pay attention on that till now. However, it doesn't cancel the fact that Estonia carries out a policy of Ethnic Discrimination against ethnic Russians, who constitute a third part of its population. Most of these people were born in this country or live here for 30-40 years, but they were not even provided citizenship and are treated as second class people. Moreover, Estonia officially glorifies legionaries of Hitler's SS troops that exterminated Jews in Fascist death camps in Estonia during the Holocaust. Government sets up monuments to these Fascist butchers. They are allowed to march in the downtown of the capital, Tallinn. They are invited to official events; the Estonian President shakes their bloody hands, and calls them heroes of Estonia.
At the same time, Estonian government aggressively fights with any memories of millions of the Soviet soldiers, who paid with their lives to free Europe from the plague of the Fascism and to save dozens millions of Europeans of the death. And democratic countries - first of all EU and US, prefer to dissemble this again. But recently Estonian regime overstepped the limits, which makes it absolutely illegal from the point of view of common human values. On April 26, Estonian authorities have decided to finally erase the memory of the victory of Russian soldiers over the Hitler's Nazism by destroying the main World War II memorial to a Soviet warrior-rescuer, Bronze Soldier. For those Russians who live in Estonia, demolition of the memorial is not just a removal of some architectonic construction. This is the most painful insult of the memories of their fathers and grandfathers, who died in battle with the Fascism to bring freedom to the Europe.
Thousands of offended Estonian Russians came to a peaceful protest demonstration, demanding from Estonian officials to stop the vandalism. But instead dialogue Estonian authorities sent special police forces to suppress the protest. With no reason they started to fire in the protesters rubber bullets, water cannon and tear-gas, throw flash-bang grenades, and baton women and teenagers. During the massacre the first ethnic Russian was killed, dozens were injured and hundreds were arrested just because of their Russian ethnicity. Those arrested were thrown into in a harbor warehouse as they were livestock, and there they were beat by police within an inch of their life. Just think - in the heart of the Europe an Apartheid regime kills, injures and arrests hundreds people just because of their ethnicity! However, almost all of the European and American media keep hypocritical silence or even worse call this "pacifying gangs of drung vandals".
This is disgrace! This is shame not only on those European and US governments that support this Nazi state. This is shame on every European and American who keeps silence today. Keeps silence, because somewhere inside he or she is confident that rehabilitation of Fascism, and Apartheid crimes committed against those "dirty Russian" at the heart of the European Union, provide "useful lesson" to Russians and Russia. But maybe you think that this is not your business? Then let me remind you a famous phrase by German priest Martin Niemoller he said about Nazis in 1945: "First they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.... Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left who can speak up for me". Today, new European Nazis came for the Russians, and the Europeans keep silence or, better to say, silently approve. Well, you can be sure - this is just the beginning, and some day yours home-grown Nazis, inspired by your silence of the crimes of the Estonian Fascism, will come for you. And there will be no one to speak up for you. Because Russians, once rescued the Europe from the Fascism, will never pay again with millions of their lives for those not speaking up today.
So what can you do? Not too much. But quite enough to stop Nazis. At least don't finance them. Don't buy anything produced from Estonia. Don't do any kind of business with Estonian companies and organizations. Don't invest in Estonian stocks. Don't fly to Estonia as a tourist. What else? Maybe, to ask your representative in the House of Representatives, why your government spends your taxes to support Estonian Nazis? Or to forward this letter to your local newspaper and ask them, why they never write about Apartheid in Estonia? Or to call to Estonian embassy in your country, and ask them what is that they think they are doing? Or at least forward this letter to a few friends and colleagues? Your voice CAN prevent revival of Nazism, if you want it.
After the mess in Chenya do they really have enough soldiers left to be invading another country?
You got the point right, they don't. Not only Chechnya, the whole North Caucasus is a mess - and I bet Mr Kadyrov will not be a very comfortable vassal to deal with. Right now, the Russian Baltic navy has less firepower than Swedish or Finnish navy. So they have to resort to propaganda war, but they're not very great at that, either, as you can see. 8-)
(the same Estonian)
Indeed, that was one of the clumsier attempts at propoganda I've seen in a while.
I grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia exposed to propaganda every day, it's not hard to spot if you're used to it.
My goodness. That was all very...enlightening.
yeah, we're not exactly unfamiliar with the blustery sabre-rattling over here...
btw, CS, completely off topic, but you were looking for other "third culture" bloggers, right?
anyway, you might be interested in these, i thought:
Adventures in Negroshire (i.e. expat in Scotland! altho' she doesn't seem to have updated in a bit)
Charcoal Ink (East African expat in Paris)
Les said, the better
transman, i think originally from SF, now in Netherlands
Yeah, it was very "first line and we're Godwined already!".
Thanks for the links, Belle, will check them out.
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