Windows to Russia

Sveta told me something the other day that got me thinking and then last night it hit home about what is wrong. I do not know how to fix it, but I know that something has happened to society’s all over the world. Things have changed in humans and they are not for the best…

Sveta said to me: “In the Soviet Union we never would have done that or acted like that.” I said: “Yes, in America 40 years ago we would not have done that either…” I do not even remember what it was about that we said these things, because we see things that make us say these statements several times a day…

But in the middle of the night last night. I awoke and was thinking about how messed up our society has become. I realize that there has always been the bad but it seems now that we have entered a new era of a “messed up bad” on earth. The bad has extended into a much higher percent of the population. Believe me Russia has the same problems that America has. What use to be once in awhile has become the norm in many cases…

I was thinking about when I was a little boy and on the Fourth of July we used dynamite as fire works. I remember that grandpa showed me how to wipe the sweat off a stick of dynamite and toss the droplets on the ground for firecracker sounds. We had 40% nitro commercial grade dynamite for taking out stumps (and fishing in the huge ponds). Dynamite was also used to destroy large boulders. In fact I knew where the dynamite was kept and could have played with it anytime I felt like. But I was told by my dad and grandpa that you did not mess with guns, dynamite, fire and electricity. I did what I was told and grew up respecting what my elders said and told me about rules and “what knots”…

It just dawned on me that whether it is Russia, America, Brazil, Europe or anywhere. I could not imagine in this day and age, having a box of dynamite on every farm for everyday use. We kept it cool and dry but never locked up and we had at least 4 cases that weigh 50lbs each in stock…

Could you imagine now days and a kid walking into his school with a Bic lighter and a stick of dynamite? I never thought that a kid would take a gun to school and shoot everyone, but it has happened many times in the world during recent history. So the notion that a kid would take a stick of dynamite to school for “show and tell” is a reality in the world we live in now…

So what happened to us? Why are we so messed up now? Why do we have to hide what use to be normal? Why and why and why?

I realize that things did happen such as the Bath School disaster in 1927 and others. But is that a reason to live in a shell and hide from life? Should we make society so closed that we can not even enjoy life?

I do know that  greatest Forth of July’s were when the adults tossed dynamite in the field. When I reached about 12 years old I was able to throw my first stick. It was into a pond and we went fishing. 🙂

It was an experience that I will never forget and was part of growing up and becoming a man. Good or bad, I grew up much different than the kids we raise now…

I also learned not to be scared of life…

Windows to Russia!

PS: Sveta says that media has a lot to do with the over reaction on things that happen in the world….

Hummm…

I think that China is serious about getting things under control with their export business! What do you think?

China has sentenced the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration to death after he was convicted of corruption, state media has reported.

Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted on charges of taking bribes and of dereliction of duty, Xinhua news agency reported.

The sentence is unusually harsh for a senior figure, but Zheng could have his sentence reduced to life on appeal.

The verdict came as the government announced plans for the first ever recall system of unsafe food products.

Beijing has been under pressure to act over increasing concern both at home and abroad about the poor standards of Chinese-produced food and medicines.

State television showed footage of a grey-haired Zheng – who was expelled from the Communist Party earlier this year – appearing in court in Beijing flanked by police officers.

He had been accused by an official investigation last month of accepting more than 6.5m yuan ($850,000) in bribes to approve hundreds of drugs.

One company, Kongliyuan Group, allegedly paid Zheng bribes in return for approving 277 drugs, mostly antibiotics.

Zheng’s former secretary, Cao Wenzhuang, also faced trial, accused of accepting bribes.

Thirty-one other people were also alleged to have been involved in the scandal, including Zheng’s wife, Liu Naixue, and his son, Zheng Hairong.

Following Zheng’s sacking in 2005, the Chinese government announced a review of about 170,000 medical licences that were awarded during his tenure at the agency.

Dozens of people have died in China because of poor quality or fake drugs.

Last year, a sub-standard antibiotic, Xinfu, which was not properly sterilised, caused the deaths of 11 people.

Thirteen babies died of malnutrition in 2005 after being fed powdered milk that contained no nutritional value.

The Chinese government recently announced an urgent review of industry food standards after public alarm over a recent spate of cases.

US inspectors blamed exported Chinese pet food ingredients, contaminated with melamine, for the deaths of cats and dogs in North America.

And they recently halted shipments of toothpaste from China to investigate reports that they may be contaminated with toxic chemicals.

On Tuesday, as Zheng was sentenced, the government said a new recall process targeting “potentially dangerous and unapproved food products” would be brought in by the end of the year.

“All domestic and foreign food producers and distributors will be obliged to follow the system,” Wu Jianping, of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, was quoted as saying.”(Xinhua news agency)

They don’t play around, do they!

Update: The Chinese have executed Zheng! Not much of an appeal process in China. Word of warning, do not mess up in business in China. (like taking bribes). Could lose your head over it.

Kyle

Mat Rodina: 2010, The Saga Continues: “Upcoming in this year will be the second fall in the Global Depression. This will start with nations failing in their sovereign debt and will quickly spiral out of control for vast areas, followed by more break down in civil order and war. Oil prices will not rise to much further in real value, though they will to some degree in dollars as inflation kicks in and pushes things up, even as a lack of demand drives prices down. However, by the end of the year, oil will see a large increase due to supply constraints caused by geopolitical issues: first in Mexico, than in Venezuela and finally in the Persian Gulf.”

Want to know what Russia says about the Arctic Sea vessel hijacking? Then follow these links and find some interesting information. These links will give you a run down on what is really happening with this hijacked vessel in the arctic. The Western press has had a heyday or two over this and every conspiracy has been brought up that could be. They even say Russia has faked the whole thing…

• Estonia joins probe into Arctic Sea vessel hijacking
• Arctic Sea sailors’ wives say still no contact with loved ones
• Arctic Sea owner appeals for ‘reliable’ info on crew
• Arctic Sea cargo ship heads to south Russia for investigation
• Freed Arctic Sea crew arrive in Moscow

I have been quiet about this case because I have been following it to see what is developing…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Hello,

Russia: President Medvedev has gone to a meeting…..

The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will discuss the situation in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia at a two-day summit which opens on Wednesday in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe.

The post-Soviet regional bloc, that is widely seen as a counterweight to NATO’s influence in Eurasia, comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The group primarily addresses security issues, but has recently moved to embrace economic and energy projects.

Hello,

I saw an interesting article while drinking my coffee that Russia will only communicate about Iran if the USA gets their attitude straight about Georgia. I guess we will see how important Georgia is to the USA…..

The UN Security Council held its latest meeting on Saturday. Due to Russia’s efforts, no new sanctions will be imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Formally, Moscow wants to maintain the possibility for a diplomatic solution to the crisis around Iran’s enrichment of uranium. The Russian leadership had made it clear in advance, however, that it would be willing to come to an agreement on Iran only after the United States changes it position on Georgia.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin introduced the current document on Iran, saying that a resolution was needed that “would give wind to the political process” on Iran. The document urges Iran to follow all IAEA Guidelines and all previous Security Council resolutions demanding that Iran stop work on uranium enrichment. No mention is made of new sanctions in the resolution.

The Group of Six that is working on the Iranian crisis (Russia, the U.S., Great Britain, China, France and Germany) had planned to pass a much more pointed resolution on Iran that included sanctions during the UN General Assembly session in New York last week, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made it known to a narrow circle that the U.S. would not be able to “punish” Russia for its actions in the Caucasus and work with it on Iran at the same time. It was then announced that Lavrov’s schedule did not permit him to meet with the group’s other foreign ministers.

Also on Saturday, Lavrov stated from the podium of the UN General Assembly that the majority of the world’s problems today stem from the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. “Under the false pretense of fighting terror and the spread of nuclear arms, international law was broken and a global crisis was artificially created that still has not yet been completely overcome,” Lavrov told the General Assembly. (Link)

I find this interesting because the USA has cried wolf in everyone’s backyards and now for once they are being sent home spanked.

Russia does not see the urgency about Iran that the USA does and I do not see the urgency either. But then I never saw the urgency in Iraq, Just like I never saw the urgency in Afghanistan, Just like the urgency to develop a terrorist black list, Just like the urgency of missiles in Poland, Just like we must build a wall against Mexico, Just like we must oppress the people speaking out at the Democratic and Republican conventions, Just like the urgency of Home Land Security and so on and so on and so on. The urgency of the situation is part of the crying wolf syndrome.

The last statement of Lavrov is very true and accurate. The USA has been playing crying wolf for a long time now. How does the world know what is truth or lies anymore?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

PS: Crying Wolf – Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.

The Moscow International Film Festival is among the oldest film festivals in the world. The first time it was held was in 1935 and the Judges were headed by Sergei Eisenshtein himself, but the chronology of the festival begins in 1959, when it became a regular event. It is significant that the rebirth of the Moscow International Film Festival occurred in the 1960s of the past century, at the time of the Thaw, when cinema experienced the influx of a new generation of directors, whose spiritual experience was shaped under the influence of the great victory over fascism.

Over the past decades the renown and influence of the Moscow Festival on the world film making process have grown significantly. Prizes were awarded to outstanding masters of world cinema – Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kramer, Federico Fellini and Ettore Scola, Andrzej Wajda and Francesco Rosi, Krzysztof Zanussi and Damiano Damiani, Gleb Panfilov and Sergei Gerasimov, Bernard Blier and Alexandr Rogozhkin. The Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) has a lot to pride itself on. It paved the way for filmmakers who later became known throughout the world like Istvan Szabo and Kaneto Shindo, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Aki Kaurismaki, Kohei Oguri and Humberto Solas. In 2010 the honorary prize for contribution to world cinema went to the French director, author of the legendary “A Man and a Woman”Claude Lelouche. The Moscow Festival honoured remarkable representatives of the acting profession. Over the years the prize “I Believe. Konstantin Stanislavsky” for acting achievements was awarded to Jack Nicholson and Jeanne Moreau, Meryl Streep and Harvey Keitel, Fanny Ardant and Daniel Olbrychski, Gerard Depardieu, Oleg Yankovsky and Isabelle Huppert. In 2010 this prize was awarded to the outstanding French actress Emmanuelle Beart.

The festival has always mirrored the socio-political changes taking place in Russia, our tempestuous modern history has always aroused the interest of numerous guests from all over the world. Our Festival is intended not merely for professionals and journalists, but also for the wider audience. Suffice it to say that in 2010 the number of viewers reached almost 200,000. For four years in a row the Moscow Festival is hosted by the “Mediafest” company. The largest foreign movie empires strive to schedule premiers in this country, assessing the large viewing potential of Russia as the most promising in the world. It is no accident that despite the financial difficulties caused by the economic crisis, the last Moscow Festival hosted a special “Moscow Forum of Film Co-production”, where the festival management offered producers from different countries an opportunity to discuss major problems of film production.

More than 200 guests from all over the world attended the 32nd MIFF, including noted filmmakers, journalists, film critics. The number of journalists who are accredited at the festival, is steadily rising and exceeded two thousand. The guests could enjoy a varied program of more than 200 movies from 50 countries. Moscow viewers could re-discover the Italian Sergio Leone, whose retrospective was held within the festival framework. Personal retrospectives were dedicated to French director Claude Chabrol and the last Alexander Sokurov’s documentary series “Intonation”.

The Jury of the anniversary festival was headed by the remarkable filmmaker Luc Besson. His movie “Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adele Blanc-Sec” was screened at the closing ceremony.

For many years now the Moscow Film Festival has been presided by the Russian director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov.

Source:

Sveta and I will go…

Windows to Russia!

The Russian press has lots of news about Libya. 90% of it is contradictory to the main Western news. The Eastern news from China and Russia both are telling a whole different story about what is happening in Libya. In fact the Western propaganda is being shot full of holes daily and it has become a joke in the East about the trust and reliability of NATO and all who are part of it. The Italian rebuke of the happenings in Libya are stemming back to the story that you will read below. The Italians now know that Libya is unjustly being bombed to death and the world watches from the sideline while the Western Empire acts like God and crushes a bug that refuses to die…

The Libyans entirely support Muammar Gaddafi – well-known Italian documentary film maker Fluvio Grimaldi has debunked the main myth about the situation in Jamahiriya.

“The Ambassador to Rome turned out to be one of the few high-ranking Libyans who happily sided with the strong partner. “If you want a visa to Benghazi you will get it in no time. If you want to go to Tripoli there will be no visa for you’, the Embassy declared. I joined a group of British peace-makers who also wanted to know the truth about what’s going on in that country,” Grimaldi writes.

The expedition flew to Tunisia from where it proceeded to Libya by land. The itinerary was prompted by the western press – the group visited places where the situation was especially difficult, according to the media.

In Tripoli the foreign visitors were controlled by young functionaries of the current regime appointed to stay with the group. However, Grimaldi and his fellow-travelers were allowed to stop in any place and talk to anyone on any subject. This was a freedom unavailable to journalists accredited in Benghazi.

National unity and firm resolution to defend their country was what impressed the group most of all. School lessons have not stopped for a second, and now schools also provide additional training how to use weapons. This training is both for boys and girls. The so-called human shields, which are in essence cannon fodder, turned out to be voluntary units. Cities on the Mediterranean coast, ravaged and cut off by Gaddafi’s troops, according to the western media, in reality are very picturesque places with a good water supply system and strong agriculture. In any allegedly oppressed city, people told the Italian journalist that they heard about Muammar Gaddafi’s tyranny from their relatives and friends abroad, and a real disaster came only when NATO bombings began with the aim of protecting the people. Each interview, Fluvio Grimaldi says, gradually destroyed the western story of the horrible aggression of the Libyan leader.

The local Catholic church has become a place of pilgrimage. Muslim women visit the Roman priest every day and ask him to tell the world the truth about the situation in the country. The Libyans asked Grimaldi’s group to do the same.

The Libyan citizens have already been voluntarily defending their country for six months. The local people say that the army is doing its best to talk the civilian population out of taking part in the hostilities. The local people do not look like intimidated illiterate scamps, on the contrary, Grimaldi pointed out the dignity and honor of their bearing.

It has been mentioned before as well that the situation in Libya is not as black as Obama and his NATO allies are trying to paint it. However, now that the US Senate has given Obama permission to extend the operation in Libya for another year and the coalition is persistently looking for the proof of Gaddafi’s bloody crimes, an eye-witness’ report is very appropriate.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/22/52254887.html

Now you know how Italians have learned the truth. Someone of respect went there and saw the truth with his own eyes. Including some British people…

It is sad that we are doing this to Libya. Literally all Western press is propaganda puppets to stimulate the war in Libya…

But I forgot you all really do not care…

But I do care…

Windows to Russia!

Substitute Pilot at Controls in Crash Tu-134 on Friday:

A plane and flight crew that crashed while trying to land in thick fog at Karelia’s capital, killing 44 of the 52 people on board, were provided by a U.S.-affiliated charter airline as a replacement for a smaller jet after too many passengers bought tickets.

The pilot rejected instructions from the air traffic controller to abort the landing just before midnight Monday on the flight from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, moments before the Tu-134 jet rammed into a highway and soon after exploded into what an eyewitness described as “a pillar of fire.”

Local residents managed to pull eight people out of the wreckage before the blaze, including a mother and her two children, aged 9 and 14.

At least nine foreigners, including a Florida-based family of four, were among those who died in the crash.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated that pilot error was to blame, drawing a comparison to the crash of a Polish presidential plane in thick fog in the Smolensk region last year.

The Moscow-Petrozavodsk flight was initially supposed to be operated by the RusLine airline on a Bombardier CRJ200, which has 50 seats. But too many people bought tickets, so RusLine called in RusAir to handle the flight with a 66-seat Tu-134 on Friday, RusLine spokeswoman Svetlana Yakovleva said by telephone.

Source a 4 page article: The Moscow Times

Windows to Russia!