Windows to Russia

The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at the US House of Representatives Howard Berman is in Moscow to prepare for Barack Obama’s upcoming trip. He gave an insider’s view on the meetings that have been conducted so far. He gives a good interview that will give people a better point of view of what is happening on this side of the world instead of all the Russia evil articles that the Western press is putting out right now instead of the truth.

I used this particular video because it is from a very important official from America. Many people always down trodden Russia Today interviews and try to lay on the conspiracy theory game.

Well tell me that: The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at the US House of Representatives Howard Berman is a conspiracy of lies as he talks positive about Russia and Americas future…

Sadly last week was a hay day for Western press articles about Dark Evil Russia:

On June 21, Time – “Russia Cracks Down on Political Art.”

The Washington Post – “Russia, Again Evading History” on June 20.

The Washington Post – “Far Eastern City Sees Kremlin as Cause of Its Troubles.”

Bloomberg News Agency – “Russia’s Anti-Crisis Plan Won’t Boost Growth.”

The New York Times -“Ikea Plans to Halt Investment in Russia.”

and so on and so on and so on – All of a sudden there has been a slew of articles that paint a bad picture of Russia. (Every article only gives some of the information and that is only the information that supports Western ideas about bad Russia.) I can tell you that things are not what the Western press tells you they are. In fact I see a tremendous inaccuracy of facts issue getting bigger as Western press closes down their foreign offices due to lack of money in the States…

Lets watch the interview:

The dark black picture that America paints with their press about Russia left out a important issue: “The sun is shinning in Russia!”

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

One of my favorite pictures of our car – enlarge and you will see Boza in the backseat…

As you know yesterday our car was stolen and as you should do, as quick as possible after finding out that someone has stolen your car. Is start calling important phone numbers. (Of course this is after saying a few important words under your breath that can not be repeated here.)

The first number to call is the police station. (Militsiya in Russia)

Svet called the police, after the shock of looking at the spot that we had parked our car in last night and finding that spot empty. I remember thinking that they can’t “repo it” – We own it! 🙂

I figured that the police would take two hours to get here and I told Svet as much. My experience comes from America and the last time I called about a stolen car, I saw an officer the next day almost 16 hours later.

Well they made a liar out of me – within 10 minutes we had a police van sitting at the front door and two officers waiting to hear the situation. 🙂 – (Surprise surprise – to me!) Being that Svet speaks the best Russian and is Russia, she went to the police station and dealt with the paperwork. (They always look at me like “What is he doing driving a old Volga!” Everyone thinks that an American should be driving a fancy car.)

That took about 1 hour and she was home.

They also sent a photography team and several other people to look at the place where the car was stolen from. They took pictures of an empty parking space and got closeup pictures of the tire tread marks, that were still very clear on the asphalt. 🙂

The police were very professional and nice and as always cared about what happened!

Will all this help? Probably not…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

I had three cars stolen in America over the years. Seems that I always have a car that someone else wants. Never got any of the ones in America back. Now I get the pleasure of having an old Volga stolen in Russia. Lets see if they find our “Nelly” The Volga…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

I remember this song in the video that the Jackson Five did and was shocked because Michael was my age. You could see then that he was in a class of his own, above his family. I say that the time of crucifying Jackson should have ended many many moons ago.

Michael Jackson was the substance of my generation, he was the extreme ends of the scale that outlined that generation. In Michael Jackson you will find the make up of my generation, that never found the middle ground and stability that it provides….. Kyle

Goodbye Michael Jackson may you end up in your Neverland!

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Russia’s Prime Minister interrupted his Cabinet meeting this Wednesday to make an unexpected jaunt to one of Moscow’s local supermarkets. Putin got the urge to check on prices for certain types of grocery items during the meeting.

Now, when Putin says go they “Go!” (Watch video below.)

After causing allot of Russian’s to go “Huh – what is Putin up too!” They returning to the White House where they had started their meeting and then Putin laid his thoughts on the table.

Putin Said: “The economic slowdown has slashed people’s incomes. At the same time, we see that prices, and especially food prices do not go down, and in some food categories even go up. That’s social injustice, and we can’t allow it to happen.” (Link)

So Putin challenged the producers, retailers and legislators, to make a joint effort to control food prices or maybe things will have to change…

This dish has a appropriate name – “Glazky” (“Little Eyes”) – Which comes from the way it looks after it is baked and ready to eat. This dish is for those special guests whom you wish to show, that they are worth that extra effort at breakfast. No, it is not made from eye balls and Yes, I can assure you, it’s delicious. 🙂

So lets eat some Glazky…

Ingredients:

• 4 medium eggs
• 100g white cheese (your choice and shredded)
• 6 to 8 tbsp. sour cream (thick)
• salt to taste (a few pinches)

Prepare:
Separate egg whites from yolks and be careful not to damage yolks. (This is the most important part)

Mix (whip) the whites with a fork in a bowl and ad a pinch of salt, mix with a whipping motion some more.

Pour whipped egg whites into a baking pan greased with oil, then layer half of the shredded cheese on top.

Make four indented areas in the cheese with a big spoon and put yolks carefully in these indents. (eye balls)

Put sour cream around the yolks and on the cheese but not on top of the yolks.(Remember leave yolks uncovered)

Add rest of the cheese very carefully and cover the sour cream but not the yolks. (Do not cover yolks)

Bake in preheated oven at 300 degrees F. for 7 to 10 minutes. (careful you want it done and firm but not burnt)

Done:

There you have yellow eyeballs in a white egg and cheese delight… (Yummy)

Lets Eat!

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Let’s take a look today at the UN Report on the World Drug Problems in 2009! This is a comprehensive report that is put out every year by the UNODC. (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

All this information above is a tiny tidbit from a report that the UN puts out every year. This report is one of many that agencies all over the world put out about how bad things are in the world. This one is about drugs. I am not a fan of these agencies and their reports but since America likes to print reports about the rest of the world all the time. I thought we would include this report to everyone also, even though it shines a poor light on the Western world.

Link to the report it is in PDF:

It holds no surprises to me and should not to you either. The one thing that I want you to look at carefully is that the Western world (Western Europe and North America to be exact) stands out on these maps (above) of the youth (10th, 11thand 12th grade) in the world. This is a common trend through out the report, graphs and pictures. The really good thing is that they say that the trend in has dropped in America by 30%! That is still scary in a way, think how high the usage was a few years ago… (Even with a decline in usage America still rates as an exceptional high usage)

The next thing to look at is the increase in drug related crimes – almost double since 1995!

BBC states in an article about the UK – “The UK thus continues to be – in absolute numbers – Europe’s largest cocaine market, with its second highest cocaine use prevalence rate.”

Russia is trying to play catch up and that is not good. Russia has a serious needle injection drug problem that shows up in one graph and report. This goes along with what I have written about in this article. (Link)

But hey, America wants to legalize cannabis. So they can be number one Weed users…

Not a really very good report to stand out on.

Sad…

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Russia has been trying to get into the WTO for a long time now. I have in the past said that Russia needs to tell the WTO to go fly a kite, because…

When the USA gets upset because they do not get all the cheap candy that belongs to them, they start throwing around accusations and filing complaints. In this case the USA and EU are crying together and calling foul on China.

China it seems wants to use her natural resources for China and not the EU and America. (China has a lot of nerve doing that, How could they dare!)

The USA and European Union (EU) have filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) that China is unfairly limiting its (candy) raw material exports.

The main complaint is according to the US and EU, is that China is giving its domestic industry access to cheap materials. “These actions are hurting American and EU steel, aluminum and chemical manufacturers, among other industries, that desperately need these material to make their products.” The complaint involves the export of bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon metal, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus and zinc. (Sounds like America needs to use her own resources instead of relying on everyone else. )

For an example: In 2008 China produced around 336 million tons of coke, a product used in making steel last year but only exported 12 million tons to the rest of the world. Restricting coke export and allowed Chinese steel manufacturers to use all the coke instead. China can produce a ton of steel for $268 less than American competitors. China used all their coke and more by the way. Steel production in China is up average of 15.6% a year in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and still climbing in 2009!

The complaint underscores Western biased attitudes toward China’s growing influence in world commodities trade. It is also very familiar to similar disputes between Japan and the United States in the 1980s as the Japanese economy was on the rise and America was having a hussy fit at that time also. You see if the US and EU will be given the go-ahead by the WTO they then can impose economic sanctions against China in retaliation.

In my mind, since 1995 when the WTO was founded, I said then, “the rich countries want to get richer and make the poor countries poorer and rich countries dislike poorer countries to advance in the scheme of things.” The benefits do not always outweigh the downfalls in this organization.

Russia keeps toying with the idea of joining the WTO and has several obstacles in her way. These obstacles are a godsend in disguise and Russia needs to run the other way. (Fast)

The bottom line is that if China can use her own natural resources for her benefit and advancement then she does not owe a anything to America or the EU. China has a billion people and can hardly substantiate themselves with that many people. The same with India, the amount of internal consumption of natural resources is phenomenal. They really can not afford to export any resources to anyone.

This is a very good example why Russia needs to stay away from the WTO and why China should pull out of the WTO… (But they won’t!)

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.

Today while drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Moscow, Russia, I came a cross one of my favorite blogs My life in Bergen, a Photoblog by Bskaad. That had two very neat articles about Russian Ocean going vessels visiting Bergen, Norway. One article was about a visit from a Russian Submarine and the other was a visit from Andrey Melnichenko in his new Super Yacht! (Russian Billionaire)

First article is: http://bskaad.blogspot.com/2009/05/litle-update-from-bergen.html

Second article is: http://bskaad.blogspot.com/2009/06/expensive-visit-in-bergen.html

Bskaad has a good eye for photos and takes a lot of pictures. He has this photo blog that he posts in as often as he can and when he does I am always there eager to see what he is up to.

I saw the submarine a little while back but was waiting for a kicker article to go with it. Today Bskaad supplied what I needed and I decided to post about beautiful Bergen, Norway!

Svet and I really want to go visit Norway and after you see his pictures you will know why…

Thanks to Bskaad for letting me reprint the photos.

Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.