Russia or America II ?

[Sato]

Russia could not possibly be an "America II," nor would this be in any way desirable. After WWII many nations in Europe and Asia followed American developmental patterns, but none of these nations is "America II."

At best the United States is a template, a politcal and ethical scaffold upon which any number of possible societal tapestries might be fastened. The core values of the USA arose out of the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th Centuries, an unprecendented political fountainhead.

It is a mistake to organismically lump together all the societal foibles and admittedly tasteless and obnoxious cultural antics of contemporary USA with an honest estimate of American strengths.

And to Reza, I say that perhaps you have done as much with respect to Russian strengths in your pointed scorn for Russian weaknesses.

During the coming century we cannot afford to indulge in "cleansing" and militant posturing (as we could not really afford this during the previous century). Synthesis is the task at hand, and this will be accomplished by attention to a myriad of tedious tasks, while we try to preserve the best values of our respective cultures.

Sato

[Dr_Woland]

to Disa:

>> when you have such great culture(Puskin,Dostojevski,
Gogolj,Solzenicin,Cajkovski)chess history(Alekhine,Tal) then why you dont export it?Because Americans and Europe
are not interested very much <<

Well, whose fault is that? I'll tell you this - in Russia, you will find translations of Henry Miller, Truman Capote, William Burroughs - and of Carlos Castaneda, and of Barthes, and most world figures of literature of the C20th. The fact that most Americans aren't interested in any literature except their own (not even their own, actually) just shows... well, you can draw your own conclusions. Please don't be offended, because I agreed with you in some other areas :-)

to Disa:

Ux ty, mne lestno :-) Spasibo, ya starayus pravil'no vladet' yazyk. Ya v Moskve jivu - raion Voikovskiy, Koptevskaya Ulitsa. Nedavno zametil 41-ogo den' rozhdeniya. Zdes' robotayu, u nas turisticheskaya firma (priem gruppov v Rossiyu) i krome togo, prepodayu (lektorom) v Mosk. Akad po-Turisme pod Mosk. Pravitel'stom. A ty znaesh', ya bolee uvajayu tex kotory Anglitsky uchilis! Raznitsa v tom - na russkom est pravilo, esli chelovek ne tak lenivy kak ya uchit'sya ego - no na anglitskom, isklucheniya bol'she chem pravilo :-( A ty gde zhivesh', esli toje ne sovershennaya sekretnaya informatia? :-)

Poka

Dr W.

[Olya008]

Privet Dr. W, about what you said about literature--there are very few Americans who even KNOW who Pushkin is, but the funny thing is that not too many know who Emily Dickenson is either.. (sorry if I offended anyone--just a general observation)

-Olya

[oca]

Disa:

<<1. I don't know what is cosinEs. I know what cosinUs is.>>

Directly from cheap dictionary: cosine NL, cosinus fr. co + ML sinus. The trigonometric function that for an acute angle etc., etc., and etc. (Please look-up cosine).

<<2. We have spacestation (MIR, if you don't know it). Have you?>>

Yes, I am well aware of MIR, but for some technical reasons, nobody in the industry seems to take MIR very seriously. I am sure my information is biased. In fact the Russian government will discuss MIR’s fate shortly.

Disa, my remarks were made in good faith, and I had no intention to hurt your feelings.

Oca


[This message has been edited by oca (edited 19 October 2000).]

[oca]

Dear Dr_Woland:

Just a small clarification:

<<they realised that the lovely USA was
capable of bombing a European country for the flimsiest of proven reasons. Of course, no-one believes the USA would bomb Russia seriously - the stockpile of nuclear weapons is too great a risk. (The USA likes to show its power to weak little nations with no nuclear capacity.>>

The bombing of Kosovo was a multi-national task undertaken primarily by the United States and Great Britain, with other countries in the active line-up.

My country has met the enemies of Russia, UK, and most of the European nations in the battlefields of WWI and WWII, and unprepared as we were then, we gave our best and managed to survive very nicely.

I know there were no nukes then, but we have maintained that "can do" attitude, preventing other nuclear capable countries from using such weapons on their weaker neighbors.

How quickly we forget.

Oca

[ILay]

as requested by Disa:

(not an anecdote though but a true story)

in 1960s there was a meeting between NASA and Soviet Space Agency. The lector from USA proudly described their research work and tald that they, inter alia manged to do the following:
- we have spent 6 month of research and 2 mio of dollars to create a pen that can work under conditions of zer0 gravity. - (then some information about the difficulties and technical solutions follows). - but we've done it and can be proud for it.

And old russian academic says:
- sorry, you spent so much time and money. And for sure you can be proud for the job done.
But did you try to use a PENCIL?

[Disa]

To Rodneymackinnon:

"The MIR Space Station is a joke in the US. It may be our media's slant, but MIR is portrayed as a piece of junk that was very hazardous to work in."
Oh, maybe you're right and MIR isn't in good condition now. BUT. We built it FIFTEEN years ago!!!


To Dr_Woland:
I live in Moscow near Kutuzovskiy prospekt. I'm 18 years old.
I am student of Financial Academy.

Kak davno ti uchish russkiy yazik?
Kogda ti priekhal v Rossiyu?
Pochemu ti eto sdelal? Ya uveren, chto zhit' /to live/ v Anglii namnogo komfortnee i spokoinee.

Ya uveren, chto u tebya net problem s russkim yazikom, no esli vozniknut voprosi, s radost'yu pomogu tebe.

My email: superdisa@mtu-net.ru