Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Dec 27, 2005 16:14:42 GMT -7
On today`s evening news, Russian topics have been mentioned four times. It is a record.
1. The news of Polish planes who take over from Germans the patrolling of the Baltic states` air space in NATO-led operations. Russian planes, flying from St Peters to Kaliningrad, often take a short-cut, violating the air space of the Baltics. The commentary posed a curious question: what will Polish pilots do in case Russian planes violate anything?
2. Russia and Ukraine`s dispute over the gas price. Ukrainians claim that Russians agreed to their demands, Russians call it a provocation. Russian Minister of Defence rejects Ukrainian suggestions on charging Russians a higher rent for lend-lease of some sea base.
3. Today in St Peters there was a demonstration of foreign students, most of them coloured, who protested against a recent murder of a black student from Cameroon. There were a few Russians too, with banners " No to fascism." The commentary was given by one of demonstrators, an African student: " Every month one foreign student is murdered in Russia."
4. The eating habits in Russian capital have been changing. The news started with the footage from a cheap bar where pierogis and a glass of vodka cost about 1 dollar. One customer, standing next to a high table, said: "Do you want to know what has changed? In the past I would participate in the interview for free, but today you must pay me." And he made a gesture, rubbing his fingers together.
But these bars slowly disappear from Moscow. New restaurants have been opened, with Russian cuisine. Interviewed customers said they love Russia so they want to visit such restaurants. One of them, called "Jolki Palki," has been filmed. The commentary: "Russians in Moscow have more and more money to go to restaurants. However, Moscow is a priviliged city because salaries are twice or even thrice higher than in other parts of Russia."
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Post by pieter on Dec 27, 2005 16:55:34 GMT -7
Pawian,
It is a healthy habit of Poles to be interested in the Russians, because it is their big neighbour, of economical importance, has played a big role in Polands past (negatively and positively), is a growing market for tourism in Poland (many Russians visit Krakow and Warsaw), and Poland is an important political, diplomatic (bilateral and multi-lateral negociations)
role in the region. Polish influence in the Baltic States, the Visgrad countries
(Hungary, and the Czech- and Slovak republics), Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation is bigger than many West-Europeans know or realise.
Poland is an adult EU-country and an important NATO-partner with military input and police/peacekeeping tasks. Economically it grew explosively from a strange Communist country (puppet state of the USSR) towards one of the large countries of Europe, with an independant course between the USA and the EU (very Transatlantic oriented).
Polish interest or obsession with Russia is healthy, and you could compare it with the Duch focus on it's big neighbours Germany, France and Brittain,
we often have news about this big three.
America and Russia are equal here to those three.
That Russia is more important in Poland is because it is so near.
Pieter
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Post by Eric on Dec 28, 2005 4:12:01 GMT -7
Yes, Poles definately do have a Russian obsession... in very many ways.  |
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Dec 28, 2005 5:13:44 GMT -7
Yes, Poles definately do have a Russian obsession... in very many ways. Yes, but this medial obsession on Polish evening news on the main channel is very healthy, as Pieter observed. Healthy and, I would say, positive. There wasn`t any rebuke on Russia, the commentary was factual, neutral and true. In case of the restaurant coverage it was even very sympathetic. That is a good example of how Polish media treat Russian affairs. Russians claim that Polish media are partial and prejudiced. I didn`t see it yesterday on the news. Of course, Polish media do not hesitate to critisize Putin or others when they say/do something against Poland or just behave in a strange way. That is what some Russians can`t bear. For them Putin is perfect and always right, Russia is great and much ahead of the US and the West in many fields, the fall of the USSR was a big mistake, Poland is a dwarf which shouldn`t speak up too loudly etc. |
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Dec 28, 2005 5:18:20 GMT -7
(many Russians visit Krakow and Warsaw), Yes, every Saturday evening we go to a shopping center. We often meet Russians who come to do shopping. Big families. That`s good, it means we are not crazy here, that it is normal to be interested in your bigger neighbour. Yes, it`s true, there was nothing about the US in yesterday`s news. I agree with your opinions. |
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Post by Jaga on Dec 28, 2005 16:11:32 GMT -7
Poles have almost the same news from the USA as Americans do, except that they donot study some of the scandals that deeply. I guess, we talk a lot about Russia because this is our neighbor. Pres. Kaczynski believed that Poland had a broad spectra of news from abroad because .... communists did not want to talk about Poland  |
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Post by Eric on Dec 29, 2005 6:14:32 GMT -7
If anything, Poland was an embarassment for the USSR to discuss in the news, because the country had so many political and economic problems during the socialist era. Even more embarassing was that it was a country directly bordering the Soviet Union!
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Post by pieter on Dec 29, 2005 9:56:40 GMT -7
(many Russians visit Krakow and Warsaw), Yes, every Saturday evening we go to a shopping center. We often meet Russians who come to do shopping. Big families. That`s good, it means we are not crazy here, that it is normal to be interested in your bigger neighbour. Yes, it`s true, there was nothing about the US in yesterday`s news. I agree with your opinions. I have to correct myself a little bit, there is much more news about the USA than Russia over here, because Holland is closer in cultural and economical perspective to America than Russia, because Holland is very Americanised. I think that America and England fight for the second place in the news charts, where Duch news is on one. After that come Belgium, France and Germany. It depends on the news. I think that it has to do with the BBC effect, and the large influence of English in the world. Although it is not a world power anymore, England stil delivers a large part of the worlds pop culture and has a great political influence. America is obviously the only left superpower and the policemen of the world. And whole the world loves or despises the American culture. |
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Dec 29, 2005 15:21:36 GMT -7
If anything, Poland was an embarassment for the USSR to discuss in the news, because the country had so many political and economic problems during the socialist era. Even more embarassing was that it was a country directly bordering the Soviet Union! Hey, Eric, I know you are 22 years old. How do you know so much about the times when you even weren`t born to the world? ha ha ha ha. |
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Pawian
European
Have you seen my frog?
Posts: 3,266
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Post by Pawian on Dec 29, 2005 15:30:17 GMT -7
Today, on the evening news, Russia was mentioned only twice.
Firstly, the gas war with Ukraine.
Secondly, a Polish serial "L means Love" has been purchased by a Russian TV channel.
It is an obsession. To talk about some stupid serial on the evening news on channel 1 ha ha ha.
OK. it`s nor stupid, about 10 million or so Poles watch it every day.
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Post by Jaga on Dec 30, 2005 10:05:04 GMT -7
If anything, Poland was an embarassment for the USSR to discuss in the news, because the country had so many political and economic problems during the socialist era. Then, why Soviet Union wanted to keep us as their satelite country? We could not say anything negative about anything happening in Russia in that time but we could critize as much as we wanted the USA and western Europe. Soviet Union was simply untouchable. |
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Post by sciwriter on Dec 30, 2005 17:40:32 GMT -7
IMO the Russian people have no intention of
turning back. There are only a few old hard-liners who are
basically incompetent to survive and believe they were better off under the
old system. The great majority of Russians want to be like USA. In 1996 they all sought to have something that had red, white and blue and the words "US" or "America" on it to wear. The big dream of most Moscovites is a single-story
house "...like people in America have" rather than the collective
apartment buildings which are like stacked shoe boxes. Many Russians criticized
Yeltsin but he did all he could at the time, even if it meant "privatizing"
at the expense of creating a (temporary) mafia.
Russia has made great strides toward a market
economy and a free society considering what they started with in 1991.
And there are those in USA who seem aghast that Putin is "ex-KGB".
Yet President Bush Sr. was ex-CIA.
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Post by Jaga on Jan 4, 2006 21:49:16 GMT -7
Hi Eric, we were just talking in baby name thread in general forum that Russian origin names like Igor and Mikolaj are trendy in Poland... by the way - i just spotted a following article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:RussophobiaRussophobia in Poland, Baltic States, Eastern Europe. NPOV First of all stating Eastern Europe was wrong, since Poland is located in Central and Eastern Europe.Secondly the assertion that such countries ware under "influence" of Moscow is a little bit light.They were occupied brutally in XX century.Third not only in XX century but they experienced occupation in past centuries linked with Russification, deportations and mass murder. Fourth, ok can you give specific examples of unjustified fear of Russia ? --82.139.13.231 00:12, 25 August 2005 (UTC) That is I am all for specified examples.However loose "they are russophobic" is not enough.Especially without mentioning history such as invasion and occupation of Baltic States by Soviet Union, Partitons of Poland, deportations to Siberia etc, Praga Massacre in Poland etc. --82.139.13.231 No one is allowed to come with all this out of their head in wikipedia. References to solid reseach is required in such touchy subjects. Especially this one where it is easy to confuse ethnic dislikes with hatred to the oppressing state. In particular, partitions of Poland is irrelevant here. Hardly Polsih schlachta of these times hated Russian peasants. mikka (t) 00:35, 25 August 2005 (UTC) The issue of Russophobia is often brought up in connection to the Eastern Europe that was under the influence of Moscow, sometimes heavy-handed, for the most of the 20th century. Ok. brought by whom ? Any examples ? Eastern Europe.That is a big area.Poland(which was earlier) isn't in Eastern Europe.Is whole Eastern Europe alledged to be Russophobic ? That would include Serbia ? .... |
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forza
Cosmopolitan
Posts: 514
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Post by forza on Jan 5, 2006 0:40:49 GMT -7
Good link Jaga, It took me away for half an hour! |
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Post by Jaga on Jan 5, 2006 8:47:54 GMT -7
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