Cresselia~~
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Pretty much like how Hong Kong pays China for dirty water, but it's the only source of water we have.
We pay 266 times more than what Singapore pays Malaysia for water.
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Serious Political problems in your country?
- Thread starter Cresselia~~
- Start date
We pay 266 times more than what Singapore pays Malaysia for water.
BERLIN — Germany's foreign minister said after visiting Ukraine this weekend that he fears Russia may have opened "Pandora's Box" with its attempt to redraw national borders in Europe.
"We can't overlook the fact that Russia, with its action in Crimea, is flouting the central foundations of the peaceful order in Europe," Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.
"I'm very worried the unlawful attempt to alter recognized borders in our European neighborhood, 25 years after the end of the Cold War, will open Pandora's Box," he said.
Steinmeier said his impression from visiting Kiev and the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday was that the situation was "anything but stable."
A planned monitoring mission by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) could help avoid an escalation of the stand-off, he said.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Sunday that the European Union was united in its readiness to impose economic sanctions on Russia if the stand-off over Ukraine escalates — and that Moscow had much more to lose than the West.
"I don't think we are divided. None of us wants to escalate, but if Russia changes things unilaterally, then it must know that we won't accept it and that relations will be bad," Schaeuble said on German television in an interview.
"Russia has a lot more to lose in the medium term than the West, than Europe or the United States," he said.
— Reuters
Source:
www.nbc.com
"We can't overlook the fact that Russia, with its action in Crimea, is flouting the central foundations of the peaceful order in Europe," Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.
"I'm very worried the unlawful attempt to alter recognized borders in our European neighborhood, 25 years after the end of the Cold War, will open Pandora's Box," he said.
Steinmeier said his impression from visiting Kiev and the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday was that the situation was "anything but stable."
A planned monitoring mission by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) could help avoid an escalation of the stand-off, he said.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Sunday that the European Union was united in its readiness to impose economic sanctions on Russia if the stand-off over Ukraine escalates — and that Moscow had much more to lose than the West.
"I don't think we are divided. None of us wants to escalate, but if Russia changes things unilaterally, then it must know that we won't accept it and that relations will be bad," Schaeuble said on German television in an interview.
"Russia has a lot more to lose in the medium term than the West, than Europe or the United States," he said.
— Reuters
Source:
www.nbc.com
Cresselia~~
Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Hong Kong Democracy Poll Hit by Cyberattack
http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-democracy-poll-is-hit-by-cyberattack-1403258663
China has become more and more vigorous when it comes to democracy in Hong Kong.
They are planning to wipe it out bit by bit, but nowadays, they seem to be biting bigger chunks at a time and increased their intervals :C
(...what happened to the font size?)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-democracy-poll-is-hit-by-cyberattack-1403258663
China has become more and more vigorous when it comes to democracy in Hong Kong.
They are planning to wipe it out bit by bit, but nowadays, they seem to be biting bigger chunks at a time and increased their intervals :C
(...what happened to the font size?)
Is war to Russia's benefit?
Have any of you ever heard of the Austrian Demanding Ultimatum of Serbia?
They reduced the borders greatly, which was supposed to basically reduce Belgrade(capital of Serbia) to a puppet city-state of Austria, which would slowly lose its independence? It's a lot like what's happening in the China-Hong Kong Crisis, at least from what jynx has told us, except Hong Kong started as a city-state, and China's doing it slower. Russia could try something similar in Ukraine, and upset the "balance of power" the NATO and the EU claims to exist. The balance of power is where multiple sides have about equal power, and so realize war would cost too much. The NATO alliance is overwhelmingly powerful, so it is most likely to go to war. Russia is trying to tip the balance in its favor a little more, so the NATO members decide to portray it as the Russians being wrong. The USA could gain land in the Russian Far East and Siberia in a somewhat easy war with its allies. Russia, if it fights determinedly enough, could gain back Alaska, something much more acceptable to the neutral world, as Russia has owned that before. The US has never owned any significant amount of land on that part of Asia
Russia has more to lose, but also more to gain. And Putin strikes me as a gambling man.
Have any of you ever heard of the Austrian Demanding Ultimatum of Serbia?
They reduced the borders greatly, which was supposed to basically reduce Belgrade(capital of Serbia) to a puppet city-state of Austria, which would slowly lose its independence? It's a lot like what's happening in the China-Hong Kong Crisis, at least from what jynx has told us, except Hong Kong started as a city-state, and China's doing it slower. Russia could try something similar in Ukraine, and upset the "balance of power" the NATO and the EU claims to exist. The balance of power is where multiple sides have about equal power, and so realize war would cost too much. The NATO alliance is overwhelmingly powerful, so it is most likely to go to war. Russia is trying to tip the balance in its favor a little more, so the NATO members decide to portray it as the Russians being wrong. The USA could gain land in the Russian Far East and Siberia in a somewhat easy war with its allies. Russia, if it fights determinedly enough, could gain back Alaska, something much more acceptable to the neutral world, as Russia has owned that before. The US has never owned any significant amount of land on that part of Asia
.
Russia has more to lose, but also more to gain. And Putin strikes me as a gambling man.
Uh, if Russia and United States and its allies go to war it won't ever end with Russia getting Alaska, if it comes to that point we'll have nuclear war no worries.
The balance of power is not where multiple sides have equal power, because if defined in such a way it is useless because in fact not all 'sides' ARE equal. The balance of power is something that actually exists, and equality has nothing to do with it. Russia is testing the waters with the Ukraine shit no doubt, and turns out the West are pretty weak about it, no doubt because Middle East related reasons (they need to keep on okay terms with russia because syria and shit).
The balance of power is not where multiple sides have equal power, because if defined in such a way it is useless because in fact not all 'sides' ARE equal. The balance of power is something that actually exists, and equality has nothing to do with it. Russia is testing the waters with the Ukraine shit no doubt, and turns out the West are pretty weak about it, no doubt because Middle East related reasons (they need to keep on okay terms with russia because syria and shit).
Last edited:
Cresselia~~
Junichi Masuda likes this!!
Must be really sad for those people, to have their homeland being engulfed so quickly?
Sometimes I have a feeling that alike Hong Kong, Crimea was being fed thousands and thousands of Russian immigrants per day to dilute the original Crimean population.
Now that there are more Russians, they can just engulf it.
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Re Myzozoa,
Trouble is, I think Russia is a lot more stronger than USA is.
The quote, and I am badly paraphrasing, "If ever a country was to invade America, behind every blade of grass, behind every tree trunk, they would find a rifle.", not only belongs to the USA, but also to Russia. Exceptionalism is not realism Alaska, however, does not have as many people( aka rifleholders) as Siberia, so it would not be so hard to invade as Siberia. Also, nuclear war is an impossibility, for every sane person realizes that
"The worst thing that could happen in any war, besides losing a nuclear war, is winning a nuclear war." - Yours Truly.
Also, you did not read the last part of my quote.
Replies in BOLD.
No, because it is actually materially possible to have a nuclear war it is clearly not impossible. Your appeal to 'sanity' or reason or w.e is laughable, there would be no conflict at all if everyone was reasonable and sane. A nuclear bomb has already been dropped on Japan, just going to show how possible nuclear war is.
You're full of shit, war isn't fought with rifles nowadays, and it isn't often fought with nuclear bombs, but it is fought with aircraft carriers and USA has more than anyone, zero chance of russia acquires territory from the USA in the near future (25 years).
I'm not sure how you can admit that most people do not support nuclear war (despite the embarrassing amount of US apologists) and then claim that they need to die anyway through nuclear warfare for... what? Certainly not environmental reasons.
Can your angst, society is organised terribly right now but despite many people being complicit in it that doesn't mean a nuclear war is warranted. Perspective is necessary.
I charitably interpreted your post as serious because this isn't Firebot.
Let me explain nuclear war between America and Russia. Japan had no nukes, thus not a nuclear war. That's like a "war" where one side has no army.
Russia has more nukes than the US; the US may have more technology, but it has less nukes. Quantity is a quality all it's own.
To invade/win a war, one needs more than to destroy half the industry, farms, and villages, they need boots on the ground, American soldiers swarming all over Russia.
Hitler tried to defeat the UK with airplanes; I wonder if you know how that turned out.
the whole quantity = quality thing is slightly bullshit given the fact that both countries have far more than sufficient nuclear weapons to vaporize the entire world. at some point, having "more" nuclear weapons is rather irrelevant.
The analogy I've heard is both sides are standing knee deep in gasoline. One side has 5 matches. One side has 3.
Kingpoleon please try to put a little sense into your posts.
Cresselia~~
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Crimea and Hong Kong had been compared together quite often lately, by Americans.
I think there are some similarities.
Anyway, we had our march for democracy today, which was reported on the news of many different countries. Even Argentina and Germany.
CNN version: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/hong-kong-democracy-protests/index.html
I think it's really heartwarming to see that so many Americans are supporting Hong Kong. Even when what they had done was little (ie: commenting on the page), but I see it as great emotional support.
It's also funny that Americans are aware that China actually pays people for trolling on these websites.
Reading the comments on the news page is a good way to learn.
Though I had one thing to tell: Hong Kong was not as a whole been leased for 99 years. Only the New Territories was, whilst Hong Kong Island was supposed to fully belong to the British, and the Kowloon Peninsula with Stonecutter Islands were leased for a longer period.
It seems that the above fact hasn't quite reached America.
I think there are some similarities.
Anyway, we had our march for democracy today, which was reported on the news of many different countries. Even Argentina and Germany.
CNN version: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/hong-kong-democracy-protests/index.html
I think it's really heartwarming to see that so many Americans are supporting Hong Kong. Even when what they had done was little (ie: commenting on the page), but I see it as great emotional support.
It's also funny that Americans are aware that China actually pays people for trolling on these websites.
Reading the comments on the news page is a good way to learn.
Though I had one thing to tell: Hong Kong was not as a whole been leased for 99 years. Only the New Territories was, whilst Hong Kong Island was supposed to fully belong to the British, and the Kowloon Peninsula with Stonecutter Islands were leased for a longer period.
It seems that the above fact hasn't quite reached America.
Quite interesting. Were you involved in the Democracy Protests? If so, could you PM me an account of it based on a Hong Kong resident's viewpoint? I would appreciate it even if you didn't participate. It would help immensely.
lol
centuries of mindless violence over ridiculous political / religious / national identity. there was almost a hint of progress during the mid 2000s when there was a de facto ban on using paramilitary imagery but that's all stopped in the last two years because half of the country wants the union flag to be flown outside belfast city hall and the other half doesn't. there's like 3 months per year where you really just can't go anywhere because all the roads are full of people parading to commemorate the battle of the boyne.
other than issues of sectarianism, we also have large problems with unemployment, racism, and xenophobia. a few months ago the first minister (prime minister basically) of northern ireland famously made hilariously islamophobic remarks. in the past year there has been a 43% increase in race related attacks. people have recently gone so far as to support the KKK.
there looks to be no road forward for northern ireland considering the fucking half wits that are currently in power. if our top politicians did any of the shit they do here in any other country they would be forced to resign
sorry for spamming pictures but they're probably the best way to show how backwards some of the people in this country are
In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. But backwards? Really? You give us a single sign. Figures and facts backed up by sources that you give us is what we need, not some biased opinion on stupid politicians and saying northern Ireland is backwards without comparing it to, say Wales, which has a lower literacy rate than northern Ireland. Calling it backwards and uneducated is an atrociously terrible thing to say without giving us literacy rates, roads per sq. km., etc. backed up by sources, facts, and reliability.lol
centuries of mindless violence over ridiculous political / religious / national identity. there was almost a hint of progress during the mid 2000s when there was a de facto ban on using paramilitary imagery but that's all stopped in the last two years because half of the country wants the union flag to be flown outside belfast city hall and the other half doesn't. there's like 3 months per year where you really just can't go anywhere because all the roads are full of people parading to commemorate the battle of the boyne.
other than issues of sectarianism, we also have large problems with unemployment, racism, and xenophobia. a few months ago the first minister (prime minister basically) of northern ireland famously made hilariously islamophobic remarks. in the past year there has been a 43% increase in race related attacks. people have recently gone so far as to support the KKK.
there looks to be no road forward for northern ireland considering the fucking half wits that are currently in power. if our top politicians did any of the shit they do here in any other country they would be forced to resign
sorry for spamming pictures but they're probably the best way to show how backwards some of the people in this country are
i didn't call the country as a whole uneducated or backwards, reread my post. "some of the people" is a completely accurate statement if we're talking about racists / sectarians / xenophobes and general paramilitary worship fuckery.
but how is having the actual political leader of the country being islamophobic not backwards? why is stuff like this:
an acceptable thing for an actual elected member of government to say? this is a person who is supposed to lead northern ireland into the future and she has a clear bias against a group that represents almost 50% of the population? how is that not backwards lol. how can we hope to fight against the increasing rate of racist and xenophobic attacks when even the people in charge of the country are racist / xenophobic / sectarian. a country is only as strong as its leaders.
northern ireland has a higher rate of unemployment (6.3%) compared to the 3.2% UK average (http://www.detini.gov.uk/stats-qes).
northern ireland has the highest rate of economic inactivity in the UK at 28.2% (office for national statistics)
from 2012 to 2013 where racist crimes were up by 221 (47.0%), sectarian crimes were up by 72 (8.1%), disability-related crimes were up by 35 (100.0%) and homophobic crimes were up by 20.1% (http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates_statistics/update_crime_statistics.htm)
edit: i fixed it
This is a Europe-wide issue that disturbs me, the nationalistic scurge abuses the despair in the EU to get to political power by blaming foreigners and other countries for everything that's wrong (like they always do). The scary part is that the neo-nazis have gained quite a lot of political power in the unstable countries because people are too stupid to learn from history and the extreme far right will seize even more power in the near future.
Cresselia~~
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I'm sorry to ask people for favor again, but can American citizens help sign this?
Although we haven't done anything to deserve your help, we truly need your assistance.
"White House Petition- support-hong-kong-democracy-and-prevent-second-tiananmen-massacre-hong-kong"
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...-second-tiananmen-massacre-hong-kong/dfdCpQZz
Background knowledge:
Around 50 thousand students are currently boycotting class and are protesting outdoors for democracy.
Reason is that China will not let us choose the candidates for the chief executive (highest government position) in Hong Kong.
The so-called "voting" during election will only allow us to choose from 3 selective candidates by China.
This is severely violating the Sino-British joint. But only a few British politicians had addressed the issue.
American news had also published news articles accusing Britain of betraying Hong Kong.
Currently, the host of the protest event is arrested, physically abused by police and had his flat searched by the police.
For more information, you can read:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/hong-kong-democracy-protests/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/world/asia/pro-democracy-protest-in-hong-kong.html?_r=0
Although we haven't done anything to deserve your help, we truly need your assistance.
"White House Petition- support-hong-kong-democracy-and-prevent-second-tiananmen-massacre-hong-kong"
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...-second-tiananmen-massacre-hong-kong/dfdCpQZz
Background knowledge:
Around 50 thousand students are currently boycotting class and are protesting outdoors for democracy.
Reason is that China will not let us choose the candidates for the chief executive (highest government position) in Hong Kong.
The so-called "voting" during election will only allow us to choose from 3 selective candidates by China.
This is severely violating the Sino-British joint. But only a few British politicians had addressed the issue.
American news had also published news articles accusing Britain of betraying Hong Kong.
Currently, the host of the protest event is arrested, physically abused by police and had his flat searched by the police.
For more information, you can read:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/hong-kong-democracy-protests/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/world/asia/pro-democracy-protest-in-hong-kong.html?_r=0
I spent some time in China and Hong Kong last year and I thoroughly enjoyed the differences between the two states; I wish Hong Kong all the best in this struggle. HK is such a wonderful hub of multiculturalism that exhibits the potential for East and West to not only co-exist but to flourish...any influence that the Communist Party has there can only be a negative thing and should be resisted. The brave men and women who are protesting in the face of a government infamous for their mercilessness towards political protestors have my respect and appreciation.
That is actually exactly what happened. In the first half of the 18th century Crimean Tatars made up %95 of the population, with Greeks, Armenians and Crimean Tatar-speaking Jews (Karaites and Krymchaks) making up the rest. Crimea was captured from the Ottomans by the Russians in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74, ruled as a puppet state for 9 years and annexed into Russia in 1783. Hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars were expelled and fled to then-Ottoman-held Dobruja (today in eastern Romania and Bulgaria) and also Turkey proper from the Russian invasion. Crimea was strategically important, agriculturally fertile and sparsely populated after the expulsions by then, so Russian and Ukranian peasants were settled there throughout the 19th and early 20th century. By WW1 Crimean Tatars were no longer in the majority (%42 Russians, %25 Crimean Tatars, %10 Ukranians), and during WW2 they were accused of collaborating with Nazis and deported for the second time, to Central Asia. About %35-40 of their Crimean population (about 220k before WW2) perished during the deportation. They were allowed to return to their homes only after 1967. Today, there are about 190k Crimean Tatars in Uzbekistan in exile, up to a million Crimean Tatar descendants in Turkey who have mostly been assimilated (I have Crimean/Dobruja Tatar descent from my father's side), about 30k in Dobruja split between Bulgaria and Romania, and about 240k in Crimea, where they make up only %10 of the population, compared to %60 Russians and %24 Ukranians.
Thought this thread could use a bump.
So, with the elections in Sweden that happened a month ago the left-wing party Socialdemokraterna (Social democrats) gained the most votes and thus getting the most seats in the parliament. Fair enuogh.
What worries me is how the Swedish far right/nationalist party got the third highest amount of votes.
So, with the elections in Sweden that happened a month ago the left-wing party Socialdemokraterna (Social democrats) gained the most votes and thus getting the most seats in the parliament. Fair enuogh.
What worries me is how the Swedish far right/nationalist party got the third highest amount of votes.
Cresselia~~
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Well, I don't know how right is far right, but at least in USA the Republicans gets a lot of votes too. (Republicans are leaning on right, I think)
The two US parties are really centrist compared to the radical movements that are growing in power lately around Europe, so that's a really silly thing to say. I'll let SuperScizor cover the specifics.