Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Eurothinking…

If beinghad.com was up, this would be a featured article. Yes folks, Pinsk was Poland way back when. And also this which is where the photos from today are from.

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A few Pictures of Pinsk, Belarus in the snow
It is snowing right now. It has been snowing all day and it is a beautiful soft, shimmering white snow that has covered us up and blanketed everything in a soft, crystal beauty. Out on the street waiting for the garbage truck to come a half hour ago, the air was filled with tiny diamond shards of icefall all swirling about like a Van Gough nightmare. Or maybe Chagall.

Oh, and a little beauty is so nice. I am not the only one here who has had their desperate thoughts of money woes and of Europe's inevitable siege mixed in with "end of the world due to the effects of global warming". Kakaya Kazhmar! is how the Belarusians would say it. Such a nightmare. Or perhaps simply Uzhis! The horror! These last few weeks have been like finding out your home has been designated (without your permission) as a garbage receptacle and every time you try to say stop, someone just throws more garbage on your head. My guess is that this is all part of the psychological torture that has been planned all along. Listen you me for a moment: It hurts, do you understand? It hurts…

Tanya is taking this all with ease. She said this morning that this whole "Belarus is a country" thing has been way too overstated. She says that she was born in the USSR and that she always felt that she lived in a big country. To her, there was no association with this thing called "Belarus". Belarus was nothing. But the Soviet Union; now that was a country to be proud of!

Did you read the news about the Communists wanting to make a stand in Moscow? I like it. But I am also thinking that this is all part of the circus. And what a circus! Merkal is right in there with Putin. Lukashenka is giving interviews to the German papers. Ache Do Liebre, the Germans are coming. And who's next?

I mean, didn't we just celebrate the winning of the war over fascism just a year or so ago? We don't say the Germans when we speak f the great patriotic war, we say the fascists. It is a point of contention. But can't anybody see that we are getting beat by economic fascism from both sides? Are we supposed to smile during this one? And why all at once? Is it necessary to get splattered by a triple suplux from the top rope? Do we have to have everything thrown in all at once? I mean, 83% voted for what exactly?

Or maybe all this apparent invasion is simply aggressive Eurothinking and all it is really is nothing more than noise and propaganda. I mean, did Milinkevich and Lebedko become THAT mainstream over night? Did that happen? Are we supposed to believe these are friendly hands reaching in now? Are we supposed to believe that this is going to be a friendly overthrow and not a hostile takeover?

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Another of the old guys from the synagogue died this last weekend. Misha was his name and he was a nice old guy. I walked home with him a few times. He had this stern way of staring you down, playing the boss who had everything under control, but his heart was pure mush and he enjoyed nothing better than making his friends and family happy.

He was just like everyone here. He worked his whole life and took care of his family as best as he could. He worked on the dacha and took pride in his tomatoes and potatoes. I busted down and cried when I saw him lying in state. He was in Minsk with his daughter when he simply stopped living. He had a lot of friends from his work and everybody from the Jewish community came along for the funeral and pominki.

There are several Jewish names out there in far corner of the cemetery. The Yeshiva guys asked how it was possible to have Mogan Davids on the head stones. And all of those markers with crosses as well. Wasn't this the Soviet Union? Wasn't all of this against the law or something? What can you say? The family asked for them, paid for them and marked their loved one's graves. People were religious, they just kept it to themselves.

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I got a couple of letters today that I might blog tomorrow. The world is changing. Or at least it is being asked to. And about the people who are supposed to be our new friends… well… I remember that Poland really wanted to be friendly with the Americans and the Europeans when I went through my "Being Had" period. I am not at all convinced that they are any different- I mean, I am still waiting for even the acknowledgment, thank you very much. But during this time they really wanted to get into the European Union. This colored obviously their moral and ethical choices over there in the judicial system. And hey, speaking of ulterior motives, it was not like they wanted to join out of patriotism or anything like that; they did it so that they could all run away to England. Nice bit of national pride there, wasn't it?

Are these our new role models Vladimir? Alex? Huh? Are they? And amidst this extra, extra hot winter, must I remind you that these are the very folks who have caused the ecological issues that will eventually be the ruin of all of us? I mean, the way of life demands that we eat and breathe those auto and industrial emissions that have screwed up this winter to the point that EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE AKNOWLEGING HOW IT HAS BEEN TOO WARM THIS YEAR. And that we fight for the right to do so. Wasn't this what we were fighting for? What ever happened to minimalist use of materials? What ever happened to working for common goals? What ever happened to the community? Wasn't this the pride of 83% agreement?

I mean, at the least: What the hell happened to the idea of balancing out the power structure? Didn't we just get a popular show of support for that? What happened? Was it too expensive? What happened?!?

In any case it finally snowed. Thank G-d. I was worried I would never see it again. Snow is nice when it is new and soft; when it covers all the ruts in the road and the little unsightly mistakes that we have made. Seeing it from my window brought upon a sigh of relief; it meant that we were not quite dead yet. Yet…

More soon…

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