It’s a woman’s world…

It is Sunday morning at about noon. Last night I did some thinking about how this project is supposed to go. The questions I am asking are whether I should ask for another hearing of this case or if I should complain against the previous decision. One of the biggest problems with asking for another hearing though is that I don’t really believe that I am going to get a fare trial no matter what I do. There are some things that are at play here that have nothing to do with any evidences presented and this is a bad thing. There is definitely something going on but on the other hand, what in the hell can I do about this? And this is a logical question because as corruption is as corruption does, once the wheels of the machine start rolling, even if you are talking about the future sanity of your own daughter, what the hell can you do? However, the simple point that I must make here is that, as the honesty of the argument cannot be controlled, the only two rational choices about what to do about that are simply to lie down and die or go with what you can control. Therefore, the focus here must be to find and fix the problem whatever it is. And also logically, the first step towards solving any problem is to identify what that problem is. In this case, there are only a couple of elements at play here: the problem is with the court, with Tanya, or with me.

Or maybe two or all three of them.

Let’s start with me because this has got the least amount of corruption involved. If the problem lies with me in this case, it would have to be because there is a general misunderstanding about my reputation, my character or in the end, with nationality. In this case we have a duel problem with this last item because in Belarusian nomenclature, nationality would refer to being an American (Bad) or being Jewish (very bad). I have spoken about this here many times and even though one might like to think that the world has turned a few times on this count, the basic anti-Semitic prejudice probably will always exist here and therefore, it is not completely irresponsible to assume that this is part of it. It is also possible though that people still believe that Tanya somehow is telling the truth regarding my character. And, regardless of evidence to the contrary and so many witnesses, that they have believed stories about me which are not true for years now might just make changing their minds that much more difficult. They might not understand why they thought what they thought earlier. In fact, they probably haven’t thought much about anything to any extent. But if they did think something once, it might simply be a case that they did (it exists for them) and this is enough. It had been my hope that by bringing in seven witnesses and all of them saying that I am a good guy, a good teacher and a man who likes and cares for his daughter, we might be able to overcome this with a reasonable judge. But this of course did not happen which is why I am, blathering on here. But still, we die or go on, so the real question is: what can we do about this? And my answers is that I should at least try to ask the judge about the prejudice angle, not that I should plan on getting a straight answer or even that I might be able to ask the question, but it is worth a try. And of course secondly, I need to try and build my arguments with unquestionable logic either for the rebuttal against this decision or for a new case.

The second question is whether the case went the way it did specifically because of Tanya. Now, if she is to blame for the situation, and she is but I am speaking of the genuine rational for the judge’s decision, it would not only have been her stories that did it. More than likely it could very well just have been her social position as a woman. Now, I know that last statement comes off as sexist but one should not underestimate that situation here. Honestly, because she is a woman, it does not matter what she does or even how she represents herself because, here, there is a lot of sympathy that goes simply by relation to sex. Literally, she is not guilty of criminal actions because she is a woman. Because she is a woman, someone must have made her do it. See what I am getting at? And if she has any particular personal problems, mental, physical, judgmental or moral, she and a lot of other people would be perfectly willing to blame the man for them because, again, she is a woman and therefore has such rights. And this is a cultural thing. It is like this here.

I think a little while ago I tried to make a small lecture about the Russian language and the cultural conditions that stem from having masculine and feminine nouns and how the basic premise of any language dictates a lot of the thought process of the users of that language. Eventually, this theory plays out that English speakers desire greater independence because there are articles in the language- these specify the individuality of all things. And of course that female equity is a fare and necessary thing because every sentence in a non-sexualized language decries that people are people and, of course with the articles added in, men as well as women are all individuals. In Russian, that lack of articles and their gender specific nouns tell us that there is an awesome difference between men and women and that they like to think as an (uncountable) group. In any case, if you add in all of the agreements (number, sex, time and case) and the lack of individualism, you have very fertile grounds for corruption. Especially if we are talking about a woman. Like a pen is a woman. Or a dog. Or a car. But not a computer. And not a pencil. those are guys.

Anyway, the third possibility is that we are talking about the court itself being the problem, though this might actually be an extension of argument two in this case. This argument would be to say that because the original (female) judge made her decision, there is no possibility to challenge that decision because the politics of the court itself will not allow anyone to change any decisions made by that original judge. Anna Kraftchuk may not be sitting in on this case (she has been replaced by another judge who in theory at least was someone I trusted), but it is greatly possible that she is still doing her best to defend Tanya, acting as her lawyer in fact, no matter how uncompromisingly inept and dangerous Tanya is and has been. How to fight this then, if this is the case, is a real trick.

So again, live or die, right?

Basically building a court case is making a coherent speech. And all speeches should be logical and built on facts that are, hopefully, irrefutable. However, which course I must take regarding this current re-afermatory court decision is still unknown. Amongst my current problems with getting started are that I can’t actually make an argument until I know what the judge’s (real or simply well explained) rational for his decision was. I have to wait for the judge’s motive, which is an explanatory document I turned in a paper for on Friday. I will tomorrow try again to get copies of some of the documents used in evidence in the court. I tried to get these on Friday but the secretary for the judge, demonstrating well her own determination to stand as an opposition to me on some principle, did her best to waste my time. What exactly that principle was, as are many things, is as of yet still unknown and not likely to become known any time soon. And again, does she believe the lies, is Tanya simply female or are we all trying to purify the country so that good Russian Orthodox people can live free of the Jewish problem? And don’t belittle that last point. You have got to see how the local priest likes to stare me down when we pass on the street.

In any case, we don’t know and probably never will so whether we can or whether we can’t, there is nothing to do but try to be as logical as possible and to try and make the evidence as clear as possible as to the reality of the situation. I have got one more fight to do and my daughter’s life and future are at stake. It doesn’t matter what the odds of the situation are or how corrupt it is here. There is no particular choice but to continue on and do the best you can. If anybody has any other suggestion, I am wide open.

More soon…