Post-Colonialism and Ukrainian History

This is the title of an article by Stephen Velychenko published by the excellent Russian scholarly journal Ab Imperio.
"Postcolonialism and Ukrainian History," Ab Imperio, no. 1 (2004), pp. 391-404.

On the phenomenon in general:

"They [postcolonialist scholars] seem to think that bad, white European males with their technology and logic did worse things to good, non-white non-Europeans than they did to each other or that non-Europeans did to themselves."

And then one does have to have a keen eye for subtle irony to enjoy the way he nails its newly-converted Ukrainian followers:

By describing Ukrainian-Russian relations in post-colonialist terms these individuals make Ukrainian points of view and grievances acceptable to some who otherwise might have ignored them.

Grin thoughtfully.

Alien vs. Predator in the land of Canadian politics

David Warren practices his acerbic wit:

Item, Svend Robinson to run again for Parliament, this time in Vancouver Centre against Hedy Fry. This, the year after being caught stealing an extremely pricey wedding ring, as a present to his boyfriend. And for which he is not currently serving time. Mr. Robinson being the M.P. whose successful private members’ bill criminalized opposition to homosexuality, under the same section of the Criminal Code that punishes “genocide”, setting the stage for the legislation of “same-sex marriage”.

Ms Fry is the memorable alleger of Ku Klux Klan events that didn’t happen.

So that will be the main event in the next election. Several elimination side-card events were proposed by an Internet wag. “Terror Cell Member v. Paedophile! Man-Hating Feminist v. Drug Dealer! Corrupt Lobbyist v. Pornographer! Bogus Refugee v. Gay Activist! Euthanasiast v. Incest Promoter!”

This pretty much sums up my feelings about the issue. It's only that Mr. Warren said it much more eloquently than I would ever be able to do.

Russia's European choice

Among tons of utter crap that passes for analysis in the world of today's Russian journalism there's one thoughtful article on Russia's Ukraine problem (written by a Ukrainian of course)
Dmitrii Kirichenko's European Choice (in Russian unfortunately)
The author mounts an angry, yet well-deserved, offense at present day Slavianophiles and urges Russian Westerners to shed their prejudicies regarding the Ukrainian language. So it's a worthy read but there's one line that made me chuckle nerviously:
Even most hardcore nationalists [in Ukraine] admit openly that Ukrainian, like other similar local languages (Swedish, Czech, modern Greek) are not sufficient on the communicative level.

The rather vague "sufficient on the communicative level" is of course nothing else but the claim that Ukrainian can only exist alongside some other language, which would supplement it "on the communicative level". In the case of the Swedish language it is presumably English. But I seriously doubt that Swedes or Czechs think of their languages as "communicatively insufficient".

new NHL season: some reflections

It's been a few weeks since the start of a new, post-lockout, hockey season and it's time to make some very premature conclusions (in no particular order):
First of all, fans are mostly back, even in the southern American markets. I always thought the worries were a bit exaggerated.
- new schedule sacks. I know that division rivalries are supposed to attract more attentnion but hey, isn't that what makes a birthday cake so delicious that you eat once a year? Enthusiasm is bound to wear off after the third battle of Alberta in a row, won't it?
- Actually, there's a selfish reason behind my protestations. To my dismay, I found out that there would be no game played against Washington Capitals during the regular season (and odds of them making to the Stanley Cup final are...well, not very good).
I just wanted to see Oleksandr Ovechkin.

- Money can't buy happiness, right? Well, as it's turned out taking money away from your competitors can't buy happiness either. Despite the acquisitions of Chris Pronger and Mike Peca the Oilers are down 6 in a row, including a couple of games in which they got absolutely smashed.


- NY Rangers. They had a good start but still losing games and yet, it doesn't matter in a way. N68, Jaromir Jagr is back, full force. What's that team is all about epitomized their last game against NY Islanders. They lost 5-4 but Jarg scored a hat trick and I'm sure those fat bastards New Yorkers were quite happy.

sociology 101

Rebels with an educational cause: City students test the power of society's unwritten rules -- by breaking them
Jodie Sinnema The Edmonton Journal
20 October 2005

All are students from King's University College who have taken David Long's first-year sociology class, where one assignment is to break a social norm to learn how powerful the unwritten rules are in guiding behaviour.

But the assignment isn't meant to simply amuse, or to embarrass or humiliate. Students can't do anything criminal, cause offence or hurt anyone.

They have to think critically about how and why social norms are formed and take note of how people react to their stunts.

Oh, I see. Let's teach those Marcians first-year students that walking down the street naked might get you an occasional odd stare or two. How educational!

Breaking a norm can help people see from a different perspective, Long said.


Long said, "It's a liberating assignment. Breaking a norm shows us how we are pressured to conform."

Of course, the students tried to do their best:

Another female student showed up at her family's formal Sunday dinner without shoes. A few minutes into the din-din, she pushed back her chair, put her feet on the table, and proceeded to cut her toenails.
"It was Armageddon," Long said. "Her dad just went ballistic. 'What are you doing? The youth of today, no respect.' "

How liberating! Perhaps, she should've tried to "lay the brick" (Ali G©) in the dining room to free herself of all those stifling conventionalities. But it wouldn't have boded well with her retrograde father who might have paid for her tution. Nice to know where your money goes.

Sarcasm aside, this is sad really. That's what passes for higher learning these days - jackass tricks aimed to shock and revolt. It may 'liberate' students from the norms of modern day society but I doubt it's gonna liberate their minds as well, which is to me the main purpose of University education.
And yeah, this just confirms my long-held suspicion that out of all humanities Sociology department is the most f..uped place on campus.

the cost of CBC

From today's Globe:

The BBC lays down a signal in one time zone in a country smaller than Alberta. The technical infrastructure costs of the CBC are immense, and unknown in Britain. It costs money to broadcast every CBC network program five times in five time zones.

And then there's the Arctic. It cost as much to lay down a satellite signal for 2 or 3 per cent of the population in the Canadian North as it did to bring satellite service to all the rest of Canada.

As a die-hard libertarian, I am prompted to sneer that it’s unconscionable to ask taxpayers to subsidize those living the North – if it’s not economically viable then too bad – no TV. And if they can’t live without TV – well, people from the North are more than welcome to move south into our aging cities. However we all understand of course that it’s not just ‘people’ there but aboriginals and a politician cuts the cable, the next day the Red Star and the Globe will accuse him of racism. So it would be a politically suicidal move.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s not so bad to subsidize TV broadcasting to those areas. After all, those people live in Canada and it’d be only fair if the public broadcaster served them too on the same level as the rest of the country. So I might curb my social Darwinist instincts :-) for a moment and endorse the idea.

But what made me smile ironically during the lockout was the duplicity with which CBC proponents put forward the argument regarding CBC’s special mission in relation to those remote communities in order to justify its overall existence and continuous funding. Hardly anyone would oppose to that. But once you cast your vote in support of remote communities and their access to CBC what you’ll invariably get alongside is the Passionate Eye, the Current and a myriad of other CBC shows with a heavy left-wing slant to them. Go figure!

Reality vs. fiction (adminstration of justice)

Any avid Law&Order fan can site off the top of his/her head

"Bail hearing:
charges - murder in the second degree... people request bail to be set at 300,000 dollars... my client has no financial means... it's a murder charge, counsillor.. bail is set at $100,000. Bang"

or something like that,
But this is a TV show. Meanwhile in real life
Michael White, an Edmontonian accused of killing his pregnant wife Liana, has been realised on bail, set at the whopping sum of... try to guess...
10,000 CAD.

Again, my intent is not to cast a judgement and say the bail amount is set ridicously low. At the same time, it seems pretty obvious to me that due to the high publicity surrounding this case, Mr. White is unlikely to try to flee. I also doubt that he could be a danger to anyone else. Plus, there's such thing as presumption of innocence. But I just wonder whether this is a normal practice and then it's the Law&Order script writers who exaggerate the amount of bail normally asked in murder cases.

Українська поезія/Ukrainian poetry

Pavlo Hlazovy:
Голова сільради Сидір Півторакожуха
Якось, випивши, Секлеті відкусив піввуха.
Це обурило до того й потрясло Секлету,
Що вона послала скаргу в обласну газету.

(via Маnque_Mankey)

Immigration to Canada: some damning facts

This is unf...ngbelievable:

Therefore, simple measures aimed at ensuring language proficiency, and a more rigid adherence to the government’s existing point system for admitting immigrants (currently, only 23% are subject to these criteria), would go a long way toward ending the decline in immigrants’ economic fortunes.

(National Post. An immigrant’s lot: Editorial. A14 Tuesday, October 11, 2005).
The full report (PDF file) is here
23%. And I thought they were not rigorous enough in applying the points criteria (I personally know of one guy who managed to immigrate to Canada as a ‘skilled worker’ (as far as I’m concerned he’s indeed qualified) but whose English is atrocious. But to know that only one fifth are actually subjected to the process is staggering. My question is how the hell can it be: From what I know one can only sponsor his children/wife/parents and it’s still hard to do. I just don’t see how under the circumstances the ratio can get so uneven.

Read it before Hollywood does

This one and more can be found here

On G-G and media frenzy

Tony Keller writes in today's Post:

In the flagship line from her speech, Ms. Jean said words that we English-Canadians have long dreamed of hearing: "The time of the two solitudes that for too long described the character of this country is past."
...
It is telling of this deep English Canadian desire that we all went nuts over one phrase -- and it is telling of our long-standing predicament that this phrase was delivered not by a politician from Quebec, not by someone who had won over Quebec voters, but by an appointee who has never run for office, and who was under pressure to say something to defuse the firestorm outside Quebec, caused by the perception that she had separatist leanings. To compensate, she threw us one sentence from our revealed fantasies, and we all fell over with joy.

(National Post, October 7 2005)
You cannot help but grin sarcastically, recalling Andrew Coyne's syropy column.

Canada's chattering classes outdid themselves or 'brave sanity'

One can never underestimate the audacity of Canada's chattering classes. The country's leadinig newspaper hits a new low, publishing a vicious non-sensical, conspirozoid anti-American rant. An outrage from many corners follows and here we go:

Toronto, October 5, 2005 - Journalist, author and academic Paul William Roberts is the winner of a new award honouring courage in journalism.

The PEN Canada/Paul Kidd Courage Award is named after the late Canadian journalist, who was one of Canada's first globe-trotting foreign correspondents. Kidd filed reports from more than 70 countries, braving street violence, gunfire, terrorism and arrest from political regimes infuriated by his insistence on getting and reporting the truth. Kidd died in 2002.

"We think that the awarding of the prize to Paul William Roberts is an excellent and appropriate choice," said writer Judy Creighton, the widow of Paul Kidd. "Roberts's writings accurately reflect his bravery in getting the word out."

A critique of his "absolutely lunatic essay" can be found here, and here

Today's Globe has a few letter on the subject and even one of his supporters admits that

"his position that Washington may have created the terrorist threat to "have a national demon to replace the defeated Soviet Red Peril" is over the top".

However, there's a letter from Constance Rooke, PEN Canada's president herself. It's funny and outrageous. It's funny coz I always marvel how the modern loonie left are seriously convinced that the best way to answer charges by uttering some no-factual, non-sensical emotion-laden drivel.
As it turns out that Mr. Roberts is

"an intrepid journalist who demonstrated courage of many kinds in the course of his career."

I wonder what exactly is the courage of many kinds? Isn't that courage is courage?

However, judging by the Wikipedia article on him, full of slavish praise, his ‘courage’ presumably included “standing by helplessly as his old friend tries to save his family from the rubble of their bombed-out house,” sleeping “in Saddam’s bed in one of his opulent palaces" and, perhaps the most daring act of all, "being interrogated by U.S. intelligence.” – that must’ve been tough, eh? Those illiterate brutes must’ve never heard of his ‘courageous’ books. Otherwise they would’ve surely thrown him in Guantanamo and subjected to torture by making him listen to Christina Aguilera instead of the Current.
However, this is just funny and to some extent predictable. What makes me mad though is another thing:

“It is not “only in Canada” that the decisions of juries are not universally applauded. More important, it is not “sadly”, the case that a writer doesn’t have to be brave to mount strong criticisms within, whether of the U.S. or anything else. This is called free speech, the practice of which is not always easy.”

I’m the biggest proponent of free speech you get. And I don’t hesitate to go “against the grain” and express opinions many would disagree with. But it is the travesty of these two pivotal virtues that makes me seethe with disdain. Yeah, being virulently anti-American in Canada is so freaking ‘uneasy’! And if you happen to express doubts that there’s something inherently brave about getting your kooky rant published in the main national newspaper, we will look down at ya, and tell you to fuck off for our decisions may not be “universally applauded.”
I remember an old Soviet joke about a conversation between Brezhnev and Nixon which goes like this:
Nixon: Mr. Brezhnev, there’s a freedom of speech in the US. Anyone can come to the White House and say “Down with Nixon” and nothing will happen to this man.
Brezhnev: Well, there’s the same freedom in the USSR. Anyone can come to the Red Square and say “Down with Nixon” and nothing will happen to that man either…

Movie review: de la Calle a.k.a. the Streeters.

What they say:

Authentic and committed, moving and stormy drama of street kids from Mexico City. Wonderful adaptation of successful play about street kids who have more trouble with corrupt cops, than with dirty and heavy work.

What I say:
a daring guest at any North American film festival for its supposedly 'authentic' portrayal of the destitute this movie reminded of an old Soviet cinematographic phenomenon - chernukha. This was a short-lived genre that came to define late Soviet early Russian cinema.
One American movie critic defined it as

"a display of visceral excess that emphasizes with graphic naturalism and hermetic pessimism Russia's social ills and historical abscesses."

I tend to agree but would like to make one important qualification. The squalor it portrayed became the end rather a means of artistic expression. Much in the same vein, the Jerry Springer Show exploits real lives' stories to provide bizzare, perverse entertainment.
So the flick was an example of Mexican 'chernukha' - holes rigged plot, somewhat undeveloped characters and the intentionally gloom, to the point of getting revolting portrayal of the life of Mexico's underworld.
Final verdict: not too bad, but could be much better.

an Old Leftie visits Moscow

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, an MP at the Europarliament, and the former leader of 1968 in Paris, visited Moscow to deliver a public lecture.
If you read Russian there is one article and an informal account of the meeting. The latter one is espcially hilarious as it depicts how the unfortunate leftie came under attack of the 'young wolves', Moscow Trotskytes, anarchists and so on, "a young fellow in an old rusty leather jacket", or "a girl with an expensive cellphone who kept scoffing at the speaker every time he uttered the word democracy..."
Chadaev's article got a lot of things horribly wrong. His prediliction to see the non-existent connection between the Orange revolution in Ukraine and the events in Paris made his analysis highly prejudicial. However, as a Russian, who displays a remarakable ability to add a healthy dose of cynicism, which helps him to see what often gets conveniently overlooked in the West.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit obviously has a speech prepared for any occasion, especially on his "month of triumph", the Red May which he has been collecting the rent for throughout the last 38 years.

the tale of two nations

LYSIANE GAGNON criticizes 'the end of two solitudes' drivel Michaelle Jean offered during her inauguration ceremony:

In her speech, she implied that the existence of “two solitudes” was due to nothing more than a string of outdated and narrow grievances, erasing 450 years of history and 40 years of constitutional debates. Moreover, it was a denial of the fundamental duality of Canada, a country that is based on the union of the two founding peoples (the aboriginals were not part of the various arrangements and compromises that built modern Canada).
Listening to the Governor-General, a new immigrant would have wondered why French is an official language in Canada — and he would have had the impression that Canada has been a British possession for 400 years.
…
Prime Minister Paul Martin wasn't more explicit. His own account of the country's history was contained in a single sentence, in which an unspecified group of “pioneers” were sandwiched between “the aboriginals” and “the immigrants,” as if the contributions of the French and British settlers and their descendants had been minimal. It's one thing to recognize the role of our large, diversified immigrant population in redefining Canada in the 20th and 21st centuries, but it's another thing to minimize the role of those who spent 400 years building the foundations of the country.

I don’t know about the French part; it’s my understanding that Anglo liberals are quite content to recognize “French as an official language in Canada” and waste taxpayers’ money promoting it where it historically never existed because of the special role of French-Quebecois culture in Canadiana.
However, the real reason why the tale of two founding nations gets sometimes sandwiched between aboriginals and immigrants is because of its British component. For the proponents of Trudeaupia it’s an uncomfortable thing of the past that should be dealt away with and never looked back at. For to recognize the contribution of British settlers and their culture would be to admit that there was never a void which multiculturalism was supposed to fill but a vibrant, potent culture that has succeeded everywhere it went. But this would be such an un-PC thought and dangerous knowledge. And we ought to remember that 'Ignorance is Strength.'

Canada's social strata. Part III

Small 'L' Liberals
(Click the thumbnail to view larger image and read caption)
And again, the picture is more telling and less confusing than the text. Small ‘l’ liberals consist of ‘soccer moms’ demographic and all those people who pay no attention to politics. They indeed have a lot in common with their cousins to the left, but unlike the first group they’re no revolutionaries so political actions of any kind are not their cup of tea. However, deeply embedded leftist dogma in combination with general political ignorance makes them highly susceptible to the big “L” propaganda regarding the Conservatives’ alleged ‘hidden agenda’. The Liberals and their friendly media have played this card over and over again, last elections being a good example when Conservatives were portrayed to be against ‘women’s rights’ on a baseless charge of trying to outlaw abortions.
And oh yeah, a lot of them happen to live in Ontario, and particularly in that ‘centre of the universe’ a.k.a. Toronto.
Yet, there’s nothing here to suggest that they can’t be won over. It’s been pointed out many times that in order to fight the hidden agenda charge is to have an agenda, to articulate policies in simple, clear language that would leave no room for ambiguities. And running a risk of being accused of sexism :-), ‘soccer moms’ are ‘charm prone’, i.e. a charismatic, good-looking guy would boost his party ratings a lot.

Canada's social strata. Part II.

Social Democrats
(Click the thumbnail to view larger image and read caption)
Although the caption does not say it the picture features a working class guy and I think the depiction is correct. This group is made up of mostly workers, especially those who work at big plants, such as Ford’s in Ontario and lumber enterprises in BC and are traditionally heavily unionized. NDP used to represent them until the party leadership got hijacked by campus revolutionaries. ‘Social democrats’ mostly rely on their instincts and old prejudices: as a lot of them were Irish in the past they would be deeply suspicious of the Tories, the party of protestant Anglo establishment.
They keep voting NDP and Liberals even though it’s a well hidden secret that on some key issues such as crime, immigration, their views are much more to the right of even the modern day Canadian conservatives. In the U.S. these people used to be rock solid Democrats until the Reagan revolution and the similar process of 'academization' of the Democratic Party have made their electoral preferences much more violatile . An interesting example of this confusion between the old and new left is the public persona of Michael Moore. He pretends to be a 'social democrat' while in reality he belongs to the upper West side Manhattan

Canada's social strata. Part I.

On Friday, National Post ran a piece entitled "Canada's Tribes"

The Canadian Values Study, a joint project of the National Post, the Dominion Institute and Innovative Research Group, wraps up its analysis with a look at how Canadians can be categorized into five groups.

Having read their characterizations I found them somewhat misleading and unsatisfactory. This post and four others will feature my reflections on the subject.
The Show me Left
(Click the thumbnail to view larger image and read caption)
The show me left are most ubiquitous on Canada's academic campuses although they can be found elsewhere but especially among the staff of various ‘community organizations’ which in Canada thrive on government subsidies.
This broad category includes a great variety of people: borderline insane Stalinist fanatics (yes, there are such people in Canada), femi and eco-nazis. However, the main bulk of this group is composed of members of so called 'chattering classes' who, while not necessarily political, blindly subscribe to any left-wing dogma that is popular in the moment. The ‘blame-America-for-everything-crowd’ is chiefly composed of these people.
Religious, but socially liberal.
Their religiosity is of a special kind. Unlike their predecessors, the American of European left of the last century, they are seldom convinced atheists. Instead, they believe in 'spirituality', a necessarily obtuse concept that may mean anything: from mostly made up aboriginal rituals to Wicca and other old and new superstitions.