Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

[WarRoot]

I am all too aware of this. Don't get me wrong, I think it's very unfortunate that when such countries become independent/liberalise they basically privatise everything in an almost Thatcherite fashion. When factories close communities that depended on them/grew around them suffer terribly. I don't think that's a reason to avoid partial liberalisation though, it just has to be done correctly. Something must always be found to replace that which is no longer viable.

Can it be done correctly? Probably the country has a big load of debt, most of the industry is on life support, and those trying to get power either don't have the necessary knowledge to run a  capitalistic country or are just selfish bastards.

Back to Sochi:
Russian cake specialty?
I'm really interested in what was translated

[Comrade P.]

Ass. there stands for assortment. Quite not funny.

[Guardian G.I.]

Any official estimates, anyway?

The official number is 36 billion dollars, which is still quite a lot.

Back to Sochi:
Russian cake specialty?
I'm really interested in what was translated

Originally it meant "Assorted Cakes" (Пирожные в ассортименте). But the guy who made this menu, like most people in the former USSR translating menus and other signs in tourist areas, is an idiot with bad marks in English at school. As a result, we have "Cakes in Ass." and other similar "translations" like "Sausages in father-in-law" (originally sausage rolls, or сосиски в тесте)

Am I the only one who thinks that calling Yeltsin a liberal is a nonsense? October 1993 isn't compatible with a liberal president

Ideologically speaking he was a liberal. The tank shelling of Supreme Soviet of Russia proves that he wasn't a democrat.
Being liberal doesn't prevent anyone from not being democratic. Liberal dictators did exist, such as Augusto Pinochet.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

But the guy who made this menu, like most people in the former USSR translating menus and other signs in tourist areas, is an idiot with bad marks in English at school

Please, don't call a person an idiot for the lack of English language skills.  It is unwise to not ask a professional to translate stuff like that but an idiot is way to harsh.

Liberal dictators did exist, such as Augusto Pinochet.

Define liberalism, please.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's safe to say that when Guardian is using the world liberalism, he is referring exclusively to neoliberal economic policy.

[Owlbread]

Ideologically speaking he was a liberal. The tank shelling of Supreme Soviet of Russia proves that he wasn't a democrat.
Being liberal doesn't prevent anyone from not being democratic. Liberal dictators did exist, such as Augusto Pinochet.

Just as non-liberal democrats existed, such as Clement Attlee, Keir Hardie, George Orwell, Nye Bevan, Rosa Luxemburg, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Salvador Allende and perhaps John Dewey. I am trying to refrain from referring to the Scottish ones no-one will have heard of like Tommy Sheridan, but he's a pretty good example.

[Helgoland]

I'd argue Orwell was pretty liberal, in a freedom-of-speech way. Not so much an economic liberal, though...

[Owlbread]

I'd argue Orwell was pretty liberal, in a freedom-of-speech way. Not so much an economic liberal, though...

It's rare to find a democratic socialist who is not socially liberal. I'm struggling to imagine a non-socially liberal democrat.

[Helgoland]

I just wanted to point out that you used a rather peculiar definition of 'liberal' in your previous post.

[Owlbread]

I just wanted to point out that you used a rather peculiar definition of 'liberal' in your previous post.

Yeah, at the moment we're referring primarily to economic liberalism rather than social liberalism. I'd say most of the world right now is liberal in different ways. Putin is quite economically liberal but not socially liberal, rather like Yeltsin.

[scriver]

Lots of people in Russia had to collect scraps to survive back then. Many people who couldn't find jobs or who didn't have any money because of salaries not being paid drank themselves to death, committed suicide or even simply starved.

See, it's funny because of all the labourers and "volunteers" in Socchi that haven't been paid. Oh wait, no, that's just tragic.

[Sheb]

Source for that? Also GI, where did you see the 36 billions dollars number? I've not seen it anywhere which is why I quoted the estimate of 50 billions: not perfect, but the only one I found. Anyway, I guess the estimate of the costs will vary wildly depending on what you include (security measure, general infrastructure improvement...).

Also, liberal is a fucking confusing term, yo.

[Max White]

I try to use the term 'libertarian' for free market economics, and 'progressive' for somebody that likes stuff like gay marriage and what not, if that helps clear things up.

[scriver]

Source for that?

You haven't heard? It's been all over our news for the last few weeks or so. I can't source you now (I'm actually asleep) but I'll find you something in the morning. It's very likely to be in Swedish, though. Basically it comes down to lots of workers being shipped in from the 'Stans which hasn't been paid, as well as a lot of locals being pressganged into labour and called "volunteers".

Edit: Also, Liberal would be the easiest term ever if we all would agree to just consistently use the Metric version rather than the Imperial one.

[da_nang]

There's an initiative to be discussed in the Finnish parliament today about a copyright reform. The only article I could find is in Swedish and the initiative is in Finnish. From what I understand, the initiative aims to make the copyright law more fair for consumers such as decriminalizing downloading movies, music etc. for private use, lowering the damages to be paid and make raids/house searches and computer confiscation less likely to occur. It also aims to make the law much more clearer and easier to understand.

IFPI is obviously raging about it while almost all political youth organizations support it.