Жертва Телевидения*

While the video below (titled "Attention: Lukashism is hazardous to your health" by the person who posted it to YouTube) shows an individual who is an extreme case, it nevertheless is instructive to anyone who wonders why political opposition is so unsuccessful at gaining traction in places like Russia and Belarus.

There are many reasons, of course: incompetence of the opposition overall, lack of an appealing platform or practical solutions, limited access to media or the "administrative resource," and opposition leaders who refuse to cooperate with each other. But one very important reason is the potency of government propaganda, which portrays any non-loyal opposition as externally funded and dedicated to the collapse of the state, and the susceptibility of certain segments of the population to that propaganda.

The interview subject here talks at various times about shooting, skinning alive, and gassing to death those who protest Lukashenko's rule, and makes repeated and irate references to their American funding, before completely losing it at the end and cursing out whoever is doing the interview. Apparently this was filmed in either early or late 2008 in Gomel', Belarus.

This comes via drugoi - where commenters pointed out that this clip did not actually appear on Belarusian TV and wondered whether the person shown might be mentally ill (watch the clip and you'll see that's not an outlandish question).

*With apologies to Vysotsky.

Colbert: One dead Russian journalist = $571.43

American comedian Stephen Colbert had this reaction to a viewer informing him that his picture is being used on a billboard in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk:

“Russians, you may not use my image until you have paid my fee - $20,000.
Which, I believe, in Russian currency, is 35 dead journalists.”

Looks like the country's image may need a little more "burnishing."

More video clips from Colbert Reports past involving Russia.

It's funny because it's true...

This video has over half a million views on YouTube (is that a lot? I confess I don't know...but it seems like a lot, so I apologize if this post is the equivalent of an email forwarding you a joke you've seen five times already) and has been up since last month, but I first saw it today thanks to someone emailing me the link. It is by a KVN team from the city of Perm'.



So basically, a bunch of guys in Perm' got together and - using a comedy skit uploaded to YouTube - did a pretty good job of making the same basic point as Human Rights Watch did in its 2008 World Report about the problem of a "democracy charade" in many countries (see also here for a discussion putting Russia in the context of that report).

Random

A few interesting links that I've run across in the past few days:

- Belarusian bloggers present President Lukashenko with his very own "LuNet."

- News.ru's roundup of Russian and foreign media coverage of Patriarch Alexey's speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

- Dmitri Minaev, who blogs at De Rebus Antiquis Et Novus, has a series of posts summarizing Yegor Gaidar's recent book about the collapse of the USSR. Well worth a look.

- Popular Mechanics magazine encourages Russians to vote for a Russian mission to Mars:

A typo about trust

In keeping with our intermittent tradition of highlighting unintentionally amusing statistical typos, here's a recent example from a recent article by news agency Moldova Azi (Moldova Today), which is often plagued by poor English translations:

Among politicians, incumbent Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin is still enjoying the highest trust among compatriots, though his popularity rating is only 15.9%. Following far behind him are the new Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca (5.6%), Parliament Chairman Marian Lupu (3.3%), Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev (2.7%). Over 387% respondents stated they did not trust anybody, and 22.4% preferred to mention no names at all.

Yeltsinomics - or, old jokes are the best jokes

Following on from Boris Yeltsin's funeral,
our favourite story from a British journalist
who interviewed him:

Journalist: "So, President Yeltsin, how would
you describe the state of the Russian
economy in one word?"

Yeltsin: "Good".

Journalist: "Okay then Mr President, perhaps
you would describe it in more than one word?"

Yeltsin: "Ah, in that case - not good."


Thanks, MK!

Comedy sketches

This is somewhat funny. Check the links at the bottom for more.

The ingenuity of rural folks

This is a bit News-of-the-Weird-like and somewhat beyond my usual geographic focus (all the way on Romania's Western border), but it's a classic:

Cows in boots confuse detectives
March 19 2007 at 07:20PM

London - Romanian cattle rustlers put rubber boots on two cows they had stolen so police couldn't follow their hoof marks.

But they were caught because a pig followed them and left a clear trail of trotter prints.

The three men, from Burila Mare in Mehedinti county, raided a woman's stable during the night.

The owner, Mioara Fratila, from Hinova village in Mehedinti county, called the police.

She told Gazeta de Sud newspaper: "When I woke up in the morning to feed my animals they were all gone... just disappeared.

"There were only boot marks outside. But I looked closer and saw some pig tracks. It seems they ran out of boots or just couldn't find any for the pig."

Police tracked the 14 foot marks and four hoof marks for more than 28km and arrested the three men for theft. - Ananova.com

Invidia!

This cartoon is my favorite item from the Planeta Moldova website, a collection of satirical, mainly self-deprecating, humor put together by some merry Moldovans.



The plot of this story-in-song is that people from all around the world are seized with envy about not being Moldovans. Then, they all deal with their envy by traveling to Moldova in a rocketship. Really.

Luckily, someone else has already gone to the trouble of translating some of the lyrics of the catchy song, along with the soundtracks from some of the other Planeta Moldova videos. The premise - universal envy at not being Moldovan - seems unlikely, unless (or maybe especially if) you've ever spent any time there. The country has some amazingly beautiful places - see photo below - very warm people, and a pleasantly laid-back pace (see here for my take about it from a couple of years ago).

Near Soroca, Moldova, Aug. 4, 2006.

But of course my own "invidia" may be based on the fact that, while I've been there once every year going back to 1999, when I spent the whole summer there, I've only ever visited in the summer, which I've been told is much more pleasant than the winter.