A Cryin’ the Dreadful Wind and Rain

It’s cold. Last autumn, September was milder, but the government countered that by refusing to turn on the heat until we were well past the point of no return as far as the approaching winter was concerned. As usual, the heat in this particular building was only turned on after enough people called the mayor’s office and screamed. I was already spiking a 39 degree fever by then.

This weather reminds me of the joke I read earlier in the year on bash.org.ru: “In preparation for spring, I installed a water heater. The government refuses to give up and has turned off the cold water.” (Springtime is when the hot water usually gets ceremonially shut off, for two weeks, at least).

The cold makes me miss the States. We didn’t get nearly enough snow in North Carolina, but there was beauty in coming home in the twilight hours, to a quiet house, firing up the central heating (when most people could still afford it) and watching the hard-bitten slate clouds disgorge a few stray flakes from the safety of a bedroom guarded on all sides by pop culture talismans and by the carpet on the bottom.

In Kiev I swear I can hear the wolves howling if I listen hard enough on these solemn nights, these metro rides with that one guy with the mad left eye staring at your throat in a bad way.

Oh, the romance! Intrigue! Danger!Continue reading “A Cryin’ the Dreadful Wind and Rain”

Sarah Palin eager to bomb my Russian relatives

*yawn*

This one was pretty much a given.

You know who she reminds me of? The country club mothers who’d guffaw “you’re lucky you don’t glow!” having discovered that I was near Chernobyl when the catastrophe occurred. And no, these weren’t pals of mine who knew me well and could get away with a little needling as is common among people who are close to one another.

These were people to whom the deaths of them funny-lookin’ foreigners are a big ol’ punchline. They’re hawkish, and, most frightening of all, so utterly convinced of their own superior nature, their own status as human beings and how it is utterly in conflict with other’s status as subhuman beings, that criticism simply doesn’t stick to them. This idea, of being criticized for something like this, is as peculiar to them as stories of alien abduction. They shrug it off like a mildly unpleasant dream.

How many times has Sarah Palin actually traveled outside the U.S. again? Uh… You know what, as much as certain people can “relate” to the lack of stamps in her passport, the fact is, if my relative is sick, I don’t want a doctor I can “relate” to – I want a doctor who can do his or her job.

The same should go for our leaders.

Women Against Sarah Palin

Beam me up, Scotty, ’cause I am there.

Now, I find Sarah Palin interesting. I find her daring. I find her beautiful (almost as beautiful as Barack Obama, and, for a connoisseur such as myself, that’s saying a lot).

But I am not going to vote for someone who wants to bring back back-alley abortions and who’s going to continue the great tradition of dragging this country of mine further and further into debt. NO THANK YOU.

On “Vesti”: September 11th

I rarely watch Russian news, but I’m home today and did just that:

The September 11th coverage is spare, but great. They had a montage with some of the most famous pictures from that day, accompanied by “Lux Aeterna,” and it had me frozen to the spot. There’s something very simple and even predictable about a combination like that, yet once it is being executed, you see that it works, on many levels. Sometimes, all you can do is watch. And, as Toni Morrison wrote, embrace the dead.

In the days immediately following the tragedy, a lot of people in my school were objecting to the use of these images by the commercial media, but honestly, I think it depends on who’s watching. Some of us have the most dumbass reactions to the most human, most terrible, most important events. But why should the dumbasses set the standard?

Sweet Jesus! WHAT ABOUT THE MEN???

I just love it when, in the comments to an essay about a brutally subjugated group, some guy shows up and starts screeching “halp! Halp! I’m being oppressed!” Not only that, but he feels the need to point out that he and those like him are, in fact, being oppressed more. Their oppression is bigger than yours. They’ll totally whip it out and show you.

Yes, evil, Russian W H O R E S are after this man’s livelihood! His very existence! He even has fancy statistics to prove it (he doesn’t cite them, but what can we expect from a terrified victim holed up in a basement somewhere?). They’re about to burst through his front door, devour him alive, and steal his good silver while they’re at it. Anti-trafficking activists need to drop whatever it is we’re doing, and help him out!

I know, I’m crying about the terrible injustice of it all as I type this post. I mean, how could I, when writing an essay such as “Natasha From Russia” forget to mention that the real problem isn’t trafficking and murder and rape, it’s the egos of all those guys who thought that their dollar bills were going to buy them an Angel in the House from an impoverished community, only to have the Angels turn out to be not sufficiently grateful for it all. I need to take that essay offline and done some sackcloth and ashes in the desert for a while. Maybe then I can live with myself.

I have sympathy for anyone whose love life crashes and burns (the key word in all of this is “love”). I have zero sympathy for anyone who never learned the words to the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” and proceeds to lecture me about the evil nature of women who have used men’s own racist fetishism against them. See, it’s OK for Western men to approach Russian women purely from a mercantile perspective, but when those women adopt the same tactics and beat them at their own game? Boo hoo! Unfair! I have an owwwwwie! You must sit and listen all about my owwwwwie if you’re going to dare to bring up the subject of the trafficking of these women! Having my stupid ass handed to me by someone who turned out to be my equal (equality? The nerve!) is totally more important than someone being anally raped by a bunch of thugs, to be tossed out on the street when she’s past her expiration date! Pay attention to meeeee, I’m in pain here!!!

Anyone who wants to respond to this gentleman directly can do so at the link I provided.