Michel Friedman = embarrassment to humanity

His story was not covered in American media, but I found a reference to him on the IMDB message boards for Lilya 4-Ever, one of those films about trafficking that makes you want to cut your heart out with a rusty spoon. The German-language Wikipedia article on the jerk is here. The son of Holocaust survivors (oh the bloody irony), a man involved in German politics, and a TV personality – Friedman raped enslaved Ukrainian women (oh, but you can’t rape some scummy prostitute from a podunk village, right? People like that get what they so richly deserve for daring to be poor and foreign!), and got off with a drug charge.

Ah, “civilization. “

OH NO

Liebe Professor Borchardt, in the immortal words of Kate Atkinson, you were the alpha and omega of storytellers. You single-handedly reminded me of the fact that the humanities ought contain more than politics and witty repartee, and that this “more” should not be so easily brushed aside. You never knew it, but you changed my life, and, I am willing to bet, the lives of many others. I hope that somewhere, you are walking the roads with Till Eulenspiegel and the Monkey King. I hope you rest beneath the linden-trees. I hope I’ll see you again. Bis gleich.

Question

Let’s say you’re a young (blue-eyed, snotty, snarky) writer who just doesn’t bloody write like this or this, for example (not that you don’t have tremendous respect and admiration for people who do). Your education cost nearly $200,000, and you realize that you still have no idea what post-modern means, aside from the fact that it probably means Not You.

Nevertheless, you’ve a pile of short stories on your desk (or desktop, as the case may be), and all of them are looking for a home.  None of them are sci fi or romance or anything genre-specific. Most of them do not suck.

Where would you submit them? You’ve looked at Adirondack Review and McSweeney’s (duh), but you’re not sure about anything, and you’re also really bloody stressed out (because you’re moving really bloody far next month), and you need help.

So… Help?

Гниды

Sometimes the news is so embarrassing that you hardly want to acknowledge it.

Although this should be acknowledged, because it’s a nice example of how totalitarianism works in Russia. With standards of life low, it’s easy to convince people to turn into a herd of bloodthirsty baboons. The baboons have to take their anger out on someone, right? And as long as its not on the government or the church (or, rather, that indistinguishable mess of government/church), things should be peachy. Standards of life need not go up, corruption need not diminish, and those Swiss bank accounts can keep getting more and more bloated.

What can I tell you about Ukraine?

I can tell you that this is not necessarily a good thing, considering a culture of brutality that has been quietly festering within our troops (although this is mostly from anecdotal evidence – and I have tremendous respect for military personnel). Riot gear or no riot gear. Although I hope it’s all just stupid posturing among peacocks.

I can tell you that the situation is not nearly as bad as what’s happening in Russia, but that Russia can profit diplomatically if it does get that bad.

I can tell you that neither one of the leaders currently locked in a power struggle really cares about the safety of ordinary people – although I have continued to support Yuschenko over Yanukovich, because his ideas are much more progressive, and because he doesn’t look to Putin Corp. for everything. The reason why no one cares about the safety of ordinary people has to do with a lingering mentality of both the Soviets and the Empire that preceded the Soviets – the notion that people’s lives don’t matter, that aforementioned ideas are more important. It’s a disease that we all share, but the CIS has it much more than the States (no matter what apologists will tell you). Money and comfort make people softer to each other, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I can tell you that capitalism alone will not save Ukraine. One of the reasons why Poland is doing so much better has to do with the fact that Poland, despite in spite of having it really bad, did not have it nearly as bad as places like Ukraine and Belarus. It wasn’t just an infrastructure that was being created – people’s minds were moulded and shaped in a certain fashion.

I can tell you more – when I’m home in a few weeks. I’m not entirely sure if going home is such an awesome idea, to be honest, and I hope that I’m not going to prove myself right on this one.