José Almeida de Souza Jr., Brazil, has translated the entire article. This is a first. If you wish to translate it into another language, please do so. No need to ask me permission, as long as you agree to freely share the result and show it to me first.
8 comments:
Does it have a Russian translation? If yes, how they reacted?
No, there is no Russian translation. Сам бы перевел, да времени не хватает.
most Russians who're interested (and care) can read English. I ordered "RC" and Mike Ruppert's "Crossing the Rubicon" from Amazon.com to be shipped to Kazakhstan, and the shipping cost (courier) was double the price of both books, but the value thereof made it worth it.
Thanks for your outstanding work, тёзка
Hello, how about Czech translation? I think I could try :-) (not all people here speak English at sufficient level, and they will read nothing in Russian because of bad historical experience :-))
2 previous poster:
the certain Czechs that you're talking about probably will not want to read anything written by an ethnic Russian anyway (even if the Czech translation is available). They probably loathe the likes of Tchaikovski and Dostoevski only because they happened to be Russian
It's unwise to denounce everything that's Russian only because of some bad historical experience (especially if you understand Russian language as most Czechs over 30-35 years of age do)
Hello Dmitry,
Long time no post. This is your other Brazilian friend here.
I have a question for you.
There's been all this talka about Obama being a "socialist". Apparently he desires to do some "wealth distribution", which people have called socialism.
Being that you lived in a so-called "socialist country", I thought I'd check your blog for some insight... and I see there are no new posts. So how about writing about this topic? You have great insight into this topic because you are from Russia.
I, on the other hand, am from Brazil, which is considered a capitalist country. So I am not as insightful or eloquent as you, which limits my contribution.
Nonetheless, I thought I'd share my thoughts. I try not to use labels such as socialism or capitalism.
In my opinion, if the standard of living has been reduced to a lowest common ddenomitor to the point that life is BORING for everyone, then I'd say socialism is having a negative effect. However, if life is such that some are ultra-rich while others are in poverty, then I'd say the system has major flaws and should be changed. I'm not in favor of social inequality. I am from Brazil where in the cities you see all kinds of violence and atrocities that are a direct result of the great social inequality. So yes, I'm in favor of "wealth distribution". We live in a country where so many people can't even afford health insurance. So we could use some socialism in the US. Not to mention that we already do. What is this situation with bankers and corporations on welfare, or so called "bailout". Isn't that socialism? This is why I try not to use labels.
And one more thing that perhaps you could address: why is the American working man in favor of so-called capitalism so that some people can be ultra-rich like Exxon Mobil executives? Do these people think they'll ever be part of that club? The working men will forever be a slave under this system, and yet they are fighting to protect the system!!!
Like Dmitry I am a former Soviet citizen, unlike Dmitry I came to America on my own free will, being 46 years of age. The main reason was Chernobyl (I am originally from Ukraine).
I do not keep much in touch with my fellow countrymen, so I can only speak for myself, from my experience. I do sometimes miss the safe, “boring” existence, but in a short time in USA I could achieve financially much better results than in my whole life in Ukraine. And still I have a very low opinion about American educational system, American health care, and also about how America cares about working people.
Why American working people are in favor of capitalism? For the same reason American soldiers fought in Korea and Vietnam, and fight now in Iraq: they are BRAINWASHED. The words “liberal”, “union” and “socialism” sound worse then “f-word”. There is a Russian saying: WHO PAYS – ORDERS THE MUSIC. In America those who have money order the music which sounds good for them, and the rest are dancing as they told, not even realizing what is going on. I do not know if it would ever end, if the collapse will teach working class to unite, but then, America does not have working class, just employees of the service industry. Well, I tried to explain the way I feel. Hope Dmitry will do it better
Mr. anonymous, thank you for your comments. I like the "the one paying chooses the music - the others just dance" metaphor.
Thanks for that.
Here's an interesting quote I read today:
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."
-Winston Churchill
Here's my take on it: it's nice that you've been able to acquire better living standards in the US, and much faster. But keep in mind that the American lifestyle is unsustainable. That is to say, it cannot be sustained. That is to say, it will inevitably come to an end sooner or later based on the assumption that the earth's resources are finite.
So yeah, it's great that some people have moved here and improved their lives, and it's great that Americans have had such a great lifestyle (very wasteful, mind you). But consider that is coming to and end sooner or later (and everything indicates it's sooner rather than later). When that happens, then it won't be possible to acquire such amount of wealth so quickly because the US will be just like any other developed country in the world. Just my take.
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