[News] Around The Rest of World

A posting place for news from places around the globe, outside of the US/Europe.

Russia is moving armor and other equipment and troops into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, just as the 10-month-old cease fire expires. Combat has already picked up; Russia is adding at least 4000 combat troops and a lot of support gear and vehicles that could be used in a push East. Needless to say, this is a quite serious development.

With the recent provocations in Taiwan, I kind of wonder whether there will be coordinated pushes into both states, to try to paralyze and overwhelm the Western response. That would be a bit of a nightmare scenario.

Even if it isn't coordinated, one or both is likely to progress without significant Western intervention.

I can't see NATO mounting much of a response to a few Russian divisions rolling east into a former USSR nation.

The Baltic States are also former Soviet states... So is Eastern Europe. We can draw the line farther, or closer, but it's gotta be drawn...

Ukraine had multiple chances to join NATO and her people chose not to. Now that there are consequences they are suddenly interested.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Ukraine had multiple chances to join NATO and her people chose not to. Now that there are consequences they are suddenly interested.

It's maybe a touch more nuanced than that. Kind of like the "are voters in a gerrymandered state completely responsible for election results," plus with the Russian military-espionage complex skulking on the sidelines.

Not to mention the guy in charge from 2016-2020 who was doing everything he could to sabotage NATO

This is all going back to well before Trump or 2016, remember Russia invaded starting in 2014. The four+ years leading up to that were across two different regimes and both said they were not interested in NATO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrain...

I am have not read into it deeply, the Wikipedia article backs up my general remembrances, but always happen to learn more from those more informed.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Ukraine had multiple chances to join NATO and her people chose not to. Now that there are consequences they are suddenly interested.

It's maybe a touch more nuanced than that. Kind of like the "are voters in a gerrymandered state completely responsible for election results," plus with the Russian military-espionage complex skulking on the sidelines.

A touch more nuanced like the Ukrainians had a full on revolution in 2014 where they overthrew the corrupt government that was cozying up to Putin and the Russians.

Right but then that next government also said they weren’t interested in NATO and polls of the people showed the same. And then nine months later Russia invaded.

I think good information about who to trust in Ukraine was probably hard to come by at the time, and the average citizen could probably be forgiven for not having a complete view of the situation.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Ukraine had multiple chances to join NATO and her people chose not to. Now that there are consequences they are suddenly interested.

What I get from this brief post is that we should not help them now, because before the Russians invaded they were not interested in NATO. In other words, they made their bed a decade ago, and they should sleep in it.

Was that your point?

Russia has been interested in putting the FSU back together, since Putin came to power. We ignore that at our peril.

There's an interdependency between Russia and Ukraine/UE, in particular, natural gas supplied by Russia that goes through Ukraine. EU (mostly Germany) needs the gas, Russia needs the money. Well, maybe not for much longer. Russia made a deal a few years ago to supply gas to China. Helping Ukraine protect its borders is the right thing to do, but business gets in the way.

My point was they are the grasshopper and NATO is the ant, and now it is wintertime.

If you are saying the US should get involved because of realpolitik and downstream impacts to the US, sure I understand that. Like I seem to remember some big percentage of Europe's gas pipelines go through Ukraine.

If you are saying the US should go to war with Russia for humanitarian reasons to help a country that had multiple chances to join a defense alliance and declined, I disagree and I think to help the people (not the state) we can do things without creating a bigger war zone, such as an expanded immigration / refugee program for the people to come to the US that want to.

I'm not sure only providing protection to those who abase themselves to us is really a humanitarian strategy at all. that kind of just sounds like colonialism

I'm uncomfortable reading the parable of the grasshopper and the ant as justification for the deaths of grasshoppers.

I didn't use it as justification, assuming you meant that for me. I am just saying it is analogous to their situation. I think we should help the people if they want to be helped.

But I do think we should put more of our $700B military budget toward actual humanitarian aid and immigration, and less towards more expensive ways to kill people.

To your point it’s an incredibly complex topic and I don’t think you’re wrong.

LeapingGnome wrote:

But I do think we should put more of our $700B military budget toward actual humanitarian aid and immigration, and less towards more expensive ways to kill people.

That's the $50ish billion we spend through the State Department. (Just noticed Trump's proposed 2021 budget slashed State's budget about 25%...)

The sabres. They rattle.

Twenty-five Chinese military jets breached Taiwan’s defence zone on Monday, the island’s government has said, after a senior US official warned of an “increasingly aggressive” Beijing.

The defence ministry scrambled aircraft to broadcast warnings to leave after Chinese jets, including 18 fighters, entered the island’s southwest air defence identification zone for a 10th straight day.

The incursion – the largest in a year – came after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Sunday warned China not to attempt to change the status quo around Taiwan, saying to do so would be a “serious mistake”.

Democratic, self-ruled Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if needed.

On Friday the US state department said it would make it easier for US officials to meet Taiwanese representatives, defying pressure from China.

The sabre-rattling has increased since the 2016 election of Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, who rejects the idea that the island is part of “one China”.

Some analysts and US military officials have said tensions between Taiwan and China are now at their highest since the mid-1990s.

Denmark tells Syrian refugees to return to Damascus
-Zero asylum seekers — that is essentially the Danish government's ultimate goal. Now, it is ordering Syrian refugees to return to Damascus, which Copenhagen says is safe.

Well, this whole story is screwed up. Denmark and Syria currently don't even have diplomatic relations, the embassy that closed in 2018 hasn't even been reopened.

Y'know, this thread has too much bad news, so here's a story that had me literally cry-laughing in my apartment this morning:

Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out

BEIJING (AFP) - The reality TV ordeal of a Russian who joined a Chinese boy band show by accident - and made it to the final despite urging fans to vote him off - has finally ended after nearly three months.

Mr Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old from Vladivostok, was kicked out of Produce Camp 2021 last Saturday (April 24). Viewers had ignored his pleas to leave and backed him all the way to the final.

Mr Ivanov, who speaks fluent Mandarin, originally joined the show as a Chinese teacher.

But he said he was invited to sign on as a contestant after the directors noticed his good looks.

"They asked if I would like to try a new life," Mr Ivanov said during the show.

He appeared to regret his decision almost immediately, but could not leave without breaching his contract.

His lack of enthusiasm played out in half-hearted singing, rapping and dancing alongside the other, more eager contestants.

Performing under the stage name Lelush, he urged the public to vote him out, saying he did not want to be among the 11 winners of the show, who are contractually obliged to form a boy band.

"Don't love me, you'll get no results," he said on one episode.

But viewers took to his dour persona and kept him in the running for nearly three months.

Idol-training shows, a TV genre originating in South Korea that puts hundreds of aspiring young performers through rigorous boot camps and audience votes, have become massively popular in China.

In this one, contestants were corralled into dorm rooms on a tropical island in China's Hainan province and had their phones confiscated for most of the season.

Anyone who wanted to break their contract and leave midway through the season, which began in mid-February, had to pay a steep fine.

While critics have questioned the transparency of the voting on idol shows, Mr Ivanov appears to have struck a genuine chord as an anti-hero for Chinese audiences.

Fans, some earnest and some ironic, dubbed him "the most miserable wage slave" and celebrated him as an icon of "Sang culture", a popular concept among Chinese millennials referring to a defeatist attitude towards everyday life.

"Don't let him quit," one viewer commented on a video of a dejected-looking Mr Ivanov performing a Russian rap.

"Sisters, vote for him! Let him 996!" another fan commented, using the Chinese slang for the gruelling work schedule that afflicts many young employees, especially in digital start-ups.

The unlikely star made it to the final episode of the show on Saturday, where he failed to earn enough votes to join the boy band.

"I'm finally getting off work," a relieved Mr Ivanov said on Sunday on his Weibo account.

Ok, I desperately want to post an older Saturday Night Live video about Chris Farley being trapped on a Japanese game show with no idea how to speak the language, but I'm not sure how well it's aged.

The Simpsons did a version of that, too.

Fans, some earnest and some ironic, dubbed him "the most miserable wage slave" and celebrated him as an icon of "Sang culture", a popular concept among Chinese millennials referring to a defeatist attitude towards everyday life.

I am massively intrigued by this Sang Culture thing.

edit: after finding THIS even more.

The site blocks copy-pasting, but well worth a read.

dejanzie wrote:
Fans, some earnest and some ironic, dubbed him "the most miserable wage slave" and celebrated him as an icon of "Sang culture", a popular concept among Chinese millennials referring to a defeatist attitude towards everyday life.

I am massively intrigued by this Sang Culture thing.

edit: after finding THIS even more.

The site blocks copy-pasting, but well worth a read.

Why not have a “My Ex-boyfriend is Doing Better than Me Black Tea?” suggests a sign at Orz Cha, a pop-up tea shop that opened in Shanghai in late April. Orz Cha, or Sang Cha in Chinese, which can be translated as “Life Sucks Tea,” instantly saw long lines form outside and generated a buzz on social media due to its eccentric menu. Among other drinks, visitors could choose from an oolong macchiato called “You are Not a Loser Who Owns Nothing, At Least You Have a Mental Illness,” a black tea called “Come On, You Are the Fattest,” and a green tea called “Work Overtime With No Hope of a Pay Rise.”

Bartleby the Coping Mechanism?

Is this the Chinese version of "Doomer" culture here in the U.S.?

Yay, the 90's are back! I hope the Daria reboot is good.

Mixolyde wrote:

Yay, the 90's are back!

I wish!

I'm pretty sure I have a pair of JNCOs in my attic.

I feel like this subject deserves its own thread that gets locked after two replies.