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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action. |
Czech President Milos Zeman has decided against awarding a state medal to a Holocaust survivor after the man's nephew, a Czech government minister, met exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama against the president's wishes, the minister said on Friday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-czech-president-medal-idUSKCN12L286
It's even more absurd than you would imagine it first, as it turns out that Zeman threatened Herman (the minister of Culture) two weeks ago that he will do exactly this if he meets Dalai Lama, in front of several witnesses. The virtually unknown Herman has turned into a hero (amidst the non-supporters of the president) overnight.
To put things in context, after Herman met Dalai Lama, the four most important politicians of the country (president, prime minister and heads of both chambers of parliament) have sent an apologetic note to China making it clear that it wasn't an official act of Czech government and that the Czech Republic does not support Tibet in any way, ostensibly to "protect Czech export interests" in China (which are laughably small, China accounts to some 1 per cent of Czech export). This, coming from a country once headed by Vaclav Havel, Dalai Lama's personal friend and one the world's most important human-rights advocate of the past decades (a conference held in Havel's memory was the reason why Dalai Lama visited Czech Republic in the first place). Even more ironically, the president of Slovak Republic (our supposedly backwards sibling) met Dalai Lama officially with no hesitation ...
Rumors that China is now secretly financing of the political campaigns of the president (for re-election) and the prime minister's party after the Russians no longer have money or interest to do so now abound. Yet, the president, elected directly by the people, faces almost sure re-election should he decide to run again despite his age and health condition (which is seen as very likely), because half of the nation loves him as the "voice of the people", a counterweight to the "intellectual elites" that apparently ruin everything and a man that has not "sold to US interests".
I am now happy to have moved to Poland, mainly because I do not follow nor understand local news 
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You should learn Polish! Our politics is more funny than scary or upsetting, to be honest. And Polish shouldn't be too hard for you to learn. :-)
As for Dalai Lama, I am not a fan. He lives a lavish life, while preaching about the hardships of the poverty-stricken people. And Tibet before the Chinese occupation wasn't this idyll some people claim it to have been.
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On October 22 2016 17:03 maybenexttime wrote:
You should learn Polish! Our politics is more funny than scary or upsetting, to be honest. And Polish shouldn't be too hard for you to learn. :-)
As for Dalai Lama, I am not a fan. He lives a lavish life, while preaching about the hardships of the poverty-stricken people. And Tibet before the Chinese occupation wasn't this idyll some people claim it to have been.
I am definitely not a great Dalai Lama fan either. He has some really great views and some really terrible ones ... and also is a product of pretty absurd cult-like process. However he is still an important international figure and a representative of a nation that is forcibly occupied by a superpower and in any case I strongly disagree with the idea that our politicians should report to China on who they meet with - honestly, anyone in Czech Republic seeing all of the obedience of Chinese orders should get terrible flashbacks of how we used to be a Soviet slave for four decades!
Being Czech, I can obviously communicate in Polish, but reading news means some effort that I am too lazy for. Also, tell the "funny not upsetting" to my wife after she learned about the total ban on abortions here ... I guess every country has something to frown upon in politics, right?
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Dear god, there's places in Europe where they banned abortions? We're a fucking 3rd world continent.
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Malta and Vatican are probably the only places where abortion is banned
Rumors that China is now secretly financing of the political campaigns of the president (for re-election) and the prime minister's party after the Russians no longer have money or interest to do so now abound. Yet, the president, elected directly by the people, faces almost sure re-election should he decide to run again despite his age and health condition (which is seen as very likely), because half of the nation loves him as the "voice of the people", a counterweight to the "intellectual elites" that apparently ruin everything and a man that has not "sold to US interests".
Are those rumors serious? I'm asking because I don't know why China would want to get involved in Central European politics right now. I know they want to build the second silk road but as far as I remember it's not supposed to go through Czech Republic so that shouldn't be a reason to get involved.
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On October 22 2016 17:37 Sent. wrote:
Malta and Vatican are probably the only places where abortion is banned
Oh is that so?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Poland
"Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged."
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I meant a total ban. Should be more precise, sorry.
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On October 22 2016 17:37 Sent. wrote:Malta and Vatican are probably the only places where abortion is banned Show nested quote +Rumors that China is now secretly financing of the political campaigns of the president (for re-election) and the prime minister's party after the Russians no longer have money or interest to do so now abound. Yet, the president, elected directly by the people, faces almost sure re-election should he decide to run again despite his age and health condition (which is seen as very likely), because half of the nation loves him as the "voice of the people", a counterweight to the "intellectual elites" that apparently ruin everything and a man that has not "sold to US interests". Are those rumors serious? I'm asking because I don't know why China would want to get involved in Central European politics right now. I know they want to build the second silk road but as far as I remember it's not supposed to go through Czech Republic so that shouldn't be a reason to get involved.
I find this very difficult to answer. There were rumors for a long time that Zeman is funded by the Russians and over time, some pretty reasonable evidence surfaced, including personal connections to Lukoil and other Russian-controlled businesses etc. The Chinese thing is pretty new and it's nothing more than a rumour, but surprisingly perpetuated by otherwise reasonable people, not just a tinfoil-hat "china is silently taking over the world" nutjobs. So I don't really know - what I have seen however is that Zeman is going to do anything that suits him, the man has absolutely no restraint nowadays. It's kinda sad, because he used to be a pretty good politician - I didn't agree with his program, nor with his behaviour (he was always quite rude, especially to journalists), but he got his shit done. Then he "retired" and came back as this self-centered egomaniac persona he is showing now - this is by far not the first thing he got out of spite against people who refuse to bow to him. So if China had any interest in buying Czech politicians, I have no doubt that he would sell, but I agree that why would they be interested in the first place is not clear.
edit: however what we already know is that some Chinese interest in Czech Republic exists - as there was some Chinese top politician on a state visit in Prague and the whole thing was an amazing circus: the local Chinese embassy paid some Chinese people to attend all the crowds around the path of the convoy through the city and they sabotaged every attempt on a pro-Tibet expression, even using physical violence. On top of that, the local police was using dubious methods to suppress any appearance of Tibet flags during that day, including entering private property and claiming that nothing can be hung in windows for security reasons (but only Tibet flags were targeted). Then the same police held a suspiciously closed eye on all the things the pro-Chinese "rallies" did against local activist. Definitely some fishy stuff here.
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This is very convincing stuff to me regarding the Ukrainian civil war:
+ Show Spoiler +
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Please keep Ukraine out of this. We've had that thread and it was a disaster.
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you can read stuff from http://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/critcom/161-framework-and-economic-relations-between-china-and-ceec/ on China and EEC The formation of the 16+1 framework is one of the most important achievements of China’s diplomacy. The ‘16+1’ framework refers to different mechanisms and arrangements between China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries that were formed after Premier Wen Jiabao’s historic visit to Poland in 2012. Since then, the 16+1 cooperation framework has been widely accepted in Central and Eastern European countries and has moved on a fast track. In the last two years, summits between China and the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) have been held on a regular basis, with different cooperation mechanisms formed or under consideration.
China’s Outward FDI Stock in Central and Eastern European Countries (unit: 10000 USD）![[image loading]](http://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/critcom/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Tianping-chart-1.jpg)
could also read the http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/china-seeks-closer-ties-with-balkans-11-25-2015 , site which has chinese relations with CEEC divided by countries. The 4th annual Economic and Trade Forum between China and 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe started on Tuesday in China's eastern coastal city of Suzhou.
The initiative, called "16 + 1", was initiated by China in 2012, as it seeks to improve trading and economic ties with 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe – Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
the overall trend is that the investments are growing and the e-europeans seem to be all for it.
(if you want things on the Silk Road and the EE connection, i can tell you it dates all the way back to ~9000 - ~7000 BC)
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On October 22 2016 17:17 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On October 22 2016 17:03 maybenexttime wrote:
You should learn Polish! Our politics is more funny than scary or upsetting, to be honest. And Polish shouldn't be too hard for you to learn. :-)
As for Dalai Lama, I am not a fan. He lives a lavish life, while preaching about the hardships of the poverty-stricken people. And Tibet before the Chinese occupation wasn't this idyll some people claim it to have been. I am definitely not a great Dalai Lama fan either. He has some really great views and some really terrible ones ... and also is a product of pretty absurd cult-like process. However he is still an important international figure and a representative of a nation that is forcibly occupied by a superpower and in any case I strongly disagree with the idea that our politicians should report to China on who they meet with - honestly, anyone in Czech Republic seeing all of the obedience of Chinese orders should get terrible flashbacks of how we used to be a Soviet slave for four decades! Being Czech, I can obviously communicate in Polish, but reading news means some effort that I am too lazy for. Also, tell the "funny not upsetting" to my wife after she learned about the total ban on abortions here ... I guess every country has something to frown upon in politics, right?
I totally agree that appeasing China is ridiculous, considering how insignificant your trade with China is in the scope of your economy.
As for the abortion law, the proposed legislation was not a total ban on abortion, but it was indeed strict and had some ambiguity. At the same time, anyone with a clue knew that the parliament would not pass this law. It's also funny how the opposition constantly babbles about "unconstitutional this, unconstitutional that", and at the same time protested against legislation that tried to make our abortion law constitutional.
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and if you want a summary of what's been done and future plans http://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/policy/multilateral-relations/cooperation-between-central-and-eastern-european-countries-and-china/the-suzhou-guidelines-for-cooperation-between-china-and-central-and-eastern-european-countries The Participants jointly formulated and issued, on the theme of "New Beginning, New Domains, New Vision" , the Suzhou Guidelines for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries. then it goes on with achievements. random quote + Show Spoiler +6. In April 2015, the 1st meeting of the China-CEEC Business Council was held in Katowice, Poland.
7. In April 2015, the Riga High Level Conference on Transport and Logistics and the 3rd ASEM Transport Ministers' Meeting was held in Riga, Latvia.
8. In May 2015, the 1st Customs Control Techniques Workshop for the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line among the Chinese, Hungarian, Serbian and Macedonian Customs was held in Shanghai, China.
9. In May 2015, the 33rd Meeting of the Central Bank Governors' Club of the Central Asia, Black Sea Region and Balkan Countries was held in Shanghai, China.
10. In May 2015, the 1st Meeting of China-CEEC Association of Provincial Governors was held in Hebei Province, China.
11. In May 2015, the Beijing-Budapest regular flight was launched.
12. In May 2015, heads of customs of China, Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia met in Xi'an, China, and signed the Cooperation Action Plan for 2015-2016.
13. In May 2015, China and Hungary signed an MoU on nuclear energy cooperation.
14. From May to June 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Culture organized Chinese performing arts organizations to purchase programs from Hungary, Serbia and Romania.
15. In June 2015, a delegation of CEEC journalists visited Zhejiang Province, Henan Province and Beijing, China.
16. In June 2015, the 1st China-CEEC Investment and Trade Expo was held in Ningbo, China.
17. In June 2015, the launch ceremony of the China-CEEC Association on Promoting Agricultural Cooperation and the 1st Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture was held in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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All things being said, his own actions does seem to point out that for whatever reason, Milos Zeman does seem to have some great interest in appeasing Chinese interests when none should exist at all. I went to Prague a year ago. For some reason, there was a lot of Chinese couples in wedding dresses in Prague Castle wandering around, getting their photos professionally taken. Perhaps in the mysterious world of the chinese politburo, someone had fond memories of a visit and decided to take an interest in Czech politics.
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On October 23 2016 03:45 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
All things being said, his own actions does seem to point out that for whatever reason, Milos Zeman does seem to have some great interest in appeasing Chinese interests when none should exist at all. I went to Prague a year ago. For some reason, there was a lot of Chinese couples in wedding dresses in Prague Castle wandering around, getting their photos professionally taken. Perhaps in the mysterious world of the chinese politburo, someone had fond memories of a visit and decided to take an interest in Czech politics.
Well that was just because Prague is insanely popular in Asia. I'd say mainly because it's a very cheap substitute for Paris But it's honestly a really great historical city to visit and from what I know from my travels around the world, it's much better known than one would expect given the insiginficance of the country around.
But the first sentence I fully agree with.
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this is worth mentioning http://www.theage.com.au/world/while-the-world-watches-syria-russia-is-creeping-closer-to-georgia-20161023-gs8yql.html Marked in places with barbed wire laid at night, in others by the sudden appearance of green signs declaring the start of a "state border" and elsewhere by the arrival of bulldozers, the reach of Russia keeps inching forward into Georgia - with ever more ingenious markings of a frontier that only Russia and three other states recognise as real.
...
The destitute mountainous area of South Ossetia first declared itself independent from Georgia in 1990, but nobody outside the region paid much attention until Russia invaded in August 2008 and recognised South Ossetia's claims to statehood.
With that, the territory joined Abkhazia in western Georgia, the Moldovan enclave of Transnistria and eastern Ukraine as a "frozen zone", an area of Russian control within neighbouring states, useful for things like preventing a NATO foothold or destabilising the host country at opportune moments. One of the new signs - written in English and Georgian - is just a few hundred metres from Georgia's main east-west highway, and it puts a short part of an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to a Georgian port on the Black Sea within territory controlled by Russia. "There is no improvement. I would say the opposite," Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said. "Unfortunately, Russia never appreciates when you concede or make a step forward or compromise. They always take it for granted."
All the same, he insisted that even though his government had no intention of repeating Saakashvili's disastrous 2008 attempt to confront Russia militarily, the border will not last.
"It has no prospect," he said. "They are trying to build this border, these fences inside our country. We think it is temporary." EU was supposed to diversify its oil/gas imports from Azerbaijan through Georgia then Turkey but Russians are squeezing Georgia and stopping any middle east shenanigans EU dreamt of.
(i don't know which pipe they're talking about there. Edit: it's probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku–Supsa_Pipeline The Baku–Supsa Pipeline (also known as the Western Route Export Pipeline and Western Early Oil Pipeline) is an 833-kilometre (518 mi) long oil pipeline, which runs from the Sangachal Terminal near Baku to the Supsa terminal in Georgia. It transports oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field. The pipeline is operated by BP would explain why "UK" is so pissed about russians/Assad taking Aleppo now).
so my take is that now, BP is trying to make the brits go to war against russians(can't tell which corporation yet but should be all the same since centralization or w/e) for Aleppo.
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On October 22 2016 17:45 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On October 22 2016 17:37 Sent. wrote:
Malta and Vatican are probably the only places where abortion is banned Oh is that so? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Poland"Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged."
Those sound like good reasons. My stance on abortion is that every case should be taken on its own. Not allowing a raped woman to abort is ridicolous, just like getting mad with the gynecologist if he refuses to give you the 5th abortion (story personally told by a medic I know well in my town - his argument was that one time it can be a mistake, but if you refuse to use contraceptives in 2015, you are just stupid - also because the operation is not that piece of a cake for the woman's body)
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On October 24 2016 21:41 SoSexy wrote:Show nested quote +On October 22 2016 17:45 opisska wrote:On October 22 2016 17:37 Sent. wrote:
Malta and Vatican are probably the only places where abortion is banned Oh is that so? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Poland"Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged." Those sound like good reasons. My stance on abortion is that every case should be taken on its own. Not allowing a raped woman to abort is ridicolous, just like getting mad with the gynecologist if he refuses to give you the 5th abortion (story personally told by a medic I know well in my town - his argument was that one time it can be a mistake, but if you refuse to use contraceptives in 2015, you are just stupid - also because the operation is not that piece of a cake for the woman's body)
So you are of the opinion that a woman can be forced to act as an incubator against her will even regardless of her opinion? And that it is other people's right to decide whether it is good or bad for her to abort? Because that's definitely what you imply with the "piece of cake" comment and at least this part I find completely unacceptable. My body, my decision on medical procedures, period. The question whether it is moral to abort or not, is different to me and not very clear, but I am still leaning towards the position that it is ultimately the woman's decision and that women should not be forced to carry children against their will, but I can see the room for uncertainty there - in any case however, I am strongly inclined towards this still being largely the moral dilemma for the woman in question, not some medical committee. Thus I consider every legal system where a woman can abort only in specific circumstances to be one that "bans abortion".
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On October 24 2016 22:13 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On October 24 2016 21:41 SoSexy wrote:On October 22 2016 17:45 opisska wrote:On October 22 2016 17:37 Sent. wrote:
Malta and Vatican are probably the only places where abortion is banned Oh is that so? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Poland"Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged." Those sound like good reasons. My stance on abortion is that every case should be taken on its own. Not allowing a raped woman to abort is ridicolous, just like getting mad with the gynecologist if he refuses to give you the 5th abortion (story personally told by a medic I know well in my town - his argument was that one time it can be a mistake, but if you refuse to use contraceptives in 2015, you are just stupid - also because the operation is not that piece of a cake for the woman's body) So you are of the opinion that a woman can be forced to act as an incubator against her will even regardless of her opinion? And that it is other people's right to decide whether it is good or bad for her to abort? Because that's definitely what you imply with the "piece of cake" comment and at least this part I find completely unacceptable. My body, my decision on medical procedures, period. The question whether it is moral to abort or not, is different to me and not very clear, but I am still leaning towards the position that it is ultimately the woman's decision and that women should not be forced to carry children against their will, but I can see the room for uncertainty there - in any case however, I am strongly inclined towards this still being largely the moral dilemma for the woman in question, not some medical committee. Thus I consider every legal system where a woman can abort only in specific circumstances to be one that "bans abortion".
It is not just the woman's body the decision is pertaining to. It's also someone else's body.
Both sides consider the other barbaric and keep talking past each other due to conflicting axioms. The mature thing to do is to agree on some sort of a consensus. Instead of doing that, most countries in Western Europe (and not only there) took one extreme position as default and try to sell it as the "moderate position" on abortion.
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You cannot force her to have the baby. Especially not if you cite health reasons. lol. Nobody foreholds people treatment that are sick due to smoking or drinking excessive amounts. And that is arguably as much their fault as getting pregnant time and again.
And if we really wanna go down the route of "it's not just the mother we should worry about, we also have to think about the, quote, unquote baby", men shouldn't wank either. So much wasted potential life... Messy situation.
So let's not go down that route in the first place.
Although I totally understand the doctor not wanting to provide a flatrate on abortions, it simply aint his decision.
From a societal standpoint one could argue that the costs and so on could be transfered to the individuals when it clearly is their fault for becoming unwantedly pregnant. But that has nothing to do with the woman deciding whether or not she want's to keep the child.
Imagine growing up with a single mother that tells you every single day she'd rather have you aborted.
fucking up two (actual) lifes at once. Well done.
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EPT
