PanArab

We are not talking about Russians as individuals or living in Russia, but how the Russian government conducts itself with the developing world. I don't know if you are intentionally misunderstanding my comment, or if I need to spell things outright.

To be clear Russia is guilty of war crimes and imperialism but it never presents itself in a hypocritical and racist manner as holier-than-thou. It never claims to be the arbiter of human rights and demands certain concessions of the rest of the world. Add to that, the developed world doesn't have a collective bad memory of Russian imperialism and colonialism unlike with the West.

The quotes from the FT post I shared earlier should make it clear what I'm trying to convey here. This is not a gotcha game, the perception is real, regardless of how inaccurate you may feel it is, and the way the West conducts itself only cements it.

I'm not arguing that Russia didn't commit war crimes. I'm arguing that the perception of Western racism and hypocrisy is real, and that they enabled far worse crimes to be committed by Israel.

Here's a few key quotes from FT's article:

“What we said about Ukraine has to apply to Gaza. Otherwise we lose all our credibility,” the senior G7 diplomat added. “The Brazilians, the South Africans, the Indonesians: why should they ever believe what we say about human rights?”

Just four weeks before the Hamas assault on Israel, leaders from the US, EU and western allies attended the G20 summit in New Delhi and asked developing nations to condemn Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians in order to uphold respect for the UN charter and international law.

Since last Sunday, many of those officials told the Financial Times they have had the same argument read back at them in demands for condemnation of Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza, and of its decision to restrict water, electricity and gas supplies there.

Arab states, particularly Jordan and Egypt, have pressed western officials to harden their tone on protecting Gaza’s civilians. “If you describe cutting off water, food and electricity in Ukraine as a war crime, then you should say the same thing about Gaza,” said one Arab official.

“What New Delhi, Jakarta and Brasília want to see is a common position on these issues, and consistency. And if they don’t see that . . . then on the major global issues there’s a certain danger EU, G7, Nato will not be taken seriously,” said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former Nato secretary-general.

https://archive.ph/TxkRb

When you have politicians like Baerbock saying that civilians in Gaza are fair targets, anything Russia does pales by comparison. To the rest of the world, Russia is guilty of war crimes and the West is guilty of war crimes, and so they will trade and deal with whoever. Russia isn't any worse, in fact it is seen by many as a lesser-evil regardless of how you as a Westerner feel about it.

Russia doesn’t have friends

This isn't a factual statement. It is only true in the West, and clearly the West's opposition to Russia is fracturing. For the rest of the world Russia and the West are perceived differently specially where the memory of Western colonialism and war crimes are still fresh.

Why does so much of the Global South support Russia, not Ukraine?

Emerging countries have replaced most of Russia’s lost trade with advanced economies

It didn't help the West that they sided with Israel during their genocide. They violated their own arguments in favour of Ukraine, increasing the perception that they are hypocritical and racist.

Rush by west to back Israel erodes developing countries’ support for Ukraine

If democrats get their shit together and win on Trump’s failed/not even attempted major campaign promises, tax increases, gutted education, Medicare, and Medicaid in the midterms we could see a complete flip of both chambers

Then the impeachment begins

I was hoping the Democrats would do something about this sometime between 2021-2024 but they didn't. It is too late now.

He is trying to prevent the inevitable but instead hastening it. Multipolarism was going to happen regardless of who is president. "The tighter you hold on to something, the faster it slips away".

If you are in the US, the National Arab Orchestra is technically domestic. Maybe this will trick someone into listening to this Arabic song

I wonder where it will be built. There are some relatively cool places, but there are also places where it exceeds 50C in the summer.

Will the batteries survive the heat?

Shameful. Reminds me of when Reagan had the solar panels removed from the roof of the White House.

It begins by realizing that economics is also politics. The US ran out of indigenous peoples and lands to exploit, so it is turning inwards.

There are many books one could recommend. But an easy one to understand is: Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror, this book was published in 2012. Whatever an empire perfects to crush other people, always sooner or later is used internally.

It is projected that by the end of this century the population of SWANA will pass Europe's for the first time in history. It is interesting to see if that will have any geopolitical ramifications, but I won't live to see it.

Alula is an ancient city with over 2500 years of history, originally known as Dadan. Known to the Assyrians and Babylonians and mentioned in the Bible.

Syria is a religiously and culturally diverse country. The current government vowed to respect that.

It wasn't easy. I decided to leave in November 2023. My wife was unwilling, afraid she won't find a job given that her job is in a biotechnology niche. Though she did find a job in her field that pays her the same as she made post taxes and deductions in the US since there's no income taxes. It took me 14 months to move, sell the house and so on. I am now trying to find a job. It looks like the script is going to be flipped, I used to make 35% more than my wife, now looking at all the software and IT job opportunities here it looks like I will be the one making 35% less if I'm lucky. Otherwise all is good and overall cost of living, specially healthcare, is significantly less.