| Some time ago I saw a beautiful conversation in comments for some article about Ukrainian internal political life. One of their famous politicians (and scammer) Julia Timoshenko was jailed for some months and during that time she asked to transfer her from cell to prison hospital, for many reasons and one of these reasons was an injury, hematoma on her abdomen. One of commentators said something like:
- How is it possible, she's lying, here's no way to get hematoma on abdomen!
And reply to him was:
- When you will be jailed, you will learn: how is it possible. So, when you recommending books like this, from the people who wasn't beaten even once, li looks hilarious. How to make revolution with lego figures and funny pictures, wow. How to get your legs broken during arrest or lose one eye, do you want to know it? Even without new laws. How to get tuberculosis in prison in 30 days? How to get real imprisonment for a years for fabricated felony? I see a kind of schizophrenia here: if Putin is dictator, he's already can do what he want without approval from electorate, but then I see here accusation for me that I and people like me didn't rid off him. It's not so easy to do, you may know. More to say, when daughter of some corrupted govenor of one of Russia regions coming to USA, she got visa for extremely talented people, because she owns some startup (captured by her rich daddy). If I will try to come to USA, I must pass TOEFL, pass through interview for Amazon/Google/whatever and then work, work, and pay rent and smile, and work again. I will have no time for anything except angry dislikes in youtube. USA and EU made no way for me and people like me in Russia to be involved in politics while being in opposition to my government. It all looks like call "run into Kremlin wall and try to break it with your head, why you didn't it yet?". |
All attention is focused on Ukraine. They need all the help they can get. But that means forgetting that Belarusians voted to get rid of Lukaschenko and then were violently supressed. It means ignoring the Russians that are protesting even when they know they're risking everything. I saw a video of a Russian guy protesting alone in Kursk. That's an example of bravery.
I really think the Voice vs Exit[0] thing is very important here. If you can't be heard and can't succeed then you go elsewhere. Both at a personal level, but also at a grand economic level. If all the highly trained people make lives outside Russia, Russia will shrink to become less significant.
I will finish with a couple of short quotes from the book Why Nations Fail[1] (an incredibly dense read, but worth it).
> “NATIONS FAIL TODAY because their extractive economic institutions do not create the incentives needed for people to save, invest, and innovate. Extractive political institutions support these economic institutions by cementing the power of those who benefit from the extraction.” ― Daron Acemoğlu, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
> “A businessman who expects his output to be stolen, expropriated, or entirely taxed away will have little incentive to work, let alone any incentive to undertake investments and innovations.” ― Daron Acemoğlu, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
[0]: https://genius.com/Balaji-srinivasan-silicon-valleys-ultimat... [1]: http://whynationsfail.com/buy/