GUEST BLOG: Ross Meurant – RUSSIA PHOBIA
Anti-Russian sentiment is old news to Russians.
However, since WW Two, American generated paranoia amongst its allies and the “International Community” (a figment of American mentality with no legal or actual substance and conceived to replace the United Nations as America’s puppet when they realised, they could no longer guarantee majority support in the institution they conceived in 1947), has run riot.
Riot? The word reminds me. PUSSY RIOT.
Oh! How the West Main Stream Media haemorrhage each time this punk rock group are punished for breaching the laws of the land where they claim citizenship. The West even goes so far as to impose its defunct legal jurisprudence over decision taken by a sovereign state applying its own laws.
EXAMPLE: The European Court of Human Rights (in) Strasbourg court ruled in July that Russia must pay three (Pussy Riot) activists some $55,000 in compensation for violating their human rights when they were arrested in 2012 after a performance art piece in a cathedral. Payment is due to the activists within three months.
Of course, there was much more media covering this outrage. But what of Western media outrage to the following?
EXAMPLE: An Egyptian actress who wore a revealing dress to the Cairo Film Festival is to appear in court after being accused of “inciting debauchery”. She could be jailed for up to five years
Rania Youssef appeared in a lacy, black, see-through outfit that exposed most of her legs, outraging many Egyptians, though some said she should be able to wear what she wanted.
EXAMPLE: An Egyptian pop singer has been sentenced to two years in prison for “inciting debauchery” after a music video showing her suggestively eating a banana was ruled to be too sexually explicit.
Shyma was arrested shortly after releasing I have Issues, in which the she is seen dancing in underwear before appearing in front of a classroom of adult men and pouring milk over a banana before eating it, licking an apple and tasting the icing of a slice of chocolate.
EXAMPLE: An Egyptian singer has been sentenced to six months in prison for suggesting the River Nile was polluted and that drinking from it was a bad idea.
Sherine Abdel-Wahab was also fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (around £400) by judges at the Abdin Misdemeanour Court, where she was found guilty of insulting the state.
Above are all examples of people claiming citizenship in a country, who then abuse the rules of that country. Morale of the story is: WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS DO.
But where is the clamour of West Main Stream Media?
Which leads me to:
“Punished for breaching the laws of the land where they claim citizenship?”
Chelsea Manning may well have breached in house rules pertaining to secrecy when she exposed torture perpetrated by American forces in Abu Ghraib and Edward Snowden may well have broken similar rules when he exposed American helicopters machine gunning civilians and children in Baghdad (following the American invasion of Iraq which UN president Kofi Annan deemed to have been an “unlawful war”)
But Julian Assange never claimed American citizenship (although he is highly likely to soon get 30 years free accommodation in the Land of the free).
For Manning and Snowden; maybe the morale: When in Rome, applies to them – although I would argue that the greater good to mankind, in their cases, has a higher value than subscribing to codes of conduct within American agencies which clearly sanction crimes against humanity.
As Voltaire wrote: “It is forbidden to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
But Assange? He has no more an obligation to American law than does Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. And neither kill others.
Ross Meurant:
After 21 years as a cop, Meurant resigned with the commissioned rank of inspector O/C Criminal Intelligence Section & V.I.P. Security; a nationwide profile role as a Red Squad riot group commander and an earlier reputation as a ruthless detective with a tendency to enforce the rule of police.
During 9 years as a Member of Parliament and the Executive as Under Secretary, he was accused of being an arms trader; was fired from the Executive by Jim Bolger for having a perceived conflict of interests (becoming a director of a Russian bank) and started the first political party to be registered under MMP.
After 4 years in the wilderness teaching kids to ride horse and property developing, he returned to Wellington as parliamentary adviser to Rt Hon Winston Peters where allegations of conflicted interests with roles he had with three major fishing companies and a race horse baron and later in false allegations of corruption culminating in the Scampi Enquiry.
From 2005 Ross lived abroad pursuing commercial options in Zimbabwe, the Balkans, Czech Rep, Syria, Russia, Morocco, UAE, Iran & North Korea.
Today in New Zealand he is trustee and managing director of NZ forestry and property assets owned by absentee Russians & Honorary Consul for Morocco.
Ross has a B.A. in politics; a Master’s in economics and law and COPs in law. He speaks Russian, rides horses and water-skis.
He is the author of:
Two biographies: The Red Squad Story & Beat to the Beehive.
Two novels: The Syrian Connection & Sex, Power and politics.
So Russia is a victim? Seems to me the Voltaire quote is much better applied to Stalin than any American from history I know. And Pussy Riot inveterate lawbreakers for protesting against their own government? Filler for the silly season anyone?
Try doing what Pussy Riot did in a place of worship near you sometime.
So Russia is a victim? Seems to me the Voltaire quote is much better applied to Stalin than any American from history I know.
Jeez, there seems to be a large ignorance of history in that false dichotomy.
Since you mention history and make a lame attempt at comparison, have you ever cared to compare the numbers of Russian and USSR civilian deaths and casualties in the past two world wars to those of USA’s?
And how about the casualties amongst their respective armed forces?
Have you ever compared the value of the destruction of industrial and agrarian infrastructure of the USSR and Russia to that USA suffered within its boarders in the same two world wars?
How much of USA’s territory has ever been razed by an invading army? Compare that to the thousands of square kms razed in USSR? Russia.
Lets wind it back another 100 years prior to WW1. How many loses did Russia suffer from Napoleon’s invasion? Do you have any clue?
Why stop there? In the 13th Century, ever considered Russia’s losses to Genghis Khan’s hordes? And subsequent Tatar incursions.
Oh, I clean forgot the Russian losses to Ottoman incursions in the interim between the Golden Hordes and Napoleon.
The Yanks and ignorant dumb fucks like Gary De Forest have no concept of the Russian psyche in regard to how they perceive threats to their populations and boarders. Nor of the historical imperatives that drive them.
So yeah, Russia have frequently been the victim: way, way more often than otherwise.
I would add to Voltaire that it is illegal to beat the shit out of people unless you are a uniformed officer under government orders.
Ah yes. Wasn’t it Don Corleon who said officers get paid, revolutionaries do not, when deciding to invest a huge sum of money into Cuda the night the President fled in exile. Fiction I know, given Voltaires policy of extremely armed naturality. There’s an unspoken rule amount trench power players. Don’t mess with there farmers market.