linguoboy wrote:Lada wrote:I wonder why there are no any meetings against the war? It's like as world community doesn't care that civilians are dying every day.
When you say "meetings", what do you mean? Conferences? Demonstrations? How exactly do you think these would help given that that the rebels are, as I mentioned above, unconcerned with world public opinion and not a coherent group for purposes of negotiation or deal-brokering?
I ment demonstarations. Why do you talk only about rebels? They are not the only one who are responsible for what's going on. Ukrainian army is involved at least too. And there was no any significant intention to stop the war from both sides. It means that Kiev doesn't care about public opinion too as they are backed by US. Protests actually made impact even on Russian politics which is a very closed thing, so I think will of many people can really help and change something.
Lada wrote:People protested against the Iraq War because they genuinely thought their actions could influence policy. Do you really see a prospect for that here? And, if so, what have you done to help organise protests in your own country?
I see prospects everywhere in case of real work. I do not organase any protests as I realize what power I have (better to say power that I don't have) and I realize in what country I live - every day I see angry posts "why don't we bomb Ukraine?" etc. but I tried to do something good for Russia-Ukrainian relations.
chung wrote:There of course have been protests in the western world (especially in North America because of the large Ukrainian diaspora) in reaction to the Russian annexation of Crimea and the appeal to Russian irredentism in eastern Ukraine, but those protests haven't mobilized the non-Ukrainian parts of the population.
I ment protests for peace and not for "let's punish them because they're wrong". I haven't seen any protests for peace. What is more ugly - to annex territory that historically and culturally belongs to you without any single shot or to kill people, citizens of your country, sometimes civilians, just to save the borders as they are?
I can't help but play a bit of it too by asking if enough of the Russian public itself is sufficiently high-minded to protest or apply internal pressure
Even the opposition is not ready to protest, may be they support the war too. Actually Russian public is not more high-minded or less then public in any other country as we see it's very easy to manipulate public opinion everywhere. But protests for peace are not about what side is wrong and what side is right, it's just about peace and imho such protests show the level of civil society development. Russia is ranked very low here I guess.
Varislintu wrote:Lada wrote:It's like as world community doesn't care that civilians are dying every day.
No. Just look at the activity of this thread, for example. Or how much Ukraine is discussed in Western media.
Speaking and doing are too different things and I believe only in action. Journalists have to write news coz it's their job.
In fact, a good part of the reason for the negative reactions against Russia's alleged escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine is because of what is happening to the civilians.
Many civilians are refugees in Russia, Russia welcomes them, gives them shelter - official numbers of refugees are about 500 000 persons. That gives negative reaction?
I think they are asking for what the readers think, not what the truth is.
My question was rather rhetorical than real, but anyway any opinion is based on what you read, not on your real knowledge and the only aim of such polls is to understand if locals support your propaganda or not. They don't ask who is responsible, they even don't give the variant "I don't know".