portstarboard

As we joke here, if the CIA gave the world the internet, the KGB gave it the internet trolls. Try harder, @teekert, link-spamming buddy.

It’s good that the weather is really gentle now in Hong Kong.

Here in Ukraine this past winter the “designed in California” didn’t last too long during -13C..-18C nights, even with an external battery, so walkie-talkies were helpful at times. However, the cellular networks did work in the downtown, perhaps with just minor outages, even during the most violent crackdowns.

And to address some of the either Russian trolls or just misinformed minds elsewhere in the comments. I won’t go into much details, just address some points.

- The whole situation in Ukraine was, and is, largely provoked and inflamed by Russia. Empires being what empires are, even fading ones, try to concur and/or influence as much neighbours as possible, especially if a neighbour is posing an indirect threat to the empire’s regime rulers. No need to take my word on it, just study recent conflicts around Russian borders since the 90s.

- All sorts of people, from all kinds of backgrounds, education, income, etc, took part in the protests. From poor farmers and peasants, through students and professors, to entrepreneurs, CEOs of big companies/multinational branches, and other well-off people.

- To call all these people “fascists”, “junta”, is something a Gebbels would do. Especially when coming from a state that has extreme press and internet censorship, where all the power lies in the hands of the state security service, and where sexual/national minorities live under real threat and danger of persecution. Especially ridiculously it sounds given the number of Jews, and well-off ones, taking parts in the protests, alongside the so-called “radicals”.

- Somebody mentioned “Svoboda” and “Pravyj Sektor” as boogeymen. “Svoboda” has like 1% support now; it lost the support greatly during the protests themselves, when people found out that their “radicalism” is only in words, but not in action. The leadership is very money-oriented, and it shows. Regular members are more or less OK, as members political parties go; most are just regular patriots, like you have in the US and elsewhere. “Pravyj Sektor” is really just a bunch of kids; we’ve bought them socks and some underwear during the winter. Aren’t any more radical than most kids their age anywhere in the world.

- Russian propaganda was working very hard all these years against the Ukrainian state, but as we can see, it took root only in some parts of the 2, out of 25, regions. The reasons are simple - these are very “depressed”, poor regions; people live there in constant poverty, without decent jobs, repressed by local feudal lords, without proper education and perspective on life. This is not an excuse for what they’ve started, but at least it explains the causes. In other, considered “pro-Russian” but wealthy, regions the propaganda didn’t take as much root, and after the events of this year, there’s little left of the “pro-Russian” part in them, even as they continue to speak Russian in everyday life.

- As for the West, we’ve seen who’s who now, and what they are worth. That was a hard yet an important lesson. We are learning to rely only on ourselves, and we’ll manage. Also, given that Ukraine has given up the world’s 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in 1994, in exchange for security guarantees, it will be a good lesson for other countries for the future. One which will probably not help improve the global demilitarisation, however.

Thank you for reading, and please excuse the long post.

P.S. Didn’t find my old “Startup News” account credentials, not really much of a poster, but decided not skip this one thread.