topum

So I am back in London. Yeah, the New Year is way bigger in Moldova than Christmas when it comes to non-church stuff from what I have seen (and drank).

One of the towns not far from the village where we were based in Moldova is getting ready for some serious New Year celebrations in their central square where their Christmas market is. None other than Boney M themselves will be on stage singing jingle bells to the people on the 31st around midnight (among the busy line up of more "regionally famous" bands and singers). I understand they are still wildly popular in the former Soviet Union (one of their leading dudes even died in St Petersburg I was told).

You see, the mayor of this town is a twenty-something Israeli billionaire (yeah I know) who is married to a Russian popstar (this is Moldova, baby!) ten years his senior and who is currently under a house arrest because of the ongoing investigation into the theft of one billion dollars of EU loans from the Moldovan banking system (for Moldova it is huge) in which he apparently was heavily involved and some very damning phone recordings have been released to support it.

So to cheer up the people in the town he reigns over (probably one of the poorest towns in Europe, the country is the poorest in Europe after all) he decided to throw a really good party for them. I kinda get it I have to say. Everything is so completely fucked and there is no hope for even a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel whatsoever that "fuck this, let's drink and party" is not a bad choice at this stage.

Here is the mayor's wife, Russian pop diva Jasmin with Putin for no reason really except that a little bit of Putin is a must for any conversation these days and everything in the world apparently is because of him so I thought he should be here as well (everything is more fun with Putin!).



And here is Jasmin with her husband who is the mayor and apparently a huge Boney M fan:



Yeah, fur and leopard print are mandatory there if you want to "make it".

And to top it off, let's hear the first lady of our provincial town sing, shall we?



Still has quite a bit to go to touch Carla Bruni but then this is not Paris either.

We visited Transnistria (don't confuse it with Transylvania, which we also visited (see here)), Moldova's pro-Russian break away region a couple of times (see here) during our stay in Moldova. This guy in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria was showing off the car he built.



It had "We are Russia!" in Russian on it. The three flags are Russian (white, blue, red), Moldovian Soviet Socialist Republic, this is how Moldova was called when it was part of the USSR (red and green) and I need to figure out what that gold and black one is. Russian Empire is black-gold-white with a double-headed eagle, Russian imperial standard is gold with a double-headed eagle but this seems to be gold and black only with a double headed eagle.



Following in Crimea's footsteps and joining Russia is a very popular idea in Transnistria, which is heavily populated by ethnic Russians. Moldova's newly elected president (ses here) is a big believer in offering a federalisation agreement to Transnistria and in strengthening the ties with Russia, which some believe might change the dynamics and reunite Transnistria with Moldova again.

Work in the Ukrainian village here



looks very much like the flag of Ukraine



By the way the Russians and the Ukrainians living here do not seem to care about the Russia - Ukraine conflict and tension at all. They have a Romanian village, a Russian village, a Ukrainian village and a Gypsy village very close to each other here and the Russians and the Ukrainians are getting on famously. They also seem to be closer to each other than both of them are to the Romanians. They understand each other's languages and when they talk the Russians speak Russian and the Ukrainians respond in Ukrainian and vice versa and that works perfectly.

It looks like we are going to Transnistria next week. Their capital, Tiraspol would be the second largest city in Moldova if they didn't break away and it looks to me like it has now practically merged with Bender (it is just five miles away), which would be the fourth largest town in Moldova.

They have their own currency there, it is Transnistrian Rouble, our host showed us a couple of notes, here they are:



The guy on the tenner is Alexander Suvorov, the Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Italy, and the last Generalissimo of the Russian Empire. He is a national hero in Russia.

Suvorov is one of the greatest generals in history and is one of the few who never lost a battle, being undefeated in over sixty large battles while frequently having the numerical disadvantage (Wikipedia).

He avoided comfort in his everyday life, even in peaceful times he “did not walk, but ran, did not just ride but rode very fast.”

The French King Louis XVIII said the following about Suvorov, “a small man, thin, frail, ill-proportioned… but under all these oddities there was a great military genius. In his army Suvorov was a real leader and solders followed him everywhere and without doubts. He was like a sword of Russia… ”

Suvorov believed that ‘a military man must know the languages of the nations with whom he is fighting,’ so he developed a fluent command of French, German, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Polish and Latin, as well as some knowledge of Arabic, Finnish and Persian. He also rejected a suggestion that the Russian army rid itself of its musicians, saying, ‘Music doubles, trebles the force of an army.’

Here are a couple of his quotes:

One minute decides the outcome of a battle, one hour the success of a campaign, one day the fate of empires.

It is very difficult to do one's duty. I was considered a barbarian because at the storming of the Praga 7,000 people were killed. Europe says that I am a monster. I myself have read this in the papers, but I would have liked to talk to people about this and ask them: is it not better to finish a war with the death of 7,000 people rather than to drag it on and kill 100,000.

As long as the enemy fights he must be beaten relentlessly, but a defeated enemy and especially the civilian population must be treated generously.

The more comfort the less courage there is.

If we had not driven them into hell... hell would have swallowed us.

He who is afraid is half beaten.

One cannot think that blind bravery gives victory over the enemy.

And this is a picture of some Moldovan wild flowers to make this post easier for wosny to tolerate in their friends feed. I know that wosny hates war but likes wild flowers.

As many of you know, after I joined LJ slightly over two months ago I was surprised how strong the Russian segment of it was. I could barely find active journals in English but there seemed to be an ocean of super active journals in Russian. I got interested. Many of you also know how much I am into Google Translation. I read Russian journals via Google Translate sometimes, you might remember these.

Today I was looking at a couple of their top journals and saw a post about Prince. I got curious what the Russia's top blogger's take on it would be. Below is that post Google Translated from Russian with some minimal tweaks only to the bits which did not make sense at all after GT. I had to make those using a vocabulary.

I thought you might be interested too.

Google Translated from this post by miss_tramell, Russia's top blogger.

Prince’s Mad Money

Prince left an estate of $800 million.

-Photo of Prince-

He did not leave a will. The money will go to his nearest relative - his sister - a former drug addict and prostitute.

Here she is:

-Photo of Prince's sister-

And this is one of Prnice’s villas:

-Photo of Prince's lavish villa-

I absolutely do not care that the amount that can not even be comprehended (so huge it is), will go to a former drug addict and prostitute. It is absolutely none of my business.

What absolutely infuriates me is: why the singer Prince is worth nearly a billion dollars?

What he has done for mankind? He wrote a dozen hits in the '80s? Not just hits, but super-hits? OK. More than a dozen? Accepted. But is it really worth that huge amount of money?

Humanity is insane. I realized it a long time ago. It is unjustifiable for songs - no matter how good they may be - to pay millions. Showbiz Workers do not produce anything that moves humanity forward. They do not save lives. Their relatively light work should not be paid so obscenely high.

Every day 22 thousand children die in conditions of extreme poverty.

-Photo of a kid covered in flies-

In 2011, 6.9 million children under 5 died of hunger and thirst. Every hour took the lives of 800 children. They did not have enough food. They did not have enough water. They did not have enough basic medicines.

At the same time the singer Prince amassed a fortune of $800 million.

Showbiz in our world is severely overvalued, and human life is sorely underestimated.

Madness. Cruelty. It is, but it should not be. This is not even the way to the Apocalypse. This is the Apocalypse.

We are going to Kamchatka this summer (yay!) and I am keeping an eye on what is going on there. I checked the weather today and this is what it is like now, beautesauvage13, I bet you'll like this ).



One Russian user assured me however that "all of this probably will be almost gone by the end of May". Probably? Almost? By the end of May?

I am new here and since I started on LJ I noticed that most journals are either dead or friends only. And most posts in the Top are community posts. I also noticed that there are a lot of open journals in Russian here. I had a look at the Russian LJ Top 15 and translated it via Google Translate out of curiosity, sharing the translation below.

There is only one community post in the Russian top (no 9). There is nothing fanfic related in the top 50 there. There are a lot of comments and there seem to be long discussions in the comments. The Russians seem to be not only more active and open on LJ but also seem to use it differently.

Is it true? Why? Was it always like this?

And yeah, about Pamela Anderson. As much as I could understand from post no 8, she will be promoting some new video content feature for LJ users in Russia I think.

Russian Top LJ (Google Translated)

1. Miracles after the demolition !
Demolition of trade pavilions has given us a miracle ! On Wednesday at the station " Novoslobodskaya " for a few hours it was organized ground move with the traffic lights across the street Dolgorukovskaya. It is incredibly good news: do not be the demolition, no one would ever put a new light and would not draw a new zebra. 297 comments

2. Sex- ONLY
About a death trap for men - frendzone I wrote. Let us now about the death trap for women - sex ONLY. Why is this black spot just for women? Very often, women write "he proposes sex without commitment" and they do not understand why you need to give. 34 comments

3. England and Russia: According to the law will live or concepts?
I really liked the post Tatyana Solovyova on Facebook. Since LiveJournal and Facebook rarely intersect, to quote it here. Tatiana has long lived in London, and her present buzz about the demolition of unauthorized construction - looks like a wild cry of people who are not accustomed to live in a civilized world. 68 comments

4. Again required a woman's hand
When I think Skrynnik, it was the Minister of Agriculture, my first association - BUSH's LEGS. When they started in mad quantities imported into Russia, and ... no, no, I'm not even on their questionable quality! - And virtually destroyed the country's poultry industry, which could not in the complex ...71 comments

5. False marital happiness in the 90s
Yesterday was taking his sister with training and has witnessed a disgusting scene. From rocking the neighborhood came out little man, judging by his gait, good legs shook. He rushes to intercept the lady and such a cry breaks my ears in the first seconds refuse to distinguish between sounds. The reason for hysteria ...202 comments

6. What happens if you send in a weightless flight attendant ?!
What happens if I cancel the gravity ?! We live in a world of conventions, high speeds, and the gray of everyday life. Maybe gravity - just a habit ?! We are accustomed to the 3D world, special effects and computer graphics. We were so difficult to surprise some visuals, but what you see today - definitely ...58 comments

7. Cannabis
How snowfall helps police in Europe to seek clandestine cannabis producers? Comments concealed answer tomorrow upd subtleties of cannabis cultivation even know all the answers to the previous puzzle All puzzles in the journal can be found on the tag puzzle 483 comments

8. Pamela Anderson and Livejournal: what was it?
I love sex symbols. Even if they are - former. Pamela Anderson - the undisputed sex symbol. Sex-symbol does not happen. In Russia, few people watching "Baywatch", but the red-Piece Swimsuit traveling on the waves Pam know everything. 124 comments

9. Episode reckless femininity
How often we hear that we are responsible for what myself dressed: whether it is fitting dress or a stunning heels. Women, they say, almost always to blame for their misfortunes: first outfit, and only then think. It is no coincidence sandals high heels look to me ...28 comments

10. But the neighbor - worse!
Whatever dirt and not ruin our people lived, it warms the soul that there are places where still dirtier and destruction. It is faith in the fact that his neighbor is even worse, allowing a blind eye to the garbage under his window. Neighbor can be anyone, but now it's about Ukraine. Yesterday… 201 comments

11. A look at Mars from Mars Express
In a Mars orbit thirteenth year continues its work the European Mars Express satellite. This product was launched in cooperation with the Russian Space Agency - gave our rocket and put some scientific instruments and satellite built the European Space Agency. Mars Express flying by ... 13 comments

12. Why give birth in Russia is not just scary, and very scary ....
Why bomzhihi, drunkards, outcasts give birth in batches, and we are normal, healthy and educated women who do not want to? The truth is bitter. Even now, in my life everything is good, the second I'm not going to give birth under any pretext. And it is this: since the two cherished strips ...146 comments

13. What Danelia disliked Jean-Paul Belmondo
For the filming of the movie "Tears dripped" needed a car "Zaporozhets". This car stopped by the hero in a puddle and fell into the pit. The crew decided to buy a car at a thrift store, but after taking lead in order and surrender back. They were told that this "Mosfilm" director must ...54 comments

14. PR on other people's misfortunes
Is it possible to "put pressure on the mold" and make political points on the mountain the people once, literally, put up with things in the cold. Especially when he was directly involved in the organization of this lawlessness. Today, sitting in a comfortable chair by the fireplace in the role of ...36 comments

15. Who has earned on the squatter
With regard to the demolition of illegal buildings more and more interesting facts are revealed. The fact of the first. Total owners demolished the entire property - 12 people. That is a dozen. Well, not bloody. The 13th in the case is not allowed. Why share? It is interesting, is not it? Basically, it is the representatives of the diasporas. 186 comments