2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

[RiverColaLight 94]

I'm not watching:

-because I'm not interested, sports aren't my thing. I'll watch some though.

-The LGTB is treated so wrong in Russia, and I can't stand watching video's of young gays getting beat up. It needs to stop. 

I live in the Netherlands and gay marriage has been legal for 13 years now. Gays are treated well.

[pinupgirls 1,056]

I cannot wait to see LoLo Jones on the US Bobsled team this year. I love her

[TIARNZUS 4,596]

Russia is blessed to have him as its president.

 

They   are    oh  so  truly  blessed. 

[Philomene 928]

My statement didn't imply he was "democratically" elected. I still believe that he was the last time he became president though. The world isn't black or white but made of shades of grey and a politician democratically elected doesn't make him more competent (but more "legitime" and even this notion can be discussed).

 

Btw your links have hardly any value, they are as neutral as the official numbers in Russia.

[FROGGO 2,806]

This topic makes me want to have politician stan wars

[Poison Ivy 1,588]

My home country is Kazakhstan, it has a mentality much closer to the Russian one than Romania, it shares common borders and we have around 30% (once upon a time much more) of ethnic Russians living on the territory for only 50% of ethnic Kazakhs. Kazakhstan is probably the "best and closest friend" of Russia (other friendly countries but not as closely cooperating probably include Bulgaria, somehow Belarus, ... but ofc having Baikonur on their territory it beats them all) . Russian is the number 1 language and I think people there speak it better than Russians themselves tbh.

Also very close members of my family are Russians so I think I quite know what I'm talking about ...

Did you experience yourself racism? Eastern Europe is such a huge area so it's definitely not homogeneous even though those countries share similar characteristics. Russia is probably more homogeneous than the USA but don't forget what a huge country it is, living in Vladivostok, Chechnya, Tatarstan or St-Pt isn't quite the same and they have different mentalities. 

Maybe you can think there is racism or homophobia but misogyny? That's for sure no! Racism in Russia is mostly directed to the immigrants coming from poor countries like Tajikistan (just like in the USA towards Mexicans, in France towards Arabs, and so on).

I don't know Romanians but I know some people from Moldovia. Do you know Russian like they do? (I am just curious to know how influenced by Russia your country might still be today).

I don't think that Putin is racist. He can be ruthless when speaking but that's it. There are serious rumors his "new wife" is a Tatar gymnast so => Muslim + Asian/Turkic. Also his relationships with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan would be I guess much more different though I agree we can only guess. He never showed a "racist" face so I guess we can assume he isn't. (after all isn't it supposed to be the norm?)

 

The question of the "traditional family values" is very delicate. Imo it is bullshit for masking homophobia but many people actually do believe in them and defend them with "serious" arguing. What do you do in that case? Ignore them and call them homophobic? Listen to them and ... look at what the majority is for?

 

I did experience some sort of appearance-based discrimination (I can't call it racism because I'm as Romanian as them lol) but my skin tone is a tad darker than the average Romanian - so gypsy was a to-go insult. I also remember being called Chinese (???) as a kid a lot because of the shape of my eyes and not in a nice way (I don't think I actually look Asian though, I wish haha). But Romanians are very biased against most races and rarely know how to get along, so when they come to Western countries they will bitch about everyone and everything. As far as I heard this is the case for a lot of Polish immigrants, Bulgarians, Hungarians etc. My mom's boyfriend who's Jamaican visited Russia and said he didn't feel welcome at all ~ I don't know much beyond that about Russia but in my understanding of how most stuff in Eastern Europe plays out, it's uncannily similar from country to country. There are cultural differences but when it comes to treating people like dirt they sort of unite. 

 

As for misogyny and sexism, maybe your experience is different. It's really a whole new topic to even begin to describe how women are seen in most of Eastern Europe. I think a good epitome of the way the men see women is that topics of discussion like "How do fat chicks dare to say no/reject any guy at all?" are totally normal (I'm not even making it up, I was on a Romanian forum and stumbled into this extended discussion that was really disgusting to read btw). The typical Romanian guy will say shit like that all the time. Another good example is 30, 40, 50 year old men who can't even cook a meal or wash their own clothes by themselves because they jumped straight from 'mom's doing it' to 'wife's doing it' and laughed at that one guy who cooks for his wife or helps in the kitchen/cleaning w/e. Again, this is the norm and very few people question these things in Romania. It's a bit like 50s America, only that women usually work too alongside all the shit they have to do at home. From what I see on my old school friend's facebooks I don't have much hope for the younger generation even. I've know other Eastern European couples/women/friends of friends that follow the same pattern even if they're not Romanian. If Russia is totally different than this then that'd be great.

 

And nope, I don't know any Russian  (except 'da' because we say it too haha). I know Moldovians still have a lot of Russian influence in the country, I'd say Romania has much less nowadays. 

I don't think there's much talk you can do with people set on so-called traditional values because it's sort of ingrained in them and unless they can perform some critical thinking, they'll never get what's wrong with the things they consider values. 

[LastWordsNTime 259]

Boycottingggg. 

 

3 reasons

 

Main reason
LGBT- situation over there.

 

My personal petty reasons
They stopped broadcasting one of my fav. Dutch shows for two weeks cuz of dis shit (yes, I know how this sounds, but hey.)

I am not interested (although sometimes I watch big sports events).

[Viva 3,169]

. Also disagree with Brazil holding the world cup.

 

Why?

[Viva 3,169]

I watch the Olympics when I remember is happening. Obviously I don't think Russia should be holding any Olympics but I do see the other side of the coin. Those athletes trained for years for this moment and is in many levels unfair to them what is happening. It's really a double sword tbh because if you support the Olympics and the athletes inevitably in some level you give Putin audience and support his actions.

 

I think this Olympic is a mirror of the world in many ways. The fact that is actually happening says a lot. The fact people think what is happening in Russia is a LBGT matter also makes my jaw drop since is clearly human rights. Anyway is a interesting discussion with little black and white moments and many "5000 shades of gray"

[evilentity 13,343]

Oh man, after losing to the US in a thrilling 8-round shootout (thanks to a clutch performance by TJ Oshie & international hockey rules about moving goalposts) Russia has now been knocked out of Olympic competition by Finland. Perhaps Putin can cry on @@Philomene's shoulder. #ClearlyIncendiary

 

Now it's Sweden vs. Finland & USA vs. Canada. What great match-ups!

[Philomene 928]

Oh man, after losing to the US in a thrilling 8-round shootout (thanks to a clutch performance by TJ Oshie & international hockey rules about moving goalposts) Russia has now been knocked out of Olympic competition by Finland. Perhaps Putin can cry on @@Philomene's shoulder. #ClearlyIncendiary

 

Now it's Sweden vs. Finland & USA vs. Canada. What great match-ups!

 

This is low and not funny. Btw, I don't even support Russia and it's pretty easy to attack a country and feel all right doing it when you are on a forum with 0 Russian person.

 

Btw, Romania isn't Russia and you clearly can't generalize. I daily face more racism in France than I ever could face in a lifetime in Russia. I am treated there as a human and not a sub-human like I am in France. 

I have no love for Russia and I distance myself as much as possible from Russians but it's tiring to see always the same bashing caused by ignorance and self-absorbency.

[evilentity 13,343]

This is low and not funny. Btw, I don't even support Russia and it's pretty easy to attack a country and feel all right doing it when you are on a forum with 0 Russian person.

 

Btw, Romania isn't Russia and you clearly can't generalize. I daily face more racism in France than I ever could face in a lifetime in Russia. I am treated there as a human and not a sub-human like I am in France. 

I have no love for Russia and I distance myself as much as possible from Russians but it's tiring to see always the same bashing caused by ignorance and self-absorbency.

I made a mild joke referencing your Putin-loving and his dashed hopes for Russian gold in hockey and made fair criticisms of Russia in a discussion in which I noted that I consider Obama a murderer of his own citizens. I'm not attacking or bashing either you or Russia. You're being over-sensitive.

[Poison Ivy 1,588]

Btw, Romania isn't Russia and you clearly can't generalize. I daily face more racism in France than I ever could face in a lifetime in Russia. I am treated there as a human and not a sub-human like I am in France. 

I have no love for Russia and I distance myself as much as possible from Russians but it's tiring to see always the same bashing caused by ignorance and self-absorbency.

 

Nope, just as far as I've seen/experienced they're pretty similar in terms of norms and values. Yea of course it's not the same country. I'm sorry to hear France is so bad btw, I have no particular love for them either and it doesn't exactly surprise me to hear that.

[Miguel3Zero 202]

5-0 ahahaha

[Heaux 1,399]

do people normally watch the winter olympics tho..

[pinupgirls 1,056]

I was highly disappointed in the US this year

[Phillipcaxy 0]

Love the Winter Olympics, tend to watch far more events than the Summer. Where I tend to focus on Athletics.

 

But the Winter I love pretty much everything barring the Figure Skating as per our hairy and possibly pongy Muridatic friend up there.