Category: Uncategorized

Never before or since my short trip to North Korea have I felt so perplexed about the realities of a country. It’s easy to know certain things: it’s a hermit nation, it’s citizens have little to no access to the outside world, it’s been run by a family of despots since the end of the Korean War, and it seemingly revels in its own bad behavior, taunting the world but stopping just short of biting the hands that feed it. But like all things worth exploring, what’s on the surface can be a very shallow reflection of the place as a whole.

During my few days in country, I met some of the nicest, most intelligent people I’ve ever had the pleasure of speaking with. North Koreans, born and raised. They would talk to me about the US’s foreign policies, about Vietnam’s peculiar brand of communism, and about many other…

Oh, brave Listener. We’ve all had a bit of a rough time recently.

There are several reasons why we are all feeling a bit peeved, irked, and somewhat vexed:

1) It is February. February is an obnoxiously depressing month, it knows it, and it doesn’t care. February is insufferable.

2) We are still paying off our Christmas credit card bills. This is intolerable.

3) Our New Year’s resolution diet and exercise regimes have failed miserably and we are eating more doughnuts, peanut butter, and full fat milk than ever before to cope with the depression of February and Christmas credit card bills.

4) The couples amongst us have had a relationship-busting argument on Valentine’s Day, and the singletons amongst us have just been reminded that they are SINGLE and ALONE and destined to remain that way for the rest of their sorry lives.

5) There is nothing to look forward…

Andreas Umland: Yanukovych & Co. are paying well the special units in uniforms, and armed gangs without uniforms. They will be doing their jobs as long as the money flows

Source: https://www.facebook.com/andreas.umland.1/posts/10202285399469873?stream_ref=10

Many in Ukraine will know well the following, but some in the West may not understand the nature of the armed confrontation in Kyiv: The issue in Ukraine is not any longer that a country’s President or Ministers are ordering this or that, and then the police or others are following the government’s orders (or not).

Yanukovych & Co. are apparently paying well the special units in uniforms, and armed gangs without uniforms who are beating, torturing and killing people. These men are mercenaries who use various weapons against both unarmed and armed demonstrators, probably, depending on the pay they receive. They will be doing their jobs as long as the money flows. All that has not…