Here it is, Unfortunate. I particularly liked his beginning, where he pointed out that Russia was the third most important country for taking in foreigners and Saudi Arabia the fourth largest. No year was specified and I am sure it changes from one year to the next, but it shows that having an autocratic ruler doesn't necessarily mean a country is not a magnet for foreign workers. I know that Tajikistan, in particular, has been a big source of mostly seasonal workers for Russia. The economic sanctions directed against Russia have hit Tajiks hard, although they have no part in the war against Ukraine. Here is the link:
Sorry, Unfortunate, my admiration for Haidt’s comment was largely based on his attack on Wax’s comment that ““Everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans.” She said this as a follow-up to how wonderful Anglo-Protestant values are, and no-one would argue that Russians share Anglo-Protestant values. Not all of Russia’s rulers have been white (Lenin had very obvious Asiatic features) and some, like Boris Yeltsin have been born in Asia. So it was quite something to me that the third country in the world for taking foreigners in was Russia. The controversy about the impact of the pill doesn’t interest me so much. If Janice wrote something on the subject I would certainly read it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to study it.
There is a British guy, Konstantin Kisin, who seems to be all over the web these days. He is Jewish, Russian or Ukrainian as the mood strikes him. He claims he has a dark complexion, so maybe he qualifies as black-adjacent. He is always pounding on the drum that his family moved from the Soviet Union to the UK and this was the natural only path of flow for people. Edward Snowden moved from the US to Russia and he is now a Russian citizen but he doesn’t prate endlessly that this is the only direction in which immigrants between the two countries might flow. So-called intellectual analysts like Kisin should really grow up.
I don’t know if you are right about Haidt. I can’t get into his brain and I rather doubt that you can either. It might make a great film though, “Being Jon Haidt”, like a sequel to “Being John Malkovich.” Malkovich is of Croatian descent on his father’s side by the way, although I don’t think he speaks Serbo-Croatian. If you want to push Haidt’s motivations further, more power to you, but I have other fish to fry.
Rather of a blunt question, but are you of Yugoslav (any of the ex countries) ancestry? Or have you studied the Serbo-Croatian language? I am curious because of your several references to the language and ethnicity. My parents are Macedonians (the former Yugoslav republic), and there is a long lasting friendship and cultural affinity between us and the Serbs (we were the only Orthodox Christians in all of Yugoslavia, and the only natural users of the Cyrillic alphabet). As someone who has been born and raised in Canada, it is always interesting to hear academic references to the lesser known South Slav nations. It brings one closer to (ethnically speaking) home. I am also pleased to hear you describe Slavic values as Anglo-Protestant. Although we may not have ever achieved anything to the likes of Western Europe, we have still a rich and bucolic culture of our own. In particular, Byzantine architecture in the form of ancient Orthodox churches are haunting and sublime, especially as the age worn frescoes cover the structure from roof to floor.
Very nice to hear from you again, Katie. My roots are mostly British and they are Protestant. My wife Sonja and my stepson Miroslav are from Kraljevo, Serbia. I am trying to learn Serbian, but am lazy and not that bright, so I am not making great progress. One of the textbooks I use, “Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian” is from University of Wisconsin Press and they also publish a couple of books by Christina Kramer on Macedonian. Unfortunately, it is too late for me to learn Macedonian. I might think about learning it if I were younger. The number of Serbs and Macedonians is small, and they were under Turkish occupation for centuries, but, as you say, they still have done beautiful things. I love the Orthodox churches and cathedrals too. Since February 2022 I am a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church myself, and hope for salvation. I paid my respects to the Mulroney family when Brian Mulroney’s body was lying in state in Ottawa on Wednesday. Mila and Caroline Mulroney were both very friendly when I tried to speak Serbian to them and they spoke it back to me. I asked the youngest child, Nicholas, if he spoke Serbian too, but he told me he didn’t and I should try the other side of the line (where Mila and Caroline were). Have you visited Macedonia, Katie? I would like to see it sometime myself. I remember the evocative descriptions of Macedonia in Rebecca West’s book on her trip to prewar Yugoslavia.
It is beautiful to hear of your appreciation for Serbia and Macedonia Andrew, and your conversion to the Serbian Orthodox Church as well. I think you have probably observed that religion for Southern Slavs tends to be rooted more in culture and tradition as opposed to strict religious dogma and institutions, hence why we have, to my knowledge, never been responsible for any unfortunate scandals and/or genocides unlike our Catholic brothers (although Catholicism when free from corruption is still a commendable religion and of course, heavily associated with sublime European high art.) I had not heard of Mila Mulroney but am glad to hear of such affability on her and her family's part toward you; although it is typical of South Slavs to be very warm and friendly -- it comes with our scorching summers. As for learning Serbian and Macedonian, I would not chide myself; both are rather particular languages with a complex grammar (at least for Serbian, Macedonian is more simple in that it is the only language, alongside Bulgarian, to not employ declensions.) I grew up speaking Macedonian from absorbing, osmosis style, my parents who spoke it as much as possible with me, and it was not long before I learnt the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet (virtually the same as the Serbian, just a few characters added and removed) from some 80s television show. Recently I have been trying my hand at learning Serbian, which, after Bulgarian, is our closest linguistic neighbor, as my parents both speak it and happen to be Yugonostalgists who enjoy the shared entertainment and culture that blossomed during the Tito era. You might have heard of the famous rock band Bijelo Dugme, they were the sound of Yugoslavia and made two beautiful folk songs "Djurdjevdan je, a ja nisam s onom koju volim" (It's Saint George's Day, and I'm not with the one I love) and "Lipe cvatu, sve je isto ko i lani" (Linden trees are blooming, all is the same as it was last year) that I would fervently recommend hearing. As a family, we used to go every four years to the capital Skopje for a month in the summer (no fancy hotels, we stayed in my father's childhood bungalow home with his parents), and for a week we would take a train out to Ohrid, where the UNESCO preserved lake and famous ancient churches (St. Jovan of Kaneo can be seen on the cover of a recent edition of National Geographic magazine) were located. I fully believe you would adore the region with its mountains and rocky fresh water beaches, and tourists always have great things to say about the cuisine, which is a bonus. I have not yet visited Serbia, but I have heard nothing but praise from my mother and sister who went to Belgrade, with the latter telling me it reminded her of Western Europe.
Thank you very much, Katie, for your beautiful reply. You certainly make me keen to visit Macedonia. Good on you for keeping your language and I hope that you do find the time to learn Serbian, like your parents. My wife and stepson speak the ekavian variant of Serbian, which is standard and the most commonly spoken, and closer to Macedonian. That is what I am trying to learn now too. However, many Serbs also speak the ijekavian variant, which is standard for Croatian and Bosniak. If you learn Serbian, some knowledge of this variant is useful and virtually unavoidable. Ivo Andrić, the only Yugoslav writer to win the Nobel prize for literature, was a Bosnian Croat. After starting his career in Croatian he switched to writing in Serbian, but while his novels are written in ekavian, he was also a realistic novelist, so his dialogues are often in ijekavian. The Serbs also operate using both the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets, but that’s really not a problem, as there is a one-to-one correspondence between the letters in the two alphabets. The Serbian Orthodox Church, at least in my experience, only operates in Cyrillic.
Mila Mulroney was born in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, but her father was from Novi Bečej, Vojvodina, Serbia. She was born Milica Pivnički. I met my wife through her cousin, who came to Canada as a refugee after his family lost their home in Mostar. He and his wife named their first child Mila, in Mila Mulroney’s honour. I agree with you that South Slavic people are warm and friendly. I found it unnerving when I first went there how close people would get to me, which in Canada often signifies that someone means to threaten you. I discovered that no threat was intended. People were just being sociable.
God bless you, Katie, and I hope you have a happy Orthodox Easter. Andrew (andrewbaldwin51@yahoo.com)
Thank you for your kind words, Unfortunate. I would be interested on your elaborating on the connections between Russian culture and Protestant culture in Wax's view, if you have the time. If not, I'll try to think about that a little myself.
Here it is, Unfortunate. I particularly liked his beginning, where he pointed out that Russia was the third most important country for taking in foreigners and Saudi Arabia the fourth largest. No year was specified and I am sure it changes from one year to the next, but it shows that having an autocratic ruler doesn't necessarily mean a country is not a magnet for foreign workers. I know that Tajikistan, in particular, has been a big source of mostly seasonal workers for Russia. The economic sanctions directed against Russia have hit Tajiks hard, although they have no part in the war against Ukraine. Here is the link:
https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/i-dont-care-if-amy-wax-is-politically-incorrect-i-do-care-that-shes-empirically-incorrect/
Sorry, Unfortunate, my admiration for Haidt’s comment was largely based on his attack on Wax’s comment that ““Everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans.” She said this as a follow-up to how wonderful Anglo-Protestant values are, and no-one would argue that Russians share Anglo-Protestant values. Not all of Russia’s rulers have been white (Lenin had very obvious Asiatic features) and some, like Boris Yeltsin have been born in Asia. So it was quite something to me that the third country in the world for taking foreigners in was Russia. The controversy about the impact of the pill doesn’t interest me so much. If Janice wrote something on the subject I would certainly read it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to study it.
There is a British guy, Konstantin Kisin, who seems to be all over the web these days. He is Jewish, Russian or Ukrainian as the mood strikes him. He claims he has a dark complexion, so maybe he qualifies as black-adjacent. He is always pounding on the drum that his family moved from the Soviet Union to the UK and this was the natural only path of flow for people. Edward Snowden moved from the US to Russia and he is now a Russian citizen but he doesn’t prate endlessly that this is the only direction in which immigrants between the two countries might flow. So-called intellectual analysts like Kisin should really grow up.
I don’t know if you are right about Haidt. I can’t get into his brain and I rather doubt that you can either. It might make a great film though, “Being Jon Haidt”, like a sequel to “Being John Malkovich.” Malkovich is of Croatian descent on his father’s side by the way, although I don’t think he speaks Serbo-Croatian. If you want to push Haidt’s motivations further, more power to you, but I have other fish to fry.
Rather of a blunt question, but are you of Yugoslav (any of the ex countries) ancestry? Or have you studied the Serbo-Croatian language? I am curious because of your several references to the language and ethnicity. My parents are Macedonians (the former Yugoslav republic), and there is a long lasting friendship and cultural affinity between us and the Serbs (we were the only Orthodox Christians in all of Yugoslavia, and the only natural users of the Cyrillic alphabet). As someone who has been born and raised in Canada, it is always interesting to hear academic references to the lesser known South Slav nations. It brings one closer to (ethnically speaking) home. I am also pleased to hear you describe Slavic values as Anglo-Protestant. Although we may not have ever achieved anything to the likes of Western Europe, we have still a rich and bucolic culture of our own. In particular, Byzantine architecture in the form of ancient Orthodox churches are haunting and sublime, especially as the age worn frescoes cover the structure from roof to floor.
Very nice to hear from you again, Katie. My roots are mostly British and they are Protestant. My wife Sonja and my stepson Miroslav are from Kraljevo, Serbia. I am trying to learn Serbian, but am lazy and not that bright, so I am not making great progress. One of the textbooks I use, “Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian” is from University of Wisconsin Press and they also publish a couple of books by Christina Kramer on Macedonian. Unfortunately, it is too late for me to learn Macedonian. I might think about learning it if I were younger. The number of Serbs and Macedonians is small, and they were under Turkish occupation for centuries, but, as you say, they still have done beautiful things. I love the Orthodox churches and cathedrals too. Since February 2022 I am a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church myself, and hope for salvation. I paid my respects to the Mulroney family when Brian Mulroney’s body was lying in state in Ottawa on Wednesday. Mila and Caroline Mulroney were both very friendly when I tried to speak Serbian to them and they spoke it back to me. I asked the youngest child, Nicholas, if he spoke Serbian too, but he told me he didn’t and I should try the other side of the line (where Mila and Caroline were). Have you visited Macedonia, Katie? I would like to see it sometime myself. I remember the evocative descriptions of Macedonia in Rebecca West’s book on her trip to prewar Yugoslavia.
It is beautiful to hear of your appreciation for Serbia and Macedonia Andrew, and your conversion to the Serbian Orthodox Church as well. I think you have probably observed that religion for Southern Slavs tends to be rooted more in culture and tradition as opposed to strict religious dogma and institutions, hence why we have, to my knowledge, never been responsible for any unfortunate scandals and/or genocides unlike our Catholic brothers (although Catholicism when free from corruption is still a commendable religion and of course, heavily associated with sublime European high art.) I had not heard of Mila Mulroney but am glad to hear of such affability on her and her family's part toward you; although it is typical of South Slavs to be very warm and friendly -- it comes with our scorching summers. As for learning Serbian and Macedonian, I would not chide myself; both are rather particular languages with a complex grammar (at least for Serbian, Macedonian is more simple in that it is the only language, alongside Bulgarian, to not employ declensions.) I grew up speaking Macedonian from absorbing, osmosis style, my parents who spoke it as much as possible with me, and it was not long before I learnt the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet (virtually the same as the Serbian, just a few characters added and removed) from some 80s television show. Recently I have been trying my hand at learning Serbian, which, after Bulgarian, is our closest linguistic neighbor, as my parents both speak it and happen to be Yugonostalgists who enjoy the shared entertainment and culture that blossomed during the Tito era. You might have heard of the famous rock band Bijelo Dugme, they were the sound of Yugoslavia and made two beautiful folk songs "Djurdjevdan je, a ja nisam s onom koju volim" (It's Saint George's Day, and I'm not with the one I love) and "Lipe cvatu, sve je isto ko i lani" (Linden trees are blooming, all is the same as it was last year) that I would fervently recommend hearing. As a family, we used to go every four years to the capital Skopje for a month in the summer (no fancy hotels, we stayed in my father's childhood bungalow home with his parents), and for a week we would take a train out to Ohrid, where the UNESCO preserved lake and famous ancient churches (St. Jovan of Kaneo can be seen on the cover of a recent edition of National Geographic magazine) were located. I fully believe you would adore the region with its mountains and rocky fresh water beaches, and tourists always have great things to say about the cuisine, which is a bonus. I have not yet visited Serbia, but I have heard nothing but praise from my mother and sister who went to Belgrade, with the latter telling me it reminded her of Western Europe.
Thank you very much, Katie, for your beautiful reply. You certainly make me keen to visit Macedonia. Good on you for keeping your language and I hope that you do find the time to learn Serbian, like your parents. My wife and stepson speak the ekavian variant of Serbian, which is standard and the most commonly spoken, and closer to Macedonian. That is what I am trying to learn now too. However, many Serbs also speak the ijekavian variant, which is standard for Croatian and Bosniak. If you learn Serbian, some knowledge of this variant is useful and virtually unavoidable. Ivo Andrić, the only Yugoslav writer to win the Nobel prize for literature, was a Bosnian Croat. After starting his career in Croatian he switched to writing in Serbian, but while his novels are written in ekavian, he was also a realistic novelist, so his dialogues are often in ijekavian. The Serbs also operate using both the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets, but that’s really not a problem, as there is a one-to-one correspondence between the letters in the two alphabets. The Serbian Orthodox Church, at least in my experience, only operates in Cyrillic.
Mila Mulroney was born in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, but her father was from Novi Bečej, Vojvodina, Serbia. She was born Milica Pivnički. I met my wife through her cousin, who came to Canada as a refugee after his family lost their home in Mostar. He and his wife named their first child Mila, in Mila Mulroney’s honour. I agree with you that South Slavic people are warm and friendly. I found it unnerving when I first went there how close people would get to me, which in Canada often signifies that someone means to threaten you. I discovered that no threat was intended. People were just being sociable.
God bless you, Katie, and I hope you have a happy Orthodox Easter. Andrew (andrewbaldwin51@yahoo.com)
Thank you for your kind words, Unfortunate. I would be interested on your elaborating on the connections between Russian culture and Protestant culture in Wax's view, if you have the time. If not, I'll try to think about that a little myself.