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point a finger and three point back at youReader comment on item: Uncovering Early Islam Submitted by the Grand Infidel of Kaffiristan (Australia), Jun 11, 2012 at 00:09 "Let's look at the hard numbers" Unfortunately Google's translation of that link doesn't make 100% sense - so the figures you've supplied will have to suffice. "150 000 people are murdered every year. " About 7 times as many the US. To be frank, Russians are not reknowned for being pacifists. Coincidentally I saw a documentary the other night on crime gangs in my own country. This particular episode focussed on Eastern European crime gangs. The bottom line was that after the fall of the Soviet Union - Russian criminals saw it as an opportunity to expand their horizons. And that Russian criminals stood out as being the most devious and brutal - mostly because many of them were ex-military and intelligence service personnel. "What is interesting though is that the state pays 6800 rubles for a living of every convicted murderer while the same state evaluates the old age pension merely as worth 2 723 rubles!" There is a similar policy here believe it or not - many long term criminals have better conditions than many old age pensioners. So it is not unusual. "....1,5% of the population have concentrated 50% of the country's national wealth. " You can't seriously be suggesting that's a unique situation. "180 000 people die annually as a result of being affected by harmful influences and substances at workplace while 200 000 people are annually injured at workplace due to wear and tear and rapacious use of the industrial equipment and machinery. ............There are around 13 000 000 cripples and disabled people in Russia! 890 000 people suffer from tuberculosis. 1 000 000 people are mentally ill............. There are between 2 and 5 mln homeless children in Russia !!!Somehow the authorities are hesitant to give the clear number ! ........ Every year 8 mln abortions are carried out. There are 9 000 000 unemployed and yet at the same time the government is forcing a mad immigration policy from cheap labor Moslem countries like Tajikistan or Uzbekistan. 45 000 rubles are spent on a Chechen, 5000 on a Russian. The minimum wages in Russia are officially established at the level of 4611 rubles while the official survival level is established for adults at 6792 rubles, for children 6076 and for a pensioner 4961 rubles! " So - why don't they pool ALL the oil wealth into a fund and distribute it more equitably? It is their country - they CAN do that if they want to.Nobody is holding a gun to their heads telling them how to operate. Greedy Russians are amassing wealth at the expense of their own people. Just like greedy Americans, greedy Colombians, greedy Chinese, greedy Australians and yes, greedy Poles. Yes these truly are all terrible figures - but Russians (or anyone else) can't turn around and point the finger at people outside their own country for such they themselves having such bad social policies , political corruption and mismanagement. For a country with such spectacular scenery and one sixth of the earth's land surface - you'd think they could lift their game a little. Russia has enormous natural resources ( most of the world's oil now comes from there doesn't it?) - and many very bright and clever people. What it doesn't have is ironically, good social policies despite 70 years of hard-core socialism. "The life expectancy for a man in Russia is 58,9 years. In Australia it is 79.48 years.' A lot of factors contribute to that - but definitely lifestyle and possibly genetics. A good work/life balance means people aren't dying from despair. One thing for certain though is that abuse of alcohol creates massive social, economic and public health problems. The availability of and consumption of cheap vodka is a primary cause of Russia's woes. "You de-industrialize the country , creating thus mass unemployment and despair. " Many western countries are being de-industrialised - because greedy middlemen with no social conscience like to make more money by allowing the Chinese communist goverment to keep its overpopulated country busy working for 60c an hour making poor quality copies of goods formerly made by people in their own countries. "You destroy all of its social and moral regulating mechanisms." You mean like Stalin with the Russian Orthodox churches? "You demolish its education system, rob the country of its resources which you pass ("privatize" ) into the hand of few oligarchs you praise and call "democrats" because they transfer a few trillion dollars into the Western bank accounts." Who is the 'you'? It is the Russians themselves - specifically the most sociopathic - those with the most greed, ruthlessness, cunning and power . "Well, I once also thought Stalin was such a bad guy. Then I compared what he did and constructed " How much of it wasn't for the glory of Stalin? As I mentioned Kruschev and dozens of others - who actually knew him personally - and saw first hand the havoc and destruction left as his legacy - came to a very different conclusion. "As one Russian scholar later remarked, "we wiped out the best and brightest in our country and, as a result, sapped ourselves of intelligence and energy". He was a ruthless self-serving dictator , worse than Hitler and not even being Russian himself really cared nothing for the Russian people - as evidenced by the way he used enormous numbers of them as cannon fodder in WW2. He cared even less for all the people sent to gulags after WW2 from Russia and every other Soviet state. "what today's masters of tacit genocides "construct" with their kleptocracies established across the globe and I changed my mind radically. " An evil elite - drawn from all cultures and races and ideologies - with one thing in common - driven by greed and power? Who'd have thought? . Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". Reader comments (588) on this item
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