Who is "doomed"?

[thaibeachlovers]

13 minutes ago, Hummin said:

If you choose side, make sure you are on the right side, because the right side might spare you for your opinions, while the wrong side, will execute you! It is as simple as that

True, but I didn't choose my side. I was born into it.

[Hummin]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

True, but I didn't choose my side. I was born into it.

So tell me what your first choice would have been, if you had one? 

 

I wouldn't change a thing, I would still be a Norwegian, living in Norway who gave me all the opportunities I could have to do whatever I wanted in life! 

 

I'm grateful for my upbringing, my culture and also for the freedom we have experienced, and the freedom didn't come for free. So many forget the freedom we have today, came from post ww2, and what we had experienced and who we allied with. There is no easy way to be the leading force in the world, and unfortunately, it takes a toll on those who oppose us. 

 

Again, if it wasn't us, it would have been them, I trust me, Stalin wouldn't have made Norway or the west to what it has been, and it is today. Unfortunate, there is powers, who want the change the structure we had and have for now, and we will see, we will learn a new world maybe

[phetphet]

 

 

[Gweiloman]

41 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I don't recall LKY suppressing anyone. He made them all do national service together to make them see other races as no different to themselves- it worked. While I never saw a race riot I lived there during that time.

 

I'm also a fan of LKY. He turned a British military base into a thriving country, and tolerated none of the BS that blights the west today. When a cop there said to stop, one did or got shot. No messing about.

 

He did go a bit far with suppressing the "fun side of life" and the place got a bit too sterile. I loved hanging out in Bugis street till dawn, but it's apparently just shops and restaurants now.

Exactly. I don’t recall the CPC suppressing any minority groups either.

 

I lived and worked in Singapore for about 4 years in the early 90’s. Was given PR status without the need to do military service. 4 years CPF savings was almost enough for me to buy my house in one of the home counties outright. Those were good times.

[Lacessit]

6 hours ago, MicroB said:

 

Russian healthcare is crippled. Before Putin's War of Aggression, about 90% of medicines and 80% of medical equipment was imported. Firstly, healthcare is mostly not subject to sanction. The exception is certain dual use equipment blocked by the US State Department, which means replacement medical lasers.

 

But sanctions, and increased cost of shipping, means the availability of medicines has decreased.

 

Early on, Putin put a challenge to Russian industry to backfill the supply gaps. They have failed to do so.

 

On the one level, medicine inflation is quite modest; prices are up 4% in 2024. But Russian government healthcare procurement has declined. And the availability of medicines has fallen by about 10%. Before the war, most Russians used private medicine, mostly paid out of pocket. It was a growing industry, because State healthcare was so lousy (one of the memorable disasters of Russia's Pandemic, was when they decided to daisy chain ICU patients to save on ventilators. A leak incinerated the ward). When the war started, Putin prioritized the state for medical supplies. The private sector was all but dead.

 

The decline in the availability of medicines but only a modest inflationary impact means that there has been increased imports of cheap generics, probably from India and China, and a much narrower range.

 

Hospitals in the regions bordering Ukraine have been ordered to form combat brigades; essentiallt doctors and nurses are being co-opted as field medics, with a concomitant decline in the availability of medical services to citizens.

 

Headway, a Russian Analytics company, has noted the biggest cuts in the Federal budget are in purchase of medicines to treat severe illnesses. ie. mortality rates from cancer and heart disease, will tick up. There is a 20% decline in these medicines. DSM believes the healthcare budget has been stripped to pay for increased armament spending.

 

I recall that before the Aggression, Siemens had won the contract to overhaul the switchgear of the Russian Rail network. The network is still largely a decrepit Soviet era system. That work all stopped. Siemens won the contract because Russian companies were incapable of fulfilling the requirement.

 

Russian army reserves, and most of the armament factories, thanks to WW2, are in the Far East. The Rail Network is absolutely critical to the integrity of Russia.  It takes 6 days by train to get from Moscow to Vladivostok, and a brutal 118  hours to drive there. The road isn't mile up mile of shiney highway, but mostly potholed single lane, sometimes without a tarmac surface. In winter, the road is impassable. If the rail system fails, the Far East becomes cut off from Moscow. Obviously this affects the movements of goods and peoples, but it also affects the integrity of the Russian Federation.

 

Then headlines like this:

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-trains-derailment-mystery-1925131

 

Its not the work of Ukrainian special forces. Its indicative of a rail network under pressure.

It's not only the train system under pressure.

 

Russia's domestic airline fleet is 70% Boeing and Airbus. Russia is not getting upgrades or spare parts from those companies.

 

It therefore has to cannibalize existing aircraft for spares to keep flying. Software is not upgraded.

 

It's only a matter of time before there is a major air disaster, which in true Russian tradition will be swept under the carpet.