Oct 17, 2009

A Moscow Winter without Snow?


Germany, now is the time to attack! But seriously, is it just me, or is Russia crazier than usual? According to YahooNews, the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, is promising to keep it from snowing this Winter. I'm not kidding.

For just a few million dollars, the mayor's office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city.

Some are not thrilled about the idea. For one, those who live in the Moscow suburbs are not thrilled about having extra snow. And secondly, environmentalists have not yet given an endorsement.

And thirdly, WTF?! It was bad enough when the Chinese were shooting at the sky to make it rain before the Beijing Olympics. Moscow is in the North. It snows there! If you don't like the snow, don't live there.

And, seriously, Moscow without snow is just down right un-Russian. What will your poets write about?

12 comments:

Olga said...

OMG, so much sarcasm and hatred towards Russians here! Please, don't be so hateful to the great nation---instead, learn history and read books--it surely will teach you some tolerance towards others and ...well, open your mind...

varske said...

Come on, the answer is obvious. Last time I arrived in Tbilisi our driver told me about the early snow. As a joke he said it was obviously caused by the Russians. "if you can use planes to move rain so it doesn't upset the Olympics, I'm sure they can create unseasonal snow for Georgia".

So perhaps there's none left for Moscow.

Doesn't explain all the early snow in Sarajevo. Or perhaps that's to help Dodik.

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

Thanks for the feedback Olga. To be fair, we care about Russia, its history and literature very deeply.

LIVLIVS MAXIMVS said...

Burya mqloyu nebo ne kroyet,
Vixri snejniye ne krutya ;)

Ern said...

1. I love Russia
2. I love Moscow covered in snow
3. I would support making it snow in Georgia, just once, to show Tbilisi who's boss.

voroBey said...

Olga, is your love for "great" Rasha so great that you are willing to tolerate chemical rain pouring down on you? It already happened. Haven't you seen those weird particles coming down a couple of months ago?! Seriously, get a grip on your patriotism and start worrying about your lungs if you live in Moscow or around it. I do worry about my daughter who works there.

Anonymous said...

Seriously Olga, I respect the fact that you're patriotic (I know I am) and have love for your country, but I completely mean it when I say Russia has brought all of the hate it gets on itself. Centuries of oppressing other peoples, hostily invading neighbours based on purposes of greed and stealing territories of others, not to mention systematically killing smaller populations and wiping out entire countries kinda, sorta attributes to all of that. Germany systematically killed millions too, yes, but Russia flat out refuses to aknowledge anything really being wrong with what they've done in the past. It's always "Well, it was ugly of course but we were forced to" or "Yea the surprise war thing was sad but there was no other way", it's never "We were wrong in this, we regret our hostility and apologize. Sorry".

Asking for tolerance for Russia is a little bit much when it's so rarely been able to show it to anyone itself. The national anthem and cool military parades are the best in the world though.

Anonymous said...

I should add to the previous that I don't mean to come off as too hostile, and I do not *hate* Russia and its wonderful people. But sometimes I just get a little pissed when people refuse to admit mistakes.

Ern said...

I think the distinction needs to be made. Sometimes you can love a country, but hate its government. Our criticisms of the former Soviet states are never intended as criticisms of their peoples. We love nations. We have issues with states.

LIVLIVS MAXIMVS said...

I agree with Ern - for me Russia always was Decembrists, Pushkin, Soljenitsin, reforms of Alexander II, and of course, Gagarin!

LIVLIVS MAXIMVS said...

... no matter what bloodsucker occupied the grounds of the Kremlin and colonized the Caucasus ;)

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

"...and Gagarin!"

Nice.