World authors join protest against Putin

[mal4mac]

Russia's anti-gay and blasphemy laws threaten freedom, says open letter signed by more than 200 writers from 30 countries. Authors, include Günter Grass, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/06/sochi-games-anti-gay-blasphemy-laws-russia-putin-letter-writers

[luhsun]

Silly bumpkins.. considering that putin has given russians some pride after the ussr collapse

[Frostball]

Silly bumpkins.. considering that putin has given russians some pride after the ussr collapse

That might very well be true. Nonetheless, he compares gays to pedophiles and supports laws banning "gay propaganda", which is something I'm steadfastly against. Anti-blasphemy laws are just as bad, if not worse. I do not believe religion deserves any special treatment protecting it from criticism or ridicule. It's a decidedly anti-free speech policy. Are these the most terrible things a world leader could do? Definitely not. Is writing a condemnatory letter an appropriate level of protest? I think it is. I fully support the letter and the authors backing it.

[mal4mac]

So Günter Grass, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, and other 200 are all bumpkins are they? All unsophisticated and socially awkward country folk are they?

[Emil Miller]

I think Putin is probably reflecting Russian public opinion. The only way of proving it would be to hold a referendum on the issue and that would stop special interest groups imposing their minority beliefs on the majority. In any case, as it stands at the moment, Putin isn't listening and I doubt that what he interprets as foreign interference in his country's internal affairs is likely to change his mind.

[OrphanPip]

Ya, Putin has given Russian's pride while siphoning off 50 billion USD into his personal bank account. Russians seem to have a pathological desire for an abusive corrupt autocrat to step all over them and tell them what's good for them.

[Calidore]

Ya, Putin has given Russian's pride while siphoning off 50 billion USD into his personal bank account. Russians seem to have a pathological desire for an abusive corrupt autocrat to step all over them and tell them what's good for them.

Living in Chicago, I sympathize.

[Vota]

Silly bumpkins.. considering that putin has given russians some pride after the ussr collapse

Stupidest comment, ever.

[Pierre Menard]

Out of curiosity…are they gonna protest the hundred and hundreds of other horrible dictators and autocrats who commit terrible human rights abuses that are still currently active…or just the easiest, most obvious target that everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon of criticising lately (deservedly)?

I mean, it's nice and all, but it's hardly courageous and it feels pretty empty.

[luhsun]

Authors should write books, or poems. Hopefully, gradually, the readers will be more liberal and the world a better place by dint of let's say, salman rushdie's literary prowess.
Preaching to the converted, and writing an open letter which achieves nothing but (self) masturbation.. or bullbaiting the conservatives ... now, that's what i call the supreme sacrifice of the creme la creme of world literature.

[Der Wegwerfer]

certainly not a Putin fan or someone who claims to understand Russian culture and society but I think it's strange that I've heard so much more about "rights abuses" in the lead up to Sochi than Beijing. What's going on in Beijing is much worse and on a far wider scale than Russia, including of course child labor.

[Seasider]

Power corrupts...etc

[lichtrausch]

And how much did we hear about the human rights abuses of the U.S. in the lead-up to the Salt Lake games?

[Frostball]

I think it must have to do with the fact that the whole gay rights issue is very hot button these days. It's an issue that has been a frequent part of the national and global conversation, perhaps just in the western world, at least.

It's a good point that I don't remember hearing as much outcry over china's human rights abuses. It's possible that there was outcry, but that I just don't remember it, but I'm thinking that it's true that there wasn't much, at least compared to this case with Putin and Russia.

But one thing that I don't agree with is saying that just because there were worse things in the past that there wasn't an outcry over, that now we can't use a convenient opportunity to speak out against something now. It's not a one or the other proposition, either. One can speak out against the rights issues in Russia and the admittedly worse issues in other countries. Just because Russia isn't the worst, doesn't mean it isn't bad, and it doesn't mean that we should just ignore it until we address every country worse than it. As an analogy, just because the flu isn't nearly as bad as cancer, aids, or even pneumonia, doesn't mean it's a bad thing to treat and do research on the flu.

So I'd say if one thinks there are worse things to speak out against than rights issues in Russia, what you should do is speak out against those worse things yourself. What you shouldn't do is cynically reject the premise of speaking out against Russia if people choose to devote their energies toward that.

[luhsun]

Charles dickens moved his readers to tears and helped the political process of outlawing child labour. Our famous writers now can only regress to signing petition .. and one is known to hide for 40yrs his involvement in the waffen-ss. At least chen lin used his literary skills to condemn cao cao via a famous petition to the emperor.

[Wondra]

certainly not a Putin fan or someone who claims to understand Russian culture and society but I think it's strange that I've heard so much more about "rights abuses" in the lead up to Sochi than Beijing. What's going on in Beijing is much worse and on a far wider scale than Russia, including of course child labor.

There was plenty of condemning of China before the Beijing games. Putin is flaunting the abuses which does make for more media coverage.

[OrphanPip]

Charles dickens moved his readers to tears and helped the political process of outlawing child labour. Our famous writers now can only regress to signing petition .. and one is known to hide for 40yrs his involvement in the waffen-ss. At least chen lin used his literary skills to condemn cao cao via a famous petition to the emperor.

This complaint is silly. First of all, Dickens wrote numerous political pieces in journals and delivered speeches on political subjects. Secondly, you greatly overestimate the actual effect of fiction on creating political change. And finally, Salman Rushdie's writings were deemed politically volatile enough that there is still an outstanding Iranian fatwa on him, and Atwood's Handmaid's Tale is read in schools as a cautionary story about religious extremism. I'm sure many authors on that list have produced socially relevant literature.

[luhsun]

And you greatly overestimate the effects of petitions on putin

[Volya]

What a load of pessimists on this thread...

At least they are doing something. Would you rather the entire world just did nothing at all to protest against homophobia and other injustices? I don't see any of you doing anything to make the world a better place yourselves so you have no right to criticize people who are actually trying to make a difference, no matter how small it is.

[luhsun]

The open letter will only provoke putin to clamp down harder. The open letter will do no good.. and i repeat my fears that they are semi literate bumpkins, or too lazy to spend time to write something worthwhile to persuade putin and his ilks.

[hannah_arendt]

I hava a question to you: Who of you have ever been in Russia? Do you think that petiton will change anything?

[Frostball]

The open letter will only provoke putin to clamp down harder. The open letter will do no good.. and i repeat my fears that they are semi literate bumpkins, or too lazy to spend time to write something worthwhile to persuade putin and his ilks.

I'm with Volya, you guys are being needlessly pessimistic. First off, what do you expect to happen? Putin learns about the open letter then decides to, what, increase all the prison sentences on gays, make private homosexuality illegal, or what? Your opinion of Putin is even worse than mine is if you think he's so immature that he's going to go "Oh yeah, well since you wrote that nasty letter let me just make all my policies even worse!". The idea is comical.

Now to the second point you, luhsun, made. Once again, this isn't an either/or proposition. It's not as if writing this letter made it so the 200 authors couldn't "write something worthwhile to persuade putin and his ilks" as you put it. This open letter was surely an incredibly small investment of time, energy, and effort, yet it's something that a great number of people have heard about and are talking about. Sounds like an excellent ratio of effort to effect to me. Surely a great deal of those 200 authors already have, and will continue to write works that advocate equality, human rights, etc.


I hava a question to you: Who of you have ever been in Russia? Do you think that petiton will change anything?

So you just want everybody to throw up their hands and call it pointless, because it might not change anything. Again, just needlessly pessimistic. This logic is along the lines of somebody saying "Have you ever even had pneumonia? How do you know this medicine/research will change anything?". One doesn't have to live in Russia to be well informed about the state of the country.

Maybe the letter will do nothing. Fine. But then again, maybe it will. And even if it doesn't do anything, there's nothing lost. Even if it merely makes these 200 authors, and those that support them feel some solidarity that they did something, and made their position known, even that is something.

[luhsun]

Ahh.. so the open letter is also hypocritical. Putin will do no more harm, and it is cost effective... let me too shed a few exquisitely sad tears and write about the poor gays and commiserate with them when i sip my usd10 coffee and nibble the dainty pastries at orchard road (singapore) this weekend

[hannah_arendt]

I think that you are not aware of many things happening in part of Europe where I live in and you don`t understand it. In Russia and other post soviet countries the main problems is money and awareness. Most western politics and their words about helping Russia or Ucraine seems to me a hypocrisy for me. You don`t have to agree with me. THe situation with Putin is more complicated. Do you think that gays` problems are importants for a Russian who cannot make ends meet? It is easy to say when you don`t have any serious problems. Naturally, Putin should have passed such law.

[mal4mac]

Do you think that gays` problems are importants for a Russian who cannot make ends meet? It is easy to say when you don`t have any serious problems. Naturally, Putin should have passed such law.

So it's alright to throw people in jail for nothing, insult people, and talk rubbish, if you can't make ends meet?

To dismiss everything as unimportant that doesn't put bread on the table is to live like an animal. Of course, if you are starving, then you should devote all your immediate efforts to finding a soup kitchen, but you shouldn't kick gays or protesting women on the way. (Thinking of "pussy riot" here...)

You might say, kindly, "I can't listen now 'cause I need to find food." But to dismiss the issue as unimportant, is to dismiss your own intelligence - and that should be the last thing to go.

[Aylinn]

What a load of pessimists on this thread...

At least they are doing something. Would you rather the entire world just did nothing at all to protest against homophobia and other injustices? I don't see any of you doing anything to make the world a better place yourselves so you have no right to criticize people who are actually trying to make a difference, no matter how small it is.
I agree. To be sure, this letter will not achieve a lot, but ultimately the only ones who can make a real difference are Russians themselves. This will, of course, require a monumental change of mentality in majority of Russians as they had their rights stepped over and over for many centuries and acquired something akin to slave mentality.

Still, I believe it is good that there is an international protest against injustice.

[hannah_arendt]

Everybody has the the right to have his opinion without being called idiot.

[hannah_arendt]

I agree. Don`t you think that some people criticise Putin but are afraid of doing the same against China or Corea?

[hannah_arendt]

certainly not a Putin fan or someone who claims to understand Russian culture and society but I think it's strange that I've heard so much more about "rights abuses" in the lead up to Sochi than Beijing. What's going on in Beijing is much worse and on a far wider scale than Russia, including of course child labor.

I agree. Don`t you think that some people criticise Putin but are afraid of doing the same against China or Corea?

[luhsun]

Fierce little cowards, safely ensconced in the west, think it is their holy duty to egg on idealistic quixotes to rise up against despots. Fly to russia or china or afghanistan..and fight the good fight

[Volya]

These authors are doing more with their letter (even though admittedly it will achieve next to nothing) than any of the complainers in this thread are doing.

[Wondra]

Fierce little cowards, safely ensconced in the west, think it is their holy duty to egg on idealistic quixotes to rise up against despots. Fly to russia or china or afghanistan..and fight the good fight

When I think of "safely ensconced" writers, Rushdie is the first name that comes to mind. It's obvious you are just trolling seeing as how you didn't even bother to see if perhaps there were Russians or Chinese authors involved.

[luhsun]

You wrong me, wondra...if you had only read down one more sentence..you would have noticed that i also mentioned the idealistic quixotes. These may end up like the pussy riots members who did languish in prisons and then cattily fight each others for handouts when superstars hold concerts to reward them for their valour.

[Frostball]

You wrong me, wondra...if you had only read down one more sentence..you would have noticed that i also mentioned the idealistic quixotes. These may end up like the pussy riots members who did languish in prisons and then cattily fight each others for handouts when superstars hold concerts to reward them for their valour.

And would you support putting these idealistic quixotes in prison?

[luhsun]

Nyet... but i hope you would fly to moscow and raise money or hold book signings ceremony for them after they finish their stints in siberia.

[Frostball]

Nyet... but i hope you would fly to moscow and raise money or hold book signings ceremony for them after they finish their stints in siberia.

Right.. I think I'm just going to have to disagree with your outlook on this issue entirely.

[Immemorial Joel]

Out of curiosity…are they gonna protest the hundred and hundreds of other horrible dictators and autocrats who commit terrible human rights abuses that are still currently active…or just the easiest, most obvious target that everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon of criticising lately (deservedly)?

I mean, it's nice and all, but it's hardly courageous and it feels pretty empty.

But anti-Putunism is the current zeitgeist and therefore has the potential to amount to something significant. These "other horrible dictators" are too numerous to simultaneously dethrone; the act of dismantling an oppressive regime must be done one at a time, and following the zeitgeist is the most effective way to achieve such an end.

[ennison]

Putin is yet to be put out. Russians seem to like macho czars. He plays a weak hand well from a Machiavellian point of view. But he has not noticeably presided over an improved material life for the average Boris. Much wealth has been siphoned off by corrupt cronies of the elite and much has gone overseas for conspicuous expenditure by abramoviches , libroviches and other viches