It talks about the enormous propaganda effort by Russia to label Ukrainians “fascists”. Stuff that you’re swallowing line, hook and sinker.
Giving seperate legal status to seperate regions based on percentage of minorities living there legitimizes the notion that they are seperate, and ought to be seperate, based on percentage of minorities living there.
Once again, has nothing to do with “lowering the status” of minorities. Don’t you ever tire of those red herrings?
Canada is an open, multi-ethinic society - and Canada lacks such an absurd law.Lacking this law isn’t a signal that the society is not open and multi-ethnic.
Except of course that has nothing to do with what is happening in Crimea - namely, an armed invasion.
You implied it here:
"… but it’s usually something like "oh, today they want their religion/language/whatever accepted … "
This is a textbook example of the fallacy of composition.
In your case:
Svoboda is part of the coallition governing Ukraine.
Svoboda is “fascist”.
Therefore, the government of Ukraine is “fascist” and measures approved by them are motivated by “fascism”.
Are you saying there are no fascists in Ukraine?
That Svoboda isn’t fascist?
That the Right Sector isn’t fascist?
No, it legitimizes the notion that they are different, and that that is OK for them to be different.
Trying to force the country’s minorities to “Ukrainise”, as Svoboda consistently does, isn’t what a free, democratic, multi-ethnic society should be doing. It is bad when they try to force “Russian residents of Lviv to ‘Ukrainise’ the names of their children.” It is bad when they question the Polish minority’s “right to erect monuments in honour of murdered Poles,” and picket Polish commemoration ceremonies in Ukraine, and even “interrupt the celebrations in honour of Poles murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Huta Pieniacka.” Is it bad when they insist that “the only official language of state structures (including the sphere of education) is to be Ukrainian, and the rights of national minorities are to be restricted to the creation of associations.” It is bad when they consistently demean and humiliate the country’s minorities. And it is bad that they recently attempted to repeal this excellent, excellent, excellent law, which hurt no one and did nothing but good.
Now, I get that you hate Putin. I get that you hate Russia’s aggression.
But to pretend that the attempt to repeal this law was fine and dandy because, hey, Canada doesn’t have such a law and you fellas are doing alright, is absurd. Svoboda doesn’t play nice. These people hate, hate, hate and fucking kill, as do their cheerleaders all over Europe. Hell, one Swedish Nazi just came back from a “tour of duty” on the streets of Kiev, and the first thing he did was to stab a feminist fella right in the guts over in Malmö, just across the water from where I live.
For those of us swarthy types up here, this is fucking scary. It is fucking scary to us when, all throughout Europe, neo-fascists switch to suits and ties and become members of parliament. It is fucking scary to us when xenophobia comes back all over Europe; when minorities throughout the continent are blamed for society’s ills; and when our rights to speak our own languages and maintain our own cultures is questioned. And it is really fucking scary to us when, in the case of Ukraine, people who really ought to know better turn a blind eye to all of this because, hey, fuck Putin amirite, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Where did I write that “lacking this law isn’t a signal that the society is not open and multi-ethnic”? I never wrote any such thing. I wrote that in this case, and under these specific circumstances, and given Svoboda’s track record, is it clear what parliament’s attempt to repeal this law was really all about.
No, that’s not what I implied at all. The opposite of “acceptance” isn’t “restriction.”
Did I say that all measures approved by the government of Ukraine is motivated by fascism? No. Just that this one measure, by Ukraine’s parliament (and not its government, as you write) reeks of it.
Also, when you put fascist within quotation marks, I just gotta ask - are you saying that Svoboda isn’t fascist?
Here’s pretty good independent reporting from Crimea:
Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine say preliminary results of a contentious referendum show nearly 90 percent of voters have supported sovereignty for their region (75% of eligible voters voted).
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/11/4110733/2-ukraine-regions-set-to-vote.html
So will they now form a separate country or will they join Russia–after the civil war with the rest of Ukraine?
Yup. And 99% of Syrians will vote for Assad, too.
An update for you on those 11,000 unmarked “defense” troops:
You were spot on not seeing much in the way of protest among Crimeans.
I take it you agree with this source generally?
… because its conclusions are that the East doesn’t want seperation or partition, by a large majority.
No reason not to agree with those conclusions.