russians love their children too but

there was a popular song by sting about his fear of a nuclear holocaust. the song goes "... i hope the russians love their children too ...". today, that song rings true more than ever because for the first time in history we have a desperate madman in control of an arsenal of nukes that could end the world as we know it.

before we judge the russian culture, it's a humble exercise to look at ourselves in the mirror and realize we are not saints. we eat innocent cows and chickens even if there already are plant based alternatives. i would even go as far as admitting i'm worse than the crazy mother who murdered her 3 children. i don't have kids therefore i virtually murdered all my potential children before they were even conceived. at least the 3 children got to taste the best things life has to offer such as the beauty of the sunset, ice cream, etc ... numerous times for many years before they were murdered. of course it's just a matter of perspective and i apologize for going OFF TOPIC. it's just that i believe lack of humlity is what will end our world, and only humility can save our world.

there is a stark difference between russian culture and the western free world. you might think the only way to fully understand a culture is to live and experience that culture long enough. making generalizations out of personal experiences is pointless and unfair. 

however, there is a very popular children's fairy tale in russia called "father frost" which i read 25 years ago when i visited russia and was learning the russian language. it's about a widowed man who has a daughter. he marries a woman who also had a daughter. the wife hated the man's biological daughter. in the middle of a lethally cold winter his wife ordered him to send his daughter to the woods and leave her there to die. the man obliged even if he loved his daughter so much. 

in western culture, the man would be consiered the worse human being on the planet. but russians consider the man as one of the heroes or a good guy. at first i thought it was just some sort of literary style so i talked to my russian friends about it hoping to get a better understanding. i was astonished when they told me they didn't see anything seriously wrong with the man. they thought the man had NO CHOICE but to obey his wife and the wife was the evil one. WHAT????? 

note that i'm not cherry picking or generalizing because the fairy tale is taught in all schools and well loved in russia. i'm not an expert on anything so all i can say is the brains of russians are wired very differently than ours. THE FAIRY TALE EERINGLY PARALLELS the russian military obeying their crazy evil leader's obviously insane order and attacked a country where many of the citizens are their family members. it's like manila attacking and killing thousands of cebuanos even if cebuanos did absolutely nothing to provoke them and there are so many cebuanos with a mom or dad who is from manila. i lived in ukraine for 2 years and almost everyone i knew had a close relative in russia.

i believe the US invasion of iraq was evil but at least americans witnessed the horror of the twin towers collapsing in 9/11 and iraq was allowing terrorist training camps to exist. at least US and iraq are 2 worlds apart with very different culture and religion. 

after the man left his beloved daughter in the woods, father frost, who goes around the woods freezing kids to death, passed by. YUP !!! you heard me right. the russian santa clause goes around freezing kids to death. therefore don't be surprised if mushroom clouds start to appear around the world soon. father frost was about to freeze the child to death but was impressed at her when the child talked to him in a very respectful manner. instead father frost gave the child a warm fur coat and a chest full of jewels to sit on. imagine living in a culture where the spirit of christmas is santa clause sparing the life of an innocent child for talking to him in a respectful manner.

the evil wife wanted to make sure her step daughter was dead so she asked her husband to bring back the body. when the wife saw her stepdaughter was alive with a box full of treasures, the wife asked her husband to also take her own biological daughter, which she loved so much, to the woods. when father frost passed by, the man's stepdaughter talked to father frost in a rude manner so she was frozen to death. my russian friends think the disrespectful stepdaughter deserved to die because maybe they believe children should already posses the skills of a foreign diplomat or ambassador.

filipinos should feel lucky that our brains are wired in such a way that the most evil president we ever had ordered his military to never shoot at anybody, not even at the opposing army, during the EDSA revolution. we not only love our children too but we also love the soldiers and people trying to overthrow us. 

although i think it was too good to be true. just read the lyrics of the song by ploky villame: on february 22, 1986, marcos already knew he was dying. he knew imelda was not competent enough, to preserve their family's prosperity, and protect them from their victims seeking revenge. marcos was fraternity brods with ninoy, and it's possible ninoy was also diagnosed with a terminal illness, considering pnoy died at a young age, and kris is also currently very ill. so maybe they planned the whole thing. the marcos family remained in power in their region. ramos became president after cory. enrile was senate president for many years. the aquino kids never showed anger and resentment towards the marcoses and they never quarreled. or maybe filipinos are simply good people who will never support a president who orders extrajudicial killings. i rest my case, your honor.

(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)