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38 comments on The Game is afoot, or another look East of the Caspian.

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Don Sailorman on April 7, 2006 - 12:12am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
The "Great Game" is from Kipling's KIM, but "The game's afoot, Watson!" refers of course to Sherlock Holmes.

With both the talents of Kim and Sherlock I think it would take years to figure out what is actually happening, because there are so many incentives for disinformation to be dissemminated--and also so much information that nobody knows or that somebody knows but has never been compiled.

How about, "a mystery inside an enigma"?

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Nick Rouse on April 7, 2006 - 5:48am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
"the game's afoot" was used by Sherlock Holmes but he was quoting from Shakespeare, Henry V Act3  Scene 1. The speech before Harfleur
"I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

"a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" was Sir Winston Churchill describing Russia

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Don Sailorman on April 7, 2006 - 9:36am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thanks--glad to see other literary types on board.

Much can be learned from literature, and indeed I think for the Deep Universal Eternal Truths (DUETs) literature is at least as important as science.

KIM is a remarkable book, and if both the Russian and American leaders had read all of Kipling, then I doubt that either great power would have blundered into Afghanistan, as both of them did.

Also, IMO, Kipling's famous poem that begins, "East is East and West is West, . . ." is one of the most powerful antiracist statements ever made.

Currently I am rereading all of Joseph Conrad. Ohmigod, nothing is more relevant than "Heart of Darkness" to what is now happening in Nigeria.  

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sr on April 7, 2006 - 11:36am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Do not fail to read V.S. Naipaul's "A Bend in the River", a perfect companion novel to "Heart of Darkness".
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Don Sailorman on April 7, 2006 - 12:02pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I love V.S. Naipul's works.

Be sure also to read his classic, "North of South," but then again, you probably already have.

Brilliant guy, and iconoclastic to the max.

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Roger on April 7, 2006 - 6:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
;-)
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RussFag on April 7, 2006 - 6:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
"I think it would take years to figure out what is actually happening"

May I offer you a look from inside?
I think that outsiders don't understand the scale of changes in Russia.
Russia'00 and Russia'06 are two absolutely different countries.
Today Moscow in many aspects is like Berlin in 1932. And the process accelerates day by day.

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Fletcher on April 7, 2006 - 7:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Wow!! Can you expand on that comparison, and then provide supporting citations. Are you suggesting that Putin is akin to Adolph Hilter in his assertions of power?
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RussFag on April 8, 2006 - 4:44pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The main similarity between modern Russia and old Germany is the idea of revanche that is roaming minds here.
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Don Sailorman on April 8, 2006 - 5:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Ohmigod! You are not serious.

Please, tell me that you are not serious.

Please.

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RussFag on April 8, 2006 - 7:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Well, maybe half-serious.
When they will send me to America with a nuke in my bosom I swear I will bypass your house :)
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Don Sailorman on April 8, 2006 - 9:47pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thanks. You have removed a great burden from my mind:-)

But why on earth would Putin want to rule over non-Russians? He hates and despises non-Russians, as in Chechnya and would gladly use Stalin's solution to the Chechen problem if he thought he could get away with it.

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RussFag on April 8, 2006 - 10:20pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Pootin is neither racist nor Stalinist. His aim (as I see it) is orthodox Russian empire with some government-approved minorities.
When I say revanche I mean revenge towards good old enemies.
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Don Sailorman on April 9, 2006 - 1:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
O.K. I misunderstood "revanchist" to mean coveting former territory.

So Vlad the Putin is not a racist? Remarkable.

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smekhovo on April 8, 2006 - 12:09am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Not sure what you meant by this. Yes, there are some thugs on the streets, but I don't see millions of starving unemployed.
In 1932 Berlin, shiny new buildings weren't sprouting like mushrooms.
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38 comments on The Game is afoot, or another look East of the Caspian.

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