Here are some of the things going on around AGI this week:
On the new law proposing to set up a curfew for teenagers:
“The zeal with which Russian lawmakers are trying to protect children has led to a mix up in the approaches of government to kids and – what’s more important – teenagers.Let me remind you that teenagers in Russia can enter universities at 16, and professional colleges at 14 (those can be located next door or in a different town). Teenagers can get married at 16 – with or without parent’s consent. Teenagers can own property and can be responsible for certain legal agreements at 14.
And now it seems lawmakers are trying to set up a different legal status for teenagers. A teenager whose rights and responsibilities are clearly defined by the law seems to be given into a temporary legal ownership of the parent: parents are responsible for the teenager and shall be fined in case that teenager is found on the street after the curfew. That said, the teenager may be coming home from work to his wife: no one seems to be paying attention to that. “
On national holidays in Russia and their significance for the government :
“It seems Russians have only one national holiday left: Victory Day over Germany celebrated on May 9. Interestingly enough, the rest of the world celebrates the same victory on a different day, May 8 and in a different war, World War II, not the Great Patriotic War.
All other national holidays seem to be a problem despite all efforts by the government to institute such…..Therein lies a question: when will we stop building our national identity around the idea of setting ourselves apart from others? ….What made me touch upon that topic is not the Russian Victory Day that’s long passed, but in some way a parallel US holiday – Memorial Day – that is traditionally celebrated on the last Monday of May. That celebration is honoring American veterans but it has no victory over someone in mind, it’s sort of an umbrella holiday that covers equally everyone who protected their homeland in any of the wars that America was involved in, including those that not everyone will consider just and that are of course plentiful in the history of every nation. Those include the Civil and First World War, whose participants are no longer alive, as well as Second World War, Korean and Vietnam Wars and today the Iraq War as well. That celebration involves no demonstration of military superiority, unlike Russian Victory Day, the holiday is meant not to frighten or overwhelm foreigners but to honor and respect their own citizens…. ”
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