Politicis and Culture !

I wrote many times about politics, but never thought that could affect a culture.

As I always write, I'm learning. And this time I learned something new. Just like that could happen with rewritten books, that can happen with updating websites and finding the right moderators who accept or refuse the information based on the political side the website takes.

Of course, I know that in a war, the propaganda will be from both sides. But still there are things reasonable to do, and things I'll never agree with. For example rewriting the history, or censoring what's true. And I don't mean the truth we're not sure about, but that truth that impossible to distort.

Let me give you a clear example of that :

We all know that there is a war between Ukraine and Russia. And the war is not only on the ground, but also a very powerful informative war. And the informative one maybe even more powerful, especially when we look at it in form of the language, and maybe even the culture. And knowing both languages Russian and English, I would say that what's presented in Russian, is not at all what's presented in English. The same about other languages, because I know Arabic as well, and I've seen how most Arabic people took the Russian side before, and now they are kind of shifting the side. And who knows what other countries prefer to support. I didn't check that.

Anyway, as usually, I do my best to not take any sides and think that's a big game of politicians to distract the world.

Cultural example :

So, recently my wife @cherilay shared a simple recipe of a Russian food. At least me, living in Russia for more than 12 years, I thought that the dish is Russian. That's called ''Borscht''. And one girl from Ukraine told her in the comments, that the dish is Ukrainian. While it was clear that my wife wrote the following : ''Every family in Russia (and also probably in Ukraine and Belarus)''. So, she knew that the dish is also probably also prepared in Ukraine and Belarus. Because she never visited those countries, and she wasn't sure about that, just like me and most Russians here. Maybe the older generation know that the dish is Slavic.

So, I did the following. I went to google and wrote the word ''Borscht'' to check. Of course, we all know Wikipedia, but is that a trustful website ? I don't think so, because when my wife was looking for some information about veganism, she found there a lot of misinformation, and she even had to edit some articles and moderators were so strict with her. But she found the right resources, and they edited there based on those resources. But that was a few years ago, I don't think they will listen now anyway. And what I can change anyway with non-open source project. I always wondered, how Wikipedia earns from the website if they have no ads on it. I understand now !

So, they write the following about ''Borscht'' :

In English, the word "borscht" is most often associated with the soup's variant of Ukrainian origin.

I was surprised seeing that. The first thing I thought about. Oh, my god this dish is Ukrainian, I didn't know about that, but having a critical thinking, and knowing the Wikipedia could put wrong information there, I thought, but I need to check other resources. And of course I found the total opposite here : Borsch: The Slavic Signature Soup :

The name “borsch” is an East Slavic term and derives from the proto-Slavic name for hogweed. That vegetable’s pickled stems, leaves, and umbels (flowering canopies) were the soup’s original key ingredient.

And I trust that more. Because I know that most Slavic countries, have similar language, so they may have similar culture as well. And “borsch” is more likely known in all Slavic countries. So, I learned that “borsch” is not Russian but Slavic. And this information look less nationalist for me.

Another example :

Recently I shared the following post : Some monuments in my city !. And one of those monuments I shared was a monument of a Cossack. So, I wanted to let people know what is Cossack. So, I tried to share some information about that. And as usual the first website that pop up in the search engine was Wikipedia. And I was surprised again by seeing that Cossacks are Ukrainians, while I was thinking all the time that they are Russian. Anyway here is what Wikipedia shared :

The Cossacks[a] are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian (but originally Turkic) people group originating in the steppes of Ukraine.

And of course to be sure about that, I looked in other resources and if you remember when we didn't even have the internet, most of us installed encyclopedia ''Britannica'' on their pcs. So, I found the following about Cossack in Britannica :

Cossack, Russian Kazak, (from Turkic kazak, “adventurer” or “free man”), member of a people dwelling in the northern hinterlands of the Black and Caspian seas.

Or too simply :

Russian and Ukrainian people.

So, Cossacks are also Slavic. The term that will not more likely find used now widely. Because instead of making both sides solving their problems, the informative machine is pushing for more pressure between both countries and now even Lithuania is involved. It's kind of they are blocking the passage of Russian trains to Kaliningrad. And from the map Kaliningrad seems to be a very strategic place because it's next to the sea. So, it's another issue that may lead Russia to a war with Lithuania, and we may see the same campaign, just like we saw it with Ukraine.

And again, I'm not taking any sides here, because it's clear to me that both sides are playing this game. Where the victims in the end are regular citizens of both countries. From one side people losing their relatives, houses and running from their origin lovely country, and from the other side people being afraid to like me, that we will have a war here and the economic situation will be just worse with all these sanctions and what our politicians do.

No matter what side we take, no matter where we live, we just like to see Peace and Prosperity.

That's why we should always look at the alternative source of information.