[ExI] geezer guard

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat



>… ###...Since my father was a doctor and very popular with his patients, including the butcher, I did get to eat meat often. …And I still do! This week so far I had beef, bison and incredibly delicious BBQ ribs. There is some foie gras and an ostrich in the freezer.

 

Life is good.

 

Rafal

 

 

 

Our friends grew up in Ukraine.  They were physics students in Kiev when the accident happened at Chernobyl, which caused a lot of them to develop an attitude: they were expected to go out for the May Day parade when the physics students knew the radiation levels.

 

They are connected to the Ukrainian expatriate community so I get access to some information I wouldn’t otherwise have.

 

At a party one of the Ukrainians was telling of the way it was in the late 80s when western consumer goods were starting to become available.  Not enough, but some.  This caused new problems.  Information became currency: they found out a truck was coming with such and such amount of candy to so and so location.  His mother parked him in line.  He was age 10 at that time.  From his position he estimated a tossup whether he would go home with a bag of candy or empty-handed.

 

After he had been there nearly two hours, two full-grown men in line just ahead of him got into a fight, not just a tussle but a serious fisticuffs match.  It occurred to him that here he was, investing 2 hours of his youth and facing the risk of having an unconscious man fall on him or the other children in line, all for a 50% chance at scoring… a bag of candy.

 

He decided to hell with it.  Left without the candy but with a new and cynical attitude: why is it that western countries made all these wonderful things that we are reduced to fighting over?  Why can’t we just set up a candy factory here in Ukraine and make our own?

 

He decided to leave Ukraine at his first opportunity.  He landed here.

 

The Silicon Valley is a place with many expatriates from all over the world.  Here is a good place to find first-hand experienced blood-spitting anti-communism.

 

spike

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