The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    Thread of a random meeting... Archived Message

    Posted by Ken Waldron on June 5, 2023, 10:26 pm

    & the state of the world Khazakstan style:

    Almut Rochowanski
    @rochowanski


    Waiting at Boston airport, next to me an older Central Asian woman putting on make-up: [in Russian] "are you Russian?"
    Me [in Russian]: "no, but I speak Russian"
    "Are you sure? Because you look Russian [I don't?]. Where are you from then? From Austria? So you're from Europe?"

    "So Russia and Ukraine are fighting, did you know? I can't believe it. They're all of them one people, they're all orthodox, says my mother who lived in Moldova for a while."

    Me: "the war happened because Russia thinks they're all one people, but Ukrainians don't think so"

    "I'm from Kazakhstan, from Atyrau, my name is Khalila, but I'm Galya to my friends. I used to love Putin, I thought he was just the best, until he started this war. Do you think he's gone mad? They say he's long dead and they show his Doppelganger on TV."

    "You saw Putin in person once?
    Me: "in 2006"
    "Did you notice any special marks on his body, by which we could tell whether it's a Doppelganger? No?

    My mother says it's all that gymnast's Kabaeva's fault, his mistress, she must have turned his head to make him attack Ukraine."

    "I transited through Germany recently and they wouldn't let me pass, they saw in my Kazakhstani passport that I was born in Russia. They made me show them all money I carried. They're really still Nazis, those Germans. My mother says they were Nazis then and are Nazis now."

    My daughter married an Italian, I'm going to see her. Can you tell me why they're so afraid of the Americans in Europe? This winter the gas went off, my daughter was heating with wood and my son-in-law told me he's worried about the Americans shutting the gas off for good."

    "I feel that lots of things are going wrong these days."
    Me: "well there is this professor at Columbia,
    @adam_tooze, who has described it as a polycrisis..."

    "...I worry that they're sucking all the oil and gas out from under the earth in Kazakhstan and Russia and the...

    "... empty spaces below will cave in and the planet will shift. Also, the Chinese are building an artificial sun.
    Here, take a candy, take two. You should come visit me in Italy at my daughter's place this summer. I love Italian cheese.
    Let me have your number for Whatsapp."

    "...Do you know any nice American men my age? Around 60? Could you help me find one? I divorced my husband a long time ago."


    https://twitter.com/rochowanski/status/1665805527157202944?cxt=HHwWgICz8aLTkJ4uAAAA

    Message Thread: