#ukrainian sign language

[antiquewhim]

Cooking something up after a WHILE because Lithuanian sign language lessons are the only fun study thing happening to me right now........

[arcanewebs]

does. anyone else experience the language learning pipeline of like

yeah why not seems kinda fun -> (optional step) the writing system is crazy bro -> damn theres no WAY im gonna remember any of this shit -> genuine interest and fascination with the differences between languages and needing to Know more

and its because of the stupidest reason for starting learning it in the first place

[bean-writes]

Hey guys! I'm helping my friend Zhenya spread the word about her mission to raise money for Ukraine by selling her art!

Here's the link to her Etsy shop where she's selling art to raise money for charities in Ukraine.

[amerasdreams]

Це дуже великий готел (this is a very big hotel)

For some reason this sticks with me

I need to remember a lot more tho....

[hellsvoid]

things i've done when bored (surprisingly often on trains):

- learn all european countries

- learn all european countries' flags

- learn all U.S. states

- learn all U.S. states' capitals

- learn all canadian provinces and territories

- learn all canadian provinces' capitals

- learn all great lakes

- learn all north and central american countries

- learn all north and central american countries' flags

- learn all south american countries

- learn all south american countries' flags

- learn the navy alphabet

- learn morse code

- learn Ezekiel 25:17 in Samuel L. Jackson's intonation

- write Ezekiel 25:17 in morse code

[accessibleaesthetics]

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of free resources for different sign languages:

American Sign Language (ASL)

Australian Sign Language (Auslan)

Australian Indigenous Sign Languages

Black American Sign Language (BASL)

Brazilian Sign Language (LSB)

British Sign Language (BSL)

Chinese Sign Language (CSL)

Emirati Sign Language (ESL)

French Sign Language (LSF)

Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Indian Sign Language (ISL)

International Sign Language (IS)

Irish Sign Language (ISL)

Japanese Sign Language (JSL)

New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)

Mexican Sign Language (LSM)

Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL)

Polish Sign Language (PJM)

Ukrainian Sign Language (USL)

Yolŋu Sign Language (YSL)

Please feel free to add on if you know of others, be it more resource for one of the sign languages above, or resources for learning any of the other 300 plus sign languages.

Edit: I updated the ASL reference to Bill Vicars, but reminder that these are just things I found around, please find Deaf teachers wherever possible! And for ASL, lifeprint.com is another wonderful resource.

Please also check out Lingvano if you want to learn American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL) or Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS). This app has D/deaf teachers and is designed for people who can only spend 5 to 20 minutes a day on learning and practicing, so it's very handy for those with busy schedules! Only the first few lessons are free though, then it’s around $10 a month.

[parasolyaa]

Mischa Bachinski is a completely wrong spelling of his name. Misha Bachynskyi is the correct form.

To put it simple, it just doesn’t make sense in Ukrainian language at all. Instead of the soft “sh” (ш) that is supposed to be in the name Misha (Міша), for some reason there is “sch” (щ), which not only is less appealing to the ear, but also the name Mischa (Міща) does not exist. Could it have been just made up on purpose? Theoretically yes, but I feel icky about foreigners making up a name that sounds so ridiculous and has no background whatsoever. Besides, it is pretty obvious that they were going for the name Міша, but messed up the transcript. The surname ending -ski is an outdated Russian-sounding version, -skyi is a much more accurate one for a Ukrainian surname. The Ukrainian letter "и" never translates as "i", only as "y".

Talias name was completely butchered too, more here (there's actually a wholeass rabbithole from there on). The name of the city where she comes from is spelled wrong (it's supposed to be Kyiv, not Kiev), and so is Misha's (it's Odesa, not Odessa), also it’s Chornobyl, not Chernobyl. Characters frequently say "the Ukraine", even though the name of the country is supposed to be said without the adjective. Basically, not a single Ukrainian name was spelled correctly, and many things about Ukraine also were completely messed up.

And these are not just wrong spellings! These are the remnants of Russian oppression, specifically in Soviet times, when all non-Russian names had to be transcripted from Russian, all non-Russian languages were stripped of their originality, forcefully made to sound more Russian, and advocating for the use of your language could get you deported or killed (and now the same thing is happening the occupied territories of Ukraine, Sakartvelo, Chechnya etc.). Using the correct version of Ukrainian names is at least a sign of respect and recognition.

I am not saying that back in 2008 when the musical was made the authors deliberately decided on using the Russian forms of city names and, well, people names. Back at the time the voices of people advocating for correct forms were not heard, and this didn’t seem like a big deal. But in the context of the modern world it is very important, specifically because there is a literal full-scale genocidal war in Ukraine right now. As a Ukrainian, the nuance of those names and spelling matters a lot to me, and it is the same way for other Ukrainian fans I’ve met. Some didn’t want to get into the musical specifically because of these issues, plus the fact that Misha is kind of a harmful stereotype for Slavic people in general, which is yet another topic to explore at some point in the future. And he is still the BEST representation we’ve got and I love him dearly.

I believe that using a correct form of his name is a battle worth fighting

[justacynicalromantic]

In early 2014, Ukraine was a neutral country, with a pro-Russian president, and with 70% of Ukraine's population against NATO membership. Yet Russia bluntly violated Ukraine's neutrality and annexed Crimea, then launched a covert invasion of Ukraine in the east.

Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election later in 2014 having promised a settlement with Russia, keeping a special status of the Russian language in Ukraine. He was initially sceptical regarding NATO accession, underlined Ukraine must rely on its own strength to provide security.

Did Putin meet Poroshenko halfway? Not at all. The regular Russian army entered the Ukrainian territory in mid-2014 to fight the Ukrainian troops, which led to the Minsk-1 agreement signed in September 2014.

Further text - down under the cut, or you can follow the Twitter link to the original post:

Few weeks later, Ukraine's parliament adopted a law that would guarantee the then Russia-controlled part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions additional economic, financial and cultural powers.

How did Putin react? Russia staged sham local elections in the occupied Donbas, and then sent the regular army again to Ukraine in early 2015, which led to the Minsk-2 agreement signed in February 2015.

Zelensky was even more sceptical regarding NATO accession. Asked about NATO, he once famously said he never pays anyone a visit if he has not been invited. He won the presidential election promising to compromise with Russia - to stop shooting, sit down with Putin and talk.

Did Putin meet Zelensky halfway? Not at all. He actually raised the stakes by issuing the Russian passports on the occupied territories of Ukraine even before Zelensky assumed the office, putting him in a difficult political position since the start.

Zelensky was ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid in an exchange for the Russian troops withdrawing from Ukraine. The talks were held already before 2022. What did Putin do? He launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the first weeks of the invasion, Zelensky was yet again ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid. But he wanted to obtain international security guarantees. What did Putin do? He demanded that Russia must be consulted before any aid would be given to Ukraine in the event of aggression.

To sum up, Ukraine has consistently tried to reach a deal with Russia over the last decade, and was open to giving up on its NATO bid in exchange for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukraine. Russia never reciprocated, never showed a good will, kept raising the stakes.

Both Poroshenko and Zelensky were initially sceptical regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. Both wanted to get a deal with Putin. And Putin himself pushed both of them to seek NATO membership out of no other viable alternatives.

Up till now, Putin has shown absolutely no willingness to compromise with Ukraine. His war aims remain maximalist - subjugating Ukraine and changing its regime. He seeks Ukraine's partition, and will turn what is left of Ukraine into Russian protectorate.

Russia's imperial self-conception is that of Russian elites at large, and not just Vladimir Putin. The Russian leadership simply cannot reconcile with the existence of a sovereign Ukrainian statehood.

Therefore any sustainable Ukrainian-Russian compromise is currently not possible unless the Russian cost-benefit calculus changes. Only credible risk to the stability of the Russian regime would impact this calculus. The easiest way goes through defeating Russia in Ukraine.

[germiyahu]

Maybe an ethnostate is an inherently dangerous and immoral idea. What has happened when other people tried to establish ethnostates?

Well firstly, Israel is not an ethnostate. There is no equivalent policy of Israelification or Judaification as there was (tbh is) with Russification, or historic and contemporary Arabization, Modi's attempts at Hindutva, Erdogan's extreme backsliding into ethnonationalism, etc.

Israel is a liberal democratic state. Some Arabs rejected citizenship, as is their right to do so on principled grounds. But most other groups who are not Israeli Jews have implicitly accepted the Social Contract of a modern liberal democratic state. They receive equal rights under the Law (which is enforceable), and they're aware that they're not the majority and that not every aspect of their culture will cater to them or center them.

Most of the country coming to a standstill on Shabbat could be a sign of an ethnostate, but if municipalities don't want to observe Shabbat, there are no enforceable laws that allow anyone to stop them from ignoring Shabbat. And if there are/were, they were much more frequently levied against other Jews.

Israel has historically not cared if its non Jewish citizens practice their own faiths, speak their own languages, observe their own cultural traditions. Jews do not proselytize. If Israel truly were an ethnostate we'd see a repeat of the Edomites being forcibly converted by John Hyrcanus. The reason this hasn't happened is not because Jews are "disgusted" by Palestinians, for the record. A majority of Israeli Jews look identical to Palestinians and historically spoke Judeo-Arabic. It's simply not necessary for any government to function to pursue an assimilationist policy. It's not a priority among any stream of Judaism or any sub-cultural group of Jews.

People's discomfort with a Jewish majority state, that utterly and thoughtlessly centers Jewish culture (through symbols, the calendar, the weekly/monthly/yearly cycle, holidays, etc.) is rooted in antisemitism. Because it's abhorrent to see Jews running the show. It's new, it's weird, it's even a little insulting. It's not the Natural Order of things. It's unfair. This is a primal Judenhass gene being activated, and it applies to everything related to Jews. There's an inherent hypocrisy in most people when it comes to Jews.

Even in a country like Japan which is considered by fascists to be an Ethnostate, that belies the diversity of the country. An ethnostate is not a state with a majority or supermajority of one ethnicity, nor is it a state that has implicit biases toward that majority ethnic group. An ethnostate must legally uphold the supremacy of the ethnic group in question and at best make no attempt to extend equal rights to any minorities. At worst, it will attempt to assimilate them or exterminate them.

Secondly, what happens in real genuine ethnostates? Well to name a few examples: the Apartheid system of Imperial Russia, with the accompanying pogroms that led to the collapse of the Pale of Settlement which ushered in the largest Jewish migration in history. The effects of this system are still being felt today, not just by Jews. The whole reason Putin and most Russians feel entitled to Ukrainian land and feel threatened by a Ukrainian identity is because Russification considered Russians Belarussians and Ukrainians the same people (which meant Belarussians and Ukrainians were to be forcibly assimilated by Russians).

Here's another example: Kurds in Turkey are still not considered a legally recognized ethnic group. They can't even spell their own names correctly because they have letters in their alphabet that do not occur in Turkish, and Turkish is the only language of state (Turkey as a modern state was heavily influenced by France and it shows). Kurds are routinely suspected of being PKK members and whole towns were bulldozed to make room for Syrian refugees, as a collective punishment against the Kurdish insurgency (which restarted amid the war with ISIS).

Saudi Arabia is an ethnostate, as are most of the Gulf Monarchies. Citizenship is a privilege only enjoyed by the Khaleeji Arabs, even though they're a minority in most of their own countries. Palestine is also an ethnostate, citizenship and rights are only offered to those who are deemed Palestinians. Nobody else is allowed to live there. The Israelis who illegally live in the West Bank have to be propped up by a military occupation and have to have Israeli laws stretched over the border to encompass them, because they would not ever be allowed to even live in the West Bank, much less be afforded any rights or citizenship. This is not just Palestine's fault, this was a precedent set by Jordan. The oldest of all Jewish communities in Palestine were all cleansed by Jordanian troops, banished from their lands and never allowed to return.

I hope you can see that ethnostates are not very compatible with liberal democracies, as liberal democracies by definition and by tradition have universal human rights (at least in the West). It is authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that typically strive for an ethnostate. There are shades of ethnostatitude in democracies, such as France, which uses civic identity as the privileged "ethnicity," and that civic identity happens to be French, which means everyone must be culturally French and speak French. Though it's not violently enforced there is a state policy of ignoring all minorities and their cultures. And of course Turkey, which has always been a flawed democracy, but is increasingly becoming dictatorial and wouldn't you know, the more authoritarian it becomes, the more Turkishness is a central component of Erdogan's goals and policies.

Are there Israelis who want Israel to be an ethnostate? Why yes, but are they significant or relevant beyond appointing Ben-Gvir as a token gesture to this radical fringe? Not really, though there's an alarming capacity for them to increase their numbers. Is any of that relevant to the daily functions and moral "core" of Israel as a nation? Not at all. If you don't judge any other state by it's worst most obnoxious most supremacist actors, why judge Israel that way? Is it those Judenhass Genes again?

[purplemang0z]

My Rtc Headcannons ^^

Notes: I ship Nischa and Perfectdolls so expect that and I'm going to interchange Savannah and Ricky's names for their character. I haven't watched Legoland, and this is an au if they all survived the accident. That's all. Enjoy! ^^

Ricky and Constance both write fanfics and have each other proofread it.

Mischa cries during every movie with a found family trope.

Ocean is an extreme perfectionist and has a hair brush on her 24/7 just in case her hair messes up.

Penny knows a bunch of random animal facts.

They all learned sign language in order to communicate with Ricky better

Mischa started crushing on Noel first but told himself that he just wanted to be best friends.

Penny and Noel really enjoy poetry and get together just to show each other it. They both have written some for their respective partners.

Ocean and Mischa are surprisingly close because Ocean used to tutor him when he was first learning English.

They all HATE Karnak and after the accident Mischa burned the machine.

Jane and Ricky both really enjoy stargazing.

Ocean's parents are both drug addicts.

Ocean is a sex repulsed asexual, a lesbian and transfem

Mischa is transmasc and bi

Noel is genderfluid, Ricky is enby and bi.

Constance is Pan, and Penny is a lesbian demigirl.

Mischa is really good at remembering languages.

Constance carries a bunch of sweets on her all the time.

Savannah knows a bunch of gossip because people talk about it in front of them all the time. He tells it to Penny all the time and she uses it as blackmail.

Talia is the sweetest person to ever grace the face of the earth and the whole choir loves her.

Ocean has really mean intrusive thoughts about people and sometimes says them out loud when she's rambling.

Penny likes to braid Ocean's hair.

Mischa and Talia have openly sexted on other people's YouTube comment sections.

Noel knows a bunch of different instruments and sometimes teaches them to choir.

Mischa hangs out at Taco Bell with Noel when he gets bored at work.

They're all terrified of Rollercoasters now.

Constance is a swiftie.

They all go to Mischa's house the most because his room is the biggest and he has the most games.

Ocean is the tallest and Constance is the shortest.

Mischa has made a bunch of music videos in his bedroom.

Savannah is good at writing music and sometimes writes Mischa rap music for his YouTube channel.

Noel has learned Ukrainian secretly to surprise Mischa. He also knows a bit of French (mostly the swears)

Ocean is super competitive and turns into a completely different person while playing games.

Constance has made a scrapbook of the Choir (with a bit of Ocean's help).

That's all for now! ^^

[antiquewhim]

Solomiya is hard of hearing, so she prefers signing when her aids are off. Aiva cannot communicate in a human language when in aitvaras form due to an incompatible voice box, in the story Solomiya teaches them some signs so they could talk to eachother

[selfaware-bungou-stray-dogs]

The Purple Sign. Part IV

Self-Aware! Nikolai Gogol x GN! Reader

Description: There's The Purple Sign on your door. Part IV

Fluff. Gogol pampering.

Gogol speaks both Ukrainian and Russian.

Warning: OOC. English is my second language.

________

You were on the kitchen. You were preparing for tonight.

Earlier today you saw Kolya. He took The Purple Sign from its display in the library and was laying on one of the many couches in the living room. He was staring at it, deep in thoughts.

You signed. For the last few days, you knew, that Kolya soon will use The Purple Sign. His behavior changed, and it was your cue to start preparing.

It's not like Kolya never used The Purple Sign spontaneously. Few times you were greeted by Purple Sign on your door and with Nikolai Gogol curled on your bed.

It would be the case, if he simply had a bad day. But, Nikolai Gogol and some other of your new friends had terrible weeks.

And you need to help them feel better.

Besides, you want to cook Nikolai's favorite dish.

You glance at the oven. Piroshki was ready.

Few of them were with rice and meat. Few of them were with egg and onion. One was with jam (and, of course, jam almost run out of the pastry).

The hardest part of the preparation was over.

_______

The dish with piroshki was covered with kitchen towel. It was standing on the laptop bed table.

You turned on the purple lights. Boil some water. Took two cups from emergency shelf and some tea.

From the drawer with Nikolai's name on it you took a pair of comfy clothes.

You made your bed as cozy as you can. At the end, it was soft, and covered in pillows and blankets.

You put your laptop on the bed table. You opened a folder with Nikolai's name.

Videos. A bunch of them. Circus performance from all over the world. Quiz games. Scary movies from all over the world. You opened the random video and paused it.

You put on your pajamas.

Now it's time to wait.

The moment you lay down on your bed, you saw a familiar golden light up above. You looked up and saw The Purple Sign was dangling above your head.

You took The Purple Sign and place the bag with comfy clothes in Nikolai's hand. You carefully pet his hand, showing, he can come in.

Hand disappeared.

You stepped outside for a moment and put The Purple Sign on your bedroom door.

You return to your room and lay down on your bed.

A few moments later, you were crashed in Nikolai's embrace.

He was laying on you. He wasn't wearing his signature attire, except of his coat. Instead of that, he was wearing clothes you gave him.

He still had his mask on. His braid looked unkept.

He tilted his head and looked you in the eyes.

Both of you were quiet.

You cupped his face. He closed his eyes, enjoying your warmth.

With two fingers, you removed his mask. His mismatched eyes looked tired.

You carefully unbraided his hair. Long locks of white hair were slightly tangled.

You remove his coat. He didn't let you stand up to put it on a chair and just threw it on the floor.

You run your fingers through Nikolai's hair.

He spoke.

"I am afraid."

You breathe in, but stay silent.

"I am afraid, that one day, I will want to prove myself that I can truly be free... Free from you, [Y/N]. Free from my dear birdy."

You still were silent.

"I am afraid, that... I am not fully human. That one day, instead of making a truly human decision, I will make the wrong decision... Because I was made to make this wrong decision."

You cupped his face again. You were looking each other in the eyes.

Kolya gulped and whispered.

"I am afraid, that I will do something, that will make you hate me. Or that one day I will hurt you."

You close your eyes and rub your nose against his.

"You won't. You are a human. A normal person, like any person you can find on the street."

You kissed his scar.

"You and I are both humans. Real humans."

You kissed his eyelids.

"Not good. Not bad. We just two people doing things."

You kissed his temple.

"We will make mistakes. We will fall. We will fly."

You kissed his forehead.

"But nothing will take our humanity or freedom in making choices. I knew, that you will never do anything that will make me hate you."

You take his hands and placed on your neck. You looked each other in the eyes.

"I trust you. I will accept your choice. You are important to me."

Nikolai Gogol was quiet. He was looking you in the eyes.

You knew, that he will never hurt you. Because you were one of 'his'. If you are truly one of 'his', it means that you are under his protection. If you're truly one of 'his', it means that you have a great friend.

Then a small smile appears on Kolya's face.

In one moment, your head was laying on his chest and his arms were wrapped around you.

"Ти просто диво, моя пташка¹" he whispered in your hair, leaving few kisses. "Настоящее сокровище, птичка моя.²"

You snuggle closer to him.

For a few minutes you lay in each other's arms.

"Up for a video marathon?" mumble you.

"Mhm" Nikolai rubbed your back.

______

Both of you were laying before bed table. Piroshki were eaten and tea was drank.

Nikolai was spooning you, a few locks of his long white hair felt on your face.

The video of quiz game were playing on your laptop.

Both of you were safe. Both of you were real humans.

Kolya hugged you closer.

You feel happy. And something tells you, that Nikolai feel the same happiness as you.

______

1. Ukrainian. "You are a miracle, my birdy."

2. Russian. "Real treasure, my birdy."

[mariacallous]

With Ukraine’s counteroffensive stalled and the U.S. Congress deadlocked over crucial military aid, some analysts have begun raising the specter of a turning point in the war that could lead to a Ukrainian defeat. While the situation on the ground is still far from dire, it could rapidly deteriorate in the absence of a significant infusion of U.S. military support for Ukraine.

The consequences of a Ukrainian defeat need to be fully understood. The likely geopolitical consequences are easy to anticipate. The defeat of a Western-backed country would embolden Russia and other revisionist states to change other borders by force. A Russian victory would frighten Russia’s European neighbors, possibly leading to a collapse of European collective security as some countries choose appeasement and others massively rearm. China, too, would conclude that Taiwan cannot rely on sustained U.S. support. Indeed, the ripple effects of U.S. indecision have already begun: In a move that recalls Russia’s illegal annexation of several regions of Ukraine, Venezuela this month claimed more than half of neighboring Guyana as its own. While there are no signs of an impending invasion, it would be naïve to think that other countries aren’t watching closely to see whether Russia’s land grab succeeds.

Many analysts have already described these far-reaching security risks. But they pale in comparison to the dire consequences for Ukraine and its inhabitants if Russia wins. It is important for both supporters and opponents of Ukraine aid to know what these consequences would be.

To understand Ukraine’s likely fate if Russia turns the tide, the best place to start is what the Russians actually say. On Dec. 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear that in his view there is no future for the Ukrainian state. On Dec. 5, he spelled out his intention to “reeducate” the Ukrainian people, curing them of “Russophobia” and “historical falsifications.” On Nov. 12, former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev made Russia’s appetites clear: “Odessa, Nikolaev, Kyiv, and practically everything else is not Ukraine at all.” It is “obvious,” he posted on Telegram, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “usurper,” that the Ukrainian language is only a “mongrel dialect” of Russian, and that Ukraine is “NOT a country, but artificially collected territories.” Other regime propagandists assert that the Ukrainian state is a disease that must be treated and Ukrainians a society that must be “de-wormed.”

More explicitly, Russia’s highly censored state television has, over the past two years, consistently promoted the rape of Ukrainians, the drowning of children, the leveling of cities, the eradication of the Ukrainian elite, and the physical extermination of millions of Ukrainians. For an excellent snapshot of these and other statements, Russian Media Monitor has compiled a must-watch collection of short clips from Russian television, complete with English subtitles. This coordinated campaign is not bluster but a harbinger of what awaits the Ukrainian people. In these remarks, we can see the contours of the atrocities awaiting Ukrainians under a total or nearly total Russian occupation.

We can also project the effect of a Russian victory from the atrocities that are already widespread in the Russian-occupied territories. According to official Ukrainian sources, nearly 2 million Ukrainians have already been removed from their homes and communities in the occupied areas and resettled in Russia, either temporarily or permanently. Other estimates range from 1.6 million to 4.7 million. Russian children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia since February 2022; nearly 20,000 of these are known to Ukrainian authorities by name. Transferring children from their home country and denying them access to their language and culture is not only an internationally recognized war crime. Such forced assimilation is also defined by the U.N. Convention on Genocide as a genocidal act. It is why the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Lvova-Belova’s arrest.

Russia is not only ridding its occupied regions of Ukrainians but also replacing them with Russian settlers—a tragic continuity with Soviet and Russian imperial practices of systemic deportation, colonization, and Russification. In the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where the Russian advance killed tens of thousands of civilians and destroyed 50 percent of the city’s housing stock, a handful of new apartment buildings were recently constructed. Some of that housing is being offered for sale, with Russians carpetbaggers snatching up real estate at bargain prices.

Ukraine’s partly occupied south offers a clear picture of the techniques used by the occupying forces to establish authority. A Human Rights Watch report from July 2022 documents a pattern of torture, disappearances, and arbitrary detention in the region. Citizens endured torture during interrogation, including beatings, electroshocks, and sensory deprivation. Several prisoners died from the torture, and large numbers have simply disappeared. Among the victims were local officials, teachers, representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, NGO activists, and members of Ukraine’s territorial defense. There also is a massive amount of information collected by human rights monitors and journalists about the operation of filtration and detention camps.

Political indoctrination and the militarization of youth are already key characteristics of life under Russian occupation. Political banners and posters promoting Russian patriotism are omnipresent in the occupied regions. New children’s textbooks expunge Ukrainian history and preach hatred for Ukraine’s leadership. The Ukrainian language is being removed from much of the education system and relegated to its colonial status as a quaint dialect representing nothing but a gradually disappearing regional culture soon to be subsumed in the Russified mainstream.

Already, millions of Ukrainians have had their lives destroyed in one way or another by Russia’s monstrous occupation. Were Russia to complete its conquest, it would be a multiple of that number. After almost a decade of war against Russia, Ukrainians are united and highly mobilized in the defense of their country’s borders, democracy, culture, and language, to which many Ukrainian Russian-speakers have switched out of disgust with Moscow’s invasion. Millions of Ukrainians have been enraged and radicalized by Russia’s war crimes and destruction of their towns and homes. Millions of Ukrainians have volunteered to assist the war effort, millions have contributed funds to support the military, and even more have turned to social media to vent and publicly register their rage at Putin and the Russian state.

That would not only make any conquest brutal and bloody. Should Ukraine lose, almost all of Ukrainian society would need to be punished, repressed, silenced, or reeducated if the occupation is to quell resistance and absorb the country into Russia. For this reason, a Russian takeover would be accompanied by mass arrests, long-term detentions, mass deportations into the Russian heartland, filtration camps on a vast scale, and political terror. If a serious insurgency emerges, the level of repression will only widen and deepen.

A major effort will also be required to rid the country of seditious materials, which is to say all films, novels, poetry, essays, art, scholarly works, and music that may contain positive references to Ukraine’s period of independence. Libraries and schools will be purged of all such subversive content—in essence, the majority of all writing and cultural output that Ukraine has produced during the last three decades. Writers and scholars will face the choice of repudiating their identity and past work or becoming nonpersons in the new order. Many will face arrest or worse, simply because they transport Ukrainian culture and stand in the way of Russification. Again, this is not speculation but widespread practice in other territories that Russia has occupied.

Russian territorial advances would be accompanied by a second wave of Ukrainian refugees far more massive than that of early 2022, when some 7 million Ukrainians crossed the border into the European Union. For the remaining Ukrainians, the future would be one of totalitarian controls on culture, education, and speech, accompanied by a mass terror on a scale not seen in Europe since the 20th-century era of totalitarian rule.

There you have in distilled form what a Russian victory would mean. Members of the U.S. Congress are free to vote against assistance to Ukraine if they think—wrongly—that the war’s outcome does not affect the U.S. national interest. But they should not be allowed to oppose assistance to Ukraine without being fully aware of the tyranny they will be helping to empower—and their responsibility for the massive and entirely predictable crimes that will ensue.

[kernel-emojis]

whew okay!! these took awhile to gain motivation for but >:)

Sign languages emojis! Please let me know if any of these are the incorrect acronyms/terms for the sign language, and feel free to request more from me!

We have: 1. American Sign Language (ASL) 2. British, Australian, and New Zealand Sign Language (BANZSL) 3. Chinese Sign Language (CSL) 4. French Sign Language (LSF) 5. Japanese Sign Language (JSL) 6. Levantine Arabic Sign Language (LASL) 7. Spanish Sign Language (LSE) 8. Mexican Sign Language (LSM) 9. Ukrainian Sign Language (USL) 10. Plains Sign Language/Hand Talk

[because-its-eurovision]

UMK 2024 IS HERE!

WHAT: Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (Contest for New Music) abbreviated UMK, Finland’s national Eurovision selection

WHEN: Saturday 10th of February at 21.00 Finnish time (20.00 CET)

WHERE: Live from Nokia Arena in Tampere, Yle TV1 & Yle Areena

Commentary available in Finnish, Swedish, English, Ukrainian, Russian, Northern Sami and Inari Sami, Finnish Sign Language and Finland-Swedish Sign Language

HOSTS: Pilvi Hämäläinen, Benjamin & Viivi Pumpanen

RUNNING ORDER:

1. Sini Sabotage - Kuori mua

2. Cyan Kicks - Dancing With Demons

3. Jesse Markin - Glow

4. Mikael Gabriel x nublu - Vox Populi

5. Sara Siipola - Paskana

6. Sexmane - MANIA

7. Windows95man - No Rules!

OPENING ACT: KUUMAA & Benjamin

GUEST ACT: Käärijä & Erika Vikman

VOTING: 75% public vote, 25% international jury

Voting via Yle App (one free vote), text message or calling (1 €/vote, unlimited)

PS. All performances, including the opening and interval acts, will be uploaded to UMK’s YouTube channel. Full show will also be available for re-watching at Yle Areena.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lauren Gambino at The Guardian:

Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion. The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine. “It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer,” Biden said, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the bill.

“It was a difficult path,” he continued. “It should have been easier and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does. We rose to the moment, came together, and we got it done.” The White House first sent its request for the foreign aid package to Congress in October, and US officials have said the months-long delay hurt Ukraine on the battlefield. Promising to “move fast”, Biden said the US would begin shipping weapons and equipment to Ukraine within a matter of hours. Biden admonished “Maga Republicans” for blocking the aid package as Ukrainian soldiers were running out of artillery shells and ammunition as Iran, China and North Korea helped Russia to ramp up its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Rejecting the view that Ukraine is locked in an unwinnable conflict that has become a drain on US resources, Biden hailed Ukraine’s army as a “fighting force with the will and the skill to win”. But the president also pressed the case that supporting Ukraine was in the national security interest of the US.

[...] In an effort to attract Republican support, the security bill includes a provision that could see a nationwide ban on TikTok. The House also added language mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump, who has stoked anti-Ukraine sentiment among conservatives. Although support for the package was overwhelming, several Democrats have expressed their concern with sending Israel additional military aid as it prosecutes a war that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza and plunged the territory into a humanitarian crisis. Three progressive senators, Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch of Vermont and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, voted against the bill for its inclusion of military support to Israel.

On Wednesday, Biden called the aid to Israel “vital”, especially in the wake of Iran’s unprecedented aerial assault on the country. Israel, with help from the US, UK and Jordan, intercepted nearly all of the missiles and drones and there were no reported fatalities. The attack had been launched in retaliation against an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular site in Syria. “My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad,” Biden said. “The security of Israel is critical. I will always make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists who it supports.” Biden’s abiding support for Israel’s war in Gaza has hurt his political standing with key parts of the Democratic coalition, especially among young people. As he spoke, students at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities were demonstrating against the war. Biden emphasized that the bill also increases humanitarian assistance to Gaza, touting his administration’s efforts to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the devastated territory. But House Republicans added a provision to the bill prohibiting funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Unrwa, a “lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza” that Israel has sought to disband.

President Biden signed a foreign aid package worth $95BN containing foreign aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel and provisions to a TikTok ban.

The good: Ukraine and Taiwan funding. The bad: TikTok ban and Israel funding.

See Also:

Vox: Ukraine aid and a potential TikTok ban: What’s in the House’s new $95 billion bill