Envy and understanding

[Sculpto]

Looks like Blues and I agree once again.  Thats 3 for 3... 

Though, you did leave out religion and ethnicity.  Seems to me a number of the most recent conflicts have religion at their core with economics as the grand prize.  African conflicts seem to pit tribe against tribe with access to valuable natural resources and income derived from them as the primary motivation.  The Balkan conflict appears to be solely race/religion but maybe natural resources are again the unspoken backdrop.  Radical Islam against the world is harder to define in economic terms, but, given the oil resources and a possible desire to "milk" the world of every extra peso economics could also be the source, though i doubt it.

Liberation movements such as what is going on in Bolivia or Venezuela certainly have economics as the primary objective, though, in the case of Bolivia race is a primary component.  Same in Mexico.  In fact, in the case of Mexico, one of the reasons I have not been more active in the promotion of the Zapatista cause is simply because the Zapatistas have done a lousy job of informing the natives.  The Zapatistas use a lot of "high" language, yet, if you ask the average peasant supporter why "he" is a member of the movement he will explain it purely as economic with zero mention of human rights or self determination.

[Diplomacy]

Did you tell her the CIA did not want their bug back?  On a side note they have been trying to get the FSU to use 3 different strains of potato.  I do not know why they do not use them.  I guess in fear of the much rarer but waiting to be introduced Guam Potato bug

In reality the farming practices in the FSU are very antiquated, and a lot of this is the way we have always done it.  The crops have a lot more than that beetle in them.  Of course I am sorry it got there.

Siberia:

That would make sense there was a large Sicilian population in my town.  I guess that saves my childhood.

[SANDRO43]

Sandro, In the USA the 7 fishes dinner on Christmas Eve is a Sicilian tradition. As is eating baccala that night also.  I imagine as it is with many American traditions, it is based on an Old World tradition rather than being copy of it.

Siberia, I Googled for "sette pesci" and could only find 4 references, 3 of which from the USA. I don't have a Sicilian friend/acquaintance at hand to ask for a confirmation but, since I'm curious, I'll take the first opportunity that presents itself to verify this, to me, unknown tradition.

As is eating baccalà that night also

Baccalà/stoccafisso is another matter, long very popular in some disparate Italian areas like those around Venice, Genoa, Naples and Palermo (historically, all major sailing harbours). How this Norwegian specialty (stock fisk, stick fish) made its way to Italy it's a curious and fascinating story.

In 1432 a Venetian trader, Pietro Querini, was sailing towards Antwerp when his ship was caught in the Bay of Biscay by a storm that dismasted it and broke its rudder off. His unsteerable ship went adrift for weeks until it eventually made land at the isle of Rost in the Lofoten, where the crew was helped by the local fishermen, who were observed to have this strange habit of salting cod and exposing it to the local cold sea wind for drying to a wooden-like hardness.

Querini brought some samples back on his return to Venice, and it was a success (probably also due to its much lower cost, compared to fresh fish ). IINM, Italy is still the Lofoten's major world buyer for stock fisk.

[OlgaH]

I am not old enough to remember the US propaganda. 

Your job in Germany

[youtube=425,350]1v5QCGqDYGo[/youtube]

He May Be a Communist

[youtube=425,350]AWeZ5SKXvj8&feature=related[/youtube]

[OlgaH]

Better Dead than Red 

[youtube=425,350]KsqBs8iOmvE&feature=related[/youtube]

[OlgaH]

She was quick to  strike back at me over the Colorado Potato Bug.  I did not even dare to tell her that the Soviet Union used them for propaganda, claiming that the beetles had been dropped by the United States Army Air Forces, when in fact that was not true.

Communist propaganda (I think Czechoslovakian  )

[youtube=425,350]28N6TSaKQ-g&feature=related[/youtube]

[Diplomacy]

Would a beetle even live?  If it was dropped from as high as a spy plane flies in the air?  Wouldn't the beetle freeze to death and die?  Or implode at that height?  Did the beetles have cool call signs like "plague"?

[OlgaH]

Would a beetle even live?  If it was dropped from as high as a spy plane flies in the air?  Wouldn't the beetle freeze to death and die?  Or implode at that height?  Did the beetles have cool call signs like "plague"?

Diplomacy, probably the beetles had sheepskin lined leather jackets and parachutes   

http://www.bird-diaper.com/

[Diplomacy]

Wonder if they could make the goggles that small too?

[OlgaH]

Wonder if they could make the goggles that small too?

Diplomacy, I wonder if they had six pair of gloves or boots     

[Chillidog]

I don't know.  It seems that we each had equally well-thoughtout propaganda campaigns, but I look around and see that ours seems to have disseminated much less fiction and left an understanding considerably closer to fact. 

I am getting into this late I know and have not had the time to read the whole thread, but I would argue this point slightly.

I think the main difference between the "Western" propaganda and the "Soviet" (at that time) propaganda. was NOT the governments but who controlled "mass media" and the dissemination of information. We in the West learned things because of invesigative journalism that most likely our Governments did not want us to learn. Not the case in the Soviet Union back then and still to a big degree even now (to the general public)