Putin and the Femen

The Femen came to my attention a few years ago with there unconventional take on protesting for womens rights


" FEMEN (Ukrainian: Фемен) is a Ukrainian protest group based in Kiev, founded in 2008. The organisation became internationally known for organizing topless protests against sex tourists,international marriage agencies, sexism and other social, national and international ills.^{[1][4][5][6][7][8][9]}Some of the goals of the organisation are: "To develop leadership, intellectual and moral qualities of the young women in Ukraine" and "To build up the image of Ukraine, the country with great opportunities for women"


Hard to argue with ? Well no, lets face it sex tourism is prostitution if it is between consenting adults and is transactional, international marriage agencies offer a similar service on a longer term basis. I might add that if my spam mail is anything to judge by there are no shortage of Ukrainian woman who seem to want to get out too the west via marriage.

I am not convinced that attractive young women getting naked is going to convince the world that heading east  for a bit of R&R or marriage is a bad idea. That leaves us with social, national and international ills.

I have no doubt that Vladimir Putin fits the bill on those criteria so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to read this

"The women, who were not identified, told reporters they are members of Ukraine's FEMEN protest movement, which regularly carries out topless protests.

The three women initially pulled off their tops and shouted "Putin is a thief!" to reveal slogans painted on their chests and backs which read "I steal for Putin" and "Kremlin rats".

I guess this is part of the " developing leadership, intellectual and moral qualities of the young women in the Ukraine ", despite the venue being Moscow.

" The FEMEN protesters also tried to steal the ballot box with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's vote before being detained by police,their group said in a statement on its blog.

The protest occurred just minutes after Mr. Putin and his wife Lyudmila had left the scene.

"Three Ukrainian nationals were found guilty ... of petty hooliganism," the court spokeswoman told RIA Novosti."

I can't help getting the feeling that the Femen stuffed this one up. Putin is a former KGB career officer and is unlikely to be moved in any way by beautiful young women making the point that  he is a corrupt bastard tackle out as it was.

Now had the Femen  attempted this tactic with Berlusconi when he was PM of Italy, who knows ?

"THREE women who were arrested after protesting topless at a Moscow polling booth have been handed short jail sentences.

A Moscow magistrate's court sentenced the trio to five, 10 and 12-day sentences respectively."

Seems a bit over the top to me, three good looking women get a bit naked  and go to gaol, Putin corrupts the political process and becomes president.

Too fucking crazy to count as politics

I have done a few blogs on the insanity that is the extreme right generally and on the insanity that has infected the New Zealand version of the Republicans, ACT. In NZ we are blessed with the brilliant Danyl who runs the Dim-Post blog and daily manages to crack me up. I never read his blog with  anything in my mouth anyway he follows up on an ACT staffer who had a melt down a couple of weeks ago and got the boot, John Ansell.

" Via Blair McCarthy on Twitter, John Ansell’s letter to the Dom-Post endorsing Judith Collins as leader of the National Party, reproduced in full, because what would you cut out?

I quite agree with Vipi Gregory- Meredith (Letters, July 14) that former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher had the courage of her convictions. She was the role model for all conviction politicians (and conviction copywriters, for that matter).

But I don’t agree that she was a woman. Mrs Thatcher was, in fact, the greatest male politician of recent times and possibly the greatest politician, period. (Or should I say full stop, lest I suffer further odious comparisons with former Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern) chief executive Alasdair Thompson.)

And just as Maggie was a great bloke, Prime Minister John Key is undoubtedly one of the weakest of female politicians, with his readiness to put popularity before all those boring “economicky” things, such as catching up with Australia and slamming the anchors on New Zealand’s voyage to the bottom of the OECD.

As people can see, my gender definitions differ from many. I generalise for effect, and there are always exceptions.

On the same note, the strongest man in National’s caucus is undoubtedly Judith “Crusher” Collins. The sooner she takes over the leadership the better. "

JOHN ANSELL

Oh and I love his final observation.

" If Collins ever becomes National leader I’ll join the Labour Party and volunteer for them. Leafleting. Door-knocking. Anything."


I suspect Danyl is like me on the centre left and shares my contempt  for the Labour Party in New Zealand because they are a bunch of bloody incompetents. Ansell is a sexist  fool, but reading through the comments I discovered this.

"It is highly amusing how he use gender as proxy for qualities he likes/dislike rather than actually describing the actual qualities he likes in people. I wonder if he goes about his day identifying everyday objects as being male and female. V8s, obviously male. Meat, male as well. Veges, female, no doubt. I am aware that some European languages attach gender to many nouns, but I’m sure he will attach gender to objects based entirely based on what he likes/dislikes. Everything that is good must be male, of course.

It seems to be the weird “manliness is good, if you eat/drink/buy this you are manly” advertising meme taken to a whole new level. Never quite understood how that approach actually works. But maybe us males really are that naive and shallow. 

Comment by wtl — July 19, 2011 @ 5:57 pm"

Another fantastic piss take. I am not great at satire so confined myself to this

1. " I take your point but Ansell obviously didn’t read this.

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/john-pagani-left-leaning

   Comment by IHStewart — July 19, 2011 @ 6:00 pm"

Danyl  is, probably unintentionally a comic genius.

Hat-tip Dim-Post