ossetia geopolitical wtf continued

[maria_sputnik]

PART TWO -- THE SADNESS OF BEING AN INFINITESIMALLY SMALL BREAKAWAY REPUBLIC

As mentioned in part one, the topography of the Caucasus mountains naturally breeds microcultures, one of which is OSSETIAN! The Ossetians are an Iranic mountain people* who are predominantly Orthodox Christians. They like dancing, cheese pies, and -- like the Georgians

Comments

[stopword]

these are useful posts.

I wold like a cheese pie.

[stopword]

would, of course. I haven't paid enough to be able to correct.

[maria_sputnik]

thanks, i'm glad you're reading them

cheese pies are yummy (though i've never had an ossetian one). there are instructions on how to bake them @ ossetians.com though right now it is so hot i can't imagine anything baking besides MY OWN SOUL

[ohbusiness]

I am basically on the edge of my seat.

[maria_sputnik]

ha! i think we just cross-commented on your lj

i'm glad you like it

and my basic position is that this isn't exactly a "good guys vs. villains" story, hence the emphasis on dagger-dancing and cheese pies

[antiabecedarian]

I'm enjoying this. & enjoying referencing your tidy informative style, also in imparting the "not exactly good guys vs. villains" part to friends, without knowing half as much and being just as confused and worried. Why is it, if the Caucasus has so many different ethnic & cultural enclaves, that Ossetia and Abkhazia are the only "separatist" entities? Just because of the cartographers whims? I often wonder what makes a group "long" to be united-- do they identify as a group because outside forces compel them, where they'd been dwelling harmoniously before? (ok for part of that one I will read about Ossetian history.)

They all seem to be toys in an ugly old game, now, as with Uighers and the international games between Al Quaida, China, and the U.S.

[maria_sputnik]

Well, there are other "separatist" entities in the Caucasus -- fr'instance Nagorno Karabakh which is in Azerbaijan but is mostly populated by Armenians, AWFUL WAR CITY. Then there's Chechnya. And there have been tensions between the Ossetians and the Ingush (some people think that the Beslan school massacre, which happened in North Ossetia, was designed to spark a kind of ethnic war between Ossetians and their Muslim neighbors). And that's just all I know about off the top of my head -- I suspect there's more

[maria_sputnik]

oh rad! i'm going to go read his entry, it looks great.

[congogirl]

I'm still trying to figure out where exactly Russia and the US think the "breakaway regions" are bound to get to before SOMEONE catches up. Jeez. This manufactured media-speak is driving me crazy also. [I am currently caught in the hell of Listening to Incessant CNN Reports, The Same Ones Over and Over, At the Airport During a Horrendous Delay.]

cnn's noise-to-signal ratio is v. bad

[maria_sputnik]

They are going to break away into the embrace of Mother Russia!