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Dear Petre,

O.K., I won't even Anglicize your name and call you by your Ukrainian name - Petro.

I'm not trying to Polonize you - don't be so sensitive .

I agree with your assessment of the differences in the legal systems.

But the police "over there" has much more power over citizens to directly intrude in their daily lives and curtail their freedoms than police "over here."

And I have plenty of relatives, friends and acquaintances with me of recent emigration who themselves have come to that conclusion.

When are you coming over here for a visit and see for yourself?

Otherwise, as my uncle said of others, "V sratsi buv i hivno vidiv."

Alex

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In Defense of Alex, Peter, if you wish to be called Peter, perhaps you should change your posting name from Piotr to Peter then? If you use a posting name, you shouldn't be upset when someone calls you by that name. God Bless! God Bless!

No problem.

I am just tired.

Of course - but ONLY because Americans have real courts, while Ukrainians don't. Without that FBI would be maybe worse than SBU (as it is technically more advanced). Believe me, it's about our corrupted human nature...

Well, the conlusion is just that "things have not changed" or have changed minimally. Despite of all, previous KGB was worse.
I have not only known people, but have travelled
to Ukraine each year sice late 1980s.

Just send me valid invitation, few thousand bucks...and you'll have me "over here".

What elegant proverb! "He was in an ass and saw the shit" (in both Polish & Ukrainian "to see the shit" means to see nothing, "to know the shit" - to know nothing and so on; a very popular idiom, not used, however, among intelligentsia). Is my
translation accurate?

sincerely,
subdeacon Peter

Well, it would be good, but my e-address begins of "piotr.siwicki" as it's my passport name, so I didn't want to cause problems (my e-address is at work, so I cannot change the spelling).
And you defend Alex absolutely in vain. Alex needs no defence - he's able to defend himself pretty well.

sincerely,
subdeacon Peter

Dear Nik,

Thank you for your kindness!

We Ukrainians have always had trouble from those people from Poland . . .

Alex

Dear Petre,

Yes, the intelligentsia normally don't use such phraseology . . .

I just found your comparison of the KGB and its current clone with the FBI to be, well, nonsensical.

And I just wanted to be nice by chalking it up to the fact that you've not been here.

As for the phrase itself, I think it might be appropriate since you are a "Subdeacon" and therefore "Under" a deacon . . .

Let's leave that alone before the Administrator scolds both of us - me for using it in Ukrainian and you for translating it!

Alex

Actually I'm just considered Ukrainian by default. I'm part Russian & part Polish (with small parts of Irish, English, German, Czech & American Indian thrown in as well) but I figure that Ukrainian is the best explanation of part Polish, part Russain. God Bless!

Dear Nik,

That's O.K., Big Guy, nobody's perfect!

Actually, you don't want to hear a listing of my cultural backgrounds.

You'll think I'm a walking U.N. clone or something . . .

Alex

Dear Piotr,
How are Ukrainians treated in Poland today? Do you feel that there is still some kind of discrimination? How is the UGCC treated and or seen by the Roman Catholic Church? Just curious.
Lauro

Subdeacon Peter,

I do not know anything about the "Security Service of Ukraine" but I do know that it is both wrong and highly irresponsible for you to compare the FBI here in the United States to the KGB of the former Soviet Union. The FBI does make plenty of mistakes but it has never had the type of authority that the KGB had. The events in Waco that you mention are sad indeed and should have never happened. Sad as this is, the events in Waco pale in comparison to the KGB which was created specifically to spy upon the Soviet people with the goal of deliberately murdering those who did not adhere to the communist agenda. The KGB had purposefully murdered tens of millions of people.

The difference here is that the Soviet government was created to serve the Communists. Here in America we the people have created a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We are far from perfect but I am personally insulted that you would compare our FBI to the murderous KGB.

Administrator

Alex,

So you don't mind if I call you by your Ethiopian name, Alemayu?

Are the Catholics the only one being visited by the secret police? What about the KP Orthodox and the others? If this is supposedly stemming from the MP then shouldn't it be all inclusive for all non-MP Churches? I get confused by some of these news reports that only draw facts but don't connect the dots and throw in a little extra for context.

Sorry for my intrusion.

Administrator and Alemayu ,

In all due respect, any historian of the Civil Rights era here in the U.S. would have a different perspective than what you said about the FBI. While the FBI, unlike the KGB, may not have killed millions or thousands of people, they did hurt many. Under the infamous COINTELPRO program launched by J. Edgar Hoover some activists, such as Fred Hampton, were indeed killed. But they were few in number. The most harm that the FBI did was to spy on people, fabricate evidence, send bogus reports to employers to get people fired or not hired, break up families or try to break up families (like they tried with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s family) and basically ruin the life of people who wanted change. The FBI outright stood opposed to the civil rights movement and spied on every single one of its leaders, not just the militants (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being militant for your freedom) but also the most moderate (like Roy Wilkins). This is only one chapter in the book of FBI misdeeds.

If anything American the KGB can be compared to it is the CIA; and you can check on the hundreds of thousands of dead peasants and labor leaders in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and especially Latin America that both the KGB and the CIA were ruthless, brutal, and inhumane.

Just my 2 santeme not intended to distract for the overall subject of the thread.

Aklie,

I agree with part of your post. Our agencies in the United States are far from perfect and are responsible for committing atrocities. All of these horrible things pale in comparison to the KGB's murder of millions and I think it is insensitive, irresponsible and immature for you to put them on an equal footing.

Administrator

Dear Administrator,

I agree!!

And that is why I used the Ukrainian phrase I did to Subdeacon Peter, even though intelligentsia don't use it.

But I never said I was intelligentsia. . .

A smark Aleck maybe!

Alex

Dear Aklie,

Alemayu? O.K., I like it!

In Ukrainian, this means, "But I have it . . ."

I don't know about the FBI or whether they have members who belong to the Eastern Churches etc.

But there is really no comparison here with the brutality of the NKVD (Narodny Komisariat Vnutrennykh Del) and its later offspring, the GPU, MVD, MGB and KGB.

Have you ever met and talked with FBI and CIA? I have.

Have you ever met and talked with KGB? I have.

Personally, I'll go drinking with the former any day.

KGB agents tend to have this glazed over look in their eye.

Their gaze cuts down into your soul in a most unpleasant way.

The U.S. has its agenda, as do other super-powers to be sure.

But I'll take the U.S. "imperialism" over that promoted by the KGB and its modern spawns, thanks very much.

With all her warts and errors, I still say "God bless America."

(And what other country would support the return of the Emperor for Ethiopia?)

God love the Yanks!

Alex