Russia and Ukraine are somewhat more religious countries than the UK and I'm sure many people were very offended by this blasphemous act as we were when a student urinated on one of our war memorials. Considering the different moral values in Russia, I personally don't think the sentences were unreasonable. I sure if the Beatles and done a similar thing in the 1950's they would have received a similar sentence.
Their societies are much more conformist than ours and although a large percentage of men and women both work as a rule outside of work men are expected to act as men and women as women. Women are proud of their looks, styling and dress sense and being able to cook well for their husbands and create a 'cozy' house. Where here the media (especially the BBC) publicize women trying to act as men and men expected to express their sensitive feminine side. Personally I prefer their role model and feel more comfortable in such a society.
Ukrainian democracy is very different to the UK where in some areas they are more amenable to major changes in policy than here, like when they were debating a new tax code which would have increased the taxes and reduced the benefits of being self-employed. A few evenings of well behaved peaceful demonstrations in Kiev by large numbers of self employed showed the depth of the peoples feeling, so the president dropped the changes.
If you are out to provoke the government and its authority then they will act in a more forceful manner than they probably will in the UK (unless your peacefully demonstrate at a UK Labour party conference), but different countries, different cultures, different values. How different is this to Singapore and other Asian democracies?
I think the media and left wing activists like to create a storm as soon as a societies values are different to ours by trying to take the moral high ground and saying our values are automatically right therefore theirs must be wrong. This is very ill-liberal and ill-tolerant in not respecting their values which are just as valid (and IMHO in many cases better) instead of accepting different societies have different moral views and those societies tolerances and views should be respected. After all this is what makes societies culturally different.
Imagine if they had done this at a holy place in Mecca as a protest at the Saudi Arabian ruling elite there.
I think they would of been praying every night to just get 2 years and would have accepted that with relief even if had meant sharing a cell with DD.
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Topic: Pussy Riot (Read 3322 times)