I count my blessings living in Ukraine. I can say what I want. We are not awash with immigrants. Nobody forced Covid vaccines on us. Putting up with Putin is a price I pay.
A work colleague got a booster shot last month. He collapsed in the hospital, apparently he was clinically dead for several minutes. He is now suffering random blackouts and severe memory issues. He told me that he was distressed that he couldn't remember what he did last weekend, it is just blanked out. He is/was a fit, relatively young PE teacher.
All this happened to a colleague and no one at work is talking about it, no one is expressing any scepticism or concern about the vaccines. It's stunning to me how everyone is acting like nothing happened and everything is normal. I think that I am living in a madhouse, while you are living in the land of the sane. I am genuinely baffled by how people just don't notice reality when they don't want to.
It isn't the effects of the vaccine that bother me so much, it's the way people talk to a colleague who has suffered these effects, and then they just blank it out, as if they never heard anything. It doesn't fit the narrative so they literally don't see what in in front of their eyes and they literally don't hear the words being spoken to them. Are people like this everywhere or is it a symptom of a decadent society? I'm guessing, hoping, that people would respond differently in Ukraine. Perhaps the elemental struggle strips away a lot of the delusions and illusions that accure during times of decadence. Or perhaps people just are delusional fools?
I don't know. There is surely selection bias. I don't know too many old people. Men here die younger, alcohol and smoking doing their part. I haven't met anyone with obvious dementia. We have seen Oksana's father, grandmother and great-grandmother die, the latter two in their 90s. They were withdrawn in their latter years, but nobody mentioned dementia. It is a different world.
After a long evolution, humans manage to adapt. Left to ourselves, we are a robust species. Seems your place has better climate than Wash, DC; cooler at night, bit lower humidity. For fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu7rPq_0kJ0 - Illegitimi non carborundum. Better days ahead, we pray.
I’ve observed that the Ukrainian diaspora in the area are suffering more anxiety than the natives.
I count my blessings living in Ukraine. I can say what I want. We are not awash with immigrants. Nobody forced Covid vaccines on us. Putting up with Putin is a price I pay.
A work colleague got a booster shot last month. He collapsed in the hospital, apparently he was clinically dead for several minutes. He is now suffering random blackouts and severe memory issues. He told me that he was distressed that he couldn't remember what he did last weekend, it is just blanked out. He is/was a fit, relatively young PE teacher.
All this happened to a colleague and no one at work is talking about it, no one is expressing any scepticism or concern about the vaccines. It's stunning to me how everyone is acting like nothing happened and everything is normal. I think that I am living in a madhouse, while you are living in the land of the sane. I am genuinely baffled by how people just don't notice reality when they don't want to.
I don't have any such stories from Ukraine. As to the USA, I don't hear much, but the fans of the vaccine of course would never tell me.
It isn't the effects of the vaccine that bother me so much, it's the way people talk to a colleague who has suffered these effects, and then they just blank it out, as if they never heard anything. It doesn't fit the narrative so they literally don't see what in in front of their eyes and they literally don't hear the words being spoken to them. Are people like this everywhere or is it a symptom of a decadent society? I'm guessing, hoping, that people would respond differently in Ukraine. Perhaps the elemental struggle strips away a lot of the delusions and illusions that accure during times of decadence. Or perhaps people just are delusional fools?
I don't know. There is surely selection bias. I don't know too many old people. Men here die younger, alcohol and smoking doing their part. I haven't met anyone with obvious dementia. We have seen Oksana's father, grandmother and great-grandmother die, the latter two in their 90s. They were withdrawn in their latter years, but nobody mentioned dementia. It is a different world.
Wise insights.
Graham, you are an inspiration. Thank you for putting a human face on wartime challenges. I wish you well.
After a long evolution, humans manage to adapt. Left to ourselves, we are a robust species. Seems your place has better climate than Wash, DC; cooler at night, bit lower humidity. For fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu7rPq_0kJ0 - Illegitimi non carborundum. Better days ahead, we pray.