Monday, July 30, 2007
"There was this one time, at Soviet Band Camp ... "
Madscribe:
I told RAG I'd be pairing down to weekly contributions from now on, but I couldn't let this little tidbit about state-encouraged lechery from the Daily Mail go without citation:
Does this mean that Vladimir Putin is really a Moonie?! Or perhaps, a Shiite Muslim?!
Oh, to be young and Marxist, again!
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I told RAG I'd be pairing down to weekly contributions from now on, but I couldn't let this little tidbit about state-encouraged lechery from the Daily Mail go without citation:
Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.
With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult.
But this organisation - known as "Nashi", meaning "Ours" - is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.
Nashi's annual camp, 200 miles outside Moscow, is attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters and involves two weeks of lectures and physical fitness.
Attendance is monitored via compulsory electronic badges and anyone who misses three events is expelled. So are drinkers; alcohol is banned. But sex is encouraged, and condoms are nowhere on sale.
Bizarrely, young women are encouraged to hand in thongs and other skimpy underwear - supposedly a cause of sterility - and given more wholesome and substantial undergarments.
Twenty-five couples marry at the start of the camp's first week and ten more at the start of the second. These mass weddings, the ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland, are legal and conducted by a civil official.
Does this mean that Vladimir Putin is really a Moonie?! Or perhaps, a Shiite Muslim?!
Oh, to be young and Marxist, again!
