<p>Now, I’ve heard everything!</p>
<p>
[Sexual</a> harrassment okay as it ensures humans breed, Russian judge rules - Telegraph](<a href=“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2470310/Sexual-harrassment-okay-as-it-ensures-humans-breed,-Russian-judge-rules.html]Sexual”>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2470310/Sexual-harrassment-okay-as-it-ensures-humans-breed,-Russian-judge-rules.html)</p>
<p>That is truly, truly sad and disturbing.</p>
<p>-On the one hand:
Living and working in peace, comfort and security.</p>
<p>-On the other:
The survival of the human race. </p>
<p>All with no hope of compromise, it seems.
Truly, it is a tough world we live in.</p>
<p>Russia has had a problem with low birth rates for several years. This is partly because of high abortion rates and the fact that many Russian men are addicted to alcohol and end up dead in their 50s. I am not saying what the judge said is right. I am saying that within that context, the judge’s comments do not seem totally nuts. Partially nuts, yes; but not totally nuts.</p>
<p>But is it okay to harass women in order to repopulate Russia? It makes Russian men sound so boorish and unattractive. As for alcoholism, is that women’s fault?
I understand your comments, razorsharp and I’m not trying to pick on you. But there must be better ways for Russian men to get women to fall for them.</p>
<p>China is going to repopulate Russia with its surplus males, so not to worry!</p>
<p>Sometimes I’m awfully glad I live in America.</p>
<p>Good one, Zmom! Or maybe, that’s why Russia is worried!</p>
<p>If rape and harassment are the only solutions to slow down the decline of the Russian population, God help that country! The major problem is that life in Russia has become so expensive, very few Russians can afford children. All incentives (paid maternity leave, cheap daycare, free madical care and higher education) disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>There was an interesting article in a recent NYT Magazine about the declining population in Europe. Apparently most adults there need to work because of high living expenses. In places where child care and maternity leaves are generous (Scandinavia and some other northern European countries), the population is not in such decline. But in many southern European countries, women have stopped having children or have reduced their family sizes due to the need to work full-time–and the lack of support for doing so while raising children. </p>
<p>The article also mentions America’s more flexible employment system, where women can opt out for a few years and then re-enter the workforce. Apparently that helps keep our country populated.</p>
<p>That made me wonder whether a country like, say, Italy, with its comprehensive health care system and government sponsorship of higher education would ever look attractive to American immigrants!</p>
<p>I have to admit, a sexual harassment remedy for population decline had not occurred to me!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>marite, could you possibliy try to read my comments first before jumping to conclusions? I did not say judge was right. I do not agree with the judge and nothing in my comments would suggest to any reader that I agree with the judge. I was trying to give what might be the context of his foolish perspective. Geeze!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My youngr daughter wrote a paper about the gender imbalance in China and concluded that Russia should be very, very worried.</p>
<p>No, …I’d say he was “totally nuts” and yet a wonderful and humorous respite in these doggedly repetitious political threads.</p>
<p>Flip Wilson was not even that funny as a judge…not as nuts, either.</p>
<p>I don’t think he was nuts – I think Russians have very different ideas from our own, and this is one of them. Russian women take sexual harrassment for granted, they expect it, because they’ve never experienced any other treatment. Russians are also convinced they have no homosexuals. And that they are not racist and have no racial problems whatsoever.</p>
<p>razorsharp. Back to you. I WAS NOT trying to pick on you. I was just using your comments as a springboard for discussing the judge’s comments. Geez to you!!!</p>
<p>It just seems to me that women would be LESS likely to find a mate and want to bear children if they know that their girl children would have a 100% chance of being harrassed. </p>
<p>Plus, to say that sexual harrassment ensures continuation of the species implies that the women who are procreating are doing so with their BOSSES, not their SPOUSES. That’s just off.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This seems to be a real problem in Russia, where women are expected to work outside AND inside the home without much support from the husband.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If that was the case, then you did not need to mention my screen name. You could have made your (offensive) point without suggesting I supported some view I did not.</p>
<p>this is certainly possible but it is also possible that the journalist simply took it from a russian tabloid without verifying it–I doubt something this blatant would be allowed, at least in a major city. by the way, Russia’s rate of population loss has been declining as the economy improves–by 2010 or 2012 the population may even start slowly growing again.</p>
<p>razorsharp: I am used to mentioning the people whose posts I am responding to, in case you did not notice. My comments were about the judge, not about you. I’m not going to repeat myself. In fact, you’ve just joined the list of people to whom I will not be responding. It’s getting long. I may have to limit my CC viewing to the Latetoschool thread.</p>
<p>
An apology would have been more appropriate, but whatever stops you from distorting my view again would be fine with me.</p>