Friday coffee

While coffee may be  the world’s 2nd most traded commodity —after oil, of course–experts are still undecided whether coffee is good for you or bad for you.   Whether it causes cancer or whether it cures cancer…if you get my drift.  That is what I love about the so-called expert.  HE is never really sure when WE need him to be sure!  A list of the BAD things that coffee might do can be found here.  A list of the GOOD things–or so it reads like that— that coffee might do can be found here. 

Personally, I am one of those who finds it hard to live in coffee-limbo, so I have decided to elevate coffee to the status of RELIGION … I have FAITH in coffee.  END of discussion.  AMEN.

“Doubt everything. Find your own light.”
― Gautama Buddha

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KASPAROV PUTS POLITICAL CAREER ON HOLD

When exiled oligarch Alexander Berezovsky died under mysterious circumstances in April of this year, I wrote here on this blog:

‘It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, Kasparov’s political strategy will see in the near future.  With one of the most vociferous–if not THE most–enemies of Putin’s Russia now just a part of historical-lore, will the Kremlin’s security services step up the pressure on the more visible dissidents?  If Kasparov decides to hide in his house for the next couple of days, he should not be criticized too harshly.  I would be worried too, if I was him…’

Well, just this week Kasparov announced –in Geneva  during a press conference after receiving  the Morris B Abram award for human rights work in Russia –that he has reached the point where he fears returning to Russia.  That he has no intentions of  doing so for atleast the forseeable future.  You can read more about Kasparov’s decision on his FACEBOOK site.

In particular, Kasparov is worried about an official investigation into the legality of recent oppositionists’ protests, and he fears that he might be arrested and prevented from leaving Russia should he return.  BUT today it was reported in the Moscow Times that Kasparov’s name never even came up  in the list of possible dissidents to be formally investigated:

“I’m afraid I have to gladden Mr Kasparov, or perhaps disappoint him. He has never been summoned by the Investigative Committee for any reason, and is of absolutely no interest to investigators,” Vladimir Markin, the committee’s spokesman, told Interfax today”

Whether this is true or just propaganda, we will just have to wait and see.  It may very well be that Kasparov’s stature amongst the opposition leaders in Russia today is on the decline, and has been for a while now.  Some opposition leaders have come out publically criticizing Kasparov and even calling his lack of presence in Russian politics ”cowardice” and of having let down the opposition movement:

”Vladimir Milov, a co-founder of Solidarity who quit the movement in 2009, accused Kasparov in April of getting “wildly frightened” of the possible limitation of his freedom of travel in connection with the Bolotnoye case, Milov wrote on his Livejournal blog at the time.  Milov said it was a “disgrace” that Kasparov repeatedly urged ordinary citizens to take part in unauthorized rallies while he himself had abstained from such rallies since 2007, when he spent his first five days in pretrial detention on administrative charges linked to participation in an opposition rally.”

LINK

I suppose we will just have to wait and see where all of this goes.  With Putin back in power  many  analysts are uncertain of the future of Russian politics–and not only amongst the opposition movement.  Even those closest to Medvedev are nervous…see LINK

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COMING UP NEXT:

 COMPUTER CHEATING: IS THE CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE?