Нет, я не Байрон, я другой,Ещё неведомый избранник,Как он, гонимый миром странник,Но только с русскою душой.Я раньше начал, кончу ране,Мой ум немного совершит;В душе моей, как в океане,Надежд разбитых груз лежит.Кто может, океан угрюмый,Твои изведать тайны?Кто Толпе мои расскажет думы?Я — или Бог — или никто!
Я твердо все решил: быть до конца в упряжке,Пока не выдохнусь, пока не упаду.И если станет нетерпимо тяжко,То и тогда с дороги не сойду.Я твердо решил: мне ничего не надо —Ни высших должностей, ни славы, ни наград,Лишь чувствовать дыханье друга рядом,Лишь не поймать косой, недобрый взгляд.Я много раз грешил, но никогда не предалНи дела, чем живу, ни дома, ни людей.Я много проскакал, но не оседлан,Хоть сам умею понукать коней.Мы мчимся, нас кнутом подстегивает время,Мы спотыкаемся, но нас не тем судить,Кто даже ногу не поставил в стремяИ только поучает всех, как жить.
Суметь за свою длительную жизнь развить в себе качества, хотя бы немного превосходящие природные наши задатки… Кончить жизнь на уровне более высоком, чем начинал, – это может быть единственной целью человеческой жизни- Александр Исаевич
The Twenty-First-Century Geopolitical Strategy for Eurasia accomplishes Pilsudski’s Prometheism and Intermarum [sic] on a grand scale, by empowering all the small states of Eurasia from Georgia to Mongolia and seeking to integrate them and bring them closer by propagating Western institutions in an Intermarum-type Western-oriented grouping—not between Germany and Russia, but between the great Eurasian powers of the twenty-first century: Russia and China. While the fundamentals of this strategy are not new, they form a unique overall approach to the current challenges facing Western policy makers. The Twenty-First-Century Geopolitical Strategy for Eurasia advocates for greater Western involvement in Eurasia than ever before. It argues that Western involvement and integration is not only possible but strategically imperative, not just in the Black Sea region, but also around the Caspian and Central/Inner Asia. The strategy departs from the traditional emphasis placed on the future of Ukraine and its schismatic domestic politics. Rather, it links Western efforts in Europe, Russia, Afghanistan, China, and Iran into a strategic whole to form an overarching purpose for Western institutions and governments. It is neither hopelessly isolationist nor vaingloriously imperialistic. It is aggressively realistic, informed by geographic constants and the urgent need for the West to renew itself in its own defense. In short, it is a wise strategy—something sorely lacking in the Western attitude towards Eurasia today.from Alexandros Petersen's "The World Island: Eurasian Geopolitics and the Fate of the West" (2011)
[T]he Soviet Union’s collapse, which left the politically connected with tremendous advantages in securing economic assets and taking the reins of a budding capitalist economy. Meanwhile, the absence of strong political institutions meant that political leaders required an economic base, in effect to control institutions that provided patronage and ensured the loyalty of their followers. As a result, the power of post-Soviet politicians has been more a function of their control over patronage than the position printed on their business card. To survive in power, therefore, the leader of a country needed to have a larger patronage structure than anyone else. Because blood is thicker than water, family members of high officials were key to managing these assets. Sadly, however, some suddenly enriched family members did not handle their newfound wealth with grace. Managing wayward children and relatives became a constant headache for post-Soviet leaders. And beyond the family are other, largely invisible grandees who remain largely out of the public view but wield real influence.Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot
If somehow I manage to get home again, I promised God and myself that I would find a quiet piece of land someplace and spend the rest of my life in peace.- Captain Dick Winters
Being small opens us to many vulnerabilities which larger nations do not face [...] But smallness also confers us certain benefits which we should not discount [..] The most important factor is our internal strength, our national life-force. What we must have is a sense of ourselves and of our own separateness and identity. This is not a question of economics or politics or technology. It is a moral question and a spiritual question. To put it in another way, deep inside the heart of every Singaporean, what is he or she? If the sense of being Singaporean is in our very heart and soul, then we will survive even if we are temporarily conquered and occupied, and if we are dispersed the way the Kuwaitis were after the Iraqi army walked into Kuwait in August 1990. We will continue to live on as an idea and that idea will enable us to gather together again on this island. The Jews never lost the idea of Israel since defeat and dispersal by the Romans 2000 years ago. For a long time, they said to each other "next year in Jerusalem". They finally succeeded when the State of Israel was established in 1948. But the Jewish state confronts an opposing idea in Palestine, which is another potent force seeking expression in a physical reality. Until the idea of Israel and the idea of Palestine can co-exist in some way, there will be no enduring peace in the Middle East.Speech by George Yeo at the Temasek Seminar in 1996
Venice instead turned her insularity to advantage. Always sensitive to the requirements of trade, which was her lifeblood, the city-state established a system of administration founded on constitutional principles, the rule of law and the collective interests of her merchants. Slowly but steadily, with each invasion successfully repelled, with each crisis successfully overcome, she developed in her people that famous Venetian spirit that bonded Venetians everywhere together. A tradition of public service supplied the men of ability she needed for effective governance."Venice and Singapore: A Study in Parallels" - George Yeo
His own philosophy, in his own words, has long been a personal inspiration to me. Typically, he credited it to his seafaring grandfather. "The sea, like life itself is a stern taskmaster," he recalled. "The best way to get along with either is to learn all you can, then do your best, and don't worry--especially about things over which you have no control."Gerald Ford - Remarks at the U.S.S. Nimitz Commissioning Ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia
The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. The character and contour of a terrain may offer opportunities for agriculture, mining, or trade, but only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform the possibilities into fact; and only a similar combination (as in Israel today) can make a culture take form over a thousand natural obstacles. Man, not the earth, makes civilization."The Lessons of History" by Will and Ariel Durant
I don't pretend that my own military experience matches in any way what others here have been through. I didn't do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was proud to wear my country's uniform. And my own experiences gave me strong beliefs about America's obligation to keep our national defenses strong."Gore Tells Fellow Veterans He Is Dedicated to Military"
Vietnam certainly matured me in a hurry. It gave me a tolerance for complexity. I didn’t change my conclusions about the war being a terrible mistake, but it struck me that opponents to the war, including myself, really did not take into account the fact that there were an awful lot of South Vietnamese who desperately wanted to hang onto what they called freedom. Coming face to face with those sentiments [in the local people] was something I was naively unprepared for.Al Gore on Homeland Security
I developed a healthy respect for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and learned much from their successes and setbacks. Some of their experiences were profoundly relevant to us; others, less so. One day, while drawing up the layout for operational planning in the Air Force Command Post, Israeli Air Force Colonel Yaakov Gal objected to having different rooms for the planning teams. I had noticed this arrangement in their command post. He replied that Israelis constantly and loudly argued with one another and needed separate spaces for a bit of quiet. In Singapore's case, we were less boisterous and could do with more debate and interactions."Reflections on Singapore-Israel Relations" by George Yeo
Applied economic theory offers some analogies with engineering sciences. The starting point is a concrete problem, either already identified or gleaned from observing reality or listening to decision-makers, public or private. Then follows a detour through abstraction. The essence of the problem is extracted in order to focus on its key aspects. In this simplification process lies much of the difficulty of the exercise; for tractability, the researcher cannot take everything into consideration. (S)he must select what is important and sort out what is anecdotal (i.e., its omission has little chance of changing the analysis). The experience of the researcher and discussions with practitioners are very useful at this stage, although ultimately a study of the robustness to underlying assumptions is highly desirable. Then, the model can be tested: econometrically if past data are available, and in the lab or in the field as well. One cannot underestimate the interaction between theory and empirics: empirical work needs theory, both to guide it and to make it useful for policy. Theory needs empirical work to strengthen the confidence in policy recommendations and also to suggest key omitted ingredients.Jean Tirole Biographical
A lot of public policy is about the art of the possible. Compromise is not necessarily a dirty word.Robert Zoellick's Address at 2012 PRGS Commencement
Ultimately, I hope you have a passion for getting stuff done. That’s the real challenge – beyond what you’ve read in books, written in papers, the numbers crunched, the theories devised and tested. Because in the end, it is about putting those technical skills to work to get things done.
Many public officials seem content to hold posts, be part of the flow of events, analyze and comment, attend the meetings.
Be a doer. Keep your eye on achieving results. On accomplishing things.
I briefly flirted with the idea of dropping out of school and enlisting in the military—after all, I was a democrat in philosophy as well as party; I didn’t feel entitled to escape even a war I had come to oppose. I talked to Lee Williams about it. He said that I’d be crazy to quit school, that I should keep doing my part to end the war, that I wouldn’t prove anything by being one more soldier, perhaps one more casualty. Rationally, I could understand that and I went on about my business, but I never felt quite right about it. After all, I was the child of a World War II veteran. I respected the military, even if I thought many of those in charge were clueless, with more guts than brains. So began my personal bout with guilt, one that was fought by many thousands of us who loved our country but hated the war.
I always felt bad about escaping the risks that had taken the lives of so many of my generation whose claim to a future was as legitimate as mine. Over the years—as governor, when I was in charge of the Arkansas National Guard, and especially after I became President—the more I saw of America’s military, the more I wished I’d been a part of it when I was young, though I never changed my feelings about Vietnam.from Bill Clinton - “My Life”
I asked Ilves what created the room for imagination in Estonia. He suggested that it was Finnish television. During the period of Soviet occupation from 1944 to 1991, many Estonians were able to rig up receivers to watch broadcasts from their next-door neighbors, which remained unoccupied, albeit terrorized, by the Soviets. Finnish and Estonian languages are mutually intelligible, and this meant that Estonians could watch Finnish news. This wasn’t all, though, Ilves pointed out: they could also watch “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Knight Rider,” and other American shows, in English with Finnish subtitles. (This was also a great way to learn English.) Ilves is no fan of American television shows from the nineteen-eighties, but he appreciates what they symbolized for the people watching them behind the Iron Curtain. They meant that an entirely different world was possible. Estonians, it seems, still know that, and this spurs the imagination.Why Estonia Was Poised to Handle a Pandemic by Masha Gessen
War’s intensity is a great catalyst for reflection, but few combatants can afford the luxury. Most real thought must wait until the shooting stops. I wish I could say I took strength in combat from poetry or prayer or love, but I didn’t. I was concerned with more prosaic things: studying maps, planning missions, and cleaning weapons. When I had a few minutes free, I slept."When Yellow Ribbons and Flag-Waving Aren't Enough" - Capt. Nate Fick
[A]s far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, the first verse of the whole Bible, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: "In the beginning was the λόγος". This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts, σὺν λόγω, with logos. Logos means both reason and word - a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance. The vision of Saint Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (cf. Acts 16:6-10) - this vision can be interpreted as a "distillation" of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address (2006)
Gamesa of Spain was the wind turbine market leader in China when Beijing mandated in 2005 that 70 percent of each wind turbine installed in China had to be manufactured inside the country. The company trained more than 500 suppliers in China to manufacture practically every part in its turbines. It set up a plant to assemble them in the city of Tianjin. Other multinational wind turbine manufacturers did the same.How China Obtains American Trade Secrets
The Obama administration questioned the policy as a violation of World Trade Organization rules and China withdrew it, but by then it was too late. Chinese state-controlled enterprises had begun to assemble turbines using the same suppliers. China is now the world’s biggest market for wind turbines, and they are mostly made by Chinese companies.
A somewhat similar industrial evolution occurred soon after in solar energy. China required that its first big municipal solar project only use solar panels that were at least 80 percent made in China. Companies rushed to produce in China and share technology.
The Chinese government also heavily subsidized the manufacture of solar panels, mostly for export. Chinese companies ended up producing most of the world’s solar panels.
To understand Solzhenitsyn, one has to understand Ivan Denisovich, the character, and what he stands for. For his hero Solzhenitsyn did not choose a member of the liberal intelligentsia, who filled the Soviet camps in those days. In fact, Solzhenitsyn had a rather disdainful attitude toward liberals. He considered them people with a backbone that was either too fragile or too elastic. His hero was not a rebel against the camp regime, someone who considered that regime to be abnormal and contradictory to common sense. Ivan Denisovich has accepted the camp as given, a stage set on which the is merely an actor who must play a part, whether he likes the set or not. Ivan Denisovich's main goal is to survive. Therefore, he does not waste too much energy on the high-flown discussions of the intellectuals in the camp barracks, and listens to them only halfheartedly.from Yevgeny Yevtushenko's introduction to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
[...] What can you cut with talk of art? Ivan Denisovich is much more interested in the tangible tools needed for survival, and he is careful with the smallest trifle that could help him. He hides a spoon inside his felt boot; he keeps a crust of bread wrapped in a white rag so that he can wipe every last bit of gruel from his bowl.
Ivan Denisovich is surrounded by people who are much better educated than he is. Captain Buinovsky, for instance, still speaks to people as if he were their commander, teaching them not to pick up butts from the ground and smoke them, as it was unsanitary and could lead to contracting syphilis from the original smoker. Yet all his virtues did not help the captain or make him any smarter, for he ended up in solitary anyway. And what about the three camp artists, Ivan Denisovich reasons, what good are all their diplomas? Just to touch up numbers on camp clothes?
Ivan Denisovich has a different education--he knows how to stay out of solitary and how to hide a piece of hacksaw blade in his mitten. In the camp, an extra piece of bread acquired by hook or by crook is the only diploma of higher education that counts. Everything that takes place in the square of the camp zone under the theatrical lighting of the ruthless projectors beating down from the watchtower is the stage play in which Ivan Denisovich feels he has the leading role. The philosophizing intellectuals who surround him are helpless in matters of daily life and play only marginal roles.
"Хан богд уулын ар бие, Хатан Туул голын хойд эрэг хавьд миний бие бага насаа өнгөрүүлсэн юм аа."- Дипломатч Д.Эрдэмбилэг
the magnificent Bogdo ula—the true natural park of Mongolia, where since the eighteenth century the hewing of wood and hunting have been strictly prohibited. The mountain is considered holy and in the times of the Incarnate Lama rulers of Mongolia, offerings were made to it twice a year. The cult was begun in 1778 A.D. when a petition was presented to the throne, on behalf of the Urga authorities, requesting the Imperial Court to legalize the cult of the sacred mountain. The petition was based on the belief that Chinghiz Khan was born at the foot of the Bogdo ula. The petition was granted and the Emperor was pleased to grant an Imperial Decree ordering the sending of a proscribed quantity of incense sticks and pieces of silk from Peking twice a year.- from George N. Roerich's Trails to Inmost Asia
Generally, these four mountains are constantly remembered, as Mongols, wherever they happen to be, offer them the first best (deej) bit of any notable food or drinks, flicking tiny amounts into the air in the direction of the mountains. Many people have the idea that these mountains have, or in some way ‘are’ ruling spirits of the surrounding land. Each mountain has its own likes: Bayan Zurkh accepts all kinds of food and alcohol, but Chingeltei likes sweet things, Songino takes alcohol, and Bogd Uul will only accept products made of milk.- from Caroline Humphrey's "Avgai Khad: theft and social trust in post-socialist Mongolia"
Энэ зун манайх Богд уулын Богинын аманд зусланд гарсан юм. Уржнан зун Бага тэнгэрийн амны адагт, ноднин Хүүшийн аманд, энэ жил Богинын аманд гээд л Богд уулаа тойроод л байдаг. Таксины буудал дээр бараг цаг илүү хүлээж байж арай гэж нэг унаа залгалаа. Нутгийн салхины үнэрийн сайхныг яана. Нар шингэж байсан цаг. Богд уулын орой Цэцээ гүн, Ширээтийн хад тод улбартан, дээр нь гүн хөх тэнгэр цэлийгээд дотор уужрам. Богинын аманд дахь гэрийнхээ гадаа ямбий "Победа"-аар харжигнуулан очиж буулаа. Салхнид яйжийсан муухан гэрийн маань яндангаар Богд уулын хуурай мөчрийн оч хаялан байна. "Миний гурав хөөрхий галтай л байгаа юм байна даа" гэж бодтол өөрийн эрхгүй нүдэнд нулимс гүйлгэнэж, ам умалзаад ирлээ.- Сэнгийн Эрдэнийн "Халхын заяат харгуй минь"
Сэтгэл намайг дийлнэ
Сэлүүхэн тал дуудна
Богдхан ууландаа ирлээ
Борхон гэртээ заларлаа
