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wow - like…. I didn’t think corvids did that synced flying formations?!
I’ve only ever seen this with like ‘flocks’ of starlings and things
@is-the-bird-video-cute how or why are they so in sync?? Im so curious!
Rating: Wild/Cute
These are wild ravens in a courtship flight. It’s a rare treat to witness!
russia has been destroying mariupol and razing ukrainian donbas to the ground for more than a month now, and it is directly related to greece and hellenic studies.
after russian empire de facto occupied crimean khanate in the 1770s, it was decided to deport local christians from the peninsula, among them dozens of thousands of crimean greeks. they were resettled to north azov region, a mostly uninhabited by that time steppe land. in the new homeland, greeks founded dozens of settlements, including a city (πόλις) at the mouth of the river kalmius called marianopol, now mariupol.
living in crimea, greeks were traditionally bilingual, speaking both hellenic and turkic languages. this is the trait they saved after leaving the peninsula. modern azov greeks (whose settlements are now administratively belong to donetsk region) are divided in two groups. there are rumey greeks who speak rumaic language, a hellenic variety also called mariupolitan dialect and there are urum greeks who speak urum language, a turkic language similar to crimean tatar.
late imperial and soviet industrialization forced azov greeks to forsake their agricultural way of life and began to undermine their cultural identity. they started to switch to russian language in public life, and their dialects, that didn’t have any written tradition, functioned only as colloquial. in the early soviet union, “korenization” policy was imposed. it was meant to promote local cultures and languages, integrating them into public life and government, but even here greeks experienced some problems. for example, there wasn’t any education in local dialects, instead azov greeks were exposed to dimotika greek and crimean tatar, languages they didn’t understand very well.
nevertheless, “korenization” ended in the 1930s and the most violent wave of russification in history began. soviet greeks experienced it very painfully. schools and cultural institutions were closed, national districts and village councils were liquidated. many ethnic greeks were repressed because they were seen as potential enemies of the soviet government. there was the whole “greek operation”, often called πογκρόμ (pogrom) by greeks themselves, when soviets killed and deported dozens of thousands of greeks all over the ussr.
the relative liberalization of public life in the 1950s and early 1960s stopped the waves of terror and repression, but there was no return to a democratic solution to the national question. it was believed that the ussr had already formed a new national community, the soviet people, thus national differences were considered insignificant and temporary. as a result, there was a significant reduction in the number of azov greeks and especially greeks who would consider traditional idioms their mother tongues. in 1926 104,5 thousand greeks lived in ukraine, of which 83% considered “greek” their native language. in 2001 91,5 thousand ethnic greeks lived in ukraine, 77,5 thousand of them were azov greeks from donetsk region. only 5.4% of those greeks called “greek” their mother tongue, the rest called russian.
in independent ukraine greeks got the ability to breathe more freely. without any restrictions and with the help of greece they began to create institutions to research and preserve local culture. nevertheless, donbas remained one of the most russified regions of ukraine, and it was a “bad tone” to show your ukrainian identity in urban areas, not to say about identities like greek.
after the war in donbas started in 2014 most of traditionally greek settlements remained under ukrainian control. but now russia re-invaded and it has more urge and weapons to destroy this beautiful region. they are wiping out mariupol from the face of earth, causing humanitarian catastrophes and committing war crimes in greek villages like sartana, yalta, manhush, urzuf and others, and be sure, there won’t be any space for greek culture under the occupation. because of russia, azov greek community may cease to exist. remember what we’re loosing.
While there is no neutral pronoun in Arabic (yet), Mashrou’ Leila attempts one version of trying to neutralize the language by switching back and forth between using female and male pronouns in their song “Kalam.” We are left imagining this person as someone on the gender spectrum, someone in between, or someone very genderqueer in their presentation. The lyrics in the Arabic of my youth, mutating into the queerness of my present, gives me a spaceless, borderless home.
Mashrou’ Leila’s music reflects ways in which I, like other queer Arabs, am allowed to exist; the ways in which my country, like many Arab countries, is not actually against us; the ways in which borders like those of Israel contribute to ideas like: “queers Arabs don’t exist.”
Russian protesters showing solidarity with Ukrainians against Putin. That’s how it’s done. 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Love to see it. 🇺🇦
Even symbolic support is not meaningless; with every such gesture you are preventing the claim that no one cares, no one opposes, no one disagrees, no one minds.
Hi, guys!
As you may know, I am Ukrainian. I live in Kyiv. I have lived here since I was born and I love my country with my whole heart.
I see a lot of misinformation under the tag "Ukraine". Most of it comes from American people, who try to explain the conflict in their own words. They can't. It's impossible to explain if you haven't lived here. There are too many influences on this conflict. You keep looking from an american perspective, which is not crucial in understanding the conflict.
For example, have you ever had you language forbidden? Like straight up forbidden by the law? It happened to Ukrainian language a lot of times thought our history. And who did it? The Russian Empire. And it's not the end of it. The genocides, the assimilation, the deportation. Have you even researched Ukrainian history?
You do not uplift Ukrainian voices enough. And you should if you care about what's happening. If you don’t do it, you're just doing a performance of your support and activism.
Lucky for you, I am a Ukrainian person! And I am DYING TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS. I scored 191/200 points on my graduation exam in history, so you can suppose I know something about Ukrainian history.
If you stand for Ukraine, uplift Ukrainian voices. Educate yourself. Learn Ukrainian history. Ask Ukrainian people