quote:It is an official invitation to make love for the Motherland, with the added incentive of winning a new fridge.
Couples in Ulyanovsk, central Russia, were encouraged to take the day off work today to indulge in some patriotic procreation. The Day of Conception was dreamt up by Sergei Morozov, regional governor, in response to Russia’s deepening demographic crisis.
Women who give birth exactly nine months later, on June 12, which is celebrated as Russia’s national day, can win money, televisions, fridges and even a car.
Mr Morozov justified the initiative as a way to promote family values in Russia, where the population is shrinking by 700,000 people a year because deaths outnumber births so heavily.
“If there’s a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits and that will extend to the workplace. So there’ll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country,” he said.
The governor’s infant incentive scheme, now in its third year, seems to be bearing fruit. The number of babies born on June 12 this year was three times higher than the daily average in Ulyanovsk, the regional capital, about 550 miles (900 kilometres) east of Moscow. A record 78 babies were born compared with the usual 26. Andrei Malykh, Ulyanovsk’s chief doctor, said: “The scheme is working. People want the prizes.”
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
Hmm...Putin dissolves the government, Russia shows off the biggest non-nuke bomb in the world, and now they encourage procreation. For a larger army??
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
TWO front page topics? Your boldness shocks me, sir.
In other news, <3 Russians. I find this so inappropriate and so funny at the same time.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
Wonder how many of those deliveries on June 12th were induced...
*EDIT* I just realized... June 12th is my son's birthday. Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
waaaaaait when did Putin dissolve the government? Also whats wrong with them making there own MOAB? Its there right to do so and how would you solve a demographic crisis?
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
Russia...gotta love it. As the child of Russian immigrants, I kinda wonder what I'd be like had I grown up there.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
"In Communist Russia..."
No, I'd better not go there. Don't want to get banned.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
Hey! I'm russian. Anyone interested in procreating?
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
I'm actually kinda glad someone's doing something about underpopulation in the industrialized world. (Even if it is Russia.)
I don't think it'll do much but at least it's battling the overpopulation meme.
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
I think the idea is for you to procreate with another Russian. Keep an eye out for the next Russian mailorder bride spam.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
even if she's a non Russian, our child will be half Russian. that's better than no Russian!
I don't think the motherland is in a position to be picky right now.
[ September 12, 2007, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: Strider ]
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
no Putin dissolved his Cabinet not the Duma, Russian cabinets don't have a good precedent of staying around for long nothing alarming about it.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
That one line from the article about the dropping of that bomb leaped off the page at me. I am positive my eye twitched at least once.
Apparently the effects of fire on the environment is not in the standard curriculum at Russian schools.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
fires can be healed naturally within a reasonable amount of time, more bombs were droped in Vietnam then in the entirity of WWII, aside from the chemical warfare that the US employed there the bombs dropped I think long term only had a minor effect on the jungle. the nuclear blast from a atomic warhead could last centuries.
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
Wow, apparently I'm Russian today and I didn't even know it! I wish I had gotten the day off though....
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
quote:Originally posted by Strider: even if she's a non Russian, our child will be half Russian. that's better than no Russian!
So are all three of you moving in with me? If so, I get to share the prizes.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk: Wonder how many of those deliveries on June 12th were induced...
No kidding. I also wonder what the rates on June 11 and 13 were.
Posted by Marek (Member # 5404) on :
our paper had this story under the headline "make a baby, win a car" seems like a good sales pitch
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Can't say I totally blame them. Russia has been hemorhaging people over the years. The Ukraine is expected to lose up to 80% of their population by the end of the century (might be earlier, I can't remember).
They're trying to preserve their long term prosperity by actually having people around to enjoy it. They have another couple decades of natural resources to help try and fund the rebuilding of their economy into a competitive first world one, in other words, branching out from something other than arms sales. They're the largest country in the world, but number what, somewhere around a 100 million? It means they are even more sparsely populated per square mile than Canada, the second largest country.
As for the bomb, again, it's no surprise. I'd be surprised if even a fourth of Russia's nuclear arsenal even worked. The US arsenal was rated to have expired by now, but we spend billions every year on testing to make sure they are kept up and will still work if needed. Russia's nukes have been sitting in silos since the end of the USSR, and I doubt they've spent much on maintenance when for awhile they could barely bake bread. So other than a new nuclear arms race, it makes sense that they'd want stronger conventional weapons. Put that together with a new naval shipbuilding and new tank designs, and you get Russia's new commitment to being able to make their new aggressive foreign policy actually stick.
Granted I think they lose a lot of that power by selling so much of their stuff, especially much of their better stuff, to China and India. Thousands of tanks have been sold to India, along with the capability to build their own, and China has gotten a lot of fighters, tanks and ships. China will be building their own fighters now. And I wouldn't mind if they build their own tanks too, since recent Canadian and US tests of high grade Chinese steel imports have shown flaws in their creation. But that whole region of the world is in an arms race, as they are all, relatively, flushed with cash.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots:
quote:Originally posted by Strider: even if she's a non Russian, our child will be half Russian. that's better than no Russian!
So are all three of you moving in with me? If so, I get to share the prizes.
Hey, there's still 45 minutes left in the day and I haven't procreated, no need to complicate things by bringing an extra person into our household.
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