Ping Pong Writing

PING PONG WRITING

Minneapolis is a large city on a big river.

Magas is a little city in a very big country.

There are many different kinds of people here, from other states and other countries.

There are many different traditions, especially about costumes,

In Minnesota, the winter is very cold and snowy, and the summer is very hot with many mosquitoes.

In Magas, we always have hot weather even in the winter. The temperature reaches 25 degrees then.

The city has a great network of special roads only for bicycles. Many people enjoy them a lot.

We have a lot of cars, and that's not good for the environment.

Most of the cars are Russian cars; that's why they're bad.

Minneapolis doesn't have any mountains, but there are many nice parks for picnics and sports.

Magas is surrounded by mountains, which are where our history lies.

We call ourselves people of the prairies, because the flat land goes a long way from here to the Rocky Mountains in the west.

We call ourselves mountain men, even if we live in the city.

I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White.

from BrainGames:

I want to tell you something about Ingushetia. I was born there and I probably know everything about my Republic.

Ingushetia is an incredibly beautiful place, situated in the central part of the northern foothills of the Major Caucasus mountain Ridge.

The northern and western parts of the Republic of Ingushetia share their border with the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, the Eastern part neighbors the Chechen Republic, the southern part of the Major Caucasus mountain Ridge borders on Georgia.

The mountain, piedmont and the lowland landscape zones of Ingushetia constitute an amazing variety of natural and weather conditions that range from continental to high-mountain climate. It is known that the Central Caucasus mountains are comprised of five parallel mountain chains with the well-known gaps between them: the Vodorazdelniy Bokovoy, Skalistiy, Pastbishniy and Lesistiy Ridges. Ingushetia is situated in such a way that its administrative territory embraces all these mountain chains. It is for this reason that Ingushetia is sometimes called the "Country of Mountains".

Ingushetia is a land that has been blessed not only with rich folklore but also centuries of history. Its nature is beautiful in a unique way. Since the integrity of a people can be observed in three dimensions: 1 - the Cosmos of Nature, which surrounds the people, or the natural habitat of people; 2 - the people's soul that is formed under the influence of the Cosmos (Nature) that it inhabits; 3 - the way of thinking, let us start with the most significant: the description of nature.

It would be wrong to deny the mark this environment has left both on the way of life and the character of the people just as much as it would be wrong to deny that "the beauty of nature... helps to discover the beauty of the human being and the beauty of the human soul." (Murat Zyazikov, former President of Ingushetia)

 

Mountans and aul

Caucasian - a misnomer

The term Caucasian originated in the eighteenth century as part of the developing European science of racial classification. After visiting the region of the Caucasus Mountains, between the Caspian and Black seas, German anatomist Johann Blumenbach declared its inhabitants the most beautiful in the world, the ideal type of humans created in “God’s image,” and deemed this area the likely site where humans originated. (Humans actually originated in Africa.) He decided that all light-skinned peoples from this region, along with Europeans, belonged to the same race, which he labeled Caucasian.

Getting Rid of the Word ‘Caucasian’ by Carol C. Mukhopadhya

IN MEMORIAM

23 February 1944 more than half a million people from Chechnya and Ingushetia were deported from their homes to Kazakhstan and Siberia, by order of Stalin and Beria. They had been falsely accused of collaborating with the Nazis. More than 150,000 were killed outright or died on a ten-day train ride in cattle cars or at their destinations, where nothing was provided for them. Seven hundred died in one aul (village) when they were forced into a barn and the barn was set afire.

In 1957-59 many of the survivors returned to their homes after Stalin was denounced by Khrushchev. Unfortunately for the Ingush, much of their land had been given to other republics and other people were living in their homes.

In 2004 the European Parliament described the deportation as genocide.

from the student - call me "The Brain Maps"

A stereotype about men in the Caucasus is that they all have long black beards, and they like to fight. But they only fight to protect their families. The women are very modest because they are Muslim and polite because of tradition. As well, they are always trying to help their husbands and families. There is little divorce in Ingushetia.

A traditional dance is called lezginka, and the other republics copied this from Ingushetia. The women dance slowly in a circle around the men. They move their hands and arms like a swan. The men use a lot of energy jumping and spinning and kicking out with their legs. They resemble eagles. Men and women don’t touch while they dance. They are showing respect and a proper attitude toward each other.

The Caucasus - North and South both in snow seen from satellite