I want to remind to you that “Postcrossing is about regular people, and not their governments, politicians or generals”. Our live is hard by itself and postcrossing for many people is a safe place. You will never know how much person feels aboit this or another situation. I would say for myself - i’m very empathic person and all this situation are horrible for me. And then I get a card, the last thing I want is that this card would give me another reason to feel bad. I have one card this mantion this situation and I don’t want ever to see it again. I have nothing to tell back on such messeges, but after that card i was thinking to stop postcrossing, because it’s not safe place anymore. So next time, please,think about what you’re writing.
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I understand your opinion. It is very important for me to be appreciative about the individual and about Russia, a country that I have visited and enjoyed!
But… Imagine there had been postcrossing in 1942 and you had sent postcards from the UK or Norway or the US to Germany. And the request would have been: do not write abour war crimes or concentration camps as German people could feel bad.
Not my path, sorry.
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I niver can’t imagine that my grandfather was fighting against Nazi Germany and now we can talk like normal people. Maybe then american shouldn’t write to anyone, because their country do wars all the time? I don’t think so. I think that we are all the people, that suffer from our past or present, from politic games and military opiration.
Postcrossing is not about that. It is about kind people from all other the world, who can make your day better. We are all the same, that’s the meaning of the project. If you not into it, maybe you should lern more about postcrossing and come back later.
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The wonderful thing about postcrossing ist that there is no censorship. I would never attack another postcrosser personally! But I can write about climate change, even though it makes people sad. Or about the war. Both topics make me sad, naturally, but I feel responsible for them, as a human being living in 2022. Everybody should feel responsible and try to do something small, I think, but naturally that is everybody’s own choice.
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as a belarusian, i support this message. my incoming envelopes are almost always come opened by belarusian customs (“to prevent the import of dangerous items”), so if you writing a letter to belarusian/russian person, make sure you won’t put them in trouble. At best, the letter will simply be destroyed, at worst, it will be used as proof of guilt and accused of trying to undermine the government and the person will go to jail
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Your message is very important. I think a lot of people are unaware that they can cause someone serious trouble. Someone has already mentioned that the situation in Ukraine cannot be officially called “war” in Russia. It seems unimaginable to people in other countries. They cannot put themselves in the shoes of a person who has to be careful what he or she says at every turn. Now imagine that your nosy neighbor (and they are everywhere) will see an anti-war message on a postcard and decide that you are “a threat” because you are spreading similar views. It could end very badly.
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Ever since the Russian invasion, the Postcrossing system selected 1 postcard for me
to send to a Russian recipient (adult female). I was “fighting with my thoughts” for a while,
wondering what to put on the card.
First, I wanted to write something like “The Kremlin is lying to you, the real number of killed
Russian troops is ten thousand, not five hundred. I feel for their mothers” etc., but then the news broke that the word “war” is no longer allowed and I figured that my postcard might get censored or won’t be delivered at all.
And since I’m a huge fan of poetry, I decided to look for some anti-war poems instead
(there’s quite a few). I chose the one I liked the most (not an “obvious one”) and I put it on the card.
My postcard has not been registered yet - it often times takes a while with postcards sent to Russia,
or the recipient is one of the 83% of Russians supporting the war (according to Levada pollster)
and simply decided not to register my card.
This. This sickens me to the bone.
Therefore, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror if I were sending postcards to Russia writing about the weather or favorite books - pretending nothing ever happened - and yet knowing very well about the horrendous massacre Russian troops committed on civilians of Bucha, Irpin and other places. It’s about staying true to myself.
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Over the years I have occasionally ended letters or cards with, “Wishing peace and friendship and full mailboxes to the whole world,” because I get bored with “Take Care,” and want to add a personal flourish.
So the last card I sent to Russia before USPS suspended service, I revived that ending, because I figured it acknowledges what’s happening in a subtle enough way not to get anyone in trouble. Just a quiet way of saying, this is on my mind, but I don’t blame you, and still believe in global friendship.
It probably wasn’t a perfect solution, but it’s what I came up with on the fly.
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I have sent cards normally to Russia. I just write same things as usual. Sometimes it’s about the card / stamp, sometimes it’s about my interests, weather, what I have done recently and so on. Only times when I ever write about politics, religion or recently about Covid-19 is when someone asks to write about those. Just same thing, like I 'd meet new people (new colleague etc.) in real life.
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I want to believe this because of strict censorship of free press by government. Because if you have government supporters in your family friends etc (Thank God you don’t) you have to believe that’s the reason why they still keeping supporting him/her. Otherwise you stuck with the feeling of “my loved ones have blood of their hand”. And that’s a not a pleasant one it drives you mad. Seeing my relatives still supporting our government makes me very sad and angry.
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Disclaimer: it’s very hard for me to find the right words for my thoughts and feelings and creed in my native language alone. It’s even harder to find them in english. And it’s extra hard trying to be fair and balanced and correct and respectful and so on. Especially as I am aware of own privileges - like my middle-class-life in a more-or-less liberal society - that others have no or less access to.
Having said that, I think this ‘I’m just a small person who wants to follow their hobbies, don’t bother me with politics’ attitude is one driving factor leading exactly to situations like we face in our world, the only world we all share. If the decent ones don’t care about their very own res publica, their public, common sphere, then the indecent ones do. If the wiser heads always give in and stay silent, the stupid ones have the command (literal and methaphorical). If you don’t shape your leadership, your leadership shapes you.
So if I am in the mood to mention certain topics, I will do so. Not in an accusing or aggressive or impolite (or potentially endangering) way, but in a way that tells what’s on my mind.
The world is no save place for many, there is destruction and blood and death - to demand that postcrossing should be a bubble where we can pretend everything is alright, is not my understanding of honest communication.
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I never thought about the fact that someone could read my card. Although I have never written anything there that can be questioned. I still hold the opinion that postcrossing is primarily about people, not about countries, politicians and religion. So thanks to everyone who just talks about themselves, their hobbies, pets and other things that define us.
I would rather not get a postcard at all than see an inscription insulting me. And if it is difficult for some people to leave their feelings and emotions about politics overboard, then it is better for them to temporarily refrain from taking a new address. This will be fair to everyone. But it’s not fair if Russian and Belarusian postcrossers continue to send cards, but will receive fewer cards, because someone thinks that ordinary (non-decisive people) have no right to continue doing their hobby. Perhaps the only thing that helps to distract at this time.
I wouldn’t want to have a card that offends me or my family, would you? But it is also wrong to throw away what a person has spent time and money on. Let’s send cards that we will view many years later and remember that even in difficult times we remained humans.
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This, exactly! I love you for this post (don’t feel threatened by me, though!).
I would go even further and ask if back in 1942 people would have also parroted that it was just Hitler’s war and not the war of the German people? Would they have claimed such a thing???
Thanks to contemporary witnesses, researchers, historians, etc. we know that this was not the case. Despite being deluded by the propaganda, there had been people who used common sense and rejected to be part of this catastrophy. Intelligentsia, those who could fininancially afford it, or had help from friends and conncetions, fled the country. The rest stayed. A small part of those who stayed and fought against it paid a high prize, while the majority of the remained people supported Hitler in his insane path. They became accomplices, they watched without stopping it. They became fellow travellers. Mitläufertum.
Again, I understand that separating a country, its governance from the individual people is the easiest way to feel comfortable. And to be fair, one cannot condemn all and lump them all together. But I have already elaborated on this weeks ago: You cannot separate a country, nation, its politics from the people. Not always. Politics are formed by people, people are formed by culture, geography, history, experience, etc. These are all factors that are heavily interwoven within each other.
The separation of all these all reminds of the rather fancy-popancy, easy-peasy bubbly what-have-I-got-to-do-with-this white middle-class approach (sorry, no offence here, and I don’t exclude myself).
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Personally, I do not change my writing style or topic, based on many different factors. I’ll mention just two of them:
One reason for that, which other people have already mentioned, is that the Postcrossers are not responsible for the current world situation. And if I were in their position, I would not enjoy recieving an accusatory message (even more so as I am a strict pacifist).
Another one would be, that I believe one has to be honest in ones actions (and not hypocritical): This would result in a need to mention every war to all countries that have engaged in one or have supported one in, let’s say, the last ten years. I don’t believe that to be realistic.
Instead, I believe that the cards should spread joy; We have enough bad things already in this world.
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I also didn’t change my writing style. Recently I received a postcard from Russia and sent a kind thank you via the hooray message.
But I am not deluded by the narrative that it’s only Putin’s war.
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I joined Postcrossing during protests in Belarus. It was the way for me to get some sense of normality - read about the lives of people, who lives in actually free countries. I think it helped me to be hopeful about my future, that we could win and live normally. It was not politics free bubble, it was one of the few sources of hope. Needless to say I’ve lost this source. I would rather stay inactive than bother people with my presence on the site.
I just wonder what people, who can’t just not talk about the war, are wanting to get in result of their message. Huge chunk of my day consists of doomscrolling news about people dying in Ukraine and people getting in jail in Belarus and Russia. Plus I have friends in Ukraine and Russia as well. And I’m not the only one like that. You could became another messenger with the bad news or you could become source of power, hope and happiness for someone. I know I lost all of my hope. But someone might still need it.
Or maybe you’ll get an address of secret Putin supporter and annoy them with your anti-war message. What could I know. It’s up to you to think about those chances and what you want to do with those.
I know that my English is not good but I hope that my message is helpful in some ways. Please donate to help Ukraine to organisation of your choice, if you can.
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Thank you! I wouldn’t like to be blamed as Nazi just because I am German. And it was unfair to blame “the” Russians for that war, even if 80 % support it, for 80 % is not 100 %.
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Many write about 80% of Russian people who support what is happening in Ukraine. But I highly doubt this figure. If we can be imprisoned for the word “war”, then who in the poll will answer that he/she is against war? Many of those who are against will not answer the poll questions.
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Some examples of messages some could send about my country Austria:
- ‘My grandparents have lived in your region but they had too flee because too many supported the racist dictator and his regime’
- ‘My brother lives in your region but I am not allowed to see him because of your strict visa policy’
- ‘My village is suffering from missing rain, partly caused by climate change that your northern life-style accelerates’
Do I want to read such cards? Probably not. Can I as an adult deal with such messages? Of course.
Again, I don’t support insults, blaming or accusations. But I support to be allowed talking about things I care about, also on cards. And at the moment I care a lot about the violence and aggression and suffering. (And yes, there is lots of violence and aggression and suffering going on all the time somewhere on this our world, but I rarely write postcrossing cards to these regions).
Safe spaces? Distraction? When there are safe spaces and distracting moments in Mariupol and Irpin and Cherson (and Aleppo and Sanaa) again.
And if it’s difficult for some to stand what’s going on in this our world, maybe they should refrain from receiving messages . (Again, not talking about harsh words or insults).
As with every generation, there will be a time when kids and grandkids will ask the painful questions ‘what did YOU do back then?’ What did you do against climate change? What did you do against racism? What did you do against hate speech?
“I distracted myself in my safe bubble by writing postcards” can be an answer if that seems right for you. I talked about what I believe in on postcards will be (part of) mine.
(And no, compared to true restistance heroes and heroines and civil rights fighters I am still the tiniest fish in this current that tries to change the river’s direction.)
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I wonder is there happened a lot that people have received postcards with hate speech or unfriendly messages, accusations or bullying?
I haven´t got any such cards. There is all kind of people and it is always possible to report.
There is no guarantee everyone wants this place to be the bubble where horrors of war doesn´t exist. For me it´s opposite, I feel always bad if someone is tortured, if children are raped, for me it´s a crime to be quiet like nothing happend. I feel sick if there is silence about this.
To me it´s not wrong to say how you feel, but I don´t feel need to accuse anyone in postcrossing. And if someone have kicks about war it´s not my business, free thinking, free mind, free opinion is everyones rights. There is all kind of people and we are equal.
And yes, I love all countries and people despite we have different opinions and wishes.
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