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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Your moment of Zen |
| 2003-11-24 |
| The death toll from a fire at a Moscow dormitory housing foreign students now stands at 32. Like a fire in a crowded Riad prison... Officials say more than 120 other people were injured in the blaze that broke out early Monday in the five-story dormitory at the Patrice Lumumba Friendship of Peoples University, where many foreigners study. This is where the terrorists went to train in the 70s. Arafat has a degree here, I believe, and so does Carlos the Jackal. |
| Posted by:Brian |
| #5 In hindsight, it's kind of amazing that we (and others in the world) actually thought the USSR would win the cold war. And it amazes me even more we're still stuck with elitists that think we should give collectivism another try. |
| Posted by: JohnC 2003-11-24 9:21:02 PM |
| #4 So this third rate university for third world students had sunk to third world building code and life safety standards. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-11-24 9:04:47 PM |
| #3 Details: An early-morning fire Monday raced through a Moscow dormitory packed with students from Africa, Asia and Latin America, killing at least 36 people and injuring nearly 200 — many of them forced to jump from the five-story building because the exits were blocked. The fire quickly engulfed most of the dilapidated building housing students of the Patrice Lumumba Friendship of Peoples University, an institution that in the 1960s and 70s symbolized the Soviet Union's commitment to the Third World but deteriorated in the 1990s. The building, which housed 272 students, served as a quarantine facility for newly arrived foreign students needing medical checks before starting their studies. Students said the dead and injured included citizens of China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru and Malaysia. The university, named for a Congolese anti-colonial leader and prime minister who was assassinated, was founded in 1960 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to offer a strict Marxist curriculum to students from developing nations. It served as a showcase of Soviet patronage of the Third World, receiving generous state subsidies, but declined after the 1991 Soviet collapse when government funding dried up. During the 1990s, many in its mainly African student body complained of racism by Russians. A 22-year-old student from Mauritius, who identified himself only by his first name, Vashish, said the university charges high prices for "miserable" lodging. He and other students said one of the dormitory's two stairways was permanently locked, making an emergency exit even more difficult. With stipends shrinking to almost nothing, many foreign students sell goods from their countries to make money, and already cramped dormitories are often packed with bags and bundles. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-11-24 12:56:34 PM |
| #2 The diploma was probably a newly made AK-47 with the graduates name enscribed in Arabic. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-11-24 12:04:23 PM |
| #1 they wouldn't let them leave without Burqas? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-11-24 11:46:52 AM |