Ant #330. Offshore.

The #panamgate provoked a huge discussion about the offshore. But many people don't really understand what's that. I found a perfect explanation of it that even a kid would understand...


When you get a quarter you put it in the piggy bank. The piggy bank is on a shelf in your closet. Your mom knows this and she checks on it every once in a while, so she knows when you put more money in or spend it.
Now one day, you might decide "I don't want mom to look at my money." So you go over to Johnny's house with an extra piggy bank that you're going to keep in his room. You write your name on it and put it in his closet. Johnny's mom is always very busy, so she never has time to check on his piggy bank. So you can keep yours there and it will stay a secret.
Now all the kids in the neighborhood think this is a good idea, and everyone goes to Johnny's house with extra piggy banks. Now Johnny's closet is full of piggy banks from everyone in the neighborhood.
One day, Johnny's mom comes home and sees all the piggy banks. She gets very mad and calls everyone's parents to let them know.
Now not everyone did this for a bad reason. Eric's older brother always steals from his piggy bank, so he just wanted a better hiding spot. Timmy wanted to save up to buy his mom a birthday present without her knowing. Sammy just did it because he thought it was fun. But many kids did do it for a bad reason. Jacob was stealing people's lunch money and didn't want his parents to figure it out. Michael was stealing money from his mom's purse. Fat Bobby's parents put him on a diet, and didn't want them to figure out when he was buying candy.
Now in real life, many very important people were just caught hiding their piggy banks at Johnny's house in Panama. Today their moms all found out. Pretty soon, we'll know more about which of these important people were doing it for bad reasons and which were doing it for good reasons. But almost everyone is in trouble regardless, because it's against the rules to keep secrets no matter what.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4d8rta/eli5_the_panama_papers/d1owxn5

Ant #329. US elections.

To much "Trump" drama on my social networks...
Everybody is pissed off but he's still leading the primaries. Isn't it ironic?

Even though I support republicans I'd vote anybody but Trump... BUT... I do understand people who vote for him, and I'll try to explain you why...

Unfortunately (or luckily) there is two-party-system in US which means they only have two options when it comes to elections: they can vote only one or another. Of course the politicians argue even inside the same parties but in the end you'll only have 2 options. It's not like in Europe when there are lots of different parties, and if you always voted for right-wing parties but now you feel like your country is rich and could give something more to the poorest people you don't have to vote for socialists, you can just vote for a center-right-wing party and it will perfectly represent you.

What do we see in US?
Democrats say: Amnesty to all the illegals.
Republicans say: No f*cking way!

You have to choose between black and white. There's no grey.

But what's about people who are basically agree with receiving immigrants but with some reasonable limits? For example, like in Canada (they are open for immigrants from all over the world but you must be graduated, speak languages, have skills and experience). Who represents them? The answer is: nobody!

So what those people do? They open newspapers, read about disaster in Cologne... and vote for Trump because there are no other options: just "all the immigrants" or "none of them".

And this is sad...

Ant #328. Target audience.

I have many politically and socially active friends and I really respect them.
They post on social networks, talk to people, organize conferences etc and I respect it too.

The problem is... It's all pointless because the target audience is being chosen wrong.

Let me explain.
If you're a gay rights fighter, all your facebook friends are probably gays or gay friendly people. Homophobes don't go to LGBT conferences so you'll never be able to change their opinions.

The same with racism. Do you have any neo-nazi friends? I don't. All my friends are pretty tolerant and respecting other people.

Or my lovely socialistic friends. All the people who read you are already your "comrades", they don't need to be convinced in anything.

Identify your target audience or don't waste your time.

Ant #327. Russia: Europe or not?

It's an interesting fact!

When people talk about Russia, they call it a european country.
When you talk to russians, most of them don't like to associate themselves to Europe (thanx to Putin's propaganda).

The thing is... Russian culture is definitely European culture. Russian music, literature, art are all based on European ones. Russian language is in European group of languages. Russians are Christians. We live in the same media space, we share the same past and future. Russian etiquette is European etiquette. First Russian universities were opened by the tsar Peter the 1st who brought the education from Europe. Russian science exists thanks to European science. After all, Russia is by far the largest European country by both area and population, taking up to 40% of the continent.

But many Russians still think they have nothing to do with Europe because Europeans support gays.
Doh.