14/12: fatalities and farewells
This might be my last blog before I return, at least temporarily, to Blighty.
As you will no doubt have noticed, there have been two major disasters in Russia recently. One, involving the use of fireworks in an overcrowded Perm night club, has an as yet unknown death toll. Somebody I know who used to live there and is quite upset about it all, tells me
that the current number, 140, is strictly provisional as the health status of many people is described as critical. The shadow of corruption hangs over this affair, as a strict inspection regime exists but is seen to fail again and again.
My contact agrees with me about another health and safety problem, that of the marzhrutkas, converted minibuses that ply their trade in every urban area. As I've noted before, they handle money again and again in while driving. Those of us who try to hand over our money at
bus stops are seen as a wee bit quaint and it is not unusual to see drivers making calculations while driving over the icy roads at top speed.
Not everything is down to negligence, however. I gather from a British contact that a BBC correspondent covering the fatal train derailment between Russia and St Petersburg was scorning Russian government claims of terrorism as a smokescreen against neglect. I think this
unlikely. WHenever I travel by train, the wheels are checked at almost every major stop and I think the lines are also much better maintained than those in Britain. Russian trains have to cope with extremes of temperature throughout the year and the rail system is seen as of the
greatest importance in this sprawling transcontinental empire. It is of course its multiethnic nature, with huge numbers of muslim citizens that made it likely that an extreme Islamic organisation would eventually claim responsibility for blowing up the line.
The fact remains that most of Russia is white and Christian Orthodox. One effect of this is that much of what westerners see on a map of Asia does not in fact look like it on the ground. Cities and towns such as Novosibirsk and Berdsk can be found in Europe and, if a person materialised in such a city without information, he or she would be hard pushed to know if the location was in the west or the east.
Orthodoxy, however, has an interesting effect on people. I was discussing accents with somebody I know. Britain has hundreds, some of them incomprehensible to most Britons. Russia has three variations. When I mentioned my theory that some of this was to do with the sheer modernity of Siberia, which was only settled over the last few hundred years (Novosibirsk only in the twentieth
century) and he suggested that this was the effect of communist russification of education, my argument took me to a Britain where settlements had existed 'before Jesus Christ'. To which he said, 'how can this be? Jesus started it all'. Not even the most fervent C of E or Catholic English Christian would say this. As with most muslims, orthodoxy, at least as practised in Russia,
is obscurantist. Whereas most muslims of all nations are encouraged to learn the Koran in Arabic, the language of the church is in Old Slavonic. In the case of both religion, adherents do not know anything of the history of their religion.
I will miss my companion, however. Just as I contributed to the English club, for the benefit of most Russians, he steadfastly maintained what was the Russian club and is now called the International Club, for the benefit of visitors to Novosibirsk. I keep him anonymous as the change of name was not incidental and represents his resistance to a rather niggardly attitude to foreigners by some members of the authorities. He is feeling a bit bereft at the moment, as I am not the only person heading
for home at the moment. Swedes, Koreans, the only Englishwoman seen in these parts for many a year,
are all going home.
I'll be in Belarus, in the city of Minsk. For obvious reasons, many insights into this country will not appear here. It ain't encouraged. I will merely say that there are mixed feelings. For every westerner who cries tyranny, there is a Russian or Belorussian (white Russian) who sees socialism as a means of protecting people from the upheavals of the last two decades in unequal Russia.
Meanwhile, I'm saying goodbye to Berdsk. Before settling myself down to another week's work, I went to the cinema. The billing said something about people's history but it turned out to be a version of Dickens' Christmas Carol (English literature is mainly represented by Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle in much of this country). This was a Disney film with the likes of Bob Hoskins amongst the cast. Scrooge was played by a man who varied in his facial expressions from that of Wilfrid Brambell's Albert Steptoe to that of Spike Milligan's Spike Milligan. It always annoys me when people like John Travolta and
Bob Hoskins all seem to speak much better Russian than I do, I thought as I walked away from the cinema across Ploshad Gorkova (Gorky Square).
The square is full of cubes of ice, large and small, presumably to be turned into statues and possibly
some architectural structures. Some hardy young children slid on trays down a specially constructed piste made of ice. The temperature is now minus 18 with a wind and I think temperatures are expected to stay low for many months. Which reminds me: any more outings of more than fifteen minutes will require two pairs of socks now. My toes were becoming rather numb during today's outings.
One of the joys of finishing a long tour of duty in another country is the giving away of books and other things which would be too heavy to be taken back. I was able to find good homes both for my computing books and various novels. Quite what the fans of English literature will make of R. K. Narayan and Iris Murdoch is anybody's guess.
As you will no doubt have noticed, there have been two major disasters in Russia recently. One, involving the use of fireworks in an overcrowded Perm night club, has an as yet unknown death toll. Somebody I know who used to live there and is quite upset about it all, tells me
that the current number, 140, is strictly provisional as the health status of many people is described as critical. The shadow of corruption hangs over this affair, as a strict inspection regime exists but is seen to fail again and again.
My contact agrees with me about another health and safety problem, that of the marzhrutkas, converted minibuses that ply their trade in every urban area. As I've noted before, they handle money again and again in while driving. Those of us who try to hand over our money at
bus stops are seen as a wee bit quaint and it is not unusual to see drivers making calculations while driving over the icy roads at top speed.
Not everything is down to negligence, however. I gather from a British contact that a BBC correspondent covering the fatal train derailment between Russia and St Petersburg was scorning Russian government claims of terrorism as a smokescreen against neglect. I think this
unlikely. WHenever I travel by train, the wheels are checked at almost every major stop and I think the lines are also much better maintained than those in Britain. Russian trains have to cope with extremes of temperature throughout the year and the rail system is seen as of the
greatest importance in this sprawling transcontinental empire. It is of course its multiethnic nature, with huge numbers of muslim citizens that made it likely that an extreme Islamic organisation would eventually claim responsibility for blowing up the line.
The fact remains that most of Russia is white and Christian Orthodox. One effect of this is that much of what westerners see on a map of Asia does not in fact look like it on the ground. Cities and towns such as Novosibirsk and Berdsk can be found in Europe and, if a person materialised in such a city without information, he or she would be hard pushed to know if the location was in the west or the east.
Orthodoxy, however, has an interesting effect on people. I was discussing accents with somebody I know. Britain has hundreds, some of them incomprehensible to most Britons. Russia has three variations. When I mentioned my theory that some of this was to do with the sheer modernity of Siberia, which was only settled over the last few hundred years (Novosibirsk only in the twentieth
century) and he suggested that this was the effect of communist russification of education, my argument took me to a Britain where settlements had existed 'before Jesus Christ'. To which he said, 'how can this be? Jesus started it all'. Not even the most fervent C of E or Catholic English Christian would say this. As with most muslims, orthodoxy, at least as practised in Russia,
is obscurantist. Whereas most muslims of all nations are encouraged to learn the Koran in Arabic, the language of the church is in Old Slavonic. In the case of both religion, adherents do not know anything of the history of their religion.
I will miss my companion, however. Just as I contributed to the English club, for the benefit of most Russians, he steadfastly maintained what was the Russian club and is now called the International Club, for the benefit of visitors to Novosibirsk. I keep him anonymous as the change of name was not incidental and represents his resistance to a rather niggardly attitude to foreigners by some members of the authorities. He is feeling a bit bereft at the moment, as I am not the only person heading
for home at the moment. Swedes, Koreans, the only Englishwoman seen in these parts for many a year,
are all going home.
I'll be in Belarus, in the city of Minsk. For obvious reasons, many insights into this country will not appear here. It ain't encouraged. I will merely say that there are mixed feelings. For every westerner who cries tyranny, there is a Russian or Belorussian (white Russian) who sees socialism as a means of protecting people from the upheavals of the last two decades in unequal Russia.
Meanwhile, I'm saying goodbye to Berdsk. Before settling myself down to another week's work, I went to the cinema. The billing said something about people's history but it turned out to be a version of Dickens' Christmas Carol (English literature is mainly represented by Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle in much of this country). This was a Disney film with the likes of Bob Hoskins amongst the cast. Scrooge was played by a man who varied in his facial expressions from that of Wilfrid Brambell's Albert Steptoe to that of Spike Milligan's Spike Milligan. It always annoys me when people like John Travolta and
Bob Hoskins all seem to speak much better Russian than I do, I thought as I walked away from the cinema across Ploshad Gorkova (Gorky Square).
The square is full of cubes of ice, large and small, presumably to be turned into statues and possibly
some architectural structures. Some hardy young children slid on trays down a specially constructed piste made of ice. The temperature is now minus 18 with a wind and I think temperatures are expected to stay low for many months. Which reminds me: any more outings of more than fifteen minutes will require two pairs of socks now. My toes were becoming rather numb during today's outings.
One of the joys of finishing a long tour of duty in another country is the giving away of books and other things which would be too heavy to be taken back. I was able to find good homes both for my computing books and various novels. Quite what the fans of English literature will make of R. K. Narayan and Iris Murdoch is anybody's guess.