Tonight we had a traditional Russian banya (sauna). I’m not used to saunas being so hot, in fact Russians wear cloth hats to protect their heads from the intense heat. I kept pouring cold water over my body for some relief. When I got out – I hadn’t worn a hat – my head throbbed and all I wanted was to lie down.
It was nice being whacked with venik (leaves)….
Is the tide finally turning against oxymoronic pro-war evangelical Christianity?
From The New York Times, link:
“There is a lot of discontent brewing,†said Brian D. McLaren, the founding pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Gaithersburg, Md., and a leader in the evangelical movement known as the “emerging church,†which is at the forefront of challenging the more politicized evangelical establishment.
“More and more people are saying this has gone too far — the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right,†Mr. McLaren said. “You cannot say the word ‘Jesus’ in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can’t say the word ‘Christian,’ and you certainly can’t say the word ‘evangelical’ without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.
Novosibirsk, Siberia | 17:09 (11:09 GMT), July 31, 2006
Just trying to catch up on some writing today. It’s been a hectic few days, what with the zoo etc. We have also had a few problems with registering with the authorities, we seem to have got the wrong visa (as we are staying with relatives not in a hotel) and the day we went to register the offices were closed, so when we did go and it was open, we were past the 3-day limit. We have to pay a fine.
It’s not an overwhelming amount (about £40.00), but it’s still ridiculous. We also have to pay a nominal amount (1 rouble, about £0.02) for each day we spend here. The Russians actually charge you per-day to be in their country. How bizarre and Third World is that? I would expect something so weird in Uzbekistan or The Kingdom of Bhutan, but Russia, a supposedly G8 industrialised country?
But that wasn’t the worst of it. In the queue for the passport bureaucrats, we had some crazed Russian women who demanded she go before us all in the queue. She already had the papers she ranted (so did we) and stood rooted to the floor just outside the office door. Mrs. tyger and her uncle protested and another Brit-Russian couple did also. Of course I was livid. I demanded that Mrs. tyger explain the simple principle of queuing, and then pointed at her and then at a chair, “tell her, ‘there is a chair, use it!’†She was with a couple of other people, one of whom was English, and something was said between them and the women took the seat. Her English companion, a middle aged gent, came over to the other Brit-Russian couple and mumbled some semblance of an apology, clearly shaken. We went in next.
Inside the office, a mousy haired woman in an official uniform checked our documents and then asked for the proof-of-payment (for the fine), we thought we had to pay her. No, we must drive to a local official payment bank, pay our fine, and then return to the office for her to return our documents. And of course we must queue again. The Soviet Union may be dead, but the Russian penchant for wasteful bureaucracy clearly isn’t.
Rather than employing armies of paper-pushing bureaucrats, maybe the Kremlin should get some of the roads sorted out? Huge potholes cause vehicles to swerve and dart across the road, and in places the tires have left visible trenches along the road – two on each side of the road, like rail tracks. A lick of paint wouldn’t go amiss around the place also.
But I guess the elements make such aesthetics redundant. There is still, regardless of the officiousness of its bureaucracy, a lot to admire about the Siberian people as there is a certain harshness to life in Central Russia: the land is huge, rugged, and unforgiving. The weather, at will, uses every weapon in its arsenal. But when man is faced with adversity and hardship he falls back on his ingenuity and endeavour. And that is what impresses the cosseted westerner when he visits the Russian Steppe: resourcefulness and graft.
Novosibirsk is not Moscow; with its Gucci boutiques, French restaurants, and $10,000 per-sq-metre apartments. Siberia is functional. No gloss. No pretension.
I’m not going to pretend that Moscow isn’t the real Russia, because it certainly is. There are still millions, in and around the capital, who have not been touched by the new found wealth. People who are at the mercy of poverty and criminality, people who’s own experience of the “New Russia,†is one of disappearing savings and rampant inflation. Ask these people what capitalism and democracy has done for them, and be prepared for some blue language – tainted with bitterness and nostalgia. The bourgeoisie are back, and this time they’re wearing Prada.
It’s not a pretty city, Novosibirsk, yes there are impressive buildings and large, wide boulevards, but it has little of the grandiose pretence of Sankt Peterburg or Moscow. As I wrote, it’s functional. You just have to make sure you have the right permit.
I wrote yesterday that I would let you know a little bit more about Novosibirsk Zoo. Well it’s a very large site with loads of animals. Tigers (including a couple of rare white ones), lions, leopards (all the big cats basically, and all the medium ones such as cougars too), bears, a bazillion monkeys (Zoo’s, in tyger’s experience, always OTT on the primates), camels, bison, various marmots, birds, etc. However unlike most British zoos, it didn’t have any of the large African plain mammals (beside the lion of course), there were no elephants, hippos, zebras, or giraffes. I don’t know why, maybe they’re too difficult to look after in the harsh, long winters?
Anyway, enough for today, I probably need a permit for extended Internet use. Take care, and be safe,
UPDATE: I am promised there are African plain animals, we just missed them somehow…hmmmm
More on this tomorrow, but we went to the Novosibirsk Zoo where we saw a White Siberian Tiger, we must remember there are probably about 130 known White Tigers in the world. I have pictures too. Wow. What a beast.
We had Sashlik and beer at a party, hence the briefness of this post.
I write to you from Russia somewhat drunk. We have had many bottles of Baltika, Sankt Peterburg’s finest beer. We have also consumed many sesame seeds, olives, much chicken and copious amounts of salty fish – as is tradition in Russia (but not the rotisserie chicken, that was my idea). Everyone is either out on the balcony gossiping or playing puzzles together on a laptop.
What is it with Russians and puzzles?
I spent the day inside writing today. It was nice with the blistering sunshine coming through the windows into the nice cool apartment. Tea flowed, as did the juices of creativity as I wrote a nasty little chapter about a house siege.
Here is an extract:
A punch from somewhere on Ajeti’s right crunched into his jaw. As his head rocked to the left a broken tooth and bursts of blood filled his mouth. He fell to the floor writhing in agony. A foot stamped down hard on his shoulder, the cracking of bone could be heard. A second foot into his stomach, from another goon, Ajeti screamed out. Now his wife was screaming, begging in English and broken Albanian to stop. Zani stood and grabbed her by the hair, thrusting her facedown into the sofa to muffle her screams. It worked, she relented, sobbing and crying.
Ajeti, spluttering blood with every word begged, “What do you want? What do you want?â€
“We have what we came for.â€Zani stood up and walked towards Ajeti, now prone and crawling towards his crying wife. As Zani approached he looked down at Ajeti like a beaten dog. “Consider this your first warning.†Zani lifted his foot and stamped down on Ajeti’s head, and again all was dark.
It’s hard finding time to write, but I need to get the novel finished.
*Pls note, I am some 6-hours ahead of GMT here in Russia, so don’t think I am so drunk so early!
From The Guardian, link:
Israel today rejected a United Nations request for a three-day ceasefire in Lebanon to allow aid through and civilians to leave the war zone.
The UN’s emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, requested the truce while warning that the deaths of four of its personnel would deter countries from contributing to a peacekeeping force.The UN said that supplies in Lebanon are running out ‘very, very fast’ leaving children, the elderly and disabled stranded, amid concerns that continued fighting in Lebanon will hamper relief attempts.
More than 750,000 people have been made homeless since the war in the south started 18 days ago.
Israeli planes continued bombing targets in Lebanon this morning, destroying a bridge in a resort area near the Syrian border. Hizbollah guerrillas escalated their attacks, firing longer-range missiles deeper into Israel than ever before. Fighting near the Israel-Lebanon border also continued.
Don’t forget the Lebanese blog, Blogging the Middle East.
As much as my intuition warned me not to, I tentatively welcomed the appointment of John Bolton to the UN. I shouldn’t have, not then, not now.
The UN is a stuffy, corruptible, and languid organisation. The UN is hamstrung by the conflicting agendas of its membership and its overly bureaucratic structure. Even at its highest echelons, at the Security Council (UNSC), priorities and realpolitik muddy any chance of collective will and action.
The UN was in desperate need of reform and it had shown little evidence that it was changing.
Bolton was to be the fox in the coup, running around, basically upsetting people. The problem is, this is exactly what has happened, and the strategy has crashed and burned. One man can neither change the world, nor it seems the UN. Bolton was always a filthy neocon, with an insidious little agenda, but he only had a limited tenure and could possibly upset the clucking bureaucrats just enough to get the juices of reform flowing.
I suppose this may indeed happen. The G77 group of developing countries has emerged as a bulwark against the dominating politicking of the industrialised nations. Led by several African, Asian, and South American leaders, the G77 has demanded it be consulted in any future UN. However, to this point, the G77 has simply locked horns with the G8, and any restructuring has been stillborn.
One has to blame Bolton for some of this. His temper, conduct, and explicit contempt for the organisation and its membership, has simply put too many backs up. The fox has bitten off too many heads it seems. Like all of President Bush’s appointments, including now it seems Ben Bernanke, Bolton arrived with a show of bluster and the patting of backs, but has been exposed as a bungling baboon unfit for high office.
If America is to actually retain any of its respect in the global community, it must shed this moustachioed clown and appoint someone of actual worth. I would rather have no reform at the UN, than ‘bad reform,’ but with Bolton at the table its difficult to imagine progress would be possible even if the other diplomats played ball.
In a word, I was wrong.
Having spent the day shopping with Mrs. tyger, I have decided to give a few pointers to retailers in the ‘New Russia.’ After all, Britain is the birthplace of capitalism.
First, one should not presume each and every customer is a potential criminal. Now, to the ordinary westerner, the sight of lockers at the entrance to a clothes store would be quite strange. After all, a boutique is not a train station, nor is it a swimming bath. You see, these lockers are not to store your newly procured shopping, so you can save your feet during a busy day trudging the streets, no, it’s nothing so benign. The reason these shops have lockers at their entrance is because they will not allow shoppers into their store with other bags.
So you cannot buy a shirt in Naf-Naf and simply enter Mexx next door, without the rigmarole of storing your newly purchased garment in one of their numerous safety deposit boxes. This is unnecessary hassle. Shops in Britain that did such a thing would quickly find themselves out of business. Capiche?
Secondly. Nothing is worse than harrying a customer who has a garment in their hands. Whenever Mrs. tyger picked up a garment to try on, it was quickly spirited away to the changing room, because being only customers, we’re not to be trusted to hold an item of clothing without stuffing it up our shirts and making a run for it. Note, that not only did all the clothes have security tags; a huge goon, dressed in unfashionable security attire, manned the door. In developed capitalist countries, sometimes we will hold clothes, only to reject them at another rail if we find something better (I understand to communists the concept of choice may be alien). The above conduct will simply mean you will not see this customer at the changing room, and subsequently, you will not see this customer at the cash register neither.
While we’re still on the subject of clothes boutiques, I must also add that an ‘assistant’ entering a changing room while someone is dressing is absolutely inexcusable. I had already paid for Mrs. tyger’s new trousers, which she was putting on to wear for the rest of the day, and this had been carefully explained to the ‘assistant.’ However, when said assistant heard the tearing of tags (was Mrs. tyger supposed to wear her trousers in the street with price tags hanging out of them?), she barged into the cubicle demanding to know what was going on?
Unbelievable.
Also, and this will be my last gripe. When in a bookshop I ask where the Angliysky section is (bearing in mind they have maybe 20-books max), I expect more than a cursory point to where the books are, when they reside at the other side of the bookstore. I was barely wiser for asking.
This is not to say all the service in Russia has been discourteous, unhelpful, and insulting, no, in a Russian restaurant at the end of the day we had the most delightful red-headed waitress, who even had the patience and infinite kindness, to suffer my dreadful attempts to order in Russian. Naturally we left an ample tip, and we shall probably return. You see? This is how capitalism works.
More from Mr.Zhisou’s Spanish adventure…
When I got to work today there were cockroaches climbing all over the building and cockroaches scurrying all over the floor. I started stamping on a few of them in anger, then someone pointed behind me and I turned to see hundreds of the nasty blighters all over the road. On closer inspection, they were surfacing from a drain in the centre of the crossroads on which my office stands. This was not how I planned to start my day…
Did they follow you from New York, Mr Z?
Planning to go to the park in Novosibirsk today. It’s huge with massive memorials to those lost in the Second World War, particularly those from the city who are named on enormous marble pillars. There are literally thousands.
The Soviets lost 20m people in their struggle on the Eastern Front, in battles that cost the Germans the vast, vast majority of their troops and firepower. While Roosevelt and Churchill understood the contribution of the USSR in WW2, in our post-Cold War history, it has been somewhat ignored in favour of the glorification of British and American efforts.
Time is ripe to reassess who really won the war.
tygerland archive 