There are a few questions people
continually ask me which never get old: 1) Do you like Russian vodka? 2) Do you
like our Russian snow? 3) Do you like Russian people? 4) Russia is a bad
country, yes?
This blog post is going to address
the last question, is Russia a bad country?
How does one even begin to answer that?
After spending a day shopping and dealing with nonsensical people from
time to time, I do have my moments of severe annoyance but I can’t in an honest
answer say that this is a bad country. Does it bug the crap out of me that people insist on putting plastic things over their shoes because janitors don't know how to do their jobs and clean the floor, thus making it quite challenging for you walk? Yes. Does it take all of my restraint to stop from strangling the cashier who can't be bothered with putting my groceries in the bag even though that's what's she's there for? You bet. And does it take Buddha-like patience when it comes to dealing with the post office? Absolutely. These annoyance are more cultural than anything, and if these things didn't bother me, I'm sure something else would. There are people all over the world who are lazy and don't feel like doing the job for which they were hired. Does this mean that the whole world is bad? Think long and hard before answering that, because we can always find something worth smiling about and something which bring us a little joy. Therefore, no Russia isn't exactly the Wild West or Wild East if you will; if it were, then there wouldn’t be so many immigrants here. There wouldn’t be so much Hollywood and
intrigue. My personal belief is that
Russia is a victim of their own stereotypes and preconceived notions about what
foreigners think about them.
Case in point is the Olympics. Was there corruption? Well, you can’t break the world budget
without a little income on the side. Was
there massive grumbling and complaining the need to take the torch into space
and under Baikal? Absolutely. Just to play the devil’s advocate, when was
the last time anyone thought about doing something that extreme? I think the other countries were just jealous
that they didn’t think of it first.
Despite the enormous financial burden that was imposed on the people of
the world’s largest country, there was genuine excitement in the air when the
Olympic flame came through the humble city of Novosibirsk.
Then came the day of the opening
ceremony in Sochi. Yes, I like so many
others read the posts by the reports who were speaking ill of Russian hotels:
no water, no floors, questionable beds etc.
But then, the Games opened and the world was silenced for a whole hour
as Russia presented their best ballet dancers, singers and unique creativity
for the whole world to see. Let’s be
honest, the media were holding their breath and just hoping that something
would go wrong; and to be truthfully, perhaps a fair amount of native people
were also thinking that. Happily nothing
of the sort happened. Only one lighting
thing didn’t work and you would think that an entire building had
collapsed. Seriously people, you’re
going to ignore the mind-blowing choreography and pure exquisiteness of the
show over a few light bulbs?
Where does all of this bad press
come from? Decades of propaganda from
the faceless people who tell us that we should be scared of everything
un-American? This is an easy answer. After all, these were the same faceless
people who told us smoking was fine, and then changed their minds. Gay people are evil and corrupt and then
changed their minds. Genetically altering
foods will save the world, and are now having to explain why people are
unnaturally aggressive and developing cancer at an alarming rate. Propaganda is the mechanism which makes the
world go round, and over generalizations are loosely, and I mean loosely based
on facts; but still, at some point people really begin to believe their own
propaganda. For decades it was East vs
West and it can be argued that it still is that way. It’s funny how quickly everyone forgets their
history or glosses over ‘the bad stuff’.
The West is not some fairy-tale land were people just ride around in
BMW’s and eat fast food (well, perhaps in LA they do) but that’s just not how
it is. And the East is not a place where
bears roam the street and the mafia drives around in black cars. It hasn’t been that way since the late 90’s. Everyone knows that, except for perhaps the
people reporting the news.
Returning to the topic at hand, so
yes, after years of being told that the West is a land of puppies and unicorns,
and sometimes even flying cars which run on tea; people at some point in time
began to believe it. Then on the flip
side, once all of the political and imaginary boundaries were open, there came
the flood of images of the Evil Empire. And
then everyone believed it. I’m trying to
recall what I was taught in school, because it was very different than what my
mother was taught. I never had to learn
what to do in case of a nuclear attack, yes, I’m sure all my well-read readers
will roll their eyes at me; but let’s face it, how else do you calm a
population with such awful weapons?
We’ve sure come a long way since the days of hiding under desks and
political discord; instead we fight cultural wars via Buzzfeed and Fox and
other nonsensical media outlets.
Tragically yes, people do start to
believe in their own cultural propaganda and adapt to facts that perhaps you
weren’t aware of. For example, Vladimir
Putin wrote a letter to the New York Times warning Americans not to be so
egotistical, which is totally pot calling the kettle black. Doesn’t every country want to be great? Isn’t that the point of establishing boundaries
and boarders, to stick out your tongue and declare that you are the best? If sticking your tongue out doesn’t work, you
could always invest in a chemical weapon or two, which generally catches a
little more attention. Speaking of pots
and kettles, isn’t it funny that not even China received as much ridicule or scrutiny
the way Russia has? It’s not right and
it’s not fair. The moral of the story is
this: Не та́к страшен чëрт, как его́ малю́ют
(the devil is not as black as he is painted).
Russia not the evil empire, nor is it exactly paradise. Tell me a place that is without problems and I will be quiet and apologize. Until then, the press just need to remember that they are supposed to be objective and not to over exploit problems which aren't even problems. We all just need to take a minute to take a
breath and relax. After all, they are hosting a fairly important international sport competition and at the end of
the day, we are all guests in this huge country, and the last time I checked,
it wasn’t exactly polite to constantly insult your host.
