the society reflects in the water

so, it's on again.
the once in a year "no hot water season". As usually NOT in summer, now, since beginning of May.

Once a year they switch off in Russia the hot water to clean the water pipes. Why?! nobody knows. They will tell you, "to clean", what is not an explenation.
As it always was like this people take it for granted (and are usually very surprised if you tell them it was never like this in western europe).
This year the administration was proud of themselves because the cold water period is just 2 weeks, instead of three.

At this time air temperature hoovers around 6 - 9 degrees outside your apartment becomes very cold when though every water pipe runs cold water.
As you can imagine this is very uncomfortable, you can work around the worst by buying a small boiler for you shower or by going to the fitness club to have a shower. But this doesn't solve the overall problem.

In my eyes it has a huge impact on hygiene and immunity.

- You have a city of 17 Million people crowded on a circle of 40 km. Then you switch of cold water, people shower less, you can't clean dishes and clothes any more that well (amazing, how much detergents depend on hot water).
Of course a sharp decline of hygiene is the result.

- At the same time people are constantly cold. So of course they have a reduced immunity.

FOr me this is on of the reasons, that child mortality is here five times higher than in Germany and the average age of men is just 57 years.
Of course, about this nobody speaks here in official media.

Instead of providing in the 21st all year hot water we hat from the Moscow officials in the last weeks the following actions:

- to show off, that the NY budget is lower than the budget of Moscow (which fades into corruption)
- make an huge opening of the eurovision song contest for 30 Million Euro
- celebrate victory day with an million dollar parade

not understandable for western. But ok, in Russia it's the country which matters, not the citizen. And they are fine with, it seems.

cheers

F*** Moscow

Moscow, you shock us again and again.

3 small amounts of fruits.. almost 100 Dollar in a Restaurant

700g Melon- 30 $
3x Peaches- 20 $
200 g Cherries- 50 $

And this basically in a 3rd world land.
This his is just possible in the the city of show offs and squander
P.S. I bought 300 g cherries a month later in Germany, 1.70 Euro (approx. 60 rbls)

where the money goes

I spent the last days on trips in central Russia and the north western part.
two as sad as typical stories people told me there.

- a local surgeon told me, that her cities is on of the mongorod's, where basically one factory owns the city and employees all people. This doctors got for 2009 a budget to buy equipment of 3.000 euro.
Never mind, when the "natzalniki" (management) from Moscow visited they build an VIP toilet for 20.000 Euro

- my taxi driver in SPB had the luck to get a one million rubel subsidization for this outrageous expensive flats. However, to get this subsidization you have to fulfill so many ridiculous rules that you have to use some local agencies (controlled by the sames people who set up the subsidization).
So, from the social support of 1 mio Rbl he lost 600.000 rubles to this agencies.

:(

Wifi taxi

I use to complain sometimes a bit about Russia.
But this doesn't mean that there are some areas we all (G7 ;) couldn't learn.
One of the things I learned in Russia, is that the world has meanwhile a 'digital' gapp. People and countries which understand that information and their flow is a raw material, and countries who don't.
Germany is for sure on the wrong side of this gapp (hotel, 10 min internet 2 euros; standdars cellphone contract you pay for the first transmitted bit a day 2 euros 'basic fee').
In germany they didn't yet even grasp the idea of an digital society.

Other Russia (and other eastern countries).
Take a look at the attached picture I made yesterday in my taxi home from the airport.

Free Wifi in the cab!

If you are german and read thsi blog you may react with 'nobodies needs this'. But think again, didn't you (German) not think the same about cellphones, blackberry and navigationsystems at the beginning?

I mean, first of all it's free. So you don't want it, don't use it. But if you consider that you ride to the airport needs at least 2h just to be then offline for the rest of your traveltime this is a freaking good idea.

And it shows how advanced sometimes the Russian thinking can be.

P.S.
If you are Estonian and read this, you may not get the point of this blog at all, as that you have an Wifi covered country and Internet access in your constitution ;)

Vodka steretypes

So, you know this old steretype that Russians drink so much.

Well, it's just a steretype, isn't it.

However, look at the attached picture. The board shop from ural airlines offers a 'glas' of vodka for 1,5 euro.
It has a crown cap, so if you open it you have to drink it.

I stay with my coffee ;)

No country of old phones

I may have mentioned a couple of times the overwhelming onslaught of iphones even while it wasn't official available.

It's overall easily possible to realize that in our office, restaurant, plane there are a dozend iphones around you.

And while I love myself shiny new gadgets and like the iphone I consider it as very funny when people spend all this money on a phone just to... Well, phone with it (and of course be stylish, show off).

Usuall russian doen't have any clue what a iphone can do (and most off the german which bought one in Russia cauz it's cool).

I just watch a girl in the airport, sending sms with her iphone while listening Music with an old gen bulky iPod :)

Stupid, didn't she even realize that the iphone has a ipod built in beside a dozend of other features.

:)

Bdw, the Russians in my office like to joke about the old phones Germans use. And I agree that germany is embarassing for lack of mobile internet, pricing and an ignorance in the populations & politics for their potential (we prefer to support the transrapid instead of UMTS to close the digital gap).

Anti crisis action

So, russia has a hughe crisis.
Basically because the blow it.

While they had money (from oil) they prefered to buy football clubs, buy skyscrapers and show of on international level (from St. Moritz to G8) instead of adapting technologies and strengthening their industry..
And this bdw, not done by some elite. It was done and carried out by a wide social consense.

Ok, never mind. So now they have in the crisis their very own particular crisis.
And what happens, a lot of stupid new laws.

So they try now to kick foreigners out by making it really to get an workallowance.
So it happens to me and other.

Fun, what do they think. That kicking out the foreigners of an foreign representative office with 2 foreigner (non corrupt management basically) and 100 (well managed hopefully) Russian and an aggressive growth strategie will make things better?

Finally, if you want attract foreign investment and knowhow on a country scoring a whooping 140st place on the corruption ranking you should make laws against foreign management or engineers.

Russian anti crisis programm, full throttle in the crisis :)