Today is a boring day. And there is nothing that could make it less boring for me, sitting here in Hostel Amigo, or for you, reading about it. It reminds me a story that a friend of mine told me once. He sailed across the Atlantic in an inflatable boat in the 1980's. There was nothing more boring than the time when the the wind died and the sea turned to one huge lifeless mirror. So he took with him a book he started to read many times, but never finished; actually he was unable to get to page 10. The book was Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake" and my friend, being a proud Irishman, was determined to read it, if only because Joyce was an Irishman too. The wind died a few times while he was at the sea and he was still unable to conquer that page 10. Then, one day, in the windless middle of the Atlantic, in a little boat that did not move an inch either way, he picked up the book again. And he tried to read it for a hundredth time. But, as much as he was an Irish patriot, suddenly he came to a decision. In a fit of an anger he tossed the book into the calm sea, preferring to watch the slowly rising sun that was baking his skin off. I wonder, whether I would be able to read some of the Finnegan's Wake here in Rubtsovsk today?
We crossed the Russian border a few days ago and drove without any problems almost to the Kazakh border. Without any problems is, of course, a relative term. When it rains, we cannot use the windshield wipers and it rained a few times. Also the hood lock does not work and thus we had to tie the hood down. And the rear shock is probably blown. But, as I said, we drove without any real problem, and consequently, we reached Rubtsovsk at the Russian border a day before our visa allows us to enter Kazakhstan.
Rubtsovsk is a small Russian town. The small towns are usually not exactly a big heap of excitement for any traveler and a small Russian town during a rainy day might be be really good for one thing only - to get my friend to fish out the book from the sea and to finish reading it. Yet I went out anyway to see how people live in a small Russian town. And after seeing just a bit of life here I am not worried about the Russians suddenly attacking the West. Maybe Mr. Harper should tone down his "Russians are coming" rhetoric and come here to drive through the huge potholes on the main street, go through the park full of weeds and look at the houses with peeling paint. I think that the Russians have other problems than to goosestep into Toronto. Although a well used political trick of turning the attention away from the local potholes to "Krym is ours" seems to be working, I do not think that the Russian economy would sustain a major war.
Yes, Russian economy is a hollowed out economy. The roads are full of new cars made in other countries with a smattering of locally produced cars. As we drove from Lithuanian borders to Siberia we saw thousands of miles of meadows, but almost no cows and a minimum of agriculture. One question came to us over and over again - how can a country with so much of fertile land ever import meat and other agricultural products? And then came little cities like Rubtsovsk. Cities with deteriorating infrastructure, where the work is done with no attention to details and these forgotten details quickly erode the results of any work. A newly built hotel with handrails that have already fallen to the ground, with tiles that do not stick to the floor, etc.
And yet, there is a booming retail sector with little stores and gas stations all over Russia; so nobody can tell me that the Russians lack an entrepreneurial spirit. This vibrant retail sector must be juxtaposed against the big old factories seemingly unchanged from the time of communism and deteriorating houses and public places. The apartment buildings here are owned by the state and nobody cares to mow the weeds in the lawns in front of the buildings. It makes me sad to see these old dilapidated buildings with nice little new stores in them, it makes me sad to see an unkempt beautiful old theater with its broken windows and peeling paint, it makes me sad to see all of the unrealized potential here, and it makes me sad to see the Russian hollowed out economy living off its natural resources. Because Russian people were almost always nice to us and they deserve a better deal.
We crossed the Russian border a few days ago and drove without any problems almost to the Kazakh border. Without any problems is, of course, a relative term. When it rains, we cannot use the windshield wipers and it rained a few times. Also the hood lock does not work and thus we had to tie the hood down. And the rear shock is probably blown. But, as I said, we drove without any real problem, and consequently, we reached Rubtsovsk at the Russian border a day before our visa allows us to enter Kazakhstan.
Rubtsovsk is a small Russian town. The small towns are usually not exactly a big heap of excitement for any traveler and a small Russian town during a rainy day might be be really good for one thing only - to get my friend to fish out the book from the sea and to finish reading it. Yet I went out anyway to see how people live in a small Russian town. And after seeing just a bit of life here I am not worried about the Russians suddenly attacking the West. Maybe Mr. Harper should tone down his "Russians are coming" rhetoric and come here to drive through the huge potholes on the main street, go through the park full of weeds and look at the houses with peeling paint. I think that the Russians have other problems than to goosestep into Toronto. Although a well used political trick of turning the attention away from the local potholes to "Krym is ours" seems to be working, I do not think that the Russian economy would sustain a major war.
Yes, Russian economy is a hollowed out economy. The roads are full of new cars made in other countries with a smattering of locally produced cars. As we drove from Lithuanian borders to Siberia we saw thousands of miles of meadows, but almost no cows and a minimum of agriculture. One question came to us over and over again - how can a country with so much of fertile land ever import meat and other agricultural products? And then came little cities like Rubtsovsk. Cities with deteriorating infrastructure, where the work is done with no attention to details and these forgotten details quickly erode the results of any work. A newly built hotel with handrails that have already fallen to the ground, with tiles that do not stick to the floor, etc.
And yet, there is a booming retail sector with little stores and gas stations all over Russia; so nobody can tell me that the Russians lack an entrepreneurial spirit. This vibrant retail sector must be juxtaposed against the big old factories seemingly unchanged from the time of communism and deteriorating houses and public places. The apartment buildings here are owned by the state and nobody cares to mow the weeds in the lawns in front of the buildings. It makes me sad to see these old dilapidated buildings with nice little new stores in them, it makes me sad to see an unkempt beautiful old theater with its broken windows and peeling paint, it makes me sad to see all of the unrealized potential here, and it makes me sad to see the Russian hollowed out economy living off its natural resources. Because Russian people were almost always nice to us and they deserve a better deal.