deeper into russia

Negotiations with Russians often involve flared tempers. During negotiations and meetings, temper tantrums and walkouts often occur. Never say never and now never say sorry because...


Some 'hard-line' Russians still view compromise as a sign of weakness, and often refuse to back down. To these individuals, compromising is bad business. once i witness a young taxi driver quarreling with a poor old lady because she didn't shut his door hard enough. Old lady too wasn't giving in, she fought back like a fierce kitten.

Russians are highly literate, and have almost a 100% literacy rate.


Now, somehow, i don't trust my observation but what i see are small shops popping up everywhere like mushrooms after the rain but they shut down very quickly too.So, there might be some explanation here. 


A major problem is a small share of small businesses in overall economic activity. For example, in UK as much as 46.2% (2003) are employed in small businesses (compared to 11.5% in Russia) and while the turnover of small businesses in UK reaches 38.3%, it is a mere 4% in Russia. The official statistics might lower the real turnover details, as many Russian businesses prefer to "hide" the real figures to avoid taxes. However, there are estimates that such businesses account to about 50% of the total number of enterprises, so even in this case the share of small business is very small. 


Get some money, hide them and run?


There are estimates showing that from 30% to 50% of salary in Russia is paid "in envelopes" (thus, not officially registered and taxed), and that about 50% small businesses are not showing part or all of their turnover.
One of Russia's main problems is that it was for a long time isolated from the outside world. The internet is something that can solve this problem faster than anything else. The more people, schools, regions, have access to the internet, the easier it will be to integrate the society and provide a free access to information to everybody. The standard level of internet penetration in EU countries is about 50%, in USA, Australia and New Zealand - 65%, in Scandinavia - 70-80%. Eastern European countries have about 30% internet penetration.

Internet users in Russia (2005):(% of total population)	12 Mln 8.3%
Computers owned: (% of total population):	15 Mln 10.4%

These numbers are in 2005, i got them from the internet. without doubt, the numbers are higher now.
so, russians are clever. its just that the russian intelligence is now transferring from paper to computer.


today, right now, i think no matter how rude and clever ( because admit it, clever people aren't fun sometimes ) russians are, i will miss russia and the few few lovely humble people i got to know.


p/s  i want to write something original but nothing clever ever comes up. 

the great ginger buy

the other day shek and i went to METRO to look for things i can sell to my 500++ friends in facebook.
I decided to relive the peanut butter sale once more when i saw those big big jars filled with nuttyliciousness.

after walking thru all the lanes in there and buying the things on our list, we stepped out to go home.
then i saw on the first page of the METRO leaflet, gingers for only 50rubles. i've been plucking ginger buds from my roommates cupboard and its time to put some back. but more importantly, it was so cheap! Ginger in russia is freaking expensive, if u take 3, u give back 3. so i told shek to wait while i quickly make another round for precious.
This madam (me) went straight to the isle, grabbed a packet, scanned for the shortest queue and march right into it.
i was the only one with one item in hand. The rest of the buyers had bulks of things in their trolleys. Same goes with the man before me.
so, i waited and waited, thinking if shek has gotten impatient, thinking who would be a peanut butter fan, thinking if i should ask to pay first because hey,  i only have ONE thing here.... but then i thought, this poor guy must have been waiting for quite some time too.
Finally after a century of beeping, printing, signing and packing, it was my turn.
The lady scanned the beautiful gingers i picked and the resit was 3 full A4 pages of printings  which i had to sign 3 bloody times!
So much time, work and paper to buy 400 grams of ginger, i'm coming next time with Operation Barbarossa.

next post would be about me buying ginger.....

Russian cross

December 26th 1991, 15 new countries emerged when Soviet Union ( USSR) dissolved officially.
One of them was Russia.
The break-up was generally welcomed in the west and was seen as the final act of the Cold war.
But a new demographic trend took place in Russia, known as the Russian Cross.

After 1991, death rates surpassed birth rates. This means Russia began loosing its population.
One generation's length away,  the growth of disease in Russia exceeded 40% from1990 to 2010.
the obvious reason is the increase of lifespan, thus more percentage of disease diagnosed and reported.
Another reason speculated is the sudden growth of immigrants of ex-USSR countries into Russia, bringing their poor health statistics along.

Since 1990, alcohol consumption also more than doubled, and this covers 70% of men, 50% of women, 20% of girls and 33% of young men. As champion of all pubs, annually, according to calculations, a Russian drinks 18L of pure alcohol, the highest volume in the world.

Next gold medal awarded  would be for cigarette smoking. 30% of women, 63% of men, 40% of boys, 7% of girls are smokers.

It makes u wonder if people of Russia are divided into 2 groups, the good and the bad, those who drink and smoke and those who don't do both.

Lastly, if you're not put in the sand because of alcohol or nicotine, then you would die a bloody death as Russia also places top in road accidents statistics, exceeding Europe by 3.3 times more but with a paradox :  no of cars in Russia is less than twice the number in Europe.
and as u would have guessed, the main cause of accidents in Russia are drivers on alcohol.

Suicides rate are soaring too.

Russia should pour more oil over its very troubled waters.

Together

together we reached for the stars above
together we step into the big world
but when tomorrow comes
you'll be crossing the sea
to another land, keeping us apart
will we be forgotten?
like dust, swept away by the wind
or will i be in your heart, and urs in mine?
forever embedded, like a horn to a rose
keeping both company till the very last leaf
i want
to be by your side when you are lonely
to remind you of what ur life is worth
to give you hope when you're down on your knees
the outcome is unknown
eyes may not meet but hearts always do

dr.oleg's quote

-i don't like to catch fish, i catch them only in shops.

-why do you treat only pregnant women? because men cant be pregnant.

( shakes hand in air, wtf? )

the long call

 it takes a whole hour to get to class. its always slow, swinging left to right to left to right to left. On a good day (for the driver), theres the additional forward jerks when people crawl in and out and before halfway, you get motion sickness. but anyway....

today was different. i had a taste of it just before getting into that van. a missed call from nature.

Alarmed,  i sat and planted my feet firmly down. All was fine for a stingy 20 minutes. Then comes the pain.
Shut my book, began to pray. bloody coffee! bloody coffee!. turning white. What a good morning.

I couldn't see, i couldn't hear, couldn't feel. everything was a blur. i sat like a stone. my body and soul concentrating only on one thing : KEEPING IT IN.......

it was a merry-go-round of panic and relief. inside was a roller coaster ride with countless loops.

brain dead, one idea struck me. The moment i see a shop with the toilet, i'll shout stop and get down.
but i dont have paper. Why am i like this? a normal girl would have tissue paper with her always....


-claire, u have tissue?
-no.  ???
-nevermind.


the moment the van stop, i gave my all.... the last 100 meters. two toy soldiers on full speed. Oh, we were also late for class.

everybody knows that burst of impulse right when you see the toilet door.
Sprinting, cringing, i flung the bag, shut the door, lock! and releeeeeeeeeeeease. Ahhhhhhh~~~~
claire waited at the door with some tissue. without u claire, i have no tomorrow.

god saw my efforts.

He put a handsome guy waiting for me outside.