Re: Russian health care

["Chris Doss" <nomorebounces@xxxxxxx>]

Hari:
>
> Reply:
> Chris - I am not disputing your main thrust in your attack on NYT versions of Russian doom.

Don't even get me started on the truly crap reporting on Russia that goes on in Western newspapers. For one thing, they interview the same goddamn people all the time. It's Yavlinsky, Khakamada, Chubais, yada yada yada over and over and over again (why? these people are pro-Western. They also speak English.). Has Zyuganov _ever_ been interviewed by the NYT, or Glazyev, or _any_ Russian politician below the presidential level who is actually popular? What analysts are quoted -- Felgenhauer, Piontkovsky, anybody who can be relied upon to give a pro-Western, anti-Kremlin slant. Le Monde is particularly wretched, by the way. (cf. Peter Lavelle's little checklist rant here: http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?cat=3&type=3&art=439).

>
> iii) No doubt 'blat' -'gratuity'-'payment' - operates reasonably well. But there is undoubtedly a difficulty with getting admissions for emergencies.

It should be noted that blat in all its forms -- informal transactions, the shadow economy, gratutities, "fees" to officials -- makes up/takes up up to half the Russian economy. A related notion is that of "khalyava." "Khalyava"'s primary meaning is "cheap prostitute," but its usual means "anything that can be gotten for nothing." Most people _expect_ bureaucrats to use their position to get, nay, _live off of_ khalyava. (I don't know if the word is of Soviet, post-Soviet, or tsarist-era coinage, but the concept certainly goes back a loooooooooong way, certainly far before the division of bribes into "sinful" bribes, that is, ones that hurt the Tsar, and harmless ones.) We are not just talking about high officials here; in fact, high officials are likely less corrupt.

An anecdote and a joke to illustrate, from the field of education.

A friend of mine graduated from high school in Ukraine in the late 90s. (Ukraine is a lot like Russia in every respect, only worse.) She scored 4 out of 5 marks on her exit test. She was drawn aside and told, "You're a smart girl and want to go to a good university, right? You got a 4 out of 5, which is pretty good, but I'm sure you could do better (wink). If your parents came in and talked to me about it (wink, wink), I'm sure we could get you a 5 (wink, wink, wink)." She decided a 4 was good enough.

Joke:

Corrupt professor is examining a rich, a reasonably well-off, and a poor student:

Prof. to rich student: "When was the Great Patriotic War?"

Rich student: "That was sometime in the 40s, right?"

Prof.: "Good enough!"

Prof. to middle-income student: "When was the Great Patriotic War?"

Student: "1941-1945."

Prof.: "What was the war about?"

Student: "Wasn't that after that Serbian prince got killed?"

Prof.: "Not quite, but good enough!"

Prof. to poor student: "When was the Great Patriotic War, and what was it about?"

Student: "20 million people died in the war defending our Motherland from German Fascism from 1941-1945."

Prof.: "Very good. And what were their names?"