Hello from Russia!

[Flowerdk4]

You know, it is usually not the same as it seems from the outside...
Yes, I think we are quite emotional people. At least most of us are. I am not sure if it is bad or good.
And as it was time when we were young - it is with longing that we remember those times of Gorbachev and pre-Gorbachev times... Yes, the only chance to get a good clothes was to have them brought from abroad, to buy a book one had to collect 20 - 60 kg. of paper wastes and get a special coupon, to buy a car one had to wait for several years (and most people just hadn't money enough even to think of that, I remember our family eating peaches once or twice a year...
But... All the same, it is our life. It is a part of us. So I am happy it was as it has been. Who knows, maybe my life would be quite different, if I hadn't got all the experience I have now... Maybe it could be not as good as it is now.

I kind of like people who live whatever they are feeling! Rational thinking and material things are not whats it cracked up to be.

I once heard a radio program about some russian students. They were talking about the difference between living like they always had and now being being to buy many new things etc. Cant remember if it was the usa they went and visit. They said something about that all the new stuff did not give them anything, it was very superficial and it did not do much for their hearts and souls.
I have a friend who was born and lived in the east germany and she has told how it was like to live there before the wall broke down. You can always talk about freedom. But I did not find it to be so bad. They got to get education and jobs, daycare for children was free and as a students she had her own appartment and had money to go to caffees, theatre etc. Not a bad life!
I once saw a tv program about the former east germany, where they showed films etc. And one thing which I found was so great and which I really could do with, is that they had a shop where you go and get all your electric machines repaired. You simply handed it there and they repaired it for you. I thought that was such a great thing, instead of always throwing it away and get a new one. I havent seen a shop like this and its even hard to find some place where they can repair your radio or tv. Maybe this is something a woman, who has no techical skills would notice, I dont know.

I am curious about the kind of life you had as I somehow sense and think, that there is so much life going on if you take away all the material stuff. It may look nice to have a lot of nice things, but I am thinking what kind of life are these people living? What is important to them? How do they socialise? What are their values etc.? All the kind of things which will not show if you just look at someones life but dont get underneath the surface.
So you see, I dont think of your past as negative. I think of it, as the circumstances must have forced people to make life in another way, and that may very well be of much value.

Flower

 

[Sergo]

Mmm, do they vote each other off the island? If so that sounds like ‘Survivor’ which ran for , I think, two series here, but I believe is probably the biggest show of it’s type in America.

Yes, I remember now having heard that it was the same as "Survivor". Really, I kind of liked this show.

Eating cucumber sandwiches? Sure.

Eating cucumbers, cloth in whites, play cricket... Though I am not enough gentleman to manage all of that.

Ah, in which case you have out dead-panned me; I tip my hat to you.

Thanks, that's a pleasure. Though not too hard earned, really.

That remains me of an interesting book I read called “Lenin’s Embalmers” which was co-written by Ilya Zbarsky ,one was one of the men who kept Lenin’s body preserved. It described who they did this but also gave an insight into how scientists and doctors were treated at various times during Soviet history.

Yep, Zbarsky is a well-known person, I've heard several times about him. But have never read the book you mentioned.

f course, as was the fashion at the time. Clearly your wife is a discerning shopper.

Thanks, I will inform her of your opinion. (I believe most women are good on shopping).

Ah, ok, I thought it was some kind of typo. I’ll try and find some examples on the net to look at.

Have you found anything? I like the wooden mostly. And carved from boxwood myself.

Sure, I was joking about the size of the old ones from years ago. This business is big everywhere Sergo, but I’ve noticed that Russians, particularly the women, love their mobiles.

Yes. Our daughter just get her fourth phone, I believe. All previous were lost, stolen or broken. And my wife just started to need a new one. Too expensive, if you asked me.

I see, so the government has unworkable customs rules with unrealistically high duties; which combined together mean that in most cases they are circumvented and end up with no customs duty at all. This seems a familiar tale of your government living in the past and not understanding the new world they live in.

Really, it is a much bigger and more intricate picture than that. I have thought for several years of writing a book about our life. Now I'd have named it "The Scheme". You know, nearly everything we do in business - we do according to some scheme or other. Almost everything here is being done not in a haphazard way, but after a special fashion, OKed by some authority. Even if you want to make a contract with some foreign vendor, you do not just make it, but prepare a scheme of how money should be transfered using special off-shores, how goods would be delivered using several companies and warehouses, how goods are stored and documents processed so that your scheme looked real. And of course all this is done with the permission of our government - at least most of it: it is very useful for the rulers to be able to rise fast and unregistered money, and to remind their managers that everybody sinned - so everybody could be prosecuted in case of disobedience.
Now it is our militia that takes on weight rapidly. Hence those loud confiscations - they want to get themselves a piece of the cake, that's all there is there underneath.

Ok, but there have been disagreements about public/private ownership here in Britain too. Our Railways were privately owned, then controlled by the Government, and now back in private hands again.

I see. though it is not exactly what bothers me at the moment...
(By the way, I'm flying to SPb again in the morning)

 

[Sergo]

Flower, I want very much to answer you - hope to be able to do it soon.

 

[Sergo]

I kind of like people who live whatever they are feeling! Rational thinking and material things are not whats it cracked up to be.
Flower

OK, that's us - not too keen on rational thinking, and not thinking material things to be the big deal.
Why, most of us do not even have plans for as far as next Monday.

I once heard a radio program about some russian students. They were talking about the difference between living like they always had and now being being to buy many new things etc. Cant remember if it was the usa they went and visit. They said something about that all the new stuff did not give them anything, it was very superficial and it did not do much for their hearts and souls.
Flower

You know, students are special folks. They very often say things very different from what they'll say in a year or two, and sometimes even what they say isn't what they think, but rather what they would like to think or believe.
And, you know, it is OK to see nothing in lots of different "nose cleaning devices" and other contemporary marvels one could find in a USA shop maybe, but to live without a mobile, an air conditioner, personal computer or a refrigerator... And I am sure if we lived in our Russian socialism now - we would not have all these things, together with enough meat, fruits or a possibility to travel, to start with... (so these students wouldn't have being able to try a western life, if that hadn't been approved by The Party - and in that case those students would have been "good comrades" too).

I have a friend who was born and lived in the east germany and she has told how it was like to live there before the wall broke down. You can always talk about freedom. But I did not find it to be so bad. They got to get education and jobs, daycare for children was free and as a students she had her own appartment and had money to go to caffees, theatre etc. Not a bad life!
Flower

Errr... You know, to understand it one has to try and feel it: yes, we had free education, medical care and... let me see... no, kindergartens were for money from around 1925 on... yes, jobs... almost free jobs...
This, excluding jobs, we have even now. Plus free drugs, transport tickets and local resorts for pensioneers, along with some other free things...
But: I forgot when I've seen insides of a free clinic: I would gladly pay to be admitted into a pay one, rather than to have shock of trying our "free medical care". Really, the last time I've been there was 8 years ago or so, when I started to feel pain in my back. They checked me, and I was told that it was a problem I will live with the rest of my life, and there was nothing they could do to cure it, save for temporary relief injections. (And I could hardly sit or walk normally then, and to get into a car was sometimes impossible for me). After that I started my own program - push-ups and spine-training, swimming etc. So in several years my spinal pains almost ceased to exist, and now they occur for two or three times a year, but I even manage not to remain at home at such times - so much weakier they are now than they were then...
So: a "free" thing is not always a good thing.
And, really, these "free" education etc. are really matters of how to look at them: OK, our government paid us only fractions of what we really earned. So they could easily give us some "free" things, paid for from what they took out of our salaries...

I once saw a tv program about the former east germany, where they showed films etc. And one thing which I found was so great and which I really could do with, is that they had a shop where you go and get all your electric machines repaired. You simply handed it there and they repaired it for you. I thought that was such a great thing, instead of always throwing it away and get a new one. I havent seen a shop like this and its even hard to find some place where they can repair your radio or tv. Maybe this is something a woman, who has no techical skills would notice, I dont know.
Flower

We had such repair shops then, and we have them now. Though in many cases a repaired thing cannot last long. And in some cases repairs cost nearly as much as the broken thing itself... It is especially the case with the mobile phones - our family stopped to repair them after paying for repairs of two of phones, and having them broken up again in less then a week time each...

I am curious about the kind of life you had as I somehow sense and think, that there is so much life going on if you take away all the material stuff. It may look nice to have a lot of nice things, but I am thinking what kind of life are these people living? What is important to them? How do they socialise? What are their values etc.? All the kind of things which will not show if you just look at someones life but dont get underneath the surface.
So you see, I dont think of your past as negative. I think of it, as the circumstances must have forced people to make life in another way, and that may very well be of much value.

Flower

You know, we had lots of good things, and lots of bad things. But I think it could be true of any country in the world to some extent.
What essentially had been wrong then - was lots of lies. You know, our communism had been a mountain of lies from the beginning, covered with clouds of other lies.
Our country has been ruled by people who proclaimed themselves "champions of the working classes", and some of them never had been, and others had long forgotten how they really worked themselves. And more than that - they despiced the workers, and manipulated them. Of course, a worker could have gone to the top - and some really did, but to do that one had to learn to speak not what he thought, but what he was expected to say. So when he entered that "top space" he hasn't already been a worker, but a "party leader", learned how to lie and manipulate. And while they said that there were no rich or poor in our country, - there were lots of poor and very poor, and quite a lot of rich - at least if we check them against what an average Russian posessed. I had known a boy whose father had been a KGB colonel - their family lived as princes, with several cars, forein refrigerators, TVs, furniture - when an average Russian had to wait for month to buy a color TV, and sometimes many years for furniture or a car (if one had money enough, wich had not been all that often). And it is not one's need to have a refrigerator or a TV which is frustrating, but the injustice of that supposedly all were equal in theory, and very much not equal in practice.

So. I am always ready to speak about our past and our present. (By the way, of course we have quite a lot of problems now - I understand people who say that THEN it has been better than NOW.) I discuss it quite often really. Too bad I do not have enough time to color a picture of our life for you with all the colours that there were then...
But please ask me - and I will try to...

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Yes, I remember now having heard that it was the same as "Survivor". Really, I kind of liked this show.

Yes, they’re reality shows, we have lots of them in Britain; most people would say far too many.

Eating cucumbers, cloth in whites, play cricket... Though I am not enough gentleman to manage all of that.

You don’t have to be a gentleman to play cricket, after all it’s the national sport of Australia!
Note that some Australian cricketers look distinctly Russian:

Thanks, that's a pleasure. Though not too hard earned, really.

Sure, a bit like out smiling Putin.

Yep, Zbarsky is a well-known person, I've heard several times about him. But have never read the book you mentioned.

I believe there are two Zbarsky’s who did this job, a father and a son. I believe it was the son who wrote the book, and whilst it’s a few years since I read it I seem to remember it was a very enjoyable read. Here it is:
Lenin's Embalmbers

Thanks, I will inform her of your opinion. (I believe most women are good on shopping).

Terrifyingly so at times.

Have you found anything? I like the wooden mostly. And carved from boxwood myself.

Well this seems to be what you’re talking about:
Netsuke site

Yes. Our daughter just get her fourth phone, I believe. All previous were lost, stolen or broken. And my wife just started to need a new one. Too expensive, if you asked me.

If they ever invent one that can cut the lawn then I think women will be able to give up on us all together.

Really, it is a much bigger and more intricate picture than that. I have thought for several years of writing a book about our life. Now I'd have named it "The Scheme". You know, nearly everything we do in business - we do according to some scheme or other. Almost everything here is being done not in a haphazard way, but after a special fashion, OKed by some authority. Even if you want to make a contract with some foreign vendor, you do not just make it, but prepare a scheme of how money should be transfered using special off-shores, how goods would be delivered using several companies and warehouses, how goods are stored and documents processed so that your scheme looked real. And of course all this is done with the permission of our government - at least most of it: it is very useful for the rulers to be able to rise fast and unregistered money, and to remind their managers that everybody sinned - so everybody could be prosecuted in case of disobedience.
Now it is our militia that takes on weight rapidly. Hence those loud confiscations - they want to get themselves a piece of the cake, that's all there is there underneath.

I see, it all sounds like a Kafka story to me. A strange game you have to play, however illogical the rules seem. I think I can see why you have difficulty delegating your work; although that does seem to trap you rather.

(By the way, I'm flying to SPb again in the morning)

And did you get your truck back or do you need to descend to another level of hell first?

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Russians in UK All living in the posh areas of London I see. Bloody Russian Billionaires, they come over here, buy all our football clubs etc etc etc

 

[Sergo]

You don’t have to be a gentleman to play cricket, after all it’s the national sport of Australia!
Note that some Australian cricketers look distinctly Russian:

Maybe he looks Russian. 19th century Russian. Now we look slightly different, you know...

Well this seems to be what you’re talking about:
Netsuke site

Well, you seem not to be impressed... And I've already contacted a person mentioned there - a man from Kiev. His things are good - though, as far as I understand, he duplicates his own creations for many years - so there are lots of copies sold. And he asks from $US1.100 up to $US2.400 for them.
Not too bad a business, eh?

If they ever invent one that can cut the lawn then I think women will be able to give up on us all together.

I do not think mawing lawns is what they need of us most of all... Closing WC after we use it? Inviting them to parties our bosses organize? Introduce them to our friends so they could have a better chance at getting them the best husband possible? Errr... I forgot each one...

I see, it all sounds like a Kafka story to me. A strange game you have to play, however illogical the rules seem. I think I can see why you have difficulty delegating your work; although that does seem to trap you rather.

Sure it traps us. When I have started my transport business, I have been sure it was a matter of a year or two that the situation is changed: the first wise, honest and able person would have changed it for some more logical scheme. Now I am not so sure it could be done in nearest future, as those who could have done it - seem not to be interested in the slightest in justice, equality, honesty...

And did you get your truck back or do you need to descend to another level of hell first?

No, I didn't get the truck yet. The investigator I came to told me that it was impossible to close an investigation the next day after it had been started, nevermind what proofs of our innocence I produce. (And that after he was supposedly given some share of a very neat sum I had to give certain people for their "assistance"...). When I showed him the genuine letter from the Finnish warehouse confirming that they have made several mistakes while loading the truck, - the investigator told me: "OK, it means that they are in your conspiracy too". And really all that is wrong in the 160 cbm truck is that the Finnish people loaded 6 cbm of wrong Logitech mice, keyboards, joysticks and webcameras instead of 12 cbm of right Logitech mice, keyboards, speakers, joysticks and headphones...
Wow, after seeing all this fuss one would imagine that to bring in some contraband to Russia is absolutely impossible...
So... If they will confiscate all the goods from this truck after all (and it is still a possibility) - It will be end of me as an independent businessman for a while: after I will sell everything I can and cover nearly 1M of losses - I would not have enough funds for anything serious for several years, I think...
So I expect I will be much more active member here...

 

[Sergo]

Russians in UK All living in the posh areas of London I see. Bloody Russian Billionaires, they come over here, buy all our football clubs etc etc etc

Ha. That means that my love for Hyde Park is shared by majority of Russians living in the UK. OK, they are cute people, it seems.

Really I would have bought me something in London too, if I could.

 

[Flowerdk4]

Sergo,
I shall get back to you very soon. I have been pretty busy.
Flower

 

[Sergo]

Sergo,
I shall get back to you very soon. I have been pretty busy.
Flower

Do not worry - I know very well how it feels to be busy.

 

[Flowerdk4]

Hello again,
I am back and shall pick up our conversation from where we left off.

OK, that's us - not too keen on rational thinking, and not thinking material things to be the big deal.
Why, most of us do not even have plans for as far as next Monday.

I like people who can live in the present but I also couldnt do without some kind of plans for the future. I just think and feel that many people get lost in goals and plans that they forgot their heart and soul. One thing which I have noticed here in Denmark and I cant tell if its the same thing in like UK etc., but many people dont see each other without making plans first. No one hardly drop by anymore. Know what I mean? (even social life is planned in a calender).

You know, students are special folks. They very often say things very different from what they'll say in a year or two, and sometimes even what they say isn't what they think, but rather what they would like to think or believe.
And, you know, it is OK to see nothing in lots of different "nose cleaning devices" and other contemporary marvels one could find in a USA shop maybe, but to live without a mobile, an air conditioner, personal computer or a refrigerator... And I am sure if we lived in our Russian socialism now - we would not have all these things, together with enough meat, fruits or a possibility to travel, to start with... (so these students wouldn't have being able to try a western life, if that hadn't been approved by The Party - and in that case those students would have been "good comrades" too).

I know that students havent really tried "the real life" and may very well change their minds once they are done with their study. But it was interesting to see their reaction to "all the goods from the west". I got the impression that they somehow seemed more mature than the american teenagers/students. Like they "looked behind the surface" where the americans were all surface and material things.

Errr... You know, to understand it one has to try and feel it: yes, we had free education, medical care and... let me see... no, kindergartens were for money from around 1925 on... yes, jobs... almost free jobs...
This, excluding jobs, we have even now. Plus free drugs, transport tickets and local resorts for pensioneers, along with some other free things...
But: I forgot when I've seen insides of a free clinic: I would gladly pay to be admitted into a pay one, rather than to have shock of trying our "free medical care". Really, the last time I've been there was 8 years ago or so, when I started to feel pain in my back. They checked me, and I was told that it was a problem I will live with the rest of my life, and there was nothing they could do to cure it, save for temporary relief injections. (And I could hardly sit or walk normally then, and to get into a car was sometimes impossible for me). After that I started my own program - push-ups and spine-training, swimming etc. So in several years my spinal pains almost ceased to exist, and now they occur for two or three times a year, but I even manage not to remain at home at such times - so much weakier they are now than they were then...
So: a "free" thing is not always a good thing.
And, really, these "free" education etc. are really matters of how to look at them: OK, our government paid us only fractions of what we really earned. So they could easily give us some "free" things, paid for from what they took out of our salaries...

Its interesting to hear about your health care. It sounds like there was none or less developement in that department. Over here we have free hospitals, doctors, fysical therapy and psycatric care but not free dentist or psychologist. (There is a big difference in the care you will get from a psycatric and of a psychologist). We also have free education.
This makes me think about how a government is planning things. And I think that I like it when people do have jobs, even though they may be low paid jobs and get free education etc., instead of people not having jobs and having to pay for many things. To be unemployed really does do many things to a person both social and personal. I think that you can get a society where there are a division of those who have jobs and those who dont and this goes also for money, who can afford to go to the cinema, travel etc. So I would somehow rather prefer that everybody got to use their skills in some way and was a part of the society. But then again, I problably wouldnt go to the kind of extreme that russia did. I am also for developement etc. Hope you get what I am saying?

We had such repair shops then, and we have them now. Though in many cases a repaired thing cannot last long. And in some cases repairs cost nearly as much as the broken thing itself... It is especially the case with the mobile phones - our family stopped to repair them after paying for repairs of two of phones, and having them broken up again in less then a week time each...

What a shame that the electric things are not made so much for it to be able to get repaired. Nowadays many things are made only to be used for a short period and I think its bad that they dont make good "solid" things anymore. I had a tv of the old kind, I had a repairman around and he changed something in side the tv and it lasted like 5 years longer. But then I have a hairdryer which I cannot get repaired anywhere.
Over here we have now a 2 year protection when we buy things now. This means that if something happens then you can get it fixed or get a new within the two years. Before it used to be only one year. I think its great.

You know, we had lots of good things, and lots of bad things. But I think it could be true of any country in the world to some extent.
What essentially had been wrong then - was lots of lies. You know, our communism had been a mountain of lies from the beginning, covered with clouds of other lies.
Our country has been ruled by people who proclaimed themselves "champions of the working classes", and some of them never had been, and others had long forgotten how they really worked themselves. And more than that - they despiced the workers, and manipulated them. Of course, a worker could have gone to the top - and some really did, but to do that one had to learn to speak not what he thought, but what he was expected to say. So when he entered that "top space" he hasn't already been a worker, but a "party leader", learned how to lie and manipulate. And while they said that there were no rich or poor in our country, - there were lots of poor and very poor, and quite a lot of rich - at least if we check them against what an average Russian posessed. I had known a boy whose father had been a KGB colonel - their family lived as princes, with several cars, forein refrigerators, TVs, furniture - when an average Russian had to wait for month to buy a color TV, and sometimes many years for furniture or a car (if one had money enough, wich had not been all that often). And it is not one's need to have a refrigerator or a TV which is frustrating, but the injustice of that supposedly all were equal in theory, and very much not equal in practice.

This is so interesting! To hear and learn about what your society was like. I reckon that they had good intentions but it got to the extreme where it became somewhat like a dictatorship. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
All the lies....somehow this is interesting to me. Its interesting to try to understand why all the lies and what kind of lies.
The other day I happend to come across an old Hitchcock movie, Topaz I think it was called. Had never seen it before. It was really like watching an old old James Bond movie. But this time both Copenhagen and Moscow was in it. And it was all about protecting the truth and making up lies etc. Quite fasinating in a way.
Would you say that all the lies were to controll people and manipulate them? There is something about people who lies that I find interesting. Its nice to know the truth, but when people lie, then there is something going on, there are underlying reasons etc. Some author once said that the lie is much more interesting than then truth and I agree. Strange, right?

So. I am always ready to speak about our past and our present. (By the way, of course we have quite a lot of problems now - I understand people who say that THEN it has been better than NOW.) I discuss it quite often really. Too bad I do not have enough time to color a picture of our life for you with all the colours that there were then...
But please ask me - and I will try to...

Just keep talking Sergo! I am all ears!
I am guessing that some of your new problems is the mafia?

And I would loooove to see your picture with all the colours!

Flower

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Maybe he looks Russian. 19th century Russian. Now we look slightly different, you know...

Don’t blame me for using stereotypes, I can remember seeing a comedy show on Ukrainian TV that did the same thing. Don’t ask me why my friends thought I would understand it, I just seemed like lots of people in fur hats falling over, but there you go.

Well, you seem not to be impressed... And I've already contacted a person mentioned there - a man from Kiev.

It’s not a case of being unimpressed; it seems an intriguing art form. When I have chance I’ll look into it further; however at the moment I know little on the subject so I’m not in a position to engage you in in-depth discussion; however I’m happy for you to explain it further.
Edit: Did you get to see the Netsuke collection at the British Museum?

His things are good - though, as far as I understand, he duplicates his own creations for many years - so there are lots of copies sold. And he asks from $US1.100 up to $US2.400 for them. Not too bad a business, eh?.

Well, assuming it doesn’t take 1,100-2,400 hours to make each one, then yes. I remember you mentioning this is a thought for a future living for you.

I do not think mawing lawns is what they need of us most of all... Closing WC after we use it? Inviting them to parties our bosses organize? Introduce them to our friends so they could have a better chance at getting them the best husband possible? Errr... I forgot each one...

Basically, I think if you wash regularly, have half decent table manners and embarrass them as little as possible then we’re comfortably exceeding their expectations for us.

Sure it traps us. When I have started my transport business, I have been sure it was a matter of a year or two that the situation is changed: the first wise, honest and able person would have changed it for some more logical scheme. Now I am not so sure it could be done in nearest future, as those who could have done it - seem not to be interested in the slightest in justice, equality, honesty...

Do you think this is just a lack of overhaul from Putins party, or do you think it is irrelevant who is in power. The thought that these kinds of systems are ingrained in Russian society and are almost impossible to correct is a pretty bleak viewpoint.

No, I didn't get the truck yet. The investigator I came to told me that it was impossible to close an investigation the next day after it had been started, nevermind what proofs of our innocence I produce. (And that after he was supposedly given some share of a very neat sum I had to give certain people for their "assistance"...). When I showed him the genuine letter from the Finnish warehouse confirming that they have made several mistakes while loading the truck, - the investigator told me: "OK, it means that they are in your conspiracy too". And really all that is wrong in the 160 cbm truck is that the Finnish people loaded 6 cbm of wrong Logitech mice, keyboards, joysticks and webcameras instead of 12 cbm of right Logitech mice, keyboards, speakers, joysticks and headphones...

Do you think they know this is a genuine mistake and are trying to take advantage of it, or are they convinced there is wrong doing?

So... If they will confiscate all the goods from this truck after all (and it is still a possibility) - It will be end of me as an independent businessman for a while: after I will sell everything I can and cover nearly 1M of losses - I would not have enough funds for anything serious for several years, I think...

Well, obviously I hope you get your truck back. It sounds like your contacts in Finland do not understand the importance of getting the delivery correctly loaded.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Ha. That means that my love for Hyde Park is shared by majority of Russians living in the UK. OK, they are cute people, it seems.

Really I would have bought me something in London too, if I could.

I think it probably means that if you're a Russian wanting to live in Britain you have to be a student or very rich.

 

[Sergo]

It’s not a case of being unimpressed; it seems an intriguing art form. When I have chance I’ll look into it further; however at the moment I know little on the subject so I’m not in a position to engage you in in-depth discussion; however I’m happy for you to explain it further.
Edit: Did you get to see the Netsuke collection at the British Museum?
Well, assuming it doesn’t take 1,100-2,400 hours to make each one, then yes. I remember you mentioning this is a thought for a future living for you.

Yes, I've seen the BM netsuke collection. And I think that it is much easier to get a real netsuke in the UK then here: I think that 99% of what is sold here as original netsuke is really of a local origin: for example, I've marked most of what I've done with hieroglific inscription of my "japanized" family name. I do not expect there could be a person in Japan with "Moorasofu" for a family name, but in Russia it could easily pass for a real thing.
Really, it took me about a week to make not too intricate a thing. But I've made my things without using electric instruments, and using them could drastically shorten the time needed for rough completion... Though it is much more natural to make netsuke by hand only - not to speed up the process. You know, the premature birth is supposedly not too good a thing...

Do you think this is just a lack of overhaul from Putins party, or do you think it is irrelevant who is in power. The thought that these kinds of systems are ingrained in Russian society and are almost impossible to correct is a pretty bleak viewpoint.

I think it doesn't depend on our being Russians: it has nothing to do with our "misterious soul" or anything. It is that after USSR had been demolished, our life continued to slide on some special rails, useful to those at power. I am sure that if somebody (Eltsin, Putin, or some mighty person near or behind them) really wanted to make our life easier and more honest - it could be done in a month or so: it would have been enough to make a public announcement, and see to it that nobody could use these "schemes" I have mentioned before, in business, customs, taxes or banking spheres. It is not too difficult, as everybody interested knows everything about it. But so far everything that has been done by the government and its agencies were only meant to stop some people doing something, but let other people still do it. It is impossible to expect that the majority will of its own accord start living without "scheming" until it is profitable and it is understood that the government allows it.

Do you think they know this is a genuine mistake and are trying to take advantage of it, or are they convinced there is wrong doing?

It is impossible to say for sure. From one point of view, it is ipossible not to see that was a genuine mistake - it is obvious with all the documents and evidence. But from the point of view of a person who believes that all that is done in Russia is done illegally to some extent, and it is his job to get the government's share out of it... It is impossible to convince a person of something, if he has his own idea of it, and is sure you want to fool him...

Well, obviously I hope you get your truck back. It sounds like your contacts in Finland do not understand the importance of getting the delivery correctly loaded.

Thanks. As to Finns - it seems they just cannot do it right any more: there are too many our goods at one warehouse...

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Yes, I've seen the BM netsuke collection.

Great, I’m glad you’ve seen the British Museum, it’s one of my favourite places in London; it’d be pretty high up my list of recommendations of things to see whilst here on holiday.

And I think that it is much easier to get a real netsuke in the UK then here: I think that 99% of what is sold here as original netsuke is really of a local origin

so do you have a collection then or just examples of your own work?

…it is much more natural to make netsuke by hand only - not to speed up the process. You know, the premature birth is supposedly not too good a thing...

Sure, you’re moving away from art and towards production I guess.

I think it doesn't depend on our being Russians: it has nothing to do with our "mysterious soul" or anything.

I wasn’t suggesting it was to do with Russians character, more the situation you find yourself in.

… I am sure that if somebody (Eltsin, Putin, or some mighty person near or behind them) really wanted to make our life easier and more honest - it could be done in a month or so: it would have been enough to make a public announcement, and see to it that nobody could use these "schemes" I have mentioned before, in business, customs, taxes or banking spheres. It is not too difficult, as everybody interested knows everything about it. But so far everything that has been done by the government and its agencies were only meant to stop some people doing something, but let other people still do it. It is impossible to expect that the majority will of its own accord start living without "scheming" until it is profitable and it is understood that the government allows it.

Ok, that’s interesting. I’m not so sure that the situation could be turned rounded as quickly as you seem to think, but I can understand your point about the lead needing to be taken by the government. It would seem to make sense that they need to be consistent, honest and even handed and have this way seep down from the top to the bottom.

It is impossible to say for sure. From one point of view, it is impossible not to see that was a genuine mistake - it is obvious with all the documents and evidence. But from the point of view of a person who believes that all that is done in Russia is done illegally to some extent, and it is his job to get the government's share out of it... It is impossible to convince a person of something, if he has his own idea of it, and is sure you want to fool him...

Yes, my friends telephone business in Odessa has had similar problems; and in a way this can be why it is so difficult for Russians/Ukrainians to get visas also. Everyone is always ‘looking for the angle’ even when you are being straight.

Thanks. As to Finns - it seems they just cannot do it right any more: there are too many our goods at one warehouse...

I’m afraid that the Finns you work with seem to be completely incompetent. It may be to late now but I think you need to find a way to make them liable for any inconvenience caused by them incorrectly loading the trucks. Time to re-write the small print of the contract between you; if that is who you work.

 

[Sergo]

Great, I’m glad you’ve seen the British Museum, it’s one of my favourite places in London; it’d be pretty high up my list of recommendations of things to see whilst here on holiday.
.

Yep, sure - we've visited it on our first mutual visit to London. Russian guides like the BM, as if I remember correctly, the entrance is free. It is supposed that all who could afford it, would donate two pounds or so, but our guide hasn't even mentioned that to us, and as not many of Russian tourists understand English language...

so do you have a collection then or just examples of your own work?
.

No, everything I have so far are only things that I made myself to be left at home - everything I made to be sold was sold. That netsuke that I wanted to buy in London could have became a first item made by somebody else...

Sure, you’re moving away from art and towards production I guess.
.

Yep. And, as far as I understand it, Japanese masters traditionally never made any schemes or models before starting to work on a netsuke - they started with an idea, working it out in the process of completion. So even what they called copies of other works, were really quite different things based on the same original idea.

Ok, that’s interesting. I’m not so sure that the situation could be turned rounded as quickly as you seem to think, but I can understand your point about the lead needing to be taken by the government. It would seem to make sense that they need to be consistent, honest and even handed and have this way seep down from the top to the bottom.
.

Yep. You know, it is not possible to stop our crooked ways right away, as taxes are too high, everything is very unstable, and to arrange anything one has to bribe the officials. In this situation to count on 2 - 5% of profit would be pure madness, and only those who can afford to loose money once and again in order to get a profit of 1% over a period of several years after several years of getting some profit, and several years of losing it, would be trying to do business here... So it is surely for the government to take first steps, if they are interested in Russia becoming a steadly developing country, and not one which constantly shakes from new government ideas.

Yes, my friends telephone business in Odessa has had similar problems; and in a way this can be why it is so difficult for Russians/Ukrainians to get visas also. Everyone is always ‘looking for the angle’ even when you are being straight.
.

Yes, I understand that, really. Though it feels somewhat uncomfortable to be considered a crook. BTW, I do not think that all that many of us are involved in illegal activities abroad. Yes, we could be better suited to it, the same as a person living near an ocean is expected to be better at surfing than one living in the desert...

I’m afraid that the Finns you work with seem to be completely incompetent. It may be to late now but I think you need to find a way to make them liable for any inconvenience caused by them incorrectly loading the trucks. Time to re-write the small print of the contract between you; if that is who you work.

You wouldn't believe it, but the warehouse we have a contract with is a member of TNT network, and is one of the biggest and supposedly better in Finland. But they seemed not to apply the simplest procedures to assure safe delivery and storage of goods. I will come there as soon as my visa is ready, but I do not know what to do really about them: this is not the first warehouse in Finland that we had business with, and there were none between them that operated smoothly. So to change WH will surely cost us lots of money, and could be to no result at all...

Kenny, I want to ask you about what people in UK think about the bombings, now that original emotions have supposedly subsided? What people think about Muslims, and what Muslims think?

 

[Sergo]

I like people who can live in the present but I also couldnt do without some kind of plans for the future. I just think and feel that many people get lost in goals and plans that they forgot their heart and soul. One thing which I have noticed here in Denmark and I cant tell if its the same thing in like UK etc., but many people dont see each other without making plans first. No one hardly drop by anymore. Know what I mean? (even social life is planned in a calender).

Surely I know that. We were always "ready to roll" - if somebody offered to come to some seashore, kayaking expedition etc., or just to meet and to play preferance - it needed only hours to get going. But now, when it is not easy to leave our buisnesses, even to go to a bath together needs some planning... (You know, our Russian custom to go to a bath is quite a procedure... We drink beer there, swim in a cold water (if possible - in snow), and spend a lot of time in our variation of sauna, though our is not as dry as Finnish one is... But the main thing is talking, of course).

Its interesting to hear about your health care. It sounds like there was none or less developement in that department. Over here we have free hospitals, doctors, fysical therapy and psycatric care but not free dentist or psychologist. (There is a big difference in the care you will get from a psycatric and of a psychologist). We also have free education.
This makes me think about how a government is planning things. And I think that I like it when people do have jobs, even though they may be low paid jobs and get free education etc., instead of people not having jobs and having to pay for many things. To be unemployed really does do many things to a person both social and personal. I think that you can get a society where there are a division of those who have jobs and those who dont and this goes also for money, who can afford to go to the cinema, travel etc. So I would somehow rather prefer that everybody got to use their skills in some way and was a part of the society. But then again, I problably wouldnt go to the kind of extreme that russia did. I am also for developement etc. Hope you get what I am saying?

Yes, I get it. You know, it really is very frustrating to do a job nobody needs. In the USSR everybody had a job. Really, everybody MUST have had a job, as idleness was considered a criminal offence, so our unofficial singers and artists had to work as janitors, street cleaners, boiler operators etc. But wages were very low - when our parents and me came to Mejdunarodnaya Hotel to meet my brother who came to visit us for a day or so from Germany, two cups of coffee that our parents ordered costed exactly as much as my mother's pension for a month... That has occured soon after USSR has been demolished, but in the USSR the situation was exactly like that, with Levi's jeans costing more than two month wages, and death penalty (!!!) for private business of selling foreign goods and exchanging foreign currencies...
And quite a lot of workers were doing work nobody really needed: made clothes and boots nobody would wear, as they were too bad, made projects nobody would use etc. And of course people understood that, and that had been very bad on morale...

What a shame that the electric things are not made so much for it to be able to get repaired. Nowadays many things are made only to be used for a short period and I think its bad that they dont make good "solid" things anymore. I had a tv of the old kind, I had a repairman around and he changed something in side the tv and it lasted like 5 years longer. But then I have a hairdryer which I cannot get repaired anywhere.
Over here we have now a 2 year protection when we buy things now. This means that if something happens then you can get it fixed or get a new within the two years. Before it used to be only one year. I think its great.

I still have a Panasonic GAOO 29" TV, that I bought in the 90-es, when it was issued... It costed me $US1600 or so then, and I have never any problem with it - the sound is still perfect (and recently, when we gained access to stereo programs, we started to get a stereo sound - that feature of our TV has been senseless before that, used only for tape and CDs playback...).
We have some warranty protection here - but almost never use it: we try to buy only really good things, and they usually never fail until they get morally old, you know...

This is so interesting! To hear and learn about what your society was like. I reckon that they had good intentions but it got to the extreme where it became somewhat like a dictatorship. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
All the lies....somehow this is interesting to me. Its interesting to try to understand why all the lies and what kind of lies.

I suppose that some really had these intentions, and others just used the idea to obtain what they needed - personal wealth, power, prosperity for relatives...

Would you say that all the lies were to controll people and manipulate them? There is something about people who lies that I find interesting. Its nice to know the truth, but when people lie, then there is something going on, there are underlying reasons etc. Some author once said that the lie is much more interesting than then truth and I agree. Strange, right?

Yes, I think they were.
As to liing... I am too lazy, and my memory is toooo bad to lie effectively, so it is not for me, I think.

Just keep talking Sergo! I am all ears!
I am guessing that some of your new problems is the mafia?

OK, I will eventually...

Now mafia is not a new problem, but an old one rather... Really, it is not much of what we called "mafia" left to this day. Now our main problem, as far as I see it, is our new people at power trying to rearrange things here... People in the government agencies, I mean...

And I would loooove to see your picture with all the colours!

Flower

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Yep, sure - we've visited it on our first mutual visit to London. Russian guides like the BM, as if I remember correctly, the entrance is free…

Yeah, the British Museum is free, and probably one of the most diverse. The South Kensington museums (Natural History, Science and the V&A:Victoria & Albert) I think all have an admission fee. The Tate modern and National Gallery are other good free places to see, if you like art that is.

No, everything I have so far are only things that I made myself to be left at home - everything I made to be sold was sold.

So how big are the pieces you make then?

Yep. And, as far as I understand it, Japanese masters traditionally never made any schemes or models before starting to work on a netsuke - they started with an idea, working it out in the process of completion. So even what they called copies of other works, were really quite different things based on the same original idea.

I see, that suggests an art form where a degree of spontaneity and unpredictability occur even after a piece has been planned out.

Yep. You know, it is not possible to stop our crooked ways right away, as taxes are too high, everything is very unstable, and to arrange anything one has to bribe the officials. In this situation to count on 2 - 5% of profit would be pure madness, and only those who can afford to loose money once and again in order to get a profit of 1% over a period of several years after several years of getting some profit, and several years of losing it, would be trying to do business here... So it is surely for the government to take first steps, if they are interested in Russia becoming a steadly developing country, and not one which constantly shakes from new government ideas.

So what do you think are the steps to solve this problem then? Do you need to increase pay for government workers so they are less likely to be tempted to be corrupt, or be more strict in policing corruption or a combination? Do you cut ‘red tape’ for businesses dealing with government first, or lower taxes to increase investment? What’s Sergos manifesto?

BTW, I do not think that all that many of us are involved in illegal activities abroad.

I didn’t say you were.

Yes, we could be better suited to it, the same as a person living near an ocean is expected to be better at surfing than one living in the desert...

And someone from Odessa is better suited to being….erm…lets be nice and say, better suited to being funny.

this is not the first warehouse in Finland that we had business with, and there were none between them that operated smoothly. So to change WH will surely cost us lots of money, and could be to no result at all...

Yes it is a problem. All I can say is that if you constantly have trouble with them incorrectly loading your trucks, and this causes you such massive problems, then you have to find a way to either have one of your employees check they are loaded correctly or have your contract worded in a way that they will be financially penalised if they fail to send the correct goods. Sometimes in business the only way to concentrate a lazy mind is with a penalty in the wallet.

Kenny, I want to ask you about what people in UK think about the bombings, now that original emotions have supposedly subsided? What people think about Muslims, and what Muslims think?

I think we play fast and loose with the boards no politics rule at the best of times Sergo, so I think I’ll pm you later about this!

 

[Sergo]

So how big are the pieces you make then?

Not big - netsuke are never big, as they really are to be weared on a belt, so some objects could be fastened to them - a purse, or a notebook, or an enemy's head...
The biggest netsuke - the one of Mr. Gorbatchev - was about 12 cm, and other - from 4 to 10. If you want - I can send you a photo of these I still have. The last one I make for 5 years or so already, and I do not know when I'll finish it. Sometimes I do not touch it for a year... It shows a forest god playing a pipe, and four wolves going after him and singing...

So what do you think are the steps to solve this problem then? Do you need to increase pay for government workers so they are less likely to be tempted to be corrupt, or be more strict in policing corruption or a combination? Do you cut ‘red tape’ for businesses dealing with government first, or lower taxes to increase investment? What’s Sergos manifesto?

Errr... I do not think I am that wise... Really, there must be a whole complex of things to be done. To reorganize all Russia from top to bottom I think the head of state must come forward with a program, in which everything to be done is shown in the chronological order, for example:
1. Taxes are lowered to some reasonable level - to date...;
...........
17. Customs officers are immediately to be fired from their work with huge fines to be paid if caught at wrong doing - from date...;
...........
19.Taxes officers are... (the same as for customs officers)
...........
27. Importers are to be put on trial with huge fines to be paid if confirmed of cheating with customs payments etc. - from date...;
...........
37. Not paying all taxes is to be considered a serious offence, with every official to be thrown out of office with no possibility of any governmental duty again, and every ordinary citizen to be severely fined.

And so far. In 5 years or so we could became a good country to live.
Of course all the possible bonuses for businessmen (including foreign) for fair play should be offered...

How do you like it?
[/QUOTE]

 

[Sergo]

And someone from Odessa is better suited to being….erm…lets be nice and say, better suited to being funny.

Odessa... Yes, once upon a time it was said that all Cartier watches, that were sold in Russia, were really made in Odessa, along with everything else suposedly of good quality and foreign origin... Odessa were a free city once in Russia - kind of Hamburg in Germany. But all these decades of our "Socialism" and then years of "conversion to Capitalism" have made Odessa one in a long row of places where people know how to produce Cartier watches out of thin air...

Yes it is a problem. All I can say is that if you constantly have trouble with them incorrectly loading your trucks, and this causes you such massive problems, then you have to find a way to either have one of your employees check they are loaded correctly or have your contract worded in a way that they will be financially penalised if they fail to send the correct goods. Sometimes in business the only way to concentrate a lazy mind is with a penalty in the wallet.

Yes, you are absolutely right - and as soon as I am granted a Finnish visa - I will go there for painful discussions. But our problem is we are really not a European state - so it is not easy for us to make Europeans to deal with us as they would have with a European companies. The fact our company is really American does not make things much better - as about every Russian company that has a contract with a Finnish warehouse claims to be American, or from Cyprus, or from Bahamas etc... Yes, our company is real, but that doesn't make that much difference.

I think we play fast and loose with the boards no politics rule at the best of times Sergo, so I think I’ll pm you later about this!

OK.