Russian and Canadian differences

I am getting a great deal of feedback from friends and fans that enjoy reading about life in Russia. Looking at my reach statistics it is easy for me to see just what countries people are reading my blog and I am happy to tell you Russians are reading it too. So I thought I would try and summarize some of the stuff into kind of a rambling compare and contrast and attempt to give you a general feel. Perhaps a tall order but painting a detailed picture is my comfort zone so let’s step outside it; shall we?

Before I get going too far let me make some things clear when we are talking about generalizations, we are getting into the area of stereotypes. Stereotypes exist for a reason. To a degree they are true and it is only when we use them to make racist statements do we get into trouble. So I will be making some generalizations but I mean no slight on any culture. So if you find, while reading this, your blood pressure rise try to remember it is written by a guy who embodies many stereotypical cultural stereotypes himself and it’s written with a kind hand in fun.

To get a general handle on any country, you have to spend about a month in the actual country itself. I did a ton of research on Russia before Inga and I moved here and got a small idea about what to expect. While it wasn’t a complete waste of time, it was close to it. I could have just listened to what my good friends Dimitri and Sergei said about the place, along with Inga of course, and would have had the same amount of information. But it still wouldn’t have been real for me. Reality is to a large extent our interpretation of the world we perceive. So this is my reality of Russia and no doubt, should you visit this interesting country yours will be different. So why continue reading?

Because it should be fun,

 We grow up learning almost nothing about the largest country in the world. Even now in its shrunken state it is still vaster than even my home Canada. While I might blame this lack of knowledge on the fact my education was carried out in Surrey {NOTE this is that tongue and cheek stuff I mentioned earlier, so relax teachers union 36} but I cannot. Russia is by far just not talked about in our history. It was only through stories and my military education that I even knew Russia and Germany started the Second World War and Russia fought on the Canada/European side. I don’t mention America here; as they were late to get into the fray, content instead to supply Russia with materials for the war.  Inferior quality materials, missing deadline after deadline but Oliver Stone wrote about this in his most recent book and so I will avoid the situation of plagiarizing him and say if you want to know more look it up.

One of the things I’ve learned is that Russians are slow to trust but when they do, they do so completely. This is much different than home. We Canadians trust in stages. We trust our friends with money, but not our car. Russians and trust translate most correctly for us as “Canadians and brotherhood.” So this is one of the reasons a visitor to the country for a few days may find Russians distant or cold. I can assure you they are not. I have had the pleasure of making several good friends and they are warm, generous people. But they have to get to know you. I am lucky as I have Inga to translate. Being a Canadian and living in Canada for more than half her life, Inga understands how to say what I am meaning and not just what I am saying. This difference is the world in translating as rarely is something based on an idea simple to translate.  An idea is far more elaborate as it is what we mean based on culture and how that crosses over into Russian. We aren’t ordering a beer and an accidental plate of cut fruit as I just did.

Perhaps this is a good example. I am writing in a nice little café called Slavyanka. It is attached to our building, as many businesses are, and we have enjoyed many a night here. Perhaps some of you have seen the pictures on my Facebook account. Anyway they know I am Canadian and can’t really speak Russian yet they assume I understand as much Russian as they understand English. Many Russians know English to a degree, they just don’t speak it as they haven’t heard it spoken much and thus have no idea how to arrange the words.  So I ordered a beer and looked at the menu and tried to figure it out. I saw something like apple and words that appeared to be another fruit and another word that I thought meant layered. Putting this together, I thought I might have found a baked strudel, or better a deep fried fruit wrapped in dough. The waiter took the order and went and wrote down and few words in English and came back to show me. This should have been my first clue he thought this was an odd order. I was happy to see that I had figured out apple and that I was correct it had other fruit, oranges and grapes. I said, “thank you” and “yes that is good” and off he went after pouring my beer. Ten minutes later out came a very nice sliced fruit tray of oranges, apples, and two types of grapes.  Not what I expected and thought I was ordering but probably better for me.  So while I write this I am picking at a healthy fruit platter wishing I knew how to order the dough roll. The waiters reality now is Canadians must eat very healthily. Such is perspective reality and trying to decipher the language of symbols that have little in common with Latin-based languages.  But I am Canadian and so I enjoyed my fruit.

Russians will ask just about anything from how you practice religion to what you think about a certain political situation or ideology. There is no stigma about asking what you paid for something or how much a trip cost, nor commenting about what they think about how much you paid. I’ve been flying a great deal and have had this conversation many times. This is a very odd topic for North Americans as we generally shy away, even with friends, about asking the cost of something. That changes with close friends and in that is the difference. If you’re friends in Russia then, you are by cultural definition “close friends”.

When they want to get to know you, they ask what you believe, or what you think about said conflict. I have had a few conversations as of late as my countries leader Premier Harper made despairing statements in the world press about having to shake President Putin’s hand at the G20 summit. As a polite Canadian, his statement embarrassed me, as it is rude to not shake someone’s hand. Despite the political tension between the two countries, the man is hardly Hitler. While I am certain Harper has shaken hands with far worse during his time in government the simple fact that he was stupid enough to comment knowing that these statements would overshadow anything else he completed as leader of my country and as such hamper foreign investment shows me he is no statesman.

“If he wants to return to a safe and cooperative environment why would he behave this way?” This was a question I was asked. How do you answer that question with limited language skills? I didn’t have Inga to translate the corporate ideology and the actions of a less than smooth leader. So when faced with difficult challenges I find it easier if you break it down to its simplest form. Why did the leader of my country choose to make a statement during a huge economic summit that would take away from the fact Canada’s economy is vibrant and growing and a good place to invest? So I answered truthfully. I said; “he is an accountant out of his league on the world stage and is a Suka to the North American imperialist machine. “ Suka” directly translated into English means bitch.  But that falls short of the meaning of the Russian word Suka (CYKA). It most correctly means prison bitch, the lowest of the prison (or Zone) hierarchy, an untouchable and unmentionable person. Perhaps a little harsher than he deserves but I would have rather seen Justin Trudeau at that summit, if he is anything like his old man, and I have never voted Liberal in my life.

In the West, we have a general language in that it is less specific than Russian. So when the question of why is Russia in the Ukraine and Russia answers that they are not we westerners don’t get it. Crimea is what we mean but using general English. So it starts to sound a great deal like the song There’s a hole in my bucket. Putin was finally asked directly about the Ukraine part called Crimea and he answered unedited on German live television. He compared it to Kosovo and used it to show precedent. This has been widely dismissed by western media saying it was hardly the same. That this annexation of Kosovo came after ethnic cleansing by the Serbian government and so was more right. Really? Do we really want to stand on a moral chair and claim we have to wait till people are being piled into mass graves before we act? Crimea’s outcome would have been the same as the outcome currently happening in Donetsk region. Ethnic cleansing, wrapped in uniform  with insignia resembling that famous designer uniforms created by Hugo Boss in 1937.  The most salient difference for me is that the people for the people annexed Crimea after a vote and Kosovo was annexed by a parliamentary order and decision.

Well, that rambled along into a rather political soapbox but such are conversations in Russia. One has to be prepared to discuss such things and have facts correct. Russians really don’t care if you have a different idea or choice than them so long as you arrived at that position by facts. Recently while I was getting a nice tattoo Inga and the artist began a long discussion about a historical-political situation. Topics forbade from the dinner table and while someone is jamming ink into your skin.

One other thing Russians have to get used to that some Canadians take for granted is the ability to criticize the leaders of our countries for their actions and hold them accountable.

Science fiction often in the past has paved the way for scientific innovation and I find myself wishing for a universal translator that has the ability to convey what I mean and not just what has been spoken. Google is a small start but fails more often than it doesn't. Surely if we as a species want to get along we need some bright MIT type to make one of these devices.

To one of the Dead Cities

    There are still areas in Russia that are forbidden to tourists. But then those areas are pretty much forbidden to locals too. Some areas need special permission permits and paperwork to insure you don’t get lost, hurt, or preyed upon by the wildlife. This is not so different than Canada. We too have areas like this and while the locals at home are pretty much unaware of these restrictions, the people here are not.

So venturing into the mountains close to the disputed border of Georgia along the main roads is fine but taking the path less traveled is a little riskier. Having made the trip into Georgia, and seeing these gorgeous mountains had me doing research into the types and composition. Along the way, I found out that this area was kind of part of the Silk Road in ancient times. The Ossetian leopard and other local furs where coveted the world over by Kings and other royals alike. Access to the Black Sea gave this pass a great deal of traffic along the lowland and much gentler slopes than the ones directly south.

But ancients and armies both adore easy rolling hills and so this specific pass was one of those areas if not forbidden to tourists then to use a Russian saying “not easy."  Yet, I really wanted to see it. Dargavs is one of the most famous or well known but our chances of being questioned and detained was high. The locals shunned the area based on superstitions held as real today as then. However, grave robbers did frequent the area and disturbed the dead and locals alike. Ossetians placed coins; some of them gold, in wells outside of these crypts and so some would be drawn to steal from these dead. Some later crypts contained mothers still with babies in cribs both going into quarantine to protect the village and so you can imagine the locals outrage at the discovery of these being disturbed.

We decided to go to a different area that contained these Nakh towers and crypts. One of our local friends had friends of his own in this village and knew the area well. It is in the same mountain range as Dargavs about three hours from Vladikavkaz. The day was cold and overcast in city and we drove through the mist and fog through small towns and smaller villages. We took an unmarked side road that followed the river and as we drove through the trees silvered with ice, I noticed the outside temperature was rising. It had showed –5 in the city and was now hovering around 0. As the car climbed higher, the rivers path became more spectacular, cutting deep twists and creating tall pillars in the mountainside. Asland our friend and driver pointed out interesting formations with increased frequency and when we turned a corner into the shining sun, I looked at the temperature and saw it was +5 degrees. The man’s name and connection to the famous book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe only added to my increasing sense of amazement.

Like so much of history in Russia, it is difficult to get a “searchable” three-source answer to things.  Some say these Nakh towers date back to the 16th Century and others 12th. Some maintain the Nakh people built them all and others claim that the Alania-Ossetian people of the time simply copied the design. What is certain is that they were used as burial chambers and as quarantine structures. What had caused many villagers to get sick was also in question but from talking with locals and research the most frequent use was from an outbreak of cholera.

There had been a cholera outbreak and entire families had been moved from the river floor and village site and walled up in sick houses and towers on the surrounding hills. Left to die in quarantine, or survive, as the gods they worshiped dictated. Their friends and family brought food and delivered it via long poles and small windows.  Perhaps a dour reason to wish to see a place on the face of it but let me continue, part of survival as a society and species are making hard choices. This concept is used very well in the popular TV drama The Walking Dead. Our modern society has gotten used to the easy life it has provided us and so these life and death hard choices create massive tension between humanity and societal continuance.

Just like in the TV Drama these early Russians were faced with extinction as they had no idea how to deal or control this event. Cholera today is easily treated yet it still kills in Africa and I have personally witnessed a cholera outbreak and the effects on the village. So I can only imagine what these early people would have thought as they watched their loved ones bowels let go and they starting wasting away. It is easy to draw a connection to the Zombie fiction or the Ebola nonfiction. Families want to care for the sick, and the sick wished to be cared for. If quarantined and gripped with fever and fear they long for comfort and connection returning to homes and villages if they can. Spreading the infection and death as they do. 

The ancient people knew, or learned, this and took steps to survive. Hard steps and harder choices, none were spared, the sick to a person where exiled or went on their own to protect loved ones. Many mothers took their babies in cribs into these stone buildings.

Despite their age, the structures survive in relatively good repair. The site is a sacred one, remembered by the locals. The church and monastery are located on the valley floor and symbols and icons stare in remembrance toward the location of the sick towers. The towers themselves still stand and while certainly in dangerous states of decay they’re a somber sentinel to a strong people.

The towers are four stories high and  stretch in a line up the mountainside with newer stone single story buildings assembled at their base. Cows and sheep now graze peacefully amongst the ruins and the overall place has feeling of serenity.  The view up to the jagged peaks to the south or rolling peaks to the east and west contrast magnificently with the slope to the valley floor and the “village” that is quickly becoming a city.

The temperature inversion that I noticed on the cars dash a common occurrence here and the place is acquiring a name for itself as a healing town. A large Sanatorium is currently being built, with money as no object from the looks of the construction for just this purpose. Locals and visitors alike claim miraculous curative powers in the air and water. Asthma suffers with the ability to move here have done so for years.

It was with one of these new residents that Asland had arranged to host us for lunch. We arrived at a low-slung building with a large gated entrance. Our hosts were waiting for us and quickly ushered us inside and allowed us to look around. The owner had built the entire place by hand and it was truly incredible. In fact, just looking at the property walls made me wonder how many people had labored. Large natural, uncut stones were folded into a wall supported by these same stones broken into perfect halves. The building itself was similarly built and held a red tile roof. Inside the house had a small kitchen to the right of the entrance room and a common room off to the left. A bathroom was directly ahead of the main entrance and it contained a large eight person Russian sauna. This sauna formed the core of the building and actually heated the entire house. Wood was placed into a large enclosed brick fireplace and heated the stones within the sauna and the rest of the building too.

Albert, our host, and his two friends set about getting roasted wild duck and boar ready for us while we did a quick run to purchase three of the local stuffed bread. A tradition this bread comes plain or stuffed three ways. One is stuffed with cheese and potato, another with beets, and the third with ground meat. The table also contained salads and cheese made by locals, and of course three bottles of vodka.  Wine and beer where also offered and a bottle of water placed in front of Asland, our driver.  Drinking and driving have fallen as much out of favour here in the wilds of Russia as it has at home in Vancouver.

Toast were made following the traditional practices and stories told. A meal was shared and new friendships kindled as is also traditional and cultural. The people are very stern and conservative in ways and very welcoming and friendly in others. It is a rich mix of old and new and follows the script of sorts that makes you feel as welcome as family and yet toasted like a king.

Ok what I think about the Ukraine conflict.

     So being so very close to the problems in the Ukraine, and being a writer of military fiction it has been very hard to keep my mouth shut about what I think of the fighting. Having been a solider in a few different incarnations and an avid researcher of conflicts may not make me an expert in my mind but I am certainly better qualified than some of the talking heads CNN and some other media are parading around these days.

 
Jumping through hoops in Russia for my own registration and visa issues has also put me elevator close to some of the people being displaced by the fighting. These people have the razor edge look of someone barely holding it together. Children have the blank stares that only come with a shattered childhood innocence. Instead of girls playing hoops and boys playing war they were forced to comprehend something intelligent adults struggle with. They have been exposed to the horror of war.

This in itself is a failure of humanity and the basic beliefs put forward by civilized peace loving societies. To have exposed children in this way supercedes the who is right question. Shattering the lives of children and making them try to grasp why people want them dead are concepts past their ability. The Kiev government, shares this responsibility with the other combatants.
 
While the west, and by west I mean my country Canada as well, parades the evil Russia as the responsible party these atrocities continue. Claiming Russia is responsible is a sideline issue and one done to muddy the waters of understanding. Disagree? Ok let’s compare some facts.

Russia may have sold or provided weapons and military support to the breakaway territories in the Ukraine. While this isn’t a proven fact I will for the purpose of this article say it is so. The USA has provided Israel with far more sophisticated hardware and detailed military intelligence. So claims of support, are as I suggest a sideline issue, to stopping the hostilities and saving children from exposure to hate and fear.
  
Charging the USA with hypocrisy is akin to penalizing an elephant for being fat. Charging Russia for protecting its borders, and people are in the same vein. No country on earth paid a higher price than Russia did in the Second World War. A war simply referred to here as  “The Great War.” Is this because Russians  love war so much?  Nyet! It is a sign of respect and admiration to those that fought against incredible odds to protect their collective mother. Mother Russia. This pride and understanding are universal. Children are educated about Stalingrad, and other battles not in a glorification but in the lesson of costs. They learn what freedom cost them.

            If I were to include all of the issues of how this conflict began and try to finger point responsibility, it would probably get me more comments and page participation than misspelling participation. This is not my focus. While I encourage participation and want to stimulate you to look into all of these issues, from many sources, finger pointing is not my focus. My focus is to get you to ask if this is right or ever ok.

Humanity left unpracticed is just a stupid idea and the monsters win. We all know what the monsters are for us. For some, it may be Vladimir Putin or Barrack Obama while others may say the Illuminati. I will not judge you for your monsters. In the spirit of full disclosure, my monsters are the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Our monsters are our own.  Just as our values and ethics or humanity are. So for me it comes down to Monsters Vs. Humans a classic fiction story arch.

            Basic humanity says it is never ok to use artillery shelling in civilian occupied areas.  Arguing to the contrary is like trying to justify tossing a grenade into a pool full of children to kill a pedophile. Yes, we universally hate pedophiles; they are accepted monsters in most societies. But only an idiot would try to say tossing a grenade into a pool, full of kids, to kill one was ok. So too is shelling a city full of people and claiming the rebels are hiding within populated areas.
 
Before you start pointing the fault finger, stop. It doesn’t matter remember? We aren’t interested in fault we are focused on stopping a child, or any other person for that matter, from growing up with hate and fear. Because if we don’t the monsters win and we have all seen enough movies to know what happens then.

Fear! Fear happens, the monsters don’t need to eat you or wrap you up in goo and plant chest bursting seeds in you. They just need you afraid; too afraid to travel, too afraid to watch, and too afraid to speak up. Fear destroys the mind and our superior minds are what separate us from the rest of this watery ball’s inhabitants.  Fear of terrorists allows the monsters to supercede or basic freedoms. It makes us think we are unsafe and need protection from the wonderful unknown.
  
I was embarrassed to read that Canadian planes were delivering supplies to the Kiev government to help with the war effort and doing nothing else. That our Conservative government had locked step and was contributing to the grenade tossing and doing nothing else. Why not load those huge, and now empty, transport planes with women and children and remove them from the fighting?

Is it now ok to brutalize women and children regardless of side and fault? Did the Canadians mission overseas switch without a vote? Did we change from one of the world’s preeminent peacekeeping forces to a puppet force of the USA without so much as a debate in parliament?  Has my countries value and ethics so drastically changed without so much as a murmur? Why are the Canadian people suddenly ok with this?

Sure it is only sleeping bags and cooking pots but these bolsters the armies’ morale. A morale that has been lacking because the regular soldiers, on the ground, have been deserting because they don’t want to be monsters.  No hero songs have ever been sung about the indiscriminate slaughter of children.

            I know I have simplified this issue a fair bit and I have only put two sides forward in a story like fashion but do I need to make it more convoluted? I believe that killing women and children in any war is not acceptable. I believe that we as humans have a debt and obligation to children to provide at the very least a safe childhood. I believe love and faith in the human race demand this of each of us and it is a personal responsibility owed to all of those in this world. I believe if we fail at this obligation couching our actions with words like practical and reasonable instead of the reality FEAR we make a choice. The choice is living with fear and not living with love and then the Monsters win. The monsters should know there are always bigger and more powerful monsters just waiting in the shadows to pounce the day humanity dies….