Flying? Boating? Driving? Then Death is Always an Option
The tragic–not to say criminal–sinking of the Bulgaria on the Volga, with the loss of approximately 130 lives, brought to mind a memory of my experience on a Russian river boat in August, 2005. The European Finance Association meetings were in Moscow that year, and the EFA arranged a dinner cruise on the Moskva River. When the boat returned to the riverside at the end of the cruise, the crew could not get the gangway over the side of the vessel to the shore. Not that they were trying particularly hard. There was no one ashore to help with the disembarkation.
Due to the bumpers protecting the side of the craft, there was a rather yawning gap between the rail and the riverbank. The crew was utterly unhelpful, the captain nowhere in sight. Eventually one sour-faced and rather squat crew-woman (who had been serving hors d’oeuvres not long before) gestured that the passengers should jump the gap. Then she did so herself–and walked away, lighting a cigarette. One or two other crew members followed her, and the rest were nowhere to be seen. So 100-odd passengers jumped awkwardly onto the shore, aided only by other passengers, and wandered off to their hotels. (In my case, to the beautiful Hotel Rossiya–blessedly demolished seven months later.)
The memory of the incompetence and indifference of the crew of that vessel came back to me upon reading the accounts of the Bulgaria sinking. The crew was unprepared to handle the disaster, and one key fact suggests strongly they did not even try: 28 percent of the passengers survived, but 69 percent of the crew did. Reports also suggest that conditions were unsafe for the vessel–but it departed anyways despite the rough seas. Two other vessels passed by the passengers in the water, but failed to stop to rescue them. The captains of these ships have been arrested–an exercise in futility.
My experience on the Moskva was a minor inconvenience, but it revealed attitudes and practices that make it all to easy to understand how the anything but minor catastrophe on the Volga took place. With such attitudes and practices, it is no surprise at all that to travel on Russian transport is risky business indeed.
Our Kommersant ran a story very recently about Putin going to Kazan to express commiserations and to “sort out” the tragedy. There was his usual meeting with various officials, where he asked questions like: why was the ship unlicensed? Who let it out of port? Where were the regulators? The best one was in the end, when he seemingly lost his temper: “What is this mess all about?”
I wonder, what is he: either an enourmous hypocrite and liar or a complete idiot?
Comment by azzkel — July 16, 2011 @ 8:15 am
Following the sinking 80% of the men on the ship survived but only 32% of children and just 26% of the women.
This one simple fact tells you all you need to know about Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the “real man” who leads it.
http://blogs.voanews.com/russia-watch/2011/07/16/russias-perfect-storm-of-human-error/
But you can also think about the fact that not one but two different ships sailed right by the drowning passengers. Or the fact that dozens of children on board were improperly registered by their handlers, the same birth date being given for each.
Or think about the fact that Russia’s all-powerful dictator accepts no blame whatsoever for any of this, blaming it instead on “greed” and corruption, and attempting to use criminal charges to hide his tracks. But why hasn’t he addressed corruption? Where were his criminal charges when they could have saved these lives?
Meanwhile, Putin is furiously engaged in reviving the USSR.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/07/neo-soviet_russia_crawls_back_toward_darkness.html
Putin is leading his country into the pits of Hell.
Comment by La Russophobe — July 16, 2011 @ 8:47 am
He is a great man, leader and patriot who deeply cares about his people.
A fact that most Russians appreciate, though there are exceptions.
Comment by Sublime Oblivion — July 16, 2011 @ 11:01 am
+++ He is a great man, leader and patriot +++
No. He is a short man, a “pidor” and a patriot of the country being a patriot of which is a shame.
Comment by LL — July 16, 2011 @ 11:29 am
SUBLIME LUNATIC: If he cared at all about his people, he would have asked those questions BEFORE the ship sank, and he would have used the money he is spending on personal palaces to repair and replace the ships. Having failed to do so, if he cared about them, he would resign.
Comment by La Russophobe — July 16, 2011 @ 11:32 am
Following the sinking 80% of the men on the ship survived but only 32% of children and just 26% of the women.
This one simple fact tells you all you need to know about Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the “real man” who leads it.
http://blogs.voanews.com/russia-watch/2011/07/16/russias-perfect-storm-of-human-error/
But you can also think about the fact that not one but two different ships sailed right by the drowning passengers. Or the fact that dozens of children on board were improperly registered by their handlers, the same birth date being given for each.
Or think about the fact that Russia’s all-powerful dictator accepts no blame whatsoever for any of this, blaming it instead on “greed” and corruption, and attempting to use criminal charges to hide his tracks. But why hasn’t he addressed corruption? Where were his criminal charges when they could have saved these lives?
Meanwhile, Putin is furiously engaged in reviving the USSR.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/07/neo-soviet_russia_crawls_back_toward_darkness.html
Putin is leading his country into the pits of Hell.
Comment by La Russophobe — July 16, 2011 @ 11:36 am
Sublime Oblivion, yep, he says so too!
Comment by azzkel — July 16, 2011 @ 12:00 pm
Thanks for the LOL, SO. Funniest thing I’ve read all day.
Comment by mossy — July 16, 2011 @ 1:31 pm
[…] Professor reflects upon safety of public transport in Russia, against the backdrop of the recent “Bulgaria” […]
Pingback by Russia: Public Transport Safety · Global Voices — July 16, 2011 @ 2:23 pm
“No. He is a short man, a “pidor” and a patriot of the country being a patriot of which is a shame.” Wow, I guess the only true Russians are those that hate Russia. What Bolshevik views your fans have, SWP!
Comment by Mr. X — July 16, 2011 @ 6:02 pm
Alexander III was a big tough brute of a man, anointed by God to be Russia’s autocrat for life… Yet when his train derailed, no-one was punished. At least he had the conscience to rule out prosecution of the lowest ranks (in Russian “signalman” is synonymous with “scapegoat”). The train was overloaded, badly configured, going too fast. The railway was badly maintained and of poor quality to begin with. Corruption and criminal negligence was found at the highest ranks. But the Tsar quietly cancelled the whole process. In fact, even the Royal Family’s cooks were known to be terrible. Yet they put up with them. That’s Russian absolutism for you.
Comment by So? — July 16, 2011 @ 11:45 pm
You know, you Putin apologists make me sick, sitting in your comfortable little dens, cherry-picking surveys or ignoring them all together to spin out this myth of the people in Russia and their love for Putin, the Father of the Nation who loves his people.
You got kids, SO? Well, come with them to Russia and see how you feel about Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev. Put them in day schools where the staff pockets the budget and serves them rotten food — and you spend a month with a kid in the hospital, borrowing money to pay bribes to underpaid nurses and doctors so your kid gets the medicine and care he needs. On a sweltering day take the kiddies to the local watering hole, a fetid cesspool surrounded by garbage that the local authorities feel no need to clean up. Fly on some airplanes, take some river cruises, hop on a train and see how you feel about the way the oil windfall has been put to use. Got a son ready to graduate from high school? Send him off to serve as a conscript and pray he makes it out alive.
Folks here get it. The people at the top have their own Russia, paid for in bribes pocketed. They don’t send their kids to public schools, go to state clinics, eat Russian food, vacation in the country, fly local airplanes or take trains. They have their own roads, their own security, their own means of transportation, and in some cases their own phone service. It’s the hoi polloi, the people you think Putin loves and love him back, who are living their lives with prayers, hoping against hope that their kids will survive to adulthood, filled with rage that their country’s leaders treat them with such contempt.
Come on, I dare you. You love Putin so much, come live in Russia with your family.
Comment by mossy — July 17, 2011 @ 3:30 am
The rabble underfoot was almost always redundant. Cold barren land doesn’t lend itself to producing surplus. No surplus, no progress. What’s the use trying? So reform was always from the top in fits and starts. Usually after a military setback. With renewal of the state apparatus being the only result (and goal?) Only relatively recently has intensive, as opposed to extensive, exploitation of the land become possible. Muscovy lived off the fur trade (and imported everything else). Neo-Muscovy lives off the oil (and imports everything else). You don’t need 150 million people for that. 15 million will do.
Comment by So? — July 17, 2011 @ 4:44 am
And So? what’s your point about Alexander III? That Putin acts like a 19th century despot? Or is it this: While the rest of civilization has abandoned rule by despot and, over the course of decades and centuries, sometimes prodded or forced from below, sometimes enacted from above, have instituted democratic systems — however varied and imperfect — Russians, having once had a despotic monarchy and corrupt government, are doomed to keep that form of government, no matter how many times they vote it down, rebel it down, or sacrifice themselves to rid their country of it? That’s it – Russians don’t get to live better lives?
Or do you think they like it this way?
You ought to be made to sit in a room for four hours and watch news reports of the Bulgaria sinking, hear the women and men weeping and they imagine those scores of children stuck in that playroom as the ship went down.
This was an enormous tragedy, an unthinkable tragedy. And you’re yammering about Alexander III.
Comment by mossy — July 17, 2011 @ 7:00 am
In a few weeks, if not days, this will be yet another footnote in new Russia’s history just like every other disaster before it. The only solution is to destalinize and repent. Destalinize and repent.
Comment by So? — July 17, 2011 @ 8:03 am
Sublime Idiot, Usually I ignore your comments because of their stupidity. Really, you are sooo stupid but consider yourself an expert on Russia. Even your young age doesn’t excuse your ignorance. You have classic sophomoric so called expert’s opinions and proclaim that if your opinion is different from yours, then it is wrong. Instead of putting labels on people, why don’t you try to dispute anything specific in the article. You are poorly informed and immature.
Comment by voroBey — July 17, 2011 @ 11:41 am
Sorry, mistake- if someone’s opinion is different from yours, then it is wrong.
Comment by voroBey — July 17, 2011 @ 11:43 am
Poking anthills (i.e. the commentariat here) with a stick is far more fun than banging said stick against one’s forehead (i.e. trying to dispute anything with ideologues).
Comment by Sublime Oblivion — July 17, 2011 @ 1:46 pm
[…] Streetwise Professor ???????? ??? ???????? ??? ???????? ????????? ??? ?????, ?? […]
Pingback by ?????: ???????? ???????? ????????? · Global Voices ??? ???????? — July 18, 2011 @ 1:52 am
S/O How convenient!
Comment by voroBey — July 18, 2011 @ 11:25 am
Everyone hates Putin.
Comment by Sublime Oblivion — July 18, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
This gopnik PR is a liability. “Page 3 girls for David Cameron!”
Comment by So? — July 18, 2011 @ 7:43 pm
Murdoch begs to differ. 😉
Comment by Sublime Oblivion — July 18, 2011 @ 7:52 pm