Lex Libertas

Kostya (short for Konstantin) is one my closest friends over here in St. Petersburg. We’ve know each other for about two years now. Last night a bunch of us were at a friend’s house until 3am. Normally, I have to leave any party by 11pm to catch my pumpkin to Kupchino. If I stay out past 11, I either have to sleep at a friend’s place, or pay 300 rubles for a gypsy cab home, 600 for a real cab. Kostya is the only of my friends who has a car, and it was his presence at the party that allowed me to stay out so late. Unfortunately, since I live so far away from the center, it was almost 3:30 when we got home. Kostya would have had to drive all the across the city to the North in order to get home, so he decided to just crash at my place. Ever the gracious host, I click down the couch, get a blank and pillow, and pour him a glass of water. I return from the kitchen and offer him the water. “No thanks, I already drank from the chainik (tea kettle).” Great guy, but needs some refinement.

St. Petersburg’s most dedicated Metallica fan

He’s the pretty one

What Kostya drank out of

PS: I’m writing this post in a bookstore that has a cafe attached. Some R&B song is playing where the chorus includes multiple uses of the words Hoes, Bitches, Nigga, and F**k. It’s strange to walk around a perfectly respectable bookstore and hear this coming from the speaker. I’m probably the only on in here right now who understands.

One of few drawbacks to St. Petersburg, vis-a-vis Moscow, is that it is less technologically developed. Almost every cafe in downtown Moscow has free wi-fi access, even McDonald’s. Here, however, there are only a handful, and all off the main drag. “Carl’s Jr” just opened a restaurant here. One of the main attractions is that it offers free wi-fi with a purchase. Unlike Moscow, where the access is usually open and limitless, you need a password and it’s only for 30 minutes. I came here to eat dinner explicitly because of this deal. I was pleasantly surprised. Like McDonald’s, the Carl’s here was better than back in the states. The sandwich is cleaner and tastes better. In any case, I’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes waiting for the singal to come through. It just did, but now I only have 10 minutes before I’m supposed to leave and meet someone.

Carl at Carl’s Jr.

In addition to wi-fi coverage, St. Petersburg is behind the times when it comes to recharging your phone account. In Moscow, on practically every street corner they have automated machines. It’s excruciatingly simple. You type in the phone number that you want to recharge, then you put money in the machine. Presto, the money immediately appears on the account. Yes, you can recharge your friends’ accounts if they are indisposed. You can even recharge total strangers’ accounts, if you’re not careful about double checking the number that you entered. Here, however, we’re still using cards.

You have to buy a card, which come in fixed denominations of 150, 300, 500, and 1,000 roubles. The cards usually cost more than they’re worth. In my neighborhood, for example, a 150 card will cost 160, 300 will run 320, etc. In the center of town the price can be even higher. A 150 card might run you 180. True, some machines in Moscow charge a commission of 3%, but most don’t. Even at that, a 150 deposit would cost 155, far less than you’d pay in downtown St. Pete.

I love this city, but it’s got some technological catching up to do if it wants to rival Moscow. That said, it’s still progressed quite a bit from when I first came here three years ago.

The Belorussian is my favorite train station in all of Moscow. I am fortunate to be staying at an apartment with a great location, a fifteen-minute walk from Belorussky Vokzal, which doubles as a metro station on the circle line (the edge of downtown). It’s also a brisk fourty-five minute walk from Red Square. Train stations in Russia are named for the main direction that they travel, either towards a large city or region. Belorusski to Belarus, Kievski to Kiev, etc. The anchor stations on the Moscow-St. Petersburg run, however, have a tinge of political intrigue. The trains from St. Petersburg leave from Moscow Station, whereas the trains from Moscow leave from Leningrad station - they purposely decided not to change the name of the station. The stations are the exact same design, a large open central hall, with only one minor distinction. In Moskovski station (St. Petersburg), there is a large bust of Tsar Peter I. In the Leningradski station, however, there is a large bust of Lenin.

On Sunday I bought a new camera, three guesses why. I’ll write up the explanation later, it deserves its own post. It’s basically the same camera as before, but the newest version, the Panasonic DMC-FX07. I really loved the last version (5megapixel), it gave me some fantastic photos, and I hope that this one is at least as good, if not better. For starters, it has more built-in options. I am not camera literate - at all. I really ought to take some sort of photo class that explains what all the settings are for, and when to use them. Matters are made worse because I don’t have an english-language manual. It came with Russian and Ukrainian. Virtually any Ukrainian buying this camera, especially in Russia, is going to understand the Russian version, so please give us non-Slavic foreigners an English manual!! I did a quick look on the panasonic site, and couldn’t come up with a downloadable version.

On Monday I was waiting at the metro for a friend, and decided to play with some of the options, particularly the color settings. It has five choices: off, cool, warm, black and white, and seppia. “Off” and “B&W” and understandable even by me. I had no idea what “seppia” was, but it’s the brown, late-1800s option. “Warm” was very useful. It was a rather bleak day, and this option really brought out the colors, making the pictures much more vibrant. I’m not sure what “cool” is supposed to do, but it gave everything a bluish tint. It seems that “warm” serves a purpose, making the pictures more lifelike under more diffused light. Does “cool” do the opposite, say, take the edge off of Saharan jeep tours? And what is the camera doing in these modes, specifically “warm” and “cool?” How does it enhance the colors? Is it some sensitivity/aperature trick that I don’t know?

Here’s a sampling of the pictures so far:

Entrance to the ticketing area. This is a standard aspect ratio (3×4) with the color option “off,” to give some sort of baseline. Yes, in general, everyone over here wears black coats and jackets. You can always tell in LA when the Moscow flight gets in. People start pouring out into 35C weather, and everyone has on black leather jackets.

Entire facade, panoramic (16×9 aspect ratio), “off”

Entire facade, pan, “warm”

Entire facade, pan, “cool”

Metro entrance, pan, “warm”

Metro entrance, standard, “seppia”

Metro exit, pan, “b&w”

Metro exit, stan, “off”

Metro exit, pan, “warm” - Here we have a girl buying flowers, and the warm setting makes a huge difference on both the color of clothing and the flowers, the building, and even the flyers on the wall.

Street-crossing, stan, “b&w”

Tracks leading from station, pan, “b&w”

I have long wondered why Russia was taking such a lenient policy towards the Iranian drive for nuclear weapons. If there is anything that Russia values, it’s the status of regional power. In fact, they ideally want to get back to being a superpower. They consider the states of the former Soviet Union to be their geopolitical territory, and become rather upset when anyone else steps in, or when those states themselves turn to another party. Included in this desired sphere of influence are the Central Asian republics (known affectionately as “The Stans”). Given this construct, it never made any sense that Russia would allow Iran, who is on the border of and interested in this region, to become a nuclear power. An Iranian nuclear weapon would change dramatically the geopolitical structure of Central Asia. This is most decidedly not in Russia’s best interest. Yet along they went, building a nuclear reactor, and opposing sanctions. Now, it seems, the Russians have finally lost patience and decided that an Iranian nuke is a bad idea, and are going to take actions against it. This is an extremely important development. Excluding military force, Russia has much more power over Iran than the US does. As long as Russia was supplying them with technology, workers, and fuel, Iran could have indefinitely thumbed its nose at the US. Now, however, it looks as if the Russians are playing hardball.

The official story is that Iran is behind on its payments for the reactor at Bushehr, and as such Russia is rufusing to give them nuclear fuel. The first shipment was due this month, and the reactor was to go online in September. The Iranians have responded by saying that they’ve paid in full, and offering the bank documents to any passerby. The unoffical story, however, is that Russia is holding back to pressure Iran to stop enriching uranium at the Natanz plant. The idel version for Russia, and supported by the US, is for the Russians to enrich the Bushehr fuel in Russia and then ship it to Iran for use, and reclaim the leftovers. This way, the Iranians can use it to produce energy, but they don’t get to keep it or enrich it, would could lead to its use in nuclear weapons. Finally, Russia is stepping up to the plate on this, and it is welcome news for anyone interested in stopping proliferation.

�We consider this a very important decision by the Russians,� a senior European official said. �It shows that our disagreements with the Russians about the dangers of Iran�s nuclear program are tactical. Fundamentally, the Russians don�t want a nuclear Iran.�

�We would be crazy at this late date to endanger the project by not paying,� the [Iranian] official said. �There is no financial problem. The Russians want to use this issue as a bargaining chip.�

This is my favorite picture that I’ve taken so far here in Russia. It’s the door to the metro, and on top is written “Entrance.” On the door, however, is written “No Entrance.” Well, that sums up a lot of life over here - “Entrance, No Entrance.”

Imperialism better than Poorly-Governed Independence

Last year, the United States Agency for International Development gave Ghana $22.5 million in food aid. Last Monday, that same country began a 12-month celebration of its independence from British rule, which was granted 50 years ago, on March 5, 1957. The total budget for these festivities, which commenced with an all-night party in Accra, is said to be $20 million. You might reasonably ask if this is a sensible way of spending $20 million at a time when the typical citizen of Ghana has a daily income of $1.33.

The average Briton was 39 times richer than the colony’s average inhabitant. Between 1960 and today, the gap between Britain and Ghana has more than doubled, so that the average Briton is now 92 times richer. In virtually every case (Botswana is the sole exception), former British colonies in sub-Saharan Africa have fared worse under independence than they did under British rule. To illustrate the folly of giving aid to chronically misruled countries, Collier cites a recent survey that tracked money released by Chad’s Ministry of Finance to fund rural health clinics. Just 1% reached its intended destination. The rest was raked off by one corrupt official after another.

The Land of Biblical Idiots

What should we do when the “separation of church and state” leaves us unprepared to understand the Western cannon?

In a religious literacy quiz I have administered to undergraduates for the last two years, students tell me that Moses was blinded on the road to Damascus and that Paul led the Israelites on their exodus out of Egypt. Surveys that are more scientific have found that only one out of three U.S. citizens is able to name the four Gospels, and one out of 10 think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. No wonder pollster George Gallup has concluded that the United States is “a nation of biblical illiterates.”

Biblical illiteracy is not just a religious problem. It is a civic problem with political consequences. How can citizens participate in biblically inflected debates on abortion, capital punishment or the environment without knowing something about the Bible? Because they lack biblical literacy, Americans are easily swayed by demagogues on the left or the right who claim � often incorrectly � that the Bible says this about war or that about homosexuality.

In 1948, Justice Robert Jackson wrote in McCollum vs. Board of Education that “a course in English literature that omitted the Bible � would be pretty barren.” An entire generation of Americans is growing up almost entirely ignorant of the most influential book in world history, unable to understand the 1,300 biblical allusions in Shakespeare, the scriptural oratory of President Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or even the prominence of Ezekiel 25:17 (actually a mishmash of this verse and passages from Genesis, Psalms and other books) in the film “Pulp Fiction.”

What makes sense is one Bible course for every public high school student in the U.S., academic courses that study the Bible’s characters and stories as well as the afterlife of the Bible in literature and history. This is not a Christian proposal. It does not serve the political left or the political right. It serves our young people and our public life.

Iraqis: life is getting better

Why is there such a disconnect between what we are show in the US, and the opinion on the ground? Is our media taking the easy way out by just focusing on violence, and not giving us the deeper, larger picture? More Americans than Iraqis think it’s a civil war.

Most Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today. The survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis found the majority optimistic despite their suffering in sectarian violence since the American-led invasion four years ago this week. Asked whether they preferred life under Saddam, the dictator who was executed last December, or under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, most replied that things were better for them today. Only 27% think there is a civil war in Iraq, compared with 61% who do not, according to the survey carried out last month.

Building a Coalition

I always wondered why all of the “Anti-War” activities at UCLA invariably turned into pro-Affirmative Action and Anti-Israel demonstrations.

No liberal cause can produce much support on its own, any one of them must ally itself with all other liberal causes, so that they can pool their resources. That’s why it’s almost impossible to distinguish the original purpose of a left-wing political rally. What starts out being an ‘anti-war’ demonstration will invariably become an convention of environmentalists, gun control advocates, pro-abortionists, animal rights activists, racial Balkanists, and outright Communists, because that’s the only way to prevent the size of the crowd from being laughably small.

How did that happen? Though, if I had to pick a Euro country to live in, it’d probably be France. Just saw “Talledega Nights,” Sacha Baron Cohen does a brilliant job as a French Formula One driver.

I’ve never heard of “Molvania,” they probably mean Moldova.

Interesting that the designers included “Turkish.”

Thanks to Danielle.

I came back again to St. Petersburg yesterday. A good friend from America, who I haven’t seen in two years, is in town for a week, and I wanted to see her. Of course, I’ll take just any excuse to come for a visit. Though I must say that Moscow is better in one aspect, the weather. Women’s Day (March 8th) in Moscow was beautiful. The sun was shining, and at 8C (46F), it was warm enough to enjoy being outside. I spent much of the day walking around the center, from the Belorusskaya metro station to Kitay Gorod. Yesterday in St. Petersburg, however, was gray, rainy, and cold. I don’t expect that to change for the week I’m in town. Moreover, even when the temperatures in Moscow and St. Petersburg are the same, it’s colder in Piter. In general, it’s much more humid here, being a swamp on the bay. And often there is wind coming from the Finnish Gulf. That said, I’ve survived three winters here, in much worse conditions than a drizzly +1C (34F), so I certainly won’t let it spoil my trip.

Taken by my apartment. Beautiful, isn’t it. Compare with the second picture in this post. Same park.

St. Petersburg is a stunningly beautiful city. My first direct experience with Russia was in June 2002, when I came over and taught debate. The first stop was Moscow, which was interesting, but my schedule was so full that I didn’t have much time to absorb the experience. I spent a few days in St. Petersburg, and was able to explore the center of the city. It was early June and the city was in full splendor. The weather was warm and clear, and everything in bloom. While I remember being impressed with the parks and Nevsky Prospect, it was the canals and embankments that captured my heart. I have always loved water, and I find it hard to imagine living in a city that isn’t located on the coast or doesn’t at least have a river running through it. The opening chapter to Moby Dick, in addition to being some of the most beautiful English ever put down on paper, describes Ishamel’s similar feelings :

Say, you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent- minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries - stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region.

A year later, in the spring of 2003, I was trying to decide what to do after graduation. I was struggling with a choice between law school and a PhD program in International Affairs. The PhD program at the top of my list had expressed a desire that it’s candidates be fluent in two foreign languages. My undergrad degree was in French Politics, and I had spent my third year in Grenoble, France. It was the most wonderful year of my life, and if anyone is considering studying in France, I would highly recommend Grenoble, especially over Paris. If you’re facing this choice, email me, I’ll explain why.

In any case, I was trying to figure out what second language to pick up. Spanish was the obvious choice, but I had already skipped over it once, and it just seemed too close to home. I remembered the fun I had the year before in Eastern Europe, on that same debate tour we visited Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova. Growing up in a military family in West Germany, Russia had always interested me, and I figured that Russian would continue to be an important language in politics and increasingly in business. With that background nudging me in the direction of Russian, St. Petersburg screamed out as the obvious place to study. Yes, I had heard that Russia was cold in the winter, but my experience of it was a warm, breezy week in June. What better way to study Russian than wandering the canals and backstreets of the Imperial capital? I’ve been in Moscow three months now, and it doesn’t compare to St. Petersburg. I have very conflicted feelings about St. Petersburg, and my relationship to it, though that’s a entire post in itself. For now, I’d like to share some pictures of the canals that enraptured me in June 2002, and along which I have strolled countless times and which have been the background to an entire spectrum of emotional and physical states.

I have walked before on the Neva (main river), not a very good idea. I was new, and had been told stories about how it was possible to cross in winter. An Australian friend and I decided to try our luck in January ‘04. When we got to the middle, we found that the river wasn’t frozen all the way across, and like idiots got right to the edge. The Neva is a rather deep and powerful river, so it takes a lot to freeze it over. The other main rivers aren’t nearly so hearty. Last month it got down to -20C when I was in Piter. After some fresh snow, a friend and I saw tracks on the Fontanka, and since both of us have long wanted to, we set out to walk from one bank to the other:

Carl with Nevsky visible in the background.

A decent sized river.

We walked all the way from the staircase by the pink building in the background.

This boat was parked here on the fontanka all last summer. I have no idea how the people got from there to the embankment, or why they left it there. And I’m pretty sure they weren’t scuba diving.

Griboedov breaking up in April of last year. On the left (freshly painted) is the Institute of Finance and Economics, one of the best universities in town.

Again, the Griboedov breaking up. Kazansky Cathedral on the left, Church on the Spilt Blood in the background.

Canal near the Primorskaya metro station, leading to the Finnish Gulf. I spent a lot of time here my first year, when I lived at the dorm on Vasilievsky Island.

Same canal, with an extraordinarily long apartment building on the right. You have to see this thing to believe it, overwhelming.

View at night, taken from the balcony of a friend who lived in a building two minutes away from the metro station.

Peter and Paul Fortress, across the Nevsky. Lit up for a June holiday called “Crimson Sails” that honors all the graduating high school students.

Griboedov canal, right near one of the main metro stations on Nevsky. People tend to congregate there and wait for others. While waiting they necessarily smoke and drink, throwing their used beer bottles, cigarettes, and empty packages into the canals.

Israel, Iran, the US, and North Korea have the worst image around the world, in that order. In Iran, two women have to testify in order to receive the same weight as one man. North Korea beats and starves people who try to leave. But both countries have higher positive and lower negative scores than those damn Jews, who keep diabolically clothing Somali refugee children.

Seasons begin early in Russia. Today is the first day of Spring, and people are congratulating each other on making it through another winter. Though I’m afraid it’s a tad too soon. After living over here, I understand why our seasons start on the 21st of their respective months, and not the first. Here’s a look at the first day of Spring from my apartment window:

Also, I have updated my entry about the bombing at McDonald’s.