New Yorker: Article on Depopulation and AIDS

[Katz, Michael]

Indeed. And the editor David Remnick should know better.

> ----------
> From:         Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list on behalf of David Powelstock
> Reply To:     Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> Sent:         Wednesday, October 13, 2004 11:02 AM
> To:   SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject:      Re: [SEELANGS] New Yorker: Article on Depopulation and AIDS
> 
>        Michael: You've got the ammunition, you should write a pithy letter
> to the New Yorker.
>        David Powelstock
>        
>        -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael Denner
> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 10:21 AM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] New Yorker: Article on Depopulation and AIDS
>        
>        Dear Colleagues!
>        
>        I wonder if anyone else had the same reaction to this week's New
> Yorker article on AIDS and depopulation in Russia (I've appended it in two
> installments because of length limits). 
>        
>         
>        
>        I've always thought of the New Yorker as the premier news magazine
> for accurate and insightful news stories. Specter's article, though, is
> third-rate and full of gross inaccuracies, exaggerations, and false
> synecdoches. 
>        
>         
>        
>        For instance, Russia is either equated or compared negatively to:
> Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen, Africa as a whole, Kenya, China, India, and
> Turkey. Perhaps the most ridiculous claim in the article is that before
> World War II, Russia was a "third-world nation." Does the author know what
> it's like in a third-world country? Does the author know anything about the
> history of Russia in the twentieth century? 
>        
>         
>        
>        The population estimates offered in the article portray the most
> pessimistic forecasts as the "best case scenario." The crazy statistic of 80
> million people is from Sergei Yermakov, of the Research Public Health
> Institute (no citation in the article, of course, for the source, but I've
> followed the demographic debate closely over the last few years). However,
> Yermakov's statistics are generally viewed as unsupportable by most serious
> demographers in Russia and the US. 
>        
>         
>        
>        The claim that HIV is not covered in the Russian press is also
> ludicrous -- Kommersant ran an excellent series of very long features on the
> AIDS epidemic in May of this year -- not exactly a progressive,
> anti-governmental, or alarmist newspaper. 
>        
>         
>        
>        We read about surgeons using hotplates for sterilizers -- as though
> that were true in all hospitals in Russia. And the rumor (which I've never
> seen substantiated in the Russian press) of soldiers begging for bullets at
> Beslan, as though that were true of the Russian military in general. Would
> it be accurate to claim that the US military is underfunded and incompetent
> based on stories of soldiers buying body armor on eBay? There's limited
> truth in such synecdoches, but to infer from the author's isolated
> experiences and random readings that these facts hold true generally is an
> example of what good journalists DO NOT do. 
>        
>         
>        
>        What's clear to anyone who's lived, worked, and spoken with Russians
> is that the article is written by someone with very limited and naïve
> knowledge of how things actually work in Russia - remarkable in a magazine
> whose editor in chief is David Remnick. From the first sentence on, Russia
> is portrayed as some exotic, backwards, "oriental" place. Foolishness.
>        
>         
>        
>        Best,
>        
>        mad
>        
>         
>        
>         
>        
>        ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
>        Dr. Michael A. Denner
>        Russian Studies Program
>        Director, Honors Program
>        Stetson University
>        Campus Box 8361
>        DeLand, FL 32724
>        386.822.7381 (department)
>        386.822.7265 (direct line)
>        386.822.7380 (fax)
>        http://www.stetson.edu/~mdenner
>        
>         
>        
>        
>  
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