New Yorker: Article on Depopulation and AIDS

[Alina Israeli]

You all so nicely attacked the New Yorker.  Yes, stirilization is still
done for the most part by boiling, and a hospital room is just a room with
a lot of beds. By contrast, my only experience with a hospital in the US
was a stay in a single room (with a private bath and a TV) equiped with all
sorts of unimaginable things with buttons and levers where the bed itself
was movable in every direction (it was like being in a spaceship), not to
mention a little table-tray which is normally used for bringing the tray
with food (which I specified in advance) and where I located my laptop as
well. Oh yes, there was also a arm chair bed where my husband slept. Not to
mention that he could come and leave any time. (I obviously was not
contagious.)

Never mind the US. A few years ago, I believe it was in 2001, I spoke with
one Russian scholar who was in the US for a visit. He is unable to support
himself by teaching Russian, so he also works for foundations that do
research. One of his reaserches was on AIDS in the Russian army.
Unfortunately, you won't find those things in the press because the Russian
Army made sure that the research ended as soon as they found out about it.
AIDS was rampant in the army. But that is not the reason they did not like
the research. Male prostitution was rampant, not only were soldiers doing
it for subsistance, but they were sent by their superiors who collected the
proceeds, in effect pimping over the rank-in-file.

AIDS and TB in overcrowded prisons were a subject of French documentaries a
few years ago. Up to 58 inmates with standing room only in some prison
cells. Is this not a sign of a third world country? And a hospital room for
16 with hay matrasses on iron beds? Some TV footage of Russian hospitals is
very similar to that of Africa. Of course, not all the hospitals are like
that, there are a few better ones in Moscow. Which reminds me of a
billboard I saw in Moscow a few years ago: Kakaja svjaz' mezhdu Moskvoj i
Rossiej? The pun is well taken: the rest of Russia has little connection to
Moscow.

__________________________
 Alina Israeli
 LFS, American University
 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
 Washington, DC 20016

 phone:    (202) 885-2387
 fax:      (202) 885-1076

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