komu zhit' khorosho na Rusi...

[Michael Denner]

Alina!

I always appreciate your insights on this list. A few replies:

1) Какая связь между *вашим* Вашингтоном и... Not all of America is like the hospital you went to. Come down one of these days to where I grew up in rural Southern Indiana – esp. the hospitals that serve rural retirees. Or, better yet, visit a downtown hospital in Washington DC or in Mobile, Alabama that services African Americans or veterans. You’ll see things that will curl your toes and make you wish for a room full of beds and a hotplate. Trust me.

That said, of course healthcare here in the States is superior to Russia. I never suggested otherwise. But the picture painted by the article leaves the average American to think that Russia's medical services are Old-Testament bad. That's nonsense -- doctors are highly trained and dedicated in Russia (though the pay and infrastructure are awful). My guess is that, so far as preventative medicine goes, even Skotoprigonevsk would hold its own with 90% of rural and inner-city America. What's more, there's a network of free clinical care that many Americans (not to mention Sudanese!) would envy. Russia is bad по своему. 

2) Have you been to Africa? I have. It’s nothing like Russia. Any poor African would, in an instant, trade the living standards of the typical Russian in, say, Smolensk or Irkutsk. Education, healthcare, political stability, access to information, housing, etc. Everything is better in Russia for the average Ivan than it is in Russia for all but the richest Africans. (I’ll make an exception for PARTS of the Maghreb and South Africa, as well as for parts Egypt, if you count that as Africa).

3) Of course you're right -- things are pretty bad in Russia, mostly worse than 20 years ago, especially for those outside the western-central population centers. I never suggested for an instant that Russia's AIDS and depopulation crises were anything but crises. Nor did I suggest that the article was entirely wrong. I was very precise in my criticisms of inaccuracies in the article. Importantly, I think it very naïve to hold Russia up against norms and governmental functioning that exist here in the US. American social science methodologies and statistics just don't work very well in Russia. Chiefly, I think the article paints an unnecessarily dire portrait of Russia (moral of the story: Russia will implode) -- part of a long tradition in the American press that I would have thought the New Yorker above. 

For a much more balanced and nuanced view of Russia, let me suggest Fiona Hill's recent article "Russia's Newly Found Soft Power" (http://www.brook.edu/views/articles/hillf/20040826.htm). A really nuanced picture of Russia's developing economy and influence by someone who has spent a lot of time there. 

Regards,
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