student safety in St Petersburg

Wed Nov 25 08:34:27 UTC 2009

Dear Sibelan--"The safety situation for minority American students studying
abroad" in Petersburg is different mostly for Afo-Americans.  Mostly it is
different because harrassment, from nasty stares to wispers to open laughter
to direct comments and verbal abuse is part of the picture.  However, that
sort of abuse, revolting as it is, is not, in the Russian context, from
criminals.  In that sense this is a mental health and safety issue more than
a physical health and safety issue.  That is not to diminish its
importance.  It is very important and deserves more attention than it gets.
Later I will try and write in more detail on the broader issue.  For the
time being I'll confine myself to the physical safety issue.

Crime in Russia can be divided into material and ideological.
Overwhelmingly in Russia, and with respect to foreigners especially,
criminals inflict material, "property" damage.  They steal.  They do not,
and do not want to, inflict bodily harm.  There may be some threat or even
bodily contact, but force that causes bodily harm is much less common. My
intuition, after working for more than a decade here, is that there is an
agreement between the police and the criminal gangs.  If no medical
attention is needed then the police don't have to deal with it very
seriously beyond filing a brief report.  As soon as medical attention is
needed the incident is on another level; the police don't like that.  The
gangs understand that. Speaking English in public will draw the attention of
these criminals.  Having dark skin or an epicanthic fold won't.

Ideological crime is the sort that, rightfully, gets the headlines.  It is,
however, uncommon.  Uncommon, but potentially much more destabilizing than
common property crime.  For all the attention grabbing journalism about
Russia in the US press, the authorities in Russia try to keep tabs on hate
groups pretty closely.

The big challenge is to prepare Afro-American students for uninvited public
attention.  This has to be done pre-departure, during on-site orientation
and throughout the program.  As a first step it is a very good idea to put
interested students in contact with former students.

Please feel free to have specific students get in touch with me by email at
nlongan at ciee.org<https://webmail.ciee.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=7502767afb5b4e88bc89abd82bf49f5f&URL=mailto%3anlongan%40ciee.org>.
I will then forward their email to former CIEE students who have dealt with
this issue.  I stay in close contact with one of our former students, and he
has been enthusiastic about talking with potential students.  He is a very
strong speaker of Russian (ACTFL Advanced) with lots of experience in
Russia, mostly in Petersburg.  His love for the language, the culture and
the people is real and strong.  His experiences run the gammut from very
good to very bad, and include pleanty of ugly, but his love for and
interest in Russia are undimminished.  On the other hand he is not a
publicity seeker, and he is a busy man.  I forward students' inquiries to
him, and he takes it from there.

There is much more to write, but I'll post this for the time being.

Nathan

Nathan Longan, Ph.D.
Resident Director, St. Petersburg Study Center
CIEE: Council on International Educational Exchange
St. Petersburg State University
School of Political Science
Ulitsa Smolnogo 1/3 sedmoj pod''ezd
St. Petersburg, Russia 191124
Tel: +7.921.937.2792
Email: nlongan at ciee.org
Web: www.ciee.org
________________________________________

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:59 AM, Paul B. Gallagher <
paulbg at pbg-translations.com> wrote:

> Robert Chandler wrote:
>
>  I wholeheartedly agree with EVERYTHING that Graham says here.
>>
>
> FWIW, when I visited Moscow 30 years ago, I was startled to experience
> several incidents where passersby decided I looked Jewish and had to be told
> off. I may be wrong, but I don't think I look especially Jewish (see the
> photo on my website), and the eyebrows are from my Irish father (cf. actor
> Peter Gallagher). Although I am technically Jewish (mother's mitochondria
> and all), I was not raised as a Jew and did not think of myself as one --
> though of course anyone raised in the New York area will pick up elements of
> the language and culture. ;-)
>
> Still, it was very disconcerting because these incidents occurred with no
> provocation and were far out of the norm of what I had experienced growing
> up. They were more like what I had heard about from Black and Hispanic
> friends, who are targeted for no apparent reason even today in this "modern"
> country. That's why we have terms like "DWB" ("driving while black"), a
> traffic offense that will get you pulled over and questioned.
>
> On further reflection, I wonder whether "Jewish" is more of a code word for
> the Russian equivalent of "the man" -- an oppressive elite that keeps the
> regular folks down. Not that that's who I am, of course, or who the Jews are
> -- any offense given by me was entirely in these people's fevered
> imaginations.
>
> As for the more obvious racial minorities, I cannot speak to their
> experience in Russia.
>
> --
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
>
>
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