Shallow elitism

[Wendell W. Solomons]

Date: Thu, 23 Apr 98 22:47:00 BST
Subject: RE: Russian Travel Restrictions
To: russian studies <russian-studies @ mailbase.ac.uk>

It is pleasing to be able to report from today's Guardian (p 15) that a
German has successfully sued Siberia Airlines for charging him a higher
price than would be paid by Russians.   The court in Novosibirsk found the
airline guilty under a civil code provision that forbids price
discrimination on the basis of nationality and ordered reimbursement of five
year of higher payments.

Will this judgement be extended to Moscow and Petersberg and services in
between???

--Ray Thomas

------------------------------------------

Greetings!

Let us hope that the reality and scope of Internet lists will
gradually begin to spare us shallow elitism.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you and for me," wrote
Hemingway.

What if the 20 million Russian workers who have suffered many
privations due to the faulty model of supplier Jeffrey Sachs go
to court? The pay bill that reached the ILO was $ 11 billion and
in all probabilty the costs of the total remedy plan will be several
times that figure. Would a court distinguish between an American
who has been defrauded and the citizen of another country? Pakistan
has applied to a US court against the supplier of faulty F-16
planes. The bills are not what the $ 7.4 trillion U.S. economy
itself could easily support. In January, Allan Greenspan of the FED
was booed in L.A. over the tax dollars sent to defray the currency
raid in Korea.

See what is Anne Williamson writes to an Internet list in
January.

Subject: Crime of the Century
-----------------------------

In the current exchange on JRL regarding crime, I am compelled to
join Michelle Berdy and Jonas Bernstein in support of Peter Reddaway's
remarks concerning Anders Aslund's nefarious contentions which The
Weekly Standard surprisingly saw fit to publish.

The following material is one chapter from my just-completed book,
How America Built the New Russian Oligarchy.  My effort follows
privatization and the development of the securities market and the
financial industry generally while examining the West's assistance
efforts via USAID (Harvard University), the IMF and the World Bank.

Crime is inadequate as a word and even as a concept to describe
what these people perpetrated and continue to perpetrate in Russia.

| \ | / |JL|  When I hear 'economics'
|--< >--|EI|  I pull out my Mauser ...
| / | \ |SV|  Writer Arthur C. Clarke when
|   |   |UE|  Russian reforms were mentioned
|   |   |SS|  by solomons @ slt.lk


Subj: ILLICT DRUGS, HIV/AIDS AND CRIME

On the other type of herb - the poppy that figured in Britain's
sales in China that triggered the Opium Wars in the last century.

STAR TV had mentioned that heroin prices have dropped to the
equivalent of a pint of beer in Britain. After the Jeffery Sach's
engineered reforms destabilized much of the former USSR, such a
large area of Eurasia has become a safe house and industrial
resource for drug overlords bringing in rough material for
processing and re-shipment. Central Asia provides an overland
route but that need only be the tip of the iceberg given the large
perimeter of the 15 former republics of the USSR.

Besides HIV links to drug needles, Britain reports that community
crime also follows the drug trail. A drug addict needs 10 000 Pounds
Sterling per annum and finds money through burglary or shiplifting
in adjacent neighbourhoods. It is reported that of eight addicts,
five already have a criminal record. Here's Fred Weir reporting from
Moscow.

\\/

Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 14:04:30 (MSK)
From: Fred Weir in Moscow

     MOSCOW (HT April 22) -- The former Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe are fast becoming the new epicentre of the global AIDS
epidemic thanks to runaway drug abuse, unsafe sex habits and the
breakdown of public health institutions, a United Nations report
warns.
     "AIDS is exploding in Russia, and there are almost no
resources to mount a proper response," Russian deputy health
minister Gennady Onishenko told a press conference in Moscow
Wednesday.
     In today's world five young people aged between 10 and 24
are infected every minute with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.
That translates into 2.6-million new cases of the killer
syndrome each year, the report says.
     The study was prepared by a joint task force of five United
Nations agencies, and was released in Moscow to dramatize the
scope of the threat facing the former Soviet bloc.
     Across much of Eastern Europe the AIDS epidemic is
increasing exponentially, driven mainly by an upsurge in
intravenous drug abuse. In Russia new HIV infections tripled in
1996, and then tripled again in 1997.=20
     "The epidemic clearly follows the path of drug smuggling
from Asia, across Russia and into Eastern Europe," said Mr.
Onishenko. "The main areas of explosive growth in AIDS are also
the areas of swift growth in drug availability and abuse."
     Unprotected sex in a region where there is little public
discussion of venereal disease and few young people choose to use
condoms, is the second major factor behind the expanding AIDS
crisis, the report says.
     "In Russia, where injecting drug use and unsafe sex are
fueling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it is time for young people to
engage in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and make their voices
heard," said Gianni Murzi, Moscow representative of UNICEF, the
United Nations' children's fund.
     "They have the right and responsibility to change the course
of the epidemic and the support of adults is crucial to make it
happen."
     While many Western countries have managed to slow the growth
in fresh HIV infections, the epidemic is snowballing in Third
World and post-Soviet countries in part due to the lack of public
health resources to deal with it.
     "We spend almost our entire budget testing risk groups for
HIV infection every year, and there is nothing left over for
scientific research or public education campaigning," said Mr.
Onishenko.
     "It's like trying to fight an invading army without weapons
or defensive walls."