Olympics went very well, and now we're taking care of Paralympics. We've had some issues but during work hours we had not much to do, apart from checking that everything worked (by watching TV and comparing what we see with what we have in our systems).
Summing it up, we've been watching Olympics all the time at the office, and that's what we're supposed to do.
While Olympics happened, and with the current problems in Europe, we've noticed that the media is being quite harsh about several things that are happening around here in Russia. There's a number of things that I didn't want to comment right away, but seeing that most media has already reported it, I see no problem in commenting them. At the same time, there are things that were not true, and that is turning out to be surprisingly annoying as well. Russia and Russian government does bad things, but when they get criticized for things that are not true I feel like defending them too.
So here's some facts that were said about Sochi and Russia, and our own experiences about if they're true or not, plus other stuff about Russia :
-Installations were not ready.
I believe this to be true for the hotels. I believe lots of hotels in the area were done by private companies and owners. We have noticed that in this area, all these people are incredibly greedy and selfish. Our landlords are nice, but just before them the first apartment that we checked was owned by the boss of a construction company. His stupidity and greediness level was incredible, and costed him around 500.000 RUB, we calculated, lost by trying to gain an extra 50.000 RUB.
Apart from that, construction companies in Russia have terrible, terrible planning. Lots of people have renovated or changed things around their houses and apartments during 2013, including restaurants and hotels. We have noticed that most deadlines are not just passed, they're basically abused, dismembered and their corpses are set on fire. One restaurant that we liked to go closed "for a week" in 2013 for improvements. 2-3 months later, it was opened again. Some friends searching for apartments were shown empty shells, and promised that in a week they would be ready for living. 2 months later they could still hear the construction tasks. One shop in a shopping mall was promised to be inaugurated on November 15th. On November 15th, they change the text so it would say January 15th. One of our own offices was promised to be available on May 2012. People were able to move there on December 2012. The apartment in top of our current home started renovating in April 2013, and until December 2013 we could hear daily lots of drilling (and there's just so may holes you can make before you end up without walls). And it goes on and on...
These delays are caused because the owners and constructions managers do not care, and the workers are barely illiterate, really dumb, brutally exploited and not properly supervised. This works fine for the managers. If you build a perfect road, you will have to work hard on it for one year and then forget about it for the next 10. If you build a defective road, you will have work every time you need to fix it, every 2-3 months. Of course, in a fair competitive market that would mean not getting hired again. However, in Russia (like in Spain) this is not the case, friends of politicians get the contracts, and only in extreme cases of pure incompetence a company will not be asked to do something again.
Finally, constructions in here are really really bad at the fine details. Materials and solutions used are of a very bad quality, and the end result sometimes breaks before it was even used. For example, in our home we have lots of little lamps. Instead of using special light bulbs with low power consumption, these lamps use very hot and small light bulbs. The end result is that these bulbs overheat and break the lamps.
This adds up to a situation where the impression is a really bad one, specially in private-owned residences and hotels.
However, things like the villages for the athletes, the offices for the reporters and the venues themselves were ready for the athletes since long ago. It is true that some venues were not ready for anything else apart from the athletes (as in no food, no toilets, no transportation, no equipment) until 1 or 2 days before the Olympics, but the competitions would have been possible, and in the end things worked out somehow in there as well.
-Sochi is next to a conflictive area.
This one was one of the things the media loved to scare people about: "Sochi is near the Caucasus, a very politically unstable area, with Islamist groups and small republics that are conflictive. There was a terrorist attack in a city nearby. It's also next to the territory Russia stole from Georgia that became independent".
It is true that Sochi is in a region that includes these parts. However, people forget that Russia is mind-blowingly supidly big. As in the biggest country in the world, with no competition whatsoever.
The area that is considered conflictive and that includes a city that received an attack? It's as big as most European countries. It's like fearing for the safety of Tolouse after Madrid received an attack. It's like considering that having Olympics in Seville is not safe because it's close to Euskadi, where terrorist operated until recently. The distances we're talking about are similar to these.
That doesn't mean nothing can happen in here...but things need to be taken with perspective. And the important perspective here is that Russia is huge, and its "regions" are easily comparable with most European countries.
As per the the areas stolen from Georgia, as usual the situation is more complex than that. Abkhazia was a region inside Georgia with its own culture and traditions, and tension between ethnic groups caused that the region rebelled and became independent. In the process, the most radical Abkhazians took control and performed very stupid acts (like expelling anybody who wasn't Abkhazian, or even people who were Abkhazians but had more moderate views). Sure, Russia supported Abkhazia in this conflict, but it's not as if the tension was created by Russia, or as if Georgia did not do stupid things as well, that increased the problems in the region and caused a breaking point and a revolt. And whatever the rest of the countries say, Abkhazia currently is independent, and the people who live there want to keep it this way.
-Sochi has subtropical climate and it's stupid to do winter sports in there.
I've heard this one several times now. When people hear"subtropical", they imagine high temperatures, sun, and such things, and think that's it's a really bad idea to do winter sports in there, and that all the snow was brought from somewhere else.
I don't know the exact details of why this climate is categorized "subtropical", but I can tell one thing: It's slightly colder than in Barcelona, and slightly less humid. With this in mind, it's clear that the place is warm, but not warm in the tropical way, with 27 degrees all year long and no seasons. In winter, we have reached temperatures close to 1 or 2 degrees in the worst days, while keeping between 5 and 10 degrees all the other days. That's in the coast, of course, next to the sea. In the mountains it's much easier to reach temperatures below zero.
The climate is similar to Vancouver I believe, rainy in winter but not very cold.
Therefore, it's not so weird to have winter sports here. Actually, the place have several ski stations, that were open long before the Olympics were set here, and some of them did not even participate in any events and were open for normal use.
In the coast it doesn't snow and in summer it's very warm, but the mountains are close and very high, and therefore we've had snow in there several days.
It is true that the conditions are not optimal. It gets too warm for snow fast, and lots of times there are big areas in the stations that are not usable for skiing. The optimal months are probably just January and February. However, you do get snow in the area, and therefore it's not some crazy idea instigated by Putin, it's similar to most other winter Olympics, where the city was in one place and the mountain area with the snow competitions was some kilometers away.
-Russia has lots of corruption, and this has influenced the Games.
This is sadly true. Russian culture is very similar to Spanish culture in several aspects, and one of them is this (although in Spain not everybody participates in it). Lots of public sector workers participate in this, and it is normal to give extra money to people so they pay you better attention and finish some tasks faster. In here it's very common that police officers stop people to get bribes, which is not helped by a strict and stupid legislation that assures that if you're stopped they will find something to accuse you of not complying with it.
You can see it daily, by the prices of the apartments, by the services in the hospitals, by the state of the roads and the transport. Russia has a big corruption problem coupled with restrictive laws, that makes it very hard to do anything unless you start bribing people. When you actually feel its effects in your daily life, you know it's too big and deep. And it's evident the Games have been organised between some old friends that have split all the money used for them.
-Russia is very sexist and intolerant.
This is also sadly true. It is evident with the latest laws regarding homosexuality and how gays are treated, but it also affects the relationships between men and women, and what is acceptable or not.
In Russia men are still "real men", who have the technical jobs and bring money home, while the women need to stay at home taking care of the house, food and kids. Of course not everybody is like that anymore, but the general culture is still very similar to this idea. Women are nice decorations that later on will manage a household. To attract a powerful man, women will keep their looks as good as they can, and once they are married they will keep the looks to fend off competition. Men consider women weaker, in need of care, and they will recommend women to not bother with difficult tasks (like technical studies). Advertisements asking for only one sex are common (as in, "a company is searching for a man that has IT experience"). One of the most popular Russian songs form last year basically was saying "you're such a cool man that I want to have your son, and also a daughter".
I was explained by a Russian friend that the saddest part is that this is considered to be some cultural value that needs to be preserved. In order to do that, for example, Russia produces thousands of series and movies that overflow the Russian media to avoid poeple getting used to "occidental" ideas. Of course, this means that most of those thousands of Russian productions have abysmal quality since they are rushed and mass-produced, but the point is to sink foreign movies in a sea of Russian traditional values.
I believe that's it for the moment, if I get some more ideas to comment about Russia I'll make another post at some later date.
Oh, just a small comment about Ukraine: Occidental media is bashing Russia as the evil in the world. Russian media is reporting the incident as the saviors of the poor people who have Russian culture in Ukraine.
What I believe to be the reality is that USA and EU are really big bastards that want to control Ukraine to have a better control of the gas that goes through it. Russia is another really big bastard that wants to annex some territories and keep control of Ukraine as when it was ruled by the corrupt last president. Both sides are bad, and both sides are perfectly capable of terrible things. USA is an expert in invading countries whenever they like and putting friendly dictators (friendly to USA, of course) in power. EU and the FMI are experts in destabilizing regions and condemning areas to levels of poverty and debt that no one can recover from. Russia is an expert in silencing protests and suppressing people and ideas or lifestyles. All of them are experts in corruption at the highest levels. Between them, there's the Ukrainians who would like to be able to travel and work in Europe without visas, and to have more freedom than what they have now.
Hard to choose a side when they're all bad....
Finally, constructions in here are really really bad at the fine details. Materials and solutions used are of a very bad quality, and the end result sometimes breaks before it was even used. For example, in our home we have lots of little lamps. Instead of using special light bulbs with low power consumption, these lamps use very hot and small light bulbs. The end result is that these bulbs overheat and break the lamps.
This adds up to a situation where the impression is a really bad one, specially in private-owned residences and hotels.
However, things like the villages for the athletes, the offices for the reporters and the venues themselves were ready for the athletes since long ago. It is true that some venues were not ready for anything else apart from the athletes (as in no food, no toilets, no transportation, no equipment) until 1 or 2 days before the Olympics, but the competitions would have been possible, and in the end things worked out somehow in there as well.
-Sochi is next to a conflictive area.
This one was one of the things the media loved to scare people about: "Sochi is near the Caucasus, a very politically unstable area, with Islamist groups and small republics that are conflictive. There was a terrorist attack in a city nearby. It's also next to the territory Russia stole from Georgia that became independent".
It is true that Sochi is in a region that includes these parts. However, people forget that Russia is mind-blowingly supidly big. As in the biggest country in the world, with no competition whatsoever.
The area that is considered conflictive and that includes a city that received an attack? It's as big as most European countries. It's like fearing for the safety of Tolouse after Madrid received an attack. It's like considering that having Olympics in Seville is not safe because it's close to Euskadi, where terrorist operated until recently. The distances we're talking about are similar to these.
That doesn't mean nothing can happen in here...but things need to be taken with perspective. And the important perspective here is that Russia is huge, and its "regions" are easily comparable with most European countries.
As per the the areas stolen from Georgia, as usual the situation is more complex than that. Abkhazia was a region inside Georgia with its own culture and traditions, and tension between ethnic groups caused that the region rebelled and became independent. In the process, the most radical Abkhazians took control and performed very stupid acts (like expelling anybody who wasn't Abkhazian, or even people who were Abkhazians but had more moderate views). Sure, Russia supported Abkhazia in this conflict, but it's not as if the tension was created by Russia, or as if Georgia did not do stupid things as well, that increased the problems in the region and caused a breaking point and a revolt. And whatever the rest of the countries say, Abkhazia currently is independent, and the people who live there want to keep it this way.
-Sochi has subtropical climate and it's stupid to do winter sports in there.
I've heard this one several times now. When people hear"subtropical", they imagine high temperatures, sun, and such things, and think that's it's a really bad idea to do winter sports in there, and that all the snow was brought from somewhere else.
I don't know the exact details of why this climate is categorized "subtropical", but I can tell one thing: It's slightly colder than in Barcelona, and slightly less humid. With this in mind, it's clear that the place is warm, but not warm in the tropical way, with 27 degrees all year long and no seasons. In winter, we have reached temperatures close to 1 or 2 degrees in the worst days, while keeping between 5 and 10 degrees all the other days. That's in the coast, of course, next to the sea. In the mountains it's much easier to reach temperatures below zero.
The climate is similar to Vancouver I believe, rainy in winter but not very cold.
Therefore, it's not so weird to have winter sports here. Actually, the place have several ski stations, that were open long before the Olympics were set here, and some of them did not even participate in any events and were open for normal use.
In the coast it doesn't snow and in summer it's very warm, but the mountains are close and very high, and therefore we've had snow in there several days.
It is true that the conditions are not optimal. It gets too warm for snow fast, and lots of times there are big areas in the stations that are not usable for skiing. The optimal months are probably just January and February. However, you do get snow in the area, and therefore it's not some crazy idea instigated by Putin, it's similar to most other winter Olympics, where the city was in one place and the mountain area with the snow competitions was some kilometers away.
-Russia has lots of corruption, and this has influenced the Games.
This is sadly true. Russian culture is very similar to Spanish culture in several aspects, and one of them is this (although in Spain not everybody participates in it). Lots of public sector workers participate in this, and it is normal to give extra money to people so they pay you better attention and finish some tasks faster. In here it's very common that police officers stop people to get bribes, which is not helped by a strict and stupid legislation that assures that if you're stopped they will find something to accuse you of not complying with it.
You can see it daily, by the prices of the apartments, by the services in the hospitals, by the state of the roads and the transport. Russia has a big corruption problem coupled with restrictive laws, that makes it very hard to do anything unless you start bribing people. When you actually feel its effects in your daily life, you know it's too big and deep. And it's evident the Games have been organised between some old friends that have split all the money used for them.
-Russia is very sexist and intolerant.
This is also sadly true. It is evident with the latest laws regarding homosexuality and how gays are treated, but it also affects the relationships between men and women, and what is acceptable or not.
In Russia men are still "real men", who have the technical jobs and bring money home, while the women need to stay at home taking care of the house, food and kids. Of course not everybody is like that anymore, but the general culture is still very similar to this idea. Women are nice decorations that later on will manage a household. To attract a powerful man, women will keep their looks as good as they can, and once they are married they will keep the looks to fend off competition. Men consider women weaker, in need of care, and they will recommend women to not bother with difficult tasks (like technical studies). Advertisements asking for only one sex are common (as in, "a company is searching for a man that has IT experience"). One of the most popular Russian songs form last year basically was saying "you're such a cool man that I want to have your son, and also a daughter".
I was explained by a Russian friend that the saddest part is that this is considered to be some cultural value that needs to be preserved. In order to do that, for example, Russia produces thousands of series and movies that overflow the Russian media to avoid poeple getting used to "occidental" ideas. Of course, this means that most of those thousands of Russian productions have abysmal quality since they are rushed and mass-produced, but the point is to sink foreign movies in a sea of Russian traditional values.
I believe that's it for the moment, if I get some more ideas to comment about Russia I'll make another post at some later date.
Oh, just a small comment about Ukraine: Occidental media is bashing Russia as the evil in the world. Russian media is reporting the incident as the saviors of the poor people who have Russian culture in Ukraine.
What I believe to be the reality is that USA and EU are really big bastards that want to control Ukraine to have a better control of the gas that goes through it. Russia is another really big bastard that wants to annex some territories and keep control of Ukraine as when it was ruled by the corrupt last president. Both sides are bad, and both sides are perfectly capable of terrible things. USA is an expert in invading countries whenever they like and putting friendly dictators (friendly to USA, of course) in power. EU and the FMI are experts in destabilizing regions and condemning areas to levels of poverty and debt that no one can recover from. Russia is an expert in silencing protests and suppressing people and ideas or lifestyles. All of them are experts in corruption at the highest levels. Between them, there's the Ukrainians who would like to be able to travel and work in Europe without visas, and to have more freedom than what they have now.
Hard to choose a side when they're all bad....
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