Cyberdiplomacy

Cyberia appears to be a new frontier for U.S.-Russian diplomacy, according to an article in today’s The New York Times:

June 28, 2009
U.S. And Russia Differ on Treaty for Cyberspace
By JOHN MARKOFF and ANDREW E. KRAMER

The United States and Russia are locked in a fundamental dispute over how to counter the growing threat of cyberwar attacks that could wreak havoc on computer systems and the Internet.

Both nations agree that cyberspace is an emerging battleground. The two sides are expected to address the subject when President Obama visits Russia next week and at the General Assembly of the United Nations in November, according to a senior State Department official.

But there the agreement ends.

Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official.

The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups. If these groups cooperate to make cyberspace more secure against criminal intrusions, their work will also make cyberspace more secure against military campaigns, American officials say.

Another Letter From Anton

Anton and I have been staying in touch on a regular basis, and I’ve received a number of letters from him. I received one a few days ago that I thought I’d post — it seems to give a nice idea about his life and the kind of kid he is.

Hello, Julie,
This is Anton, I am doing fine, answering your question about the hospital – i went to the hospital just for a check, i do not have any pains, it was just a medical examination.
Julie, I go in for sports, I play soccer, volleyball, basketball. I also can balance a stick on my nose, I learnt to do it myself, nobody taught me this.
I can speak and read a little English, I like to read about animals and birds, I also like to have a walk and perform tricks from high roofs.
Julie, my [CD] player [that the incredible Glenn gave him and told him was from me] got stolen at night by the graduates, I had put it in a cabinet. I got an A for my dictation, and a B for my test.
Here’s my short story, I don’t have a photograph.
Love

He also drew the flower in this photo. The caption says, “This rose is for you.”

*******************
BusinessWeek ran a great story recently about how the global economic crisis is affecting Yaroslavl. I highly recommend it to everybody!

The BusinessWeek article is accompanied by a slideshow of terrific photos. Be sure to check them out!

Did You Know?

This video was created by Karl Fisch, an administrator at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colo., for teachers at his school. It was later tweaked by Dr. Scott McLeod , coordinator of the Educational Administration Program at Iowa State University.

Fascinating. Must watch.

On an unrelated note, I received another letter from Anton recently. He’s doing great!

Russia: The Land

Lovely slide show from the New York Times on agrarian life in Russia, including the influence of the church and the challenges that the villages face.

Letter From Anton

I recently received the above letter from Anton, one of the kids I worked in Russia, via Glenn, who saw him and two more of “our kids” when he visited their orphanage outside Yaroslavl in July. Anton, like the other orphans, thinks all the volunteers he met in Yaroslavl are American and that we all hang out together when we’re not in Russia, so he asked Glenn (who lives in London) to give it to me! Many thanks to Glenn for his trans-Atlantic courier services! Here’s the translation:

Hello, Yulya.

Anton is writing. How are you? I’m OK. I get 4 and 5 at school (good marks). I’ve got friends, their names are Gena and Maxim. Glenn came to visit us, he gave me some gifts: shampoo and body spray. Come to our school, I cannot wait to see you. I haven’t seen you for the whole year. I’m already 15. My birthday’s on 5th of February. I was born in 1993. I’m in the 8th grade now. Some professions are trained in our school. There four of them: tailor, baker, shoemaker, tractor driver. I’ve chosen a tractor driver for me. I live at school. That’s all for now. Lots of hugs and kisses. Write me a letter. Anton.

IT IS SO AWESOME TO HEAR FROM HIM! I wish I could go see Anton, but I think he knows I can’t. I replied with a letter back to him that explains that I can’t visit, but we still can write letters to each other. I included some photographs I took of him, some stickers, and a map highlighting where he lives in Russia, where Glenn lives in England, and where I live in the USA! I’m pretty sure Glenn explained that I would love to visit but it won’t be possible for a long time. I brought some Russian stamps home from Russia with me, so I was able to include an SASE with my letter to him, but we’re dealing with two different mail systems and two different alphabets, so I’m cautiously optimistic but also sadly realistic. I know people sent me letters in Russia that I never received, and I mailed some here from Russia that never arrived, so I’m just hoping that both postal systems do what they’re supposed to do and am keeping my fingers crossed. Glenn has a back-up copy of my letter to take to Anton on his next trip just in case my letter never reaches him via mail.

I also got a short letter from Glenn about his trip, but I forgive him for the lack of detail since he is such a great courier, Russian proofreader and friend! What a dear man he is! Here are the interesting parts of his e-mail to me:

Hello Julie.

It was quite hot when I was there and yes I did get badly bitten by mosquitos despite taking loads of [insect repellant] stuff with me. We went to the river most days to have a swim, and a couple of times we all took our shampoo and soap to have a wash as the water was quite warm. I took my lap top computer with me this time and of course all the boys were itching to to use it every day!!!

As you know, Anton has quite a severe stammer problem, but he is always very keen to learn English words. I gave him an old English/Russian dictionary, but then being a typical boy he went straight to some of the ‘bad words,’ but luckily there were not too many!!

– Glenn

Many thanks to Glenn and to the large community of friends in Atlanta and Russia who helped me translate the letters to and from Anton!!

Anton

Name That Country!

Which country has the highest percentage of orphans on the planet?

No, not Russia, but here are some hints:

1. The country’s economy has halved in the past 10 years.

2. The nation’s inflation rate is running about 9,000,000% a year. (Yes, that’s nine million percent.) A $500 million note recently issued was worth $2 U.S. upon introduction; four weeks later it was worth 5 cents.

3. The unemployment rate is more than 80%.

4. It has the world’s shortest life span: the average person is dead by age 36, down from age 62 in 1990.

5. About half the population relies on food aid.

6. Here is the totalitarian dictator of this Garden Of Eden:

What nation is this?
Zimbabwe.

You MUST READ this article.

Death of a Writer & Former Orphan

Beautiful obituary in the NY Times about the death of Anatoly Pristavkin, a writer, former Russian orphan and children’s advocate. Must read.

Summer Days

Interesting article in the New York Times today about the luxury of summertime loafing in Moscow. What I found most interesting about it was its really nice details about lifestyles and standards of living — the evolving coffeehouse/cafe culture among the middle class, the price of a modest restaurant meal versus the price of a cheap beer, the salary of a janitor. The money matters discussed are clearly Moscow prices, not Yaroslavl prices!

I’ve been missing working with the kids especially strongly over the summer and so was delighted to receive an e-mail from Glenn today telling me that he will be returning to Russia for a week VERY soon and hopes to see some of “our” kids! I can’t wait for a full report! Good luck, Glenn — safe travels! The best thing to happen to those kids in ages is on its way!

Alcoholism In Russia

Great video on the culture and history of alcoholism in Russia on CBSNews.com.

I wish it talked more about the impact on children though.

Click the link above or the embedded video below to watch.

more about "Letters From Russia › Create New Post…", posted with vodpod

I didn’t write much about the alcoholism I observed in Yaroslavl, but I saw plenty. I suppose this is as good a place as any to jot down a few quick memories:

* Public drunkenness, from what I could tell, was officially overlooked. However, the drunks as a whole seemed to hold their liquor pretty well. While public drunkenness was common, I didn’t see violent or sick or really menacing drunks. To tell you the truth, almost all of the ones I saw seemed pretty happy.

* Our group was warned at orientation not to drink with Russian strangers, especially without a designated teetotaler. The vodka in Russia is incredibly potent, and our organization’s staff had been alarmed after a few previous volunteers passed out in a Yaroslavl bar and were kindly carried (literally!) back to the hotel by amused locals who’d drunk them under the table. So the staff wisely made the rule — don’t drink with Russian strangers! This rule was absolutely no problem for the group I was with, because as it turned out, we all were total lightweights without much interest in drinking. I think we were in Yaroslav for a good three weeks before we finally gathered in the hotel bar to experience our first shots of Russian vodka. After one or two shots, we unanimously agreed that we’d had enough and left!

* Near the center of town is the main trolley stop, a big circular track (not coincidentally, the trolleys stop LITERALLY at the front steps of a historic church — an enduring reminder of the Soviets’ contempt for any religious institution or its symbols). Commuters congregate around this circle as they wait for their trolleys. One night, I was puzzled to find an SUV (SUVs themselves are rarities) parked dead in the center of the waiting area, just a few yards from the church steps — it was like finding an SUV parked on a subway platform. When the trolley pulled into the circle, it didn’t immediately stop at the church steps where commuters were waiting … it stopped at the SUV! Four jolly drunken men descended from the trolley carrying a passed-out, dead drunk buddy. The passed-out guy was limp as a rag — each buddy was carrying a different limb (one had his left arm, one had his right arm, etc.). The trolley patiently waited as the men packed their buddy into the SUV and zoomed away. Then the trolley rolled up a few feet to the church steps for its next load of passengers. Another day at the office, I guess. Whether the SUV was parked on the trolley platform by special permission, or whether that’s the unofficial drop-off spot for passed-out passengers, I have no idea. I just remember that the other commuters waiting on the platform seemed as bewildered as I was, and the whole episode was uncomfortably bizarre.

– You hear a lot about cheap Russian vodka, but beer’s really popular too. You do NOT hear about laws regarding open containers, drunken driving laws, public drunkenness, etc. I’m pretty sure they have some version of them — they just don’t enforce them.

– The only acceptable way to drink Russian vodka, I’m told: a quick, icy cold shot, straight.

– Alchohol use escalated dramatically during Glasnost when the Russian economy tanked. The translators said that, at one time, the government made alcohol much more difficult to obtain, but people just brewed their own, and as a result, many were poisoned and died, so the restrictions were abandoned. The general consensus of the people and the government seems to be that, despite the incredible problems resulting from rampant alcoholism, there’s really no alternative to its widespread and affordable availability. They feel very strongly that it’s a lesser evil than the inevitable home brewing that will result from restricted from availability. Apparently, the intricacies of home distillaries are extremely common knowledge among Russians. (Interesting but unrelated aside: apparently, the art of mushroom picking is even more common among Russians than home brewing skills. The Russians are crazy about mushrooms, and from a young age, they all seem to learn how to pick good ones and identify the poisonous ones. “We were out picking mushrooms,” they’ll say, the way Americans might say, “I spent the day at the lake.” Whenever we told a Russian person that we didn’t know how to pick mushrooms, they’d look at us like we were idiots.)

American Media In Russia

Jay Perkins, one of my dearest mentors and one of my journalism professors during my college days, asked me to write about my observations of American media in Russia for the journalism school’s alumni newsletter. I’m re-publishing here just because (see below).

You can check out Jay’s awesome journalism Web site here.

American Media In Russia

I never thought of American media as one of our nation’s major exports until earlier this year, when I spent three months working in orphanages in the Russian city of Yaroslavl. As I tried to immerse myself in this fascinating, foreign culture, I was stunned to find that no matter where I went in this relatively obscure city, I couldn’t escape the profound influence of American media. The latest releases by Justin Timberlake and The Pussycat Dolls boom from the city’s restaurants and Internet cafes. Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock star in movies at the local cinema. Supermarket shelves are lined with videocassettes featuring Hollywood’s best and worst (DVDs haven’t become Russian staples yet.).

Here are two moments I’ll never forget:

▪ At a center where my group volunteered to work with neglected teens, two 13-year-old boys wrote and performed a play in our honor. Although the play was in Russian, we understood exactly what was happening, because it was so laced with American culture and media influence (Steven Spielberg was actually a character in it!). We were utterly enchanted, until one of the boys – playing an elderly grandmother – delivered a line that included a four-letter English expletive that curled the hair of every English-speaking audience member. Except for our translator (who turned white), the Russians had no idea that the dialogue included a major English curse word. Because they hear it in our movies so frequently, they figured the word is part of our common vernacular.

▪ At one orphanage, I joined a group of girls ages 6-16 who were working on a jigsaw puzzle while watching television in their common room. My back was to the television, and I ignored it (after all, I couldn’t understand the Russian dialogue), but the girls were enjoying the program. Then, behind me, I hear: “Missus Solis! Missus Solis!” I whipped my head around, and sure enough, these kids are watching Desperate Housewives – hardly after-school fare in American homes. It was a surreal moment: “Am I really watching Desperate Housewives at 5 in the afternoon with a group of Russian orphans?”

My Russian friend Nadia lamented to me that the hottest program among kids at her 8-year-old daughter’s school is a Russian copycat of Married With Children. Another friend, Nina, who works with at-risk kids in Yaroslavl, believes American-style television is responsible for a corresponding increase in violence that she’s observed among kids since glasnost, when American media became more mainstream in Russian culture. Both were surprised when I observed that their concerns about American media are shared by many Americans.

My encounters with the media-generated image that Russians have of Americans were sometimes startling. The orphans were irreversibly convinced that our sophisticated, English-speaking, translators were Americans (all were Yaroslavl locals). A handful of cab drivers and restaurants wouldn’t serve us because we were Americans; a few other cab drivers tried to charge us $50 a mile because “all Americans are rich.”

When we export our pop culture, we also export a pop image of ourselves. Language is easy to translate, but nuance, innuendo, satire and sarcasm aren’t. Look at American media, and you’ll start to understand how the world sees Americans.

On a completely unrelated note, I came across this interesting article about the first day on the job for a Yaroslavl policeman. I thought it was really enlightening.