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Russia Quickly Going to Hell
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Posted by: James Riske

I'd like to be optimistic about Russia's future but it doesn't look good at all. There's a fantastic article in the Oct. 11 issue of the New Yorker called, "The Devastation' detailing the high incidence of AIDS and hopelessness there. Since 1965, life expectancy for Russian men has decreased by nearly six years. And now, there's AIDS.

"Twenty five years ago, the population of Russia was a hundred and forty million, and that of it's neighbor Pakistan was eighty million. Within twenty years, that ratio will have reversed itself. If United Nations projections hold true, even Yemen will soon have more people than Russia."

"The country just keeps going down -- in numbers, in health, and in its possibilities for the future. It seems to get worse eery year, and I don't see even the slightest suggestion that that is going to change. Russia, like Africa, I am very sorry to say, is taking a detour from the rest of humanity as far as progress is measured by imporving general health."

The article then talks in great detail about AIDS in Russia and the problem of the government not wanted to deal with it or even to accurately report cases even to the point of not giving testing kits to area clinics. Amazing statistics that in many areas, over 1 % of the population is infected with AIDS.

"Russia is one of the world's best educated nations....But in a poll conducted last year, 2/3 of the repsondents who knew that AIDS is caused by HIV also believed that it can be contracted through kissing; a majority of Russians think you can get AIDS from a cough; and 3/4 believe that the virus can be transmitted by mosquitoes."

It then goes on to talk about the widespread drug addicts in Russia. Heroin is very big there and a 'fix' can be bought for about $4. With the horrendous unemployment there and hopelessness among the young, you can see why so many of them are turning to drugs and in turn, catching AIDS.

So many of the young are addicted to drugs, infected with HIV, or alcoholism that only 11 % of them called to duty in the military were fit to serve. In the last five years, the number of draftees testing positive for HIV increased twenty-five fold. And a quarter of the ones left had less than 9 years of education, hardly enough to understand the advanced equipment modern armies depend upon.

Russian defense planners are toying with the idea of creating a foreign legion.

All this coupled with a low birth rate, hospitals with no equipment, no AIDS education, rampant unemployment and alcoholism......Russia's population will be cut in half soon enough. No wonder all these women want to leave.

Geeze!

I know it's a bit of a 'hit and run' to post stuff like this without posting the whole article but it's very long. Pick up the Oct. 11 issue of The New Yorker ( you should be reading it each week anyway, it's a great magazine) and it's on page 58. It's very long. Even if I take the information with a bit of a grain of salt, it certainly opens my eyes to what's going on in Russia. Mortality rates and life expectancy rates don't lie and population data is usually dependable. They have some serious problems there and are starting to look like Africa.

HEY! Someone just emailed me a link to the whole article. Well, I just spent about twenty minutes typing out my excerpts so I'm not going to erase them. Damnit!

Here's the whole article. Opinions? Objections? Agreement? Disagreement?

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?041011fa_fact1

From James (real name Tom) , NOT Lloyd

Posted by: parasionok

James,

thank you very much for your post. I think it is a very crucial issue in Russia now and I also want to thank you to give a reference to the New Yorker. I think it is one of the most wonderful magazines with extremely good journalism.

AIDS problem in Russia is huge. What Russian government is failing to do (and not only regarding this issue) is to educate people in Russia and fight the drug problem. New Yorker always gives well researched articles about differnt counries and different problems. I absolutely agree that AIDS problem is neglected by the Russian authorities and normal people in Russia. It is horrible and I fully agree that Russian people should be more educated and warned about the spread of the virus.

I also want to point out that there are lots of clinics in Russia that can have anonimous AIDS tests but as Russian people are very reluctant to go to doctors I think lots of cases are not reported.

I think AIDS are spreading mostly among drug addicts, homosexuals, and active heterosexuals. Like anywhere in the world. What Russia should have done long time ago was to fight drug dealing, and prostitution.... It seems that Russian government fails to address the problem publicly...

Posted by: James Riske

Quote:

Originally posted by parasionok
James,

thank you very much for your post. I think it is a very crucial issue in Russia now and I also want to thank you to give a reference to the New Yorker. I think it is one of the most wonderful magazines with extremely good journalism.

I read it cover to cover each week for the last 20 years.

It's a great magazine and extremely educational. But gone are the days of E.B. White, Harold Ross, and James Thurber. I thoroughly enjoy the essays of E. B. White. Reading him is like sitting down with an old friend that you've known your whole life. A great gift to any one who enjoys reading would be The Essays of E.B. White.

I don't mean to flame Russia or insult Russians, I just wanted to get opinions on the article. Thank you parasionok.

James

not Llloyd

Posted by: rattlesnake6979

HIV infection is unreported in may parts or russia and even if diagnosed the cost of treatment using AZT / retroviral medicines are beyond reach of most people . The situation is similar to South Africa where epidemiologists have proved that if the rate of transmission of HIV is not reduced drastically , the population of South Africa could halve by the year 2020.....

Most of the incidence of infection is due to unprotected sex, unhygienoc use of needles and contaminated blood supplies.

In a nutshell , this issue has huge implications both economically and socially within Russia and it is akin to the medieval plague or black death ......

The answer to this problem , is a combination of education, rehabilitation and motivation .... by government , health workers and NGO's as well as a spiritual progarmme eg in Burundi , the government worked with health workers. NGO's and religious leaders to spread the message that sex is only worth having with your wife or husband plus they educated people to understand the way the infection is spread and showed how to use condoms- the rate of infection has declined significantly.

Interestingly where governments have reacted in a postive way the rate of infection has seen drastic reductions eg in Thailand. I think the key message that governments need to hear is a country could be wiped out by an infection which is easily preventable therefore something must be done NOW .

rattle

Posted by: Jutman

No news here.

What you can't predict is the impact of DFI in Russia and its massive. The contact with foriegner will change the attitude and economical situation in the Russia.

B-t-w so is Western Europe in simular demographic situation like Russia. Countries like Spain and Italy the women as averege get 1.1 child.

Recently the defense minister of Russia suggested to reduce the servicetime from 2 to 1 year.

Posted by: wavetossed

This article is guilty of linear thinkingl. Yes, there are problems. No, it is not inevitable that the problems will get worse and worse until total oblivion.

In general, things have to get bad enough so that the people pulling the strings of power in a society, sit up, take notice and act. Yes, western society has learned some tough lessons and listens to people who act as early warning beacons. Russia too will learn that lesson.

I don't know how much pain it will take for Russia to start acting on some of these less visible problems, but the fundamentals are there that will lead to solutions. Russia is an incredibly rich country filled with resources. Fresh air, fresh water, fields and forests, rivers and lakes. Minerals of every sort and large supplies of the world's number one most important mineral of the modern age, namely carbon. Most of it in the convenient liquid form known as petroleum.

And let's not forget space. Compared to Pakistan or China or Europe, Russia has an embarassing richness of space to do stuff including make mistakes and recover from it. If Pakistan had a Mayak and a Chernobyl, the country would likely cease to exist as an independent nation. Russia had both and still has plenty of land to provide the food that it needs.

I read a couple of other interesting things today. Russia has joined the organization of Central Asian Cooperation (not sure of the formal English name) which was formed a couple of years ago. This grouping includes Kyrgyzia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. I expect this is just one small step to transforming the CIS into the Eurasian Commonwealth of Independent States which could well include Turkey and Iran among its members.

The second item is related to Channel 1 TV in Russia. This was the state run TV channel even when Russia allowed the oligarchs a free hand to set up their own TV channels like NTV. Currently all these independent channels have been nationalized. However, Channel 1 was always the closest to the government. Just look at http://www.1tv.ru and notice how most of their lead stories report on a meeting involving the president. So it was very interesting to read that a Russian Channel 1 reporter who was critical of Byelorussian president Lukashenko was assaulted and hospitalized in suspicious circumstances. After being assaulted he was arrested and only taken to hospital later on after the doctor in the jail called for an ambulance. Lukashenko called a referendum on the question of whether a president of Byelorussia can serve a 3rd term and this assault happened on the eve of the vote. I will refrain from commenting any further on Byelorussian politics because of the family connections of this site's owners. I found this assault case interesting because it illustrates how Putin is, perhaps, less all-powerful than many western observers make him out to be.

I don't for a moment believe that Putin will become dictator of Russia. It's too big and too diverse. Success at leading Russia requires a master negotiator, not a dictator. And this too is a strength that will lead Russia to recreate the Soviet empire in a larger, more powerful but also more benign form, modeled more on the European Union than on the Stalinist past.

Posted by: rattlesnake6979

Interestingly , western europe has relied on the use of the condom to prevent HIV transmission but in S Africa it was discovered that circumcision reduced transmision rates even further. Why ? The mode of transmission of HIV relies on mitochondria located in the forskin of the penis - most std's enter via this route - remove the foreskin and the main mitochondrial areas of this organ are removed and therefore the transmission route is blocked. ( this obviosly does not prevent transmission of HIV via infected needles and blood supplies )

Condom are cheap and readily available in Russia and the rest of the fsu. What hasnt been addressed is whether circumcision would be considered as it is cheaper and does block one route of entry of the HIV virus.

rattle