Evidence of Uzbek Foreign Trade

Privoz Market Odessa, Ukraine


Which people in this photograph are from Uzbekistan? Which person is not from Uzbekistan? I am the second person from the left, with a white shirt, black coat. The sellers here, in Odessa's Privoz market, come from all over the Former Soviet Union usually selling goods from their brithplace through family connections. These sellers are all from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, one of my favorite "Hot" spots in the Former Soviet Union (on account of the heat and not politics). They bring in nuts, apricots, raisins, and a wide variety of other, often sun-dried, fruits by train. Due to the cost of shipping, typically only the very best dried aprictos are available, and if you saw the same display in Tashkent, there would be a wider variety of quality levels with various prices. I think in Central Asia I used to pay under a dollar per kilogram for organic high quality dried apricots. Almost the same ones here are about 3 - 4 dollars per kilogram. I asked these sellers and they told me that they bring in the food by train container several times per year and that this is expensive. In addition to Uzbek fruits, they also bring in Iranian dates, dried figs from several different regions and a wide variety of nuts. No Samarkand green tea yet, or any of the other really great minty tea mixes I really liked in Southern Uzbekistan, but I did put in a request.

Clearly there is something wrong with that logic I all too often read in high tech economics journals which suggest that people in the FSU do not understand markets - and they need Western training/marketing, coordination skills, etc. Real life evidence suggests otherwise. I can imagine, though, what would happen if the economists had their way, these apricots would no longer by sun dried, but wrinkled instead from sulfer. They would be lumped together into one giant storage facility, and they would be packaged with preservatives in expensive plastic wrappers. A guru in NYC would be hired to read about Uzbek culture and preferably learn their language, maybe visit the Hayat hotel in Samarkand two times to get a real feel for the situation - then he/she would design, for several millions of dollars, a label for this plastic wrapping suggesting that the apricots are anything but simple apricots. The price, instead of being 3 dollars per kilogram, would have to be raised to cover the extra marketing fees, consulting, packaging, and hi tech chemicles. It would now be 7 dollars for a small package of King Khan's superdilicious traditional Uzbek apricots. This would be progress by economists' standards. The alternative, of course, is to let the sun dry the fruit, once preserved, ship it by train, and let the consumer simply select what they want and haggle for a price - you know, the way that they have been doing it for over a thousand years (except for the train - replace that with camel) - but if we allowed this to happen, what would economists then do for a living?

From Russia With Rationality

I have not posted on my blogsite for some time now and apologize to all those handfuls of people worldwide who rely upon my biased views. I had finally developed some more pictures of the city, but the scanner in the office of the university has mysteriously been borrowed. Now the workload has hit a peak as documents must be filed towards the end of the first half of the fiscal expense year - I do not believe in balanced budgets fortunately. My internet budget line is well surpassed - I am not sure how to mark notes on my files - maybe by claiming that budget limits were seen as healthy suggestions - much like speed limits on most roads. Then came the Ukrainian elections - the final runoff between the two major candidates, Yanukovich and Yuschenko and I managed to see the protests on the streets here in Odessa - the Orange Yuschenko protestors are much more visible and loud. I do not speak Ukrainian very well - I only know a few phrases like "another beer please" and please and thank you, vodka, bread, and some others. But I understood exactly what the crowds were saying since it was one name repeated. I have a sense of humor and was tempted on several occasions to raise my voice and yell back, "what, who???"

I guess the Canadian embassy has already warned Canadians not to travel here, and I am not sure what their warnings are so far on those who are here. The place is peaceful where I am and the heart of protests are really based in Kiev, and this is to where everyone is headed if they want to hit the streets. It is actually very calm and peaceful given the seriousness of the events. In fact, I have been surprised by 1. how few visible police are on the streets (invisible police – by the very word, I cannot say I observed, but suspected they were there in comfortable numbers and at both camps), 2. the lack of any violence, and the ability of people to stand side by side opposing each other’s views to very serious degrees of tolerance. To be sure, I hardly ever take any of the embassy's suggestions on local conditions seriously - the same embassy recommends not to eat the food or go out of doors on election day for fear of being beaten up. My chances would be higher of being brutalized in any way shape or form by going into a bar in downtown Halifax and saying Alexander Kieth's beer is worse than Bush lite. Also, it seems to me a bit more than strange that a country with few government positions up for vote (The Senate, Queen and governor General are not elected) could turn to a presidential system and republic for that matter and cry about lack of democracy. Of course, I have no trouble agreeing that there should be free and fair elections everywhere – why restrict our attention to only Canada and why doesn’t Ukraine suggest Canada elect the head of state – that would be great.

Well, the news is full of pictures, views, slogans, chants, and so much that I can hardly believe it. But sometimes I think this - what am I not seeing? For every protestor on the street there are ten at home. Given the seriousness of the situation and the divide of the country, the meddling by outside powers, I am surprised that an all out revolution has not already happened. Think for example of the severity of the decline of the USSR. Millions of people lost their pensions, jobs, homes, futures - stability. Roads have been left unpaved, schools have had an exodus of teachers. The quality of most goods and services came into serious question, and factories shut down. People who never thought they would lose their job suddenly found there is nothing to do for the market economy to earn a living. Political careers were lost, and the vast bulk of the resource industries were stolen by a small handful of well connected rogues. These same industries and resources were the very ones built by taxes paid by the vast bulk of the population. How angry would most people in the world be to go through all this? Yet, the water runs, buses run, most people get at most 100 bucks a month, trains run on time, people are polite, friendly, hospitable. I have travelled all over the place and in some pretty dodgy ways - and people have shared their food, lives, and only I was robbed twice over 4 1/2 years. Actually given the circumstances I am surprised that this place works at all - especially given the strong disincentives - the fact that the USSR is not worse is proof that it is much stronger and more fit than what we think by looking only at what is going wrong instead of what is going right - what continues to work - there have not been massive deaths - murders - and I strongly believe that most places here feel safer than most parts of America and Canada in the cities. Shouldn't we witness the reverse if all that is on the media is true?

The same is true of these elections. If there is a despotic hand controlling what has happened - why a 49 to 46 split, why haven't police cracked down on early rioters, why is there no violence yet? Aren't people supposed to be free in a democracy to hit the streets? Are they hitting the streets? Are authorities, Putin included, discussing? What didn't Bush, Powell, Rumsfeldt, et al do when confronted by the people? They stuck to their plans and actually have re-written the rules. I think at this stage it is far more interesting to look at the numbers of people not on the streets, the vast majority of people in Ukraine, and what else we are not seeing.
Those are my impressions for now. The same holds true as always. Since I do not know if what I see is 100% accurate, I have the right to change my views as events unfold and prove my old views completely wrong. I will not state how often this happens.

Top Ten Reasons to be Happy With the US Election Results

10. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind now that there are serious structural problems with the way America does democracy. All those who held such high hopes for Americanization and adopting US styles institutions, replicating them – can now have no doubt that there is much more to having a peaceful affluent society than having a nice looking constitution – which appears to be a piece of paper after all. The likely result of this is to spark international debate and discussion over “then what” if the American way cannot guarantee citizens freedom of choice, the right to pursue happiness and have a meaningful, fulfilling, life.

9. That the USA, as the single largest consumer of the world export market, might be forced to import less as it experiences financial difficulties from paying for the war and growing trade imbalances. This is great news for the vast majority of the world’s population – it means that international export prices will go down, there will be more available for the other 95% of the world, and maybe a lot of people in third world countries will get to eat their own foodstuffs rather than being forced to export it for nothing in return. Maybe this will indirectly cause a reduction in world poverty. If the USA chooses not to engage with the rest of the world on issues that affect us all, it would be at least consistent to ask them to stop drinking all the rest of the world’s water, burning all of the oil in big cars, eating the food, and taking all the clothes.

8. Canada might now decide to not adopt the US dollar as its currency and decide instead to Euro-ize. I think Bush would label this process “Eura-ification”.

7. That semantics matter – United States of America is easy to say, but united they clearly are not.

6. For all those who believed that high income per capita was the sole goal and indicator of a great nation, there is now evidence to rethink in a healthier direction – there is more to a nation that having high average incomes – there are all kinds of other factors that affect social well being such as democracy, freedom of speech, religion, peace, human rights, etc. all of which are being removed in the current USA.

5. Except for Bush’s religion, all others now see what happens if one religion claims to be the right one for everybody and uses the government as a tool to inflict its values on the rest of us in every way it can. I can only see this as promoting secularism in almost every way – and allowing all other religions to realize the value of letting people choose their own faiths for themselves peacefully.

4. That economists have been right all along – you cannot trust intentions and give blind faith to your government – although most people most of the time are sane, generous, nice, the fact of the matter is that we must build government institutions to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of by the 5% of the population who will organize and abuse that power at the expense of the rest – like we all lock our doors and keep our money in our pockets, we have to actively take part in democracies and building institutions to keep people like Bush out of power as much as possible in as many countries as possible.

3. The rest of the world can have no doubt or excuse of what it will be up against for the next four years as the Bush administration makes more cases for war(s) and tramples on more human rights and freedoms around the world. The election result, albeit an indicator of very rough times ahead, is also a wake up call to the rest of us that democracies are never completely achieved, they need to be constantly maintained and defended.

2. Often people need to see what happens when something is absent to appreciate its presence. Seeing the election results in the USA must mean that universal access to education is essential to the well functioning of a democracy – without it, you may end up with presidents like George W. Bush.

1. It has allowed the rest of the world to unite in a way that has never been possible before. Virtually every country and ethnicity in the world now stands together in its opposition to the Bush administration, including half of the USA. All events cause reactions and in spite of the fact that I do not like Bush being president, I am convinced that this will cause the opposite action which is for the rest of the world to see the value in developing common commitments to human rights, democratic development, peace and freedom to pursue happiness since these are no longer a goals in the USA for US citizens and certainly the welfare of other nations is nowhere on the agenda. I would guess that most of us do not want to see what has happened in the USA happen in our own countries.

The Post Soviet Experiment With Color Coordination

Odessa State Economics University

Yes, for all those neo-conservatives out there, it is true, economic planners left nothing to chance - they planned everything and attempted to direct every single aspect of lives including the color of buildings. This is the entrance to the Odessa State Economics University, where I work this year in Odessa, Ukraine. If you thought economists were bland, judging from the color here there is evidence to think otherwise. I am absolutely stunned with the experimentation going on everywhere in this city with bright, bold colors. Rather than wait for nature to make the building the color it would be, people actually took initiative, chose a color, and painted it on. Somehow I think it looks better than it would had the exterior been left cement like shades of grey. Why wait for progress?

Typical Street

Sechenova Street, Odessa, Ukraine

This street looks quite typical in Odessa, Ukraine. There is a lot of rennovation underway and slowly the people are tearing up the pavement on the wide sidewalks and replacing them with nice bricks. The streets are wide; so are the sidewalks, and most streets have trees - some have grapevines. The city blocks are large and the buildings are situated close to the street leaving no room for front lawns and there are few front entrances to apartments. Instead, you have to enter through an alleyway into the back of the building, where there is almost always a large courtyard and enter from there. This is the street where I live and my apartment is just above the trees on the lefthand side about halfway down the picture. I have a small balcony overlooking the street.

The Visible Hand

Moscow, Russia

This is at the base of the monument shown below on this site of a rocket. I could not accuse the artist who designed this monument of being too abstract, ambiguous and vague - I wonder where people are pointing to? Let us leave the people wondering what we are trying to accomplish and what will happen next? No, progress, for sure, is just to the right and actually if you follow the trajectory of the hand of Lenin - it is generally up to the right to where the rocket sits a far distance up on top of the monument. No mixed signals here.
People of all different professions are are also represented on the monument and pointing behind Lenin in the same general direction. I have to say this is very refreshing after seeing so much in the USA that would have you believe that only Great Men lead the country and make things happen - someone has to make the paper, build the roads, fight the wars (unfortunately- and time and time again). Seldom in the West do I see public monuments which even suggest a contribution of the masses in society - it is almost as if society exists, but without people, and actually just thankfully has a few Great people who are always doing all the work, while the other 95% would not know what to do without them. Not so here, the base of the rocket and race for space is supported, at the bottom, by the work and direction of everyday people. Maybe the artist was being direct, and by being so, provocative as well. Sometimes being so simple and direct is more meaningful than being complex and abstract.

Marseille, France 

Marseille, France 

Signs of Representative Democracy

Outside Ochotniy Ryad, Moscow, Kremlin

This picture was taken outside of the Kremlin walls in August, 2004. To the left is a large park where the changing of the guards takes place - along Aleksandrskiy Gardens, and to the right is a large center with shops and an outdoor square where many people gather to have beer and relax. Thus is directly in between and has fountains, an alleyway along the right with many restaurants, beergardens, and places to simply sit.

What shocked me most was the lack of signs - saying that it would be dangerous to walk so close to the water. The railings are also low and people simply climb over them to get close to the water. If you look carefully you can just see the fence along the top layer and lots of people on the other side, many of whom sit on this wall, teetering on the edge of potentially falling over to the other side and down into the water below. So many children, so many people, consuming evil alcohol on a hot summer day, with no government writing signs forbidding people to exercise any judgement where they intend to relax and enjoy themselves. Surely this is a society on the edge and maybe this year no accidents happened, but soon people will be falling off the fences by the thousands and then they will realise that they need a parental government committee to explain to them the dangers of walking too close to the water, to watch their children, to not jump off a two storey fence, and to not drink in public places, especially gardens where just on the other side of the wall, an alleged despotic ruler lives who dictates to everyone what to do. It is not in this picture, but while walking around I saw many off duty police officers behaving in basically the same way as everyone else with their time off. Is this what Thomas Jefferson really meant by self government?

No Nationalist Consistency Here!

Odessa, Ukraine

What drives me crazy besides fast Lada drivers in the city is an idea that is popular, but not well supported by things we see everyday. It has been a tendency in the 20th century to write histories of regions as if a group of people built, in isolation, their own region and can be proud of their heritage - There are textbooks on these kinds of themes - a History of the American People (who?), a History of the Canadian Economy, An Economic History of Russia, a People's History of the USA (I think this is the exception - it is people first, in a region second by Howard Zinn). True, history books have to focus, but it cannot be the case that Canadian history started on a certain day, in isolation, and that "Canadians" built the country. World History is far more complicated.

I took this picture in Odessa on purpose. When I saw it I thought : Here is clear evidence of why I have so many problems with my original views in studying Economic History - and of Canada, for that matter. In the picture is a Lada - a Soviet Automobile. It is largely based on I think Fiat. The pillars smack of Ancient Greece as does the color. The lampposts suggest some sort of classical 1800s style - before there were any clear cut nation -states in the 20th century sense, and in the background, upper right hand side, it is barely visible, but there is a blue sign on the wall. It is not in English, Russian, or Ukrainian but some other language that looks rather Arabic but it is not - I do not know what it is.

The bulbs in the lampost might have been made in the USSR or elsewhere, but they would not have been possible without the collective history of many thoughts and inventions from a wide variety of regions in the world. Add to this mix that I took the picture with a Japanese camera, German film, and it was developed by a Russian speaking Ukrainian. Whatever one might think of the USSR and its ideology as a whole, the idea of a non-nationalist freindship between people seems to me to make sense and be in evidence everywhere I look, with or without my camera.

Источники Объщественного Благосостояния В Других Стран Мира

Odessa, Ukraine


Пропаганда существует везде. В течение 23 года я родился и воспытивал в Канаде. Большинство жизни было в периоде Холодной Войны а поэтому я обычно только видел одну сторону о жизни СССРа. Это не был мой свободный выбор, в свободной Канаде или в США, так видеть. Я вообще только смотрел много плохих видов трудных положенией в СССРе по телевизору а не верил я, что всё по телевизору правильно и реально было. Я понял, и понимаю, что новости и так далее более как фильм а только есть всегда короткий вид автора. Ну, не было бы возможно смортеть дгугие виды. А потом я изучал экономику на западе а конечно там написанно в книгах что ничего в социализме работало и люды в социальных странах не могут строить дома, и поезды не могут идти. Поэтому когда я приехал в Бывший Советский Союз 6 лет тому назад я совсем не узнал как всё существует в реалности. Конечно, как я подумал, было много бедных людей, точно как я прочитал на Западе. Тоже было мало магазинов как на Западе прочитал, и очередь чтобы получить маленькую зарплату мне был дальше чем я раньше прочитал. Ну, мне кажется сейчас что я вижу такие ситуации почти везде – бедность – это бедность – и не хороша – и было бы лучше для всех в мире если у нас было бы меньше бедности везде. Это мне безразница если это Канадский бедный человек или Кыргизкий. Это не как бы бедность по Кыргизки хороша и по Канадски плоха!

Что я не видел по телевизору на Западе мне было важно (не хотел бы написать более). Я не узнал, что много парков здесь есть, поезды идут вообще вовремя и они прикрасны. Не узнал я, что продукты и фрукты на базарах лучше, более естественно (от природы и не от лаборатории), и есть санатории, аптеки, медисинские услуги, высше качество образование иностранных языков, и. т. д. Конечно, наша пропаганда на Западе никогда была такая – всё на Западе должно было быть лучше чем всё на Востоке!! Правилно или неправильно – это не роль пропаганды на Западе или в любой другой стране.

Сравнение стран лучше без пропаганды! Все пропаганды могут соединяться к мусору.

Представьте себе, есть две страны в мире – например страна «З» и страна «В». Оба страны имеет одинаковый валовой доход и одинаковый доход на душу населения. Конечно даход человека важен и жизнь хуже было бы без денег. Жизнь без гроша – как я могу написать, что это нормально? Я только могу так говорить если я богаты и это другой человек, который бедный. Кроме этого, не возможно так говорить. Ну, доход только один качественный фактор хорошего жизни. Представьте себе дальше что в стране «В», то есть где меры дохода одинаковый с уровеным в стране «З», есть тоже парки, красивый язык, приятные люды, красивый город, безплатный вход в парки и в университеты и. т. д. Ну, теперь, доход одинаковый, но качество жизни – где лучше? Где вы хотели бы жить? В стране «З» или в «В». Это возможно, что сейчас в мире, в двух странах есть одинаковый доход, ну есть большая разница кроме этого. В первом делом, качество жизни зависет от дохода, но не только. А в СССР, это надо всегда, когда мы думаем о реформах, считать другие источники благосостояния. Во вторых, я могу спрашивать так: если вам нравится жить в стране «В», где доход одинаковый, но есть парки и.т.д., сколько низше зарплата могла бы? Это, в конце концов, возможно строить хорошое объшество, где люды хотять жить, но получают они по меньше. Я надеюсь, что в переходном периоде, люды не забывают что у них есть много парков, и других польезных источников благосостояние для всех. Конечно тоже надеюсь, что зарплата была бы высше всем.

Другое Значение Перестройки

Odessa, Ukraine

???? 

Odessa, Ukraine 

Leningradsky Hotel, Moscow 

ШИРОКАЯ УЛИЦА - ДЛЯ ВСЕХ ПЕШКОМ

Deribavskaya Street, Odessa

ВЗГЛЯД К ЗАПАДУ

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Эта комната сверху квартира мая была в городе "Галифакс" в Канаде. Слева кровать была на полу и я встал у дверя входа комнаты тогда, когда я снял эту фотографию. Эта квартира находится в центре города а было возможно ходить на работу пешком - машина в этом районе совсем не надо. Квартирная плата была 605 долларов Канадских в месяц, надо было заплатить взнос, а такая сумма включается вода и жара. Сверх суммы надо платить ещё 25 долларов канадских для электричества в месяц. Для многих молодых людей в Канаде сейчас было бы трудно так жить - например у меня хорошая работа была в университете и лучше место не было возможно. Мая точка зрения такая - это наверно обычный вид качества жизни сейчас в Канаде для молодых людей (то есть до 35 лет) и это совсем нооборот веры моей друзей в СССР. Дома и машины и много материальных вещей, как по телевизору, не для всех в Канаде. Просто самый главный пункт, который я хотел бы написать читателем такой: когда я приехал сюда, я подумал что квартиры в городах хорошы. А в конце концов, вид объшества зависет от вида человека как Маркс раньше написал (а тоже много другых) - Я из Канады и мая квартира здесь лучше в Одессе, и это конечно возможно нооборот - если бы у вас успехов очень много было в Канаде, наверно думали бы вы, что качесто жизни там высше. Взгляд сверху - то есть - где вы можете жить лучше? Я не могу отвечать.

ЭТО НЕ ТОЛЬКО РАКЕТА, ЭТО ГЛАВНЫЙ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЙ ЗНАК!

Moscow

From The Ash-heap of History: Sovietization takes on USA

Thursday night Bush and Kerry faced each other for the first time in a debate leading up to the US Presidential elections. I read about their debates, and attacks on each other, and was very happy to read the following day that both parties claim to have won the debate. Does this mean that on election day both people can win the presidential race and possibly share in the spoils? In any case, I was happy to see that they can agree that in society, everyone can be a winner; to each according to their abilities, and to each according to their needs - they both need to claim that they won and so they both did. What is more interesting to me is that this is the same society that claimed to have thrown, via President Regan, socialist ideas into the ash-heap of history - the same society that writes about Ronald Regan as if he were a good president, and about their presidential candidates as if they can both be winners. I will not be surprised at all if on election day the two parties decide to both be winners and simply have two presidents who share the office - maybe with a 32-page document outlining time sharing arrangements, what they will and will not discuss and some form of 50-50 split on the paycheque, and so on. The state of the union address can have both claiming to have outdone the other and the press, so free to say so, can claim that both did outdo the other. Whether the production claims bear any resemblance to what is and was actually achieved, of course, will not matter - I think that after 1991, the Soviet propoganda writers realized that they would be unemployed in Yeltsin's Russia and later Putin's and they saw an opportunity of a lifetime in the Republican and Democratic Parties in the USA. They got their greencards and left, and the rest is history.

Odessa Opera House Goes Modern

Opera House, Odessa

Girl Fascinated By Bird On Pushkin's Head

Alexandr Pushkin, Odessa 

Where Did You Buy Those Shoes?

Shoe Sale, Odessa

I just have to say, that I find this makes so much sense - too much in fact. Shoes cost money to produce - the workers have to be paid and the leather, vinyl, rubber, and so on has to be bought, plus the factory has costs. It takes time to make shoes. People buy the shoes to wear, and naturally the shoes are likely used outdoors in rain, sun, and snow. Why make purchasing shoes a hassel in some store - where costs must be higher? Then not only would the shoes have to be produced and brought to market, but then there would be costs involved in having a store, hiring a decorator, as is done in the West, to make the store attractive - then the heating costs, display costs, and many other additional costs. This would all take shape in making the final price of the shoes higher for those who wish to buy shoes. Much cheaper to simply buy them off the back of the truck that would have delivered the shoes to an expensive store and save all that extra money that consumers would otherwise have had to pay. The cost for the store does come from the price you pay for the shoes anyway. Does buying shoes from a luxury store make the shoes operate any better? Surely capitalism focuses on reducing costs to the consumer, right, and this is what makes that system so damned efficient - you never see fancy shoe shops in Capitalist countries because that would result in unecessary over head, or should I say underfoot, costs.

No Reform Needed Here

Post Office, Sadova St, Odessa

This is the post office in Odessa not far from where I live and work. On the outside the building appears ordinary, on the inside... Unfortunately, a picture cannot capture all the senses of this room. It is vast inside and usually busy with many people trying to mail their items. The agents working for the postal service are very helpful and they stamp the letters on the marble counters while you wait. This creates a loud thumping noise which echos off the walls. This would explain why no one has taken notice of the little boy in the picture who has abandoned his bicycle and is running in circles singing his favorite Soviet tunes he would have learned in Pioneer camp if it still existed. Instead, he whirls around in silence.

Impressionist Postcards For Sale!

Port of Odessa

If a person goes to the Sea shore in the city center of Odessa and looks to their right, Southward I guess, they will see kilometres of beaches and parks, outdoor beergardens, and beautiful landscape. If they look to their left, they will see the picture above - the beautiful Port of Odessa and all the machines that go along with it. I stood there and looked at this sight and wondered how every single postcard photographer, during both the Soviet and Post Soviet Era, managed to never take a picture to their left. It exists, is part of the city, yet never appears in any books on Odessa except for those designed for economic enthusiasts -the very same people who do not care at all about the other views. I am glad not all the world are made up of economists and not all governments take their advice from economists, otherwise this is the view that would prevail and people would have to enjoy the beach and swimming at the same time as trying to avoid large container ships passing through.

Perestroika Successful

New Market, Odessa

On this site below you will see other pictures of markets - the Privoz in Odessa and the New Market. This is also part of the New Market not far from my apartment here in Odessa. This section used to look like the market below - it was an open style market with counters. A lot of these counters were torn down recently and in their stead new store-like stalls were erected - and very quickly. Some days I walked through here and bought things over open counters, a week later there was a new aisle in its place with windows and doors. How do you know what is for sale along this aisle? You simply look at the signs which state the types of products available inside the stall/store. These walkways are certainly wider and there is a lot less bumping into people as I shop along. I am also surprised that this reform has taken place. Typically over the past 6 years the first places to be rennovated were spots for tourists rather than taxpayers and non-taxpaying citizens. While certain governments in the world judge the former Soviet Republics' lack of reforms harshly, I think if they took a walk in the local market 5 years ago and again today, they would have a different impression. I found Julius Meinl coffee in bags selling for upto 30 USD in one of these stalls - which sell goods and services to local citizens rather than tourists.

France on a Euro a Day!

Marseille, France

If it were not for the cars in this picture, it would be difficult to tell if this is a picture of France or a place in the Former USSR. It is too difficult to check the clothing labels. This scene is very typical in Marseille, France, in the side alleys in the city center. I was shocked when I looked through tourist information at the local bureau and saw no pictures remotely like this one. I wonder if this is the kind of image of the West the World Bank has when it advocated that Third World Countries should westernize - or do they have worse images in mind?

No Evidence of Civic Life in Russia

City Center, Moscow

Just today I read again another article that claimed that the Bush administration and in particular, Colin Powell, are not happy with the new reforms being advocated by President Putin. They claimed that after many positive democratic reforms in Russia, Russia is now going down the wrong path after Putin announced some restructuring after the tragedy in Beslan. Actually, I never recalled Powell or Bush ever saying anything positive about Russia before, so I do not see how now they can say that they think things were going well and now they are not - it is more or less that they say this every time they comment about Russia, and probably, if we looked back far enough over the past 100 years, we would find the US adminsitrations suggesting that the Czar was better for society and any change on that would hurt the empire. The Russia Bush has in view is not the same Russia, apparently, that I see and admire and have visited. I see parks, roads, railways which work and serve the public interest and a public dedicated to open debate. Maybe these are exactly the features present in Russia that Bush and Powell would like to see less of both here and at home.

New on Outside, Same on Inside

St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

I first went to Moscow in December, 1999, and of course the first place I went to was Red Square. St Basil's cathedral, pictured here, looked different then. It was worn out and looked historic. I went inside on a cold day and looked around at the icons painted on the walls and was impressed at the degree of freedom I had to simply walk and look while I ducked my head through the doorways inside. This summer I returned and as soon as I walked onto the square I noticed that the cathedral has had serious rennovations done - the paint is new, fresh and vibrant. The square looks and feels different - it looks like history in the making rather than history made. I was not sure whether I was happy or sad - I am only one person and Russia is not mine to mould the way I would like it to be - if many people want a fresh coat of paint and want their city to look different - then so be it - I must be happy that I had the chance to enjoy this same scene when it was old and worn out and now again while it is changing. I wish other countries could adopt so many fresh and positive changes - I wonder if the white house would ever be considered in need of new color?