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The second World War made a lot of things difficult, caused a lot of misery and ultimately changed the political and social landscape of the 20th Century. For one, it seems to have provided countless grandparents with a common pool of reminiscences (but that’s trivializing it a little so I won’t go into it too much), for another it polarized the world into East and West, ‘Democracy’ and ‘Communism’ and spoilt the 20th Century for the rest of us.
War is pretty meaningless and once it gets started it embodies everything that’s worst and best about us as a species. Nevertheless, what happened, happened, and because so many people died defending what is an honourable ideal of justice and freedom it is only right they should be remembered.
It happens across Europe which has decreed 9th May a holiday and it happens, as you’d expect, in Russia, which seizes the day to foster some much needed national pride. National pride is important. It helps to remember why we each belong to different nations (I know it’s outmoded but hey!) and it also helps bind a nation together in a moment of crisis.
In Russia there is a strange thing about national pride. They all feel proud about what Russia achieved, they all want to move on and feel proud of what it achieves again and they also harbour a suspicion and a jaded sense of celebration fatigue regarding any official holiday and celebration.
They have had to many crammed down their throats by the previous regime and many of them at the time actually believed them. They went on thinking that Russia in the 20th century was doing great and leaving the rest of the world behind and if there was any perceived problem it was only going to be transient and it was really just a question of time before all the sacrifice paid off.
So you can’t really blame them for being jaded and going through the motions.
The thing is 9th May is a holiday and holidays in Russia mean expense as you will have to go out with friends, drink, probably eat somewhere out and so on. For a cop on a month’s salary of £80 a month it is going to be really expensive. The cost of living here is comparable to the West give or take a few pounds (or dollars) the salaries aren’t!
Now there are quite a few issues here like what sort of system trains policemen, gives them guns and authority and then pays them so little that the cadets in the training academy get more while they are being trained to do the job, but we’ll bypass all of these because this is how grown men lose their hair and wise ones their sense of reason.
Let’s just accept that yes, that’s the reality of it. If you’re a cop with a gun and a car, expected to uphold law and order, live a life beyond reproach and support society, you are given the princely sum of £80 per month and left to get on with it.
War is pretty meaningless and once it gets started it embodies everything that’s worst and best about us as a species. Nevertheless, what happened, happened, and because so many people died defending what is an honourable ideal of justice and freedom it is only right they should be remembered.
It happens across Europe which has decreed 9th May a holiday and it happens, as you’d expect, in Russia, which seizes the day to foster some much needed national pride. National pride is important. It helps to remember why we each belong to different nations (I know it’s outmoded but hey!) and it also helps bind a nation together in a moment of crisis.
In Russia there is a strange thing about national pride. They all feel proud about what Russia achieved, they all want to move on and feel proud of what it achieves again and they also harbour a suspicion and a jaded sense of celebration fatigue regarding any official holiday and celebration.
They have had to many crammed down their throats by the previous regime and many of them at the time actually believed them. They went on thinking that Russia in the 20th century was doing great and leaving the rest of the world behind and if there was any perceived problem it was only going to be transient and it was really just a question of time before all the sacrifice paid off.
So you can’t really blame them for being jaded and going through the motions.
The thing is 9th May is a holiday and holidays in Russia mean expense as you will have to go out with friends, drink, probably eat somewhere out and so on. For a cop on a month’s salary of £80 a month it is going to be really expensive. The cost of living here is comparable to the West give or take a few pounds (or dollars) the salaries aren’t!
Now there are quite a few issues here like what sort of system trains policemen, gives them guns and authority and then pays them so little that the cadets in the training academy get more while they are being trained to do the job, but we’ll bypass all of these because this is how grown men lose their hair and wise ones their sense of reason.
Let’s just accept that yes, that’s the reality of it. If you’re a cop with a gun and a car, expected to uphold law and order, live a life beyond reproach and support society, you are given the princely sum of £80 per month and left to get on with it.
You know of course where this is heading. Cops will stop cars for speeding (ok, they use no equipment and have no evidence beyond their word), faulty fire extinguishers (you’re required to carry one here!), out of date insurance, you name it and they will issue an on-the-spot fine. Or at least that’s what they call it. Money changes hands, any alleged offence is forgotten and everyone involved goes on their way.
There is a system to this organized fleecing. A cop car stops by a busy road. The two cops (there is always two) get out. They use their batons to stop passing motorists, they ask to look at their papers. At this stage the motorist is taken into the cop car (you can’t have money changing hands go on in full view) and the transaction takes place. Prices are reasonable, about £4 a graft, but I suppose over the course of the day they will all add up.
At least come 9th May the instruments of the law will not have to worry that their drinking and carousing will eat up into the meager paypacket and family finances.
I live off a busy road and I could watch all this take place. I took some pictures I have posted here and some video. The cop car stayed there for about four hours and they must have stopped over 30 cars in that time. Then they moved on to find another spot.
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