Beijing Olympics

Summer 2004, the Olympic Games were in Athens and Lucy and I... in Beijing! (Lucy is posting her travel pictures on flickr )

Sex and St. Petersburg II

Today the International Herald Tirbune publishes an articles on the causes of the premature death of generation of Russian men: "Russia's demographic crisis"

Shopping with Lenin

When I was in Moscow last year I had already felt the presence of Lenin as national hero. Besides the corpse, which is a touristy attraction for most and a morbid symbol for few, metro stations and monuments remind you that revolutionary socialism father was there.

In St. Petersburg, you have the impression that Leninism IS still there, as Lenin is still the father of the country. For example, the arrival of Lenin from exile in 1917 is commemorated in the Finland station and the station square hosts the first ever (1926) statue of Lenin, the model with the famous waistcoat.

The funny thing is that Lenin is always close, very close to symbols of capitalisms. In Moscow the mausoleum is now surrounded by shopping malls and an enlarging district of luxury goods.

Moscovskaya square in St. Petersburg is a masterpiece of soviet architecture (and one of my favourite spots, for what it’s worth) Two enormous fountains and several smaller offer a water show to the people (skaters, chatting teenagers, mothers with kids and of course drunkards) spending time on the square or simply walking through it. But the water is not only for them: it dances to the glory of a gigantic Lenin The square is imposing but pleasant: you can stay hours there, ipnotized by the water’s game. Every corner of the street where the square is located (Moskovskiy Prospekt) is colonised by shops of different sort, a shopping mall linking the square to the Leningrad blockade memorial and a big, always full Mc Donald’s.

St. Petersburg’s image is that of Leningrad, with symbols of the Soviet Union everywhere. But that same symbols, in a changed (in which proportion I can’t say) background, look like simple advertisements on the streets.

Lenin’s hand once indicating the way to the revolution now seems showing you where he bought his waistcoat.

Sex and St. Petersburg

As I have already seen last year, at first sight Russia seems to be very equal in terms of gender labour’s division. Women do almost every job. Actually Russia seems (and probably is) driven by its women. You would then expect to see men spending more time with their family like they do in Sweden. (The large number of Swedish men pushing baby-trolleys on the streets of Stockholm is a very refreshing picture of normality).
On the contrary, here in St. Petersburg I am impressed me by the quantity of children and adolescents wandering up and down Nevskiy Prospekt accompanied only by their mother.

In fact, Russia is still very unequal. Many men do not have an appropriate consideration of women. You can see it from the representation of women on Russian TV, which is sometimes more vulgar that Italian TV (yes, it is possible).
So if they are not at work, not at home … where are the men over forty years of age? Reality unfortunately seems worse than stereotypes to me.

So many men (certainly not the majority but a very visible minority) smell alcohol on the subway, so many do not step right on the streets. So many have on the face the signs of liver’s diseases. At cafes on the morning you see glasses of beer instead of cups of coffee… I do not know the figures; I describe what I see around me. I have read something though, and the situation is even darker.
Drunk on some bench, or worse sick in some hospital, worse again: dead. Life expectancy is much lower than what would be normal for a man in Russia.

There are so many just married couples taking pictures on the Griboedeva canal, next to the glittering Church of Saviour on the Blood. I look at them and I hope the groom is really Mr. Right, the one who will be still able to wake up and go to work in 20 years time.
And I look at these often beautiful women walking alone on the streets with their complete set: décolleté, miniskirt, high heels, make up… I might not agree with the method but I wish they get what they really deserve: a man who doesn’t have breakfast with beer.

Back to St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is young. I mean 300 years in Europe… A preadolescent. (That is why they dress so badly here?). It is impressive for the density of her (her, that’s definitely her) colours. Green, red, yellow, pink, blue. The Winter Palace seems to be painted mixing the colour of the Neva with the colour of the sky. She has so many jewels, too much make-up, and so much gold like many Russian rich women.
The avenues are too wide to be crossed in one traffic light time. And Russian drivers too impatient.
As usually happens with the loved ones: she is more beautiful that I remembered.

Visas

The Chinese Consulate smells like food, some are queuing and eating lamian at the same time. It is hot, like Shanghai in July –the last time I went was April in Milan, though- and a confused happiness. There are wannabe business men who believe Shenzhen is their chance. In the crowd, which is never a “queue” but three groups of people stuck together, they say that paying the travel agency of someone who knows the consul…
At the Russian consulate I met professional queuers. It is the system which forces you to do so, queuing quietly, as many times as it is required. Lenin is dead but USSR is not.
First queue: window number 6: documents’ control.
Second queue: window 8: withdrawal of the documents already controlled. Of course, before me I have the exact same people in the same order and the windows belong to the same big office. The nice blonde lady at window 8 closes the documents withdrawal after me.
Third queue: window 9: the window is opening when I join my place in the queue. The same blonde lady! She simply turned his chair by 90° degrees. “Good morning!” “But madam!- I’d like to say- you said goodbye to me at window 8! Do you pretend you don’t know me at window 9?” Eto Rossiya: every action has its own queue…
I have been told that at the Cuban Consulate people are waiting with no hurry that something comes.
Europeans don’t need a visa to go to Japan. That’s a pity: I would have loved to use the Japanese consulate’s restrooms!
As for the moment I am in Russia I checked: the Italian Consulates in St. Petersburg is open for TWO hours a day.

What if...

What if i started again from something i know? Passports, visas, tickets and what is more important: suitcases.