I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know why those doctors were wearing masks.
James H. Boren
As a foreigner in Ukraine I have made many incorrect assumptions based upon my experiences living in America. I assumed that my shower would always have hot water, I assumed that supermarkets would sell peanut butter, and I assumed that healthcare would be very expensive.
My first trip to a Ukrainian hospital was one that I will never forget. I was in the Carpathian Mountains skiing and snowboarding with a group of friends from America, Russia, and Ukraine. When engaged in athletic activities at high altitude like skiing, it is highly advisable to drink a lot of water. Otherwise, you can quickly become dehydrated.
Normally I would abide by this rule. However, up in the mountains in the middle of winter it was very cold, so I didn’t feel like I was becoming dehydrated. I am used to drinking water for free from the tap in America, but being in a foreign country, I refrained from consuming the local water. Also, the bottled water that they sold in our hotel was a strange kind of mineral water with a very bitter taste, so I had no desire to drink very much of it. All of these factors, combined with the high altitude and rigorous exercise, created a dangerous situation for my health.
After a full day of skiing and snowboarding, walking through the mountains, and site-seeing through the town, our Russian and Ukrainian friends invited us to go to the sauna. This was my final mistake. Whatever water and electrolytes I had remaining in my body after all of the rigorous exercise that day was washed away in the sauna sweat.
The next day I felt terrible and I couldn’t keep any liquids in my body. I knew that I was dehydrated. I tried to rest and drink lots of water and juice, but I wasn’t recovering fast enough. We had to take a train to Moscow the next day, and I needed to recover before then. I was going to have to do something that I had feared since the day I had arrived in Ukraine: I was going to have to go to a Ukrainian hospital.
Why was I worried about going to a hospital in Ukraine? Because I assumed that the costs would be similar to the costs in the US. In America, a visit to the hospital is very expensive. It can cost over $100 for a simple visit and consultation to any doctor. A trip to the emergency room, where I would need to go in order to get saline solution injected into my veins to help my dehydration, could cost $1000 or more.
At 3 in the morning, just hours before our train to Moscow, I was taken to the hospital in a quiet Carpathian town. The doctors were all asleep, and the head nurse examined me. She didn’t think anything was wrong with me, and in fact I believe she thought that I was drunk, since the symptoms of dehydration and drunkenness are very similar, and drunkenness is not only common in Ukraine, it is practically a national pastime. I knew, however, that I was in fact dehydrated and that I desperately needed some saline solution in order to survive my 36 hour train ride.
The nurse woke up a doctor who also thought that I was drunk, but after a lengthy and confusing discussion, (I spoke no Russian at the time), he finally agreed to give me the saline solution. You can imagine my horror when, thinking that a brief visit to an American Emergency room would cost me a minimum of $1000, the doctor turned on all the lights in the small hospital, took me into the operating room, and woke up the other five doctors and nurses who worked there. Here I was simply in need of saline solution, but they had awoken the entire hospital staff. In America, each doctor that examines you will charge you a different amount, so I was imagining 5 different medical bills, and I was thinking that this little treatment would probably cost me thousands of dollars.
The treatment was good and fast, and I was soon on my way home. But before I left, I handed the doctor my US Medical Insurance Card to prepare for what I believed would be an enormous payment. In America, you pay hundreds of dollars every month to a medical insurance company, which helps pay the hospitals for your visits. This decreases the costs of medical visits and procedures, but you have to pay in advance, just like with car insurance. Without medical insurance, no one in America would be able to afford our extremely expensive healthcare costs.
The Ukrainian doctor simply looked at my medical insurance card and laughed. I was worried that this might mean that he wouldn’t be able to use the card and that I would have to pay the full price, which I was certain would be $1000 or more. He wrote something on a piece of paper and said “20 grevens”. I was shocked. They had woken up the entire hospital, turned on all the lights, injected me with three or four bottles of saline solution, observed me for over an hour, and the cost would only be the equivalent of about 4 dollars. I didn’t know what to say. I was so grateful that I started handing money to all the doctors. Certainly they deserved more than 20 grevens for more than an hour’s work at 3 in the morning.
I must say that I was never happier to be in Ukraine than at that moment. Good healthcare at an incredibly cheap price relieved many of my concerns about living in this country. Of course, the well trained doctors deserve much better salaries than what they earn now, but for the common people, there is nothing better than knowing that in the case of an emergency, it will not kill you financially to get better physically.
*Note for American readers - "Moladyets" means "Good Job" in Russian.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
- Henry David Thoreau
No matter where you travel in the world, fashion will always be distinct from one country and culture to the next. The differences between the fashions of various countries is sometimes as small as the brand name labels on popular clothes and sometimes as big as the parts of the body that are allowed to be shown in public. In Western countries the fashions have become much more similar to one another thanks to global marketing, but differences in style even between neighboring countries can often be intriguing and humorous.
Ukraine is at a unique point in the evolution of its public fashions. Perhaps due to the influx of old American films shown on television, various old and now forbidden American fashions have begun to reveal themselves in Ukrainian popular culture. The most notorious of these is the infamous 1980’s hairstyle called the “Mullet.”
The “Mullet” is a hairstyle which tried to combine the ease and comfort of short hair with the elegance and beauty of long hair. Unfortunately, it failed miserably in the attempt. The “Mullet” is created by cutting the hair on the sides of the head as short as possible while leaving the hair on the top and back as long as possible. In this way two different looks are created at the same time.
One friend described the “Mullet” as “Business in the front, and party in the back”. His statement refers to the fact that from the front it gives the wearer a clean-cut business look, while the long hair in the back provides just enough flashy character to make the individual appear ready to party at any time.
This half-serious, half-playful hairstyle was very popular in certain parts of America during the 1980’s. It quickly became a symbol of the uncultured, uneducated masses. For the most part the “Mullet” is associated with people who live in trailer parks, which are almost akin to villages in Ukraine; places where there is little work, little education, little culture, and nothing to do. The kind of people that wore “Mullets” in America were often “redneck” boys from a country town where we could imagine them drinking beers and shooting guns in the woods while driving in dirty old pick-up trucks. In America today it would be considered inexcusable for a young man to have this kind of haircut. It would bring back too many hilarious memories from the past.
The “Mullet”, however, is currently very popular with young Ukrainian men and quite a few Ukrainian women. In fact, as my experience has shown me, often the size of a young man’s “Mullet” is in direct proportion to how beautiful his girlfriend is.
It is difficult to describe the level of shock that I experienced when I first saw a beautiful young Ukrainian woman walking arm in arm with a young man with a truly audacious “Mullet”. In America he would have been laughed off the street with such a haircut, but in Ukraine he is rewarded with a beautiful girlfriend. It was like being transported back 20 years in the past.
There are a great variety of shapes, colors, and sizes of “Mullets” here in Kiev. The most extreme “Mullet” seen so far is one called the “Skullet”. The “Skullet” is created by shaving the head completely bald (hence the term skull), but at the back of the head a small section of long hair is left creating a stunning combination of shaved head and “Mullet”. This hair style is not for the faint of heart.
Many other fashion “no’s” in America have made a resurgence in modern day Kiev, such as very short shorts and see through shirts on men, and the 1970’s David Bowie style hair cuts seen on many women. However, living in a foreign country I also get my fair share of stares here in the streets of Kiev wearing my typical American white tennis shoes and white socks. But if there’s one thing about fashion that is the same in every country, it’s that it is always changing.
I discovered an amazing thing the other day: a true propaganda site the likes of which I have never seen with my own eyes before. It was like stumbling upon a propaganda pamphlet from the time of Stalin - yet this is a modern day website trying to pass itself off as real news. And the best part - it's Russian.
The site is called Moscowtopnews.com and it is one of the saddest excuses for an actual news site that I have ever seen. It doesn't seem to be associated with any credible news source, though it does have links to Pravda, the famous Russian newspaper whose name means, of all things, "Truth".
It looks like they steal the articles from an actual news agency and then a government propagandist tacks on his own vitriolic anti-western comments. It's more like reading a KGB agent's blog for the indoctrination of young minds than actual news.
Some great lines:
On the situations in Georgia and Ukraine - "Just as it has become known that the US had a large hand in the invasion and genocide campaign against South Ossetia, it is also obvious they have a hand in the current crisis in the supply of gas to Europe. They financed and formented the orange and rose "revolutions" in order to get their dirty, filthy tentacles all the closer to Russia in order to strangle Russia economically.
It has been the intention of the US all along to take over the gas pipelines. That is the reason for Afghanistan now. And that is the reason for what they did in Georgia."
On America's presence in Afghanistan - "Now they are finding themselves quite alone even though they were so presumptuous as to think that Russia would allow them to run around wherever they feel like it."
On NATO's "encircling" of Moscow - "Russia retains the capacity to defend itself and if necessary to liquidate enemy forces concentrating on its borders with massive missile attacks from thousands of launch sites."
On Europe and the Ukrainian Gas Crisis - "The hydra monster empire would like to throw a wrench in the works in order to establish their own system to bypass Russia such as Nabucco. However, Nabucco is still in its primitive stages with little promise of success. Hopefully, their tentacles have been effectively chopped off by the truth coming out."
Their message to Obama - "Welcome, President Obama. Welcome, friend! We do not want your arrogance, we do not want your blackmail, we do not want your chauvinism. What we do want, and expect, is for your administration to clean up the mess your country has made, for wherever you look, the hotspots were caused by the United States of America, and none other."
And my personal favorite, On the Economic Crisis - "Russia is an economic oasis."
How many times has the ruble crashed since 1991?
Of course, for anyone who even remotely follows Russian politics, you know that it's goverment is in nearly complete control over the press and all journalists are forced to say whatever the government tells them to say. These kinds of pure propaganda are common in Russia, but it is rare to see them in English. It is a good lesson to see what kind of maniacs we are really up against as a country. To those who think America is the big bad bully on the interntaional playground, just remember - no one in the government is going to kill you for what you write/say/believe/support. That cannot be said in many 2nd and 3rd world countries, including Russia.
These kinds of mental dictatorships, where the governments control everything that their people see and hear, are dangerous to the entire world. Even our new President Obama recognizes this and mentioned it in his Inaugural speech.
From Obama's Inauguration Speech:
"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
To those of you who don't know, (or haven't figured it out yet from this article) this is a direct challenge to Russia and a referral to its Soviet style control of the media within the Russian Federation.
Since Putin took control of the Russian government, he has initiated a form of government control and restrictions on free speech and the freedom of the press almost identical to those during the Soviet era.
It is intriguing, however, that the Russian propaganda machine has made a move into the English webspace. Perhaps they are trying to recruit Americans to their cause?
Probably not. Most likely this is an attempt to prevent English speaking Russians from reading real news on the internet and learning the truth about Russia's stances with the International community. If you speak Russian, the Russian government can control everything you read, but if you speak English, the whole internet is open to you and they cannot control what you might find. It may also be a way to combat Russians who are abandoning their country in record numbers in order to find decent jobs in America, Canada, and Europe. Russia wouldn't want them believing that their newly found freedom and prosperity were real.
The fact that the site is written in English is also quite ironic for several reasons. For those of you who have never traveled to Russia or Eastern Europe, their command of the English language is relatively low when compared to most European countries. For one, unlike Western Europe, they do not get many visitors from America or Great Britain, so most Russians have never met someone who speaks English.
Secondly, the English language is very difficult for native Russian speakers to master because the grammatical roots of the two languages are completely different. Russian uses many Greek grammatical structures, whereas English is much closer to the far simpler Latin grammar. For example, Russian does not have the word "the". It's use is almost impossible to explain to a Russian speaker.
What this means is, the person writing and editing this site must have spent a lot of time in Great Britain or America in order to master the English language to such a degree. I have met many Eastern European students who were studying English, and for a student to master the language this well, they must have truly loved English language and culture. Almost every Eastern European student I ever met who was diligently studying English had a great desire to move to America.
The person writing and editing these Anti-American opinions is probably a great fan of the United States. They probably watch all of our movies, listen to all of our top musical artists, and would love a chance to live in America. However, in order to make a living, this person is forced to use his or her love for the English language in order to write daily tirades against the United States government, which he or she most likely does not even believe.
How can I say this with confidence?
While in Russia I met a Russian Journalist working for the BBC in Moscow. This journalist complained to me about the fact that they had to tell what they knew were lies to the public, because the Russian government won't let the press write what they want. You can only say what the Russian government authorizes you to say, and this is almost always Anti-Western.
For example, when Ukraine had a peaceful revolution against a corrupt and fraudulent election (Russia tried to steal the election for the Pro-Russian candidate - a convicted criminal and rapist), during the Orange Revolution in 2004, Russia forced it's journalists to say that it was a violent revolution and that Ukrainians were attacking Russian citizens in the streets. These were bold faced lies, and the journalists knew they were lies, but Russia was secretly hoping to start a war with Ukraine in order to bring control of the country back into its own hands, like in Soviet times. (For those of you who don't know your Soviet history, without Ukraine there could never have been a Soviet Union.)
Fortunately this didn't happen and the Revolution remained peaceful. But not for journalists - If you don't say what the Russian government tells you to say, you will be fired - or in many cases killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia
The most disturbing part of the MoscowTopNews website?
Look at what they say about themselves on the "About" page:
"MoscowTopNews.com takes a clear look at real issues and provides the full truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is objective, independent journalism. The world's events analyzed and commented on, bring the news to the citizens of the world, and not some cooked-up package catering to its master´s needs."
Ironic?
or Terrifying?
