Groundhog Saw Shadow of Unemployment

A statue of the Canadian “groundhog”, Wiarton Willie, in Wiarton ON. It started as a spoof in the 50s by a bunch of partying Canucks anxious to help a journalist with a story, and it just GREW. Alas, the original Willie died at the ripe old age of 22 in 1999, but, Wee Willie is carrying on the tradition.

In the last few years, Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog has made one wrong forecast after another. The American tradition, which marked its 122^nd anniversary on 2 February, states that if on that day, if the groundhog leaves the burrow where he was hibernating and he sees his shadow, which happens if the sun is shining, spring is still a long way away.

Regardless of the groundhog, the weather in Russia is still colder than in the United States, even in Pennsylvania, a state in the north-east that is the home locale of all the Punxsutawney Phil groundhogs over the years. However, now, the two countries share a problem. The second stage of the economic crisis has set in, when unemployment requires more urgent attention than the banking system. The unemployment rate in the United States is the same as in other countries. In early 2008, it was 4.9 percent in the United States as compared to 7.2 percent today. In the European Union (EU), the figures are 6.8 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. In the estimate of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Russia also has up to 7 percent unemployed, just like in Europe and America.

The US administration’s measures are becoming increasingly “socialist”. For the time being, everything is concentrated around “Obama’s package”, which is worth almost 900 billion USD (32.641 trillion roubles. 701.46 billion euros. 623.43 billion UK pounds). The package was approved by the House last week, and should be endorsed by the Senate this week. It contains simple, but, smart measures, such as a long-term loan of 1,500 USD (54,454 roubles. 1,170 euros. 1,039 UK pounds) per capita for the purchase of a truck or car. Washington is hoping that even such a small sum will help restore the sales of US cars, which have fallen one-third as compared with these in 2007. Needless to say, this is somewhat different from the prohibitive car import duties that have been introduced in Russia. In effect, this is a reverse action aimed at supporting domestic car-makers, but, it will produce the same effect.

We will see the positive results of Obama’s package at the end of the year or later. However, analysts are already talking about the failure of the previous package by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. At the Davos World Economic Forum It was described as a “failure” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. His assessments of unexpected crises have been uncannily accurate. He said that the first 700 billion USD (25.412 trillion roubles. 546.21 billion euros. 484.89 billion UK pounds) given over to the banks was wasted, for they did not resume any loans. Professor Stiglitz likes the idea of setting up a special bank for problematic assets by buying them from the banks even less. As a result, they will simply run bankrupt, because banks are kept afloat by the problematic assets for which they may still get something in the future. Once again, we can draw unpleasant parallels with the EU and Russia, where banks are reluctant to issue loans, and nobody knows what to do with bad assets. Should they be written off as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested in Davos? What will happen with the banks in this case? That should be thoroughly analysed.

Professor Stiglitz doesn’t like Obama’s plan either. He explained that it would lead the United States to the third stage of the crisis, an unacceptable internal debt up to 10 trillion USD (363.029 trillion roubles. 7.803 trillion euros. 6.927 trillion UK pounds) and a budget deficit of 1.4 trillion USD (50.824 billion roubles. 1.092 billion euros. 970 million UK pounds). These figures are unprecedented since the end of World War II. Interest rates on this debt that will have to be paid to American creditors are a third problem (in addition to finances and unemployment). In this case, many nations, not only the Americans, will wish they could hibernate together with Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog for a long time to come, because the ideas of how to extricate themselves out of the crisis have been very similar everywhere so far.

2 February 2009

Dmitri Kosyrev

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090202/119930141.html (in English)

New Year’s Hit: Circus Show “Camelot”

The Zapashnykh brothers with one of their trained tigers

250,000 people, a number equal to a fairly-large European city, attended the New Year Circus Show Camelot in Moscow. It shall run from 27 December to 11 January. This show was the inspiration of the brothers Edgard and Askold Zapashnykh, two young performers who are the scions of a famous circus dynasty. As they are expert wild-animal trainers, their names are inscribed in the Guinness Book of World Records. Their signature feat is leaping onto the back of a lion. Energetic, talented, and driven, the Zapashnykh brothers are always looking for something new and unique. By all standards, their fantasy play Camelot is a one-of-a-kind spectacle!

“We went beyond the scope of the usual 13-metre (42-foot) ring, the traditional scope of the circus was too confining for us”, Askold stated, explaining why they had to stage this presentation in an enormous sport arena. “We can say, with great pride, that there is no analogue to Camelot in all of Russia. The circus, like all other kinds of show business, has to evolve, first of all, due to developments in other art-forms. We used the latest techniques to make a theatrical-circus spectacle with video-screens, pyrotechnics, laser effects, historical costumes, and even a water-tank with many-coloured fountains”.

100 performers and 70 trained animals perform stories from medieval epics. The Zapashnykh brothers, as in real life, play the roles of brothers, one of them symbolises the Bright Forces, whilst the other portrays the Dark Forces. The struggle of Good and Evil is treated seriously, and the tricks performed by the brothers seem beyond the reach of human possibility. For example, the brothers perform in a cage with 14 lions and tigers… why, no one in their right mind would dare to remain in close proximity to so many predators! Where else is it possible to meet polyglot parrots? The bright and handsome “parrots” (performers in costume) speak so many languages, from French to Chinese. In the battle scenes, the world-famous horse ménage directed by Mukhtarbek Kantemirov perform wonders. Well, in the water-tank, there are girls doing synchronised swimming garbed as “goldfish”. By the way, amongst them are some of our Olympic champions in synchronised swimming! Is it any wonder that the circus show Camelot became a real New Year’s hit in Moscow?

9 January 2009

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=96893&cid=24&p=09.01.2009 (in Russian)

The New Patriarch may Inherit Aleksei II’s Pets

Moscow, 15 December 2008 (Interfax):

The three dogs, an old red tomcat, canaries, peacocks, and swans that belonged to Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia are now left without their beloved owner. They may be handed over to a loving home or inherited by the next First Hierarch of the MP. “Until the Local Council convenes in late January, the pets will stay at Patriarch’s residence in Peredelkino near Moscow. So far, the nuns who have kept house for the patriarch are taking care of them. Maybe, the next patriarch will want to keep the pets, and, if not, there are several options where we can settle them”, Patriarch Aleksei’s spokesman told Interfax-Religion on Monday. He explained to us that the superiors of various convents and private individuals proposed to take the patriarch’s pets to their places, but, the new and still-unelected Patriarch will make a final decision about the pets.

Amongst Patriarch Aleksei’s favourites were the Pekinese dog Pusha, the pug-dog Kesha, and the white poodle Tusya. Tusya was presented to His Holiness by the children of Beslan. Pusha was the red cutie that TV viewers saw in the last interview of Patriarch Aleksei that was recently shown on television on the Pervy Kanal (First Channel) network. When the patriarch received guests, including journalists, Pusha was the first to greet them. He wagged his luxurious tail and “asked” those who he seemed to like most to take him in their arms. Now, the three dogs are going through the loss of their beloved master in their own doggy way. Patriarch Aleksei loved “our little brothers” and he appreciated their devotion and kindness. Nine years ago, at request of ecology activists, he appealed to the authorities, calling on them to stop the euthanasia of stray dogs and cats. In his interviews, His Holiness mentioned that his loving pets helped him to take his mind off his business. “I relax with them and escape from my daily routine”, he said.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=27882 (in Russian)

Polar Bear Day: A Celebration at the Perm Zoo

HELLO, FOOD!

The Perm Zoo had an unusual holiday. Hundreds of kids flocked to the city zoo to celebrate “Polar Bear Day” on 7 December. The young guests greeted the main heroes and centrepieces of the celebration, three white polar bears, which came to the zoo from the wild at different times. The enormous white predators became the stars of their own holiday not by accident, said Irina Zyryanova, a staff-member at the zoo. “In the first place, the polar bear is a worthy candidate for its own festival. They are rare, so, we had a literary contest and dedicated it to our bears. Well, secondly, the polar bear symbolises, as they say, when the snow is near, the winter is coming soon”.

Three of these large beasts live at the Perm Zoo. Two of them, Amderma, who is named after a city in the Russian Arctic, and Yukon, have mated and given birth to several cubs. One of their babies, a bear cub named Krai (Region), is now a permanent resident in a Japanese zoo. Zoological authorities distributed the remaining cubs to zoos in different countries. The polar bear Terpey remains unmated and lonely. He is named after a village in western Yakutia near the place where he was found. The emaciated little bear cub was at the point of death, but, he was sent to the Yakutsk Zoo, and international inspectors transferred him to the Perm Zoo.

“Polar Bear Day” became a happy occasion for all the participants. The young visitors not only brought presents for the bears, they also shared the fruits of their creative work, stories, poems, and tales of their own compositions dedicated to the polar bears, including their own drawings and performances. “All of them were participants in our previously-declared competition sponsored by our zoo”, continued Ms Zyryanova. “To speak frankly, we expected a smaller number of contestants. We had 193 entries, with not only active participation of children from the city, but, also from the surrounding oblast, and amongst them were very sweet poems and stories that touched us greatly”.

The Perm Zoo plans to hold “Animal Days” every year in early December. The hero of the next holiday will be another one of our animals other than the polar bears, Ms Zyryanova said. There is no shortage of candidates for the event, for there are more than 370 species of animals in the Perm Zoo, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals, of which more than forty are entered into the International Red Book [of endangered species].

12 December 2008

Yelena Kovachich

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=93216&cid=22&p=12.12.2008 (in Russian)

Priest from the Yaroslavl Oblast Saved Three Little Kittens from His Burning House

Yaroslavl, 3 December 2008 (Interfax):

Hieromonk Serapion Mitko, the head of the Diocese of Yaroslavl Missionary Department, whose house was set on fire by unknown arsonists late last week, saved his three little kittens from the fire. As he told our Interfax-Religion correspondent, he bought the kittens just a few days before the accident. “When the walls started burning, the kittens were sleeping in the kitchen rolled into a multicoloured ball, as usual. As I was leaving the house, I asked my driver to get them out of the house. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if those little critters had perished in the fire”, Fr Serapion said. Then, he remembered the words of Antoine de St Exupéry, “You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed”, and God’s instructions to Adam to preserve this world and all the animals he had named.

“I’ve always reflected upon the theological status of animals. We know that everything that breathes praises the Lord, but, people can’t understand how these creatures feel the Creator. This lack of understanding witnesses to our narrow minds and to the grandeur of God’s mystery of creation”, he said. Fr Serapion, who defended a thesis on ethics for his theological degree, reflected that one of the fundamental ethical problems is the suffering of animals. “We know that human suffering may help a person to achieve moral purification, but, we don’t know why animals suffer. From our human standpoint, the suffering of animals is senseless, which makes it even more terrible”, he believes. Fr Serapion called to mind the words of Russian poet Marina Tsvetayeva that the Lord didn’t exile animals from Paradise; they just followed man out of the Garden. He is convinced that “they live in quite a different dimension, where sin hasn’t penetrated yet or penetrates only through our fault. If we, people, expose animals to suffering through our sins, then, we must save them. We should treat animals in the same way we treat people, so that people wouldn’t treat each other like animals”.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=27601 (in Russian)

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin says the Lord shall Show His Mercy to All Our Departed Pets

Moscow, 18 November 2008, (Interfax):

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin urged believers not to grieve in vain over dead pets, but, to show their feelings through good deeds. “Give this situation to God. We don’t know what living creatures will surround us in the afterlife, but, we know that the Lord is merciful to all His living and breathing creatures. Rest assured, the Lord won’t leave any creature that lives with us and is dear to us without His mercy”, the Deputy Head of the MP Department for External Church Relations said in a live broadcast on the Russkoi Sluzhby Novostei (Russian News Service). According to Fr Vsevolod, “We often grieve over ourselves, over the people around us, and over our pets, whilst the natural state of a Christian is joy. Our grief over a dead pet can be shown in good deeds, for example, in our care for another living creature”, he advised. Thusly, he answered a woman who phoned in and told him that she grieved over the death of her favourite pet cat and that she couldn’t get over it.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=27363 (in Russian)

Bear Hugs!

Foreigners quite often use a bear personification to describe Russia and the connection is correct. The bear, like the biggest country in the world, is a huge animal that weighs between 100 to 700 kilos (220 to 1,543 pounds). If you squint your eyes the right way, Russia’s geographical shape on the map is quite similar to a bear’s silhouette. A bear was the symbol of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and the image of “Mishka” floating away into the sky after the Games will never be forgotten.

The roots of the bear connected to Russia go deep. The first time this image concerned Russia was in the 16th century, when bears were depicted as shield-bearers on the Muskovy Company emblem (an English company founded in 1596). There was no political colouring, just the attribute of mysterious Muscovites. In the 18th century, this image appeared in politics and represented some monstrous and aggressive creature from the East. In the heat of trade competition between Russia and Great Britain, the latter aimed to impose the most negative image of Russia on the world arena. Among the most significant political caricatures there were titles like “The Russian Bear and her invincible rider encountering the British Legion” and “From Russian Bears, Good Lord deliver me…” This usually shy animal was somehow depicted as cruel and ruthless. The perception of the bear is entirely different in Russia, and, as mentioned, was chosen as the symbol of the Olympics. It is also the symbol of the “United Russia” party.

We should remember that the bear is not a naturally aggressive animal. In fact, its diet is 75 percent vegetarian; the main part of their food intake consists of berries, roots, and sprouts. Still, brown bears may attack young deer, moose, and caribou, but, their prime choice is fish. Spending half of the year in hibernation, they are very lazy and prefer eating honey to hunting. Thus, the most intimidating thing about bears is their size. Surprisingly, these big creatures do not usually attack first, unless their cubs are threatened. Like the noble lion of the jungle, the bear is often regarded as king of the forest. The above statements are true of Russia as well. There is no aggressive bear here. All the negative perception of Russia is imposed on the West at every opportunity. A “Russian bear” is frequently used in the media to describe Russia, but, rarely in a favourable light. Recently, Jaak Aaviksoo, the Estonian Minister of Defence, commenting on the Russian-Georgian conflict, said that the behaviour of the Russian bear had deteriorated. Do you think “deteriorated behaviour” is Russia’s problem? It is more likely the answer. Punch in “Russian bear” into your Internet search engine and negative articles will pop up. But, Russia isn’t a hunter, it prefers a “vegetarian diet”; and it rarely kills people unless provoked. A brutal and clumsy animal has a different face.

The ties between Russia and the bear allegory are very close, but, there is more. Ironically, Russia’s current president has a “bear surname”. In Russian, “bear” is “medved”, and President Dmitri Anatolyevich’s surname is Medvedev (genitive of “medved”). Now, Russians can nod their heads in agreement when foreigners ask, “Are there bears on Red Square?”

19 September 2008

Daria Chernyshova

Moscow News

A Russian Briefer

http://www.mnweekly.ru/columnists/20080919/55347556.html (in English)

Prime Minister Putin Saves the Day… Literally!

These four photos say it all. On Sunday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was with a group of scientists in the Dalny Vostok (Russian Far East) and a Siberian tiger pounced on the scientists. Prime Minister Putin cooly picked up a tranquiliser gun and brought down the beast. He later helped the scientists to put a radio collar on the tiger. Vova brings down the tiger… Cheney shoots his friend on the hunt… Hmm… I know who I want at my back!

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Police Search for Runaway Lion in Russia’s Volga Area

Kazan, 26 August 2008 (RIA-Novosti):

Police are searching for a lion reported to have escaped from his owner in Russia’s Volga republic of Tatarstan, local rescuers said on Tuesday. “We believe that the lion ran away from a private home” in the villa community of Krasny Bor, a spokesman said. The rescuers said the lion was last seen near the city of Agryz. The animal is believed to have swum across the Kama River, a tributary of the Volga, and is hiding in a nearby village.

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080826/116277618.html (in English)

Moscow: One of the Greenest Cities in the World

Many consider Moscow to be one of the greenest cities of Europe. For every inhabitant of the city, there are 16 square metres of parks and gardens. Compare this to London or Paris, where the corresponding figure is only half of that. Within the Moscow city-limits, there are 111 protected nature preserves, amongst them the oldest national park, Losiny Island. One can see all the various flora and fauna native to the region in these nature preserves without officially leaving the city!

Natalia Brinza, the deputy chief of the Moscow Department for the Protection and Use of Nature Preserves, said, “Certainly, animals that live in forest preserves surrounded on all sides by a city with millions of inhabitants need human assistance. Where animals are overexposed to human contact, we render veterinary aid when it is needed. Just as our counterparts abroad do, we act in accordance with existing natural conservation laws to protect the wild natural areas in the capital region. We are developing and implementing a programme on the existing natural habitat so that we can increase the number of nature preserves, and, I must add, we actively collaborate with our foreign colleagues in this effort. In particular, we cooperate with the World Wildlife Fund and the Fund for Wild Nature, and we actively call upon their expertise when needed”.   

Ecologists in Moscow are actively breeding the most valuable and rare endangered animal and fish species. They use a series of special breeding areas where optimum conditions for reproduction are created. To supplement the fish stocks in the capital region’s reservoirs, they use so-called “floating houses” to aid in the breeding of rare forms of fish. Similar apparatus has already been used to aid endangered populations of Oka starlet, perch, yershei, Bychkov bullheads, and even three forms of molluscs. One should note that the various molluscs in our reservoirs play a special role in the life of our city. A single mollusc filters and cleans up to 40 litres of water a day! Therefore, the existence and maintenance of a viable mollusc population in the reservoirs is vitally necessary.

Technology to aid in avian reproduction has been worked out. It involves an automatic incubator for the nestlings and an insulated and heated winter shelter for birds. In the words of Aleksei Akhundov, the manager of the development section of the Moscow City Natural Conservation Department, “During the first stage of the project, we concentrated on the breeding of predatory bird species. Why was this necessary? Unfortunately, we have too many grey crows in Moscow. They do great damage to the natural habitat and attack the protected bird population there. However, we encouraged the growth of the predatory bird population, for they are a natural regulator to the grey crow population. Therefore, by encouraging the breeding rate of the predatory birds, we indirectly increased the habitat of the birds that dwell in the Moscow nature preserves”. Mr Akhundov went on to say that his programme is now breeding other species of birds. “Today, we encouraged the birth of 20 pheasants and peacocks using artificially-encouraged methods. In all, this year, we expect a generation of no less than 100 nestlings. Next year, we plan to begin work on encouraging the breeding of other avian species”.  

Specialists agree that rare and endangered animals have a good chance of increasing their populations in the nature preserves of the city. Over the next 12 years, it is planned to create almost 300 new parks, which shall mean that some 20 percent of the area of the city shall be in protected nature preserves. In all of these parks, the system for the artificial-encouragement of the breeding of endangered and disappearing animal species shall be extended.     

20 August 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=80998&cid=22&p=20.08.2008 (in Russian)