"Da svidaniya, Moscow"
Apr. 3rd, 2005 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournI'm packing and waiting to get a ride to the airport with the rest of the ATI people hosting me at KRI. My overall impression of Russia is a mix. KRI was attended by energetic, well-educated young people with a lot of passion for their work. I was impressed by the huge volume of quality games they manage to crank out despite a really rough financial/funding model.
Yet talking with locals, the current government is not serious about reform. Putin is working on "command-economy capitalism", and the bureaucracy is as strong here now as it was in Soviet times. A lack of accountability is also at the heart of so much of Russian's elite, the media sits around for days waiting until President Putin tells them what is going on, and deaths from accidents or government actions are just not explained or accurately documented.
Muscovites know how to party, and love to celebrate to excess. From my talk with someone who regularly deals with Russian businessmen, many of them party to excess on a regular basis. They live and party hard here, a hardness that reflects the hardness of life in Russia. Throughout their history, they've often dealt with invaders by burning down Moscow and retreating, letting the harsh winter and starvation defeat their opponents while they themselves suffer. And Russians know how to suffer.
While I was surprised at the number of young women developers working in the Russian game industry, the role of women here is a bit disturbing. It seems that other than motherhood, the choice of careers for them are really limited. If they are attractive and youthful, they can be 'entertainment' in the form of strippers, prostitutes, waitresses, or other client-relations works. If they aren't, mopping floors that people are constantly walking on or collecting cash for port-o-johns in the park or acting as human safety monitors in the subways is about it. Then again, Moscow is a terribly expensive place to live and jobs are scarce country-wide.
Despite all this, there is a vibrancy to Moscow. There were huge crowds at the shopping districts enjoying leisure time. The subways were busy even late on a Sunday night with people of all ages rushing about the city. Police seemed to present, but not oppressively so, everywhere I went. They have a long way to go to get their economy in shape and to distribute the hyper-concentrated wealth of the country, but when and if they pull it off this place will be a dynamo.
Years of bureaucracy here has made people stamp-happy. Not just government documents, even receipts at hotels have 'official stamps'.
Anyhow, I'm off to queue up at the airport and suffer the long waits required to get my 'get the hell out of Russia' stamp.
Yet talking with locals, the current government is not serious about reform. Putin is working on "command-economy capitalism", and the bureaucracy is as strong here now as it was in Soviet times. A lack of accountability is also at the heart of so much of Russian's elite, the media sits around for days waiting until President Putin tells them what is going on, and deaths from accidents or government actions are just not explained or accurately documented.
Muscovites know how to party, and love to celebrate to excess. From my talk with someone who regularly deals with Russian businessmen, many of them party to excess on a regular basis. They live and party hard here, a hardness that reflects the hardness of life in Russia. Throughout their history, they've often dealt with invaders by burning down Moscow and retreating, letting the harsh winter and starvation defeat their opponents while they themselves suffer. And Russians know how to suffer.
While I was surprised at the number of young women developers working in the Russian game industry, the role of women here is a bit disturbing. It seems that other than motherhood, the choice of careers for them are really limited. If they are attractive and youthful, they can be 'entertainment' in the form of strippers, prostitutes, waitresses, or other client-relations works. If they aren't, mopping floors that people are constantly walking on or collecting cash for port-o-johns in the park or acting as human safety monitors in the subways is about it. Then again, Moscow is a terribly expensive place to live and jobs are scarce country-wide.
Despite all this, there is a vibrancy to Moscow. There were huge crowds at the shopping districts enjoying leisure time. The subways were busy even late on a Sunday night with people of all ages rushing about the city. Police seemed to present, but not oppressively so, everywhere I went. They have a long way to go to get their economy in shape and to distribute the hyper-concentrated wealth of the country, but when and if they pull it off this place will be a dynamo.
Years of bureaucracy here has made people stamp-happy. Not just government documents, even receipts at hotels have 'official stamps'.
Anyhow, I'm off to queue up at the airport and suffer the long waits required to get my 'get the hell out of Russia' stamp.
