Someone wrote and produced a retelling of this story as an opera. It was hilarious.
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-ma...
Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
111–120 of 378 posts
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
My grandfather was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and lived there as a child through the Nazi siege. In the 40's and 50's in the USSR he and his friends saw through the propaganda and knew that things in the US were much better. But you know what's strange? He lives in NJ now, he's been there for the last 25 years. He watches Russian state TV and also CNN and thinks he gets both perspectives. When Russia inv…
What has you convinced you’re not falling for propaganda on Ukraine — that it’s him who is wrong?
Well, one year long invadion should give you a hint. Detaining people for calling it war instead of "special operation" is another one. Calling other neighbours "fake/artificial" countries is another bad sign that Russia's intentions are not good.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Then he saw the bananas. He really wanted bananas. He wouldn't ask for bananas. So I grabbed a bunch and put them in the basket. > "Are you rich?" No. I have a good student job. "Are your parents in government?" No. My dad's dead; Cassie's dad is a doctor in another state. "Anyone can shop here?" Absolutely. In multiple communist countries in Eastern Europe, bananas were special because they only came ~once a year…
For worker class in Russia, it is super common to own (as opposed to rent) your own apartment and also own a country house ("dacha"). You may be otherwise piss-poor, wage wise. The supermarkets has improved greatly though - not quite the USA level, but on par with Western Europe or sometimes slightly better (more chains, easier to eat healthy)
Today, sure. In USSR, no apartment was privately owned, though. You were assigned one "according to your needs" - e.g. when I was a kid, my extended family of 5 (me, my parents, and my mom's parents) had a two-bedroom apartment of 48.5 m^2 total, 27.2 m^2 of which was the two bedrooms. To give an idea of the size, here's the floor layout of that exact series of apartment buildings:
https://i.imgur.com/ImxdsUG.jpeg
(Note that there are multiple apartments shown here - every "3K", "2K", or "1K" corresponds to one apartment with that many bedrooms. The "fraction" after that shows the total area and the combined bedroom area of each apartment in m^2.)
I think the best way to describe that arrangement was a "no-cost rent". You only had to pay utilities, and you couldn't have it taken away from you arbitrarily. But e.g. selling it or even renting it out would be impossible (legally; the black market existed regardless), nor could it be inherited.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#114It's naive to imagine Yeltsin's mind was really changed by a spontaneous visit. He didn't have intelligence on what a US supermarket was like? The premiere of a superpower just randomly decided to visit a grocery store? No. Yeltsin was contemplating reforms and changes and wanted to collect a political tool he could later user if needed. He knew exactly how this visit would go, and it was intended so he could use it…
It can be both. You can know intellectually that the Americans have a higher standard of living than Russians, and still be surprised by what that really means, at a practical level, for ordinary people.
Right, and also why would he care so much about grocery stores in America when he's in Russia and reviewing military and diplomatic intel about the US? "They have grocery stores that have more items than our stores" - boring. "A US diplomat was arrested and released in Latin America for something he did while drunk" - interesting.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#115It appears that the situation in Russia is much improved and Boris would likely feel the transition he initiated brought them close to parity in terms of availability and variety:
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#116I dunno about Yeltsin and the Houston store, but I do know this: I went on a student tour of the USSR as a college student in 1991, arranged through my University (U of Alabama). I was getting a minor in Russian language, and it seemed like a fun trip. It actually got MORE fun because in the run-up to the trip (in spring, 91) there was some dissent in the USSR and many parents wouldn't let their kids go. In order to…
There's a YouTube channel of a Cuban immigrant visiting some American commercial institutions for the first time...
Supermarket - https://youtu.be/aBA41QgIty8
Costco - https://youtu.be/UhzQCeKlFDo
Texas Roadhouse - https://youtu.be/xRtitCJv4cc
Home Depot - https://youtu.be/TLsscvpsH8E
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
What has you convinced you’re not falling for propaganda on Ukraine — that it’s him who is wrong?
Well, one year long invadion should give you a hint. Detaining people for calling it war instead of "special operation" is another one. Calling other neighbours "fake/artificial" countries is another bad sign that Russia's intentions are not good.
People were not detained in the USA for using the wrong nomenclature to describe the Iraq invasion, and yet that was also an unspeakably cruel, venal war of cynical aggression knowingly perpetrated on laughably false pretenses. To this day roughly half of Americans think it was the right move - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/19/iraq-war-co...
So I don't think factors like that are so good at separating "good" invasions from "bad" ones.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#118[dead]
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#119It's naive to imagine Yeltsin's mind was really changed by a spontaneous visit. He didn't have intelligence on what a US supermarket was like? The premiere of a superpower just randomly decided to visit a grocery store? No. Yeltsin was contemplating reforms and changes and wanted to collect a political tool he could later user if needed. He knew exactly how this visit would go, and it was intended so he could use it…
It's one thing to know something, it's another to actually see it first hand.
Re: Boris Yeltsin's visit to a suburban Houston supermarket in 1989 (2016)
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
My grandfather was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and lived there as a child through the Nazi siege. In the 40's and 50's in the USSR he and his friends saw through the propaganda and knew that things in the US were much better. But you know what's strange? He lives in NJ now, he's been there for the last 25 years. He watches Russian state TV and also CNN and thinks he gets both perspectives. When Russia inv…
Considering Iraq invasion and how it was "presented" at the time everything is possible but it's hard to me to understand how can someone trust an authoritan regime lead by someone like Putin. I think some people are just pissed off and try to find something against the system that treated them "unfairy"
Not sure if this provides any insight to you, but FWIW my grandfather is not pissed off. He's one of the most easy-going, happy-go-lucky people I know. He doesn't really care a whole lot about the conflict, those are just his conclusions from what he's seen. And he has interests in life outside of what's covered on news programs, he just likes to keep up with the news, as do most normal people.
As to how anyone can trust the regime, if the only information you consume is what's curated by the regime, and if interesting-but-crtical views are not pushed forward, your thinking will be skewed. This is human nature.
I think this exchange between Lex Fridman and a girl who fled from North Korea is very interesting: https://youtu.be/usDqSEKDVsA?t=562