British tabloid The Sun is perplexed: despite sanctions, food and heating in Russia is cheaper, than in the UK. And for persuasiveness, I even made a comparative infographic. The author of the article noted, that while the British are coping with the cost of living crisis, Russians “load their carts to the top with groceries” at half the price.
No no, I'm not going to talk about the decaying West. Not in this case. I was interested in something else. There are a lot of foreigners living with us now, much more, than after the war, when the former allies lowered the first iron curtain. They keep video blogs about their life in Russia, share their impressions, compare. In its turn, our people also live in European countries, also conduct video blogs and also compare. Most often not in favor of the West, although I, eg, understandably, it's all very, very subjective.. Disappointment comes only to those, who believes, that they are the same, like us, only there is more order. Actually, they are completely different. Not bad and not good, but just others. The French are different from the Germans, Danes from Spaniards, and the Greeks from the Poles. And everyone is different from Russians. Measure everyone with the same standard, as we used to, simply unacceptable - distorts the picture. And I don't really understand people, who, with their habits, are trying to fit into a foreign world. I have a Muscovite friend who left for Sweden thirty years ago with her three daughters., children already speak Russian with an accent. And everything would be nothing, but then the eldest daughter married a girl last year. Shock and Awe. Excruciatingly painful for the aimlessly spent years abroad. Yes, we are different, and sometimes drastically. It just needs to be accepted and remembered.. And it's better not to leave the tour bus unnecessarily., and go to museums and the most beautiful places, where are you being taken to?. Or limit yourself to your all-inclusive hotel and beach area. In order not to spoil the impression. Let the memories of the vacation remain cheerful and cheerful. But there are some objective criteria, by which it is still possible to compare their lives and ours. maybe, access to medicine. Or roads, which are getting better every year.. May be, number of homeowners, Internet access, heating and water prices. It's hard for me to judge, for I have never lived abroad for long, I'm just using other people's opinions. From my point of view, Multifunctional centers, where you can get 80-90 percent of documents and certificates without queues to officials - a great invention, about which foreigners know nothing, because this is our internal affairs, tourists don't use it.. A kind of non-contact method of communicating with bureaucrats, which has recently become commonplace for us. But I think, they would be surprised, what way out did we come up with, and would like to learn from our experience. That is, I want to say, what the sun, comparing the prices of products in our and their stores, makes the same mistake, which we did massively, living in the Soviet Union: they are a little jealous of us, peering through the cracks in the iron curtain and trying to understand, how do we rot here. And suddenly they see, that propaganda and real life differ radically. Although this is just one criterion, not the most objective. Sooner or later they, if they want, get to the bottom of the central heating, which they don't have, and we are everywhere, even in warm places, and to video cameras at polling stations, which they will never have. maybe, start asking questions that are unpleasant for their own authorities, as we used to ask, listen in kitchens and pubs to the stories of those, who "came back from the cold". And a little bit to rethink the existing reality. Fortunately, with the Internet working, the iron curtain cannot be tight and reliable.. Let be, of course, to start comparing prices in supermarkets. The thing is useless, but expands my horizons.
