RusLife Online 9/17/98
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The following is an editorial by Mikhail Ivanov, editor of 
Russian Life magazine. To save resources and not send 
everyone a huge email file, we are just sending you the first 
few paragraphs, plus a link to the Russia Today website, 
which is posting the entire editorial.

continued at the website:

http://www.russiatoday.com
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Beatlemania
by Mikhail Ivanov

I didn't have a chance to attend Ringo Starr's solo concert in 
Moscow on Aug. 25, but I'm told, despite the economic crisis, 
the Moscow public enjoyed Ringo's performance and even 
sang along with the Beatles' classic "Yellow Submarine." 

By a dreadful coincidence, a few days later "we all lived" 
(vicariously) in a submarine seized by a terrorist with a 
disturbed psyche. After shooting eight of his mates, 19-year-
old marine Alexander Kuzminykh barricaded himself in a 
torpedo compartment and threatened to blow up the vessel.
Had he succeeded in his plans, the whole world could have
faced a nuclear disaster on the scale of Chernobyl. 
Luckily -- if this word is at all pertinent here -- Kuzminykh 
shot himself in the head as commandos from Spetsnaz began 
storming the compartment. 

Kuzminykh's behavior showcases the complete disintegration 
of all Russia's state institutions, including the army. First, it is 
clear that due to severe shortages of young conscripts, the 
medical screening of draftees has grown lax, thus allowing the 
likes of Kuzminykh to serve in the fleet in Murmansk. 

Second, Kuzminykh's alleged mental problems (he earned the 
reputation of a maniac because of his bullying of his mates) 
were aggravated by the latest stress the whole country is 
faced with. Gennady Tsvetko, the mayor of Skalisty, where 
the incident took place, says Russia's economic crisis has had 
a double impact on submarine crews.

"We used to serve our homeland," he told Kommersant Daily, 
"now the whole country doesn't give a damn, so the guys just 
lose control as they find themselves in this closed space and 
suffer from months-long separation from their families ... this 
can lead to dreadful consequences."

So Ringo, the idol of my adolescent years, arranged his 
concert program just right. Yet, as the events in Russia are 
unfolding, I just wish the Beatles' drummer had picked a 
better hit.
 
I mean, of course, "Back in the USSR." 

For all my respect for Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's 
professionalism and firm foreign policy course, his promise to 
"fill reforms with great social meaning" leaves me with my 
guard up. .....


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Note from Wendell Solomons

The Russian economy has been rendered completely dependent on the
IMF by the work of the disciples of Friedman. On Sept 10th the
Administrator of USAID in Washington told the Council of Foreign
Relations about the challenge posed to IMF resources and suggests
a reworking of the present Friedmanist direction of U.S.AID work.
The Adminstratior even quoted from the previous week's Durban/SA
economic agenda of the 113 nation Non-Aligned Summit where a prime
mover was Sri Lanka's Chandrika Kumaratunga.

In Russia, Yeltsin's choice of new PM Primakov from 5 or more
candidates reckons with IMF and US State Department opinion whereas
the RusLife comment still seems steeped in the now patently tested,
anarcho-mercantilism of Freidman.

You will find the URL below is useful in dissecting the beliefs which
quite resemble cult articles of faith which have let Friedmanists take
the world so very close to disaster.

http://www.scruznet.com/~kangaroo/L-nosociety.htm
   
   Myth: There's no such thing as society... only individuals and
   families.
   
   Fact: Two or more people in a cooperative relationship form
   a society by definition. Summary Whenever two or more people enter any
   sort of cooperative relationship, the result is by definition a social
   group. Group survival is much more effective and efficient than
   individual survival, but coordinating group survival results in a need
   for social policy. The market is not truly a place where individuals
   can act freely and without constraint, because markets are social
   institutions, and the parameters of legal behavior on the market are
   set by social agreement. Argument "There's no such thing as
   society" British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once declared.
   "There are individual men and women and there are families."



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