The other side of the village idyll. Continuation

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

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A number of comments were received on the material about children in the village. Remarks that are touching. Let's answer some.

A very typical and very delusional answer goes in the style of "You are all lying, I myself live in the village, we also have a pool for children and an ambulance goes to the children for 7 minutes." Do you think - what kind of village is it that there is even a swimming pool? You read on, and, well, yes - there is such a “village” 7 kilometers from the city, they go to this city to the pool, and the ambulance goes from there. Gentlemen! If you live 7, or even 15 kilometers from the city, then in fact your “village” is part of the urban agglomeration. Yes, the bad part, yes, the part where housing is cheaper and conditions are worse - but still a part. What is called suburbia in our states is suburbs. The suburbs will be better due to the availability of urban infrastructure. Ecology, accordingly, is also about “like in a city”. In fact, the only advantage of such a “village” is that housing there is cheaper (because no one needs combs, yes). It is not necessary to glorify the village life, just say - "there was not enough money for the center." And the question of where the ecology is worse, in a city or in such a “village” depends on the location of city dumps and the wind rose. It is often worse in such villages. Cottage villages on the site of landfills or aeration fields are a common thing today, yes.

The next and also touching commentary - “well, think, the child fell down or eats badly there, think clubfoot or later begins to say that right away to run to an orthopedist or speech therapist, there is iodine and brilliant green and this is enough for all occasions”. What can I say. My children are dear to me. When my child gained weight poorly in infancy, I went to the clinic and talked to the pediatrician (it turned out, it's okay). When I did not like how the pediatrician of our section conducts the appointment, I wrote an application to the polyclinic and we began to visit another pediatrician. Some of my friends took the child to a speech therapist because they spoke poorly. Others go to an orthopedist - clubfoot. Almost everyone hired a children's massage therapist. And yes - private clinics are also visited by acquaintances, in case of need. Because my friends' children are welcome and beloved. And here, in all seriousness, there are comments - "oh well, there is a paramedic in the first-aid post, if he is not drunk, he will cure." Thanks Dr. Evil, thanks for the advice. Of course, he will also work as a speech therapist as a speech therapist, drill out a tooth, and do an analysis for worms. The ability to choose a doctor is a huge advantage of the city. Although if your child is not desired and not loved, then iodine will be enough.

And yes, there are also comments from the parallel universe - “what prevents the establishment of medicine in the countryside?”. Well, how can I say - it may be that the demanded specialist will not go to the village, and there may be no rates for a dentist or orthopedist in the village hospital.

And yes - how not to accuse the author of Russophobia? If the author does not write that the village is inhabited by elves who poop with a rainbow, then he is a xenophobe and hates the village children. So, about the children. There are more intelligent children - and there are more stupid. There are children of normal parents - and there are children of the lumpen. There are such in the city - and in the village there are. The difference between them in the village and in the city is that in the village everyone is forced to study together. And in the city there is a choice. Private kindergarten - or general (and there are several in common with a choice). Community school for everyone in the village. And a choice of a dozen schools in the city, And even at the level of classes of the same parallel in an urban school can make a class with a mathematical bias - and a class for weak children (who reads badly). And in the village, the mathematician and the lagging behind will sit at the same desk in any case.

They also write about what a drug addict can do in the city of a child. Gentlemen! The author's half of the class drank himself to death right after leaving school. Literally that's 50%. No drugs.

And here are some very good comments - “I grew up in a village and was happy. True, it was in the 80s. People are good, everyone knows each other. Favorite teachers. I can do a lot with my own hands. This is a very fine and revealing opinion. Because I also grew up in the 80s and then found myself in the 90s. And I understand what the person is writing about. In the 80s there was work and collective farms subsidized. In the 80s, people worked and the work kept them. In the 90s, collective and state farms collapsed, and the work in the village became very bad. The smartest ones left, the lumpen remained, and many of the smart ones drank themselves and became lumpen. People from good turned into survivors. Those who did not find this remember the painful childhood with dear and familiar people. Those who found them have somewhat different memories.

There are also comments about agricultural work: “By the way, when we were taken out to the collective farm fields, we liked it. At the end they brought sweets, and then we went to the planting to bake potatoes.” Again, out of dozens of my friends in Russia, not a single one liked agricultural work. Everyone hated - both public and private. And moreover, I also have a non-Russian acquaintance, a native of Uzbekistan. Here, in exactly the same terms, a person speaks of children's work on cotton - in abusive terms.

There are also opinions from an alternative reality. “Tupolev, Miguel de Cervantes and the master Yoda grew up in the village, and thanks to this they became famous people.” - Maybe they still became famous people because they left the village? And if Tupolev had stayed in the village, he would have planted potatoes.

Well, then I will still tell you a little about ecology, about crime in the village and about snow removal and about the real practice of ancestral nests. To be continued.

Part 5 - is ecology in the countryside better than medicine in the city?

There are unsightly villages. There are cute ones. And there are breathtakingly beautiful ones. This village was just like a Photoshop picture. Several houses in the taiga among the mountains. I stood somewhat dazed and could not stop looking at it. Much later, I happened to see the sunsets of Bali, and the glaciers of Patagonia, and the sunrise at Kilimanjaro, and the Iguazu Falls in Brazil - but to this day I count that taiga village among the most beautiful places in the world.

I was there for work for several days, and tried to walk and admire as much as possible. And somehow, in a conversation with a local colleague, expressing my admiration, I heard in response: “Yes, very beautiful. But the ecology, apparently, is bad. People get sick often, die early, and many get sick with cancer."

Then I took it uncritically. Well, yes, the ecology is bad. A little later I thought - why? Why can there be bad ecology where there are no harmful emissions by default? There are not many cars in the village. There is no production in the village. And there is no production of 100 kilometers around at least (but rather a lot more). The only thing there is a hydroelectric power station. But the hydroelectric power station does not produce harmful emissions.

Exactly the same thing happened in my native village. The village was a hundred kilometers from the nearest town. Moreover - not just a hundred kilometers, but a hundred kilometers, filled with numerous hills. That is, the harmful emissions of the city should not have reached exactly. Moreover, there was no special production in the nearest town either. There was only one factory in the village. Fish factory. That is, the most environmentally friendly plant possible, a fish breeding plant. That is, ecology - you can't imagine better. And people got sick and died early.

Perhaps, I thought, our climate is not very good. It’s not the south, the winter is harsh, so the body can’t stand it. But my wife is from the Krasnodar Territory. From the village. Also, no production, nothing poisoning nature. Exactly the same story - a lot of people get sick, die early. Relatives from the Kostroma region - and the picture is absolutely the same. Although villages and ecology, it would seem.

But this is all lyrics and subjectivity, you say. I take special cases and pass them off as general ones. Okay, let's turn to statistics. And what do we see? The life expectancy of the urban population is (suddenly) higher than that of the rural population. Not to say that at times - but for two years. Although in the city dirty air and reagents are poured onto the sidewalk by Asian janitors, and in the village fresh milk (it is good to have a house in the village!) And the air at least cut with a knife and in general the preservation of age-old foundations and precepts of ancestors.

This whole song about the usefulness of life in the countryside has been going on in our country since the century before last. When statistics showed that there are many long-livers in the Caucasus mountains. Later, Soviet scientists discovered that many centenarians are still in the Pamirs (and the Americans discovered that they are also in the mountains of Peru and Pakistan). However, as the famous British scientist Zhores Medvedev (we also know him as a pop historian) dryly notes, "the theory of mountain longevity did not stand up to serious scientific examination." Medvedev himself was born in Georgia, so he writes with knowledge of the subject. A person does not want to go to war, he takes the documents of his deceased dad (grandfather), and now he is non-recruited, and he has a pension (you say that Medvedev is an anti-Soviet - well, he wrote exactly the same thing about Ecuadorian village centenarians, for example).

But who is Medvedev? Maybe he's just lying out of anger? Well, here's the official Georgian statistics - life expectancy is 72 years. But the statistics of Moscow - - life expectancy is 76.7 years. That is, even according to official Georgian data, people live 5 years less in this industrial-free republic with clean air than in gas-polluted Moscow, and practically as long as in Russia (71.4). According to Medvedev, life expectancy in the Caucasus and in the 70s was less than in Russia, and all the achievements are simply a consequence of the ease with which documents are forged.

To summarize. When they tell you from the screens that it is good to have a house in the village, the purity of the village ecology and the Caucasian (Alpine) healing mountain air without emissions, they forget to tell you how much the village ecology and conditions are useful for life. The ecology is so useful, the village life (digging potatoes and throwing snow with a shovel, yes) is so useful that the villagers live at least a couple of years less. And the gas pollution in Moscow is so killing people that even according to official figures, they live five years longer than in the crystal clear mountains of Georgia.

Well, then I will still talk about crime in the village and about snow removal and about the real practice of ancestral nests. To be continued.

Part 6 - "What are you, not a man or what?"

Reviews are received for a small cycle about village life. There is a group of reviews that I would single out as a special subsection. And he called them “What are you, not a man or what ??”.

For example - “yes, in the village you need to clean the snow. Yes, most, yes, with a shovel. But I'm cleaning! Can't you clean the snow yourself, aren't you a man or something?"

“Yes, in the village you have to organize a warm toilet yourself. But I will organize. Yes, it’s business, to dig a hole, fill up chemicals, lay pipes, and it’s better than in the city. I will dig, I'm not afraid to work with my hands. What are you afraid of, are you not a man or what?"

“Yes, the education in the village is crap. But I myself and my children study on an individual program, they are the winners of the galactic Olympiads now. It’s not difficult for them to read molecular chemistry, teach ancient Greek literature, and learn Chinese, and I’m talking about nuclear physics at breakfast. It's not difficult for me, I'm a man. Is it difficult for you?"

“Yes, the roads in the village are shit, well, yes, we ourselves and the men poured gravel, then we ordered an asphalt paver, we chipped in money, we bought and poured the asphalt, the road is even better than in the city. Why can't you do that, isn't it a man or something?”.

“Yes, medicine in the village is shit, but what prevents good medicine from being organized? Masons, or what? It's not difficult. (I would organize, I’m a man, only I’m busy, I’m pounding on forums)”.

Well, and a great many more equally valuable statements. Somehow I involuntarily recall the Soviet army proverb - “two soldiers from the construction battalion are replacing an excavator”. A peasant in the village, judging by the individual statements of such citizens, can also successfully replace an excavator and a dozen more specialists: a janitor, a doctor, a teacher and a plumber.

Now let's digress a little from the village and remember a couple of old stories. The first story is about the famous traveler Tour Heyerdahl. When Tour decided to repeat the route of the ancient people and swim across the Atlantic on a raft made of reeds, some zealots remarked to him: "But you will cook food on a kerosene stove, and not like ancient people." To which the tour replied: “I am sailing on a raft. It is difficult and dangerous. I do not see any sense at the same time to exercise in making fire by friction”.

Another story is about Henry Ford. Ford noticed that at his work real men were doing complex and unique operations - each all at once. It occurred to Ford that everyone can only do a small area. As it turned out, as a result of the division of labor and the introduction of the conveyor, the output of the plant increased, and the salaries of the workers also increased (although the conveyor is a dirty word, yes).

And returning to the question of what a peasant should do in the village. I can remove the snow - I am not old and quite efficient. I can dug a toilet after studying the project, and the stove, probably, after some trial and error, will completely fold. I can take the time to figure out Portuguese and teach it to my kids. And I can probably even agree on the construction of the road, having collected a certain amount of money. Unless I myself am unlikely to cut out appendicitis, there are doubts.

But! I make my living with a few other things. I'm good at these things. I have achieved today's level of professionalism over the years, and it takes me time and effort to maintain and develop this level. I work hard and hard - I am in demand as a specialist. For the same, to throw snow - for this, both me and the Asian janitor are enough. An Asian will be even better - he has more experience. And his head is not busy with working moments (as almost always with me).

Exactly in the same way, I can quite plant and dig up potatoes - but for today I’ll earn several times more with my head, and I’ll buy potatoes in the store. Well, yes - the work does not leave much time for digging potatoes. All these commentators - they seem to be not working at all. And few imagine the state when you are doing what you love, and there is no time even to go piss and dine. And not like leaving the snow for a couple of hours, then digging holes, and then working on the residual principle. And yes - I'm healthy. If I were retired, digging potatoes would not even be a torment - a curse. It is excruciatingly difficult for pensioners and single women to live in the countryside.

And for physical activity - yes, physical activity in the form of digging potatoes does not attract me. Running in the stadium is useful and enjoyable. Digging potatoes - personally, I do not find pleasure in this. As well as the overwhelming majority of fellow citizens. As it is sung in the song of the group "Leningrad":

This song contains the whole attitude of a person to work in the role of a tractor. A person still has to specialize in some things. And to live a subsistence economy following the example of cat downshifters - you need to have very specific interests in life. If you don't have such interests, if you don't like digging potatoes and digging toilets, then maybe this is okay?

Well, then I will still talk about crime in the village and about the real practice of family nests. To be continued.