Forget about safety precautions, the government just gave everyone at the plant early retirement at 40 because it was thought that if they worked longer than this in these conditions it would be fatal.
It is sad to meet young smart good looking men who seem as though they should have it all but can't hold a job because they are always drunk.
There was a family I had dinner with whose mother, who is a doctor, found she had a tumor in the last six months since I was there, she is probably 45. Another young woman doctor at her clinic who my girlfriend knows has blood cancer. It just seems as though I know too many people who have these strange ailments. It is frightening.
It isn't as though I know a HUGE amount of people there. It seems too many people are sick. Now it seems they are being hit by AIDS.
It is sort of funny, the medical treatment is crazy there. My girlfriend broke her foot, she went to the hospital and they put a cast on it. Then they just sent her out the door without giving her crutches, a wheel chair or anything. She had to hop home. The bank where her sister works in Moscow keeps a pair of crutches at their office for employs how break bones. They all share the crutches when they need them. It seems the doctors don't think to offer this. Now her mom broke her foot and this old lady is hopping around the apartment
It does seem the people in Moscow are doing okay.
Sorry for my delay... busy have I been.
I recall seeing the evidence of tragedy all about too. To me, it was a land of extremes. Extremely rich and extremely poor; extremely honest yet extremely corrupt. The beggers there looked nothing like the often well fed American beggers. The Russian beggers were prematurely old, looking 60 yet having a young child in tow; missing many teeth and not in bath in quite a while. It was very sad to witness.
It seemed that, in many ways, Russia should be more like America than Europe, in terms of the challenges it faces. Vast undeveloped spaces with concentrated population centers, diverse populations, and we didn't detect any religious hostility as one does in Europe.
As far as the weird hospital behavior you cite, I gather that doctors are held in low esteem there, and are certainly not well paid. Perhaps that might have something to do with the crutch situation... they just didn't have any.
Anyhow, I keep the Russians in my prayers. The people we dealt with were phenomenal. Poor as they were, I get the impression they'd give you the shirt off their back. But the corruption elsewhere was quite visible.