Remembering Samantha Smith - Journey to Maine

[peacetraveler22]

Hello dear readers! I know many of you voted for me to travel to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but unfortunately finances are tight and airfare there too expensive. So, in a week, I'll return to my beloved Maine and go on another road journey to New England. During the trip, I plan on meeting with Samantha Smith's mother in Boothbay Harbor. What questions do you want me to ask her?

I've had no time for the blog recently due to a hectic work and life schedule. :(  However, next week I'll show you "good Russia," with stories about Kazan and Ples from the winter journey. In the meantime, please let me know what questions you have for Samantha's mom. I'm happy I can finally leave the office for a week, meet with her, and relax in the beautiful surroundings of cozy New England. Does the younger generation in Russia know about Samantha's legacy? How do they learn about her? Or, is she mostly known to those who grew up during the Soviet period? I think her mother will be interested in knowing these facts. :) Have a nice weekend!

Comments

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

You don't remember anything from Soviet times? You are about ten years younger than me. :)

[pin-gwin.livejournal.com]

I remember her story in the development, it was great demonstration of good will and simple effort to change things for better. Unfortunately, she was writing to Andropov only. From my point of view ( well confirmed by recent decades) she should be considering of what her country was doing wrong as well. Now, her legacy - unfortunately, things did not change much. I am deeply concerned, for instance, by the activities of the organisations like this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_Democracy
They are spending out tax money to support a very questionable organisations abroad with no public control over the spendings, goals and personalities receiving these grants. It is government, tax money, laundered over private fund... Soft power in action to promote democracy or corruption? What do they bring to these countries? Chaos, I think, pursuing a single world power influence everywhere, dressed in democracy suite. Leading should be done by example, not by bribing or enforcement.
After all these years, it would be very interesting to know her mom thoughts, thanks for doing it. I may also suggest to ask your reader what questions they would like to be asked...

[sineglazzka2301.livejournal.com]

I remember reading about Samantha at school (in English coursebooks, mostly). I suppose that nowadays young people don't know her name, but then, they don't know much about the USSR as well. I think, it would be almost impossible to explain this to my children, how it feels when other countries are like other planets.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Children can't begin to understand the intricacies of foreign policy and global affairs. They mostly see only good and bad. In the post, I did ask readers what questions they want me to ask. :) Personally, I'm curious if Samantha's mom follows current events in Russia, so many years after her daughter made an impact there. You don't think think any country should serve as "world" police to try to maintain stability?

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

The Soviet Union was not so long ago. :) It seems strange that children have so quickly forgotten about it, but I guess it's common in all countries for kids to focus only on the present realities. I still feel like Russia is "another planet" sometimes, despite my numerous visits to the country. :)) But, it's good that we live in a much more open world now. I can't imagine that only a few decades ago it would have been almost impossible for me to visit there.

[jon-quille.livejournal.com]

Good question. I remember some things from the time of the USSR-fall. Since I was 5 or 4. But you know, it was a childhood and childhood is always bright and happy. We tend to forget bad things. Though I remember long queues in shops, lack of goods, poverty all around. I remember really good the weeks during which USSR came to its end - parents watched TV all the time - pairlament sessions, news &c.

When I went to school the USSR did not exists. It faded away really fast with all its crazy ideology, pioneers, komsomol and stuff. Though the socieity I lived in was able to preserve a few nice things from that times that helped me a lot. The best one was the sense of equaltiy, - of equal rights and equal opportunities, free education &c. I was able to attend a really good school that specialised in foreign languages (German since the beginning and after a few years English added), and then enter a college and after that the University. And I managed to finish my education in a short period between ideologies - when the Soviet one died and the modern one still did not exist. Don't know if I were so fond of that time if they added ideology to my schedule.

I have also a ver bright memory from my childhood. I went to my grandma, to the village. One day our neighbour came crying. She just received a letter from the government. About her father. He was a farmer and did not want to give up his farm and enter a collective one (kolkhoz). Not a way soviet people should live. Sho he was put into prison many years ago and died there. And now that letter told that her father is innocent and was imprisoned by mistake. She and my grandma cried together sitting in the garden. It was morning. Warm sunshine. Birds singing. And two old women crying in front of me. I remember that morning in every detail and this is one of the most terrible recollections I have.

[seadevil001.livejournal.com]

Are you driving up there? Or flying into Augusta?

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

We're driving, but staying in Portsmouth New Hampshire. :)

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for sharing these memories, esp. the last paragraph. Really emotional, moving and fresh, as if it happened yesterday. I'm glad you were able to receive a good education, without neuroses or ideology. I strongly dislike the education system in the USA, esp. at the university and graduate school level. It's more like a "business," with the end goal of making money. I don't think education should be so expensive. Overall, this is bad for society.

[pin-gwin.livejournal.com]

No, I do not think that a role of world police should be taken by anybody, US in particular. It always hurts the feeling of other countries citizens or could make the countries act irresponsibly, since there is a big boy, taking care about everything. Also, US has a very poor record of respecting foreign sovereignty and made a lot of ugly mistakes. There is an intentional keeping focus or unilateral informing on foreign event in US media, keeping foreign affairs out of scope of the voters, justified by security reasons. And what is out of openness and visibility - commonly creates an environment for lawlessness. Just a situation with Guantanamo Bay or using tortures shows a lot. Or this amazing NED. More over - even if you live in Seattle, you will not see Vancouver weather on your TV Weather report. It is somewhere there in nowhere, you should not care.
From my side, I would ask Samantha's mom to share memories, that her daughter had after coming back from Soviet Union, that were probably left out of interviews in 80-s.

[jenden-bm.livejournal.com]

Hi Shannon.
Planning on visiting North Carolina at some point?

[belgena.livejournal.com]

In our time, worsening relations between Russia and the United States , just needed a "new " Samantha !

[jon-quille.livejournal.com]

That will be really ineresting to read!

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Hi! I was just in North Carolina last month, because I have a client in Greensboro. Is it near where you live? I travel to this city a few times a year.

[jenden-bm.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'm between Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, most kids today are too busy playing video games and staring at their iPads to worry about world peace. :( It seems the worsening relations between our countries will only continue. It's a pity, but the reality in which we live.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Cool! I will try to remember next time I'm there on business, because I'm usually free and bored in the evenings. It would be great to meet for a drink!

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

What do you mean "respecting foreign sovereignty?" Give me an example please. If you live in Seattle and want to know the weather in Vancouver, it's very simple. :) Simply go online, or watch a national broadcast like CNN or Fox News, or the Weather Channel. For the intelligent and curious, no issues are outside their scope. We live in an era of information overload, so those who wish to be informed on any topic can read a multitude of resources to formulate opinions about almost any global topic. But most people are too lazy to do it. I don't think there should be a "world police" either, but it's a delicate balance. Stronger nations should sometimes help weaker ones.

[jenden-bm.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

Btw, how do you have the patience to argue with all those people who climbed into the comments of that post in the pora-valit community today? I tried to reason with a few of them, but then gave up. :) Only for the brave and strong!

Off. About salaries.

[liver22.livejournal.com]

Good day!
Earlier we discussed the question of the salaries of lawyers in the US, and you said that many lawyers in the US do not earn a lot of money. Just above you mentioned salary 50 - 60k a year.
I will give approximate figures for annual salary for lawyers in Kazan on fresh vacancies and today's exchange rate.

1) Lawyer - work with contracts, customer consultation, participation in court sessions - maximum salary per year 7.953 USD.
2) Lawyer - legal maintenance of activity of the company, working with government agencies, working with contracts
the maximum salary in a year 6.959 USD.
3) Lawyer - full legal support of company activities, Methodical management of legal work' the development of local normative acts and other legal documents. - minimum(with a probability of 94% and the maximum wager is not much higher + / - $ 150) salary per year 7.953 USD.
4) Lawyer - legal counseling and adoption of a package of documents from the client. Writing claims, writs, motions. Representation of interests in court of the plaintiff - the maximum salary in a year 3.976 USD.
5) Lawyer - legal support of business activities of the Company. Administration of claims, mostly collecting debts is the maximum salary in a year 4.971 USD.

Perhaps this is enough, the rest of the vacancies are not much different in terms of wages.

Now imagine such a situation. Young and beautiful Shannon arrives in Kazan in 2015, she takes a job as a lawyer, with a maximum salary per year 8.000 USD. If Shannon can buy an apartment on credit, with such salary? The probability of this is hard to predict, but I would rate the probability of denial of credit (in different banks) in the region of 40 - 50 percent, because Shannon for these banks can be unreliable client, and it is a small apartment with an area of 350 sq ft, no parking, with neighbors alcoholics, etc. Other things (clothes, poor quality food, electronics, etc.) will be more accessible to Shannon, maybe someday she'll even be able to buy cheap (by "Russian standards") Korean car, because salary 8.000 USD is a relatively good salary for Kazan.
By the standards of western countries Shannon is quite poor lady who lives in a poor country.
The main point of this post is that the standard of living in Russia is relatively low (at least to look at salaries above), and when you say that many lawyers in the USA receive little salary, you are not talking about the fact that they have very tight(or am I mistaken?), but when we talk about a lot of lawyers in the RF who receive low salaries, the issue here is more about survival (example with Shannon in Kazan, it is rather an example of a successful lawyer in the RF).

Thanks!

[jon-quille.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. The more we share, the more we learn. I believe that there are some changes on the way. Technology would change the way we learn at least to some extent. Even now it is possible to attend lectures online and even take the whole course on the subject you like from many universities all round the world. Programming from MIT, Stocks from Stanford, Philosopy from the University of Athenes. Well, I don't know if the last one exists, but it would be interesting to see what is going on in that field in the lands of Plato. And that's for free or affordable to anyone who had enough money to by a PC.

[narcolog59.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought about this question too!

[jenden-bm.livejournal.com]

It's only because I don't comment too often. If you do it rarely enough it's actually kind of entertaining. But you're right, it quickly becomes annoying, arguing with idiots on the internet truly is a waste of time.

Re: Off. About salaries.

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

First, thanks for calling me young and beautiful! :)) Second, it's quite interesting to compare the salaries. To work and live in Russia has never been a dream of mine, even in a nice city like Kazan. :) My life in the USA is very good, though not extravagant. And, yes, when I spoke about attorneys in the USA making low salaries, I mean that it is sometimes difficult to survive and pay all bills on their lawyer income. This is because they are burdened with huge student loan debt and repayment! Did you receive a free legal education in Russia? If not, how much did it cost?